Yes, yes, I've finally done it!

Ahem...

Greetings, and welcome to Garage Kids. If the title sounds familiar to you Code Lyoko fans, it should, give that it was the original title for the show until a series of changes brought on by idiotic executives caused it to morph into the show we got in the end. Later on in 2012, executives with the same idiotic mindset created a botched project that was quite simply put, bad. But I digress.

Anyways, I've had this project in mind since Senior Year in High School. Yes, it's been one entire year since I came up with this idea, and it's only now that I publish it.

But again, I digress, Feel free to launch your assorted garbage at me.

Back to Garage Kids, for those not in the know, this was a five-minute pilot created in 2001 for Antefilms, made by one Thomas Romain and Tania Palumbo. This short was going to be expanded into a 26-episode serial, telling a continuous story as our heroes ventured deeper and deeper into the virtual world Xanadu, uncovering its secrets as they tried to stop a computer virus from destroying the real world. But the executives demanded that the plot be scrapped in favor of standalone stories, and that the original gimmick, the ability to use virtual powers in the real world, be scrapped in fear of children replicating those stunts.

Oh, and they cut the budget because they were cheapskates.

In response, Thomas Romain left to work on Oban Star Racers, and having seen that show in action, I can safely say that if the executives had left well enough alone, Code Lyoko would've been a true masterpiece.

Instead, we must rely on the power of fanfiction to see what this world would look like, and that is what I am here to attempt. Welcome, ladies and gentleman, to Garage Kids.

Please note that I do not own the rights to Code Lyoko, last I checked, those rights went to Mediatoon. Also, credit goes to Corinnetheanime for proofreading this, I appreciate it very much!

Garage Kids

File 1: Here We Are

A bolt of lightning flashed through the sky, signifying to everyone that it was indeed a dark and stormy night. If the residents of Boulogne-Billancourt didn't want to be soaked to the bone, then they would have to stay in their cozy, dry homes.

Or in the case of a few students of Kadic Academy who had snuck out of their dorms to watch movies, that they should stay in their secret underpass until the storm had passed. It would have been even better, however, if they stayed in their dorms to begin with, because in the room of one of the students who had snuck out, something very strange and disturbing was happening.

Before the abnormality happened, the student's room was fairly simple and tidy. The bed was made, and a few books and computer magazines were neatly stacked on his dresser. A computer took up most of the space on the student's desk that was right next to the bed. Everything was peaceful, quiet, and orderly.

However, as another flash of lightning consumed the city with its light, the computer somehow seemed to turn itself on, and a black silhouette of something that, from a distance, might look something like the Space Needle in Seattle, appeared on the now white screen, flickering every now and then.

But this wasn't the Space Needle in Seattle at all, especially if one took the time to examine the silhouette more closely. It was something more...for lack of a better term...ominous. The screen remained on, and black shadows began to leak out of the screen like that of crimson blood... black, oozing blood...

The darkness pooled onto the floor and began to crawl up the walls of the student's room before phasing out of the room like ghosts, spreading out over the city, hidden from view by the dark rain clouds…

"Flight 234, from Italy, now landing." The large jumbo jet started to descend towards its destination: The Paris airport. Slowing down as it landed, it completed its journey onto the runway without too much trouble, reaching the terminal safely for passengers to properly depart the craft, which they quickly proceeded to do. Crowding down and exiting the tunnel, they entered the airport.

Some of these passengers were here to visit relatives. Others had come because of business, and even more were there on vacation, hoping to tour the city. However, there was one passenger in particular who was there for a very important mission...

He was a kid clothed with a purple shirt and purple pants, with blond hair put up in a single large spike and a purple spot smack dab in the middle of it. He was there because he had been sent to a boarding school located in one of the Paris suburbs, Boulogne-Billancourt...and he was heading for the pick-up area to retrieve his dog.

The name of this twelve-year-old child was Odd Della-Robbia, a sly and joking sort of kid who was easy to make friends with.

But again, right now, he was heading for the pick-up area to get his dog, Kiwi, whom he had brought with to his school. It had taken an enormous amount of convincing (and begging) to convince his parents to allow Odd to bring Kiwi with him, and even more so for them to get the paperwork from Kadic Academy that they would even let Odd bring Kiwi in the first place, redundant as that might've sounded.

But for Odd, it was very much worth it as he reached the pick-up and began looking for his dog.

"Kiwi?" He called out to the pick-up area, searching for his dog's travel kennel.

"Ruff, ruff!" was the response. Odd's face brightened up once he heard his dog barking.

"There's my little diggity-doggy!" He cried happily, quickly locating and picking up the purple kennel before he peeked through the metal door.

And sure enough, there was the face of the little gray mutt looking back at his owner, barking happily as he saw Odd's grinning face.

"Alright, let's find that transfer bus!" Odd said, heading for the airport exit.

After about six minutes of navigating his way through the busy crowds, Odd managed to exit the airport and looked around for the pick-up point for the bus that would take him to Kadic. It took a few turns of his head and asking around several other bus drivers for the bus he needed, but thankfully, it wasn't much trouble, and soon enough, Odd was boarding the Kadic bus.

However, he soon ran into trouble with the driver, who had a problem concerning Kiwi. "No dogs allowed on the bus!" He said.

"But I have a form for him, all filled out and everything! You can check it for verification!" Odd protested.

"Show me." The driver grunted, scowling at the boy.

Odd obliged, digging the forms (he had a little trouble with that) out from his bag and lowering Kiwi's kennel. The driver read over the forms, grunted again, and handed them back to the boy.

"Alright, he can come on board, but you both will sit in the back. I don't want that dog disturbing my other passengers. We've been having a lot of traffic jams here recently, and the last thing I want to hear is the loud barking of a mutt in the case we get stuck."

"So long as Kiwi's aboard, that's fine with us!" Odd smiled in return, to which his dog barked once happily.

The driver grunted and then settled into his seat as Odd came onboard the bus. There were several other people on board: most were other kids around Odd's age, all also going to various boarding schools in the general area, but there were also others who were of varying ages, going and doing their own businesses. The third seat from the back was available, and Odd soon sat down on it.

After waiting for ten minutes, the bus finally drove out of the airport and headed out onto the streets. Looking out at the window, Odd was surprised at how dull the city looked, compared to how it was described in some books he had read at home. He had heard that some kind of freak radiation accident had required several buildings throughout Paris to be demolished and street plans to be changed, with the majority of these changes being present in the suburb where Odd was heading: Boulogne-Billancourt.

The city, in regards to its outward appearance as a whole, had a darker and slightly more oppressive air to it than Odd was originally expecting, to be honest...but for the most part it still held a fairly welcoming atmosphere.

The bus now moved onto the freeways towards Boulogne-Billancourt. And unfortunately, just as the bus driver had predicted, there was a traffic jam up ahead, and fifteen minutes after making a decent amount of progress, every car, bus, truck, and van had stopped dead in their tracks, completely and utterly dead.

As everyone aboard began to grumble and complain, Odd chanced to look out the window. Currently, their bus was on a higher level of a highway interchange, meaning that he had the chance to look down at a lower level. Down below was a big rig truck driving in a far less congested lane. The truck and its trailer were painted red but were also covered in multi-colored graffiti, making the vehicle stand out in comparison to the other vehicles down below.

However, that was when Odd saw something very unusual: what seemed to be a black wisp of smoke shot past his window and dived down towards the truck. Before Odd knew it, the driver of the big rig seemed to have lost control, and the truck drove straight out of the interchange, crashing downwards into what was thankfully a bare patch of grass. The driver just barely managed to jump out in time.

"WHAT THE HECK?!" Odd screamed out loud in shock, causing Kiwi to start barking in panic.

"HEY, I told you to keep it down back there, kid!" The driver barked.

"Did anyone else see that?" Odd asked, trying to calm Kiwi down. Several of the other passengers on his side of the bus looked down, catching the crash scene down below.

"Yeesh, that's nasty! Let's hope the driver is okay...oh, look, he made it out!" A woman holding a small child cried out in relief.

"Did anyone see the black stuff?" Odd asked.

"What black stuff?" Another passenger asked.

