Code Matriks

Episode 19: Freedoom

By B1ockh3d

Author's note: So. 5 months no chapter, huh? Well I finally one-upped myself! 3 years 8 months! A lot has happened since then. Basically what caused this pause was I got caught up in the Overwatch craze and lost all my free time, then my final semester of college hit, then I started working full time. In that time, I just fell out of love with Code Lyoko. But recently with the arrival of the series on Amazon, it's been popping up all around me online and reignited some of the flame that was there to finish this chapter I began writing way back when. I think a rewatch is in my near future. Don't think I've given up yet! I commissioned some cover art which should now be visible drawn by my wonderful friend teacupbun (Twitter) that I actually commissioned about 3 years ago. That's how committed I am.

I have no idea when I'll post my next chapter. I have to regain my focus and find my scope again. Who knows, maybe next time I'll be married with kids? Anyhow, read on! Review please! And wow... I used to be such a beggar for reviews. Some of those notes are kinda cringe-y now. But I think I'll leave them there. It's history, after all.

Markus opened the door to his lonely dorm, finding himself stepping on an assortment of "Get Well Soon!" cards that were slipped under the door.

He shut the door and shallowly sulked, "It's only been a few days, it's only a few more. It's gonna be okay."

Humiliate: Transitive Verb

1: To humble

2: To mortify, injure the self-respect or pride of

XANA humiliated everyone, and certainly not in a humble way. He played them like a book! Separating, destroying, and even baiting the Lyoko Warriors over to Matriks to do nothing but waste their ability to fix his mess. A mess that still has Cooke recovering in the hospital.

He picked up the cards and put them in a box with a stack of other cards that had accrued. Then, his new phone rang from a blocked number, and he picked up.

"Hello?"

"Markus, it's Jeremie."

"What's going on?"

"Nothing. Which is strange. Because we all just got a beat-down from XANA, and he hasn't even left the Cortex."

"He's still there?"

"Yeah! I can't figure out why!"

Markus paused, "…Maybe he's still searching for a computer to infect?"

"Those aren't exactly few and far between. Heck, he could infect the whole Internet and destroy the world economy with the amount of power he has!"

"Let's… Not give him any ideas. Perhaps we're overestimating the amount of power he has?"

"It's possible, but, even if he didn't have that much power, he definitely has enough power to spread himself to other computers."

"Alright, we can be debating motives all day for why XANA would want to stay in the Cortex, but I want to ask if you found anything in our computer?"

"I did, actually. XANA left a little present in some fragmented files."

"Wait what? That is not nothing! You didn't think to open with that?!"

"Calm down! I know you're stressed out, but you need relax!"

Markus took a deep breath, and let it out, "Alright, what has the prick done to our computer?"

"It's a bug, of some sort. I can't figure out what it's for."

"Okay, then remove it. It doesn't matter to us if XANA loses a bug."

"Well, no-"

"No?"

"Look, I can tell you what it doesn't do."

"…Alright, what does it not do?"

"It doesn't monitor you, your computer activity, or our activity. It's reading the code that was recently dumped into your computer, almost like it's searching for something in particular."

"Then, you do know what it does."

"Ah… Okay. The better word would be "purpose." I don't know its purpose."

Markus rubbed his head, "This is a very confusing conversation. Just… One or two sentences, what is it doing? Or not doing? I don't understand, and I've got a lot on my head, so please just make it easy to understand and not cryptic."

"It's a bug scanning files, but it's looking strictly through the junk code that was poured on your computer. I don't know what code it's looking for or why, but I don't think we should bother it."

"There, simple. You should've just said that."

"Sorry."

"It's fine. Now, why don't you think we should axe the bug?"

"It might shed some light onto why XANA hasn't moved. Maybe whatever he's looking for will determine his next move."

"Could he be "sizing up" our computer? Maybe he's trying to figure out if he can move onto it?"

"No, if he wanted to move to Matriks, he would've by now. I thought that's what he was doing when he attacked, but apparently not."

"Alright… Has he discovered that you found the bug in our computer?"

"That's another strange thing, I had to breach the file which definitely would've alerted him, but he hasn't stopped. Or even change plans. He's still digging."

"Can… Can we monitor it?"

"Yeah, and we can even look at what he's looking at."

Markus nodded, "Yeah, okay. Let's leave it alone. See where he leads us."

Jeremie paused, and bit his lip, "How... Is everyone?"

Markus exhaled slowly, "...Not great. Not bad, but not great. Cooke is still in the hospital, Juliet is still trying to figure out what happened to her with the Scyphozoa, and I'm trying to put everything back together."

"Need any help?"

"Aside from that MantiSkid redesign, not really. But I did get the computers linked up again, so if you guys want to help clean up what's left of the mess, it'd be a great help."

"Aelita and I will get on that after classes. Take it easy."

An agent dropped a tall stack of papers, startling Juliet. She looked up and saw a smug Cassinov bearing over her.

"Can I help you, sir?" She panned, annoyed.

"This is the incident report from the WSU Chemical Accident. I anticipate that you know most these details already-"

"Why would you think that?"

"-And I would like a summary by the end of tomorrow."

