Guess who got to watch Godzilla: King of the Monsters? What an awesome movie. It's incredible to finally see Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah all together in an American-made Godzilla movie. :D

Anyway, here's Chapter 6 at last.

Paris Metropolitan Area, France

It's amazing just how fast some people can run when given the proper motivation.

In Odd and Ulrich's case, that motivation came in the form of risking being late for gym class—on the day of a special event, no less.

"For the record…I blame you…for this!" Ulrich told Odd in between huffs.

"Nobody…asked you…to wait for me!" Odd defended himself, similarly out of breath as they reached the boys' locker room. "So what if I miss gym class? Einstein does it all the time."

"Yeah," Ulrich responded as they entered the locker room, "but at least when Jeremy misses class, it's because he's busy working on a way to fight XANA, and not because he couldn't be bothered to get out of bed at a decent hour."

"All right, fine," Odd conceded. "But you still didn't have to wait for me."

Someone's got to motivate you, Odd, Ulrich thought, but didn't say out loud—any further bickering between the two would just mean more time wasted for them both.

After changing into their proper gym clothes, Odd and Ulrich left the locker room and hurried outside to join Aelita and Jeremy at the sports field, who were seated on the bleachers along with the rest of the ninth graders. As they approached, they could see that Yumi and her fellow tenth graders were present as well for today's event.

And standing in front of them calling roll was none other than their burly gym teacher, Jim Morales, who held a soccer ball in one of his hands and a clipboard in another.

"Stern! Della Robbia!" Jim called out to them in his trademark loud voice upon noticing them. "What took you so long?!"

"Sorry, Jim," Ulrich apologized as he quickly thought of a lie to keep Odd and himself from being punished. "We…got caught up helping Ms. Hertz with something."

Jim's eyebrows perked up. "Ms. Hertz, huh?" he asked. "Well, in that case, I'll let it slide this time, since I was just calling roll. But don't let it happen again, or else it's the principal's office!"

"We understand, Jim," Ulrich acknowledged. "Thanks."

As Ulrich and Odd went to sit down on the bleachers, Jim put down the clipboard and turned his attention back to the rest of the students. "Now, today's the day of our big soccer match between the ninth grade and the tenth grade," he said.

"Before we get started, however, it's important that we make sure that you're all clear on the rules. Soccer is a sport with many rules—in fact, it was my job to enforce them when I worked as a referee for the World Cup a few years ago."

"You were a referee for the World Cup, Jim?" a student asked.

"Yes, but I'd rather not talk about it," Jim responded, perhaps a bit too hastily. "Anyway, the first rule I want to go over is…"

Instead of listen to Jim review the rules that he was already familiar with, Ulrich leaned towards Jeremy and nudged him. "Hey, have you and Aelita had any luck finding any more Replikas?" he asked.

Jeremy shook his head. "The network is a huge place; it could take several days before my program is able to locate another Replika," he explained. "The only way it would be able to find one quicker is if XANA used one to launch another kaiju attack."

"Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that," Odd chimed in. "You saw how much destruction there was in Osaka."

Remembering the carnage that had been left behind after Godzilla's fight with the XANAfied Anguirus and Rodan, Ulrich asked, "Can't we launch a return to the past? I know that it won't bring bring back people from the dead, but it would still repair the damage that was done to the city, wouldn't it?"

"Even if it was able to bring people back the dead, we can't," Jeremy answered grimly. "Aelita and I made a discovery yesterday—it turns out that when William destroyed Lyoko, it also somehow wiped out the supercomputer's ability to launch a return to the past."

That revelation struck Odd and Ulrich like a bullet. Before, the ability to return to the past had served a vital purpose for the Lyoko Warriors: not only did it reverse any damage (apart from loss of life) that XANA might have caused on Earth during one of his attacks, but it also erased any evidence—such as other people's memories of the events—that the five teens were involved in any way, thus keeping their fight a secret. But if what Jeremy had said was true, this meant that the Lyoko Warriors would have to be even more careful from now on; if their secret was discovered, it would spell a lot of trouble for all of them.

This was very bad news.

"Belpois! Stern!" interrupted Jim, having noticed that neither Jeremy nor Ulrich were listening to his review of soccer rules. "Since you two clearly have nothing better to do but talk to each other, why don't you demonstrate a penalty shoot-out for everyone?"

Knowing Jim, Jeremy and Ulrich realized that this was not a request. Reluctantly, they got up from their seats. Jeremy walked over to the goal to act as the goalie, while Ulrich took a position a few yards away.

"In the event that our match ends in a tie, we will decide a winner through a penalty shoot-out," Jim explained. "Stern and Belpois will show you how this works." He put down the soccer ball a few feet in front of Ulrich and blew his whistle.

Sorry about this, Einstein, Ulrich mentally apologized to Jeremy as he charged at the ball and delivered a powerful kick to it, sending it hurtling towards the goal. Jeremy dove, attempting to block the ball, but missed—very badly, eliciting a facepalm from Jim.

"Pathetic," Jim muttered before turning back towards the rest of the students. "Can I have a volunteer to take Belpois's place as a goalie?" he asked as his eyes scanned across the crowd. When nobody offered to do so, he decided to call out a name at random.

