Welcome to Gaia! ::

HAHA, the part where the snake threw up...that's the best part of the episode/chapter. xd

Ouch, having a bullet in a shoulder must hurt, though. Nice job, I think this is my favorite episode/chapter so far. cool

EPISODE 4: PREMONITION

After the Xana attack, Jeremy's recurring nightmares returned. But, the nightmares had changed. Gone was the unfamiliar dark room with the swinging pendulum light. The dream began with him sitting at the supercomputer. The core had fallen under attack. Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, and Zaber had been devirtualized. Aelita had been possessed. The core was a shot away from being destroyed, even if Jeremy had gone to Lyoko, it would be gone before he reached the scanner. The core exploded. Aelita disappeared off his readout, her vital signs flat-lined. He was crying. And then he heard a female voice in his head. It repeated the same word over and over, echoing, growing steadily louder and steadily more assertive. "Angel... Angel... Angel... ANGEL..." A window appeared on the supercomputer read out, it resembled the window that appeared when Jeremy had to enter code SCPIO, there was space for a five letter-word. The voice continued to repeat in his head, escalating to a scream. He typed the word "ANGEL" into the computer... and pressed enter. A column of white light erupted from the supercomputer, whiting out the entire room.

"Jeremy, snap out of it!" A sharp slap on the face awoke Jeremy. Zaber stood over him, his hand extended. "You've been screaming for the last three minutes! What happened?" Zaber looked a mixture of concerned and annoyed. Jeremy's whole body shook his breaths quick and heavy. His sheets were soaked with sweat.
"I... I just had a nightmare. That's all." He said.
"Must have been one hell of a nightmare..." Zaber said skeptically. "You sure you're okay?"
"Yeah." Jeremy shuddered. "I'll live." Jeremy rolled over so he was no longer facing Zaber. His eyes were still watering.

Jeremy explained his dream to no one. Zaber readily agreed not to tell anyone about him having it. These dreams that had been plaguing him since the start of the year had to stop, or he at least had to find out what they meant. He did an Internet search on dream interpretation, but he could not piece together anything that could explain the meaning of his dream. The day itself was uneventful. As Jeremy lay down to sleep that night, he could not help but feel apprehensive. If the dream returned again, Zaber would be even more suspicions. He remained awake, but still until roughly midnight, when he heard Zaber get up and redress. He waited until Zaber was about to leave when he got up. "Where are you going?" Zaber startled, he had thought Jeremy asleep.
"Out."
"At midnight? Where? If Jim catches you you're dead."
"It's my business. Cover for me if I'm not back my morning."
"Only if you tell me where you're going."
"Fine, then don't cover for me." Zaber slammed the door as hard as he could without waking anyone. Jeremy was unable to sleep that night. He heard Zaber return around three in the morning, but pretended to be asleep. In payback for Zaber not discussing his nightmares, he pretended to no nothing about this excursion.

Another week passed, and Jeremy got little sleep. Every time he dozed off the dream began again, and he was shocked back to reality. Each time the dream got a little bit further before he woke up, but the added bit served only to increase his vexation. On the fifth day of the nightmares, Jeremy fell asleep in class and netted himself a detention.

"Jeez Einstein, you've been out of it lately. Is something wrong?" Odd asked him at lunch.
"Yeah. You don't seem like yourself lately." Aelita said concerned.
"You've even stopped butting heads with Zaber." Yumi added. Zaber sat there and rolled his peas around his plate with his fork, ignoring her.
"I just haven't been able to get to sleep lately is all..." Jeremy said with a yawn. A physical toll had been clearly taken. His complexion was paler than usual and visible circles had formed under his eyes. An alarm blurred from his laptop. Jeremy didn't respond.
"Uh... doesn't that sound usually mean something?" Ulrich said, tapping him on the shoulder.
"Huh?" Jeremy said, his reaction slowed so much by the exhaustion. Zaber reached over and opened his laptop.
"The core's under attack. Yippy frickin skippy for us." Zaber said with a groan.
"Ugh..." Jeremy said as he passed out into the table in front of him.
"Jeremy, are you OK?" Aelita asked him. He was out like a light.
"I'd better take him to the infirmary." Yumi said as she heaved him up onto her shoulders.
"I can virtualize us. Just make sure Jeremy gets help." Aelita said as she felt Jeremy's forehead, he felt incredibly warm. Aelita, Odd, Ulrich, and Zaber took off for the factory as Yumi helped Jeremy to the infirmary.

