Episode 29: Get Real
The Warriors were sitting at their usual table for lunch, the only exclusion being William. Sam was talking about a "friendly game of pretend poker" that a couple kids were going to be doing at the computer room, more like a tournament.
"Well, as long as you guys aren't betting real money, I guess it's okay," Aelita said.
"Oh, that reminds me, can I borrow fifty bucks?" Sam asked, holding a hand out. The others sighed and each pulled out ten dollars, handing them to her. "Thanks," Sam said, putting the money in her pocket. She smiled at her friends, who went back to eating.
William was running towards school, a piece of toast still in his mouth. "Gotta hurry, gotta hurry, gotta hurry," he chanted, running as fast as he could. He leapt over a jogger who was walking her dog, landing on a garbage can, jumping on the wall and landing behind a business man behind her, dashing a ways further before rolling to avoid a bicyclist. He jumped up and continued panting, running through the school gates and running towards the cafeteria.
Sam was about to eat her last piece of toast when William dashed in holding his book bag and grabbed it from her, taking a bite out of it. "Thanks," he said to her through a full mouth.
"No problem," Sam replied, looking at the last of her eggs, since that was all that was left, plus a piece of bacon. She stabbed her eggs with her plastic fork and stuck it in her mouth as William finished the toast.
"Listen, you guys aren't going to believe this. My parents are going to let me have another party at my house. They're leaving for a meeting, Milly is hanging out with her friend Tamiya, and the house is completely empty," William said, leaning back.
"Cool. It would be nice to be able to get away from all this JEREMIE and Kadic business," Xana said.
"Agreed. Jinx!" the twins said, pointing and looking at each other, smiling.
"Sure. I could use a little time away from fighting a virtual virus," Sissi said, then looked at the twins. "And you two are both annoying," she said to them.
"And I need time away from a computer," Aelita said.
"I can't, and neither can Sam. We're going to a poker tournament," Matt said. William looked at him, then Sam.
"Poker? Isn't that illegal?" he asked.
"It's not with real… well, we aren't really… yeah," Sam said, looking at the table before snatching up her last piece of bacon and offering it to the dark blue haired teen. "Bacon?" she said, smiling uncertainly.
"That sounds illegal," William stated, looking at her. "But I will take the bacon," he added, taking the strip and popping it in his mouth. "How is Mr. Stern okay with this?"
"I don't know…" Sam said, squinting in thought. "No idea," she said, looking at the dark blue haired teen.
"Great," William said, sliding back into his chair.
On Kadic, the five Sectorists were in Sector 5. "Nice place, Gig," Stone said, looking around the blue colored area. "Nice and solid."
"Once again, technically, I'm just a guard. This place is Lord JEREMIE's home," Gigabit said, then looked at the Mountaineer. "And don't call me 'Gig' or I will turn you into a pebble," he said threateningly, reaching for his pistol.
"I feel this place is to… synthetic," Birch said, almost in disgust.
"Gentlemen," a dark voice said, echoing through the chambers. A black mist formed and swirled, and the five Sectorists bowed down before it in a line going Birch, Tuscan, Gigabit, Frost and Stone.
"Yes, Lord JEREMIE?" they all asked, still looking at the floor.
"I will activate five towers to send all of you to Earth and destroy those pesky Warriors," the mist, or JEREMIE, said, and holograms of the eight warriors in combat came up.
"Yes, Lord JEREMIE," the Sectorists said, then vanished in their element, Birch in a torrent of vines and leaves, Stone in a rock shield, Tuscan in a swirl of wind and Frost froze and shattered while Gigabit turned into wireframe and melded with the ground below him.
The Warriors were in the gym for a kind of team exercise session. Sissi, Aelita and Sarah were running on the treadmills, Xana, William, and Jaden were using a climbing wall.
William was up first, and Jaden and Xana were going just as quickly. Xana looked at his comrade and then put both feet on a hold then pushed off, flipping onto the wall and then leaping up to another hand hold much farther up.
"No fair," Jaden whispered, crawling up as fast as he could. Soon he got up to see the other two standing there waiting for him. "How do we get down?" he asked.
"I do not know," William said, frowning. They had forgotten to hook up the gear to get down before climbing up. He scratched the back of his head, thinking.
"Great," Jaden said, plopping to the ground, folding his legs and frowning.
The instant he did, there was a beeping from Aelita's bag and the cement below the climbing wall warped into a figure, soon becoming Stone made of cement. He raised his crossbow and fired, a cement bolt smashing into the roof.
