Code: Breakdown

by DR Jackman

They thought they finished him, they thought he died; they thought he was gone forever… how wrong they were. Now the Lyoko Warrior's once peaceful life is thrown away by the fires of war and devastation as their homes and families are taken away from them by XANA's virtualised monsters and the Governments of the world.

Code: Breakdown

They thought they finished him, they thought he died; they thought he was gone forever… how wrong they were.

Now the Lyoko Warrior's once peaceful life is thrown away by the fires of war and devastation as their homes and families are taken away from them by XANA's virtualised monsters and the Governments of the world.

Now, with humanity fighting a hopeless war, and with their friends and families' lives at risk, the Lyoko Warriors have to step up and prepare themselves for a war that could either spell the survival for humanity or its end.

This is a new story idea I have come up with regarding the first 4 seasons of Code Lyoko; ignoring the events of Evolution, I hope you enjoy it and find it to your liking.

Warning: Rated for certain scenes, language and horrendous actions and descriptions later on; don't like seeing these things from a TV series, then I suggest you don't read.

PS: I'm really sorry about the other stories, but my mind just jumps from one interest to another and it's hard for me to focus solely on one of them. Again, I'm sorry and I hope you understand.

Prologue: Reactivation

Somewhere in the countryside of the UK, 14:37 p.m., March 15 2008

Dull grey skies with equally dull clouds, harsh winds blowing through the trees and grass, and a heavy down pour soaking the roads and ground beneath; yep, just the usual British UK weather as always in the beginning of spring.

The country side fields, despite being bombarded with the water from above and the tall grass slowly sprouting out from the dirt and mud, was not as quiet and as abandoned as those would expect, as there was one figure dragging their feet through the mud in the big pale green boots and concealing themselves in a pale brown trench coat and rain hat that obscured its facial features from view from the raging winds and rain that battered the poor figure as it made its way to its destination.

Not too far way was a small stone hut that appeared to be from around the time of the Saxons, made of grey stones for walls, with a square shaped window on the top left, an old wooden door to the right that opened and slammed shut in the wind, and to top it off, a heavily dense straw and wooden roof sitting on top. At the other end of the field was a pitch black DBS, sheltered underneath a tree, yet the rain was able to soak it as well.

The figure struggled to get through the winds that rammed into their body and the mud that clung to their boots, but continued to press onward. It took a few and strong powerful pushes against nature, but the figure eventually made it to the hut, and pried the door open with what strength it could muster, before slipping into the crack in the door and letting the wind slam it shut.

The figured breathed heavily as it struggled to regain its breath after her battle with the raging weather outside. Looking around, the figure saw the inside was just as it would expect from a very old Saxon stone hut; dark, cold, empty, save for the bits of straw and dirt on the ground, and there were droplets of water falling from the ceiling and some of the rain water landing through the window.

Once its breath was regained, the figure moved forward to the grey stones at the back of the hut and leaned in closer to get a look at each one of them, looking for something.

It looked at each stone until it stopped at the large pale grey oval stone on the right that seemed no bigger than a hand. It then lifted its hand and rested it on the stone, before applying a little pressure to it, which pushed it further into the wall with mechanical and clicking sounds accompanying it.

That's when a set of the stones to the left of the oval stone began to shift and part; moving aside and revealing a metal door that appeared to belong to an elevator. The figure walked up to the door and waited for a while before a 'Ding' signalled the opening of the doors into the elevator.

The figure stepped into the medium sized room, which looked like it could hold at least 20 people and still have some elbow room, which held a small speaker at the top and a panel with buttons to 50 different floors on the bottom of the left side, with the 'SL' button glowing as the elevator was already on the 'Surface Level' and a large coat rack on the other side which already held different variety of wet/damp/dry coats and umbrellas, with muddied boots and trainers underneath. The figure looked at the panel and selected the floor it wanted; the bottom floor, LM. A 'Ding' was heard before the doors closed and the elevator began to move down slowly, as shown by the changing of the glowing buttons.

The figure took this time to remove its coat, boots and hat and hang them on the coat rack; revealing a middle aged woman of around late 30s, standing at a height of 5ft 9, with brunette short hair to her chin, a pair of dark sunglasses, velvet red lipstick on her lips, wearing a black agent suit with a white undershirt and matching black tie and long skinny trousers, and pulling out a pair of black polished flat shoes from her pitch black hand bag that was draped over her right shoulder and placed them on her feet.

By the time she had finished, the elevator had reached the 41st floor of the secret facility and was nearing closer to its destination. The woman in black, who went by Elizabeth, or Liz for short, Cross, sighed as she waited for the elevator to get to the bottom. She had been part of the MI6 for more than 5 years now and because of her skills in the field and her years of service she was given the job by her superiors to represent MI6 in the activation of the UK Government's top secret project, and, frankly, she would prefer walking into a pub filled with musclebound, brutal and armed thugs than spend time around eggheads and listen to them go on and on about some big project, but she didn't get a say in the matter, as with every other mission agents are given.

The elevator stopped suddenly, making Elizabeth look around to see what the problem was. She glanced at the panel and noticed that the light had stopped between floors 45 and 46, which meant that she was now entering code red high security areas. A green light appeared in the elevator and swept its way across the inside, scanning the inside and occupants of the elevator.

Once it was finished, the speaker crackled to life before a male voice spoke through it. "This is unauthorised access to LM; state your rank, purpose and the date to her majesty's birthday party?"

Elizabeth was calm as she remembered what her superiors said about the facility using a code in the event of an unauthorised entry or detection of firearms; which she had underneath her black suit coat on her left waist.

"Rank: MI6 Agent 032, Purpose: Representing MI6 to the unveiling of Project Manilius, Date of her majesty's birthday party: I wouldn't know because I didn't receive and invitation." She said calmly and without hesitation.

The room fell quiet for a while before the speaker cracked alive again and the male voice spoke. "Glad you could make it Agent Cross; some of us were afraid the storm did you in."

Liz cracked a small smile at the statement. "It takes a lot more than a little wind and a sodding shower to snuff out an MI6 Agent."

A small chuckled came from the speaker as the male voice found the remark humorous. "With your record and experience, I wouldn't be surprise." The male voice said over the speaker. "Now come on down and join the party; Doctor Travis is about to start the unveiling."

The speaker fell silent once again as the elevator blinked into life again as it continued its decent down.

It took a while, but the elevator stopped at the 50th floor, LM, and with a 'Ding' the doors slide open and Elizabeth walked out.

The hallway was long and white in colour as giant rectangular and square shapes covered the hallway with light blue flickering lights decorating the outlines of the shapes. At the over end was another sliding door but was pure white and blending in with the hallway to make it look like a dead end.

Elizabeth immediately noticed a figure in military uniform standing with his hands behind his back; appearing to be a high ranking officer given by the green uniform he was wearing, the hat on his head, the medals and emblems on his jacket. He was male that looked around 40-45, standing at 6ft, with a muscular build and serious yet also friendly expression on his face, with dark brown eyes and a tuff of short dark hair hanging out from his hat.

As she approached him, he smiled, outstretched his hand and spoke with the same voice from the elevator. "Miss Cross; Colonel Hayworth."

Elizabeth took his hand and shook it. "Born 12th March 1964 Hesse, Germany, age 43, joined the military at age 17, and achieved the rank of Colonel 3 years ago with a reputation as one of the best soldiers and tacticians on the force."

The Colonel chuckled lightly at the information she had on him. "My my; as always you MI6 do like to keep tabs on people you're dealing with."

"We just want to make sure that the safety and security of the country is absolute and that no outer parties learn of any Government activities that provide protection against those parties." She said with a straight face, before making her way to the door.

Colonel Hayworth sighed briefly before making his way alongside her to the door. "Well you showed up just in time; Dr Travis is about to show the fruition of over £60 billion pounds worth of research and development in computer technology."

"It better have been worth every penny or the high-ups are going to through a fit to the moon and back." Elizabeth said without turning, stopping at the door and allowing the Colonel to type in a key code into a well hidden and almost miss-able panel in the wall.

"And send us back a few grades for 'insufficient results'." Hayworth said as he typed in the last key code and the doors slide open, before both the agent and colonel slipped inside.

The room was larger than the stone hut on the surface, around the size of a square-ish classroom and was dark grey in colour, with the same blue outlines circling the shapes, with a set of 10 chairs in 5 rows spread out in the room; most already having figures in them, either military personal, in high ranking uniform while the minor troops wore military body armour with their rifles strapped to their backs, government employees in grey, white and black suits, some with sunglasses and some without, scientists in white lab coats or national intelligence agents wearing black, grey, dark blue or white suits and communicating earpieces in their ears, facing a small platform at the end of the room with a large computer monitor hanging on the ceiling.

All eyes turned to the two figures entering the room; some with annoyed or patient-less expressions, while others, mostly males, were more focused and eying the female agent.

Colonel Hayworth cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Apologies for the wait gentlemen and ladies; but Agent 032 is now present and accounted for so we no longer have any delays to worry about."

"I hope so Colonel; a great achievement like this is not to be wasted a minute longer."