Yumi dropped Jeremy off in the care of the school nurse, explained how he had collapsed, and how he had talked about his exhaustion. By the time she had finished her explanation, the group had arrived at the factory.
"I'll virtualize us in two rounds. Ulrich and Odd, then me and Zaber. Get in position." Aelita ordered them. After a couple minutes they were all on Lyoko, and making for the core. Yumi began to head for the factory as well.

The nurse took the unconscious Jeremy's temperature.
"My, you have a bad fever. I may have to call the hospital!" She said as she draped a wet cloth over his head. Jeremy was lost in his nightmare again. It was the same as before. He inputted CODE ANGEL and the white light erupted from the computer. But rather than the dream end there with his awakening, the dream continued. His entire range of vision was white. He could see nothing, and then off in the distance, he saw someone. A man wearing a while lab-coat with light brown hair and round, reflective glasses. It was Franz Hopper.
"Hop...Hopper?" Jeremy stuttered. Hopper nodded in response. "What... what is going on here?" Hopper merely stood there. He made no effort to respond to him, his eyes blocked out by the reflective lenses. "Answer me!" Jeremy rushed forward the try and grab Hopper, but he passed right through Hopper, who faded out when Jeremy had gotten close, like a ghost. Jeremy blinked, and the scenery changed. Now in the solid white space stood the three scanners. He stood in the center of them, and one of the scanners behind him opened up. Out of the scanner tumbled a lifeless corpse. Aelita. She was not breathing. Her heart had stopped. She felt cold, and her skin had begun to pale. Jeremy began to cry as he held her in his arms. And then he heard the voice again. The voice that had been haunting him for the last week.
"Only you can prevent this." Rang the voice.
"How?" Jeremy asked through choked tears.
"The Code."
"What about the code? Tell me!" His last words of "Tell Me!" were screamed aloud as he broke back into consciousness. The nurse jumped at Jeremy's awakening, and ran to his side.
"Calm down! Relax! You'll be okay..." She tried to comfort him when she saw the tears on his face, all though she had no idea what had caused them. "You're running a bad fever. I've called the hospital. You're going to be okay." Jeremy felt an unexplainable sense of urgency. He forced himself to rise out of bed, shoving the nurse out of the way.
"I've got to go." Jeremy said as he tried to run out of the room, but the nurse grabbed him by the arm and tried to hold him back.
"You're not going anywhere but to the hospital!"
"Let go of me!" Jeremy broke her grasp and bolted from the room, the nurse on his heels. He saw Jim standing just down the hall.
"Jim, stop him!" The nurse shouted. Jim tried to grab him, but in an uncharacteristic action Jeremy kicked Jim in the crotch, and Jim collapsed onto the ground. Jeremy kept running. The nurse stopped chasing him and stooped beside the dazed Jim. "Are you okay?"
"This reminds me of my hockey player days... but I'd rather not talk about it..." He said grimaced in pain, too occupied to act angry.

Meanwhile, the group had struck the key and had made their way to the core with their only difficulty being a lack of vehicles.
"Looks pretty substandard today... three Creepers and two mantas? I think Xana's just trying to annoy us to death." Ulrich said.
"Let's get this over with, or I'll be joining Jeremy in detention for tardies." Zaber muttered.
"You too, huh?" Odd added. They sprung into action. Yumi arrived at the factory and spoke to them through the intercom.
"I left Jeremy with the nurse. How are you guy's doing?" She asked them.
"Don't bother trying to come to Lyoko, we've got the situation under control." Ulrich said as he leaped onto the back of a manta. Zaber's shots eliminated a creeper and the second manta, and Odd and Aelita wiped out a creeper each. It was over in seconds.
"That was easy." Odd said, as he sat down.
"Too easy. Anyone have a feeling this was a trap?" Zaber said, still holding Styx alertly. They all began to stare around the room to try and find any sort of clue of a trap. Odd let out a yell. The other turned just in time to see the devirtualized fragments of Odd disintegrate around a giant black sword. William, with the mark of Xana still in his eye and an evil grin on his face, lifted the sword back onto his shoulder.
"Yumi! William's attacking!" Ulrich shouted.
"Did anybody get the number of the cab that hit me?" Odd said as he stepped out of the elevator.
"Yeah. William." Yumi said as the door closed. Odd walked over to Yumi, who was sitting in Jeremy's chair and keeping them posted on their LP.

