Chapter One: The Old Factory

It was a beautiful day for the students of Kadics Boarding School.

"You know that was a particularly enriching lesson." A boy named Jeremie Belpois said as he and his friends walked out the door of the school. Jeremie had blonde hair and wore circular glasses. His usual attire was a light blue long sleeved sweater, with a pair of tan kakis, and a pair of light blue tennis shoes.

"Well of course you'd think that the lesson was enriching, you're very easily the smartest person at this school!" Another boy said, his name was Ulrich Stern. He had brown hair, and normally wore a light green shirt, with an olive green jacket and jeans.

"Yeah, Jeremie! You're basically the next Einstein! You know more than the teachers do most likely!" A boy named Odd Della Robbia exclaimed as he put a hand on Jeremie's shoulder. Odd, too, had blonde hair, but the tiniest section of his hair had ben dyed purple. He usually wore a hot pink shirt, with a long sleeved purple shirt over the pink. He wore a pair of jeans that were half violet in color while the other half was purple. "I mean look at Herb. He's always trying to beat you at anything and everything! Remember the robot wars every year? Name one time where Herb has actually one without cheating?"

"Oh, come on guys! I'm not that smart!" Jeremie pleaded, blushing a brilliant shade of pink.

"Jeremie, Odd's right! You truely are the next Einstein! You're a true genius!" A girl named Yumi Ishiyama said as she adjusted the strap on her backpack. She normally wore a black long sleeved sweater, which fell a few inches above her belly button, and she also wore a pair of black skinny jeans.

"Hey, Jeremie, Aelita even says that you're a genius!" Ulrich said as he and his friends headed towards the forest, which was located on the outskirts of the school.

"If I'm so smart, then tell me, why haven't I defragmented and debugged Aelita's materialization code? And...if I were nearly as smart as you say I am, then Aelita would be here. And not in Lyoko." Jeremie said as he hung his head in despair. "I'm nothing. I'm even beginning to wonder if materializing Aelita is, well, even possible."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Jeremie! What you're doing is no easy task! You can't just expect to crack the code over night! It'll take time, sure, but the time that we wait will be all worth while! You'll see. We have faith in you." Odd said as he and his friends stopped in a little clearing. He looked down and saw the same old sewage cover as he'd seen a dozen times before. With a firm grip, he knelt down and took hold of the cover, and with a little effort, he carefully lifted it and laid it to the side.

"Thanks Odd...Hey, Ulrich..." Jeremie said as he began to descend the ladder that was attached to the concrete walling that was usually concealed by the cover.

"Yeah Einstein?"

"Did Aelita really say that I was a genius?" Jeremie asked as once again, he turned a bright shade of pink.

"Why do you even ask question like that, Jeremie? We thought that by now you would've realized what the answer to that is! Of course she thinks that you're a genius, Jeremie! Aelita even thinks of you as her savior! She adores you!" Ulrich answered as he too descended the ladder.

When everyone had climbed down the ladder, they all walked over to the wall closest to them. There they found their forms of transportations. Jeremie grabbed his scooter, while Ulrich, Odd and Yumi each grabbed a skateboard. As soon as they'd settled themselves onto their rides, they set off. Ulrich, followed closely by Yumi and Odd. Jeremie trailing behind at his own leisurely pace.

About five minutes into the sewers Yumi slowed down to Jeremie's speed. "You know X.A.N.A.'s been quiet here lately. A little too quiet, don't you think?"

"I'm glad that I'm not the only one to have noticed that. But yes, X.A.N.A. has been a little too quiet for my taste. There hasn't been any tower activations in weeks! I can't sleep when X.A.N.A.'s awake, or even when he's asleep!" Jeremie said as they continued into the sewers.

"Jeremie, when was the last time you got a decent nights sleep? Five days tops? Jeremie, we're losing you!" Yumi said as she and Jeremie both stopped.

"You're not losing me, I'm right here." He said as Ulrich and Odd stopped too.

"You know, Jeremie, here lately, asll that you've been doing in your free time is talking to us, doing your homework, talking with Aelita, or working on the materialization code. All tht we're telling you to do is to take a break. That's all. We need you. If you're not around, who's going to transport us to Lyoko when X.A.N.A. wakes up? We can't work the Super Computer." Ulrich said as Jeremie began to look down at his shoes.

Slowly, he nodded, "Maybe you guys are right. It's just that where I've never been closer to getting the materialization progam fixed. I'm almost there, I can feel it! It's justthat I keep missing something...But I promise that I'll take it easy."

"Great well let's go. Hey Ulrich, have you heard the latest about Sissi Delmas?" Odd asked as he rode side by side with Ulrich.

"No, and I don't think I want to know. But you're going to tell me anyway, aren't you?" Ulrich asked as Odd nodded his head.

"Of course!"

"Well, what is it then?"

"Well Milly Solovieff and Tamiya Diop told Emile Leduc who told Hedi Klinger who told Moemie N'Guyen and me that Sissi's going to try and drag you away tomorrow after physics, and well, she's going to try and trick you into kissing her!" Odd said as he cracked a smile.

