Target: Odd _1.6_

1.6

Odd woke slowly, rising up from the darkness into even more darkness. It was still at least one in the morning, and he felt a sensation of him sitting down. Opening his eyes fully, Odd noticed two things: One- There was something sticky trickling down his face. Two- A spectre was sitting across from him, watching him apprehensively with a faceless head. The sight was enough to scare him witless, but Odd kept cool.

"So, Whisp, where am I?" Odd decided the nickname suited his captor. The spectre shook its head, and stood up. Odd glanced all around where he was sitting. It looked oddly familiar, no pun intended. And besides the familiar surroundings, the room was freezing cold.

"Wait a minute! I'm back at that place Controlled Delmas took Yumi and I!" Odd scooted backward, until his back hit a crate. The spectre nodded. Odd sighed, and hugged his legs. It was just as cold as last time, but there wasn't a shock crazy principal watching him.

"So, what are you going to do with me?" Odd murmured. The spectre pulled out Odd's cell, and began typing a message on the screen.
YOU WIL1 S3E WH3N WE GET 2 LYOk0.

Odd stared at the message with confusion. Lyoko? "But we're miles from the factory. How the heck do you think you're gonna get past Einstein, not that I'm encouraging you, but still!?" Odd gave the spectre a glare, and scooted farther away from it. The spectre moved it's shoulders up and down slowly. Confused, Odd glanced at the motion.

Moments later, Odd realized the spectre was shrugging. "You're… shrugging?" The spectre materialized a head, and nodded. "The other spectres aren't like you at all. It's almost like you can perfectly understand everything I'm saying. And besides that, you can imitate teen body slang." Odd muttered, quoting something Jeremie might have said. The spectre nodded again, standing up. The whole thing was midnight black, with small amounts of vapor emanating from it.

"Wait, why are you standing up?" Odd scooted even farther, hiding behind the crate. A few clicks later, and the spectre held up Odd's phone again.
T1ME 2 G0 ODD. To LYOk0.

"W-wait! Can't I just walk or something?! I swear I won't run, just don't shock me again!" Odd stood up, waving his arms around. The spectre shook it's head, and held out a hand. Energy was sparking around it, light purple in the dim lighting. Odd's eyes widened, and he shot past the spectre. Throwing open the door, Odd dashed down the hallway of the storage facility. Footsteps echoed behind him, pushing the small boy even faster.

"Leave me alone!" Odd yelled behind him, dashing out into daylight. The spectre paused, the light bothering it slightly. Odd didn't even turn to watch, he kept running. Seeing a parked bus, Odd jumped on.

"Hey kid, you have a pass?" The bus driver looked bored. "Yeah, just take me to Smith Street." Odd sat in the front seat, shaking. The driver shut the doors, and drove off. If Odd had looked back, he would have seen the spectre waving his phone back and forth, with the message: Wit 4 ME ODD, WA1T!!1!

"Phew, I guess I'm safe for now. If that thing keeps chasing me, I will seriously think about putting a few arrows into Prince Charming the next time I see him." Odd sighed, leaning his arm on the bus window. Sudden movement in the rearview mirror dragged his gaze away from the houses. A small black shadow on the pavement was following the bus!!

"Hey kid, here's your stop." The bus driver parked on a side road, the spectre shadow shooting past. Odd smirked at the shadow's mistake, and jumped out of the bus. "Thanks bus dude!" Odd waved, and made a mad dash for the Factory.

"I just hope I'm not too late for the party." Odd smiled, jumping off the top platform and sliding down the ropes. The elevator opened to Yumi's tired face.

"Odd, hurry. Ulrich and Aelita are having a hard time holding back William, and the Tower doesn't seem to have done anything too horrible. And I'm glad to see you're okay." Yumi smiled, and collapsed on the floor of the elevator. Odd rushed into the elevator, propped Yumi up, and hit the Down button. Soon the elevator was moving.

"Jeremie, Yumi's fainted. And it looks to me like my shadow stalker will be here any minute now, so virtualize me quickly." Odd dragged Yumi to the Computer, and ran to the elevator.