She scoffed, "I am not your assistant. I do have other work to attend."

"Yeah… About that…" He shrugged, "I reassigned them."

She stared at him in utter disbelief, "You did what?! Most of those cases were already in the process of being closed! You do not have that kind of authority! Only Captain Benton can-"

"Aaaand he approved!" He boisterously slammed down another paper, a signed approval form, "Hey, think of it this way, I just cleared up all of your cases. You should be thanking me for giving you just one thing to do, and have it done by tomorrow!"

She glared and slid over the whole pile in front of herself.

"Don't be afraid to take any of it home!" He grinned.

"I thought you didn't trust me. I mean, you keep on accusing me of doing… Something with these College kids ten years younger than me."

"Au contraire, I'm counting on you. You have a real knack for this kind of stuff."

"A knack for… Summarizing?"

"…Yeah!" He quickly nodded.

"Thank… You?"

"Ahh, there we go! You're welcome." He proudly walked away, then turned around, "Oh, almost forgot. The extinguisher explosion recreation from Forensics."

He pulled out a small external hard drive from his inside coat pocket and tossed it at Juliet. But she suddenly saw it change into what looked like a machine gun magazine.

"Mag!" A fuzzy voice called out.

The smell of dirt and burnt fuel swelled up in her nostrils, and the area around her started looking bleak.

THWIP!

The gun Magazine changed back into the hard drive, which nailed her in the chest. Everything returned to normal again.

"Uh, Juliet? You okay?" Cassinov raised an eyebrow.

"Gah!" Juliet shook her head, and snapped back into reality, "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine."

"You looked a little dazed."

"It's… Nothing. I'll get right on this." She picked up the hard drive and set it on top of the stack of papers.

"Huh." Markus scratched his head, and set down a folder, "They let you take all this stuff home?"

"Yeah. Incredibly." Juliet took the folder from him, and handed him a new one, "From what I can gather in this report, when HAZMAT cleared the floor of the ammonia and bleach mixture, they opened the closet and found Cooke lying unconscious on top of various items from the shelves. They found footprints on one of the shelves higher up near the vent on the ceiling that matches Cooke's left shoe, and the vent was completely removed."

"So, he must have climbed the closet and removed the vent to get air, then he fell… But the report says he was found with a broken left foot, so that must've been what caused it." Markus opened the new folder, "…What's with the fire extinguisher?"

"That is a halon fire extinguisher, which was found at the site, burst opened. Forensics reconstructed it," Juliet handed him the external hard drive, which he promptly plugged into the super computer, "Which is on here, and they concluded what caused it to burst was an item that pierced it through-and-through, about a quarter of an inch thick. But it wasn't a bullet, because the impact area suggested a long, sharp instrument stabbed it."

"Not unlike an arrow." Markus concluded, reviewing the animated recreation, "So, XANA shot the fire extinguisher which somehow disoriented Cooke. Then he was dragged into the closet, locked in, and XANA poured ammonia and bleach together in front of the closet. Thus, creating the ammonia gas which Cooke was smart enough to seal the door from."

"Good news in all this is the evidence has basically confirmed a second person present, so Cooke is ruled out as a suspect. I believe Cassinov wanted to somehow pin this on him."

"Bad news is, the second person is XANA and there's no trace of him in the physical world."

Juliet pulled up a chair, and sat down next to Markus, "Are there any conspiracy theorists out there with evidence we didn't get?"

"No, most of the message boards caring to comment on this are declaring it was an inside government hit, or a botched attempt at making a dirty bomb and the nameless hero caught the person in the act. Or they simply think the nameless person was a moron." Markus shrugged, "So, nothing."

"Tinfoil hats can really mess with your head."

"Hah, noooo kidding. It's just as likely-" Markus' phone buzzed, and he looked down at it, "...Upstairs! Now!"

"What? Why?"

Markus shoved Juliet onto her feet, "Go upstairs and look busy! I'll be up in a moment!"

Juliet quickly dashed up the stairs and shut the closet door as she got out.

Right then, the doors to the lab opened up, and in walked a petite African American woman wearing a long, luxurious fur coat decorated with a large diamond-encrusted gold broach complete with an equally unusual matching necklace.

"May... I help you?"

The woman scowled, "I'm looking for my baby! Markus!"

Juliet froze. She just couldn't get it in her head that this was the woman who raised Markus.

"Ah... Yeah. He's... In the closet... Getting some stuff."

The mother then changed her face to disgust, "My baby is lifting stuff?!"

"Ye... Yes?"

"Isn't that why you're here?!"

Juliet calmly pulled out her badge, "No. I'm Agent Juliet Michaelson with the FBI, doing a safety inspection on a government research facility."

"He's lifting stuff! That's a HUGE risk!"

The closet door swung open, and out came Markus with a box full of scrap components.

"Ma, I'm perfectly fine. Never better." He set the box down, and his mother quickly strutted over and hugged him.

"Baby I have been so worried about you!" She rubbed his head.

He patted her on the back, "It's been fine for me. Cookie's a lot worse than I am."

She let go, and looked over at Juliet, "Do y'all know what happened to him?"

"Uh..."

