Chapter 6 part 2. Daredevil

Shocked Jeremy sat there, glued to the monitor. Standing behind him were William, Jessica and Sissi, who watched Yumi and Ulrich race towards falling Aelita after Aether's sneak attack.
A small tear formed in Jeremy's eye as he realized that this might be the end if they would not catch Aelita. A sudden thought raced through Jeremy's head. What would happen if Aelita did die? After all that’s happened and his promises to protect Aelita no matter what, what would happen if he couldn’t keep it? What would life be like without her? But he couldn’t give in to those thoughts. It was Aelita's birthday and he had to do something. He would rather damn himself to hell than let the sweet young woman who stole his heart vanish.
Jeremy quickly opened up a window and began to type in the codes and commands to materialize Aelita as fast as possible.

“What are you doing?” William asked.

“I... I gotta save Aelita, I have to!” Jeremy said frantically.

“If you bring Aelita back, what about the storm? Who will deactivate the tower?” William said.

“I gotta save her!” Jeremy said as he tried to type in the proper codes in vain.
Sweat dripped off his brow as the small tear landed on the keyboard. Jeremy's finger slipped and an error popped up, making him start the whole thing all over again.
Jeremy sweared to himself as he realized just what was happening. He was panicking. He had never panicked like this before when someone was in trouble.

“Give them a chance. Ulrich and Yumi won't let Aelita fall!” shouted William.

“What happens if they fall into the digital sea?” Jessica asked, unfamiliar with the topic.

“Their data is scattered and it would be impossible to find them. We barely found Yumi once and that was a spur of the moment thing.” Jeremy said as he restarted the materializing procedure.
The program was ready. All Jeremy had to do was hit the Enter key. His index finger shook above the key as he observed Aelita and Yumi's movements on the screen. He could save his girlfriend with one little move... but chose to wait in hesitation.

“Calm down. Aelita's in good hands. If you bring her back now, Yumi and Ulrich will have a hard time getting through the collapsing platform.” William argued.

Jessica walked over to Jeremy's side and placed her hand on the chair of the computer. She tried her best to gather the bespectacled teens' attention. But it was clear that the only thing on Jeremy's mind right now was rescuing Aelita.

“Can you bring all three in?” she asked.

“I can't! There's not enough time.” Jeremy said as he slammed his fists into the chair.

“I’m telling you to calm down...Yumi and Ulrich will catch her!” William said.

“And if they don’t? If something happens? What if they fall in as well? What then, William? What?!”

A small hand reached up and stopped Jeremy from raising his voice again. The bespectacled teen turned to see a concerned Sissi looking at Jeremy with sympathy.

“They'll save Aelita. Don’t worry. Have faith.” Sissi said in a calming tone.

Jeremy removed his shaky hands from the keyboard as he placed his faith back into Yumi. Yet he still instinctively wanted to save his girlfriend. He wanted to ignore everything and bring Aelita to safety. If he did manage to save Aelita, what would happen to Yumi, who was so close to saving her? Would she fall into the digital sea instead? And how would it affect the situation on Earth? Could they risk not deactivating the tower and letting the storm rage?
It had been long since Jeremy was so frightened and powerless.

Yumi came within a few feet of Aelita. Her friend's body tumbled in the air like a leaf as they quickly approached the digital sea.

“Aelita! WAKE UP!!!” Yumi shouted as she extended her left arm.
Her hand could only scrape past Aelita's leg. Every time she reached for Aelita, she would fail to make contact and secure her. Yumi reached out once more and stretched her arm out as far as she could. She could feel her fingertips lightly slide past Aelita's leg. Yumi reached out even more and finally felt her palm close around her ankle.
“I got you!”

A sudden dark shadow over shadowed Yumi as she looked up in time to see a large piece of the platform come hurtling down towards her. Yumi let go of Aelita's leg and tilted the Over-sled handle bars to avoid the massive object. As soon as the rock had passed both of them, Yumi noticed she wasn’t close enough to grab her.

Ulrich accelerated towards the two teens who were approaching the large glittering mass that was the digital sea. Both girls were only a few yards away from the surface and closing fast. It looked like Yumi wouldn’t be able to catch Aelita in time. He cringed at the idea of what would happen.

