The samurai raced through the desert, staying just ahead of the sandstorm following him. He would have been well ahead by now if it had not been for a chance encounter with an iron sphere. Fortunately, the monster had not been able to strike him with its deadly crimson energy wave. The same could not be said for one of his clones. The other was racing beside him as the warrior decided to keep him just in case. This seemed a wise decision now, as a krab emerged from behind a large outcropping of rocks. Noticing the boy sprinting towards it, the krab began to charge its eyes. "Go," the samurai ordered his double, who nodded before drawing his sword and rushing ahead of the samurai. The krab let out a flurry of energy bolts, all of which deflected by the samurai and his clone. Having failed to hit either of its targets, the krab had one of its front legs severed by the samurai's clone. Stumbling to the ground and revealing the symbol on its shell, the monster met a swift end as the warrior leaped into the air and slammed his sword into the krab. "Impact!" He shouted, leaping off the monster as it exploded. The victory was short-lived, though, as the krab had delayed the samurai long enough for the storm to catch up. The samurai darted for cover as his clone, being much weaker than him, was obliterated by the oncoming sandstorm.

The cat-boy hybrid leaped here and there with grunts of exertion as he dodged the energy blasts of a tarantula. He had come back to the Slippery Slopes for the many ice tunnels that weaved in and out of the frozen hillside. He had not expected a tarantula to be waiting for him. Catching him by surprise, the monster had made him regret not paying attention to his surroundings with a laser blast to the chest. Fortunately, that had been the only injury the feline had incurred so far. Now he was struggling to avoid the constant barrage of laser fire, while returning some arrows in turn, as he raced for his tower. To the boy's relief, the tower soon came into view along with a twinge of nostalgia despite himself. It had been here where he had first emerged into this icy wasteland he now called home. A laser impacting the ground behind him shook him from his thoughts and he focused renewed effort on reaching the tower. Just as he reached the tower one of the tarantula's laser bolts collided with his back, sending him sprawling through the side of the massive structure. Once inside, the hybrid's momentum carried him to the far side of the platform, arms waving, before sending him falling into the dark void below.

The geisha idled away from the Peaks of Solitude. They were well named. She had remained in them - and more specifically in the Tower of Wisdom - for nearly three periods. During that time she had mapped out the surrounding mountain range, honed her telekinesis to a level where she was able to levitate herself, and finally reached the upper platform of the tower. But reaching the platform had opened up many more questions than it had closed. Despite her rearranging of the mysterious symbols she encountered, the geisha only managed to create a small number of speaking words. She knew there must be more symbols, as there were many more words that could be spoken by the mouth. 'Language,' she mused to herself as she continued her path towards the large plateau before her. 'Language put into solid form that can endure forever.' She had to admit, the idea appealed to her. She had already made a cartouche in each of the mountain ranges she had passed through. During her time studying solid words, she had realized that she had not just been making the cartouches for her own sake, but also in of the hope that there were others, somewhere out there. Others who would one day come across her etchings and maps and know that she had been there, even if they never were to meet. This realization brought a feeling of loneliness the geisha had not felt for a long time. But it also gave her hope. Hope that even if she was never to meet anyone else, aside from the various monsters that stalked through the misted peaks, that if there was someone else out there, she would be of some small help to them and perhaps quell whatever loneliness they felt whenever they came across her cartouches. And if she could discover all of the symbols that could be used to give words solid form, well, then that would just make it all the better.

"Jeremy?" Aelita's voice came behind the young genius. Jeremy turned around in his chair to see the girl standing in his doorway.

"You're going to be late for breakfast if you don't get a move on," Aelita reprimanded. "For a moment I'd thought you'd fallen asleep at your desk again."

"Uh, no," Jeremy mumbled as he rubbed his eyes. Although he had gone to bed earlier than he usually did, it had still been long past midnight. "I was just looking over Franz Hopper's message again."