"Dunbar!"

Oh, great, here we go, Ulrich thought to himself. Ever since William had gone missing on the network, the Lyoko Warriors had been forced to come up with various explanations to their teachers—some zanier than others—so that his strange absence wouldn't raise any suspicions. Ulrich turned towards Jim, ready to cover for William once again, but then…

"Who, me?" asked a familiar voice. Ulrich looked towards the source of the voice—and did a double-take.

There sat William Dunbar, in the flesh.

"Yes, you!" Jim answered. "Come on—you can't be much worse than Belpois."

As William got up to walk towards the goal, Ulrich cast a glance towards his friends. What was even stranger was that, while Odd looked just as baffled as he did, there was no such reaction from either Yumi, Jeremy, or Aelita, who nonchalantly watched as William took his position in front of the goal.

Why are they acting like this is completely normal? Ulrich pondered. Was this some sort of joke? Part of an elaborate trick by XANA?

Jim blew his whistle again, and Ulrich once again kicked the ball towards the goal. Much to his surprise, however, William caught the ball with ease.

Chalking it up to beginner's luck, Ulrich kicked another ball that Jim rolled in front of him, but William caught this one as well. In fact, every single ball that Ulrich kicked during the shoot-out was blocked by William—each time Ulrich made a shot, William would respond with seemingly superhuman reflexes, and all without breaking a sweat. By the end of the shoot-out, the tenth graders had all erupted in cheers.

Even Jim was impressed. "Well, well, well, Dunbar—who would've guessed that you'd make a great goalie? Now go find your team captain and we can get this show on the road!"

In response, William looked around cluelessly. "Show?" he asked, genuinely. "I don't see any shows around here. Or a road."

Jim initially threw William a confused look, but then let out a feigned chuckle. "Ah, very funny, Dunbar," he said, apparently brushing it off as a terrible joke. "Now you and Stern go back to your teams and we'll start the game." With that, Ulrich and William went to sit back down with their respective grades.

"All right, Jeremy," Ulrich asked as he sat down. "Since when did you bring back William?"

"Today," Jeremy answered matter-of-factly. "You have to admit, he's really good at sports—for a clone."

"A clone?" Odd asked incredulously. "Wait, you mean that's not the real William?"

"Exactly," Jeremy responded. "In addition to searching for Replikas, Aelita and I have also been trying to track down William on the network. Until we can find him, we decided to create a program to stand in for him here in the real world—that program being a clone of him."

"Whoa," Ulrich said in amazement.

"Jeremy, Aelita, you guys are absolute geniuses," Odd complimented them.

"Yes, but we can't say the same for Clone William," Aelita replied. "Being a computer program, he's completely literal. Jokes and metaphors are going to go over his head—especially yours, Odd."

Moments later, the students had taken their positions on the soccer field. Jim blew his whistle, and the game was underway.

Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan

Japan was a land of many technological marvels.

Among these was the high-speed Nozomi bullet train, which zipped along the Tōkaidō Shinkansen line at speeds of over 180 miles per hour. Every day, it transported hundreds of people between Tokyo and Osaka, with each trip between the two cities lasting less than two and a half hours.

With his cell phone to his ear, Hiroshi Ogata laid back into his seat as one of these trains carried him and his fellow passengers to Tokyo. Once there, he would board another train to Akita Prefecture, the location of a vitally important yet largely inactive G-Force installation.

Inactive, at least until now. Talking to Ogata on the other end of the line was the young commander of the installation's skeleton crew, who, up to this point, had been charged with mundane tasks such as routine maintenance checks and keeping away curious civilians. Now that the facility had been ordered to be reactivated, however, the few personnel there had found themselves with their hands full.

"We've begun to the process of bringing the installation back online," the young commander reported to Ogata, "but without more personnel, we're unable to begin final assembly work on the unit."

"More staff are on their way to Akita right now, myself included," Ogata reassured him. "The Response Department is also sending its best engineers to help us make our two-week deadline."

"With all due respect, sir, will the extra hands be enough?" the commander asked. "Even with the unit as complete as it is, two weeks is an awfully short amount of time to add the finishing touches—and that's assuming that the U.N. even approves of what we're doing."

"The U.N. won't be a problem," Ogata responded. "And the extra hands from the Response Department will allow us to work around the clock—rest assured, we will finish our work on time. In the meantime, continue your tasks of reactivating the facility. I want it completely back online by the time I arrive this afternoon."

"Understood, sir. We should have it fully up and running by midday."

With that, the commander hung up, and Ogata put his phone back into his pocket just as the bullet train entered a dark tunnel. The only illumination came from the train's overhead lights.

Then, all of a sudden, the lights went out and the train screeched to a sudden stop.

Ogata and the other passengers were abruptly thrown forward by the sudden deceleration. When they recovered, the train had come to a halt inside the tunnel.

What's going on? thought Ogata when the train suddenly began to violently shake. "Earthquake!" he exclaimed, warning the other passengers.

That was what Ogata thought it was, anyway—until he heard a loud roar bellow from within the tunnel.