"Some kind of black streak flew down there and caused that truck to spin out of control! Don't tell me no one else saw it!" Odd exclaimed worriedly.

"Kid, we are in a traffic jam, so I am not in the mood for any weird stuff right now!" The bus driver exclaimed irritably. "Everyone, zip it! I don't like the fact that we are currently stuck, so I can do without any people stressing about some black thing! Now, let's just sit down and wait for this damn traffic to clear up!"

Not wanting to get on the driver's bad side any longer, everyone immediately quieted down and stayed in their seats. Kiwi would've kept on barking had Odd not hastily thrown a few kibbles into the kennel, causing the dog to munch on those instead of continuing to make noise.

After ten minutes, the traffic finally cleared up and the bus began to make progress again. Odd, in the meantime, tried to shove the black streak he had seen out of his head, but for some reason he kept thinking back to it, wondering just what the heck that thing was...and where it might have come from.

"What was that...and why do I have the sinking feeling that there's only going to be more trouble further ahead...?" Odd mumbled to himself.

The black-haired girl in the red kimono knelt down, panting heavily. It was exhausting having to do this, but it had to be done. She hoped that would be the last one for a while, but a part of her suspected that it wouldn't be long until she needed to return to this world.

"You okay?" A transmitted, male voice called out to her.

Yeah," she replied, still panting.

"That's the last of the specters, and the tower seems stable. You can come back now, time for us to get some shut-eye." The voice affirmed confidently.

"Alright," the girl agreed, closing her eyes as she disappeared in a flash of light.

Unbeknownst to the girl and the operator, however, a black mass that had managed to hide from her thanks to the darkening evening sky, began to stir underneath a waterfall that was some distance away. Silently, and moving with the speed of a shark, the black, ghost-like creature swam down a river and into the lake, disappearing inside.

After waiting for a little while, it gurgled and rose out of the water, slowly flying into the sky until it was capable of viewing the entire island, with all ten of its massive pillar-like towers in clear view.

Then, the ghost drifted towards the lowest visible end of the island, towards a tower that was near the edge of the abyss below, hovering around it. As the hours of night ticked away, more and more ghosts slowly began to manifest, joining their brethren in swarming around the tower, circling around it like a swarm of bees…

Thankfully, when the bus finally reached Kadic, Odd was able to push the thoughts of the black streak out of his head, leaving him able to focus more on his new school. He exited the bus, thankfully without any trouble from the bus driver, who seemed to have calmed down. Jumping down with Kiwi and his personal belongings, the bus soon left...with Odd apparently having been the only person whose destination was Kadic.

Odd looked up at his new school, seeing its appearance as a large complex made up of white and gray buildings, all located within a heavily forested area. A large dirt pathway led to the school's courtyard.

Odd looked at both sides of the street, looking to see if any cars or trucks were coming, and upon seeing that none were coming his way, he crossed the street over to Kadic Academy.

Odd entered through the open gates, instantly getting a better look at the activity before him. Several students were mingling about the courtyard, talking with their friends, reading a book by themselves, or talking on their cell phones...like any other normal group of kids would do. As much as Odd would've loved to join in, he remembered that he needed to see the principal first, given that he was the new kid...as well as the fact that he had brought his dog with him.

Odd then took notice of a large brown-haired man wearing a red sweatshirt, monitoring the courtyard. He figured that this man would be his best bet at getting some directions around here.

"Excuse me, sir? I'm looking for the principal's office." Odd said, tapping the man's shoulder to get his attention. The latter swiftly turned around to look at the young male.

"Who are you?" He asked in a gruff tone.

"My name is Odd Della-Robbia, and I'm trying to find the principal's office." Odd answered. The man looked down at the boy, taking note of his physical appearance and possessions. Besides the bulky bag holding his school supplies, Jim noticed that Odd had brought a skateboard with him, as well as a dog kennel. Seeing said kennel made him realize who Odd was.

"You're that kid with the dog, aren't you?" He asked.

Wait, you know me?" Odd asked, surprised that he already had a reputation...apparently.

"No, but the principal told me to keep a lookout for the kid with the dog. I'll be honest with you, kid: I'm no stranger to unusual things, such as monkeys wearing turquoise undershirts, or a caribou with goat horns...but it's been a while since we've last received a form requesting for a pet being allowed to stay here." The man replied.

Odd raised his left eyebrow in curiosity. "Wait, how is it that someone asking to keep their dog with them is just as weird as a caribou with goat horns?" He asked.

"I could elaborate on all of that, but right now, I'd rather not talk about it. My name's Jim Morales, follow me and we'll held over to Principal Delmas's office." Jim replied.

"Yes, sir...Jimbo!" Odd replied, giving a salute.

"Jimbo?" Jim asked in confusion.

"I like to give nicknames to people." Odd answered, shrugging his shoulders.

"Jimbo...hmm, I like it, but Mr. Delmas isn't the kind of guy who likes nicknames, so don't try nicknaming him or that dog's going to be on the next flight back to Italy, form or no form." Jim warned.

"Right, right." Odd said, chuckling, though he fully intended to listen to Jim's warning.

Jim guided Odd through the courtyard and led him to the hallway leading to Delma's office. Once there, they entered the secretary's room, where a blond, bespectacled woman was sorting through several papers. A nameplate on her desk read "Nicole Weber: Secretary".

"Hey, Nicole? This is the kid who asked about bringing his dog." Jim said, gesturing to Kiwi's travel kennel. Nicole looked at the boy...and then nodded.

"All right," she said, before picking up her desk phone and paging Delmas. "Sir, the boy who requested those forms for his pet is here."

One quick nod later and Nicole gestured towards the door. "You can see him now," she said.

Odd nodded in turn and entered Delma's office, with Jim following to keep an eye on him and Kiwi.

Jean-Pierre Delmas was sitting at his desk, gesturing for Odd to take a seat. He had grey hair and a beard, as well as a large mustache that was a darker shade than the rest of his hair. He wore a brown suit over a tan vest, as well as a large pair of glasses. Overall, he had the classic appearance of a stern administrator.

Odd sat down quietly, laying his possessions carefully onto the floor.

"Welcome to Kadic Academy, Mr. Della-Robbia. I trust that you understand the rules here? Especially concerning your pet?" Delmas questioned.

"Yes, Mr. Delmas." Odd said, nodding.

"I trust that you have the forms filled out?" Delmas continued. The boy nodded again and handed the forms concerning Kiwi to Delmas, who looked over them carefully. He then nodded slowly.

"All right, the paperwork is in order. But you understand what will happen if you cannot keep that dog in check. I will have to call your parents to take him home, and you will be spending quite some time suspended from school." Delmas warned.

"I promise I won't let get Kiwi out of control, sir." Odd replied.

"As long as we all understand each other. Jim, make sure that Della-Robbia knows about the rules here and get him acquainted with his new roommate." Delmas acquired.

"Yes sir, Mr. Delmas." Jim replied.

And with that, Odd got up from his chair and gathered up his belongings...thankfully, with no noise from Kiwi, who had fallen asleep. As he got up, Odd noticed a picture on Delma's desk that featured who seemed to be a younger and thinner Delmas with a girl about Odd's age with brown hair wearing a red-and-pink shirt with a yellow heart. Odd was a bit curious about the photo, but decided not to pry into what he assumed to be the principal's personal life.

As such, Jim led Odd out of the office and the two walked through the school, heading towards Odd's assigned room, which they reached after about five minutes of walking.

While they walked, Jim laid down the ground rules of the dorms, musing at the last part. "Breakfast is at 7:00 AM, lunch is at 12:15 PM, and dinner is at 7:00 PM. You're not allowed to be in your room between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM during Mondays through Fridays, and you can't enter your room between 8:00 AM and 1:30 PM on Saturdays. As for Sundays, which is today by the way, you're allowed to be in here as long as you want, though I don't know if you'll skip meals or not."

"Don't worry, I've got a big appetite, so I don't skip my meals." Odd replied.

"All right. Now, your new roommate should be able to fill you in on the rest of the rules, provided that he remembered them." Jim concluded, grumbling at that last part.