Markus shook his head, "No. Ammonia gas is an extremely dangerous thing! Luckily, Cookie was smart enough to seal the door with tape, so he'll make a full recovery."

"He's... A very smart kid." Juliet added, needlessly.

"Baby I'm so sorry we're late. We were going to fly straight here but Papa got called into Silicon Valley and we had to stop there first." She apologized.

"It's okay. Cookie's still sleeping in the hospital, and I'm still working hard. Nothing interesting has happened."

"Hey, if you'd like, you can take a break and head back to the jet with me. Jerell and Miah are just hanging out there."

Markus bit his lip, "I... Am gonna pass on that."

"Dinner then?"

"Oh, sure. There's a nice little Mexican res-"

"We already made reservations for Fiola Mare at eight o'clock, I'll have a limo pick you up. There's a dress code!"

Markus sighed, "See you tonight."

"Take care, Baby!" The woman waved, as she exited the building.

Markus looked up at Juliet, who was staring right back, in stern judgment.

"So... That was my Mom."

"I have a couple questions."

"No."

"That wasn't yes or no."

"The answer is still no."

Juliet sighed, and rolled her eyes, "Jets? Limos? Fur coats? Silicon Valley?"

"Let's see... Two modes of transportation, a clothing item, and a geographical location. I don't understand the question."

"Markus, I may not be as smart as you and Cooke, but I know pretty well you know what I mean."

Markus twitched, "So... My family is a tiny bit affluent, yes."

"Tiny?"

"Okay, my Mom likes to flaunt it a little more than others in my family. But we're really modest about it, it's not like we rake in billions of dollars."

"Who is your dad?"

"Just... A... Small business investor. That's it."

Juliet sniffed the air, "You smell that? That smells like something I can't say in a K+ story."

"I... What?"

"Well, Cooke isn't here to make the fourth wall jokes."

"Why do you both feel the need to?!"

"...Forget it. Point is, I don't buy your story. And I am going to investigate and find out the truth."

"Don't waste your time, we aren't famous or anything. You can't just Google my name and find my family's economic standing."

Juliet softly shook her head, "...You seem to forget that I work for the FBI."

"You seem to forget I have a supercomputer capable of wrecking your life." Markus boisterously puffed out his chest.

"It already has!"

"Even more so." Markus raised an eyebrow, "Wait, you had resources available to check our backgrounds, and you didn't know Cooke's first name or my financial status?!"

"At my clearance level, I can't see any tax return information. And as for Cooke... I never... Huh." Juliet pondered, "Why didn't I know that?"

Markus rolled his eyes, "You did, but you just never asked."

"Regardless, I don't understand why you won't share-"

"Because it's none of your business?"

"Alright, alright, fine." Juliet waved her hands, "Answer me just one question, and I'll be making my way out of here."

"...One."

"You could buy your way into MIT or other top schools, why WSU? Why come to DC?"

"First, you presume I could buy my way into a top college-"

"Can't you?"

"...Irrelevant. I picked WSU because Cooke got in first, and it had a renowned robotics program that attracted us both."

"Alright, but-"

Markus started pushing Juliet to the door, "You got your answer, now go to work before things look suspicious!"

Juliet calmly headed out the door, "This conversation isn't over."

"It's not plot relevant!"

A casually dressed man clutching a laptop burst into Cassinov's office, "Sir!"

"I am indeed a sir. What is it?"

"You told me to get to you right away if that malware pinged off that hard drive."

"So I assume it did?"

"Yes, but you don't know the half of it!"

Cassinov twirled his finger around, "Hurry up. I'm not playing twenty questions, just show me what you found."

"O-of course. Sir." The man took out his laptop from under his arm and opened up the screen. It was a terminal window with various numbers flashing inconsistently, "You see this?"

"It looks like something out of that Wachowski brothers film."

"...Uh. It's sisters."

Cassinov shook his head, "Goddang millennials... Whatever. What am I staring at?"

"Well, the theory of my program was that it could ping any computer the external hard drive was plugged into. We wanted to see if Juliet was working with the two students."

"I don't need a recap, I need to know what I'm looking at!"

"Er, well, it's kind of hard to explain." He pointed at several lines of code as they changed, "This is the encryption of the computer it's on. And it's changing faster than any human can code, or even commercially available computers can process. I can get a signal, but it can't seem to ping the computer and pull data from it."

"Alright then... What can do all this technical stuff with the computer?"

"Honestly? A supercomputer is all that's coming to mind. Like the one NASA uses to figure out flight trajectories."

Cassinov slouched back in his chair, "I don't believe that Juliet would suddenly find access to one, so clearly some of your calculations must be off a bit."

"Well, hey now, this isn't the only thing that's interesting."

"Keep going then."

The tech expert pulled up a map of the world, with a green dot over Washington DC, "This is us."

"Can you hurry this up?" Cassinov rushed. The man nodded and punched in a few keys. Another dot showed up on the map.

"And that's them... Sort of."

"Sort of?"

The man nodded and sat in a chair next to Cassinov. Slowly, more dots started appearing in DC. Then, it expanded to the entire east coast, then across the nation, then the rest of the world. The entire map was now green.

