A Christmas Code
Jeremie was in the factory. He didn't know why, considering XANA had been gone for so long. But a strange signal he'd picked up on his laptop alerted him to suspicious activity coming from the supercomputer, even though it was off.
He pushed the lever, turning the machine on, watching with bated breath as it lit up like a Christmas tree. Fitting, as the holiday was only two days away.
"What are you hiding?" he asked aloud, as if the tower would answer. When nothing out of the ordinary happened, he took the elevator up to the lab, sitting in the all-too-familiar chair as it swung around on its axis toward the terminal. The screens lit up, and he typed in the passcode to gain access to Lyoko.
A tower had been activated in the ice sector. But it wasn't XANA's usual signature; no, this was different. And that made it all the more off-putting.
He opened up the phone program to call the others. Aelita and Yumi were due back from shopping soon anyway, and he knew Odd, Ulrich, and William were still nearby on Kadic's campus. He twitched with anticipation as the signal grew stronger from the activated tower.
About twenty minutes had passed until they were all together, crowded around the console.
"You're sure a tower's been activated?" Ulrich asked skeptically. "We defeated XANA. There's no way—"
"It's not XANA," Jeremie clarified. "Well, I don't think so anyway. It's a slightly different signature, but I can't quite—"
He jumped as a new window appeared on screen, text rapidly filling the blank space.
"Season's greetings," Aelita read aloud. "We require your assistance. Use the activated way tower in the ice sector and we'll explain the rest. Signed, Jingle."
"What the actual—" William started, but was cut off by Yumi defiantly crossing her arms over her chest and stomping her foot.
"No." she said. "No way. We've been leading normal lives for over a year now!"
"Jingle?" Odd questioned, arching an eyebrow.
"Christmas is in two days," Aelita pointed out. "What if Père Noël is in trouble?"
They all stared at her blankly. Jeremie was the first to speak, after clearing his throat. "Uh, Aelita…" He rubbed the back of his neck. "Your parents… They didn't, um—"
"Jeremie doesn't believe Père Noël exists," Ulrich finished, saving his friend from having to ruin Aelita's holiday. "Remember?"
"Right." He sat back, defeated.
"Well, I'm going!" Odd announced, heading for the elevator to the scanners. "I miss being the hero."
"Come on, Jeremie — it'll be fun," William chimed in.
"Go to Lyoko?" He practically fell out of the chair. "No way! Someone needs to stay here and run the supercomputer!"
"It sounds like we might be going on an adventure," Aelita said. "You may come in handy if you join us."
He let out a breath. "Fine. Once you're all virtualized, I'll set a timer and meet you in the ice sector." He turned to Yumi. "Are you going?"
She bit her lip, looking around at the faces of her friends. "Alright. I'll go."
Jeremie landed not-so-gracefully in the ice sector, fairly near the activated way tower. He grabbed his weapon — a small dagger kept in a sheath at his side — and braced himself for any oncoming monsters as he made his way to the group's meeting point.
William immediately started laughing as soon as the blonde phased into the tower. "Wow, you weren't kidding when you said you looked ridiculous!"
Jeremie scowled. "Shut up."
It was true — he did look ridiculous. It was almost like Peter Pan met an elf and they both gave him their wardrobes, tights and pointy shoes and all. His glasses still remained, a small, semi-opaque square over part of the left lens.
"What's your power?" Yumi asked.
"I can see the code that makes up Lyoko," he explained in a dull voice. "It's useless."
"Hey, just like my Future Flash!" Odd exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air. "Now I don't feel like such a loser after all!"
"So, what are we here for, exactly?" Ulrich asked, brandishing one of his katanas. "If you ask me—"
He was cut off as he started to materialize, the rest of the group shouting in protest as they, too, joined him.
Six scanners opened in an underground lab at the northern-most part of the world. A short blonde girl of about sixteen poked her head out from behind a set of monitors, adjusting a pin in her hair. She smiled as the group stumbled, wary, out of the cabins and took in their surroundings.
"Greetings," she said, standing. "I'm glad you got my message. I'm Jingle. And you've just been materialized to the North Pole."
