Introducing Jeremy's POV for the first time. Things are only going to get messier from here on out, both in the real world and on Lyoko...
I wake up to the sound of Kiwi whining quietly and Odd playing video games. I glance at my phone and it's 7:30 AM. I sit up, yawn, and stretch my arms. Today's the college admissions day, I think. Yumi must be nervous as hell.
"Morning, good buddy!" Odd shouts. "It's a beautiful day, the world is singing and the flowers are blooming!"
"You're only saying that because it's Friday," I say, amused. "And we have classes tomorrow morning anyway."
"Don't be such a buzzkill, Ulrich. Any weekend is great to look forward to!" Odd sprints for the showers and I chuckle to myself. I follow him and 10 minutes later I'm all ready and head down to breakfast with the Magnificent.
"Hey, you guys," Jeremy says as we sit down. It's our usual table with the exception of Yumi, who usually arrives late.
"Hello!" Odd says jubilantly.
"Someone's in a good mood," Aelita remarks.
"He says it's just because it's Friday but I doubt it," I mutter. "Must be a date with a girl tonight or something."
"I swear, I've got nothing to hide!" Odd exclaims. "I just woke up and decided that today is gonna be a great day!" He tosses a croissant in the air and catches the end in his mouth.
"Well, hopefully you can keep that mood up because I have a feeling it's going to be a long semester," Jeremy says.
"Don't remind me," I say. "I've already got so much to deal with."
"I'm working on it as much as I can. I'll try to minimize your guys' involvement but it might be inevitable."
"Whatever happens, we'll be ready," Aelita says with a smile. Just then, Yumi comes up to us and sits down next to me.
"Morning, Yumes," I say happily.
"Morning, Ulrich," she says quietly. I can sense something's bothering her.
"Yumi, are you worried?" I ask tentatively. She looks at me and shrugs.
"Obviously. But I mean I can't really do anything about it."
"You'll get in someplace good. And you're still a good person no matter what happens."
"I hope so," she says. I pat her on the back to reassure her.
"Do you have any ideas of what you want to study, Yumi?" Aelita asks.
"No clue. I'm decent at everything. It makes choosing even harder than it has to be."
"You could do music," Aelita suggests. "Your voice is beautiful. We could be a duet!"
"That seems enticing," Yumi laughs. "But my parents would never agree to that."
"Maybe an engineer?" Jeremy suggests.
"Maybe. I don't really know yet," Yumi says. She takes the croissant from my plate and starts eating it. "I'll just become a martial arts instructor and set up my own studio," she jokes. We finish up breakfast and head outside. Odd and Aelita leave for their classes while I wait around for Yumi. Jeremy waits for Yumi nearby.
"When do the decisions come out?" I ask.
"4 PM," she responds. "So I have to wait the entire day before getting the decisions."
"Text me if you need anything," I offer.
"Thanks Ulrich. I'll try to handle this one by myself though." She hugs me and then walks off with Jeremy to class. I catch up with Odd as he's walking to class.
"Did you make sure to tell Yumi how proud you are of her? Or whatever couples do these days," Odd says.
"Nah, we just talked about her nervousness," I reply. "She's worried things won't turn out right."
"They'll be fine. I don't even know how college works and I'm still here!"
"You do you, Odd," I say. We head to math class and I manage to pay attention, jotting down notes and doing the worksheets. I finish early and draw some more Yumis like Odd taught me. I doodle soccer formations and plays mindlessly, and when I'm bored with that I think about life without Yumi. It'll be awfully weird, I tell myself. No more sarcastic barbs, jokes about Odd, girl moments with Aelita. And no more of our shared embarrassments, awkward moments, and finally dates and long talks, I add. Life without Yumi was going to be strange and gut-wrenching, not just in a romantic way and not just for me either. The bell rings and I pack up, walking absentmindedly out of the classroom.
"Ulrich, wait up!" Odd calls. I turn around and stand for a moment while Odd runs up. "Didn't you hear me calling you? What's in your head now?"
"Odd, don't you think it'll be really weird without Yumi?" I ask. Odd shrugs.
"Of course it will. The hardest change will be for you, loverboy. But yeah, I guess so."
"She's been such a big part of our lives," I add.