Yumi closed the distance between her and Aelita once more; the determined Yumi reached out once more in an attempt to once again grab Aelita. As she reached out to grab her friend once more, a laser shot sailed right past them. Yumi glanced up in time to locate the source of the laser.

A free falling Krab fell directly above them. The monster tumbled through the air, occasionally firing a shot when it had the two humans in its sight. Yet every time the monster fired, the laser shot missed.
Yumi instinctively pulled back a bit to avoid one of the lasers that came far too close for comfort. As soon as Yumi did, she realized that she was no longer close enough to Aelita. And there was not enough time to grab the poor girl before she fell into the unforgiving sea.

“NOOO!” Yumi shouted.

Suddenly, a blue and white beam raced past Yumi down towards Aelita with incredible speed. It finally wrapped around Aelita's waist like a lasso. Aelita's body stopped free falling as she dangled in midair. Yumi glanced up to see Ulrich holding position right above them. His arm dangled off the side of the Over-Bike as he tried to keep Aelita steady. His position was unbalanced due to Over-Bike's tilt and the added weight of his unconscious friend.

A loud growl came from above the scene as a swarm of Hornets approached the 3 teens. Their small stinger like cannons glowed as they prepared to attack.

“Hurry up and grab her!” Ulrich shouted as he glanced back down at Yumi.

The Hornets unleashed a barrage of laser fire. Thin, glass-like bolts of energy ripped through the air like a high speed train. As the Hornets approached Ulrich, a bolt of lightning flashed, hitting one of the Hornets dead on and causing a second Hornet who was close to the scene to explode from the feedback of the electricity. Ulrich quickly turned around to see the Overboard with two warriors on it, flying towards them.

“Pretty sweet, huh?” Odd asked.

“Sweet?! This is crazy!!!” Puck shouted over the roar of the Over-Board's engine as the wind whipped his clothes.

“We'll hold off the Hornets. You get Aelita.” Odd shouted as they flew past Ulrich.

The remaining Hornets regrouped and formed a V-like formation as they closed in on Ulrich. The squadron of monsters dipped hard to the left to avoid one of Yumi's white fans from slicing into one of them. The 3 leading Hornets turned right as they prepared to make another pass at Ulrich and Aelita.

Odd steered the Over-Board in the direction of the approaching monsters. His left arm raised as he prepared to fire his primary weapon.

“Oh no, you don’t!” Odd shouted as he unleashed his Cutter Beam into the swarm.

Small purple ribbons arched through the air as they met with two of the Hornets head on. The ribbon like lasers pierced the insect like monsters' bodies like shrapnel. Eventually, the pieces glowed red as they came together inside the monsters' body and met, causing the ribbons to detonate and destroy the monsters in a large purple explosion.

Yumi moved towards Aelita as she dangled like an ornament on a Christmas tree. Yumi placed her hands to her forehead once more as her unconscious friend's body was wrapped in white. Yumi focused as hard as possible so that when Ulrich released Aelita, she would not drop like a rock.

“You wanna hurry up? My arm's getting tired!” Ulrich said as a second bolt of lightning ripped through the air.

Yumi maneuvered the Over-Sled past a free falling Krab as she pulled up next to Aelita. She placed Aelita on the seat of the Over-Sled and released her telekinesis. With her hands shaking and her body tense, Yumi wrapped Aelita's hands around her as she hit the throttle on her vehicle and took off away from the remains of the platform and upwards to safety.

“Jeremy, we got Aelita.” Yumi said, smiling.

Back in the lab, all four spectators cheered and smiled as they heard the news. Jessica hugged William and danced around, while Sissi patted a happy and tearful Jeremy.

“Thank you, guys...” Jeremy said as he whipped the sweat from his eye.

Ulrich pulled up next to Yumi so that he could check on them. “You OK?”

“A little stressed out... and I’m pretty sure if I could feel my heart beat, it would be bouncing like a trampoline by now. But I’m OK.” Yumi looked behind her at her passenger. Aelita was still out like a rock. Her small head rested on Yumi's back as her body remained perfectly still.

“Is she OK, Jeremy?” Ulrich asked.

“I’m running a scan on her now. Get her to a tower in the meantime, that attack almost drained her of life points.” Jeremy said as he still tried to recover from his fright.

“You guys go ahead.” Odd shouted as he destroyed the last Hornet. “We will be right behind you.”

