Categories > Cartoons > Code Lyoko
Code Lyoko Episode 55: Tech Warrior
0 reviewsThe French Military have a new toy and Xana wants to play with it! How will the Lyoko Gang stop the French Armies finest military power?
0Unrated
Code Lyoko Episode 55: Tech Warrior
Author: James the Lesser/The Bunnyman
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS, MOONSCAPE DOES, I THINK!
Miles away from Kadic Academy a military base has just gotten done showing off its new creation. A twelve foot armored dreadnought, capable of defending a base on it's own from an invasion force of a thousand people, enough guns and missiles to devastate any force, it cost them 7.2 million to make but already had orders for 36 million Euro each. The pilot climbs down after using the machine to destroy several dummy targets for generals from around the world. "Man that's always fun."
"Sure to change the way we fight, I doubt anything could stop Betsy." He helps the pilot down from Betsy, the nickname given to the dreadnought, and gives him a bottle of water. "Just imagine if we had that in the last war, just send ten of those things out and we could have taken on all of Germany, without losing anyone."
"And here we are selling Her to other countries." They laugh.
"We don't have to worry, we don't have oil so America won't invade us and Germany is to broke to buy any." They laugh again looking East, where Germany is, then west, where America is.
"And Betsy can't swim." They look north at England.
"Not yet anyways, they are working on that and on hovering abilities in case they need to go down or up stairs." The machine was still great, he piloted it four times now, this time in front of an audience, far better then a tank or armored hummer.
"Well there's a party at the bunks tonight, sure we can wait to unload the ammo on that thing."
"Maybe, if we get some good booze might try taking Betsy for a joy ride." They laugh, the thing actually had a block on it so that if anyone that had alcohol tried to drive it the machine actually shut down. Those scientists were brilliant, and so was the machine. They leave Betsy in the hanger, three techs go over and check the machine out, make sure everything still worked properly, and unloaded the ammunition.
That night while the soldiers were celebrating a good show of Betsy, with several rounds of "To Betsy!" and "For She's a jolly good giant." A Xana ghost creeps out of an electrical outlet. It possesses the two guards who were not paying attention as this was a military base, who would be stupid enough to attack? They go and load the dreadnought with ammunition, filling its tanks with the special fuel that, if the government ever got around to it, could be sold for use in civilian vehicles to run cleaner then gas, and better. The Xana ghost then leaves one of the guards and enters the dreadnought turning it on. The remaining guard goes to the carrier truck and backs it up and lowers the platform for the dreadnought to walk on. Revving the engines the Xana controlled guard drives out of the hanger and goes full speed towards the gate, crashing through it and off the base. Sirens blare and a computer beeps miles away.
Jeremie hears the beeping, his laptop had the volume up high enough to wake him. "A tower, now, it's too late for this." Jeremie looks at the clock, almost four in the morning. "Ok, too early for this." Jeremie gets his glasses off the table next to his bed and put them on so he can see the numbers on his phone.
"Hello?" Aelita woke when her phone rang; she had gone to bed early after playing soccer with Ulrich that day, it tired her out.
"Hi Aelita, Xana has activated a tower, you and the others need to get to the Factory." Jeremie felt bad for this, he could go back to bed, or stay in it while watching on his laptop, while his friends had to get up and go to Lyoko.
"It's not even day outside Jeremie, how do we explain this to Mr. Stern?" She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, looking out her window at the stars and moon.
"Well, astronomy is science right? Have to do that at night, leave a note saying that you went out early to work on that." It was too early to think of anything better.
"Ok Jeremie, tell the others, bye." She kisses the phone, like she had seen on TV, making Jeremie blush on the other side.
"Bye Aelita." Jeremie doesn't do the kiss back and hangs up. Aelita wasn't sure why Jeremie didn't do it; all the people on TV did it to loved ones, why didn't he do it to her? She gets up and changes into regular clothes before going to Ulrich's room. Knocking on the door she hears Ulrich move around in his bed.
"Ulrich, we need to go to Odd's." She whispers at first, but Ulrich doesn't move. She walks in and sees him curled up in a ball, arms hugging his knees to his chest, she had never seen anyone sleep like this maybe she was sleeping wrong. "Ulrich, get up, we have to go to Odd's." His eyes open, he didn't have his earplugs in since he didn't have to listen to Odd's snoring.
"What? It's not even morning, we can't." His father was strict, his mother was worse. No way would she let him and Aelita leave that early.
"Astronomy Ulrich, it's a science." Ulrich didn't understand, sitting up he shakes the dream he was having off.
"Science? Wait I thought Xana was attacking."
"We need to go now, leave a note saying that we are doing Astronomy, it is a science and I am supposed to be tutoring you in science right?" Aelita smiles at Ulrich hoping he would get it.
"Oh, uh, let me get dressed and you go leave the note." Aelita leaves Ulrich in his room and goes out into the kitchen to find Mr. Stern drinking coffee looking at something he called 'Stupid TPS Reports'.
"You forget the cover sheet once and you get six people yelling at you, maybe I shouldn't go today, don't even call them, and let them think I died." Putting the TPS Reports down he sees the girl, what was she doing up this early? "Can't sleep?" He couldn't, he was to busy grinding his teeth over his bosses, all six of them.
"No Sir, Ulrich and I are going outside for Astronomy, we have to be in bed early so I thought we could get up early and work on it." She smiles at him and grabs a piece of bread putting it in the toaster.
"What? If it was for tutoring you could have asked for permission to stay up later." The girl was amazing, she followed the rules better then he ever did as a teen, almost like she was an adult not some teenager. But again she found a way around the rules, can't stay up late so gets up early, such a good influence on Ulrich. "Well you be careful, around here the lights might keep you from seeing anything."
"I know Sir, I was wondering if we could get a ride to the park near the skating area. No lights, no people until later and on the way home we could stop to get something to eat." The bread pops out of the toaster and she grabs it eating it dry, enjoying the scratchiness of it. So many wonderful things on Earth she never got to enjoy on Lyoko. Even with her memories back she didn't know what it was like to be alive. She remembered her father, her mother, Mister Puck, but nothing from life, not her first time eating a sandwich, or ice cream, or drinking milk which she really enjoyed.
"I guess, I have to get to work early." Good, the park was closer to the Factory then here and this would cut down on the time it took them to get to the Factory. Ulrich comes out clothed and teeth brushed, he didn't do anything with his hair so he looked like a mess.