So, who's the lucky guy I'll be bunking with?" Odd asked as they had now entered the dorm hallway, arriving at his designated room.

He should be in there." Jim said, opening the door to reveal two other boys sitting in a rather dull-looking room. One boy, who was sitting down on one of the room's two beds, was wearing a baggy blue shirt and brown Capri pants, had blond hair, and was currently looking up from his laptop's computer screen, given how suddenly Jim had opened the door.

The other boy, who was currently leaning on the wall, was a dark brown-haired individual, wearing a dark yellow-green shirt over a light yellow-green vest and cargo pants. Odd followed Jim's gaze and realized that it was the brown-haired boy that he would share a room with.

"Stern, here's your new roommate. If the dog becomes too much trouble, report to me immediately! That is all." Jim said, leaving Odd alone with the other two boys.

"The room was silent for a few moments before "Stern" motioned for Odd to come in. He did so, sitting his stuff down on the other bed opposite of the blond-haired boy.

"You're new around here." The blond boy noted.

"Yeah, I've just arrived. I'm Odd, Odd Della-Robbia." Odd said.

"My name is Jeremie Belpois, and he's Ulrich." Jeremie said, not bothering to mention Ulrich's last name since Jim had already given the courtesy.

Odd pulled the sleeping Kiwi out of his travel kennel and set the dog on the bed. It was then that Jeremie spoke up again, after taking a few seconds of looking at Kiwi.

"You know something, Odd? Your dog looks really dumb."

"Don't say that," Odd replied in a low tone. "He's very sensitive, and he can get VERY mean." Odd then proceeded to pick up Kiwi, who had opened his eyes before shoving him near Jeremie's face, much to the other boy's fright.

"Wait, really?" He asked, sweat-dropping comically.

"Nah." Odd replied before he broke out into a large grin. Kiwi looked at his owner in a deadpan fashion and barked in annoyance while Ulrich face-palmed, disbelieving that Jeremie could be scared of such a harmless-looking dog.

"A-anyways, I see you've met Jim." Jeremie said, moving on to a different topic.

"Yeah, he's an interesting character." Odd chuckled.

"He's pretty strict for the most part, but not that bad of a guy. Still, he gives some pretty heavy detentions." Jeremie shivered.

Odd then looked over at Ulrich, grinning widely. "So... we're roommates now, eh? We'll get along just fine, you and me."

Ulrich just shrugged, his facial expression remaining a stoic frown.

"Not much of a talker?" Odd asked.

"Nope." Ulrich replied before leaving the room. "Just don't let that dog get too crazy, all right? I don't want to wake up in wet bed sheets."

"Kiwi is completely housebroken, so there's no need to worry about that!" Odd called as Ulrich left the dorm room.

Kiwi, whom Odd had let down back onto the bed, didn't fully understand the human talk, but felt a compulsion to do his business on the bed Jeremie was sitting on, before deciding against it, deciding it would not be worth the trouble and decided to catch a bit more sleep.

Odd looked down at his belongings. "I'll be unpacking for a while, so are you planning on doing anything else?" He asked Jeremie.

"Nah, I have work to do on my computer." Jeremie replied, gesturing to his laptop.

"What are you working on? Games?" Odd asked as he got up and started to unpack.

It's...uh, something like that." Jeremie said as he set himself in front of his laptop and started typing.

Losing interest, Odd started unpacking his stuff in silence, a procedure that took around an hour to complete. While this went on, Jeremie silently absorbed himself in his work, typing up programs and analyzing codes.

When Odd had finally finished unpacking, he looked back at Jeremie, who took off his glasses and rubbed his forehead, clearly annoyed by something. Jeremie closed his laptop and looked at Odd.

"I'm going to put my laptop back in my room, so you can explore the school if you want." He suggested, getting up from Ulrich's bed and exiting the room. Odd looked down at the sleeping Kiwi, gave him a small pat on the head, and then exited the dorm room himself.

After about 30 minutes of walking around, Odd had managed to familiarize himself with most of Kadic's grounds. The school's exterior was built very much like a Japanese high school, but from what he could see, the interior clearly had more of a native French-like feeling to it. Overall, Kadic seemed fairly well-furnished, if not a bit dull-looking when it came to the empty walls.

Odd was currently at the main courtyard that he had arrived in, and it was still swarming with people. However, Odd got the feeling of a lazy Sunday, seeing how quiet everyone was...for the most part. Odd himself wouldn't have minded a nice, long nap, but he then noticed Jeremie exiting the building and walking down the archways.

"Yo, Einstein!" Odd called out.

Jeremie turned around and waved Odd over, though with a look of mild bemusement. "Einstein?" He questioned in bewilderment.

"You seem like the smart type...so Einstein's a good nickname for you. You were completely focused on that computer while I was packing, that you didn't even look up when I nearly dropped my skateboard!" Odd answered.

"It happens when I get immersed in my work. I would've been out here sooner, but just before I shut off my laptop, I realized what I was doing wrong with a program I was working on...but I got it to work just fine! You want to know how?" Jeremie asked.

Odd shook his head. "See? That's why I called you Einstein! But no thanks, I'm not really up to computer programming."

"It's not just normal computer programming; it's Quantum computer programming!" Jeremie exclaimed excitedly before coughing quickly and steadying himself. "But in either case, how are you getting along here?"

"It's actually really cool here!" Odd replied exuberantly...before a sly look graced his features as he and Jeremie walked over to a bench in the courtyard. Jeremie sat down normally, while Odd climbed onto the back rest.

As they did so, Odd asked a question. "Are there any cool chicks here too?"

Jeremie gestured over to a part of the courtyard that was fairly isolated, owing to the fact that the spot was currently being occupied by Ulrich, who was at that moment, sparring with a tall, black-haired girl wearing completely black clothing. Her shirt notably exposed her midriff.

"That's Yumi. She trains everyday with Ulrich," Jeremie stated.

As Jeremie finished his statement, Yumi managed to get the upper hand on Ulrich, grabbing his wrist and throwing him onto the ground martial arts style (given that Odd didn't have a firm grasp on martial arts techniques, he couldn't exactly identify the specific technique Yumi had used).

"So you better not give her a hard time." Jeremie confirmed. Odd winced at the scene before him, and any thoughts of seducing Yumi with his charms vanished immediately.

Yumi had Ulrich pinned to the ground, and the two pre-teens' faces were rather close to each other. Both of them began to breathe heavily, with Yumi beginning to blush.

A lightbulb then went on in Odd's head. "They're really into each other, aren't they?" He smirked.

"Yup, and yet...they haven't gotten together yet. It's probably the greatest mystery known to mankind on why they haven't tied the knot. Pretty much everyone here knows about it. Milly and Tamiya, the ones who run the Kadic News, secretly placed a betting pool of how long it would take for the other one to confess." Jeremie replied. "I've got my money set at about...a month from now."

Odd chuckled at this little tidbit as Yumi and Ulrich got up, both of them now visibly flustered. Shaking it off, they walked over to Jeremie and him.

"So, this is Ulrich's new roommate?" She asked, still a bit nervous from her close encounter.

"Name's Odd, Odd Della-Robbia! It's nice to meet you!" Odd said, giving Yumi a thumbs up while slowly edging away from both her and Ulrich, since there was no need to suffer broken bones or death by the sheer amount of awkwardness Yumi and Ulrich's sexual tension gave off at the moment.

Yumi merely gave a nod in response. All was silent...before Odd decided to break the ice and awkwardness, via a classic joke:

"Why did the chicken cross the other side?" He asked.

"To stop the other guy from telling bad jokes." Ulrich deadpanned after everyone else groaned. There was silence once more...only for the four children to start laughing, aside from Ulrich, who just stifled a chuckle, diffusing the sexual tension.

"So, how'd you guys all end up in this place?" Odd asked after the laughter died down.

"My parents thought it'd be better for me to get away from the public school in my old neighborhood. I've been a boarder here since the last school year started. Not to spoil anything for Yumi and Ulrich, but he's been here the same time as me and Yumi's been here since the current school year started out five months ago." Jeremie replied.

"How'd you get here?" Yumi asked.

