Happy Halloween everyone!
Sorry for the late chapter but it was a big one so I hope y'all understand. Over 12,000 words, plus something else happened that kind of forced me to delay this chapters release for about a week. Important explanation at the end so make sure to check that out.
Thank you and enjoy the ride.
"Alex? Honey are you there?"
"Huh?" I mumble into the phone and shake my head a little but keeping my ear on the receiver. "Oh yeah mom I'm here. Just got caught up in my thoughts for a second. You were saying?"
"I was asking if your sure you wanted to stay? Your father and I can always cancel the business trip. It's nothing THAT important."
"No nononono its okay mom. I'll be fine. It'll be nice to kind of wander the school alone. Gives a sort of ambiance that can't be matched anywhere else." It's kind of true. When you originally go to school, its always to go to class, clubs or something school related more often than not along with other students. Actually spending the time to hang around the school when you don't have to do school work or walk with other students has a sort of feeling to it that's pretty cool.
"Are you sure? It's no trouble—"
"Mom, its okay. I'm fine." I try to assure her everything is alright. I guess since everyone else in the school is leaving to go on vacation, I'm not surprised she might be a little sad she's not taking.
"Well, alright." She finally resigns and I smile. "How are things going over there by the way? Did you make some new friends?" And there goes the smile.
"Ehhhh, not so much. I've been mostly focusing on school." I awkwardly tell her.
I hear a deep disappointed sigh on the other end. "Alex, you know that's the reason we sent you over there? To get you to make friends, to come out of your shell and actually do stuff instead of being a loner all the time."
I let out my own sigh and scratch my head with my free hand. "Sorry to disappoint mom."
She lets out another sigh. "Alright, just… please make more of an effort, okay?"
"I'll try." 'Sorry.'
"I guess that's all I can ask. Anyway, I'll talk to you another time. Take care." She says to me in a caring. The disappointment and sadness I was starting to feel or that was about us starts to eb away.
"You too, tell dad I said 'hi.' Good luck on the trip."
"We will."
Before my mom cuts off the phone, I can hear some other voices and some scuffling noises and I begin to worry a little that something is going on. "Hey bro! What's up?! How's it—"
*Click*
And my phone closes. I let out a deep sigh as my brother almost talked to me. Still, I can't help but smirk and shake my head before I begin walking away. 'I love the guy but I just don't really feel like being teased right now.' Typical big brother lifestyle, harasses and teases the younger.
Walking. That's what I've been doing a lot lately. With the conversation with my family done, it's just something to do in the meantime. When I'm not going to class or hanging out in my room, I've been taking some walks to try to clear my head of all the crazy stuff that's been going on with me. The headaches are getting worse and these freaky but scarily accurate dreams are not getting any better.
How did I know about Ulrich and Yumi's name when I never met them before? Did I hear about their names once and simply dream about later on?
"Nnn." I grunt as the headache hits me again but its only a small one before I continue walking to my destination. I had a severe case of Déjà vu several weeks back and the days were just too accurate to coincidence, then weeks later that freaky teddy bear dream happened, showing SOMEHOW I knew their names… and several days ago, the other incident…
"Oh god oh god oh god!" I shout as I run down the basements steps. Carefully I manage to skip steps as I run down the flight of stairs basically at any chance I get but right now I am evidently freaking out.
The reason for that being is the fact that an alarm has gone off over the whole town for everyone to evacuate. Why? Well it has something to do with an UNSTABLE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT! "Keep moving! Keep moving keep moving!" I yell to myself, somehow hoping the verbal words to myself will get my butt into higher gear to get to somewhere safely. The alarm went out and everyone already tried to evacuate the school and soon the city. The reason why I'm not trying to run out of the city is because there's no way I can outrun a nuclear meltdown and I can't guarantee getting any other forms of transportation out of the city, especially with the traffic possibly going to be blocked or congested.
Therefore, best option I can think of… underground. "I really really hope this works." I mutter to myself before finally I hit the bottom, the basements boiler room.. "This is good… but more is better." I quickly grab whatever I can find and just start blocking the stairwell, the only way here. I don't know if it'll do much but another thing I have to becareful of is the fallout. No doubt its possible radiation will blanket the place and if I go back outside, I'll die. "Oh god. I just trapped myself." I make the realization as I grab my head with both my hands. I begin to hyperventilate that I just screwed myself over.
At least until I notice another door at the end of the room. "Yes." I bolt over to it before I pull it open. I can't help but smile as I see its another staircase heading deeper underground. "Thank you!" I shout and quickly shut the door behind me before moving down the stairs. With a door now blocking the way up, I start to feel a whole lot better now but the idea of nuclear fallout still hammers in my head and my breathing continues to become heavy. "This is happening… this is really happening?" I can scarcely believe it and even though I am underground… the thought is still… bad… very bad. "Oh my god I hope this works." I slow my steps as they begin to level out to more solid ground. "Hopefully I can find enough tunnels to lead me out of the city." It's going to suck wading through the sewers but I think that's going to be a good alternative than the other option. "Finally, hit the bottom. Now I just need… to…" As soon as I hit the ground where the stairs go into the sewer, I slowly stop and look on confused. "What the-?" I ask confused before everything goes white.
Then I woke up and the massive feeling of déjà vu was just too much. I'm really starting to freak out about all this. These dreams are to coincidental with how things go and the headaches are still just as bad. I'm almost afraid to go into the sewer and confirm what I saw because while the name thing would be explained as unconscious information I picked up at random and don't remember, their would be no way I can logically explain what I found and I would probably lose it.
I'm already freaking out enough as it is I don't need anymore now!
'Breathe…' I stop, close my eyes and take a deep breath, inhaling the fresh air outside as I slowly ease my heart to a manageable rhythm. Once it does, I open my eyes again and continue my walk along the outside of the building. Speaking of their names I knew, I've been keeping a distance from them as much as I can. As soon as I see them, I can't help but freeze up and do a complete turn in another direction. At this point I'm not as worried about other people as just don't want to be near them anymore or risk screwing my head again
"At least I'll be here alone with only a few faculty members. Can just relax and not have to worry about anyone else." I mutter to myself quietly with small smile.
"You sure you wanna do this Jeremy?" The familiar voice of Ulrich can be heard around the corner. I quickly stop and slowly press myself against the wall before slowly peaking out. I spot the trio I've seen before, Ulrich, Yumi, the yellow haired one named Odd, and a fourth wearing glasses, and wear blue turtleneck with tan shorts. I'll assume he's the one named Jeremy.
"I kind of have to guys. Someones gotta stay here and monitor things with Aelita."
"Well, yeah but you don't have to get in trouble you know?" Yumi asks him.
"True, but it is the quickest and sure fire solution to get them to force me to stay. And we can't afford the possibility of a tower activating."
'Tower?' I mentally question. In fact I think I remember Ulrich mentioning something like that in the weird dream I had.
"I guess your right. At least here you'll be able to get to the factory faster than the rest of us." Yumi says in a disappointed tone.
"Odd, you got the spray paint?" Ulrich asks him.
"Right here!" Odd happily shouts as he pulls open his backpack for them to see. I can just make out the top of a couple cans of spray paint.
