It's an Odd World after all
I know it's been a while since I've updated, I apologize. Thank you all for being so patient. I appreciate it!
American-Kitty: I'm glad you liked that chapter, hehe; you're not the only one who feels sorry for Sissy! Thank you for reviewing, please continue to do so, I appreciate it.
CrazyCreator33: I like that you enjoy my fic, hopefully your questions will be answered, if not, don't hesitate to ask! I don't bite that hard!
AGENTTITANIUM: Hehe, another reviewer who feels bad for Sissy! I'm glad you like my fic so far, its making you think? Is that a good thing? Hehe, keep reviewing!
Angels 'n Dreams: Original username, I like it! Do keep reviewing for me! Here's the update, sorry you all had to wait so long!
Ch. 4 Blood Code
"Wait a sec, just what exactly are you saying, Jeremie?" Odd asked, breaking the shocked silence.
"I'm saying Aelita can sense Xana all the time, because of Kia. She can't distinguish between the two, so she can't tell if its Xana's doing or not." Jeremie tried to explain.
"But . . . but . . ." Yumi began.
"I don't know why, neither does Aelita. We would've dealt with it already if it was that simple." Jeremie cut her off.
"I understand." Kia whispered.
"What?" Odd asked.
"If I'm hindering Aelita, I . . . I wont go into Lyoko any more." She murmured.
"No, that's not it at all!" Jeremie said. "You've become an invaluable member of the team!"
"You guys did fine without me. It won't make much of a difference if I'm no longer there . . ." She whispered, turning to go.
"Kia, wait, don't go!" Odd called after her.
"See you after the battle." Kia waved, before leaving.
"Kia . . ." Odd sighed, unsure whether or not to follow her.
"We've got bigger things to worry about." Yumi said. "Jeremie, we should head to the factory to see whether or not Xana is the cause of Sissy's illness." She said. "Odd, Kia will be fine; she just needs a little time alone." Yumi added in a softer tone to Odd.
"Yeah . . . you're right." He nodded, before following Yumi and Jeremie. They had barely gone a few paces when they realised Ulrich wasn't with them.
"Ulrich! Come on!" Odd called back. Ulrich simply stood there, staring at the floor.
"Oh no, not you too!" Jeremie half-laughed. "Look, it wasn't your fault!" He guessed what Ulrich was thinking about.
"If I had just spoken to her, she wouldn't have gone and hurt herself." He muttered.
"Stop moping around. If you come with us, and stop Xana, she'll be alright." Yumi snapped.
"You two go, I'm gonna go make sure Sissy's alright." He rushed past them.
"ULRICH!" Yumi yelled after him.
"Now don't you go off too!" Odd joked.
"I won't. Lets go, we're wasting time." She huffed, and ran outside, Jeremie and Odd close behind.
Within a short while, Jeremie, Odd and Yumi had arrived at the factory. Jeremie wasted no time, and immediately connected with Aelita.
"You there, Aelita?" He asked.
"Yes, I'm not going to leave, am I Jeremie?" She laughed.
"Any luck finding the activated tower?"
"I . . . I think so . . ."
"You don't sound so sure." Jeremie said. "Don't worry, Odd and Yumi are coming." He added, not giving her a chance to reply.
"I don't think that's such a good idea, Jeremie." Aelita said.
"With all their extra training, they'll be fine!" Jeremie laughed.
"No, I do not think so. I'm alright on my own." She said.
"Stop fooling around, Aelita, having Odd and Yumi in there will make it much safer for you! Kia isn't even coming in, so you won't be as confused." He explained.
"No, really . . ." She began, to no avail.
"You guys," Jeremie began, addressing Odd and Yumi, "Aelita is in the desert area, she'll meet you there."
A quick nod from Odd and Yumi told him they understood, as they disappeared into the 'scanner room.'
As Jeremie began with the virtualisation, the warning lights ran all over his computer screens. "What? Something's wrong . . ." He began typing, to try and figure out the cause of the alarm.
In Lyoko, Aelita fearfully awaited the arrival of Odd and Yumi. She saw them materialize a few paces away from her, and drop to the ground. When they looked up, they both gasped in shock. This was not Lyoko as either of them remembered.
"Aelita . . . what on earth is going on?" Odd gasped, looking around. The normally crystalline blue sky had been replaced by deep crimson, as if blood. The desert sand's colour had been completely drained, and was a darkened ash-grey instead of the vibrant yellowy-tan.
"It's been like this for a while." Aelita said.
"Are all the regions like this?" Yumi asked.
"Not yet, no." The pink-haired girl said. "There are monsters everywhere, and a lot of the landscape has been destroyed completely."
"What?" Odd gasped.
"Yes, much of the ground has disappeared, leaving large cliff-edges and chasms." She informed them. "The activated tower is unreachable." She sighed, pointing to the distance.
