Ephemeral, swirling white. Little juvenile hands packed the resplendent snow into a ball, yet the sight was fleeting, almost ethereal. The milky sphere was surely reaching the height of the hands' owner as she rolled it alongside the wall of tall, brooding pine trees, and blurry pink hairs danced about in her vision with the icy breeze.
"Stay near the house, darling!" Turning, she saw two figures, a man and a woman, standing near a cozy chalet. Long, elegantly pink hair flowed from the woman's scalp, matching her own rosy locks. At this woman's response, a child's laugh echoed from her own lips.
"Look at my giant snowball, Mummy!" She paused briefly, her hands still pressed into the snow. She smiled proudly, waiting for an answer.
"Well done, my angel!" answered the man, a grey-haired fellow with a bushy mustache, hazy glasses and a bright yellow coat. The woman with the long pink hair leaned into his chest, smiling blissfully. Another innocent laugh, and she turned back to her creation.
Suddenly, a horrible howl reverberated across the trees, and their pine needles seemed to tremble ever so slightly. She looked around, confused. Just as she began to calm down, and turned to her snowball once more, she found herself looking into the primal orange eyes of a massive wolf, perched on a small bank right in front of her. The animal growled, and the girl screamed.
"Mummy! Daddy!" She turned, but in her parents' place were two large, muscular men with sunglasses and black suits, hands behind their backs. She screamed again, then began to run for dear life, sprinting to the chalet. Flinging the door open, she found that it too appeared deserted. Again, she called for her parents, and throwing a glance out the window, she saw her mother being dragged along, hand outstretched to the chalet, then unceremoniously thrust into the back of a black van by the two imposing men.
"Aelita!" cried her mother, hands pressed against the back window. Quickly, she ran back out of the chalet, pumping her little legs as fast as she possibly could, trying to reach her mother.
"Mummy!" she wailed, tears falling. "Mummy, no!" She tripped in the snow, falling on her face, but she wasn't deterred. Quickly she scrambled back to her feet, clumps of snow falling from her as she breathlessly ran.
"Aelita…!" Her mother's eyes were wide, and she pressed her hands to the back windshield again. The girl continued to race after the vehicle, but to no avail, as it tore away through the snow. The wolf howled again, and two more joined it. The girl collapsed, sobbing bitterly between pleads for her mummy. The van was long gone, and it seemed like the snow was falling harder.
"Aelita!" called her father. She looked up and immediately gasped; his clothes were torn, his hair disheveled, and his nose was bleeding!
"Daddy! What's happening?" she wailed, but he did not answer. He scooped her up and charged toward the chalet, and she began to weep harder. She shrieked in terror when she realized there was a second black van, and two more men were exiting it to pursue her and her daddy. Holding her to his chest in one hand, he flung the door open, slammed it shut behind him and locked it in one movement with his other hand. Through the cozy living room, he ran with her, past the staircase and to the back door.
"Mister Puck!" she suddenly sputtered between tears. She reached desperately to the chair closest to the back door, hoping to grasp the little doll with the elven ears, burgundy shawl, and pointed blue hat. Her father paused to open the back door, allowing her the slightest of moments to lean out of his grasp and wrap her juvenile fingers around the long, trailing sash that the plush wore. A heartbeat later, her daddy had cast the door open, taking her to the family van.
He opened the driver's side door and hastily plopped her across to the passenger seat. "Seatbelt, Aelita!" he gruffly ordered, urgency shading his voice several tones more intense than she had ever heard him speak to her. In terror she obeyed as fast as her little hands allowed, and no sooner had she clicked the buckle in did the car begin to zoom away at top speed. The family car hurtled down the little unpaved road, marked only by tire tracks that the snow worked to conceal, and pine trees flanking either side of the path.
Once more, the girl screamed. Two of the suited men were at the end of the path, blocking the way. They held horrible weapons in their hands that fired with an awful bang, pockmarking the little car with terrible little holes. Her father clenched his jaw and did not slow down. At the last second, the two men dove to the sides of the speeding vehicle, and he swerved past them onto the road winding down the mountainside.
With a short sigh of relief, he immediately gritted his teeth again. "Your mother is fine, dear. She's just taking a long trip, and we must go on a trip too. You mustn't cry, Aelita." Nonetheless, she quietly wept, quietly pleading for her mummy to come back.
A pulsating blue sphere engulfed in a magenta halo arrived in front of the solid blue catwalk of the Celestial Dome of Lyoko, set against the deep blue walls covered in binary code. Quickly, two Mantas flew up next to the sphere and opened laser fire, but it made no attempt to dodge, and every laser hit, causing the sphere to flash repeatedly.
"Daddy! No! Energy Field!" Her hand moved of its own accord, launching a surging pink orb of plasma at one of the Mantas. Unfortunately for her, it missed, as the Mantas began to circle the sphere.
"What is he trying to do?" murmured a voice that filled Aelita's ears, as if she were wearing headphones. "The power! Aelita! Try running the program right now."
"What? But…my father…!"
"Your father is supplying the energy that we need. Try to run the program again. Now!"
She doubled over and shook her head. "No… No!" In a wild swinging motion, Aelita spun and threw a second energy field, barely missing the sphere she wanted to protect, and missing the Mantas she intended it for as well.
Gravely, the voice in her ears continued, imploring her. "Aelita… If you don't launch the program now, then your father will have sacrificed himself for nothing! Do it. Do it!"
She begrudgingly returned to the interface, glancing almost constantly at the sphere, and enlarged the window that corresponded to the multi-agent program window. After a few more hits, the sphere turned a deep red, then burst.
"No!" she cried, distraught. Furiously, she slammed her hand into the screen. The word CONNECT appeared, then the entire interface vanished. The multi-agent program exited the south pole of Sector 5, the white orbs composing the program fluttering around the massive blue spherical structure. She shielded her face as they passed by, destroying the two Mantas in an instant. As the flecks of light dispersed and exited the Celestial Dome through the four tunnels to sweep through the rest of Lyoko, then the Digital Sea itself, Aelita sobbed quietly.
"Aelita… We've done it. X.A.N.A. has been destroyed. I'll bring you home, now," offered the guiding voice. Her body began to dissolve into a white wireframe from her feet and continued upward until her head disappeared, at which point her vision was flooded with an ephemeral, swirling white.
"Daddy!" Aelita woke up with a scream in the present day, covered in sweat from her nightmares. Frantically, she rolled over and plucked Mister Puck from her nightstand, holding him tightly to her chest and trying to forget the nightmares. Her breathing was heavy and laborious, and her oversized, pastel pink shirt clung to her body from the sweat.
Slowly, once she felt she was sufficiently calm, she gently sat up and let her socks touch the floor of her dorm. Not tall for her age, Aelita had a small nose, large eyes, and light pink hair styled in a helmet-bob. She was a friendly girl but had a serious air in contrast to her fellow tenth year students and was very smart. She stumbled into the ladies' room for a quick shower, letting the hot water and the steamy vapor relax her and clear her mind as best it could. Instead, she found herself deep in her memories again.
"Oh, he's so cute! What should I call him?" the child Aelita of the past squealed with delight as she removed the doll from the box. She sat on her knees in front of the Schaeffer family Christmas tree. It was decorated with ribbons and baubles, and many more presents sat underneath it to be opened. Aelita was in a cute red dress, while her doting mother, Anthea, stood behind her, grinning ear to ear upon seeing her daughter's delight. Her father, Waldo, kneeled in front of her in a comfy green sweater.
"What about Mister Puck? It means goblin," he suggested gently with an encouraging smile.
"Do you like him?" her mother asked, sure of the answer. She was still beaming.
"Oh, thank you, Mommy!" Aelita sprung up and dove into her mother's arms, hugging her tightly with their faces close.
