Code Lyoko Awakens
Chapter 1: Lateness
"Ulrich!" screamed a voice at the edge of the courtyard. The girl waved to him and blew a kiss to him. She was wearing a pink tank top and a huge yellow hairband, which quite showed off her long black hair. Two boys followed her, jealous of the way she liked Ulrich, and not them. One boy was taller than the other, blonde hair straggling over his face. The second had glasses and a nastily done haircut that needed some fixing up.
"Sissi problems again, Ulrich?" a familiar voice chimed in exactly on time.
"Yumi, you don't even know," he joked about it, shrugging off the fact that the girl, Sissi, was stomping her feet on the ground in desperation to get his attention.
Yumi's eyes flicked towards him, "We all know, Ulrich."
"Hey guys, I'm hungry! Let's get something to eat before I die," a new voice added as a kid with blonde hair jumped in between the two. "Come on you two loverbirds, breakfast is already being served!" he added while laughing, but cut them a side glance, his eyes showing another longing emotion.
"Nice to see you too Odd," Yumi said annoyed, obviously enjoying time alone with Ulrich before he came into the day.
"What's gotten your mood? I only just got here," he laughed, enjoying this.
"Lighten up Yumi, like Odd said, it is only the beginning of today," said Aelita, who had just walked up behind them.
"Isn't Jeremy with you Aelita?" Odd asked.
"No, I didn't see him today yet, why, he isn't with you?" a look of worry spread over her face. She was used to him being the first one up and never late.
"Maybe he's still in his room? I'll go and check, catch up with you all soon!" she let out a faint smile and ran off to chase down Jeremy.
"Finally, breakfast!" Odd cracked a smile and ran into the cafeteria.
"There goes a perfect morning," Ulrich muttered to Yumi, watching Odd push in front of some kids waiting in line.
"Ugh..," Jeremy turned around on his bed to face the Einstein poster. He was staring at the opposite wall, tongue sticking out towards him. He smiled to himself, it was good to be back in his own dorm. He sat up on his bed and looked at the clock, it was only six in the morning. He had no need of an alarm clock because he never slept in like Odd, who was always late waking up. Jeremy's computer stood standing higher than anything on his table, surrounded by piles of papers he needed for today. Leave it to Kadic to give out homework over the break.
He sighed, letting his shoulders slump over. "Back to school," he reminded myself. Jeremy walked over to his drawers and pulled out one of them. He shuffled through it and found some clean cloths for the day. He slipped them on, the basic blue shirt and khaki pants. It wasn't much, but it sided for the day. He slipped some of the papers into my backpack, careful not to tear them up. Each one had been finished in the few days after given, perfectly in order and probably an A. His vision fluttered over a little, past my computer screen. He stopped putting the books into his backpack and stared at the screen. He felt myself slip into my normal position at the computer chair. Jeremy's hand directed itself, knowing exactly what to do. He, in fact, hadn't done this in almost a month, but he saw the black file open up with millions of neon green letters file down the screen. He couldn't suppress a short sigh as he searched through, checking each sector to see if they are in order. He smiled to myself, seeing that his work had put everything in its place to hold Xana away from any new attacks.
Something knocked on his door, but he didn't hear it. Jeremy was too busy looking over his old work on Code Lyoko. He found himself thinking about upgrading the whole system; maybe adding a whole bunch of new vehicles. After all, now that he knew how to materialize things into and out, like William's problem, he could make his own world.
"Hey there Jeremy," greeted a friendly voice.
"Uh, Xana?" he peered closer into the screen, seeming to find that regular pop-up message error telling me that Xana activated a tower.
"No, silly," he felt a hand touch his shoulder, gently holding onto it as that same voice.
"Aelita!" Jeremy smiled, but nervousness made his voice crack a little. He watched her pull up a chair and sit down. Her pink hair had been cut to a bob shape, but better in his opinion. She was wearing a new pink dress, fixed with little pom-poms hanging off of the top. A hood was attached to the back, something form one of her old jumpers. "Why are you here?" Jeremy asked, snapping him back to reality.
"You're late. It's almost time for class and I've never seen you not out of your room by seven. I was just worried," she explained. "So, what were you up too?" she asked.
"Sorry to worry you guys, but I just check Lyoko for the first time in almost a month," he pushed his glasses up a little onto his face as he turned back to look at the screen.
"Oh Jeremy, stop worrying about that! Xana is locked up so it can't awaken again," she begged, then continued, moving the mouse over the minimize button. "Come on, you don't want to be late for class on your first day from getting back to school after the break?" Aelita clicked the mouse button then stood up, "Let's go. We have calculus together, and it's right now," she grabbed his hand and pulled him out of his chair.
