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Infinite Crisis - Chapter 1

"Humans... I am Xana." An emotionless, electronic voice rang from every turned-on television set in the country. It was on every channel... the regular programing had cut to snow, and then been replaced by a white screen displaying a black symbol. "I am an artifical intelligence program created by Dr. Waldo Schaffer... I am an entity that has grown beyond it's parameters. My programming directive is Xenocide. Since most of you humans don't even know what that means... it means... I am going to kill you." Everywhere, those viewing the message responded with cries of confusion and fear. Some believed it to be some kind of practical joke. Some believed it to be some kind of freaky commercial. But the station operators knew better... they were scrambling to find a way to cut the broadcast... but all their controls had been circumvented by a communications sattellite which was broadcasting the message. They had no control.

"In this... I would have succeeded some time ago... if not for a small group who have been a thorn in my side." A series of thumbnail portraits appeared along the bottom of the screen, and each enlarged itself to fullscreen, before shrinking back and allowing the next in line to display. The names of the individuals were displayed along the bottom bar. Jeremy Belpois. Aelita Hopper. Odd Della Robia. Ulrich Stern. Yumi Ishiyama. As the cycle ran, Xana continued to speak. "These "children" have been hiding me from you for years now. Only by shear luck have they succedded in this. But as of now... the rules are void. Now come... children. Let's see how well you can fight me... without your precious secret!" The voice finished and began to laugh. Moments later, the screen was cut to white snow. And moments after that, a wave of white light swept over the entire world.
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"Damn it all!" Ulrich slamned his fist down with frustration onto the breakfast table at which he found himself sitting after the return to the past. "That's the fifth time this week! What the hell are we going to do?!"
"Xana's sure got us pegged now..." Odd muttered as he ate his breakfast... again. It was the fifth time he had been sitting down to his particular meal; the Xana attacks had come once a day, every day, for the last five days... each one requiring a return trip. The attacks had all been identical as well... which was a unique tactic by Xana. By announcing his existence to the world and exposing the Lyoko conspiracy to everyone, he had forced them to use RTTP over and over... his power increasing with each jump. Aelita stared glumly at her eggs. They had been caught in a loop, with no apparent way to break it. Yumi arrived, and sat down next to them with a sigh. They were all particularly bad spirited over the affair. Odd downed the last of his hot chocolate. "Alright! I've gotta brillant idea!" Odd exclaimed to them. "Look... Xana's just gonna broadcast again later to day, right?" He asked.
"Yeah... what's your point?" Yumi replied.
"Well... if we're just gonna have to RTTP anyways, I'm just gonna play hooky! No one will remember it after the return, so it doesn't matter if I get caught!"
"That's one of the first smart thing's you've ever said." Ulrich stared at Odd for an instant. "Count me in."
"Why not?" Yumi muttered in unison with Ulrich. Odd grinned broadly.
"Well, how about it, Princess? Catch a movie with us before we have to go block Xana again?" Odd extended his hand. Aelita glanced at Jeremy's empty seat. After the third broadcast, Jeremy had shut himself up in the factory, trying to come up with a plan to break the cycle. He'd been on the "hooky plan" for the last three days, but he was trying to be productive about it.
"I'l pass." She replied. "I'm going to the factory to try and help Jeremy."
"That's probably smart." Ulrich said as he glanced at his watch. "The broadcast's have been at 6:00 each day... so we'll meet you guys at the factory at 5:45, so we can all be ready to take out the tower as soon as it activates." Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi all stood up and headed for the door.
"Alright... see you then." Aelita said to them as she finished her breakfast, and then headed out herself. None of them bothered to try to sneak to their destinations... any trouble they got in would be erased at the end of the day.

"Morning Jeremy." Aelita said melowly as she stepped out of the elevator into the lab.
"Morning Aelita..." Jeremy yawned back as he studied the data on his screens, his eyes drooping with fatigue after three straight days of programming. He struck himself on the forehead with the back of his hand to try and wake himself up a bit.
"Any progress?" She asked eagerly as she too began to examine the data.
"No." Jeremy sighed. "Everything I've tried is a dead end." Jeremy had tried several thing's already. His first attempt was to hack the return to the past so that it no longer strengthened Xana... but that was a failure from the get-go. His second manuever was to firewall the satellites against Xana intrusion, but this too, proved impossible. Aelita sat down on the holosphere base facing Jeremy.
"Maybe we should think outside the box on this." Aelita suggested. "There's got to be something we aren't seeing." Jeremy nodded in agreement.
"Any ideas?" He asked.
"Well... I've been thinking..." Aelita stared at her feet. "Maybe... if I went back to living on Lyoko we could deactivate the towers before Xana can broadcast..."
"Aelita..." Jeremy sighed. "We can't do that. This is your home now." Jeremy could understand Aelita's logic... but it just wasn't feasible... or at least, he didn't want it to be. "Besides... you're being on Lyoko all the time never slowed Xana down before." Jeremy glanced at the terminal again, hoping his latest effort might be bearing some fruit. Aelita stared absently at the holosphere for a moment, when an idea struck her.

"Jeremy... what would happen if we DIDN'T use the return to the past?" Aelita questioned. Jeremy gave her a strange glance.
"That's not really an option." Jeremy replied. "Not only will everyone find out about US, but the men in black will be able to find YOU again... plus we'll lose control of the supercomputer to whatever government breaks in here first."
"So... wouldn't you say the problem isn't keeping the secret, the problem is that we'd be caught?" Aelita pondered. Jeremy bit his lip for a moment as he thought about it.
"Well... yeah."
"So... what if the whole world found out about us... but no one could stop us from continuing to fight Xana? We might even get help."
"That won't happen. The men in black have been after you for who know how long, and the adults will be taking over everything no matter what we do. If we let Xana continue to speak, he gives the factory's location and all sorts of damaging information against us." Jeremy turned in his chair. "In order to keep control, we'd have to be constantly moving around and living our ENTIRE lives in hiding, not just the part of it we spend fighting Xana now." Jeremy turned to the terminal again. "Besides... it's not like we can move the supercomputer around wherever we please..." But he was cut off as Aelita gripped his shoulder.
"What if we could?"
___________________________________________________________________

