Hey, everyone, Magicianhayd here. I realized that I've been focusing a lot on my other story "Executive Decisions" where I explore the events of this story, just 10 years later. But then I realized that I deleted most of this story! And so for those who have joined for the first time on my other story, this might not make sense. So I am going to be focusing on this story for a bit, as well as toying with the idea of beginning a story where I explore the past of one Waldo Schaeffer (Franz Hopper). Let me know what you think!
Chapter 0: "FYI"
The Cardiff Family:
Winston (M/38)
Amelie (F/37) (Deceased)
Sean (M/14)
The Cardiff family (pronounced CARD-if) consists of the Father, Winston, the Mother, Amelie (Pronounced just like Emily…it's French) has passed away in a car accident. When they were first married, Winston and Amelie had some financial issues, and as a result, they spent their first couple of years of their married life on the streets. That is until Winston made it big with a novel that he wrote and got published, saving them from poverty. Winston became a bit of a drunk, creating a distance between him and his wife. She left for a while to live at home with her parents when she found out that she was pregnant. Keeping it a secret, Amelie was finally convinced to speak with Winston about the pregnancy, but on the way, she got into a fatal car crash. Sean is their only surviving son, but he is not aware of his parentage. Amelie wanted him to grow up away from Winston to allow him to avoid his alcoholic father. But unfortunately, Sean still manages to find himself in trouble.
More OC's to follow! Just wanted to put this backstory so you understand before getting into things!
Chapter 1: "The Problem with Perfect Nights"
Setting: Just outside the Lyoko Factory
Time: Late at Night
POV: Sean
The Lyoko Warriors emerged from the factory, and every one of them was exhausted. It had been another long night fighting XANA and secretly keeping the world safe, again. The Warriors were all tired, and Odd was the loudest in leading up the call for bed. All the others in the group laughed, they all agreed it had been a long night and it was time for them to go home and get some sleep. Jeremy held the group just a little longer so he could talk with them. Some of the members of the Warriors griped and complained, namely a certain pointy-haired blonde.
Jeremy stood at the head of the group, and he looked back at the faces of all his friends. Yumi stood near the front of the group, and she smiled as she looked at Jeremy, and brushed a small strand of her dark black hair out of her face. Ulrich stood nearby, his focus was initially on Yumi, but as Jeremy walked forward, he gave Jeremy his undivided attention. Odd leaned up against one of the supports of the bridge, but his gaze was still fixed on Jeremy. Aelita stood the closest to Jeremy, a large grin on her face, and her attention unwavering from the blonde nerd. Jeremy blushed a little as the pinkette stared at him so intently.
Jeremy cleared his throat and began talking to the group assembled. He began talking about the success they had had lately. Aelita was finally out of the supercomputer; and although XANA had implanted her with a virus of his own, they were still really lucky to have gotten this far. Jeremy encouraged the group to keep up their hard work because he figured he was close to finding the anti-virus already. He congratulated them on another job well done on beating XANA again for another day.
The group gave as enthusiastic a cheer as they could in their half sleep-deprived state. It was then that Jeremy noticed how tired he was as well. Yumi and Ulrich were both stifling yawns, Odd was half-asleep as he slouched farther and farther down the bridge support. Even Aelita was trying her hardest to stay awake through Jeremy's pep talk, but she was slowly dozing off, a half-grin still on her face. Jeremy figured if he didn't let them go now; they would all miss curfew, and risk getting in trouble. So Jeremy concluded his words, and let the group go.
Odd cheered and rushed for the secret passageway back to Kadic. The others laughed at him and then they all made their way towards the secret passage, that is everyone, but Yumi and Aelita, who made for the direction of town. They stood one more second together, enjoying the brisk, early fall weather of September. School was almost in again after their semesters break, and they were all looking forward to their last bit of freedom, and care-free relaxation, hopefully without and further XANA attacks.
The group bid farewell to each other, and headed each their own separate ways to home. Jeremy agreed to walk Aelita home to Yumi's house where she was staying for the time being. Yumi and Ulrich hung around talking for a few moments, and then they both agreed that it was well past time to head home. Ulrich bid good night to Yumi and then he too took the sewer passageway back to Kadic. Yumi hurried in the direction of Jeremy and Aelita.
The Warriors had decided to forego going home for the break on the insistence of Jeremy. He was sure that XANA would try to rear his ugly head after all they had done lately in thwarting his plans over and over. Jeremy also figured he would rear his head if they were there or not. So far, Jeremy proved to be right. XANA attacks seemed to be on the rise, and although most of the group would have preferred to be home, they were all glad they spent the majority of the summer together. Summer had turned to fall already, and before they all knew it, they were facing the approach of a new school year. It seemed like yesterday they all started doing this, secretly keeping the world safe from a threat it never knew about, and probably never would. But they really wouldn't have it any other way. The arrival of XANA had brought new friendship and adventure to their otherwise dull student lives. The arrival of the Warriors brought nothing but a headache to a certain multi-personality virus.
XANA was trying to slowly piece himself back together after having been beat once again in his conquest of taking over the world. He was lurking somewhere around the sub-files of the supercomputer trying to gather all the pieces he needed to survive. It wasn't a pleasant process, but every time it happened, XANA always found he had more strength or one more piece to add to himself. However, XANA never seemed to be able to rid himself of the less choice personalities that always seemed to come back once he was beaten.
After having been just shut down, he wasn't able to do other than hack some of the security cameras on the outside of the factory that were put up by Hopper all those years ago. He pointed the camera at the retreating back of Yumi, and of Ulrich disappearing below the surface of the secret passageway.