"This signal is pinging off every wireless access point around the world. There's nothing commercially available capable for that level of spoofing. Again, the only thing coming to my mind is a super- actually, a quantum computer."

"The difference is... What exactly?"

"A supercomputer is really just a regular beefed up past the maximum computer. For example, the Airforce made their own supercomputer stringing together over seventeen-hundred PlayStation Threes. A quantum computer on the other hand, is over quadruple the price, much harder to use, and requires the best of the best software engineers to operate it. It's beyond the name computer. But you get your money's worth out of it, whatever it is you want to do."

Cassinov shook his head, and almost laughed. Instead, he stared at the screen for a solid minute, "...Say, what would a quantum computer use as a power source?"

"Well, anything with high amounts of electricity. You could use your wall outlet, provided you had the proper wiring and can afford the electricity bill."

"What if you wanted it off grid? Perhaps self-sustaining?"

"For off the grid, your best bet would be nuclear power. Unless you covered the city in solar panels and wind turbines, nuclear would be the most effective and efficient method."

"Would it leave any radioactive traces?"

"Hmm..." The man leaned back in his chair, "Assuming it's government made, it has to have radioactive shielding. However, with the right equipment and placement, it's possible to detect traces."

"Alright, now..." Cassinov thought deeply, "Are there any super or quantum computers missing?"

"Ha!" The man laughed, "No! Have you seen the size of those computers?! They're huge! They aren't laptops that people can stuff under their arms and leave with."

"Okay, but, theoretically speaking?"

The man shrugged, "It's a very large computer, I don't recommend wasting your time on it. But if any are missing, you can go dig out information in the archives. Just look for a super or quantum computer that isn't accounted for, super simple stuff. It totally wouldn't take several years of your life to find."

"Yeah, but I've got to follow my hunch." Cassinov smirked, "Thanks, I think I have my work cut out for me."

Markus stepped into hospital room 818, where Cooke was being held. A dreary place, with plain walls, paper curtains, and awful waiting room music.

He was hooked up to a breathing machine, as well as an assortment of IVs. His arms were bandaged up, and his left leg was in a cast and being suspended from a sling installed in the ceiling. He was still in a coma.

A male nurse walked in, "You need help?"

"Nah... I'm just here to see Cooke. See how he's doing."

"What's your relationship to him? HIPPA rules."

"Best friend and roommate."

"Well, I can't tell you much but," The nurse shrugged, and flipped through papers on his clipboard, "Let's see... His vitals have returned to normal, bodily functions are normal, and his brain activity is normal. He has a Glasgow score of eight, and I imagine once he wakes up it'll be fifteen."

"Will he make a full recovery?"

"Absolutely. But he shouldn't do anything rash or stressful, he may want to take a few weeks to mentally recovery."

"Ahk-" Markus choked, "Yeah, no stress. I'll see to it. When he wakes up. Because he's a normal college student and adult. He can manage his situation."

The nurse quizzically raised an eyebrow, "...Okay then."

"When do you think he'll wake up?"

He shrugged, "According to the doctor, there's no severe head trauma, so it's whenever his brain comes around. More than likely within the next few days, maybe even hours."

Markus took out a pen and pulled a napkin off of the table next to him and wrote down his phone number, "When he wakes up, can you give me a call?"

"Sure."

"And call me first!" Markus clarified. The nurse raised his other eyebrow.

"Yeah... Look, I know the FBI is involved, and-"

"No, we aren't doing anything illegal. Just..." Markus froze, looking for an excuse, "...I have a lawyer I want to connect him to before he answers any questions from them. I'm worried he might be confused and tell them something that isn't true. Just... At least tell him to wait for Markus to get his lawyer, if I can't be contacted first. Okay?"

"I will make sure you know when he wakes up."

"Thank you." Markus nodded, then headed for the door and jerked to a stop, "Oh! Uh, he doesn't look like it, but he likes Motown. The classics."

"We won't change the music."

"Then I guess I'll swing by later with a speaker." Markus glared, and left the room.

Juliet sat behind her desk and opened up the file for Cooke. She knew what happened, but she had to come up with some logical reasoning about what happened without tipping off her peers.

Suddenly, her monitor flickered. She put her hands over the keyboard but didn't press any keys. It flickered again. This time, she pressed some buttons, and her computer responded accordingly.

"Huh." She squinted at the screen.

And it flickered again.

She stood up abruptly and looked around, nobody seemed to have the same problem. Then, all the monitors flickered in unison.

"...Huh." She sat back down. She discreetly pulled out her phone, but no notifications of an activated tower or from Markus was there.

Suddenly, the screen went black, and her computer went down along with the lights. Red emergency lights immediately flicked on.

"Power surge!" Someone called out, "Just flip the breakers!"

"Upstairs is offline!"

"Downstairs offline!"

"The whole building is offline!"

"Not quite, the account servers are still online!"

"Great! We can at least log into our comp- oh wait, that's right... Our computers are down!"

"Air conditioning still works!"

"Oh, that's actually useful."

Juliet slouched back in her chair, "Huh. How did the building lose power, but the servers stayed online?"

"Backup power generators." The agent sitting across from her shrugged, "Hey, if we lost those servers, we'd lose access to the security network for the White House, and all the secrets that go with it."

