It was only 7:30 when Jeremy's alarm rang. The boy knew he should not have spent his night working, but they were so close to finally deleting XANA he could not get much sleep anyways.
JEREMY - Aelita is definitely berating me if I don't get up right now.
Jeremy quickly put on his shoes, the only article of clothing he actually had time to remove before he felt asleep, and head down to the cafeteria.
He could hear his friends talking when he arrived near the table.
AELITA - I think I like the forest best. Don't really know why, but it speaks to me, and I feel life in it, somehow, which is quite unique. Also all of the trees can be very useful to trick XANA.
YUMI - I like the mountain best, just because of the tranquility and calm you can feel in there.
ULRICH - Yeah, I get what you mean. Still like the desert best, don't know why but speeding through it on my overbike feels so empowering and cool.
ODD - I'm sorry but nothing beats the slide in the ice sector.
AELITA - You sure enjoyed that slide more than I did. What about you William ?
WILLIAM - Eh, I don't really have a sector I particularly like. I just kind of feel uneasy in sector 5, it brings back bad memories.
AELITA - Yeah, of course, sorry.
WILLIAM - Nah, it's fine don't worry about it.
JEREMY - Hello, looks like you guys are having fun.
Jeremy was just making a joke, though he was a bit mad that his friends did not even notice he was here, as he's been standing here for almost a minute now.
AELITA - Hello Jeremy. Did you sleep well ?
JEREMY - As well as I could hope with the little time I had.
YUMI - You slept with your clothes on again ?
ODD - At least this time he did sleep.
JEREMY - Anyways, I have been working on taking down XANA, we have never been so close.
ULRICH - You should work on taking down your breakfast, we have history class in five minutes Einstein.
Jeremy quickly ate his breakfast (with Odd's help) and the friends quickly rushed to class.
After two long hours about Napoleon, Jeremy checked his computer during the break.
The superscan was agitated, as four little screens popped up, with four different towers.
Everyone, this is serious. XANA is attacking, I don't know what he is planning yet, but he activated 4 towers, we need to go right now.
As they were rushing through the park and in the sewers to get to the factory Yumi asked :
YUMI - Four ? Since when is XANA able to do that ?
JEREMY - I don't know, but he shouldn't be able to.
AELITA - Maybe if he parallelises the tower control program ? That's what we used to activate the four towers to save the skid.
JEREMY - Yeah, but XANA uses a different interface that can not be multithreaded, which require your authentication, remember ?
AELITA - I know, but what if he did not this time ? How else could he activate four towers at once ?
JEREMY - I don't know Aelita. We'll be fixed when we arrive anyways.
ODD - And, all of that, what does it mean ?
AELITA - It means you might be able to deactivate towers as well this time. All of you.
ODD - Great news, at least we'll be able to do this quickly and be back for lunch.
ULRICH - You really never think about anything else, do you ?
ODD - Can't fight XANA on an empty stomach Ulrich, you should know that much
When the six friends reached the factory, jeremy quickly checked.
JEREMY - Aelita, you were right. I'm sending you all to a sector, and keeping William in backup until we figure out what XANA is doing. Is it all right with you ?
Nobody objected. Even William who didn't like staying there, as he knew no one wanted to say it, but everyone was a bit scared of him going to lyoko alone. And that included himself.
OK, I'm virtualising you on your favorite sectors, you'll be the most able to fight there.
After a few commands, everyone was on their sector.
JEREMY - I've never dealt with so many people to help at once, so I'll probably be fairly slow, and I also need to figure out XANA's attack, so don't rely on me too much, OK ?
ULRICH - Roger Jeremy.
YUMI - Understood.
AELITA - Very well, good luck everyone.
ODD - Can we at least have our vehicles and directions Einstein ?
JEREMY - Yep, they are on their way, all of your towers are to the north, except for aelita, her tower is to the east. Good luck everyone.
AELITA - Thanks Jeremy, we're on our way.
On the ice sector, a few hornets notice Odd and start chasing him.
ODD - Oh, great, XANA got the message we were coming.
Odd rushes away from the hornets, and runs away to a small ice cave. Once he saw the hornets were coming after him anyways he decided to go down the slide in front of him on his overboard. At the end of the slide, Odd does a looping on his overboard and shoots the three hornets.
ODD - That was almost too easy.
The tower was just a few meters away, which Odd traveled through without any issues.
ODD - OK Jeremy I'm in the tower, it should be OK soon, I just have to go to the upper platform and type 'lyoko' when asked a code, right ?
JEREMY - Yes, that should be enough with this protocol.
ODD - Great, Einstein, I'm getting at it.
