“Odd, if you keep going like this, you’ll be light headed in no time.” Jeremie said, watching Odd from the desk chair.

    Odd glanced up at the blond haired boy but kept blowing into the blue mass of plastic.

    Kiwi went over to his master who was sitting on the floor in front of the door to the dorm. Odd took a breath and continued to blow into the plastic, making it look more like a back of a chair.

    “Now we can say he’s full of hot air.”  Ulrich said from his bed.

    Odd looked at Ulrich but still didn’t say a thing.

    “What’d he do to get this one?” Yumi asked, sitting on Odd’s bed, next to Aelita.

    “Actually, Sissi gave it to him.” Aelita said.

    “Huh, really?” Yumi asked, surprised. “Incredible.”

    “Ha! Finished!” Odd said as he stud up and sat down the blown up chair on the floor.

    “Odd, even your scrawny butt won’t fit in that chair.” Ulrich said, looking at the child sized chair.

    “I’M SIVELT! NOT SCRAWNY!” Odd exclaimed before moving the chair to the spot in front of the door.

    Odd sat down on the chair, fitting perfectly.

    BIP, BIP, BIP.

    Jeremie turned around and opened the laptop on Ulrich’s desk.

    “There’s an activated tower.” Jeremie said, looking at the red screen.

    “Why does he have to attack during our free time?” Ulrich asked as he stood up.

    “Come on, we better deactivate the tower before he attacks.” Aelita said as she and Yumi got up.

    Odd tried to get up out of the chair, only to find himself stuck.

    Jeremie got up and the four friends looked down at Odd.

    “This is humiliating.” Odd said, as he tried to wiggle out of the chair.

    “This might help.” Yumi said, knelling down and unplugging the plug on the chair.

    Odd started to sink and was able to get up, letting the five run out of the room and head to the factory.

    “This is too weird.” Ulrich said as they landed on the ground in front of the elevator.

    “I wish I knew what Xana had in mind.” Aelita said.

    “Either way, we have to stop him before he does attack.” Jeremie said, hitting the button to retrieve the elevator.

    In no time, Jeremie was at his computer with his friends in the scanner room.

    Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd walked over to the scanners and got into them.

    “We’re ready Einstein!” Odd called, turning around in the scanner.

    “You’re going to the ice regain. Transfer, Scanner, Virtualization.” Jeremie said as he typed in his commands.

    BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!

    Jeremie looked up at the main screen and saw that all three of his friend’s digital copies had come up with a bug. “Oh, No!”

    “What’s wrong Jeremie?” Aelita asked from the scanner room.

    “ODD, YUMI, ULRICH! Please tell me you’re ok!?” Jeremie said, ignoring Aelita’s question.

    “Please tell me you’re ok!?” Jeremie asked into his mike.

    “We’re fine Jeremie.” Yumi said. “What happened?”

    “A bug was detected in the virtualization process.” Jeremie explained.

    “But how are we going to get Aelita here?” Ulrich asked.

    “We’re just going to have to risk it.” Aelita said, stepping into the scanner. “We’ve got to deactivate the tower.”

    Jeremie thought for a moment before saying thru his teeth, “Ugh, alright. Transfer Aelita, Scanner Aelita, Virtualization.”

    BEEP, BEEP, BEEP

    Jeremie looked at the screen and saw what he feared. Aelita’s program also had gotten the bug.

    “Is Aelita alright?” Jeremie asked, looking at the group of four triangles on his screen that were not moving.

    “I’m fine Jeremie.” Aelita said, looking upwards to the sky.

    “Alright, here are your vehicles.” Jeremie said as he started typing in commands. ”The tower’s 25 degrees north northeast of your position.”

    “Do you have any idea what Xana did to us?” Yumi asked as she jumped onto her overwing.

    “I’m still trying to figure that out.” Jeremie said. He looked up and saw three red triangles going towards the four, around a big iceberg. “Look out, three Krabes coming your way.”

    “Good, I’m starving.” Odd said, shooting forward on his overboard.

    “Odd, do you think of anything other than your stomach?” Aelita asked.

    Odd turned his head toward her and gave her his goofy smile.

    “Odd! Look out!” Ulrich cried, pulling out his katana.

    Odd turned back towards where he was going only to get shot at in the arm, knocking him off his overboard.

    Ulrich and Yumi went around him to fight, dropping Aelita off with him.

    “Odd! You just lost ten life points.” Jeremie said. “What on earth!? Odd, are you under fire?”

    “No, and this may sound weird, but I’m bleeding.” Odd said, looking at his paw, than to his left arm, right below his shoulder where the only piece of skin showed. Red blood was going down his arm.

    “That must have been Xana’s attack.” Aelita said, looking at Odd’s cut.

    “Ulrich, Yumi, did you hear!?” Jeremie asked, switching frequencies.

