Chapter 4.0 – Open House
"All right, time to wake up, everybody!" A voice echoed loudly in the outer hall, causing both boys to flinch and grumble in their beds. "It's 7:30! Breakfast today starts at 8:30, on exactly one hour! Then, you have half an hour to ingest your, uh, food! And then, after, we will be holding an Open House! Ms. Hertz will explain everything after breakfast, but for now, get moving! Hot water's limited, you know!" The voice stopped. Alex sighed, and rolled over, determined to keep sleeping, but a sudden fierce pounding on the door shattered any notion of extra sleep. "Did you hear me in there?" Jim shouted through the door. "I said get up!"
"We got it!" Sam groaned from the other bed. "Thanks, Jim."
"Yeah, uh…no problem." Jim's footsteps moved away from their door, and the pounding started once more on another room farther down the hall.
"Good try, Sam, but I don't think he's giving up." Alex grumbled, throwing the covers off and swinging his legs over the side of the bed.
"Guess not." Sam sighed, shifting under the covers. "But I think I'll stay under here for a little while longer anyways."
"You sure?" Alex said, shuffling over to the wardrobe and throwing it open. They had finally gotten everything organized…sort of. He dug through the pile of empty bags and shoes on the bottom shelf of the wardrobe, and pulled out his bag of toiletries. "Hot water is limited here, no lie."
"Well, now I have to go, don't I?" Sam yawned, stretching out comfortably in his bed. "I can't go without a hot shower in the mornings." Alex continued digging and finally found Sam's bag of toiletries. He threw it onto Sam's bed.
"Here. You're welcome. I'm going."
"All right, hold on. I'm coming."
Alex reached behind him, groping blindly in the curtain of deliciously warm water, and felt his hand meet the metal knob that controlled the flow. He sighed, and turned it to the far left, stopping the water altogether. He reached out and grabbed his towel from the outside peg. After toweling his hair dry, he wrapped it around his waist and stepped out from behind the plastic shower curtain into the shower hallway, only to be met with a very unpleasant sight.
"Oh hey, Alex! What's up?" Caleb turned around to face him, obviously about ready to get into the steaming shower in front of him. "Anything new going on with you?"
"No, not, uh, not really." Alex said slowly, trying to look anywhere but directly in front of him. "Listen, I have to get going…breakfast, you know…"
"Oh, yeah." Caleb laughed, turning into his shower as Alex passed awkwardly by him. "Never keep a man from his breakfast!"
"Yeah, uh, something like that…" Alex muttered as he ducked into the dressing room.
"See you around!" Caleb called from behind him. Alex didn't bother answering. He moved quickly over to the bench where he had set his things a few minutes earner, and sighed in relief.
"Did he catch you too?" Said a boy that was, thankfully, wearing pants on the other side of the bench.
"Yeah. Most awkward thing ever." Alex rolled his eyes.
"Be glad he got you when he did…I caught him in here." The boy said, smiling. "And you think what you went through was awkward. At least you had the steam to obscure everything. I actually haven't introduced myself…I'm Drake. Caleb's roommate."
"Oh, that must be fun." Alex grinned as he shook Drake's offered hand. "I'm Alex. Opposite end of the hall from you guys."
"Right, right. You bunk with that blonde-haired dude. The thing that gets me most is his guitar playing. Caleb's, I mean. I hate the guitar." Drake made a face, then tried to shake out his curly black hair unsuccessfully. "Are you from the states too?"
"Yeah. Apparently everyone who's here early is." Alex slipped into some jeans as Drake shook a green t-shirt over his fair-skinned torso.
"Well, I'll see you around." Drake said, walking to the bathroom door.
"Right. Good luck with Caleb."
"Yeah." Drake chuckled, and walked out, just as Sam entered the dressing room from the shower hall.
"Who was that?"
"Caleb's roomie." Alex sat down on the bench and slipped some socks on. "He's pretty cool."
"Does he like Caleb?" Sam slipped some basketball shorts on under his towel, then let the towel drop to the floor.
"No. Which is why he's pretty cool." Alex smiled, and packed his toiletries bag up again as Sam wriggled into a t-shirt from some place called 'Joe's Crab Shack'. "Are you almost done?"
"Finished, actually. You're the slow one." Sam said, eyeing Alex with an air of amusement. He picked up his toiletries and began to walk towards the door. Alex grabbed his bag and towel and rushed forward, grabbing his shoulder.
"Sam. Remember. Not a word to Ashley."
"Why not?" Sam asked, turning from the door. "I'm still confused on the fact."
"Because we only assumed that's what X.A.N.A. wants from her. He could actually want something else entirely; no need to alarm her for something that we don't even know is true."
"When will we know for sure?" Behind them, Caleb's shower stopped running.
"We'll know when I finish decoding the rest of the undamaged video diaries." Alex said in a quiet voice.
"When will that be?"
"At this rate, if you don't touch my computer, sometime tomorrow night."
"Two days?"
"It's a small price to pay for such information."
"Fine. I won't say anything for now. But if your program hasn't finished by tomorrow night, I can't keep it a secret any longer. Alex, it's her mind. She has a right to know."
"Fine, just…go. Caleb's coming. Probably without a towel again." And with that, Alex pushed Sam out through the bathroom door and out into the empty hallway.
Caleb moved out from behind the wall where he had been hiding. He frowned, and wrapped a towel around his waist. Hadn't those voices belonged to Alex and his friend? Sam, that was it. He thought he had made out something about one of the two girls that hung around with them. The one that changed her hair. Ashley? Maybe. What confused him is why they had been talking about her memories. He started to dry off, still frowning. He'd have to find out more about what they were whispering about. And who was this X.A.N.A.? He sighed. Alex had always been a little weird.
Alex and Sam walked into the mess hall. There were some people here and there, but for the most part it was empty, due to how early it still was.
"I don't see the girls." Sam said, scanning the room before going to stand in the food line.
"Me either. Maybe they're still in their room?" Alex frowned and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He sent a quick text to Ginger, then moved towards Sam and grabbed a tray. "I sent Ginger a text. That should wake them up if they're still sleeping; she never turns her phone on silent for anything."
"That seems a little stupid." Sam chuckled, accepting some bacon and a croissant from Rosa. "We should start calling her in class."
"That would be pretty funny!" Alex laughed, taking a glass of orange juice. His phone buzzed, and he placed it on his tray to be able to read the new text.
"Ginger?" Sam asked, leaning over to try and see.
"Yup. She says they're on their way down; there was a block-up in the showers and that's why they were late." The two boys reached the end of the line and grabbed a pastry each, then went off to sit at their usual table by the window.
"Question, Alex." Sam said as he sat down across from his friend. "You said that the decoding would be complete tomorrow night if your computer wasn't touched?"
"That's right." Alex said, biting into his croissant.
"So you can't touch it either?"
"You're right. What are you getting at?"
"How will he know if there's an activated tower on Lyoko if you can't stop the decoding to connect to Lyoko's server?"
"Oh." Alex chuckled, obviously a bit proud of whatever it was he had done. "I actually set up the Superscan, before I started the final decoding process, to send an encrypted text to my phone if X.A.N.A. tries anything funny on Lyoko. The texts will include the coordinates of the tower as well. It was pretty complicated, since the two things are based on totally different platforms, but I did it! Now I don't have to carry my computer around with me everywhere, which is a relief. The charger was taking up too much space in my bag."
"Wow, that's impressive." Sam said, eyebrows raised. "Why aren't you in C++ Programming with me? You seem like you could really excel in that class." Alex shrugged, now digging into his bacon.
"Dunno. Programming's not really my thing."
"Contrary to all appearances." Sam laughed. "Oh hey, here come the girls." Alex turned, and sure enough, Ashley and Ginger were walking towards them with trays of food.
"Good morning!" Ashley chirped cheerfully.
"Hey guys." Ginger said, setting her tray down next to Sam. "What's new?" Alex threw a death glare over at Sam, who gave a small nod.