The girls ran out from the Equipment room to see Stone firing at the guys. Stone turned and said, "Frost, now!" Ice started forming in front of them, taking the fragmented form of Frost. Frost turned towards the girls, raised his ice spear, and threw it, but it barely missed and shattered on the wall. He created another and treaded forward.
As he did, leaves blew in from a window followed by sand and formed into the two Sectorists. Birch walked over towards the guys while Tuscan walked over to the girls, sandy bombs in his hands.
Tuscan threw one and it landed next to Sarah. She grabbed a nearby mat and slammed it on, but when the sand exploded it sent grains flying at high speed, slicing through the mat but missing her as she leapt away, the sand blasting several holes in the roof. "Damn!" Sarah yelled, seeing more of the bombs thrown at her.
Sissi and Aelita backed away as Frost stepped towards them, spinning his spear around. He raised it to impale them and threw, but this time the spear froze the equipment behind them solid.
"That's… not good," Aelita said, eyes wide with fear.
"Uh, no," Sissi said, looking at Frost as he created two mores spears. He threw both, one at Aelita the other at Sissi, but Sissi pushed Aelita away and the spear crashed into her arm, freezing it up to the elbow. The other spear hit her right leg, freezing it to the ground.
"Sissi!" Aelita said as the ice started growing and freezing up her leg and arm.
"Go! You have to get to the Factory," Sissi said, but deep down she was scared more than she ever had in her whole life.
Xana created some energy in his hand and threw it at Stone, but the Sectorist simply raised a hand and blocked it, then energy buzzing over his cement hand. Jaden grabbed a rope and pulled it up, grabbing the other end and swinging down, kicking Stone in the chest. As he did, the enemy warped around his legs and started pulling him in.
Jaden stopped about halfway through, his legs still stuck in the cement Sectorist's torso. Stone grunted and sent Jaden flying. Jaden crashed into a bunch of weights, knocking him out cold.
"Please, is this the best you pathetic Warriors can do?" Stone asked, spinning his crossbow before aiming a bolt at William, who had been climbing down from the climbing wall. The bolt fired, sailing through the air…
Sam and Matt walked into the large computer room that was being used for the Poker Tournament. There were at least two dozen people, half a dozen people at each table. Sam smiled and walked up to the first table, sitting down and grabbing up the extra cards in front of her.
This is so going to be easy, she thought, smiling.
Matt was watching from over by a computer, watching nonchalantly. As he was standing there, suddenly a blast of electricity hit at him, sending him flying away until he landed with a crash on the table Sam was at. "I think… JEREMIE's attacking," he said, groaning as he got up.
"What the hell is going on!" one kid yelled as several computers fell to pieces and formed into a mechanical drone in the form of Gigabit, the Mecca Sectorist. He raised his blaster and fired at the two Warriors, but they got away. The table exploded into fire as the red beam blasted into it, nearly incinerating the kids still standing around.
"Sam, get the people out of here and get to the Factory," Matt said to the teenage girl, and she nodded and started herding the kids out of the room.
"Why would you want to save everyone else instead of yourself? The more members of your team on Kadic the more of a chance you have to beat us," Gigabit said, his computer blaster ready. He aimed and fired, but Matt leapt out of the way and rolled, grabbing a broken table leg and holding it like a weapon.
Xana focused as much energy as he could into one blast and blasted it at Frost, destroying him as he came in for the kill on Sissi, who screamed as the Sectorist shattered. Xana charged another blast and fired it at Stone, shattering him into chunks of rock, but there was still rock around Jaden's legs.
Xana leapt off the climbing wall and used his energy to slow his fall, but still had to roll to avoid hurting himself. He looked up to see Birch in a form of leaves and branches walking towards him with a sword made of leaves. He raised it and swung, sending a blast of leaves at the living AI.
Sam told the people to run, then ran towards the manhole, where she slid down the ladder and grabbed her skateboard, riding right through towards the Factory.
Xana created a shield of his energy, but a few leaves shot through, hitting him in the right arm and left leg. He gripped his arm and started backing away as Birch walked forward.
He raised his sword, but then a katana sliced through his body, making him fall apart and take some time to reform. As the leaves fell, it revealed Ulrich, standing there holding the katana, ready to continue fighting.
"Where'd you- never mind," Xana said, walking over towards the brown haired teenager.
"You better get to the factory," Ulrich said, then turned to look at Birch and Tuscan, who were coming towards him.
Xana nodded and dashed away, grabbing William and Jaden and pulling them along with his powers. The red energy was binding to their backs, pulling them into the sewers and lowering them down.