The soccer ball rolled its way towards Yumi. She didn't hesitate—she quickly took possession of the ball and started to dribble it towards the goal. While she was by no means a star soccer player, Yumi still managed to keep the ball away from the defending ninth graders. Upon reaching the goal, she lined up her shot, reared her foot back to kick the ball into the goal...

And then her vision went black.

It was so sudden—like someone had unplugged a TV while she was watching it. What's going on? she thought.

Then, slowly, her vision started to return. Looking around, Yumi found that she was no longer standing in the soccer field, but what looked like the inside of a moving train. Something was wrong, however: the entire setting was distorted, almost as if she was in a dream. As she examined her surroundings, she saw that the dozens of people who were seated around her also appeared similarly blurry and undefined.

All of them, that is, except for one—someone she knew.

Uncle Hiroshi?

In stark contrast to the people surrounding him, Yumi could see her uncle as clear as day sitting just a few feet in front of her. Yet despite this, he showed absolutely no sign that he was aware of her presence on the train.

It was then that Yumi noticed the windows darken—had they entered a tunnel?—and shortly afterwards, the lights went out and the train came to a sudden stop. Then, without warning, the train began to shake violently, forcing her to hold on to the seats next to her.

As the train shook, Yumi heard a deafening roar echo from inside the tunnel. Immediately, the passengers began to panic and flock for the train's exits, her uncle included.

Yumi decided to follow him. Strangely, despite the large number of people on board the train, she had absolutely no trouble keeping up with him—her body seemed to pass seamlessly through those of the other passengers. She kept following him as he hurriedly exited the train, and then made his way out of the tunnel along with the other passengers.

No sooner did they make it out of the tunnel than Yumi heard a crumbling sound behind her. She turned around just in time to see the tunnel cave in. Then, she heard the roar again, only this time from above her. She looked up to see a monstrous kaiju emerge from the hillside above the tunnel. As with almost everything else, Yumi was unable to make out very many distinguishing features about the kaiju—it was dark and hazy, more like a silhouette than anything else.

One thing that she was able to see as clearly, however, were its eyes: two blood red orbs glaring down at her, the eye of XANA embedded in each one.

"Yumi? Are you okay?"

When Yumi had come to, she found herself laying on the ground face up. She saw the faces of five people peering down at her: her friends, plus Jim.

"What happened?" she asked, weakly.

"You passed out," answered Jim. Then, turning to Jeremy and Aelita, he instructed them, "Belpois, Stones, take her to the infirmary."

"Can we take her as well?" asked Ulrich.

"Yeah, you can never be too careful," Odd chimed in.

Jim contemplated it for a moment. "Well, all right," he eventually agreed, "but make it snappy."

With that, the other Lyoko Warriors helped Yumi to her feet and began to guide her back indoors. As they passed the bleachers, however, Yumi felt a strange feeling come over her. She couldn't explain it—it was almost as if her brain had suddenly switched to autopilot and was now guiding all of her actions for her.

"Jeremy," she said, urgently, "your laptop."

"Huh? Hey—!" Jeremy responded as Yumi shook herself free from her friends' grasp and hurriedly walked over to the bleachers, where Jeremy's bag sat. She opened it and extracted Jeremy's laptop, which she quickly booted up.

"Yumi, what's gotten into you?" asked Ulrich, confused as everyone else by Yumi's bizarre behavior.

Yumi didn't answer—as far as she was she was aware, her actions were completely normal. Still being driven by this mysterious sensation, she typed in some commands into Jeremy's laptop and pulled up the Superscan.

"There's nothing on the Superscan, Yumi," Jeremy tried to explain to her as she stared at the Superscan's blank display. "I checked it right before gym class."

"Wait," Yumi simply replied, her eyes still glued to the laptop's screen.

A few seconds passed. And then it happened—the Superscan emitted a warning tone, and a series of warning displays popped up on the screen. Jeremy promptly took back his computer and examined what was on the screen.

"I don't believe it," Jeremy told the other Lyoko Warriors. "The Superscan has just picked up a Replika. And that's not all; it's controlling a kaiju that just emerged in Japan." Turning to Yumi, he asked, "How did you...?"

"I…I can't explain it," Yumi tried to answer. Now she was just as confused as her friends—although she had remembered her strange actions clearly, they had seemed completely natural to her at the time, almost like she had been stuck in a trance.

What had even just happened?

"We'll have to figure it out later," Odd declared. "Right now, we've got ourselves a Replika to blow to pieces—and another kaiju to free."

"Odd's right," Aelita agreed. "Let's head to the factory."

As the Lyoko Warriors rushed off towards the shortcut to the factory in the woods, Yumi could feel a strange energy that seemed to emanate from the Mothra medallion hanging from her neck.

Fifty miles off the coast of Shizuoka, Japan

Godzilla's head poked out from underneath the waves. It was happening again.

Not that he hadn't expected it. Ever since the battle in Osaka, he had spent the last few days patrolling Japan's southern coast, just in case another one of his fellow kaiju happened to emerge there. And, as it had turned out, his hunch was correct.

