Chapter 3
AN: Yet another long chapter. Please read. DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!
(Alex first person)
The transporter appeared, engulfing us for the trip to the center of Carthage. We arrived, the world seeming to spin around us. The corridor opened, giving us a pathway to the rest of the sector. "The timer is started. You have one minute. GO!" Jeremie called, ordering the group into action. We arrived in the main room. I could see the key to stop the clock. I didn't run towards it though, nor did I teleport. I pulled my staff out and changed its tip to laser, instinctively, to shoot at the monsters that would be guarding my path. They crawled up the side of the bridge. My first action was to hit one in the head, knocking it back down to be devirtualized. Odd shot one that was about to shoot Yumi. Yumi tossed a fan at one that was about to shoot Ulrich. Ulrich cut the head off of one that was about to shoot Crystal. Crystal pulled a set of assassin-like blades from under her sleeves and tossed one at a monster that was about to shoot me. I smiled at her. I admired their ability to work together as a team.
"You are starting to run low on time!" Jeremie called. I turned to see the key. Platforms were rising and lowering on the path. I ran toward it, using my staff to vault on to one of the platforms. I followed it up by flipping several times. I flipped off the last platform and reached for the key. I pushed it and walked back down to the rest of the group where they had picked off three more monsters. Another corridor had opened. We walked the path.
"Why didn't you just teleport?" Odd asked.
"I like the idea of being normal. I don't just use my abilities every chance I get. It makes things too easy. I like to have fun with it." I responded.
The rest of the group showed a look of pity on their faces.
"How about the way you see? You can't see like we can, can you?" Odd asked.
"Odd, stop questioning him!" Ulrich said, more forceful than loud, shooting him a dangerous look.
"No, it is absolutely fine. I feel things. The outlines of the landscape, for one. The aura of people like you. The towers. The consoles in the towers and here. And last, the residual after image of the monsters. I don't actually see where the monsters are, but where they were. The monsters move, but I have to calculate their movement to figure out where they are at that given moment of attack. It is kinda like seeing, but not with my eyes."
We walked on in silence until we reached the console. I pulled open the data for dematerialization in order to input myself a human form. I started working immediately.
"Look out, Mantas." Jeremie said, completely unworried of any type of threat. As I continued to work, their vehicles spawned. They quickly mounted their vehicles and rode off towards their enemies. They came in sight of four mantas. Odd shot but missed. Ulrich cut one right down the middle of its head with his sword. Yumi tossed a fan, hitting another right in the center of its body. Crystal jumped off the OverWing and landed on another Manta. She stabbed it, stood, and backflipped off just as Ulrich drove under her. Odd, determined to kill a Manta, rode his OverBoard towards a Manta and flipped over it, riding upside down he shot and hit it dead in the center of the eye. I found it hard to focus while watching their abilities.
Two hours later, I had finished. The group had taken fifteen more Mantas and only Odd had been devirtualized. I was ready to be materialized as soon as my identity as a human had been created. Each of them had said goodbye, followed by Jeremie devirtualizing them. They left the factory and back to their dorms. I teleported back to the area for housing the giant ball of energy that was Franz Hopper and myself. I told him the entire story. We sat in further silence until he spoke.
"Thank you, Alex."
"For what?"
"Protecting her. After the computer was restarted, I lost the energy to leave this place. Never leave her. Keep her safe."
"Always..."
(Jeremie third person limited)
Jeremie sat at the computer in his room working on Alex's identity. He had put off Aelita's antivirus in order to get Alex's files finished as fast as possible. He finished programming a human body in two hours, he thought. If anyone would be helpful with the antivirus, it would be him. He has to know something about programming.
Aelita walked in. Jeremie turned in his seat to look at her. "We couldn't sleep," she said. Jeremie looked confused at the word 'we' until she walked into his room, followed by Crystal.
"How long will it take?" Crystal asked, hiding the embarrassment of what happened the last day in her voice.
"Maybe a week. I still have to register him in the school and hack the governments records to add his social security number to their database." Jeremie responded, with a touch of exhaustion in his voice. Crystal fell backwards on to the bed after the word 'week'. Jeremie turned around in his chair to begin work again.
After an hour of discussion about various topics, Crystal stood and said "I'm tired. I'm going back to bed. 'Night." She walked out and back towards the girls' dormitories.
"She seemed to be very worried about Alex's materialization..." Aelita said. Jeremie knew where she was going with this. He had noticed it too.
"Yah. Hopefully their relationship will me more successful than Ulrich and Yumi's." Aelita laughed.
"You mean, you think they will be together? They only met, not even twelve hours ago."
"It's like you said. She was really interested in his materialization. Not to mention that he called her a 'royal'." Aelita nodded.