"Shhhhh!" The others quickly shush him and force him to close his backpack. "Are you crazy? Only one of us needs to get in trouble, not all of us!" Jeremy scolds him.
"Yeah! My dad will kill me if I get detention now!" Ulrich quietly shouts at his friend.
Meanwhile, Odd sheepishly rubs the back of his head. "Ehehe. Sorry." He apologizes and zips up the bag.
I barely listen to the rest though as I begin to realize that I won't be as alone as I thought anymore. 'He's staying?! What?! Nooo!' I grit my teeth in anger, same with my fists before I slam my fist into the outside wall.
*SMACK*
"Huh? Did you guys here something?" Yumi asks. I freeze up but not for long as my blunder just nearly screwed me. I immediately begin fast walking as quick as I can away from them until I make it to the nearest door and away from them. This just got a lot more complicated.
Ulrich makes his way around the corner and just barely catches someone turning the corner. Even though he didn't see his face, he has the distinct feeling he knows who the person was that ran.
"Ulrich, what is it?" Yumi and the others come up to him to see what he's looking at but don't see anything or what he saw.
"Hmmm, nothing nothing." He waves them down before walking away. "Hey, have you guys noticed anyone acting… strange around us?" He asks them but he mostly gets confused expressions.
"Like who?" Jeremy asks.
"Well, Yumi, remember that guy that helped us when we dealt with that giant teddybear?" He asks their female friend, who gets a thoughtful expression as she thinks back to what had happened then.
"Yeah, I do. Huh, actually now that you mention I've noticed he's been avoiding us alot." Yumi recalls.
"That's right. I swear one time we were walking towards each other on the outside of the main building when he went in a completely different direction." He looks at her. "I'm pretty sure he went around the building to avoid me."
"But that doesn't make sense. He shouldn't have remembered you guys after the return to the past, right? Have you met him before and done something to make him angry?" Jeremy prods them for possible answers to this but they shake their heads no.
"Whoa whoa whoa, are you two thinking he knows?" Odd speaks up, a question of disbelief at the idea.
Ulrich and Yumi are just about to tell him no… but soon they are unsure themselves as they look at each other.
'But how?' They both think.
The next days begin to roll around, the week our vacation is supposed to start for everyone but now, it seems more than a few people aren't really going home. The principal and some of the faculty, such as Jim, were told of my parents inability to pick me up so they opted to let me stay. Of course, as I had learned about the day before, Jeremy is also staying too and while I think avoiding him may be somewhat doable for me, its when I also learn that ANOTHER person is staying.
Sissy.
I groan while I walk down the halls at the thought. Like I said, avoiding him would have been a somewhat simpler task but with Sissy here of all people and I can be sure that I'll be ridiculed at some point. Although to be honest I haven't exactly been the center of ire at any point because of how 'under the radar' I've placed myself. Even so I have seen how bad she can be and with barely anyone being here, the chances of me getting hit so to say are that much more prominent.
"Can things get any worse?" I ask myself just as I open the door. "Aackkk!" I let out a strangled cry as I am blasted with a mist of purpleish-pink cloud. My lungs seize up and I just barely stay conscious enough to slam the door closed. I let out several hard coughs as a way to help clear my airway and it works, somewhat. "Oh… crap… ow… what…?" I try to say but it hurts. I push myself along the side wall, pressing my left hand against it while my free hand grasps my throat. "What… happened?" I manage to ask myself but my answer isn't answered until I look out the window. A quick look shows that that whatever hellish gas is outside and completely covering the area. "What the…?" I mutter in confusion at the odd gas occurrence. It's not a light poisonous gas as it seems to only congregate on the ground and not filter throughout the entire airway. "That's… way bad." I uneasily say as I stand there and watch the freaky but deadly gas filter all around. It's a good thing its time for everyones vacations. Things would be some much worse if EVERYONE was still here.
My focus changes however as I notice the gas is starting to filter in through the cracks in the door. 'Everyone may be gone but I'm still here!' I yell in my mind before I begin to backpedal and eventually full on sprinting down the hallways. "What's going on? How is this happening?! Some type of gas leak?" I begin to ask myself question before shaking my head. 'No, that can't be. That's not gas I've ever seen used in human buildings, and I barely inhaled it before I felt like I was going to die.' My train of thoughts and idea as to what's going on completely derails as when I'm about to continue to down another cross hallway, more of the gas blocks me, same as behind me. "And why does it feel like its chasing me?" Thankfully, I'm not completely blocked as I have third way to go: down. "Screw it." I take the chance and jump down a couple steps at a time to just get away from this thing. "Please let my dream be true." I mutter as I make it down to the basement. My hope bares fruit as I make it to the bottom and immediately spot the other door. "Yes!" I shout in happiness and sprint over to the door and grasp the handle.
…
I just realize I am about to do something that I didn't want to do before. Going into the sewer was something I didn't want to do at all for fear of what I might find. Even now, as I found this door, even though I have never been down here before, only confirms it. Going further… will only worsen it.
However as I turn around, I spot the gas flowing towards me. 'No choice.' I take a deep breath, figuratively, don't want to breathe that crap in, and go in before closing the door behind me. I start to move fast down the stairs but eventually I begin to lessen my pace. My walking becomes slower and slower until I know I am about to hit the bottom. 'Please no… please no… please no…' I repeat in my head over and over again, hoping to anything at this point I'm not going to find what I saw.
I hit the bottom.
…
Slowly, I walk over, my footsteps being loud and thunderous in the tunnel complex, making them pound against my head and its rapidly growing headache. That still doesn't stop me from walking over and slowly picking up the skateboard lying against the wall.
'It's real.' I think as I take the board in both hands and hold it firmly, making sure it is in fact real. 'What the hell is wrong with me? How did I know?' The headache passes me finally and I let the board dangle in my left hand as I stare at the other boards and scooter here. I stare at them for what feels like a long time before staring up at the ladder going to the manhole to the top. For a second, I consider going up… but I know I didn't go that far from the school. With only one other option, I look down the rest of the sewer tunnel and look down. Upon closer look, I spot tracks implanted on the grime covered stone floor. 'There's a reason these are here.' I look back up, before looking forward. 'I don't have a choice. I need to keep moving.' Forgoing my fragile mindset right now over recent developments, I put the board back where it was and begin my jog down the sewer, hoping all the way to find a way out.
It took me awhile but I found what I needed. Eventually, the tunnel led to a closed off gated tunnel exit. The bars aren't wide enough for me to exit through them but thankfully the ladder leading up to a manhole was just the thing I needed. Slowly I begin pulling myself up the ladder as I ascend and climb up. Thankfully, the manhole cover up top isn't locked in place so I'm able to simply push it up and out of my way.
As soon as my head comes above ground, I can't help but suck in a big lungful of clean air. Turns it sucks walking through a sewer. I pull myself out and fully onto the outside where I sit there. "Haaaa… huuuuu…" I sit there breathing in and out until I properly catch my breath. Once I'm good, I quickly reclose the manhole and get to my feet. "Okay… what no-?" I begin ask myself as I look around the area until I notice the building I am close to.
"I guess your right. At least here you'll be able to get to the factory faster than the rest of us."