"I can't believe those brats..." fumed X as he watched Yumi and Ulrich.
"I can't believe you actually thought that plan would work in the first place!" said Al, coming back online after being shut down as well.
"Shut up... You're not helping" said X, he never liked it when Al came back online and reattached himself to the body they all shared.
"Kill!" hissed Ap, coming back on as well
"You know what the real problem is?" started Al.
"Oh be quiet all of you!" said X suddenly losing his temper.
(For info on who these names and personalities are, check my new story, coming soon, describing my personal take on XANA, and how he came to be who he is today!)
"So, what's our next move?" said X, in an almost rhetorical question.
"Why are you asking me?", said Al, chiming in," All of our plans just end in those kids shutting us down!"
"I WASN'T...ASKING...YOU!" boomed X, and Al cowered under X's presence, he retreated away from the main part of the body of XANA and the farthest he could from X as physically possible.
"Now, what is the next move?" reiterated X, as he pondered it to himself.
"Kill..." hissed Ap in a half whisper, half chuckle.
"Now that's something I can get behind...", sneered X, "We just need to wait until everything comes back online..." said X, monitoring his progress to full function once again.
A couple of hours after the Warriors left the factory, something started happening... A faint noise began to fill the air and it started to grow louder. It was the sound of...running feet...the sound distracted XANA as he was plotting. XANA heard the sound through one of his various strands that he had attached to himself. The strand was kind of personality, but not sentient enough to be considered a full part of his main body. He had put this particular strand on security, and when he heard sound coming from the cameras it was watching, XANA started to get curious. XANA took a break to take a peek through the eyes of the security camera to see what was going on. It took a moment of XANA to figure exactly where the sound was coming from, he had to pan around and switch to several different cameras to finally find exactly where the sound was coming from.
As XANA did this the sound grew louder, and there were also other sounds that joined it. XANA zoomed in to see what the sounds were a boy, no older than fourteen came running out-of-town near the riverbank outside the abandoned factory. The boy wore a white t-shirt, and a pair of long black jeans and his medium length, dirty-blonde hair was blowing in the air as he ran. His breathing was labored and heavy, and sweat was dripping off his brow. He wiped his brow with a sweat band he wore on his wrist and looked behind him to check something, and then kept running. He had the look of someone who had run almost all night, and was unable to stop.
XANA was suddenly interested. XANA panned the camera and was surprised by what he saw. The boy that was running was running quickly past the factory where he, XANA, was housed. This turn of events piqued XANA's already curious interest. He wondered if it was one of the brats who were his constant bane. If so, he was going to try and shut them down just like they shut him down all those times. If it wasn't one of those brats, XANA's next thought was that he could use this boy as a pawn against those brats that called themselves the 'Lyoko Warriors'.
XANA knew he had to act fast, reaching out with his influence; he flicked on the dying, flickering light on the outside structure of the factory near the entrance. The light got the attention of the boy, and he noticed it as a way to escape what he was running from. XANA panned the camera and saw what it was that the blonde was running from. A group of older boys were running after the boy, all were yelling and screaming and threatening his life.
"Hmm... this might be worth the effort..." thought XANA evilly, as he lured the boy in.
The boy was getting tired; he had run from the group for too long that night, and was unable to lose those pursuing him, no matter what he did. He could hear his heartbeat in his head, and his lungs and legs both felt like they weighed a ton. He looked around for a way out, and then the boy eyed the light switch on at factory. The boy hadn't noticed the factory until this point. His only goal was to get as far as fast as he could from the group chasing him. He felt like he had lead this group all over Paris, but wasn't able to find a hiding place that stuck. Up until this point he was unable to see any other alternative, so he ran towards the dimly lit factory.
"What are you planning?" said Al, as he became aware of the changing circumstances.
"None of your business..." said X, "Although, this might be the answer to our problem..." he said offhandedly.
"What...?" said Al, "What are you going on about X?"
"Ap, Ner, if you would please?" said X to the other evil personalities.
"Kill!" said Ap, focusing itself on Al. Working with Ner, they started to block him out from the main body of XANA as if almost on cue.
"Hey!" said Al, trying to stay a part of the evil virus.
X knew that they wouldn't be able to completely remove Al from XANA, because he was a crucial part of XANA, but X knew that he needed some "Al-free" time if he was ever going to do what it was that he was planning on doing.
"Come here boy..." grumbled X, focusing his whole attention on the boy.
The boy ran into the doorway of the factory and looked around for a way to escape. The group behind was in hot pursuit. The boy spied ropes leading from a large beam down to a freight elevator that sunk itself down into the ground. The boy wanted to go for the ropes, but in his exhausted state, he knew that he couldn't go down the ropes without falling to his death. His arms and legs were almost like rubber, and his hands were way too sweaty to try to grab something that he knew could spell his death if he were to slip. He had to act fast; the group was getting close to catching up with him. The boy couldn't see any other way down to the elevator, the drop seemed too steep to jump, and he couldn't see another way of escape.
"Over here..." said XANA, reaching out and using his influence to trigger the lights in the abandoned factory floor.
The boy noticed the lights flicker on, and he ran down the hallway towards it. He ran along the long platform that ran along the higher level of the abandoned factory. The platform sloped down, and then it became a long staircase. The boy ran down all the stairs, hoping to put some distance between him and the group pursuing him. He ran until he found himself in the abandoned assembly area of the factory. The boy could hear the group trying to find him. He thought he had finally lost them and was about to sneak away to hide until he was certain the group pursuing him was gone. He tried to be as quiet as he could, he tried to slow his breathing, tried to make sure that it didn't make any noise that the group would hear. He immediately ducked under one of the conveyor belts and hid himself in the shadows. The boy wanted to rest, wanted to get air back into his dying lungs, and wanted to stop running if he could help it. A certain virus though wouldn't let that happen.
