The group ran as fast as they could to get across the bridge. Jeremy wasn't answering his phone and they feared the worst. They had no idea what this new boy was capable of. If he was willing to keep his secret so hidden from them then he must have been planning something. They reached the elevator, but it was already moving towards them. They got ready for a fight, but as the doors opened they were greeted by both Andrew and Jeremy.
"Hey guys." Jeremy gave them a simple greeting.
"You better explain yourself right now Andrew!" Odd was right up in the boy's face.
"I, ummm…" Andrew didn't know what to say.
"It's alright guys, we've sorted it out." Jeremy moved Odd away.
"What do you mean sorted it out? You of all people wanted to find this guy and now you look fine about it." Ulrich said, replacing Odd's position in Andrew's face.
"Look he's explained everything. You heard for yourself in the cafeteria about the crummy past he's had. When we chased him out of the lab he thought we were going to hurt him. The stuff that's happened to him has messed with his head."
Hearing what Jeremy was saying really made Andrew feel like a shattered freak.
"He's sorry that he bugged-up the super computer, and about the trouble he's caused us. He's even offered to help me fix the programs." Everything was happened too fast for the group. Jeremy hated his guts earlier on and now they were acting like buddies.
"But... what about our secret?" Yumi asked feeling concerned.
Jeremy nodded to Andrew. It was his queue.
"The truth is I know about Lyoko and what you guys do to stop X.A.N.A. Because of that, I want to help." The group minus Jeremy were wide-eyed. This boy was asking to be part of the group.
"You snuck into the lab and kept it a secret from us, why should we trust you?" Ulrich's arms were crossed and Odd was still frowning at him.
"Jeremy said you would have your doubts. I don't expect you all to decide now. Talk it over together tonight and then decide. If you choose not to let me in, then I still won't tell anyone. Honest." Andrew started walking away from them across the bridge.
"For now we should get back to the school before someone misses us." He was right, lunch was almost over and they had classes to go to and Andrew wanted to have one last look around the place before he went home for the afternoon and got ready for his proper, full day at Kadic in the morning.
Odd and Ulrich looked at each other and shrugged.
"I suppose we should start thinking about it." Yumi spoke.
They followed Andrew towards the town, all except Jeremy who stood still for a moment and watched him walk away. He had covered for him even though he had almost destroyed many of their programs, and Jeremy's head as a matter of fact. Could he really trust this emotionally unstable boy?
"You daydreaming back there? If Jim catches us late for class again he'll have us all listening to his stories of how responsible he was when he was our age compared to us!" Odd imitated Jim's voice.
"Actually I think he'd rather not talk about it." Ulrich corrected him as he walked along with his hands in his pockets.
The rest of the school day went smoothly for the group, although one person was alone and panicking. Jeremy was not answering her. She appeared on the screen in the lab.
"Jeremy! Please say you're there! Jeremy!" No answer came from the lab.
Aelita tried his laptop and saw a familiar sight, albeit from a different angle. Jeremy had left it next to the controls in the factory. There was only one place left.
Jeremy's room was a mess with his text books either all over the desk or on the floor. His bed was unmade and his clothes were hanging out of the wardrobe. For a genius he could be a bit of a slob, either that or he was just easily distracted with his double life. A complete mess it was, but also void of life. There was no one to answer her. She was sure that Jeremy and the others had to be on their way back to the academy, but would they be in time before X.A.N.A began his attack?
The new students had left early, the day having been just a taster of the campus and one of the lessons. Andrew rested on his bed and stared at the sketch he had begun in the lab a few days prior. It featured the lab chair and monitors, as well as the hemisphere-shaped core in the centre of the room. He also looked at the sketch of Aelita. He hoped that the group would accept him just so that he could finish them. His room was full of artwork of different types. He had drawings and digital art up on blue walls, and sculptures of robots and other creatures on his desk all made from scrap.
"Why would they accept me? All I've done is caused them problems." He threw his sketch pad onto the floor.
Meanwhile in Odd and Ulrich's room back in the dormitory, they were discussing just that.
"So you're saying that he kept it all a secret just because he wanted to join us?" Yumi confirmed what Jeremy was saying.
"He was worried what we would do if we found out, especially after we chased him out of the factory."
The group looked over at Odd.
"Why did you go and call him a coward?" Ulrich referred back to the chase.
"Hey I was in the moment, catching the bad guys and all that!" Odd performed some karate moves in front of them.