Matt fell to the ground hard after being punched by Gigabit. The computer Sectorist walked up to him and raised his blaster level with Matt's head. "Time to die, Warrior," Gigabit said, then put his finger on the trigger.
Out of nowhere, a white figure blasted through the window from a tree and smashed into Gigabit, nearly destroying the Sectorist. The figure was a large, thick furred wolf with sharp claws and a pair of green eyes staring down at the shattered body of Gigabit.
The wolf looked over at Matt and then seemed to let out a breath. The fur retracted, the bones warped and the skin changed until standing there was a teenager with a thin face, arched eyebrows, green eyes and messy, white hair. He was wearing an all white suit with a pair of torn up jeans and a torn up shirt on top of the suit, his feet bare.
"You okay?" the boy asked Matt, who got up and nodded. "Good. Get out of here, now," the boy said.
"Thanks. I'm Matt, by the way," Matt said to the other teen.
"Drake," the boy said, then looked back down at Gigabit, who was reassembling himself. "Go!" Drake yelled, then was attacked by the mass of computer parts. Matt turned and ran out the door towards the factory.
Matt got outside and ran towards the manhole, then turned to see Drake in wolf form be tackled out by Gigabit as a mass of computer parts. Drake crashed into a tree, then Gigabit raised an arm that turned into a large, razor thin spike and stabbed it right into Drake's abdomen, blood spurting out.
Matt grabbed a branch and slammed it against Gigabit, making him fall of and pull the blade out of Drake's body. Drake instantly changed back into his human form, blood on the corners of his mouth and staining his shirt.
Matt grabbed Drake by the arm and draped him over his shoulder. Matt went down the ladder slowly and then ran towards the factory, crimson blood staining his shirt. Matt ran up to Xana, William, Aelita, Sam and Jaden.
"Who's the kid bleeding all over your shirt?" Jaden asked, gesturing to Drake.
"Drake. He saved me from Gigabit in the computer room," Matt replied. He felt no need to tell them about the whole werewolf thing yet.
"How are we going to deactivate 5 towers at once?" William asked as they went along.
"Well, the one's for Frost and Stone deactivated when they were destroyed, and the one for Gigabit will deactivate when the other two are deactivated," Aelita replied. They got to the ladder and climbed up, so Aelita continued as they got to the chains. "We'll start with the Desert, then go on to the Forest."
Soon they got to the factory, where Aelita was waiting for them. She was a little against sending Drake to Kadic, but finally agreed. "Transfer: Matt, Transfer: Xana, Transfer: Sarah, Scanner: Matt, Scanner: Xana, Scanner: Sarah, Virtualization! Transfer: Drake, Transfer: William, Transfer: Sam, Scanner: Drake, Transfer: William, Transfer: Sam, Virtualization! Transfer: Jaden, Scanner: Jaden, Virtualization! Resource: Overbike, Overwing, Overboard, Overwheeler, Overped, Overspeeder, Overdisk, Virtualization!"
The seven people landed on the Desert floor, Drake falling right to the ground limply while the others landed expertly. The vehicles formed and Drake started getting up, putting on hand to his head.
Drake wore a white short robe with loose fitting sleeves ending around his elbows, a silver metal brace around his waist with a glowing blue gem on the middle, a pair of black loose fitting pants, black heavy boots with three short, white claws coming from the toes, black gloves, a white wolf tail coming from his spine, and a pair of canine ears poking up from his messy hair. For a weapon, he had a pair of small chainsaws on the end of foot long metal poles with thick black pads for handles, the pikes held in holsters on his back.
"What… the… hell?" Drake asked, looking around. He then looked at Matt, Jaden, Sarah, William, Sam and Xana, who were walking towards the vehicles. "I think I died," he said, but Xana grabbed him by the arm and pushed him on the Overwheeler, then went over and got on the Overwing.
Drake stared at his vehicle for a moment. He sighed, then revved the engine and blasted off on the ground with William and Matt, while Jaden, Xana, Sarah and Sam flew above in a tight formation. Drake kept asking questions, trying to figure out more about Kadic, JEREMIE and the monsters.
As they went along, a blast of Megatank energy shot forth, devirtualizing Matt, Jaden and Sam in a diagonal shot. Another blast fired, and the others swerved, but the Overwing was hit. Xana leapt off and landed on the back of the Overwheeler, where he created an energy sphere and fired it at the three Megatanks in front of the tower.
One of the round, rolling monsters was hit in the eye before it could close, and the red energy blasted over the inside of its body and exploded, but the other two managed to close and blasted forward at the team.
