Prologue

Time passes. Many decades ago the group that was once known as the "Lyoko Warriors" left behind their life with the virtual world to pursue a new one, one as normal friends. They grew up, led their lives, and some even had kids. New friends were made, old ones faded into obscurity, but they stayed tied together by a common memory. Their lives went on with the generations, average to the inexperienced eye.

But who said XANA ever died? After all...

No good programmer forgets to back up his work.

Somewhere out there, there were copies of XANA's code, and for all that is known, made by XANA himself. Now, there are many tales to tell of the one who accidentally revived the virus, but they are for later.

For now, we open in the small town of Dodge Creek, Ohio, an area just outside of an almost equally small city near Lake Erie. In this town with the size of a small school district, it's a wonder something so similar to the Warriors' predicament could happen. The children at the local high school have uncovered a computer system reminiscent of the ancient factory complex's, of which exists across the ocean on the other side of the world, and completely unbeknownst to them.

A plan made by a force beyond their control is coming to fruition, so welcome to life for the teenagers of this town. This includes our focus, Edd Kirk, a little green-eyed boy whose family seems to be all but gone for now. A mom who knows where, a dad off in New York for a business trip, and a sister who has fallen from Lyoko.

Welcome to the cycle about to be broken by the people of this small town.

Welcome to Dodge Creek.

We've sworn to secrecy, that's why we're so careful when it comes to showing this place to new people. It's funny, really, because a lot of people our age in Dodge Creek actually know about it, but we all know that if someone ever tells the authorities or even just a teacher, it would mean the end for Lyoko. Sure, the teacher might think the person's joking at first, but you can't exactly joke so hard that you wish a subterranean supercomputer into existence under the sewer system.

The NSA or something could get involved, and some of us here kind of need the escape. No, not me, I'm fine, but this is something that I need to escape from, if I may be so dramatic. My sister's stuck in there. We don't know where she is, let alone if she's even alive, but I'd rather stay optimistic.

From the old text files and voice logs that we found in the behemoth of a computer, we learned that there was another group of kids that had found this place before us, calling themselves the Lyoko Warriors. They had recorded their progress in finding more information on the code that made up this digital world and the conflict it had presented at the time. Their group was far smaller than our own, though, seeing as how they only had six people at their highest point, while we have basically the entire student body of our school. Nevertheless, their tech know-it-all, who had gone by the name of Jeremie, had allegedly found a way to get people back from the Digital Sea — where Emma had fallen into. They claimed to have had succeeded, and when we get her out, I want to shut it all down, even if I have to do it myself.

A group of high school juniors and seniors had found this place back in April, completely by accident. In fact, whenever we talk about this place in the open, some people push for us to discretely call it by the nickname "April." Oh, are you going to April's house after school? Meet you at April's at five thirty! Hey, let's take a walk near April's. I don't use it because I think it's unnecessary, but I digress.

The story goes that they had been out biking on a Saturday afternoon near the edge of the woods when one of them, a senior named Alex Montag, got distracted and had fallen down a small ledge at the edge of the path they were riding. He found a stormwater drain, and the others instinctively got the genius idea to go down there and explore the open tunnels. So, they went back to their houses, got some flashlights, snapped some branches off trees to defend themselves should any wild animals be hiding in the dark, and went in. An hour, a mother raccoon attack, and a kid bailing out later, they happened upon the room with what we would come to know as the Supercomputer and the scanners, the sooner standing in the center of the room and the latter ones being set up lazily in a semi-circle in the far right corner.

Of course, none of them really knew what it was or how to work it, so they talked to some techies from the advanced coding classes that Monday and tried convincing them to come back with them and help them work the mysterious computer they claimed they had found in the town's nasty drainage system.