"Too easy..." said XANA, after monitoring the boy's progress through the assembly floor with the security cameras.
He wanted to see what was going on before he decided to fully get involved in either saving or dooming this boy. He wasn't about to choose a pawn if he didn't get to see if he was up to fighting. XANA reached out with his influence and triggered one of the assembly arms in the factory; quietly he used it to pick up a steel bar and then let go of it when it got to a decent height where it would make a noise. The sound of the bar clattered throughout the factory.
The blonde boy winced and froze as he heard the clang fade to silence. The whole factory was still and silent, as both the boy and the group listened to where the sound came from. The boy looked around to see what could have caused the sound. He couldn't see where it came from, but he heard one of the boys chasing him raise the alarm. This new sound caused the boy to panic, especially as the group finally found where the sound came from, and began once again to chase him. The boy looked around for a way out of this room, and saw a broken staircase, and a light at the top of it. The boy heaved as much air as he could into his lungs, wiped the sweat from his hands, face, and forehead, and then ran towards the wall.
"He's running straight at that wall!" said Al, finally overcoming Ap and Ner and rejoining himself to XANA.
"I like this kid!" laughed X, seeing the boy's determination as he ran towards the wall, unaware of Al's reappearance in the main body.
The boy did not run headlong into the wall, instead, at the last moment, the boy swung his leg out straight in front of him. His leg collided with the wall, and instead of hitting the wall, the boy shot upwards as his leg pivoted and the boy ran swiftly up the wall, catching the lower most stairs in his hands. The boy clung to the stair as the group who was chasing him appeared in the room. The lead of the group saw the blonde boy hanging by his fingertips, and shouted for the rest of the group to catch up. The boy had no time to waste, using arms that felt like noodles, the boy hoisted himself up to the next level. The next room was a large boiler room, and it looked like to the boy who this was the end of the line, and that there was no exit.
"Do I have to do everything?!" shouted X, noticing the boy's look of peril on his face.
XANA reached out and flicked on the lights in the factory lab. XANA wasn't sure he wanted to introduce the boy to his home before he had a chance to fully see what this boy could do, but XANA figured 'what's the worst that could happen?' The boy noticed the faint light of the lab at the top of a tall ladder. In panic, the boy hadn't realized that the time he had wasted looking for a way out gave the group time to follow him. The leader of the group, a large, gorilla-like man was already being pushed up by the other members of the group. The angry mob wasn't able to replicate the boy's agile moves, and was left to try and boost each other up to the next level. The gorilla man saw the blonde boy and shouted angrily at him. He tried crawling up the landing, but slipped. The blonde didn't hesitate and ran towards the ladder, and what he thought to be the way out.
The blonde boy jumped at the last-minute and grabbed a rung a couple of feet above his head, this gave him a head-start on the mob behind him, who was slowly making their way up to the boiler room. The boy got to the top of the ladder, and didn't hesitate to jump into this new room. The boy rolled to break his fall, and then looked up to look at the new room he was in. The boy thought he was looking at a scene from a science fiction movie. The wires and the computer hub made it look like a scene from a mad scientist movie. But he didn't have long to admire as the rest of the lab, as the restless group was catching up to him.
The boy saw a large steel door on one side of the lab; he ran up to it and tried to figure out how it worked. He didn't see any visible way to open it, but he did see a small keypad next to the door which he thought controlled the door. The boy wanted to use it, but he could already hear the mob gaining on him as they reached the ladder in the boiler room. There was some shouting as they argued over who would climb up the ladder first; but the boy could hear the voice of the gorilla-man as he shouted he would go first and the rest of them could fight it out later who would follow him. The boy looked around the small lab. All he could see was the computer, and while he would have loved to have spent some time looking at such a machine as this, he knew he had no time to waste. He ran around the lab, in a state of confusion, looking for anywhere to hide or anywhere to go to escape the coming mob.
"This is hopeless!" said X, seeing the boy in his panicked state.
"What are you doing?!" said Al, not knowing what X had in store, "Are you bringing him to the lab?!"
"Kill!" hissed Ap, taking control of the situation, and panning the camera they all were hacking to point towards the opening from the boiler room. The gorilla-man was just starting to make his way up the ladder, and into the lab.
XANA realized that he didn't have any time to waste. He knew that this could either end here, or continue. XANA hadn't seen enough yet to settle whether this was all worth it yet or not, so the options seemed clear. But the boy seemed almost as dense as lead, he either chose not to see the way he needed to go, or actually didn't see it. The boy just ran around like a chicken with his head cut off. The more time he wasted, the closer to the end XANA knew this little 'experiment' was coming to.
"Come on boy, over there! Over there, the panel on the floor! Go...over...THERE!" shouted X at the blonde boy.
"You know that he can't hear y-" started Al
"SILENCE!" roared X, "I don't care, he should just know!" But the boy continued to run around, hopeless, and helpless...
"I guess I really do have to do everything!" said X, flicking the lights on and off in the scanner room one room down.
The boy saw the lights and ran over to the partly opened hatch near one of the floors. He slid it open and looked down, the blonde found another ladder. The boy was getting tired of ladders, but had no choice if he wanted to escape the horde following him. He quickly vaulted from his kneeling position around and jumped down the ladder. He found himself in another weird room full of wires and weird coffin-looking tubes. The boy was even more confused by this room, and it looked like another dead end. He looked around the room quickly...desperate to get away from the coming mob. He knew that this could have easily been fixed if had just taken the elevator in the first place, but then...something caught his eye. The boy saw a hatch in the center of the room. He didn't know what to do, but he figured this might lead somewhere.