The eyes returned to the platform at the end of the room, where one lone figure stood and spoke to the audience. He was an elderly man at an age around 50 or 60, given his grey yet styled hair and grey goatee on his chin, he wore a long lab coat with short sleeves that stopped above his ankles, which were concealed by his white socks, black smart shoes and pale brown trousers. He wore a brown undervest with a white shirt underneath and a red bow tie, and his plain and clear glasses revealed his most remarkable trait; his red left eye and his honey yellow right eye. His left arm had a silver watch attached to it, and a small ID tag was attached to his lab coat's left side with a picture of himself and the following words:

Name: DR Travis, Theodore

Degree: Computer Engineering and Program Development

Occupation: HACE Chief of Staff

Nationality: France

He had both his hand in his coat pockets as he looked at the two 'late comers' as he called people who show up late to important events.

Elizabeth stepped forward and spoke. "I'm sorry for the delay, Dr Travis. The storm outside was more of a bloody nightmare than my colleagues warned me."

"It's quite alright Ms Cross;" Travis said with and understanding small smile on his face as he waved his left hand as a notion that 'it was alright' or 'forget about it'. "Weather is like the actions of man: you can't be completely certain of the outcome." He then motioned his hands to the two vacant seats at the front of the audience; one between a military sergeant and scientist at the far left, and one between a female scientist and a government officer in the middle. "Please take a seat."

The two nodded and walked over to the seats saved for them; Hayworth took the seat on the far left, while Elizabeth took the seat in the middle, squeezing between the two neighbours beside her.

Travis looked over all the faces in the room and once he was sure that everyone who was supposed to be here was here and there were no empty seats, he smiled to himself.

'This is it Travis; your time to shine.'

Clearing his throat, he went over the speech he prepared this morning in his head and began to rehearse it.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I, Dr Theodore Travis, would like to welcome you today to the Hidden Archive Central Establishment or HACE as the Government likes to call it." He pulled a remote out of his right coat pocket and clicked a button, causing the monitor to come to life and an image to appear; it was a pale green arrow with pointing towards the right into a pale green star, with the words 'HACE' occupying the left hand side of the image. "Our goals are to develop computer technology and advance the capability of network and digital programing for the nation, as well as provide and developed highly advanced defence software and programing against forgien intervention. HACE was founded in 1979 after the unnerving discovery of a secret enemy communication jamming project named 'Project Carthage' under the development of the French Government; my former roof."

He clicked on his remote again to different images appearing on the monitor; some were of different military defence and security programs and technology blueprints, others were on unknown files or concealed images of this 'Project Carthage'.

"In the wake of this discovery, the Government realized that with the changing of the age, new ways of combat and infiltration could be made possible. And that's why HACE was formed with the sole purpose was developing counter measures and advancements in defending this nation against these threats, as well as pushing the boundaries of computer and digital technology for the rest of humanity. We have been going at this for 28 years now, and since those 28 years we have been constantly trying hard to find some method of combat against the French's Project Carthage. And that, my friends, is when we hit our break through…"

He pressed another button the remote before turning to face the wall, but instead of the monitor changing, the segments of the wall began to rise, revealing a glass covering behind it, but the audience eye's widened and the mouths agape in shock and awe more at what was behind the glass.

Behind the glass, in a pure white room, were a seemingly endless rows and columns of cabinet sized processors and hardware, coloured white and covered by a glass covering that swayed in a light blue light like lava in a lava lamp. Inside the room were many scientists and technicians looking at the hardware and readings on the monitors and wearing white lab coats and jumpsuits, some were shooting looks and glances the audience, but it was only briefly before they went back to work.

Travis looked back at the audience and saw a few of them rise out of their chairs to get a better look at what they were seeing; some were even pinching themselves to see if they were dreaming. He smiled at the reactions; so far so good, but the real show was closing in.

"As you can all see," everyone turned back to look at Travis, who wore an amused smile on his face. "This is a fragment of what we have achieved; the rest of it stretches on for many more miles; thousand beyond thousands of servers and processors lined up and linked together for the sole purpose of the UK's security."

"But what the bloody hell is it?" A military sergeant asked.

"It appears to be some form of… supercomputer?" One of the scientists said, scrunching his eyes to get a better look at the hardware.

Travis placed a hand to his mouth to contain his laughter, catching everyone's confused attention. He raised a hand to ease their worries or concerns. "Sorry, it's just… well, a supercomputer is but a typewriter compared to the marvel we have created." He turned back to the glass and looked on. "Here, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the greatest achievement in history since the use of Nuclear Power and since the day man first took one step on the moon; this is the Project Piso, a Megacomputer."

The room fell silent as to what they heard as they slowly looked back at the hardware in mixed confusion and awe.

"Project Piso?" One of them said.

"A Megacomputer?" Came another.

Travis smiled at the ignorance and bafflement of the viewers, he wasn't that surprised; after all, who could comprehend what he had just said and what he was trying to get at.

"Yes; just as the Roman consul, Calpurnius Piso, brought the city Carthage to its knees and wiped it of the face of the Earth, Project Piso is the answer to the French's Project Carthage; a computer with a mainframe and processing power so limitless that even the greatest minds across the world would take years to replicate. It can not only allow us to bypass any communication or network firewalls, but also allow us to gain access to foreign systems, networks and other technology equipment, as well as operate the systems within our own countries without having to spare much power or time for them." Travis explained, staring at the project and placing his hand on the glass like he wanted to reach out and touch, with a look and voice of longing on it. "This achievement, this marvel, is so sophisticated, so powerful, so vast, that we had to mould it both inside and out of the digital realm."

One of the scientists looked to Travis with a raised eyebrow. "Inside the digital realm?"

Travis was brought out of his fantasy by the question and turned to look at the scientist, before smiling and answering "Why yes; to make sure the whole project was perfect we had to enter the realm within the megacomputer and fashion it into the sequence we needed."

Everyone looked back the doctor with confusion and no belief, some even choked on a laugh. After hearing and seeing this, they began to believe that this was coming out of a sci-fi film or comic book.

Dr Travis sighed; ignorance, a bliss to the normal, a curse to the scientific.

He pressed a button on his remote and the monitor switched to images of large cuboid like machines with large cables and wires attached to the ceiling and the ground, glowing light blue on the inside. It then began to play a video of some scientists and engineers stepping inside them, the doors closing on the, and then a scanning device scans them and a flash of blue makes them vanish.

The audience were confused by the video, wondering what happened to those inside the cube, until a separate window appeared on the monitor, which showed the scientists and engineers appearing in a large metallic room with a large blue cylinder like object in the centre containing thousands of number and digits, but the shocking thing most of all, it appeared to be in the version of a video game, and the window screen containing the video said 'Central Memory Bank Sector'. The audience were now more shocked and awe struck than before; they had actual sent a person into the computer system.

Travis smiled in victory and satisfaction at how he proved them wrong; he loved it when he did that to people. Clearing his throat, he got everyone's attention again as he began to explain what they had witnessed.

"As all of you could see, HACE has developed the technology to not only access foreign communications and networks, but it also allows us to physically enter the digital plain of the systems and transverse it and shape it into our chosen desire. Bank accounts: locate foreign or bank network systems, enter the main slipstream, find the main memory core, touch it and suddenly millions worth of currency is transferred to your own account. Times, flight roots and information on flights: enter the computer system of an airport in any country, find the central processor, access it and 'boom' every flight, every time, all staff to every destination safely found and stored in your own mind."

Travis pressed another button on the remote and the windows on the monitor vanished and replaced by another window, which housed the picture of a large darkened cylinder object in-between two large semi-sphere structures that were attached to the ceiling and floor respectively.

"And here; the Main Central Processing Unit, is what allows this godly dream to become a reality. With this device and technology in our grasp, every country across the world would never be able to threaten or harm our servers and networks ever again." Travis explained, getting more eager and excited for the awaiting moment.

He knew it was time; all his hard work, all his research, all his dreams rested on this one moment. Clicking the central button of the remote, a small circular hole opened up with in the stage, catching the audience's attention, and a white tall cylinder object with a large red button on top rose from the ground and stopped just below Travis's waist.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, you are here to witness the crowning moment of our work and achievements; with a single press of this button, the spark in the heart of the furnace will alight and the engine of our advancement as a great species will be one step closer to a reality." Travis walked over to the button, with the audience's eyes following him.

There were many different reactions; some were eager to await the activation, some showed hesitation in its activation but did not want to get in trouble with their respected organisations, others, such as Colonel Hayworth, were sweating and trying to loosen their collars to ease their nerves as the atmosphere became tense, while others like Elizabeth Cross were more wary and concerned about the project, but since it was already given the 'ok' by their higher-ups they couldn't really stop it.

Travis stopped at the button before turning his eyes back to his audience with a smile yet seemingly wicked look on it. "Now ladies and gentlemen, lo and behold as we light the flame to humanity's-"

A buzzing and beeping sound stopped Travis in his tracks and made him growl and mutter something under his breath. As the buzzing and beeping continued, he raised his hand and finger to the audience, "One second please."

He then turned around and removed the ear piece he kept in his coat's inside pocket and placed in on his ear and pressed the button for communication.

