Chapter 47: Monster Wolves
"The project's done and over with, the project's done and over with!" Devlin sang in the supercomputer room. He grabbed my hands and began to dance with me in a circle. I erupted in ecstatic laughter, grabbing Odd's hand and dragging him in.
Never to be deterred, Devlin pulled Aelita in, who in turn pulled Yumi and Ulrich into our happy circle. And we began to sing, "The project's done and over with, the projects done and over with!"
Jeremy sat in his seat, watching us with a bemused expression. Then he began to speak. "Guys…"
"The project's done and over with!"
"Guys."
"The project's done and over with!"
"Guys!"
"THE PROJECT'S DONE AND OVER WITH!"
"GUYS!" We all stopped singing and dancing and looked at Jeremy, who was halfway out of his seat and looking very miffed. "Need I remind you that we still have XANA on the loose?"
Devlin shrugged. "Yeah, but we can worry about that tomorrow. Right now I just want to sleep in bed with the comforting thought of no more crazy scientists who want to experiment on me."
Jeremy, who looked at each and every one of our happy expressions, gave up. "Okay, we'll worry about it tomorrow. Let's just go home and get some rest."
Devlin cheered the loudest out of all of us.
"Look at my giant snowball, mommy!" little Aelita said cheerily as she patted more snow onto a snowball that was almost her size. She was outside of a modern log cabin in the woods, and it was the dead of winter. But the sun was shining and Aelita's parents were nearby.
"Stay near the house, darling!" Aelita's mom called out. She was standing next to her husband as they watched their daughter play happily in the white powder. Both were dressed in winter gear, and the wife still looked younger than her husband, with her pink locks falling over her elfin face.
Aelita sang a little lullaby as she patted more snow onto her snowball. Her song was cut short by the howls of wolves, and little Aelita looked fearfully at her parents.
But instead it was the men in black, looking stern and scary with their soulless gazes.
"Mommy, Daddy!" Aelita cried out, but they were nowhere to be seen.
"Aelita!" her mother called out as she was dragged away by the men in black. Her hand went out towards her daughter, and Aelita ran after her, but her tiny legs couldn't catch up. Tears went down her face as her mother was thrown into the back of a gray truck. Aelita could see her mother's scared, crying face, and they cried out for each other: "Mommy! Mommy!" "AELITA!"
Where was the father? Why wasn't he stopping this?
The truck's engine started, and the vehicle quickly came to life as the driver stepped on the gas. The scent of exhaust filled Aelita's nostrils as she ran towards the truck. But even if she was bigger, she still wouldn't be able to catch up.
Out of breath and her legs feeling like lead, Aelita fell to the ground, the snow catching the tears on her face. Snow began to fall from the sky and the wolves sang their depressing melody.
"What? You're still having nightmares? Why didn't you tell me?" I demanded from Aelita as we walked towards the school's front gates with the gang.
"I never told you. They come every now and again and I've gotten used to them," she said simply.
"Bullshit!"
"Hey, hey, watch the language!" Ulrich scolded me. "…Even if I do agree with you."
"Let me guess, J-man: you're worried about Aelita," Devlin said suddenly, an impish grin on his face. We all looked at the blonde, who had been looking pretty grim a moment ago. Now his face was red.
"Of-of course I'm worried! I'm always worried about my friends!"
"Riiiight…" went the rest of us.
"It's true!"
"Oh, no, we believe you," Yumi said, a knowing little smile gracing her lips. Jeremy, trying to save face, changed the subject. "I'm more worried about parent-teacher conferences today."
"Well, there's nothing we can do for Devlin and Aelita," Ulrich said. "It'll look weird, but it'll just be for today."
"Not just that." Jeremy looked at me. "Does your uncle know that the project's been destroyed?"
I thought for a moment. "He doesn't know that I know about it. If he knows about what happened to the project, he wouldn't tell me."
"You're going to have to talk to him about it sometime." Yumi was staring at me pointedly. Christmas was still fresh in her mind.
I sighed. "I know, but I just wish it didn't have to be now." By then we had reached the front gates with the other students, and parents were walking in from the school's parking lot. Happy reunions were everywhere, with parents hugging their kids like they didn't want to let them go.