Yumi turned around and looked at the sleeping girl who rested her head on her back. A question raced through her mind.
“What exactly happened?” Yumi asked as Ulrich took the lead on his vehicle.

“I don’t know. I think she exhausted herself by trying to use that attack.” Jeremy said as he continued to type in a series of commands.

“And Aether sucker-punching her in the head didn’t help, I guess. She did seem out of breath when she joined us above the sector.” Ulrich added.

“You think we might need to send her back to Earth?” Yumi asked.

“We will have to wait until I can examine her. Worst case scenario we may have to implement our contingency plan if Aelita is unable to deactivate the tower.”

“What contingency plan?” Ulrich asked.
___________________________________________________________________________________

Volcano Sector

Typhoon watched the entire fight transpire in the sky region on a large screen. However, it wasn’t the fighting style or the tactics of the gang that didn’t surprise Typhoon. It was Aelita's valiant effort to save Ulrich and Yumi. With no regard for her own life, she managed to save both of them from the onslaught from Aether and his monsters.

“It doesn’t make sense. She knew that they would be devirtualized if they were defeated. But still she battled to protect them.” Typhoon pondered out loud.

“What are you getting at?” Xervix asked as he sat in his throne.

“I believe I have discovered the chink in the wall.”

Xervix raised his head in confusion as he glanced at the black armored Titan. “A chink?”

“Yes, my lord. Every warrior has a weakness of some type. And that is exactly what we need, to discover the weaknesses of our adversaries and exploit them.
As for the one called Aelita... She fears losing her friends, possibly due to some traumatic event that happened in her earlier years of life. It's something she can't shake or delude herself to. ”

Xervix stood up from his throne. His face glowed with delight over the news he heard. It all made perfect sense. Aelita constantly tried her best to protect everyone around her, she had always fought long and hard to protect her teammates. But the problem was, how did Xervix miss this important tidbit? How did he miss such a huge and very noticeable weakness? Whatever the case was, he now knew exactly how to proceed.
“Intriguing and inspiring, Typhoon. Perhaps the best defense, and offense in this case, is to create new Titans based upon the children s fears and weaknesses, as opposed to say, their own strengths?”

“I concur with your proposal, it is logical.” Typhoon said with a nod. “Shall I study the children and their lifestyles to find their weaknesses as well?”

“Indeed.” Xervix said as he glanced at his scythe. A small chuckle left his mouth as he thought about the idea of Aelita's weakness.
“Fear... petty human emotion. It led to the downfall of many civilizations and the rise of many great empires. In this case, the fear our dear enemies posses shall become the instruments of their destruction. And indeed it is a fitting weapon as well. It's easy to break human bones, cut their skin, but to break a living being's spirit is to truly bestow suffering and pain upon one's enemies. Suffering and pain that would live with them for the rest of their days.”

“And once our obstacle are removed from play, the world will be yours.” Typhoon spoke. “In the meantime... Shall I send the Hydra?”

Xervix nodded as he turned to face the large beast Typhoon created. The beast sat in the corner of the room as it awaited its orders.

Typhoon approached the large beast. It growled a deep and rattle like noise, acknowledging the presence of its creator. With a wave of his hand, the beast bellowed as it lifted off the ground. Within a flash, the snake-like demon slithered and slumped out of the entrance to the lair and in the direction of the Sky sector.

“I shall recall Aether at once.” Typhoon announced.

“No!” Xervix shouted.

“The purpose being?”

“In order to rectify the mistakes of the past, all mistakes must be removed. Including that egotistical relic.” Xervix said as his face showed his distaste for his oldest Titan.

Typhoon nodded in agreement. He knew from what Xervix had said before that Aether let his pride and arrogance jump into the way of Xervix's plans. In fact, Xervix completely blamed Aether for his failure to secure the System. But was the fault really in Aether's pride? Or was it in Xervix's fault at noticing the minor details...

“With all due respect, my lord. I believe eliminating Aether would be an error.” Typhoon spoke with reverence.

Xervix glanced down at Typhoon. He had been completely impressed with his newest Titan so far, but now he wondered why Typhoon disproved of eliminating Aether. “Explain yourself, Typhoon.”

“With all due respect, sir... Until we create new Titans and monsters and until we can develop a proper plan, we must keep Aether activated as a warrior. He may be a debunked and fragmented A.I, but I believe he can still serve a purpose in keeping hostile forces busy while we develop an effective and organized battle strategy.”