"Nothing much, the usual." Alex sighed, leaning back in his chair and continuing on to the pastry he had plucked from the rack. "I met Caleb's roomie today. He's pretty cool."
"Drake, isn't it?" Ginger said, taking a sip of coffee.
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"Ran into him on the stairs." She mumbled.
"Literally." Ashley smirked, taking a bite out of her scrambled eggs. "She nearly knocked him down two flights of 'em."
"It was an accident!" Ginger said defensively. "We were coming out of our hallway and he was coming down the stairs next to the wall. I didn't see him until he was under me-" Ginger blushed, and stopped talking.
"So you fell on top of him?" Sam laughed.
"You sly fox." Alex winked at her.
"Oh, shut up." Ginger said, digging into her eggs.
"I'm out of OJ." Sam said, peering into his glass. "Be right back." His chair scraped against the floor as he stood up and walked off. The others continued eating in silence, until a boy came up to the edge of the table.
"Excuse me, is anybody using that chair?" The tan youth asked. He had black hair with a shock of purple running down the side, and was wearing a purple v-neck, similar to one Alex had somewhere in his room.
"Yeah, sorry." Alex said, looking up at the kid. "I think there are some over there, though." He pointed to the far end of the lunchroom, where some tables stood empty.
"I like your hair!" Ashley spoke up, smiling at the boy. "The purple really stands out well."
"Thanks." The boy smiled at her, showing white teeth. "I'm Aiden."
"I'm Ashley. Nice to meet you."
"I like your hair too. I'm guessing you recently colored it brown?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Ashley reached up and fingered some of her hair.
"I have a thing with hair." Aiden smiled. "See you all around." The three friends watched him walk off, the when he was no longer in earshot, Ashley giggled.
"Well, he was cute." Ginger said slowly.
"He? Who was he?" Sam walked back up to the table through the throng of people that had just poured in from the dormitories.
"Aiden." Alex said through a mouthful of bacon, causing the two girls to giggle once more. "I think he's a junior…he must've been; he came down with Caleb." Alex motioned over to where Caleb was standing in line; the boy named Aiden had just lined up behind him.
"He gets a chair before getting food?" Sam asked, chuckling. "Weird."
"Is not! Just because he's different doesn't mean he's weird." Ashley huffed, blushing slightly.
"Oh, you're just saying that because he's a cute guy that complimented your hair." Alex said, grinning. Sam frowned slightly, and took a sip of orange juice.
"Well, yeah, but still! Never judge a book by its cover, you know?"
"I did that with you, and look where it got me!" Alex laughed and dodged a playful punch from Ashley.
"Simmer down, now. We don't want our techie to have any broken bones, now do we?" Ginger smiled over at the two.
"He'll manage!" Ashley laughed, still trying to get a punch in.
"Hey, you two!" Jim stomped over to their table, causing Alex and Ashley to straighten up immediately. "What's going on here?"
"Just a little harmless squabble between friends, Jim, that's all. Nothing to get upset over." Sam said, butting in before Alex could stutter out a lame excuse.
"Well, it may not be anything to get upset over, but fighting is strictly against the school rules! Since school…technically isn't in session yet, all I can do for now is cut your breakfast short. Up and outside, both of you! And be lucky I don't send you to the principal for a good talking to!" Alex and Ashley both stood up and were escorted to the mess hall doors by Jim. He pushed them open and moved them outside. "I hope this teaches you a lesson. And if I see any more fighting, it's off to the principal with both of you! Lousy kids…" Jim retreated back into the mess hall, closing the door behind him.
"Way to go, genius." Ashley grumbled to Alex as they both trudged across the dirt yard. "I barely had anything to eat!"
"Oh, so selfish. I didn't have time for seconds!" Alex groaned, but was shut up by a withering look from his friend.
"Hey, who's that?" Ashley pointed to a grey-haired woman dressed in a lab coat standing by the entrance to the dormitories. "She wasn't here when I came down."
"That must be Ms. Hertz." Alex said, continuing to walk towards her. "Jim said she would direct us all to the Open House or something. Should we talk to her?"
"If you want to get something done today, yes, you should talk to me!" The gray haired woman turned to face them with a stern gaze radiating out from behind her glasses. Ms. Hertz wore, under her long sleeved lab coat, a red turtleneck. She wore a necklace that glinted in the early morning light. "I am Ms. Hertz, as you apparently already know. I will be teaching your science class, whatever that may be. And you are…?"
"I'm Ashley." Ashley said, gesturing at herself, then motioning to Alex. "And this is Alex."
"Very nice to meet both of you. And I assume you are from the states?"
"Yes m'am, everyone who's here early is."
"Oh, I see. Well, I see a few people starting to trickle out of the mess hall; we might as well get started." Alex and Ashley turned behind them to see Jim leading a few students out of the mess hall doors and towards where Ms. Hertz was standing. "Do both of you have your schedules?" The two pulled their schedules out from their pockets, and handed them to Ms. Hertz. She, after glancing at a clipboard she was holding, wrote a series of numbers on both of their schedules, and handed them back. "Those are the room numbers. I should think you will be able to find them without trouble. Now go on, get to your first class." She shooed Alex and Ashley away as more and more people began coming out of the mess hall.
"Do you think we should wait for Sam and Ginger?" Alex asked, as he glanced back at the crowd that had quickly gathered around Ms. Hertz.
"No. We have the same first period; Sam and Ginger both have different ones. Besides, I'm not about to fight my way through that crowd to find them. Ashley walked through the front door of the dormitory building with Alex following close behind.
"Is Art Education in here?" Alex said, glancing at the start of the stairs on his far left as he walked inside, seeing if anybody was coming down.
"Down that hallway." Ashley pointed to a set of double doors on the right wall, positioned exactly like the dormitory halls doors above it. "We want to go into the first classroom on the left; that's the Art Ed classroom. The hallway dead-ends after the third classroom, unlike the upstairs halls, so you shouldn't get lost here." Ashley smiled coyly at Alex, who only rolled his eyes.
"I don't get lost that easily."
"Tell that to the Southlake Mall security team..."
"All right, all right! I get your point! No need to bring that up!" Ashley laughed as they walked through the open doors into the first floor corridor.
"That room." Ashley pointed to a large wooden set of blue double doors on their immediate left. She moved over to try both handles, but the doors were locked.
"Great. Now what?"
"Now we people-watch until the teacher gets here." Ashley turned and leaned on the wall next to the classroom door, and stared out the windows that ran all along the wall opposite her. Alex did the same.
"It looks like most of the crowd is dispersing. Oh, hey, there's Sam!" Alex pointed to his friend who was just getting his schedule back from Ms. Hertz. "Where's he going?"
"Over to the Science Building." Ashley said, as Sam started to walk away from the Dormitory Building. "That's where the computer labs are located, and he has C++ Programming first."
"Hey! So I see you stopped fighting, eh?" Ginger walked into the corridor, flanked by a couple of other students. Ginger and a few kids stopped next to them, while the majority of the students went farther down the hall to the other two classrooms.
"Shut up." Alex glowered at Ginger. "I'm starving! I didn't get enough to eat!"
"Don't even." Ashley huffed. "Ginger, is your first class down here too?"
"Yeah, French II. It's in the middle room." Ginger pointed to the second set of locked blue double doors in the hallway, some distance away from the first set.
"What's taught in the last classroom?" Ashley asked curiously, staring down the hall at the last set of blue double doors, through which students were moving. "Their doors are unlocked."
"I think it's the morning Trigonometry Class." Ginger said distractedly as she spotted two teachers walk into the hallway. "Look, teachers." One, a tall, skinny woman with black hair, a sharp black suit, and pointed black heels, moved her way through the small crowd of students and unlocked the doors to the French II classroom. She moved inside, followed by some students.
"She looks strict." Alex said, smirking. "Have fun."
"Shut up." Ginger groaned, following the rest of the French II students into the classroom. Once all of the students were inside, the black-haired teacher moved out into the hallway, looked around once, then went back inside and quickly closed the doors behind her.
