Chapter 10: Codes and Confessions

FINALLY! My exams are over! I can work on this again!.

I own nothing except the story and Carter.

It was the next day. We were all at breakfast, and Jeremy and Aelita, despite all the work they put into it, hadn't come up with anything.

"Don't worry about it. Take your time," I said reassuringly. "More importantly, I think you should think of a way to send people into the real world. That way we can stop whatever XANA is planning."

"Then again, ever since you came into the picture, he hasn't really put all that much effort into whatever evil scheme he came up with," Ulrich noted thoughtfully.

"That's a good point," Odd mumbled. He had once again shoveled bacon and eggs into his mouth, making it almost impossible to understand him.

"Odd, chew your food. You'll choke on it if you don't," I scolded him before taking a bite out of my food.

He swallowed noisily and said "Yes, mom." I smirked at that.

If what Yumi said was true, about Odd having a crush on me, then he was doing a great job of hiding it. No doubt he was planning to ask me out later.

"Carter does have a point, though. We should really work on sending people through the Internet," Aelita said. "I'll sort through the files while you work on it. That way we don't lose time on either." She said all of that before Jeremy could even protest. Jeremy had no choice but to oblige.

"Tell me, guys, what do normal kids around here do for fun?" I asked suddenly. Everyone looked at me. "We hang out in the city mostly," Ulrich said. Then he realized what I was getting at. "That's right. You've never really seen Paris before."

"Well, I've seen what my grandparents wanted me to see, but I want to see it from a kids' view." My grandparents didn't really get what was so important about that, but then again, they hadn't been young in a while.

"Then allow me and Ulrich to escort you around," Odd said, like he was a tour guide. "Cool. I'll call Yumi and see if she can come." Ulrich already had his cell phone on.

"What about you guys?" I turned to the geniuses. They looked at each other, and some sort of understanding passed between them. "I really think working on those files and Internet virtualization is important…" Jeremy began, but Aelita cut him off.

"But after an entire night of that, a little break couldn't hurt." Aelita grinned at me. She really knew how to control Jeremy.

"Okay, why not? A couple of hours won't hurt anyone," Jeremy said happily.

He was very wrong.

We were all waiting for Yumi outside of the school gates after breakfast. "So, Carter, do you have any place in mind that you want to go first?" Jeremy asked me as we waited.

"Not really. I just want to see where normal high school students around here do for fun."

"…But we're not exactly what you'd call normal," Ulrich smiled. His smile grew even bigger when he saw Yumi running towards us. "Hey, guys, what's the plan?" she huffed as she came towards us.

"All of Paris, more or less," Odd chuckled. We all kind of laughed along, leaving Yumi looking confused.

From there we all walked around the entertainment part of Paris, where all the malls, skate parks, bookstores, and the other fun stuff was. At noon, we stopped at a café and for two hours we just relaxed and ate and had a great time.

For the first time in a while, I felt like a normal kid.

A shame that it couldn't have lasted longer.

As we were leaving, XANA attacked. The lights in all of the buildings flickered, and tentacles of electricity flashed over almost all of the people on the sidewalk. They didn't react. Instead, their skin turned pasty, and their eyes became bloodshot. The XANA symbol replaced their pupils.

"Crap," was my brilliant response.

We were completely surrounded by the XANA zombies. XANA had picked the busiest time of day to possess people. I know I've said this before, but XANA had impeccable timing.

Before the one closest me could try to kill me, I did a round house kick into his stomach. He didn't stay down.

"To the factory!" I yelled out, hoping the others would take the obvious hint. They did, and they ran as fast as they could to the school. I followed them and tried to keep up, because if I got lost now, I was doomed.

The zombies tried to grab at me, but I was too quick and dodged out of their way. If one did grab onto me, then Yumi, Ulrich or I would knock them down.

Luckily, the café we were at wasn't too far from the school. We were able to escape into the forest and down the manhole before they caught up with us.

"Do you think they're at the factory?" I asked down in the sewers. I was sweaty and out of breath, but that wasn't the point.

"If not, they will be soon," Odd said curtly, tossing me a skateboard. I didn't need to be told twice. Despite my meager skateboarding skills, I was able to keep up with the others and we were quickly at the factory.

Odd was right; I noticed a small mass of people in the distance, far away from the bridge. "We need to hurry," I exclaimed. I ran inside with the others closing in.

I swung down on the rope, ignoring the searing pain in my hands as I ran into the elevator. The others soon followed, and Jeremy punched in the code.