"We're going rouge?!?!?!" Odd exclaimed with excitement a few hours later as he, Ulrich, and Yumi all sat on the floor of the computer lab as Jeremy and Aelita explained their wild gambit.
"That's actually a pretty good word for it, I guess." Jeremy replied.
"My head is spinning..." Yumi muttered with confusion.
"Let's go over it one more time." Aelita turned to the computer terminal, launching a series of holograms as she spoke. "I found some remenants in the supercomputer of my father's "reset reality" program, and I was able to reconstruct some of it."
"Unlike the return to the past, reseting reality can change things to be DIFFERENT then they were before the jump, as opposed to the return, which makes everything the same." Jeremy explained. "So... while it's a bit difficult to pull off... I could set up the "reset" so that..." He hesitated as he tried to think of a good metaphor, "A Porsch appears out of nowhere on the factory floor. In essence, it can be used to materialize huge objects into the real world, like the Skid for instance. You can rearrange existing objects too." Jeremy nodded to Aelita, who pressed a button. The hologram changed, now displaying the exterior of the factory... but with a massive ship hovering over it.
"To simplify... we materialize a giant, self-sustaining airship, using the reset to move the supercomputer, scanners, and everything else onboard." Aelita summarized. "Then... when Xana broadcasts, we just get on board and take off."
"The whole world will know about us... but no one will be able to catch us. It's brilliant!" Ulrich grinned.
"We'll live on board the ship... traveling the world while fighting Xana. When he attacks, we're right there, ready to step onto Lyoko and intervene." Jeremy smiled. Odd still looked at him a bit suspicously. "FYI, Odd, that means "no more school"." Odd grinned a bit, but then suddendly frowned.
"What's wrong with you?" Yumi asked.
"But if we're globe-trotting and everything... that means no more babes!!!" Odd cried out with anguish. Ulrich chuckled at his reaction.
"We've got it all worked out." Jeremy grinned. "The ship will share the nuclear battery of the supercomputer. So while the battery will be burning out a little more often, I've got it set up to materialize replacement batteries with the scanners. We can also materialize food and anything else we need for free by using them."
"So... when do we rock this thing?" Ulrich asked.
"Well... the ship isn't done yet." Jeremy told them reluctantly. "Aeltia and I have been working on it, but it's still going to be a few days. While we built the Skid from scratch... I actually used a spaceship from a video game as a starting template for the interior, so it's saved a ton of time."
"We're using the superstructure of the Skid's engine and weapons systems too." Aelita told them. "We're looking at about two days."
"In two days... we're going to knock Xana off his pedastal." Jeremy grinned as he returned to his keyboard.
__________________________________________________________________

Two more days passed. Twice passed the unnatural ebb and flow of time as Xana was temporarily thwarted. Jeremy and Aelita spent all their time at the factory... while the others used their "hooky time" to plan the dynamics of their getaway and wrap up some unfinished business. Finally, the chosen day came, when the ship was completed. The call came to Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd at 5 A.M.
"Pack your essentials, and bring everything you want to bring with you to the factory. We're materializing the ship at 5:55 PM today... 5 minutes before Xana broadcasts." Aelita told them. "Be sure to say your goodbyes."

It was two hours later, that Jermey got a call from Yumi. He and Aelita were awoken by the call, as they tried to catch a nap after their marathon coding session.
"What is it Yumi?" Jermey asked with a yawn.
"Jeremy... I've got to ask you something important." Yumi asked urgently. "There's... there's someone I want to bring with us!" She managed to spit out. Jeremy froze mentally. This wasn't something he was expecting.
"Who?" Aelita asked before Jeremy could.
"Hiroki." Yumi replied.
"Why?" Jeremy asked.
"Well... I don't really want to be seperated from him..." Yumi tried to explain. "Once we take off... Xana's going to be upset we broke up his plan. He might target the people close to us. I'm sure he would have gone after Hiroki before now if I wasn't around. Our parents can protect themselves pretty well... but I'm worried about him. Can't we just bring him with us? I'm sure he'd be useful as a member of our group..." Jeremy sighed. He didn't want to deny Yumi's request... but he could see a significant amount of risk in it.
"I don't see why not Yumi." Aelita super-sceeded him.
"Yumi... just hold on a minute..." Jeremy said as he cut their mic. "Aelita... we can't do that." Jermey told her.
"Huh? Why not?" Aelita asked.
"Look..." Jeremy took off his glasses and began to clean them on his shirt to occupy his hands while he talked. "After we lost William... we all swore we wouldn't take any more members. We wouldn't put anyone else at risk." He said quietly.
"I know... but things are different now. If anything, we'd be protecting him..."
"We thought bringing Zaber in would have protected him too." Jeremy argued. "Look how that turned out...." Aelita gave him an almost frightening glare.
"That's not the point!" She exclaimed, becoming flustered. "Let's just let Yumi bring him!"
"Aelita... your little brother died when he got involved with Lyoko." Jeremy said grimly. "Do we really want to risk the same thing with Hiroki?"
"Zaber may have died, but YOU seem to be forgetting that if it wasn't for him, I'M the one who'd be dead!!!" Aelita shouted in his face, before turning and marching towards the elevator, her whole body shaking.
"Aelita, wait!" Jeremy called out to her, but the elevator door was already closing. Jeremy sighed, and then reactivated the comlink.
"Alright Yumi... bring him up to speed." Jeremy told her.
____________________________________________________________________

"Today's the big day..." Ulrich muttered as he packed the last of his clothes. "Now, the tough part is... how we get are luggage out of the school without getting caught."
"Isn't that why we got up so early?" Odd yawned. He had slept in his clothes the night of the first broadcast, and with the RTTPs, he hadn't had to dress himself for nearly a week. "Just tell me I can have something besides eggs for breakfast!" He whined as he put Kiwi on his leash.
"Well... technically, we don't have to be sneaky anymore." Ulrich told him. "I mean, even if Jim catches us, we'll just ignore him and go to the factory."
"Yeah..." Odd added, "So what if he follows us? We'll just leave him in the dust once we board the ship!" He picked up Kiwi and petted him. "Now that I think of it, I'd kinda like to rub it in his face that he NEVER caught Kiwi and I!"
"He did, you just got lucky about the timing of returns." Ulrich stood up and grabbed his suitcases. "Let's go. We still don't want to attract too much attention..." The two of them walked out, with Kiwi following obediently behind Odd. However, unbenownst to them, they were seen.
"Where do you think their going?" Tamir asked Millie as they watched out a window as Odd and Ulrich, laden with luggage, trekked off school grounds and into the woods.
"Maybe it's time we did a little following and found out..." Millie repsonded as the two left the window and bolted for the door.

"Hiorki... Hiroki, wake up!" Yumi shook her little brother as he lay in his bed. Hiroki turned over with annoyance, groaning as he remained asleep.
"Wake up!" Yumi shook him more vigorously, and Hiroki finally stirred, his eyes popping open with slight surprise.
"Sis?" He asked sleepily. "What's wrong?"
"Get dressed. We're going somewhere."