    “We got it Einstein.” Yumi said as she landed on the ground. Behind her, the Krabe exploded, leaving two.

    “Yumi!” Ulrich cried as he started to run towards her.

    Yumi turned to her right as a Krabe was preparing to shot.

    Ulrich pushed her out of the way, only to get shot in his leg.

    Yumi turned over and sat so she could see Ulrich. “Ulrich!” Yumi cried as she got up. She pulled out her fans and threw them both, aiming for the two Krabes.

    The two fans missed as Yumi watched. She closed her eyes and brought down the two fans on the two Krabes, killing them.

    Yumi grabbed the fans as they few over her head before running over to Ulrich.

    Ulrich was grabbing his left leg, trying to cover the wound and put pressure on it to stop the bleeding.

    “It seems Xana wants to make us as weak as normal humans.” Aelita said as she walked over with Odd.

    “Aelita’s right. Any major shot, as to the chest, would be fatal.” Jeremie said, “You wouldn’t even come back to earth.”

     Going down through the forest. Around trees and past boulders. The trip slowed down as a tower appeared, changing the color surrounding it to red.

    Back on earth, black ghost-like goo dropped down out of a street lamp in town. It slid over to an alley. Around a dumpster and to a pack of dogs. The black goo went to the pack of dogs, making them lift their heads from what they were eating. The ghost came up, off the ground, and threw itself into the lead dog, making his eyes glow a white with a weird circle symbol.     “Guys, bad news.” Jeremie said, looking on his screen as another tower was found. “After you deactivate this tower, you’ve got another one in the forest sector.”

    “How can Xana find the energy to have two towers going at the same time?” Ulrich asked, riding on his overbike to the waterfall covered tower.

    “Who knows.” Jeremie said, “Just get this tower before you four get killed. Than we can work on the other tower.”

    “Oh great, Xana really wants us dead.” Yumi said, stopping her overwing so suddenly, Aelita almost fell off.

    Ulrich and Odd stopped next to the two girls and saw what she was talking about.

    “A warning next time, Jeremie.” Ulrich said, looking at the armada of monsters.

    “Do I want to ask how many are out there?” Odd asked.

    “Don’t bother, I can’t count that fast.” Jeremie said.

    “Somewhere, behind all of this, there is a tower?” Aelita asked. 

    “Theoretically, ya.”

    “Why aren’t they shooting?” Yumi asked, looking at the armada.

    “Maybe they’re buying time for Xana’s other attack.” Odd said.

    “HUH!” Ulrich yelped as his overbike suddenly shot forward at top speed.

    Ulrich grabbed the handle bars, gripping the brake as hard as he could, but seeming to have no control over it at all. He grabbed his katana off the side of the bike and jumped off right before it went into the army of Xana’s monsters, only to faze through as if there was nothing there to begin with.

    Yumi raced over to Ulrich and helped him up.

    “What just happened?” Yumi asked as Ulrich got up and put his arm around her shoulders, helping himself stand.

    Odd walked over to a block and tried to touch it, only to put his paw straight threw it. “They’re holograms.” Odd said, looking at his hand.

    “Well, let’s go right on through.” Ulrich said.

    “AH!” Jeremie’s voice cried from earth.

    “Jeremie!” Aelita cried, worried about what might be happening.

    “Come on.” Odd said, jumping onto his overboard. “Let’s go deactivate the tower.”

    Aelita jumped onto the back of Odd’s overboard as Yumi helped Ulrich over to the overwing.

    The four flew thru the monsters only finding themselves flying threw air.

    They got threw the masses and saw a glowing red from behind the waterfall.

    “Go Aelita!” Odd said, stopping his overboard.

    Aelita jumped off and started to run for the tower.

    Yumi and Ulrich stopped beside Odd, looking towards the waterfall for Aelita to come back.

    Behind them, beating wings could be heard, moving towards them.

    Ulrich looked up from his seat on Yumi’s overwing and pulled out his saber.

    “I’ll take care of it.” Odd said, seeing his friend.

    Ulrich sheathed his katana as Odd turned around and shot at the Hornet, missing at first.

    The Hornet shot at Odd, aiming for the heart.

    Odd saw it was coming and tried to block it with his shield, only he didn’t get it out in time and got shot in the chest, throwing him backwards. He heard Yumi cry out his name as he shot a laser arrow, falling back to the ground from the Hornet’s shot, killing the Hornet as he landed on the ground.

    “Odd!” Ulrich cried, watching his friend land on the icy floor.

    Yumi turned her overwing around and raced over to Odd, blood on his chest.

    “Odd!” Yumi cried, jumping off the overwing as she stopped next to him.

    “Yumi, put pressure on the wound!” Ulrich ordered as he tried to get off without hurting himself anymore.