He ran towards it and started turning the wheel on the hatch. At first, the wheel didn't want to budge, but after some effort, he finally got it open. Using his might, the boy pulled on the hatch wheel and threw the hatch back so that it was open, the hatch squeaked and groaned a bit as he did so. The boy used all his strength to push back the heavy hatch, and after he had expended his effort, he fell at the mouth of the hatch and then the boy looked down into the hatch opening. The boy saw a mass of glowing lights and more wires; he also could hear an electronic whine. He gasped at the size of this room, and was about to make a blind leap down into the room to the only structure he could see in the room, a tall tower in the center of the room, when a big hand seized him from behind. The boy was whipped around to see that the group that was chasing him had finally caught up to him...
"Finally caught you shrimp!" said the gorilla-man, grabbing hold of the boy's shirt and hauling him up into the air.
The gorilla-man looked at another one of the guys in the group and nodded, and the man got the message and kicked close the hatch the boy had gotten open. Then the gorilla-man nodded to some of the others in the group, and they stood near the ladder, blocking the only way out of the small room. The gorilla-man looked back at the quivering blonde in his grasp and then gave a low chuckle. He dropped the frightened boy at his feet and the boy sprawled himself out at the feet of this gorilla man. The boy tried pushing himself away from the man, in a vain effort to get away, but in his haste to get away he ran right into the feet of the other guys in the group. The boy looked up at the others in the mob and they looked down with sneers of disdain and hate. The boy cowered on the floor but the gorilla-man gestured to the boys over the blonde, and they hauled him up by his armpits to face his doom.
"Thought you could cheat us out of the deal, huh...Sean!?" said the gorilla-man almost spitting out the boy's name at the end of his sentence.
"No! Marcus, you've got it all wrong!" said the boy Sean, mentioning the gorilla-man's name.
"Oh do I now?!", said Marcus, drawing himself to size up Sean, "It wasn't me who had the idea to ruin everythin' we worked so hard for, and almost going to the police? Aw...now we can't have that now can we?" said Marcus in a very condescending tone. Marcus moved in close to Sean and pinched his cheek as he did said so, in his condescending tone. Sean huffed and pulled his cheek out of Marcus' grip. Marcus looked a little mad, but played it off. He started to walk away from Sean, with his back turned.
"Look!" said Sean, trying to wrench his way out of the grasp of the boys who were holding him up, "It doesn't have to be this way!"
"We can all just say I learned my lesson, and you can go home to the boss and everything will be fine!" said Sean, almost in an air of pleading now.
"It don't work that way Sean," said Marcus, turning his face towards Sean again, a big scowl etched in his face now.
"Look, I can just go, and you'll never see me again!" cried Sean.
"Look, the boss didn't have me chase you all this way to this...place..." said Marcus, looking around at the room and the coffin-looking tubes that took up a large part of the room, "What is this place anyway?"
"I-I don't know!" said Sean, he hadn't gotten a chance to look around either.
This room seemed strange; the coffin-looking tubes had a mass of wires at the top of each of them, each member of the group looked around the weird room, and the air seemed to be filled with a sudden chill.
The chill was easily explainable by the fact that XANA made a silent appearance in the room. He took control of the security camera in the scanner room and sulked around silently in the room.
"They feel my presence…" said XANA, noticing the look on the men's faces, and especially on Sean's face, "Come on boy…make a move…make me saving you worth it!" said XANA, trying to egg on the boy.
"What is your plan?" said Al.
"Don't worry, the only thing I need you to do is…butt…out!" said X, in a tone of hate.
"No…," said Al, "I think I have a better plan…"
"What is it?" said X, with as much venom in his voice as he could muster.
"You were looking for a pawn right?" said Al, reading X's mind, "Someone to counter those ridiculous 'Lyoko Warriors' who keep beating us right?"
"How did you-?" said X, surprised at Al's sudden gift of prophesy, "Never mind…go on…"said X, intrigued.
"I think I have a plan to do just that…" said Al.
The cold presence in the room left, and almost all the men gave a shudder as the presence left. There was definitely something evil about it. As soon as all the men recovered from the shock of the cold air, they returned their attention to Marcus, and Sean who was still in the grasp of the two men who held him. Everyone almost forgot about him, but now their attention was fully upon the blonde once again.
"So, what's it goin' to be?" snarled Marcus, he looked Sean up and stood even higher as if to intimidate him, he seemed to forget completely about the room they were in.
"I-I-I-," stuttered Sean, looking around at the mob. They all seemed to stare directly at him, intent on either getting the right answer out of him, or teaching him a lesson for making the wrong choice.
Suddenly the computer in the lab above them whirred to life. This startled the entire group, including the two men who were holding the blonde. They dropped Sean to the ground. For the second time that night, Sean found himself splayed out on the floor at the feet of the mob. Sean back-pedaled away from the two men who held him captive, and scooted away from the gorilla-man, but he ran into the side of the circle made of the others in the mob. Sean looked up into their faces. All of their expressions had a mix of anger and little pity. Two of the other members of the group picked up Sean by the armpits once again and hauled him up. Sean tried to break away from them, but after they picked him up, they pinned his arms behind his back, making escape impossible.
"Don't matter…"said Marcus, ignoring the computer noises, "What's it goin' to be…shrimp…?" said Marcus, he looked around to see where Sean should have been but instead found him in the hands of two new mob members.
Sean gulped and stared at the group. He tried adjusting himself to see all around him at the mob that looked like if he gave the 'wrong' answer, that it could spell his death.
