Chapter 2 - Part2-Found the Factory

Jeremy sat at his computer with his headphones on. Yumi sat on one side and Ulrich on the other. They waited until the screen lit up dull green. Jeremy perked up from a lazy trance and greeted his computer friend.
"Hi, Aelita!" he cheered. "How are things going in Lyoko?"
"Any activated towers?" Yumi added.
Aelita hesitated for a moment and said, "I'm in the Polar Region right now. There's nothing to be worried about here. However, I feel there might be something going on in another region."
"Did you feel pulsations or something?" Ulrich asked.
"No," Aelita replied, "but I saw a box monster in the Desert before. There was nothing I could do so I just ran to another tower! I'm so sorry. It was so irresponsible of me! I felt a sudden panic and just ran."
"It's not your fault, Aelita," Jeremy insisted. "We should have gotten in contact with you earlier. There was just a little bit of excitement going on this morning. There's a new girl in school. We were talking to her for a long time. Odd's taking her for a tour of the dorm rooms. She's probably in his room meeting Kiwi right now."
"We should head over to the Factory," Yumi announced. "Ulrich should go to his room and get Odd."
"But Natalie's there!" Jeremy reminded her. "If Ulrich bursts in and tells her that we need Odd, she'll start to get suspicious."
"Then the three of us will go to the Factory and contact Odd there. Ulrich and I can go into Lyoko by ourselves. We've done it before."
"I know but we don't even know what XANA's planning, or even if he's planning anything!"
Suddenly, Sissy burst into the room at lightning speed and tripped over the side of the bed. Jeremy quickly tore his headphones off and closed the communication software. Sissy fell over and landed on top of Ulrich. He pushed her off with an exasperated huff and straightened out his shirt and jacket.
"OH, MY GOSH!!! ULRICH, YOU'VE GOT TO HELP ME!!!" Sissy started screaming whatever thought rushed into her head at any moment. Ulrich looked at her, very annoyed, and slapped her across the cheek.
"Get a hold of yourself," he ordered. "Could you tell us what happened, maybe in English this time?"
"And it wasn't too polite of you to just barge in on us without knocking," Yumi added.
"Oh, Ulrich, it was horrible!" Sissy explained, completely ignoring Yumi's remark. "I was walking away from that horrible little girl Natalie and going for the teachers' lounge to talk to my dad. When I opened the door, I was attacked by a bunch of kitchen appliances!! I thought I was going to die!"
"Was your dad in there?" Jeremy questioned, thinking he knew where this was going.
"No, but I'm pretty sure we should tell him."
"Then go tell him. We'll go get some help. Maybe Jim can fix some of the machines in there. Or Herb. Either one."
Sissy nodded and ran out of the room. Once the three fighters were sure she had left, they started out of the room theirselves, towards the Factory.