Yumi was travelling through the mountain sector when she saw a group of blocks. Luckily the blocks did not seem to have noticed her. She decided to hide behind a rock for now.
YUMI - OK, there are 4 blocks, what do I do ?
JEREMY - Sorry Yumi I can't really help you right now, I still don't even know what the attack is exactly. I can tell you however that my scans are not detecting anything else between you and the tower of around you.
YUMI - OK Jeremy I'll be fine, don't worry.
Yumi decided to throw her two fans from behind her hiding spot so that she has the time to catch them back before the blocks notice her. Her plan worked perfectly and two of the blocks disappeared in an explosion. She then decided to fly up in the air to be safe from the blocks before her fans came back to her.
The two remaining blocks did not seem to understand where Yumi was, and she used that opportunity to rush to the tower.
YUMI - I'm in the tower Jeremy.
JEREMY - Good job, just enter the code 'lyoko', you should be able to deactivate it like that.
YUMI - Thanks.
Ulrich was driving his overbike at full speed on the desert sector when he noticed two crabs had started to chase after him. They fired a laser at him but he avoided it.
ULRICH - That was too easy.
Then Ulrich saw a ramp a bit farther away. He increased the speed of his bike and took the ramp at full speed. During the jump the two crabs kept rushing to him, and Ulrich threw both of his swords at the crabs, which disappeared in a flash.
ULRICH - I'm at the tower Jeremy, what do I do ?
JEREMY - Great, just go in and type 'lyoko' when prompted a code,since this protocol does not require authentication you should be able to deactivate the tower.
ULRICH - OK, I'm going
Aelita was flying over the forest sector. This is the sector she arrived in first when she was first virtualised. She was daydreaming when she heard a laser to her right. Obviously XANA sent a few kankrelats.
But Aelita was not in the mood to be devitalized, so she just decided to fly higher, and higher, swiftly she danced between the trees, until the kankrelats didn't know where to shoot anymore. That's when Aelita threw three energy fields with perfect precision. The kankrelats will not bother her any more.
JEREMY - Good job Aelita, but be careful, I can see an other monster next to the tower, and it's a scyphozoa, be careful.
AELITA - Thanks Jeremy. Any news on the attack ?
JEREMY - It looks like XANA is using the tower to hide an attack on the skid, I'm sending William over there.
JEREMY - Everyone, as soon as your towers are deactivated, you are going to sector 5. XANA is attacking the skid. I can use my program to activate towers and deal with some of them, but you will need to deal with the rest of the monsters by hand.
ODD - I'm on my way.
ULRICH - Roger Einstein.
YUMI - I'll be there as soon as possible.
AELITA - I deal with the tower and I'm going there.
JEREMY - Be careful Aelita.
AELITA - I will don't worry.
As Aelita got closer to the tower she saw the scyphozoa standing there. She had to be brave, she couldn't let it catch her. Fortunately the scyphozoa didn't notice her.
Aelita kept flying high, as the scyphozoa didn't seem to notice her, then flew quickly diagonally down to the tower, making sure the scyphozoa couldn't see her.
AELITA - Jeremy, I did it. I'm deactivating the tower, but I'm afraid I'll have a hard time exiting the tower after that.
JEREMY - That's fine, I'll need you in the tower to help me activate our program anyways.
AELITA - OK, tower deactivated, I'll wait for you to transmit the codes Jeremy.
JEREMY - I'm on it.
Meanwhile, on sector 5, William was alone, and he needed to protect the skid. He quickly ran to the garage and saw a myriad of creepers.
WILLIAM - OK, let's do this. Jeremy, when are the others coming ?
JEREMY - They just deactivated the towers, they are on their ways, but they won't be here for a while.
WILLIAM - OK, great.
JEREMY - But I should be able to wipe most of the monsters in the room in a few instants. Focus on the monsters the farthest away.
WILLIAM - Roger Jeremy.
William started slicing through a few creepers, until they noticed his presence. At this point, they all started to fire at him. He was able to deflect the shoots and kill a few more creepers but his sword won't last much longer.
AELITA - The code has been transferred, you just need to launch the program from your terminal Jeremy.
JEREMY - You're a life saviour Aelita, thanks.
As Jeremy pressed the enter key, the program was launched, and the skid started shining and sent a huge blast of energy to the room.
At this exact moment, William's sword disappeared.
There was only one creeper left, but William didn't have a weapon any more. It wouldn't matter. He rushed to the creeper's location, deflecting the lasers with his arm protections, and send it flying to the bottom of the room.
JEREMY - Everyone, William cleared the whole room alone, you don't need to be on sector 5 any more, I'm bringing you back home.
WILLIAM - That sector 5 is not that bad in the end.