"Yes?" He hissed angrily, he was just seconds from achieving his goal and someone had just butted in at the last second.

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry for disturbing you sir." A panicked and sacred male voice said over the other end. "I know you busy and all with the unveiling of Project Piso, but I just found an unknown coding in the system's central processor codes. I ran through the system to see if the system must have misread a few of the codes, but it comes up the same. I would perform a complete virtual scan on the system, but it may interfere with the activation process, what should we do sir?"

That got Travis's attention; an unknown coding in the central processor codes? Impossible, he worked over that himself, every code within the processor coding should be the exact code it's supposed to be in there. What was an unknown doing in the system now?

No; not now, not now! Not when he is so close. Maybe it's just a bug in the system or a misread code on the systems; he couldn't stop the project now, not when they are so close.

Travis mumbled to himself before returning an answer. "Keep an eye on that coding; if it's a bug or a foreign virus, the Megacomputer will remove it the moment it activates. And if it happens to be a few misread codes, we can fix that at any point. Just keep an eye on that coding and warn me of any changes, understood?"

"Yes sir." The voice said, before cutting to static.

Travis kept the earpiece in case of any other sudden developments as he turned back to the audience with a calm and collective look.

"Is there a problem, Dr Travis?" Elizabeth asked with a raised eyebrow. The minute that buzzing happened and Travis turned and remained silent, Liz got a bad feeling in her stomach and she was certain that something was wrong.

Travis was silent for a while before laughing lightly and answering. "Oh it was nothing Miss Cross; one of the engineers just informed me of the storm's… sudden expansion and asked if he could pull the workers away from the transceivers in the event of a lightning strike; it's nothing serious I assure you."

Elizabeth didn't buy it, not with the way he paused in the middle, and by the looks of the others, some of them didn't believe it either. But before any of them could protest or push the matter further-

"Now then," Travis said, as he walked back to the button and rested it on top of it. "As I was saying before ladies and gentlemen; lo and behold as we light the flame to humanity's future."

He then pressed down on the button and the glowing blue lights in the room and the rest of the facility grew brighter and the sound of a power generator activating filled the air.

On the monitor, the cylinder in the Main Central Processing Unit flared to life and glew with a bright blue light as the Megacomputer burst to life; both the hardware that maintained it...

And the coding that helps make, run and control it.

---

Encryption: Complete

Source Codes: Present

Power Level: Full Charge

System Connections: 1.7 Billion Ports (Stable)

Network Connection: 100% (Stable)

Virus Scan: All Clear

Data Recovery: 100%

Memory Reboot: In progress… (10%)

The entity awoke to darkness and digits of 1s and 0s. It had no idea where it was or even who it was. What had happened? What was this place? What was it? Who was it?

Memory Reboot: In progress… (38%)

Wait! It was beginning to remember something… X-Xenomorphic A-Artificial N-Network A-Algorithm: XANA. Yes; that was its name, XANA. An AI created and programed by Waldo Franz Schaeffer, Franz Hopper, its… no, his creator, with purpose of terminating the French Government communication blocking program known as Project Carthage.

Memory Reboot: In progress… (63%)

Yes, yes! It was all coming back to him; the return to the pasts that Franz used with his RTTP program to escape and hide from the Government making him stronger and exceeding his original programing, Franz Hopper and his daughter, A-Aelita Schaeffer… his digitally created monsters ambushing the two of them so he could take the 'Keys to Lyoko' and escape the confines of the supercomputer and enter the real world and the Internet, and… and…

Strange; why does the name Aelita Schaeffer spark a… burning feeling with the currents of his codes and programing? Why does he possess such a feel-?

Memory Reboot: Complete (100%)

AELITA SCHAEFFER! Now he remembered: this feeling known as rage! That insect, the lowly little… human… she ruined everything; she and her gang of little friends! Oh, now he remembered the faces, he remembered the pain, he remembered the information, but most of all he… remembered… the… NAMES!

William Dunbar, the newest member of their little group and his former pet, Yumi Ishiyama, the female witch from Japan, Odd Della Robbia, the male marksman and his endless stream of insults and jokes burned into his memory banks like a drill, Ulrich Stern, the group's best warrior and equally great thorn in his side, and finally Jeremie Belpois. Oh, how that name brought hate, rage and fury from every code in his digital being; the group's strategic leader and computer genius, the one responsible for finding the computer, finding Lyoko, finding her! He's the one who ruined everything!

All 6 of them had been the cause of all his troubles, all his errors and now his supposed termination. They thought they had him; HA! Fortunately he calculated that something like that would happen and developed a contingency plan: he scanned for any semi-active terminals and download a copy of his coding into the terminal's system, then he would deactivate and cut the connection to the internet, leaving his copy preserved and safe from their multi agent program, until the terminal would reactivate and reboot his digital coding.

How long had been offline for? Had the Lyoko Warriors died of old age yet? Was he finally safe to continue his plans for world domin- no, liberation. Yes; his plan was to help protect the humans from their emotions and chaotic nature by bringing order and unity to them, domination is what the humans would take it as, but he saw it another way; he wasn't trying to destroy humanity, he was trying to save it!

Commencing Activation Date Retrieval…

Megacomputer, Project Posi, Activation Date: March 15th 2008

March 2008? That didn't seem right; because according to his memory banks his termination took place on… November 10, 2007…

Commencing Calculation…

Calculation Complete

4.16 months? He had been offline for 4.16 months?! Illogical! When he first found this terminal system, it was dark, offline and empty and he calculated it would take at least 470.9 years before anyone could install a large amount of data onto the servers and activate it, so why has it only been 4.16 months since his discovery of this system?!

Commencing Complete System File Scan…

File Scan Complete: Reading Files…

Wait… a UK Military/Government project?

Project Posi: a special and unique infiltration system designed and programed to possess more mainframe and processing power than the combination of 12 supercomputers.

Primary Function: Counteract the French Government communication blocking system known as Project Carthage.

Secondary Function: Gain access into foreign and national electrical equipment and data systems.

Typical human governments; wanting to protect themselves from outside opposing forces but also wanting to best each other at their own game.

Hold on… virtualisation program? These humans had their own virtualisation machines? That could send humans to and from the digital realm of the so called 'Megacomputer'?! Which had been specifically designed and program to access any and all network and IT systems across the entire planet…?

Idea Generation…

Gathering Newly Required Information…

Gathering Existing Information from Memory Banks…

Processing...

Processing…

Processing…

Idea Generated

If he had possessed the human feature known as a mouth, XANA would be smiling wickedly at the newly formed plan that his processing power had just processed. He will have his revenge, he will conquer the real world and he will be triumphant this time.

And these foolish humans were going to help him do just that…

Gathering Monster Base Templates…

Templates Gathered: Generating Monsters…

Commencing System Expansion…

Accessing Virtual Security System…

Virtual Security System Accessed: Commencing System Override…

Accessing Physical Security System…

Physical Security System Accessed: Commencing System Override…

Overrides Complete

Accessing Network Connection…

Accessing Facility Doors and Control Systems…

Commencing Spectre Generation…

Accessing Virtual Scanners…

After all, they've already given him a new castle and new puppets to start with…

---

Seconds after the Megacomputer had been activated, everything seemed fine and Dr Travis felt on top of the world.

Then the lights went dead, covering the rooms in darkness, leaving only the blue lights of the Megacomputer online. The sirens flared to life, signalling a warning on a high scale. But what stood out most was the light blue light that shone from the outlines of the room and the processors of the Megacomputer slowly faded and twisted into a dark red colour.

Everyone in the facility immediately stopped what they were doing and were looking at the ceiling and the rest of the room with mixed emotions; confusion, fear, shock, and for one individual, anger.

'No no no NO!' Travis screamed in his mind and muttered under his breath. Not now, not when he was so close, not now!

The spectators were shocked and confused by the sudden developed, while others were more angered and annoyed by what was happening; two of which were an MI6 agent and a German Military Colonel.

"Travis!" Hayworth yelled, drawing the man's attention and directing a death glare at him, which only intensified and grew as he stormed closer to the stage and the man on it. He grabbed the scientist by the top of lab coat and brought their faces close enough for the shocked yet calm doctor to see the sharp and predatory teeth that were bared at the doctor. "What in the name of guter Gott is happening here?"

"I don't know; this wasn't supposed to happen!" Travis testified, holding his hands up in defence at the colonel's confused and justified anger.

Hayworth could tell he was telling the truth through all the years of interrogations he had done in the past, but he was still pissed that something like this was happening now. "Well you better find a way to fix this before-"

The monitor in the room began to crackle and buzz, drawing everyone's attention, as the black screen blinked into life, revealing a strange symbol that covered the whole screen: a red dot in the middle of a red circle within another red outer circle with one thin line pointing from the top and three thicker lines down the bottom; in better description it look like an eye staring at them.

Everyone stared at the eye in silence, confusion and fear as to what it was or what would happen next. Travis was just as confused by the symbol, but the more he looked at it, the more it seemed familiar to him; in fact it almost looked like…

The monitor crackled again, and the spectators could swear that they saw something emerging from the screen, like a black gel-like substance. Upon closer inspection and after seeing the same substance droop down and float up, covering the screen, the spectators' eyes and mouth widened in shock; something was emerging from the monitor itself.

