"Hey Aelita, wait up!" The young blonde boy yelled as he and his brunette friend raced after the virtual princess. Her cotton candy pink hair clung to her head while she sprinted towards the glowing red tower, every ounce of her small body overcome with adrenaline. Her breath came out in rapid pants, she was so close. Smirking to herself, she continued to speed up, laughing at her friend's pleas for her to slow down. Aelita nearly crashed through the activated tower, the platform quickly lighting up beneath her. As she was gently lifted up into the air, an overwhelming sense of satisfaction came over her. She then proceeded to deactivate the tower.
"Tower, deactivated." Looking up towards where Jeremie's voice usually came from, she waited for the all too familiar words to leak through the tower.
"Great job guys, return to the past, now." Jeremie said quickly. Hitting the enter key, a blinding white light shot out from the old abandoned factory and encompassed everyone in it's path, returning to earlier that day.
"I think I can go without saying that we're getting better at this, that last deactivation only took us fifteen minutes!" Odd said, beaming with youthful excitement.
"Yeah Odd, it'd have probably been sooner if you didn't stop to take 'practice' shots at the air next to the blocks." The group laughed at Ulrich's comment while Odd turned a light shade of red.
"It's weird that we didn't notice Xana's attack though, don't you think? There was the activated tower, but nothing in the real world."
"You're right Yumi." Aelita said, puzzled suddenly. "Even the monsters seemed to be less vicious than normal." She looked at Jeremie, hoping for the genius to come up with a rational answer. Just as Ulrich was about to interrupt the hushed conversation, the bell rang.
"We'll meet up at the factory after lunch," Jeremie said, distracted, "we'll see if anything is out of the ordinary on Lyoko, just to be sure." Nodding in agreement, the group headed off the to the cafeteria.
"Ulrich, darling! I need you, there's a crisis!" The dark haired peer of the Lyoko warriors sauntered over to Ulrich and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"What's wrong Sissi, lose your hair dryer?" Eying her hair, Odd put a thoughtful hand on his chin as the rest of the group broke out into laughter. With a huff, Sissi slumped away with her trusty followers.
After they had to wait for Odd to finish his three lunches, the friends snuck off to the secret sewage passage to the abandoned factory.
"Alright; Aelita, Ulrich, I'll send you in." The pair nodded and headed towards the scanner room. After Jeremie was sure they stepped in, he spoke clearly the same words he was used to uttering.
"Scanner, Aelita, scanner, Ulrich. Transfer Aelita, transfer Ulrich. Virtualization."
A burst of energy shot through the scanner room as the two young forms were taken from the material world and thrown into a virtual one. Materializing in the ice sector, Ulrich and Aelita quickly sprinted through the area, scanning for any strange activity.
"Even William hasn't been around." Jeremie said through his headset. This was so puzzling to him. Xana had been activating towers and not sending an attack, the monsters were sparse, and they hadn't had even the slightest glimpse of William.
Aelita stopped running abruptly and held her head. The young man put a cautious hand on her shoulder.
"You okay, Princess?" A worried look on his face caused Aelita to stand up straight and ignore the pounding in her head. She smiled at him sweetly and continued running to the next tower. Confused, Ulrich shrugged and continued following her. As he destroyed two blocks, he sheathed his familiar weapon, taking a defensive stance, he listened. A faint rumbling could be heard... beneath him? No... it was behind him now. He looked in all directions, the rumbling was everywhere. Suddenly, a piercing screech was heard through the still, digital air. Aelita gasped and dropped to her knees, clutching her pink locks. Ulrich took a step towards her and was overcome with immense pain to his head. "Ach, Jeremie!" He managed to gasp.
"Yumi, Odd, you need to go in to help!" The blonde boy exclaimed.
"Jeremie, we need to wait for that awful screeching to stop before we can even think about helping.
"Yumi's right," added Odd, a look of confusion on his usually cheerful face, "We can't put up a fight against that!"
"I'm sending in the Overbike, try to get out of there!" Quickly tapping away at his keyboard, the monocycle almost instantly materialized in front of Ulrich.
"Aelita!" He yelled over the head-numbing sound, "try to crawl to the bike!" Grunting and crawling across the ice, Aelita started to progress towards the vehicle. She felt strong pulsations under her struggling body. Ulrich had mounted the Overbike and helped pull the struggling girl up behind him. They headed for the tower. Soaring through the programs and digital current they were transported to the desert sector. The came out at full speed and crashed directly into a rock placed awkwardly in front of the exit site of the tower. Tumbling out, the two hit the ground hard, rolling a good fifteen feet before sliding to a dry halt.
"Are you two okay!?" Jeremie nearly yelled into the microphone. Yumi and Odd materialized in front of them as they quickly recovered. "That actually cost you guys some life points."
"Jeez guys, that was rough," Yumi remarked, a concerned look on her face. "What a weird place for that rock to be."
"I don't mean to interrupt," Jeremie quickly said, "but I'm getting a reading from the digital sea, something's surfacing!" The group ran to the edge of the patch of land and looked over, seeing a massive ripple breaking through the surface. A type of energy orb ripped through the still sea and floated to where the perplexed group of warriors stood. They all backed up, frightened.
"Jeremie," Aelita shakily started, "what is that thing... "
"I wish I knew, be careful, don't touch it until we know what it is."
"Well, who volunteers to get a closer look?" Odd said loudly as the teal orb settled on the ground in front of them. The other three friends looked at one another then at the loud boy clad in a purple cat suit. His tail flicked excitedly at the thought of adventure. Raising an eyebrow, a look of shock lit up his face. "Me?!" He yelled, "why me?"
"You suggested someone volunteer, moron." Ulrich replied, a sly smirk spread across his mouth.
Odd sighed and winked at Yumi, "I guess a real man will have to do this job." He quietly crept over to the orb and put a paw-gloved hand on the energy source. Not having any reaction, he held the glowing ball steadily and looked in. A look of pure amazement flooded his downloaded features and he looked back at his friends. "You guys aren't going to believe this, well, maybe you will I mean nothing really seems out of the ordinary anymore, but this is so weird, or is it, well I don't know again I don't think 'weird' is weird anymore it's more like normal right? Or maybe-"
"Odd!" Aelita and Yumi said in unison, they cut off their flustered team mate and walked over to look in the mystery orb, Ulrich following steadily behind.
Everyone steadying themselves by placing their hands on the orb, they gasped and stared in amazement.
"Guys! Guys what is it? Answer me!" Jeremie yelled. He missed everything. "Are you okay? What's going on!?"
"Jeremie," Yumi stuttered but managed to choke out the amazing discovery, "Jeremie, there's a girl in this thing."
I hope you like the first chapter! Help me out by reviewing? :)