"Alright Odd, glad to see you're okay. You might want to rub off that blood on your face though, it kinda looks a bit scary from here." Jeremie laughed. Odd frowned, and wiped hard at his face with his sleeve. Once in the Scanner Room, Odd dashed to the nearest open scanner.

"Transfer Odd. Scanner Odd." Odd stepped into the scanner, and closed his eyes. The light swirled around him, his clothes whipping around. His hair threatened to collapse as usual, but held firm against the virtual wind. This feeling was awesome, to be turned into data, or whatever Jeremie said, and being transported to Lyoko. Odd always found happiness in the Scanners.

"Virtualization." Odd opened his eyes, and landed on his feet. Cat ears twitching, he heard the sound of a heated battle close by. "Odd, you're in the Desert Sector. The fight is only one plateau away, but hurry. I'm sending in your Overboard right now." Jeremie clicked a few keys, and his favorite purple and magenta hoverboard was waiting for him.

"Epic! Nice job Einstein!" Odd flipped onto his board, and shot towards the nearest plateau. Squinting, he saw Ulrich and Aelita battling monsters. Tall, Dark and Handsome was behind the monsters, clutching a sparking shoulder and yelling commands. I've had enough of this guy, Odd thought. Aiming, he shot off 4 arrows. 2 made their mark into William's torso, but the other two hit the monsters attacking Ulrich and Aelita. Unfortunately, William seemed okay.

"Odd! Thank goodness you're okay! What happened?!" Aelita ran over to Odd. Odd shook his head, and pointed his shooter at William. "Odd, what happened?" Ulrich walked over too, ignoring the almost done William.

"Hey! William's still here, why are you guys ignoring him?! Aelita, deactivate the tower. Ulrich, guard her. I've got Prince Charming over there. I have some unfinished business to attend to." Odd jerked his thumb at William, and Ulrich nodded.

"Be careful Odd, make sure he doesn't take advantage of your anger." Aelita dashed for the tower on the other side of the plateau. Ulrich followed.

"Who the heck said I was angry!?" Odd called out, shaking his head. "I'm just annoyed with all the attention. Yeah, I like attention, but this is totally different." Aiming his fist shooter, Odd let 3 arrows fly. Deflecting them off his sword, William stood shakily, and grinned. Running at Odd with full speed, he head-butted Odd into a large rock. Stunned, Odd fell to his knees, his head spinning. Why hadn't he used his sword?

"Now you wait there, Odd." William laughed, holding his hand up. A dark shadow enveloped Odd, shocking him. The static made his body cling to the rock, slamming him once again into a hard place.

"OWWW!! Auugh!! AAAaaah!" Odd screeched his head off, writhing in pain. "Odd! Your life points are almost down half! What's going on?!" The tower alert on Jeremie's monitor faded as Aelita deactivated it. Unknown to Jeremie, the giant lurking shadow behind him faded into non-existence, and a familiar cell phone dropped to the floor with a small thud.

"I'd…… love to tell ya Einstein… But…… I'm having… a tough time with… William." Odd struggled hard against the dark shadow, but William held Odd in place with almost practiced ease. Glancing to his left, Odd saw Ulrich and Aelita glaring daggers at William, running as fast as they could towards Odd.

"Odd! Energy Field!!" Aelita shot at William, breaking his concentration. The shadow faded slightly, and Odd was able to move more freely. The shocking had stopped, and all that was left were the tightening dark bonds. Ulrich silently crept up on the other side of the rock, and sliced through the darkness. Missing Odd by a hair, the sword cut clean through, destroying the dark barriers. Odd fell flat on his back, unconscious. Picking him up, Ulrich yelled, "Super Sprint!"

Once Odd was safely in the tower, Ulrich jumped out of the tower to see Aelita be devirtualized by a dark swing. William twirled his sword, and began running towards the tower. Gasping, Ulrich jumped into the tower.

"Odd! Wake up!!" Shaking the small boy didn't help, so there was only one way to save both of them. Unsheathing his sword, Ulrich rose his arm high, and swung down.

Mid-swing, Ulrich devirtualized: a dark sword was driven halfway through his back.