'Factory…' I remember something that Yumi mentioned when I eavesdropped on their group. The boards, the tracks lead here. "So what's so special about you?" I ask myself but of course I don't get an answer. Taking a quick look around, making sure I'm clear, I shrug and make my way over the bridge towards the factory. "Well, guess I should find some." Since I'm kind of out of the way of that deadly gas back at the school, their really isn't anything else I can do at this point. "Hope the others made it out okay." The faces of the others still at the school flash in my mind, namely Jeremy, Sissy, and Jim. I may not like Sissy, and she may not be a well liked person in general, but that doesn't mean she deserves to die, especially not to… whatever that was. I shiver a little at the short memory I have of the pain from the gas hitting me for only a second. It was so bad I would not wish on my worst enemies.
Good thing I don't have any.
The factory is indeed abandoned as I slowly make my way through the open doorway. When I do, the place is pretty much as big as it looks like from the outside with a ton of space. "Hellooooooo!" I call out into the place, wondering if theirs at least someone here. I get nothing in return, barely even an echo of my own voice. "Okay, no one here, now," I look over the edge to the ground floor of the factory that I am currently not on. "How do I get down?" I ask myself as I look for paths towards the elevator at the bottom. I see some chains hanging in front of me… but I'm not really in the mood to take the chance to fall and kill myself so I decide to take the long way and walk down the stairs. Eventually, I come to the elevator and step in, surprised to find it still in working order.
Just as I hit the elevator button to go down, I notice the panel is loosely open. I open it and see a number pad on the inside. "Hm?" I question and take a closer look at it. When I do, I notice the elevator isn't moving at all. "Needs a code maybe?" 'What type of factory was this that needs a secret code?' Questioning thoughts aside, I notice that a few of the number keys on the corners are slightly worn away than the others. 'Maybe I can…' Basically guessing at this point, I go ahead and press the four keys. I get a little frustrated though when I get nothing from the first code, and then the next few after, but eventually I manage to find the right combination as the shutter closes. I smirk in satisfaction at having gotten. "Thank god it doesn't have a shutdown when I input too many errors." I comment to myself and lean back in the elevator, waiting for wherever this is taking.
While the elevator slowly begins to descend, I can't help but admire and take note of how clean looking it is. Not to mention the fact that this place is supposed to be abandoned and yet the elevator has working power. Even so, the headache is slowly coming back to me again so I press my head to the cold walls of the elevator. It helps a little and while I wait, I can't help but be reminded of the others, the group with Ulrich and Yumi. 'They talked about towers or something like that, and the factory, plus a person named Aelita. Now I don't know everyone in the school but that name doesn't really strike me. With the skateboards back in the sewer and the tracks I followed, all this seems to be connected.' The elevator comes to a stop. I push myself off the wall and walk up to the shutter door. 'But what?'
As soon as the shutter opens, I am surprised to see a heck of a separate door on the other side with a circular mechanism I have never seen before. "What the—" I mutter in surprise at the surprisingly advanced looking door but that pales in comparison to the room I suddenly find myself in. "Holy—!" I can't even finish my sentence at the highly advanced computer and some type of holographic display in the middle. Ever so slowly I make my way into the room and just admire the place and how advanced and beautiful this place looks. "What is this?" I ask as I walk and slowly spin. The place is clean, active and doesn't look to be rundown. "There is no way this place is as abandoned as it looks." I comment before I stop and stare at the giant holographic thing in the middle. I can't accurately tell exactly what it is but it feels like something out of Halo.
My admiring doesn't last long though as I hear something else besides the small whir of the machinery and computers. Almost like… panting? "Guuha! Please… someone help!" I hear a voice, almost startling as I look around for the voice. The rapid pants of an out of breath person sounds like they're originating from the computer itself.
I make my way around to the screen. The interface looks pretty bad and the keyboard looks crazy as well. I grab the small headset on the keyboard as I hear the person call out for help again before slowly putting it up to my ear. "Uhhh, hello?"
"Jeremy?!" The girl calls out in relief.
"Uh, no. Sorry. I'm… Alex." I hesitantly give my name. I don't know who I'm talking but she sounds in trouble.
"What? We… where are the others?" She asks frantically, which at this point I think she's running.
"IIIII…" I look around to see no one else here, just to double check. "I don't know. I just got here
"Aahhh!" A cry of pain emanates from her, putting me on edge.
"Hey! What happened?! What's wrong?!" I quickly ask as the screen changes a little. I read some of the text, showing that the current area she's in is a forest area. I soon see one blip being followed by a few red ones.
"I was just hit. How many life points do I have left?" She grunts and sounds like she's continuing to run.
"Life points, whe-?" I begin to ask in confusion but and some kind of card with a girl with pink hair pops up on the screen. From what I can tell, it shows her life points I think they are just went from 100 to 80. "Uhhh, 80."
"Okay." She replies and the only thing that can be heard is her running and grunts of exertion. As I watch her marker on the screen, she makes a sudden turn and seems to be hiding behind something but I don't really know. If its in the forest area, maybe a tree or something. Soon, the red enemies pass her position and keep going forward, even splitting at a crossroad.
"Looks like your clear." I inform her.
She lets out a breath of air in relief. "Thank you." She thanks me.
"No problem." I lean back and let out my own breath of relief. Now that the danger to her has passed, I lean forward and make sure I can talk in the mic. "Hey, can you answer some questions for me? I'm really confused by all this." I tell her.
"Uhhh, okay." Soon, the screen changes and the pink-haired girl on the card is full screen, looking at me. "Hi. My names Aelita."
'Aelita… so this is her.' "Nice to meet you, Aelita." I say with a smile and a nod. "Like I said before, the names Alex." She nods back to me with a smile.
"Good to meet you. Are you a friend of Jeremy's?" She asks.
This time, I get a unsure look before answering. "Mmm, not really. I barely know the guy. I kind of just… stumbled upon this place." I keep my answer short but vague. After what she just went through, I don't think she needs a long winded explanation as to what happened to get me here. I glance around the room then back to her. "What's going on? This place is… different than what I've usually seen." I ask her.
She gets a worried expression but looks at me nonetheless. "Hold on, first have you noticed anything weird where you're at? Something… different and really out of place than what you normally see?"
"…" I tense up at her questions before I remember what helped force me here in the first place. "Yyyyyesss. Some type of gas attacked me and forced to run, eventually leading me here."
"XANA." She spits the odd name with bitter anger, surprising me a little at the relieved girl just a little while ago but whoever that is must be really bad news. "Listen," Her anger changes to one of almost pleading, "Please, I NEED to get to the tower and deactivate it or else people will get hurt and possibly die. I can't go at it alone. Not with XANA's monsters everywhere. I need you to come here and help me fight them off."
"Come there?" I ask confused, unsure of what she means. "What do you mean? How?"
"Where I am in is the virtual world called Lyoko. Below you is another floor with scanners that can virtualize your body and transport you here to help me." 'Wow, that sounds scary… and a little cool.' "When you appear, you'll have your own clothes, weapons and abilities than what you would have in the real world. Please, I don't know when Jeremy and the others will get here and I need help now. Can you help me?" She asks in an almost scared tone.
