Working Title; Code Lyoko: Operation CODESTRIKE
Chris Malar was awoken from his sleep by his cellphone ringing. With a groan, he sat up from his bed and flailed his hand blindly around in attempt to get the phone, still half asleep. He hadn't had time to sleep properly the last couple of days, what with the intense studying he'd been doing for his upcoming finals, and he desperately wanted more. His fingers found the phone, and he quickly flipped it open, not bothering to check the number. He wouldn't have been able to see it anyway, his dorm room being as dark as it was. It was almost 2 in the morning, European Time, and the sun wasn't going to be up for another couple hours.
"Hello?" He mumbled out, accidentally switching into his native English from the French he'd been speaking the last couple weeks due to his lack of sleep.
"Chris, it's Grey." The voice on the other end replied, also in English. Chris sat up abruptly, hard enough to hit his head on the hand-made shelf over his bed. He knew the voice; Grey, a fellow student, roommate, and (by way of being one of three other American exchange students here at Kadic Academy, in addition to Chris himself) probably the closest thing he had to a friend in this middle-of-nowhere-in-freaking-France boarding school. It wasn't really much of a friendship, but (Chris believed) it was certainly better than hanging out with either those two weird French guys, that moody German kid and the gothic hard-ass Japanese girl who was always with them, or (horrors of horrors) that brain-dead excuse for a principal's daughter. Elizabeth, or Sissi or whatever the hell her name was.
Chris shook off the clinging feeling of drowsiness and sat up fully in bed, helped awake by the searing pain in his head. He'd been expecting this call all day. Yesterday (it being after midnight), at lunch, Grey had told Chris that he'd found something. He'd been vague about exactly what it was, but he promised Chris he'd either talk to him face to face or call him when he knew more. Then he'd simply vanished for the rest of the day. Now, Chris wanted to hear what he had to say, if for no other reason than to have a reason to explain his absence.
"What's the situation?" He asked. "You find whatever you were looking for?"
"Oh, much, much more than that." Grey said, with a small laugh at the end. Chris felt his scalp prickle. "Listen, you awake?" Grey continued. Chris smirked, knowing Grey couldn't see him.
"What do you think?" He replied sarcastically.
"Good." Grey breezed on, either missing or ignoring Chris's sarcasm. "You have to see this yourself. I can't just describe it over the phone. You think you can sneak out?"
Chris paused, thinking and listening. Around him, the dorm was quiet. The only sounds were the tinkles of the ventilation and heating ducts, the cries of nocturnal creatures outside his window, and what may have been a song coming from the direction of Sissi's room, adjacent Chris's own but on the girl's floor. Chris guessed it was the brainless girl herself, judging by how most of the words he could make out were "Ulrich".
That was the German kid's name, he remembered. Ulrich Stern.
"Yeah, I think I can go." He replied. "Nothing happening here but that retarded frog girl singing."
"Sissi's still awake then?" Grey questioned. "Somehow I'm not surprised."
"You and me both. I think Ulrich stonewalled her. Again." Chris grit his teeth. "So, where are you, anyway?"
"The factory." Grey said those two words as simply as if he were giving the time, but it was a serious shock to Chris. The factory, a decommissioned Renault automobile plant, was beyond school property, separated by a bridge over extremely deep water. He was speechless for a moment, trying to figure out how Grey had gotten in.
"How-" He gasped. Grey chuckled in response.
"The factory isn't as secure as they think," He said mysteriously. Chris blinked, then set his face.
"How do I get to you?" He asked slowly.
Grey paused for a moment, apparently thinking. Finally, he said "Can you keep a secret?"
"You know I can." Chris replied instantly. It was more or less true. There was an unofficial bond between the four American exchange students. They all covered for each other, kept secrets and provided help when needed. He himself had covered for Grey on several occasions, and also knew that one of the two girls that completed the group of exchange students had a crush on the nerdy looking French boy that Ulrich always hung out with.
But Grey seemed unconvinced of his conviction. "Swear it." He said.
"Swear it?" Chris questioned, brain still slightly slow from he recent wakening. "On what?"
"Anything. Something dear to you, I guess."
Chris thought for a moment, then felt his face curve up in a smile. "Okay, I swear on my Google account that I won't tell anyone about this secret, whatever it is."
"Perfect." Grey sounded satisfied. "Okay, here's how you get into the factory; I'm only going to say this once, so listen carefully."