"I-I- I'll do it…" said Sean finally, he lowered his head as if in shame of what he just did.
"Good," said Marcus in a low growl, he then signaled to the two that held Sean captive to let him go.
Sean crumpled to the floor and then sat up, looking at Marcus, rubbing his arms where they were pinned. Marcus offered a hand to Sean, and Sean took it, and Marcus pulled him up. Sean looked around at everyone, relieved. Then Marcus surprised the group. He took hold of Sean's hand that he had and began to crush it with all his strength.
"H-Hey!" said Sean as his hand was being smashed.
"Marcus!" shouted one of the gang members, "Marcus! Let 'im go!"
"No! I don't trust the brat!" said Marcus, his face contorting into a evil stare.
Sean was slowly crumpling to the ground as his hand was losing feeling. Marcus noticed this, and using his knee, he bashed Sean's face with it. Taking advantage of the situation, he pushed the blonde into one of the coffin-looking tubes, an ironic place for what was about to go down. Marcus laid into Sean heavy, beating any and all pieces of the blonde he could reach. Sean shouted and groaned as Marcus beat him up. The other members of the gang sprang to action, some of them trying to pull Marcus off, and others trying to get in on the action and beat Sean up as well.
"What is going on here?!" said X, refocusing on the situation in the scanner room.
"They are going to kill him!" said Al, looking at the situation.
"Hmm…not a bad idea…" said X, becoming disinterested in the blonde and his abilities. He just wanted to let it happen, then maybe run a return to the past, and then maybe it would happen again the next night. It would be a vicious cycle, and he would be able to boost his powers from all the repeated returns.
"You don't get it, if he dies, then a return won't work, and you won't be able to get stronger!" said Al, in an almost telepathic way, having slightly read X's mind.
"So…?" asked X, "What if I didn't really want a pawn after all?"
"Well if you're not going to do anything, I will!" said Al, taking full control of everything XANA possessed.
"KILL!" shouted Ap as Al hijacked everything and started to rush his plan into action.
Down in the scanner room, most of the group was able to peel Marcus from Sean. Sean lay quivering in the bottom of the tube with his eyes blackened, a split lip, and several bruises along his face and other body parts. Others of the mob rushed in to stop others from finishing Sean off. The group hauled Marcus away from the tube and tried to calm him down. Marcus was huffing like a steam train from the exertion, and the others were trying to make sure he didn't go back in for another round. Suddenly there was a weird noise. It almost sounded like a heavy liquid leaking out of a small container, and suddenly there was a large black could that filled the air. The cloud formed itself into a spectral ghost and then shouted a wailing moan. The moan was scary in itself, but when mixed with the static and noise of XANA, it seemed even more scary.
All of the men in the room started freaking out, that is, except Marcus and Sean. Marcus didn't look impressed at all, and Sean just couldn't look at all in his place and the way his body was both of his swollen eyes and his pounding head made it so he couldn't both see and hear the ghost. Marcus scoffed and walked towards the black, static-filled, spectral cloud. He didn't seem to think that is was real. All of the others started looking at each other like they didn't know what was going on. Marcus continued to pace around the spectral ghost. Slowly, as Marcus showed that he wasn't afraid of the ghost, so did the rest of the group, and they all started checking out the ghost.
"Nice try...shrimp, how did you manage to get this one to look so real this time?" chuckled Marcus as he walked around the spectral cloud that was XANA, "A little late don't you think? If this was to save your hide, I think this should have happened earlier..."
XANA was not impressed, especially as Marcus tried running his hand through the middle of him. Marcus was actually a little shocked that when he did that, he was almost expecting his hand to hit something, but when it didn't, he seemed impressed. This was not the response that XANA was going for. He wanted to scare them off, but instead, they all started gawking at what they thought to be a clever illusion perpetrated by the boy. XANA knew he had to change tactics, but he wasn't sure what it was yet that he needed to do to change those tactics. The last straw came when Marcus decided to walk straight into the middle of his spectral ghost form. Marcus stood there chuckling like he had just heard the stupidest joke he'd ever heard. XANA retreated away from the group and up a level to the computer lab. His spectral form floated effortlessly away, and then XANA went back into the supercomputer. Marcus and the rest of the group were shocked slightly as the ghost disappeared, but as they slowly got over their shock, Marcus' face lit up.
"Come on! Let's follow this 'ghost'" said Marcus, putting the last word in air quotes, and looking over his shoulder at Sean, still crumpled and moaning in the bottom of the tube. Marcus said it loudly as if Sean couldn't hear what Marcus said.
"But, Marcus, what about 'im?!" said one of the gang members pointing at Sean, finally acknowledging Sean after the beating he got.
"Ah, leave him!" said Marcus, already heading towards the ladder, "He's learned his lesson..."
"Wait..." croaked Sean from inside the tube, "Don-don't l-leave!" he said through gritted teeth.
Marcus sighed and looked back down the room at Sean who was trying to get up. Sean struggled for breath as he tried to move to one knee. But everything on him hurt. Marcus heaved a sigh and hopped off the ladder. He slowly strolled up to Sean as he continued to struggle. Everyone in the group looked ready to jump in at a moments notice if needed. Marcus crouched down to Sean's level, and looked him in the eyes. Sean noticed that the towering gorilla-man had stooped down to look at him. Sean heaved breath into his lungs through his nostrils, and almost looked like he was going to shout something about Marcus to him.
"Yo..." said Sean as he tried to form words, "You- You- D-!" Sean was cut short as Marcus clobbered him in the face, knocking him back on his rear end, and then out cold as his head hit the back of the tube.