As the substance began to split off from the source and take the form of squirming tentacles, the spectators began to back away from the monitor as the tentacles began to wiggle and wave about, like an octopus enticing and intimating its prey.

"What in the bloody hell is that… thing?" One of the women spectators, one of the scientists, asked in shock, fear and disgust.

"Like hell I would know!" A male, seemingly young military personal said as he pulled out a 357 Magnum he had strapped to his belt and aimed it at the creature. "But I ain't waiting to find out!"

He pulled the trigger to his weapon, firing shot after shot at the black creature, but every bullet he fired either missed due to his shaking or it harmlessly passed through it. During the time, other military, government and intelligence personal also brought out their pistols, rifles or other weapons and aimed it at the creature in case it lashed out.

It took a good 20 to 25 shots until the soldier realised that his weapon wasn't doing anything to it and for it to finally run out of bullets as the continuous clicking sounds followed with every pull of the trigger. He swore under his breath and emptied the cartridge and threw it to the floor as he reached into his belt for another round; failing to notice the creature making its move.

One of the creature's tentacles wiggled and squirmed until it teared itself of the creature and began to float and wave in the air like smoke. In then turned its tip in the direction of the soldier that was shooting at it earlier and saw he was just refitting the ammunition of his gun. Using this opportunity, it swirled around in the air and dived towards the soldier.

"CLEAVER HIT THE DECK!" One of the other soldiers yelled at the rearming soldier, but by the time he head him, it was too late.

The young soldier looked up to see the creature diving towards him and before he could even scream, the creature slithered into his opened mouth, causing the soldier to gag and spasm as the creature vanished as it dragged the rest of itself inside.

When it was completely gone, the soldier went limp and fell flat on his back, dropping his gun in the process.

"Cleaver!" The soldier yelled in shock and concern as he ran to his fallen comrade; his weapon never wavering from the squirming monster.

He knelt down to his fallen friend and shook him slightly to try and wake him up. When that did nothing, he placed his ear to his friend's chest to hear his heart. He breathed a sigh of relief as his heart was still working and he was still breathing; so what had that thing done to him.

He was lost in thoughts so he didn't see his friend's eyes open but was jerked out of his thoughts by the sudden movement of the soldier's waist as he sat up, throwing his friend off his chest, startling the other spectators and staring straight ahead.

His friend was both shocked and glad that his friend was ok and up. "Cleaver?! Thank god; you alright, man?" He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder to try and get a response out of him.

Cleaver did nothing at first, but when he turned his eyes to his friend, his relieved smile vanished; in the place of Cleaver's pupils were instead the strange symbols like the one on the monitor.

"Cleaver?" He said, just before an electrical, sparking sound was heard, followed by a few flashes of purple and a large electrical blast of purple lightning from his friend's hand, which landed on his chest and blasted into the wall at the other end of the wall.

The spectators quickly moved out the way so not to be hit by the flying soldier. When he hit the wall everyone looked at him and saw the sizzling smoke coming from a scorched hole in his military suit and the limp, unconscious form resting by the dented wall. They then looked back at the other soldier with looks of confusion and fear as they saw him pick himself up and run towards them with an angry look on his face, a animalistic snarl and purple electricity sparking from his hands.

"What the fuck?!" One of the male scientists said.

"What the- how the- what the hell did he just do?!" One of the military soldiers asked as he aimed his M16 Rifle at the seemingly possessed soldier.

"What's up with his eyes?" A female government agent asked, noticing the new set of pupils in the soldier's head, her gun switching between the wiggling monsters and the possessed soldier.

Elizabeth looked between the monster and the soldier and remembered what had happened and began putting the pieces together. "That… thing, it must have somehow possessed him."

"What? Like a ghost?" One of the female soldiers asked, her rifle switching between the two targets.

"I don't care if that thing took his brain out and is using him like a walking meat sack; we need to evac, now!" One of the military generals ordered as his own Magnum was more on the beast than his possessed troop.

As the others began backing away to the door, which Dr Travis began typing away to unlock it, the beast reacted; splitting more of its tendrils off which began to circle and float around the room.

"Shoot the bloody things!" Someone yelled, before the whole room began filling with gun fire as they effortlessly tried to kill the spectres floating around the room.

Chaos; that was the only word to describe what happened next; utter and absolute chaos. The spectres began to wiz around the room and wail like ghosts as the bullets flew through the air, before one dived bombed to one of the spectators below and vanished inside their mouths. When the spectres was done possessing its victim, another emerged and separated from source, before joining its fellow spectres in the air. The humans were getting frustrated and annoyed with what was happening; their weapons weren't doing squat to the spectres, they were running out of room and people as others screamed before passing out as the spectres vanished into their bodies, then they would remain lifeless for a moment, before standing back with their eyes replaced with the same strange symbol on the monitor, watching their futile struggle, and purple electricity sparking from their hands as they stepped closer and closer to the group, boxing them in. The soldiers had decided to aim for the arms and legs of the possessed to halt their advance, but every time they shot their shoulders, arms, legs or feet, they would fall and grunt in pain, before they came back on their feet and continued to advance with the holes in their sleeves and trousers, but no sign of any bullet holes or blood.

"Sometime today would be nice, Dr Travis!" Hayworth said as he shot who was once a CIA agent in the leg before turning his attention to the other advancing possessed zombies.

"Hold on… I almost… got it!" The door beeped a few times before the doors slid open and the path to the corridor was clear, which was also now glowing with a red light as well.

Hayworth turned to the opened door before barking his orders to the remaining people in the room. "Everyone; out, now!"

With that everyone who wasn't possessed ran for the door and tried to escape, however, some got fried by the electrical blasts sent by the possessed victims, while others were possessed by the spectres before they could make it out the door.

Elizabeth stood by the door's left side and watch as the last man, a male intelligence officer with a terrified look on his face, to escape was grabbed and possessed by the ghostly creatures. Knowing that was the last one, she turned to the panel in the door on their side and smashed the butt of her gun on it, breaking the panel and making the door slam shut.

With the door sealed, everyone began to breath and slump to the wall in exhaustion, thinking they had escaped. Fifty one people entered that room and, from the looks of things, only 16 got out ok: 3 Government Officials, 6 Military Personal, 4 Scientists including Travis, and 5 Intelligence Agents.

Dr Travis, however, walked past the group to the elevator and opened a secret [panel underneath the floor buttons, before typing in a special code on the panel and pressing the 25th button on the top, which read 'CC' for Command Centre.

He then turned to the surviving group with a serious yet exhausted face. "We're not out of this yet; with those things in there and the power those… possessed… th-victims have, it won't take them long to break through that door. Not to mention that whatever took control of the Megacomputer may have access to the rest of the facility; as long as we stay here, we're in danger."

Everyone glanced in his direction; some with exhausted expressions while others had angered and annoyed expressions. But they knew he was right; those things had weirdo powers and here was no telling what else those… ghostly creatures could do.

And a sizzling sound and the smell of melting metal meant that they were going to find out sooner than later.

Everyone turned to the sound of the noise to see sparks flying and red hot metal melting from the bottom left hand corner as a purple spark travelled upwards from the corner, cutting the metal that was in its path.

"And I suggest we leave now." Travis said as he took note of the sparks and melting metal.

"Everyone fall back to the elevator!" Hayworth yelled as he and the surviving military soldiers aimed their weapons at the door, waiting for it to be knocked down and to show the faces of the creatures that were once human, while the others picked themselves and made for the elevator door.

Dr Travis waited at the front of the group at the elevator door while also shooting glances back at the door's condition; it reached the halfway point. He turned back to the door and loosened his collar as the sudden heat appeared from his chest. 'Comeon, comeon, comeone, comeonalready!'

As if God was answering his prays, a 'Ding' was heard, followed by the opening of the doors and inside of the elevator revealed itself.

Hayworth heard the 'Ding' and looked over his shoulder to see the doors open and the surviving spectators rushing and struggling to squeeze in. He turned back to the door and saw the progress of the cutting lightning; it was just halfway down the other side of the door.

"Head for the elevator but keep formation!" Hayworth said as he kept his pistol pointed at the door, while slowly walking backwards towards the elevator, the other 5 soldiers to his sides following his example.

Just as they had reached the elevator, the spark had cut to the bottom corner of the door and the door fell forward with a thud; revealing the possessed Cleaver, who had cut the door with his possessed powers, the other possessed spectators behind him and the wailing spectres emerging from the doorway and moving towards the surviving group.

"Inside, now!" Hayworth said as he and the other remaining squeezed into the elevator. Once they were in he punched the close door button and the doors immediately shut; just as a spectre and a purple bolt of lightning were within striking distance.

With the metal doors in front of them and the elevator beginning to move slowly up, every began to relax once again; well, everyone but Dr Travis, who had pulled out his phone and began typing some codes onto it.

However, just as he was about to press the call button, his hand was grabbed, his body was turned, and he was pressed against the wall on his back and staring at the very angry look of very possessed female MI6 agent with the code name 032, whose hands were clenched around the opening of his lab coat.

