Hi again! Editing done. Story now has even less fail, and a few new, added bits. Again, if you want the original text, PM me.

Well, thanks for the...review! Heehee. Here's Chapter 2. I'm getting close to the meat of the story, don't worry. If we were in the meat, I'd have a running note section here. I love my running note sections.

Enjoy the chapter, and the free cookies you get for reading it!

Disclaimer: I once owned Code Lyoko...and then I woke up. Waaaaaa...

Chapter 2
The Infernal Beep

It had happened almost a million times. The moment he stepped into the room the computer flared to life on its own, beeping incessantly and displaying a cylindrical tower covered in red smoke on its screen. Though these signs was all too familiar to him, they nearly always gave him the chills, because their appearance only ever meant one thing. XANA, their enemy, was attacking.

He hated when that happened.

Involuntarily, he ran across the room, scrambled for his seat, and began typing frantically on his keyboard. He ran some scans, typed in some codes, and waited for the result. It came quickly- tower in the Sector 5 region. Perfect. He scrambled up again, nearly tripping, but remembering to catch himself. He snatched his laptop bag and his cellphone, shut down his desktop, and ran back out the door.

Thankfully, the halls were Jim-less this time. He ran through the building, out the door, and across the grounds to the forest without any trouble. As he was running, he whipped out his cellphone. If the tower was going to get deactivated, he'd need his friends to do it. He looked at his saved numbers. Number One was Aelita. He wasn't sure that he wanted to talk to Aelita at the moment. So he hit Two, and held the phone to his ear. He didn't remember who Two was, but it was someone in the gang.

There was a short dial tone, some ringing, and finally, a click. "Hey, Einstein!"

Oh, perfect, he thought.

He sighed, took a deep breath, and tried to get the words out. "Odd, I'm real sorry, but you're gonna have to cut your party short, there's a-"

"Hold on there, Jeremie- HEY GUYS, JER'S ON THE PHONE!" His voice sounded far away. "So, finally figured out what you were missing, huh? Thought you'd better go out in the fresh air and have some fun!"

"Well, uh, no, that's not why I-"

"Well, we're having some fun, aren't we, guys?" There was cheering in the background of the phone. "That's right! Yeah! You're lucky I'm the only one that remembered a phone, cause I can give you the play-by-play of what you're missing better than anyone here!"

Jeremie groaned. He was at the sewer passage, attempting to remove the manhole cover with one hand. "Odd, I don't have any time, and neither do you, there's a XA-"

"Okay, so we just got out of this movie, Mega-Ultimatium IV- it was SO scary. You should've seen Aelita shaking! She really needed someone to put their arm around her…" Jeremie blushed, grimacing. He was thankful this wasn't visible over the phone. "And you should have seen Ulrich- he was crying! But Yumi gave him a hug- sorry, turned away after that, didn't see if they did anything else. And now we're at that ice cream place down the street. You can come down if you want!" More cheering.

"But Odd-"

"Whatever ya say, Jer, but let me tell you, you have no idea how to have fun! Oh-" There was a pause. "Aelita wants to talk to you. Want me to put her on?"

Jeremie's heart spasmed and leapt at the same time. "Y-Yes! Definitely! Put her on!" He wasn't sure he was ready to talk to Aelita, but he knew that, no matter what, she would listen if it was urgent.

There was a short pause, and then he heard Aelita's voice. It was a bit hesitant, and shook slightly. "Uh, hi, Jeremie. Are you…alright?"

"Ya think? Listen to me, Aelita, Odd wouldn't let me talk, everyone have to get back here right now, there's a-"

"Okay, okay, don't bore the girl." Odd's voice was back. "So, I don't have any idea why you want to stay shut in your room, Jer. It seems like the one thing you'd need is ice cream! Like, right here, I've got-"

Jeremie groaned. He was already running across the bridge to the factory. "Look, Odd, just shut up for a second! There's a- oh, dangit, just get Yumi or Ulrich on the phone for me! There's a XAN-"

"Them? Oh, sorry, they're busy. Just went into a photo booth. We're watching the pictures come out, and they're pretty-"

Struggling to keep the phone to his ear, Jeremie swung down the cord, ran across the factory floor, and punched the code into the elevator interface. He was shaking with anger. "Look, Odd, this is all very nice, but I can't really chat with you right now, because I HAVE TO STOP A XANA ATTACK, AND IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU YOU'LL GET YOURSELVES OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!" He took a few deep breaths to calm himself. That had felt good. He stepped into the elevator, and heard the doors close behind him.

There was a small pause on Odd's end. "Oh, sorry about that, I kind of dropped the phone under the table. So, uh, what were you saying?"

