A/N: Hello, my kitties! Welcome back to Code: Mutation! I'd like to greet my newest follower, 1manApocalypse. Welcome and I hope you enjoy the story. Anyway, let's go!
Disclaimer: I do not own either show!
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Chapter 12)Coding Problem
"Jeremie, what's going on?" Leo asked, running into the lab. "I don't know," Jeremie replied, "Something went wrong during the transfer. I can't find them. At least, not on the outer layer."
"Outer layer?" the blue-masked turtle asked. "Yes, that just means I can't find them between here and Lyoko," Jeremie said, "Hopefully, there's not too much to worry about, these kinds of accidents happen all the time."
"Well, if they're not on the 'outer layer,' like you said, could they still be in the supercomputer?"
"Let me see, I'll run a scan. If they're anywhere in there, they'll get picked up."
After a few seconds, the computer started to beep. "Found them," he said. "Are they okay?" Leo asked. "They're fine, but their particles are divided and scattered throughout Lyoko," he replied.
"So what do we do?" Yumi asked. "You guys are gonna have to go to Sector 5 so that Aelita can gather the particles there and she can reassemble them," Jeremie explained, "Sounds simple enough," Ulrich said.
After he said this, another alert came on the computer screen. "What's that?" Leo asked. Jeremie hit a few keys, "Uh-oh."
"Now what?" Karai asked. "Well, it seems that the scanners have been infected by some sort of virus," Jeremie said, "I'll have to fix that before you go."
"Why's that?" April asked. "Because if something happens to us, something might go wrong and we can't get back to Earth," Aelita said. "I'll have to fix the virus before anything else," Jeremie said, "I have a program for that on a CD in my room. But I can't leave you guys alone."
"I can take your place until you get back," Leo offered. Jeremie looked between the computer and turtle a couple times before saying, "Alright, keep an eye on things and I'll be back in a few minutes. He took off his headset and gave it to Leo, "Let me know if anything happens."
"Got it," the leader turtle said, putting on the headset and took the chair in front of the computer. Jeremie then left the lab.
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The teens stood in the middle of the virtual forest in complete silence.
William glanced at Karai, April, and Casey. April was sitting on top of a nearby rock with her eyes closed, Karai was sitting on the ground, running her fingers in the digital earth, apparently lost in thought, and Casey was swinging his platinum hockey stick around. He attempted to spin it, until he hit himself in the head, then dropped on the ground, pretending to be knocked out. His gaze then went back to Karai, "Um, hey, Karai?"
She moved her eyes to look at him, but kept facing the ground, "What?"
"I was just wondering, how did you get your snake powers?"
She looked away from him, once again, staying silent. William stood back and slightly bowed his head, "Sorry, I didn't know that was a touchy subject."
"When I found out that Splinter was my father, Shredder trapped me," Karai said, "He thought that if I were a mutant, like most of them, I would go berserk and attack Splinter. When that didn't work, he had his scientist, Baxter Stockman, create a bug that took control of me and made me attack my own family." She lowered her head and closed her eyes, becoming silent.
"I'm so sorry," Aelita said.
"I hope the guys are okay," Casey said, sitting up.
"Why doesn't Jeremie just do that time travel thing that April was talking about?" Leo asked. "That's actually a really bad idea," Yumi said, "When an accident like this happens, using the Return to the Past can have unpredictable effects. If we do that, they might get lost in the computer forever."
"Hey, is April okay? She's been sitting there for a while," Odd asked, noticing her stillness. "She's more than likely in a deep meditation," Karai said, "When a person is in deep meditation, they can actually detach themselves from others."
"Especially April, since she has psychic abilities," Casey said, standing up. "Psychic abilities?" Aelita said. "Like this?" Yumi said. She moved her hand toward a small rock and it started to levitate as they noticed she was glowing. "One of them, yeah," Casey said. Yumi moved the rock and threw it over the edge of the plateau. After it fell, a beam of light shot into the sky. "What was that?" Karai asked. She and Casey ran to the edge and looked over, seeing a seemingly endless sea of white water.
"Water?" Karai asked. "That's not water," Ulrich said, "That's the digital sea."
"Be careful," Odd said, "You fall in there, you never come back."
"Has that actually happened?" Casey asked. "Once," Ulrich said, "Yumi fell in."
"But...she's right there," Casey pointed out. "Well, Jeremie was working on Aelita's materialization program and while he was out of the room, Odd accidentally dropped some candy on his keyboard. Somehow, the candies actually hit the right keys to complete the program," Yumi explained. "The problem was, since Jeremie didn't see the keys they hit, we only had one shot to materialize Aelita," Ulrich continued. "But then Yumi fell into the digital sea. We went back in time, but she didn't come back. So there was only one option. I had to give up my place so they could bring her back."
"That was a good thing to do, Aelita," Leo said.