"Pretty much, though I was kind of the one who suggested the idea." Odd said.

"Why?" Yumi asked.

"My sisters." Odd said, not wanting to get into all of the details.

"Ah. My parents sent me here while we stay in France. I used to live all the way back in Japan, but we moved here when my father was sent abroad for work about 6 years ago," Yumi explained, "it's only recently that I came to Kadic as a boarder."

"Ulrich?" Odd asked.

"Not really much more to say other than what Jeremie and Yumi said." Ulrich said shrugging his arms.

Odd noticed that Ulrich had become a bit dourer than usual when the topic of 'how they got here' had been brought up, but decided not to pry. He hadn't divulged the details of everything his sisters did after all, so Ulrich was entitled to keep his own reasons to himself.

"So what was that kung-fu stuff you two were doing?" Odd asked.

"It's not kung-fu, it's Pencak Silat." Yumi clarified.

"Pencak Silat?" Odd asked, confused.

"It's an Indonesian combat form focused on grappling, striking, and weapon throwing, where every part of your body is meant to be used in combat." Yumi replied.

Odd nodded, and started mentally going over his first impressions of his new acquaintances.

Ulrich was clearly the cool, silent type, who would not waste much time talking, and given his training, making him mad would be a one-way trip to the hospital.

Yumi seemed to be cut from a similar cloth, though she seemed a bit more open and willing to talk than Ulrich was.

As for Jeremie, he was pretty much what someone would call your stereotypical nerd, being focused completely on mathematics and computer coding.

As the pre-teens continued to talk with one another, Odd remembered that he needed to take Kiwi out for a walk, and while he went back to his and Ulrich's room to do so, Jeremie took the opportunity to go back to his room and grab his laptop again, saying that he had been struck by inspiration concerning one of his programs.

As such, the four pre-teens and Kiwi eventually found themselves atop the school roof. Odd was allowing Kiwi to run around in a small circle while Yumi stood next to him, looking at Ulrich, who in turn was leaning on the handrail, looking at Jeremie's computer screen, which the boy was once again engrossed in. Notably, Jeremie was sitting on the handrail, positioning his legs in a way so as to hold his laptop.

The schoolyard bell then rang.

"C'mon Jeremie, we're all going to be late for lunch." She called out, knowing how Jeremie had a bad habit of being so focused on his work that he'd occasionally miss his meals.

"Lunch?" Odd perked up, picking up Kiwi.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming, but...but wait, there's something here!" Jeremie responded, leaning forward to look at his screen.

The lines of code Jeremie had been writing had started to appear on the screen more slowly, as if the boy's laptop had suddenly lagged. Then they started to distort, and when Jeremie tried to press the backspace button, a black silhouette of an island suddenly took up Jeremie's screen. Towers were visible in the silhouette, and what appeared to be several cables rose out of what would've been a dark sea, supporting the landmass that spouted out of the dark area.

"AHH!" Jeremie screamed out in surprise and fear; he thought he'd successfully created a firewall against that. He accidentally dropped the laptop, revealing the silhouette to Yumi and Odd.

Surprisingly enough, instead of breaking apart, the laptop landed upright, and seven, black, ghost-like streaks shot out of the laptop and into the air. Odd immediately recognized them; they were exactly the same as the black streak he'd seen earlier.

"Oh, god, it's that stuff again!" He cried out.

Yumi had also looked up at the scene, and then looked at Jeremie, gasping as she did so. The blond-haired boy was starting to lean back too far, and soon Jeremie found himself tumbling off the handrail and falling down to the ground below.

"HELP!" Jeremie called out in shock.

"Jeremie!" Yumi called out. She ran over to the handrail, and as she did so, Odd felt a gust of wind rush past him.

Before he could register anything else, Yumi glared down, focusing her energy. Before Jeremie could splatter into jelly on the ground, he found himself stopped in mid-fall, as if someone had thrown him a life harness. Of course, he knew that he had not been saved with a rope as he suddenly floated up to the roof, still in a somewhat seated position.

Yumi was looking up at Jeremie, sweating a bit from having to activate her telekinesis so quickly. She stole a brief glance to her left, but she knew that Ulrich was probably on the ground by now. Yumi then exhaled slowly before turning to look at Odd.

"Odd, can you keep a secret?" She asked.

Odd was trembling, his mouth agape with shock at what he had just seen. Another gust of wind blew by him, and before Odd knew it, Ulrich was standing next to Yumi. Odd looked over at where she was and realized that Ulrich had somehow rushed from his old spot, straight past Odd and down to the ground, and now, Ulrich was back where he was...as if he hadn't moved at all.

Odd would've jumped with terror, but he was too petrified by what he had seen. His new classmates had superpowers for some reason, and judging by what just happened, Odd realized that they somehow knew about those black streaks.

He opened his mouth, trying to form words, but all he managed were a small bunch of gasps as Yumi closed her eyes, using her telekinesis to set Jeremie down safely on the roof. The boy looked at Odd, who was still trying to process what had just happened.

"Well, guess we'll have to skip lunch," Jeremie said sheepishly.

Odd managed to snap back to the present at the mention of food, only to remember that he'd just seen Yumi use the 'Force', and Ulrich had somehow either learned to teleport or he had the powers of the Flash, and considering the gust of wind Odd had felt twice, he guessed it was probably the latter.

"What's going on?" Odd asked, trying to stifle Kiwi, who was barking loudly once again.

"We'll show you." Yumi replied.

Yumi, Ulrich, and Jeremie headed for the doorway back into the building with Odd following behind, trying to keep up with them as they ran. The four rushed through several quiet areas of the school where there weren't many teachers or students around. Soon, they ran down a rather dusty stairway and exited Kadic.

The four children and Kiwi, whom Odd had placed on the ground, now ran into the woods, navigating their way until after covering a certain distance, they reached a manhole cover, which Ulrich proceeded to open.

"Wait, we're going into the sewers?" Odd asked.

"Don't worry about any smells. This leads into the city's storm sewers," Jeremie explained, "so no fecal matter whatsoever. Unless, well…"

"No need to finish that sentence or thought, Einstein!" Odd cried out as all four children climbed down into the sewer.

When they climbed down, Odd took a whiff of the air. As Jeremie had said, there was no evidence of any disgusting stenches, given that Kiwi wasn't reacting in horror. The thought made Odd remember the time when his sisters had pranked him with a rotten garlic clove. Kiwi had been running around like a rabid wolf whenever Odd came near him.

Ulrich suddenly grunted, pointing at the wall.

"We left our gear back at the factory," Jeremie groaned, face-palming.

"So it's still on foot then?" Odd asked.

"Yep." Yumi confirmed, and the children and their dog resumed running.

After navigating through several tunnels, during which Odd swore he felt the ground below him shake somewhat, the four children had reached another ladder.

"Up there." Yumi pointed out. The four climbed up the ladder, Kiwi in the crook of Odd's arm, and when they returned to the surface, he could now see a long bridge that led up to an enormous building.

Having never been a student of architecture, Odd couldn't exactly describe it, but he did remember seeing a photo of a building identical to it once before while he had been reading up on Paris and its suburbs. Last he checked, it was called the Renault Automobile Factory, but then what the heck did cars have to do with evil black ghosts and superpowers?

Pushing those thoughts out his mind, he ran across the bridge with the others, coming up to a large set of double doors. Jeremie and Ulrich silently and quickly pushed them open, letting the afternoon sunlight into what seemed to be an enormous darkness.

However, as the pre-teens ran into the factory, that darkness cleared up, and Odd gasped with wonder at just what he was seeing: any sign that this place had been an automobile factory was gone now. Instead, enormous machines that looked like they came out of the Matrix filled the area. All sorts of high-tech equipment, connected to each other with all kinds of wires, surrounded Odd, which again was clearly not for making cars. Ulrich, Yumi, and Jeremie ran towards an area surrounded with television and computer screens.

The computer screens were mainly gathered in a small bunker-like crook, covered with keyboards and having a rolling chair. Just outside of the crook was a couch, clearly scavenged from a junkyard. Next to the couch was an assortment of pillows and blankets, and right next to those were two skateboards and a scooter. In front of the couch was a yellow rug, also clearly scavenged from a junkyard.