Jeremy bolted into the sewers through the door inside the building. He leapt on his scooter and moved faster than he had ever before. So fast that he actually crashed and landed in the water a few seconds after reaching top speed. He picked himself up and got right back on, completely disregarding his injuries.

On Lyoko, Zaber repeatedly tried to blast William, but all his shots we're blocked by the massive sword. Ulrich ran forward and triangulated, slicing at William from all angles, but he seemed unfazed. A swift kick from William and a 360-degree spin of the sword wiped out the clones and left the real Ulrich with a mere 10 LP. Zaber held out his hand and helped Ulrich up.
"This isn't working. Let's try that attack we discussed." Zaber said, as he drew Cocystus.
"I don't think it'll work. We thought that would only work on monsters." Ulrich muttered, as he sidestepped a vertical slash. "But I'll try anything right now." Ulrich sprinted away and up several platforms. William turned around to target Zaber, but Zaber was now several feet above him performing a flip. He shot six blasts from Cocystus, which left him with almost no LP, and William slashed upward, wiping Zaber out. But the blasts froze him in place after that from the neck down, he strained to break free of the ice, grunting. Ulrich dived downward from a platform two floors up, holding his katana in one hand and diving as aerodynamically as possible. "Frigid Impact!" Ulrich stabbed William, and the ice surrounding him shattered into a million pieces, and William glowed red for a second and vanished. "It's alright, we won!" Ulrich said exhausted. "Alright Aelita, let's devirtualize eachother and go home." Ulrich muttered. Aelita did not answer. "Aelita?" Ulrich turned around. He saw Aelita standing with her hand outstretched, and a blast of red light struck him. The Schipzoa floated behind her, the mark of Xana in her eyes. Ulrich was devirutalized. Aelita turned and began to blast the tower. Zaber and Ulrich came up the ladder to the computer room.
"Why didn't you tell us the Schipizoa was there?" Ulrich demanded.
"Xana was blocking the intercom somehow. We couldn't say anything to you!" Odd answered. The second shield on Lyoko broke, and the elevator door burst open. Jeremy stumbled out, battered, bruised, and wet, still breathing heavily.
"Jeremy! What are you doing?" Yumi shouted. Aelita charged another shot on Lyoko, and released it. The core was struck and everything went black. The holosystem in the lab shut off. Aelita's vitals on the screen went flat-line. Jeremy cried out in anguish as he collapsed to his knees.

"Jeremy... I'm so sorry..."
"It's not your fault..."
"We did our best..." They all tried to console him. The words SYSTEM ERROR flashed in bright red letters on the main screen. Jeremy stumbled to the computer, sobbing, and pressed the enter key. A box for a five-letter word appeared, with the word CODE above it.
"...Please... let this work!" He typed quickly, "ANGEL" and slammed the enter key. The light erupted from the computer as in his dream.
"Jeremy, what did you do?!?!" Zaber shouted to him. The light faded out quickly. The holosphere flipped back on. Sector Five was back. The four sectors which had been destroyed almost a year before were back. Aelita's vitals spiked, and they heard a scanner door burst open below. Jeremy let out a gasp and slid down the scanner room, while the rest bolted for the elevator. Jeremy ran to the open scanner. But he feared what he would find. Was he too late?

Aelita sat in the scanner, her eyes closed, rubbing her head as if she had just been hit.
"Oh..." She groaned.
"Aelita!" Jeremy gasped as he dived into the scanner, hugging her, now openly crying in joy that she was alive.
"Jeremy... what's going on?" She asked him.
"Lyoko got destroyed while you were there... I though you were..." Jeremy suddenly broke off his sentence and fell backwards in shock. He stared in awe at the glaring change that had occurred, and he was amazed it was not the first thing he saw when he arrived.
"Jeremy, what's wrong?" Aelita asked him. He looked amazed and frightened at the same time. The elevator door opened. The others at first looked relieved, but the same shock spread across their faces like a wave.
"Aelita... look at your back!" Jeremy pointed. On Aelita's back, two large holes had been torn in her shirt. Sprouting from Aelita's back were two, two-foot-long, white-feathered wings. Aelita turned her head and looked behind her and gasped, then fainted. The shocking truth then hit Jeremy. He had been too late. Aelita had died. But she had some how been brought back to life... as an angel.