"Excuse me, could I get everyone's attention over here?" Alex and Ashley started forward, surprised. They had forgotten about the other teacher. They turned their attention to the other teacher, also a woman, who was standing near the windows. She had fair skin that went well with her had long brown hair which was pulled back into a ponytail that reached down to the nape of her neck with the help of a light blue scrunchie. She was wearing a pair of paint-stained jean overalls and work boots over a short-sleeved red checkered button-up shirt, which surprised Alex. He didn't know that teachers were allowed to dress up that way. Things were obviously different here at Kadic. Either that, or this lady was one piece of work. "My name is Ms., not Mrs., Daisy Lesano, and I am your Art Education teacher. But, if you want, you can call me Daisy. I'm not much older than you guys; I'm only 23, so I don't mind. It also adds a sense of comfortable familiarity that I hope to share with every single one of you! Now, before I unlock our art room for the rest of the year, I want you to know some things about me. I'm very hypocritical when it comes to teaching. I know some teachers are very strict here and insist on doing things by the book, and blah blah blah…" Here she threw a nasty glance over to the French classroom. "… but I do not. I believe art is something that should never be restrained. I even got permission to dress the way I do, and I address this because I can see that I surprised some of you." She laughed; a small, enchanting sound. "I dress this way because art is very messy as well, as you will see when I open our room. Now, I assume you all have your art supplies on you, correct?" The sounds of zippers being undone and Velcro being torn filled the corridor as everyone checked that they had their things, then a round of scattered 'yeses' was heard. "Excellent! Leave them in your room from now on. Those are your personal tools to create wonderful pieces of art in your own time. You won't need them anyways; I shall provide everything for you every single day. And it's also one less thing to carry around every day. See? I'm already making your lives better!" She smiled as she walked through the fifteen or so people that made up the Art Education class, pulling out an impressive loop of keys as she went. She searched for a moment on the ring when she stopped in front of the large blue doors, then found the key she was looking for. It was colored a brilliant shade of baby blue. She inserted the key into the locks on both doors and twisted vigorously, satisfied only when she heard the great clunk of tumblers being undone. "Step back!" Everyone shuffled a few awkward steps backward, then Ms. Lesano, or Daisy, threw open the doors. Everyone gasped, whether they meant to or not. The first thing that met everyone's eyes was the mural. On the far right wall there was just an absolutely enormous splatter paint mural. Every single color in the color spectrum seemed to be included in the mural somewhere. The paint splatters, in certain places, extended onto the wooden floor and the ceiling, and even the window which was right next to the mural was speckled with paint here and there. There was more than just one window, however. On the far side of the room, there were several floor-to-ceiling windows that took up most of the space on the far wall and doused the room with sunlight. As the windows reached the left side of the room, they started shrinking due to several odd structures that started rising out of the floor a little after the midway point of the room. These structures were white, splattered with paint here and there. They were in the form of several different shapes. On the lowest one, there were stairs. Every time a structure got higher than the one below it, there would be stairs leading up to the next one. On every shape there were railings around the edges to keep people from falling onto the shape below, and a few short cabinets that looked like bedside tables. Most of the tables had some kind of art supplies on top, such as paint tubes, oil pastels, or drawing pencils. The center of the room was made up of one large depression that was filled with supply cabinets and various art projects, with stairs leading down to it from the doors. There were two other sets of stairs in the depression, one leading to the giant splatter paint mural and the other leading up to the shaped platforms. There were railings that stretched along both the ledge of the splatter paint wall and the ledge in front of them. "So, what do you think?" Ms. Lesano asked her new class as she led them down into the depression. "This big hole in the floor is where I work." She gestured around at the multiple easels and cabinets, many of which had their doors thrown wide open to reveal the jumble of supplies inside. "I have various projects going on here, as you can see. A few paintings, a marble sculpture going on over by the window…but please don't touch any of them unless I give you permission to."
"This is like a dream come true for you, huh?" Alex whispered to Ashley, who could only muster a feeble nod.
"The wall to our right is my splatter paint wall." Ms. Lesano continued, gesturing at the wall to their right. "I've been working on it for about a year now because, well, I only got hired last year. You are all welcome to come and work on it whenever you are not working on another assignment. Now, opposite this wall are your workstations." Ms. Lesano turned and motioned at the left side of the room. "Each one of those are your private workstation. Go on, pick one! I have plenty!" Everyone rushed over to the stairs to their left, determined to have the best pick…whatever that was. Most of the class rushed upwards, wanting a workstation near the ceiling, but Alex, after only glancing around at the numerous places to sit, walked up the main flight of stairs to the first landing and took the one shaped like a circle that was directly on his right, the lowest one in the entire group of workstations. It wasn't connected to any other workstation, and it had a gorgeous view out of the windows that were now directly to his left. Ashley took the one across the aisle from him, which was shaped like a square. Ashley's workstation wasn't connected to any other workstation, same as Alex's. Alex sat down in the stool that had been placed in the middle of the workstation and looked around at the things inside the circle. An easel, a few small tables with drawers that were presumably full of drawing supplies, a rack of paints, another for paintbrushes, another for pencils, and yet another for oil pastels; all of which were hung up on the wall next to him. There was even a box of Kleenex on one of the small supply tables, presumably to help with shading when drawing. Ms. Lesano then walked up the stairs and stopped between both Ashley and Alex's workstations, smiling at both of them. "You two took the lowest and most upfront workstations, coincidentally the only two that aren't connected to anybody else's. You two must be very tight."
"I guess you could say that!" Ashley laughed.
"And I'm guessing you're an artist?" Ms. Lesano now spoke to Ashley.
"I suppose I could be called that. How did you know?" Ashley said, surprised. Behind them, people were still scrambling around to find workspaces.
"The dried paint under your fingernails suggests you did a bit of work this morning, and didn't get all of it off in the shower because you were in a rush?" Ashley absentmindedly picked at her fingernails, small flakes of baby blue paint fluttering to the floor. "You have a sketching pencil behind your left ear, presumably an 8B by the mark it's leaving next to your eyebrow." Ashley quickly rubbed away the black smudge on her face, and threw the pencil into her bag, which was laying on the floor next to her. Ms. Lesano glanced down. "You also have a few sketchbooks in there, and your fashion sense is unique and, quite frankly, very beautiful. See? It wasn't that hard. You radiate the aura of a true artist!"
"Thanks!" Ashley blushed slightly. "I've never had anyone tell me that before."
"I can naturally tell when someone is a good artist." Ms. Lesano spoke, twisting a lock of her hair absentmindedly. "It's a gift. Either that, or I have an amazing tendency to point out the obvious." Ashley and Ms. Lesano laughed, the sound echoing beautifully in the room. "Oh, has everyone chosen a workplace?" Ms. Lesano said, surprised to see everyone smiling down at her. "Excellent! We'll throw those windows open if it gets too hot in here. Now, since this is supposed to be a sort version of the actual class, we can't really do anything today. I'm actually supposed to be going over the class rules with you, but…we already went over all of them! So what I want you to do is look behind you. I cleaned the walls behind every workstation for a reason. Today, you are going to write your name on the wall behind you, to mark your workstation. Make it as creative as you want! You have supplies on your shape, and you can also come down to my workplace and rummage for supplies in my cabinets. What's mine is yours! Now go on, be artists!"
Ginger groaned inwardly as Ms. Dolar placed the worksheet in front of her, titled 'An Introduction to French II, pages 1 – 20'. This class sucked. She glanced at the clock. 15 more minutes, and this was for a grade! She sighed, and began to write, wondering how Ashley, Sam, and Alex were all getting along.