Although the nuclear leviathan now knew XANA's name and intentions, questions continued to linger in the back of his mind. What, exactly, was XANA? How was it taking control of other kaiju? Why had XANA suddenly relinquished control over Anguirus and Rodan in the middle of their fight? Of these three questions, the last one was what bothered him the most. His friends had shown no clear signs of resisting XANA's influence like he had; no, it was almost like something else had caused XANA to give up control—but what, exactly?

Whatever the answers to these questions were, the presence that Godzilla sensed now was similar to what he had felt from Anguirus and Rodan during their brief time under XANA's control: one that had helped him defend the Earth in the past, but had now fallen victim to the malevolent being's possession. It was the same scenario he had faced just days before.

That was when Godzilla heard a splash behind him. He turned his head to see the spiky carapace of Anguirus emerge from the water behind him, and then realized that no, this would not be like last time. Ever since they had left Osaka together, Anguirus had been following Godzilla closely, constantly ready to jump to the nuclear leviathan's aid in the unlikely event that he actually needed it.

Godzilla would not be fighting alone this time.

The two kaiju pressed on towards Shizuoka, their determination to stop XANA outweighing their reluctance to fight another ally. Godzilla could only hope that whatever—or whoever—had freed Anguirus and Rodan from XANA's grasp would do the same again for their opponent.

G-Force Headquarters, Tokyo, Japan

Commander Takaki Aso entered the state-of-the-art command center, where he was greeted with salutes from his subordinates. After saluting them back, Aso took his seat near the middle of the command center and asked for an update on the situation from one of his lieutenants.

"Aerial reconnaissance has confirmed the sighting of Baragon ten kilometers northeast of Shizuoka," the lieutenant reported. "The monster is heading towards the city at an average speed of thirty kilometers per hour. Evacuations are already in progress."

"What about the JSDF?" Aso inquired. "Have they been deployed?"

"Yes, sir," the lieutenant confirmed. "An armor regiment has been dispatched to northern Shizuoka to repel Baragon. F-4 Phantoms have also been scrambled from Hyakuri Air Base to provide air support."

That won't be enough, Aso thought grimly. The JSDF with its conventional weaponry had proven to be no match against Anguirus in Osaka, and it was doubtful that they would fare much better against even a comparatively weak kaiju like Baragon. No, they needed more firepower.

"Do we have any AKWs at our disposal?" the commander asked.

"We have only just begun the reactivation process," the lieutenant answered. "The only units we can readily deploy is a platoon of maser tanks and Full Metal Missile launchers."

Aso silently cursed the U.N. for its stubbornness. It was only yesterday that the international organization had finally granted G-Force permission to reactivate its cache of dedicated Anti-Kaiju Weapons, or AKWs for short. As a result, the majority of these high-tech weapons were still locked away in various storage facilities across the globe, unready to be used in combat.

The veteran G-Force commander would have to use his limited resources wisely.

"Deploy all available maser tanks and Full Metal Missile launchers to Shimizu," Aso instructed. "We'll coordinate with the JSDF to set up a defensive perimeter around the city's northeastern edge—Baragon must not be allowed to enter a populated area."

"Yes, sir," the lieutenant acknowledged again, before turning to his radio to relay the orders.

Just then, a female officer working at a nearby console stood up abruptly to face Aso. "Commander!" she exclaimed. "We've lost radar contact with the F-4's over Hakone!"

"What?!" Aso responded.

"The entire squadron has disappeared from our screens," the officer explained. "We're trying to regain radio contact right now, but haven't had any luck."

"Keep trying," Aso ordered. It didn't make any sense—how could an entire squadron of fighter jets just suddenly vanish? Baragon was too far away from Hakone, so there was no possible way that he could have downed the jets. Something else was going on here…

But Aso didn't have time to ponder about this. Before too long, another officer stood up from his seat to face the commander.

"Sir, I just received an urgent report from a P-3 patrol," the officer said. "They've sighted Godzilla and Anguirus in Suruga Bay."

Even though it was their second time traversing the Digital Sea, the Lyoko Warriors had yet to take a moment to fully appreciate the beauty of the aquatic landscape.

The Digital Sea had an appearance vaguely like that of an upside-down city, with the buildings representing the network's interconnected databanks. Extending downward from these buildings were a series of virtual hubs that the Lyoko Warriors found could quickly transport the Skidbladnir from one part of the network to another—something that would no doubt prove invaluable in reaching Replikas in a timely manner.

And time was of the essence.

"Guys, I've just intercepted a report from the military," Jeremy announced to his friends. "Godzilla and Anguirus have been spotted heading towards Shizuoka."

"To fight Baragon, I'm guessing?" asked Ulrich.

"That's what it seems like," Jeremy responded. "Since Anguirus isn't under XANA's control anymore, it looks like he and Godzilla will be working together this time."

"All the more reason for us to hurry," Yumi stated. "Hopefully, destroying this Replika will stop them from fighting, like it did last time."

As Aelita piloted the Skid through the maze of databanks, she noticed something strange: the water of the Digital Sea was no longer the peaceful blue hue that it was when they had left Lyoko. Gradually, it had shifted to a more threatening blood red color.