Xervix paused for a second as he looked towards the dark knight Titan. He actually was correct. If Aether was eliminated now, then Xervix would lose any attempts to keep the children at bay while he worked on a plan to free himself. Yet Xervix did not trust Aether one bit, he was reckless and careless.

He worried that one small mistake from Aether's over the top pride would cost him his attempts at claiming Aelita and Jeremy. Yet without Aether the Garage Kids would march right in and destroy Xervix on the spot.

“Agreed. In the meantime I want you to begin creating brand new monsters and Titans. I want the children to wish they had accepted the my offer... and wish they never were born.” Xervix said as he sat back down in his chair. “By the time I’m done with the children, I will make that antique old A.I. Xana seem like just a small insect.”


??????

Aelita slowly cracked her eyes open while she laid on her bed, glancing up at the ceiling. The room was brighter than normal as an early fall snow fell outside, blanketing the outside world from the cold harsh air and giving off a warm and pleasant feeling to the comfy home. The snow had been falling for hours and from the report given by the weather forecaster, it wouldn’t give up for quite a while.

However the warm scenery outside could not overcome Aelita's mood. Her father was constantly busy down in the basement, which concerned her mother. Her parents had been arguing for over an hour now. Even as she laid there on her bed, the tiny 4 year old could hear their raised voices as they tried to argue their points across each other. It scared Aelita to the point she wanted to cry. She had never heard her parents argue like they were now. The intensity was something new and unusual for her, it shook her to her very core. She clutched her stuffed toy she called Mister Puck in her hand as she prayed for her parents to stop arguing.

Suddenly, at the peak of the argument, a loud noise echoed through the house. It sounded like a shattering noise from a broken dish. A disturbing silence from the downstairs area followed.

Aelita slowly perked her tiny head up as she wondered what happened and why was it so quiet. The argument stopped abruptly after the loud noise, and now an eerie silence fell upon the household. Aelita slowly stepped off her bed, her tiny feet walked over to the door to her room and cracked it open.
The light from downstairs still illuminated the house. Aelita could make out two shadows of her parents on the stairwell wall. But they were standing completely still, almost as if they were frozen in time.

Aelita slowly walked towards the stairs and peeked over the side. She could barely make out her father's leg from her stance. She slowly placed one foot on the top step and then placed her other foot on the same step as she continued walking down the stairs, clutching Mister Puck in her hand. Aelita finally made it to the bottom of the stairs. She could finally make out both of her parents, standing there and looking at each other.

Anthea had hand up to her face. A stream of tears glistened on her face as she tried to hold the rest of her tears in place.
“Oh, Waldo...what's going to happen to us? What will happen to Aelita? If only we hadn’t worked for them, they wouldn’t know about her.” Anthea sobbed.

Aelita couldn’t make out her father's face. His back was turned in her direction. However, she could see that he was clutching his fists and shaking them every once in a while, as if he was angry about something. This was a version of her father Aelita had never seen before.

“I don’t care what happens to me.” Waldo said.

Anthea looked up and gasped as the tears finally began to fall from her eyes.

“You and Aelita are everything I have ever wanted. You two are my lovely angels and I won't let anything happen to you. But... We can't protect her for much longer.” Waldo said as his voice stuttered at the end.

“No, don’t say that... the three of us will get through this. Just because my powers granted me visions of the future, it doesn’t mean they will come true. We can't let them...” Anthea said sadly. “What if we asked Frank or that gentleman from the UN? Maybe they could help us?”

“In time, they will... But you have seen the visions in your dream, honey. You know what will become of me, and what might become of you and Aelita.” Waldo said silently.

“It's a way to change what might happen... That’s what my father told me.” Anthea said as she pulled a chair out from behind the dinner table and sat down. “I lost my parents... My home... My people. And all I have left is you and Aelita. I won't lose either of you.”

“But if I don’t work on this, we will loose everything. Including each other.”

Anthea busted out of her chair as she placed both of her hands on the table. “But we can always move again, start over once more... And have more children, have a family you and I have always wanted.”

“Anthea... I won't jeopardize you or Aelita. That is why I’m building it downstairs, so that it may give Aelita a chance to live a life she deserves. And I know you want a second child, but... you know why we can't.”
Waldo stuttered a little at the thought of his fears. He tilted his head to the left so that he could fight the emotions that were over taking him. “I love my daughter too much to let her die too easily.”