After the incident with the polymorphic specter disguised as Franz Hopper, the group had received a message from the real one via Sissi, who had been possessed by one of Franz Hopper's own specter's. Under his influence, Sissi had attempted to relay a message to the group. Unfortunately, Xana had managed to disrupt the message before it could be completed.

"Anything new?" Aelita inquired, walking over to stand beside Jeremy as he turned back to face his computer monitor.

"Not really," Jeremy reported, gesturing hopelessly at the screen. "I mean, the first parts are pretty obvious. 'I wish to make contact. My name is Franz Hopper.' It's pretty forward and straight cut, but it's what comes afterwards that's puzzling."

Aelita gave him a questioning look and gestured to continue. Jeremy shrugged.

"Well, he starts to say something about Lyoko - only I think he's using it as an adjective to describe what comes next. But I can't quite make out what it is. It almost looks like it might be 'guardian' but I'm not sure."

"Guardian?" Aelita echoed, her interest peaking. "Could he have been talking about me?"

"I suppose so," Jeremy nodded to himself. "You are the guardian of Lyoko in a way, and if Franz Hopper wanted to help us then he might have the answer to getting rid of that virus Xana inserted into your source code."

"You mean he might have...," Aelita began, but Jeremy shook his head to stop her.

"I doubt it. Besides, if he does have the anti-virus or something to help us make one, then I'm sure he'll tell us about it the next time he manages to make contact. Until then, we'll just have to wait."

Aelita nodded, pursing her lips at the thought of a missed chance to cure herself and end the threat Xana posed once and for all. She shook herself, however, before dragging Jeremy up out his chair.

"Hey, what-" Jeremy protested as Aelita grabbed his backpack and began to pull him out of the room.

"I told you: you're going to be late for breakfast. I'm just making sure you actually get there."

Jeremy could only sigh as Aelita used her specter's far superior strength to pull him out of his room.

"You know once you get back to Earth, you won't be able to do this anymore," he pointed out. Aelita smirked.

"All the more reason to enjoy it now while I have the chance."


"And so, although France emerged on the victorious side of World War One, France had born the brunt of the war's human and material loses and was determined to keep Germany weak through a system of alliances and defenses."

Aelita and Jeremy sat quietly taking notes as Mr. Fumet concluded his lecture on World War One. Glancing aside to Jeremy, who was barely managing to stay awake as he jotted notes down, Aelita wondered again why humans fought so much and sometimes over the most ridiculous things. Sure, some of the wars made sense where there were people fighting against regimes and dictators who could be compared to Xana in ruthlessness and deception, but for every one of those wars there was at least a dozen or so other wars that could have easily been avoided or were fought over insignificant occurrences.

Aelita was jolted from her musings as her pencil fell through her hand. She stared at it for a second, wondering if there was something wrong with her specter. Picking her pencil back up and continuing to finish her notes, Aelita pulled her mind away from the real world in order to better assess what was wrong with her specter. A dull thudding sound in her mind answered her question.

She was about to warn Jeremy, believing it to be a pulsation, when she stopped. Her pencil had phased through her hand again just as another thundering boom sounded through her mind. Aelita's eyes widened at the realization of what was going on. Xana had not activated a tower. He was attacking hers!

"Jeremy," she hissed as quietly as she could. The boy gave her his full attention, sensing the urgency in her voice.

"What is it, Aelita?" Jeremy asked, shooting a quick glance around the room to make sure nobody had heard them.

"Xana's attacking the tower! My tower!" Aelita whispered, her exclamation punctuated by her form flickering slightly. The fluctuations were not enough to be noticed by a casual observer, but Jeremy was not a casual observer and so noted it with widened eyes.

"We have to get you out of here before your spectral form starts to seriously glitch up," Jeremy muttered to Aelita, shooting yet another cautious glance around the room. Aelita nodded in confirmation.

"Infirmary?" She asked, to which Jeremy nodded and confirmed.

"Infirmary."

With that, Aelita raised her hand in the air, catching the attention of Mr. Fumet, who was none to pleased at being interrupted so close to the end of his lecture.