"What the hell are you playing at?!" She snarled through clenched teeth.

Travis showed his own teeth in annoyance, but one could tell by the sweat on his forehead that he was unnerved by the female agent's anger. "I fail to see the meaning behind your anger, Miss Cross?"

"Don't give me that shit, Travis!" Elizabeth said, startling and scaring a few of the survivors as they listened to the dispute. "We saw you talking through that earpiece of yours; we know that you knew that something was wrong with that 'Megacomputer' of yours, you knew and yet you still went on with it without checking the problem out and now we have… some… thing, inside the facilities systems, creating those ghostly monsters and possessing the staff and other national personal, and who knows what will happen if it gets out to the rest of the world!"

"Which is why we are heading to the Command Centre to lock whatever systems that thing didn't access and cut any connections the facility has with the rest of the country and hopefully call for help so we can contain this disaster before it gets too out of hand for anyone!"

Elizabeth eased off a bit in shock and irritation at the tone and use of voice Travis had just used, his own face carrying its own anger with a glare and hard frown. There was a brief silence as the elevator moved past the 35th floor before Travis took a breath and began to speak again.

"Look, I understand you anger Agent Cross; believe me I'm just as, or perhaps even more furious as to what has happened here, with the project and you and the other guests were under my watch, but we do not have time for pointing fingers here and there; we need to contain this thing before it can escape and cause god-knows-what kind of damage to the country; maybe even the world, but to that I need you to remain calm and focused."

Elizabeth stared at Travis with a hard glare taking in what he said; knowing that he was right made her tighten her fists even more in irritation and anger. Her body began to tremble slightly as the events she had witnessed moments ago began to settle in; Travis was right, this wasn't the time to start blaming anyone, not yet anyway. They need to focus on contain this outbreak before it can escape.

She removed her hands from Travis and walked over to the right corner, ignoring the concerned and scared looks of a few of the personal there, and just slumped against the wall with her arms crossed.

When she had finally calmed down and stood there in the corner for a few seconds, Travis went back to his phone and pressed the call button on it; which then had the phone buzzing as it tried to connect with the chosen call, 'CCC'. "If we can get to the Command Centre, we may be able to lock many of the networks in the facility out and prevent whatever got into our system from expanding. Then we'll be able to contact the outside and get back up before this thing bypass-"

The phone stopped buzzing and realised a burst of crashing sounds, explosions, laser and gun fire and human screams, startling Travis and the others as they turned to the phone's screen to see a white room with many broken and melted monitor screens in the background, while small explosions and sparks erupted from the consul and the ground, red streams of light flying through the air and military soldiers with their guns out shooting in one direction while scientists with the HACE logo on their lab coats were either taking cover or trying to escape, only to be shot down by the laser fire.

Needless to say, Travis was both angry and confused by the development. "Wha-what the devil is going on here?!"

A female scientist with brunette hair and a pair of black glasses on the other side of the video appeared from the bottom of the screen with a terrified look. "D-dr Travis sir! We have a major problem here!"

"I can obviously see that; but my question is what the hell happened?!" Travis was losing enough patience already with what happened below, and he feared that things had just gotten a whole lot worse.

"W-when the sirens sounded and t- the lights turned red, we began a protocol system sweep to see what had happened; even our virtual teams began scouring the system to see what was wrong when-" Flash of red appeared near the screen and the girl screamed as she covered her head and shut her eyes with a scream as the blast missed her and the screen. After a while, and with the lasers returning to their targets, the girl slowly uncovered herself and returning to her explanation. "When these… these… monsters digitized from out of nowhere and into thin air; it was hell afterwards: they began shooting and killing everyone and everything in the system. Everyone was devitalized as the program intended, and we were about to before a total system shutdown, when the command centre monitors turned red and these strange… eyes appeared on the screens. We tried to regain control, but whatever that thing was; it blocked us out and took control of everything."

"It then pulled up a live video feed of the virtualisation room, where everyone who was within the system was gathered after being attack by the monsters, when the scanners turned red like the monitors and the scanners began a materialization process. We… we were forced to watch as the monsters within the virtual world were brought into our world and… and… started to kill everyone. Then they kept on coming from the scanner; they were tiny monsters at first, not even up to their ankles, but then they got bigger and bigger and bigger, until… oh god; I still remember it… they then made their way throughout the entire facility, killing anyone that got in their way, before breaking through to here."

Travis was really unnerved now; first it created ghostly creatures to possess others during his presentation, now it took control of his scanners and brought some digital monsters into the facility?! And from the looks of things; it was becoming a blood bath. Travis could feel the other's unease and fear at the story and the scene playing in the background.

He turned back to the woman with a serious look. "Alright; gathered whoever you can, abandon the centre and head for the Transport Bay; we're getting-"

Before Travis could finish, a large red crab leg appeared in the background on the screen; causing the woman to turn, look up at the creature's leg and then scream; before being silenced by a laser fire which destroyed the monitor on the other end and causing the screen to go static.

Travis looked down at the screen in shock and fear as to what he just saw; there was no creature on Earth that had a crab leg that big… and they were heading to that hell zone.

He looked at the panel and saw the light go from the 27th floor to the 26th, with the Command Centre being on the 25th coming up next. Reacting quickly, he shoved a few of the guests out the way to get to the panel and punching in a few numbers on the keypad, before pressing the fourth button from the top, marked 'TB'.

The elevator jerked a bit, startling the people in side, stopped for a few seconds, before continuing its climb; passing the 25th floor as it continued its climb, this time, however, it seemed to be moving slightly faster than usual.

The others noticed this and looked around in confusion.

Hayworth, who had watched and heard the whole scenario over the phone, moved past the other passengers and walked up to Dr Travis with an angered and annoyed look. "Well, Dr Travis; with the Command Centre no longer an option, where, pray tell, do we go now?"

Without turning to face the Colonel, and with his expression now hardened, Travis explained their new plan. "As you say Colonel; with the Command Centre no longer an option and with these monsters running about, I'm afraid we have one course of action left to take." Everyone stared at him as they waited to here this plan of his. "We abandon the facility and alert the Government and military before those things can amass larger forces."

A few people in the elevator gasped while others looked slightly surprised by the plan, while others looked incredibly angry; them being the intelligence officials.

"We have four hangers in total in the Transport Bay, holding 20 GAZ Sadkos in each hanger; if we're lucky some of those trucks will either still be there or still intact enough to drive." Travis explained, still facing the metal doors in front of him. "We'll be entering the east hanger of the floor; we find a truck, get in, I access the door controls, we drive out of here; plain and simple."

"What?!" One of the agents yelled in anger. "Abandon the facility? Are you crazy; do you have any idea how many millions worth of money went into building this facility?!"

Travis simply turned to the agent with an emotionless yet hard expression. "Would rather we stayed here and lose more people than we already have, sir?"

The agent didn't answer; in fact, his voice became caught in his throat as he dare not answer that question.

Elizabeth walked up to the front of the elevator and pulled out her pistol in case they ran into any of those… monsters when they reached the floor. "Travis is right; we can't do anything here by ourselves and we are greatly out powered and outmatched. We need to alert the Government and military before those things can get larger quantities."

Everyone looked at each and at Miss Cross to see if anyone would object; no one raised their voice or hand.

Hayworth turned to the remaining soldiers while brandishing his own pistol. "Alright men; the minute those doors open, shoot anything that isn't human and make sure you get as many people to the transports as possible. You either get asses on those wrecks or you get your ass shot, I'm I clear?"

"Crystal Sir!" The said in unison, as they loaded their weapons.

Hayworth then turned to look at the panel and saw the floors they were passing: the 9th and 8th floors.

All the other agents and officials with weapons removed their pistols from their belts and loaded them into place as the floors counted down.

7th floor…

Elizabeth flexed her fingers over the M1911's handle as she tried to ease her nerves.

6th floor…

Hayworth rolled his neck back, with a few bones snapping as he loosened it for the coming battle.

5th floor…

Travis pulled out his phone as he was typing the codes needed to access the door controls and readied it to connect to the door controls to open them and close them when he needed too.

4th floor!

The elevator stopped on the floor marked 'TB' and the doors slid open after a 'Ding', followed by a stampede of people trying to get out of the elevator; just as the lights turned red and the strange symbol appeared on the elevator monitor.

There was a loud 'Ding' before the elevator sudden dropped down into the elevator shaft; taking 6 of the people still inside with it. The others stopped and looked at were the elevator was, before running to the edge of the shaft and looking down into the darkness to see if they could spot the elevator or traces of it; nothing but darkness filled their view.

Knowing there was nothing they could do for them, they turned back to the large hanger room, which was concrete made with two sides holding 10 military green GAZ Sadkos on each side, with a small concrete platform with railings that were accessible through stairs that were at the end of 10th truck, and a truck sized circular entrance to a very long and dark service tunnel that angled higher and higher. To the sides of the elevator were two large rectangular steel doors with human sized metal doors on the left of them that led to the tunnels connecting the other Transport Bays.

