Metra's POV
Humming to myself slightly, I led Tetrox, or at least the guy I thought was Tetrox at the time, down the slope towards the fields, away from the mechano hives. He was curiously silent, as though he was thinking very hard about something. I thought he was probably trying to remember something he had forgotten.
"There they are, K-129." I said, gesturing with one of my claws to point to three large fields, full of tall, green, virtelm stalks.
"It doesn't look like much," he said. "Is this really all you need to feed the colonies? I thought that we would need a lot more. And it really smells, too. Are you sure you eat his stuff?"
"Virtelm grows very, very fast. We plant it on one day, tend to it the next, and its ready for harvest by the third day. Each of the fields can feed the colonies for one day, while we're growing more. And don't worry about the smell. It goes away after cooking. Simple, right?" "I guess so."
We headed down further, to where a small crowd had gathered. Most of them were Kankrelats, with some Bloks and the occasional Krabe thrown in. A Frelion and a Manta hovered above, and a Megatank stood in front, addressing us.
"Right," he said. "You lot know what to do. Kankrelats, get the weeds. Bloks and Krabes, the parasites on the leaves. The Frelion and the Manta will fly above and watch for trouble. Now get going!" The Megatank rolled off, leaving us to the fields.
It didn't take long for trouble to start. "K-129!" I shouted at him. "Are you out of your mind? You need to get up close and burn the pests, not stand from a distance and try to shoot them from there! You'll hit someone's eye doing that!"
"I thought you said this was supposed to be easy!" He complained.
"Well, I suppose it does take some practice..," I mumbled.
"Urggh..."
He went up close to the stalk, put his eye right up o one of the slimy slugs, and before I could say, "No! That's too close!" he fired, and the laser beam set the stalk afire.
"Oh no!" I shouted. Tetrox stepped back from the fire, looking around wildly for some way to extinguish it.
I looked up into the sky, and waved to the Manta.
"M-47! We've got a code 16 emergency here! We need a water mine, NOW!" I shouted.
He flew over to us as fast as he could.
"Incoming!" He shouted, and the flying mine filled with water dropped out of a hatch on his belly. It hit the stalk, extinguishing the fire as it burst, but the burst of water was even more startling to Tetrox than the fire. He fell backwards in surprise, and let off an involuntary laser blast. It flew up into the sky, and it just barely grazed the edge of the Manta's wing.
Unfortunately, it was just enough to set him off balance. He dropped out of the sky with a cry, crashed into Tetrox, and with that, both of them went tumbling even further down the hill.
"Oh bother," I huffed, and ran after them.
I saw MT-62, the Megatank supervisor, rolling along the path when Tetrox and M-47 tumbled out of the virtelm and ran straight into him. The three mechanos rolled a little further before they all collapsed and sprawled out on the ground, away from each other. I ran down the hill to catch up, and was there to stand stiffly to attention when MT-62 recovered and started shouting.
"K-129! M-47! What on Lyoko do you think you're doing!" He shouted.
M-47 was the next to recover. "He shot me out of the sky!" he said, lying on the ground and pointing an accusing wing at Tetrox.
"It was an accident!" Tetrox said, getting up.
The Megatank stared them down, and they both cringed under his piercing gaze.
"I think you both had better come with me. That's a serious charge you put against K-129, M-47. And what do you think you're doing, K-147? Get back to work!"
"Uh... right away sir," I stammered.
All I could do as he marched the two of them away was hope that Tetrox would be alright.
Tetrox's POV
I remember a feeling of swimming against the current, fighting my way through dark waters, slowly rising upward...
And then waking up.
I was in a very white room, with a cabinet and a table in it. Morning sunshine came from a window in the wall. They were perfectly proportioned for a human to use, I reflected. I was lying on something rectangular, white, and soft, with a cushion under what I now had o think of as my head. It wasn't as soft as a bed of virtelm leaves, but it was okay.
I saw a door in one corner, but it was rectangular instead of circular, also proportioned for a human. Right now it was opening, and a tall human dressed in white with blonde hair came into the room. It was larger than the ones that had come to Lyoko, but somehow, this one didn't seem very frightening.
"Well now, feeling better, are we?" it said. I decided that somehow the ability to understand human language had been left in the body when the previous owner... vacated it.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"You don't recognize me?" it said, taken aback. "It's me, Yolanda, the school nurse."
Yolanda. We had a specific formula for naming back at the colony, which resulted in a combination of letters and numbers, like my former name, K-129. But I knew enough about human names to know that this one must be a female to have a name like that.
"You know my name, now," Yolanda said. "Do you know your name?"
I decided that 'K-129' would be the wrong answer at this point. It is one thing to lose your memory, but it is another thing altogether to get someone else's.
"No." I replied.
"Okay. Your name is 'Jeremie'. Do you understand that?"
"Yes." I replied.
"Good. I don't know what made you lose your memory, but hopefully it won't take too long for it to come back. You should go outside and join your friends."
So I left the "nurse's office," as Yolanda called it, and went outside.
So this is what the humans' world looks like. I thought. The sky was light blue, like that of the mountain region. There were trees, but they didn't stretch up into infinity, like those of the forest region. They looked more... real looking, I suppose is the only way to put it.
Their buildings were all rectangular. The nests back home were somewhat flattened cones, and the rooms within were all spheres, cylinders, and unflattened cones. The humans were all about blocks.
"Jeremie!" I heard someone call. Recognizing that as "my" name, I turned around to see who it was. It was the arrow firer, waving to me and standing in a group with the other Lyoko warriors. Resisting the urge to run, I walked toward them.
"Well? How're you feeling?" asked the fan thrower.
"You had us pretty worried there for a while, buddy!" said the arrow firer, amiably. "You spent the whole night out cold in the nurse's office!"
The whole night... so that meant that it had been an entire day since I left Lyoko. "So, it is morning... doesn't that mean we have to go to... school?" I said, drawing from what little I knew about human existence.
"Classes don't start for another 15 minutes." said the swordsman.
"Well, it looks like he's back to normal," said the arrow firer.
"Um... what are your names again?" I hazarded.
"Ooookay...," said the arrow firer. "So he may have a bit of amnesia."
The fan thrower narrowed her eyes, and I took a step back. It was obvious that she didn't buy that explanation.
"I'm Yumi, that's Ulrich, that's Odd, and that's Aelita," she said coldly, gesturing to each of the others in turn.
"And I'm Jeremie," I said.
"Well, at least he got that right," said Aelita.
"We'd better get going," said Ulrich. "C'mon, Jeremie, I'll show you to your room, so you can pick up your stuff." He grabbed me by a front limb and led me away.
Aelita's POV
Ulrich, Jeremie, and Odd left, leaving me and Yumi.
"Well?" I asked. "What do you think? Is he the real deal?"
"I have my doubts," said Yumi. "If he's a fake, we'll know soon enough."