I woke up with a pounding headache and felt my back was sore. I wasn't outside anymore though. I was in a dark room. I looked around to see an elevator next to me and a computer in front of me. A groan escaped my lips and Jeremie's head popped out around the computer to look at me.
"Emma! How do you feel? Yumi said you were slammed into a tree pretty hard."
I looked at him, confused and then I remembered. Yumi had been fighting somebody off on the outskirts of the school grounds… near the park.
"I feel fine," I told him, hiding the struggle that I had standing up. "Where is Yumi?"
"Wow, usually the first question is 'where am I?'" Jeremie mused, returning his attention to the computer screen. I walked over to where he sat and took a look at what he was doing. I saw multiple screens and player cards on the screen. I saw a photo of Odd in a cat costume, Ulrich in a sleek yellow and brown body suit, Yumi in a sleep pink and purple body suit, and Aelita in a bright pink cyber elf costume.
"A video game?" I guessed. "I don't have a lot of experience with video games, so I'm not sure."
"No, you're sort of right. It is a virtual world where the four of our friends go to save the real world," Jeremie explained. I pursed my lips, looking at him skeptically. He caught my glance. "It's called Lyoko."
I shook my head. "But…" I thought about it and couldn't think of a good argument other than the fact that it sounded like it was science fictional. I had no way of proving that something like this couldn't exist.
Out of nowhere the man that Yumi had been fighting came down from the rafters above, growling at Jeremie and I. I gasped and Jeremie quickly informed his friends that X.A.N.A. 's spectre was in the room.
The spectre's hands began to glow as a ball of electrified energy appeared. He took aim at Jeremie and before he had a chance to fire it t him, I took my shoe off and threw it at him. It was something my great aunt told me to do in a time like this; an attacker won't expect you to use a shoe as a weapon.
"Hey! Leave my friend alone!" I yelled in Russian. The "spectre" as Jeremie called it before, locked eyes with me and I thought I saw what looked like a target with three lines sticking out at the bottom and one line on top, in the center. I braced myself to fight and just then the man shot a surge of electricity at me and suspended me in the air. I howled in pain until suddenly it stopped. I collapsed on the ground to see the man on the ground, Odd standing behind him holding a metal pipe.
"Jeremie, there's still a few monsters there and I don't know if Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita will make it," Odd informed him as he ran over to me. I looked up at him, totally terrified out of my mind, my heart was racing.
"That man shot lightning at me!" I sputtered. "The fuck!?"
"Are you okay?" Odd asked anxiously. I stood up, a little fuzzy but I felt fine.
"I feel fine. Do you need me to go into Lyoko to help them?" I asked them. "If they aren't going to make it? We can't let this terror hurt anyone else." I kicked the man and felt him grunt and try to grab at me.
Odd tackled the man and led him into the elevator and closed the door on him. He looked at me and then at Jeremie frantically.
"Yumi's coming back!" Jeremie yelled. "And Ulrich is surrounded… Oh man!"
I stood next to him and tapped him on the shoulder. "Let me go to Lyoko to help!"
Jeremie shook his head. "They can make it…" He said. I wasn't sure if even he believed that sounded convincing.
"Jeremie, just scan her and let her help us! We're dying out here!" Ulrich yelled from the game. "She can distract the monsters at least; the worst that can happen is she'll get devirtualized!"
Odd pointed me to a hole in the floor where I saw a ladder. And I am going to go keep twinkle fingers busy," he told me as I passed him. I climbed down the ladder and immediately spotted three tubes. Yumi was getting out of one, looking at me suspiciously, she looked a little disoriented.
"So, should I just stand inside one of these?" I called up to Jeremie. Yumi's eyes narrowed but she didn't say anything to me.
"Yes. Stand inside and I'll scan you," Jeremie explained. His voice rang out over speeakers that were located around the room. "Take a minute to find your weapons and get a feel for them before you join the others."
I did as he said and stepped into the scanner on the left hand side of the room. "Transfer: Emma." I heard Jeremie's voice as the scanner closed around me. I tried with all my might to remain calm. I didn't realize I'd be trapped in such a small space…
"Scanner: Emma," Jeremie said. A bright light shined and I felt my body tingle slightly as everything went black for a microsecond.
"Virtualization."
When I opened my eyes I was in what appeared to be a mountain environment. I looked down and, too late, I realized I wasn't on the ground. I fell and landed smack dab on my butt.
"Emma, can you hear me?" Jeremie's rang out from above. I looked up to see if I could see him, but no, there was just a foggy blue sky. I stood up and took a look at myself.
"Uh, yeah I hear you," I said, distracted. I was wearing a sleek, metallic orange corset with a dark red, tutu skirt. Both had intricate black chrome designs that mimicked that of a spider web. I was bare other than a pair of orange combat boots with red stripes running down the side of the boot and a pair of red gloves that came to my elbow, the gloves had the same black design as on the corset and skirt. I looked in the palm of my hand to see a small barrel built into my hand, like the barrel of a gun.
"Jeremie, I seem to have some sort of gun built into my hand. How do I use it?"
"If it's like Odd's laser arrows, all you need to do it think about shooting, concentrate, aim, and it will fire. Try that, see if it works." Jeremie suggested.
I did just that. I targeted a nearby tree and aimed my hand, palm forward and thought of firing. A laser bullet flashed and the next thing I knew, a tree branch shattered and pieces of virtual bark fell into a sort of digital sea.
"Jeremie, is that sea below me safe?" I asked as I looked down at it.
"Avoid it. If you fall in, it's game over," Jeremie said frankly. "Ulrich's just been devirtualized and Aelita is alone, are you ready?"
"I think I can do this… where should I go?" I asked him.