"Yes, Miss Stones," he asked. It was not the first time either Aelita or Jeremy had interrupted his class with a raised hand.

"Um, Mr. Fumet, I'm not feeling too well," Aelita's voice crackled slightly as she said this. "May I please go to the infirmary?"

Mr. Fumet hesitated for a moment, as if considering denying her request, but the slight static in her voice apparently helped to convey the illusion that she was indeed ill.

"Very well, Miss Stones," Mr. Fumet nodded finally before looking towards Jeremy. "Mister Belpois, will you accompany your classmate to the infirmary?"

"Yes, sir," Jeremy replied as he feigned helping Aelita to her feet and out of the classroom.

Once outside the room, another series of crackling booms rang through Aelita's head as her spectral form began to pixelate uncontrollably for a few seconds before finally reconfiguring itself.

"Not a moment too soon," Jeremy noted, reaching for his cellphone. "I'll call William. We have to get to the factory to stop Xana from destroying the tower your in like he did with Franz Hopper's."

With that said, the pair headed towards an exit as Jeremy dialed William's cellphone number and raised his phone to his ear.


William was sitting in Ms. Hertz's science class when his phone rang. He cursed under his breath. He had forgotten to set his cellphone to vibrate. Ms. Hertz glanced over towards William in annoyance.

"Mr. Dunbar," she reprimanded. "What are the rules about cellphones in the classroom?"

"All cellphones must be turned off before entering the classroom environment," William grumbled.

"Well, I'm glad to see that you at least remember that," she scolded with her usual scathing tone, before holding out her hand. "Now hand it over!"

"But Ms. Hertz...," William began to protest, trying to dig out his cellphone to see if it was Jeremy who was calling.

"No buts, William! Hand it over," Ms. Hertz repeated as she stalked over to William's desk and snatched the phone away from his hand. William tried to catch a glance of who the caller was but the speed at which Ms. Hertz took his phone away made that impossible.

"Great," William muttered to himself. If it was a Xana attack then now not only did he not know about it, but he also wouldn't be able to leave the classroom with Ms. Hertz in the mood she was in now.

"If it was you, Jeremy," William thought aloud under his breath. "I hope you and Aelita can handle it."


"Damn," Jeremy swore, earning him a look from Aelita as he closed his cellphone. "William isn't answering his phone. What could be so important as to keep him from at least answering?"

"We can worry about that later," Aelita's voice crackled as her form once again began to pixelate and distort. "You need to get to the factory as soon as possible!"

"Easy for you to say," Jeremy retorted as he flung himself onto his scooter and rode down the sewer line, Aelita keeping pace beside him despite her specter's constant glitches. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine," Aelita replied, a flash of worry pixelating across her face nonetheless. "It's the tower that I'm worried about. Jeremy, we can-n't le-ee-et Xa-na de-s-str oy the tower! Who-o kn -knows what effect that could hav-ve on Ly -o-yoko!"

"You're right, but what can we do without William there to take care of whatever is attacking the tower?" Jeremy countered as he haphazardly leapt his scooter down a flight of stairs. Aelita pondered his question for a second.

"I'll try to buy so-some time," Aelita announced, continuing before Jeremy could object. "No time fo-or arguei-ing, just get to the factory. I'm going to need a vehi-hi-hicle."

As soon as she had finished saying that, Aelita's spectral form pixelated entirely before dispersing in a flash of light.

"Aelita!" Jeremy cried, despite him knowing she could not hear him now. "Unbelievable," he exclaimed. He knew what the virtual girl was going to try to do: exit the tower and attempt to either get rid of the monsters surrounding it or avoid them until help could arrive. Either way he looked at the situation, Jeremy could not see it ending well. Especially with Aelita charging into the midst of things like this. Honestly, at times like this he wondered if Aelita wasn't partially insane or in possession of a death wish. It would sure explain why she was always running off into the thick of things just when they were at their worst.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Jeremy shoved off the ground to accelerate his scooter to reach the factory faster. Hopefully he would reach it in time to be of some help to Aelita.