But perhaps the most intimidating feature of the factory's interior was the enormous metal column. A set of stairs would lead a person up to the floor where the column was situated, with said floor covering the computer crook. The column had a large glass window in the left center of it. Two more longer flights of stairs led up to the top of the column, whereupon there laid a trio of open cylindrical chambers, all large enough for a person to stand in.

"I'll go!" Ulrich called as he climbed up the stairs.

Yumi ran towards Jeremie, who had settled into his chair and now rolled over to the computer screen, which was situated to the right of Odd's sight. Both Yumi and Jeremie now focused their eyes on the monitor.

Odd watched in awe as Ulrich climbed into one of the chambers. Jeremie began typing on the keyboard, preparing to activate the scanner. The door closed, and Jeremie pressed the 'Enter' key. A screen opened up, showing a scan of Ulrich dressed as a samurai. Jeremie began murmuring to himself, monitoring the process.

"Scanner: Ulrich…virtualization." He said quietly.

In the scanner, Ulrich closed his eyes as he felt a powerful gust of air and a blinding light fill the chamber. When it had stopped, Ulrich opened his eyes, gazing at his new surroundings. He opened his mouth slightly; he'd come here plenty of times before, but he still couldn't help but be awed by what he was looking at.

Ulrich was currently looking at an enormous lake, tinged green by the surface of it reflecting the enormous amount of vegetation on the island. Close by, and next to some rather large rocks on the edge of the lake, were a large number of tree stumps leading to another shore of the lake. Ulrich looked behind to see a vast forest occupying the slopes of the hills, with a series of waterfalls being visible. He then looked up, seeing two of the ten enormous towers that dotted the entirety of the island. All of this was underneath a sky that had the same hue of the early afternoon back in the real world. Not seeing anything unusual yet, Ulrich knelt down to the ground, examining the edge of the lake to see if one of the specters had decided to take a swim, so to speak.

Ulrich had also changed in appearance: his old clothes were gone, replaced by that of a classic yellow samurai uniform, though instead of a helmet, Ulrich instead wore a yellow headband, and instead of having heavy armor cover every inch of his body, his arms were bare for the most part, aside from his lower left arm having an armored sleeve over it. Like that of a classical samurai, his pants were rather large and puffy, and a katana was sheathed underneath his belt. Finally, a large oni face was present on the back of his costume.

At long last, back at the factory Odd found his proper voice.

"Yumi, what's going on?!" Odd asked, "where the heck did Ulrich go?", pointing up to the now open scanner. Yumi kept her eyes on the screen, watching Ulrich cautiously wander the area.

"Ulrich's in Xanadu, an artificial digital world. We don't know why it exists, but one thing we do know is that there's something wrong with it," she said.

Yumi was about to elaborate further, but then saw on the screen that there were three black masses creeping near Ulrich. "Ulrich, Ulrich! Watch out!" She cried.

Ulrich heard Yumi, via the area transmitter that allowed for anyone to speak to someone in Xanadu without needing a headset, and he quickly looked behind himself. Three enormous black creatures had appeared before Ulrich, and the one closest to him was rising upwards as if to attack him...and that was exactly what it was trying to do. The black mass jumped towards Ulrich like a flying fish, opening its mouth as if it was trying to eat him.

Before its attack could connect however, Ulrich dashed away at high speed, a blue streak following behind him. He made several long jumps in an attempt to increase the distance between himself and the specters, which now started flying towards him. Ulrich reached the forest, and started sprinting as fast as he could.

Unfortunately, despite his super speed, one of the specters began to catch up to Ulrich. He quickly looked up, seeing that he was nearing one of the towers. Gathering momentum, Ulrich made an enormous upward leap, landing safely on one of the enormous cables connected to the base of the tower. Turning around, Ulrich saw the specter preparing to ram into him, and he quickly looked down, seeing another cable below him. As the specter dashed towards Ulrich, he jumped down to the cable, so instead of the specter smashing into Ulrich, it smashed into the tower instead, instantly becoming pulverized.

As Ulrich was running from the specters, Odd was unloading his questions about the entire situation. "So, if this virtual world is so dangerous, why are you guys going there?" He asked Yumi.

"Because our world is in danger," Yumi said simply.

Odd thought back to the specter that had possessed the big rig, just as an enormous tremor shook the factory...as a result of the specter crashing into the tower. Jeremie hugged his keyboard while Yumi grabbed onto a counter for support. Odd managed to keep his balance, holding out his arms so as to stay upright, and quickly realizing where the shaking in the sewers had come from.

When the shaking had ended, Yumi looked at Odd. "You see what I mean?"

Before Odd could give a response, Jeremie spoke up, having finished typing in a few commands. "Ulrich, your sabre's charged!"

Back in Xanadu, Ulrich had dashed along the other cables, and was now in a sort-of cavern-like area at that moment, with enormous stalactites of earth hanging above his head. The second specter had seen him and dashed at Ulrich like a crazed bull. However, Ulrich now drew his charged katana, with the blade appearing to be made completely out of blue zeros and ones. As the specter dashed at him, Ulrich slashed at the creature several times in rapid succession. The specter now flew past Ulrich, stopped, and then dissolved into nothing.

Ulrich looked up, and saw the third specter fly away. Giving chase, Ulrich jumped down several more cables, reaching the ground. Before Ulrich, the lake extended further, until it ended near a large mountain.

As the specter continued to fly away, Ulrich jumped further and further, using the rocks that popped out from the lake as stepping stones. Once he reached dry land, Ulrich ran up the mountainside, continuing to jump in order to quickly shorten the distance between himself and the specter.

Finally, Ulrich reached the top of the mountain, but the specter had already flown downwards. There, the mountain overlooked the lowest area of Xanadu before the island terminated over the black abyss down below. From the mountain, Ulrich could see two of the towers, one of which protruded from the bottom left slope of the mountain while the other one hung over the edge of the lowest part of the island. It was what was happening to the latter tower that shocked him.

An enormous swarm of specters circled around the entirety of the tower's height, an incredible amount that far surpassed the number of specters he and Yumi had been sent in to deal with previously.

"Well, we've found the infected tower," Ulrich grumbled as the specter he had been chasing rejoined its brethren…and soon, dozens upon dozens of specters flew away from the tower, heading for both Ulrich and the other towers!

Ulrich jumped down onto a ledge, ducking so as to avoid the specters, who now seemed to ignore him and simply flew straight towards the other towers. Ulrich watched as they began to swarm around the tower that Ulrich had previously been traversing.

Jeremie had seen it all, absolutely horrified at this. He had not been prepared for them to have to deal with so many specters at once, and he knew that Ulrich couldn't take them all on by himself. He also knew that if the specters managed to catch and defeat Ulrich, it would be the end for him right then and there. Jeremie had learned from studying the systems that ran Xanadu: if someone in the virtual world took too much damage to their avatars, then they would die in real life.

"Ulrich, come back right now!" Jeremie called out to his screen in a panic. "It's getting too dangerous!"

"No!" Yumi called out, much to Jeremie's surprise, but the boy kept his eyes glued to the screen in case Ulrich was suddenly surprise-attacked. "Then we'll have no way to come back later! If we leave now, those specters are going to cause all sorts of havoc! Heck, we don't know what kind of trouble the ones we saw earlier are causing!"

She then turned to look at Odd, who was getting a bit worried at Jeremie's earlier panic. "Odd, we're going!" She said, hastily walking past Jeremie and heading towards the stairs.

"Wait, me?" Odd asked. "What's going on in there?"

"We've got a lot more specters than we thought. There weren't really that many before. Heck, you could even count how many there were. Last night, I had to deal with only about ten of them before their attack was stopped," Yumi replied.

"How many are there now?" Odd asked, dreading the answer.

"A lot." Yumi replied grimly.

"So wait, you want me to help you? I mean, I've got plenty of on-the-fly quips for rough situations, and I've used the advantages that a svelte body offers, but this...this is completely out of my league! I don't even know half of what's going on right now! I've got questions up the wazoo!" Odd cried out.

