So here we are at the end. This is the last chapter of Light and Shadow. I want to thank all you wonderful readers, old and new to this series, for your support and patience. It is somewhat sad for me to put this to bed for good since this series has meant so much to so many people, myself included, but at the same time I know this has to come to an end. Please enjoy this last adventure, this last ride of the day, if you will. Songs for the final chapter are Papercut by Linkin Park, The Resistance by Skillet, Angel With A Shotgun by The Cab, and Break Away by The Subdigitals.
Nicolas woke to the other side of the bed empty. He thought nothing of it at first. Eva would usually spend the night in another room if she thought she wouldn't be able to sleep. Then he remembered her going to sleep next to him last night. Her side of the bed was unmade. He reached over for his mobile and checked the time.
20 Juin 06:03.
He got up and put his slippers on before starting his search for Eva. He could smell coffee the moment he opened the bedroom door. He went into the kitchen and saw Eva in the backyard through the window. She was dancing on the grass, green stains running up her legs where she had slid. To the untrained eye, it looked like she was breakdancing, but Eva was going through her different capoeira moves. One wireless earphone was clipped to her ear and her laptop that was sitting on the patio table. Judging by how aggressive Eva was moving and how the visualizations on the laptop screen were pulsating, she was listening to something with a heavy bassline. He watched her get up on her arms to kick her legs in the air, new stripes of green appearing on pale skin. She flipped herself up and faced Nicolas.
"How long have you been out here?" Nicolas asked.
"I woke up about an hour ago," Eva told him, unclipping the earphone. "Whatever's going to happen, it's going to be today."
"With what? The Reach?"
Eva nodded. She walked over to her laptop and turned off the music. "I already contacted everyone to be ready. I know it's probably stupid since I don't have any actual evidence."
"Eva, when have you ever been wrong with one of your feelings?" Nicolas asked.
"There is a first time for everything," Eva pointed out.
"Well, if something does happen today, we don't want you anything but your best," said Nicolas. "So let's get some breakfast. I'll cook."
While Nicolas cooked breakfast, Eva washed off the dirt and changed her clothes. When she came back down, she was wearing a black T-shirt, jeans, and her crow belt buckle. Nicolas gave a dopey smile.
"What?" asked Eva.
"Just memories. You used to wear that belt buckle all the time," said Nicolas. "Did you know at one point that there was a rumor saying that you would take the kids in detention with you to the equipment shed and whip them with it?"
She flinched. "I would never," Eva said darkly.
"Kayla put a stop to that rumor," Nicolas told her. "And you would use a stick."
"That I have done."
Breakfast was quiet until the others started messaging each other. They all agreed that they would wear their specter bands in case something did happen. However, Sissi made it no secret that she had wanted to go shopping in Paris today. She used the pretense that Eva had a wedding to plan and needed to get ideas and she shouldn't waste a day based on a feeling that something bad was going to happen.
About mid-morning, Sissi, Eva, Aelita, Odd, and Yumi drove into Paris together with Eva behind the wheel. The mood was tense and Sissi tried to lighten it with talk about what style of dress would flatter Eva the most and what color palettes she could use. Her chatter did help, especially when Odd started chiming in on seeing Eva in a wedding gown.
"I'm not the only one who will be seen in a wedding gown in the near future," said Eva. "Maybe Yumi would like to start shopping for her wedding gown as well."
"What?" Sissi and Odd shouted.
"Don't think I didn't notice the ring," Eva said, smirking.
Aelita turned to Yumi, who was sitting next to her in the back seat. On her finger was a gold ring with a simple diamond setting. "When was this?"
"A few nights ago, after Dick called about Blue Beetle," said Yumi.
"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Sissi demanded.
"We haven't made it official," Yumi explained. "Ulrich hasn't asked my father for his blessing."
"Not that that would stop you from getting married," said Odd. He sighed. "None of us won the bet anyway."
"What? You were betting on when he would propose?" Yumi yelled.
"We thought he would propose before Nicolas," said Odd.
Yumi reached across Aelita and tried to hit Odd. Odd cowered up against the door to avoid her.
"Knock it off!" Sissi scolded from the front seat. "So what ideas for your wedding do you have, Yumi?"