"I'm too tired to eat, Aelita are you ready to go?" He sits down, he was glad that Xana wasn't attacking ten times a day like Xana use to, but couldn't Xana have waited for day break?
"Yes Ulrich, your father is giving us a ride to the park, give you time to wake up." Aelita finishes her toast and gets up. "If we could leave now that would be great Sir, we need to get there before the sun comes up." Mr. Stern gets up, then Ulrich although not as easily, or happily as Aelita.
"Come on kids, here's some money Ulrich, for breakfast." He hands him a few Euros as they go out to the car. Mr. Stern remembers when he and his wife would get up early to watch the sunrise, although that was in college and when he was young enough to appreciate a sunrise. Now it meant another day of work and another day of being yelled at by six bosses to do the work of ten people. Getting to the car Ulrich lets Aelita have the front passenger seat, opening the door for her and calling her 'Princess'. She laughed but Mr. Stern gave them both a weird look. Ulrich gets in the back seat lying down instead of putting his seat belt on.
Getting to the park Aelita and Ulrich get out of the car. "Thank you Mr. Stern, have a good day at work." Aelita smiles at him closing her door.
"Yeah dad, see you later." Ulrich yawns still tired, why couldn't Xana have waited a couple more hours? Mr. Stern drives off leaving the two in the park. "Well the sewer entrance is over there so let's get going." Aelita grabs his arm.
"Ulrich we can stay out of the sewers, we aren't in school anymore and the Factory is right up this street." Getting up this early wasn't good for Ulrich, unlike Aelita who was tired after playing soccer with him Ulrich just got that buzz going, and stayed up late listening to music on his headphones. They walk down the street, Aelita enjoying the feeling of the morning air, not yet day, but really not night, this was a reason for being on Earth.
"What's that?" Ulrich sees a truck in front of the bridge leading to the Factory, but behind it is what he means.
"I don't know, it looks like a monster!" Jeremie told her Vampires weren't real, but what about that thing?
"A Xana monster? Maybe this is why the Tower was activated." Ulrich wasn't sure, it didn't look like anything he had seen, and there was no Eye on it.
"It's guarding the entrance, what do we do?" Aelita felt foolish for a second, of course it was a Xana monster, not some real monster on Earth, right?
"Let's find a sewer entrance." Ulrich grabs Aelita by the wrist leading her to the nearest one. "Ok, we go to the manhole right in front of the factory, I distract it and you get to Lyoko."
"What about the others? I need someone there incase Xana is guarding the tower." Ulrich was still not fully awake and hadn't thought of that.
"When we get to it we can call them." Ulrich pulls the cover off and the two go down into the sewers. Jogging, they find Yumi is already at the sewer entrance they usually used, along with Odd's bike. "Where's Odd?"
"I called, he got inside before that thing got here, I tried to go up but it has some nasty weapons." Yumi hurt her back when she fell trying to get back down but wasn't letting it affect her.
"So Xana has created a new monster, well we need to get Aelita..."
"No not a Xana monster, it uses guns and bullets, not lasers." That had scared her more then anything, a laser she could have handled, but a bullet? Not in the real world.
"Ok, you take Aelita to the Factory while I distract it." Ulrich wasn't going to let Yumi stay here, not after what he had seen on the last trip to Lyoko.
"No Ulrich you're faster, you can get Aelita there quicker, and I can use my gymnastics to dodge whatever that thing fires." So she hoped. She was about to climb up when Ulrich grabbed the waist of her pants and pulled her off.
"No Yumi, you take Aelita!" Ulrich jumps past the first few rungs and climbs away before Yumi could pull herself off the ground.
"What's wrong with you!" Now her back hurt even more, but when she got to Lyoko it would be healed, she just needed to get Aelita there. Standing up she sees Ulrich practically leap out of the manhole and start waving his arms.
"Hey ugly! Over here, you want me right, come and get me." He sees, and hears, one of the machine guns on the machine start to spin, then jumps when it starts shooting. He had never heard a gun in real life before and was surprised at how loud they were, if it kept shooting the cops would come. Running behind part of the suspension of the bridge Ulrich hears the bullets bouncing off, but the machine doesn't move. "Hey, come on, that the best you got?" Ulrich runs out and hears the guns start to wind up before more bullets are fired. Ulrich makes it to the truck and hides behind one of the many wheels, hearing the bullets slamming into the truck, and a new noise. He looks around the wheel and sees the machine is moving, in just a few more feet it would pass the manhole Yumi and Aelita were in. He hits his head on the platform of the truck above him when his phone rings. "Hello?"
"Hey I heard gunfire, is the Princess alright?" It was Odd.
"Yeah, I am distracting that thing so Yumi and Aelita can get to the Factory and use the Scanners to go to Lyoko."
"Are you suicidal? Ulrich I'm all for daring plans but on the early news they just reported an Urban Dreadnought Defense Fighter was stolen from a military base, I'm betting its big ugly up there."
"Odd I don't have to worry about it, I'll be fine." It was Yumi's grave in the future, not his; he just had to keep her alive until January 1st, 2007.
"Be careful Ulrich, Yumi would..." Odd stops when he hears more gun fire over the phone. "Ulrich!"
"I'm fine Odd but I have to go, Yumi and Aelita should be there soon." Ulrich just had to distract it for a few more minutes. "Hey uh, Dreadnought, over here!" He runs towards some trees hearing the machine guns spinning again, and then firing. The trees did little more then slow the bullets down; one took to many hits and fell over nearly hitting Ulrich as he ran for another manhole. He had passed the one him and Aelita used, and wasn't sure where the next one was. Turning around he sees Aelita and Yumi running towards the Factory, making it in. "Ugly, as fast as you can be you'll never catch me!" Ulrich begins running down the road along the river, there weren't any businesses or homes up ahead so no one would get hurt.
Ulrich hears a new sound and turns around just in time to duck as a missile flies over him. The missile begins to turn around when it slams into a tree exploding bringing the tree down. It falls into the river, creating a sort of bridge to the other side. "Let's see if you can swim!" Ulrich runs and jumps on the trunk, sliding down it and jumping as he got to the end. He catches the other edge with his gut knocking the wind from him but he is able to pull himself up onto it. The Dreadnought loads another missile and fires it, Ulrich jumps into the water avoiding the missile. He is about to come up when bullets fire into the water, but they move so fast it is like hitting concrete and they shatter upon entering the water. Ulrich swims under part of the tree and comes up on the other side, the Dreadnought doesn't see him.