Sam adjusted the three monitors in front of him. After the teacher had given the order to organize their workspaces as they desired, Sam had rushed for the boxes of unused monitors before they were all snatched up. Now he sat comfortably in his desk with three monitors and two computer towers that were all located next to the window, giving him a view of the track and the gym that lay beyond it. There were some workers out in the track, probably cleaning it up and getting it ready for track season. He leaned under the desk and felt around for the power button on both towers. Once pressed, the towers whirred to life with a sharp intake of air, then quieted down to a gentle hum. Sam powered on each of the three monitors, and they all blinked to life. He logged onto the private server that he had created on Alex's laptop through the campus Wi-Fi, and, while the system connected to the server, set up a dual-lens cam he had found in a pile of unused stuff. On another monitor he opened the program for the cam, and two windows opened, one showing his face, and the other showing everything in front of his desk. A blip sounded from in front of him, directing his attention back to the center monitor, where the system was telling him that it was connected to the private server. Sam hit a few more keys, trying to establish a link with Alex's phone. A few seconds went by as he drummed his fingers restlessly on his desk and watched the workers out on the track, then another small blip pulled his attention back to the monitor. Link established. He initiated a Facetime session with Alex and placed an earpiece into his right ear. His fingers started drumming once more.
Alex tore his eyes away from the charcoal drawing of his name he had started on the wall, and looked down on the floor where he had placed his phone. It was making a soft blipping noise.
Private server KAt70h user 'breadmaker' requesting Facetime session
Alex accepted the invitation, and Sam's face appeared onscreen.
"Hello there, breadmaker. How goes life on the other side of campus?" Sam grinned up at him.
"Excellent. I've got a triple-monitor situation going on over here and it is amazing. Why am I staring at the ceiling, and yet I can see your face?"
"Because my phone's on the floor. We're personalizing our workstations." Alex gingerly took the phone between his charcoal-stained hands and showed Sam the drawing of his name he was working on. "That's mine." Then he turned the phone towards Ashley and what she was doing. "And that's Ashley." He turned the phone back towards him.
"Ashley's is very impressive. And yours is…g…v...too."
"Say again?" Alex frowned, as Sam's face started to fizz and pop onscreen. "Sam, you're breaking up, say again?" Sam's image froze onscreen, then disappeared, being replaced by the words 'Private Server KAt70h unavailable. Facetime connection lost.' Alex's brow furrowed. How odd. He leaned down to put his phone on the floor, but it beeped twice, alerting him to a new text message. He glanced down at the screen once, then his eyes doubled back to the text onscreen as he took a sharp breath.
New Text From: superscan
ACTIVATED TOWER 09:24:47 AM
MOUNTAIN SECTOR: 45° S LONG, 15° W LAT
"Ashley!" He hissed over at her, getting to his feet.
"What?" She asked, obviously immersed in her work.
"We're going to the bathroom. We have to wash up." Alex said, trying not to draw attention. Ashley looked at him with a face full of confusion, but it cleared and was replaced by a grim look when Alex flashed the text at her.
"Oh, right, the bathroom!" She quickly got up and wiped her hands on a rag next to her that was covered with paint stains. "When?" She whispered under her breath as she followed him down the stairs into Ms. Lesano's work pit.
"Just a few seconds ago. Get Ginger in the know." Ashley nodded, pulling out her phone as they walked. Alex sidestepped a large painting of a flowery meadow, and found Ms. Lesano working on a stunning self-portrait. "Ms Lesano, is it all right if Ashley and I go wash up? We're a bit messy."
"Yes, of course!" Ms. Lesano chirped, turning to them. "Use the bathrooms upstairs, and don't dawdle!"
"Thank you!" Ashley and Alex moved quickly towards the classroom door.
"I sent Ginger a text." Ashley muttered as she climbed the stairs behind Alex.
"O.K., thanks. We've got to get Sam in on this as well." Alex whispered, as he pushed the door open into the hallway. Ashley slowed down as she pulled her phone out to text Sam. Alex stepped out into the empty hallway, when suddenly an alarm began to sound. Ashley cried out as the door began to swing shut in front of her.
"Alex!" But it was too late. The heavy wooden door slammed closed and refused to open, no matter how hard she shoved.
"Ashley!" Alex's fists pounded on the blue wood. "Can you hear me?" He shouted over the alarm. "Get to the factory!" He glanced behind him and saw heavy metal shutters start to close on the windows in the corridor. The doors to the rest of the building had slammed shut, and he wasn't about to bother with trying to open them. "Break a window! Hurry, before you're locked in too!"
"O.K!" Ashley he heard Ashley call back. Alex turned away from the door just in time to see the last shutter close down on the final window in the hallway. He leant back against the blue door and slid to the floor, the alarm blaring in his head. There was nothing else he could do. He was trapped.
Ginger frantically pulled on the doorknob of the French II classroom. She thought she had heard someone shouting out in the hallway, but there was no way to tell. She turned around to try and run back to the end of the room and break a window, but it was too late. The shutters slammed down, blocking her way out. She was trapped like a rat in a cage. She groaned. What was even going on?"
Sam tore the earpiece off and grabbed a monitor off his desk. He pulled the other two to the floor in doing so, but it didn't matter. He threw the monitor at the window next to him and covered his face as it shattered, raining glass shards down onto him. He glanced over and, seeing the shutter close on the window next to his, scrambled out the broken window without a moment's hesitation. He crashed to the ground below the window, nearly bashing his head in on the monitor that now lay shattered and broken on the ground next to him, and looked up just in time to see a metal shutter close off the window he had just leapt out of. That had been way too close. He glanced around then took off, headed towards the rear of the Science building, the alarm echoing eerily all over campus.
Ashley moved swiftly between Ms. Lesano's many art projects, grabbing an almost finished marble bust off of a table along the way. Her fellow classmates had gathered around the door and were trying to pry it open, but Ashley was only interested in the windows. She leapt up the stairs into the workstations two by two, making her way over into a workstation that was right next to a window. She glanced down into the workspace, and saw Ms. Lesano watching her. Then she heard the metal shutter slam down on the opposite end of the room, sealing off the second large window. She leapt over a stool and crashed through an empty easel, then reached the workstation she was aiming for. She raised the bust above her head, but flinched when she heard the third window be sealed off. She glanced over, then redoubled her grip on the bust and brought it down on the glass in front of her. It shattered, making what would normally be a loud sound, but in comparison with the alarm had next to no significance at all. Ashley leapt out of the window and landed on the grassy ground below the windowsill. She looked back in time to see Ms. Lesano run up onto the workstation level where she had just been, then the shutter slammed down on the window that she had just broken. Ashley glanced back at Ms. Lesano, who was, oddly enough, smiling.
"That's the trick! You used your head, your imagination! Go on, do whatever it is you need to do! Fior now, we're safe here!" Ashley smiled, taking comfort in the fact that Ms. Lesano understood, to an extent. Then she tore her eyes away from her beaming art teacher and began to run.
Sam pulled out his phone as he ran into the shade of the trees. He hit the speed dial for Alex, and held his phone up to his ear. It barley had enough time to ring once before Alex picked up.
"Sam!" Alex's voice was in danger of being drowned out by the alarm that was now fading behind Sam. "Where are you?"
"In the park. Where are you? I can still hear the alarm over the line!"
"I got trapped in the downstairs hallway of the dormitory building. The windows got blocked off before I had a chance to break one." Sam's heart skipped a beat.
"Wait, but who's going to run the Supercomputer?"
"You are, obviously. I'll guide you through it if you need me to. You should probably call Ashley next; I think she got out too. I'll check in with Ginger and get back to you."
"Right. Good luck."
"You too." The line went dead, leaving the dial tone buzzing in Sam's ear. He leapt over a tangle of roots, then marked Ashley's number and held the phone up to his ear again.
Ashley's phone buzzed in her pocket as she sprinted across the track towards the woods. She pulled it out, checking the caller ID as she went. Sam, thank god. "Sam?"
"Yeah, it's me. Did you get out of the school?"
"I'm running across the track right now. Alex didn't make it, though."
"I know, I just called him. What about Ginger?"
"No idea. Last I saw, she was in her French II class with that really strict teacher, the one wearing that black suit."
"Yeah, I saw her. But seriously, what the hell is happening to the school? All the doors locked themselves off, and the windows were sealed!"
"I haven't the faintest!" Ashley panted as she moved off the track and ran towards the back of the Science building. The alarm was still wailing inside. "Is it some sort of security device? Something to protect the campus?"