"It's like math. Let me show you." Her father was playing a lovely song for her on the family piano. It was his usual Mozart piece, 12 Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman," a beloved French children's song. English speakers knew it as "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," Aelita knew, for he taught her that as well. She watched him intently, completely invested in his teachings. Her mother eyed them proudly from behind, sitting in a comfy white chair with her legs crossed and a book in her lap. And yet, like a fleeting thought, her mother was gone in an instant from her mind's eye.
"Mummy?"
Aelita rode her bike down a dirt path, clad in a red jacket, black skirt and yellow blouse. She was older now, 13 to be exact, and was on her way to the Hermitage, her home where she lived with her father. It was a sunny day, not a cloud in sight, and the trees and grass along the path were a vibrant green. No longer was she Aelita Schaeffer; her name was Aelita Hopper, and her daddy was Franz Hopper now. It was her mother's maiden name that they had chosen upon settling in the Hermitage, after living in Parisian suburbs as Aelita and Henri Zopfi.
Thankfully, they had lived in peace for several years, and the terror of living on the run from the men in black was sufficiently purged from Aelita's mind. Her daddy taught science at the nearby Kadic Academy, an internationally renowned school, but she was taught at home, for her own safety.
She left her bike at the front steps and smiled at the music from her father's characteristic piano. Aelita then dashed up the steps, opened the door and merrily jumped inside, grinning ear to ear.
"Daddy!" she called, and he looked up at her, pausing his piece. "I'm going up to my room." He smiled briefly, then looked down and resumed playing.
In her room, Aelita was reading Shakespearean works, particularly A Midsummer Night's Dream, by her empty fireplace while her father's music filled the house. She was near the end of Act III, scene ii, and Helena had just referred to Hermia as "little but fierce" while Hermia was incredulous at the events that were unfolding. Demetrius and Lysander had resolved to fight for Helena, and only intervention by Puck could resolve the conflict.
Suddenly, a screech of tires interrupted her deep reading. She dropped the book, and everything around her seemed to become milky and surreal. Quickly Aelita stood up and dashed to the window, where she saw two men in black suits and sunglasses.
"Alright, come outta there!" called one of them aggressively, looking up directly at her. She shuddered, ducking away from the window and out of sight, full of surprise and worry.
"Daddy," she called helplessly just as her father entered her room, "the men in black are here!"
Gravely, he looked at her window, and spoke tensely, "I know. Do you remember where Mister Puck is?"
Aelita looked up at the painting above the fireplace, a watercolor piece she'd made herself. Mister Puck was safely stashed in a hidden cubby, behind the painting. "Yes."
"Good. Come quickly."
Her father led Aelita down the stairs to the foyer, but the men in black were already inside, standing at the doorway with guns out. Aelita gasped with terror, and her father quickly took her hand and pulled her down the basement stairs, as one of the men fired and hit the wall above their heads.
"This way!" her father encouraged her as they ran for dear life, hand-in-hand toward the door to the garden. He swung the door open and quickly lodged a nearby plank of wood under the handle to stall their pursuers while Aelita whimpered, then he sprinted to the passage to the sewers, opening the door for Aelita and shutting it behind them just as the garden door was busted open by one of the men in black. The first man rolled into a crouch, gun ready, as the second man followed, also with his gun pointed.
Through the claustrophobic sewer passages, her father held her hand and led her around the twisting tunnels. Before she knew it, she was at an abandoned factory, and he had taken her down a lift to a strange laboratory, where he immediately began typing on the terminal.
"But… where are we?" she asked, fear still shading her voice heavily.
"In my laboratory!" answered her father proudly. He stood from the chair and approached her. "Come on," he added as he took her hand to lead her to the lift again.
"…Where?"
"To a world where… we will be safe. You and I, forever."
The door of the lift parted to reveal a room with three towering gold cylinders. Her father led her to one and she stepped in, then he stood in one himself.
"See you in a minute, honey."
"See you in a minute, Daddy."
The doors closed, and she was suddenly assaulted by intense light, forcing her to squeeze her eyes shut.
Aelita opened her eyes again and found herself falling toward green ground. She landed abruptly, and realized that the ground was not real, and the little green patches of grass delayed ever so slightly in their movements when her feet hit them. The trees that thickly populated the world around her, with their trunks reaching high up into the sky, leaves at the top all identical and moving in unison with a non-existent breeze, were not real. The trees' roots hanging far below, suspended in mid-air above a deep gold body of water, were not real. The yellow-orange sky, in an eternal sunset, was not real. The long elven ears, with a silver and ruby acorn-like earring, and the pink-and-white elf-like outfit she wore was not real. None of it was real.
"Daddy?" Aelita asked anxiously, thoroughly spooked by this turn of events. "Daddy, where are you?"
"Here I am, Aelita!" She turned, her earring swinging, but saw nothing. His voice sounded so close, yet he was nowhere to be found. Then, she heard a strange, echoing sound that reminded her of flowing water. She turned again as pure white orbules of glowing light danced around her.
"Daddy?"
"I can't virtualize myself into a human form yet, as you can, Aelita," he said as she reached out to touch one of the bubbles of light. "I still have more work to do on Lyoko. This world needs to develop more."
Now Aelita heard a strange whirring, and the harsh din of mechanical parts moving about, nothing like the soothing tones her father seemed to emit. She turned and saw a set of odd-looking roach-like monsters with a sinister eye design on their carapaces. "Daddy, there are some strange looking creatures over there."
"Run, Aelita!" her father cried as the metallic 'mouths' of the creatures began to glow red and a disc spun around the edge. "Run!" Suddenly, the creatures fired deadly red lasers toward Aelita and the series of bubbles that was her father. Aelita gasped and began to sprint for the nearest shelter, a white candle-like structure that appeared to be five or six stories high, with a blue aura around the upper end and a tangle of black roots connecting it to the forest ground.
"Daddy!" she cried, sprinting across the unnatural ground for dear life. As the mob of monsters continued their warpath, firing laser after laser at the pink-haired girl and her father, Aelita did not slow for even a moment, reaching the Tower at last. She crashed desperately into the structure, and blue glowing ripples spread at her touch. She felt a gentle tug and realized she could pass through the Tower wall.
The platform in the center of the Tower matched the symbol Aelita had seen on the monsters, and she wondered to herself what it could mean. Each ring of the eye-like crest lit up as she approached the dot in the center of the platform, breathing heavily and crouching down to recover. The monsters didn't seem able to enter this strange structure, with walls covered in screens filled with flowing binary code.
"Aelita."
"Daddy?" She looked up, seeing the white orbs float above her.
"Aelita, I have to make contact with X.A.N.A." She stood, wondering if X.A.N.A. was controlling those monsters. Her face faintly reflected back at her in the bubbles as her father spoke. "Persuade him that we can live in peace with him."
"Who is X.A.N.A.?" she asked, suspicious. The bubbles congregated about a foot in front of her at eye level.
"A multi-agent computer program I created. It has achieved self-awareness and autonomy, and it's trying to eliminate us now."
Aelita stepped forward, mouth agape. "But why, Daddy?" She received no answer, as each orb winked out one by one with a whir. "Daddy?"
"Whatever you do, don't leave this Tower!" his voice echoed around the Tower walls.
"Daddy!" Aelita protested, balling her hands into fists and looking around. She didn't want him to just leave her there, what if this X.A.N.A. hurt him?
"Daddy!" she called again. "Daddy…" She crouched down, waiting. She then weighed her options in her mind. Those monsters didn't seem all that tough, and they were so small that she could probably kick them right off the paths. Surely her daddy shouldn't go it alone against this AI, maybe her presence would prove they meant no harm.
That settled it. "Daddy!" Aelita righted herself once more and began to run down the platform. "Daddy! I'm coming, Daddy!"