"O-oh, that wouldn't be good." Juliet glanced back down at her phone and checked her messages.

Still no XANA alerts.

"Huh." She pondered.

If the building just lost power except for the servers, why are the lights for the server room still on?

The lights flicked back on, and her computer began booting like normal.

"Eyy, told ya! Simple surge!"

"Everything is working, we'll have to send someone down to check on the fuses. In the meantime, get back to work!"

Markus adjusted his collar and tightened his silk black bow tie, when his phone rang from a blocked number.

He answered it, "Hello?"

"Markus, it's Juliet. Can XANA launch an attack while also blocking our tower scan?"

Markus hobbled over to his open laptop and quickly ran a tower scan, "Not to my knowledge. What's going on?"

"Our whole building lost power for about thirty seconds, except for the server room."

"Sounds like your work is prepared for power surges like that." The tower scan dinged, fully completed, "Tower scan didn't pick anything up."

"Hm. Very strange then."

"Uninterruptible power supplies are pretty normal."

"I know, we use them which is why the power surge struck me as strange."

"How so?"

"Well, all of our computers shut down like an outage, despite all of them being connected to a UPS. Also, the server room lights stayed on, they didn't kick over to emergency lighting."

Markus stopped hobbling, "...You're right. That should've happened. Any risk of a hacker, you think?"

"Unless that hacker is equipped with a quantum computer that can break the encryption we have at the Bureau, it's unlikely."

"Are you hinting at something?"

"Preeeetty sure you aren't the hacker, despite being equipped for the task. If that's what you're implying, that is."

Markus quickly pecked at his keyboard, "...Our computer is on lockdown. No one is using it."

"I have faith you or your computer didn't cause our outage."

Markus slipped on a tuxedo coat and shut his laptop, also removing the flash drive, "I'm heading out tonight. Let me know if anything pops up."

"Can do." Juliet affirmed, and hung up.

Markus grabbed his keys and locked up the dorm, heading downstairs to an awaiting limousine.

Markus slipped into a chair, surrounded by his mother, his sister Miah, and his brother Jerell.

"I'm so glad you made it out here tonight!" His mother elated.

"Yeah." Jerell coldly looked up from his phone, "We heard things were bad."

"I told you college was pointless and dangerous!" Miah snapped.

"Now now, his friend is in the hospital, give him some space." Mom mediated.

"Whatever."

"Baby, aside from all that mess with Cookie, how has school been?"

Let's see... We found a super computer with a virtual world, two super viruses, made friends in France, got attacked numerous times which nearly resulted in death, Cooke got kidnapped once by a crazy Swiss guy, our FBI friend had their brain sucked, all while also doing normal college work in between.

"It's... School." He shrugged, "Lots of boring stuff with some exciting stuff in between."

"Oh, like what? What kind of exciting stuff?"

"Like... Robotics stuff. A couple of coding marathons-"

"So you're still sucking up to dad?" Jerell eyerolled.

"Maybe because I enjoy my work? Take pride in it? I don't just sit around in a private jet, flashing money on Instagram, and planning the next festival I'm going to?" Markus jabbed.

"Do you really think you'll be on the same level as dad with a fancy degree?" Miah glared, "Will your life really be changed all that much-"

"-Because we're already rich?" Markus finished.

His sister shrugged and looked back down on her phone.

"I did this because I want to do stuff with my life and change lives."

"Hah!" Jerell exclaimed, "Bro, you make robots that shoot hoops. How many lives have you changed?"

More than you will ever know.

Markus threw his hands up, "Alright, you got me. I haven't changed any lives."

"See? Your sister and I have travelled all around the world, touching people, getting to know them and get a sense for their trouble." Jerell bolstered, "If we went to school, we'd be anchored down just like you."

Markus glanced over at his mother, who was happily watching the conversation, "Are they for real? Why haven't you stopped them yet?"

"Cause you're tearing through them." Mom gave a knowing nod.

"We changed a lot of lives, you can do stuff now without college." Miah advised.

"Why? So dad can fund your next "volunteer excursion" to Ibiza? I heard there was a few opportunities in a soup kitchen for the homeless in Paris, maybe that next?!"

"Why are you so angry with what we do? It's our lives-"

"-yeah, and I chose to do college with my life, so step off." Markus suppressed a laughed, "What you guys do is nothing. You're full time trust fund kids, both of you."

"Ooo, preach it!" Mom agreed, "I've been telling y'all to make something of yourselves-"

The waiter came up to the table, carrying a tray of fancy angular glasses and a sleek pitcher of water, "Would anyone like some water?"

Markus smirked, "My siblings do, they got burned."

Juliet turned off her monitor and computer and called it a night. She glanced at her phone, and there were no notifications.

"...Alright, take care, Jeff." She waved at the suited man across from her station. He gave a quick wave back and kept working.

She walked into the break room and began to clock out. She punched in a code and put her thumb on a fingerprint scanner.

"ACCESS DENIED!" Screamed the machine.

"Huh. I'm being denied the ability to clock out?"

"Oh, yeah." A random agent sitting at a coffee table nearby answered, "It's been like that since the power surge earlier. Accounting knows, just shoot em an email in the morning."