Aelita gasped as her mind was jerked away from the real world, and the tower she was in deactivated her spectral program. Wobbling to her feet, Aelita was nearly knocked off the upper platform by the force of the twin impacts that struck the tower. Glancing at the tower's interface, Aelita could see that the structure did not have that much time before it devirtualized.

"Here goes nothing," she urged herself on, stepping off of the upper platform and floating down towards the much larger platform below. As soon as her feet touched the metal disk, its rings flickering, Aelita pushed off the floor and sprinted out of the tower, catching the two megatanks outside the structure by surprise.

The surprise was not long to last, as the megatanks quickly folded themselves up and thundered towards her. Aelita leaped in between the two massive metal spheres only to realize that she had not been their target. The two megatanks had proceeded to position themselves beside the tower, where they deployed to create a fluctuating barrier of energy waves in order to prevent her return to the now deactivated structure.

Aelita did not have long to take in the sight before a series of whirring noises caused her to swivel around. Behind her stood almost a dozen bloks. With all other pathways blocked, Aelita had no choice but to run towards the Eastern Forest on a path which would eventually lead her to the extreme edge of Lyoko - and the transport sphere that would be waiting her arrival there to spirit her off to Carthage.


Jeremy bolted through the doors leading to the computer lab as soon as they slid open. Rushing to the control console, Jeremy quickly placed his headpiece over his ears and began pulling up the interfaces he would need to assess the situation on Lyoko.

As soon as the first few screens popped up, Jeremy could see that the situation was about as dire as he had anticipated. From what he could tell, while Aelita had managed to preserve the tower, two megatanks were guarding the structure, preventing her return. Even worse, Aelita was being pursued by ten bloks, all corralling her in the direction of the Northern Forest.

"Aelita, can you hear me?" Jeremy asked, pulling up the program for the overwing, ready to materialize the craft as soon as possible.

"Jeremy," Aelita's voice came, sounding about as frantic as Jeremy felt. "Thank goodness you've arrived. Just in time, too, by the way. How's that vehicle coming along?"

"Almost got it...," Jeremy muttered as he typed the commands that would virtualize the vehicle near Aelita. "There, got it! The overwing should be appearing ahead of you to your right."

"Thanks Jeremy," Aelita panted, the symbol representing her moving towards the overwing. "Any other monsters I should be worried about?"

"No, the bloks are all that are behind - wait a second - what the heck!?" Jeremy broke off as something near the tower caught his attention.

"Jeremy, what is it?" Aelita asked, having mounted the overwing and banked away from the Northern Forest.

"I-I don't know," Jeremy muttered, almost to himself. Something had appeared from within Tower One. The symbol denotating it did not match any monster he had ever seen, and as if to confirm it was not a monster, after whatever-it-was had emerged from the tower, the two megatanks guarding the structure suddenly devirtualized. "Something just came out of your tower and devirtualized the megatanks!"

"What!? How is that - aaah!" Aelita exclaimed, her cry of shock wrenching Jeremy away from the mysterious arrival just in time to witness the on-screen representation of the overwing being devirtualized by the bloks pursuing Aelita.

"Aelita!" Jeremy cried out, frantically attempting to reprogram a new vehicle. Aelita was still close enough to the Northern Forest for the bloks to freeze her and reposition her to be transported to Carthage.


"Jeremy, help!" Aelita cried as she pushed herself to her feet and gasped in horror at the bloks preparing to immobilize her. "I'm surrounded by them!"

To buy time, Aelita managed to weave back and forth between the ice beams shooting from the small army of bloks, even managing to catch some of the monsters in the crossfire. She could not, however, capitalize on this as it was impossible for her to use her creativity without being frozen by one of the creatures.

Her foot caught on a small stone obtruding from the ground. Stumbling to the moss-covered earth, Aelita could only look up in terror at the blok that was preparing to entrap her in a prison of ice.