Yumi was waving to an Asian couple not far from us. Her parents, I presumed. "I'll talk to you guys later. I've got a date with my report card." "Don't we all!" Odd called out as she walked away.
I looked at him. "Why are you so peeved? Your parents are happy with you and your grades." "Yeah, but their too happy with me; it's like they don't see the faults." Odd looked at the ground and scuffed it.
Ulrich scoffed. "Wanna switch parents? I'd gladly give them up for yours."
"Come on, boys, don't give your parents any grief," Aelita interjected. "They love you; they may just have a hard time showing it."
Ulrich scanned the crowd around him. "Yeah, a really hard time."
Mrs. Hertz looked over my report card as me and Uncle Henry waited for her verdict. After our reunion, we went to all of my classes and waited in lines to get a one-on-one conference with all of my teachers. They all said the same thing about me: Your niece is one of the best students I've had all year. She sets an example for the other students. No wonder she got a scholarship over here. We were getting a bit tired of the broken record routine.
"You niece is one of the brightest students in her class. It's easy to see why she's a scholarship student," Mrs. Hertz congratulated me. Uncle Henry smiled, though it was a bit weak.
"Her grades have fallen a bit recently, but I believe it's because of the tutoring she gives to some of her lagging classmates." Was she talking about Odd and Ulrich? "With a bit of hard work she should bring them back up to the A's she deserves." We both thanked her and left.
"Strange; you never tutored back at your old school," Uncle Henry remarked as we walked down the hallway. I saw Ulrich between a stern-looking man and a meek woman-his parents. I smiled at Ulrich and gave him a thumbs up for luck. He smiled back feebly.
"Yeah, well, my friends are awesome. They just need a little help with their schoolwork, that's all," I answered, and it seemed to suffice. We were outside the science wing by then.
"Okay, so Mrs. Hertz is the last teacher, right?" Uncle Henry asked, holding up my schedule. I nodded as I saw that the sky was beginning to go from blue to red. I didn't have much time.
"We need to talk."
Uncle Henry smiled at me. "So talk."
"It's important."
"Okay."
"We can't talk here."
"Why not?"
"It's too confidential."
"I think you need to stop with the games, Carter."
"I think you need to listen to me, Dad."
Henry stared at me with eyes the size of quarters. I hadn't called him "dad" in over half a year, not since the day before the first day of school. When I found out his role in the project, I just kind of stopped. I remembered my dad, and Uncle Henry could never replace him, no matter how much they resembled each other.
Uncle Henry nodded, and I led him to an empty bench near the woods. With a jolt I realized that I had sat there with Odd when a krankelet attacked me, on the day where I discovered Lyoko.
It had finally come full circle.
As Aelita laid reading in her room, she got a pop-up window on her laptop. It began to play a piano version of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", and instantly a memory of her father playing it came to mind.
Aelita jumped off the bed and ran up to her laptop, and a chat room window came up, deleting the song. The silence was eerie, but Aelita didn't dwell on that.
Her father had contacted her through her computer. Aelita?
Aelita typed back. Daddy? Where are you?
Expecting you here on Lyoko. But how? Aelita quickly typed Your not on the network? As soon as she pressed the enter button the laptop screen began to flicker, making Aelita slap its side. Why did it have to bug up now?
No matter. Her father was on Lyoko, waiting for her. She would find him and they would have their own little reunion party.
Aelita had forgotten about a certain redhead who was also in the dorms while everyone else was at conferences.
"I'll see you in a minute, my dear," Franz Hopper said to his daughter as the scanners closed.
Aelita opened her eyes to the ice sector. Her father had given her the coordinates to his location a few minutes before, and she was standing before a small yellow dome.
"A simulation bubble?" Aelita mumbled to herself as she came up to it. She put her arm through it, surprised at its watery feel. The light from the bubble began to hurt her eyes, so Aelita closed them as she walked through the dome.
On the inside, Aelita was in the woods in the modern cottage in the dead of winter. She was in her normal form, not her Lyoko attire, and she didn't have any snow gear on. But the cold didn't affect her; in fact, it felt like room temperature.
