Code: Cameron

Chapter Twenty-Five

Rock Bottom

Cameron heaved a sigh as the final bell rang, signaling the end of their torture. As he, Odd, Ulrich, and Jeremie exited the room, Yumi came up, almost running him over. She started talking rapidly, "My parents are out of town for the weekend, I'll talk to them later about having some people over."

Ulrich grinned, "Great, good luck."

Jeremie smiled, "Yumi or her parent's stubbornness, I'm betting on Yumi."

"Five bucks says we're gonna party this weekend Odd?" Cameron reached around for his wallet.

Odd shook his head and held up a hand, "I'm not betting against that, I know how good Yumi is at getting what she wants. Besides, I don't want to jinx it."

Cameron laughed, "Fair enough." His phone beeped and he looked down at it, his eyebrows going up in surprise, "Excuse me, I've gotta take this."

As he left hearing distance of the group, he flipped his phone open and pressed it to his ear, "Long time no hear. How's New York?"

"Exhausting. The other students are ridiculous and everyone else expects me to be," she put on a faux-american accent, "so prim and proper, like any frenchwoman." She reverted to her normal voice, but this time Cameron could detect the change that had overcome it, "The worst part is that I'm getting the hang of talking like them. Then my phone was stolen in the Airport when we landed, and it took a while to get a new one. Then I had to convince my parents to pay for the international calls, which took even longer. So that's why I haven't called before now."

Cameron laughed, "It's fine. I figured you were busy settling in, though it is good to hear from you. By the way, are your parents good? I mean, as far as adopted parents go?"

Taelia sighed, "They're fine, but I still wish that they had waited until after they got back to France to adopt me. On the upside though, being the darling little girl of a successful business man does have some advantages." They shared a laugh, and then her voice became a bit more serious, "Anyway, I was just calling to see what was up and how you were doing."

Cameron started to shrug, then remembered that he was talking via phone, "Not much, though Yumi is having a party at her place this weekend. Apart from that . . ." his voice trailed off, and a mental struggle was waged over how to keep Lyoko a secret from her. He did not want to lie to her, and she was on the other side of the planet, so . . .

Her voice interrupted his thoughts, "Apart from that . . . what? Has something happened?"

Cameron cleared his throat, "Umm, we-" he yelped as a hand fell onto his shoulder, and he jumped, spinning around to glare at Sissi's smiling face, "Oh dear god. What do you want now Sissi?"

"Sissi? What's she doing now?" Taelia sounded understandably frustrated.

Sissi smiled at him, "I thought that since you were all alone over here, maybe you wanted some company. We could take a walk through the park if you wanted."

"Yeah no-"

"Give her the phone Cameron." Taelia didn't sound particularly happy, so Cameron did so without hesitation.

A moment later Sissi pulled the phone away from her ear, and Taelia's voice was perfectly audible, "Keep your crabby little hands off of him you-" Taelia's voice subsided to a more moderate level, and Sissi gingerly returned the phone to her ear, and then the blood drained from her face. A moment later, she handed the phone back to Cameron and darted away towards the dorms, and Cameron raised the phone to his own ear, "Taelia, what in the name of . . . everything, did you say to her?"

Taelia sounded perfectly cheery, "Oh nothing, just something along the lines of what I would do to her if she didn't leave. Why, is she gone?"

Cameron nodded, "Yeah. She ran off faster than I've ever seen her run. Remind me never to get on your bad side."

"I think you've said that before."

"I know." Cameron laughed, "Do you have any breaks coming up? Or do American schools go year round?"

He could almost hear Taelia shudder at that thought, "No, thank god they don't. They actually have more breaks than you do, but no, I don't have any coming up."

Cameron caught sight of Jeremie and the others approaching, "I've gotta go. Nice talking to you."

"Nice talking to you too. See ya."

"Bye."

Cameron snapped the phone shut and let out a sigh of mild frustration, then looked up at Jeremie as the three boys approached, "Is it all right if I tell Taelia about Lyoko? Before you say no, give it some thought, she's half a world away and wouldn't tell anyone anyway. And I really hate keeping secrets from her."

Jeremie, Odd, and Ulrich exchanged glances, "Maybe, but when she first came here, I showed her the lab, and she called the cops on me." Jeremie said.

Cameron sighed, "I figured that would be your answer. I won't tell her I guess."

Jeremie shrugged, "We didn't say no, we'll just have to get Yumi's opinion on the topic before coming to any conclusions."

Cameron nodded, "Thanks, I really hate not being able to tell her anything, no matter what it is I have to keep from her." He turned towards the gates, "I'm gonna head to the factory and get some work done, it'll be easier to concentrate there than here." He turned back to the group, "Oh, if you try to reach me and can't, I'm probably on Lyoko working. I have a couple of ideas that I'll need a tower for."

