Chapter 28
(Alex first person)
Jeremie, Aelita, Crystal, Peter, and I were in the dorm on a Sunday. The three of us with knowledge of computers were connected to Jeremie's computer. Peter sat on Jeremie's bed watching.
"What are you guys doing?" he asked.
"We're trying to create a vehicle that can travel through the digital sea," Jeremie said. "But it's a lot harder than just creating something. The digital sea destroys things instantly upon touch. It is going to take a while before it is operational."
"We've got to go to the cafeteria," Crystal said noticing the time. "The others are waiting." We put our computers down and walked to the door.
"Oh! I almost forgot," Jeremie said reaching into his pocket. "Here is your new schedule. We noticed you only had one class with us and we may all need to get out of a class in a hurry so it's probably better that you have the same classes as us."
"How did you do that?" he asked taking the piece of paper.
"We had to hack into the school's schedule database and put you into our classes," he responded. "It wasn't that hard. 1234567890 isn't a secure password and only took half a second to crack."
"Thanks," he said as we walked down the hall towards the cafeteria. We sat down at the table after we walked through the line. Mike Anderson walked up to us at the table.
"Ditching us to hang out with these weirdos?" he asked. "Fine. I see how you are!" He stormed off.
"You can go with them if you want," Yumi said.
"No, you guys are my friends, now," he said. We flashed him a smile. "Mike was never a good friend, anyways. Always breaking into my dorm and taking stuff without permission." Mr. Delmas walked up to the table.
"Mr. Dax. Your parents have just informed me that they would like for you to have a dorm mate," he said. Peter looked at Jeremie and me. Jeremie smiled. "They have suggested Mr. Dunbar as you roommate, since you two have been friends since birth. Here is your room key. Jim is already moving your possessions to Mr. Dunbar's room and a bed is already in place." He walked away.
"I'm assuming you guys had something to do with that, too," he said.
"Guilty," Jeremie said. "It's better that you have someone with you in case of an attack. It is also easier to get to you in case we need to get to both of you."
"I don't mind a roommate," he said. "I was denied when I asked to become Mike's room mate because 'Mike enjoys his space'. When Mr. Delmas asked Mike, he said no because he didn't like me."
"I wanted a roommate, too," William said. "I just couldn't find anyone. I wanted someone to talk to. Being without someone to talk to can get boring." Sissy walked up next.
"Adding another member to your group, eh?" she said. "What's wrong with me? Too good for you?" Peter immediately understood she got on our nerves based on the annoyed looks on each of our faces.
"I think it's just that we don't have enough room for your ego at this table," Peter said. Everyone at the group smiled, except Odd who almost choked on his food. She was taken off guard and didn't know what to say.
"Uh..." She stood there with her mouth wide open. When she couldn't think of a comeback she walked off, followed by Herb and Nicholas. We finished our meal, the smile still on our faces, and walked back to the dorm. Jeremie took his seat. Aelita, Crystal, and I connected our computers.
"How close are you to finishing?" William asked.
"We've hardly made any progress. Maybe two percent," Jeremie said. "We're still working on writing the code. This is going to take a while." Odd fell back on Jeremie's bed.
"You've been working on it for weeks," he said.
"Yeah, but once we are done with the code, all we will have to do is design the frame and components, and that will be simpler than the code."
"I wonder what the network looks like," Ulrich said.
"We will know soon enough, but right now I need more information about the digital sea," Jeremie said.
"Carthage?" Odd said sitting back up.
"Carthage."
"What's Carthage?" Peter asked.
"The center of all data of the supercomputer and Lyoko," I explained. "It's a sector on Lyoko."
"We're going back?" he asked getting excited.
"Yes. Right now," Jeremie said. Everyone put their laptops up and we stood and walked out the door, down the hall, and into the woods. I pulled off the manhole lid and we climbed down. I handed Peter my skateboard and we went as fast as we could, me slowing down to stay with the group, to the ladder to the bridge. We climbed up and ran to the factory. We got out of the elevator in the control room.
"Just what we need," Jeremie said as he sat down. His computer was beeping.
"We're going to need to split into two groups," I said. "Group one: Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, and Aelita. Group two: me, Crystal, Peter, and William."
"Why don't we just go deactivate the tower and then go get the data?"
"Because if Alex get's the data, then I will be able to work on it sooner," Jeremie said. "And they can get there afterwards."
"You really want that finished, huh?" Ulrich asked.
"Don't worry. We got it," William said as we walked towards the elevator. We took it down to the scanner room. Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi got in the scanners.