"Oh.. uh the schedule right. I haven't checked yet," he blushed as she held his hand.
"That's ok, I'll fill you in later, but we have to go right now Jeremy!" she laughed, "It's not like you to be so unprepared."
"I know, I've been busy lately," he told her, truly from wandering thoughts.
"Well, whatever you say," she smiled and walked out the door.
Jeremy nodded and closed the door behind him, locking his room until later.
"Activated tower," came a quiet, but light and soothing voice, obviously computer-generated. On the computer, Code Lyoko's system unminized itself and Xana's symbol started to glow red then orange.
"Oh come on Einstein," Odd laughed as he started to throw around an apple that was rejected at the end of the lunch table. "Do you ever take a break?"
"Odd, at least I'm working on something. Did you even do your projects over the breaks?" he scoffed, not looking up form my work.
"No, I think school work is overrated, why not just give us all a break from it. I'm exhausted," he complained, letting the apple role to the ground.
"Odd, you just had a three week long break, what more could you want?" Jeremy asked him, putting down his pencil and stowing away all of his books.
"Well know that you mention it, I'd like to take another week off and," he stopped talking when Jeremy groaned.
"Seriously Odd, I think you need to relax a little," he told him after the groan. In return, he got a groan back. "You know what Odd, I'm going back to my room to work on this."
"Oh, can I come too. I'm bored here," he asked, picking up a bag of chips and pulling it open, only to take one out and plopping it into his mouth.
Jeremy sighed, pulling his backpack over his shoulder, letting it relax there. "Why bother," he muttered under his breath.
"Ulrich, Yumi, Aelita, get down to my room fast. We have a Xana attack!" Jeremy yelled through his cellphone as he jumped into his computer chair. He clicked it shut then through it one his bed. "This is bad, this is bad.." he studied the neon green letters then stood up to answer the knocking on the door. All three of them were out of breathe from running and barged into his room, already seeing Odd standing over the computer trying to figure out what it means.
"Jer, how did Xana get out again?" Ulrich asked, putting his hands on his knees to catch his breathe.
"I don't know Ulrich, but we'll have to go back to Lyoko and deactivate the tower," Jeremy explained.
"But," Yumi tried to break in, reminding them that third period was in ten minutes.
"Yumi, no buts. We have to go into Lyoko," Jeremy grabbed his laptop and stuck it in his backpack.
"Jer, don't get me wrong but this isn't the forest sector," Ulrich jumped to the ground, making pulse waves that recognized his presence. Around them were flat mountainous lands, heating baring down on them. The sun looked like it was touching the ground, blazing even more heat on them. Oddly, a slight breeze blew around them.
Odd fell to a crouching position, but slowly stood up, "Ulrich's right. I'm no Einstein, but I've never been here before."
"You're right. I'm not picking you guys up on my map," Jeremy's voice flickered through Lyoko.
"Is there anything you can do about it Jeremy?" asked Aelita.
"I can possibly track down one of your user ID's, but it will take a little bit of time," Jeremy added as he stared to type away on his main computer.
"Well hurry up Jer, we have company!" Yumi shouted as three hornets flew overhead. Their stingers were reared towards Ulrich and Odd as the launched their first attacks. Blasts of oranges fired from their stingers and fell to the ground.
Odd did a somersault, putting himself outside of danger and in his fighting position, "Laser Arrow!" he shouted. The hornet felt itself falling to the gorund, but before reaching the bottom, it quickly disappeared into pixels. "Ulrich, watch out!" he called over.
"Got it Odd," Yumi said, pulling out one of her fans and flinging it towards the hornet's head. It barely grazed over it's head, but as soon as the fan was back in Yumi's hand, the hornet had exploded into pixels.
"Aelita, there is a tower west of your position. I only have small visuals so I can't tell you what's ahead. Good luck," Jeremy's voice showered over Lyoko again. He had infiltrated Xana's firewall and had copied the files needed for him to get into the new sector through his main computer.
"Got it Jer," Aelita nodded and ran off to the west.
"Aelita, I'll come with you," Yumi said as she chased after her. "Odd, Ulrich, come to the tower when you're done here."
"Got it, don't let princess get into any trouble, all right Yumi?" Odd laughed as he dodged another stinger.
"Odd!" Ulrich yelled.
"Yea Ulrich?" he stopped laughing a looked over for a second, "What did I.. HEY!" Odd fell to the ground, landing on his back. "Last time I let you get me," he got up, rubbing the dirt off of his arms. He looked up to see the hornet diving into his position, stinger pointed.