"Worried about someone tracing your call?" Chris quipped.
"More like someone hearing us talk if I was guiding you every step of the way there."
"Ah. Okay, hit me."
"Right." Grey went quiet again, obviously trying to put his route into words. "Okay, you know where the woods are on campus, right?"
"Yeah, course I do." Chris stood up and looked out his window. From there, he could see the large stand of trees that graced part of Kadic's open yard.
"Well, in there is a hatch-"
"Oh yeah!" Chris jumped, surprised. He knew what Grey was talking about. Almost in the center of the woods was a man hole-like metal cover, which Chris had passed almost daily last quarter, as it was the quickest way between two of his classes. He'd always assumed it lead to the sewers or something, and it looked like he was right. "I know what you're talking about. So, what, I go there and go in?"
"Right. That will lead you to the sewers. Once there, walk along the walkway until you reach a ladder. There's only one way you can go, so don't worry about getting lost or anything."
"Then I climb the ladder and I'll be in the factory?"
"Not quite. The ladder will put you on the bridge leading to the factory. Go inside, and use the ropes to reach the bottom floor. Use the elevator to go down. I'll meet you there."
"Roger that." Chris was still a little confused, but he decided he'd make sense of the directions when he got to where he needed to be. "I'm leaving now. Meet you soon."
"Right. Make it fast, would you?"
"Sure." With that, Chris flipped his phone closed, ending the call. He sighed, rubbed his eyes, and quickly got dressed. It was a warm night, meaning he was wearing his normal day outfit to stay cool, so this really only consisted of putting on his shoes and donning a light jacket, which he kept more for it's mass of pockets than anything else, and slipping the World War II-ear combat knife he had received from his grandfather into the sheath on his wrist. Once he was properly attired, he locked his door, quietly pried the window open, and shimmied down the large tree that grew just outside his room. According to what he'd learned during his first week at the academy, the tree had been there since the school was built, almost a century ago. As he climbed down, he wondered how many other young people had used it for just this purpose. He knew of at least three others; they'd carved their initials into the tree itself at some point or another.
Once he reached the lowest branch, Chris dropped the last couple feet to the ground, landing with a grunt. He stood, stretched, and quietly moved off into the woods, making sure to scuttle between the shadows of the trees to avoid detection. He doubted anyone would be awake (and he knew for sure Sissi wouldn't be looking out her window towards the woods), but there was still the chance that someone was actually up, and he'd seen Jim Moralis, the school's gym teacher, patrolling the grounds sometimes, which he never really understood. Chris didn't feel like taking any chances.
He got lucky; the only thing moving out in the woods was him. He moved as quickly as he could, and slipped quietly into the woods. As he moved through, he passed the random utility shed that had the bizarre graffiti caricature of Jim as a king on it. He paused to look at it, noticing that it was starting to wear away from almost a year in the sun, but turned away quickly as he felt a sudden rush of deja vu. He shook it off and continued slinking through the shadows till he reached the hatch. He opened it easily and slipped in. Despite the fact that it was underground, it was surprisingly easy to see in the tunnel; there was probably some way for natural light to come in.
When he reached the bottom of the ladder, he saw that Grey had been right; the tunnel behind him was effectively blocked off by a large grate. So he turned the other way and continued. The tunnel he had entered appeared to be a drainage pipe of some form. He was walking along a narrow walkway, and to his right was a canal filled with water. He found the sound of the water running by him strangely soothing.
Distracted by the water as he was, he wasn't really looking at his feet, and as he moved down the tunnel he almost tripped over something on the floor. After regaining his feet, he shook himself off and looked down. Upon examination, it turned out to be a collection of sports equipment; three skateboards and two scooters. Chris considered borrowing one of the boards to speed up his trip, but decided against it; the owners might come back. So he continued on foot.
The walk turned out to be longer than he expected. After a couple minutes, he decided to speed up his trip and broke into a sprint. Sprinting was one thing Chris did well; he could out-run just about anyone on both the Kadic campus and his original school back in the States. He covered the space necessary quickly, and found the ladder he was looking for minutes later. With a slight sense of trepidation, he started climbing. Like Grey had told him, there was a hatch at the top, similar to the one that he'd used to enter the sewers at the other end of the tunnel. He climbed out and shut it behind him, then took the time to observe his position.