"I'll check it out when I get to the factory." Sam's voice came back. "I'm at the manhole in the park. Try and catch up, all right?"
"Done. See you in the lab." Ashley ended the call and pocketed her phone as she cleared the back edge of the Science building. In front of her, the trees of the park loomed ominously over her head. She grimaced, trying to ignore the pain in her legs, and ran on.
Alex looked down at his screen. This was the fourth time he had called Ginger and she hadn't picked up. Although, who could blame her? He winced as the alarm let out another shrieking peal of noise. Most everything was being drowned out by that thing anyways. He stood up, considering there was nothing better to do, and moved towards the pair of wooden blue doors that led into the language arts classroom. He pounded hard on the doors, trying to get someone's attention. "Ginger? Are you in there? Someone? Anyone!"
Ginger jumped as the doors rattled behind her. She whirled around and moved towards them, hearing someone shouting on the other side. "Who is it? Can you help us?"
"It's me, Alex!"
"Alex? Why are you out there?" Ginger shouted over the alarm, starting to really panic.
"I got trapped out here when the school went into fucking lockdown ." Alex growled on the other side of the door. "There's no way out for me."
"Same here." She shouted back. "All the windows got sealed off while I was trying to get the door open; I'm trapped too." After a moment's pause, she added: "Did Ashley get out? Or is she with you as well?"
"I think she got out. The art room has enormous windows; I think she managed to break one and get out in time."
"That's a piece of good news." Ginger sighed. "Now we have a real chance of getting out of here."
"I still don't understand, though." Alex voice floated through the door, sounding puzzled. Is this X.A.N.A.'s attack? To keep us here? There must be a part two; something that hasn't happened yet."
"You're right…" Ginger mused. "Let's just hope that Ashley can deactivate the tower before we find out what that part two is."
Sam let go of the rope and thudded to the dusty factory floor, skidding a little on the grimy cement. His phone buzzed; a new text message.
New text from Alex:
Too loud to call. Ginger trapped in lang. arts class. We think that there's a second part to this attack. Deactivate the tower before we find out what it is.
Sam sighed. Great; now it was just him and Ashley. This was going to be tough. And to add onto things he had no idea how to run the Supercomputer. Guess he would just wing it. He pressed the call button next to the elevator shaft and watched the metal grate slide open in front of him.
Ashley ran past the tunnel that led to the Gym. The alarm echoed eerily down the passageway; the red door was probably locked as well. Her footsteps splashed slightly on the damp cement as she ran. The light from the Gym tunnel faded behind her. She felt quite out of breath. Almost there. Almost there.
Alex covered his ears with his hands, trying to drown out the terrible wailing of the alarm. He moved his hands over a grate in the floor, presumably to let air flow through the building, but recoiled when he felt how hot the air coming up from the vent was. How odd. He got on his hands and knees and peered into the vent, only to be rewarded with a blast of broiling air to the face. He cried out in pain, and fell backwards onto the wooden floor of the hallway. His face felt very pins-and-needles-esque, and he tried to shake the feeling away. No use; the air in the hallway was becoming oddly warm. He stood up to try and talk to Ginger again and see if it was getting hot in her room as well, when suddenly a muffled explosion from the basement rocked the hallway and threw him back onto the floor, his head cracking against the wood. The last thing he saw before his vision was consumed by black spots was a curling wisp of black something coming from the air vent. Then he accepted the embrace of darkness.
Sam frowned at the map in front of him. He was sitting in the high-backed yellow chair in the lab. Onscreen, there was a map of Kadic's campus. Apparently part of X.A.N.A.'s plan was to enable the school's security system, letting nobody get into or out of any of the buildings by sending the entire campus into lockdown. The doors automatically shut and locked themselves using an electronic lock that only Delmas had the key to, and metal shutters closed down on all of the windows. His attention was drawn over to the Administration building, where a small red 'x' was circling in the place where Delmas's office would be. Delmas was apparently trying to release the school from lockdown, but to no avail. There was no way X.A.N.A. would let him.
Ashley ran into the factory and jumped off the platform just as her phone beeped in her pocket. She swung down to the factory floor and hit the call button for the elevator. She pulled her phone out of her pocket as the elevator began to whirr upwards, and read the new text message from Ginger.
Ginger:
Locked in dormitory building in lang arts class, alex locked out in hallway. Something just exploded in the basement, it's sending smoke up through the air vents. alex isn't answering me. It's getting really hot in here. Deactivate the tow
Ashley stared at the incomplete text, stunned. What had exploded? Was Alex all right? What was going on? The elevator clanked to a stop in front of her, and she rushed inside as soon as the grate was high enough.
Ginger gasped as the air vents in the room belched out more black smoke. At this rate, everyone was going to die of smoke inhalation. She turned towards the door where Alex still had not said a word since the explosion. But no matter, the problem was in here.
"We have to break a window to let the smoke out!" She shouted to some kids near the two windows at the end of the classroom. "We'll die of smoke inhalation if we don't!"
"On it!" A tall, blonde-haired boy bounded down the aisle towards Ginger, and, with the help of a few other guys, picked up a large wooden bench that sat by the door. They all carried it up to the front of the room through the smoke, and stopped in front of the blocked-off window. "On three, we'll throw it at this metal thing covering the window. Hopefully it'll break it some to let the smoke out. One!" The rest of the students and Ms. Dolar quickly hurried back to Ginger, away from the windows. "Two!" The blonde-haired boy coughed, getting a lung full of smoke as he spoke. All the boys redoubled their grip on the bench. "Three!" The boys heaved the bench forward against the metal covering of the window. The covering didn't break, but the force of the bench was enough to shatter the windowpane beyond it. Cool air rushed into the room as the smoke and hot air rushed out. "Hey, we did it!" The boys high-fived each other as Ginger rolled her eyes and smiled. They were safe…at least, for now.
Sam turned his head as the elevator doors screeched open, then, once he saw it was Ashley, he turned his head back to the screen.
"Sam, what's going on at the school?" Ashley said frantically, running over to him. Ginger sent me a text saying something blew up!
"She's right." Sam said grimly, motioning to the map onscreen. "Look." He was pointing at an orange dot underneath where the first floor hallway would be in the dormitory building. "The boiler just exploded. X.A.N.A. drove it too hard, and it went. There's a fire, but the cement walls of the basement seem to have it contained for now.
"Oh my god." Ashley squeaked, covering her mouth with her hands. "We have to deactivate the tower, now! Everybody in that building is in danger!"
"And you don't think I know that?" Sam said angrily, focused on the screen in front of him. "I'm not Alex; running this thing is a lot harder for me than it is for him!" Sam typed furiously as Ashley abashedly looked down. "There. I've set up a delayed virtualization process into the mountain sector; that's where the activated Tower is. I tried to program it to virtualize us as close to the Towers so we'll have no problem seeing it from where we arrive. Let's go." Sam spoke briskly, and quickly moved over to the hatch in the floor. He slid it open, and made his way down into the Scanner room. Ashley sighed and followed him.
Ginger pounded on the door, trying to draw Alex's attention. There had been a large tremor that had shaken the classroom, accompanied by a chorus of deafening crashing sounds. She was afraid that it had been another smaller explosion.
"Alex! Alex, are you O.K.? Answer me!" Ginger suddenly yelped and jumped back as a thick stream of heavy black smoke curled up from under the door. "Alex!" She screamed through the door "Answer me!" But she was only met with the wail of the alarm. She backed away from the door as the new smoke continued to flow into the classroom, accompanied by an occasional orange flicker. Everyone who was standing close to the door scrambled back to the boys who were now standing, looking slightly alarmed, next to the broken window through which the smoke from the air vents was still flowing.