"Laser arrow!" A voice came from out of nowhere, followed by what looked like a small blur impacting the blok preparing to freeze her. The blok spun around at the momentum of the impact before shattering into several smaller pieces. The other bloks, along with Aelita, turned to face the new arrival.

Aelita had to admit she had not expected her savior to be a giant purple cat.


"AaAaAaAaAaaaaaah," the hybrid screamed as he fell down into the endless chasm. To his surprise, however, he soon found himself floating, almost gliding rather, through a translucent tunnel of blue energy surrounded by the small glowing panels also present in the interiors of the towers.

Just as he was beginning to get used the ride, though, he was flung upwards with a yell that lasted until he shot back up into the tower and landed face-first onto the platform. He lay there for a few seconds before picking his head up and looking around.

Jumping to his feet, he quickly twisted and turned to gather a complete survey of his body.

"Uh, two arms...two legs...one tail...yep! Everything's here!" He exclaimed, satisfied that his sudden ride had not done any permanent damage. In fact, he felt fully rejuvenated from just being inside a tower once more, and, full of exhilaration from his unexpected ride, the feline cocked his wrists, hearing the familiar clicking of his arrows reloading.

"Alright then, no reason to keep you waiting," he purred to the tarantula outside, whom he now felt ready to take down thanks to the rush he had just experienced.

"Man, I should really do that more often! I've been missin' out!" He commented as he walked towards the wall of the tower, sending a glance down into the dark chasm below. Filled with a new found excitement he had not felt in a long time, the feline leaped out of the tower, arms raised to fire a volley of laser arrows at the tarantula that had so rudely shot him in the back.

Except that standing in front of the tower was not a tarantula but two megatanks, which whirled around to face the feline, seeming almost confused by his presence as he was theirs.

"Yikes!" The feline cried, accidentally unleashing a volley of arrows from each hand. Caught off guard as much as the hybrid, the megatanks were struck dead center in their eyes, rolling away from the feline before ramming into a pair of trees and exploding.

The feline stared at the shattered remains of the megatanks and then at his paws before letting out a whoop of triumph and shooting his arms into the air.

"Woohoo!" The hybrid cried, exhilaration coursing through him. "Once again the amazing, the incredible, the spectacular me has triumphed over incredible odds!"

He would have continued his loud and boisterous boasting had not something struck him as out of place. 'Hold on a second,' he thought as he lowered his paws and surveyed the surrounding landscape. 'Did those megatanks just crash into a couple of trees?'

He wasn't sure how he knew that the towering green and brown columns before him were trees, but he did know that there was a lot of them, and he had never seen anything like them before. His eyes bugged out as this new landscape finally processed itself into his mind.

Surrounding him on all sides, seeming to permeate the air itself, was the color green. A color he had only seen when encountering the acidic liquid that was occasionally launched by wazps. In addition to this strange new world-dominating color, the feline could not even spot a trace of blue or white. In fact, the closest thing to either of those colors that he could see was a few nearby boulders.

"Okay...where'd all the ice go?" He gasped, turning around and around to take in the serene beauty of the forest surrounding him. He glanced back at the tower. Did all of them lead to new worlds such as this?

He was unable to further ponder the question as the sound of laser fire reached his ears...along with something that sounded like a scream. Not wasting any time, the hybrid shot off on all fours towards the source of the commotion.

'Could it be?' He dared to think. After all, while it was true that he was the only one who lived in the icy plains and peaks that were his home...this was a new world, wasn't it? And if so, could that mean that someone - someone else - lived here? Alone? Like he had for so long?

"Only one way to find out," he panted as he rounded the bend and was confronted with the sight of nearly a dozen bloks, some of them frozen in ice strangely enough, surrounding what struck the boy as a rather pretty pink-haired girl who had her arms raised up in a pitiful attempt to shield herself.

Seeing he had not a moment to lose, the hybrid raised an arm and took aim at the blok that was looming over and preparing to attack the strange, pink-clad girl.

"Laser arrow!" He shouted, as one of the deadly projectiles shot from his wrist and slammed into the blok. The monster stumbled backwards, whirling around before shattering.