"You'll get those answers, Odd, I can promise you that. But this is important! If we don't stop those specters, they'll cause all sorts of damage!" Yumi said.

Odd thought back to earlier that day, when he'd seen a specter possess a truck and drive it off of the highway. It was sheer luck that the driver had managed to get out in time. He also realized what might have been causing all of those traffic jams the bus driver had been talking about, and that a few traffic accidents would probably be the least of everyone's worries if more of those ghosts got out.

However, Odd's mind was quickly becoming jumbled with thoughts and theories; he had barely any idea of what was going on, and he didn't know just how severe this virtual world threat exactly was and why Jeremie, Ulrich, and Yumi were all risking their lives in that place. On the other hand, it was clearly a serious situation, and Yumi did promise to give him answers. Not only that, but a part of Odd was interested in seeing this virtual world for himself. He needed to make a decision, and he needed it to make it now.

Odd took a deep breath, knowing that it was now or never. He looked at Yumi and Jeremie.

"All right, I'm going with you." Odd said.

"Okay, head up to the scanners now! The specters are swarming everywhere in Xanadu!" Jeremie called out.

Nodding, both Odd and Yumi ran up the stairs leading to the scanners. A very short and last set of stairs led to the open metal column. Both Odd and Yumi walked in, Yumi turning around to face the rest of the factory and folding her arms, while Odd felt around the scanner, looking at the interior in awe. The scanner doors then shut, and both Yumi and Odd closed their eyes as they felt the rush of air and the intense glowing light.

Below, Jeremie looked at the two profiles that appeared before him, one which had Yumi dressed as a geisha, while the other one, which was Odd's, began to form, appearing as a sort of...cat-man costume.

"Scanner: Yumi. Scanner: Odd...virtualization." Jeremie said.

In Xanadu, two bright lights appeared atop the tower, whose cables Ulrich had been running on. The lights took on the form of two humans, fading away to reveal their forms.

Yumi's appearance, as the screen indicated, was that of a geisha, where she was now wearing a black-and-red kimono with a yellow obi. The red side had yellow tracings made to look like leaves, while the black side had white outlines made to look like flowers. However, the kimono only went down to just below her waist, with her legs being covered up completely by red stockings with long black boots with white wrappings that stretched up to her knees. Her face was painted white and she was now wearing lipstick and blush. The top of her hair was now done in a short ponytail.

As for Odd, his appearance had also shifted. The screen indicated that his form was that of a sort-of cat man, one that took inspiration from the Cheshire variety. In Xanadu, Odd was still wearing a purple shirt, except it had much shorter sleeves, a full collar, and an image of Kiwi within a yellow circle on its forward center. His magenta undershirt was now yellow on two sides and magenta in the middle. As for Odd's pants, while they were still purple, they now had varying shades on their sides as well as yellow kneepads, and in the center of his waist-area was a magenta lightning bolt. Odd's shoes were still yellow, but built more to take on longer distances. But again, as his form was that of a cat-man, Odd now had a long purple cat tail, and his arms now held long gloves that went up to his upper arm with cat head patterns at the end. Odd's hands had also become large purple paws, with only four fingers each. In addition to his normal ears, Odd also sported a pair of purple cat ears at the top of his head, and finally, had two pairs of facial markings on his face, each of them tiger stripes. A pair of purple ones were at the top of his head, while a pair of magenta ones extended up his cheeks.

Yumi and Odd looked around their surroundings, which, since they were at the center of the top of an enormous white tower that would result in them not being able to take in the surrounding below, were not much. They then looked at each other.

Odd had a bewildered expression at his form before he looked at Yumi's, then back at his own. Yumi's virtual form looked fairly cohesive, but Odd thought he looked utterly ridiculous, and he could tell Yumi was trying to stifle a laugh.

"Jeremie, why do I look like some sort of dorky cat-man?" he asked in disbelief.

Given that he was trying to figure out a strategy to get Ulrich over to where Yumi and Odd were, Jeremie wasn't exactly paying attention to how Odd looked, but he could easily answer Odd's question.

"It's an effect of the scanners. They break down your physical form, and then…" he began, but Odd interrupted him.

"Um, could you give me the layman's terms?" Odd asked, not wanting to hear the lengthy scientific terminology.

"Basically put, when it scans you in, you get an avatar based on your subconscious, and after that, powers based on it." Jeremie answered.

"I don't dream about giant purple-cats!" Odd cried out, "I mean, as an aspiring artist, I do look at surreal stuff for inspiration sometimes, but, argh!" Odd grumbled, not exactly pleased that he looked like a nitwit.

Then he remembered that an army of evil black virtual ghosts were trying to destroy the world.

"So, what powers do I get?" Odd asked.

"They tend to vary. Ulrich's got his super-sprint, and Yumi has telekinesis. You should be able to figure it out soon." Jeremie said.

"It better not be the ability to cough up hairballs!" Odd yelled out indignantly, surprised that his earlier apprehension had vanished somewhat.

"In either case, the specters are headed for your tower, get ready to fight them off. Ulrich, you've got to head up there and give them a hand." Jeremie commanded.

Back at the mountain, Ulrich gave a quick nod before taking a look at the tower that had been haunted previously. It looked like the specters had left it alone, not one was left to be seen. Regardless, Ulrich decided it would be better to check it out after the battle was over. Ulrich ran down the mountain and headed back towards the tower where Yumi and Odd were.

At the top of the tower, Odd began to get somewhat nervous, not knowing what his power was, and whether or not he had a weapon. He really hoped that he'd get one soon, knowing that cat claws probably wouldn't do much against an angry virtual ghost. Thankfully, Jeremie was already working on that.

"Alright, with this new program, I should be able to lower the charging times for your weapons," he said, "Yumi, your fans should be charged soon. As for Odd, it looks like your weapon's in your wrists. I'm charging them up right now."

"My wrists?" Odd asked, placing his left hand on his hip before swinging his right arm upwards. Following that, a triangular blue shot of energy burst from it before exploding.

"Oh. So that's my weapon!" Odd said in awe.

"A projectile weapon," Jeremie said, "a burst of ranged energy. I'd like to point out that right now, all of your weapons have limits before they need to re-charge, though I should hopefully be able to increase their limits and decrease the charging times further. Of course, if we survive this attack that is."

"Nice to be reminded of that." Yumi muttered as she pulled out her two tessen fans. Opening them revealed their interior to be much like that of Ulrich's katana, being made of binary code.

"Burst of ranged energy? Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue very well..." Odd thought to himself

"Oh no, the specters noticed you guys, they're heading up towards you!" Jeremie cried out.

At that moment, twenty specters rose over the top of the tower, looking down at Yumi and Odd.

"Laser Arrow!" Odd cried out in surprise, blasting one of the ghosts to pieces with a second shot from his right wrist.

"Laser Arrow?" Yumi asked

"'Burst of ranged energy' isn't something that rolls off the tongue!" Odd called out to Yumi in response.

Given the fight they were engaged in, Yumi just nodded in acknowledgement, then let out a war cry as she launched her two tessen fans at the specters. Flying through the air like sawblades, the fans shredded a group of four specters, before returning to Yumi like they were boomerangs.

Now there were fifteen specters left, who all began to fly in more erratic patterns, sensing that they were fighting people who had longer-ranged weapons than a katana. The specters began to rise up higher in the air, with Odd and Yumi keeping their eyes on them. However, they didn't notice another group of specters that were circling around the tower behind them, moving subtly upwards towards the top of the tower in a manner that not even Jeremie could catch on the monitor until it was too late.

As Odd watched the specters above him and Yumi, his eyes widened and the scene before him shifted. Instead of looking at the specters above him, he was now looking at the edge of the tower top, upon which a small group of four specters flew out from underneath and from behind, rammed straight into him and Yumi, knocking them to the ground, which allowed the other specters to dogpile atop them, killing them instantly.

Odd shook his head briefly, and jumped around to look behind just as the specters attacked. Quickly, he shot several laser arrows at them, destroying them instantly.

"What the?" Yumi asked, confused at Odd's sudden movements.