Aelita walked into the cottage and looked around, but no memories resurfaced. She could hear a piano playing in the den, and a man with scruffy gray hair and a tan sweater on the seat. He stopped playing and turned to see a certain pinkette in his house.
Franz Hopper was finally reunited with his daughter.
"Daddy!" Aelita cried, tears running down her face. "Aelita," her father said, embracing her. "We have so much catching up to do, and so little time."
"I thought you were lost on the network!"
"Not lost; when XANA destroyed Lyoko, I managed to escape. I have information to give you, but first, I just wanted to see you and hold you in my arms. You've grown up so much." Franz looked longingly at his daughter, finally realizing how much of her life she had missed because of him and Project Carthage.
Aelita let go of her father and dried her tears. "This is fantastic! Everything is just the same."
"Yes, it will allow us to do many things, my dear. Like spending an evening together, as a family."
"What do you mean, she left?" Jeremy asked Devlin. It was after conferences, and we were all at the dorms. Our parents had already left recently, and I had yet to tell the others about the news. But more on that later.
"Yeah, she was running out of the building like a bat out of hell," Devlin answered from his desk chair. "When I saw her, she was already out the door. I didn't know what was up, and I figured that it wasn't my business to pry."
"Maybe she's at the factory," Yumi volunteered. "It's our best choice."
"Onward!"
"Shut up, Odd!"
"…Why are you all so mean to me?"
"…and as long as XANA hasn't been defeated, I can't rematerialize myself," Franz explained to Aelita. "But you, my dear, should be able to free your young friend. What was his name?"
"William."
"Right. I'm going to send Jeremy a program via the supercomputer. By the way, how's your fight against XANA progressing?"
"We're hunting him down on the network thanks to our virtual ship, the Skidbladnir," Aelita said, sure her father would understand the meaning behind it.
"The Skidbladnir?" Franz gave a little chuckle. "What a strange name."
"But you know that name. It was in the book of Viking legends you used to read to me every night before I went to sleep."
Franz gave a little gasp. "Of course! How could I forget?" Aelita raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything about it. Something was bothering her. "Why did you ask me to come to Lyoko, Daddy?"
Franz looked surprised. "Because I wanted to see you, especially since it's been such a long time."
"But it's dangerous. XANA could attack at anytime."
"Not as long as I'm with you."
This wasn't going anywhere. Aelita looked around the den. "You know, when I said that everything was just as I remembered, I meant it."
Franz smiled. "I'm glad you like it. I wanted you to feel as if it were your home; our home."
Aelita got out of her seat. "It's true, nothing's missing. Well, except for one thing."
"What is it?"
"My mother. Where's mom, Daddy?"
Franz looked alarmed. "You remember Aelita, your mother disappeared."
"Yes, and I want to see her again more than anything else in the world. And you know that. You've always known that." Aelita began to pace around the room. "And since you're a perfectionist you would have recreated her here in the simulation bubble; that is, unless you weren't really my father." Aelita began to back away towards the exit.
Franz got out of his seat. "Aelita!"
"Stay away from me, XANA!" Aelita unlocked the door and tried to go out of it, only to have Possessed William block her escape. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her to the center of the room.
Aelita struggled out of his grasp as her father pixilated. "Give up, Aelita," William sneered. "You can't beat me." "That's what you think," she said, finally getting out of his hands and running out the door.
"What are you waiting for?" William glared at Franz. "Go after her!" Waldo pixilated and grunted as a response.
Aelita was outside, her swift feet crunching the fake snow. She was so close to the outside, she just knew it, but it would be all over if XANA got to her. She could hear him coming after her, hear his footsteps, the chilling howl he made as he transformed into a wolf- Aelita's nightmare monster. She could even hear William's horrible laughter behind her.
And then the wolf jumped in front of her, its amber eyes glowing evilly at her. Aelita backed away fearfully. "There's no escape," William said, coming up to her. "This bubble is your prison."
Aelita backed up some more as William laughed again. And then she felt something on her back- the exit out of the bubble. Now she just had to play it cool.
"All right, William, you win." Aelita bowed down and began to softly sing. She raised her hands to the exit and thought about it shattering into a million pieces, signaling her escape.
"NOOOOO!" William screamed as the simulation bubble cracked apart.