The feline lacked the time to gloat as the seven unfrozen bloks turned their attention towards him and began to open fire. The hybrid dodged the volley with ease, taking out three of the bloks in the process with his arrows.

As he had now placed himself in front of the strange girl, the hybrid could not tell how well she was faring. Launching a few more arrows into the nearest pair of bloks, the boy was surprised to hear a voice behind him let out a long, piercing melody. He was about to whirl around and ask the girl, whom he presumed to be the one singing, why she was singing when they were still surrounded by nearly a half dozen bloks. He was stopped in his tracks, however, as the ground disappeared from underneath two of the bloks - the ones that had just broken free of their encasements of ice. Caught off guard by the sudden disappearing act, the hybrid was struck in the chest by one of the remaining bloks.

Flying backwards from the force of the blow, the hybrid landed hard on the ground with a grunt. The mysterious pink-haired girl, whom the boy could now see had peculiarly pointed ears, one of which had a small bauble of some sort hanging from it, rushed over to his side.

"Are you alright?" The girl asked in a soft tone, with equal parts surprise, confusion, and concern on her face. She placed a hand on his shoulder as if to help him up.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. It's gonna take a lot more than that to get me down, um...," he trailed off as he realized he did not know the girl's name. Though, if she was like him, she might not have a name at all. The pointy-eared girl seemed to realize the source of his confusion as he propped himself up on his paws.

"Aelita," she said with a gentle smile. "My name is Aelita."

"Well, glad to meet you, Aelita," he replied with a smile of his own before he looked past the girl and exclaimed. "Now duck!"

Aelita ducked down as two laser bolts soared past her head. The feline jumped to his feet and returned a salvo of arrows that destroyed the two bloks. Cocking his wrist, the hybrid was met with a familiar empty click.

"Wow, out of arrows," he muttered to himself. "That was a close one."

He turned towards Aelita to see if she was alright only to find her giving him an expectant look with an eyebrow raised and a hand on her hip.

"What?" He exclaimed, not sure of why she was looking at him like that. The pinkette gave a small smirk.

"Well, I told you my name," she reminded the feline. "Do you want to tell me yours?"


Aelita stood looking at the strange boy in front of her, waiting for an answer. The strange purple-clad, cat-like boy with the tall, spiky blond hair looked uncomfortable, a far cry from the confidence he had displayed before. Aelita was about to repeat her question when she was interrupted by Jeremy.

"Aelita, what's going on down there? I'm picking up a strange signal and it looks like all the bloks have been devirtualized!" Jeremy exclaimed, his disembodied voice causing Aelita's rescuer to shoot into the air, not unlike the cat he resembled.

"Wha-?" The feline shouting, looking around wildly. "Who said that?"

"Don't worry," Aelita reassured the boy, talking her hand off her hip and walking over to the startled cat. "It's just Jeremy. He's a friend of mind."

"Aelita, who are you talking to?" Jeremy's voice came again, prompting Aelita's companion to swivel his head around once more in order to find its source. Aelita suppressed a giggle as she responded to Jeremy.

"That mysterious signal on your screen I'd presume," Aelita called up to Jeremy. "I think he might be like me, an artificial intelligence. He doesn't seem to know his name at any rate."

"Hey, who said anything about me not knowing my own name?" The hybrid protested, but a quick pointed look from Aelita got him to acquiesce. "Okay, so I don't know it, you happy? What's an artificial intelligence anyways? Where am I? Why are your ears all pointy like that? And where's your tail? And who-mMMmMmhhmHmm!"

The boy's voice was muffled by Aelita's hand covering his mouth. Aelita rolled her eyes at the protest on her new friend's face before turning her attention back to Jeremy.

"Jeremy, I think I'll be having my hands full for a while - or perhaps rather my ears full. Our guest's quite the talker and he has a lot of questions. You might want to head back to school for now. I'll join you as soon as I can, okay?"

Jeremy hesitated for a few seconds before answering.