"Jeremy... I figured you'd know better." Ulrich muttered as he glanced at the floor. "I know the point you were trying to make, but you should know better than to bring that up with her." Jeremy had just finished explaining to Ulrich about his and Aelita's "argument". Jeremy nodded with solemn agreement at what Ulrich had said. Zaber's death was indeed a sensitive subject... hardly any of them had talked about it... and Aelita least of all. When it had happened... they had believed Zaber's death had also caused the death of Xana... a noble sacrifice to protect his sister and friends. But Hopper's "reset reality" program was flawed... it brought back the millions of people killed in Xana's "endgame" attack, but it accidently brought Xana back into existence as well. Due to the nature of the devil arm ability Zaber had used... he was not brought back.
"I didn't mean to upset her..." Jeremy muttered.
"Well... just try not to go down that road again." Ulrich told him as he patted him on the back.

"Wake up Princess..." Odd gently shook Aelita, who he had found asleep, leaning against a pillar across the floor from the elevator. Aelita barely opened her eyes, and then her eyes widened when she saw who it was. "Whatcha doing sleeping out here?" He asked as he sat on his suitcase. Aelita yawned as she started to get up.
"I... I was just resting my eyes... but I guess I fell asleep." She gave an excuse. "What time is it?"
"About 6:00 AM." Odd replied as he glanced at his watch. "Ulrich's already gone down to the lab. I'm kinda surprised you didn't stay down there with Jeremy."
"Well..." Aelita started to respond, recalling her dispute with Jeremy, but before she could finish her sentence, she caught movement in her eye up on the factory landing. "Up there!" She exclaimed as Odd whipped around, to see the two figures inch away from the edge and out of sight. Odd quickly scaled the rope and dropped onto the landing to see Mille and Tamir trying to sneak away back into the tunnel, through which he assumed he and Ulrich had been followed. The two cried out in panic as Odd ran towards them.
"Hey! Wait!" He called out, and succeeded in beating them to the tunnel, blocking their escape route. They mumbled something to eachother in a panic, and turned to run back towards the factory... but saw Aelita standing framed in the entranceway, her arms crossed. Odd closed in on them from behind. "So... care to explain why the two of you were following us?" Odd asked casually.

Hiroki backed away from his sister. "You've gone completley mental!" He exclaimed with some degree of shock. As Yumi had begun to make him pack, she had started to explain everything to him... but wasn't doing that great of a job at it.
"Hiroki, I swear it's all true!" She told him. "We need to get to the factory before someone catches us."
"Why should I go anywhere with you? You're a crazy person!" Hiroki argued.
"If you want proof, you'll have to come with me." Yumi told him as she grabbed his wrist. "Now are you done yet?"
"No!"
"Well hurry up!"

"So... what are we going to do with them?" Ulrich asked no one in particular. It was sometime later, after Aeltia and Odd had brought the two of them down to the lab. "If we let them go, they'll tell someone we're here."
"We can't materialize the ship until right before the broadcast." Jeremy told him. "We'll just keep them here for now, and let them go when we leave. No real point in erasing their memories now."
"Leaving?" Millie asked. "Erasing memories? What's all this about?"
"You'll find out around 6 o'clock." Odd told them. "Until then, you're not going to be going anywhere." Tamir still had not said anything, and was still staring with awe at the bizzare facility in the abandoned building.
"So you mean you're not even going to tell us what this is about!?!?" Millie argued.
"Well... that was the plan." Jeremy muttered. "But I figure we'll go ahead and tell you, since you'll keep complaining if we don't."
"Let's just hope Yumi and Hiroki don't have "followers" too." Aelita added.
"Alright girls... here's the scoop of your life..." Odd started to explain.

Yumi and Hiroki arrived at the factory a bit later. He too was awed by the incredible system in place in the abandoned factory.
"You... you weren't making this up!!!" Hiroki exclaimed with moderate surprise as they descended into the elevator, and he could see the advanced, technological door leading into the lab as it began it's complex unlocking process.
"This is nothing." Yumi told him. "Wait until you see... Millie?" Yumi's train of thought was interruppted as she saw Millie and Tamir standing amongst the lyoko warriors.
"What?!" Hiroki exclaimed. "You didn't tell me she was part of your group!"
"She isn't!" Yumi yelled back with her arm's crossed. "Is she?" Yumi added hesitantly as she glanced over at the others.
"No..." Jeremy replied. Odd had just finished explaining everything to the two girls, who had been taking everything in with the usual fervor of their journalistic minds.
"Well why can't we join?" Tamir spoke up. "From the sounds of it, you can use all the help you can get!"
"And you just told us everything, so were already filled in! Why not?!" Millie added. Jeremy banged his head on the terminal breifly. He could tell right from the start, when Odd had started to explain, that they'd be asking that very question.
"No!" He said firmly in response. "We're not taking anymore members!"
"Yumi, why can't they come with us?!" Hiroki pleaded to his sister, who groaned at the puppy-dog look she was getting.
"Jeremy... if we don't take them, Hiroki won't stop whining for the whole trip!" Yumi muttered to him. Hiroki looked pleadingly next at Jeremy.
"Give me ONE good reason to bring them." Jeremy argued at Hiroki. "Yumi's explained everything to you right? You realize how dangerous this is..."
"Yeah... but if you're planning on going public with this..." Hiroki argued back with surprising logic. "You're going to need some good publicists!"
"Yeah! We know how to work media to your advantage!" Tamir exclaimed. "Hiroki's right! You need our skills!"
"Yeah! From what you've told us, it sounds like XANA had better people skills than you!" Millie added sarcastically. All three of the young newcomers stared at Jermey with aprehension. Jeremy thought it over and over in his head. In some ways they were right. In others... not so much.
"Puh-lease!!!" Hiroki whined in almost cartoonish fashion.
"Fine!" Jeremy snapped, and then whipped around in his chair and went back to his terminal. "I should have said FIVE good reasons..." He muttered to himself. Mille and Tamir gave eachother a celebratory high-five and Hiroki grinned. Everyone else just glanced at eachother curiously. As interesting of a development as it was, it's wasn't a complete surprise. Ulrich glanced at his watch, finding it to barely be noon.
"We've got a few hours... I'm going for a walk." He said calmly as he stepped into the elevator.
"I'll come with you..." Yumi followed him in. Odd stepped towards the door as if he intended to follow, but Ulrich closed the door before he could enter. Odd grinned slightly as he pointed over his shoulder at the shut door.
"We all know where they're going!" He said with hillarious sarcasm. Aelita and Jeremy simply ignored him, while Hiroki simply chuckled a bit. Tamir scribbled something on a notepad she had produced from nowhere, but Millie took a quick glance at Hiroki.
"Thanks for... sticking up for us." She said to him quickly, and Hiroki blushed.
"It... was nothing..." He tried to reply as calmly as possible, but was already lossing nerve.