'Wow she's… she's really afraid and worried beyond belief.' It sounds simple enough but I remember what happened a little while ago with her life points. "What happens if you lose all your life points?" I ask in a grim tone.
She looks down, "Then… I'm gone… forever." She answers in a sad tone. The atmosphere declines because of the grim bad news.
I gulp and ask my next question, "And… what happens if I lose all my life points?" I really hope this doesn't turn out to be one of those things where you die in this alternate world and you die in real life. That would… kind of detract my want to go in.
Thankfully, she gets a more relaxed look. "Don't worry. You'll be safe. You'll wake up dizzy and a little weak but you'll be alive and safe back there in the real world." She answers with a small smile. I think she's thinking that since I don't have as harsh a punishment as her, I'd be more inclined to go.
She's not wrong. 'So… something is attacking people here in the real world and the only way to stop it is if I go into this mysterious world myself with someone I have never met before… yeah, sounds about right.' I lean back in the chair and place my right hand under my chin. "So, you have everything to lose, while I don't. And if I don't do anything, its very likely that people are going to die if I just sit here where its safe."
She looks at me uneasily at the small recap explanation that seems to be more in favor of me staying here and that's it. To most people it would be more beneficial and safe to simply hunker down in a safe area and wait things out, regardless of the possibility of people getting hurt.
After a few seconds of silence and me thinking, I lean forward in the chair… and smirk. "Tell me what to do."
The smile she gives is nice.
"Gah!" I grunt as I land on my hands and knees. Already my senses feel like they've been cranked up to 11 and everything is just so… vibrant.
At any other time I may not be so inclined to go into a mysterious virtual world and help out a random stranger, however being the gamer I am, going INTO something that somewhat resembles or sounds like a video game just makes me a tiny bit giddy at the idea.
Once I look up, already I can tell instantly that this place is whole lot different than where I just was. I push myself up until I stand but once I do, I take a closer look at my new look. 'Aelita wasn't kidding about the new clothes.' This is definitely something else that's for sure. Thick dark brown leather gloves cover my hands and wrists and don't really restrictive my movements. I can actually feel through them as if they are a part of me as I assess the rest of me. A long wide brown duster coat covers the rest of my arms and runs the length of my body from my neck to my feet with the front open, revealing the black armor piece on me with gray undershirt. The body armor still feels a part of me so pretty sure its mostly for aesthetic appeal, which I'm alright with. A dark brown belt with a gun holster covers my waist, tan pants down to the gray combat boots finishes off the lower portion of my new ensemble. To top it all off, a bandana around my neck the same color as my coat and a wide brimmed flat dark brown cowboy hat covers my head.
"Holy… crap." I mutter in awe as I admire the completely new and overall badass looking attire. Once I'm down looking, I reach down to the holster on my right hip and check out its contents. It's no normal regular bullet gun because I'm pretty sure it's a blaster. It's roughly the same size as a glock but still a little blocky square, silver in color all around, a black strip on the left side with the barrel being extended by about 3-inches with a muzzle brake. "Woooowhahaha… this is… nice." I mutter as I admire my weapon.
*Crunch*
In an instant, I whirl around, my coat flowing in the wind as I train my sights on the nearby tree, both hands holding the blaster with my finger on the trigger. "Out from the tree. Right now." I order with deadly intent. My vision focuses on potential targets as I hear more footsteps but ultimately, its not needed as I spot a familiar pink paired girl carefully walk out from behind a tree. "Oh! Aelita. It's you." I quickly holster my weapon and take slow steps towards her. "Sorry about that."
"It's okay. I'm glad you decided to come here." She answers with a relieved tone and a smile. She was able to direct me on the proper commands to punch-in the computer to set some sort of delayed materialization function so I can have time to get to the scanners. I still wasn't sure exactly how to use the elevator so I just went ahead and used the ladder. She takes a moment to look me up and down. "Nice getup."
"Hehe, thanks." I reply and extend my arms to the sides, allowing myself another look. "It's not really something I'd wear in public but in a hostile environment where I have to help someone I think it fits." I say.
She giggles a little before adopting a more serious expression. What also feels like earthquakes as well as pools of red circles appear on the ground. "We better get going. We stay here too long and XANA's monsters are bound to find us."
I nod back to her. "Lead the way then." I gesture with my hand towards her. As soon as she begins running, I slip my bandana over my mouth and nose and follow after her. We begin running along the narrow grassy walkway in this forest place following these small earthquakes. Everything is quiet besides our rapid breathing and our footsteps so it gives me the chance to get a more accurate look at where exactly we are. Like I said, the place is forest but there are mostly narrow paths and crossways over what looks like a sea under us. Aelita made it very clear under any circumstances I am to not ever fall in, less I be lost forever. To be honest, that's probably something that should have been mentioned when she was telling me about the possibilities of injury or death, but I'm not angry. Just gotta be more careful.
"Oh no!" Aelita stops and cries out as we stop to see something moving towards us. "Kankrelats."
"Kang-what?" I ask confused at the name. Some small four legged things run up to us, about four to be exact.
"Monsters sent by XANA." She quickly explains to me.
I look at her oddly before turning back to the monsters and— "Ahh!" I groan as a headache hits me again. 'Still?!'
"Watch out!" At Aelita's warning I quickly break myself from my moment to see the red eyes on their bodies charge up for something, all four of them.
At this point, to any gamer when your enemy is charging up, its never good. "Down!" I yell and quickly push her away from me. This in turn pushes me away from my standing spot and allows the both of us to dodge their barrage haphazardly. She falls behind a tree while I let myself fall to the ground. Without wasting the chance, I roll over while at the same time I grab my blaster pistol and take aim from the ground.
Five red blaster bolts shoot out towards the small enemy's, three going wide but two hit their mark and destroy them in small explosions. "Yes!" I fist pump in joy at my first kills. The last two begin charging up. "No!" I quickly roll on the ground as they pepper the ground where I just was and roll behind a tree opposite of Aelita. As soon as I get up, I push myself against the tree and look over at my partner to see her getting up and using her tree as cover too. "You alright?!" I shout to her over the laser shots pinning us down.
"Yeah, I am. Thanks." She nods to me and I nod back. However she quickly looks back to where we came from as another sound can be heard. "Uh-oh, we've got more company." She says and points.
True to what she says, two more kankrelats come sprinting towards us, right at our exposed backs. "That's not good." My comment is further accentuated by the original two enemy's hitting our covers.
"What do we do?" She asks worried. Not surprised since we're out in the open to the approaching enemy. I quickly look around for anything I can use but don't really find anything or more cover to help.
I groan at the only plan I come up with. "Aelita, listen! When I go out, follow behind and use your tree for cover to the new arrivals. On three!" She looks like she's about to protest but as the new enemy's get closer, she nods. "Three… Two… ONE!" I yell and bolt out of cover just as they fire at our cover. I crouch low to the ground as I move forward and with both hands I open fire with four blaster shots at them. Two miss but they explode and die to the last hits. Now free and clear, we both move into cover behind the trees just as the new ones fire on us. "Phew. That was close."
"Nice one! Your good at this!" Aelita compliments me, which I smile.