She then remembered the other specters, who were now flying downwards, trying to continue a dogpile attack that had already failed due to the loss of their prior ambush. Yumi threw her tessen fans again, and thanks to the specters grouping closer to each other, the arc of the fans did not miss their target, and ripped through most of the specters, destroying a total of ten. Three of the remaining five dove into the tower, while the other two broke off their attack, flying above the ground away from the tower's edge.

Back in the lab, Jeremie gripped the keyboard tighter, feeling the shockwaves ripple through the factory.

"Be careful you guys!" he called, though he knew that calling out concerns would do nothing and he quickly went back to programming.

"Odd, what the heck just happened?" Yumi asked, looking out for more ghosts.

Odd was currently shaking his head vigorously, trying to get over the sudden adrenaline rush.

"I-I think I just had a vision of the future…" he muttered.

"A vision?" Yumi asked, still vigilant as the specters continued to lurk.

"Yeah, I saw some ghosts fly out from under the edge and ram into us. Then the others just dogpiled on us…I think I just saw us die…" he said, with a strange mix of horror and befuddlement on his face.

"I guess that's your power, Anticipation," Jeremie called out from the lab, "you can see into the future for a brief amount of time, allowing you to see an enemy's movements, and then counter them accordingly."

"This better not turn into The Dead Zone, I don't want to have to see my own death every day!" Odd cried out in horror.

It was at that moment that Odd had another vision, this time one of the specters trying another surprise attack.

Currently, the battle had shifted so that Odd and Yumi had gathered towards the edge of the tower that was above the southern part of the lake in Xanadu, near the area where Ulrich had been when he had been virtualized earlier. The tower itself stood atop the cavern area that Ulrich had been under earlier. The specters were gathering towards the edge that was above the green area that led to higher slopes of Xanadu. It was from here that Odd saw them attack him and Yumi, curving around and numbering about eight in number, moving in a spiral pattern to better avoid Odd and Yumi's attacks.

Thankfully for Odd, he didn't have to see anything gruesome like the specter pushing him off the edge of the tower or Yumi being eaten alive by them.

As such, he was capable of pointing where exactly they were attacking from without panicking.

"Yumi, over there, they're coming!" Odd cried out, pointing the edge that he had seen.

Sure enough, the specters rose, moving in their horizontal cyclonic attack pattern, until Yumi threw her tessen fans again, this time using her telekinesis to better guide them. Four of the eight specters found themselves cut to ribbons, and the remaining four flew in a more chaotic pattern, not capable of realizing what had happened.

Odd, while still in shock, noticed that they were moving more slowly, and as Yumi's tessen fans returned to her, he shot four more laser arrows, each of them hitting their mark.

"All right!" he cheered, feeling that he was starting to get the hang of this.

"It's too soon to celebrate Odd, there'll still plenty of specters left. Plus, your ammo supply might not be enough to take care of all of them." Jeremie said.

"Wait, how many Laser Arrows do I have left?" Odd asked, worried that he might have left himself defenseless.

"From what I can see, you start off with thirty in each wrist. You've used up nine arrows in your right wrist, and seven in your left." Jeremie replied.

"How long would it take for you to reload me?" Odd asked, still vigilant for more specters.

"This'll be the first time I get to see how a recharge session goes for any of your weapons. It took about 50 seconds to charge up Ulrich's sabre before I input that new program for you guys. Only took about 15 seconds for that. A recharge session should take about that amount of time." Jeremie replied, until he saw that the specters were gearing up for another assault. Thankfully, he also saw a certain Samurai making a run-up.

"Ulrich's coming in to help, but you've got another wave heading for you guys!" Jeremie called in.

This time, forty specters flew atop the tower edge, preparing to swarm around Odd and Yumi like bees.

"Let's hope he's quick!" Yumi said.

Ulrich had been forced to make a few detours on his journey. First off, due to the position of the tower and its cables, Ulrich had to run across the length of the lake, and climb up the forested slope so as to get to the flatter, higher level that the tower itself was situated on.

By reaching a fairly flat surface, Ulrich was able to build greater momentum with his super-sprint and use it to run up the tower.

Thankfully, the specters were now focused on the tower, allowing Ulrich to reach this area without much trouble. Jumping up the slope and using the tower cables to reach the upper flat area, Ulrich was now running from the tower, in order to get a good start. Ulrich took a deep breath, getting into a meditative stance. Ulrich closed his eyes for a few seconds, and then ran as fast as he could towards the tower.

Zipping along at high-speeds, Ulrich planted his feet at the tower's vertical surface, and then proceeded to run up the tower. Ulrich went faster and faster, trying to reach the top of the tower in time and not fall down.

Several specters noticed him and went in for the attack, but Jeremie noticed them just in time.

"On your left! Specters!" Jeremie called out.

Ulrich turned around just in time, and built up more speed to force the specters to fly upwards in an attempt to intercept him. This however, just brought them into the perfect position for Ulrich to slash them and maintain his momentum. As they flew down, Ulrich, still holding his katana in his right hand, brought his blade behind his back, and then proceeded to cut the two specters attacking him in half in a single stroke.

While that was going on, Odd and Yumi had been dealing with the specter swarm. They now seemed to be forgoing strategy and were just attacking at random. As such, it allowed Yumi to get several kills in, with a dozen specters shredded by her tessen fans. Odd had been less lucky, as the random flight patterns had caused him to miss several times, and he was out of laser arrows in his right wrist, and down to half of the ones in his left. He'd managed to kill off seven more specters, leaving a total of 21 to deal with.

As two more circled around the edge, they did so at the point where Ulrich had reached the top. The towers chamfered at the top before outwardly extruding into a disk-like top. At this point, Ulrich jumped up over the ridge that formed here and was now over the full top of the tower. Ulrich swung his sword again, slicing the two specters in half and causing them to dissolve.

Ulrich landed on the tower top and ran over to Odd and Yumi.

"You two okay?" he asked.

"Could be better." Yumi grimaced, seeing that there were still 19 specters hovering above them.

"I can see the future, somewhat. Yumi and Einstein call it Anticipation." Odd said.

"Alright, so you guys are okay." Ulrich said.

"Uh oh." Jeremie murmured.

"What is it?" Yumi asked.

"The specters are gearing up for something big!" Jeremie warned.

Before Odd, Yumi, or Ulrich could ask what this something big was, the specters answered that question for them. All of them rose up high into the air, hovering above the top of the tower, swarming around the virtual warriors like the winds of a tornado.

It was clear that the 'something big' Jeremie mentioned was basically put, an all-out attack where the specters would fly at them and try to kill them via their superior numbers.

"…Oh crap." Odd said, his jaw dropping open.

"Jeremie, how many of those things are there?" Yumi asked, having lost count.

"Um, a lot?" he replied nervously.

"Well, that's really helpful." Ulrich grunted.

Odd's eyes had widened to the size of Kiwi's dog bowl. Yumi definitely had not been kidding or joking when she said that there would have been a lot of specters. But saying that there was 'a lot' seemed to be a gross downplaying of the enormous swarm of specters that surrounded the group. Odd was about ready to wake up from this nightmare, when he had another vision, which only told him two things:

One, he was not dreaming.

Two, the specters were about to attack in pretty much every direction, attacking in a clockwise pattern, with one specter for each position.

"They're coming!" Odd yelled out, turning around and shooting one of the attacking specters.

Yumi noticed the attack, and threw out both of her fans. This time, she used her telekinesis to guide them, and the remaining eleven specters were quickly destroyed.

The specters kept up their assault. This time, a large number of them dived down from the top of their current flight pattern, breaking off into groups of six to attack the group. In addition to this, the specters attacked from a clockwise pattern again, this time with two specters in each position, and breaking off in joining the other groups to attack.

However, they reckoned without Jeremie.

"Another attack group! They're trying to smother you guys!" he cried out.

"I've got this!" Ulrich cried out, activating his super-sprint and rushing around the tower top.

With Ulrich running about like that, the specters trying to directly attack him had to group together in order to follow him. But with Ulrich running around the tower, holding out his katana, he was able to cut apart the specters that were trying to surround the entire group.