Aelita slowly crept into the living room and stood in the entrance way of the kitchen, listening. She was worried over what her parents were saying.

“She will be an outcast, alone in the world and hunted her whole life when the time comes.” Waldo said as he slowly began to break down. “They'll kill her.”

“No. When the time comes, she will become the true protector to the world. And whoever she chooses will become a champion to everyone and everything.” Anthea said as she walked over towards Waldo. “She will become an angel to them.”

“Just like her mother,” Waldo said as he embraced Anthea in his arms.

Anthea wrapped her arms around her husband. She knew the argument they had just had was all because of the mounting stress from the past few months. With all that was going on and as hard as they fought to protect Aelita, they were now backed into a corner where there was no true means of escape. Something would have to give and unfortunately, it would be them.
Anthea opened her eyes and caught a glimpse of Aelita standing in the middle of the kitchen entrance way. Her arms were still clutching Mister Puck as she gave her a sad and worried look.

“Oh, baby. How long have you been there?” Anthea asked, gathering Waldo's attention as well.

“I was scared. Are you OK?” Aelita said.

Anthea let go of her husband and scooped her daughter up in her arms. She placed her palm along the side of Aelita's short pink hair as she tried to calm her down.
“Of course we are, honey. People who love each other very much fight over differences sometimes.”

“Your mother and I are just stressed from all our work.” Waldo said as he walked up to his wife and daughter.

“It's not my fault is it?” Aelita asked.

“What would make you say that?” Waldo asked.

Aelita buried her face shyly into her mother's shoulder. “I heard you talking about me and I was worried I had gotten you in trouble.”

“No, honey...We were just talking about how we love you and only want the best for you in the future. We know you will accomplish wonders, because you’ve always had a huge heart.” Waldo said as he hugged both of the loves of his life.

“You're not angry at me?”

“We're not angry at anyone, Aelita.”

Aelita smiled and patted her small hand on Anthea's back as she felt anxiety leave her mind. She had no reason to fret any longer...

“Aelita.” A voice said softly. “Aelita? Aelita?!”


Aelita slowly opened her eyes. Her eyesight was fuzzy as she was slowly regaining consciousness. Soon her eyesight focused and she found herself looking at Ulrich's face. She moved a little as she blinked once again.

“Oh good, she's awake.” Ulrich announced with relief.

Aelita slowly sat up with Ulrich's help. She sat on the glass like floor of the tower as she looked around.
“What... happened?” she asked as the memories of her dream, a vision of her parents, still lingered inside her mind.

“You saved me and Yumi, but Aether knocked you out and you almost fell into the digital sea. You put a huge strain on yourself. You lost almost all your lifepoints, so we brought you inside the tower.” Ulrich said.

Aelita glanced up to see Yumi kneeling down next to her. Her best friend placed a hand on Aelita's shoulder.
“How do you feel?”

“Kinda sore. But I'm OK, I guess...” Aelita said as she slowly stood up.

“Take it easy, Aelita. You don’t want to overdo it.” Jeremy said over the intercom.

“Another dream? What was that about?” Aelita asked herself silently.

“What dream?” Ulrich asked as he heard Aelita's whisper.

“I will tell you later. Where's Odd and Puck?”

“They're outside dealing with some monsters.” Yumi said as she pulled out her fan. “I came inside to replenish my life points.”

“What about the storm?” Aelita asked.

“It's bellowing pretty hard outside. It's almost overhead.” Jeremy said as the sound of thunder could be heard over the intercom.

“Then we better deactivate the tower. And... Jeremy... I’m sorry I worried you.”

“It's o-kay, Aelita. Please... from now on, leave the daredevil antics to Odd, will you?” Jeremy pleaded.

“I will. But... I just wanted to protect Ulrich and Yumi.”

“Hey, what about me?” William's slightly outraged voice could be heard over the intercom.

“I tried to save you, but since I synced the sector already, I knew you were safe,” Aelita said. “Besides, the monsters attacking Ulrich and Yumi were trying to push them into the digital sea. They had a huge disadvantage. I had to take action. Aether took me by surprise, though.”

“You did good, but you put yourself in too much danger. Please, don’t do something like that again.” Jeremy said.