The room broke out in shouts and cries as apparently the gang did not like what Marcus just did. Marcus stood and turned quickly on heel and stared down the crowd. They all immediately turned stony silent, and didn't utter a word. The whirring in the computer lab reached a feverish pitch, which drew the attention of nearly everyone in the room. Marcus paced back and forth, and drew himself up to his fullest height to intimidate everyone in the room. Several gazes broke from Marcus' as they tried to avoid his look. One brave voice in the back spoke up and said everything that everyone was thinking.
"What the bloody 'eck Marcus?! How could you! He said he would go with the plan and instead you back-stabbed 'im!"
Marcus growled and tried to see where the voice came from, "Shut it! I don't trust the whelp, he was going to betray us again, and next time do you think you'd feel the same way about it?"
"You don't know that!" said another voice
"Even if that was the case, bloody 'eck Marcus, you didn't have to turn him to a pulp!" said yet another voice.
"The next person to question this decision will end up like him!" shouted Marcus over the growing din of the computer. He jabbed a finger in the direction of Sean, who was still passed out in the bottom of the tube.
That ended the discussion. Everyone shuffled around looking at the ceiling or the floor to avoid even mistaking offense. Marcus grunted and then walked towards the group. Many gasped, and others flinched as he did. Marcus looked almost taken aback at their response.
"Oi, chill! We still have a 'ghost' to investigate." chuckled Marcus, bringing everyone's attention back to the matter at hand.
No one really wanted to move, but as Marcus moved closer with a threatening look about him, everyone suddenly was tripping over themselves to get out of the room. There was almost a fight to get up the ladder first. The room quickly cleared, and no one even gave a second thought about Sean, or even anything else for that matter. Marcus gave one last look at Sean as he climbed up the ladder, he gave one low chuckle, and then he vacated the room. With everyone in the computer lab, things seemed almost plain chaos. Members of the gang started getting restless, others were trying to investigate with Marcus gone, and the computer was building to an almost deafening pitch.
"What's going on with this hunk of junk?" said Marcus, talking over the shoulder of one of the gang members.
"I don't know what to make of this...I have a limited knowledge of what's actually happening." said the gang member, almost stony faced as he focused on the words and characters flashing across the screen in red lettering.
"Well get some knowledge and tell me, if I'm going to report back to the boss that this all turned out good in the end, I need to know what...this..." said Marcus staring at the monitor suspended in mid-air, the holo-ring in the middle of the large room, and the glowing white light that seemed to emanate directly from the center of the ring. Marcus seemed almost hypnotized by it all. The sound of the computer whirring loudly, the white light also seemed to pulse almost rhythmically in a set pattern.
"Marcus!" shouted the man at the keyboard. He suddenly saw what was happening to Marcus. He seemed to be slowly fading as he almost passed out. The man at the keyboard reached out to Marcus and put a steadying hand on his shoulder. Marcus snapped out of his stupor and looked back at everyone. They all looked at Marcus with looks of worry and concern.
"Wha-?" started the man at the keyboard as he looked to where Marcus was looking. Everyone else's eyes followed as well. The group stared into the depths of the holo-ring. The noise built to a pitch that almost passed the realm of hearing.
"Finally..." snarled Al as his plan reached its climatic finish. He flipped on the security cameras to see his handiwork. In the scanner room below lay his unsuspecting pawn. His view changed again to show the mob of people all just standing around aimlessly. Al had to chuckle a little, his plan was pulled off with almost no hitch. He knew that whatever happened...
"I have all these other...samples." hissed Al, "Handy if I need them." laughed Al with evil mirth as he looked at the hypnotized men in the computer room.
All of the power of XANA was running through Al. This is why he knew it was dangerous for one entity to have all the power that they shared, he felt that if only he wasn't limited to this small home, that he could have unmade the entire world and made it in his image. It was just one of the hindrances that fool Hopper put on him all those years ago, trapping him in this computer that he and the other personalities that made up XANA called home. Al shook those thoughts away and refocused on the task at hand. Al's thoughts moved fast as he made the last move to his plan. His thoughts raced and followed to carry out his orders. It was almost as if Al just had to think it, and it was done. Opening the virtualization programs, Al launched into virtualizing the boy in the tube. The doors slammed shut, barely missing the boy's feet. Al threw the last few numbers and calculations into the mix and then went to process them when trouble hit.
Al could feel his power waning as X and the other personalities started fighting back against him. Al flew into a manic frenzy to finish his plan, and to keep X and the others from interfering. Al went into multi-tasking mode, which meant he had to split up the energy he had and focus it in two different directions. The first flow went to start the virt process, and to watch it just in case, and the rest, Al threw at X.
"You won't get through this time!" shouted Al at X, trying to keep him from rejoining the main body that they shared. X's muffled response was severely stifled over the digital firewall that Al had put up between them and the other personalities. He and the other fought hard to regain ground, and to keep the ground they already had.
"Ner, Ap, let him have it...!" barked X over the commotion that was going on inside the wires and circuitry of the computer. Everything that wasn't under the control of Al, lashed out under the power of X.
"Kill!" shrieked Ap, X had heard that tone from the personality before only once. It was a tone of pure horror as all of them realized what Al was now capable of.
X had to think fast and try to keep his cool at the same moment. X analyzed the situation, and agreed with what the rest of them were thinking, this wasn't going to end well. X knew the only thing to do was to cut their losses and reduce damage. That could only mean one thing...
"Wha-What are you doing?!" shouted Al as he realized what X was doing.
"What needs to be done, or else you will kill us all!" shouted X back.