"I knew it!" Aelita shouted, wearing a triumphant smile. "Père Noël is real!" She noticed Jingle's pointy ears. "You're an elf!"
"Yes." The elf nodded. "You see, when you defeated XANA all those months ago, a small fragment of his traveled to us. And it's gained a great amount of power. Santa Claus — er, Père Noël — is in danger. And we called upon the six of you because you all have special abilities to help us put an end to this."
"Special abilities?" Ulrich repeated. "Like what? All we can do is fight. Jeremie and Aelita are the brains of the operation."
"You're not wrong." She started walking, gesturing for them to follow. They piled into an elevator and made their way up. "However, with all the magic in the air around us, your Lyoko powers will work here."
"I don't understand." Jeremie shook his head. "You've known about XANA, and not only have you not helped us defeat him, you also seem to know everything about Lyoko and its safeguards! There's a reason why powers won't work in the real world, and the answer is buried down a long rabbit hole of code. This entire thing — it's illogical!"
"Jeremie," Yumi started evenly, "we spent three years being virtualized into a computer program to fight digital monsters in an effort to stop XANA, an AI bent on taking over humanity." She held her arms out. "And you think this is crazy?"
The elevator door opened, revealing a bustling workshop. Elves were running back and forth, making toys and wrapping gifts with unbelievable speed and finesse. Jingle led them straight through in the most casual manner, while the group initially paused to gawk in awe at their surroundings.
"This way," she said over the chatter. "Santa's main office is through here."
The kids weren't the only ones staring — a lot of the younger elves had stopped what they were doing (carrying trays of cocoa and cookies, watching their peers wrap presents) to return those looks of curiosity. It wasn't often that they had humans at the North Pole.
Two elves around Jingle's age who introduced themselves as Tinsel and Simon, opened a set of large, mahogany doors for the group to pass through as they entered Père Noël's office.
The man looked up from his book, swiftly closing it so as to only show the cover. It was the Naughty or Nice List.
"Greetings, children," he said, standing. "As you can see, we're in a bit of distress regarding how to deal with XANA. He's taken control of the circuits in my sleigh, making it so it won't run no matter what the elves do to try to fix it." He started pacing. "He's been causing power surges to the entire building. He's even possessed a few of my elves and reindeer, though we were eventually able to get things under control."
"How are you connected to Lyoko?" Jeremie asked, getting to the point. It was the first time since their arrival that he realized they were in their everyday clothes again — they really were at the North Pole, not simply on a Replika or something.
"I'm not sure, actually," he replied. "Those scanners and the supercomputer have been here for as long as I can remember, but they haven't really come into use until you kids defeated XANA in France. After you got rid of him on your end, I've had to dispatch elves in groups to go deactivate towers, as he was attacking us left and right."
"But we wouldn't have known that since our supercomputer was turned off," Aelita guessed. Père Noël nodded. "But why wait this long to call on us?"
"Because Christmas is in danger, that's why!" Tinsel shouted, crashing through the door. He raked a hand through his dark hair, standing at attention. "Sorry, Sir, but this has gotten out of hand! The tech team has surmounted that unless XANA is defeated within the next twenty-four hours, you'll be unable to fly on Christmas Eve. He's out to get you in an effort to end the holiday."
The kids exchanged glances. "What can we do to help?" Odd asked.
"There's some sort of being, flitting around, causing problems," Simon explained. "It's black, no particular form — almost like a ghost."
"It's a polymorphic specter," Jeremie clarified. "Usually it'll take a generic form when it's not impersonating someone."
Père Noël nodded. "Yes, I'm quite aware." He paused. "If we work together to defeat XANA here, in the real world, then he'll be gone for good."
"But how?" Yumi asked. "XANA's attacks on earth require a tower to be activated. Last we checked, everything was clear, save for the signal you sent us."
"That's where your powers come in," Jingle said, but she was cut short by a loud commotion out in the workshop. "Ugh. What now?"
Tinsel opened the doors and peered out, ducking swiftly as a large toy came flying through the air and into the office. It was a drone, and it crashed through the window, shards of glass flying everywhere.
"He's possessed the toys!" one of the younger elves shrieked.
