Code Lyoko: Reincarnated, twenty years later

Chapter 16- Code XANA

When I came back to my senses, Alex was above me. "Thank God you're awake," I saw him saw. There was a terrible ringing in my ear so all I could hear was inaudible noises. "We found your parents tied up at the hermitage. Are you alright? What happened?"

"Slow down," I managed to say. "Where's Miss Renaud?" He frowned at me slightly. "She's not... dead, is she?"

"She's off the map," he explained. "Just disappeared."

"What?" I said jumping up. "You need to go check this out!"

"What we need to do is deactivate the tower. Uncle Odd, Aunt Aelita, Kyoko and Daze are already on it. Uncle Ulrich is knocked out though." I looked up to the interface. Dad sat in the green chair. I sighed in relief. Thank God he was fine.

As soon as my legs started working, I stood up. "Is everything alright?"

"No." I bit my lip. Dad's reply was too short. I needed to know every detail. "Ruby's completely off the map, and Rick's battling with Yumi upstairs."

"I'll go help him," Alex said. He glanced over to me. "Make sure you tell your dad everything!"

I gulped as I turned toward him. He listened. "XANA activated a tower, so Miss Renaud, Mum and I came here. There were no monsters guarding the tower, but when we deactivated it, a dozen monsters chased us. Then Miss Renaud got caught by this jellyfish, and I got devirtualised!"

"The Scyphozoa?!" Dad questioned.

"Exactly! Then she started moving to the closest tower and somehow activated it!"

"So she's been possessed." I tilted my head in confusion. "This is bad. Aelita? XANA sent a polymorphic sector to look like you, to trap Ruby and Mia in Lyoko. Then, he devirtualised Mia and got hold of Ruby to activate another tower."

"But why?" I heard mum say.

"I wish I knew," Dad muttered. "Either way, XANA is planning something big."

I groaned in annoyance. "Ugh. Can XANA let us breathe for even a second? It's been a hectic day!"

"It'll take any chance it can to take us down," Dad replied. "None of us are in good shape to really try and do anything else. Both physically and mentally."

"Is there anything I can do?" I asked.

"I'm sure XANA has more tricks up his sleeve. We could use Rick and Alex's help." I gave him a nod and ran to the elevator. It went up so I stepped  out. I looked around for the boys but nothing. I went to what I called the Mechanics Chamber, where I'm guessing a lot of robots were made. There, the boys were skilfully dodging the attacks but not attacking. I'm guessing they couldn't, because she was one of the strongest Lyoko Warriors.

I grabbed a piece of metal scrap by my feet, I jumped down, hitting her in the head. She collapsed in front of me. "Go to the lab," I told the boys. "They might need help on Lyoko. I'll take it from here."

"Can you take her by yourself? She's pretty strong."

"And I'm flexible," I commented. "I'm not the smartest, but I am the most agile. Now go!" I urged them to hurry up and they went through the boiler room to the lab. I looked around for anything that would keep her at bay, like wires or something.

She slowly crept up behind me, shocking me and sending a wave of electricity down my spine. I grunted as she dropped me to the floor. "Ugh." I needed to get to the lab.

I lead her to the boiler room and ran down the stairs to get to the ladder at the other end of the room. She jumped and landed right in front of me. I stepped back suddenly. My body felt sore, but I had to keep running. She held out her hand and lightning shot out. I dodged as well as I could.

Soon after, she collapsed. My legs gave away as I fell to the floor to relax. I pulled out my phone from my pocket and called dad. "Hey Dad. Aunt Yumi is here unconscious. Yeah. We're fine. We're in the boiler room. Thanks."

Someone would be coming to drag me back. No one came, so I decided to drag Yumi myself. I managed get to elevator which came up, revealing the whole group. Ulrich took Yumi from me as my shoulders were sore.

No one felt like talking. We were all too tired. Without a word, Daze, Rick and Odd went back to the Academy whilst the others went to their own homes.

I slumped down on my bed, recalling the events of the day. I heard a knock on the door and Ruby peeked in. "Hey. Mind if I crash here for a bit?" I gave her a nod as I sat up. "Crazy day, right?"

"Tell me about it," I muttered. "XANA really likes taking advantage of our misfortune."

"But you won't give up searching for your grandmother, will you?"

I thought for a second. She did have a point. This no longer felt like our adventure, but we started it. This goose chase. "Yeah, I will. Will you help me?"

She smiled softly at me. "Always. For code Lyoko."