Three had actually decided to come along, all juniors: Derek Almas, Kevin Marr, and Astrid Braun. The big group went back in that afternoon directly after school — luckily, there was no raccoon that time — and Derek went to work on booting up the devices. He failed to find any buttons to power it up near the main desktop, so he looked behind the comp and followed the massive wires and cords trailing behind it. They all led into a hidden server room next to the scanners set behind a thick, metal door that blended with the wall, where they, of course, found servers, but also a glowing mainframe on the back wall with a pull switch embedded in its sole compartment.

The other guy, Kevin, is rather rash, though, and flipped the switch before Derek could even confirm it wouldn't explode or something, but it ended up activating the power in the whole compound — the lab and the servers — instead. We would later come to know this place as the "Hideout." Kevin's still pretty smug about being the one to "officially" turn Lyoko on.

So there were a total of three main machines: the several rows of servers, the Supercomputer, and three "scanners."

Of course, Astrid couldn't keep a secret and spilled it to Emma through text messaging that night, and Emma, in turn, brought me along. Needless to say, the upperclassmen weren't too happy about us tagging up with them for their third exploration that Tuesday. Well, they were fine with Emma, since she was a junior too, but not for long after they had found out that she had brought a freshman with her, even if it was her brother, because apparently two grades makes a real big difference. I don't understand what the stigma was against freshmen; I'm glad I'm almost a sophomore.

Emma had figured that they didn't want too many people finding out and that it was kind of a slap in the face to bring friends of friends of friends. They probably didn't trust us to keep a secret after that, but the ironic thing is that us two, and even Astrid, weren't even the ones to get the rumor started about this place. It was mostly the seniors that chatted up the stories and got some more people to come, but I suppose like seniors do, and just like they convinced the code class kids, they miraculously have been managing to keep people pretty quiet about the whole thing. It was even Alex's idea to use the "April" thing as a code-name.

Chapter 1

I jump in my sleep and wake up breathing heavily — I've had another night terror. I look over at my clock I have set on a stool next to my bed just as 6:29 turns to 6:30 and it begins beeping, and I attempt to wiggle off my blanket and try hitting at it to make it stop, but I'm still caught in my blanket and keep missing it. I fall out of bed, taking the stool down with me, and take the clock in both of my hands and repeatedly press the off button, but it won't turn off. I panic and frantically take the batteries out, throwing them at the wall, and moan, "Why do you do this every morning?" to the now blank inanimate object. Our cats, Charlie and Lance, see my struggle as their cue to come barreling into my room meowing and start fighting in the corner, presumably over who gets to annoy me more.

I slept in my shirt, start putting on my long shorts, grab a pair of socks, and head downstairs to turn the corner into our house's living room and into the kitchen. Lance is somehow already down here, sitting on Emma's chair with his ears back, chattering in an annoyed tone, like always.

"She's not back yet, you dense chatterbox," I tell him, but he doesn't get the message, and only gets louder. Charlie comes storming down from upstairs and tries jumping at Lance, only to fling himself too low and hit the bottom of the chair. He pops his head back up with a befuddled expression while Lance bats at his face, and I can't help but laugh a little. I walk through to the back of the kitchen, grab my jacket off my chair, and open up the resistant back door with the familiar scrap of metal and rubber on the frame. I fling up my hood as I mount my bike leaning against the side of my house and slowly take off into the cool summer morning towards the woods.

The Hideout is amazing. Everything glows with a golden light like that of an artificial sunrise, forming rays that glint off of the machines, and during the summer, especially now in early July when summer's just kicking into high gear, it's a buzzing hub of teenagers looking to have some fun, although not now at the abysmal time of six forty-five in the morning. It had declined for a little while when school had just let out in June and Emma fell into the digital sea, and it's almost offending that it's made a resurgence. There are a handful of kids — seniors — waiting near the scanners to be virtualized onto Lyoko, excited to see what awaits them for today, and yet others are relaxing off to the sides just hanging around.

The scanners are what confused our early group the most; the tall, empty cylinders of steel and copper looked like modernized coffins surrounded by wires and plugs, and we couldn't believe it when we discovered what they did.