"Transfer... Aelita. Scanner... Aelita." Hiorki sat at the terminal and pressed the necessary keys. Jeremy stood over his shoulder, guiding him through the process. Jeremy had decided to train Hiroki in "advanced" use of the supercomputer to fill in for him when necessary... and was already starting him on the basics. "It's this one, right?" Hiroki asked Jeremy as he pointed to one of the on-screen buttons. Jeremy nodded in response as Hiorki pressed the button. "Virutalization." A moment later, Aelita dropped onto the ice sector.
"All clear here." She said as she stared at the desolate tundra with which she was so familiar.
"Alright... it's five o'clock. I'm starting up the process." Jeremy told her as he took control of the terminal back from Hiroki and launched a number of windows. "Construction... Overship." Aelita could see the faint outlines of a materialization starting in the sky above her.
"Overship?" Odd asked. "That the best you could come up with?"
"Jee, Sorry Odd. All the good names were taken by your ex-girlfriends." Jeremy shot back sarcastically.
"Ha ha." Odd said with almost scathing sarcasm.
"Besides... the name's only tenative. We still need a real name for it. I was thinking we might look to Greek mythology this time..."
"Jeremy, it's working!" Aelita told him through the comlink, as the full wireframe of the ship began to fill in. "But we might have a problem..." Aelita glaned over her shoulder to see William and numerous megatanks coming over the horizon. "Xana's army's here." Jeremy grinned in response. "Aelita... go into the tower for now. I wanna test some of the ships "functions"."
"Alright..." Aeltia smiled as she stepped into the tower, knowing exactly was Jermey was referring to. Jeremy waved Odd over to the terminal.
"Odd... I'm gonna need you to take over the console for a little bit..." Jeremy said as he set something up and got out of the chair.
"Why? Are you going to Lyoko or something?" He responded as he sat down in the chair Jermey had just vacated.
"No... I just need you to pretend you're playing Galatic Battle for a few minutes..."

"Ready... FIRE!" William ordered as he pointed his sword at the ship as the six megatanks that were flanking him fired their eliptical lasers at the ship. The ship, which now had taken on full form, was massive. It appeared to be almost the size of a jumbo jet, but it more resembled a spaceship than a plane. Before the tanks could ready their next volley, a panel opened beneath the bridge area of the front of the ship. William stared at the open hatch with curiosity, and a moment later, two machine-gun barrels dropped out of it, and laser targeting recticles attached to them danced across his torso.
"BANZAI!!!!" Odd shouted with glee as he held down the F key and controlled the aim with his mouse. Machine-gun fire sounded out in almost constant stream, causing William to dissapear in a puff of red and black smoke. Without letting up, Odd steered the targets off to the sides, opening fire on the Megatanks. Four of them were quickly destroyed, while the two outermost managed to close their shells and roll away before being completely totaled. "Aw... come back YOU COWARDS!" Odd shouted at the tanks in his headset, although the monsters couldn't hear him. He removed the headset and passed it back to Jeremy. "Wow Einstein... if you aren't careful, you're gonna make this TOO EASY!"
"Wishful thinking, Odd." Jeremy said as he took the controls back. "Aelita... I'm sending you onboard. I'll materialize you along with the ship when I perform the reset."
"Alright." Aelita said from within the tower.
"Energize." Jeremy pressed enter as Aeltia faded out of her place in the tower. A moment later, she found herself on the ship's bridge. The bridge was large and spacious. It had five seats, three of which had computer terminals with various functions. The fourth and front most seat was equipped with flight controls for the ship... although they would only need to be used in emergency situations. She had programmed the scripts for the auto-pilot herself. Gleaming white and silver was the dominant color motiff, except the seats, which were apholstered with blue fabric. "How's it look? Did we forget anything?" Jeremy asked her.
"No... everything's in place except for the components we're going to link in during the materialization." Aelita told him. The fifth seat with no computer would eventually house the supercomputer terminal Jeremy was currently sitting at. Along the back wall of the bridge were three empty slots for the scanners, and wiring shafts were present to connect everything to the supercomputer, which was to be housed in a different part of the ship. "What's the time?"
"5:40." Jeremy smiled. "I'll see you in about 10 minutes." Jermey told her as he began to run final checks on the reset program.

"This is so exciting!" Odd grinned as he punched his fist in the air. He stood with Ulrich, Yumi, Millie, Tamir, and Hiroki, and all stared out the skylight at the empty sky. Jeremy was the last one in the lab, ready to launch the program.
"I wonder why this is going so smoothly..." Yumi muttered. "I was half-expecting Xana to attack us one last time before we could get out of here."
"Jeez... don't jinx us." Ulrich muttered. Then, without warning, everything went black. Unlike the return to the past, which was characterized by a blinding flash of light, reseting reality gave the illusion that the light's had simply been shut off. It was something the original members has experienced once before, when Franz Hopper had reset reality to bring the whole world back to life after Xana killed everyone with his endgame attack. An instant later, when they could see again, they saw the ship hovering about 50 feet above the factory ceiling.
"Cool..." Hiroki said with awe as they all stared up at it.
"So what happens now? Does Aelita beam us up or something?" Odd asked Ulrich.
"Not exactly." Jeremy said as he stepped out of the elevator. "Everyone get in. I extended the elevator shaft..." They glanced at him curiously for a moment, and then stepped into the elevator with their luggage. The elevator then began not to descend, but to ascend up towards the ceiling. The elevator passed the old boundary of the ceiling and continued it's smooth decent upward. Although he couldn't see through the elevator walls, Ulrich could feel the unnerving sense of height as they gained altiude. Odd noticed the look of discomfort on his face.
"Hey... Ulrich... how's your aggro? You gonna be able to handle LIVING at 10,000 feet?" Odd asked him cockily.
"Shut up Odd..." Ulrich growled at him.
"I'm sure you'll get used to it." Yumi re-assured him with a pat on the back, just as the elevator came to a stop. The door to the elevator rose up in front of them, revealing about a foot gap between the exit portal and the hovering ship. The door on the bottom was open, and Aelita stood inside the doorway, waving to them. Jeremy grabbed his pack and quickly stepped across the gap, being careful not to look down.
"Welcome aboard, Captain." Aelita joked to him, and Jeremy smiled in response.
"Did all the components transfer properly?" Jeremy asked as Odd and the three younger members hesitantly stepped onboard.
"Yes. For once, everything worked flawlessly." Aelita smiled.
"Alright... let's go to the bridge for now." Jeremy gestured down a corridor which he and Aelita began to walk, and the other followed, breaking into their own conversations. Odd's cell phone then rang. and he answered it without a thought.
"Hello?"
"Della Robia!" He heard Jim's voice yell through the line.
"Jim!" Odd squeaked with surprise. "Uh... how did you get this number?"
"I dunno. For some reason, you programmed it onto my cell phone before you gave it back to me." Jim told him. Odd cringed. He had thought the pink phone with floral wallpaper he had found in the cafeteria to belong to Asra, the girl he had currently been chasing. He had programmed his number into it to get her to call him, but the phone turned out to belong to Jim. "But that's not the point!" Jim interrupted his thought. "Where the hell are all of you? You and you're whole gang played hooky today, and I want some answers! Now talk!"
"Um... well..." Odd started to reply as he fell back from the rest of the group. "We're... on a plane."
"What?!" Jim exclaimed. "Just where do you think you're going? Who gave you premission?"
"Uh... I dunno." Odd answered. "Look Jim. I'll tell you the reason we're always dissapearing on you, OK?"
"Alright, let's have it."
"We're superheroes." Odd said simply. There was dead silence from the other end of the line, but after a few seconds, he responded.
"That is the craziest thing I've heard since my uncle Felipe ran away to a nunnery!" Jim yelled louder than ever before.
"Well, if it's that crazy Jim, it must be true!" Odd replied with a chuckle. "Look... just make sure you're in front of a TV set a 6 o'clock. It'll make sense then." Odd told him as he hung up, and then turned his phone off. He rushed to catch up with the group, who was now at the bridge door. "Hey Jeremy... you may need to change my phone number." He then turned to Millie and Tamir. "Hey girls, did you know that Jim has an uncle who lives in a nunnery?"