"Hit the deck!" Alex giggled weakly as the phrase became the only coherent thing in his head. What was it from, some movie? No idea. But it was so, so funny...because he was…he had hit the deck, somewhat. He tried to breathe in deeply to try and clear his head, but was rewarded with only a deep, unpleasant burning sensation in his lungs. He let out a hacking cough and pulled himself into a sitting position, double vision clouding his senses. Rubbing his eyes, he pulled himself to his feet and stumbled forward a few steps. Suddenly, his outstretched foot met nothing but air where there should have been a floor. He panicked and screamed, throwing his weight backwards. Alex thudded onto the floor, his vision snapping onto focus. His legs hung over the side of some hole; he was slipping. It was so hot. Why was it so hot? He clawed frantically and, by almost rubbing his fingers raw, managed to crawl onto a safe part of the hallway. What the fuck had just happened? He looked back, and shouted out in alarm. It looked like everything just beyond the language arts classroom door had been demolished. On closer inspection, however, Alex saw that part of the hallway floor had fallen into the basement, and a bit of the second floor hallway had decided to accompany it. Alex stared in shock at the gaping hole in front of him, transfixed by the flames that rose from the pit licking at the hallway around him. He seriously had almost died; why did it seem so funny? Funny, what was funny about this situation? He shook his head to try and clear it and frantically scrambled back, trying to get as far away from the raging fire as he could. Not that it would increase his chances of surviving; the hallway looked like someone had set up a couple hundred fog machines and let them run on high. He coughed violently, his whole body shaking. At this rate he wouldn't last much longer, no matter how far away he was from the flames that were only too eager to accept him. He held his throbbing head, and tried to rest for a bit. Something was wrong. This smoke was different.
Ginger reached her hand as far as it would go through the metal grate that covered the windows, and punched away a few shards of glass. The smoke that was trying to make its way through the broken window was starting to clog up in the room, thanks to the new smoke that was pouring in from the hallway. Distracted, she misjudged the angle at which she needed to hit a shard of glass, and the razor-sharp edge cut into her hand. She cried out in pain, watching droplets of her blood fall to the floor below. She tried to shake the feeling off. She had to make the hole bigger, or they would all die. She began to reach her hand back through the grate, but something stopped her. Another hand. She looked over, and saw the blonde-haired boy that came up with the idea of throwing the bench into the window.
"Stop. You've hurt yourself. Keep pressure on the cut and just let me do this, all right?" He smiled over at her, and, after a moment's surprise, Ginger smiled back.
"All right. Thanks."
"Hey, no problem." A few more shards of glass fell to the floor as he worked his fist around the broken window. "I'm Scino. Yeah, it's a funny name. You get used to it." He smiled again. Ginger grinned.
"Not as bad as Ginger. I'd give anything to have a name like yours."
"Really? Well, give me a few minutes to clear out this window, and I'll have one for you." Scino laughed, punching a few more glass shards out.
Ashley hit the ground below her with a soft thud. She was getting better at acing these landings. She straightened up and looked about her, trying to catch a glimpse of Sam who wasn't anywhere to be seen. A quick survey of the area revealed nothing except the activated tower, which was a ways off in front of her. She was surprised she had even been able to see that through the thick layer of fog that covered the area. Of course, that harsh red aura could stand out against anything…she sighed, and looked around a final time.
"Sam?" She called out, trying to hail her friend. No response. Then, from somewhere in the fog that surrounded her, came an odd whirring sound. She unsheathed her staff and started moving slowly towards the red aura that signified the activated tower, senses on high alert. Being ambushed on one of the Mountain Sector's paths was no joke- one wrong step and she would wind up in the Digital Sea. And this damned fog wasn't helping one bit.
"Shit-ass-fuck!" Sam shouted furiously at the trees around him. As if there was anyone to hear him. He cursed his inability to even program a delayed virtualization correctly. He drew an arrow and twirled it nervously between his fingers, looking around. So he had materialized himself in the Forest Sector instead of the Mountain Sector. No biggie. But Ashley…no. He had made sure she was virtualized in the right place; it was his programming that he had rushed through. Now, to find his way to the Mountain Sector, he would need…a way tower. He flung a stream of curses into the air once again. Why did everything seem to be going so wrong? Great. Now he would have to wander around the forest looking for one. He looked up and down the path he had been virtualized on, hesitated for a moment, then ran off.
Ashley looked up. The red aura was closer than before, but she still seemed to be quite a ways away from the Tower. She slowly edged forward a few more steps, then stopped and looked around frantically for the source of the mysterious whirring sound that had started up once again. It sounded closer too. What was it? A couple of Bloks? Some Kankrelats? Krabs? She gulped and started edging her way through the fog once more. Maybe she had gotten really unlucky and X.A.N.A. had sent some Tarantulas. She took a couple more steps backward, then yelped in fright- her right foot was plunging downward where there should have been mountain path. What luck…so this is how it would end. Ashley screamed as she fell through the fog. Lost forever in the Digital Sea. Oh, this sucked. It sucked so bad. She screamed again, but the fog and the rushing sound that accompanied her as she fell quickly drowned out her cry.
Next to her, Scino coughed as he tried to reach a few more glass shards to punch out.
"It's too high. I can't reach any more." He said, moving his hand out from the grate. "That's as big as I could make it.
"It may not be big enough." Ginger said worriedly, the cut in her hand forgotten, even as blood continued to drip onto the floor. "The smoke from the hallway just keeps coming, and the smoke from the vents keeps getting thicker." Ginger fell silent and the two of them stared through the murky, smoke-filled room, the only sounds being the alarm and the occasional cough from one of their classmates. Suddenly, from the front of the classroom, there came a deep groaning sound, followed by the sound of slowly splintering wood.
"What the fuck-" Scino didn't have time to finish his sentence before the front wall of the classroom collapsed, throwing up a thick wall of smoke that came rushing at them. Several people screamed as they were overtaken by the smoke, but the smarter ones kept quiet, instead covering their faces with their hands. Ginger had just enough time to pull her shirt over her head before the smoke hit her and Scino. It was like being placed in an oven. A wave of hot air rolled over them, making them sweat where they stood. Small chips of wood from the wall came with the smoke and the heat, several pieces catching Ginger's legs as they rushed by. Most of them only scratched her, but one seemed to get stuck in her leg, causing her to let out a cry of pain. "Ginger!" She heard Scino cough. 'Are you O.K.?"
"I'm fine!" She yelled back as the heat wave began getting cooler. "Are you?"
"Doing peachy!" Ginger pulled her head up out of her shirt and, once affirming that the smoke moving towards them was just the smoke escaping out the window, told Scino to do the same. "What happened?" He coughed.
"The front wall of the classroom came down." Ginger yelled over at him. "It fell into the basement; the fire must have eaten through something that held up the floor-" She stopped suddenly as she cocked her head slightly. Above the wail of the alarm and the crackle of flames, she had thought she heard someone calling her name.
Sam stood on the edge of the lower Tower platform, looking nervously down into the Data Stream. He was fairly certain this was a way tower, so this Data Stream, if he jumped into it, would bring him up into a different sector. But that was the problem. Jumping into it. He gulped, and shifted his feet slightly on the edge of the platform. Oh, god. That was a looooong way down. But then he felt it. Pulsations. Very faint, yes, but strong enough to register as more than a figment of his imagination. The pulsations seemed to be carrying into the Data Stream…they were coming from somewhere outside the Tower. X.A.N.A., probably…there was nothing else on Lyoko that could make such strong pulsations. He took a deep breath. If X.A.N.A.'s pulsations led into the Data Stream of this Tower, then that's where he would go as well After all, what business did X.A.N.A. have in any other sector right now except for the one where the activated tower was? He cursed his incompetence while under pressure at a keyboard once more, then stepped off the platform and fell into the abyss below.
Ashley groaned softly. Her entire body hurt. She had probably lost quite a few life points. Well, duh. She had just fallen from god-knows-how-high onto god-knows-where. She felt behind her for her staff, then her heart froze. It wasn't there. She shakily stood up, looking around. The fog hadn't gone away; if anything, it had gotten thicker. But her staff…she must have let it go when she hit the ground. But where could it be? She shook her head. No time to worry about that right now. She had to get to the Tower; she had wasted way too much time. But which way? She looked about, trying to catch a glimpse of red in the fog around her. Nothing. Damn. She scuffed at the ground and looked up, trying to clear her head and decide what to do. Wait, what? She stopped, and squinted. Red. High above her. How high? No idea, but it was up there. So the Tower was far above her now. Fucking fantastic. How was she suppose to reach it? As she started to creep through the fog, a strange sound from behind her made her realize that getting to the Tower was the least of her worries.