“I promise.”

Suddenly, a loud noise resonated from outside the tower. The sound of a monster exploding was all to familiar to the gang.

“Well... Shall we join the others outside?” Ulrich asked.

Yumi nodded as she looked towards Aelita. “Yeah, let's go!”

“How far is the tower?” Aelita asked.

“It should be the next tower over, actually.” Jeremy said. “Aether's throwing every monster possible at us, so let's throw everything we got at him. I’m gonna send you guys some extra fire power.”

“Extra fire power?” Ulrich paraphrased Jeremy, intrigued.

“The Mark II?” Aelita asked as she glanced up. “Are you sure that it's ready?”

“It's as ready as it has ever been. I’m activating it now.” Jeremy replied.

“Is what ready?” Ulrich asked as they approached the exit to the tower.

“The Skidbladnir... Mark II.” Jeremy answered. “And you're gonna love what Aelita and I have for it.
Now head outside. It should be there in a minute or two.”
___________________________________________________________________________________

Odd quickly fired a burst of laser arrows. The teen jumped and held out both hands as he fired his assault. He then swapped from his laser arrows to Ice Beam; his hand glowed orange. As the glow faded, a huge block of ice appeared on his arm as he held out his hand and fired a succession of snow ball like blasts from his glove. The ice shot slammed into the side of a Megatank just as it opened, freezing it on contact.
“Puck! Got another one for you!” Odd shouted as he hid behind his shield.

Puck flew over head on the Over-board. He pointed his staff at the Mega-tank and fired a green beam. Puck then used the green beam to pick up the Mega-tank and swing it through the air. The frozen monster slammed into a group of Creepers like a bowling ball through pins.
“Strike!” Puck shouted as he released the Mega-tank from his beam, allowing it to drop into the ocean.

“How many other functions does that staff have?” Odd asked.

“This, the lightning bolt, a new attack where it unleashes fireballs and the ice spread. Almost any attack a monster can do on Lyoko I've got programmed.”

“Wish I was good with programs and such.” Odd remarked.
He turned around to spot the others standing behind him and admiring the carnage they had brought on the monsters. He smirked a little as he noticed the dumbfounded look all 3 had on their face.
“Now, don’t lie... this is pretty awesome, isn't it?”

“There were way more monsters when I entered the tower to replenish my life points. Did you guys do all this?” Yumi asked.

“Well, naturally I did all the work, Puck just focused on the air.” Odd remarked.

“What?! No you didn’t. I was the one who blew up the Kalamar that was out here.” Puck argued.

“And I blew up the line of Krabs.” Odd said as he folded his hands behind his head. “All 12 of them.”

“Is that what you called it? Because as I remember, you spent your whole time running from them and screaming that you were gonna lose, over and over again!” Puck shouted.

“That was a distraction. To lure the enemy into a trap and then finish them off.” Odd grunted while trying to look cool.

“Hey, uh... guys?” Yumi said.

“It looked more like you were panicking worse than a chicken on his way to a chicken restaurant.” Puck joked.

“Guys?” Ulrich asked.

“Oh yeah! Ahat about you and the whole Manta squad that attacked you, God forbid you ever try to surf because if you did, you would crash over and over again!” Odd commented back.

“Guys?” Aelita asked with concern in her voice.

“At least I don’t smell on Lyoko. Now I get what the others mean when they say that you smell worse than a sewer. Soap is your friend, stinky.” Puck joked back.

“I showered today! It's just when working this hard, you tend to sweat a little.”

“GUYS!!!” Yumi, Ulrich and Aelita shouted in unison.

Puck and Odd both turned to see all three looking straight ahead and pointing in the direction they were looking in.
A huge group of the remaining monsters stood right in front of the group. A huge formation of Kankerlats, Creepers, Tarantulas and Defenders stood silent with their weapons pointed directly at all 5 of them.
In front of the formation stood Aether himself. The winged warrior mockingly waved at the 5 warriors.
“Are we interrupting anything?”

Ulrich slowly drew his blades while Yumi held out her staff in one hand and a fan in the other, ready to defend themselves.

“Jeremy! Is our new surprise here yet?” Aelita asked.

“Yup, it just arrived... time for an air raid!” Jeremy remarked.

“Air raid?” asked surprised Odd.