"Don't leave her, Odd," I said.
"I won't," he said. We both nodded once as the scanners closed.
(Third person omniscient)
[Lyoko]
Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi landed in the ice sector. Each of them pulled out their weapon, or in Odd's case, aimed around. Aelita dropped in the middle of them. Their vehicles spawned. Aelita jumped on the OverBoard with Odd.
"The tower is east," Jeremie said. Everyone drove towards the tower.
Alex, Crystal, and William dropped into Carthage, followed by Peter. Everyone ran for the open wall. They ran across the bridge and jumped on the elevator. The wall opened up to the bridge and everyone ran towards it.
"Peter, hold my back. William, go with Crystal," Alex said. William and Crystal jumped in the OverCar.
"They're hatching," Jeremie said.
"What are hatching?" Peter asked. His question was immediately answered by a dozen Mantas flying by. Peter shot an arrow at one. Crystal drove after the others. She flipped the homing switch and jumped out her side. She landed on one of the Mantas and stabbed it. The OverCar turned around to fly back at them. William put his sword out the door to cut down three Mantas. Crystal jumped off of her Manta and landed in the OverCar.
Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, and Aelita arrived at the area of the tower. There was a spiral up the side of a pillar of ice. A row of Krabs lined the edge of the ring. Odd shot at them as they drove up. Aelita shot energy fields at them. The Krabs started to fire down on them. Odd drifted sideways to where he was facing the Krabs, still driving up the ramp.
"Shield," he said. A purple hex-block shield covered his arm. He blocked all of the bullets from hitting Aelita, then drifted back and drove up the spiral. They reached the top of the pillar. Surrounding the tower were three Tarantulas. Yumi threw her fan at a Krab. Another Krab shot at Yumi, devirtualizing her OverWing. She landed on her hand, spun around, and threw a fan at the Krab that shot at her. Ulrich pulled out both of his swords, stood on his OverBike, and flipped over a Krab, cutting it through the eye. Odd slalomed, dodging lasers. He shot a Tarantula in the face three times.
Peter shot the lead Manta as they flew back around. He ran at the edge and jumped, pulling his bow apart. He landed on another Manta, stabbing it, then jumping off. He started to fall short of the ledge. Alex lengthened his staff and stuck it out. Peter grabbed on to his staff and pulled himself up. Alex shortened his staff again and absent-mindedly shot a Manta before putting his staff away. Crystal drifted around into reverse and threw both throwing knives at the Mantas. William jumped out the side and supersmoked after them. He appeared long enough to cut one before supersmoking again to hit another. He supersmoked back into the car after he had destroyed all of the ones chasing them.
[The Lab]
"Guys! Hello? Are you there?" Jeremie yelled into the headset. "Be careful! XANA has bugged the scanners! Can you hear me?!"
[Lyoko]
Odd was using his shield to protect Aelita. Ulrich came up behind a Tarantula and cut its head off. Yumi back flipped and threw her fans at the last Tarantula. Aelita stepped off the OverBoard and ran towards the tower. She walked inside, but was kicked back out. Dark William walked out of the tower. Odd ran over to Aelita, shooting laser arrows at the enemy. Dark William blocked them all. He reared his sword back and swung it towards Odd, sending a large wave of energy at him. It hit Odd, sending him off of his feet and turning into digital grid. Ulrich ran at him, swinging both swords at him. He caught Dark William's sword in between his two.
"Run, Aelita!" Ulrich yelled. She ran for the tower. Dark William kicked Ulrich in the stomach, knocking him to the ground, and swung his sword at Aelita. She dove into the tower, causing Dark William's sword to dig into the wall of the tower. Yumi tackled the enemy, his sword dropping from his hands, and pushed him off the pillar and into the digital sea. The tower changed from red to blue.
"Jeremie, I'm sending the data," Alex said.
"I can hear you know!" Jeremie exclaimed. "Odd was devirtualized by Dark William but didn't rematerialize. I need his information so I can rematerialize him."
"On it," Alex said. Within a minute, Alex had sent Odd's information to the supercomputer. Jeremie devirtualized everyone.
[Alex first person]
The majority of us, minus Jeremie, were standing around the scanner. The scanner doors closed. They reopened with Odd inside. Odd looked up at everybody from the ground.
"Digital Limbo is pretty hardcore," he said. We all laughed and helped him to his feet. We rode the elevator back up.
"Is the ship ready, now?" Ulrich asked.
"Not quite," Jeremie said. "It'll take a couple of months before the coding is even completed."
"Let's go back to the dorm," I said. We walked back to the dorm.
