Chapter 9

AN: Please review. This chapter takes place between season 2 and season 3.

(Alex first person)

It was the last week of summer. Odd was in Holland to spend time with his family. Ulrich went to Germany for a family reunion. Jeremie, Aelita, Crystal, and I stayed at the school. Yumi only lived downtown, so in the case of a XANA attack, she wouldn't be far away. Jeremie's father offered to house us all during the break, but Jeremie insisted on staying. Jeremie and I had spent most of the break making a way to track XANA on the network. We all sat in Jeremie and my dorm.

"I wish I could be of some use," Yumi said. The rest of us had some useful knowledge of computers.

"You are," Crystal said smiling. "You're keeping us company."

"You know that's not what I meant," she said falling back on to Jeremie's bed.

"Well, we could take a break," Jeremie said turning around in his chair.

"It's almost lunchtime anyways," I said putting my laptop down. We left the dorm and headed for the cafeteria. There was hardly anyone there. We walked through the line and all sat down at our table.

"I'm going to need access through the network port for the superscan," Jeremie said, sitting down.

"We are going to have to go to Carthage and access the console in order to grant that kind of permission," I said.

"A Lyoko mission?" Yumi asked, finally able to get some action.

"Yeah. There isn't any way to give access to a program from the computer," Jeremie said.

"We'll go after lunch. We need to get that access quick, otherwise we won't even be able to test it," Aelita said.

We finished eating our meal and walked back to our dorm. Jeremie burned the program to a disk, and we left. We went through the park and into the sewers. We each grabbed our transportation and rode through the sewers. We climbed the ladder to the bridge and hurried across into the factory. We rode the elevator down to the control room. Jeremie inserted the disk and loaded the program.

"We aren't quite done with the programming, but it is at the point where we can test its ability to use the network. Go on down to the scanner room. I'll virtualize you into the mountain sector."

(Third person omniscient)

Alex and Crystal spawned first, followed by Yumi and Aelita.

"Here come your vehicles," Jeremie said. The OverCar and the OverWing spawned next to them. They each quickly mounted the vehicles. "The edge of the sector is directly south of your location." They drove in the indicated location. "Watch out, Tarantulas." We stopped. Yumi stepped off and grabbed her fans.

"Aelita, take the OverWing and hide," Alex said stepping out of the car. Aelita drove the OverWing to the side of the flat and hid behind a large rock. Crystal slid out her knives. Three Tarantulas came on to the flat. They each kneeled and aimed. Alex lengthened his staff and charged them, deflecting their lasers as they shot. He jumped over the one in front, causing it to turn and look at him. Yumi threw a fan at the one that turned around, devirtualizing it. Alex hit his staff on the ground with the stun tip. He backflip-kicked one off the edge of the flat. Crystal ran to him and stabbed the other in the head.

"More monsters are coming. Hurry up and get to the edge, you can beat them there," Jeremie said. Alex and Crystal ran back to the OverCar. Aelita drove the OverWing out and Yumi hopped on. Ten Krabs followed them. Alex swerved to avoid being hit. Yumi threw her fans at them. She hit the leg out from under one, causing it to fall over in front of another. The other fell on top of the injured one, still shooting, and shot it in the eye, leaving it on its side. The other Krabs still followed. Alex swung around into reverse, shooting the Krab with his shortened staff's laser tip, still dodging the lasers off the Krabs. Aelita gave Yumi control of the OverWing and kneeled down. She created a wall just behind Alex to keep the Krabs from following them. Alex spun around, facing forward again. They arrived at the edge of the sector. Jeremie typed in the code. The dismounted their vehicles and stepped into the transporter. They arrived in the center room.

"Three minutes on the countdown. Go," Jeremie said. They immediately ran to the opening wall. When they reached the main room, they looked for the key. It was a huge open room with small platforms jutting from the wall.

"There it is," Crystal said, pointing to the place near the top of the room.

"It'll take forever to get up there," Aelita said. "Could you teleport up there, Alex?"

"I can only teleport to places on the ground. There isn't a ground next to it. But I can teleport as close as I can." Alex said, looking for the highest place he could see. He teleported to a platform a few yards away. He ran along the wall and jumped for the key. He was shot by a creeper and fell.

"That shot only took ten life points, but the fall took fifty," Jeremie said. Alex stood and grabbed his thigh. His staff wasn't there. He looked around for it and noticed it on the other side of the room. Alex stood and ran for it. A Creeper opened its mouth and aimed at him. He flipped over it just as Crystal threw a throwing knife at it. Alex picked up the knife.

"I'm just gonna borrow this for a sec," he said. The knife wasn't very long, but it was better than fighting them with his bare hands. He ran at more, slashing them through the head or the body. Yumi and Crystal continued fighting. Crystal picked up one with her knife through the bottom of its head and threw it at another. Alex picked up his staff and threw Crystal's knife at a Creeper that was close to her. Alex teleported to the center and stunned the area, making it easier to fight them.

"Go," Yumi said. "We'll hold them off. We are running out of time." Alex nodded and teleported back to the highest platform. He ran along the wall, dodging the fired lasers, and jumped for the key. He began to fall short. He lengthened his staff again and swung for the key. It hit. Alex began to fall again. Before he hit, he teleported, safely, to a spot next to the others who had finished killing the last of the Creepers. The wall opened and the followed the path out to the elevator. As it passed they each jumped on. It led them to the bridge of the console. Aelita began working on the access to the network for the program.

"They're hatching," Jeremie said. "Here come your vehicles." Alex and Crystal slid into the OverCar and Yumi jumped on the OverWing. Aelita continued to work on the superscan. Alex drove towards the group of Mantas. He flipped a switch on the panel that contained several other buttons and switches. Crystal and he jumped off and on to the passing Mantas. They each stabbed one and jumped on to the next, taking out six Mantas. They both jumped off and the OverCar drove under them. They landed in their seats.

"You added a homing device?" Crystal asked.

"Yeah, pretty useful," Alex said, turning around to go back to Aelita.

Yumi rode in close to Aelita and threw a fan at a Manta preparing to shoot Aelita with bombs.

"I'm finished," Aelita said.

"Okay, I'm bringing you in," Jeremie said.

(Alex first person)

I was devirtualized with Crystal, then Yumi and Aelita. Jeremie was in the scanner room waiting for Aelita. He looked worried. Using CODE: EARTH to free Aelita had become habitual. As she came out, he showed relief. We went back up to the control room.

"I'm going back to school. It's already almost dinner time," Yumi said. Crystal and Aelita followed her.

"Coming?" Crystal asked.

"Not yet, we will be there in a sec. Jeremie and I are going to get a bit done on the superscan," I said.

"Okay," Aelita said. "We will be waiting in the cafeteria." They took the elevator back up to the top floor.

"Okay, go down to the scanners," Jeremie said, pulling up the transfer bar.

I took the ladder down to the scanner room and climbed in one.

"Transfer Alex... Scanner Alex... Virtualization!"

I spawned in the desert sector, but that didn't matter. I could get where I was going from anywhere. I teleported to the place where I had spent so much of my previous life. But Franz wasn't there. I fell to my knees. I knew it was possible for Franz to have escaped, but it didn't seem right that he wasn't here. I teleported back to where Jeremie had spawned me.

"I'm bringing you back," Jeremie said.

I slowly disappeared from Lyoko. Jeremie was waiting for me at the scanner. I didn't even have to say anything. The depressive look on my face told him I didn't find what I was looking for.

"I think it's best not to tell Aelita about this," Jeremie said. "The last thing she needs is to know right now is that he isn't on Lyoko."

I nodded. We took the elevator back up to the top floor and walked back to the school.