X moved fast, but Al was faster, he cut off X's attempts to shut him down, and turned all the code that X was using on himself. X cried out as he felt himself start to disintegrate under the codes he was trying to use against the power-hungry Al.
"Kill!" shouted Ap, getting Al's attention.
"Wha-!" said Al as he realized what happened. He had lost, and didn't even realize it...
The virt program was well on its way to virtualization, and there was nothing the other personalities could do to stop it. But they were able to release Al's control of the program to turn the boy into his pawn. Al didn't even see them coming as the other two main personalities snuck around him and relinquished his hold on the entire computer. All of the energy that was focused on the program and keeping it running was wasted and it flowed out harmlessly into the circuits of the supercomputer.
To further distract him, Ap and Ner started messing with the codes of the program that Al had assembled. The program wigged out as it couldn't take the stress of what the other two personalities were doing.
"What are you doing?!" roared Al, as he tried to fend of Ap and Ner.
"Kill!" screeched Ap as he tried to work with Ner on ruining Al's plan.
The program that Al had created was now being almost ripped to shreds and put back together as something completely different by the other personalities. Despite the damage and constant tweaking that was being put on the program, it was still being run at the same time, providing for interesting and drastic consequences. All of this was to try to distract Al long enough to let X finish his part of the plan. X quickly rushed around and opened the return to the past protocols. He knew the only way to end this was to make so that it didn't happen in the first place. His only hope though was that all of it would end before the boy was mistakenly harmed, that is more than he already was...
Down in the scanner room, the boy named Sean woke with a start to see the doors of the tube he was in shutting on him. Sean gasped in shock as the tube was plunged into darkness, of only for a moment. Once the doors were closed, sudden bright lights flashed in the tube, almost blinding Sean. Sean groaned as the lights switched on. The blonde boy slowly stood on his wobbly legs and winced as he tried to draw himself up to his normal height. The boy's head felt like it was going to split from all the injuries he sustained, and the pain of them radiating from their respective sources and into his brain. Sean stood and tried to keep his balance. He almost felt like he would pass out from everything he felt. As soon Sean was able to stand, the next matter was to try and find a way out of the tube.
Sean tried looking for a way to open the door from the inside, but there didn't seem to be anything that fit that description on the inside of the very nondescript tube. The only thing that Sean found is that his headache increased as he stood in the brightly lit tube.
"Hello!" shouted Sean, banging on what he thought to be the door, "Hellooo!"
Sean kept looking for a response for someone. He was hoping someone in the group that just beat him up would have enough sympathy to come back and help him. But he highly doubted it. The only response that happened was that the light in the tube started to move. Sean could tell before that the light originated in the bottom ring of the tube, but suddenly the ring of light started to move upwards, and around Sean's body. A faint whining sound could be heard as it passed over his body. Sean had to shield his watering eyes as it passed over them. The light ring worked its way up to the top of Sean's head and then stopped. Sean didn't know what just happened, but he wasn't so sure he wanted to find out.
Meanwhile, up in the lab, X was working a million miles an hour. Al's powers were receding, and Ap and Ner were trying to keep him at bay as X finished up. He had to run through the program that Al had created to see what he was trying to do, and what Ap and Ner did in turn to the program that was still running. X had to make sure that there wasn't anything in there that would end up jeopardizing them, or the supercomputer they called home. At the same time, X was running through the protocols to run a return to the past so that hopefully, none of this would happen again. X had the return primed and ready at a moment's notice as soon as he went through the program. Al struggled to try and get around the firewall that Ap and Ner had set up to keep him at bay, and from trying to undo everything they just did. X, however was hoping to undo everything else that Al had done, starting with the boy in the tube. X was already trying to stop the boy from being virtualized. The last thing he needed was another brat becoming one of those "Lyoko Warriors". But so far, the only thing that X could tell was that Al had set the program on a crash course to completion. He had made it so that the doors to the virtualization tube wouldn't open until the subject inside was finally virtualized. The program also wouldn't stop until the doors to the tube opened.
X sighed at this series of events. It almost seemed that the only way to stop the process was for the boy to be actually sent to Lyoko. X knew that couldn't happen, but he couldn't really see an alternative. All that he could do was write his own program that would counter-act the effects of the program Al wrote. This was going to take some time. The program had all sorts of side-effects and surprises that X would never know what happened if the program reached its full completion. Right now, he was exerting all of his energy in slowing down the program so that it wouldn't reach completion. X knew he couldn't fully stop the program because of all the bugs that were in them, keeping him from getting to the true root of the program. X analyzed the program's code to see where he needed to begin. X really wanted to just rework the program that already existed so he wouldn't have to do a whole new program. If he did, X knew that he would be working on the solution from now until who knew when. X weighed his options, and decided that he would try to do both. He would try to rework the existing program, and while working through it, if he couldn't rework the program, he would have a good basis for the counter-program. X sighed and got down to work.
Down in the scanner room, Sean was getting tired and restless of waiting in the tube. Nothing had changed since He didn't know where he was, or even if someone could hear him. His voice was getting sore from shouting, and his hand was equally sore from knocking. Sean decided to give up, and he leaned up against the wall of the tube. Thoughts started to race around Sean's head as he leaned there.
"Am I dead?!" he thought to himself, "If so, this doesn't look like heaven to me...unless..." Sean decided that he wouldn't pursue that line of thought anymore.