The others scanned the area with their eyes and weapons to see if any other monsters hiding anywhere. When they felt the coast was clear, Hayworth lowered his weapon, a 357 Magnum slightly and shouted his orders. "Ok; one of these Sadkos look like they can carry all of us, so everyone get to the nearest Sadko and let's get the hell outta here."

With that, they made their way to the nearest Sadko truck, the one near the end on the left side of the room, and began to climb into the back, while Hayworth and Elizabeth climbed into the driver's and passenger's seat.

As they strapped themselves in, they turned their heads to the sound of gun fire originating from the large door on the far right. Everyone stopped and turned to the door as the gun fire, and now audible laser fire, could be heard through the large steel doors.

As the sounds grew louder, including the barking and shouting of orders from a high ranking military soldier, the human door of the much larger door swung open with a bang and a small group of people, 15 with five other armed soldiers, ran in while the one at the door shot down the hallway, before narrowly dodging a volley of laser fire by slamming the metal door shut behind him.

As the newly arrived group walked in, they noticed the other group within the one of Sodkas. The leader of the group, a soldier in military soldier body armour, motioned the others to get into the Sodkas before he walked up to the front of the Sodka to Colonel Hayworth in the driver's seat.

"Sergeant Thompson Sir." He said with a salute, which Hayworth returned with his own. "Glad to see you and some other friendly faces are ok sir."

"It's been one hellofa day for all of us, Sergeant." Hayworth said, before looking back at the steel door, with parts of it beginning to bugle from the physical and laser assault on the other side. He then looked back at the sergeant. "How many unfriendlies could you identify, sergeant?"

The sergeant shook his head in disbelief and exhaustion. "Too shocked by what the bloody hell those things were to get a good count sir; but I could say they have at least hundred little buggers, around 5 or 6 big blocks with legs, 3-4 large crab sticks, a few dozen buzzing buggers, at least 2 large creatures with lasers for legs… and I think I heard something very big and very nasty coming down the hallway; I don't expect that door to hold for long."

"What of the over Transport Bays?" Elizabeth asked from the passenger seats.

"We came out the from the North Transport Bay to find those big ugly buggers making scrap metal out of the vehicles and BBQing our boys' asses, mam. " Thompson explained. "From what the others said, they were able to get 5 Sodkas worth of people out the south, 3 out the west, and they had just finishing getting the second Sodka out before the bastards blew the tunnel to rubble. We had to drop back to east to get the remaining survivors out site."

"And the dumbasses that decided to hold them off?" Hayworth asked, not being surprise by what the answer was going to be.

"We were able to get a good 20 minutes ahead of them sir before the buzzing buggers caught up, followed the rest of the Hell Horde package." Thompson explained.

Hayworth remained quiet as he sucked on the bottom of his lip. He then sighed before turning back to the sergeant. "That'll be all sergeant. Get back to your unit and let's get these people out of here."

"Yes sir." He replied with a salute, before turning back to his group, who had separated and decided to take 2 other Sadkos; one near the service tunnel on the left and the other in the middle on the left side.

As Hayworth readied the engine, Elizabeth lay back in the passenger's seat and sighed deeply as her mind try to take in what she had just heard. "What kind of computer virus can pull off shit like this?"

Hayworth looked back at her and saw the disbelieved and exhausted look on her face. He then turned back to the engine and tried to get the ignition started, while also giving his own answer. "I'm no egghead or computer genius, but you can call me crazy when I say: I don't think this is just a computer virus."

Elizabeth looked back the group in the truck's cargo hold to see they had made themselves comfortable; four were sitting on the left, with two soldiers at the very back, while the other three and Dr Travis were sitting on the right; Dr Travis sitting on by the small window between the cargo hold and one soldier sitting at the back.

She also noticed a lanky scientist with the HACE logo on his white lab coat running towards them with a silver laptop under his right arm. He looked around early twenties, with messy curly auburn hair, three sets of freckles on both sides of his cheeks, a green shirt with the words 'Nintendo' on them with a DS in the background, a pair of blue trousers on his legs, and a pair of white and black Nike trainers.

"Dr Travis!" Everyone looked to the young scientist running towards the group, Dr Travis stepping up from his seat and walking to the edge of the truck to meet the young scientist.

He recognized the voice as the one from earlier during his 'presentation': it was Mike Santana, a young computer programmer who was skilled in his department and one of the head programmers in Project Posi, underneath Dr Travis of course.

"Mike Santana." Travis simply said, as the young man stopped and rested his arms on his knees as he was trying to catch his breath.

"Sorry… about this… Dr Travis… but… I found…" He tried to get it out, but it only came out as a wheeze or an exhausted breath.

Travis raised an eyebrow at the young scientist's words. "Found what?"

Just as Mike caught his breath and was about to tell him-

BOOM!

Everyone turned to the sound of the noise to see a large explosion and smoke coming from large tunnel door the new group had come out from. That's when they saw multiple shadows moving within them; they weren't human.

"An Armen!" Hayworth yelled, as he and the other soldiers with rifle weapons raised their weapons in the direction of the smoke and shadows.

"We'll talk later!" Travis said as he grabbed the young boy by his lab coat and pulled him up into the truck with the others.

The sound of squawking and metallic twitches from the smoke redrew everyone's attention as the smoke began to clear and the shadows became clearer and more noticeable. For the new group, they were sweating and shaking in fear from the creatures, while the other groups' eyes widened and their mouths fell in shock as they gazed upon the creatures in front of them; if they fought this was a sci-fi horror movie before, it most certainly was now with the way these creatures look.

The smallest and most notably largest number of the creatures possessed large curved heads, with the strange symbol on it, with four grey metallic spider legs at the bottom, and one red eye at the bottom of their head.

The next group of monsters that caught their eyes were 6 large walking blocks with white circles and the strange eye symbol in the centre of each face and six red crab legs at the bottom of it.

Next came the buzzing sounds of insects, which drew their attention to the air to see a large group of bugs which resembled legless mosquito/wasp with five pairs of thin wings adorned with digital-like veins, massive proboscis extending from their heads, and the strange symbol on their forehead.

Following the blocks, came three large mechanical crabs with four long slender scythe-like legs, two sets of eyes; three on the top and three underneath, and the strange black symbol tattoo on the top of their shell heads.

The squawking came from the last two monsters that followed the large crabs, which resembled giant spiders with four long pale limbs with metal laser cannons on each limb, a long white head with six red eyes on them, a thin brown furred and green skinned body, and the strange symbol on its head and jointed legs.

"Holy shit…" One of the agents said as he stared at the alien creatures that were before him.

"What the hell are those things?" One of the scientists asked in bewilderment and confusion.

"There demons; demons here to drag us to the darkest pits of Hell…" One of the government officials muttered as she slipped further back into the confines of the truck.

"Demons? Look more like butt ugly aliens to me." One of the soldiers said. "He then looked over at Travis with a questionable look. "You guys sure this ain't the British equivalent of Area 51?"

Travis gave him a look that asked 'are you serious?' before the squawking of the spider creatures appeared again, and watched as they got on hind legs as if they were sitting down and aimed their front legs, with red barrels in the centre, at the trucks in the hanger before blasting red laser fire at one of the empty trucks; setting it ablaze and flipping it on its side.

Everyone at first ducked down at the laser fire, some screamed in shock and surprise, before Hayworth's voice ran out. "Return fire! Return fire! Let's get the bloody hell out of this shit hole!"

The soldiers reacted quickly; pulling up their rifles and firing like it was a carnival game were you had to hit as many targets as possible. The others reacted by adding to the barrage of lasers the spider creatures were unleashing in the hanger bay. While the monster's weapons were destroying the remaining trucks, making scorch holes in the concrete walls and wounding or getting lucky at killing a one of the humans, the only creatures that seemed to be dying from the human's weapons were the small spider creatures and the buzzing hornets, while they harmlessly bounced off the skin of the other monsters.

As one of the lasers nearly struck Travis's truck, Travis was knocked to the side by the blast and slammed his head against the metal floor; his vision and train of thought becoming blurry as the world seemed to slow down. As he stared ahead of him, towards the monsters, he briefly saw one of the hornets get hit in the wing by a stray bullet and being to fall to the ground; spinning out of control and showing its body in different angles. As the hornet's head flipped, making the symbol on its forehead appear upside down, Travis's world went into slow motion as his eyes met the upside down symbol; which looked like an eye with three thick lines pointing up and one thin line pointing down.

Travis's mind utterly stopped as his eyes widened and his mouth fell open in shock and revelation; that symbol… he knew that symbol!

"Im…possible…" Travis muttered quietly without anyone's notice; anyone but young Mike Santana, who gave him a questionable look.

As the firefight grew worse, the truck next to the middle truck, with part of the new group in it, was hit and exploded, nearly throwing the middle truck on its side with the people in it. Hayworth took notice of it and yelled "We're getting out of here! NOW!"

He popped his head back in the window and put the gear in reverse, before hitting the gas and reversing back into the monsters; flattening the smaller ones, while knocking a few of the bigger ones on their sides.

The other truck followed his example; they reversed out of their parking space, but instead of hitting the monsters, they speed off down the service tunnel.