"I guess so." Aelita laughed as she remembered when Alex and Crystal had first seen each other, then she thought about the first time she had seen Jeremie. "Did you fall in love with me at first sight?"
"If not I'd have just turned the computer off after our first attack. Of course I did." Aelita smiled. She stood and walked to him, his face still towards the computer. She put her arms around him. "Thanks," she said.
He picked his hands off the keyboard and on her arms. "I'd do it again. Even with the threat of XANA." He turned his chair around. He had decided he was done working for the night.
(Odd third person limited)
"What do you think about him?" Odd asked, both him and Ulrich entirely ridden of sleep.
"He is definitely nice for a guy who spent his entire life in a computer," Ulrich said. "He also appeared to have emotions. Franz Hopper must have been a very good programmer."
"Yah. The ability for an artificial intelligence t-" Odd started, but was interrupted by Ulrich.
"Don't call him that, Odd. He protected Aelita for years when no one else could. He deserves more respect than that." Ulrich ordered. Odd looked sorry and ashamed. "As you were saying..."
"It is hard for a computer program to feel emotions." Odd said. Ulrich nodded, grateful that he understood how to respect someone.
"I hope Jeremie finishes his identity fast. He would be a great assistance against XANA." Ulrich said, remembering how easily he had picked off those three Krabs.
"Yeah, but not only is he a good fighter. He made himself a body in two hours! There is no way Jeremie could do that. Could you imagine how hard that must have been?" Odd said, putting emphasis on words that would express how difficult it would be.
"No, I can't. But think about this: he isn't like Aelita. Aelita was actually human. She just doesn't remember any of it. He has all of his memories and experiences that he had before the computer was turned off. However, he has no idea about food or air or smell or anything like that. He has been locked in a prison of his mentality, limited to the senses available in Lyoko." Ulrich said, thinking about how excited Alex would be to experience human things. Odd thought of it, too.
I don't know how I could live if I had been inside of Lyoko without for that long. No food. No sleep. Odd thought. Speaking of which- "I'm starting to get tired."
"Me too."
"Good night"
(Alex first person)
I spent all of my time fighting XANA or learning about the real world. One week later there had been a total of four attacks. XANA was, again, not about to let another subject of Lyoko simply leave. He was attacking them every chance he had. Not giving Jeremie the time he had wanted to work on his identity. He had done it, though. The group had decided to give me the news the next day. They contacted me.
"Alex... W-w-we finished your identity. We are ready." Jeremie said. The look on the rest of the groups face was pure excitement. I expressed as much happiness as I knew how. I could finally live with them in reality. "We will be at the factory later today to free you. Be ready."
"I will be."
Four hours later, the group arrived at the factory. "Alex, are you there?"
"Yes, I am"
"I am sending Crystal, Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich. They will protect the tower while you are materialized. Be in the Desert sector. Near the southern way-tower." I teleported. It was the only way to leave my hidden memory unit. I arrived at the designated tower. Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd arrived first, followed by Crystal. I walked into the tower to await my materialization.
(Third person omniscient)
Alex stepped on to the platform to wait for Jeremie to activate CODE: EARTH.
"Monsters are coming! A lot of them!" Jeremie called to the warriors. Megatanks, Krabs, Tarantulas and Hornets arrived. This was the most monsters they have ever seen at one time. They surrounded the tower. "I'll try to hurry!"
The group sprang into action. Ulrich ran towards a Megatank. He slid under the eye, just as it had opened and put his sword up to slice through its eye. Yumi threw her fans at Krabs. One fan was deflected by a laser, the other went straight through the top of its body. Odd jumped on to another Krab, using its body as a perch to shoot several Hornets. Crystal jumped over a tarantula, stabbing it through the top before continuing to run. She jumped off of a Krab and on to the top of a Megatank, stabbing that monster, too. Jeremie was entering the required information that he needed for the program to work. The rest of the group continued fighting. Jumping on to monsters, stabbing some, shooting others, some falling off the edge.
"CODE: EARTH" Jeremie called. The tower swirled around Alex. He could feel himself become unleeched to Lyoko. The group looked towards the tower. It shook violently. Yumi was the first to be devirtualized, not paying attention. Crystal gained focus just in time to see the hornet that shot her. Odd dove in front of Ulrich to save a shot. It was pointless though. Ulrich turned to see Odd be devirtualized. He looked up at the Krab that shot Odd. He ran toward it, weapon ready. He jumped to stab it, but didn't see the Tarantula aiming at him. He was the next to be devirtualized.
Alex felt pain. The first of his senses he had gained. The pain of devirtualization was beginning to reach to point of becoming unbearable.
He woke in the scanner, just as the doors opened.
He was surrounded by the others. Crystal caught him as he fell out, exhausted by the energy that was taken from him in order to complete the process.
A smile spread across his face. "I can see..." were the first words he said and the last ones he had for another week.