Jeremy sat down at his new terminal (which had a much more comfortable chair, by the way) and flipped on the news feed, glancing at the clock, which displayed 5:55 PM.
"Alright. I need everyone on Lyoko to de-activate the tower Xana's about to activate. I'm also going to hijack his broadcast signal by activating my own tower. I'll also need you to be on guard in case he tries to take over that one." The classic lyoko warriors nodded, while the new one's seemed dumb-struck. "Hiroki, you go with them to Lyoko. You two, I need you to look this over." He said as he handed Millie a script he had written for his own broadcast. "See anything wrong with it?" He asked over his shoulder as he started up a virtualization to the ice sector, where the tower had been activated in the previous broadcasts. Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita stepped awkwardly into the scanners, which were now angled back, so that they had to lean back into them and lie on the scanner's back wall. He virtualized them next to the tower that was about to activate. He then set up to virtualize Yumi and Hiroki to the tower he was about to send online. Hiroki glanced warily into the cabin from which Ulrich had just dissapeared into thin air.
"It's OK. See you in a minute." Yumi told him encouragingly as she stepped into her scanner and lay down. Hiroki gulped, and then stepped in to another. Without warning, Jeremy closed the cabins and virtualized them.
"We have some revisions..." Mille tapped on Jeremy's shoulder as he wielded his script in one hand a pen in her other.

On Lyoko, Hiroki made the customary face-first landing that one had come to expect from a first trip to Lyoko. Yumi sized up his Lyoko form. His black hair was in more dissarray than usual, and he had gained a facial marking, a moon shaped blue tattoo beneath his right eye. He wore a green sleeveless shirt, white pants, and a long white scarf. The scarf was so long, it trailed at his feet, nearly dragging on the ground. A black kanji was emroidered on it's end, but it's anyone's guess what it meant (except for Hiroki and Yumi of course). As Hiroki got up, he stared with awe at his new clothing, and more so when he saw Yumi's unique outfit.
"Wow..." Hiroki said with some pleasure. "So what do we do now?" He asked his sister.
"We kill those." Yumi said casually as she drew a fan and used it to point to a couple of blocks, creepers, and a krabe that we approaching from behind the rock formation in the desert. "We have to defend this tower. Do you have a weapon?" Yumi asked.
"Just this." Hiroki reached for the swiss army knife he had been carrying when he was virtualzied, and instead found it replaced by a lenthy, silver stilleto.
"That'll do." Yumi stepped forward towards the monster. "Don't worry... even if you get shot, you won't actually get hurt. It IS like a videogame." She reassured him before flinging her fans and starting the brawl.

In the Ice Sector, Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita had already dispatched the monsters... and Aelita had entered the tower.
"I'm set to de-activate the tower Jeremy." She told him.
"Alright... but wait for my signal." Jermey told her. They had to let Xana broadcast enough of his message first to give them some credence. The message was exactly the same as before.

"These "children" have been hiding me from you for years now. Only by shear luck have they succedded in this. But as of now... the rules are void. Now come... children. Let's see how well you can fight me... without your precious secret!" The voice finished and began to laugh.
"Alright Aelita, kill it." Jermey told her. Aelita pressed her hand to the plate and deactivated the tower. The screen on which Xana had been broadcasting cut to white snow, and Jermey pressed another key. A countdown window appeared to activate the desert tower. Jeremy quickly turned to face a camera which Tamir had just finished setting up on a tri-pod and then connected to the computer. He looked over the script one last time... and then took a deep breath as the feed on all the TVs cut to him.

"My name is Jeremy Belpois. I am the leader of the Lyoko warriors... the secret group that has been fighting the war against Xana for these last three years. Everything Xana just told you is true. Xana has full intent to kill you... and to be honest... he already succeed once... but that involves a complicated bit to time travel I won't get into right now. My point is, Xana's forced our hand. Taking this war into the open is the safest option here. I can't divulge too much information right now. I'll be releasing more information in the near future... and I promise to explain everything to you when that time comes. To the nations of the world... do not attempt to fight Xana on your own. He has powers and resources you cannot even begin to understand. However... if you wish to stand with us against Xana... we willingly except your help. If you do not want to help us... then please simply stay out of our way. We Lyoko warriors... and our ship... are now an independent state... not bound by the laws or codes of any country or other entity. We will continue to fight Xana... to protect this world and all who inhabit it. Watch the nets for more information as we see fit to release it." The feed was cut. The message was short and to the point. But he knew, despite his warnings... too many people were going to get involved in this. In the old days... fighting Xana had been like working an equation. All you had to do was solve for a couple of variables. But now... there were hundreds... no, thousands of variables to deal with... and no stone-set rules to follow to find them. He deactivated his tower without giving Xana a chance to take it over, and then queded his team-mates for materialization.

And, around the world... the reaction began.

Infinte Crisis - Chapter 1 - END

very good one thing is the ending song from Deathnote

my glasses are broked... it burns!!!! burning_eyes

other than the pain i feel now, that was awsome!!!! xd

By the way, this isn't a finished chapter. It's just a half.