Just then, the Skid's sonar started to ping. Aelita glanced at the holographic screen to find three red blips closing in on the submarine's location.

"Jeremy, are you seeing this?" she asked.

"I am," Jeremy confirmed. "XANA has sent monsters to attack the Skid."

"Wait, XANA has monsters in the Digital Sea?" Odd asked. "No fair!"

"Not to worry, Odd," Jeremy reassured his friend, "Aelita and I were prepared for just such a situation."

"Navskids are ready for battle, Jeremy," Aelita reported. Then, to the rest of her friends, she explained, "The Navskids are all equipped with their own shields and torpedoes. They're also much faster and more maneuverable than the Skid—that should put you on equal footing with XANA's monsters."

"So, like Galactic Battle, huh?" said Odd. "This'll be a piece of cake."

The three blips on the Skid's sonar screen were much closer now. Aelita wasted no time pulling a series of levers to her left. "Releasing Navskids now," she announced.

Promptly, three of the four Navskids detached themselves from their mothership's hull. As they maneuvered away, Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi accelerated their respective craft towards XANA's newest monsters. It didn't take long for the Lyoko Warriors to get their first glimpse of them: a trio of bizarre, eel-like creatures with blank white eyes, translucent blue tails, and dozens of needle-like teeth lining their jaws.

"Ugh!" Yumi exclaimed with disgust. "These new monsters definitely aren't winning a beauty contest anytime soon."

Almost immediately after Yumi said this, the eel monsters opened their mouths menacingly and began to fire lasers from their eyes, forcing the Lyoko Warriors to maneuver their Navskids erratically in order to evade the laser bolts. As they did so, two of the monsters swiftly swam past them, making a beeline for the Skid. They fired their lasers at the submarine, scoring several hits that caused the vessel to shake violently.

"Aelita!" Jeremy exclaimed, distressed.

Despite being thrown about within her seat in the Skid's cockpit, Aelita was unharmed. "I'm okay, Jeremy," she reassured him. "The Skid's shields did their job wonderfully."

"Thank goodness," Jeremy said, relieved—though still urgent. "Guys, the Skid's shields are finite," he informed the rest of his friends. "Not only that, but the Navskids' autonomy is limited; if the Skid is destroyed, all of you will wind up stranded in the Digital Sea."

"Got it, Einstein!" Odd acknowledged as he steered his Navskid back towards the mothership. Upon spotting one of the eel monsters swimming towards the Skid for another attack, he moved to intercept it, arming his small vessel's torpedo launchers. After waiting for the Navskid's targeting system to lock on to the monster, Odd squeezed the trigger on the joystick, which caused the Navskid to launch a pair of torpedoes towards the monster. The monster stood no chance—the torpedoes detonated simultaneously, engulfing it in a massive explosion.

"Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" Odd exclaimed, ecstatic about being the first of his friends to destroy a monster in the Digital Sea.

But his celebration was quickly cut short by the sight of more laser bolts streaking past his Navskid. He turned his head to see another one of the eel-like creatures swimming close behind him.

"Hey, can I have a little help here?" Odd requested as he erratically steered his Navskid from side to side in order to evade the monster's lasers.

"I've got your back, Odd," Yumi responded, having maneuvered her own Navskid behind the eel monster. After similarly locking on to the monster, Yumi fired another pair of torpedoes at Odd's pursuer. Again, they hit their mark, destroying the monster instantly.

"Thanks, Yumi!" Odd thanked her. "These kongres are every bit as vicious as they are ugly!"

"Kongres?" Yumi asked incredulously. "That's what you're calling these things?"

"Well, yeah. Unless you've got a better name for them?"

"No, no," Yumi replied quickly. "I'm fine with calling them that."

Yumi glanced around her, and suddenly realized that Ulrich's Navskid was nowhere in sight. "Ulrich, where are you?" she asked, feeling a twinge of concern.

"I'm busy chasing the last of these monsters away from the Skid," Ulrich answered, his Navskid in hot pursuit with the last kongre. After acquiring a lock on the monster, he fired the vessel's torpedoes, which streaked away from him and destroyed the monster with ease. Just as Ulrich was about to celebrate, however, he caught something out of the corner of his eye.

Ulrich turned his head to the right, expecting to see yet another kongre or some other monster. To his surprise, however, he instead saw what looked like a small submarine in the distance—similar in appearance to the Navskids, but sleeker and with several scimitar-like fins protruding from its body.

Intrigued, Ulrich steered his Navskid towards the newcomer, but as soon as he did so, the strange submarine suddenly accelerated and sped away. Ulrich increased his vessel's throttle to try to keep pace with the craft, but it was no use—the submarine was over twice as fast as the Navskid, and quickly put a great amount of distance between itself and Ulrich.

"Jeremy, I'm chasing what looks like another Navskid, only different," Ulrich reported. "It's going too fast for me to keep up, but it seems to be heading in the direction of the Replika."

"Another Navskid?" Jeremy asked. "That's weird. Even so, our main mission is to destroy the Replika and stop Baragon's rampage. Go back and rendezvous with the Skid."

