Beginnings: Part 1

"Alright! This is the place!" one of three boys said looking at the old factory in the outskirts of the town. It was very large, and looked dilapidated. Thing was no one knew what it was used for, but these kids planned on finding out.

One boy was kind of short, with long black hair and big glasses, wearing a white suit shirt, black pants, white sneakers, and a red tie that was undone. His name was Andrew.

Another boy was slightly taller than the other two, obviously the oldest of the three. He had blue hair that went to his shoulders, wearing a yellow shirt, red vest, blue jeans, and white and red sneakers. His name was Henry.

The last of the three boys, and the leader of this venture, was about average hight for a teenager, with long blond hair, wearing brown pants, a light brown tunic like top, brown sunglasses, and what looked like a cowboy's hat. This was Sky.

"Are you sure that it's safe to go in there?" Andrew asked Sky, who was standing in the center of the group with his hands on his hips, "I mean, what happens if we get caught?"

"We won't have to worry about that because we won't get caught," Sky said turning to Andrew and Henry.

"Andrew's right Sky, this is a bad idea. That place doesn't look safe at all," Henry said looking away with his arms crossed.

Sky went over to Henry, "Aw come on Henry! Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Sorry, I think I left that at home. All I have with me is my common sense," Henry said staring daggers at Sky. He hated it when Sky took them on these adventures for two reasons. One, they were always in dangerous places, and two, they never found anything worth while. He just knew that this would be a waste of time, like every other "adventure".

"Yeah well, you didn't have to come!" Sky said getting right into Henry's face. They never got along. Sky was a man of adventure, but Henry was the strong silent type, so their personalities often times clashed.

"Guys, seriously," Andrew jumped in knowing that this was going to get ugly, "We're here know, so let's just go in."

"See, he came around," Sky said pointing to Andrew, Henry just grunted slightly looking away. Sky turned on his heel and marched into the factory. Henry shook his head and walked after him. Andrew breathed a sigh of relief and walked after his friends.

The inside of the factory was just as old looking as the outside, and Henry had already given up hope.

"Nothing's here. Let's go," Henry said turning to the exit.

"Not yet, we just got here," Sky said to Henry. Henry rolled his eyes and walked back to Sky and Andrew.

The three of them were exploring for quite a while, and all they found were a bunch of machines that didn't work. Andrew found a large cargo elevator and took a good look at it, surprised to see that it still worked.

"Hey guys, I think this elevator is still on," Andrew called out. Henry and Sky ran up to him.

"Now we're talking!" Sky said clapping his hands together, "I wonder what we'll find down there!"

"Pipes, and more pipes," Henry said rolling his eyes.

"You're starting to really get on my nerves, you know that?" Sky groaned. Andrew pushed the button and the three of them went to the lower level. When the door opened all three of them were shocked.

The room they were in was large, with white metal walls, a large table in the center, and a really big super computer on the other side.

"Shit..." Sky said slowly.

"Amazing..." Andrew said slowly.

"I'll admit, I was wrong..." Henry said nodding, his eyes wide.

The three of them walked around the laboratory, looking around. Andrew walked over to the super computer and tried to turn it on, to no avail.

"I wonder how this thing works. I wish we could get it on," he said sitting down in the chair in front of it.

Henry found a map on the side wall, showing the two lower floors. The one directly under them was marked "Scanner Room" and the one right under that was marked "Core Room".

"Hey Sky, let's check out these lower floors," Henry said.

"Oh, now you found you're sense of adventure," Sky said following Henry to the elevator.

The Scanner room was also large. It had four large pod like machines inside, which Henry assumed were the Scanners. Henry pulled out his cell phone to call Andrew while Sky went to the Core Room.

"Hey Andrew, I found these large machines under the computer room. I think they're called scanners," he said.

"Scanners? That's weird."

"They look big enough for a human to fit in. Why would someone make man sized scanners?"

"The only reason I can think of is to scan humans into a digital plane, but I wonder where that plane is?" there was a beep on Henry's phone, showing sky was trying to activate a three way line, "Is that Sky?" Andrew asked.

"Yeah, I'll put him on three way," Henry said pushing a button on his cell phone, "What's up Sky?"

"Hey guys, I think I found the power switch," Sky said looking around in the room he was in. The only thing there was a large black and gold machine with a strange symbol on the front that was shaped like an eye sort of.

"Think you can get this thing to work?" Andrew asked.

"Sure thing. Just give me a second," Sky then pulled the switch up activating the super computer, "How's that?"

"It looks like that did it," Henry said, "The scanners started glowing, I think that they turned on."

"Holy..." Andrew said, "Guys, you two need to see this!"

"Wonder what he found," Sky said to Henry.

"Let's get back to the computer room," Henry said before hanging up. Sky went into the elevator and went back to the computer room.

There they saw a few things were a little different. The computer was now on, showing a number of options, the other thing was that on top of the table was a strange looking hologram. It showed what looked like a strange world that branched off in six different directions.

"What is all of this?" Sky asked as he and Henry walked forward.

"I have no idea, but whatever it is it's huge! It's almost like a virtual world of sorts," Andrew explained.

"A virtual world?" Henry mimicked.

"It seems to have six different sectors, a forest, a mountain, a ruin, a desert, a ice plane, and even a city!" Andrew was obviously excited.

"That's so cool!" Sky said looking at the holographic map, "I bet that those scanner things connect with this place!"

"But why? What's the point of all of this?" Henry asked looking at the map also.