The swirl on April's necklace started to glow and she snapped out of her meditation. "What's that?" she said, looking in the path on their left. They all looked that way, but saw nothing. "April, what are you talking about?" Karai asked. "I saw something," the psychic said, keeping her eyes locked in the one direction.
The computer started beeping and Leo saw five red symbols heading toward his friends.
"Uh, guys, there's something coming at you, and I highly doubt they're friendly," he said.
They all looked back and saw five, giant, bug-like creatures, except they were walking on four legs. "What the heck are those?!" Casey exclaimed. "Tarantulas!" Yumi said. The monsters ran until they came in front of them. They seemed to move their back legs so that they were in a sort of crouch-like stance and aimed their front legs in front of themselves. "What are they doing?" Karai asked. She looked at the Lyoko warriors and saw they all had weapons drawn. Except for Odd, who had his hand in a fist, pointed toward the monsters. "You have weapons?" she asked. "Yeah, you should too," Aelita said as she created a pink ball in her hands.
Karai then noticed the laser gun strapped to her hip and pulled it out, "Cool." She aimed it at one of the tarantulas and fired. She hit it and it screeched, but only seemed slightly fazed. "Yeah, these are some of X.A.N.A.'s tougher monsters," Ulrich said, using his katana to block a laser. April felt around herself and found a metal tessen tucked in her sash around her waist. It looked like the one she got from Splinter, minus the Hamato seal on it. She ran and threw it at a different tarantula. Like the one that Karai hit, it just screeched and went back to fighting.
A tarantula fired a laser and hit Karai, knocking her to the ground. She touched the spot where she was hit, expecting some kind of pain but didn't feel anything. William ran straight for the monster and plunged his Zweihänder into the symbol on its face. It let out a louder screech then exploded into pixels. "And that's how you do it," he said. He held out his hand and helped her up.
She looked down at the spot where she was hit and didn't even see a burn mark. "What the heck?" she said. "Yeah, when you get hit here, you don't feel pain," William said, "But try not to get hit anyway."
The phone on the computer started to ring. Leo hit a few keys and was able to answer it, "Hello?"
"Leo, do you need help?"
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"My computer at school is linked to the supercomputer. I can see everything you can."
"You can?"
"Yeah, now listen, you can't let anyone run out of lifepoints," Jeremie said, "At least not until I can get the scanners fixed. I just found the disc to fix the virus. I'm on my way."
"Okay, hurry," Leo said. The phone window closed as Jeremie hung up.
April held up her tessen as one of the tarantulas fired at her. Yumi told them that some of their weapons could be used as protection. Her tessen glowed blue for a second, but then changed back to the same silver it was. She looked at it, confused for a minute, but then tossed it again. The tarantula she hit screeched and exploded.
"This stinks," Casey said, "Everyone gets cool weapons and I just have a hockey stick! Now I know how Donnie feels!" He stomped his foot and saw a light-blue hockey puck fall out of a slot on his skate. "What the heck?" he said. He used his stick to hit the puck at a tarantula and it froze in place as soon as the puck made contact with it. "Oh, cool!" he said, "No pun intended." He laughed at his joke, to which Karai and April rolled their eyes at the boy. "Odd, get it before it thaws!" Ulrich ordered. "On it!" the blond said, "Laser arrow!" An arrow shot out of his wrist, striking the frozen creature.
"Wait, so my weapon just freezes things?" he said. He then noticed a dial on the hockey stick in his hands. There were several colored dots around the dial and it was currently pointed at the light-blue one. He switched the dial to a red dot. He stomped his foot again and a red puck fell out this time. He shot it and it hit another tarantula, which then screeched as it apparently burst into flames. "Awesome!" he said. "Yeah, but be careful," Odd said, "You might have a limited amount of pucks, like my laser arrows."
Leo looked at Casey's avatar card on the screen and spotted a number next to what Leo assumed to be his attack status, "Odd's right, Casey. You only have 23 pucks left."
"Okay," Casey said.
April's necklace glowed again and she ran, pushing Aelita to the side just as a laser wall split between the group. "What was that?" Karai said. "Mega-tank," Yumi said as a giant black ball rolled up. "This one's pretty tough, too," Ulrich said. "Why's that?" Casey asked. "Because you can only hit it when it's about to attack.
The Mega-tank split open, revealing the symbol that they had to hit. It charged up before firing again. It's giant laser hit Karai, throwing her a few yards from the others. It shut as soon as the laser was fired. "Now I see the challenge with this one," April said. "I'm on it," Ulrich said. He ran over to the ball, yelling, "Over here you over-sized bowling ball!"
"Ulrich, are you nuts?" April asked. It turned toward him as he withdrew his katana again. It opened again, ready to charge. "Triangulate!" he said, starting to run around the Mega-tank in a three-sided formation. He ran so fast, that it looked like there were three of him.