EPISODE 4: PREMONITION... END

((A HA! THE NAME OF THE STORY FINALLY MAKES SENSE!!!!))

I'm sure that you now realize that I want to be on the list for the pm inbox thing Zaber.

Well... I'm guessing the crotch kicking was the two votes of "other." sweatdrop And the suspense only escalates from here. Thia is the last episode that will be written in "rapid succession". I'm going to be very busy for the next few weeks, so expect only about an episode a week from now on. But... I have episode 6 half-done, so I MIGHT have it for tomorrow. Anyways, Episode 5 is in the next post.

That was a mean cliffhanger. Very mean. You are evil very very evil.

NOOOO!

I hope you update it before Thursday afternoon...I'll be on vacation for the entire weekend. gonk

Episode 6: SNARE

"Well done Sanderson. Your response time is impressive." Said the voice on the other end of the line.
"I pride myself on it."
"Now if you had only found William Dunbar as quickly and saved us some face with the public... but I digress, Hopper's daughter has been missing for almost 13 years..."
"Sir... wasn't she 11 went she and her father went into hiding?"
"Yes..."
"Well..." Sanderson began, knowing he was about to be chewed out. "The winged girl is a handprint match to Aelita Hopper... but she's only about 14."
"Don't fret. Our sources indicate that Hopper was developing some sort of suspended animation technology prior to breaking off from us. Bring her to headquarters immediately."
"There was also a boy with her, trying to hide her."
"Bring him as well."
"Sir." Sanderson stepped into the front passenger seat of the black van, which began to drive away. Odd and Ulrich saw the van take off as they made their way to the forest tunnel.