"You really need the nurse to screw your head on properly Odd." Ulrich grinned.
"Oh okay, is that before or after I've finished playing Lyoko Tower 2000?" Odd grinned back.
"I had to say something to fix the mess you were making!"
The duo reminded Jeremy of his laptop.
"Damn it! I've gone and left my laptop by the super computer! I better go check on Aelita." He put his hand on the door knob.
"Before you do that Einstein, I think I've found the perfect way to vote for Andrew being in our group. Everyone grab a slip of paper, write Y for yes or N for no, scrunch it up and put in this sock." Odd picked a sock up off of his bed.
"Not if it's one of yours Odd! We don't want our votes dissolving. Besides, when did you learn to spell?" Ulrich teased him further. Odd began to sulk.
"We'll use one of mine." Ulrich grabbed his from the drawer.
Jeremy pulled an A4 pad out of his backpack and ripped off four pieces for the group.
"If even one of these comes out black-balled, we don't let him in the group." Jeremy told them.
"Agreed."
Each taking turns to use Jeremy's pen they wrote their results down on their slip of paper and scrunched them up into the sock.
"Actually I'm still not convinced that this isn't one of Odd's socks." Yumi teased.
"See Ulrich! I'm not the only one with an affliction."
Ulrich was about to pull out the results when Jeremy opened the door.
"I will be right back guys." He closed the door behind him.
"Him and the princess of Lyoko. Why doesn't he just go and marry his computer already." Odd asked them.
Andrew was still on his bed, adding colour to his sketch of Aelita. It wasn't until he actually got around to colouring her hair that he realised that he didn't have any pink colouring pencils. Although she had given up drawing years ago Andrew thought his sister might have one lying around somewhere in the pit that was her bedroom. He left his work behind and went to his sister's room, but his room now had a new occupant.
Andrew's laptop was switched on and playing music from the Subsonics. Suddenly the music began to stutter and crackle. The blue screen of death appeared on the monitor as the entire device sparked. A ghostly, black smoke poured out of the power outlet in the wall and flowed into the room. Through some manner of power the smoke was pulled together into a wraith-like figure. It searched the room with malicious intent. It looked to the sketches on the bed and Andrew's creativity over the walls and on the desk. It was the recycled sculptures that caught its attention. No longer would they serve as pieces of art for Andrew, now they served X.A.N.A and the new order.
"So what did you vote? For or against?" Odd was curious as to what the rest of the group would decide.
"I'm not telling you till Jeremy gets back." Ulrich answered, pulling the sock away from Odd's grubby hands.
Behind them the door swung open as a distressed Jeremy entered.
"X.A.N.A's woken up! Aelita's been trying to tell us pretty much since we left the factory." The shock Jeremy's sudden entry had caused Odd to fall back onto his bed.
"No sweat Einstein. We head to the factory and stop him as we always do." Ulrich attempted to calm him.
"But Aelita's been trying to tell us for over an hour and a half. X.A.N.A's had plenty of time to find something to impale, electrocute and throw us around with, so where is he?"
The group thought about what he could be up to.
"Who would he target if not us?" Yumi asked.
"Oh crap, Andrew!" Ulrich suddenly remembered.
"Damn! Alright, I'll head to the factory and one of you can head to Andrew's house and warn him." Jeremy donned his heroic personality once again, as did the others.
"Ok, I'll go get him." Yumi volunteered. "He said he lives just a few streets from my house so I'll be able to get there the quickest." Yumi also worried about her own family. X.A.N.A had targeted them in the past as well so he knew full well where she lived. Nothing was stopping X.A.N.A from going after them once he'd dealt with Andrew.
The group headed out of the door, narrowly missing Sissi and her gang of obsessed stalkers and leaving the sock with their votes behind.
Andrew had returned to his room to meet the shock of his life. His sculptors had left their resting place on his table and were now looking back at him, each with a red eye symbol flashing in their LED eyes. Andrew recognised it from the lab.
"X.A.N.A!"
The sculptors were cloaked in electrical waves that altered them by the minute. As they were, the sculptors wouldn't be useful to X.A.N.A, but being a maniacal, super advanced A.I has its advantages. Using his power X.A.N.A altered the molecular shape of the sculptors as he pulled Andrew's furniture apart with electrical whips. The sculptors grew larger and larger as the furniture joined with them.