Odd leaned up to the driver's seat and whispered in Eva's ear. "She is going to be bridezilla when she gets married. Herb's going to have his hands full."
Eva gave a half smile. "We have a spare room." She knew Nicolas would invite Herb to stay with them if he needed peace and quiet.
Odd chuckled.
Eva parked the car in a parking garage and they walked to a nearby bridal store to do some window shopping. Sissi had brought her tablet and stylus and was taking pictures and sketching over them, asking for Eva and Yumi's opinions on what details they liked from the different dresses.
"I wish Kayla came with us," Eva whispered to Yumi and Aelita.
They both nodded.
Sissi had forced Odd to help her with the sketches, saying he was better at drawing than she was. Odd showed it to the other girls. He had added features to the templates' plain faces, keeping it cartoonish. It made the others laugh. Sissi whacked him over the head and told him to be serious.
They decided to stop at a coffee house chain for a snack near the Eiffel Tower. As they waited to order, Eva became increasingly tense. Her eyes kept darting around, cataloguing everything.
"Are you okay?" Aelita asked her.
"No," Eva bluntly replied.
Her terse answer caused the others to look at her. They all could see the tension in her shoulders and jaw.
"Disturbance in the Force?" Odd asked.
The sky suddenly turned black and people started screaming.
"Call the others!" Eva ordered. "It's happening now!"
Kayla was in the dining room putting together a survival bag. Everything was spread across the table.
William walked in to see what she was doing. "Don't we have enough of those?" he asked.
"I just felt like making another one," said Kayla.
The power went out and plunged them into darkness even though it was half passed noon. The window shattered and a great gust of wind whipped around the room. Kayla and William both let out yells of shock. William shouted at Kayla to get to the basement while Kayla shoved a few more things into the bag before William pulled her from the room.
In the basement, they could feel the house shake.
"Are you okay?" William asked.
Kayla nodded. "Yes." A few pieces of glass fell from her hair.
William helped her brush the glass away.
Kayla took out her mobile and tried to call Eva. Instead of getting an answer or voicemail, she got the unable to connect beeping. "I can't get through."
"What about the others?" William asked, taking out his mobile as well.
They both tried calling the others with the same result.
"We should try to get to the factory," said Kayla.
William agreed. "We better try taking the sewer route."
They ran out the back and for the closest manhole. The wind whipped around them, throwing debris everywhere. Kayla looked up at the black sky and saw multiple tornadoes touching down.
"Come on!' William grabbed her arm and pulled her to the open manhole.
They quickly climbed down the ladder and ran for the factory.
Jeremy was already in the supercomputer room, having been there since after breakfast. There were different news channels on each of the screens. While they played, Jeremy tried to get into contact with someone on the Team. They must have all been out on a mission, which made Jeremy worry that Eva had once again been right about danger coming.
A dull roar above him got his attention and he felt the factory shaking above him.
"What on earth?" He quickly brought up the security cameras on the main screen. He saw how black the sky was and the funnel clouds that were touching down in the area.
"Oh, no!"
Immediately he tried to call Aelita on his mobile, but couldn't get through.
The elevator opened and Herb ran out. "What is going on?"
"Wish I knew," said Jeremy. "I can't get through to anyone."
Herb looked at the screens with the news reports. "Look! It's not just us."
All over the world, strange weather phenomena were happening.
"Do you know where the others are?" Jeremy asked Herb.
"I know Nicolas was at home. I don't know about the others. Have you tried contacting the Team?"
"I've been, but no one answers," replied Jeremy. He closed the camera feeds on the main screen before opening up a different program. "They can hate me for this later."
"What are you doing?" Herb asked.
"Hacking the Team. We need answers."
A few minutes later, Kayla and William arrived.
"What happened to you?" Herb asked, seeing several scratches on them.
"Wind blew the windows out," Kayla quickly replied. "Do we know what is going on?"
"No," said Herb. "Were you able to call any of the others?"
"No," answered William. "We can't get through to anyone. What about the Team?"
"Working on it," Jeremy said shortly.
"Wait a minute," Herb said. "Don't the specter bands have a comm link in them?"