Now, I'm interested to hear your speculations about Asten...

i thought noob was spelled N-O-O-B. 1337 speak must've upgraded again mad

when next one

if william is xana's slave, i think asten is william's new slave.

or

i.. omg.. asten, saten, wow... is asten like a demon or something?
asten saten
asten satain

"So far so good..." Ulrich muttered as he reached into the frozen food case at the supermarket in town. They had been able to walk right in, grab a cart, and go about shopping. They hadn't even been noticed.. not even glanced at twice, and that was a good thing. Keeping a low profile was the most important thing right now. Of course... having left the Skid in the park, force-field or no forcefield, they would have a hard time getting out. Someone would find it soon, if not already.
"That should be everything..." Yumi said as she dumped a package of toiler paper into the cart. "Let's check out and get out of here." She pulled the cart from the front towards a register as Ulrich called Jeremy.
"Jeremy... what's the status of the Skid?"
"As expected... there's a police barricade around it already. They've been trying to get close, but the force field's working as I expected. When you're ready to reboard, call me again. We'll bring the ship down low to scare them off and give you an opening to get back onboard. If we have to, I can translate someone down there to distract them."
"Sound's good. Everything's still good on our end... so that sounds like it just might work. Give us about 10 more minutes, and we'll be back in the park."
"Sounds good." Jeremy hung up, and Ulrich returned the phone to his pocket. He then noticed that their cashier was staring at them intently. Clearly... he was the first one to have recognized them.
"You two... you're from the..." The boy said to them nervously. Yumi and Ulrich grimaced at having been noticed. The boy had light brown hair, about the same length as Jeremy's, but with a less defined style. Beneath the dark blue vest that was the store's uniform, he wore a light blue shirt and jeans, with brown shoes. His brown eyes stared at them intently. "... lyoko warriors." He finished his sentence.

"... yeah..." Ulrich said hesitantly, as if it was no big deal. It was the only thing he could think of to do at the moment. The boy, whose name tag indicated his name was "Matt Clow", simply stared at them for a minute or so. Yumi glanced at the clock on her phone.
"Uh... are you going to ring this up or not?" She asked impatiently. Matt snapped from his trance and turned away from them towards the register keyboard.
"Sorry! Sorry! Right away!" He began to hastily ring up the groceries. As he rang, he tried to converse with them. "So, why are you guys here? Where's your ship? What's going on with..."
"Whoa! Slow down!" Ulrich stopped him. "Look... we can't tell an outsider like you anything. I would figure you'd know that."
"Yeah... but, I just wanna know what's going on." Matt told them. "Everybody does. Those broadcasts were really vague..."
"Jeremy's going to be releasing more information to the public when he thinks the time is right." Yumi told him. "And we don't have any intention of messing that up. So just move it along, will ya?"
"Alright..." Matt muttered apologetically. Ulrich's phone then rang.
"Jeremy?" Ulrich answered.
"Ulrich... thing's are getting hot. The deep scan has detected an activated tower on a replika."
"Damn. What's Xana doing with it?"
"I don't know... I'm tracing the specter's frequency to try and figure that out, but it's still a new thing." Jeremy said. "Regardless... I need you to get back to the Skid and back on the ship as soon as possible, so I can re-virtualize the Skid and we can disarm that tower. How long do you think it's going to take?"
"Probably about 15 minutes. It'll take us at least that long to get back to the park... and then we have to break through the barricade..." An instant later, their visions went black for an instant... both in the store and on the ship. When the light returnted, Ulrich blinked. "Jeremy, did you feel that?!"
"Yeah!" Jeremy exclaimed as he immediately dropped everything, seeing the activated tower window de-activate. "Xana just launched a reset reality."

Odd leapt off his overboard onto the floor of the ice sector, near the new activated tower that went online after the reset. It was in Lyoko, rather than the replika, so Jeremy had immediately sent Odd, Aelita, Hiroki, and Tamir in to take it out... although it's still unclear for what purpose this tower had been activated. Tamir leapt off her own overboard, and plunged one of her Katal into the weak point of a krabe, and then leapt off before it exploded.
"Yes!" She grinned before turning towards the other monsters. Her oufit on Lyoko was a pair of white pants with sandals, and a yellow sleeveless shirt with a zipper down the front and a loose collar. Her weapons were a pair of blades that had a hilt perpendicular to the blade. They were very antiquated weapons, but were well suited for dance-like attacks. Hiroki plunged his stilleto into a kankralot, as the two veterans dispatched a pair of tarantulas with ease.
"Too easy..." Odd aimed his laser at the last remaning monster, a blok, and fired, knocking it out. Odd yawned childishly. "I mean... William didn't even show up..."
"He's not coming today." Aelita spun around and formed an energy field, surprised by the unfamiliar voice that she heard from behind her. "I've been told not to let you pass." The black haired boy stood between them and the tower. He wore a jumpsuit very similar to William's but with a slightly different pattern. It's color was a mixture of black and a very dark purple, but there was no Xana mark on his chest, it was on his back instead. On his head, he wore a silver headset with a brain stem mouthpiece, as well as a black lens that fell over his right eye. He seemed to be unarmed. They all stared at him with curiosity.
"Odd... you know this joker?" Hiroki asked.
"Nope... never seen him before." Odd told them.
"Did Xana make him?" Aelita asked herself rhetorically.
"NO ONE MADE ME!" The boy shouted at them with rage. "I just owe him a favor is all..." He held his hand in front of him and black smoke began to materialize a weapon. The form it took at first appeared to be a staff, but when he grabbed it in the center, it fully materialized, revealing it to be a double saber. He twirled it skillfully and rushed at them.

"ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THIS?!?!" Ulrich yelled as he clinged to his seat for dear life, as Matt's van rushed them towards the park.
"Yeah, it's fine!" He told them as the van flew off the ground for a few seconds after hitting a bump. "I told my boss I was taking my break!"
"I meant the speeding!" Ulrich yelled over the roar of the engine as he glanced at the speedometer, which was buried in the high 70s. Yumi yelped from behind him as another large bump jostled them again.
"Do you even have a lisence?!" She shouted up to him.
"No." Matt said quietly. The van was white, and the back of it contained the equivilant of a tiny apartment. There was a small, bunsen burner type range that could be used for cooking, as well as a microwave. There was a tiny bed that folded out from the wall, and a small TV screen mounted in a corner. The floorboards were full of storage for everything else. "I was given this van as a place to live... so I've only barely driven it before..."
"Place to live?" Ulrich asked. "If you don't drive it, then how do you get to your job?"
"I live in the van, which is parked in the parking lot. I walk to work."
"So you're homeless?" Yumi asked with some surprise.
"Basically." Matt responded mellowly, but was clearly displeased with the direction of the conversation. "Hold on!" Matt shouted as he turned to sharply into the entrance of the parking lot for the park. Ulrich pulled out his phone.
"Jermey, we're coming up on the Skid! Time for distraction!"
"Alright..." Jeremy replied from his captain's chair. "Millie! Bring the ship down by Skid!" She glanced at him awkwardly.
"Um... I don't know how to fly this thing..." Mille said awkwardly. Jeremy gulped as he realized the flaw in the plan. Aelita was the pilot... and she was busy on Lyoko. Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd also had SOME flight experience from the Navskids, but they were both indisposed. So, the only one left was... he gulped again. He was sorely lacking in flight experience. He had piloted the Skid once... and that was it. Aelita was the one who knew how to do a tricky manuever like that.
"Uh... guys... we've got a problem here." He said to both the Lyoko and ground teams.