Again, the Tower wall rippled and gently tugged at her, pulling her through. At the other side, she was horrified to see awful, oversized insects firing lasers at the orbs that seemed to be Franz's body. She couldn't fight back against those…!
"No, Aelita, get back to safety!" he called to her, urgency in his voice. "In the Tower!"
The little orbs that composed her father seemed to be shrinking, and a laser narrowly zoomed by her face, harmlessly dissipating in the ground beside her.
"You possess the Keys to Lyoko, Aelita. X.A.N.A. must never get his hands on them! Do you understand?" he urged her while the orbs whizzed about, dodging laser fire. "It's over, Aelita. X.A.N.A. is too powerful. He has become a threat to all of mankind. I've got to shut down the Supercomputer!"
She was ready to cry but the tears would not come. Reluctantly, she turned back and disappeared into the Tower once more.
"But…does that mean we'll die?" Aelita asked quietly as she once again crouched in the center of the platform inside of the Tower.
"No. But you mustn't forget me! Ever! Never forget, Aelita!" her father implored her. Then, the Tower walls began to darken, and everything went black.
In the present day, Aelita leaned on the shower wall as the steaming water cascaded over her head and shoulders. Her tears were practically invisible, that way.
As Aelita exited the girls' room, one blue towel around her waist and one around her head, she saw Sissi Delmas, the principal's daughter, putting a heart-shaped clip in her hair, which she'd just recently dyed black again. The girl was not one Aelita had gotten along with when she first began attending Kadic Academy, after coming back to Earth, but in more recent months, Sissi had become a friend of not only Aelita, but the entire group as well. Aelita was, admittedly, still a bit intimidated by the beauty queen; indeed, Sissi was very concerned about her personal appearance, and had won three beauty pageants to date, so her ego was massively inflated. But, although Sissi used to be quite the nuisance, she had shown her caring side more and more often lately. Aelita waved weakly at her, managing a smile.
"Another nightmare?" The principal's daughter wore an expression of concern on her dolled-up face.
"Um, yeah… I'm sorry if I woke you." Aelita's face flushed.
"You didn't, you know I'd tell you if you did. Beauty sleep is important, but I was already awake and getting ready," Sissi assured her. Aelita smiled faintly again and ducked into her room to quickly get dressed, while Sissi waited outside her door.
"What are they about? You seem to have them a lot," Sissi quietly asked once Aelita returned, brushing aside a stray hair as the duet slowly walked together to the cafeteria.
"I don't really want to talk about it." Aelita bit her lip, then split off from Sissi upon sight of her other friends, skipping the breakfast line altogether to sit down without food.
"It turns out that during winter break this February, my parents will be taking me and Hiroki to Japan. I'll miss you guys but I'm really happy to visit Japan for a while." Yumi Ishiyama was speaking at the table with Aelita's circle of friends. Yumi was a tall Japanese girl in the eleventh year, who loved to dress in black, the same color as her straight and short raven hair. However, she wasn't afraid to wear a splash of color. Her smiles were always wide and infectious, and her almond brown eyes twinkled with vigor. She was a strong young woman, who practiced an Indonesian martial art called Pencak Silat.
Yumi was responding to Ulrich Stern, a tall, fit tenth year student wrapped in a kelly green jacket and T-shirt, with blue jeans. A brown, rebelliously pointed forelock fell onto his forehead. He typically wore clothes in a more grunge style, with colors ranging anywhere between orange, yellow and green. Sometimes he even threw in blue or black. He was a lean athlete who practiced Pencak Silat with Yumi. Additionally, he was known to have a crush on her, even if he'd never admit it, nor would she admit her mutual feelings. His home life wasn't the best, and Yumi was whom he could confide in most.
Also listening were a cast of other friends, lining the rest of the cafeteria table. William Dunbar was the closest to Yumi and Ulrich, and was also a tall, wiry boy, but he was an eleventh year student like Yumi, the object of his (unrequited) affections. He wore slightly-too-long black hair, and mostly-black punk and emo clothes. He was quite the handsome ladies' man, and rebellious too; word was that he was kicked out of his last school for gluing stickers on every single wall, and even the principal's windshield.
Next was Odd Della Robbia, a short, scrawny Italian boy in the tenth year. Odd was obsessed with purple, as demonstrated by his all-purple wardrobe save for his blue jeans, and the purple splotch in the middle of his blonde hair, which was gelled straight up like a flame. Odd was the clown of the group, and the one who tried to date every girl in the school. Women were his second love, though; his first was food, and he retained his thin frame despite eating constantly.
Jeremie Belpois was Aelita's boyfriend, a fragile, nerdy boy in her year, with blonde hair worn slightly long, and round glasses perched on his nose. He could generally be found in a turtleneck or plaid button shirt, and a pair of khakis; today it was a blue turtleneck. Jeremie was good-natured, and although he was socially awkward, he was most comfortable in the presence of Aelita, who he had first brought to Earth so long ago.
Since the shutdown of the Supercomputer in November, following the return of X.A.N.A. after Aelita's father's sacrifice, the original group consisting of Aelita, Jeremie, Odd, Yumi, Ulrich and William had gotten to branch out. It was now the second day after class began again after Christmas break, and the group was able to make new friends without the presence of X.A.N.A. breathing down their necks. Sissi was the first of these friends, and next was Varric Alekhine.
Varric was, like Ulrich and William, a tall and handsome young man, but Varric towered above even them. He was a Russian student in his eleventh year and was tremendously and thickly built, for he had a strict workout regimen that he stuck to religiously. His pale gold hair was styled up and back, and he wore a vogue leather jacket dyed dark green with matching cargo pants, and a gray tank top. He was competitive and when he wasn't working out, he played video games with Odd, Ulrich and Ludek often. He was also a quiet one; when he did speak, he could be blunt even to authority, but he was a gentle giant nonetheless. Unlike Ulrich, though, his athleticism did not include any martial arts.
Ashanti de Graaf was an eleventh-year student as well, and her French was spoken with a Dutch accent. Her hair was tall and curly, and she wore it shaved on her left side while on the right it was worn naturally; long, wide and tall. Her dark skin and deep brown eyes were complimented by her smart blue dress, speckled with white polka dots, and a matching white jacket. Overall, her appearance matched her personality; she was a classy young woman. She befriended Aelita very quickly with her studiousness and her love of music, and the two were good friends in the month or so they'd gotten to become closer.
Ludek Gajos was a lanky young man from Poland of average height, and average appearance. He wore a beanie and grungy clothes, and his curly red hair sprung in all directions. He was also in his eleventh year and was known for being exceptionally lazy. He played video games with Varric, Odd and Ulrich nonstop, and if they weren't available, he'd just as likely be playing them by himself. Rumor had it that he was a connoisseur of illicit psychoactive substances, but he strongly denied the allegations. Additionally, he was actually a smart young man, even if his demeanor and reputation would never show it.
Tomas Magnusson was a Swedish young man in tenth year and was rather effeminate, with his slightly long blonde hair, dyed with black streaks throughout. He wore mostly white and black, fashionably contrasting. He was closest to Varric, and after Sissi had practically adopted him, he was happy to bring the Russian around as well. Although Tomas was quite shy and awkward, he was very kind, and very helpful; so much so that both Odd and Sissi would recruit him to help with all manner of projects. He was soft-spoken and would never pick a fight with anyone, yet he knew he was just as part of the group as anyone and knew that they had his back.