Jeremy paused what he was doing. "I am such an idiot."
Meanwhile in the city, the high winds snapped off a utility pole and it threatened to crush several people who were trying to find safety. A green dome appeared over them and the pole rolled off the force field.
Sissi was in her LYOKO form across the street with her hands thrown out. Her bodysuit was purple with what looked like large green leaves wrapped around her arms and legs. Her hair was held out of her face by a gold crown and a gold belt held her green baton at her hip. Once the utility pole fell off her force field, she dropped it.
"Get to the subway!" she shouted at them.
The subway was the only place any of the LYOKO warriors could think of that people could be relatively safe from the storm.
Eva and Aelita were helping people out of an overturned car.
"One of us should try to get back to the factory," Aelita said.
"You are not flying in this," Eva told her.
Yumi and Odd were leading people into the subway. Like the other LYOKO warriors, their forms hadn't changed that much. Yumi's hair was half pulled up in a ponytail, reminiscent of her first LYOKO form and her eye makeup was a bit heavier. Odd's pink streaks had transferred to his LYOKO form, so had his red collar. It now had a tag with an engraving of Kiwi.
"Ugh, how do you fight a natural disaster?" Odd groused.
"There can't be anything natural about this!" Yumi hollered over her shoulder.
"Guys, can you hear me?"
"Jeremy?" they collectively called. They looked down at their specter bands and remembered they were linked to the supercomputer.
"Are you okay?" Jeremy.
"As fine as we can be," said Yumi, she and Odd getting to cover to escape the wind for a moment.
Sissi found cover as well and was joined by Aelita and Eva.
"There are tornadoes touching down all over Paris," Aelita told him.
"I know. And Paris isn't the only place that's getting unnatural disasters. It's happening all over the world. Even worse, I can't get in contact with the Team."
"What about the others?" Yumi asked.
"Herb, Kayla, and William are with me at the factory," Jeremy answered. He paused for a moment. "Franz and Antea just got here. I'll contact the others through the specter bands."
"In the meantime, we'll just keep doing what we're doing," said Odd.
Sam pressed herself against the sewer wall where she had been for the last fifteen minutes. The building she lived in had had its roof ripped off. Sam had made a run for it to get to the factory. A storm drain grate had been her only option to get into the sewers. While she had struggled to pull it up, lightning had struck close by and deafened her. Now her ears were ringing so much she couldn't hear the destruction the storm was causing above her.
She was startled by a blur of gold and found herself looking at Bon Ami.
"Sam!" A few steps behind the dog was Nicolas, looking a little scuffed up, but unharmed.
"Nicolas!"
Nicolas started talking, but Sam couldn't make out what all he was saying.
"Nicolas, I can't hear you," said Sam. She tapped at her ears.
Nicolas understood and spoke up. "Let's get to the factory."
Sam followed Nicolas, Bon Ami at their heels.
"Nicolas?"
Nicolas looked at his flashing specter band. "Jeremy?"
"Good, I got through to you," Jeremy said. "Are you heading to the factory?"
"Yes, and Sam's with me, along with Bon Ami."
"Okay, get here quick," said Jeremy.
The specter band stopped flashing.
Nicolas took Sam's hand. "Let's go." He broke into a jog, tugging Sam behind him.
Ulrich was a streak of black and yellow as he used his super sprint. His LYOKO form hadn't changed except for a little less yellow in it. He had activated his specter band the moment the mayhem began. Racing into Paris, he searched for Yumi and the others while helping those he came across in his search.
"Ulrich, where are you?" he heard Jeremy's voice coming from the specter band.
"Looking for the others!"
"What? Are you crazy?"
"Maybe."
Jeremy sighed. "They all have their specter bands and they're active. They're fine."
"Do you know where they are?"
"A few blocks southeast of the Eiffel Tower," replied Jeremy. "I've been tracking their bands. I'll guide you there."
"Great. I'm already across the river."
Ulrich decided to cut through the Eiffel Tower. It seemed the wind had let up a little as he approached, like it was the eye of the storm. A laser blast hit him in the side and he went tumbling. Ulrich righted himself and looked for what shot him. A beetle shaped drone was flying in his direction. He noticed a second drone staying behind with another hovering machine that had a swirling orb of light atop of it.