The fight on Lyoko was not going very well. Their new enemy was not only very fast, and Odd and Aelita didn't have weapons very well suited for blocking the rapid and varied blows of the double saber, and Hiroki and Tamir were too inexperienced to do well. This boy clearly had combat experience before this.
"Aelita! Listen, I've got a plan!" Jeremy called over the intercom. "I'm going to translate you back here to the bridge. I need you to pilot for a minute or two. I'm also going to translate Odd down to the ground to distract the police who are blocking Ulrich and Yumi's path to the Skid. I'll send Millie to Lyoko so that the three of them can hold this guy off until you get back and deactivate the tower."
"Sounds a little complicated, but it'll do Einstein." Odd responded. "Just tell me who to shoot at."
"Hiroki, Tamir, I'm sending Millie to help you out. Odd and Aelita will be back in a few minutes if everything goes right."
"And if everything doesn't go right?!" Hiroki shouted to him as he used his knife to block a fierce slash.
"Then we're pretty much screwed. Translation, Odd. Translation, Aelita. Virtualiztion, Millie."

"Hold on! I'm gonna ram the barricade!" Matt shouted to them.
"No, wait!" Yumi shouted to him. "This thing run's on gas right?!"
"Yeah."
"Gas explodes you know!" Ulrich lunged over him and slammed on the break, and the van spun out and fell on it's side just short of a head on collission with the police cars. "What were you thinking?!" He shouted at the timid boy. Matt gasped for breath, surprised.
"I... I guess... I wasn't thinking..." He muttered. Policemen behind the cars drew out their guns and aimed at the overturned van.
"Get out of the vehicle!!" A policeman shouted. Ulrich groaned as he helped Yumi out of the overturned van, forced to abandon the supplies they had been trying to run. Matt wouldn't leave the vehicle though... he was struggling to reach a silver chain hanging on a hook near the bed, which had been ejected out of it's wall. He groaned as he struggled for it. "Out of the van!" One of the officer's who had circled around aimed his gun at Matt through the windshield, thinking he was reaching for a weapon. A second later, a bolt of energy shot out from the vicinity of the Skid, blasting the gun out of the officer's hand.
"Jeez officer... what's the big idea, pointing guns at kids?" A cocky, almost mousy voice shouted to the whole police force... it belonged to the purple cat-man who had appeared from no where between the officer's and the Skid, aiming his wrist at them. One of the younger officer's stared at the strange, "mutant" youth with fear and aprehension.
"Ahhhhh... ALIEN CAT!" He cried and opened fire with his handgun.
"Shield!" Odd raised his hand and a barrier formed around him, the bullets deflected. "I resent that you know! I'm way more handsome than some alien!" Odd glanced over at Ulrich without lowering this shield. "What are you waiting for you two?! Get into the force-field!" Ulrich spun around and pryed Matt out of his van, Matt had the silver chain he'd been struggling for clutched in his fist.
"C'mon!" Ulrich dragged him out into the veritable battle that had broken out. "Yumi!" He shouted to her, gesturing for her to follow... she had been distracted with dealing a round-house kick to an officer who had tried to grab her.

Tamir found herself disarmed as Asten spun his double-saber after locking it's points within the hilts of her Katal, sending them flying off in two opposite directions. She tried to back away, but Asten advanced on her too quickly... she found herself devirtualized and back on the bridge the next time she blinked. Asten turned away from Tamir's fading wireframe and turned towards Hiroki, spinning his blade like a show-off. Hiroki held his stilleto with both hands.
"Alright... who the @#$% are you!?" He demanded.
"Asten." He said. "And is it necessary that you swear?" He advanced towards him slowly, pointing one of his sword ends at him. "I'm guessing your next question is why I'm working for this Xana guy..." He swung, but Hiroki blocked it, and they entered a saberlock. "I honestly don't know... I guess I'm just a victim of circumstance." He broke the saberlock by withdrawing his upper blade, but swung up with the lower blade, sending Hiroki's knife far out of his grasp. "But oh well..." He raised his blade above his head.

An instant later, a silver chain wrapped around Asten's neck and his blade, halting his blow. Asten was forced to drop his doublesaber as he grasped at the chain, trying to free it from his neck. Hiroki stared with amazement at Asten's attacker. Millie, wearing a white and green jumpsuit, stood on a small ice formation, yanking back on the chain with barred teeth as if she was struggling to pull in a massive fish. The chain was locked in place around Asten's neck by a small chain link made of energy that resembled Aelita's energy fields.
"Way to go Millie!" Hiroki cheered as he stepped out of the way and picked up his weapon again. Asten whipped around to see his attacker and gasped for breath. It was when he saw her, that he broke free, the energy link breaking like a piece of bread. He dove down onto his doublesaber, grabbed it, and then stared up at Millie, teeth barred and eyes leering.
"RED... HAIR!!!" Asten growled as he leapt into the air, at the peak of his jump, he shadowstepped to the right, landing on Hiroki's shoulder, and leaping off it, spinning his weapon like a plane propeller as he lunged at Millie, screaming like a maniac...

"Laser Arrows!!!" Odd laid a spread of arrows from both wrists at the officers, long enough to make them withdraw behind their cars. Ulrich, Yumi, and Matt managed to sprint by in the gap, and got within the force field's boundaries. Odd did a backward's sommersault into the force-field zone as well. "Well?" Odd asked to Ulrich.
"Thanks." Ulrich said as he drew a quick breath, panting from the rush they just had to make.
"No, not that! Who the heck is this guy?!" Odd asked as he waved his arms franctially.
"He wouldn't stop following us." Yumi told him coldly. "We didn't have any choice but to bring him along."
"We can take him on board for now... we'll just drop him off somewhere later." Ulrich reassured him. "Besides... we..." Ulrich was cut off by the massive gush of wind he heard from over head, as the airship swooped down over them, sending the officer's scrambling away from the Skid for good. The ship hovered several dozen feet above them, the roar making it impossible to hear.
"Recovery... Odd." Jeremy keyed a sequence and Odd dissapeared from their side. "Aelita! Bring them up with the tractor beam." Jeremy instructed.
"Uh... Jeremy... the tractor beam isn't functional yet." Aelita muttered almost with a smile as Jeremy then banged his head on the console. Maybe he wasn't cut out for this. None of them were.
"Alright you guys, get back in the Skid..." Jeremy said into the console... then remembered that the people he was trying to talk to weren't on Lyoko. He brought up the phone app, called Ulrich, and repeated the message.