"Gingie!" Alex shouted desperately through the blinding curtain of smoke. "Ginger, help! Gingie…ahahaha…" He coughed deeply, and tried weakly to push the beam of wood off of him, but to no avail. He was burning through energy. His lungs burned from smoke inhalation; his head spun. What had happened? One second he had been sitting a safe distance away from the gaping hole in the middle of the hall, then the next he was flat on the floor, trapped under a wooden support beam and picking splinters out of his face. "Ginger!" He shouted, but with little hope. It was so hot, so very hot. Alex saw a lick of orange a few feet away, and groaned, recognizing what it was even through the foggy state he was in. Please, no. Anything but this.
Sam burst out of the side of the Tower into a deep fog, causing him to reduce his speed immediately. Had he made it? He looked around, squinting. Then he saw it- one of those funny-shaped trees that Ginger had described to him after coming back from the Mountain Sector. He had made it after all. Following X.A.N.A. had been a good idea. Now there was a surprise. Suddenly he started, hearing a faint scream from somewhere deep inside the fog in front of him. Ashley? Of course; they were the only two people on Lyoko right now.
"Ashley?" He shouted, the sound muffled by the fog. "Ashley! Ashley, is that you? Answer me!" Sam started to move along the mountain path, trying not to lose his footing.
Ashley screamed again as she stumbled through the fog. A tentacle whipped out at her from the fog behind her, and she swatted it away.
"Get away from me!" She shrieked, plunging her hand into the folds of fabric around her stomach. She pulled out a few throwing knives, and flung them blindly behind her. She stumbled forward, then felt her foot plunge forward into nothingness once again. She screamed, a sound that was only amplified by the tentacles that shot out of the fog and dragged her struggling body away from the precipice. She screamed her all of her friends' names out into the fog as the Scyphozoa pulled her into the air. Alex's name was cut off in mid-yell as the flood of memories began again.
*…999, 998, 997, 996, 995, 994…*
"There!" Scino shouted above the relentless wail of the alarm and the harsh crackle of flames. "Right there!" He pointed through the thick smoke at a pair of converse sticking out from under a fallen support beam.
"Alex!" Ginger screamed, making her way to her friend. Alex's face was badly cut; he still had splinters sticking out here and there, but his eyes still shone a brilliant shade of green.
"Ginger!" Alex screamed back at her, seemingly trying to mimic her. "What took you so long, silly?" He then giggled weakly. "Look at me, I'm on deck…"
"That's great, Alex, don't worry…we'll get you out of here…" Ginger said through coughs.
"Ginger!" Scino called over to her as he made his way to where Alex was trapped. "Ginger, something's different here…something in the air. Cover your mouth and nose; breath through your shirt."
"Why?" Ginger called to Scino as she tried to pull Alex out from under the fallen support beam. Suddenly her vision blurred, and she quickly stood up and closed her eyes in order to avoid falling over. "Woah…all right, I see what you mean. But what's wrong?" She called through the smoke as she pulled her shirt up over her nose.
"Whatever it is, it's turned your friend into a giggling idiot." Scino said, reaching her. "Although….he seems to have an uncanny resistance to whatever is in the air. I'm starting to feel lightheaded…and we've only been out here for a few minutes. He's been directly exposed to this since the explosion." Scino bent down and helped Ginger pull, but Alex stayed firmly where he was. "We have to try and pull the beam off of him, O.K.? Otherwise, he'll burn up!" Scino motioned to the far end of the wooden beam which, Ginger now noticed, was hanging over the hole in the floor, through which enormous flames were leaping.
"Are you crazy?" Ginger shouted. "We'll never be able to move this thing!" Suddenly the same groaning started up once again, the groaning they had both heard before the classroom wall collapsed.
"Quick, get down!" Scino shouted, as the sound of cracking wood filled the air. Ginger felt Scino throw himself on top of her, and they both fell to the floor next to Alex as the hallway seemed to start falling apart around them.
*…921, 920, 919, 918, 917, 916…*
"Ashley!" Sam yelled into the fog, trying to figure out where he had heard that last scream come from. He had heard her shout his name and Ginger's name, but Alex's name had been cut short. Sensing something in front of him, he stopped moving and looked up. The red aura of the activated tower shone through the fog like a lighthouse. He had made it to the Tower, but had Ashley? He broke into a run, heading straight for the Tower, but after only running a few steps, he felt his foot leave the path completely. Sam cursed his stupidity the whole way down.
*…882, 881, 880, 879, 878, 877…*
Ginger slowly pulled her head off the floor, and felt a few pieces of wood and plaster shift and fall onto the floor. The alarm seemed to have stopped inside the building, thank god…the fire had burned through the circuitry, or something? She could hear it echoing faintly outside, but as long as it wasn't going on anymore inside…
"Scino…Scino?" She poked a strange lump next to her, which responded with a cry of protest.
"Yes, yes, it's me! No need to poke me in the eye!"
"Sorry." She stood up, trying to make out distinct shapes in the gloom. Light still filtered through the windows, but the light was cut down due to the massive amounts of smoke in the hallway. She looked up, and saw that more of the second floor had made its way down to the first; the second floor hall lights were flickering dimly through the smoke. "Scino, can we get back into the classroom?" She mused, gently pulling at Alex's arm, and feeling him move a few inches. He seemed to have passed out, in any case, so any possible pain she might be causing him he wouldn't be feeling. "The beam's shifted off of Alex; I can move him now."
"Er, no." Scino said haltingly. "The beam may have shifted off of him, but it went straight through the floor when it did so, along with some of the ceiling. There's a huge gap in the floor between where we are now and the classroom floor. We're not getting back in there. Ginger, my head is really pounding right now…we have to get away from this hole…let's move your friend back to the hallway doors…they'll be locked, but we'll be out of the way of the flames."
"All right, help me." Ginger grabbed Alex's arms, and Scino moved towards her and grabbed his legs. They maneuvered Alex's body through the ruined hallway, stumbling over debris here and there, but eventually making it to the locked pair of double doors that led to the Dormitory Building's lobby. Ginger gently placed Alex's head on the floor, then fell back against the doors and slid down to the ground, eyes closed. Whatever was in this smoke was…intoxicating…she blearily opened her eyes, and looked up just in time to see Scino collapse next to Alex's inert body. He had used up the last of his energy helping her move him down the hall, and now the smoke had gotten to him. Ginger moved over to him and her fingers fumbled around on his neck. She coughed violently, her body shaking, then once she had regained control of herself, continued feeling around Scino's neck. She sighed in relief when she found it. A pulse. He was out cold. Whatever it was, though, this smoke was…dangerous…she closed her eyes and crumpled to the ground next to him. Just a short rest…then…she would move both their bodies…farther away…from…from the flames. Just a short rest. Her heart pounded in her ears, drowning out the terrible crackling of the flames. She slowly slipped away, letting the strange smoke lead her into blackness.
*…818, 817, 816, 815, 814, 813…*
Sam picked himself off the ground, clutching his back. He had fallen on something, and it hadn't been his bow and arrows…he had lost those while he was falling… He looked down once he was on his feet, and saw a soft green glow. Ashley's staff. Wincing, he bent down and picked it up off the ground. He was close now. He started moving slowly into the fog, using Ashley's staff to feel about in front of him to make sure he didn't fall once again.
*…806, 805, 804, 803, 802,801…*
…please…not my mommy…don't take my mommy...mommy? where did you go….