"Uh, Jeremy? I think I found something," said Ulrich, super sprinting away from the drone. After a few dozen yards, it stopped chasing him, choosing to return to the machine. He relayed what he saw.
"Eva was positive this is The Reach's doing," said Jeremy. "I think the insect motif those things have just proves her case. Get to Yumi and the others. I'm about to get in touch with the Team."
Jeremy let out a triumphant shout. "Yes!"
A new window appeared on the supercomputer's screen showing Nightwing, Blue Beetle, Aqualad, and a couple other heroes Jeremy wasn't familiar with, one silver-skinned and the other tiny and standing on the former's shoulder.
"Don't you people know how to answer a phone when you're called?" Jeremy shouted at them.
"Jeremy?"
"Yes, me! What on earth is going on? I've been trying to get in contact with you for the last half hour, maybe more. Paris and the surrounding area is a disaster zone!"
"Are you okay?" asked Nightwing.
"More or less. Half of us are out in Paris trying to help people. Ulrich just reported seeing something interesting at the Eiffel Tower. So do you guys have any answers or are all of us flying blind here?"
"It's Black Beetle's MFDs," Blue Beetle told him. "Magnetic field disruptors The Reach seeded in multiple locations across the Earth. They're causing a deterioration of the planet's magnetic field which is causing these no so natural disasters. I can locate all the MFDs, but each is defended by Beetle-tech drones programmed to run interference until the MFD can build up enough steam to go chrysalis and end the world."
"That's what Ulrich found," said Jeremy.
"So how do we shut them down?" one of the other heroes asked.
"I don't know, because Black Beetle didn't know," said Blue Beetle. "There's no failsafe. This was an endgame."
"They can't be indestructible," said Jeremy. "If they were, they wouldn't need the drones to guard them."
"Incoming transmission from United Nations Secretary General Tseng Dangun," said an automated voice.
"Luthor!"
"Secretary Tseng was kind enough to let me borrow his frequency as I have a possible solution to our mutual problem."
Jeremy couldn't see who was on screen, but he was certain they were talking to Lex Luthor.
"A problem created by you and The Light when you collaborated to bring The Reach to Earth," was the venomous reply from the tiny hero.
"Perhaps," said Luthor. "But as I believe you already know The Light always planned to betray The Reach. LexCorp has developed anti-Reach software, a virus that should disable their magnetic field disruptors. Now, I believe time is of the essence."
Jeremy saw the heroes he wasn't familiar with glaring at Luthor. "Hey!" He got their attention. "We don't have time to be pointing fingers right now. Enemy of my enemy is my friend right now. Right, Nightwing?"
"Right," Nightwing agreed.
"So what can my friends do now?" Jeremy asked.
"We can't allow civilians –," the silver hero started.
"Captain Atom," Aqualad interrupted, "I believe we have some capable heroes willing to lend a hand."
"Can those in Paris take care of the drones?" Blue Beetle asked.
"Absolutely," Jeremy said confidently.
"If you can take care of the drones, that will leave an opening for us to get to the MFDs to take them out," said Nightwing. "Maybe one of your strongest can crush the MFD."
"Sadly such simple methods won't work," Luthor told them. "The MFDs casing is created from a metal not found on Earth. It will take too long to penetrate it."
"Just as well," said Jeremy. "Both our strongest are here with me. But we have our distance and midrange fighters there, most of them senior fighters. They can handle the drones."
Jeremy felt someone lean on the chair. He turned to see Franz silently asking for the headset. Jeremy moved over and gave Franz the headset.
"Can you send us the locations of the other MFDs?" Franz asked. "We have a few friends around the world who can start working on the drones."
"We'll send them to you," said Nightwing.
"Copy that, Jeremy," Aelita said into her specter band.
The warriors had taken refuge on the stairs of a subway station. There was no electricity and it was almost pitch black underground. While the warriors rested on the steps, they could hear people on the platform trying to find loved ones, crying children, and people yelling for someone with medical knowledge. Some of these people the LYOKO warriors had led down there to escape the storm.
"Guys!" At the top of the stairs was Ulrich.