Some of the other few freshmen here are giving me worried glances. They're here to get an early start on the fun, but everyone knows what I'm here for. A squad of them are friends of mine, Doug, Dillon, Martin, and Riley. They're not the closest of friends I have, but we know each other fairly well, well enough for them to worry for me. My closest friend, Lukas, is out on vacation to Germany to see relatives with his family right now, so I've mostly been on my own or talking with Emma's friends.

"Hey Edd, do you wanna sit down for a little while? We've got cold pancakes," one speaks up, optimistically. I turn around and see them looking at me eagerly, Dillon holding up a soggy-looking toaster pancake. They all laugh, Doug even slamming his face into the blanket he has on the floor, as Dillon explains, "I was going to heat them up last night and just eat them at room temp this morning, but my dad was downstairs all night and I fell asleep before I could sneak down and even get my hands on the toaster. They're all frozen, but I'm lucky I could get them at all!"

"...No, I'm fine, thanks," I murmur, much to their disappointment, and walk off to the Supercomputer that stands in the center of the room, attached to the inside of a concave, wall-like panel hanging from the ceiling, and the tall junior in gray sweatpants and a t-shirt standing at the keyboard.

Astrid's on comp duty this week, working the computer and making sure everyone stays safe. Can't be too careful after Emma's situation, not to mention that Astrid's taking this very personally. I tap her shoulder and she takes out her headset, only for it to get stuck in her long hair. She uses this headset to communicate with others; it helps her talk to almost anyone, whether they be someone already on Lyoko, one of the head seniors calling her about something important, or the system alerting her of a malfunction. She turns to me, the microphone still entangled in her hair, and her face brightens up a little, "Oh hey Edd, ya know I really oughta start wearing a ponytail. So, same place as yesterday?"

"Yeah, and I could use the Overboard this time around."

She nods and taps something on her keyboard, "Right," she hesitates a little before finishing. "Head on over to scanner one," she directs while pointing a finger at the far left tube. I notice her looking up at my curly, honey gold bedhead, and she cracks a joke half-heartedly, "and maybe run a brush through your hair next time, can't look too crazy for when you find her."

I manage a smile at that and sound back in agreement, not even sure myself of what I'm saying.

As I turn to go to the scanners tucked in the corner a couple yards away, I jump as she grabs my shoulder and has me face her again, "I'm coming with you this time, I'm sick of just waiting here while Emma's in there and you go it alone. I can set the Supercomputer to make a timed virtualization."

After that, she holds the mic of the headset back up to her mouth and she quickly speaks up to the people on the other end, "Hey, I need someone to take my place out here, I'm going in with a friend. Maybe you, Matt, you haven't exactly done much on comp this summer."

"Beats watching these guys taking all the glory out here," someone, likely Matt, responds from the other end.

I attempt to argue that she can stay, but Astrid doesn't exactly take no for an answer. I watch as she brings up the programs for virtualization and vehicles, and sets up four timers on the screen set to go off in ten seconds. She rushes off towards the tubes and I step into scanner two as she takes scanner one. The wait isn't long, and the tall sliding doors of sanded steel start to close almost immediately, first on Astrid, and then on me. The transfer process starts up as the cooling fans below the grated floor activate, and I close my eyes while my clothes blow back and forth around my waist and my small clumps of corkscrewed curls start to whip at my ears. My eyes are closed out of tiredness, but I've done this so many times by now that I know a light is traveling up and down the curves of the tube, scanning to see who's avatar to fetch from the mainframe. The scanning completes and I see the flashes of light through my closed eyelids as we make our shift to the virtual world.

I'm rendered onto Lyoko several feet above the ground with my arms stretched away from my body and my legs dangling together, suspended in the air for a brief second before I'm released from the invisible thread and my limbs become maneuverable again. I land on the balls of my feet with a thump, my hands hitting the ground in front of me to steady myself as I get up. Astrid comes down right after me with the clank of metal, and we greet one another and take a look at each other.