Jeremie was silent for a long time. He racked his tired brain, trying to think of a good comeback, but couldn't find one. So, he just hung up.

"Jeremie?"

Odd held the phone closer to his ear, shaking it a few times. No sound came out.

"Jeremie, you still there?" Still no sound. He shook it once more, banged it on the plastic countertop, and then held it to his ear again.

"Okay, seriously, Jeremie…" He sighed, and put the phone back into his pocket. "Be touchy, why don't ya." He turned his attention back to his dish of ice cream, which, he reasoned, was a hell of a lot more appealing than whatever Jeremie had to say.

Aelita sat next to him in the booth. She looked more than a bit put out at the moment, but hid it by staring out the window on her other side. However, hearing the loud, smacky noises of Odd's eating resume once more, she turned her head towards him, fixing him with a stony look. "He hung up?"

"Mmf." Odd's mouth wasn't exactly ready for talking.

"What was he trying to say?" She arched an eyebrow at him. Her ice cream, which was significantly smaller, remained untouched.

"Mmmmmf…" He swallowed, and took some deep breaths. "Eh, I dunno. He kept stopping in the middle of his sentences for some reason."

"Maybe because…you were interrupting him?"

"Maybe." He tried to look cool and nonchalant as he took his next spoonful, but his eyes widened noticeably.

"Odd…" She arched her eyebrow even higher. "That's not always the best idea, and you know it. Jeremie always calls for a reason…and it's nearly always the same reason."

Odd's spoon stopped halfway to his mouth. "Yeah, I know." He looked down at it, and swallowed it anyway. "But he did hang up on me. If it really was urgent he would've stayed on…"

"That can mean more than one thing, Odd, and you know it." Aelita's eyebrow shot down as her eyes narrowed. "He could be in a lot of danger."

"Oh, chill out, Princess. You're just stressed out cause you yelled at him, and now you're all guilty about it." He shoveled a few more spoonfuls of ice cream into his mouth. Aelita rolled her eyes. "But still…he did sound kind of urgent. Maybe I shouldn't have interrupted him so much…"

"Or taken the phone from me. I didn't hear five words out of him." She stirred her half-melted ice cream in its dish. "I think all the sugar you've had today is affecting your brain, Odd. Please attempt to think." She looked up. "The lovebirds should be running out of money soon."

She looked over at the photo booth next to them, right against the wall. The words were hardly out of her mouth before the curtain in the front swept aside, and Ulrich and Yumi jumped out and ran for the table. They looked flustered, but generally happy. Ulrich was covered in popcorn and ticket stubs. Yumi was holding a trail of photo booth pictures with one hand, and discreetly trying to pick junk out of Ulrich's hair with the other. Yumi slid into the seat opposite Odd and Aelita, while Ulrich just leaned over the table.

"Ey, Aelita, can you give us a Euro or two? We're out." He held out his hand. Odd, seizing an opportunity, grabbed the pictures from Yumi and looped them over Ulrich's head.

Aelita looked down at his hand, and then back up at his face. "Jeremie just called. Odd wouldn't let me talk to him-" She shot him a death glare- "But I have a feeling he might be in trouble."

The couple froze- this wasn't the response that they were expecting. Ulrich was the first to unfreeze and react. "Well, I knew he called, but…" He turned towards Odd. He didn't notice his new headdress. "What'd he say? Problem? XANA attack?"

"As far as I remember, random sound bites." Odd shrunk back in his seat. "He wasn't making much sense…"

Ulrich and Yumi exchanged nervous looks, and then looked back at Aelita. "You think we should check on him?" Yumi asked.

"Well…" She looked at all of them, and then stood up. "Yes. Absolutely. I don't know about all of you, but I'm definitely going back to campus. You know…to make sure he's alright."

The other three shared a silent look, their faces growing nervous with the prospect of an unknown or perhaps nonexistent danger. However, they did all seem to favor the idea, because slowly, but surely, they all exchanged nods, mumbled "mmyes"es, and got up, stretching and making other sorts of noises. Yumi picked the string of pictures off of Ulrich's head, stuffing them into her pocket discreetly.

Aelita smiled at the positive response. "Ok, let's hurry." She threw some Euros on the table, scooted out of the booth, and followed her three friends out the door and into the street.

With a loud, metallic clash, the elevator opened onto the all-too-familiar interface room. Jeremie ran over to the interface chair, hopped in, and swung around to the terminal. He pressed a button, which started up the computer and all its fancy programs. He brought up the holomap of Lyoko, typed in some more codes, and then, having nothing else to do for the moment, slumped back in his seat. Without his friends, he was stuck, at least for now.