Ulrich made it about halfway around the tower top until the six specters specifically going after him caught up with him. Ulrich managed to look up just in time, and jumped up into the air, turning his body around and taking several swipes at the attack group. Three of the attacking specters found themselves cut to ribbons, while the other three had to turn around.

Before they could strike Ulrich down, a rogue tessen fan cut into them, arced around, and hit two more specters that had been coming after Yumi. Five of the six specters that had gone after her had quickly been cut apart by her fans, and Yumi had managed to aim one of them at the remaining specters attacking Ulrich.

Said fan had managed to destroy two of the specters, meaning that only one was left. Unfortunately, Yumi had to dodge this next attack, causing the specter to crash into the tower and causing a tremor in the real world.

At the terminal, Jeremie was able to steady himself a tad better and then noticed that it was almost recharge time for the three virtual warriors.

Odd in particular, was in need of a reload. He'd been shooting at some of the specters attempting the gang-up tactic, leaving only six of them and forcing them to fly up into the air, having successfully scattered them. Unfortunately, this had cost him all of his Laser Arrows, and the specters planning to directly attack him had not decreased in the slightest, forcing him to flee.

"Einstein, reload me!" Odd cried out in a panic.

"I'm on it!" Jeremie called, hoping that his latest program had worked.

The six scattered specters split into two groups of three, trying to attack Ulrich and Yumi. However, it didn't take long for the two to destroy them. But just like Odd, this came with a price, and their weapons' binary forms disintegrated, leaving Yumi with two empty fan frames and Ulrich with a hilt.

"We need a recharge too Jeremie!" Yumi called out, "and fast!"

"Fifteen seconds, remember?" Jeremie asked, "the recharge has started for all you, just hold 'till then!"

"Fifteen seconds, that's like fifteen years over here!" Odd cried out, barely dodging a specter that had sped towards him, though unlike the previous specters, it flew over, not into, the tower, and rejoined the attack group.

As for Ulrich and Yumi, a new attack group, consisting of ten specters each, came after them.

"Crap…" Ulrich muttered

"Ten seconds left!" Jeremie called, silently counting down the seconds.

10, 9, 8…

Odd had a vision of another sneak attack, jumping out of the way as a rogue specter flew at him, and crashed into the attack swarm coming at him. The seven specters moved about as if they were dizzy, only to recover and resume chasing Odd, who started running away on all fours like a cat.

"Great, now I'm starting to act like a cat…" he thought

7, 6, 5, 4…

Ulrich jumped in several directions, trying to make it so that the specters didn't hit the tower should they miss him. Yumi was attempting similar tactics, somersaulting several times in succession and sidestepping specter attacks, but without Ulrich's super-sprint, she wasn't having as much success, though she'd avoided having the tower get hit.

She was however, able to use her telekinesis to alter the movement of the specters somewhat so that they wouldn't hit the tower.

3, 2, 1…

In the end, all three children gathered up near one another.

"Lay to me straight, are we doomed?" Odd asked Yumi.

In that instant, Ulrich's sabre and Yumi's fans regained their blue structures.

"Nope!" Jeremie called out cheerfully.

"Yes!" Odd cried out in joy, turning around and shooting down the seven specters that had been chasing him with his right arm's Laser Arrows.

Ulrich quickly dashed to the other side of the tower, causing the specters to split off their attack group. But since Odd was no longer being chased down, three specters from the remaining two groups gathered together and split off in order to attack him again.

But when you've been gaining experience in fighting phantoms like these for about a month, decreasing your numbers when your abilities aren't that advanced is a rather stupid thing to do.

The seven specters attacking Yumi opened their mouths, which just allowed Yumi to throw her fans along the weak points created in their jaws. In no time flat, the specters exploded into blue dust.

As for Ulrich, he jumped into the air and slashed down two specters. Just like before, the remaining five turned around to attack him again, but since there were no longer enough specters to try a surrounding strategy, they found Ulrich running around them in a circle, before closing in on them and cutting them all down.

The next six specters attacked Odd, who shot at them with both of his hands. All six specters found themselves blown apart quite quickly, though Odd's poor aim had depleted his ammo storage.

"You're going to need some target practice Odd." Jeremie noticed as he activated the recharge program for Odd.

"Cut me some slack, I'm new at this!" Odd panted, "how many of them are left? Please tell me we beat them all!"

"Still a few left." Ulrich said, looking up.

Indeed, the number of specters had decreased drastically. Their reckless attacks hadn't done them much good. Now, only eighteen of them were left to attack. They seemed hesitant at first, merely hovering above the tower, just out of range for Yumi's fans while Odd's arrow stock reloaded.

Finally, they made a decision, and flew closer to one another, before diving down in nine groups of two, flying in an intertwining pattern.

"It's the last stretch now!" Yumi called out, throwing her tessen fans at the specters.

The first group did not have much luck, as both of Yumi's tessen fans ripped the duo apart.

The second group flew at Ulrich twice, but on their second passing, Ulrich parried their attack with his sabre, and the two flew apart from each other and stopped, giving Ulrich enough time to slash both of them apart.

The third group went after Odd, only for the boy's Laser Arrows to finish reloading. Odd had a vision of the specters smashing into him, and moved out of the way, and by instinct, fired his Laser Arrows, destroying the specter duo.

And so it went this way, and before long, the remaining specters were destroyed.

Odd lay down on the tower top, panting heavily.

"Is it over now?" he asked.

"That's the last of them." Jeremie called out.

"You sure about that? This attack came out pretty fast compared to the last one. I bet I missed one last night, that's why we had to come back so soon…" Yumi muttered.

"Good point Yumi. Ulrich, you check to see if any specters are left over. Once you've rested enough, Yumi, use your telekinesis to get Ulrich down to one of the wires so he can do some recon." Jeremie called.

"And me?" Odd called, getting up shakily.

"You're coming back right now." Jeremie said, typing in the commands to rematerialize Odd.

Odd then disappeared from Xanadu, as Yumi and Ulrich caught their breath, getting ready to make sure that they didn't leave behind a lone specter.

In the factory, the center scanner closed its doors, and then opened up again, revealing a gasping and exhausted Odd, who gripped the side of the scanner door as tightly as he could. After taking a few quick breaths, Odd took several slower, deeper ones, until he was sure that he was somewhat relaxed. Odd staggered out of the scanner, and slowly walked down the stairs.

At the bottom, he found Kiwi having returned to taking a nap, and Jeremie wiping his glasses.

Jeremie swiveled on his chair and looked at Odd.

"If you want lunch, there's a mini-fridge and microwave further down there." He said, pointing at the other side of the area.

Odd followed Jeremie's finger, and walked away from the computer crook until turning to his left and locating, next to a pipe, a small refrigerator and a microwave, just as Jeremie said. Opening it, Odd saw a pizza box, and opening that revealed half of a sausage pizza, about a day old.

"Food!" Odd called out exhaustedly, smiling in relief about seeing something normal.

Odd looked at the shelf below the one the pizza box was on, and found a paper plate. Odd immediately placed two pizza slices on the plate, and heated them up in the microwave, pushing out his current thoughts in favor of focusing on the food.

Once it was heated up, Odd consumed the two pizza slices instantly. He'd always been a fast eater, but he was surprised at how hungry he was, even by his normal standards.

"Is there a trash can over here?" he asked, poking his head around the corner.

"Just next to the microwave." Jeremie called out.

Odd looked over to the right of the microwave, crumpled up the plate, threw it into the trash can, and walked back over to Jeremie.

"Okay, now that…that's all over, you mind explaining all of this to me?" Odd asked Jeremie, flumping on the couch.

"It's a long story, but yeah, it's a lot to talk about." Jeremie said.

And so, the bespectacled boy began his tale, revealing to Odd just what it was that they had all gotten into. While Jeremie spoke, Odd wondered about how his life had suddenly gotten interesting, but at the same time, wondered just what it was that he'd gotten mixed up into…

And so, the first File is complete! The pilot has expanded, and this time, we're not leaving until the end! Next time, we begin the Replay arc, as we learn exactly why all of this is happening!

Thoughts on the chapter? Let me know in a review!

-Epsilon Tarantula-