    Yumi did as he said, panic was going threw her vanes. “What’s taking Aelita so long?” Yumi asked, looking back to where Ulrich had been only to find him next to her.

    “Go and see if Xana didn’t send help.” Ulrich said, moving so that he could put pressure on the wound himself. “I got Odd.”

    Yumi nodded her head and let Ulrich take her spot.

    Yumi got up and jumped onto the overwing and shot off to the area where Aelita had gone.

    Yumi got there and saw that a mega-tank was shooting at the tower, Aelita was nowhere to be seen.

    “Aelita!” Yumi called out, pulling out her two fans.

    The mega-tank stopped and turned around, shooting at Yumi as the red tower turned white.

    Yumi threw a fan as the mega-tank stopped shooting and killed it as Aelita ran out.

    “Odd, stay with us for a little longer!” Ulrich said, blood going threw his fingers.

    Odd opened his eyes as he started to get devitalized.

    Ulrich jumped back, not expecting it. He looked down at his own feet and saw that he was devitalizing too.

    Yumi and Aelita walked out from behind the waterfall only to see the digital outline of the two boys. A second later, they saw Ulrich and Odd being re-virtualized in the sky.

    The two landed on the ground and looked as surprised as Yumi and Aelita did.

    The two girls sped over to them on the overwing.

    “One of us has to go back to earth to help Jeremie.” Aelita said as Ulrich said, “that was weird.”

    “I’ll go.” Odd said. “I don’t think I have many life points left anyway.”

    “So, how will you go?” Ulrich asked, a smile on his face, “Death by sword or by fan?”

    “You just want a reason to stab me.” Odd said, smiling back.

    Before anyone realized it, Aelita had grabbed Yumi’s fan and brought it across Odd’s chest, devitalizing him and taking the rest off guard.

    “Memo to me: don’t get on your bad side.” Ulrich said.

    “We don’t need this.” Aelita said, her face stern. “Jeremie’s life’s in danger.”

    “She’s right.” Yumi said. “Come on.”

    Yumi and Ulrich jumped onto the overwing as Aelita jumped onto the overboard and headed off to the forest.

     “AH!” Jeremie cried, climbing down the ladder of the elevator, above him, on the ground floor, were the Xanafied dogs.

    He felt blood running down his leg from the stinging dog bite.

    RING!

    “Erh” Jeremie growled as he put one arm threw one of the rungs of the ladder. He pulled out his cell and looked up as he answered it.

    “Jeremie, where are you?” Odd’s voice asked.

    “In the elevator shaft.” Jeremie said. His hand slipped, causing him to drop the phone. “Zut.”

    It fell down and down, only stopping when it hit Odd’s head, who had just opened the top of the elevator.

    Odd picked up the phone from the floor and looked up. “Jeremie!”

    “Odd! The dogs are coming!” Jeremie shouted down as thumps were heard on the top of the elevator.

    Odd saw a dog’s head, foam and a piece of khaki cloth was at its mouth.

    Odd went backwards, back into the lab as the dog jumped down.

    Two more followed it, causing Odd to pick up a piece of metal off the ground. He backed up as the three dogs moved towards him, backing him up to a wall.

    A second passed with nothing happening. Odd first thought Aelita had deactivated the tower, in till the lead dog, still holding the piece of what looked like Jeremie’s pants leg, lunged forward at Odd, biting him on the arm he had put up to protect himself.

    “AHH!” Odd screamed, dropping the metal on the dog’s head.

    Odd lifted the arm the dog had gripped itself to and threw the dog to the wall, making the dog loosen its grip, but not let go.

 

~~~

    "There's the tower." Aelita said, motioning towards the tower that was dead ahead of them.

    "And there's two monsters." Ulrich said.

    "I hate spiders." Yumi said, pulling out her fans, ready to throw.

    "Why did Odd ever call them terantulas?" Aelita asked, shaking her head.

    "That's our Odd for you." Ulrich said, his katana out and ready in his hand. He looked over at Yumi and asked, "You take one, I'll take the other?"

    "Alright." Yumi said, smiling as she threw her fans, one right after another. The first one went by, cutting off its laser arms, the second went by and cut it in the snoute, hitting the eye of Xana and killing it.

    "Show off." Ulrich said as Yumi caught her two fans.

    "Just distract that one, and we can get Aelita to the tower." Yumi said, smiling as she put her fans back in the bow on her back.

    Ulrich reved foward, shooting in front of the two girls.

    "You two are perfict together." Aelia said, smiling as she grabbed onto Yumi's waist even tighter so that she wouldn't fall.

    "What?" Yumi asked, not hearing.

    "Oh, nothing." Aelita said, knowing the two didn't want to admit it. She noticed that the tower was closer as they slowed down so that they could turn and Aelita could get off. "Thanks."

    "Of cource." Yumi said, watching Aelita walk into the tower.