Zaber sat in front of the supercomputer and donned the headset. He dialed Ulrich.
"Ulrich?"
"Zaber, we just saw some guys in black suits kidnap Jeremy and Aelita. They looked like they were really high tech."
"The calls to the police and media the students made must have drawn the FBI's attention. This just got a lot more complicated."
"Should we still come to the factory, or should we try and tail them?"
"You'll never catch up to them. I've got an idea. Keep coming to the factory." Zaber hung up, and then scrambled to make some final adjustments to a program, while searching for a tracer program, if Jeremy had designed such a thing. After five minutes, Yumi arrived.
"How are things?"
"No good. We can't deactivate the tower without Aelita. Worse, we don't know how Xana is attacking yet."
"Man, this is the worst! What are we supposed to without them?"
"Remember what I said about how the worst always gets worse? Ulrich told me that the FBI has abducted Jeremy and Aelita." Zaber finished as he punched in some data to the trace program he had just found. "I'm using Aelita's DNA signature, which she leaves behind every time she uses the scanner, and plugging it in to a tracer program, then I'm hacking into a satellite to try and trace her location. Let's hope it works."
"And how are we supposed to get them back from the FBI once we find them?"
"I'm still working on that part..." Zaber said anxiously. Odd and Ulrich arrived. Readout appeared on screen. A small, moving blip appeared on a road map of downtown. He uploaded it to his phone, which would allow him to keep track of where she went after this. "I have one idea, but the program is still completely untested. If it doesn't work, we're over with, and there's no hope. I just hope my adjustments didn't mess up Jeremy's calculations." He opened the file with the power materialization code, and then opened his 3-D modeler from his laptop. A rotating model appeared, displaying what appeared to be a cross between and I-pod and a cell phone, with numerous ornamentations that gave more of a rough than sleek look. He dragged the two files into a folder, and then created six subfolders. He dragged a copy of both programs into each folder, and finally made copies some files off the supercomputer into each of the folders. "Cross your fingers. Mass materialization in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..."
"Mass materialization? What's that?" Odd asked. In answer, the scanners revved up and the scanner doors opened and closed rapidly, with repeated clanking sounds as the doors slammed.
"That. Let's go see." Zaber removed the headset and the four of them stepped into the elevator. The door opened everything seemed normal. Zaber walked over and reached into each of the scanners. He pulled a total of six of the small, I-pod shaped devices from the scanners. He tossed them to each of them. Odd's was purple, Yumi's black, Ulrich's orange. Zaber held a red one in his hand. A white and green one were quickly slid onto his belt.
"So... what are these?" Odd said as he fingered the controls.
"They're my mobile scanners. I designed the hardware and Jeremy programmed the software. Using these, we should in theory be able to use our powers here." Zaber responded, brandishing his device.
"Really? Laser Arrow!" Odd shouted as he pointed at the wall with his wrist. Nothing happened.
"Odd you idiot! I'm sure you have to do something first!" Ulrich said. "So how do we use these things?"
"Just watch me first. They're still completely untested, I'm going to be the guinea pig." Zaber said as he held the device in one hand. He pressed a small button beneath the screen, labeled transfer. A beam of red light shot from the supercomputer above down the shaft and into the screen of his scanner. A red kanji appeared on the screen, which began to pulse. The "wheel" of the device lit up, and a Xana mark appeared around it, although it was strictly decoration. Zaber held the hand holding the scanner down, and then snapped his fingers with his other hand extended in front of him. Six bands of yellow light burst forth from his hand, circling his hand at various angles like the orbits of an atom. "Scanner..." He pressed a button on the device, and an attachment shot out of the top, with a small silver plate attached to it. Zaber moved his hands together, and the yellow bands of light sucked into the metal plate, and Zaber's image distorted, the way a specter distorts when it uses it's powers. His image became a wire frame outline, the way it looked when virtualization on Lyoko began, and his color quickly filled in. He was still 2-d, but his costume and hair had changed to that of his Lyoko form. He opened his jacket. All his guns were present and accounted for. He drew only Styx.
"Wow, that's awesome Zaber!" Odd said, as he held up his scanner to repeat the process.
"Hold on a second Odd! I have to warn you all about something first." Zaber said, his eyes concealed by his black shades. "While you may have your powers, speed, acrobatics, weapons, and the like, you are still as vulnerable as when you are an ordinary human. A single bullet CAN and WILL kill you. I won't force any of you to come with me. But once you activate the device, you can't become human again until you are either scanned, you're LP hit 0 and you are put near death, or a return is launched. You're in it for the long haul if you accept." Zaber said, as he threw Cocystus, Phlegython, and Lethe onto the floor. He couldn't be tempted to use them, as he could accidentally kill himself by expending his life force to quickly. He would leave them at the factory. The three glanced at each other, and nodded. They activated their scanners, and black, orange, and purple beams shot into the scanners, each with a different kanji appearing.
"What kind of wimps do you think we are anyway?" Yumi said.
"We've risked a lot more in the past." Ulrich said.
"Danger is my middle name." Odd said with a smile. They all repeated Zaber's process. A few minutes later the three Lyoko warriors stood in a circle the supercomputers with Zaber at the controls. Zaber held out the green and white scanners.
"The second we find Jeremy and Aelita, we have to give them these. Then, we need to get to the factory without being followed, deactivate the tower, and launch a return to the past. The clock is ticking, so we'll be needing some transportation..." He typed something and the scanner doors opened again. They descended one last time to find an Overbike, Overboard, and Overwing in the center of the room, chucked out of the scanners by an unknown force.

Hundreds of feet above the lit city streets, at roughly 10 PM, the three vehicles zoomed through the air. Zaber rode on the back of Odd's overboard, directing them while holding his cell-phone/tracer.
"Are we there yet?" Odd asked him.
"No, not quite. They're deep in the inner city." Zaber said. Aelita and Jeremy had been taken to a location deep in the center of a nearby city. The blip had stopped on the 56th floor of a glass skyscraper. "Get ready to go higher as we close in on the city." Zaber said, beginning to feel slight airsickness.

Aelita awoke, severely dazed. Her vision was blurry. Her memory was fuzzy. Where was she? She saw a white ceiling above her. She was lying on her back on a hard surface. She tried to sit up, but found herself tied down. One of the black suited agents entered her range of vision. He looked down at her emotionlessly.
"Aelita Hopper. We've been looking for you for a long, long time..." He began. "Or rather, we've been looking for you father. Where is he?"
"I... I don't know!" Aelita said, struggling to break the straps that held her to the table. "What have you done with Jeremy?"
"If you mean the boy who was with you, he is being interrogated as we speak. Now, answer the question." The agent continued in a highly interrogative manner.
"I said I don't know!" Aelita yelled. A beep went off behind her.
"Clearly you do." Aelita, slowly regain all of her senses, felt electrodes attached to her forehead, which she could only assume were connected to a lie detector. "Let's try another question. Where did these wings come from?" Aelita considered how to respond. She didn't even understand how they had really came about. It then hit her how to stall for time.
"Why do you want to know?" She asked. She had technically asked a question, so she wasn't lying.
"Because... normal human beings don't have white wings sprouting out of their backs. You know damn well that's why!" He said, becoming irritated.
"Well, I'm not a normal human." She said. Technically this was true, as her structure had been completely rebuilt.
"Then what are you?" Aelita decided on a response.
"An angel; and if you don't let me go, you'll regret it!" She said. The detector beeped because of her second statement. She had no way to back up that threat. The agent cracked his neck and bent down close to her face, removing his shades to reveal piercing black eyes.
"You little girl... are making me... very... angry!" He said. "Now tell me what is going on or someone not as nice will be interrogating you shortly!" The sound of shattering glass interrupted the conversation.