Meanwhile, in the Factory, Aelita sends Yumi and Odd to Sector 2, the Forest Sector, and then sends herself after loading the Overwing and Overboard. "What is this place?" Aelita is amazed, the trees are all dead, many are gone, the grass is black, it looked like something she had seen in video of the attacks on Japan by the Americans, every thing looks burnt, looks dead.
"Don't worry Princess we won't be here long." Odd hops onto his Overboard. "Jeremie?"
"I'm here; I have to be quiet though so my parents don't hear me."
"Just warn us of any monsters, not that I am worried." Last time had been so easy, Odd had no worries.
"Well do it fast, I hacked the cameras around the Factory and Ulrich isn't doing so well, but the police just showed up.
And so they had, they saw the Dreadnought, what could they do? Whoever was operating it was unstoppable unless the military came out with the big guns. "Call it in to base; tell them it's a 10-99-2111 Code AA3." Or as cops liked to call it, put your head between your knees and kiss your butt goodbye as they were helpless.
On Lyoko the group headed towards the tower, seeing it in the distance. "So far so good." Yumi looked around for monsters and worried about the one Ulrich was dealing with.
Ulrich could hear the yelling, the cops were there but they couldn't stop that thing, Xana was controlling it. He swims back to the other side and climbs up. Before he gets to the top he hears the machine guns spinning, about to fire. "Get down it's gonna shoot!" Ulrich hopes the police heard him as seconds later he hears gunfire. Getting back to the top he sees that three cars were shot up badly but none of the officers seemed hurt as they started shooting back, their bullets bouncing off the armor.
"Kid what the heck are you doing out here! Go back home this thing isn't a toy." The Dreadnought turns 180 degrees at the waist and sees Ulrich; the machine guns start to spin.
"Get out of here before it kills you!" Ulrich runs away from the Dreadnought as it opens fire on him. He sees a manhole cover and opens it, climbing in he hears more gunfire, if those police officers died, not even a return to the past would bring them back. He gets to the bottom and runs over to the regular entrance and grabs Yumi's skateboard as he and Aelita had taken a different way here, there vehicles weren't there.
"Watch out there are three Tarantulas and something on the tower." Jeremie couldn't tell what it was, if it was a Hornet flying close to the tower it should have more Hornets around it.
"A Creeper? I guess they left Sector 5." Odd sees it hanging on to the tower, it fires at him but he dodges it.
"Odd I loaded a special arrow for you, fire it at the Creeper and see if it works." Jeremie wanted to see if the program he made worked with the Laser Arrows before he went any farther with it. Odd fires at the Creeper who moves out of its way, a sure miss, until it curves and hits the Creeper in the Eye and explodes.
"Have any more of those Einstein?"
"Not yet Odd, so it worked I take it." Good, he had downloaded the information Xana left from the time it was there as Franz Hopper, but how to make all of Odd's arrows guided Jeremie wasn't sure how to do yet.
Yumi throws both of her fans at the Tarantulas; they dodge them and then shoot them, knocking them away from Yumi. "Aelita get off here and hide, I need to get my fans." Aelita gets off and hides behind a stump. Yumi flies the Overwing and grabs one of her fans in time to block a laser from a Tarantula.
Odd flies above the Tarantulas firing at them, with 10,000 arrows in each glove he wasn't worried about running out of them. The Laser Arrows raining down on them cause the Tarantulas to stop firing at Yumi and start firing at Odd. Yumi is able to get her other fan and flies up behind a Tarantula, throwing a fan and hitting its Eye.
"Watch out!" The Overwing is hit by lasers from behind; two Blocks had come to join the fight. Aelita feels helpless, she couldn't even use her Creativity anymore, but her friends needed her, especially Ulrich.
Ulrich gets out of the sewers and sees that the cops ran away after their cars were turned into swiss cheese by the Dreadnought. He starts to run towards the Factory jumping on Yumi's skateboard. "Hey over here!" Ulrich hoped that the thing couldn't fly, or else his plan would fail.
Aelita fed up with hiding tries something. She starts singing, but then changes the pitch. If Xana used a different frequency for the towers maybe she needed to sing in a different pitch. She concentrated on the Blocks, to make the ground below them disappear. Yumi blocks some laser from them before being hit from behind by a charged up Tarantula laser causing her to devirtualize. Aelita doesn't see this; just the ground going away, she changed her pitch again, hearing a popping noise. Opening her eyes she sees the Blocks had fallen through a hole, her Creativity worked!
"Aelita get out of there, you just lost 20 points! If you keep getting hit..."
"I wasn't hit Jeremie I used my Creativity." But that was strange; Creativity took 50 points, not 20.
"If you say so Aelita, but now Yumi is back on Earth meaning Odd better take care of those Tarantulas." Jeremie was impressed, how had Aelita made her Creativity work? They tried to make it work but it never did, what did she do?
Yumi runs to the elevator and gets on, she needs to help Ulrich.
"Well I don't know about you but these monsters aren't the pushovers they were last time." Odd tried to hit them but couldn't, they dodged, or shot his arrows. They never did that before, and Odd was getting annoyed. "Come on let's see what you got!" Odd flies around the tower getting to the top, hidden from the Tarantulas.
"Ulrich!" Yumi sees Ulrich on her skateboard; he is going around in circles confusing the Dreadnought. But when he hears her voice he loses his concentration and falls. "No!" Yumi runs out hearing a strange whirring noise...
"Gotcha!" Odd had dived at the Tarantulas from the top of the tower and got one in the Eye. Now only one left, which shot the Overboard causing Odd to fall.
"Get away Yumi!" Ulrich rolled and got up before the Dreadnought could fire. Ulrich runs towards Yumi jumping and knocking both her and him over the edge, he reaches for the rope but misses and hears gun fire.
"Stop moving so much." Odd fired Laser Arrow after Laser Arrow but couldn't hit. Aelita watched, of Odd kept turning she would be able to get past the Tarantula.