Juliet shrugged, and headed out to the parking lot. She swiped her card to the garage, but the doors didn't open, and the pad flashed red.

"Okay, first the clock, now the door?!"

She tugged on the handles, but with no avail. She looked around but saw no flashing red lights.

"Hm... We're not on lockdown..."

She trudged her way to the front lobby, where thankfully the doors were open.

She took off her badge and phone and placed it in a tray, then walked through the metal detectors.

Which didn't go off.

She quizzically looked up at the indicators, which were completely off.

"Oh, the system is down." A guard behind her advised.

"Okay... When?"

"When the power shut off, so did a lot of the systems. We're still trying to get these up and running."

"How are you checking everyone?"

"Pat downs, the usual way." He shrugged, "The only crew that's been through here were the server technicians, called in in a hurry."

"...Alright, well, you have a good night then."

"Wait!" He halted. Juliet froze in place, as the guard brought out a wand and waved it around her body, "Okay, you're good. Have a good evening."

Juliet waved, and made her way around the building to her car, which she got into and promptly texted Markus.

Markus looked down at his phone under the table, seeing a message from a blocked sender simply reading: "Can I use the lab? -JM"

"What's up?" Jerell peered over, "Ohh mystery girl?!"

Markus huffed out a single chuckle, "No, just one of my classmates asking to borrow the lab. Probably to test the drive train on our robot, as we have oodles of space available."

"Who says "oodles?" What kind of things do they teach you in college?" Miah jabbed.

"Amazingly, English skills aren't really important to Mechanical Engineering. Math is the only language we need."

"You can't debate or make speeches with math though."

"Math has been debated for centuries and math is the very heart of speeches." Markus finished while sending back a "Yes" text.

"You are unbelievable." Jerell shook his head.

"Truth sometimes is." Markus raised his water glass and took a sip.

Juliet slid back into the desk chair at the supercomputer and cracked her knuckles.

"Alright, let's do this."

She placed her fingers on the keyboard and began to do...

Nothing.

"...How on earth does this work?"

She looked at the clock, reading 8:31.

"Jeremie might still be awake." She tapped on the desk, "...Nahh. Even if I did know how to use this, what would I do?"

Break into the FBI's user logs? Or maybe the state power grid? Perhaps take a trip to Matriks?

Juliet pulled up the phone dialer on the computer and called Jeremie.

"Bonjour?"

"It's Juliet. Do you have a minute?"

"Yeah, I'm at the lab with Aelita trying to repair the damage XANA caused. What's up?"

"There was a weird power surge at my work that took out all of our systems for about 30 seconds except the servers, don't you think that's strange?"

"Well, maybe you guys should spend some of that defense budget on some uninterruptible power supplies."

"We were using them."

Jeremie paused, "...That's not normal."

"I'm thinking XANA."

"Well let's see if..." Jeremie trailed off as he initiated a tower scan, "...Nope, he's still plotting."

"Plotting?"

"Yeah. I was talking with Markus earlier, I found a roach in Matriks left by XANA scanning junk files."

"And- you haven't stopped it?!"

"I can at any time, but right now he's searching through junk data that was recently dumped to your computer. We figure it might tell us what his next move is."

Juliet slumped back into the seat, and looked over at the scanner, "...Where might that bug be located?"

"As a fully formed avatar? Likely the core."

"Can you virtualize me there?"

"Uhh..." Jeremie swallowed, "Yes, but I hope you're athletic."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"When we first gained access to our core, it came with a key we had to find and deactivate in three minutes." Jeremie sighed, "Luckily, we don't have to do that anymore. But I imagine you will."

"Oh, lovely. Now, where do I go?"

"Firstly, you guys have never accessed it. So we gotta figure out where the transporter is and how to use it. I'll remote in and figure it out, just be ready to be loaded up into Lyoko."

"...You mean Matriks?"

"Er, right. Almost got it."

Juliet could make out the clickity clack of Jeremie's mechanical keyboard in the background, then halted abruptly.

"Okay, I think I found it. You must go to the tallest peak of whatever this sector is, I can't discern the terrain. Lots of segmented valleys, almost like buildings."

"So, a new sector?"

"Yeah. Well, one that hasn't been visited yet, anyways."

"Alright, well, drop me in on top of one of the valleys." Juliet requested, stepping into the scanner.

"That's not gonna work out, too many variables for spawning someone at altitude."

"...Really now? How would it be any different?"

"Look, the best I can do is put you at an area with a large enough open space that I can put you in."

"So, because the plot commands me to... That's the kind of logic someone who hasn't written in almost four years would inject into their story because they forgot their direction."

"That's... An oddly specific comparison. But you gotta climb. Luckily, we do have vehicles we can send you."

"Let's do it then."

Juliet dropped into the world, landing perfectly on her feet. She looked up and around at all her surroundings.

There were signs flashing various imagery on them, segmented streets, and a large glass ball sitting at the bottom of a pole on top of a building.

"So, where are you?" Jeremie queried, excited for information.

"...Times... Square? I'm in Times Square, New York City." Juliet bewilderingly scanned around, "Yeah! I'm in Times Square! I grew up in Queens, I know this place like the back of my hand."