He was on top of the bridge leading into the factory. Below him, he could hear the lapping of the tide against the pilings that held the span up. Feeling slightly unnerved by the emptiness of the bridge before him and not wanting to keep Grey waiting, he sprinted into the factory.
Once he got inside, he was surprised to find that it was just as light inside as it had been outside. Chris stopped, reviewing what Grey had told him. He needed to "use the ropes to get to the bottom floor." He saw why; at one point there had been stairs leading down from where he was to the lower floor, but they had either rotted away or been removed at one point or another.
Chris easily found the ropes; they were simply dangling before him. Without hesitation, he grabbed on and swung down, landing awkwardly but recovering with a roll. He stood, brushed himself off, and looked around. The only thing on this level besides him was a freight elevator, which Chris guessed was the one Grey had told him about. So he stepped inside and slammed the down button with his fist, crossing his arms as the elevator descended. The trip was short, and Chris found himself facing what had to be the most ridiculously secured door he'd ever seen. It was colored yellow and green, and looked to be at least several inches thick. Sensing his presence, or possibly the arrival of the elevator, the middle of it seemed to glow along lines carved into the metal, then spun to the left, paused while what looked like lightning skittered across its surface. It rose out towards Chris, just enough so the large metal braces behind it could rise and release. The door slid apart with a hiss of gas and a whir of machinery. With a small amount of anticipation, Chris stepped forward.
The room before him was, for lack of a better word, amazing. Everything was metal, with the exception of a couple parts of the floor, which were covered by massive cables as thick as his arm, if not thicker in some cases. In the very center was some kind of flat area, where all the cables seemed to lead to. Hanging from the ceiling over this area was a large metal brace of some form, which held up a bank of monitors and a keyboard. Before this was a chair, which itself seemed to be on a metal pole installed in a groove that encircled the central area.
Chris whistled, impressed.
"Hot damn." He whispered.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Said a quiet voice. Chris jerked in shock, hand pulling his knife free of its sheath and readying it to throw. He calmed as his brain recognized the speaker.
"Grey." He said quietly, sliding the knife home again.
The chair before the monitors turned with a mechanical whirr, and Chris found himself face to face with a slightly pale, brown haired grey eyed kid about his age, sitting quite comfortably in the chair. "Christopher." Grey replied, steepening his fingers and blinking. "Glad to see you made it here."
"Yeah, wasn't too hard, actually." Chris said with modesty. "But yeah, it is impressive. Just trying to figure out what it is."
Grey nodded and grunted in agreement, before turning back to the monitors. "I'm not entirely sure myself," he admitted. "But from what I've been able to find, I think it may be some kind of supercomputer."
"Wait, you mean like those Cray things they used in Jurassic Park?" Chris asked. Grey shrugged.
"Yes, but if I'm right, this thing is decades more advanced."
"A French supercomputer. Interesting." Chris scratched his neck and looked over Grey's shoulder at the screen he was working on. Data scrolled by, brought up by the codes input by Grey. "So, what's it do? Figure out the perfect wine for any meal? Abstract art?" A wicked smile spread across his face. "Surrender when you try to break into encrypted areas?"
"Sadly, no." Grey replied, not taking his eyes from his work. "But that's only because there doesn't seem to be any encryption.
He paused, thinking again, then added; "Though I don't really think "supercomputer" is really an appropriate term anyway."
"What, it's not as good as its name suggests?" Chris smirked again.
"No, it's just...not right. Calling it a supercomputer hints that it's made for computation. It's not built for that at all. Actually, "artificial universe" would be a more appropriate term."
"What do you mean?" Chris frowned, confused.
"See for yourself." Grey, still typing, pointed at the flat area that the chair and monitors encircled. Chris moved closer and leaned in. Now that he was closer, he could see there was something there; a hologram, of what he wasn't sure.
He leaned still closer. As he did, his eyes opened in surprise. The hologram was a map, divided into four different sections, each with a different topography. Chris made out trees, desert, snow, and a mountainous area.
"Whoa." He muttered. "It's like a video game!"
"It's much bigger than that." Grey said, still tapping at keys. "If I'm right, what you're looking at is an entire virtual world."
"So this thing here-" Chris pointed at the hologram. "This isn't just an image. This thing is real?"
"Yes. The computer seems to have been built for just this purpose. To run an artificial world."
Chris whistled. "You found any reason why the French would want built a world inside a computer?" he asked.