"I'll miss making fun of you two and playing pranks on her," Odd says.
"I don't think she appreciated your pranks very much," I remark, grinning.
"You never really appreciate anything in the moment, you know? It's like cheese. The finest kinds have to age a while before you really look back and say, 'Hey, that was a good idea'."
"Slow down there, Socrates," I laugh. "Do you always have to make analogies to food?"
"I can make analogies to sleep if you want," Odd offers. "Or I can tie in my magnificent wisdom with the jokes I make about you two."
"I'm good," I say. "I didn't know you had that level of wisdom in you." Odd gets a little annoyed and punches me in the arm, which I then answer by slapping him. It feels like it might escalate for a moment, but we just shake hands and laugh it off. Good buddies, indeed.
I wait for Yumi on a bench in the afternoon. Odd and Aelita are playing tag while Jeremy keeps typing on his laptop. I check the time and it's 4:04. She should be here any minute now. I look around, only seeing other seniors nervously check their phones for their decisions. William walks by and I stop him.
"Hey," I greet. "Have you seen Yumi?"
"She's still in the building last I checked," William replies. "Shouldn't you know where she is?"
"She likes to have privacy for these types of things," I explain. "How did you do? Where'd you get in?"
"It wasn't too bad. I got rejected from my top choices but got accepted to a pretty good art school here in France."
"That's great to hear," I say. "Good luck wherever you go."
"Thanks, Ulrich." William gives a wave and walks off. I look around for a few more seconds. Aelita and Odd finish their game and join us at the bench. Finally, she shows up. She tries to hide the dejected look on her face but I notice it and my heart sinks.
"How did it go, Yumi?" Aelita asks gently.
"Rejected from Princeton and deferred from Oxford," she says, disappointed. "And deferred from Heildelberg as well."
"Those are really tough schools to get into," Jeremy says. "You at least still have a shot at regular admission."
"I don't have much wiggle room," Yumi sighs. "My two regular schools are one in the Netherlands and one here. They're both safety schools. I really just went boom-or-bust."
"It'll be alright," I say. "You might not have looked as good stacked against other impressive people, but you could shine in the general pool." She sighs again and slumps down on the bench.
"How about I sing some songs?" Odd suggests. "That'll cheer you up!"
"Thanks Odd, but I'd rather not hear it right now."
"Let's just give her some time alone," Aelita says to us. Jeremy and Odd nod and head off, but I stay. Aelita looks at me, then understands and leaves with the others.
"Tell me how you feel," I say.
"I don't know," she says simply. "I can't decide whether I should feel bad for being stupid with my choices or feel bad for being stupid in general."
"Yumi, you're not stupid," I say. "You did the right thing and went for it. Besides, the book hasn't closed yet."
"I should've at least applied to some decent places I could've gotten in," she says, dejected. "I was so overconfident I only applied to five colleges."
"You're a lot better than the rest of us. You're a lot better than a lot of people in your grade."
"I'm not good enough, apparently."
"Yumi, don't sell yourself short," I plead. "You know you're better than that. If you could put Lyoko Warrior on your application you'd be accepted everywhere."
"Look, I appreciate your efforts, Ulrich," she says. "But I just need some time alone right now. I hope you understand."
"Okay. I'll leave you alone. But if you ever need to blow off some steam I'll be in the gym." She smiles and waves as I walk back to the dorm. I keep turning around possibilities in my head. Did I say something wrong? I wonder. Or is it not personal to me? Maybe I'm the one who needs some time alone. I didn't think I'd done anything wrong or said anything offensive. It struck me that I didn't really know how Yumi dealt with emotional stress since most of the time it had had something to do with me. I sigh and walk into my room. Kiwi's running around in circles and Odd's not there. I lay down with my head resting on my hands, staring at the ceiling.
Various screens pop up and close as I type on the supercomputer. Aelita watches me work, scanning the news broadcasts I have open. I'd been working every chance I got ever since it was confirmed that XANA was still alive, and I felt a rush of excitement and nostalgia opening my old programs.
"Superscan's fully functional, I can materialize everything fine, all the scanners are working," I report. "Anything interesting on the news?"