"I don't know, but I plan on finding out!" Andrew said pulling out an instruction booklet from under the keyboard, "Let's get get to school. I'll read up on this in my spare time and we can come back after school," Andrew said walking to the elevator.

"Shouldn't we turn the computer off before we leave?" Henry asked Andrew and Sky, who were both walking to the elevator.

"No one else even knows this place exists," Sky said, "It'll save us a lot of trouble when we get back."

"I guess..." Henry said walking into the elevator. The door closed and the three of them went back to the surface.

Elsewhere in a virtual abandoned city, a man was walking around holding his head. He had blond hair down to his shoulders, square glasses, and was wearing a white lab coat, blue body armor, matching blue boots, and strange blaster like weapons on his arms.

"What happened?" he asked still walking forward. He looked around and realized where he was, "This is... Lyoko? Right! XANA!" the man then ran forward until he found a tall tower at the end of the path. He went inside of the tower, almost like he just fazed in through the wall.

The inside of the tower has blue walls that were covered in what looked like code of some sort. He pulled up a holographic screen and keyboard and began typing on it.

"XANA rebooted himself? Was he shut down? If that's the case then..." he then began typing a bit more, and then got annoyed by what he saw, "Damn, it's just like I thought!" he then stepped out of the tower and put his hands on his hips, "Now what am I going to do?" he sighed and looked down. He then saw two small crab like creatures walk by, "If XANA catches me now then I'm done for. I better find a place to hide until I figure out my next move," he said running past the crabs to find a safer place.

Andrew, Henry, and Sky went to Robinson High, a school surrounded by a large green forest, and was actually connected to the factory secretly. Henry was the only junior in the trio, both Andrew and Sky were sophomores. They became friends a year ago, when Henry transferred to their school from another. All the other kids were afraid of him, and since Andrew was marked as the biggest nerd in school and Sky was viewed as a prankster who no one took seriously, Henry fit right into their group of misfits.

At lunch they sat at their usual table by themselves, all other kids avoiding them. Andrew was sitting in the middle reading what he could make out of the booklet he got from the laboratory, Sky was trying to attract the attention of every girl that passed their way, but Henry was looking down in deep thought.

Sky stopped and looked over to Henry, "Dude, what's up?" he asked.

"That laboratory under the factory, I got a weird feeling from it," Henry said. He then looked up and looked at Sky, "Didn't you guys?"

"I'll admit, it was a weird place for a secret lab," Sky said shrugging his shoulders, "But that virtual world has me excited!"

"Shh!" Andrew said getting both Henry and Sky's attention, "Listen guys, under no circumstances can we tell anyone about the factory. If anyone ever found out about that giant computer then we'd be in serious trouble."

"He does have a point," Henry chimed in, "I don't want the authorities after us. If we can avoid the extra attention, then I say we do just that."

"Yeah, I guess..." Sky said looking down a little disappointed. This was too awesome to just keep in, but he knew that he better.

"So we all agree right?" Andrew asked, "We don't tell anyone." Both Henry and Sky nodded.

"Don't tell anyone what?" a high pitched voice asked from above. All three looked up and saw a girl with long brown hair, wearing a black suit jacket, matching skirt, black shoes, and holding a note pad standing over them. This was the student council president, and the principle's daughter, Alice.

"Nothing a snobby daddy's girl like you needs to be concerned with," Sky teased with a grin, making Alice scowl at him.

"Hmph, you don't have to tell me," Alice said trying to hide how aggravated she was at the remark. She then turned to Henry with a sweet smile, "So Henry, I was wondering if you would do me the honor--" she started.

"Can't, I'm busy," Henry finished.

"Wh, what?" Alice asked, still smiling, but a slight twitch in her eyebrow.

"I already made plans with Andrew and Sky, sorry," Henry said calmly, glaring at her in a way that seemed to pierce her very soul, because she actually stepped back a bit.

"Oh, okay then. I'll see you later then," Alice said smiling, but was clearly annoyed. She then stormed off. Sky gave Henry a thumbs up.

"Way to go Henry! You sent her packing!" he said smiling.

"I said nothing but the truth. We were going back to 'you-know-where' after school, right?" he asked, directing his question to Andrew.

"Yes, and I have good news in that department. I figured out what the scanners are used for," Andrew said with a sense of achievement.

"Dude, seriously?" Sky asked with an ecstatic smile on his face.

"Yep, as it turns out you were right Sky. They do connect to that virtual world we saw on the map. Apparently it's called Lyoko," Andrew explained further.

"And its purpose is..." Henry said hoping Andrew would finish the sentence.

"Unfortunately I still don't know why it was created. All the instruction book said was how to transfer into Lyoko and the basic manual for operations. I understand it pretty well, so I should be able to get you guys in there to do a little exploring."

"Awesome! Let's go immediately after school!" Sky said getting excited. A number of popular girls saw him and started laughing a bit. He noticed and winked at them pointing to them, only to get more laughs, "I just don't get it, Why don't women dig me?" he asked, clearly oblivious.

"Gee, I just don't know," Henry stated sarcastically. He looked over at their table, his eyes lingering on one girl in particular. She had long red hair, and was wearing an orange top, a short black skirt, fishnet stockings actually, black high heels, and red lip stick. She looked at him briefly, and then turned away smiling.

"Hey Henry," Sky started, "Somebody's checking you out."

"Shut up," he said, even as he continued to watch her from a distance.