"Hehe, thanks." I reply, then flinch as some laser shots speed past us. "Stay down. I got this." As soon as they fire again, I move out of cover and fire once at them. My shot hits true now that I'm used to it and nails one of them, leaving only one. "Hm." I smirk and fire at the last one.
*SSSSSsss*
I freeze up as instead of a blaster bolt, steam flushes out of my weapon. "What the—!" I shout look at my blaster. The black strip on the side turns out to be a screen and it reads 0. "I'm out!" I shout in surprise at how I quickly ran out of ammo. However my moment of surprise costs me as the last Kankrelat nails me right in the chest. "Arhhh!" I yell as I'm thrown into the air and onto my back. Small electricity fizzles on my chest and it stings but it only lasts for a few seconds before I get back up. Just in time too because the monster fires again at me. I manage to dodge the laser and roll into cover just in time. "Great. This is just great." I groan and look at my blaster. "How am I supposed to fight without ammo?"
"Do you have any other weapons? Or abilities?" Aelita asks from across the other way behind her own tree. "What are those on your back?" She asks pointing to me. I look over my left shoulder to find something sticking out just above from behind my left shoulder. Holstering my pistol, I grab the item with my right hand to find it has a handle. Grasping it firmly, I pull it out.
*Shing*
And just like that, I find out I have a Kukri knife as my melee weapon. "Whoa." I murmur in awe at the sheen the weapon has. The virtual world does not skimp on the graphics because it looks beautiful with its silver mirror like blade and black colored handle. What's odd about this particular kukri is the fact that it's curved blade isn't really curved but more angled. Halfway down the blade where it would curve to give it its unique look, it's actually set in an almost complete right angle with the sharp blade coming towards me. "Huh… that's weird." I comment at the somewhat odd look but I quickly focus on more pressing matters as another laser impacts my tree. I glance towards Aelita before looking back at my knife.
An idea springs forth as I see my reflection in the blade. I slowly edge myself to the side where I poke the length of my blade out, angling it so I can see the kankrelat while remaining safe. It's not that far away from us, having moved and shot every now and then so if I don't do something soon, it'll be right on top of us.
*Clang*
"Arh!" I grunt as it fires again and nails my blade. I quickly retract and check for damage to the weapon. To my amazement, there is no damage done to it and the blade seems to have absorbed the shot no problem. "What?"
"Some of our weapons can block XANA's lasers." Aelita tells me. "Yumi and Ulrich's weapons can block and sometimes deflect their lasers. Your knife should be able to as well."
"Block?!" I say in surprise and disbelief as I hold up the weapon. "How am I supposed to purposefully block a laser shot heading straight for me?" I ask incredulously.
She simply smiles back at me. "In here, you can. Just trust me." I'm about to retort at how ludicrous that sounds… however how she says it, and the fact that she asks me to trust her… well, it works.
I let out a breath of air and nod at her. "Okay. Get ready to run, in case I fail." She nods at me but continues to smile, like she knows I'm not going to fail. I take a few more breaths of air and swing my blade around in my right hand, adopting a reverse grip. "Okay, let's do this." Psyching myself up, I prepare to charge the enemy. This last one may be a bit weak and only one but that knock back means I'll be a sitting duck for more hits. I have to avoid or block its attacks, or I fail. As soon as I hear it fire again, I make my move.
I sprint out from behind the tree and charge at the small but still deadly enemy. I hold my blade close to me as I sprint towards it, my coat flapping behind me as my focus is set on the monsters charging laser. The distance from me to it, I can't cross the gap and stop it from firing.
I have to take the hit. It fires straight at me and for a second, I expect the shot to hit me square in the chest. However its not a bullet and therefore not as fast. Whatever additional stuff this world has done to me, definitely increased my reflexes as well just like Aelita said this place would. My arm automatically comes up in front of me and I can actually where I am to move it in order to make contact with the laser.
When it hits me, it feels like a brick hits my arm from the impact, but it works. I block the shot, and close the distance. Like before my body does one more thing to finish off this enemy. "Takedown!" In almost a flash, I speed past the kankrelat, faster than humanely possible, with myself crouched low to the ground, my blade held forward ahead of me.
*…Boom*
Like the other monsters from before, it explodes in a small explosion. This snaps me out of my state and stand up. With one final flourish, I twist the blade in my hand a few times and return it to its sheathe on my shoulder. Once I do, I can't help but pull my bandana down and bring my hands up for me to stare at them, allowing me to relish in the adrenaline feel I just went through. "Wow."
"Nice job." I turn around to see Aelita walking up to me, a look of being impressed on her face.
"Yeah… yeah." I mutter, still in a little at what just happened in the fight. For the longest while I stay there looking at my hands before they clench tightly and the corners of my mouth rise, as well as my mood. "Nnnn HAHAAA!" I let out a loud cheer, startling the girl a little as I jump into the air in joy. "Holy crap! That was so awesome! I can't believe… I just did that! That was… Mm!" I happily shout and finishing off my giddiness with a small fake punch in front of me. "This was… man!" I shout and bounce on the balls of my feet. For so long at doing things half-gassed and being careful in the real world, the virtual allowed me to really plan, strategize and execute some amazing feats and it was totally awesome!"
"Wow. I've never seen someone so excited. The others definitely weren't this excited the first time they stepped in and fought." She tells me with a smirk.
When I've clamed down a little from my joyous high, I smile and walk closer to her. "Ahhh, but they don't strike as the type to be hardcore gamers like myself. Out there in the real world, I'm a little limited with my body," 'And my awkward social anxiety issues.' "But in here, in the literal virtual world," I say with a flourish of my arms, "I can do… sooooo much more." I finish with a grin. Playing videos games was my past time mostly and was gateway from having to go outside and keep me from getting bored. Being able to go in here and actually do stuff like this is just gravy for me. Of course, Aelita is still in danger of getting hurt and most likely dying so while it's fun for me, I have to be ready. I straighten up and adopt a more serious expression. "Alright, where do we go now?" I ask, since I kind of got a little turned around with all the fighting and cover change.
Remembering what we need to do, she looks around a bit until she points the way to go. "We still need to go—"
"Aelita?"
"Jeremy!" A new voice that sounds like it coming from all around us can be heard and Aelita wastes no time in replying with great joy and relief. "I'm so glad you're here." She replies, upwards I might add, before looking a little worried. "Are you alright? You don't sound good."
"I'm fine." Now that I think about it, the voice is familiar to the blonde-haired glasses wearing I remember seeing who was staying at the school too. He sounds a little labored too. "Yumi and Odd are being scanned as we speak so you'll have backup soon, however I want to know how someone is next to you right now?"
"Oh." I mumble as I look at Aelita, a feeling of awkwardness hitting me at having been caught. I remember seeing Aelita's little marker on the screen when I was sitting in the chair so now he must see me. Pretty impossible to hide then. "Uhhhh, heeey man. My names… Alex. Nice to… hear… you." 'Oh come one man, don't go stuttering now of all times!' I mentally yell to myself.
"Alex? Wait, who are you? What are you doing there?! How did you get there?!" He asks me a barrage of questions in a slightly demanding and somewhat frantic tone.