Meanwhile, Jeremy stood, handcuffed behind his back on the roof of the building. Sanderson stood a few feet in front of him.
"Before we begin... Jeremy, I believe your name was, I must inform you I am a master of interrogation and mental torture. Now, we can do this two ways. We can either sit down in a pair of comfortable chairs, with a nice warm cup of cocoa, and you tell me what you know, or I will be forced to get..." Sanderson cracked his knuckles. "Violent. Now... what will it be?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you anyway." Jeremy replied with a scowl. Sanderson stepped forward menacingly, forcing Jeremy to take a step back.
"You'd be surprised. We know that Franz Hopper built and hid a supercomputer and a program that was designed to disrupt enemy technology. We also know he and his daughter disappeared thirteen years ago. And we also know that he figured out how to create a virtual environment within this supercomputer." He stepped forward again with each sentence. "And... when you put all the pieces together... it looks like you found that computer. So... where is it?" Sanderson drew his face an inch away from Jeremy's. Sanderson had hit the nail on the head. What could he do? There was no way around telling him all about it. A return to the past could correct it, and he was sure the others could figure it out. But why hadn't they launched a return yet? Jeremy knew one thing though. If this man really was a FBI agent, he couldn't kill an unarmed captive, much less a teenager.
"Ptoo!" Jeremy spat in his face. Sanderson drew back quickly, using his tie to wipe his face.
"It seems that you gravely misunderstand the situation!" He said, kicking Jeremy in the chest and knocking him to the ground, then drawing a pistol and holding it inches from Jeremy's head. "We are the enforcers. We are a secret branch of the FBI with complete protection. We are not bound by the laws, and if you were to say, "accidentally" fall from this rooftop, no one would be the wiser..." Sanderson said with a malevolent grin. Jeremy looked up the barrel in horror. He lifted Jeremy up by collar of his shirt. "Now then... what do you say to my first offer now?" He slowly walked over to the edge of the building with each second that Jeremy didn't respond. When they got six feet from the edge, Jeremy broke.
"Wait!"
"Are you going to talk?" Sanderson said, letting him down slightly, but not letting him move from the edge.
"What would you do if you did find this supercomputer?"
"Classified." Sanderson took another step closer. "Now... either tell me where to find the supercomputer and how Hopper's daughter got wings... or fall." He lifted Jeremy up by the collar again, and dangled him half over edge. Jeremy looked down in horror, and then surprise.
"I choose... fall!" Jeremy aimed his now signature crotch kick and connected. Sanderson dropped him in pain, and Jeremy fell only a story, landing on Yumi's overwing.
"Damn, that was gutsy for anybody Jeremy!" Yumi said. She had been gesturing instructions to him when he had looked down over the edge.
"How is the overwing here?!?! Where did you get your costume?!?! Is Aelita with you?!?!"
"Zaber did it, Zaber did it, and no." Ulrich answered, slicing through Jeremy's handcuffs with his katana. Sanderson looked down over the edge when he heard the voices.
"What the hell?!?!" He shouted, aiming his revolver at them. An instant later, Ulrich had scaled the remaining floor on his overbike and slashed the barrel in half with his katana. The gun backfired, impacting Sanderson in the head and knocking him out with a bloody nose.
"Jeremy, catch. Zaber said to give you that." Ulrich said as he descended to equal height with Yumi and Jeremy. He tried to explain how to use it, but he was interrupted.
"Where's Aelita?" Jeremy demanded.
"Odd and Zaber are handling that detail." Yumi told him.