Landing on the floor below Ulrich had turned his body so Yumi would land on him, breaking her fall. "Ulrich get up I can hear it." The Dreadnought walked towards the edge and looked over the edge, it couldn't get down but it still had plenty of fire power left. Firing a missile it misses Yumi and Ulrich but the vibration it makes causes the Dreadnought to lose its footing and fall over the edge.
It was now or never, Aelita runs as fast as she can, imagining Ulrich doing a Super Sprint, hoping to run faster. She get to the tower just as Odd gets hit again, devirtualizing.
"We did it Ulrich." Yumi pulls him up off the ground. The Dreadnought was on its back not moving.
"Yumi what were you doing, I can't believe you did that, what if you had..." Before Ulrich could finish his sentence the Dreadnought reveals a nasty surprise. A Hydraulic leg comes out of its back pushing it up right. An arm shoots out of the Dreadnoughts chest grabbing Yumi; it wasn't going to miss this time.
"I won't let you!" Ulrich jumps up and climbs on the Dreadnought. He starts punching it hoping to distract it. Instead a new gun comes out to shoot Ulrich. He sees it in time and starts to jump out of the way when it fires. The pellets from the shotgun hit Ulrich in the leg.
"Ulrich!" Yumi sees the blood come out; it forms a pool around Ulrich as he lies on the floor. The Dreadnought moves Yumi in front of its right arm, it couldn't miss this time. To make sure Xana sends an electrical shot through the arm knocking Yumi out. The machine starts to spin, Ulrich can hear the noise but the pain in his leg blinds him to anything else.
"Tower Deactivated." Aelita leaves the tower to find one she can devirtualize in wondering how her friends were.
Odd gets out of the elevator and sees Ulrich on the ground, lying in a pool of blood, and Yumi still hanging from the Dreadnoughts arm. "Ulrich, are you alright?" Odd gets over to Ulrich and sees he is breathing, his phone rings. "Hello? Call 911 Ulrich was shot." Odd sees the holes in Ulrich's pants, a bunch of them.
"No Odd just take him and Yumi to the Scanner room, send them to Lyoko, and they will be healed." Jeremie had been watching on the Factory cameras.
"Are you sure?" Odd wasn't sure he could carry them at the same time, but Ulrich looked like he needed the most help.
"Yes Odd, remember when that glass broke in Yumi's hand? It was healed after she went to Lyoko good as new." He also had done a return to the past, but odd was to busy dragging Ulrich, who passed out from the pain, to the elevator. Odd pushes the button for it to open but it doesn't, instead he hears the noise of it running, Aelita was coming up. When it opens Odd drags Ulrich on.
"Get Yumi, I'll send the elevator back up after I get Odd to the Scanner room."
"What, why Odd? I deactivated the tower." She sees the blood trail, then looks for Yumi and doesn't see her as the Dreadnought blocks her view.
"Jeremie says it will heal them." Aelita gets off and Odd goes down with Ulrich.
Aelita finds Yumi hanging from the arm of the Dreadnought and has to take Yumi's shirt off as the claws were still clamped on it. Yumi drops to the ground and Aelita climbs down to get her. Having as hard of a time as Odd did with Ulrich; it takes Aelita a minute to get to the elevator which Odd had already sent up.
Down in the Scanner Room Odd was able to get Ulrich to fit and waited for Aelita to come down. When the elevator opens he sees Aelita and Yumi, more then usual. "Uh need help Princess?"
"Yes, she's heavy." Odd tries not to glance at Yumi in her undershirt; sure he'd seen her at the pool, but never in just her undershirt. They get Yumi in another Scanner and Aelita goes up to the Control Room. "Ok Odd, I'm sending them. Scanner Ulrich, scanner Yumi, transfer Ulrich, transfer Yumi, virtualization."
"What happened, how did we get here?" Yumi is looking around; they are back in the Forest Sector.
"I don't know, I was shot in the leg and I passed out." Ulrich hadn't seen the new Forest Sector before and looks around also.
"Is your leg ok?" She remembered that, Ulrich had been lying on the ground, blood... "That's it! They sent us here because when we come back our bodies will be healed!"
"I hope so, well, whoever is there can you bring us back?" Yumi devirtualizes, then Ulrich.
In the Scanner Room the doors open and Yumi, then Ulrich, come out and see Odd. "Hey guys, wax on, wax off, all has been healed, according to Einstein."
"Where's my shirt!" Yumi crosses her arms in front of her chest, yes she wasn't actually showing anything, but she wore a shirt for a reason.
"I couldn't break the hold of the monster so I had to get you out of your shirt." It was Aelita, getting off the elevator to see if her friends were alright. Ulrich takes his jacket off and gives it to Yumi.
"Thanks Ulrich." She puts it on. "So, now what?"
"We can't leave that thing here, we have to call the military..." Ulrich is cut off by Odd.
"And tell them what? We found their toy after it shot our friends? We'll be lucky if they don't bomb the Factory."
"Well what else do you want? If we leave it here Xana might try to possess it again and we sure can't move it."
"A return to the past would put it back, as if it never happened." Aelita wasn't sure if she wanted to do that but it was an answer.
"Yes but if it makes Xana stronger do we really want to? Ok voting time, everyone for calling the police or army or whoever to come pick up their toy raise a hand." Yumi, Ulrich, and Aelita raise their hand. "Return to the past?" Odd doesn't raise his hand. "Well Odd what's your solution?"
"Sell it on ebay for food money?" The group laughs.
"How do you stay so scrawny? Although if you had been shot it would have been easier to drag you to the Scanner Room." Aelita laughs while the rest give out an uneasy chuckle.
"I'm not scrawny I'm svelte." Odd lightens the mood. "We should use a pay phone though, and lock down the elevator incase they decide to try and take it."
"Good idea, but won't the police come for their cars?" The group leaves the Factory, passing shot up police cars, a shot up truck, and the bloodstain Ulrich left behind from his leg wound.
"You know if it fixes something like that maybe we could use it to cure other things, imagine curing cancer or broken bones in a matter of seconds."
"Well after we get rid of Xana we can do that Odd, but right now we need them to fight Xana, you know, the thing that keeps trying to uh, hurt us, and take over the world?" Ulrich almost said kill, but it made him think of the tombstone with Yumi's name on it.
"I'm hungry, lets stop at Out&In for some food." Odd rubs his stomach smiling at the rest.