Last in the circle of friends at the cafeteria table was Kin-ming, or Kimi, Yang, Odd's latest girlfriend. She was a strange young woman in tenth year, with long black hair streaked with pink and green. She was a Chinese-Indonesian girl with soft brown eyes, many piercings lining her ears as well as an eyebrow ring and a nose ring, and a quirky wardrobe. Said wardrobe consisted of a sleeveless black and pink hoodie with a huge green star on the front, a green frilly skirt akin to a tutu, green and pink leggings, matching arm warmers and pure black platform boots. Her wardrobe matched her quirky personality, and there was no denying her friendliness. Like Ashanti, she was a transfer student from Lincoln High, another local school.
"My news is just as good," Odd boasted in response to Yumi's news about her upcoming trip, "I talked to my sisters, and a certain diggety dog is coming back to Kadic!" Odd referred to Kiwi, a grey-furred miniature bull terrier he secretly kept stashed in his dorm for his entire tenure at Kadic, despite the strict no pets rule.
"I thought you said you had good news," Ashanti joked, laughing.
"Dog? What dog?" Varric added, smiling thinly while Ludek chuckled and Tomas faintly smirked.
"Well, we're glad to hear your nonexistent dog is returning," Kimi finished just before she shoved a hearty spoonful of cereal into her mouth with a wink. She noticed Aelita coming and waved jovially, which prompted everyone else to greet her and cheer at her arrival at last.
"Morning, Aelita." Jeremie pulled out the chair next to him and picked a crumb off his blue turtleneck. "I was wondering if after school we could go and see this new store." The young genius bent over and began to rummage through his belongings while the conversation at the other end of the table continued. A moment later he pulled out a crumpled, stained flyer for a technology store that opened in one of Boulogne-Billancourt's shopping centers; the store was about a kilometer away from the Academy.
"I've been looking for some upgrades. It's hard to get used to something so slow again," Jeremie explained, letting out a forced laugh.
"Um, sure," Aelita laughed in an equally forced tone, but she did smile. At about that moment, Sissi sat at the table with her breakfast tray.
"Einstein, are you ever going to ask her out on a real date? You're supposed to be her boyfriend so why haven't you, huh?" Odd blurted, interrupting his current conversation to lean on an elbow and wave a fork with a chunk of biscuit on the end. Jeremie and Aelita blushed as Ulrich choked a little on his eggs, which forcibly suppressed his laugh. The rest of the group, on the other hand, was able to freely cackle at the two's embarrassment.
"That… doesn't have anything to do with me wanting to go to the store," mumbled Jeremie as the playful laughter died down, giving him a chance to regain his composure. He continued eating breakfast as Aelita next to him flushed once more.
In Ms. Suzanne Hertz's science class, the many uses of the Pythagorean Theorem were being related to the tenth-year students. Hertz was a middle-aged woman with cotton-like silver hair that stuck in every direction, about shoulder length. She wore thin, round glasses, and a pristine white labcoat over a red shirt and a black skirt almost every day. Rumor had it that Hertz worked for the government before coming to Kadic, and considering that she'd been at the school for almost 15 years, that did leave room for such a career. Rumor also had it that Hertz was involved in an off-the-clock romance with the gym instructor, Jim Morales. Only one of these rumors was true.
"Most people assume that it has no use outside of mathematics and triangles, but that is not so. The Pythagorean Theorem can be used with any shape and for any formula that squares a number. We can multiply the Pythagorean Theorem by our area factor and come up with a relationship for the areas of any similar shapes," Ms. Hertz stated, rapping a ruler against the board to draw attention to her rudimentary chalk diagrams.
Aelita couldn't help but stare at the clock and watch the minutes tick by, trying to avoid thinking of her nightmares and yet mentally returning to them every time she wandered from them.
"Remember, the line segment can be any portion of the shape. We could have picked the circle's radius, diameter, or circumference- there would be a different area factor, but the 3-4-5 relationship would still hold," continued Ms. Hertz.
"Now, you may wonder why I am telling you this in a science class. Your project will be as follows; you will use what you learned in December to create a rocket. You will then launch your rocket for me next week, and you will find the highest point of the rocket's flight path using the Pythagorean Theorem. Additionally, you will be expected to calculate velocity, acceleration, time, direction and displacement. You'll be working in pairs; Sorya Abulabbas with Naomi Nguyen. Jeremy Belpois with Tomas Magnusson. Magali de Vasseur with Aelita Stones…"
At last, Ms. Hertz finished reading off partners, had handed out the assignment sheets, and the bell rang. Once the students filed out of Ms. Hertz's door, Aelita and Jeremie quickly weaved through the crowd, outside and toward the gates, so they could go check out the new store.
"Jeremie, before we, um… You know, go anywhere…" Aelita stopped once they were a decent way down the sidewalk.
"What is it?" Jeremie stopped as well and turned around, clearly annoyed at wasting time.
"About the Supercomputer…" Aelita stared at the ground and made a ring in the dirt with her left foot.
"Yes?" Jeremie coaxed impatiently.
"What if we turned it back on?" Aelita's eyes shifted upward from the ground, but her head was still tilted. Jeremie gaped, taken aback.
"Why, Aelita? We did it. We beat X.A.N.A., he's confined to the computer again! We don't need to turn it back on ever again." He waved his hands and leaned towards her.
"Jeremie, you know that's not okay! X.A.N.A. is alive, waiting for anyone to stumble upon the Supercomputer so he can strike again. Besides, what if he has a presence outside of Lyoko we don't know about and he's gaining power, preparing to strike? It's the wrong thing to do. Plus, what I really want to do is bring my father back, I know he's still alive, and we need to get my mom back!" Aelita quickly shot off facts, having rehearsed this speech in her mind in Hertz's class. She stared hopefully at the boy in front of her.
"Franz… I'm sorry Aelita, but he died. We can't bring him back." Jeremie finally answered, not even touching the subject of the morality of leaving X.A.N.A. dormant.
"You've said all of this before! I remember when you swore we'd find him after he gave me my memory back. Then as soon as we got back from break and I began to remember more, you told me not to bother!"
"But that's not the same, we watched X.A.N.A. destroy him this time. We know he's lost for good."
"And you've said that before too. Yumi fell into the Digital Sea and we found a way. William was on Lyoko when it was destroyed and we salvaged him from X.A.N.A.'s control. When you tried to materialize me and I destroyed myself deactivating the Tower, you brought me back!" Aelita turned away and held her head in one hand.
"But we've always had ways around it. Yumi wasn't totally gone and the one shot marerialization engine tracked her down. William was in X.A.N.A.'s control when Lyoko was destroyed so X.A.N.A. saved him and we freed him. Then I had your hair and you weren't, um… gone, like he is. You were just removed from the registry and decompiled in a really messy way and virtualizing your hair sort of reset your program to the state you were in when I materialized the hair.
"But Franz, he gave you his Keys to Lyoko when he restored your memory and revived you. Doing that let you be devirtualized again, but he could no longer be rematerialized, period! Without his Keys, it would be like if you'd lost all your Life Points before you had your memories. He's gone, Aelita, I know you miss your dad, but we can't risk X.A.N.A. escaping again. The elevator is password locked, the boiler room route is password locked, there's no reason to think anyone will turn the Supercomputer back on before the battery runs out."
Aelita had heard enough of Jeremie explaining things she was already aware of, and she spun around on one foot to walk away while Jeremie continued his retort. "You said it yourself before. We'll get your mother back from Tyron in a better way that doesn't involve setting X.A.N.A. free again. I know you miss her, but it will be okay."
"I can't miss her because I never got to be with her!" Aelita screamed with her back turned, storming down the sidewalk. Jeremie began to follow her to try to calm her down, but Aelita stopped and whirled around on him. "You need to give me space right now, you insensitive brute!" she shrieked, clenching her fists furiously before taking a deep breath and sprinting away.
Jeremie hesitated, debating with himself internally as to whether he should follow her anyway. After a moment he decided it'd only make things worse, turned around, and continued on his path to the shopping center.
