6-7: Barrier

I was going to make this one 8 chappies long but decided against it at the last second. There just wasn't enough to say.

(((-7-)))

Odd dangled precariously from his javelin that had been jammed between a pair of rocks. The blonde boy breathed a deep sigh of relief and managed to swing safely over to the edge of the stake-filled pit.

Roshia stood not two meters from him, her arms folded, no longer smiling. Her glowing eyes barely registered any surprise.

"That was unexpected, but I must admit your antics are quite under-whelming."

Odd crouched there, not sure what to do next. He was ready to take off running when a vision flashed through his mind. His eyes refocused on Roshia as she waited for him to make the first move.

Hoping he wasn't going to get himself killed, the teenager rushed at her. The blonde girl rose up from the ground in an instant on a pinnacle of stone, easily out of reach. Odd smiled slightly and dodged left as shards of flint rained down from the pillar. There was only one way he could get to her, and he had to time it just right.

Irritated now, Roshia ordered the ground to unearth deadly spikes and skewer the impudent warrior, but he continued to worm through her traps, seeming to know exactly where to go.

The javelin wedged between a pair of earthen spears and snapped. He tossed one useless half away as he did a handspring to avoid a particularly large spine. As he was about to get run through, the earth stopped moving. It stilled, just as he had foreseen.

But Odd was weak now because he didn't ordinarily do this sort of thing in real life. He wasn't a panther-warrior here and it had taken its toll on him. Still, if everything in the glimpse he had seen turned out to be true, then he only needed to last a bit longer.

He tried to act like there wasn't a mountain of fatigue crushing down on him. While Roshia was busy trying to direct the earth that was nearly out of her control, the blonde boy scrambled up the side of her pillar. She couldn't see him from where she was. Hopefully. He reached the top and gathered his energy so he could do this in one shot.

Strain was evident on her face through the torrents of rain, but she continued to grapple with the earth, forcing it to her will. But where had her victim gone? Then he slammed into her from behind and together they fell.

(V)

Janika wiped the sweat from her face. It was very hot and stuffy inside the box. She knew she was starting to suffocate, but somehow it didn't bother her as much as it should have. Her thoughts kept growing foggy and indistinct. She was very tired. Her eyelids drooped even though she was fighting to keep them open.

"Do coffins feel like this?" she murmured, resting her head on her arms. "…I forgot to do my Chemistry homework…" she breathed slowly, her mind skittering away once more.

(V)

Jeremy was frantic as Aelita played Chase with the monster. The black Roachster wasn't stupid or slow, and the beams it shot continued to decimate the surface of the platform.

The AI program noticed the strength of her enemy and suddenly had an inspiration. Hoping she wasn't making too much of a leap in logic, Aelita abruptly turned and dove behind a rock. The Roachster slowed and its laser hummed as it prepared to fire. She darted out from her shelter and ran for the Tower.

Jeremy screamed at her so loudly she thought he would lose his voice, but it was too late to stop. The monster let off a single round that would have destroyed her permanently, except that she ducked to the ground, feeling the beam brush past her in a wave of searing heat and peril.

It struck the Tower with enough force to destroy a squad of Megatanks, but as the beam connected with the barrier, sparks of blinding blue light erupted. The black creature let out a strange noise like a very human scream and began firing rapidly every which way. Aelita barely avoided getting devirtualized and only survived by swinging up onto the Roachster's head above the laser.

"Aelita, the barrier is completely gone! Get in there before that thing destroys you."

"I will, Jeremy."

She balanced precariously on top of it as the creature stumbled crazily and crashed into the Tower. The pink-haired girl leaped off its back and faded through the wall.

(V)

Odd sat solidly on top of Roshia where she laid face-up in the mud, the broken javelin rammed up against her throat. "Let Yumi go or I'll choke you right here!" he threatened dangerously.

His enemy glared murderously at him, but suddenly clutched her head, wailing in pain. Odd was looking straight at her as Roshia's eyes lost their dark luster. She merely gazed beyond him at the sky as lightning flashed and thunder rolled.

Her mouth opened and she let the rainwater run down into it. "Rain tastes so…wonderful…" she murmured to herself. And then her eyes closed peacefully.

Janika's eyes also closed peacefully as the world slid backward into a reincarnation of the past…

(V)

The dark-haired girl met up with her friends outside. They were all helping Odd pick up trash. When she got there, Jeremy was doing his best to explain what went on with Lyoko and the black Pawn:

"The terminal was fluctuating at such a rate that it was impossible for my remote scanner to detect the auxiliary wavelengths pulsating on any platforms. It probably has something to do with the black Roachster and its unusual composition, enabling it to disguise any oscillations as primary digitized information even on a virtually tangible level, but not visual."

Aelita seemed to be the only one without a puzzled look.

"Could you possibly repeat that in smaller words?" Odd groaned. "I have a headache right now. Anticipation isn't easy on the mind, you know."

The computer nerd rolled his eyes. "I'm still working on what that thing was, but when it was on Lyoko it had the power to hide the activated Tower from my sensors. I wish I had gotten hold of a few lines of its code, but the thing was completely foolproof!"

"Okay," Ulrich started, "so you're telling us that X.A.N.A. has more surprises up his sleeve?"

"I'm afraid so. And until we figure out which Tower he changed in order to do that, we can't shut Lyoko down even if I swept Aelita's program clean." He looked so somber that everyone shuffled their feet nervously.

Janika stretched and gave Odd a friendly hug. "I don't know about you guys, but I think we should be happy we won. Anyone coming with me to go celebrate?"

Five hands went up. The gang headed off toward the nearest restaurant to rejoice over their temporary victory.

Okay, I have a question for all you readers out there. Do you people want me to keep on going w/ this New Era angle or should I go back to regular X.A.N.A.-attacks? We met Roshia and the black Roachster, and you can guess what'll be coming next. Should I keep it or what? Only tell me and I shall comply. I am a servant of The People (unlike those stupid politicians).