I wince a little at the quick questions before composing myself. "Relax man. We go the same school. I got forced here by that gas at school and Aelita here was calling for help… so I helped." I answer as quick and as best I can. He gives off a couple coughs on his end. "And from the sound of it, looks like you got hit by it bad."
"Yeah, I did. XANA's definitely on the attack and we need to deactivate the tower as soon as possible. We'll talk about this later… Alex. Right now Yumi and Odd should be there." Glad that I'm no longer being questioned, I let out a sigh of relief before some sounds can be heard.
Aelita grabs taps my shoulder and points up, showing the forms of some people slowly taking shape in a slight T-pose position. As soon as they become whole, they fall to the ground with only slight grunts, in a more graceful landing than what I did. They spawned with their backs to us so they don't see us instantly. "Yumi! Odd!" Aelita immediately gets their attention, making them turn to us. When they do I get a better look at the two of them and what they kind of look like. Yumi looks something like some type of geisha fan dancer and Odd looks like a humanized purple cat creature with giant paws and claws for hands, ironic considering the picture of a dog on his chest.
"Good to see you Aelita!" Yumi immediately expresses her happiness at seeing my companion but soon the two of them spot me. This puts Yumi on guard in an instant as she gets into a combat stance, even reaching behind her waist. "Who's this?" I reach over my left shoulder, ready to grab my blade if need be.
"Wait!" Aelita moves in front of me and stops the possibility of a fight happening with her arms up and pointed at them. "This is Alex." She quickly introduces me as she gestures to me when she steps to the side. "He came here and he saved me from XANA's monsters. Theirs definitely a tower activated and we could use his help to get to it. He's not a threat to us."
"Just a threat to the monsters looking to hurt her." I add, gesturing with my head to Aelita. Don't know what it is but now I feel pretty protective of the pink-haired girl. It may be her willingness to have me trust her earlier, as well as her to trust me to protect her, I'm not sure but still. Yumi and I continue our stand off with her hovering whatever weapon she has and I over my blade. She glances back between Aelita and I before with a sigh, she relaxes. I too relax myself and put my arms down.
"Hey. Good to meet you." Odd greets me with a smile and extends his paw to handshake. 'Well, a much friendlier introduction right there.' I can't help but think as I reciprocate his smile and shake his hand, a little awkwardly but still a nice gesture. "I'm Odd. So, what's your weapon? That knife?" He asks and points to the handle on my left shoulder.
"One of them." I answer and pull it out, showing the shining Kukri for him to see. I slip it into my left hand before pulling out my blaster pistol. "And this too, but I ran out of ammo during the fight and… oh." I begin to explain as I notice the zero I saw earlier has changed to a one. "Nice, it's regenerating my shots." 'Okay, so my blaster just needed to cooldown, albeit very slowly. Good to know.'
"Nice!" He compliments me, which feels good after the moment of almost hostility from Yumi just a little bit ago. "And uhhh, what about that one?" He asks and points to my right.
"What one- Huh?" I begin to ask confused until I look over my shoulder to see some kind of block on me. Holstering my weapons, I reach up with my right hand and grab a small handle jutting out of the bottom of the box. As soon as I pull it off me however, that's when it begins to change. Small mechanical sounds can be heard as it unfurls and starts to resemble a rifle. A black stock comes out the back, a long barrel extends from the front with a Barret .50 cals muzzle break forming at the front, and finally a large scope lifts out from the top of the box, which is the receiver now that I see. It's mostly silver and blocky in shape except for the round scope and barrel. Like my pistol, it has a black strip on the side and it shows a two on it. "A two shot sniper rifle… alright then." I smirk at my new found weapon.
"Uhhh guys? Introductions and weapon showings aside, can you please go deactivate the tower now?" Jeremy suddenly chimes in.
"Sorry about that Jeremy." Odd tells him before looking at Aelita and I. "So, where to Aelita?" He asks her.
"The tower should be over that way." She points in the direction we need to go.
"Alright, let's get moving." Yumi says and with a nod from everyone we start running. I keep my rifle on me the whole time so I can be ready to fire should need be. It may only have two shots right now but its better than nothing. Plus I want to at least get a feel for it.
"So, how did you get here Alex?" Odd makes small talk as we run.
"You guys saw the purple gas, right?"
"Yeah?"
"I got forced into the sewer by that stuff and I found some skateboards there."
"So that's why one of them was on the ground!" Odd comments.
"Oh, sorry. I thought I put it back right. Must have fell." I shake my head and continue. "Anyway, I followed the tracks through the sewer, came out the top and I found the factory. I remember you guys mentioning something about a factory so my curiosity got the best of me."
"Heard us? Wait, were you spying on us?!" Yumi suddenly stops and looks angrily at me.
'Oh crap. Probably shouldn't have mention that part.' The rest of us stop as well and look back to her, me being especially worried at her renewed hostility to me. "I-I-I didn't mean too! I-I just happened upon you guys and accidentally listened in!"
"Uhhh Yumi I don't think this is the time to—"
"No Odd, I wanna know why this guy was listening in—Puah!" Just as she points an accusatory finger at me, a red laser shot flies over my shoulder and impacts her in the chest.
"Yumi! Arh!" Odd lets out a strangled cry as another one nails him too.
My body quickly moves as I pivot on my feet, barely avoiding the shot meant for me but instead I roll myself onto Aelita and grab her. "Arrrrrr!" I grit my teeth as a couple shots impact my back.
"Alex!" Aelita cries out my name and quickly pulls me out from the open, my body having been momentarily stunned from the sudden hits I just took. While I lay myself against the tree we are using as cover, my hand gripping the barrel next to me, Yumi and Odd manage to move over and take cover next to us.
"Knock it off you guys! You all just took some big hits and too many more and you guys are done!" Jeremy scolds us. "Odd, Yumi, you both just lost 20 life points. Alex, your down to 20. Anymore and your devirtualized." Jeremy quickly informs us of our life pools. Kind of sucks we don't have any HUDs to tell us what our status's are but now's not the time to complain.
"Mm, roger." I grunt and stand to my full height when I'm able.
"Work together already. We can't get hung up on who's angry at who right now. You guys just got ambushed and the monsters are blocking you from the tower. It's past them." He tells us.
"He's right." Aelita agrees with him. "XANA's attack is still going on and we need to deactivate the tower as soon as we can."
Seeing as she's the one we need to protect above all else, Yumi's cross look melts away to understanding. She still looks like she doesn't want to be friends with me but a comrade in arms right now is what I'll take. "Alright, Jeremy how do we get past these monsters?" Yumi asks him while Odd and I place ourselves on the edge of the tree. I keep my rifle held close and ready to move out and fire while Odd returns fire. He seems to be shooting metal tip arrows towards them so that's his weapon.
"The only way to access the tower is via a tree bridge. But it happens to be behind the monsters so your going to have to find a way around them." Jeremy informs us. Yumi peeks out to survey the area ahead where we have to go. I glance out too to see the tree bridge he was talking about and one of the kankrelats strafing to the side slowly, trying to get a bead on us. We move back in before it can hit us.