"Okay, Aelita," he agreed before adding. "But don't hesitate to call me if you need anything."

"Don't worry, I will Jeremy," Aelita assured her friend with a knowing grin before turning her attention back to the boy who was currently attempting to pry Aelita's hand away from his mouth. "I'll let go but only if you calm down with the questions. Got it?"

The hybrid nodded and mumbled a response in reply before Aelita removed her hand. Seeing, or rather hearing, the blond's silence, Aelita nodded her head.

"Good," she sighed before continuing. "Now to answer some of your questions..."


Jeremy sat at one of tables in the cafeteria, drumming his fingers against its surface, not even bothering to start eating his supper while waiting for William, and hopefully Aelita, to arrive.

"Something wrong Jeremy?" A voice came from in front of him. Glancing up in surprise, Jeremy realized that he had been so deep in thought that he hadn't even noticed when one of the people he had been waiting for had arrived.

"Uh, no, nothing wrong, though it was hard to cover for you for half a day," Jeremy replied as Aelita took a seat beside him. "What took so long anyhow?"

Aelita gave a shrug.

"Well, Odd had a lot of questions. And I mean a lot."

"Who's Odd?" Jeremy asked, brow furrowed in confusion, at the same time as William, who had just walked over from the meal line. Aelita and Jeremy both looked up at William as he sat down on the other side of the table. He gave them a guilty look, hand rubbing the back of his neck.

"There was a Xana attack today, wasn't there?" He asked, seeming to already know the answer.

"There was indeed," Jeremy replied, annoyance all too apparent in his voice. "And you weren't there."

"Jeremy," Aelita scolded. "I'm sure there was a reason. Right, William?"

"Yeah, a pretty stupid one, though," William replied, stabbing at his food in frustration as he explained. "I forgot to switch my cellphone to vibrate and Ms. Hertz took it up before I could see who was calling. I see you guys made it out alright, though."

"Yeah," Aelita began, Jeremy nodding. "Though we have Odd to thank for that."

"Alright, that's the second time you've mentioned this 'Odd'. Who is he? I thought I was the only one who was let in on your little secret?" William asked, somewhat annoyed at the thought of Aelita and Jeremy telling someone else about their secret without at least giving him a heads up.

"You are the only one we've told," Aelita replied, earning her a confused look from William. "Odd is...well, we think Odd is another artificial intelligence like me. When I was being attacked on Lyoko he just appeared out of nowhere and saved me. And from what he's told me...I don't think Lyoko and Carthage are the only virtual worlds out there."

This got Jeremy's attention.

"What do you mean?" He asked, more than curious to find out. Aelita frowned for a second, gathering her thoughts before replying.

"Well," she began. "Odd says he's from a place that's covered in ice and glaciers - not a living thing in sight. From the way he described it, I'd guess it's about the same size as Lyoko. It even has towers, too - ten of them."

"Just like Lyoko," Jeremy muttered. Aelita nodded.

"And what's more, he's been there alone for as long as he can remember - exploring his world and fighting monsters the entire time."

"And these monsters, are they Xana's?" William asked from across the table, putting his silverware down on the table and leaning forwards.

"Yes," Aelita nodded in grim affirmation. "Which means Xana is not just in Lyoko and Carthage but in Odd's virtual reality as well."

The group was silent for some time as they processed all of this new information. Finally, Jeremy spoke up.

"You never did say how you found out his name. I presume you used a tower."

"Yes," Aelita nodded. "But there was something strange about it. Odd couldn't access the upper platform for some reason, and I had to hack into the tower's subsystems just to find out what his name was."

"Hmm, that is strange," Jeremy agreed before a possibility opened itself up to him. "But maybe he couldn't access the tower because it was on Lyoko. Maybe he can only access the towers on his world."

"Maybe," Aelita said, unconvinced. "Either way, he's never been able to get to the second platform in his towers either. Then again, he did admit he hadn't ever really tried to - apart from attempting to scale up the wall. Apparently levitating to the second platform didn't really present itself as a possibility to him."