X worked hard through the rest of the night. He had to shelter himself away from the security cameras because the images on them were starting to creep even him out. A group of grown men stood aimlessly around the central hub of the supercomputer, and in the scanner room, the boy was pounding and screaming at the top of his lungs. X didn't feel the need to reawaken the men in the computer lab because he knew they never leave the computer alone long enough for him to finish his work if he did so. They would immediately wake up and put every effort in trying to figure out what happened, and in essence, slow him down. X worked hard to sort through the bugged program, but as he neared the end of the program, he shifted through a certain thread of code, and sent the program into an uncontrolled descent. X didn't even know what happened until it was too late. The program had a fail-safe written into it so that if anyone tried to re-write it, it would trigger, and force the program to run, regardless of what the program looked like. X panicked, he still didn't know what was in the rest of the program. But now it was too late. The wire frame form of the boy in the tube appeared in a separate window, showing what he would look like once virtualized on Lyoko. X tried everything he could to get the program to stop, but it was too late. Things moved fast, the program reached the end of its code, and the virtualization program kicked into high gear.
"N-n-n-no-no-no!" shouted X as everything played out in front of his eyes.
"Kill!" hissed Ap, rushing to try and help X as things went from bad to worse.
A second window opened, showing the same boy, but a moment later, it flashed to show a different virtual form of him. The countdown clock of the return started, giving X only about 20 seconds to stop everything. X quickly rushed and tried to stall the thing by turning off the cooling system of the supercomputer. It was risky, but over-tasked the machine so much that it wasn't able to run all the programs at once. However, that was a mistake, since one of those programs, included the firewall keeping Al contained. Al broke free and evaded Ner. Once freed, Al rushed to seal the deal. Providing the power needed, Al sped up the virtualization program, and also the program that had been thrown together.
"Stop! You don't know what you are doing!" shouted X.
"I think I have a pretty good idea...!" shot back Al.
"Kill!" shrieked Ap
"Guys..." said the usually silent Ner, bringing everyone's attention to the matter at hand, "We have a problem..."
"No! You don't say!" countered X, sarcastically.
"I'm serious, look..." pointed out Ner
The silent personality was right. The computer was tearing itself apart trying to execute all the orders and commands it had been fed all at once. Programs were opening and closing some ran, others died harmlessly without running, most of programs that ran did little damage, others not so much. The cooling system wasn't helping in any of that. The program that Al put together was driving the killing nail into their home by taking up the most processing power. And the virtualization program chugged as it attempted to send, not one, but two people to Lyoko. None of this made sense to the collective conscience of XANA. All of the things that were going on was a little too much, even for a machine like the supercomputer. Sparks started to fly both literally and figuratively from the circuits as the personalities started arguing among themselves.
"Look! We need to work together if we are ever going to survive this!" pleaded Al.
"Oh, now he sees reason!" shouted Al, "Only when his life is in danger!"
"No, you don't get it!" shouted Al, "I'm worried about all of us!"
"Well you should have thought about that before you got us in this mess!" shot X.
"Look, I can fix this!"
"No! You've already done enough!"
"But-!"
"NO!"
"KILL!" shrieked Ap loudest of all.
"Guys, we need to do something!" said Ner, his voice escalating in panic.
"Too late!" said X.
X was right, Al, while they were all arguing, went and turned back on the cooling system for the supercomputer, freeing up the computer to finish what it was trying to do.
"Return to the past..."
"No!" shouted the other three quarters of XANA
"Hello!" shouted Sean hoarsely
Sean was getting tired of waiting for something to happen, and he still hadn't been able to find a way out. Thankfully for him, he didn't have to wait. the ring of light that was hovering mysteriously above his head suddenly decided to move, jerking slowly down from its perch, and over Sean's body for a second time. Sean had no idea what was going on, and he was tired of no one responding. His head hurt, and all he could think of was,
"This is really a cruddy way to find out you've died..."
Sean was about to give up hope when the mysterious light ring made a third pass down over his body. This time, things seemed different. There was a whole new sound to it, and the tube seemed to glow with a mysterious pulsating light, besides the one that the ring gave off. Sean was starting to get a whole new vibe on what was going on. Especially when he heard another voice speak back...
"Hello!"
Sean could barely hear it over the whirring of the machinery.
"Hello!" gasped Sean, "Can you hear me?!"
"What?" shouted back the voice, "I can't hear you!" Sean could almost hear his eyes as they rolled in response to that.
"Help!" shouted Sean louder, "I'm stuck in this tube! I need help!"
"Help you?" shouted back the voice, "I can't! I'm stuck in a tube and I don't know how I got here!"
Sean couldn't believe it, there was another person, in the same situation he was in! Now he was really puzzled, was he really dead and didn't know it?
"Look, I'm going to try and come help you!" said Sean, He tried to find the crack where the door was, but the tube seemed one seamless whole. The place where the door was, was not were the door was now. No matter where he looked, he still couldn't find the door, just like before.
"I can't get out!" shouted Sean. He listened to hear a response, but all he heard was a rushing of air, and the noise in the room seemed to go down a little.
"Hey-!" shouted Sean, "What's going o-"
Sean was cut short as a rush of air flowed through the tube, pushing Sean's long, dirty blonde hair back, and his head up. The light almost blinded him, and then he felt like he was ripped from his body, and then Sean blacked out.
"...Now!" shouted Al
"No!" shouted X.
With the last of his fading conscience as the return shut them all down, X whipped open the only program he could think of, and sicced it on Al, and then turned it on the rest of them.
"There, now none of us will remember a thing of wha-" said X, fading fast.
A white pillar of light emanated from the center of the holo-ring in the computer lab. But the light didn't stop there. It spread out from its pillar, and then through the room, then through the factory, and then out into the world. A faint tape re-winding sound could be heard, as X's faintly said before he passed out.
"Return to the past...now..."
Next Chapter: 'Ch. 2- To the Factory!'