"I'll pay." Ulrich reaches into his pocket and counts the money his dad had given him. "For me, Aelita, and Yumi. I don't think the army has a budget big enough to pay for Odd." The group laughs and goes to the Out&In for breakfast.
Author: James the Lesser/The Bunnyman
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS, MOONSCAPE DOES, I THINK!
Miles away from Kadic Academy a military base has just gotten done showing off its new creation. A twelve foot armored dreadnought, capable of defending a base on it's own from an invasion force of a thousand people, enough guns and missiles to devastate any force, it cost them 7.2 million to make but already had orders for 36 million Euro each. The pilot climbs down after using the machine to destroy several dummy targets for generals from around the world. "Man that's always fun."
"Sure to change the way we fight, I doubt anything could stop Betsy." He helps the pilot down from Betsy, the nickname given to the dreadnought, and gives him a bottle of water. "Just imagine if we had that in the last war, just send ten of those things out and we could have taken on all of Germany, without losing anyone."
"And here we are selling Her to other countries." They laugh.
"We don't have to worry, we don't have oil so America won't invade us and Germany is to broke to buy any." They laugh again looking East, where Germany is, then west, where America is.
"And Betsy can't swim." They look north at England.
"Not yet anyways, they are working on that and on hovering abilities in case they need to go down or up stairs." The machine was still great, he piloted it four times now, this time in front of an audience, far better then a tank or armored hummer.
"Well there's a party at the bunks tonight, sure we can wait to unload the ammo on that thing."
"Maybe, if we get some good booze might try taking Betsy for a joy ride." They laugh, the thing actually had a block on it so that if anyone that had alcohol tried to drive it the machine actually shut down. Those scientists were brilliant, and so was the machine. They leave Betsy in the hanger, three techs go over and check the machine out, make sure everything still worked properly, and unloaded the ammunition.
That night while the soldiers were celebrating a good show of Betsy, with several rounds of "To Betsy!" and "For She's a jolly good giant." A Xana ghost creeps out of an electrical outlet. It possesses the two guards who were not paying attention as this was a military base, who would be stupid enough to attack? They go and load the dreadnought with ammunition, filling its tanks with the special fuel that, if the government ever got around to it, could be sold for use in civilian vehicles to run cleaner then gas, and better. The Xana ghost then leaves one of the guards and enters the dreadnought turning it on. The remaining guard goes to the carrier truck and backs it up and lowers the platform for the dreadnought to walk on. Revving the engines the Xana controlled guard drives out of the hanger and goes full speed towards the gate, crashing through it and off the base. Sirens blare and a computer beeps miles away.
Jeremie hears the beeping, his laptop had the volume up high enough to wake him. "A tower, now, it's too late for this." Jeremie looks at the clock, almost four in the morning. "Ok, too early for this." Jeremie gets his glasses off the table next to his bed and put them on so he can see the numbers on his phone.
"Hello?" Aelita woke when her phone rang; she had gone to bed early after playing soccer with Ulrich that day, it tired her out.
"Hi Aelita, Xana has activated a tower, you and the others need to get to the Factory." Jeremie felt bad for this, he could go back to bed, or stay in it while watching on his laptop, while his friends had to get up and go to Lyoko.
"It's not even day outside Jeremie, how do we explain this to Mr. Stern?" She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, looking out her window at the stars and moon.
"Well, astronomy is science right? Have to do that at night, leave a note saying that you went out early to work on that." It was too early to think of anything better.
"Ok Jeremie, tell the others, bye." She kisses the phone, like she had seen on TV, making Jeremie blush on the other side.
"Bye Aelita." Jeremie doesn't do the kiss back and hangs up. Aelita wasn't sure why Jeremie didn't do it; all the people on TV did it to loved ones, why didn't he do it to her? She gets up and changes into regular clothes before going to Ulrich's room. Knocking on the door she hears Ulrich move around in his bed.
"Ulrich, we need to go to Odd's." She whispers at first, but Ulrich doesn't move. She walks in and sees him curled up in a ball, arms hugging his knees to his chest, she had never seen anyone sleep like this maybe she was sleeping wrong. "Ulrich, get up, we have to go to Odd's." His eyes open, he didn't have his earplugs in since he didn't have to listen to Odd's snoring.
"What? It's not even morning, we can't." His father was strict, his mother was worse. No way would she let him and Aelita leave that early.
"Astronomy Ulrich, it's a science." Ulrich didn't understand, sitting up he shakes the dream he was having off.
"Science? Wait I thought Xana was attacking."
"We need to go now, leave a note saying that we are doing Astronomy, it is a science and I am supposed to be tutoring you in science right?" Aelita smiles at Ulrich hoping he would get it.
"Oh, uh, let me get dressed and you go leave the note." Aelita leaves Ulrich in his room and goes out into the kitchen to find Mr. Stern drinking coffee looking at something he called 'Stupid TPS Reports'.
"You forget the cover sheet once and you get six people yelling at you, maybe I shouldn't go today, don't even call them, and let them think I died." Putting the TPS Reports down he sees the girl, what was she doing up this early? "Can't sleep?" He couldn't, he was to busy grinding his teeth over his bosses, all six of them.
"No Sir, Ulrich and I are going outside for Astronomy, we have to be in bed early so I thought we could get up early and work on it." She smiles at him and grabs a piece of bread putting it in the toaster.
"What? If it was for tutoring you could have asked for permission to stay up later." The girl was amazing, she followed the rules better then he ever did as a teen, almost like she was an adult not some teenager. But again she found a way around the rules, can't stay up late so gets up early, such a good influence on Ulrich. "Well you be careful, around here the lights might keep you from seeing anything."
"I know Sir, I was wondering if we could get a ride to the park near the skating area. No lights, no people until later and on the way home we could stop to get something to eat." The bread pops out of the toaster and she grabs it eating it dry, enjoying the scratchiness of it. So many wonderful things on Earth she never got to enjoy on Lyoko. Even with her memories back she didn't know what it was like to be alive. She remembered her father, her mother, Mister Puck, but nothing from life, not her first time eating a sandwich, or ice cream, or drinking milk which she really enjoyed.
"I guess, I have to get to work early." Good, the park was closer to the Factory then here and this would cut down on the time it took them to get to the Factory. Ulrich comes out clothed and teeth brushed, he didn't do anything with his hair so he looked like a mess.