*…797, 796, 795, 794, 793…*
Ginger's eyes fluttered open. A few inches away, she saw Scino's eyes staring into hers. A startling blue, how…attractive. She tried to move, tried to get off of the floor to help her friends, but found that she couldn't…this must be because of the toxic smoke…full-body paralysis…how cruel. In front of them, some more of the second floor crashed down to the basement, taking out more of the first floor hallway. Ginger felt the hall floor around her feet shudder, then fall away. She looked up and saw a tear roll down Scino's cheek. She sensed a great feeling of sadness blossom inside of her, then realized that there was a tear slowly making its way down her cheek as well.
*…782, 781, 780, 779, 778, 777…*
Sam squinted through the fog, leaning on Ashley's staff. What were those odd flashes of red in front of him? They seemed to be…moving…then it hit him. Ashley's scream. The pulsating flashes of red. The fog, the damned fog! He let out a yell and lunged forward, bringing the staff down on top of the red lights. The Scyphozoa screeched in pain. Mere inches away from Sam, he heard something thud heavily to the ground. The fog started to clear. That was all it had been, a distraction. A blinding distraction. He saw the Scyphozoa moving quickly away, tentacles cut short, then he turned his attention to Ashley, who he could now see lying on the ground in front of him. As the fog continued to lift, he knelt down beside her and gently shook her.
"Ashley. Ashley, come on, get up. Ashley." Her eyes gently fluttered open. He smiled.
"The Scyphozoa…" She muttered, pulling herself up into a sitting position.
"Don't worry, I took care of it." Sam said, pulling her to her feet and placing her staff into her hands. "It's gone; it ran away. But you need to take care of the Tower. Alex and Ginger are still in danger."
"The Tower! Ashley blinked in surprise, getting her head clear. She looked around, getting a grip on reality now that the fog was gone. "Up there!" She pointed to a small island high above the one they were on now, where the entirety of the Tower was now visible, thanks to the disappearance of the fog. "But how are we supposed to make it up there?"
"With the help of the Overwing, of course." Sam smiled.
"Where is it?"
"Not here. Not yet, anyways. Devirtualize me so I can program it for you."
"Devirtualize…but what if the Scyphozoa comes back?"
"It won't. It's tentacles are cut. And even if X.A.N.A. sends more monsters, you can take care of them. You're strong enough." Ashley smiled, then shoved the electrically charged staff into her friend. Sam cried out in pain, and fell to the ground. His torso crackled with electricity.
"Once more." He grimaced, bracing himself.
"Right!" She twirled the staff above her head, then brought it down onto Sam with an electric crackle.
"Some might say you enjoy that a little too much…" Sam smiled as his body started to disappear.
"And those some might not be entirely incorrect." Ashley laughed. Sam smiled, then the smile faded into the wire-frame alloy. He flickered and vanished, leaving Ashley alone in the Mountain Sector. She sighed. This Tower could not be deactivated sooner.
Sam stumbled out of the scanner amidst a curtain of steam. He chuckled weakly as he made his way to the ladder that led up to the lab. That girl.
Ginger felt another tremor shake the hallway. She felt another section of the hallway floor fall away, but it was a section that didn't concern her, or so she thought. Then she saw Scino's terrified face start to slowly slide away from her.
Sam stared in shock at the map onscreen. Oh shit. The entire dormitory building was in danger of collapsing in on itself. Ashley needed to get that Tower deactivated now. He sent the Overwing to her, and placed the comm. into his ear with a shaking hand.
Ashley saw the Overwing appear out of thin air in front of her, and she stepped onto it.
"Ashley, the fire spread."
"What?" She asked, confused, as she started moving.
"The fire in the dormitory building. It spread to some barrels of…stuff. I'm not sure what it is. This stuff acts as a paralyzing agent. It paralyzes the body, making you unable to move, then spreads through your body and kills you if you don't get immediate medical attention. Effects vary from person to person, but the end result is similar. You end up dead. Get a move on. The fire is burning through the stuff, and it's released toxic smoke through the whole building. To make matters worse, the third floor's seconds away from collapsing. If that happens, it's taking the rest of the building with it. So please. For the sake of everyone in that building, hurry."
Ginger felt tears flow freely down her face as Scino's tear-stained one moved farther and farther away from her. Please god, please, no. Not Scino. Not Scino. He didn't deserve to die this way.
Ms. Lesano looked over at her splatter paint wall. The rest of the class was hiding in the highest row of workstations, but she was standing in Ashley's. The wall, though, the wall. It was cracking. The smoke billowing up from where her workstation used to be made it hard to see, but she could make out a large crack running down the center of the wall. She sighed. It was only a matter of time.
Ashley jumped off the Overwing and sprinted down the mountain path towards the Tower, reaching for throwing knives as she ran.
"Take this, you ugly machines!" She shrieked as she launched several at some Kankrelats blocking the way into the Tower. The center monsters exploded, clearing the path. She flew through the gap in the line of Kankrelats, and disappeared into the Tower before the rest had time to even react.
Scino's face had almost disappeared into the gloom when Ginger heard it. A deep rumbling. Scino heard it too, his eyes flicking upwards. The hallway started shaking. This was it.
Sam nervously chewed his fingernails. He watched Ashley's symbol start to rise up in the Tower. In the window right next to that one, he saw the dormitory building's roof give way. It was now or never, Ashley, now or never.
Ashley stepped onto the upper platform and watched as all three rings lit up with a soft ping. She stepped forward and placed her hand on the screen that appeared.
Ginger felt the scream bubble up inside of her, but she was unable to let it out. The hallway shook violently. A door from one of the upper floors smashed to the floor next to her, throwing splinters at her. The tears rushed down her suddenly bloody face. Suddenly, the rumbling stopped. A beam that had been about to crush her, Alex, and Scino in one swift blow stopped moving above them, suspended in midair. She found herself able to move again, and did so, scrambling to her feet, panting. Alex was still unconscious, but Scino was now moving.
"What's happening now?" Scino asked shakily, pulling himself up out of the hole he had almost fallen into. "Why did everything…freeze?" Ginger pulled Scino close to her as she saw the white light start from beyond the windows.
"It's a miracle." She laughed softly, hugging Scino tightly as the light reached them. "Well, something like that, anyways."
"All right, time to wake up, everybody!" A voice echoed loudly in the outer hall, causing both boys to flinch and grumble in their beds. "It's 7:30! Breakfast today starts at 8:30, on exactly one hour! Then, you have half an hour to ingest your, uh, food! And then, after, we will be holding an Open House! Ms. Hertz will explain everything after breakfast, but for now, get moving! Hot water's limited, you know!" Alex sighed, and sat up.
"Thanks for the heads up, Jim. We're good in here."
"Yeah, sure thing." Jim said outside, and moved on to bother another room.
"Christ." Sam said, sitting up as well. "That one was way too close."
"Really?" Alex asked, getting up. "How close, exactly?"
"A few more seconds, and you would've had the entire dormitory building on top of you." Sam shot Alex a look.
"Well. The things you miss when you're passed out from toxic fume inhalation, eh?"
"Next time, try to get to the lab, O.K.? It was my fault you almost died. I virtualized myself in a completely different sector."
"Way to go!" Alex chuckled. "You know what they say: once you make a mistake once, it doesn't happen again."
"Yeah, let's hope." Sam grumbled. Alex walked over to the wardrobe and flung it wide open. Then he seemed to change his mind, and moved over to his computer, which was still running the decoding program.
"Damn."
"What?"
"I was hoping that the jump back in time might have somehow…I don't know…boosted the program…but I guess not. The deadline's still tomorrow night." Alex sighed. "What a bummer." Sam smiled, and walked over to his friend. He clapped a hand on Alex's shoulder.
"Don't worry about it. I already told you that I wouldn't say a word to Ashley until the deadline. Now come on. Let's go before Caleb gets into the showers, huh?" Alex chuckled and grabbed his toiletries from inside the wardrobe.
"Right. I'll make sure not to pick a fight during breakfast this time around as well." Alex opened the door and moved into the hallway.
"And be sure to pick a workstation next to the damned windows this time around!" Sam called after him.
"Shut up!" Alex laughed back. Sam chuckled and followed Alex's voice out into the hallway, shutting the room's door behind him.