Aelita meandered down the sidewalk, holding back tears. She had run quite a way, and it was getting cloudy. She heard a clap of thunder in the distance and lifted her head. She was at the Seine riverfront, and with a few more steps she'd be at the bridge leading to the Factory.
"If he won't help me, I'll save them on my own." Aelita raced across the bridge and into the Factory, a race she had thought that she would never run again.
Jeremie left the store with two bags stuffed full of expensive, but powerful computer parts. "May not be as good as the Supercomputer but it will do for now!" He gloated to himself as he strolled carelessly back to Kadic Academy, completely unaware of the events happening under his nose.
Aelita, before she even knew it, was in the Supercomputer Room with her hand on the power switch.
If Daddy's gone then I won't find him, but at least I tried. Aelita turned away as she flipped the switch, and the Supercomputer radiated brilliant light as it roared to life. She could feel a chill in the air but was too desperate to find her father to pay it any mind. It was cold in the Supercomputer room when the gang had returned last time to turn it back on too. It wouldn't matter. She was going to at least try to find Franz Hopper.
Jeremie got back to Kadic Academy before too long had passed. He practically flew up the stairs to the boys' dorms, dropped his parts off, and flew up the stairs again to the girls' floor to visit Aelita, hoping she was sufficiently cooled down by now.
"Aelita?" He gently rapped his knuckles on the door.
"She's not there," a girl's voice answered from behind him. Jeremie turned to see Magali, Aelita's science partner, a short girl with auburn hair.
"Oh, have you seen her?" he asked hopefully.
"No, and she's my partner on that project. I don't have her number, so I can't call her. I thought she was supposed to be one of the smart kids, so I was hoping we could start right away," Magali grumbled, annoyed.
"Oh, um, I'll call her." Jeremie pulled his mobile out from his pants pocket and held down the 1 key, which speed-dialed Aelita. "Hello, Aelita? Where are you?"
"Leave me alone," growled Aelita into her pink mobile.
"Aelita, Magali wants to work on the science project and I'd like to talk to you if you have some free time."
"Fine. I'll be there in a little while." Aelita angrily thumbed the red key which ended the call. And I just now started the restoration of Lyoko! She crossed her arms and leaned back in the chair. I suppose I could let the computer finish reformatting and rebuilding Lyoko overnight. That should reduce any chance of X.A.N.A. interfering with the world's layout like he did last time; it'll put the Towers back to normal, the Sectors too. That'll give me enough operating power to find Daddy.
"I'll find you, Daddy, I'll try tomorrow." Aelita closed the Lyoko map window, but she let the restoration process remain. She sighed once more, got out of the chair and rounded the holographic projector to the elevator.
The next morning, Aelita, still mad at Jeremie, went and sat down at the table Herb Pichon and Nicholas Poliakoff, Sissi's old cronies, sat at with a group of younger kids: Hiroki Ishiyama, who was Yumi's younger brother in ninth year, his best friend Johnny Cleary, and the school reporters in tenth year, Milly Solovieff and Tamiya Diop. It was still a strange truce, but Sissi had abandoned Herb and Nicolas for her new squad, and it turned out that the two got along well with the younger students.
"What did you do, Einstein?" Odd inquired concernedly, looking over at Aelita sitting with the other kids.
"She doesn't look happy at all," Ashanti mused. "Poor gal."
"Anyway, what did you think of that I Am Legend movie from last month? Apparently, it's the top movie of December, but I thought it was pretty bad." Varric changed the subject.
"What! You're kidding. It's the best movie of the year," Ludek harshly rebuked.
"Maybe if you like derivative plot and two-dimensional characters," Tomas added, agreeing with Varric.
"And besides, it came out in December, and the new year just started, so…can't be movie of the year. Duh," Sissi added her voice to the chorus.
"You're the one who's kidding. Why not enjoy a good movie for what it is instead of picking it apart?" Kimi voiced her thoughts.
"But a movie must have strong characters, an intriguing plot and realistic development to be good!" Ashanti cut in.
"Jeremie, seriously, what'd you do?" Odd asked again, his voice low underneath the din of the brewing debate.
"I didn't do anything. Aelita wanted to," Jeremie lowered his voice as well, then whispered in Odd's ear, "turn the Supercomputer back on."
Odd promptly whispered this in Ulrich's ear, who then broke the news to Yumi, and she told William. Fortunately, the non-Lyoko Warrior kids were hotly debating the topic of the new movie, and this afforded the Lyoko Warriors a moment to discuss.
"What, why?" Ulrich shoved his tray away, with his appetite suddenly lost. Obviously, Odd didn't mind too much, as he began chowing down on the food that was now sitting freely on the table.
Jeremie looked across the table at the other kids to make sure they were still distracted before he answered. "She wants to look for Franz. I told her he's dead, but she still wants to. I guess she'll be mad at me for a while, but we can't take the risk." he explained.
"What risk?" Odd leaned back in his chair. "If the Princess wants to look for Franz, what's the danger? We destroyed the Cortex. X.A.N.A. is gone."
"That's not true. The multi-agent program worked as far as we know, and the Cortex is gone now too, so the only Supercomputer left is ours. That means X.A.N.A.'s just restricted to our Supercomputer again, and he can't do anything too bad without the remaining code in Yumi and Aelita. If we turn the Supercomputer on, it might allow X.A.N.A. a chance to get his codes back, which will have the same result as him getting Aelita's Key the year before last; he will be able to operate even with the Supercomputer off. He can then make more Replikas and take complete control of the network. But as it is, with the Supercomputer off, X.A.N.A. is off too."
As Jeremie spoke, Odd slowly reached for Kimi's orange to take and eat it. Sensing the imminent disaster, Yumi got up and withdrew from the group. As his hand neared, Kimi stopped speaking and stared directly at Odd's hand. As soon as his finger barely touched the orange, she stabbed her plastic fork into the foam tray, exactly where his hand would have been, had he not pulled away. William and Jeremie both leaned away.
"Leave my food alone," Kimi growled.
"Yeah, Odd, you vulture," laughed Sissi before returning to the original conversation, "but honestly, I don't even like sci-fi that much. Give me a good rom-com any day!"
"Well, better safe than sorry." Ulrich pushed his chair away, got up and left the table to follow Yumi.
"I don't know if he means Kimi or X.A.N.A.," Odd whispered to Jeremie. "But really, I don't know. It might be fun to go back to Lyoko! I loved going there." Odd laughed as he reminisced about his best moments on Lyoko.
"No, it wouldn't be," Jeremie chided.
"Just because you looked ridiculous doesn't mean we all did," Odd laughed as Jeremie made a face.
"Who was it who wanted a redo after landing on Lyoko as a giant purple cat?" Jeremie retorted, and Odd stopped laughing.
"It gave me my moves." Odd flexed his tiny muscles.
"Sure, it did. You were every bit as scrawny before Lyoko as you are now."
"I'm not scrawny, I'm svelte!"
After class, Aelita was making her way directly to the outside doors, planning to return to the Factory, but Magali caught her first.
"Aelita, we need to work on the project," implored Magali.
"We have a week, and I'm busy with something else." Aelita turned and walked away before Magali could reply.
"But you…! Gee, wonder what's wrong with her." Magali sighed, starting toward the dorms to go her room and work alone. "And I thought this was going to be easy. She's supposed to be a genius."
Yumi, Ulrich, Varric, Ludek and William were relaxing under a tree along the treeline of Kadic's courtyard, just as Aelita ran outside. It was rather chilly January day, but the sky was clear, so it was a good day to make outdoor plans. Aelita came running by, towards the sewers entrance. "Hey, Aelita, want to go to the skate park with us?" William offered cheerily, forcing her to pause from her path.
"No," Aelita flatly said, passing them by.