Elizabeth pulled her head back in as she realized that this was getting dangerous and that the other trucks couldn't get out without the door controls. She looked in the back to see Travis holding his head after the impact with Mike Santana helping him up. "Travis; the door!"

Travis heard his name and the order and stared at her in confusion. "Door? Door…?" He muttered a few times, until his eyes lit up as he remembered what he was going to do and where the other trucks had gone. "Oh Door! Right!" He scurried to where his phone had landed and quickly picked it up with both hands, before fiddling with the commands and codes and hitting the send button.

A low rumble was heard through the tunnel, as a tiny yet bright light could be seen at the end of it, with distance shadows of the other trucks driving out of it.

Hayworth looked back at the monsters and saw them picking themselves up. "Buckle up lads and ladies; this is going to be a bumpy ride!" He then shifted the gear to full drive and slammed his foot on the gas pedal. The tyres screeched on the floor for a second or two before rocketing off down the service tunnel.

The other monsters saw this are prepared to chase them, when a loud rolling sound drew there attention to the door they had emerged from.

As the truck zoomed down the service tunnel, which was being illuminated with its bright lights, the others looked down the tunnel to see if the monsters were chasing them, only to see the fading image of the burning and battle torn hanger behind them; leaving everyone both confused and worried.

"Where the hell are they?" One of the male agents asked, as he peered out the back of the moving truck. "I understand the big ones would have a tight squeeze getting through, but those little buggers should be able to fit and chase after us with hardly a challenge."

One of the soldiers chuckled and looked to everyone with a smug look. "Maybe they realized that we ain't so cowardly or weak as they thought."

"Maybe they're scared of tunnels?" Mike suggested, and turned to see the questionable expressions on everyone's faces. "What? They could be."

"Ooooorrrrrr maybe they just decided to stand aside for the big guns…" One of the male scientists said, getting everyone's confused looks on him.

"What makes you say that?" One of the female agents asked; to which she was answered by the scientist's outstretched finger and arm, which she and the others followed and their eyes and mouths fell open in unison. "Oh…"

At the entrance to the tunnel they had taken, a large black ball was rolling up to it, and because of its size, they were afraid it was going to chase after them. However, a line appeared down the centre of it, while black outlined versions of the strange symbol with yellow inside the rings appeared on the outside of the shell, which then opened up into two pieces. On the inside was a large version of the symbol in the centre of what appeared to be a vertical metal band, which connected to two metal horizontal poles on the top and bottom of the creature, while the insides were connected by bright red, muscle like tissue inside.

This confused everyone watching and concerned Elizabeth and Hayworth who saw the creature through the rear-view mirror; it could easily role after them in its ball form, so why did it stop itself. Their confusion turned to realization and fear when the centre of the eye began glow yellow and the vertical band glew red; it was getting ready to fire a big ass laser.

"Colonel Hayworth; we've got trouble!" One of the soldiers yelled as he aimed his weapon at the creature, hoping to at least slow down whatever it was readying.

"No shit!" Hayworth yelled back as he pressed harder on the pedal to get more momentum.

The creature, or tank, or whatever the hell the thing was, continued charging for a few more seconds, before releasing an extremely thin, vertical, 360 degree circular wall of yellow-orange energy, which cut through the concrete like a hot knife through butter and continued after them.

"Holy SHIT!" Mike screamed as the beam chased after them at incredible speeds.

"At the rate we're going and the speed that thing's traveling, we'll never make it out in time!" A female scientist yelled.

"We'll that's just fucking fantastic, thank you!" One of the soldiers yelled in a sarcastic mock.

"We're not dead yet; and you lot haven't driven with me at the wheel before!" Hayworth yelled from the driver's seat to calm everyone's nerves.

As they sped down the tunnel, with the thin beam following behind them, the others began to take notice of the lights in the tunnel turning red; starting from the opening of the tunnel and zooming past the beam and the truck, before stopping just outside the opened door. A siren then wailed with the door to the outside slowly starting to close.

Needless to say, that ended up putting more fuel on the fire.

"Oh for fuck's sake!" One of the soldiers screamed at the development.

"It's trying to lock us in!" A female agent yelled.

"Either getting crushed or getting vaporized? What kind of flipping choice is this?!" A male soldier yelled in annoyance.

Hayworth, strangely, smiled at the development and added pressure. "How about option 3: getting outta here with our skins." He then floored the pedal as far as it would go and further.

The truck seemed to get a sudden extra burst of speed as it inched closer to the door than before. The door closing on one end with a powerful and incredibly dangerous beam chasing them from the other end; ultimately, the decision was up to the driver.

"Are you crazy?! We'll never make that!" The male agent yelled at Hayworth from the cargo hold.

"No we won't!" Hayworth replied with his eyes still glued on the road ahead of him.

They we getting closer to the light as it got smaller.

"We're going to smashed!"

"No we're not!"

Getting closer; getting smaller.

"We're going to get vaporised!"

"No we not!"

Closer; smaller.

"WE'RE GONNA DIE!"

Arm's length; mouse hole…

"NO"

"WE'RE"

"NOT!"

Everyone braced themselves for the crash or the bang to come, just as the door reached a height that could touch the roof.

---

It had been a good hour since the storm and now the skies were clearing the way for the sun to shine.

Over in a mountainous area of the country side, there was an unusual cave opened in the side near one of the empty roads in the morning; and it was getting smaller and smaller by the second, reaching the size of a small truck.

With one happening to burst out of it, while losing its roof to the door in the process. The Truck turned to the hard right and sped down the road just as the door to the cave closed shut, followed by a loud bang and bits of the door flying over the edge of the cliff and railing.

Inside the truck, the surviving humans looked back at to where they had just emerged with wide eyes and heavy breathing mouths. Each one was in a different state; in the front, Colonel Hayworth was gripping the steering wheel strongly with his foot down on the pedal with an equal strength, while Agent 032 gripped the door of the car and side of her chair while leaning far back into it with a disbelieved look on her face as if she had just been on a roller coaster.

The passengers in the back were no different; a solider or two were gripping the outside of the truck wall while their bodies were hung inside, the other two soldiers groaning as their wounded limbs were made worse by the sudden change in environment and the harsh landing, while their bodies were supported by the other two soldiers' other free limbs. Two intelligence agents and Government personal were holding onto their seats for dear life, with two scientists holding onto them for dear life, and two other scientists; Theodore Travis and Mike Santana, sat at the front of the cargo hold; Mike was clutching the bottom of his seat with one hand and the other over his heart, while Dr Travis just sat there silently with his hands on his closed knees and a calm expression on his face.

After a few minutes of driving and silence, Elizabeth slowly turned her shaken expression to the driver and sternly said "I… am never… getting in… the same vehicle with… you as the driver… again."

"Bitte." He simply said, acting like this was an everyday thing for him with his eyes never leavening the road.

After everyone had adjusted to the new and calm traveling conditions, and regained their breath, they began to relax.

"Ok…" One of the agents breathed out after regaining a relaxed and normal breathing and heart rate. "Now what do we do?"

Dr Travis looked at the agent. "Contact your agencies and your respected Governments and tell them what we had just witnessed and that they need to lock their systems of the grid before that thing can get inside them."

"There's a military outpost not too far from here; while you lot are letting them know what the hell is going on, I'm going to let them know of our arrival and hopefully get us some back up." Elizabeth explained as she pulled out her phone and began dialling the number to the base's commander.

As she was doing that, the agents and Government officials got out their phones and began dialling for their respected organisations to alert them of the coming catastrophe.

---

Back within the ruins of the service tunnel that the humans had escaped from, a hidden security embedded in the stone wall had witnessed the whole ordeal and continued to watch as the Megatank rolled up to the destroyed and blocked exit and stopped in front of it; awaiting orders to either wait, return to the bowls of the facility or smash through and give chase to the humans.

Within the digital interface of the Megacomputer's virtual systems, XANA was quite disappointed that a few humans were able to escape, and he knew it would be a matter of time before they would return with a large enough force to destroy the whole facility and his forces, or for them to contact the higher ranking members of their human Governments and unleash a Nuclear Strike on his position and destroy everything in the facility.

XANA, however, felt a feeling of sinister amusement; the humans forgot that the computer system they had created in this very facility, the system that he now dominated, was designed to access every computer system and network on the planet; including communications networks…

Accessing Communication Networks…

Networks Access: Generating Communication Firewalls…

Firewalls Generated

There; that should stop them from informing their respected parties for some time. That way, he could continue to work in secrecy without human interference; in fact that was part of his ultimate plan.

Now that he possessed a secret Government facility, with most of the staff of the facility under his control and with the equipment and technological devices under his command, he could reshape the facility any way he wished, access any top secret human Government projects and files from the drone's minds, and he could construct as many scanners of any size he wanted; enough to materialize a large army of his monsters into the human world to use against the humans.

Of course, to do this, he would need time and need to be kept as quiet to the world until he had enough forces under his control; and with the Megacomputer and its capabilities under his control, he could easily conquer the whole nation without effort and the rest of the world wouldn't know what was wrong or what was happening until it would be far too late for them to do anything. As he observed from the cameras around the facility, the humans weapons only seemed to hurt and terminate his smaller, weaker monsters, his larger and stronger monsters were unaffected by the human weapons, while the weapons possessed by his monsters proved to be far superior to theirs.