"What? Oh no! Did we turn you into a spectre?!"

"No, no, I'm definitely in Matriks, but this region is dressed up like New York. No people, no cars, no trash... No creepy Elmos."

"Alright, what's the tallest point in New York City?"

"...Wait, you said you dropped me near it, right?"

"Yes. Well, relatively close."

"I'd hardly call the new World Trade Center close. I'm in Midtown, that's in Lower Manhattan!"

"I'm in France, I don't know your geography!"

"Right, right. Let's assume this world doesn't have World Trade One. Why wouldn't it?"

Jeremie sat back and bit into his cheek, "...What year was Matriks made?"

"I don't know for sure. Markus and I believe sometime in the early to mid two-thousands."

"Okay, think back to before the new World Trade Center was built. What was the tallest building then?"

"There's... 432 Park Avenue, but I don't think that'd be the building of choice. Next down the list would be..."

"...Be what, Juliet?"

"Ohhh I know what it is. And it's a few blocks away." Juliet smiled, staring up at the Empire State Building.

"Why do you hang out with that guy? I guarantee he's just leeching off of you because he thinks it's unfair you're rich and he ain't." Miah dropped.

Markus abruptly but his fork down, and stared dead at her, "Rethink what you just said about my friend currently residing in a hospital bed in comatose."

Miah looked up in the air in wonder, then back down, "No."

Markus folded his hands together and cracked his knuckles, "Well, since my friend - who's currently locked inside his own brain right now - can't defend himself, I sure as hell will. Cooke is a man who got in here on his own, paying his way through college and sinking himself into student loan debt, and lives in the same dorm as I do. He's never asked me to spot him for a meal, or pity-guilted me into talking to mom for some cash. He's come closer to saving the world than any of us have."

"Hah! In what way, exactly?" Jerell dug, "Neither of you two have invented anything useful. You just build robots. Wanna know what I built? Ten wells in rural areas of Africa! Electricity in villages without any in Indonesia!"

"Tell me, are those your accomplishments? Or did you buy materials and tools then tell those people to dig?" Markus glared.

Jerell didn't respond, and instead rolled his eyes.

"Thought so." Markus rubbed his face in the palms of his hands, "Ma, why are you subjecting me to my siblings?"

"I was hoping to get their creative juices flowing! Come up with ways to help others they haven't thought of yet, like you!" Mom proudly backed.

"We've done more for helping people sitting here at this table than he ever will in college, he should be the one taking notes." Miah bragged.

"So far, your advice is to spend lots of money on fancy trips and give away some money to people who need it to claim moral superiority. Over your little brother of all people!"

"At least we're spending it right." Jerell fake-wheezed.

Markus calmly rested his palms on the table, "What kind of lives do you live where the first thing you want to talk about is money?"

"A good one, idiot."

"Hah! Money is no identity. It just makes you look shallow." Markus thrusted up from his seat and began heading out, "You guys are insufferable. I'm leaving."

Juliet swiftly rode the Overwing down Broadway street, eyeing down the various streets she was breezing by.

"Jeremie, are there any towers on the map?"

"Hmm... A few. Closest one is on a plateau northwest of your position."

"Must be Bryant Park..."

"...Why of all places, New York City?"

"Jeremie, I'm not Cooke or Markus, use your words. What do you mean?"

"To model a sector after? Why an actual city? What was Matriks being used for that commanded the need for a model of a major city?"

"Well, you certainly like asking the big questi-"

PWESHOOW!

Juliet flew off the Overwing as it was blown up from under her.

"AHHH-" Her body slammed onto a flight of stairs, and she quickly pulled herself into the doorway, "JEREMIE!"

"What- what just happened?!"

"Something shot me down!" She peeked around the corner, still unable to see whatever it was, "What's on screen?!"

"Uhhhh- I... I see something!" Jeremie panicked watching his screen abrupt into chaos, "Uh, you're not gonna like what I see!"

"Spit it!"

"I see two very large monsters on either end of the street, and dozens- no, hundreds of monsters from both sides coming in!"

Juliet's nostrils began flooding with the scent of gunpowder and rich iron, "Oh no, not this again, I can't do it..."

"Again?! What do you mean again?!"

"Gah- stop- what monsters are they?!"

"I don't know! I can't find it on either of our databases!"

PWESHOOW!

TATATATATATAT!

Gunfire started coming from both sides. Juliet tried opening the door into the building, with no avail. She could feel her heart beginning to race, despite being a digital manifestation.

"Juliet! Your vitals are going through the roof! You need to calm down!"

She couldn't hear him anymore. Everywhere she looked was a desert. Suddenly, she was tackled to the ground, as a projectile flew past her head.

"Dangit Michaelson!" A gruff voice barked, "Eyes up!"

"Yessir!" She shook herself as she clutched a rifle and scrambled to her feet, "Are we clear?"

"What the- negative! We just had to dodge that!" The solider moved her head aside, "Your head on straight, soldier?!"

She shook her head, "Sorry sir I-"

"Shut it!" He clung onto her ballistic vest and dragged her to a nearby building, "We got two targets at our three, and the caravan is forty yards at our nine, can you handle cover fire?"