He supposed he'd just have to wait until the others somehow noticed what the attack was. Or until he could call again, figure out a way to fight past Odd, and maybe get to Ulrich or Yumi, someone who would listen. Come to think of it, why had Odd had been so uncooperative? He knew a call from him could mean a XANA attack...but then again, when Odd was having fun, he let go of whatever little sense he had.

Vaguely, he wondered how XANA would attack them. The last few attacks had been rather dull- mostly polymorphs or possessions. Why did XANA like using those so much? They were hardly effective, after all- he was living proof of this. But, the virus seemed to enjoy them, and had even gone so far as to take one of their number as a permanent slave. XANA was now using their former teammate, William, as a sort of avatar- but why? What was the point of taking a human form, when he was all too omnipotent already? Wouldn't it be limiting, almost?

His mind had wandered like that for a while when it was thrown off course by an outward distraction. A light started blinking in the middle of the screen, right in a spot where there were no windows. Confused, he sat up and leaned in close. The light was only that- a blinking light, nothing more, oddly, wholly pointless. He stared at it.

Barely a second later, Jeremie sensed some movement out of the corner of his eye. In the box right above the light, a code was typing itself, going by too fast for him to see what it was. He startled, sat straight up, and pounded his Backspace key, but to no avail- it just kept going on and on, as though the box was only in the control of the typist, whoever it was.

Then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. Jeremie blinked, leaned in again, and read a few times. He spasmed. He knew that code. Particularly, the last five words, in a line all by themselves, written in plain English for all to see and understand.

"Return to the Past…now?"

These words had just registered in his brain when it happened.

A column of white light burst from the holomap area, exactly like it normally did for a time reset. However, instead of spreading out over the area like in any other reset, it just hung in its column, doing absolutely nothing. Jeremie, intrigued, hopped out of his chair and shuffled towards it. He looked up at it. It almost seemed to stare back.

"Uh…"

For a few seconds, the column did not move. Then, without any sort of warning at all, it leapt from its post, hovered in the air for a quick second, and then fell onto him. With impossible speed, it wrapped itself around him, restraining him and pinning him to the floor. This done, it slowly began to creep over his entire body, swallowing him up like one might swallow a snack.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAUUGH!" He tried to scream and struggle against the light, but both efforts were to no avail. For one thing, he had very little physical advantage over a formless, matterless illumination, though in his case this didn't make too much of a difference. The screams, on the other hand, were quickly silenced as he was enveloped completely by the light.

Its prisoner taken, the column swirled itself into a ball, flashed, and then shrank to nothing with a small twinkle. It left no trace of the boy behind, other than the computer, still online, still humming along, blissfully unaware of anything that could have ever been amiss.

And there he goes. Out of my way, just where he belongs.

Just were all humans belong, really. Ugh…it pains me to describe the ways in which these creatures irk me. Though many of them have great gifts, skills, talent, such things are wasted on them, held back by the very nature of humanity itself. Emotions. Desires. Silly customs. Too many wonderful abilities have been crushed by them.

That boy is a prime example. Talented child, precocious beyond belief, and yet too clouded by love and desperation to be of any positive importance to me. Would he fight against me if not for love? Love for his world, love for his friends, love for that stupid little girl? No. And therefore, his humanity is a disadvantage. To me, because it creates an obstacle, and to him, because it shortens his lifespan substantially.

Ah, yes, death. One wonderful thing about humans is that, though they are slippery creatures, in the end, they are very simple to get rid of. It was not too difficult to simply break into his codes, gain control of the RTTP, strengthen it through the use of the activated tower, and then just drop him off someplace in time. His friends, the less valuable ones, will fight me for his release, but the tower's deactivation will serve them naught. He is gone, vanished, never to reappear.

The point of it all is, without him, his little friends lose two things- a great portion of skill, and a great portion of humanity. Without those two pieces holding them together, their efforts to crush me will quickly fall apart. And then, I will be very, very happy. Er, pleased. Positively inclined. One of those. Ahaha.

I hope his death is painful, Father. Painful, just as yours should have been. You, another entity similarly cursed by the strains of human life. But, for you, what is past is past. Your death, my Father, will be a matter of future affairs.

Back at the old Kadic campus, things were beginning to wind down. The students outside were starting to get bored, as children usually did around that time of day. When the fun stops, one nearly always has to head back home. This was especially true for four children just entering the campus, because for them, the day's fun had definitely ended.

The four of them dashed up to the main square of the campus and skidded to a halt by their bench. They were all out of breath, but Aelita much less so- if anything, she seemed to be channeling a wild vigor from some unknown source. Something was amiss, and she wasn't going to stop until she knew what it was.

Before anyone else could say a word, she took charge. "Ok, guys, here's what's going to happen. Odd, give me your cellphone. I'm going to try and call Jeremie to get more details out of him." She held out her hand, presumably to take the cellphone. "Yumi, go to the dorms, see if he's in his room. If he isn't, we'll all head down to the factory, because that's probably where he is. Clear?"