Ulrich and Yumi stayed inside the elevator and waited for the latch doors to close. Jeremy sat at the supercomputer and typed in a bunch of confusing calculations. He put the headphones on and contacted Aelita once again,
"Sorry about the little interruption before," he apologized. "Sissy came running into the room without a warning. So, have you found anything out?"
"I'm back in the Desert Region," Aelita replied. "Right now, I'm hiding. There's a group of boxes guarding a passageway."
"Well, they have a good reason to do so. That's the passageway to get to the activated tower. It's just another twenty-five degrees ahead of it. Stay where you are, okay? Ulrich and Yumi are on their way."
"Okay, Jeremy. Please hurry! I think they're starting to sense me."
"No problem." Jeremy spoke into his microphone to the lower level of the Factory where the three scanners were located. "Get into the scanners, Guys." Ulrich and Yumi did as they were told. "Transfer: Ulrich. Transfer: Yumi." The two warriors started spinning in the scanners, their data being downloaded into the virtual world. "Scanner: Ulrich. Scanner: Yumi." The information in the computer reached its full point. "Virtualization!"
The virtualization wind blew Ulrich and Yumi into the strange world called Lyoko. They landed in the middle of the Desert and saw Aelita hiding behind a few small rocks.
"Ulrich! Yumi! Watch out!" Aelita cried, pointing. The two fighters turned and saw the boxes running towards them. Before they could do anything, both of them zapped Ulrich.
"You've lost twenty life points already!" Jeremy announced. "Be careful!"
Yumi took out a fan and tossed it at the monsters. One of them moved out of the way at the last moment, but the other one wasn't so lucky. The fan hit it with everything it had. The box hesitated for a moment and then exploded into a million pieces.
"One down," Yumi said, taking out another fan. By now, Ulrich was back on his feet with his Impact Sword ready to strike.
"Guys, watch out!" Jeremy shouted. "There's four more monsters coming up behind Aelita! Aelita, run!!"
Aelita did as she was told and ran between Ulrich and Yumi. Another two boxes came up to help the lone one. The three virtual humans watched in fear as all seven started up their lasers. Two of them hit Yumi, one hit Aelita, and one hit Ulrich. He took his sword and charged towards one.
"IMPACT!!" he shouted, thrusting the sword into the XANA symbol. Even though he destroyed one monster, it cost him his virtual life. The other three monsters sent their beams flying. Yumi hit one in the back, destroying it, but it was too late to help her fellow fighter. Ulrich started to disappear until he was completely materialized back on Earth.
Jeremy switched to a news channel just as Ulrich came back into the main room. The reporter had a serious expression and was standing in one of the streets of the nearby city.
"It has been reported all over the world today that household appliances have gone haywire today," she explained. "They have seriously burned and maimed several people all over the globe. So far, no leads have been found to say what caused the horrible mishaps. However, we have reason to believe that these appliances might be searching for someone. They all seem to be going bizarre in the same direction: towards Kadic Boarding School."
"Yumi's still in Lyoko, so it couldn't be after her," Jeremy muttered to himself. "Ulrich just got back, and XANA couldn't possibly figure that out this quickly. Unless..."
"What's the story, Jeremy?" Ulrich walked over to the supercomputer and watched the screen. "Have you figured out anything?"
"It's the kitchen appliances!" he replied. "Those ones that attacked Sissy are after Odd! We've got to warn him."
"We should get him down here, too," Ulrich added. "Yumi and Aelita need help."

Odd and Natalie walked around the front yard of the campus of Kadic Boarding School. They walked in silence for a little while before Natalie spoke up.
"Kiwi's so cute!" she cheered. "I wish he was my dog!"
"Yeah, Kiwi's great," Odd agreed. "You have to promise to keep him a secret though. Pets aren't allowed here. It's amazing he got past Jim and the principal when I first got here. That wasn't too long ago, so I kinda know what it's like to be new."
"I'm glad I met you," Natalie commented, "and I'm very glad that you took me for a tour instead of Sissy. Still, I can't help but feel a little guilty for being so mean to her."
Suddenly, Odd's cell phone rang. He picked it up out of his pocket and brought it to his ear.
"Yeah? Uh-huh. Yup. Okay! I will. Bye, Ulrich."
"What did Ulrich want?"
"I have to go, okay? The group needs me."
"For what? Or is it something personal?" Natalie blushed a little from her nosy question. Odd saw this and held onto her hand.
"It's okay! We'll hang out later, alright?"
"Agreed."
Odd ran towards the trees and waved. Natalie smiled and waved back. Odd ran into the forest and found the cover to the secret passageway in the sewer. He lifted it up and slowly crawled his way down the ladder.
The only problem was that he forgot to put the cover back on the opening.

Odd made his way to the Factory and watched the screen on the computer. Yumi was fighting with all she had. Odd bit his lip and watched her life points go down at a fast rate.
"Are you ready?" Jeremy asked. Odd nodded and headed back into the elevator. Once down at the lower level, he hopped into the scanner. The doors closed just as Jeremy began, "Transfer: Odd. Scanner: Odd. Virtualization!"
The wind blast up the tube and downloaded Odd's information into Lyoko. He landed in the middle of the battle between Yumi and the boxes. The monsters sensed his presence and turned to go after him. One hit him on the spot.
"Odd!" Aelita cried. Yumi perked up and threw another fan at it. Another one noticed right away and hit her. The fan destroyed the target, but Yumi was now materialized. Odd was on his own. He fired three more arrows at the enemies. One blew up. The other two just evaded and shot their own beams. Both hit Odd right in the stomach.
"Odd, those two shots cost you thirty life points!" Jeremy shouted as Yumi walked into the main room. He turned to the losers. "We need a plan. We need some help!"
"The appliances are still acting up, aren't they?" Ulrich asked. Jeremy nodded. "Then maybe they're not after Odd. Don't you think they would have temporarily stopped if they were after him now that he's in Lyoko?"
"They would!" Yumi agreed. "But if they're not after him, who are they after? Sissy? Jim? The principal?"
"I'm starting to think that there's something hidden in this computer," Jeremy announced randomly. "There's this firewall I haven't been able to crack."