The others nodded as he started walking.

"See ya at Yumi's!"

"Later."

"Good luck, tell me if you make any progress."

Cameron laughed as he broke into a run, weaving through the park and enjoying the feeling of freedom that came with not having any responsibilities for a while.

()()()()

As the factory chair circled around, Cameron debated on where to start. Aelita and Jeremie had gotten the first part of the materialization program working, setting a more powerful link between the towers and Earth, but then came the hard part. They had figured out a way to make a body for her, which actually hadn't been very difficult in hindsight, but at the time had been a real pain. Between that and reinforcing the link between the Towers and Earth, they could - in theory - materialize her, but the Supercomputer was too low on power. In order to bypass that, they had a couple options. Drain the power from the city mainframe, which would risk detection, or find a way to boost the power themselves. They had considered using power from several points in the city to lower the chance of it being noticed, but it was still a risk. He wanted to check his theory of using the power gain from deactivating a tower, but they hadn't had a chance to test it, and it might not be enough anyway. The final issue was providing a link between the scanners and Aelita herself, which would put her into the body that the scanner would provide. It was the first issue that Cameron applied himself to, launching several digital probes into the city's electrical mainframe, searching for sources that they could leech power from without the loss being noticed. There was one line nearby that could channel the power, and in a few minutes he had the search narrowed to a Petro-Chemical Plant on the other side of town, the Nuclear Power Plant near the school, and, a couple of big companies around town. Cameron ruled out the Petro-chemical plant pretty quickly, draining too much energy would be too simple for them to recognize, and it would also jeopardize the city with a chemical outbreak. Draining anything from the power plant could cause blackouts in certain parts of the city, including the factory, which would again be a big problem. He leaned back and steepled his fingers, thinking hard. Eventually, he gave up, and opened a materialization screen, giving himself a minute to get into the scanners. He pushed himself out of the chair and made his way to the ladder to the scanner room, muttering, "if I can't do this from Earth, then I guess I might as well try it from Lyoko."

()()()()

Cameron landed hard on the cold blue ice of Lyoko, breaking into a run almost as soon as his feet touched the ground. The tower he'd set himself down by rose up in front of him, and he slowed as he neared it, placing a hand against the hard black tangle of root-like whatever-it-was and slowly pushing into it. Before he could get more than a hand in however, he was sent flying to the side by a volley of laser fire, tumbling to the ground as a trio of Krabs walked slowly around him. A flare of light flashed over his head as he stood up, javelin glowing to life in his hand. He threw himself into the air as a second volley of lasers slashed at him, landing on a ledge above him. His javelin spun, catching the third set of blasts directed at him, and then he leapt away from the ledge, rolling as he hit the ground and jumping, pushing off of one of the Krab's legs to give himself a boost to reach its head. As he raised his javelin, a light caught his eye and he ducked, narrowly avoiding another laser. As the other Krab charged up a shot, Cameron's eyes narrowed, and he straightened a little, holding his javelin in both hands.

As the laser was fired, he yelled "Hypercounter!"

To anyone or anything watching, he turned gray and his form flickered. To him, the entire world turned gray and froze. He raised the javelin and slammed it down into the target he was standing on, then leapt off and raced for the Krab that had just shot at him. As he neared it, he jumped high into the air and threw his javelin down at it.

As the weapon struck home, the world flickered and returned to its normal color. The javelin shot back towards Cameron at a snap of his fingers, and he fell towards the final Krab, which was turning too and fro, searching for him. As he landed on it, he twisted so that the head of the javelin slammed into the target, and he stayed still as the monster jerked beneath him, then jumped, using the force of its explosion to launch himself closer to the tower. He dusted his hands off, then brushed himself down, snapping his fingers for his javelin again. It flew to his hand, and he flipped it into the air, catching his coin as it fell back to him.

Cameron stumbled as he reached the tower, pressing a hand to his chest. He breathed in slowly, then raised his head and exhaled, blowing out a light cloud of smoky energy. The smoke swirled around him, then shot towards the sky, and Cameron felt some of his life points going with it. He loved his Lyoko abilities, but they had some pretty powerful downsides. He stepped into the tower, striding to the center of the platform and kneeling, pulling up a terminal and diverting part of the Tower's energy into his digital avatar, opening a sub-screen to keep him posted on his current status. As that screen opened, he flinched. He only had eighteen life points left, one more shot to a vital point and his trip would have been cut short.