"I might have an idea for blocking the monsters." She says and turns to us. She takes a look at me and scowls a little before calming down. "You two take care of Aelita." We nod and get ready to move but Yumi quickly grabs my arm, forcing me to stop and look back at her, to be greeted by a serious and cross look from her. "Protect her, understand? Nothing else matters."
"… Yeah, yeah I got it." I remove her hand from my arm and move away to the others without a friendly look to her. While I admit I understand her caution towards me from earlier, I'm starting to become annoyed with her outright distrust. Now's not the time for that.
"Laser flash!" Odd suddenly shouts and sends an arrow flying right into one of the monsters trying to flank us. This breaks me from my thoughts as Aelita and I smile at him at his quick reaction. "C'mon." He waves for us to follow and we do. While we head back and around to head for the tree bridge, Yumi is staying to do whatever she's going to do against the monsters. Their may be only two and small but their close proximity could fell us pretty quickly. When we stop behind another tree and get ready to move, we watch as she begins to glow and emit some sort of aura, as well as pressing her hands to the sides of her head.
"What is she doing?" I ask the others. Before they can answer though, I notice a large rock nearby begin to shake and shudder. Similar to the glow emanating from Yumi, it shudders a bit before slowly beginning to lift up and towards her. "Oh, telekinesis. Nice." I mutter. From the way how she's concentrating, it shouldn't be too hard to figure she's the source of the floating rock heading towards the slowly approaching enemy. Ever so slowly, the rock creeps through the air towards them and just as one of them walks around the tree, she drops it.
As soon as she lets it go, it falls and completely crushes one of them. With the distraction set and one of them taken out, the three of us begin running towards the tree bridge while Yumi tries to take out the last one. Keyword 'try'. She jumps onto the rock and pulls out a Japanese fan before hurling it at the monster. 'Huh, guess I was right about the fan dancer.' The last kankrelat wises up and dodges at the last second. This makes her fan ricochet off the ground and away from them, leaving her wide open for a laser shot to the stomach. The others look back in worry at their friend but I don't. She's taking the heat right now for us so we don't have to deal with, and especially not Aelita. Her injures means we can get her out of here, so we keep moving. We pass by the tree bridge and I quickly look back to see her take another hit.
That's the last of her because she slowly begins disappearing in white pixels, leaving a fading grid outline of her before she disappears entirely. I stumble a little at seeing her gone just like that and now I'm worried. "Uhh, Yu-Yumi's… gone." I hesitatingly tell the others.
"Don't worry. She was just devirtualized. She'll wake up with a headache at the scanners, that's it." Odd explains, slightly looking back at me.
"Your sure?" I ask, just to be sure. I know I heard the explanation before from Aelita but I'm still a little tense about it happening to me.
"Positive!" He happily and loudly replies while he looks ahead. His jovial attitude towards his friends sudden demise kind of puts it into perspective that I have nothing to worry about. That puts me a little at ease but I should still try not to get hit.
"Guys! Hurry up!" From the sound of Jeremy's urgent voice, something bad happened and we need to book it.
We soon make it to where the tall white tower with the glowing red aura around it is at but there's not a direct path to the tower on its elevated platform, surrounded by a moat. I was assured that I wouldn't be erased if I touched it so as long as I don't fall in the ocean further down, I'm good. Still, that doesn't stop the fact we're so close and still unable to reach the tower. "Alright, we're here. Now what?" I ask, seeing as theirs no clear path, I'm stumped on what to do. Odd is confused as well as he looks around but Aelita instead thinks.
"You two watch my back. I've got this." She tells us and walks forward before kneeling at the edge of the moat. Odd and I step back and do a quick look around the area to make sure we got nothing coming at us.
Soon what sounds like an angelic choir begins to sing. I look to see its Aelita doing this, and wow she sounds… beautiful. "Whoa." I mutter in awe.
"Neat huh." Odd says. I look at him as he gives me a smile at the display we see. "Aelita's basically been living here and tied to this place. Soooo with a bit of effort and concentration, she can do some pretty amazing things." Just as he says that, what looks like large trunks of trees begin rising out of the water, each one taller than the last like stepping stones and a small jumping path right to the tower. "Like that."
"Awesome. That makes things much easier now." I mutter with a smirk, then look to the side with a frown. "But they won't." Odd looks too and we see a kankrelat moving towards us from the tree bridge. From what I can tell, I think it was the one that took out Yumi.
"Don't worry. I got this one." He lightly holds his arm out and walks forward to get ready to challenge the monster. Seeing as how I'm one hit away from being taken out, probably for the better. I step back and move next to Aelita while she finishes setting up her path, rifle in my hands. "Yoo-hoo." Odd taunts the little monster once it makes its way towards us. Odd stands there staring at the monster with his arm pointed at it, ready to fire. I see the little monster turn towards Aelita, in which I move in between them and aim my rifle at it. It refocuses itself right back at him. "Sorry, but its not going to be that eas- Aah!" Before he can finish however, a laser shot comes flying out from the right and nails him in the side.
"Odd!" I yell his name and quickly look. Standing a little bit away, three more kankrelats are there ready to lay fire down on us. "Aelita!" She finishes setting up her path and turns to me as I aim my rifle. "Get moving! We'll hold them off!" I yell before I immediately shift my aim towards the new arrivals. In an instant my sight peers down the scope and I put one of them in my crosshairs. Firing once dead center, I look towards the next and fire again. Both targets explode in their small explosions. I smile at the quick kills but all of a sudden my senses tell me to move.
*Ching!*
Just as I lean back, another laser shot nails my rifle in my hands and sends it flying into the moat. I spot the original kankrelat Odd was going to fight aiming at me. "Hey you!" Thankfully, his voice yells out, getting the monsters attention. "We're not through!"
While he's back in action, I pull out my blaster pistol and I open fire on my opponent. The distance between us is long and is more suited for my rifle than my pistol. This much is evident as I fire three shots, that's it, and they all miss. It manages to dodge my attacks from this distance and is no worse for wear. "Crap." I mutter angrily and put my pistol away and go to grab my kukri. Or I would if I didn't see it shift its aim to Aelita, who's focusing on not trying to fall off the platforms. Then it begins charging up. "Aelita! Watch out!" She stops in surprise at the yell before freezing like a deer in headlights at the charging laser… then it fires. 'NOOO!' With a heave, I throw myself off the edge of the land right towards the path of the laser. "Graahh!" I yell in pain as I am hit square in the chest, the force landing me on the lower tree platform with my back to the monster. Just as sudden as the pain comes, it disappears in an instant. A coldness washes over me as I make the realization I'm finished.
And I'm angry.
"And I'm NOT DONE!" I yell and grab my knife just as my body begins to disappear from my feet. At the same time, my knife rolls in my hand until I am gripping the tip of the blade and roll over on the log before with one final yell, I throw my knife as hard as I can towards the monster. It curves off target slightly as it whips through the air, until it comes back around and finds its mark right in the center of the eye symbol on its.
I let out one final smile and close my eyes as I lose consciousness, as well as my body.
Late at night, both Jeremy and Ulrich continue to spray paint the wall in the picture the that they decided on. "I don't understand why insist on getting punished with detention again, Jeremy?" Ulrich asks the question. "C'mon, XANA's not going to reactivate this soon. You could give yourself a short vacation." He proposes to his friend but the look on Jeremy's face says differently. Despite already dealing with XANA's attack, Jeremy still decides to go through with the plan of spray-painting Jim's likeness on the wall, with a bit of change to it.