"Ulrich!" Yumi cried happily, hurrying up the stairs to give him a hug.
"Are you okay?" Ulrich asked.
"We're fine," replied Yumi. "Just waiting on you."
The others came to the surface.
Ulrich turned to them. "The MFD is under the Eiffel Tower and is guarded by two drones. By the way, those things pack a punch."
"Only two?" Odd asked. "I was hoping there would be more for us."
"We can talk later," said Aelita.
"Right, end of the world," said Odd.
They started running for the Eiffel Tower with Ulrich leading the way. All around them was destruction from the storm. More than once they had to either run around overturned cars or jump over downed utility poles. Now that they weren't focusing on rescuing people, they could take in the devastation.
"I wish we could do more," Sissi commented.
"We are," said Yumi. "We're making an opening for the Team to save the world."
"Is that the best we can do?" Sissi asked.
Eva ran beside Sissi. "It is what we are needed to do. There are others who can help with rescue efforts. There are only a few who can fight The Reach."
As they approached the Eiffel Tower, they took cover in the park next to it, hiding amongst the trees.
"Two drones and six of us," said Eva.
"Seems a bit unfair, don't you think?" asked Odd, smiling.
"Odd, not the time," said Ulrich.
"We should split into teams of three and each team will take a drone," said Aelita. "Sissi, could you go with Ulrich and Yumi and provide cover for them?"
Sissi nodded. "Yes."
"Odd, Eva, you're with me. Ready?" Aelita asked.
"Always ready to save the world, princess," said Odd.
"Nothing fancy," said Ulrich.
"Got it," Odd said.
Ulrich turned to Sissi. "I'll go first."
"Okay," said Sissi.
Aelita, Odd, and Eva went to get into their position. Once they were, Ulrich dashed out from the park using his super sprint.
"Hey!" he shouted at the drones.
Both drones turned to him and started firing. Ulrich dodged around the first few shots before he was shielded with a green force field. Yumi's fans sliced off one drone's arm.
"Energy field!" Aelita cried, throwing the pink ball.
The drone she hit sparked pink and struggled to stay in the air. The second drone turned to Aelita, perceiving her as the bigger threat and began firing at her. Aelita's wings appeared and she flew up to evade them.
"Laser arrow!" hollered Odd, shooting three arrows at the drone going after Aelita.
A power pulse from Eva followed it up.
The second drone recovered only to be hit with a green baton that gave it another shock before it exploded.
The remaining drone was assaulted from all angles, dismembered by Ulrich and Yumi's blades, shot by Odd's arrows, blasted by Eva's power pulses and Sissi's energized baton, and then finally finished off by Aelita's energy fields.
"We did it!" cheered Sissi.
"We only cleared a path," said Eva. "The rest is up to the Team."
"We should probably stay and keep the path cleared," said Aelita. "That way The Reach can't set up another guard while we wait for the MFD to be deactivated."
"Should we try deactivating it by ourselves?" asked Odd. "We have plenty of fire power."
"We don't know if it has a failsafe," said Aelita. "Damaging it may actually make it unable to deactivate. No, we'll have to wait and hope someone comes up with a solution."
And so they waited.
An hour later, Artemis and Kid Flash arrived. Kid Flash ran up and put a blue pod on the MFD and deactivated it. Almost immediately the tornadoes stopped and the clouds started to break up.
"Omega Squad reporting in," said Artemis. "The MFD is deactivated."
"Hey, guys!" Kid Flash greeted the LYOKO warriors.
"How's it going?" Odd said with a smile.
A large vortex of energy stretched up into the gray sky, disrupting the clouds and the snow on the ground. Bolts of electricity struck at the band of red and yellow circulating in the opposite direction at the vortex's base. The Team had landed their ship and disembarked to watch at a distance. The vortex weakened and dispersed into nothing and the red and yellow disappeared into the dust. When the dust settled, Flash and a young Team member were kneeling on the ground trying to get their breath back. The rest of the Team ran up to them, Artemis looking around for something.
"Congratulations!"
"We did it!"
"Wait!" Artemis cried. "Where's Wally?"
Flash walked over to her. "Artemis, he wanted me to tell you."
"No," she said with tears in her eyes.
