Aelita's POV
Even though I had lived in a computer for a good part of my life, I was never as good as Jeremie was at operating it from the outside. Nevertheless, even Odd could program the single command I was about to put in.
SCIPIO
I watched the computer screen as the white transport orb emerged from the digital sea and engulfed the assembled green triangles and red circles. In the work of a moment, the orb was screaming across the mountain region landscape, heading fast for the bright ball on the Lyoko map that held Sector 5 in it.
I worked the keys, trying to figure out a way to protect the mechanos from signal interference. I finally settled on a simple invisible shield that would change the frequency of any incoming signals, so they would no longer interfere. With a press of the enter key, it was done.
"Jeremie," I said, "are you sure that you want to stay there and help them?"
"Yes, Aelita," came the voice from the computer. "I got us into this mess by giving the Scipizoa that cell phone in the first place."
Jeremie's POV
"Besides," I continued, "I know the mechano nests better than anyone else here."
"Ahem," said several of the mechano.
"Oh, right. Better than any of the humans, anyway."
We were in the arena, with the dome spinning above us, randomizing a route that would take any group who cared to go over to the interface that would have carried Xana's data, if he had still been here. Tetrox ignored it and went over to a section of floor and tapped it with a claw. Instantly, a panel sprung out of the floor.
"Hey! Since when has that been there?" asked Odd.
"It's always been there," said Alcor. "It's just that you humans never found it. It calls up the elevator that allows us to descend from here to the mechano chamber."
Tetrox tapped several of the buttons on the panel, but all that happened was an annoyed-sounding beep.
"Hey! What's wrong with it?" asked Tetrox, trying again. "The code's never been changed before!"
"Perhaps the Scipizoa knew we were going to follow him, so he changed it," said Yumi. "Is there any other way in?"
"Well, we can always go to the interface on the outside and change it again from there. Any passwords made on that interface supersede all the others," replied Metra.
The dome stopped spinning, and the exit of the arena came to a halt, allowing entry into the main art of Sector 5.
"Really?" asked Odd. "Well then, no sweat! We're used to this!
"Well, then, you have three minutes," said Aelita.
We dashed out of the sphere, the passageway seeming to widen to allow the wider forms of the Krabes through. When we reached the wall, it opened, and stairs formed leading downward. And downward... and downward.
"Hey Aelita," Ulrich shouted, "how far down does this passageway lead?"
"You're almost at the end."
The floor leveled out into a hallway, and then we emerged onto a small platform on the edge of a giant pit. The blue walls around us stretched both down and up into blackness.
"I spy with my little eye.." said Alcor cheerfully, "Well, what do you know! I spy an eye!" He gestured at the far wall with a wing, where the key, shaped like Xana's eye, as always, hung.
"Great," Ulrich said. "How are we supposed to get over there? Fly?"
The overwing materialized in front of us.
"Sure, why not?" Aelita teased.
Yumi, rolling her eyes, stepped on the overwing and took off, heading for the key.
"Funny... you think there would be some sort of catch, some kind of trap." Anda remarked.
There was a low rumbling, and suddenly, two ton blocks started raining from the ceiling.
"You just had to mention that, didn't you, Anda," Metra sighed.
Scipizoa's POV
I found and pulled the lever. There was a rumbling, and then the very floor started to rise, driven by the powerful puenematics underneath. Sure, raising the room out onto the roof meant breaking through all the rooms in between, but who cared about that?
Sheltered under my machine, I was totally safe as the floor came closer to the ceiling. The top dome of the machine pressed against it, then broke through. A few very startled Kankrelats fell out of the office above, as the hole widened, and soon enough, the floor above crumbled as my platform raised.
It happened again, and again, as my platform went up through floor after floor. Panicked mechanos ran everywhere, trying to escape, some falling into the pit made as the platform raised up higher.
I could imagine that in the main meeting room, the eight leaders of the eight nests stopped bickering, as what seemed like an earthquake rocked the building.
The top of the cone burst, my platform, with me and my machine, making up the new roof. I looked down, to see every mechano looking up at me in confusion.
"Hey! Isn't that S-1 up there?" someone shouted.
If I had a true mouth, I would have smiled. Because I didn't, I merely settled for an evil sounding cackle. Without another word, I reached for the cell phone, attached to the machine by a cable. Then I reached over to the machine and pressed the "on" button.
Scipi-Zilla's dome lit up, glowing a deep green. The hundreds of long, scaly black metal tentacles lifted off the platform, raising into the air and stretching out straight in all directions. They started spinning slowly, and then faster, and then the tentacles started to glow green too.
Scipi-Zilla made a high, metallic screech, and suddenly, green waves of energy started pouring from the tentacles, each of them now a signaling antennae. No place was safe. They hit the mechanos outside first, then penetrated deep into the nests, thrashing into the mechanos there. They reached to hives on the ceiling, the outlying virtelm fields, everything.
The mechanos twitched, and then started screaming. Those who had knees fell to them, and those flying dropped out of the sky.
It lasted a full five minutes, the mechanical screams music to my hearing receptors.
When it was done, every mechano rose to their feet, eyes devoid of all light. Then, suddenly, their eyes and symbols flashed, and then started to glow a steady bright green.
"We are yours to command, S-1." they all chorused, as one.
"Excellent. Now, I need some guards for the entrances to the chamber. I'm expecting some... visitors." I said into the cell phone, holding it like a microphone.
Immediately, several groups of mechanos separated from the crowd below me, heading for the exits. I turned my attention back to Scipi-Zilla. It would take about half an hour for the machine to finish brainwashing the mechano completely, before the effects of the machine became permanent. Then I could track down Xana to present to him the army I had created for him.
In the meantime, I would have to make sure that those few mechanos still free as well as the humans didn't interfere.
Yumi's POV
"You have got to be kidding me!" I shouted, as giant blue blocks rained down from the blackness above, some just missing me and my frail overwing before dropping into the void below.
I swerved as hard as I could to avoid the falling blocks, heading all the time for the distant key.
"You've got one minute left, guys!" Aelita shouted.
"She's never going to make it." Odd muttered.
"There's one heading right for you!" Anda screamed.
I looked up, to see yet another block heading for me. There was no avoiding this one. In a flash of inspiration, I held my hands to my head, calling upon my telekinesis. The block stopped right above me. Maneuvering on the overwing closer to the key, I was able to use the block as a giant umbrella to block other falling blocks.
"30 seconds left!" Shouted Aelita. "20 seconds!... 10 seconds!... 5 seconds!"
I pressed the key. The rain of blocks stopped, and the last few fell into place, forming a bridge to the other side, where a door opened.
"Yes! Yumi, you're a genius!" Ulrich shouted. I had to fight back a virtual blush.
"Right. Let's get going," said Jeremie. The others ran across the bridge. A short elevator ride later, we were standing in front of the interface. The platform seemed to widen here for the larger mechanos here as well.
"Wait a minute," said Odd. "How are we supposed to use the interface without Aelita here?"
"Any mechano can use the system as well," said Ezlo, stepping forward to the interface. A purple beam went from one of his eyes to the interface, and he held it there for a few seconds.
"Done," he said.
We headed back to the arena, and entered the elevator. It descended quickly, and left us wondering what we would encounter when we got there.