Jeremy stopped at the computer room; the rest of us went down to the scanner room. I waited with Odd as the others were getting virtualized.

"Hey, Carter, can I tell you something?" I knew what he was going to say.

"I know that you have a lot on your plate right now and aren't even thinking about dating, but… I really like you." I was about to tell him something, but he cut me off. "I know you're going to reject me, but I wanted to tell you before anything bad happened. And hey, if all of this blows over soon, maybe we could go out sometime." I couldn't say anything to that.

Odd didn't give me a chance to recover. A scanner slid open, and he hopped inside. He grinned at me before the doors closed. I slowly got in as the other scanner opened. I had no idea how I was going to face Odd on the other side. Hopefully I would get devirtualized before I did something hurtful or stupid.

Once again, I closed my eyes and the searing light took me to virtual oblivion.

I landed in the forest sector on my feet once again. It also didn't take me as long to get over the idea of not having to breathe. I then saw Aelita waving to me with the others in tow. Odd was specifically not looking at me.

Jeremy virtualized the hover board, the over bike, and Yumi's special ride, the over wing. I immediately went with Yumi, while Aelita climbed on Ulrich's bike. The activated tower was in the northwest part.

"…I take it that Odd asked you out?" Yumi asked me as we sped off into the northwest. She had conveniently steered away from the others so they wouldn't overhear.

Was it that obvious?

"Not exactly," I mumbled. "He just said that he liked me and that once we had all of this figured out, we should maybe go out."

"Is that all?" Yumi sounded surprised, like she had expected Odd to just ask me out and not mention his personal feelings. Maybe when he asked out a girl, he didn't talk like that.

"He said that the only reason he said it was so that if anything bad happened to me, I would know."

Yumi stayed silent. I think she was trying to comprehend Odd's actions.

Soon enough, we saw the tower up ahead, with two tarantulas and two krabs. Yumi immediately got out one of her fans and aimed at a krab. It exploded within five seconds.

I jumped to the ground and landed on top of the other krab. I stabbed one of my daggers into the eye and jumped down before I got hit by the explosion.

Odd and Ulrich were already laying into the tarantulas, but then I saw William come out of the tower. He smirked at me, and then aimed his dark energy beam at Ulrich. It got him in the chest. Jeremy yelled that he had lost twenty life points.

At that point I was seeing red. I mean, I've recently been attacked by an electrical storm, zombies, and William, Lord of Cockiness, himself. I was in no mood for any more of this bullshit.

I ran straight towards William, not caring if the tarantulas were shooting at me or that Lord Cocky was expecting me. I just drew my daggers and went straight for the kill.

William blocked my attack with his own sword, and we fought in an epic blade battle that I couldn't describe to anyone if I was asked. I just slashed and dodged and struck my daggers in where I could, but he always deflected me. His annoying smirk made me even angrier.

And then he just flipped me over into the activated tower like it was no big deal. I fell on my back onto this round floor that looked suspiciously like the XANA logo. But before I could get my bearings, I was being lifted into the air.

I was literally floating up to God-knows-where.

I just kind of stood like that while I was being lifted. Then I came upon another round floor with three rings. I hesitantly stepped on the first one, and it lit up. As soon as I stepped on the other two, they lit up as well.

I was standing on the center dot when the screen appeared.

I jumped back in the praying mantis defensive position before I calmed down. I examined the screen, but it showed nothing. I remembered that all Aelita had to do to deactivate a tower was touch the screen. I had no idea if it was a good idea, or if it would even work, but I put my entire right hand on the screen.

It scanned me, and I put my hand down. I remember that I kept thinking that maybe there would be some information on me that would magically pop up if I waited long enough.

I was so wrong.

The screen said "NAME: CARTER. CODE: SOLDIER." Just when I remembered that William called me that, black electricity shot through my entire body. It was even more painful than the time I went comatose the first time around. I didn't even know if that was even possible.

My throat wasn't closing in on me, so I was free to scream out in agony to all that could hear.

"She went into the tower?" A woman in a white lab coat exclaimed as she watched the monitor with one of her assistants.

"Yes. She's receiving the super soldier code as we speak."

"Good. Then all the pawns will be assembled and we can finally get this plan started." The woman smiled a sick smile as she heard her granddaughter scream in pain.

…I wasn't expecting the confession scene between Carter and Odd to happen like that. But it happened right before something absolutely awful happened, so it's okay.

I have no idea why Carter's grandma came into the picture. But it's certainly make's the story more interesting, doesn't it?