"He loved you," Flash finished, putting his hands on her shoulders.
"Odd, what's wrong?"
Odd blinked to see everyone gathered in front of him with looks of concern.
"Wally's gonna die," he said hollowly.
"What?" Kid Flash asked, understanding French.
"Explain," Eva demanded.
Odd shook his head clear. "I just had a vision. There was an energy vortex. Flash and another Team member managed to counteract it in some way. When the dust cleared, the rest of the Team ran up to them, but Artemis was asking where Wally was. Flash told her that Wally wanted to tell her he loved her."
"Odd, where was this?" Eva asked firmly.
"I'm not sure. There was a lot of snow. And the Team had to fly to get there," Odd answered.
Aelita held her wrist with the specter band up to her mouth. "Jeremy, was there an MFD located in a snowy climate?"
"But that could happen at any point, right?" Artemis asked, anxious. "It doesn't have to happen today."
"Odd's visions are usually of the near future," said Ulrich.
"And the vortex looked like what the MFD was forming," Odd added.
At the factory, Jeremy was reviewing the map he was sent. He felt the chair shift as someone leaned against the back of it as they looked over his shoulder. He glanced out of the corner of his eye to see that it was Herb.
"There isn't one at a magnetic pole," Herb muttered almost to himself.
"I noticed," said Jeremy.
"Don't you find it strange?" inquired Herb.
"Herb is right," said Franz. "If The Reach wanted to ensure the destruction of the planet, they would place one at a magnetic pole at least."
"So why didn't they?" asked Nicolas.
Realization hit Jeremy. "Maybe The Reach did and the Team can't locate it! Guys! Tell the Team there's an MFD they missed! They missed one! Check the magnetic poles!"
"There's another MFD! Check the magnetic poles!" Eva translated to make sure there was no confusion.
"Of course! Kid Flash to Watchtower. There's another MFD out there."
"Are you sure?"
"Just check the North and South Poles," said Kid Flash. "The Earth's magnetic field might be masking them."
"Blue Beetle to Watchtower, I'm reading at twenty-first MFD in the Arctic, hidden from my previous scans by Earth's north magnetic pole. Sending coordinates."
"There are no zeta tubes in the Arctic," came the reply. "How are we going to-?"
"Don't worry, gang," came Flash's voice. "I've got this."
"I'm going with him," Kid Flash said.
Artemis grabbed his arm. "But what about what Odd said? You could die!"
"I wouldn't leave you that easily, babe," Kid Flash said with a smile.
"I just got you back," said Artemis. "I don't want to lose you again."
"You won't." Kid Flash kissed her on the cheek and was gone.
"What now?" Sissi asked.
"We pray they get to that MFD in time," Aelita replied. She looked down at her specter band. "Jeremy, we may need a return to the past."
"Aelita, resetting the day won't bring back the dead. You know this."
"I do, but if we set off the return to the past at the right time, we may be able to save some lives and alert the Team to the MFD faster. Set it to take us back thirty minutes from now," said Aelita. "That should be enough time and not cause more chaos than there already is."
Jeremy did as Aelita asked. He prepared the return to the past, setting it thirty minutes prior to the present time so it would take them back to 14:15. "This could work," he assured himself, his finger hovering over the enter key.
"It could," Franz agreed. "But the chances are slim."
"Slim is better than none," said Herb.
Several tense moments went by.
"Mission success!" Artemis' voice came over the specter band's comm link. "They got it! All MFDs have been destroyed! It's over!"
Everyone in the supercomputer room jumped up and cheered. Jeremy threw his hands in the air and Herb high-fived one of them. Franz gave Antea a hug. William grabbed Kayla and kissed her full on the mouth. Nicolas jumped up and down, shouting at Sam that it was over, Bon Ami barking and bounding around their legs.
At the Eiffel Tower, Eva was holding her wrist out to Artemis so she could speak into the comm link. The others were jumping and cheering in victory.
Odd was suddenly scooped up in a hug by Artemis.
"Thank you," the blonde archer said in his ear. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Odd said sincerely. "But you may want to let go. You've got a boyfriend. I've got a girlfriend. And this can be taken all in the wrong way."