"Again, no, sadly." Grey sighed, and finally paused in his work to glance at Chris. He grinned evilly. "I will, however, have it soon."
"Oh? How's that going to work?" Chris moved over to stand behind Grey and look at the screens again. Grey continued typing.
"You remember that time that Millie's computer broke a couple weeks ago?"
"Hard not to." Chris smiled, remembering. "She thought Sissi did it, didn't she? Got hella mad at her."
Both boys started quietly laughing, each remembering a different section of the massive fight between Millie and Sissi.
"Yeah, that's what happened. Do you know how it ended?"
"No, not really. I did hear that Millie got her computer patched up, though."
"And you would be right." Grey once again began working, but Chris could see he was smirking to himself. Chris found himself smiling as well.
"Let me guess," he said, leaning back against the chamber walls and crossing his arms. "You fixed her computer for her."
"Precisely." Replied Grey. "Anyway, let me just say this; Millie's standard, civilian computer proved much more of a challenge to me than this thing." He patted the monitor before him. Chris leaned in to see better. Data scrolled across it, listing events happening inside the computer.
"So what exactly are you doing?" He asked. Grey smiled again.
"I'm sending some personally coded programs into each of the computers main systems. Once inside, they make copies of everything around them, then absorb those copies and return them to me."
"Your copy and pasting the entire computer network." Said Chris, slightly in awe. Grey shrugged.
"More or less, I guess." He snickered at his unintentional joke. "Once I have all the systems copied, I'm going to look through them and see if there's any explanation for this universe."
"Seems pretty complex a plan to just figure out what this thing does." Chris noted.
"That's not all." Grey continued. "When I'm done, I'm going to compress them and store them on this." He pointed to a small, black box that seemed to be plugged into the monitors.
"Hey, you found your portable hard drive!" Chris noted, recognizing the box. "So what are you going to do with the data once you get it?"
"You mean, what are we going to do with the data." Grey corrected.
"We? What's with the we?" Chris blinked in confusion.
"I'm asking for your help, Chris." Grey explained. "This is too big a project for me, and you're the only person in the whole damn school who I can really trust."
"Okay then..." Chris said, unsure of what else there was to say.
"And as for what we're going to do? Well..." Grey smiled evilly again.
"Well, what?"
"Anything." Grey turned to face Chris, eyes alight. "We can do anything we want with it."
Chris fell silent, thinking of the possibilities.
"If we sold it to the right person..." He smiled himself, pressing one hand into the palm of the other as he did. "Man, I could buy sixteen Xboxes! And controllers for all of them! Oh man...think about it! Sixteen Xboxes on a single, glorious LAN connection!"
"You wouldn't need to sell it at all." Grey said. "This thing is so powerful, you could hook together sixteen Xboxes on a LAN connection…wirelessly."
"Wow." Chris said in awe.
"Wow indeed." Grey agreed. "But this is why this has to stay a secret. If this got out-"
"Someone else could do their own LAN system." Chris hissed, feeling strangely angry. Grey opened his mouth to say something more, then shut it.
"Yes, that's one reason." Grey nodded. "Plus, I don't believe the French government knows of this computer. I'd rather not like to think what would happen if they got their hands on it."
Chris paused, thinking of the possibilities. "Oh shit..." he muttered.
"I figured that would matter to you." Grey said with a small smile. "Nothing to get a patriotic person's blood flowing like the possibility of your government getting their ass kicked by someone else."
"Hey, I've got every right to be patriotic!" Chris snapped back, angrily pointing a finger at Grey's back. "My grandpa fought-"
"And bled on this land so we could be free-Yeah, you've told me before. You told everyone in the school when Millie interviewed you for the news."
"Stupid loli frog." Chris grumbled, leaning back against the wall of the chamber and crossing his arms.
"I am also aware of your bias against the French." Grey added. "Though it is understandable, considering your grandfather's ordeal at Normandy-"
"Look, I got your point, okay? As of now, this thing is classified, Omega Red Alpha level. We don't talk about it in front of anyone. Clear?"
"Omega Red Alpha?" Grey questioned. "That's not a real censorship level."
"I know." Chris replied, slightly annoyed. "I can't think of any real secrecy level that worked for this thing. So I made one up."
"Works for me." Grey turned and went back to work. Chris nodded, then turned and headed for the elevator for the surface.
He had a lot to take in.