The Mega-tank seemed confused, looking between the three Ulrichs. He leaped from one of them, his weapon meeting the center of the symbol. He pulled it out and jumped off just as it exploded like the others.
"That was awesome!" Casey said. "Well, X.A.N.A. is powerful, but he's still a computer program, which means he gets confused easily," Yumi said. "Kinda like Odd on his science tests," Ulrich said. Everyone laughed at his joke. "Ha ha, very funny," Odd said sarcastically.
The elevator door opened and Jeremie stepped out. "Okay, Leo, I'll take it from here," he said. Leo moved out of the way, letting the boy take control again. "Okay, guys, I'm back," he said, "Now, head to the edge of the sector and I'll call the transporter."
"Man, I wish we didn't have to take the transporter. It always gives me motion sickness," Odd whined. "Stop complaining, we have to save my brothers," Karai said. "Okay, follow us," Aelita said, running away, everyone running after her.
After a few minutes of running, they made it to the edge of the plateau. "Great, now where do we go?" Karai asked.
"I'm on it," Jeremie said as the Carthage window popped up, "Haven't done this in a while." He typed in SCIPIO and pressed the ENTER key.
Casey, April, and Karai slightly stepped back when they saw a giant eyeball come out of the digital sea and float toward them. It opened up and grabbed all eight of them, Then, took off.
"Holo-sphere, online," Jeremie said, as the holo-map in the lab changed from the four sections into a large sphere with several tunnels spouting from it. "Whoa," Leo said when he saw it switch.
After a minute or two, the transporter gently landed in the center of the drop off. Odd let out a nauseous moan as he tried to settle himself. "Whoa, where are we?" Karai asked, looking at the spinning wall around them. "Sector 5," Yumi said, "It's like the inside of X.A.N.A. and the center of Lyoko."
"It holds all the information that makes up Lyoko," Aelita said, "We just have to get through the corridor and to the terminal on the edge of the sector."
"Okay, you work your way to the terminal and I'll disinfect the scanners," Jeremie said, inserting the disc, "The wall's opening up." As soon as the wall stopped, the passage opened and they ran through.
They entered a large room with dozens of floating panels replacing the floor. "Okay, be careful. X.A.N.A. might've booby trapped the room," Ulrich said. "Yeah, and beware of Creepers," Odd added. "Got it," Casey said.
They hopped from one panel to another, until Casey hit one that turned red and disappeared from under his feet. He was able to grab onto the ledge before he fell. Yumi pulled him out of the hole. "Told you," she said. "Thanks," Casey said, brushing himself off. As they were walking away, Casey heard a gurgling sound come from the hole he was pulled out of. He turned around and watched as two brown limbs emerged from the hole, pulling out a creature with two front limbs and a dark silver tail. It growled and opened its mouth, revealing its laser.
As soon as it fired, Casey put his arms together, trying to block the attack, and was surprised when a glowing dark-blue shield appeared in front of him. When he lowered his arms, it disappeared. "Awesome!" he said. Two more Creepers crawled out of the hole and came at them. The three surrounded the New York teens.
One of them fired at April, who blocked it with her tessen. Once again, her weapon glowed blue. It was then that she noticed a gauge on the bottom that was one third full. "What the..?" she said, but had to block another laser. It glowed again. She looked at the gauge and it was now halfway full. She thought for a minute then came up with an idea.
One of the Creepers swept its tail at Karai, knocking her off her feet and hit her with another laser. "Karai, be careful! You only have 15 lifepoints left!" Jeremie warned her. It fired again, but April's tessen got between it and Karai, protecting her from the attack.
When the fan returned to the user, she looked at the gauge again and this time, it was three quarters full. "That's what I thought," she said. She waited until another Creeper fired at her and she blocked it again. This time, the gauge filled up entirely and the tessen started to glow blue. "Whoa! What happened to your weapon?" Odd asked. "I think it just got supercharged," she replied. She let the three Creepers surround her and she threw it.
In one attack, it took out all the monsters. "Good job, April," Casey said as she caught it. When it made contact with her hand, it changed back to its normal, metal appearance.
They kept running until they made it to the outside of the dome and there was just a screen in front of them. "This is it," Aelita said, "Protect me."
"Got it, princess," Odd said. He and the other Lyoko warriors stood on either side of her, getting into fighting positions as the pink-haired girl accessed the screen.
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A/N: I know this chapter was a little long, but I just couldn't stop typing! I hope you like their weapons. The ideas for Casey and April's weapons just kind of came to me while I was writing. Anyway, like I said in the last chapter, I want to see if anyone can guess where I got the idea for April's Lyoko avatar from. It's from an anime that premiered back in 2016. Anyway, remember to read, review and share and I'll see you in the next chapter! MEOW!
-Kittenclysm