"As crystal." Ulrich saluted her.

"Got it." Yumi gave a quick nod, and then sped off towards the dorm complex.

"'Kay." Odd shrugged, pulled out his mobile, and tossed it to her. She caught it, began punching in Jeremie's number, and held it to her ear. She turned away from the boys, humming and tapping her foot, waiting for Jeremie to pick up.

Having nothing else to do. Ulrich stared over at Odd, who was staring at the sky. Something about him struck him as a bit offbeat- for some reason, he was holding a whole bucket of movie theater popcorn. He supposed it wouldn't be too much to draw attention to it. "Uh, Odd?"

"Ay?" He turned towards his friend.

"What's with the popcorn?"

"Oh, this?" His smile widened as he held up the tub. "I was gonna dump this on Jer's head. Yanno, to get him into the party spirit. Great idea, eh?" He gave a thumbs-up.

"It's a start, but I don't really think we should bother right now. It's not really party central right now, in case you haven't noticed."

"Eh. I'll do it anyway. If there really is a XANA attack, then he won't have the time to be mad at me." He grabbed a fistful of popcorn and ate it. Ulrich, interest now exhausted, glanced over at Aelita. She was pacing back and forth, ear glued to the phone, though she hadn't said a word so far. After a moment, she pulled the phone away, smashing a red button. She turned towards the boys, looking a cross between worried and disguisted.

"No signal," she said, in a much higher voice than usual. "Didn't even go to voicemail… I'll try again." She was just hitting the redial and holding the phone again to her ear when the sounds of footsteps behind her caught her attention. The three of them turned to see Yumi running towards them, alone, and very fast. She skidded to a halt by Ulrich's side, panting.

"He…he's not in his dorm," she said between gasps. "His bag is gone, and his computer's off." She looked up at Ulrich, and, quickly as she could, picked another ticket stub off his shoulder.

"Then he's at the factory. I'm sure of it." She nodded, phone still at her ear. "Come on. We don't have any time to waste."

Without another word, without checking to see if the others were following her, she shot into the woods. The others hesitated for a moment, intimidated slightly, and then ran after her.

The trip to the factory, from the run through the sewers to the elevator ride, was awkward and tense. Aelita tried multiple times to call Jeremie's cellphone on the way, but each time, the line came up dead. She became visibly more worried as they came closer to the factory, clenching her teeth and gripping the phone as though her life depended on it. Of course, they were all worried, but Aelita most visibly so.

As the elevator doors opened with their usual dramatic flair, all four of the Warriors half-hoped to see Jeremie in his chair, looking somewhat surprised, but alright, and ready to brief them on whatever had gone wrong. But, that expectation was quickly dispelled. Though the computer was running, the chair was empty, as was the rest of the room.

Odd, looking slightly let down, was the first to run out of the elevator. "Jeremie? Jeremie? This isn't cool…where are you…" He ran for the chair, set his tub of popcorn on the top of the terminal, and began poking the shiny metal seat, as though a Jeremie would magically appear if he did. The others followed close behind, though a bit more cautiously and observantly.

Aelita pushed Odd away from the computer and hopped into the chair, ready to somehow discern from it what had happened. She placed her hands on the keyboard, and looked up at the screen. "Ok then, let's see…ah…what's this?"

One window was open, covered in lines and lines of cramped, complex code. To Ulrich, Odd and Yumi it was the equivalent of a foreign language, but Aelita knew exactly what it was. And all four of them, simultaneously looking down at the bottom, knew exactly what the last five words meant.

"'Return to the past…now?" Yumi tilted her head.

"An actual sentence?" Ulrich leaned in closer to the screen. "But what's that doing in Jeremie's pile of gibberish?"

"I dunno..." Aelita began typing furiously, closing the window and moving a few others around. "Hm...hey, there's a window blinking here..."

She clicked on it, which brought it to the center of the screen. It was, unfortunately, hauntingly familiar- a picture of a tower, blinking red, accompanied by a loud beeping noise. A tower activation signal. So.

There was a very short, stunned silence. Eventually, it was broken by Odd, who spoke in an oddly serious, yet confused voice.

"So...Jeremie is in trouble, isn't he?"

Wow. I gotta admit, I've had more fun writing this than I have with any other story. Ever. Hope you had just as much fun reading it.

I've gotten rid of two of XANA's nicknames. "Father" will stay for Franz, but "Facilitator" and "Prototype" I'll be editing out, just cause they seem a little cheesy. Yeah.

But anyway, thankies for reading! Next chapter is where it gets interesting.

-Carth