Suddenly, a large dome like object appeared over the side of the sector; the black and grey colored object rose higher and higher until a pair of wire like wings also rose over the sector's ground.

“The Skid?!” Odd said in disbelief.

“Meet the Skidbladnir. Mark II,” Jeremy said.

The large vehicle was almost identical to the original – with the exception of a few minor differences. Instead of one small thruster on the back, it now had two large tube like engines on the back with a smaller thruster in between them which rotated up or down, depending on the flight pattern the Skid was holding in. On two large wire like wings sat a pair of short tubes with yellow glowing light in the tips. Next to them sat a series of missile like objects and towards the cockpit of the skid sat four gatling gun like cannons. Towards the base of the Skid's long needle-like arm sat 5 Navskids that were designed differently then the Navskids the gang remembered. Their bodies were more slender and sleek, with a pair of long folding wings attached to them. They looked more like fighter jets than the submersibles the Navskids were originally.

“That looks like something out of Star Wars!” Ulrich remarked.

“Hey Aelita.” Jeremy said on the intercom. “Remember when we played Call Of Duty Black Ops and we were in the chopper, and we kept getting shot down?”

“Yeah?” Aelita responded.

Back in the lab, Jeremy moved the chair away from the computer terminal and hit a button on the keyboard. A loud hissing noise came from the bottom of the console as a Xbox 360 controller slowly ejected out from underneath the keyboard. The controller was wired and connected to the console itself.

Jeremy hit the small guide button on top of it as a screen appeared on one of his monitors. The screen flickered as an image from inside Lyoko appeared, showing him the formation of monsters that appeared in front of him and his friends.

“Well... watch this!” Jeremy said with a smile as he pulled the right trigger of the Xbox controller.

On Lyoko, the 4 Gatling cannons began to spin with a loud whirling noise. After a few seconds the chambers of the cannons glowed as red laser fire rippled from the cannons. Molten laser fire rained down onto the enemies below the Skid's location.

The monsters attempted to return fire as quickly as possible. Yet the large storm of laser fire was too much for them as the laser fire chopped and sliced through many of the monsters.

Aether screamed in a high pitch manner as he spread his wings and took to the air.
“I really, REALLY HATE THOSE KIDS!!!” he screamed as he dodged a blast from the Skid.

The 4 cannons stopped as the last Block exploded from the damage. All 4 cannons smoked as they cooled off from the attack they had just delivered.

“Jeremy!” Ulrich shouted “That was awesome!”

“Thanks Ulrich.” Jeremy said with a huge grin on his face. “Now that you guys have the Skid, we need you to head straight for the activated tower.”

“Riding in style, huh? I can accept that,” Odd said as the Skid moved slowly over their location.

“Hang on, guys.” said Jessica, who still operated the radar on the tablet. “I have a huge radar signature, and it's heading right your way.”

“What is it?” Yumi asked.

“It's not coming up on the I.D. It's bigger than anything I’ve ever seen,” William said as he glanced at the radar from behind Jessica's back.

“A new monster?” Puck suggested.

Aether stood nearby on a golden tower like rock as he glanced down towards the children and their brand new vehicle. Aggravation and impatience swelled inside of him as he snarled and hissed.
“I bring out everything I can and they bring out a new vehicle? How on Lyoko am I supposed to combat that?”
Suddenly, a large shadow passed right over Aether. The panicked Titan glanced upward to see a huge snake like creature pass right over him on its way towards the gang.
“What?!” said Aether in confusion and doubt. “What is that!?”

Aelita turned her attention to the large object approaching them. Her eyes widened as she could make out its size and shape incredibly well. It looked like a huge dragon of Chinese lore slithering through the sky at them at an alarming speed.
“Guys!” Aelita shouted, gathering everyone’s attention.

The Hydra stopped directly above them and hovered. The large massive creature glared down towards the 5 smaller warriors in defiance.

A lone Manta flew between the Garage Kids and the Hydra. The large blue and white creature yelped like a monkey as it prepared to attack. Suddenly, a pair of gnashing teeth stabbed into the Manta's hide. The Manta looked like a fly inside a much bigger and larger animal's mouth. It screamed in pain before it exploded in the Hydra's jaw.

The Hydra slowly raised its head up high into the air and quickly dropped it down back to its normal level. Its mouth opened as it bellowed a loud and deafening roar, announcing its arrival.