"Well, that makes two of us, then," William put in as he took a bite out of his meal. "So where is this new friend of yours right now anyways?"

Aelita gave a small smile at the question, eliciting some curiosity from Jeremy.

"Oh, he's still on Lyoko," she replied. "He said something about having had enough of ice for a while. I think he's just eager for a new place to explore."


"Woohoo!" Odd yelled as he swung from tree to tree on the many vines that hung from the branches. Catching a particularly long one, the boy swung up onto one of the higher branches of a tree. Crouching down, Odd gazed down upon the forest. Once again, Odd found his thoughts straying back to Aelita. She had answered a lot of his questions before she had had to leave, but there were so many more to still be answered.

He still found it hard to believe that none of this - that none of his home - was actually real. And yet, Aelita had been quite persistent on reinforcing this fact to him. He glanced in the direction of Aelita's tower. Since he was still in the same forest, Aelita's Forest as it was apparently called (he still got a kick out of how embarrassed Aelita got), he could still see the tower she had activated. He had to admit, he was not used to seeing a pink tower. The only other time he had seen anything other than a blue tower was when he had caught a glimpse of the glowing red one that lay in the center of the Blizzard Plateaus - and even that was only for a few seconds.

Odd shook his head. There wasn't any point in him getting all concerned with things just yet - not until Aelita got back, at least. For now, he was more than happy to have somewhere new to explore. And although the forest, or Lyoko as Aelita called it, was rather lacking in the category of ice slides, it certainly made up that deficiency through plenty of trees to climb up and leap around in.

And so, without further ado, Odd began making his way once more through the towering trunks of the tranquil forests of Lyoko, content in the knowledge that he was not alone, and that he had a new world to experience.

The samurai crept along the edge of one of the many smaller platforms of the Floating Plains. 'So far, so good,' he thought to himself as he looked down on the walker he was stalking. He had spotted the massive spider-like creature on the edge of the Floating Plains and had been tracking it ever since, waiting for the right time to strike. The samurai knew that if this walker was to meet up with another, then they would be a force to be reckoned with, and that was something the warrior could not afford to have happen. Two blurs of yellow heralded the arrival of his two clones, who signaled to him that there were no other monsters in the area. He nodded before signaling his plan of attack to them. They nodded and ran off to take their positions. The boy allowed himself a fleeting smile. Although his clones still could not speak, they could communicate well enough through the form of sign language he had devised. It was crude and simple but it got the job done. Two glints of light from the edges of his vision informed him that his counterparts were in position and ready. Narrowing his eyes, the samurai raised his sword as a signal, and the three warriors charged down towards the unsuspecting walker below.

ACCESS DENIED. The geisha slammed her fists against the crystalline surface. ACCESS DENIED. Despite herself, the raven-haired girl had decided to inspect the second platform of the Tower of Benevolence. She had named the tower as such because she had yet to encounter any form of hardship while exploring the Eye, a massive ringed wall of rock which encircled a lone platform in the center. From a distance it appeared that there had been no way to reach the stone isle or the tower which lay on it, but that had proven to be an illusion as she had found a long, but incredibly thin, stone bridge which led to the platform. And now she was standing on the upper platform of the tower attempting to get anything, anything at all from the tower other than. ACCESS DENIED. As the words flashed again on the crystal frame, the geisha could feel her patience reaching its limits. She was not feeling the benevolence she had named the tower after. The geisha had been standing there for almost a span just trying to determine how to make the surface do something else, anything else. She slammed both her hands against the screen once more in frustration. To her surprise, the crystal changed and began displaying a series of symbols. Some she recognized. Others she did not. What was even more peculiar was that few of the arrangements seemed to speak aloud. She glanced closer at the various assortments. As she looked closer, she began to realize that some were indeed speaking, just barely. She soon realized why. For whatever reason, most of the arrangements were missing critical symbols. Fortunately, the geisha smirked in triumph, they were symbols that she already knew. And with that, the geisha began to slowly piece together the meanings of the cryptic script