"I'm too tired to eat, Aelita are you ready to go?" He sits down, he was glad that Xana wasn't attacking ten times a day like Xana use to, but couldn't Xana have waited for day break?
"Yes Ulrich, your father is giving us a ride to the park, give you time to wake up." Aelita finishes her toast and gets up. "If we could leave now that would be great Sir, we need to get there before the sun comes up." Mr. Stern gets up, then Ulrich although not as easily, or happily as Aelita.
"Come on kids, here's some money Ulrich, for breakfast." He hands him a few Euros as they go out to the car. Mr. Stern remembers when he and his wife would get up early to watch the sunrise, although that was in college and when he was young enough to appreciate a sunrise. Now it meant another day of work and another day of being yelled at by six bosses to do the work of ten people. Getting to the car Ulrich lets Aelita have the front passenger seat, opening the door for her and calling her 'Princess'. She laughed but Mr. Stern gave them both a weird look. Ulrich gets in the back seat lying down instead of putting his seat belt on.
Getting to the park Aelita and Ulrich get out of the car. "Thank you Mr. Stern, have a good day at work." Aelita smiles at him closing her door.
"Yeah dad, see you later." Ulrich yawns still tired, why couldn't Xana have waited a couple more hours? Mr. Stern drives off leaving the two in the park. "Well the sewer entrance is over there so let's get going." Aelita grabs his arm.
"Ulrich we can stay out of the sewers, we aren't in school anymore and the Factory is right up this street." Getting up this early wasn't good for Ulrich, unlike Aelita who was tired after playing soccer with him Ulrich just got that buzz going, and stayed up late listening to music on his headphones. They walk down the street, Aelita enjoying the feeling of the morning air, not yet day, but really not night, this was a reason for being on Earth.
"What's that?" Ulrich sees a truck in front of the bridge leading to the Factory, but behind it is what he means.
"I don't know, it looks like a monster!" Jeremie told her Vampires weren't real, but what about that thing?
"A Xana monster? Maybe this is why the Tower was activated." Ulrich wasn't sure, it didn't look like anything he had seen, and there was no Eye on it.
"It's guarding the entrance, what do we do?" Aelita felt foolish for a second, of course it was a Xana monster, not some real monster on Earth, right?
"Let's find a sewer entrance." Ulrich grabs Aelita by the wrist leading her to the nearest one. "Ok, we go to the manhole right in front of the factory, I distract it and you get to Lyoko."
"What about the others? I need someone there incase Xana is guarding the tower." Ulrich was still not fully awake and hadn't thought of that.
"When we get to it we can call them." Ulrich pulls the cover off and the two go down into the sewers. Jogging, they find Yumi is already at the sewer entrance they usually used, along with Odd's bike. "Where's Odd?"
"I called, he got inside before that thing got here, I tried to go up but it has some nasty weapons." Yumi hurt her back when she fell trying to get back down but wasn't letting it affect her.
"So Xana has created a new monster, well we need to get Aelita..."
"No not a Xana monster, it uses guns and bullets, not lasers." That had scared her more then anything, a laser she could have handled, but a bullet? Not in the real world.
"Ok, you take Aelita to the Factory while I distract it." Ulrich wasn't going to let Yumi stay here, not after what he had seen on the last trip to Lyoko.
"No Ulrich you're faster, you can get Aelita there quicker, and I can use my gymnastics to dodge whatever that thing fires." So she hoped. She was about to climb up when Ulrich grabbed the waist of her pants and pulled her off.
"No Yumi, you take Aelita!" Ulrich jumps past the first few rungs and climbs away before Yumi could pull herself off the ground.
"What's wrong with you!" Now her back hurt even more, but when she got to Lyoko it would be healed, she just needed to get Aelita there. Standing up she sees Ulrich practically leap out of the manhole and start waving his arms.
"Hey ugly! Over here, you want me right, come and get me." He sees, and hears, one of the machine guns on the machine start to spin, then jumps when it starts shooting. He had never heard a gun in real life before and was surprised at how loud they were, if it kept shooting the cops would come. Running behind part of the suspension of the bridge Ulrich hears the bullets bouncing off, but the machine doesn't move. "Hey, come on, that the best you got?" Ulrich runs out and hears the guns start to wind up before more bullets are fired. Ulrich makes it to the truck and hides behind one of the many wheels, hearing the bullets slamming into the truck, and a new noise. He looks around the wheel and sees the machine is moving, in just a few more feet it would pass the manhole Yumi and Aelita were in. He hits his head on the platform of the truck above him when his phone rings. "Hello?"
"Hey I heard gunfire, is the Princess alright?" It was Odd.
"Yeah, I am distracting that thing so Yumi and Aelita can get to the Factory and use the Scanners to go to Lyoko."
"Are you suicidal? Ulrich I'm all for daring plans but on the early news they just reported an Urban Dreadnought Defense Fighter was stolen from a military base, I'm betting its big ugly up there."
"Odd I don't have to worry about it, I'll be fine." It was Yumi's grave in the future, not his; he just had to keep her alive until January 1st, 2007.
"Be careful Ulrich, Yumi would..." Odd stops when he hears more gun fire over the phone. "Ulrich!"
"I'm fine Odd but I have to go, Yumi and Aelita should be there soon." Ulrich just had to distract it for a few more minutes. "Hey uh, Dreadnought, over here!" He runs towards some trees hearing the machine guns spinning again, and then firing. The trees did little more then slow the bullets down; one took to many hits and fell over nearly hitting Ulrich as he ran for another manhole. He had passed the one him and Aelita used, and wasn't sure where the next one was. Turning around he sees Aelita and Yumi running towards the Factory, making it in. "Ugly, as fast as you can be you'll never catch me!" Ulrich begins running down the road along the river, there weren't any businesses or homes up ahead so no one would get hurt.
Ulrich hears a new sound and turns around just in time to duck as a missile flies over him. The missile begins to turn around when it slams into a tree exploding bringing the tree down. It falls into the river, creating a sort of bridge to the other side. "Let's see if you can swim!" Ulrich runs and jumps on the trunk, sliding down it and jumping as he got to the end. He catches the other edge with his gut knocking the wind from him but he is able to pull himself up onto it. The Dreadnought loads another missile and fires it, Ulrich jumps into the water avoiding the missile. He is about to come up when bullets fire into the water, but they move so fast it is like hitting concrete and they shatter upon entering the water. Ulrich swims under part of the tree and comes up on the other side, the Dreadnought doesn't see him.