"Really? Well sorry to disappoint her, but that's not going to happen. So she can keep dreaming." Ulrich said as a scornful look began to spread across his face.

"When will Sissi learn?" Odd asked as the end of the tunnel came into view.

"I don't know, but that would just take the fun right out of life. Sissi asking Ulrich out, Ulrich refusing, and Sissi goes off to figure out a new scheme to get Ulrich." Yumi said as she and her friends all began laughing.

"True, very true. Wow! Life's great!" Odd said as they reached the very end of the tunnel. Jeremie was the first to climb the ladder, a ladder that led to a bridge that had been built right over a river.

"You know, one of these days, someone's going to follow us here. And with our luck, it'll be Jim that follows us!" Jeremie said as he walked to the edge of the bridge, leaning against its railing.

"That's why we have to be careful! We can't just go around yelling our heads off about Aelita, Lyoko or about the factory. If we did then the first thing that people would do would be to send us to the closest psychiatric hospital! And then we'd never see Aelita again, and X.A.N.A. would have free reign, but thankfully we take things very carefully!" Ulrich said as Yumi and Odd nodded their heads in agreement.

"You know it's been nearly two years since we first met Aelita?" Jeremie asked as he and his friends walked through the open doorway that led into the broken down factory.

"Really? It doesn't seem it." Yumi sighed, as one by one they each grabbed hold of a rope that had been tied to the rafters along the ceiling.

"Out of the way!" Odd yelled as he slid down one of the ropes, "You know, no matter how many times I do that, it's still just as fun!"

"Odd, for you everything is fun." Ulrich said as he too slid down one of the ropes.

"But that's why you love me, huh, Ulrich?" Odd asked as they walked over to the elevator that was to their right.

"Yeah, whatever Odd. I'll love you even more when I can get a good night's sleep without your snoring!" Ulrich then began imitating Odd's snoring.

"I don't snore!"

"Oh yeah? Just like you're not scrawny?"

"I am not scrawny! I'm just svelte! And anyway, I'm telling you, I don't snore!"

"Oh, so I suppose that it's Kiwi, huh?" Ulrich asked as Jeremie and Yumi stepped into the elevator.

"I don't know, Ulrich. All I know is: that it's not me!"

"Will they ever get along for ten minutes?" Yumi asked Jeremie as he pushed the button on a keypad on the elevators' wall. The button that he pressed allowed them all to travel a few floors below where they already were.

"Ah, no. But if they did, then they wouldn't be Ulrich and Odd, now would they?"

"I guess you're right, Jeremie."

When the elevator had descended a few floors, Jeremie keyed in the code '426' into the keypad. The door opened with a loud creak, and when they'd opened completely, they all saw a marvelous sight.

A giant Super Computer with a holomap of another world.

Jeremie walked over to a chair that was attached to the Super Computer, sat down in it, and it automatically began to rotate around the computer. When the chair had came to a stop, Jerremie found himself facing the keyboard to the powerful computer. Immediately, Jeremie began typing. About a minute later, he picked up a headset that had been lain beside the computer.

"Aelita, it's Jeremie! Aelita, do you read me?" Jeremie asked as a girls' face appeared on the computers' monitor.

"Hi, how are you?"

"Hi, Aelita. We're fine, how about you?" Jeremie asked Aelita, a girl that had hot pink hair, pointed ears that resembeled an elves', one ear peirced with a spherical earring that was pink with a little ring of silver at the top.

"Oh, I'm fine. There's been no pulsations here on Lyoko. X.A.N.A. seems to be stable, but that doesn't mean he's not creating a plot. You know that that's true. We all do. It's only a matter of time before X.A.N.A. launches an attack on Lyoko and your world." Aelita said as she closed her eyes.

"You know, Aelita's right. Time is not in our favor for this one. X.A.N.A. has got the upper hand. Okay, Aelita, keep an eye open for any pulsations. If you notice anything, contact me right away. Don't wait, because this attack of X.A.N.A.'s is going to be extremely dangerous...If not deadly." Jeremie said as he launched a scan for any activated towers in Lyoko. "Nothing yet, but it won't be long before X.A.N.A. rears his evil head."

"So what do we do Jeremie? I mean, how can we defeat something that we can't even see?" Odd yelled, throwing his hands up in despair.

Jeremie shook his head. "We do nothing. You said it yourself. We can't beat something that we can't even see...There really is nothing that can be done. Anyway, we can't worry about X.A.N.A. right now, we have an exam in Mrs. Hertz's science class!"

"Jeremie, what's an exam?" Aelita asked as Jeremie got up to leave.

"Well an exam is a test on paper. They're used to see how much any one person knows. Only we people have a limited amount of memory. And compared to you, our hard drive runs a little short. Well anyway, we'd better be going. I'll contact you at 1600 hours universal time. Don't forget to keep an eye out for X.A.N.A." Jeremie said as he, Yumi, Ulrich and Odd all got up to leave.

"Okay, Jeremie. Good luck with your exams. See you later."

"Bye Aelita." Jeremie said as Aelita disappeared from the computer's moniter. After logging off of the computer, Jeremie and his friends all got back to the elevator. None of them knowing what dangers might lie ahead.