Yumi diverted a robot dog with her telekinesis, directing it out the open window. It landed in the icy tundra below.
Aelita shot an Energy Field at an encroaching toy soldier, about two feet tall. It exploded. "This is insane!"
"Hey," Odd protested, moving out of the way of a remote-controlled car. "I don't have any powers on Lyoko. How am I supposed to help?"
Jingle handed him a metal bat. "Try to use this to do some damage." She handed similar weapons to the other kids, save for Aelita, as her Energy Fields came from within. It wasn't as if Odd could shoot Laser Arrows out of his fingertips.
Just for the sake of it though, he tried. And it worked! A zombified doll fell over, lifeless upon impact.
He ditched the bat. "Now this is more like it!"
"I don't get it," Jeremie said, dodging a swarm of tiny robots. "How are we supposed to defeat XANA? Attack him at his core?"
"Precisely!" Père Noël said. "There's a source somewhere from which all these toys are being possessed. Think of it as a ranked military: The smaller the toy, the less resources you'll need to take it down."
"That means there's one massive toy that's going to take a lot of power to get rid of," William mumbled, turning to black smoke and allowing at least five basketballs to pass right through him.
The color drained from Ulrich's face. He pointed off into the distance. "I see it."
The kids paused, swiveling their heads to match his line of sight. While the office was, for the most part, taken care of, the workshop was in total disarray. Toys and parts were scattered everywhere, and at the far side of the room was probably the largest nutcracker any of them had ever seen. Its eyes glowed, the XANA symbol flashing in the pupils.
"Yikes," Odd said, lost for words.
Ulrich ran up to the monster, using his Super Sprint, and jabbed a heavy lightsaber into one of many hitpoints along its body. The toy stumbled back half a step. "Hit the eye of XANA!" he shouted. "It's just like on Lyoko!"
Jeremie stared down at the weapon in his hands as his friends descended on the monster. "I don't know how to fight," he said doubtfully. He turned around to face Père Noël, as the man had rested a hand on his shoulder.
"You can do this, Jeremie," he assured him. "You're not just a kid with a big brain."
Jeremie gripped his bat and took a running start at the monster, climbing up on to a table and jumping off it to get a better vantage point. He noticed the larger hitpoint in the middle of the nutcracker's forehead, and aimed for it with all his might.
Gripping on to its Pinocchio-like nose, he scrambled up it and took a few swings at the XANA symbol, knocking it back with every blow. Eventually, the nutcracker fell to the floor in a heap, the boy going with it.
"Jeremie!" Aelita shouted, rushing forward. He slowly picked himself up, discarding the weapon to the floor. They embraced. "Thank goodness you're alright."
"And that, my friends," Père Noël started, "is how you save Christmas."
"I don't feel like we did all that much," William commented.
"Look!" Yumi pointed upward, and everyone in the room gawked as a swirl of black smoke rose to the high domed ceiling, disintegrating in thin air.
"So… he's gone?" Odd questioned, picking up a lightsaber and swinging it around.
"Yes," Jingle answered, taking the toy from him. "He's gone."
"And you kids have to head home," Père Noël announced. "It's almost time for you to leave Kadic for the holidays."
They were escorted back down to the scanners by Père Noël, Jingle, Tinsel, and Simon, while the rest of the elves stayed behind on clean-up duty. Tinsel took his place at the console, Jingle hovering nearby to confirm the process was going smoothly.
"The scanners will transfer you directly back to the factory," Simon said. "You'll have to go in groups of three."
"I'll be seeing you all very soon!" Père Noël said with a smile. "Take care of yourselves and have a happy holiday!"
"Hey, Père Noël?" Jeremie called, pausing in the doorway of the scanner. "Thanks. For letting me be the hero. And… for letting me believe in you again."
"It's been my pleasure, Jeremie," the man said.
Once everyone was back at the factory, Jeremie did yet another superscan, just to make sure they were truly free of XANA.
"It's official," he said, leaning back in the chair. "The scan didn't find anything. I think it's safe to shut down the supercomputer again."
"Good," Odd commented, stretching. "Because it's been one heck of a day, and I'm ready to go home."