He raised his hands and began flicking through programs, organizing calculations and using the shortcut program he'd created from the data Aelita had pulled out of the general tower programming to hack into the subsystems of the supercomputer. He'd designed the program for Aelita to use when she needed to recover health quickly, but the effect was the same, it got a person into a tower's most inner workings in seconds. That gave them access directly into the supercomputer's software, and from there they could do . . . well, pretty much anything, except apparently finish Aelita's materialization. He hadn't perfected the program by a long shot, since he was hoping that it could permit them to hack the supercomputer from anywhere on Lyoko, which would basically be a safety measure for Aelita, but it was good enough for now. Within moments he was in the mainframe of the tower, and from there he located the Return to the Past programming, as well as the programs that involved possession and activation of the Towers.

As he searched, something caught his attention and he brought it to the forefront. Rows of towers flashed across the screen, then slowed and shot forward, stopping as it arrived at a tower encased in an activated red mist. His features split into a grin and he stood up, stretching his legs out. He disconnected from the tower's energy supply as his life points finished replenishing themselves, then moved to the edge of the platform, extending his arms and closing his eyes tightly. A small tilt forward was enough to send him over the side.

As Cameron touched down on the far end of the passage, he flipped his coin and caught his bow as it fell. He moved to the center of the platform and nocked an arrow, drawing it back and touching his finger to his cheek as he reached full draw. A silver flash leapt away from his bow and disappeared into the wall of the Tower. He ran out after it, diving forward as he exited the tower and drawing an arrow as he came up onto a knee.

Aelita looked at him with an amused expression, "Expecting someone else?" Her brow furrowed, "Wait, what are you doing here anyway?"

Cameron turned red and lowered his bow, "Sorry, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was in the factory working for a while, then I came here to work from the Tower to get a look at things from the inside. Figured it was worth a shot, and hey, it got me here quicker than anyone else, didn't it?"

Aelita nodded, "Well, I contacted Jeremie as soon as I felt the pulsations, and he said they're on their way, so we shouldn't have to wait very long for them."

Almost as soon as she finished speaking, a wireframe appeared overhead, and Yumi dropped out of the sky. Cameron glanced at her, "So, are we good to go for the party?"

Yumi rolled her eyes, "Yeah, but don't we have more important things to worry about? Like deactivating a tower?"

Cameron shrugged and turned to follow the two girls as they began to run for the tower.

()()()()

Cameron and the others skidded to a halt as the path dropped away, changing to a series of moving platforms. Aelita paused for a moment, then shrugged and threw herself forward. Cameron and Yumi exchanged glances, then sighed and leapt after the girl. As the three of them skidded to a halt on a stable area, a dull buzz sounded in Cameron's ears, and he drew his arrow back slightly, "Do you guys hear that?"

Yumi and Aelita nodded, and Yumi's fans rang as the squad of Hornets raced around the corner. Cameron moved protectively in front of Aelita, bringing his bow back, "You take the ones on the left, I take the ones on the right? Or do you want to just smash them and be done with it?"

Yumi's response was to launch her fan at the squadron, forcing them to scatter. One flew straight into the path of one of Cameron's arrows, but the others flew clear. As Yumi's fan flew back to her, it cut through another Hornet, and she destroyed a second with a second throw. A volley of lasers flew through the air, slamming into the two fighters and throwing them back. Cameron rolled to his feet and threw himself back in front of Aelita as a second volley came at her. The blasts slammed into him and he crashed to the ground, dissolving into small pieces of blue data.

()()()()

Golden light assaulted Cameron's eyes as they opened in the scanner. As the doors opened, he tumbled out, barely catching himself as he hit the ground. Another scanner hissed and Cameron raised his head, groaning as he saw Yumi curled into a fetal position inside. His arms screamed in protest as he pushed himself to his hands and knees, and he looked up at Yumi, "They got you too huh?" The import of that hit him and his eyes snapped wide open, "Wait, that means that Aelita is alone in the middle of that swarm?!"

Yumi pushed herself up, "Yeah. But . . . she can handle herself."

Jeremie's voice echoed over the speakers, "Yumi's right Cameron, Aelita can protect herself. She's got herself in a shell already, so she's bought herself time for Ulrich and Odd to get here." Cameron nodded, and then his arms gave way beneath him, his vision fading away.

()()()()

Cameron's eyes snapped open as a hand touched his shoulder, and his eyes snapped open. He rolled over slowly and blinked as he saw Odd. The blond smiled, "I wouldn't be waking you sleeping beauty, but the others are getting worried about you. It's normal for people to feel faint after getting devirtualized, but falling unconscious for that long isn't normal."

Cameron pushed himself to his feet and put a hand to his head, "How, how long was I out?"