"Not as long as Aelita stays virtual. And this time, to tell you the truth, considering what we painted Jim can't be too angry." Jeremy says with a smirk as he stares at the new and improved picture they drew of their coach. Jim depicted as a king with a white gleaming smile seems like a good gesture. Of course, the two still defaced school property so they're going to get in trouble still, but hopefully not as harsh. "By the way, have you seen that Alex guy anywhere? I don't really know anyone here by that name." He asks Ulrich, who gets a conflicted look at the reminder of the intruder at the factory.
"No idea. From what you and the others said, we don't really have an accurate look at his face. Not even a last name." Ulrich lets his arm hang as he still has unsure feelings about the person who had apparently broken into the factory, especially Lyoko.
"Well, I'm sure he'll turn up. He did go into the scanners, so maybe—"
"Hey." A new voice speaks up. They turn around to see an unimpressive looking glassed wearing student standing next to them. Already Ulrich immediately recognizes the guy but doesn't do anything to show he remembers who he is from the teddy bear attack. Although he doesn't actually know his name. They both continue to stare at him in silence, unsure of what to do and hoping to not get caught too early from the plan their planning to enact. He simply stares at them for a silent few seconds before he stares at the wall, examining what they've been drawing before he looks down at a bag of spray paint cans before grabbing one himself. "Mind if I join you guys?" He asks with a small smile as he shakes the can.
They both look at each other confused but reluctantly agree. "Uhhh, sure." Jeremy agrees and gestures to Ulrich's right. "Try and make like a sunny background. You know to go with the shining teeth."
"Got it." He nods and begins spraying. For a bit, that's all they hear, just the sounds of spray cans spraying.
The awkwardness is thick enough it could be cut with a knife. "Alright. Who are you and why do you wanna get in trouble along with us?" Ulrich demands with frown as he stares right at the new arrival.
He smirks as he continues spraying. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised you wouldn't recognize me without my cowboy attire and my guns, along with my Kukri," He turns to them with a full on smile, enjoying their moment of surprise. "Right?"
"Alex?" Jeremy says his name more of in a question but he nods nonetheless.
"Great to meet you guys." He offers a hand to Jeremy to shake, which he does, but when he offers to Ulrich, all he gets is a wary cross-armed look. He shrugs it off and continues spraying. "I had a feeling you might not recognize me during the whole virtualized thing. Anyway, since it looks like your still going to go through with getting in trouble, I figured I might join you. Is that alright?" He asks them with an unsure look. He was kind of grasping at straws when he decided to come out to them like this since they haven't exactly met him first.
"Uhh, yeah sure. Its okay. The more the merrier I guess you could say." Jeremy says, still unsure about the sudden appearance but not going to turn him away. While they go back to spraying, Ulrich looks between the two of them a few times before letting out a sigh and finishing up as well.
"By the way, later on can you guys explain to me why for the last few weeks I've been having some severe déjà vu moments?" he asks. They both stop the spray painting and look at him with wide eyes. He wasn't looking at them when he asked his question so he doesn't see them staring at him. However just the sort of feel their eyes on him, plus the lack of sounds of the other spray cans tips him off. He sees their stares and feels very uncomfortable. "W-what?" He asks confused.
They both stare at him in surprise at his question. Problem is, it was only since his entrance to Lyoko that allowed him to retain his memory from the time that passed during the Return to the Past. Yet he was just talking about how this has been happening for weeks before. A time before he went into the virtual world.
Before either of them can speak anymore about this, their cue is given as they hear angry shouts and a yipping dog. "Well, we are going to be here for vacation. I think we can take the time to get to know each other, and to get you up to speed on what's been happening." Jeremy answers with a smile as they watch Jim run past them, chasing after a dog. Soon though, he turns around when he notices students out this late at night past curfew.
'I hope he likes being drawn a king.' Alex thinks with a smirk. It's obvious things are going to be very different from now on.
Okay, well, sorry everyone. This took waaaaaaaaaay longer than I first thought. I first thought I was going to do the previous episode but I realized that their wasn't going to be a lot that Alex was going to do. So I went ahead and just combined the two episodes together and finally give everyone the moment of him finding the Virtual world. A lot of other stories I read before always had the OC go through a ton of stuff and dozens of chapters before he finally entered the group so I decided to go ahead and cut to the chase. Plus, the way how the episode went just felt like a good opportunity for him to join them, sort of. Also a few more episodes in the future will give me some nice opportunity's to work with.
Another problem came up that wasn't of my own doing and I don't have any control of whatsoever. Apparently some sort of hacker/virus/infection has been hounding authors here on Fanfiction and it was or possibly has been getting worse. Infecting people's accounts, changing their bio's, forcing backup emails into our account so they can jack it with a simple password reset, that sort of stuff. Apparently, you simply needed to mouse over or go into a persons profile and your account may get infected too. A couple reddit posts already has the information on just what's happening so if you want to check it out on what exactly is going on, simply google searching: "ALERT: Do Not Check Any User Profiles On FFN" or "WARNING: DO NOT CHECK USER PROFILES ON FFN" will get you to a couple posts that detail and explain it. It's pretty scary stuff that seems so simple for everything to go to hell in a handbasket so quickly if you're not careful.
Reviews:
MerlockVonBaron: Drawing out his addition to the Lyoko warriors was not something I want to happen, so yeah not waiting long for him to join was what I was going for. As for Sissy, not really a priority for me to do, especially since I already have the general idea of how I'm going to go about this story. Adding Sissy to the team… that would just be a major overhaul that would go against what I had planned. Sorry. Hopefully I'll still make you things interesting for you to read.
xXSpades231Xx: I do what I can. This story was on my mind for awhile, as you noticed, and just felt like go ahead and going in. For pairings, not really anything coming to mind. The list of potential characters are kind of sparse to be honest. We'll see how things go though. Alex's impact right now is currently a little on the low side but very soon he'll have more moments for him to shine and really show his talents, and true feelings. As for how Aelita is, I'll do what I can but to be honest I'm still going to keep things somewhat close to the show itself so exactly what your asking, we'll see.
Anyway, thanks for the questions and compliments. Hope I continue to make things fun and amazing.
Guest: Patience. I'm not stopping anytime soon. Just… takes me awhile. Sorry about that.
Just so you all know, from now on I'm going to be responding to reviews solely here instead. If you want to ask a quick question or you yourself just want the answer to, PM me instead.
Thank you all for your patience. Hopefully the issues that Fanfiction has been having is resolved but I'm still worried. I'm going to continue posting my work here on this site but I do plan to share my work to my other accounts on other sites.
Under the same name Vendicor, I will have accounts on the following sites: Ao3 (Archive of Our Own), Quotev, and FictionPad. Hopefully I won't ever have to switch to any of those sites full time but just in case should the worst come to pass or I drop out of contact, those sites will be some places you might find me or inquire more.
Anyway, thank you everyone, go ahead and fave, follow, review, whatever you wish, but most of all, have fun reading and have a great day to each and every one of you.