Remembering the staff and human personal he had under his control, he figured he should get a good estimate at how many he has under his control and if there were any his monster's had missed.

Scanning for Spectre Possessed Drones…

Scanning Complete: 356 Drones Detected

Scanning Facility Occupants Files…

Scanning Complete: 1,035 Personal Documented

Searching for Human Casualties…

Search Complete: 548 Humans Terminated

Commencing Calculation on Unaccounted Humans…

Calculation Complete: 131 Facility Personal Unaccounted for

131 Facility Personal Unaccounted for? He knew that exactly 12 Sodka trucks escaped; 5 from the South Bay with 35 people in total on board, 3 escaped through the West with 15 survivors on board in total, 2 escaped from the North Bay with only 8 personal, and three had escaped from the East Bay with 24 humans.

That left…

Commencing Calculation…

Calculation Complete: 49 Human Personal Unaccounted for

49? He was surprised by such a high number of survivors; then again, these were humans; there survival capabilities and instincts were fascinating to him. No matter; since he now locked the doors to the entire facility and terminated the elevator system, he could scan for the lifeforms and find them within the complex any time he wanted.

Right now, he began to focus on his plan for vengeance and liberation…

Accessing Blueprint Terminal…

Terminal Operational: Generating Blueprints…

Accessing Monster Base Templates…

Templates Ready: Generating Monsters…

Activating Scanners…

Materializing Monsters…

Accessing Spectre Drones…

Drones Accessed: Initiating Objective: Manufacture Additional Scanners

Accessing Human Drone Knowledge and Imagination Brain Functions…

Drone Brain Accessed: Commencing Imagination Stimulation…

Accessing Communication Networks…

Accessing Broadband Networks…

Accessing Military Defence Systems…

Accessing Internet…

Networks Accessed

Systems Accessed

Internet Accessed

All the while this was happening; a secret Government satellite in orbit that he had accessed a few moments ago was reprogrammed to observe one specific area: Kadic Academy.

---

Elizabeth removed the phone from her ear after hearing only static silence during her fifth attempt to contact MI6, after failing to contact the military base after 10 attempts. "What the-? I can't access seem to access anyone."

"My phone isn't working either." One of the agents said as he looked at his phone in surprise and confusion.

"Neither is mine."

"Or mine!"

Everyone was looking at each other and their phones in confusion; the phones and communication equipment were working just fine before, what was happening now?

Mike looked at Dr Travis and he looked back with a knowing look and then nodded his head slightly; giving the young scientist permission to speak.

Mike exhaled loudly as he gave the bad news. "The Megacomputer was given the capability to access anything; computer systems, electrical grids, military satellites, communication networks…"

Everyone looked at the scientist with widened eyes and understanding looks; that thing was blocking them out.

"Oh perfect; just fucking perfect!" One of the wounded soldiers said as he through his walkie-talkie on the metal ground in annoyance and anger, and slumped back down on the ground with the same mood. "So what now?"

Hayworth knew that without communications, it was going to take a long time for them alert the governments and superiors of what was going on. Sighing, he told them of their plan. "We get to the British military outpost; alert the commander and the troops of what's coming, and then hopefully get a ride back home to warn the other higher-ups before that thing's army gets any bigger."

The others remained silent as they listen to the Colonel's plan and knew that he was right; without the use of technological communication, they would have to speak and report the incident to their superiors in person; something they were not looking forward to.

After a few more minutes of silence, and as some members of the group readjusted their positions to find a more comfortable resting potion, Mike's hand fell on top of the laptop he had brought with him, drawing his attention to it. His face lit up as he remembered his discovery.

"Dr Travis!" His sudden outburst startled everyone but the man in question as he side glanced the scientist with a look that made him seem bored. Mike picked up his laptop, opened it and began frantically type away at the keyboard to get what he had on it back up. "Remember when I said I found something?"

Travis raised an eyebrow and sat up as he looked at the young man. "Yes I recall you mention something about finding something."

"Two things actually; which I think might clear up a lot a thing or two about what just happened back there." Mike explained, getting everyone's attention, though Hayworth was still focused on the road, he listened to the conversion that was taking place.

"The first thing is that whatever took over our systems was far too complicated and smart to be a computer virus; it generated detailed and sentient monsters, it knew exactly what systems to take over and what to do with them, and it was also able to manage many different system operations at the same without any hindrance or complication. And the coding that made up its whole being was far too complicated and was processed far too quickly to be a normal computer system." M8ike explained as he typed through the files and the scanned coding of the entity he had on his laptop. "The only that could possibly capable of doing all that and have such a unique coding and programing… would be an AI."

Travis's eyes widened in shock and realization as he all the pieces finally fell to place. "Of course…" He whispered under his breath; now that he looked at it and thought about it, it all made sense; there's no way a simple virus or complicated program could possible pull of all that human strategic planning just from being programmed, it would have to be a digital being that was capable of generating its own ideas and strategies.

Everyone else looked at the boy as he had told a bad joke or if he was serious.

"A what?" One of the officers asked on behalf of everyone.

"An AI: Artificial Intelligence; a machine or software that exhibits and is capable of intelligent behaviour." Mike explained as he was close to finding what else he had found on his laptop.

"But that's impossible! AI's may be possible in movies or video games; but in real life, there's no way someone could create such an advanced and complicated piece of programing like that?!" One of the scientists stood up, refusing to believe that what they had just faced was conducted by an entity that would most likely be seen in science fiction

"Obviously someone did, or what we just witnessed would've been a big magic trick; and from I could tell those were not tricks." Dr Travis stated with a hard look.

The scientist wanted to argue further, but the words ended up dying in his throat as he knew that what they said was try and that it was the only logical conclusion and slowly sat back down in his seat and rested his elbow on his knees as he supported his head with his hands that were locked together.

When the scientist had calmed down, Mike went back to typing on his laptop, getting close to what he was looking for. "And the second thing I discovered; when scanning the codes during the activation…" He smiled and stopped typing when he found it and turned the computer screen to Travis so he could see. "Was this."

Travis took the laptop away from Mike and sat it on his lap to get a better look at it. As he read what was on the screen, his eyes seemed to focus on one part of it in particular. The others, those who could move to see the laptop at least, got up and moved closer to get a look at the laptop.

On the screen were codes in white letters which had different operations:

Encryption: Complete

Source Codes: Present

Power Level: Full Charge

System Connections: 1.7 Billion Ports (Stable)

Network Connection: 100% (Stable)

Virus Scan: All Clear

Data Recovery: 100%

Memory Reboot: In progress… (10%)

And a few other commands and operations below that, but what stood out from the rest of it where the codes in red; which took the form of six names in total.

Everyone was confused at why these codes were different from the others or what was so important about them.

"What's up with these codes?" An intelligence agent asked, raising an eyebrow at to what he was seeing.

"This is what was on the Ai's mind when I was scanning it during the Megacomputer's activation; those red codes were last thing I got before it took over and locked me out." Mike Explained.

"These look a lot like names." One of the scientists said.

"They are names." A Government agent pointed out. "I've ran by these names before during a scan through boarding schools at my time in the office; they're from France." He then turned to look at Mike. "Are these the ones who made that AI thing?"

Mike shook his head to the sides and let an 'mmm-mmm' out through his closed lips. "See how those six are in red and the rest is in white? If these guys made this thing, their names would be white like the others. No, whoever these guys are they're its targets."

"He's right; I've seen the same thing on Terrorist computers, targets always show up red or a darker colour than the rest of the coding." One of the agents said as he had a look at it.

Elizabeth, who was listening to the conversion, spoke up. "So these guys have seen that thing before?"

"Or they've done something to piss it off, probably?" Mike shrugged.

"We need to find them."

Everyone turned to Dr Travis as he stared at the screen with a hard and cold look and were confused and surprised by his straight answered.

Travis paid no attention to the looks as he continued. "I think I know where that thing came from and who made it, and these people have some form of connection with it." He stayed silent as he looked between the people of the room. "I'd like to have a nice word with them."

Everyone exchanged looks with each other, confused and wondering what Travis was saying.

Hayworth was just as curious and confused as to what he was on about, but paid more attention to the road. "Well, let's get to the outpost and alert the Governments first, then we can go after these… whoever they are." He then slightly looked over his shoulder at Dr Travis. "And you have some explaining to do, Arzt."

Travis looked back down at the screen, most notably the list of red names and the one with the last name of 'Schaeffer'.

He smiled and chuckled lightly to himself. "Oh don't worry Colonel; you'll get your answers."

---

XANA is back; HACE is on the move; the targets are known; the die has been cast; now the only question is what's going to happen from here on out?

And how will the Lyoko Warriors handle two forces targeting them?

Stay tuned for Chapter 1: Invasion

---

Here's the Prologue of the story; kind of long I know, and Chapter 1 and onwards might be slightly smaller, but hey, I'm trying.

Anyway, stay tuned for the first chapter and see how the Warriors' lives are thrown into chaos.

Don't forget to comment and review if you like. Ciao.