"I guess she's still mad at Jeremie." William watched Aelita walk away. He had vague memories of what he did when possessed by X.A.N.A. and felt bad for what he did, even still, so he was reluctant to get involved. The others all said they forgave him at this point and that he was a Lyoko Warrior just like the rest of them, but he still felt bad. When X.A.N.A. was able to reconstruct the Scyphozoa and use it to control him directly like a puppet on a string, it brought everything back in a deluge.
"But why is she mad at us?" Yumi turned to Ulrich. "Did you say something to her?"
"No. I'd say we should follow her, but… it's safe for her to go for a walk by herself," Ulrich replied, watching Aelita go.
"It's amazing how things have changed, isn't it, Ulrich?"
Ulrich turned around and looked at Yumi. "Some things have changed." Others haven't. "Well, my skateboard is in my room. I'll go get it and we can get going."
"Mine too," Varric added.
"Mine's still at my house," said Yumi.
"Let's just meet at the park," Ludek suggested, and Yumi nodded her agreement. The five picked up their backpacks from their resting place on the nearest tree and started off, the boys to the dorms and Yumi toward her house.
Aelita was in the Control Room, searching through Sector 5's map for any sign of her father. Without any prompt from her, a window containing her father's video diary appeared. "Daddy?"
The video began to play, and Franz Hopper in the video started speaking, "I'm fascinated by the sheer potential in this pet project of mine. For security measures, I will be encrypting my diary entries." Static covered the video briefly, then it continued from a later point. "Project Carthage began as a privatized humanitarian project in Switzerland, designed to revolutionize communication and transportation systems. Myself and Anthea, my wife and mother of our daughter Aelita—"
The video abruptly stopped, and static filled the window once more. "Daddy?" Aelita asked nervously, trying to piece together what was happening.
"…shortly after, object virtualization was achieved in 1984, thanks to constant work after the discovery and utilization of Exertanium in 1977. Then, Anthea and I discovered the KGB were pulling the strings and planned to use Carthage for militant use. They wished to control and disrupt communications worldwide using the Towers, to use Scanners to instantly transport soldiers. They wanted us to find a way to materialize people anywhere in the world. Anthea and I did what we knew was right, and I took as many components as possible while destroying Carthage's prototype."
Aelita gaped. She had never heard this part of Hopper's diary before; this specific information was very interesting to her.
"Soon, I will be caught. I'm sure of it. Protecting Aelita is of the utmost importance. Hiding her from the KGB, working on my own Supercomputer and AI weapon to end Carthage for good, all while being the father she needs me to be—" Again, the recording cut out and began again. "…after all these years, I've finally found her. I found Anthea, she is alive! She has been moved from location to location by the remaining hired muscle and ex-KGB agents after the dissolution of the USSR."
Lastly, the recording stopped entirely, and the window went black. "Daddy!" Aelita put her hand on the screen. "Daddy, where are you? Tell me! I'll help you!"
Cutting between different parts of the entire diary log to choppily string words together, Hopper 'spoke' to his daughter, "Aelita, I'm here!"
"I'll help you, but you must tell me where you are!"
"I'm not sure… Please, free up power. I'm so weak."
"Where are you? I'll virtualize myself to you so that I'll know this is really you."
"I'm not sure where I am… everything is dark… I can only feel the Heart of Lyoko. I need more power to move from here. I have shown you part of my diary that was locked deep in the secure access of the Supercomputer, separate from what I had on discs. That is all the proof I can give for now. Launch a Return, Aelita, dear."
"But then the others will know I turned the Supercomputer back on. If they find out, they'll be mad at me, think you're X.A.N.A. and turn it back off." Aelita shook her head. "I'm sorry, Daddy. We can show them once I bring you back and they'll know you're really you!"
"Then you must find another way, I beg of you!"
"I… could try deleting, decompiling or compressing programs I don't need. We don't need a Superscan or the vehicles since we don't need to deactivate Towers or get to them… we don't really need the program to make a clone, or Odd's Laser Arrow reload, and I suppose we can go without a voice modifier… Oh! I certainly don't need the Megapod anymore, that will free up a lot of resources."
Aelita typed rapidly, zipping around to deactivate and compress the programs as she thought of them and diverted the power. "Is that enough, Daddy?"
"Let me see… I'm afraid not, no. Keep working, Aelita, dear, I'm sure you'll find a way."
"I will, Daddy. I will," Aelita promised as she typed furiously, continuing her work.
The next day, Odd had dragged the entire group of friends to the gates.
"My sisters will be here any minute!" he promised.
"Why do we all need to be here for you to smuggle your dog in?" Varric asked.
"Yeah, you know, I'm wondering the same thing. Won't you attract attention this way?" Yumi added.
"Jim gets paranoid when just a few of us are in the same spot," agreed William.
"Yeah, well, you can all stand in the way, so he can't see me put Kiwi in my backpack," Odd answered, crossing his arms.
"So you didn't invite us here to meet your sisters or anything like you said, you just wanted us to be your wall of protection," deduced Ashanti, who was clearly not impressed.
"Well, I can't say I would've have agreed to come if he had told us the real reason…" Kimi admitted, trailing off.
"Yeah, well, I have things I need to be doing." Aelita spat, her arms crossed. She wanted to get away to work on helping her father.
"Shush, shush, they're coming!" Odd demanded as a bright red convertible, with the roof down despite the freezing cold, pulled up to the Kadic gates.
In the front seat, driving, was a tall young adult woman, with sunglasses, long black hair tied in a ponytail save for a rebellious strand of blonde in the front, and very generously applied red lipstick with blue eyeshadow. She was quite buff and wore a black halter top over a long-sleeved yellow shirt, and black jeans. In the passenger's seat was a blonde girl with her hair dyed pink at the tips, a matching pink bandana tied around her head, and a large red heart necklace on her neck. She wore a low-cut black blouse with a long pink skirt, and held the little bull terrier, Kiwi, in her lap.
In the back seat, on the left, was a girl with an undercut, the long and gelled part of her hair a bright red while the sides were her natural brown. She too wore sunglasses and had a lip ring along with various ear piercings. Her black choker matched her leather jacket and jeans, while her red tube top bared her midriff to show her belly button as well. The girl sitting in the middle seat, the first of the twins, wore her brown hair in a messy bun, dyed orange at the tips. She also wore an orange scarf over her off-the-shoulder black blouse, denim skirt, black leggings and orange boots. The other twin on the right in the back seat had her lighter brown hair with green streaks worn down, and she dressed simply with a camouflage hoodie, blue jeans and sneakers.
"Meet my sisters!" Odd cheered once they stopped and began to get out. "Marie," he gestured to the driver, "Louise," the girl holding Kiwi, "Pauline," the girl with the piercings, "Elizabeth," the twin in the orange scarf, "and Adele!" the twin in the camo hoodie. "All oldest to youngest, naturally," he added.
As the girls smiled and waved, Odd continued, "Girls, these are my friends, and my girlfriend, Kimi!"
With the basic introductions out of the way, the group was free to mingle with Odd's sisters. Varric, Odd, Kimi, Marie and Louise had ended up in a small group, with Pauline talking to Sissi, Ludek, William and Yumi, and the twins to Jeremie, Ashanti, Ulrich and Tomas.
Marie and Varric firmly shook hands, both squeezing tightly. "What's your max, bro?" Marie asked, still holding on.
Varric blinked, surprised, then smiled. "145 kilos, single. 130 on reps."
"Ha! Not bad," Marie laughed, letting go of his hand, "for a boy."
"Yeah? Well, how are you at chin-ups, dead hang? My max is 26," he bragged.
"28." Marie smirked.
"You staying for long? Why don't we have a little competition at the gymnasium?" His eyes twinkled, his jaw set.
