Out of Darkness

Chapter 7: A New Face

Unknown Tower 8, Lyoko, Computer Run Time 01:19:45

William ran straight through the tower wall and out to the new sector and right off of a platform. "Whoa!" he shouted, going into supersmoke. He hovered for a moment, a mere two meters above a rolling, glowing sea, before shooting back up to the edge of the small platform that he had rushed off of, stumbling back into form.

"Why didn't you warn me there would be a drop?" he shouted, standing up.

"Sorry!" Zach said, "I couldn't see anything outside of the tower. This damned computer has more defenses than I could have imagined." William turned away from the tower and looked around. The ground appeared to be some kind of sand, and the sky was a fiery yellow. Looking up, he saw that he was in a crater, with a floating platform holding up the tower. A single tower cable connected the tower to the mainland.

"I can only see that you're in a crater," Zach said, the disembodied noise of him typing echoing through William's mind. "Go see what's around, that seems to fill in the data gaps."

"Already on it," William shouted, supersmoking to the edge of the crater. He hit the ground running, following the tower cables that snaked out of the ground. It was a while before he stopped.

"I'm not finding anything, Zach," he said, looking around the barren landscape.

"Go a bit further to the west," Zach said, examining the screen carefully. "There's a cablethat looks like it leads to another tower.

William nodded and ran towards the cables. They led him straight to another tower.

"You were right, Zach," he said, "Do you think there's anything useful in this one?"

"Who knows?" Zach said. "Try to find out." William entered the tower, rising up to the second platform and accessing the interface. Within a few minutes, William found himself at a firewall. "I can't go any further, Zach."

"I can see that." Zach said, examining the screen. There was a password box, with eight spaces available. "Damn," he whispered, trying to think of something. He looked through the book again. He was about to give up when he found a small piece of a page near the back. In the margin was half of a scribbled footnote: 'twr acss; hann-.' He thought for a moment before he remembered reading the book about the Punic wars. He typed in the word 'Hannibal,' the name of the Carthagian general. Just like that, data began to fill the screen, revealing a map of the Desert Sector.

"Alright, I'm in," Zach said, resizing the windows to that he could see better, "It looks like you're in the Desert Sector. There's a tower to the northeast of you. Go there and try to find more data." William closed the panel and exited the tower. "I'm on my way," he said, looking towards the direction of the tower, where he could see the entrance to a canyon.

"Hold that thought, there's something coming your way. Several somethings, actually." William looked to the horizon, where five shapes were flying rapidly towards him. Sinking back into a fighting stance, William materialized his blade. However, as the shapes flew closer, he could that they seemed to be chasing a cloud of dust.

"Zach, what is that?" William asked as he braced himself.

Zach flipped through the pages of the burnt programming book, trying to figure out what the screen was saying. He knew that the five red icons were monsters, but it was the blue one that he wasn't sure of. "Dammit, Jeremie!" he whispered, closing the book in frustration. "Why couldn't you have written in something more fireproof?"

"I have no idea, William," he said, typing furiously, looking for any clues in the new data. "Just be ready for anything."

William grimaced as a figure came into view. A boy was running towards him, dodging the lasers that the flying monsters were firing. He had two swords drawn, occasionally turning to block a laser. William charged his sword again and swung, sending an energy disc right at the monsters. They dodged it, and the boy turned his attention on him, stopping. Immediately he was surrounded by the creatures, which looked like legless, mutated insects. They fired laser after laser from their 'stingers.' The boy was able to block most of them, but they were relentless.

William ran towards the monsters, swinging another disc. This time it went right through one monster and into another, destroying them both. The boy scowled at him and leapt into the air, throwing one of his swords at a monster. It exploded, launching the blade back into his hand. William jumped into supersmoke, materialized behind one of them, and brought his blade down right through it. He heard another explosion behind him and turned just in time to block the other boy's sword as he slashed at William.

"Who are you?" the boy asked, jumping back and holding his blades up cautiously. William carefully held his own blade in front of him, ready to fight. "I'm William," he said, "Who are you?" The other boy didn't break or loosen his stance. "I don't know who I am," he said grimly, "I woke up inside one of those towers." William relaxed his stance, still holding his blade. "Monsters chase you too?" he asked. The other boy nodded. "Zach, what do you think?"

Zach grimaced, and his stomach growled. It had been several hours since he ran from the Hermitage, and he hadn't eaten while he was there. "I think you two might be able to find out more if you work together." Back in the desert, the other boy was confused. "Who are you talking to?" he said, starting to back away. "A friend," William said, dematerializing his blade. "Look, I know you don't know me or trust me, but I think we might be able to find out more if we work together." The other boy relaxed his stance, but still held up his blades. "You're right," the boy said, "I don't trust you. But you might be right." William nodded and held out his hand. The boy sheathed his blades and shook it.

As soon as their hands touched, digital energy jolted through both of them. At the lab, the monitor screen lit up with new windows on all four screens. Zach jumped, typing furiously to try to keep up with the sudden inflow of new data. Back in the desert, William and the other boy had drawn their weapons.

"What the hell was that?" William shouted.

"I don't know!" Zach yelled, frantically trying to process the data on the screen.

"Who said that!" the other boy yelled, startled to hear Zach's voice in his mind.

"Wait, you can hear me now?" Zach asked, resizing and reconfiguring windows so that he could read them all. The boy's icon on the screen had turned green, just like William's, and a new set of vitals had appeared as well. Zach was about to speak again when he saw the final window pop up. It was an unplayed video, with a face he barely remembered staring back at him. With his hands shaking, he clicked play.

"14 November 2009, time is 17: 27. This is the diary of Jeremie Belpois, and I fear it will be my last entry."

A/N: Two chapters in a row, I think that's a new record. I'll try to get chapter 8 as soon as possible (but you know how that story could go). Thank you again for reading and reviewing, it really helps keep up my writing motivation.