"Nothing," Aelita says, folding her arms. "I'm glad I don't sit around and watch the news all day. All they care to talk about is some famous celebrity's newest relationship or how bad the current leader in power is."
"No news is good news," I decide. "XANA's creeped up to 68% power, but nothing's happened yet. I'll keep going over these additional notes to see what I can find."
"XANA could be hiding something," Aelita wonders. "He's probably gotten smarter in the time since we destroyed him. Maybe he's better at masking his activity."
"You could be right," I agree. "But what can we do? All I can do is read through these notes and hope XANA doesn't get too much power back."
"There must be a way to slow the process," Aelita says. "He can't get all of his power just feeding off waste energy. At some point he has to level off, and I think it's at that point he starts launching his attacks to find new power sources."
"I'll read over the notes on XANA's structure," I promise. "Hopefully I'll be able to figure something out and start working on a program to counter his power increases."
"We'd better finish this quick," Aelita says. "Don't forget Yumi won't be with us anymore in six months. And the fact that we have our own lives to worry about too."
"I realize that," I reply. "I'm working as fast as I can. Don't yell at me for not sleeping since I have valid reasons this time."
"I know, nerd." Aelita smiles. "I'll do whatever I can to help you. Just make sure you get sufficient rest and keep up with school too."
"Yes, ma'am," I say. I keep flipping through the notes when something catches my eye. It's a section titled XANA and the Connection to Lyoko. I stop scrolling and start reading through the text.
"Aelita, take a look at this," I say. She leans on my chair and scans the text. XANA is one with Lyoko, just as I, the creator, am. Thus, we are the only two who can manipulate Lyoko remotely. Although others can be granted the Keys to Lyoko, they do not have the level of manipulation that XANA and I do. We are both able to use Lyoko's features to create almost whatever we wish in the virtual world. This power does have its limits and requires proportional amounts of energy for the tasks executed.
"I think what the others saw is a product of this," Aelita says softly. "There's no other way XANA could have done it. Your calculations say XANA shouldn't be able to reenter Lyoko yet. But that doesn't stop it from carrying out other smaller tasks."
"But what does XANA plan to do with that lab?" I wonder. "And the notes don't say what kinds of tasks they should be able to carry out with different amounts of energy. For now all we can assume is that creating that lab and the people in it didn't consume enough energy for XANA to stop growing."
"I think Daddy programmed a smaller version of his powers into me," Aelita explains. "That's where the Creativity comes from. Everything the other warriors started with was programmable, and the vehicles and upgrades you programmed were too. But the ability to manipulate Lyoko itself is something only the one with knowledge of all of Lyoko would know how to program."
"He didn't give you the ability because you were too young," I realize. "You didn't understand what was happening yet."
"I love Daddy, but this whole backstory gives me the chills," Aelita says with a scared tone in her voice. "Why hasn't anyone from the military come back to finish their work yet? And I still don't know what happened to my mother."
"I'll do some research on Project Carthage," I say. "Now that you mention it, that's a good point. If Franz Hopper's original intent for XANA was really as a counter to a military program, then it's suspicious that no one has come after the supercomputer yet."
"I think that's enough for tonight," Aelita says, yawning. "I'm going to head back to the library and do some reading. I need something to wash away all these worries."
"I'm gonna read a little bit more and then I'll join you," I say. I awkwardly get out of my seat and give her a kiss on the cheek, which she chuckles at and gives me one too. Aelita leaves for the elevator and I turn back to the screen. I think back to the first days of the supercomputer. Maybe Ulrich was right when he said I was in love with a virtual girl, and that was why I didn't shut it down, I think. We'd materialized Aelita, searched for her memory, and defended against XANA time and time again. And all this for…one girl who was trapped in the virtual world? It would've been much easier to shut the supercomputer down and forced XANA to remain dormant. That's a stopgap solution, though, a voice tells me. Usually I have an emotional voice and a logical voice, but this one seems to be a combination of both. Logically, it wouldn't have made sense to just shut down the supercomputer and wait for some other fool to stumble on it and turn it on again. And emotionally, well…the girl of my dreams. Unless we managed to blow the supercomputer up somehow with XANA trapped in it shutting it down wouldn't do any good. I sigh at my pondering and wasted time and open up a browser. I search Project Carthage and the first few results are all about some musical.