"Oh, we will be in town for 9 days, then we have to head back because the girls go back to school. But I promise it won't take me that long to mop the floor with you."
"You're on."
"So you're Odd's girlfriend? How wonderful! Usually, Odd can never keep one for more than a week!" laughed Louise while Kimi smiled graciously.
"Um, Louise, enough of that. Can I please have Kiwi now?" Odd smiled, strained.
"Oh, were you there when that little Claire girl slapped him for dating this girl Magali at the same time, and Magali had just slapped him beforehand?"
"Oh, no, I just transferred here from Lincoln High in October. But that sure is interesting…" Kimi smiled wider, showing teeth now, but her eyes glared daggers at Odd.
"How about the time Heidi Klinger and Emily LeDuc told the entire school about his rotten feet? Oh, Odd couldn't get the smell out for weeks!" Louise howled with laughter, clutching Kiwi to her chest while Odd grit his teeth.
"Oh, yes, I know all about his rotten feet." Kimi answered. "I sure didn't know he dated Heidi and Emily, though."
"Louise, please, enough stories, please hand me Kiwi now!"
"Oh, Kimi, he's dated every girl! The only reason he landed you was because you had no idea when you transferred! Well, he hasn't gone for the ones in your group, of course. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have a little crush on some of them!"
"Louise, I am never telling you anything again! Give me the dog!" Odd snapped, grabbing Kiwi from her hands while Kimi looked like she was going to explode.
"But… Odd…" Now, Louise looked ready to burst into tears.
"Oh, no, not two emotional women…" Much to Odd's chagrin, this remark only made Kimi angrier, and Louise sadder, as they both closed in on him.
"Oh, my god, I love your hair! Your lip ring is kind of a disaster though," Sissi babbled to Pauline, while Ludek, Yumi and William approached.
"Screw you." Pauline spat, rolling her eyes behind her sunglasses while she walked to meet William and Yumi.
"What? But I was just giving you constructive criticism!" crowed Sissi while Yumi complimented Pauline's style in a much more genuine way.
"What sort of bands do you like?" asked William, certain he'd share a few.
"Kiss the Bottle and 12xu."
"Wow! I like both of those." William grinned, and Yumi smiled as well.
"I'm an Belle Epoque fan also." Yumi added.
"What about Nickelback?" Ludek asked, hands in his pockets. All three of them stared at him.
"Surely at least one of you is a Sheryfa fan. Jenifer?" Sissi pleaded as she walked up to the group again, trying to break into the conversation.
Meanwhile, the twins were making a point of handing out hugs to Jeremie, Tomas, Ulrich and Ashanti.
"I love your hair!" Adele squealed to Ashanti, feeling the large curls with her hand.
"Ooh, hands off, love." Ashanti backed away, smiling but obviously irritated. "Personal space and all. Appreciate the compliment though!"
Elizabeth was sharing the same sentiment with Tomas. "How did you get it like that?" she asked as she, too, touched it directly.
"Um…the salon…" he answered quietly, pulling away awkwardly.
"Hey, how about your hair? How'd you get it that way?" Ulrich asked, hoping to ease the pressure.
"It's natural." Elizabeth lied, her face perfectly straight.
"No it's not, you cow!" Adele yelled, letting go of Ashanti's hand. "You dyed it yourself!"
"Shut up, pig! Why can't you ever let me have any fun?" Elizabeth shouted back, storming up to her twin.
"Wow, they almost sound like you and Yumi when you're pretending you don't like each other," Jeremie teased Ulrich, who scowled.
"Shut up, pig," he grumbled.
"Aelita, tell him I'm right." Jeremie turned around, looking for support. "Aelita?"
As the week went by, Jeremie and the others were worried. Aelita was withdrawn from everyone. She wouldn't talk with them, constantly snuck off, and Magali de Vasseur was getting mad that she was stuck doing all the work on the project that was now due in two days.
In Jeremie's room, the original group minus Aelita was discussing while they entertained themselves.
"Einstein, you have to talk to her." Odd was doing his homework, or rather, he was copying off Jeremie's work.
"And tell her what? She's just mad because I won't turn the Supercomputer back on to look for dumb old Franz Hopper."
"Not 'dumb old Franz Hopper', her dad." Yumi was sitting cross-legged on Jeremie's bed next to Odd, looking over her own homework. "She loves her father and wants to save him. You would want the same."
"He's dead and she can't save him." Jeremie took his glasses off and rubbed his temples, trying to fight back the migraine that the subject matter was giving him.
"As much as I don't like my father, I can understand loving someone enough to do anything for them," Ulrich agreed. He looked over at Yumi. "Maybe you could turn it on for a couple days and look. Have us there to be ready to go to Lyoko if anything happens."
"And end up fighting X.A.N.A. all over again? Fat chance."
"Couldn't you just turn the computer back off?" William asked, but Jeremie shook his head.
"Why not, Einstein?" Odd asked next.
"It's like I said earlier. If X.A.N.A. gets his hands on the remaining source code, it'd be like when he took Aelita's keys all over again, but worse, and turning off the Supercomputer would do no good anymore," Jeremie explained, causing Odd to frown.
"I don't want to hear about X.A.N.A. anymore. Don't worry about that stupid wad of circuits. Just talk to her, okay? I'll talk to her after you do, and we can just hope she understands," Odd offered, which in turn caused Jeremie to sigh.
"I'll talk to her." Jeremie left his room and pulled out his mobile, once again holding down the 1 key to call Aelita. After a few rings, the call was declined. "I wonder what she's doing… I'll have to wait for her to come back. Hope it's before curfew." Jeremie retreated back into his room to talk more with the others.
Aelita was, once again, in the Control Room trying to find ways to give the Supercomputer more power. "If I activate a Tower then transfer the power to the Supercomputer it might work. But I don't know if I can still do that with the stuff I've compressed already. Daddy?" A screen appeared, and the makeshift speech using Hopper's diary began.
"Yes, Aelita, dear?"
"Can I activate a Tower and transfer the power from it to the Supercomputer? And if I can, how?"
"Activate it like your friend used to, Aelita, dear, and I'll see what I can do from here. It should still work."
"Okay, Daddy." Aelita called up the program and activated a Tower in the Ice Sector, giving it a green aura instead of its placid white.
"Alright, it's done. Please do what you can." She felt excitement bubbling up inside her. Maybe she had already found a way to bring her father back and it only took a week! The others wouldn't find out she turned the Supercomputer on, and once she proved without a doubt he was alive they couldn't be too mad at her. "Daddy, can you do it?"
"Yes, Aelita, dear." The screen went blank.
"Come on, Daddy." Aelita crossed her fingers, bit her lip and silently prayed that soon her father would be back on Lyoko.
On Lyoko, the activated Tower's mist changed from green to white once more.
"Aelita, you've done it!" A map of Lyoko opened, and Aelita saw the white marker that signified Franz Hopper appear on the screen near the Tower she'd activated for him.
"Daddy!" Aelita squealed with joy. Tears began to form in her eyes as she typed, opening the materialization window. "Daddy, hold on! I'm going to try bringing you back!" Just as she tried to begin, a red exclamation mark covered the window, then the Eye of X.A.N.A. flashed across the entire screen. To her horror, the tower turned from white to a sinister red, and red dots signifying monsters began to appear around her father on the map. Panic struck her like a match, and the excitement bubbling within her curdled and became steaming dread.
"Oh no!" She could only muster but one horrified whisper as her father tried to escape. A black mist emanated from the cords around the monitor, and the spectre quickly flung itself at Aelita. The pink-haired girl crumpled to the floor with a scream as the mist forced itself into her nostrils. She soon struggled to breathe. The black mist then pulled away from Aelita and disappeared to find someone or something it could possess. Aelita, not missing a beat, stood and made her way to the screen, finding that her father's marker was gone, and the monsters were all standing at the edge over the Digital Sea.