Aelita was back in the sector in her Lyoko form. She looked behind her to see William in his black armor and Zweihander over his shoulder, a Blok right next to him.
"It doesn't matter, Aelita," William said, ready to use his weapon. "You'll never win."
"That's what you think!" Aelita threw an energy blast at William, only to have the William deflect it. Aelita gritted her teeth and prepared the next one. And then she heard the sound of a motorcycle coming their way.
William heard it too and summoned his personal flying mantis after the good guys. Odd and Devlin began to play with it on Odd's Overboard, leaving Carter and Ulrich to deal with the Blok and Pretty Boy.
Aelita, in a flash of quick thinking, summoned her angel wings and tried to fly away. The Blok shot her down. "You want to leave?" William asked. "Be my guest." With his hand outstretched, he pooled dark, smoky energy around Aelita, lifting her off the ground and towards the Digital Sea.
Ulrich and Carter were too far away. Jeremy tried to forcefully bring her back to the real world, but with a thrust of his hand, William released the energy, sending Aelita plummeting, screaming all the way down into the Digital Sea.
Aelita was gone in a flash of bright light.
With a yell of rage, Ulrich threw his saber at William, only to have him deflect it. Carter grabbed Ulrich by the waist and used her demon wings to lift him off the Overbike, but not before Ulrich gave it a good kick in William's direction. A shame William used his super smoke ability to dodge.
Ulrich got his saber back when Carter left him on the ground. Odd yelled out, "This is going to cost you, Romeo!" at William and was about to attack when they all saw him walk towards the edge of the icy cliff, Zweihander at the ready.
"What's he doing now?" Ulrich asked rhetorically. "I don't know," Jeremy said. "But without Aelita, it's all over."
Suddenly, a white orb came out of the Sea, pulsating with white light. It was outlined in pink.
"VICTORY!" William cheered, throwing his hands up in the air. But then he noticed that something was wrong. The orb was floating feebly away from him. The Blok began to fire at it. The orb quickly moved away from the attackers to another icy cliff far away.
"Guys, protect that bubble!" Jeremy ordered us. "It's Franz Hopper!"
"We'll handle William!" Carter told Odd and Devlin. "You guys take care of that Blok!"
As the four of them fought XANA's reinforcements, the bubble slowly made its way across the plateau, dropping something off.
Aelita was lying there, barely conscious. When she came to, she saw that XANA was trying to destroy the white bubble with a mantis and a Blok. Odd and Devlin destroyed the mantis, but the Blok was still there. Nevertheless, Aelita was relieved to see her friends again.
"Glad to have you back, princess!" Odd shouted on his Overboard with Devlin. The redhead smiled and gave a thumbs us as they flew away to take care of a certain monster.
Ulrich cried out as Zweihander devirtualized him. Carter stabbed William in the shoulder before she was gone too. Odd and Ulrich had just managed to destroy that Blok when William devirtualized the two of them.
It was the Princess against the Evil Knight.
William used his super smoke ability to get to Franz Hopper. As he was about to kill him, Aelita shot an energy field at him, distracting him as Aelita's father fell into the Digital Sea.
In a fit of rage, William sliced up Aelita, devirtualizing her. Aelita was smiling.
"It's pretty obvious what's going on," Jeremy said.
"And there he goes again," Odd mumbled. We were all in Odd and Ulrich's room, waiting to hear what Jeremy had figured out.
"You see, when Hopper was destroyed, he wasn't spread out over the network. He managed to escape."
"He disappeared on purpose," Devlin explained Jeremy's explanation.
"He was trying to get away from XANA," Jeremy went on. "That's why he's always trying to throw Aelita into the Digital Sea all the time. He knows that Hopper will go to any lengths to protect his daughter, even if it destroys him."
"As long as my father's alive, he'll always be a big threat to XANA," Aelita confirmed darkly.
And that put the stake in the coffin on an otherwise perfect day.
I have no idea where Yumi was for most of this chapter. I think she got devirtualized before Aelita got thrown into the Digital Sea.
I'm also downplaying the effects of the destruction of the project. I'm not dedicating a whole chapter on Carter's feelings on it like the Halloween arc, so let's just say that she's ecstatic that its gone.