A few floors below, the glass shattered and Odd, gripping the overboard with one hand and firing laser arrows with the other did a flip while dodging several rounds fired from the building. Gunfire abounded everywhere, but no one had succeeded in hitting him. He curved up and ascended to the other's height.
"Any second now!" Odd said to them. A fierce cry was heard from the floor below.
"Death Blossom!" After a few seconds they descended to the shattered floor. Six agents lay on the floor, the last one still in the process of collapsing. Zaber stood in the center of the room, clutching a bloody shoulder with one hand and his gun in the other. A terrified Aelita was still strapped to the table.
"Zaber... did you..." Yumi began.
"I avoided their vitals. They'll survive. And once we launch the return I'll be fine." He said, nodding to his bloody shoulder. Jeremy dashed over and untied Aelita.
"Aelita! Are you okay?" He exclaimed.
"Jeremy! You're alright!" She said, embracing him as soon as she was free. Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi smiled. Zaber struggled not of cry out in pain from his injury.
"If you two are done now, we have to deactivate the tower and launch a return to the past before I die of blood loss!" He yelled.
"There's an activated tower?" Aelita said.
"Of course. That's why we just didn't launch a return when we got to the factory. Aelita, catch." Zaber threw her the white scanner, a few drops of blood had unfortunately stained it however. "Let's go." He said, as he ripped off the sleeve of the jacket and tried to bandage his bloodied shoulder. Ulrich and Aelita rode the overbike, Yumi and Jeremy the overwing, and Zaber and Odd on the overboard. They rose back to the roof level, and aimed their was back to the factory. It was then Zaber's ankle was grabbed by Sanderson's hand. The mark of Xana had appeared in red on the front of his sunglasses. Zaber was yanked from the Overboard, and pulled onto the roof.
"Zaber!" Yumi called out. Zaber quickly righted himself, and launched a kick at Sanderson's head, but he simply fazed through.
"Go! Deactivate the tower! I'll stall Xana!" Zaber drew Styx out of his jacket again. He fired three shots at the possessed Sanderson, and his image distorted and he simply fazed through. "Go!" Zaber yelled to them again before being tackled by Sanderson. The other jetted off towards the factory.

They arrive at the factory, and quickly split into two groups. Jeremy sat down at his computer and dawned his headset. "The towers in the mountain... wait, the mountain sector's back? All the sectors are back!"
"But how?" Ulrich said.
"I guess Code Angel brought back more than just Aelita. Alright, load up. Transfer: Ulrich. Transfer: Yumi. Transfer: Odd. Scanner: Ulrich. Scanner: Yumi. Scanner: Odd. Virtualization." The three appeared in the mountains sector, which was extremely quiet. "Transfer: Aelita. Scanner: Aelita. Virtualization" Aelita appeared on Lyoko, her wings were still fully present. "Get going you guys. The tower's nor far off." Jeremy relayed to them. Their vehicles appeared for them.

Meanwhile, Zaber struggled in a one-on-one duel with Sanderson. The two of them ducked, weaved, shot, dodged, and rolled about the rooftop, matching eachother bullet for bullet. But fatigue had begun to set in for Zaber. He couldn't even use his right arm anymore, and most of the feeling in it was gone. They both stopped and breathed heavily, despite Xana's control, the body still had limits.

On Lyoko, a number of krabs had begun to attack. They we're easily destroyed, as the group inched closer to the tower. Aelita jumped onto the overboard with Odd, trying to make a break for the tower. The tower stood on the opposite end of a stone pathway attached to the current plateau. But William blocked their path once again. Three times now their ex-Xana-possessed friend had stood in their way on Lyoko. He sliced the air and a blue wave of energy slashed the overboard in half and devirutalized Odd. Aelita crashed to the ground. Odd burst from the scanner, reverted to his human form. Ulrich and Yumi regrouped around Aelita, and stood in front of William. He grinned evilly, but still did not speak. Perhaps his mind truly was gone. He was just another of Xana's monsters.
"Any ideas?" Yumi said, brandished her fans.
"Not really... nothing worked before except Frigid Impact, and Zaber isn't here..."
"If we don't beat William and get to that tower Zaber will die." Aelita urged them, as she impulsively launched an energy field. William bounced it off his sword, with no effort. He ran forward and slashed at them. Yumi tried to block with her fans, but the sword ripped through the flimsy weapons like tissue paper. Yumi was devirtualized, Aelita was struck with the tip, dropping her LP, and Ulrich blocked with his sword with considerable effort. He shifted the katana and tried to stab William, but William blocked it with his iron-spiked wristbands. William grabbed Ulrich by the neck with his free hand, and ripped him asunder with his sword. Both Yumi and Ulrich were devirtualized. William turned his attention to Aelita, drawing his sword back to his shoulder menacingly. Aelita began to back away, but found her back quickly on the edge of the plateau, with no way out.