"Yessir!"

"Stick to my back." The man pointed the way, and Juliet clung onto his belt.

Ten yards in, no targets visible.

Fifteen yards, something poked out from behind a wall.

Twenty yards, the thing that poked out was a long barrel.

Twenty-five yards, the thing attached to that barrel was a tank.

"Emerson! Tank!"

As the tank barrel swiveled, the man and Juliet dove over a partially wrecked brick wall.

PWESHOOW!

KABOOM!

One of the caravan trucks was blown up!

Juliet leaned over the wall, enough to see the other trucks fleeing, "Plan?!"

"Pray!"

KABOOM!

This explosion... Did not come from the caravan.

Juliet looked over to the other side, where the tank is. Or rather, was. "Who blew up the tank?!"

"Beats me!"

They both looked up, seeing an angelic figure descending from the sky, adorned in white robes and a vibrant glow.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Juliet dropped.

"Yeah, but I'm not believing!"

"You are safe now, Juliet." The figure spoke down.

"Oh my god... I'm dead!"

"No." The figure assured, getting closer, "Calm down."

"...What?!"

"You need to relax." The figure descended even closer.

"How can I relax?!"

The figure gently landed in front of her, extending out its arms adorned in light, and resting them on her shoulders.

Then shaking her violently.

"Ahhh! What the?!"

"Are you okay?" The figured cautiously queried.

"What?!"

The figure shook her again. This time, the desert left. The soldier left. She looked around again, surrounded by the streets of New York and no longer wearing heavy armor.

"How about now?" The figure, now blurring into a semblance of Aelita confirmed.

Juliet left out a deep breath, "Oh, Aelita... Am I glad to see you."

"What happened? Jeremie sent me in when you stopped responding about twenty minutes ago."

"I... I don't know. And twenty minutes? That was only like... Five..."

Aelita shook her head, "You must've fainted."

"Yeah, that's not unexpected." Jeremie chimed in, "Your brain activity spiked, showing the equivalence of an intense adrenaline rush."

"Wow... Wow, okay..." Juliet regained her composure, "Let's keep going."

"Let's do this another time." Jeremie disagreed, "This isn't a pertinent mission and you need to get you head checked."

"No, Cooke is in the hospital still-"

"-and this mission won't help him get out of there any sooner." Aelita advised, "Please relax."

Juliet reluctantly let her arms drop, then looked over at the two smoldering messes that laid on either side of the street, "What... What happened here?"

Aelita shrugged, "When I came here, there were two armies and tanks closing in. You were running towards one of them."

"So... I didn't imagine the tanks shooting me down?!"

Aelita shook her head, "No. I took them both down incredibly easily, but it's strange they didn't try to attack you."

Juliet stared at her incredulously, "You just... Wiped out two armies incredibly easily?"

"Taking a look at the scenario and layout, I've garnered a theory." Jeremie added, "This was a simulation. You must've crossed into the firing path of one of the tanks, and the foot soldiers didn't attack because they weren't programmed to."

"But, this doesn't make any sense." Juliet spun around, observing all the details of the environment around her, "Like you said, why New York City? All the signs and lamps are where they should be too. This seems like a war simulator. Why would the gover-"

She froze, staring at Aelita, then at the destroyed tanks.

"Jeremie?"

"Yes Juliet?"

"What year did you guys think was Matriks made?"

"Sometime in the early to mid two-thousands is our best speculation."

Juliet squatted down on her heels and covered her face in her hands, "Oh... I know why a war simulator was made in New York City..."

"Are... You okay?" Aelita comforted.

"Nope." Juliet pulled her face up, "Jeremie, materialize me whenever."

"Ah, alright. On it." Jeremie pecked away at his keyboard, "Materialization."

The Scanner doors opened, right as Markus climbed down into the lab.

"Hey, how'd dinner go?"

"Oh, greaaat." Markus rolled his eyes as he tore off his bow tie, "How'd... Whatever you did go?"

Juliet pulled herself up the stairwell, "I'm off to get hammered."

"Ah, that well..." Markus picked up the headset on the desk and put it on, "Hey, you guys on?"

"Yeah."

"Mind catching me up?"

Juliet swung open the door to her dark house and flipped all the lights on.

"Levin, I'm home?" She called out.

A black and white cat crawled out from an adjacent hallway and let out a mighty meow.

"There you are... Sorry I'm late again." She meandered over to the kitchen and began preparing a plate of cat food.

She set the plate down and slid the plate over to the cat who wasted no time devouring the plate and all the gravy.

"Yeah, you do that." She mocked as she pulled out a bottle of whiskey, "I'm hungry too. Too much weirdness going on. You're lucky Lev, you don't have to care about any of it."

She wandered down the hall to her room, slowly sliding off her coat with her bottle in hand, and stopped when she saw a picture hanging next to her door.

The picture was of her and her squad in Afghanistan.

"Hoo man..." She dropped her coat and grabbed the picture off the wall, "I miss you guys sometimes."

She flung herself into bed, and gently set the bottle down. She pulled up the picture in front of her face, and began looking over the faces of all the people she knew and loved.

"...Is my head on straight?"