Lyoko, being a digital world, has uncanny graphical limitations. People here look like computer-generated animations, and there is very little skin detail; no one has their wrinkles or acne or even dimples carry over from the real world, and we don't even have fingernails. Our clothes don't carry over either, and our programmed avatars are equipped in spandex-like, full-body suits, unique to each individual and usually complete with weapons. We've found that those with no physical weapons on their person almost always have a weapon that they can call up with their power, although there are the rare few with no powers or weapons at all, much to their dismay, due to an anomaly in the code. A lot of people have both weapons and powers, like me with my halberd and cryokinesis.

My avatar's light gray clothing covers my entire lower body, but cuts off at the sleeves and goes halfway up my neck, I have smooth, blue pads covering my shoulders and knees, blue, segmented metal makes up my weighted boots, and a light blue strap keeps my silver halberd hanging from my back and a layer of light blue padding pressed against my thighs. Lyoko has a tendency to change your hair, too, so what was once a swirled wad of short, dangling curls are now clumps of short, downward-facing spikes.

Astrid's avatar bares much closer resemblance to her physical counterpart, with long, straight light brown hair and the only difference being a single yellow highlight going the length down one of her right locks. Her attire is styled differently than mine — her skin is covered all the way down to her feet and elbows with pale yellow spandex, and plates of silver metal completely encase her shins and feet, with a few also partially protecting her hips and upper chest. There are little engravings of golden circuit designs on the plates that snake up from the edges.

We look around at our surroundings. She's put us in sector four, the Mountains, just like I always go to on my searches. The terrain is made up of dull purple monoliths shaped like falling globules of water that float in suspension over the Digital Sea, and the whole area remains shrouded in a sheet of mist, especially near the many distant peaks. Wide, flat connections of arced stone join the hilly platforms and spires, making it appear like a floating fortress of paths. This was Emma's favorite sector — it was where she went the most, and the place that she got shot into the Sea.

"Is anyone else in the Mountains?" I whisper.

"Everyone who happens to be up as of now was virtualized into sector three, and I doubt that slowpoke Matt got to a tower quick enough to get out and put other people in, so we should be alone. How come you're whispering? You worried someone will hear us talking or something? We're not hiding anything."

"No, I think I'm just still waking up," I say as I rub my eyes. "Sector three, that's the Desert, right?"

"No, the Forest. Who in their right mind would want to be in the desert smack dab in the middle of summer?"

Not even a moment later do two other objects start to appear, floating just inches over the rocks. The identical Overboards begin as the white, three-dimensional grid of their form that slowly fills in the framework of vector lines with colors and textures. They finish loading within a few seconds and they finally look like what I'm used to: sleek, deep indigo hoverboards with a square of black gripping in the center, stout fins protruding up from the sides, and little silver thrusters embedded on of each side. The Overboards bob down ever so slightly as we step up onto them, a warm glow like the shimmering of a summer heat haze escaping from the thrusters as they power on, and then we lift off and we're off across the sector.

The barren Mountains have plenty of open air, but there are countless hollows and cave entrances scattered on the larger islands. Placed methodically across the entire sector are ten tall towers, perfect, white cylinders only interrupted in their opacity by what looks like dense bubbles and clots of black ivy, and shrouded in a halo of cyan smoke.

They're like this in every sector, and should you walk through them to the inside, they hold vast quantities of easily accessible data and computing power from the internet — think of it somewhat as a digital communication access within the servers that run Lyoko — but the tower that we're going to, just like I do every morning to noon, is special. It's called a Way Tower, and while the other nine normal towers serve as connections to things like websites and communications with the real world, not to mention a method by which to send and receive data like any average desktop computer, Way Towers hold information of the sector itself; information like the sector's virtualization history, changes in the other towers' statuses, and even a complete readout of the couple hundred thousand paragraphs of coding that comprise the entirety of the Mountains. They also hold the one true connection between all other towers and the Digital Sea, and without them, all other towers would be rendered useless. I've been hoping that I'll finally find data on how to bring Emma back, or at least find where she is and what's happening to her.