Yumi and Odd followed her finger to the tower. It was on a small piece of ground right in the middle of a huge circular chasm. The 3 friends approached the edge, and peered down into the black nothingness that was the oblivion below.
"That . . . is one big drop." Odd laughed. "I can't even jump over that, let alone carry Aelita over!"
"This isn't the time for jokes, Odd!" Yumi snapped at him, before looking back at Aelita. "So. How are we going to get you over that?" She sighed.
"You tell me." Aelita sighed, defeat evident in her voice.
"I think we should worry about that later, incoming!" Odd snapped the two girls out of their thoughts.
They looked up, and saw 4 crabs heading for them.
"They just appeared out of nowhere!" Yumi gasped, clutching one of her fans.
"They always do that!" Odd laughed, leaning into a defensive stance.
"You'd better be careful, guys." Jeremie's voice was heard ringing through the 'air.'
"A little warning would've been nice!" Yumi joked, as she edged towards one of the large spindle-legged creatures. She jumped out of the way of one of its beams, and while she had the advantage of the height from her jump, she threw her fan at its 'eye' on its back.
The creature exploded, only to be replaced by another 2 as they crawled onto the scene.
Odd, too, was having similarly bad luck. He had just rolled out of the line of fire from one of the crabs, only to find himself face-to-face with a box monster. He promptly jumped back away from the thing, and back into the aim of the original crab.
He yelped in surprise when one of the thing's attacks caught his right leg.
"20 life points, Odd!" Jeremie's voice informed him.
"Where are they all coming from?" Odd called out, shooting a box with a laser arrow, destroying it, and backed away from the crab that had shot at him.
"I don't know, my sensors keep getting messed up, something's seriously affected Lyoko, I don't know what's going on!" Jeremie racked his brains, trying to figure out what was wrong.
"Now you know how I feel!" Aelita giggled, despite the danger she was in.
"I'll call Ulrich and Kia. I don't care what they say, they have to come now." Jeremie said, mostly to himself, but loud enough so the 3 in Lyoko knew what was going on.
Ulrich was the first one Jeremie contacted. "Ulrich, where are you? The hospital?" Jeremie asked, once the phone was answered.
"Yeah, Sissy's really bad." Ulrich's voice replied. "What's going on?" He asked.
"Odd and Yumi need your help, they're overrun!" Jeremie urgently called down the line.
". . . I'm coming." Ulrich sighed, hanging up the phone. He cast one last look at Sissy, who was lying in the hospital bed, attached to drips, many screens around the bed, monitoring her progress, her face half-hidden underneath the oxygen-mask. She drew in short, rasping breaths, and coughed occasionally, twitching slightly in her comatose-state.
"Sorry . . ." Ulrich muttered under his breath, as he left the ward and jogged the short distance to the factory.
Jeremie proceeded to call Kia.
"Yeah, Jeremie? What is it?" She answered almost lazily.
"Kia, we need you in Lyoko, Yumi and Odd need all the help they can get!" Jeremie explained.
"But I thought Aelita-" She began.
"Never mind, Sissy's condition is worsening; we need your help now!" He cut her off.
"You sure?" She asked hesitantly.
"YES!" Jeremie almost shouted down the phone.
"Okay! Okay! On my way! Sheesh!" She giggled. "I'll be a while though; I'm still in my room."
"Hurry, then!" Jeremie said, before hanging up, and connecting with Lyoko again. "Hey, you guys, Ulrich and Kia are on there way, how are you doing?" He asked.
"Okay, while we're fighting . . . ." Yumi answered, dodging the attacks of the crabs, "see if you can . . . figure out . . . a way to . . . get Aelita to . . . the . . . tower!" She finished by destroying another crab monster.
"Hurry up, guys!" Odd muttered through gritted teeth as he ran from 3 crabs that were chasing him, trying to lead them away from where Aelita was hidden behind a small boulder.
They didn't have to wait long; Jeremie's voice could be heard as he proceeded to transfer Ulrich into Lyoko.
The same instant Ulrich landed, he unsheathed his sword and sliced the nearest creature, which happened to be an unfortunate box monster.
"Alright, hold on, guys, Kia's nearly here!" Jeremie informed them all, but they were too busy defending themselves to take note of what he had said.
2 crabs and 2 boxes had gathered together, and began to slowly and cautiously approach Ulrich, who stood his ground. "Come on then . . ." He whispered under his breath. As he was about to lunge forward in a frenzy of attacks, the ground split in front of him. "W. . .what?" He gasped, as half the landscape disappeared, taking the creatures along with it. "Less work for me!" Ulrich laughed to himself.
Kia, meanwhile, was running along the underground path which led to the heart of the factory. She had sprinted all the way from her room, and was beginning to get out of breath. "Man . . . why does . . . it . . . have to be . . . so bloody far away?" She thought outloud.
