Chapter 9: Connecting
"Cathy? Ryan? Jeez, give us a heart attack!" the voice was Lucy's.
As the light faded Ryan could make out the twins staring at them with worried expressions but he turned away from them to check on Cathy "Cathy? Are you okay?"
Cathy blinked, her eyes opening slowly as she took in the scene around her. "Ray? What happened? What was that light?" she groaned, trying to stand but her legs wouldn't support her.
"Steady there" Lucy muttered, bringing the chair over for Cathy to sit down "Why don't we start from the beginning?"
Ryan winced as he stood up, Devin supporting him to give the girl's room. The usually playful expression on Devin's face was replaced with one of confusion for the moment.
"She remembered" Ryan responded to the unasked question before moving to the computer where the group gathered around Cathy.
Cathy had opened up a video file on the computer screen, her hands flying over the keyboard as she began. "I know this sounds crazy, this whole thing is crazy…" her voice was still weak but she sounded better than she had when they arrived.
A blonde-headed teenager stood in an open space of the laboratory, his glasses askew as he scanned the room.
The audio to the video must have been damaged, only snatches of voice coming through a growing static.
"Lyoko Warriors…a mission to protect…the world…XANA wants…RTPs…don't…" it was the boy speaking and as he spoke other teenagers stepped into the camera's view.
First a pink-haired girl stepped up to the boy's side, then a black-haired girl dragging a brown-headed boy behind her. The pair stepped up to the first boy's other side and appeared to say something to him but no sound came through.
After them another blonde boy stepped up behind the group, a dark purple streak in his hair marking him apart from the others. Behind him and off to the side another boy had stepped into view, his black hair hiding his eyes and remained separate from the main group.
Cathy paused the video once they were all on the screen and pulled up another window, this one showing a line of strange avatar cards that resembled the kids in the video.
"I don't really understand it all yet, there are dozens of video files and encrypted journal entries stored on here. These were the Lyoko Warriors before us though, they stopped XANA from destroying the world and set up these back-up programs to prevent his return."
"XANA's the one that attacked you then? Why?" Lucy was the one to speak while she studied the kids in the video.
"XANA was severely weakened after their last battle and retreated somewhere to recover. Now he needs the 'return to the past' program on this computer to regain his strength."
"Couldn't we just shut the thing down then?" Devin asked, as he turned to study the map she had pulled up in the center of the room.
"It's not that easy, he can attack without this computer but we need it if we're going to stop him. Lyoko is the only way to break his connection to the real world." Cathy glanced at the map a moment then closed the two windows.
"Why don't we discuss this tomorrow? It's late and the school will report us if we don't show up before curfew." Ryan interrupted, watching Cathy as she turned from the computer to face them. She looked exhausted, the burns on her arms fainter now but still visible.
The mountain sector of Lyoko flashed to life, a bright red flame visible against the purple platform of a high mountain. The flames circled around the upper part of the mountain, growing brighter on a ledge set high over the rest of the land.
The flames vanished suddenly as a small cave appeared on the ledge, the mouth a simple black spot on the side of the mountain.
Inside the cave a cocoon of flames encircled a strange cat-girl curled in a tight ball with her greyish purple tail curled around her. The flames dissipated as the cat-girl's eyes flashed open, her fangs bared defensively as she awoke from her deep sleep.
"Where is this? Something…" her eyes closed tight as images flashed across her mind, pain lacing through her as she dropped to her hands and knees on the hard stone floor.
The memories hurt, a confusing jumble that made no sense, so finally she pushed them away again and slowly stood up. The walls of the cave were covered in images just as jumbled as those in her mind, the only thing among them that made any sense was a dark craving near the back. It wasn't an image but a name, the word Ryuu craved deep into the stone with both claws and flame.
The cat-girl ignored it though and stepped up to a roughly shaped bed covered in dirty blankets before sitting among the blankets and opening an interface in front of her.
The screen scrolled through several strange pages of data before stopping suddenly on a file titled Zilla Rives. The file opened on its own and a holographic image of a red-headed girl appeared next to the interface.
"A connection…" the cat-girl's voice was strange, almost childish as she stared at the screen before opening a chat-box and typing a simple hello.