Chapter three: The Story

Ulrich pov

I couldn't believe it. Aelita couldn't be gone. It was impossible. The new guy came up to me and asked, "Where'd she go?"

"I don't know" I replied. "Jeremie? Got anything?"

"No," Jeremie said sadly. I knew that he was in love with her. "Wait. What's going on?"

"Jeremie, what is going?" I asked.

"Er, Jeremie, she just appeared in the tube thing," said a strange girl voice. Aelita must have been sent back to Hogwarts, but how?

"For one thing the 'tube thing' is called a scanner. And another: Of course!" Jeremie shouted. "Ever since Aelita recovered her human memories, she became just like us. Now that we're all accounted for, can you tell us how you got here?"

"Sure," said the new guy. "My name is Harry Potter, for those of you who don't know. My friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and I were wandering around the 7th floor when we saw Aelita heading somewhere. We followed her to a room we have never heard of or seen before. We slipped right in after her and saw her do something on the computer. She stepped into the scanner and was gone. I stepped over to it to inspect it, and Hermione and Ron started to look at the computer. All of a sudden, the scanner closed, and the next thing I knew, I was falling from the sky to the Ice Sector. Monsters came up to me, and a giant octopus attacked me. You kind of know what happened after that. Hermione, have you found Ron yet?"

"Not yet, Harry," said Hermione. "I'm really starting to get worried about him. He's not responding to anything I tell him. He said something about a forest."

"How about names?" I asked. "My name is Ulrich Stern. You've met Aelita and heard Jeremie. You'll meet my other friends, Odd Della Robia and Yumi Ishyama soon."

"I really should be going to find Ron right now," Harry said.

"Ulrich, I think you should go with him. He could use your help," Jeremie said.

"Ok," I said.

"Harry, you're gonna ride Odd's overboard," Jeremie said. I could barely hear Odd objecting about it. He hates it when other people use his stuff.

My overbike was already at the bottom, and Odd's overboard materialized, ready for action. Harry hopped on it, and we tool off like bullets, Harry a little shaky. The data tunnel to the Forest Sector opened up, and we raced through to the Forest.

We split up in hopes of trying to find Harry's friend. I saw a couple of kankrelats just ahead.

"Hey Jeremie, you see them?" I asked. "Kankrelates don't just strut around."

"You're right, Ulrich. Follow them," Jeremie said.

I followed them, and low and behold, there was a Guardian glowing bright orange like a fire. "Hey, Jeremie, I think I found him," I said. "Yup, there's someone in there."

"How do we get him out of there?" asked Hermione.