On the rooftop, the duel had come to a standstill. After a complex set of maneuvers my both fighters, they found themselves both with guns aimed at eachothers skulls. Some amount of Sanderson must have still been conscious, as he began to shudder in fear along with Zaber. Zaber blinked and his eyes glowed yellow once again, and used the super-speed that Death Blossom usually afforded him to get out of the way, and target Sanderson's head.
"Death Blossom!" Zaber threw the gun into the air and tried to pull the string, but Sanderson through his gun up in the air, knocking the gun off trajectory, and sending both guns spiraling down fifty-six stories to the street below. Zaber grasped his arm, the wound had torn open further, he was bleeding even worse now. The possessed Sanderson cracked his knuckles.

Aelita had nowhere left to go. William approached her, and swung horizontally, and Aelita bent over backwards and managed to dodge the slice, but lost her balance and began to fell from the platform.
"Aelita!" Jeremy yelled into the computer. Aelita concentrated the way she did when she was rewriting Lyoko, and then... her wings grew to four times their original size. She flapped them and began to rise, and after several flaps she was several feet above the platform and out of William's reach. She glided off towards the tower, and landed right in front of it and phased into the tower. On the outside, Sanderson smashed his inhumanly powerful fist into Zaber's chest, smashing several ribs. Zaber's LP hit 0, and his Lyoko form broke away like shattered glass which disappeared on contact with the rooftop. Zaber skidded across the roof, stopping inches from the edge, all consciousness lost, his heart racing, trying to keep his body functioning with an inadequate supply of blood. Aelita rose in the tower to the upper platform. Sanderson stepped over, and using a single foot, nudged Zaber off the side of the building and he began to fall. CODE... Zaber fell ten stories. LYOKO. Zaber fell another ten stories.
"Tower deactivated." Aelita said. Zaber had fallen half the distance to the ground, accelerating ever faster. Jeremy had the return ready.
"Return to the past now!" Jeremy launched the return, which blazed out of the factory, and struck the falling Zaber as he was inches from the ground.

Zaber found himself walking down the hall the few hours before, on his way to the library. Aelita was only a short distance in front of him, and they were about to pass, but they stopped in front of eachother.
"What happened? I feel like I got run over by a tank." Zaber said.
"We launched the return after deactivating the tower. I'm really sorry the whole thing happened... I was just so upset with Jeremy that I stormed out of his room and forgot my disguise..."
"Why were you angry with Jeremy?" Zaber said, scratching his head. Aelita froze. Jeremy had told her about the dream, which he believed to be a vision. Whether it was a dream or a vision, telling Zaber would help no one.
"You know... after everything that happened... I can't even remember what we argued about." She finally said. "Talk to you tomorrow." She turned around and walked back to her room. Zaber shrugged, and then felt an unusual lump in his pocket. He reached in and found that his mobile scanner had survived the return to the past. The red kanji had disappeared, his character data transferred back to the supercomputer.
"Who would have thought that the real world was more dangerous than the virtual one?" He muttered, sliding the scanner into the inside of his jacket, opposite his revolver. Zaber continued to the library, and finished his report this time.

Jeremy sat at his computer in his room, starring at the device Zaber had created using his program. This explained another part of the premonition. Zaber had appeared in Lyoko form in the real world now. Aelita had wings. Pieces were falling into place. He knew had to solve the puzzle before fate did, or he could lose Aelita forever.

Episode 6: SNARE ... END

Wait, I don't get the whole human/scanner thing that Zaber/you/your OC was explaining...I mean, this section:



So does that mean...er, let's say that Odd's in his human form, and Zaber's still in his Lyoko form. So, if Zaber shoots a bullet at Odd in his human form, he'll basically be injured (Like a normal human should be), and if Odd was in his Lyoko form when he got shot, he'd just lose LP instead?

EDIT: Actually, does that mean that your Lyoko form is like your human...self, except with life points? And if you get hurt or anything, you get injured like you would in real life? And if you get hurt to the point where your life points reach 0, you'd basically die in real life?

I just want that clarified. sweatdrop