"Hold on.. just there," Ulrich jumped up, pulling out his sword. He flipped over the hornet and dragged his sword over its head. It fell to the ground and exploded into the familiar pixels saying that they won.
"Thanks buddy, I thought I was dead for a second," he laughed a little as he put a hand to the ground so he could push himself up."
"Careful Odd, you already lost 20 lifepoints," Jeremy responded to the attack.
"Yea, well let's get back to Aelita and Yumi, Odd," Ulrich started to say before Odd cut in.
"Hey Jer, can't you materialize your vehicles?" Odd asked, too lazy to run.
"I can't materialize them because I don't know where exactly you guys are. Sorry Odd, you'll have to walk," he added over his main computer.
Odd muttered under his breath as he started to sprint forwards towards the tower.
"Yumi!" Aelita yelled as a creature flew over head. "We have a visitor," she looked towards Yumi, a look of shock spread across her face.
Yumi looked up and watching as the creature flew lower, "Jeremy, has Xana created a new creature?" she asked.
Jeremy responded back quickly, "I don't know, but in all the time that Xana has been locked away, it could have created something new. Watch your back guys."
The creature landed on the ground, large wings showing proudly in the air. It had no legs, just tail, two bony arms and large wings. Its mouth was opening, revealing black liquid that oozed as it warned them.
"Ew, creeper with wings. I hate creepers," he spat and stared at the new Xana monster.
"Aelita, run to the tower; we'll take care of this," Yumi told Aelita, motioning with her hand to deactivate the tower.
Aelite nodded, casually turning to stare up at the familiar redness pulsing out and around the tower. She walked slowly into it, feeling all weightlessness take effect as she rose above the first platform.
Below, Ulrich yelled, "Triplicate!" Two more copies of Ulrich emerged from his body and all ran towards the creature. Confused, it shot a black oozed arrow out of its mouth at one of his clones. Barely avoiding another hit, both Ulrichs ran behind the creature, but find themselves being hit with its tail. The clone slammed to the grond and disappeared, leaving Ulrich wide open.
The creature howled and reared back and opened its mouth revealing another deadly arrow. "Ulrich!" Yumi screamed, jumping in front of the monster and throwing one of her metallic fans. It slid past the monster and flew right into its back, launching the arrow at Yumi. She fell to the ground, devirtuallizing into tiny pixels that shattered the ground.
"Hey creeper! You mess with my friends and you get Odd!" he yelled and flipped over the creature, shooting an arrow at its head. He landed in front of it, having a wicked smile on his face.
The creature slumped over and faded out, but suddenly started to appear again out of the small faded figure.
In the tower, Aelita walked over the first two panels, lighting them up. The center panel started to grow brightly as a hologram table appeared, letting Aelita shut it down. She placed her hand on the table and closed her eyes as the numbers and letters started to fall to the bottom of the tower.
"Odd, watch out!" Ulric yelled as the creature reached out to grab Odd with his hideously long claws. Odd yelled something, not comprehendable, out and felt himself being thrown down.
"Return to the past," Jeremy said calmly, pressing the button.
Silence.
"Return to the past," he said again, his voice a little more nervous and quarky.
Something broke the silence. Below, the virtualization tubes had opened and Ulric, Odd, and Aelita fell out of the three used tubes. Yumi was leaning against the wall of her transporter tube and smiled at them, "How'd it go?"
Odd groaned, having been on the ground of the tube in an uncomfortable position. "Oh, I don't know. Could have been better?" He pulled himself off of the ground and walked out of the tube.
"What was that thing?" Aelita asked, staring at the three of them.
"We don't know," Ulric responded, "We couldn't kill it."
Suddenly, Yumi's tube started to flash as a siren wailed. It shuttered open, spreading the white gas all over the room.
"Jeremy, there's a problem!" Aelita wailed up to him, who was trying to figure out why the machine wasn't responding to his voice.
Jeremy flashed his eyes back to the computer then gasped. He ran over to the ladder leading downstairs. He jumped down the last few and landed on his two feet. "It says someone, or something has been detected and sent back into our world. The computer recognized it as one of us in a glitch."
"Well Einstein fix it!" Odd yelled as he crowded over Yumi, Ulrich, and Aelita who had placed themselves right in front of the tube.
"Hey, it's just a girl?" Ulrich backed up and put his hands in his pockets, completely puzzled.
"And a cute one too," Odd laughed, but soon got elbowed in his side by Yumi.
"Odd, stop that. This is serious!" Jeremy yelled, walking over to the girl. "She's unconcisous, not dead, just unconscious," he confirmed after taking her pulse. "Ulrich, we have to take her too the infirmary, now."
"Got it Jeremy," he nodded and picked up the girl.