Meanwhile, in the Factory, Aelita sends Yumi and Odd to Sector 2, the Forest Sector, and then sends herself after loading the Overwing and Overboard. "What is this place?" Aelita is amazed, the trees are all dead, many are gone, the grass is black, it looked like something she had seen in video of the attacks on Japan by the Americans, every thing looks burnt, looks dead.
"Don't worry Princess we won't be here long." Odd hops onto his Overboard. "Jeremie?"
"I'm here; I have to be quiet though so my parents don't hear me."
"Just warn us of any monsters, not that I am worried." Last time had been so easy, Odd had no worries.
"Well do it fast, I hacked the cameras around the Factory and Ulrich isn't doing so well, but the police just showed up.
And so they had, they saw the Dreadnought, what could they do? Whoever was operating it was unstoppable unless the military came out with the big guns. "Call it in to base; tell them it's a 10-99-2111 Code AA3." Or as cops liked to call it, put your head between your knees and kiss your butt goodbye as they were helpless.
On Lyoko the group headed towards the tower, seeing it in the distance. "So far so good." Yumi looked around for monsters and worried about the one Ulrich was dealing with.
Ulrich could hear the yelling, the cops were there but they couldn't stop that thing, Xana was controlling it. He swims back to the other side and climbs up. Before he gets to the top he hears the machine guns spinning, about to fire. "Get down it's gonna shoot!" Ulrich hopes the police heard him as seconds later he hears gunfire. Getting back to the top he sees that three cars were shot up badly but none of the officers seemed hurt as they started shooting back, their bullets bouncing off the armor.
"Kid what the heck are you doing out here! Go back home this thing isn't a toy." The Dreadnought turns 180 degrees at the waist and sees Ulrich; the machine guns start to spin.
"Get out of here before it kills you!" Ulrich runs away from the Dreadnought as it opens fire on him. He sees a manhole cover and opens it, climbing in he hears more gunfire, if those police officers died, not even a return to the past would bring them back. He gets to the bottom and runs over to the regular entrance and grabs Yumi's skateboard as he and Aelita had taken a different way here, there vehicles weren't there.
"Watch out there are three Tarantulas and something on the tower." Jeremie couldn't tell what it was, if it was a Hornet flying close to the tower it should have more Hornets around it.
"A Creeper? I guess they left Sector 5." Odd sees it hanging on to the tower, it fires at him but he dodges it.
"Odd I loaded a special arrow for you, fire it at the Creeper and see if it works." Jeremie wanted to see if the program he made worked with the Laser Arrows before he went any farther with it. Odd fires at the Creeper who moves out of its way, a sure miss, until it curves and hits the Creeper in the Eye and explodes.
"Have any more of those Einstein?"
"Not yet Odd, so it worked I take it." Good, he had downloaded the information Xana left from the time it was there as Franz Hopper, but how to make all of Odd's arrows guided Jeremie wasn't sure how to do yet.
Yumi throws both of her fans at the Tarantulas; they dodge them and then shoot them, knocking them away from Yumi. "Aelita get off here and hide, I need to get my fans." Aelita gets off and hides behind a stump. Yumi flies the Overwing and grabs one of her fans in time to block a laser from a Tarantula.
Odd flies above the Tarantulas firing at them, with 10,000 arrows in each glove he wasn't worried about running out of them. The Laser Arrows raining down on them cause the Tarantulas to stop firing at Yumi and start firing at Odd. Yumi is able to get her other fan and flies up behind a Tarantula, throwing a fan and hitting its Eye.
"Watch out!" The Overwing is hit by lasers from behind; two Blocks had come to join the fight. Aelita feels helpless, she couldn't even use her Creativity anymore, but her friends needed her, especially Ulrich.
Ulrich gets out of the sewers and sees that the cops ran away after their cars were turned into swiss cheese by the Dreadnought. He starts to run towards the Factory jumping on Yumi's skateboard. "Hey over here!" Ulrich hoped that the thing couldn't fly, or else his plan would fail.
Aelita fed up with hiding tries something. She starts singing, but then changes the pitch. If Xana used a different frequency for the towers maybe she needed to sing in a different pitch. She concentrated on the Blocks, to make the ground below them disappear. Yumi blocks some laser from them before being hit from behind by a charged up Tarantula laser causing her to devirtualize. Aelita doesn't see this; just the ground going away, she changed her pitch again, hearing a popping noise. Opening her eyes she sees the Blocks had fallen through a hole, her Creativity worked!
"Aelita get out of there, you just lost 20 points! If you keep getting hit..."
"I wasn't hit Jeremie I used my Creativity." But that was strange; Creativity took 50 points, not 20.
"If you say so Aelita, but now Yumi is back on Earth meaning Odd better take care of those Tarantulas." Jeremie was impressed, how had Aelita made her Creativity work? They tried to make it work but it never did, what did she do?
Yumi runs to the elevator and gets on, she needs to help Ulrich.
"Well I don't know about you but these monsters aren't the pushovers they were last time." Odd tried to hit them but couldn't, they dodged, or shot his arrows. They never did that before, and Odd was getting annoyed. "Come on let's see what you got!" Odd flies around the tower getting to the top, hidden from the Tarantulas.
"Ulrich!" Yumi sees Ulrich on her skateboard; he is going around in circles confusing the Dreadnought. But when he hears her voice he loses his concentration and falls. "No!" Yumi runs out hearing a strange whirring noise...
"Gotcha!" Odd had dived at the Tarantulas from the top of the tower and got one in the Eye. Now only one left, which shot the Overboard causing Odd to fall.
"Get away Yumi!" Ulrich rolled and got up before the Dreadnought could fire. Ulrich runs towards Yumi jumping and knocking both her and him over the edge, he reaches for the rope but misses and hears gun fire.
"Stop moving so much." Odd fired Laser Arrow after Laser Arrow but couldn't hit. Aelita watched, of Odd kept turning she would be able to get past the Tarantula.
Landing on the floor below Ulrich had turned his body so Yumi would land on him, breaking her fall. "Ulrich get up I can hear it." The Dreadnought walked towards the edge and looked over the edge, it couldn't get down but it still had plenty of fire power left. Firing a missile it misses Yumi and Ulrich but the vibration it makes causes the Dreadnought to lose its footing and fall over the edge.
