"All right, here it is," he said, shifting the manhole cover off its hole. Looking like he was wondering why the three were going into the sewers, Lee followed the Lyoko warriors down.

"Close the entry, will you?"

"Yes, sir." With a screech, the metal circle was tugged back into place. The footsteps echoed, undisturbed, through both the lit and fairly unlit sections of the tunnels.

"Looks like we'll have to cross across the fence again."

"You mean you. Lee and I'll just jump across."

"Right. Remind me to get another board."

" 'Kay."

"So what exactly is this all about?"

"Well, there's this place called Lyoko I discovered a while ago..." Jeremy continued as the three walked through the sewers and climbed the ladder. Jeremy and Shikamaru slid down the ropes, Lee following suit. The Lyoko warriors and their new recruit boarded the elevator, whose doors shut and locked as Shikamaru pushed the red button. "...And the scanners are here," Jeremy finished, stepping with the others into the scanner room.

"You are sure, then?" Lee stepped into the scanner.

"Uh-huh. I'll virtualize you now so we can see what you're capable of on Lyoko."

"Right." The elevator's doors closed and locked, and Jeremy and Shikamaru were soon in the control room.

"Transfer, Lee. Scanner, Lee. Virtualization." Lee landed in the mountain sector and looked around. He was wearing a neon dark blue Lyoko outfit with bluegreen shoulder armor. There was a matching blue, solid strap wrapped around the ninja's fingers close to the knuckle on each hand. Spikes were across the top of each strap.

"All right, I'll check out your summary." Jeremy typed a few things. "It looks like you don't have a special ability," said he, "but your weapons are throwable." With a click, one of the weapons easily slipped off Lee's hand. The shinobi effortlessly tossed it straight into the Lyoko sky. The fighting instrument flew up about five meters before descending to be caught.

"Okay, I'll send you a training dummy." Jeremy typed a bit of coding, then pressing enter. A block appeared in front of Lee.

"This one won't hit you back like X.A.N.A.'s will," Jeremy informed, "but you can still get a little practice from it."

"Yes, sir." The block whirred and spun around harmlessly, waiting to be a target. Its purpose was soon come upon when Lee invisibly dashed forward and struck the Eye of X.A.N.A. The block whirled around once more, quicker than before, and exploded.

"Good, I'll bring-"

"Jeremy, something else is here!"

Jeremy leaned forward and grabbed his earpiece. "Get out of there, now!"

The scyphozoa was headed toward Lee.

"What are you waiting for? Get out of there!"

Lee was just standing still. The scyphozoa was close.

"What are you doing?!" Jeremy yelled. Still no response. "Lee!"

"Jeremy, hurry and virtualize me! I'll be in the scanners!"

"Right!" Shikamaru ran down to the scanner room.

"Transfer, Shikamaru! Scanner, Shikamaru! Virtualization!"

By now, the scyphozoa had Lee wrapped up. The monster was in its customary attack pose, with two translucent appendages at the victim's temples and one centered in the forehead, each sucking out information.

"Shadow Possession!" The pink patches in the scyphozoa's tentacles froze. "Lee! Can you hear me?" Lee was still suspended in the jellyfish-like monster's clutches. The new Lyoko warrior gave no response and still did not move. "Jeremy, what's wrong with him?"

Jeremy clicked up a few windows. "It's just as I thought. X.A.N.A.'s given him a virus of some sort."

"What'll happen if I let go? What'll that monster do to him?"

"The scyphozoa steals memory. It can also X.A.N.A-fy us on Lyoko. Most of the time we get the one that's captured free in time before the scyphozoa can do much harm."

"So in other words, I can't let go?"

"No. I'll try and hurry with the antivirus."

"All right." If I try to throw that monster over the edge with my Shadow Possession, Lee will go, too, Shikamaru thought. If I let go, Lee's pretty much done for. I don't have any kind of weapon to get the scyphozoa to let go of him.

"What? A double-" Jeremy sighed. "This is going to take a while, Shikamaru, and I won't be able to virtualize anyone with this system X.A.N.A. has put in. I don't know how long you'll be able to keep up your Shadow Possession on Lyoko, but you'll have to try and sustain it for as long as possible, all right?"

"Thought so." Come on, Shikamaru, there has to be another possibility, the chunin said to himself. He closed his eyes and put his fingertips together in an upside-down triangle. In just a moment, he reopened them. The boy stood up and walked closer to the scyphozoa. It floated toward him.

"Jeremy! Can you virtualize the Overboard?"

"Um, yeah, I should be able to."

"Virtualize it."

"You got it." The purple Lyoko vehicle appeared, bobbing as if atop water. Experimentally Shikamaru boarded it. Some of the scyphozoa's extremities lifted, but it didn't move up.

"Perfect." Odd's vehicle floated up, and Shikamaru was soon on the same level as Lee. The chunin reached his hand over toward the other ninja a bit. "Release!"

"Shikamaru, what-" The shadows split, and Shikamaru grabbed Lee's weapon, giving the scyphozoa a good stab in the Eye of X.A.N.A. It recoiled, dropping Lee and starting to float away.

"Great job, Shikamaru. Just keep watch in case anything else shows up."

A while later, Lee had finally been de-bugged and was back on Earth. The three Lyoko warriors met in the scanner room.

"What happened?"

"You were attacked by the scyphozoa, that jellyfish-looking thing, and X.A.N.A. infected you with a virus, so Jeremy had to take care of that before you could come back. You're okay now, right?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Well, a little bit of a rocky start, but you'll be fine. Welcome to the team."