Drake jumped up on the seat of the Overwheeler, grabbed one of his pikes and kicked the controls, making it swerve as he jumped off, landing and rolling before dodging a Megatank, but stabbed at it. His chainsaw weapon bounced off, sending him off balance before the Megatank turned to face him.
"Oh crap," he said, turning and running as the monster chased him.
Sarah aimed her blaster and fired a few blasts, hitting the Megatanks armor to distract it as William droved head on, the Zweihander in its mount on the side of his vehicle. He stopped a few meters away and revved his engine, the Megatank stopping as well. "Bring it on," William said, then released the brake as the Megatank opened and charged a blast.
William leaned down as low as he could as the vehicle blasted forward, then jumped off as his vehicle crashed into the Megatank, destroying it. It was when he landed that he realized what he had just done. "I just destroyed my sword," he said, slapping himself on the forehead.
Drake ran around a wall and ran towards him, a chainsaw pike in his hand while the other was poking up from his back. "Drake, can I-" William began, but was cut off.
"Run, run, run, run!" Drake yelled, and the Megatank came into view. William started running with Drake side by side, both screaming in fear. They looked back to see the Megatank open while still moving, charging as it wheeled.
"Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap," Drake repeated, running as fast as he could. He looked back as a blast fired, but William pushed him away and was hit, devirtualizing in a blast of blue pixels and a wireframe. "Crap!" Drake screamed, falling onto the ground as the Megatank blasted past him.
It turned hard and aimed again, but before it could fire, Sarah and Xana landed in front of him. Xana created a blast and fired, destroying the Megatank. Xana ran into the tower with the other's in pursuit.
Ulrich jumped back to avoid a sand fist from Tuscan, then sliced at him. Tuscan blasted into dust, blowing away in the wind. For a second Ulrich thought he had won, he remembered Birch and ducked as a blast of leave flew over his head.
"Yeah, go Ulrich!" Sissi yelled, figuring she had nothing else to do as she was frozen to the ground.
Soon the team exited in the Forest Sector, where Xana simply floated up. Before he could deactivate it however, his form fell in a blast of pixels to the lower level, where he fully devirtualized. "Oh crap," Drake said, backing away as Frost landed.
"I may not have the same power here, but I'm here to defend my brother Sectorist," Frost said, spinning his spear.
Sarah stepped forward, raised her blaster and fired, but Frost spun his weapon quickly and deflected it. Sarah ducked under a stab and kicked Frost as hard as she could in the ribs, sending him to the ground. Frost fell to the ground, balanced himself on his right knee and left foot, his right hand extending to balance himself. Sarah kicked him in the face, sending him flopping to the ground.
Frost put his hands behind his head and leaned back, pushing himself off and landing on the floor, then kicked her into the wall, sending her flying out of the tower. Frost started walking towards the wall, but then Drake tapped him on the shoulder. "What!" Frost yelled, turning to look at him.
"It's not nice to hit girls," he replied, then stabbed him with the chainsaw pike, squeezed the pad, which activated it, and sliced up, devirtualizing Frost in a blast of red pixels. Sarah came back in frantically, looking around. "I killed him," Drake said, putting a hand to the back of his head.
"Good job, but now what do we do?" Sarah asked.
"I could try deactivating this thing," Drake stated, shrugging.
"Well, it couldn't hurt to try," Sarah said, plopping down as Drake floated up to the second level, having seen Xana do the same.
"Now what?" he asked, looking around as the panel came up.
"Put your hand on the panel and it should do the rest," Aelita said. He put a hand on the panel and it said his name, then entered the code 'Kadic'.
"Tower, Deactivated," he said instinctively, smiling as the panels fell around him.
Ulrich was pushed to the ground, his sword sliced right off at the blade. Birch raised his sword, but then suddenly fell into a pile of leaves. Ulrich lowered his arms and then let them fall to the ground, letting out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding.
"Return to the past, Now," Aelita said, pressing enter and sending a blast of white energy.
The team was back at their table, and Sam was trying to convince them to give her money again. "How about this time I split any money I win with you guys?" Sam bargained.
The others exchanged a glance then finally gave her the money, and were soon joined by William, who Sam gave her last piece of toast and bacon right away.
"Thanks," William said with a mouthful of toast then took a bite of bacon as he sat down.
"Are you still going to ask me about the poker thing again?" Sam asked.
"Depends. Is it legal?" William asked, handing her another ten dollars.
"Yes?"
"Good, then I don't really care," William said, eating the rest of the toast and bacon.
Meh, Filler. This one was waaaaaaaaaaaayyyy long!