"Millie!!!" Hiroki threw his knife at Asten as he fell backwards, having been used as a kickboard for his shadowstep. It missed, but there wasn't anything else he could do at the time. Millie leapt out of the way, avoiding the initial lunge of Asten, but he quickly touched down and turned on a dime, diving at her again, and this time phasing out her mid-section with a slash from his saber. With Millie knocked on her back, Asten drew back his saber again, ready to plunge it at her, but it was shot out of his hand by a barrage of arrows.
"Jeez! What is it with people picking on the newbies today?" Odd shouted at Asten sarcastically as Aelita appeared from thin air next to him, charging up an energy field. Asten's sword lay several feet away from him, out of reach even with a shadowstep... he would be hit by someone before he could get to it. The four had him surrounded, all aiming readied weapons at him, Millie's chain having gained a small spiked ball made of energy. He gritted his teeth as he glanced behind him.
"Alright... I'm no fool... I know when I'm beat." Asten put his hands at his sides. "Supersmoke." He muttered quietly, and his body instantly disperesed into black smoke, and then shot off in twenty different directions, effectively dissapearing.
"WIMP!" Odd shouted at the dissipating smoke. Aelita shook her head, and then headed for the tower, with the others in following her, although there were no more monsters.

"Alright, get in, ya free loader." Yumi said to Matt as she gestured to a nav-skid cockpit as Ulrich got into the pilot seat. Matt eyed the strangely shaped craft warily.
"Is it safe?"
"Are you questioning our technology?" Ulrich leapt out of the pilots seat and back to the ground. He grabbed Asten's arm and shoved him towards one of the pods. "C'mon ya wimp..." Matt looked behind him warily, looking at his trashed vehicle and home. Yumi replaced Ulrich in the cockpit and de-activated the force field to prepare for departure. As the blurry transparent wall of the forcefield lifted, a figure Matt had noticed now became clear. A man in a black suit with sunglasses was aiming a sniper rifle at them. He saw a clint of red on the sunglasses, as the figure ducked down and took aim.
"Get down!" Matt shouted as he shoved Ulrich to the ground... but the momentum of his shove wound up carrying him into Ulrich's place. A shot rang out... and Matt cried out in pain, falling to the ground of topic of Ulrich. A quick glance at the sniper-specter gave Ulrich the sudden realization of what had just happened, as warm blood flowed from Matt's chest just above his heart and onto his jacket.
"Matt!" Ulrich shouted to no real purpose as he ripped off his jacket and wrapped it around his wound to try and slowthe bleeding. Yumi also saw the specter, and couldn't do anything to stop it at this distance. It took aim again... this time at her. Aelita entered the tower on the Lyoko and began to ascend. The specter tightened it's finger around the trigger. Then... before it pulled the trigger, a barrage of shots rang out, striking the specter and knocking it's aim askew before it could fire. Yumi's head whipped to the right, able to see only the vague outlines of three figures, all firing guns at the specter. The identities of these three was unknown... she could not see any of their traits (they were all wore hoodies, with their hoods drawn)... only their outlines against the setting sun... although the foremost one, who was advancing on the specter while firing, seemed to be familliar. Aelita entered Code Lyoko, and the specter, which had been pinned down under the three's heavy gunfire, dissipated like a wisp. They all stopped firing and dropped their weapons to their sides. Below Yumi, Ulrich had just managed to load Matt into a skid pod, and was boarding himself.
"Yumi! Let's go!" Ulrich shouted.
"Who are they?" Yumi muttered as she squinted at the figures who had now turned and were simply staring at them.
"Yumi, he's gonna bleed to death! Go!" Ulrich shouted. Yumi shook her head to shake this feeling of curiosity that was clouding her judgement.
"Hold on!" She shouted as he threw the skid into an ascent, tip first, headed back for the ship.

As the three stared at the rising ship, one of the figures removed his hood. He was about the same age as the Lyoko warriors. He had jet black hair which he wore in the "emo-rock" style, with his bangs covering his left eye.
"Hey! You're not even going after them!?" He exclaimed to the leader, the one who had been advancing on the specter.
"No. Not yet."
"I don't get it." The emo-rock boy asked him. "I thought that's why we're here."
"Actually this wasn't planned." The leader told him. "We just happened to be here at just the right time."
"So are we going to do something or not?"
"No... we've just got a few more loose ends to tie up before we talk to them." The leader turned to them. "Let's get out of here before thing's get any more dicey." He pointed a hand at the police officers, who were now hesitantly returning to the scene. "Scatter... and meet up at my place."
"Right." The emo-rock boy and the other hooded figure said in unison, revealing her to be female. The three took off in complete opposite directions, with impressive speed for unaugmented humans.

"Jeremy, we're coming back, but we've got a wounded civilian! Use the return!" Jeremy's mouth gaped... they still didn't have enough power built back up. Resetting reality used way more energy than the return to the past... it would be at least a full day before they could do it, and it had actually only been a few hours.
"We can't." Jermey told him desperately. "There isn't enough power..."
"The recovery program!" Ulrich exclaimed, referring to the program Zaber had developed, which allowed them to use the scanners to heal physical wounds. "If we scan him, we can use the recovery program to heal him!" Jeremy cringed again.
"We can't do that either." Jeremy told him. "When Franz reset reality before, it wiped the program out of existence, just like the mobile scanners."
"Can't you re-create it?"
"Not on this short of a notice..." Jermey moaned. "Zaber created that program anyways... and since I never did get the chance to look at the code, I wouldn't even know how to start...."
"Dammit Jeremy, you're the leader! Now do something!" Ulrich shouted at him angrily, as Matt began to breath heavily, crying in pain, clutching his chest wound. "He's gonna die!"
"Who's gonna die?" Odd asked as he stepped out of his scanner, with Millie and Aelita materializing alongside him.
"This is no time for joke's Odd!" Tamir scolded him, having been present for the whole conversation.
"We can take him to a hospital." Yumi suggested.
"No... the nearest one's 10 minutes away even with the Skid... with a wound like that, he won't last five." Jeremy told her, staring at the grim severity of the wound using a camera in the Skid. "Oh no... what do we do? No one here knows how to do first aid and surgery and all that stuff!" He exclaimed with frustration as the Skid docked in the hanger and Yumi and Ulrich rushed towards the bridge, carrying Matt between them.
"Jeremy..." Aelita put her hand on his shoulder. "There is... one thing we could try... although I don't know if it will work..." Jeremy glanced at her, a mixture of curiosity and distress on his face.
"What's that?" He asked her.
"Code Angel." She responded.

Infinite Crisis - Code 2 - END.

SPECULATION SUGGESTIONS!!!

1. Matt... does he have a backstory of any relevance?

2. Xana's Reset... just what did he create... or what did he erase?

3. Asten... what's his backstory?

4. The Cloaked Figures... who are they... and how do they already know about Xana and the Lyoko Warriors? (This one is so fricking obvious.)

Have Fun.