Jeremie directed me to Aelita and I found her hiding in a casing of rock. She was like a pistachio nut that was still incased in a shell. She was surrounded by a giant crab monster, a block monster, and two small bug-like monsters.
"So I hit them in the thing that looks like a target? Seems easy enough…" I said. I hid behind a rock and stuck my hand out, palm forward and aimed for the block first since it had the most targets.
The block moved just as I fired, but I still hit the target. The block exploded and the other monsters looked in my direction to see what attacked their comrade. I sprung out from behind the rock and sent a bullet flying at one of the smaller monsters and missed. I took another shot, barely evading a laser from the crab. This time I hit the target on the bug's face.
The second bug charged a laser and fired at me. I was hit and felt a brief pain but it faded quickly. I ran around back to the rock and climbed up, finding that my fingers were especially abrasive and made it easy for me to climb. I looked over the top and quickly brought my head back down behind the rock before a laser whizzed just above me. The giant crab was just in front of therock.
"Aren't you supposed to be behind a glass window at a super market?" I sneered, launching myself up and over the rock. I landed shakily on top of the crab and pressed my hand into its shell. "laser!" I shouted. A flash of light and I knew I had to get away. I jumped off and landed flat on my ass, watching the beast explode.
"You're doing great Emma!" Jeremie praised. Just as he said it, the last of the monsters, the bug that had hit me before, shot me with another laser. I moved from my butt and got up on my knees, taking quick aim at the monster and shot a curved laser bullet at it. It shattered on impact. I scanned the vicinity and got up. I approached Aelita's safe place, as I walked the rock separated and Aelita stepped out, grinning wide.
"You did so great! Please. Excuse me," she said. She walked over to a large tower structure that glowed red toward the top. I didn't see a door or any way for her to enter, but that didn't stop her. She sort of just passed through the solid wall, arms outstretched to her sides. I watched carefully, wanting to see what would happen next.
The tower's red glow faded to a white haze and Aelita's voice rang throughout the mountains. "Tower: Deactivated."
"Jeremie, I think she just did it?" I announced. "Is that what she was supposed to do?"
"Yes," Jeremie said simply. I could hear Yumi's voice in the background, she didn't sound very happy.
Aelita came out of the tower a few seconds later and walked over to me. "So, this tower is how this… X.A.N.A. got that man to attack Yumi earlier?" I asked her, looking at the once red topped tower. Now it had a neutral haze surrounding it instead.
"That's right," Aelita said to me. "Now it is inactive, so it isn't doing anything, but when X.A.N.A. activates one he can connect to the real world to attack it. It is usually a different attack each time. I am the only one who can deactivate the towers."
"Aelita, Emma, I am going to bring you home now. We all need to talk," Jeremie's voice boomed over them. A second later I watched as Aelita pixilated and disappeared. A second later, the same thing happened to me.
The scanner opened and I nearly fell out. Odd and Ulrich caught me before I could completely collapse.
"Yeah, the first time felt like this for me too," Odd said soothingly. "If it makes you feel better, I didn't have anyone to catch me."
I shook my head. "That doesn't make me feel better," I told him but smiled nonetheless. "So what do we need to talk about?"
The boys led me and Aelita upstairs where Jeremie and Yumi both stood, waiting for us.
"I can't believe you guys let her go to Lyoko just like that," Yumi said immediately, scowling at me. "It was really risky. I thought if I brought her here, we'd just let her rest until we did a return to the past…"
"So what's the big deal? I did well, didn't I?" I asked. I could feel my heart racing. I couldn't tell whether or not they were mad at me. Jeremie looked perplexed, Odd and Ulrich looked concerned, along with Aelita. Yumi was the only one who seemed annoyed. But why?
"This whole operation is highly… confidential," Jeremie began. "we've never let an outside person onto Lyoko, and we've discussed it and what we would have done in any other situation is have a group vote. Because of the situation though, we had to send you in before we discussed it. So we have to discuss it now."
I nodded, "I understand… Can you guys explain what all of this is about? From beginning to end?" I asked them. I sat down on the floor next to the opening to the scanner room and Odd sat down next to me. Ulrich and Aelita just remained standing, looking down at me. I hated when everyone looked at me all at once…. It made me feel ultra-aware of what I was doing and how I was moving.
So they explained everything, starting with the day that Jeremie came to the factory to find parts for a robot, but instead found Aelita trapped in Lyoko. They continued by regaling me with how they freed Aelita and the complications they're facing with shutting the computer off. So now they were all just trying to keep X.A.N.A. at bay while they figure out a way to destroy him. During various parts of the story Odd and Ulrich had to translate for me. Finally, when they were done, I found it all really hard to believe.
"Um, so it all sounds really crazy; like a science fiction novel… I wouldn't be able to believe it if I hadn't just lived it," I said in all honesty. My heart was still racing, and my mind was cluttered with everything they'd just told me. I made my decision: "I won't tell anybody, and I would like to help you to defeat X.A.N.A.," I said to them. "If you will have me," I added quickly. Odd grinned, looking at Jeremie and Yumi, waiting for an answer.
"I saw how she fought; it was a little shaky but she stayed calm, even when that Kankralat knocked her down. I think she'd be a valuable addition to our team if we teach her how to fight outside of Lyoko first," Ulrich said, offering his input.
"It's true; she took out a Blok, a Krab, and two Roachsters all on her own with next to no background information." Aelita added.
"It would be nice to have a fourth warrior. We could get the towers deactivated faster," came Odd's input.
Yumi looked hard at me, our eyes locked and she looked like she was searching my soul. After a minute she looked away, crossing her arms. My heard sank before she opened her mouth. "She can join us as long as Jeremie is on board."
We all looked at Jeremie. He nodded. "So, it's time for a return to the past. Emma, get ready to relive your first day of classes."