"Figures that you wouldn't be able to find it that easily," I mutter. I was stuck. I could hack government files and find information on Project Carthage, but that would first require locating the correct files in the massive Internet and then ensuring that they wouldn't notice the breach. Impossible and too risky. Although Franz Hopper had talked about Project Carthage, most of his journal entries were him talking about the progress of Lyoko. I decide to start scanning the massive amounts of data recovered from the Core. Most of it is information on XANA and Lyoko. "Come on, Franz, you had to have hid it somewhere," I say. I click on the folder labeled Creation. There's information on programming as well as building the physical computer. And then…something catches my eye. A folder labeled Carthage. I click on it and an Access Denied label pops up and returns me to the folders screen. Over the next hour I try different codes and tricks and nothing works.
"Come on." I grit my teeth. I try a few more combinations and still nothing. I resort to old names of the Punic Wars. Hamilcar, Hannibal, Scipio, Sicily, Alps…nothing. I try Roman names that have nothing to do with the time period. I try Greek names. Nothing. What haven't I done yet? I ask, frustrated. Then I realize…I haven't tried the origin of the Carthage. The Phoenicians. I type in Phoenicia and the file opens. It's a list of notes on the Project as well as videos of Franz Hopper. I click on the first one.
"Carthage. One of the great, often forgotten cities of history. Built by sea nomads, isolated, yet powerful through trade. The one rival Rome feared throughout its entire history. And today, we begin building our Carthage. We seek to succeed where Carthage failed." I get a shiver watching Hopper describe his project. I skip through a few videos. Hopper records his videos not every day, but probably once a week or month. I get to something that catches my eye. "Day 867. I've decided…I've decided Project Carthage is too powerful. It was only meant to be able to disrupt enemy communications in times of war. But now…by my creation, Carthage has the potential to be able to disrupt any and all signals, as well as destroy the source. This is catastrophic." Hopper looks down solemnly for a moment, and then continues. "I have been removed as head of the project. They want to use this for world domination, to ensure that they are the only ones with access to communication. Without communication, no one can warn anyone about what is coming. Nothing can move. Not tanks, not airplanes, not ships. All forms of navigation and power can and will be disabled. We have gone too far."
My head spins as I comprehend what's happening. All this time we'd been fighting XANA's goals to take over the world, and here was a program that was already close to being able to do that…I keep watching.
"Day 1000. Anthea is pregnant with our daughter. I am both pleased at this new addition to our lives and horrified at the thought of bringing an innocent into our affairs when she is born. I have located an abandoned factory with enough equipment and power for the building of my new project. The fourth Punic War has begun." I skip to the last video. "Day 9248. It's been done. With the help of the Return to the Past, I have destroyed Carthage with XANA. But it's not over. They'll come after me. They want Anthea and me…and little Aelita if they can get her too. The virtualization process is almost complete…I just need…more time…" Hopper suddenly spins around in his chair.
"Daddy!" a young voice shouts. I see pink hair peek out of the doorway and Hopper shuts the video down. I eye the last video. It's marked with a date after the date Hopper virtualized himself and Aelita on Lyoko. My hand trembles as I open it. It's only an audio recording.
"Day 10000. I have hidden all traces of the evidence deep in the factory. The factory has been wiped off every map known to mankind. It has been abandoned and no one dares come near it. The building that houses the supercomputer, for all intents and purposes, does not exist. They've given up. They failed in both their missions, to activate Carthage and to eliminate us. I've failed too. XANA has become too powerful. The only way to prevent this new catastrophe is to shut the computer down…I begged Aelita not to forget me. We will be dormant, inactive humans trapped on a virtual world with another one of my disastrous projects. This is the price I pay for my actions. Goodbye, Earth." The recording ends and I take off the headset. My hands tremble and I reach for my phone. I'm frozen and I have no idea what to do. All this equipment…all of it meaningless in comparison to the cause it was built for. The ruins of Project Carthage, the single most dangerous project to all of humanity. Built by humans, designed for use by humans, with infinitely more potential than XANA ever had. I slump in the chair, still in shock.
Looks like Waldo has a bit of a pattern of projects not working out :/ Just kidding. Leave a review!