Andrew took this as his invitation to book it. He sprinted straight through the living room in the empty house. He jumped over the coffee table, knocking over his hot chocolate in the process. Now too big to fit out the door, the three sculptors made their own exit. With a loud bang the door frame was torn to splinters. The wood and plaster was not on the floor for long however, as X.A.N.A took it upon himself to absorb everything he could into his new monstrosities. Andrew frantically searched for his keys in his jacket pocket. He put it on and jammed the key in to the door, almost snapping it.
He was in the front garden but his artwork was in pursuit. He knew exactly where to go; only the factory would keep him safe as X.A.N.A wouldn't dare attack himself. The factory was about ten minutes away at a running pace and with the amount of stuff in the street; it wouldn't be long before he had three giants after him.
"Why did I take up art as a hobby!?" He screamed down the street.
What was the front of Andrew's house was swiftly obliterated as the three hulks hunted their prey. Andrew was already halfway down the street and they were slow in their new size, but far stronger. With no hesitation the fattest one picked up the neighbours Mazda with its claw shaped hands and sent it after the boy. Turning round just in time, Andrew saw the automobile heading straight at him. With a jolt he dived sideways, but the throw was too accurate. The two car alarms roared into life as metal was bent and glass shattered. The car rested hanging on a parked Ford Focus. The car had missed him, but Andrew was now trapped under the wreck.
With their foe down, X.A. hunters stomped through the street to finish him. Andrew heard screams through the buzzing in his ears. Others had left their homes to find the source of the chaos. Mass panic began to spread through the street as they saw X.A.N.A's creativity. Andrew tasted blood running into his mouth down from his forehead. He tried to move, but he felt disoriented, every direction looked the same and he had no idea where X.A.N.A was coming from. He thought about the factory, Jeremy's gang, Aelita, and everything he had ever done to the bullies that had tormented him throughout his life. He had made every one of them pay, and that is when it hit Andrew that that is what X.A.N.A was now. He may be like no other before him, but he was another bully, and he would pay.
Andrew groaned as he dragged himself slowly from under the car. He cut his hand on a shard of glass but that was the least of his worries. Every movement loosened the car above him further from its resting place on the Ford Focus. On top of that, X.A.N.A's art golems had reached him and were ready to crush him. The fattest lifted up its fist, rubbish falling from it as it swung, and went straight down on the Mazda. With no option, Andrew rolled to the left as the wreck was crushed downwards. He was bloodied all over by the glass and could hardly pick himself up. He needed some sort of miracle to survive. Luckily, one of the town's miracles turned up just in time, and with a large tree branch.
The large sculptor lost its balanced and fell backwards as the tree branch impaled its head like a javelin. Tarmac was thrown into the air as the enormous bulk broke.
"Yumi!" Andrew cried out both with relief and with a desire for help.
"And I thought Jim's Javelin lessons were useless." She told him.
She saw the extent of the mess Andrew was in. She wouldn't be able to carry him to the factory and hold off the remaining two golems.
"I think we're gonna needs some help." Andrew's voice was strained.
Andrew looked at the wreck that once was the neighbour's car and saw the oil leaking onto the road just before the explosion. The street was engulfed in a petrol-fuelled fireball, sending the two students flying onto their backs. X.A.N.A's servants were blown to pieces, flaming shards of plastic and metal ripping through various windows and cars. Yumi and Andrew covered their heads as the chaos tore through the street.
"Aelita, we're here and we are ready to go. How's it looking on your end?" Jeremy was in his place in the chair, ready to send his friends into X.A.N.A's virtual hell hole.
"The tower is just ahead but it's guarded by blocks." Aelita hid behind a boulder after having scouted the area.
"I'm sending Odd and Ulrich, just hold on there until they arrive."
Down below the control, Kadic's two pranksters entered the scanners. The huge coffin-like devices would alter their body's atoms into virtual form and send the, into Lyoko.
"Ready Dr shrink." Odd spoke into the room knowing Jeremy could here through his ear piece.
Jeremy typed in various codes into the computer with record speed. He had worked on the device for over a year and had become adept at its intricacies.
"Transfer, Odd. Transfer, Ulrich." Jeremy spoke out as he prepared them for virtualisation. The scanners fired up, sending gusts of air through themselves and activating their anti-gravity generators.
"Scanning, Odd. Scanning, Ulrich." Jeremy was nearly ready.
The boys span round in the scanners as their bodies slowly dissipated.
"Virtualisation!" Jeremy hit the final key and sent the Lyoko Warriors on their mission.