It was now or never, Aelita runs as fast as she can, imagining Ulrich doing a Super Sprint, hoping to run faster. She get to the tower just as Odd gets hit again, devirtualizing.
"We did it Ulrich." Yumi pulls him up off the ground. The Dreadnought was on its back not moving.
"Yumi what were you doing, I can't believe you did that, what if you had..." Before Ulrich could finish his sentence the Dreadnought reveals a nasty surprise. A Hydraulic leg comes out of its back pushing it up right. An arm shoots out of the Dreadnoughts chest grabbing Yumi; it wasn't going to miss this time.
"I won't let you!" Ulrich jumps up and climbs on the Dreadnought. He starts punching it hoping to distract it. Instead a new gun comes out to shoot Ulrich. He sees it in time and starts to jump out of the way when it fires. The pellets from the shotgun hit Ulrich in the leg.
"Ulrich!" Yumi sees the blood come out; it forms a pool around Ulrich as he lies on the floor. The Dreadnought moves Yumi in front of its right arm, it couldn't miss this time. To make sure Xana sends an electrical shot through the arm knocking Yumi out. The machine starts to spin, Ulrich can hear the noise but the pain in his leg blinds him to anything else.
"Tower Deactivated." Aelita leaves the tower to find one she can devirtualize in wondering how her friends were.
Odd gets out of the elevator and sees Ulrich on the ground, lying in a pool of blood, and Yumi still hanging from the Dreadnoughts arm. "Ulrich, are you alright?" Odd gets over to Ulrich and sees he is breathing, his phone rings. "Hello? Call 911 Ulrich was shot." Odd sees the holes in Ulrich's pants, a bunch of them.
"No Odd just take him and Yumi to the Scanner room, send them to Lyoko, and they will be healed." Jeremie had been watching on the Factory cameras.
"Are you sure?" Odd wasn't sure he could carry them at the same time, but Ulrich looked like he needed the most help.
"Yes Odd, remember when that glass broke in Yumi's hand? It was healed after she went to Lyoko good as new." He also had done a return to the past, but odd was to busy dragging Ulrich, who passed out from the pain, to the elevator. Odd pushes the button for it to open but it doesn't, instead he hears the noise of it running, Aelita was coming up. When it opens Odd drags Ulrich on.
"Get Yumi, I'll send the elevator back up after I get Odd to the Scanner room."
"What, why Odd? I deactivated the tower." She sees the blood trail, then looks for Yumi and doesn't see her as the Dreadnought blocks her view.
"Jeremie says it will heal them." Aelita gets off and Odd goes down with Ulrich.
Aelita finds Yumi hanging from the arm of the Dreadnought and has to take Yumi's shirt off as the claws were still clamped on it. Yumi drops to the ground and Aelita climbs down to get her. Having as hard of a time as Odd did with Ulrich; it takes Aelita a minute to get to the elevator which Odd had already sent up.
Down in the Scanner Room Odd was able to get Ulrich to fit and waited for Aelita to come down. When the elevator opens he sees Aelita and Yumi, more then usual. "Uh need help Princess?"
"Yes, she's heavy." Odd tries not to glance at Yumi in her undershirt; sure he'd seen her at the pool, but never in just her undershirt. They get Yumi in another Scanner and Aelita goes up to the Control Room. "Ok Odd, I'm sending them. Scanner Ulrich, scanner Yumi, transfer Ulrich, transfer Yumi, virtualization."
"What happened, how did we get here?" Yumi is looking around; they are back in the Forest Sector.
"I don't know, I was shot in the leg and I passed out." Ulrich hadn't seen the new Forest Sector before and looks around also.
"Is your leg ok?" She remembered that, Ulrich had been lying on the ground, blood... "That's it! They sent us here because when we come back our bodies will be healed!"
"I hope so, well, whoever is there can you bring us back?" Yumi devirtualizes, then Ulrich.
In the Scanner Room the doors open and Yumi, then Ulrich, come out and see Odd. "Hey guys, wax on, wax off, all has been healed, according to Einstein."
"Where's my shirt!" Yumi crosses her arms in front of her chest, yes she wasn't actually showing anything, but she wore a shirt for a reason.
"I couldn't break the hold of the monster so I had to get you out of your shirt." It was Aelita, getting off the elevator to see if her friends were alright. Ulrich takes his jacket off and gives it to Yumi.
"Thanks Ulrich." She puts it on. "So, now what?"
"We can't leave that thing here, we have to call the military..." Ulrich is cut off by Odd.
"And tell them what? We found their toy after it shot our friends? We'll be lucky if they don't bomb the Factory."
"Well what else do you want? If we leave it here Xana might try to possess it again and we sure can't move it."
"A return to the past would put it back, as if it never happened." Aelita wasn't sure if she wanted to do that but it was an answer.
"Yes but if it makes Xana stronger do we really want to? Ok voting time, everyone for calling the police or army or whoever to come pick up their toy raise a hand." Yumi, Ulrich, and Aelita raise their hand. "Return to the past?" Odd doesn't raise his hand. "Well Odd what's your solution?"
"Sell it on ebay for food money?" The group laughs.
"How do you stay so scrawny? Although if you had been shot it would have been easier to drag you to the Scanner Room." Aelita laughs while the rest give out an uneasy chuckle.
"I'm not scrawny I'm svelte." Odd lightens the mood. "We should use a pay phone though, and lock down the elevator incase they decide to try and take it."
"Good idea, but won't the police come for their cars?" The group leaves the Factory, passing shot up police cars, a shot up truck, and the bloodstain Ulrich left behind from his leg wound.
"You know if it fixes something like that maybe we could use it to cure other things, imagine curing cancer or broken bones in a matter of seconds."
"Well after we get rid of Xana we can do that Odd, but right now we need them to fight Xana, you know, the thing that keeps trying to uh, hurt us, and take over the world?" Ulrich almost said kill, but it made him think of the tombstone with Yumi's name on it.
"I'm hungry, lets stop at Out&In for some food." Odd rubs his stomach smiling at the rest.
"I'll pay." Ulrich reaches into his pocket and counts the money his dad had given him. "For me, Aelita, and Yumi. I don't think the army has a budget big enough to pay for Odd." The group laughs and goes to the Out&In for breakfast.
Sign up to rate and review this story