"Roger that," Ulrich acknowledged as he turned his craft around. A short time later, he returned to the Skid just in time to see Odd's and Yumi's Navskids reattaching themselves to the submarine's hull. He slowed down his Navskid and maneuvered it close to the Skid, which likewise fastened itself to its original place on the vessel.

With all three Navskids reattached and the waters of the Digital Sea fading back to their original turquoise color, Aelita reactivated the Skid's engines, resuming the journey to the Forest Replika.

Several minutes later, the Skid rocketed out of the Digital Sea, greeting the Lyoko Warriors with a view of what appeared to be a perfect carbon copy of the Forest Sector. It wasn't long before Aelita spotted a nearby tower; immediately, she maneuvered the vessel towards it, which docked with it moments later.

Unlike their previous foray in the Desert Replika, the Lyoko Warriors had arrived in the Forest Replika with a clear-cut plan of what to do. No sooner had the Skid docked with the tower than Jeremy energized all four of his friends out of the submarine and began to run a program to find the location of the Replika's regulator tower. Less than a minute later, Jeremy relayed the program's findings to his friends.

"Alright, guys," he said, "I've pinpointed the regulator tower's location on the opposite end of the Replika. I'm sending you your vehicles."

"Where are Godzilla and Anguirus now?" asked Yumi as the Overwing materialized in front of her, which she stepped onto.

"They're less than ten kilometers away from the coast," Jeremy answered. "It won't be long before they make landfall."

"What about Baragon?" Aelita asked as she also boarded the Overwing, standing behind Yumi.

"Still in the countryside. The military has set up a perimeter to keep him out of the city."

"Let's hope that they can hold him off until we destroy this Replika," said Ulrich, revving the Overbike's engine.

With that, the Lyoko Warriors set off for the regulator tower.

Unlike his friend, Anguirus was by no means a seagoing creature—his lifestyle was much more suited to foraging on land. As such, keeping up with Godzilla as the two closed in on Shizuoka had been a challenge for him.

As they drew nearer to the coast, however, Godzilla suddenly froze and peeked his head out of the water, looking around. Anguirus swam up alongside him and did the same. Although his senses were not as good as the nuclear leviathan's, he could tell that something was amiss.

XANA had possessed another kaiju.

Godzilla and Anguirus looked at each other, communicating with a series of growls and facial expressions as they determined what they should do about this second kaiju. It wasn't long before they made a decision—Godzilla suddenly turned around and swam away in the opposite direction. With his speed in the water, he would undoubtedly reach the other kaiju first.

With Godzilla gone, Anguirus shifted his attention back towards the coast. The King of the Monsters had entrusted him with the task of stopping Baragon. The giant ankylosaur continued the journey to Shizuoka, determined not to let his friend down.

"Commander, Godzilla has changed course!" warned one of the officers.

"What?!" Aso exclaimed back.

"The P-3 shadowing Godzilla and Anguirus just confirmed it," the officer explained. "They've placed him on a bearing towards Numazu."

Numazu? thought Aso. That was on the opposite side of Suruga Bay from Shizuoka—why would Godzilla suddenly feel the need to turn around when he was so close to the shore? Then it hit him: Numazu was one of the communities near Hakone, not far from where the JSDF had lost its F-4's earlier. Was it possible that another kaiju was residing in the area, and Godzilla was responding to it?

"What about Anguirus?" Aso asked the officer.

"Still closing in on Shizuoka," the officer answered. "Landfall expected in less than ten minutes."

Aso started to weigh his options. Hakone was too far away for him to relocate G-Force's task force before Godzilla could get there. However, there was still enough time for them to respond to Anguirus.

"Order a complete evacuation of Numazu and the areas surrounding Hakone," Aso commanded. "Redirect our task force to the coast to repel Anguirus."

"And how should we deal with Baragon?" asked the officer.

After taking another moment to contemplate his next move, Aso finally responded to the officer: "Deploy the Super X to provide air support."

"But, sir," protested the lieutenant sitting next to him, "Super X Alpha isn't combat ready—it hasn't conducted any test flights since it was reactivated!"

"It's our only available weapon fast enough to intercept Baragon before he reaches the city limits," Aso insisted. "Scramble Super X Alpha to Shizuoka."

After his lieutenant finally conceded and relayed the order, one of the other officers asked, "Is there anything we should do about Godzilla, Commander?"

Aso had not forgotten about Godzilla's inexplicable change in course. While the veteran commander would have liked to be able to deter the nuclear leviathan from making landfall, the possibility of Anguirus and Baragon fighting in downtown Shizuoka was too much for G-Force to ignore.

"We can't have a repeat of Osaka," Aso said. "Let Godzilla go to Hakone—we must keep Baragon and Anguirus from entering Shizuoka at all costs."

It was a risky gamble and everyone in the command center knew it—Aso included. The commander could only silently pray that it worked.

The Lyoko Warriors weaved their vehicles through the many trees of the Forest Replika, listening to Jeremy's instructions closely as he guided them to the regulator tower. It was at around the halfway point of their journey that Jeremy gave his friends an update on the situation in Japan.