The thing about the towers is that we're not the only ones that are able to use them. As Astrid and I pass by one, I think of one of the first logs we ever found in the Supercomputer, an audio of a girl describing a programmed hostility in the system:

"We've discovered what's been causing the strange attacks near our town in the past few days: a part of the Supercomputer that was awakened when we powered it on. 'X—A—N—A,' or just 'XANA,' is a malevolent program, which can control the electricity and circuitry of seemingly anything, but in order to attack us, it needs to activate towers on Lyoko to gain access to our world. We've started to refer to XANA as a 'he,' out of simplicity. He seems to be a neural-network-based learning AI with an unjustified lust to destroy."

There weren't very many of the logs — there were just enough to give us the basics of how to work Lyoko — but from what we've gathered, 'XANA' was once much stronger, malevolent, and capable of learning back then, and had been a major conflict as the Warriors tried to materialize a virtual girl into our world. Besides that, they left their story relatively vague to us.

Attacks of the nature described have been happening to us recently, although nothing serious; they can't even be considered "attacks" when the worst they've done is fry some outlets or power down a scanner, and the only way we know that they're technically "attacks" and not just technology being technology is because some of the kids have noticed that when an "attack" is launched, a tower on Lyoko becomes "activated" and the smoke halo around it turns red, but it always deactivates itself after an hour or so.

Really, the only presence XANA has is that he has a tendency to create hostile creatures for Lyoko, like human-height blocks on legs or these pathetic knee-height things called Kankrelats that look like a stumpy, wingless cockroach, but really, the worst they do is shoot lasers at you with bad aim, likely due to their lack of eyes, and try to hit you until you get a forced devirtualization. They have obvious weak points, too, each monster having a symbol that we've come to call "the Eye of XANA" right on their front that looks like a three-ringed target. Visitors like it, though, seeing as how they're supposedly no threat, despite a Block being the thing that shot Emma into the Sea, and they add a bit of life to the animal-less landscape, not to mention a bit more action.

We're flying side by side now on our Overboards, just going around an extensive mound of floating stone and almost in sight of the Passage Tower, when a strange winged creature flies by in front of us with a resonant buzzing, almost making me lose my balance.

"Astrid! You saw that?"

"Yeah," she giggles, "it looked like a massive bee! I saw the 'Eye' on it; must be a new 'monster.' Great to see XANA's innovating for once."

I watch as the creature flies far to our left to a tower where a small group of four or five more are gathering. They swarm in the air, seemingly following an unseen entity, until I notice something slowly walking into the wall of the liquid tower: a person, dressed all in black, with no skin on their body showing but their fingers and presumably their face, which is turned away from us and already halfway into the tower.

"Astrid, I thought you said no one was in the Mountains."

"There shouldn't be. Why, did you see someone?"

"Yes, walking into the tower over there, where the bugs are swarming!"

"Well then, we better go check it out," she instructs as we steer down to the tower in pursuit. We cautiously step off of our vehicles, and even as we push inside, the eyeless insects remain unresponsive, aimlessly staring at the tower and its mystery occupant.

The inside is familiar: a circular, azure floor with a white Eye stretching across the whole of it, and deep blue walls of glittering lights and traveling binary code, but there we find that there's no one inside.

Next chapter May 1st, now bear with me on this wild road that I'm presenting, guys.

I wish for the reader to roast me viciously on my bad grammar, spelling, and tense/POV shifts should they present themselves; I wish to improve my work if there is a problem.

This is somewhat based on a post made on the CodeLyokoHeadcanons Tumblr blog submitted by an anonymous user: "No good programmer forgets to back up their work. Somewhere out there, there's still disks containing XANA's code, either made by Hopper or by XANA itself," so yeah, I guess we can thank that.