Natalie ambled around the forest for a little while staring up at some of the scenery of the school. She wasn't looking where she was going and tripped on something. She fell over with a quick splat and slowly lifted her head to see what happened.
"A sewer cover?" she asked no one. "Are the people here doing work on the school?" She stopped and scooted over to the edge. She let her legs dangle. "Hey! Didn't Odd come this way? Oh well. I'm going to check this out."
Natalie walked down the ladder and landed with a soft clack in the sewer. She walked along the path and climbed up the ladder at the other end. She picked her head up in front of the Factory. She dragged the rest of herself out and ran towards the entrance.

Odd was having a tough time in Lyoko. The boxes just kept coming with no end in sight. He was down to his last arrows and life points. Aelita tried to run for the tower, but whenever she did, the monsters surrounded her.
"LASER ARROW!!!" Odd yelled, shooting two more arrows. Two boxes blew up, but that was the end of the stream of arrows. Aelita stood in a circle of boxes, scared to her virtual death.
Without a warning, Odd had a flash of his power. He saw Natalie running for the factory and then a girl shooting bullets from two guns. We woke up from the trance with a start and said, "Jeremy, I just saw Natalie coming towards the Factory! She must have followed me."
"This isn't good!" Jeremy announced. "She'll blow the whole secret!"
Making perfect time, the elevator doors flew open. Ulrich, Yumi, and Jeremy gasped as Natalie walked over to the supercomputer. Jeremy started to sweat just as Yumi's breathing became uneven and panicked. Ulrich watched with horrified eyes as the new girl walked over and observed the map of Lyoko in the middle of the room.
"WOW!!!" she cried. "This is amazing! Oh, my gosh. Look at that! How does this work? Oh man, is that breakable? Oh, uh, yup. This is soooo cool! How long have you guys known about this place? Does Odd know??
"AELITA'S GONNA DIE!!" Jeremy screamed, pulling his hair. "Oh, I knew it was a bad idea to accept her into the group! She's going to tell everyone about Lyoko and Aelita and XANA and everything!!"
Natalie's eyes darted to the computer screen. She saw the minimized file of the firewall. Her eyes turned stone cold as she mad a zombified walk to it. Her fingers clicked many diffrent buttons. Jeremy watched in awe as she typed in code after code after code.
"What's she doing?" Yumi whispered. She and Ulrich onbserved Natalie's hands. Jeremy's jaw dropped when he saw what happened next.
"She got past that impossible firewall!!"
"I'm getting in the scanner," Natalie announced, her voice monotone. "When you send me to Lyoko, click on this file. It's mine." She walked towards the elevator and rode it down. Jeremy watched with a confused look plastered on his face before agreeing to the task.
"Transfer: Natalie. Scanner: Natalie. Virtualization!"
The wind blew up the tube. Natalie was in Lyoko as a Gunner. She held weapons at her side and watched Odd fight. She held up both guns, aimed, and shouted, "BULLET HAPPY!!!" She fired rapid missiles at the boxes. Two of them blew up in an instant. Odd watched, horrified. Aelita looked surprised.
"Welcome back," she murmured under her breath.
Natalie aimed again and fired at another box. Another powered up a laser and hit her with everything it had. Natalie cringed back at the pain. She destroyed one box just as Odd was materialized from another's shot.
"She's alone now," Yumi mumbled. "I only hope she can get Aelita to the tower."
Natalie and Aelita ran as fast as they could to get away from the two remaining monsters. Natalie shot another bullet and hit one. It exploded.
"There's the tower!" Aelita announced. She ran faster and made her way inside. She floated up to the top level and placed her hand on the screen. It blinked to greet her and flashed for the code. She typed in "Lyoko" and time reversed.
"RETURN TO THE PAST, NOW!!!"

Natalie, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and Jeremy stood together in the campus yard. Sissy came up behind Natalie and tapped her shoulder.
"Are you ready for a great tour?" she asked.
"Actually, Sissy," Natalie began, "Odd came to me before you suggested it to your father and offered to take me. But you could show me something else if you want. I haven't seen much of town yet."
"I'll take you on a tour of the mall then!" Sissy cheered. "How's tomorrow at two?"
"Fine by me. I'll see you then."
Sissy waved and turned. She walked back over to Nicholas and Herb. Natalie turned back to the gang and winked.
"So, when's the next XANA attack?"

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