"Anguirus will be landing in Shizuoka any minute now," he informed them. "However, Godzilla has changed direction."

"Why would he do that?" asked Aelita.

"I'm not sure," Jeremy answered, "but he's heading towards Hakone, where the JSDF lost contact with some of its fighter jets earlier."

"Maybe he knows something we don't?" Ulrich suggested.

"Maybe. In any case, we'd better hurry."

All of a sudden, the Overwing was struck by a powerful laser bolt. The vehicle instantly dematerialized, causing both Yumi and Aelita to fall to the ground.

"Yumi! Aelita!" Ulrich cried, immediately taking notice of their predicament. He and Odd quickly turned around to assist the girls, only to stop dead in their tracks when they saw what was blocking their way.

Emerging from behind the trees that flanked the path to the regulator tower was a pair of tall, red monsters that stood on four scythe-like legs and had six white eyes peeking out from its shell-like body.

"XANA has sent some krabes to ambush you," Jeremy said. "There's two more of them converging on Aelita and Yumi right now."

Sure enough, as Ulrich and Odd peered behind the two krabes that had blocked their route, they could see two more of them approaching Aelita and Yumi, who had just gotten up from their nasty fall from the Overwing.

They would have to act fast in order to help the girls.

Odd and Ulrich readied their weapons. Ulrich withdrew his two katanas just in time to block the first laser bolt from one of the krabes' eyes. Without hesitation, he Super Sprinted towards the krabe, leaving Odd to deal with the other one.

The svelte boy quickly leapt onto one of the nearby trees and started to climb it using the cat claws on his hands, all the while dodging every shot that the krabe took at him. When Odd saw that he was high enough, he leapt off the tree and landed on top of the krabe's shell—right where the eye of XANA was. At point-blank range, Odd fired a salvo of laser arrows at the middle of the target before leaping off the monster, which exploded moments later.

Meanwhile, Ulrich squared off with the other krabe. All of a sudden, the monster opened fire—but instead of a single bolt, it emitted a steady, concentrated laser beam from its eyes. Acting fast, Ulrich stuck out his katana, using the blade to absorb the beam. Unfortunately, the energy from the beam soon became too much for the katana to handle, and the weapon shattered, leaving him one weapon short.

"Jeremy, it looks like the krabes have been upgraded," he reported.

"I saw," Jeremy confirmed. "It'll take me a couple of minutes to reprogram your other sword."

Good thing I only need one, Ulrich thought to himself, remembering his early days on Lyoko when he was armed with just one katana. This would be no different from those times.

Promptly, the brunette boy began to Super Sprint in circles around the krabe. The monster was too big and clumsy to keep track of him, and quickly became disoriented. Suddenly, Ulrich used his remaining katana to sever one of the krabe's slender legs. The monster lost its balance and fell on its side—right next to where Ulrich was waiting to impale the eye of XANA on its shell. He swiftly drove his katana into the eye before pulling it out again, vanquishing the monster.

While all of this happened, Aelita and Yumi worked quickly to deal with the two krabes that had ambushed them. Aelita was the one to make the first move; she took flight, attempting to lure one of the krabes away from Yumi while her friend dealt with the other. Unfortunately, when Aelita flew off, she drew the attention of both monsters, which began to chase her. Yumi withdrew her fans and ran after them before hurtling her weapons towards the nearest krabe. The fans struck the edge of the krabe's shell, deflecting harmlessly against it. Nonetheless, it was enough to divert the krabe's attention to Yumi.

Yumi caught her weapons as they returned to her. The krabe opened fire with its new concentrated beam weapon. Yumi somersaulted away, taking cover behind a nearby tree. The monster walked over to the tree and peered behind it, expecting to see the Japanese girl cowering beside the trunk—

Then the krabe heard someone whistle behind it. The monster turned around just in time to see Yumi, having somehow managed to outflank it, hurl her fans towards its shell. The fans hit their mark, and the monster exploded.

With one krabe dealt with, Yumi turned her attention to the other one to help Aelita. Quickly, however, she realized that the pinkette didn't need any help. Yumi watched as Aelita skillfully used her angelic wings to evade every shot that the krabe took at her, before spiking an energy field directly on top of the monster's shell, destroying it. Aelita landed beside Yumi as Ulrich and Odd approached them.

"What took you so long?" Aelita asked the boys jokingly.

"Oh, Ulrich and I could have jumped in at any time," Odd replied similarly in jest. "We just decided to be gentlemen and let you girls have your fun."

"Hey, Jeremy, could you bring back our vehicles?" Yumi requested.

"I'm on it right now," Jeremy answered. "I should have the Overwing back to you in about—hey, hold on..."

"What's going on?" asked Ulrich.

"I've just spotted another three krabes heading your way on my screen," Jeremy responded.

"No sweat, Einstein," said Odd. "We just dusted their friends; we'll do the same to them when they get here."

"Wait a minute, Odd," Jeremy cautioned. "These monsters are acting in a really strange way. It's almost like they're chasing something…"

"Over there!" exclaimed Aelita, pointing down one of the branching pathways. Her friends looked in that direction to see the three krabes approaching in the distance. And true to Jeremy's word, they appeared to be chasing something.