After a brief ride in the elevator, she stood next to Jeremie, where she stopped to catch her breath. "Ah, you're here!" Jeremie smiled, "there's something important you have to do."
"Huh?" Kia panted, looking up.
"When you get there, don't worry about any of the monsters, I want you to pick up Aelita, and fly her over the chasm so she can deactivate the tower." Jeremie explained.
Kia nodded, and walked towards the scanner room. "Whenever you're ready, Jeremie." She said.
Jeremie gave her the thumbs up as she disappeared into the scanner tower.
As Kia materialised amid the battle, Jeremie received the same warnings on his computer screen. "THERE'S NOTHING WRONG!" He shouted at the screen. "Why is it doing this?" He yelled, angry with both the computer, and himself, for not being able to figure it out.
Kia stayed, hovering, in the air, flapping her wings occasionally to remain airborne, as she gazed at the fighting. Her sharp eyes quickly spotted Aelita, crouched behind a boulder next to the huge chasm. As Kia surveyed the landscape she saw the location of the tower, and sighed inwardly. "Is it because of my Lyoko has changed like this?" She said to herself. "I can think about that later," she shook the thoughts from her mind. "For now, I have to get Aelita over the chasm and to the tower."
She swooped quickly, lowering her altitude, as she approached Aelita. Although she flew quickly, she was not quick enough, as a well aimed laser from a crab hit the pink-haired girl. Aelita cried out in shock, as the force of the blast threw her over the edge.
"AAAAAAIIIIIIIII!" Aelita screamed as she fell.
"AELITA!" Everyone in Lyoko, and Jeremie, outside, cried out.
"I've got her!" Kia called out, diving over the edge after her. It was then that Odd, Ulrich and Yumi realised Kia had even been materialised into Lyoko. Thee 3 warriors ran past their adversaries, towards the edge, where they looked over. It was too dark to see anything.
"Jeremie, what's going on?" Odd called out desperately.
"I don't know!" Jeremie's voice answered. "All I can see are Kia's life points, which are at maximum." He shrugged.
After a tense wait, the monsters had once again reached the CL gang, who were forced to fight for their lives again. The frenzy of the battle kept their attention off Aelita and Kia, but they all kept half an eye on the black depths.
"Woah, Kia's life points just took a nose dive!" Jeremie's voice called out again.
"What? What happened?" Yumi asked, breaking away from the boxes that had surrounded her.
"I don't know." Jeremie replied.
Their questions were soon answered, as the form of Kia reappeared by the centre landmass, which the tower resided on. Aelita was in her arms, safe.
"Thank goodness!" Ulrich sighed. "They're both safe, Jeremie!" He called out.
"Oh, good!" Jeremie sighed with relief. "Hold on . . . Kia's life points are still falling. . . . what's going on?" He muttered.
Ulrich stared hard at Kia's form, but couldn't make out anything. As soon as Kia landed, though, she dematerialised.
"What happened? She's gone?" Odd asked, noting her sudden dematerialisation.
"Her life points ran out." Jeremie explained. "Why?"
"We'll find out soon, Aelita's entered the tower." Yumi said, backing away from the monsters. "Finally! We can leave this place!"
Aelita went through the same routine she knew so well, as she deactivated the tower, and Sissy's illness.
In the real world, Jeremie rushed to help Kia, who had just emerged from the scanner, deep gashes on her fingers, hands and arms.
"Kia? What happened?" Jeremie gasped, as the other 3 returned.
"Oh my god! Kia?" Odd yelled, rushing up to her, she was unconscious. "Call an ambulance! Quick!"
Kia's hands were bleeding freely, and looked as if they had been burned with white-hot irons.
Yumi, Ulrich and Jeremie simply looked on, too in shock to say a word.
Kia lay in the hospital bed, bandages wrapped around her arms, as, ironically, Sissy lay in the ward next to hers. The CL gang, minus Jeremie, kept alternating between the two, as both seemed to recover very slowly.
Jeremie, however, was talking to Aelita, in the hope he might find clues to their hurts.
"Are you alright, Aelita? You gave me such as scare." His voice barely audible, traumatised, too 'out-of-it' to raise his voice above a whisper.
"I feel . . . what is the word? Tired? Yes . . . I feel drained of energy." She said.
"Kia?"
"Yes. Her presence weakens me. When she caught me, I . . . I felt my energy leave me. She suffered too, I know." Aelita sighed.
"Yeah, it looked like she had 3rd degree burns." Jeremie sighed.
"Jeremie?" Aelita asked after a short pause.
"Mmm?"
"If Kia continues to enter Lyoko . . . I fear I . . . . I too . . . will disappear, along with the land. . ."
Phew! Long one? Do leave a review, and tell me what you think, hehe, ALL REVIEWS WELCOME! Yes, that includes flames! (Not really)
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