Odd shrugged, "Five minutes? Maybe ten or fifteen, I'm not really sure. Are you feeling okay?"

Cameron hesitated, then shook his head, "honestly? No. I feel like my head has been used as a peg for a sledgehammer. Frankly, it feels worse than usual. I'll run a scan of my coding as soon as I get a chance." He stood aside and waved Odd by, "Get to Lyoko, now. I'll be fine." I hope. He added to himself.

As Odd's scanner closed, Cameron let himself drop to a knee and pressed a hand to his chest, breathing slowly and steadily. He pushed himself back to his feet and staggered to the elevator, leaning heavily against the wall and smacking his hand against the button. The elevator lurched and began to rise, and Cameron pressed a second button, "Jeremie, do you have a second?"

Jeremie's voice crackled over the speakers, "Yeah, Ulrich and Odd are on Lyoko, what do you need?"

Cameron inhaled deeply, "Run a scan on my Lyoko Avatar, I think there's something wrong with me."

"Got it. Give me a second."

As the doors opened, Cameron pushed himself away from the wall of the elevator and Jeremie's computer swiveled so that the blond was facing him, "Cameron, what have you done now? Your coding is way messed up, I'm surprised that you were even materialized properly."

Cameron grimaced, "I had a run-in with a few Krabs when I went to Lyoko to do some work from a waytower, I was pretty banged up, so I hooked myself into the tower I was working in to recover. Why, did you figure out what might be wrong?"

Jeremie sighed, "Apart from the coding being screwed up, nothing, but if you did link yourself to the Tower, you might have given Xana a way into your systems, which makes it a miracle that you weren't destroyed when you were devirtualized."

Cameron nodded, "Maybe. Or maybe he just wanted to weaken me so that I wouldn't be of any use on Lyoko. Either way, that's what's happened, so you guys probably can't count on me for a while."

Aelita's voice echoed over the speakers, "Tower deactivated."

Jeremie instantly turned and began rapidly typing away at keys, "Return to the past-"

"Wait a second!" Cameron leaned on the arm of Jeremie's chair, eyes scanning the screen, "Open a screen on the Supercomputer's power levels. I need to see them."

Jeremie started to open his mouth to argue, then thought better of it and pulled up the screens. Cameron pointed to a point on the power chart, "That's the normal level of power for the supercomputer, right?" As Jeremie nodded, Cameron's hand moved to a lower point on the chart, "and that's the drain on the power when Xana activates a tower, right?" Jeremie nodded again, and Cameron moved his finger to a spike just after the drop in power, "So that's the power output when Aelita deactivates a tower, isn't it?"

Jeremie nodded again, and understanding dawned in his eyes, "We can use that power boost to launch the initial phase of Aelita's materialization program. It isn't quite enough, but its a start."

Cameron doubled over and grabbed his chest, and Jeremie's fingers flew across the keyboard, "Return to the past now!"

()()()()

Cameron glanced at the gang, "So, any verdict on Taelia being told about Lyoko?"

Jeremie exchanged glances with the rest of the group, then looked Cameron in the eye, "Go ahead. It's not like anyone she can tell will be able to do anything about it. So go ahead."

Cameron nodded as his phone began to ring. He didn't need to look to know who it was, he just pulled it out and pressed it to his ear, "Hey Taelia." He held a finger up to the group and walked a few meters away, "How's it going?"

"Pretty good, how about you? Anything interesting?"

Cameron smiled, "Actually, yeah. Let me tell you about it."

End of Chapter Twenty-Five

Ugh, I am so very, very sorry that this has taken so long. I hope that you guys can forgive me, but I'm not sure that I'll be able to finish by Christmas after all. I've been really distracted by school and other stuff, and I haven't really had much time to work on this. Anyway, I might still be able to make the deadline, because I'm gonna be out of town for the next few days, and I'm planning on getting some serious writing done on the five hour road trips (There and back will give me a total of ten hours, so I should be able to make a good amount of progress.) as well as while I'm at my grandparent's houses. Anyway, if it comes to that I'll either post any remaining chapters Christmas morning, or in the days leading up to the new year. Either way, I don't plan on waiting until 2014 to finish this story. That being said, I really stink at deadlines, so . . . yeah.

I really hope you guys enjoyed the fights, I've found that listening to RWBY music seems to help with writing them, please let me know what you think of them! Also, check out the RWBY series on roosterteeth, it's a seriously awesome series and I think that most everyone would enjoy it.

Anyway, thank you all for sticking with me for so long and I hope you've enjoyed the latest chapter of Code: Cameron.

Keep Writing, Keep Rocking,

Undeadmonkey8