Jeremie had gone up to Aelita's room in the girls' dormitories and sat down outside of her door. "She can't stay away forever. Curfew will come and then I'll talk to her." He fixed his eyes on his watch and waited.
Herb and Nicholas were on the Seine, under the Factory's bridge, in a quaint little wooden boat. It was growing dark, a crescent moon was out, and there was a cold January breeze blowing. Nicolas Poliakoff was, quite simply, a rather dull-looking boy, and his studies were the same way. His shaggy blonde hair and dirty blue jersey over torn jeans did not help his appearance, either. Herb Pichon, however, was the exact opposite. His short black hair was neatly combed directly down the middle, and his round glasses were even bigger than Jeremie's. His green sweater vest over white dress shirt and khakis made him look quite professional, even despite the armada of acne that occupied his face.
They were currently enjoying Nicholas's favorite hobby to celebrate his birthday. "I got another one!" Nicholas pulled a trout off his line and threw it back. They couldn't legally keep the fish, he knew, but he loved catching and releasing them. The black X.A.N.A. mist had just then exited the Factory and took notice of the pair on the river, a decameter out or so. It floated down and invaded Nicholas's body, causing him to begin convulsing.
"What's wrong with you? If that's your victory dance, then you need lessons more than I do," Herb quipped. Nicolas stopped shaking after a moment and stared at Herb. "What's wrong? Something on my face?"
Nicholas punched Herb in the face, then grabbed him by his sweater and threw him into the river. After a moment, Herb's head surfaced, absolutely drenched and with his glasses missing and nose bleeding. "Hey! What the hell was that for?" As Herb struggled to climb back onto the boat, the possessed Nicholas leaped all the way to shore and ran inhumanly fast into the Factory.
Aelita was setting up a timed virtualization when she heard the elevator running. "It can't be them! Jeremie wouldn't have the Superscan running to know there was an activated Tower," she reassured herself. Aelita entered the last command and dashed for the ladder as the elevator doors opened and Nicholas stepped off.
"Hello, Aelita. Thank you for giving me enough power to come back! You even activated the Tower for me and left your father right where I could destroy him!" Nicholas laughed evilly in a distorted voice before lunging at Aelita. She slid down the ladder and leaped off a few feet from the ground in the Scanner Room. She felt pain radiate up her leg starting in her ankle but limped desperately to the middle Scanner right before the doors closed around her.
"I forgot to send any vehicles… I would have had to take the time to decompress them anyway." She passed her left hand over her right wrist and her wings appeared, lifting her into the air and allowing her to follow the pulsations with ease through the recreated Ice Sector.
Nicholas dissolved into a black cloud and exited the Control Room through the ceiling. Dumping Nicholas's body on the shore of the Seine, the black mist returned to the Factory and entered the Supercomputer. Nicholas woke up a moment later, having no idea what had happened, just as Herb had given up on the boat and pulled himself to the shore instead, soaking wet.
Aelita had just flown around a large ice formation when she found the activated Tower in sight behind it, flanked by two Megatank guards. Last time we were in this Sector, X.A.N.A. used the Kolossus to beat us…That won't happen to me because we destroyed the other Supercomputers. This should be a lot easier. Aelita found solace in those thoughts as she swerved to dodge a Megatank blast. She saw her chance and dove, reaching for the activated Tower.
Jeremie called Aelita's phone again but received no answer. "It's getting close to curfew. If Jim sees me sitting outside her door, I'll get in trouble, and he'll wonder where she is, and she might get in trouble too." Giving up for the night, Jeremie got up to return to his room.
On Lyoko, Aelita's wing was clipped by a Megatank blast. With an abrupt cry, she spiraled downward into the Sector's icy ground. She looked up to see the Scyphozoa circle around the tower and come to a stop directly above her.
"Not you!" she screamed. She formed an Energy Field, but a tentacle wrapped around her waist and jerked her into the air, making her body go limp. It placed three more tentacles on her head, one on each temple and one on her forehead. Orange, red and pink energy flowed from her brain to the Scyphozoa's. A moment later, it dropped her. Strangely, Aelita felt unaffected, and she wasted no time scrambling to her feet to escape another Megatank blast. She jerked to her right to dodge another one then went into a dead sprint for the activated Tower. Both Megatanks opened and charged blasts.
Herb and Nicholas, meanwhile, were fighting with each other near the river. "You pushed me in, you idiot!" Herb shrieked.
"I did not! I don't know what happened!" Nicholas yelled back. He shoved Herb to the ground then pinned him.
"Stop right there, you two!" On the ground, they both craned their necks to look to see an adult man coming towards them. "I don't know what you're fighting about, but it won't be done out here! Get home, both of you, before I call the police!" Herb and Nicholas were quick to obey, breaking apart and sulking away toward the Academy.
Back on Lyoko, Aelita was sure she was about to be hit. She closed her eyes with a groan and expected to open them on Earth, even though she was still running, but when she opened them again, she found herself in the Tower. The Megatank blasts had hit the Tower and not her.
With a sigh of relief, she stopped in the middle of the platform, stopped and looked downward, and pulled her head up. When she did, she glowed white and began floating to the second platform. Aelita performed a careful backflip to avoid hitting her head on the upper platform and landed gently. She placed her palm on the control panel, which floated at about shoulder level above the platform, and her name flashed across it. After that, the word CODE prompted her, and she entered LYOKO below it using her thoughts without lifting a finger. The screens on the tower wall, each full of binary, fell around her to the bottom of the Tower network.
"Tower deactivated." Aelita then used the panel to open the Supercomputer interface, and simply activated a materialization from there, disintegrating off of Lyoko where she stood.
A shaken Aelita had just returned to Kadic Academy through the sewer passage to save time. "It's a nightmare! It must be a nightmare. X.A.N.A. can't be powerful again. He did not kill my father. He didn't use the Scyphozoa to take the rest of my source codes, and he is not back." She shook her head as she climbed the stairs to the girls' dormitories, trying to knock the horrible images dancing around in her brain out of her consciousness. She was so sure she could rescue her father after not saving him before, but now… "My nightmares have been so vivid lately, that's all this is. That is all this is." She opened the door to her room.
Herb and Nicholas, however, had to take the long way above ground and were soon caught by Jim outside of the dormitories, who wondered what they were doing out so late and why Herb was soaked to the bone. Jim Morales was Kadic's gym teacher, a stocky middle-aged man with short, spiky brown hair and a greasy headband. His stubble was eternal, and he also wore a band-aid on his cheek, convinced it made him look tough. He wore gray sweatpants, a red coat, ankle socks and brown sneakers day in and day out. Apparently, in his youth, he was attractive, but between age and his weight, that was no longer the case; he had been at Kadic for a little over 20 years and worked all sorts of interesting jobs he'd rather not talk about in the time before that.
"We went fishing by the river, Jim, and I accidentally fell in," Herb stammered, hoping to avoid trouble.
"Fishing? I remember a time I was on an Alaskan Fishing Boat. We would haul in salmon by the tons. Why, I remember…" Jim began one of his stories, but Nicholas cut him short.
"We are already late for curfew, we should be going to our rooms."
"Yes, well, I'll have plenty of time to tell you about the time I fell overboard in freezing water tomorrow. During detention," Jim answered gruffly, firmly planting a hand on each boy's shoulder and escorting them to their rooms.
Aelita had changed for bed, wearing her oversized pink shirt with a red letter A on it, and plopped down, curling up with Mister Puck to her chest. "My father is alive, and X.A.N.A. is not back. My nightmares are long and vivid, and it will be a new day."
As she closed her eyes, though, she knew without a doubt she was wide awake.