Not something—someone. The four Lyoko Warriors' jaws nearly hit the ground when they saw who was sprinting towards them ahead of the krabes.

"William," Yumi breathed, unable to contain her disbelief.

Sure enough, it was the dark-haired boy—unarmed, yet still wearing the same white garb they had last seen him in—fleeing from the krabes, which fired their lasers at him as they chased him.

"We have to help him!" declared Aelita.

"Wait a minute, Aelita," Jeremy quickly interjected. "Something doesn't seem right about all this."

"I agree," said Yumi. Of all the Lyoko Warriors, she was the one who wanted to bring William back the most—yet her instincts told her that this whole setup seemed fishy.

Aelita, on the other hand, was more insistent. "But Jeremy," she said, "what if William has managed to break free of XANA's control? This could be our only chance to get him back!"

After a brief pause, Jeremy finally responded, "Okay, but be careful."

William continued to run as fast as he could, periodically looking back as he did. The krabes were gaining on him, shooting at him as they got closer.

It wasn't long before one of the lasers hit their mark. It struck his leg, causing him to trip and fall to the ground. He rolled over on his back to see the trio of monsters now towering over him. One of them raised its front leg, getting ready to impale him. William braced himself, ready for the killing blow.

All of a sudden, a pair of tessen fans come flying out of nowhere, passing cleanly through the krabe's leg. The now severed leg fell harmlessly beside William, who looked in the direction where the fans came from.

"BONZAI!" shrieked Odd, firing a salvo of laser arrows at the krabe's shell from the Overboard. They scored a direct hit on the monster's eye, and the krabe exploded almost immediately afterward.

William then looked to his side. The two remaining krabes were no longer interested in him. Instead, they were firing at Ulrich, who sped towards them on the Overbike. His katanas withdrawn, Ulrich leapt off of the vehicle, landing on top of the krabe. He then stabbed the monster's eye before leaping off, destroying it almost as quickly as Odd had done. The last krabe was dispatched even quicker—all it took was Aelita hurling an energy field at the monster as she flew overhead.

Mere seconds after being chased by XANA's monsters, William now found himself being approached by the four Lyoko Warriors—the very same kids he had fought when XANA had taken control of him.

"William?" asked Yumi. "Are you all right?"

"Am I all right?" William asked back, rhetorically.

As William got up, a cloud of black smoke began to materialize at his feet. Without warning, the cloud expanded, quickly enveloping him within it. Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, it vanished.

The Lyoko Warriors gawked at the sight that stood before them now. Gone was the bright white clothing William had first been virtualized in; he was now clad in dark black armor with an eye of XANA proudly emblazoned on his chest. The black smoke briefly reappeared in his hand, and it materialized into the massive sword that he had carried into combat during his first foray into Lyoko—only it was now darker in appearance, reflecting the corruption inflicted by William's new master.

As the other four teens watched this scene unfold in front of them, they heard heavy footsteps approaching from all around them. They glanced down the branching paths to find even more krabes heading towards them.

They were surrounded.

William let out a sinister chuckle. "I've never felt better."

Apologies for the relative lack of kaiju action in this chapter (don't worry, it's coming!). I wanted to make this one focused more on the Lyoko Warriors, as well as give you a look at the inner workings of G-Force as it's presented in this story. And if you're a big Godzilla fan like I am, you might recognize Commander Takaki Aso from the last three films of the Heisei period (my absolute favorite period of Godzilla movies, by the way). I can tell you right now that he won't be the only human character from the movies that I plan to incorporate into CLxG. :)

Until next time! Please feel free to leave a review! :D

Replies to reviews for this chapter will be posted here. Watch this space.

ChimaTigon: Rodan is off patrolling a wider area than Godzilla and Anguirus (since he can cover more ground than them), just in case a kaiju emerges elsewhere. Don't worry, he'll be back. :)

Matt: As far as Godzilla and his friends are concerned, XANA is a malevolent, supernatural force who can possess other kaiju. That's all that they're really capable of knowing at this point, although they will learn more about his tendencies as the story progresses.

MadameMirage77: And likewise, life has gotten in the way of me not being able to reply to your review...good to see you again! :D Godzilla is now after another kaiju, whose identity will be revealed in the next chapter. Regarding William, I didn't like him very much when he was introduced (largely due to him competing with Ulrich for Yumi's affection), but he made for an awesome villain in Season 4. And you pretty much nailed it—Godzilla and his allies are aware of XANA's existence, but don't really understand what he is. Thanks for the review!

MarinetteRocks: I am so sorry that I missed your question from October—I've been so busy with university, and this past semester was a particularly rough one (I only have one left, thankfully!). Anyway, the idea to make a Godzilla/Code Lyoko crossover kinda just came to me one day—I was thinking about how some Godzilla movies involved kaiju being mind-controlled by the villains of those movies (Destroy All Monsters and Final Wars, for example), and then I thought about how XANA did the same to humans...and before long, I wondered: "What if XANA possessed kaiju?" The more I thought about it, the more I thought I could get this crazy idea to work. The end result: this story!