Artemis laughed and stepped away, giving him a playful bat at the side of his head.
The next two weeks had been trying for the world. Everyone was cleaning up from the destruction the MFDs had caused. Nightwing had contacted the LYOKO warriors and said that things could have been worse if they hadn't figured out there was an MFD hidden in the Arctic. Flash and Impulse had gotten to it moments from going chrysalis, Kid Flash joining them a half minute after the MFD's deactivation.
A few of the warriors had been staying at the factory. William and Kayla's house had its roof completely ripped off along with numerous windows shattered. It was the same with Ulrich and Yumi. A tree had fallen on the Hermitage and rendered the house unlivable so Franz, Antea, and Aelita were staying at the factory as well. Sam ended up moving in with Odd instead of the other way around since her building had taken a lot of damage. Nicolas and Eva's place was fine, but Jim and Suzanne were staying with them until Kadic opened for local faculty and students' families to stay until the new semester started.
It took days for any utilities to be restored. All the warriors came and went from the factory the first week since the factory had a generator for some power and they managed to make an improvised water filtration system for showers.
Now two weeks later after the MFD attack, the LYOKO warriors were all gathered at the factory having a party. Tonight The Reach was being escorted from Earth to stand trial for their crimes against the planet. Herb had the television tuned in to the American GBS channel which was covering the event from the United Nations. The spread of food they had out on the table came out of bags or cans and drinks were limited to water and soda, not that any of them drank anything stronger.
While America was wrapping up their celebration of their independence day along with the ejection of The Reach with fireworks displays, it was actually very early in the morning in France. It didn't really matter to the LYOKO warriors as they thought they deserved to celebrate and didn't care if they didn't get up a few hours later than normal.
"It's starting!" Sam said loudly, unsure if everyone could hear her. She was still having trouble with her hearing. None of them were sure if it would ever recover fully, but Sam was optimistic she would get all her hearing back, especially since she could hear more and more of Odd's little hearing tests every day.
They all took their seats around to watch the news program.
On screen was a blonde reporter. "This is Cat Grant reporting live from the U.N., where the entire planet Earth is celebrating a special Independence Day, free of Reach invaders thanks to the brave heroes of the Justice League." She motioned above her and the camera panned to The Reach ship being escorted from the planet by Superman and Captain Marvel.
Odd leaped out of his chair. "Guys, come on!" He sprinted out of the room.
"What is he doing now?" Ulrich asked, getting up to follow him.
"Who knows," said Yumi, following Ulrich.
The others looked at each other before running out of the room to join Odd in whatever he was doing.
Odd ran out on the roof and looked up at the sky. "Later, losers!" he shouted, waving at The Reach ships that were leaving the planet. "We rule, you drool! How do you like that?"
Odd's outburst was met with laughs and eye rolls as the others caught up with him.
A few of them were startled when Ulrich let out a holler of victory and joined Odd in his taunting. One by one they broke into cheers and laughter. Kayla started dancing around, grabbing William and spinning around before skipping off for her next partner. Her dancing got the others jumping and dancing around.
After a few moments of celebration, Herb said, "So I guess everything goes back to normal now. Business as usual?"
Odd laughed. "With everything that's happening with us? Hardly!"
"Our lives are changing and not just because we saved the world again," said Jeremy.
"So what now?" asked Aelita.
Jeremy took her hand. "Take it one day at a time? Sounds like a good start to me."
"Well, I don't know about you, but I would like to go to bed," Yumi announced.
A few others agreed with her and they all started heading inside. Kayla let everyone else to go passed her first, but noticed someone still standing on the roof. Eva was looking up at the stars.
"Eva? Is everything okay?"
Eva turned and smiled. "Yeah. Everything's okay."
The two best friends went inside, Eva closing the door behind them.
"They told me that I was no good at all, such a waster. And, suddenly I was out of the cool, stuck with the fools..."
Again thank you so much for reading. Feel free to leave a review. I have written more stories that are not related to Code: LYOKO or Young Justice if you are interested. I will be updating my other stories in the near future so if you're fans of Quote the Pauper Forevermore or Harriet Potter and the Four Witches, you should be seeing updates for them soon. And who knows, I may have something new in the works.