So, here with three chapters today. Unfortunately, I'm having a bit of a problem with individual chapters. We all know that the story has to focus simultaneously on what happens in the real world and on Lyoko as well, which means the chapters usually have to turn out longer that I'm comfortable writing. For example, these three chapters that I'm posting today are roughly over 17,000 words, and usually I'll do less than 10.
I have several other stories dealing with at the moment, and daily responsibilities, so you can understand why devoting so much time to CL is a bit of a problem. However, I'm working on it.
"The XANA Warriors?"
"No."
"Hmm. . . . How about, the Swamp Giants?"
"Too plain. Besides, I doubt we'll only see them in the Swamp. Anything else?"
"Hmm . . ." said Odd again, frowning, with his hands laced on the table. He, Yumi, Ulrich, Aelita, William, Gabrielle, Mila, and Leo were sitting in the cafeteria, trying to determine an appropriate name for XANA's three newest monsters. He had spent the better part of the last fifteen minutes suggesting different titles he had been contemplating over the past two days, but so far not a single one had been to his friends' liking.
"Has anybody seen Jeremy?" Yumi asked suddenly, putting the conversation on pause.
"He's up in his room, I think," Aelita told her, taking a sip of her tea. "Doing some programming."
"Do you know what he's working on?" Gabrielle asked.
"No idea," Aelita said, shrugging.
"Well, why don't you ask me?" said a voice. They all looked up to see Jeremy, who was standing clutching his own tray and beaming down at them, his laptop tucked under his arm.
"Jeremy!"
"Scoot over and make me some room, guys," Jeremy said cheerfully. They adjusted their chairs and he sat down, still smiling widely.
"You seem to be in a good mood," William said, surveying him with his eyebrows raised.
"He's right, something happened," Yumi chimed in. "Come on, spill."
"It's nothing, really — well, not nothing. I finally managed to localize Xanadu on the web!"
"Really?" Yumi said eagerly.
Jeremy nodded. "Unfortunately, that doesn't mean I can virtualize you directly onto the new world just yet, there's still a few codes I need to obtain before I can, but I think I've got a faint idea of where the supercomputer projecting Xanadu might be situated."
"What?" the entire group chorused, simultaneously shocked and amazed.
"Does that mean you'll be able to send us there soon so we can destroy it?" Ulrich asked.
"No, no, I'm nowhere near that far along," Jeremy told them, though he was still smiling. "I told you, I only have a vague idea of where the supercomputer might be, which could be just about anywhere in any one of three possible countries around the world."
"But — that's no use to us now, so why are you smiling?"
"Because it means we're making progress," Jeremy said. "And speaking of progress, there's some things I need to sort out on Lyoko. A few new programs I'm working on, but I need a portion of the work to be done in a tower on Lyoko. Aelita, can you make it for lunchtime today?"
"Sure, but what are these new programs?"
"I'll tell you on the way. Anybody else?"
"Do we all have to?" Mila asked.
"Hmm . . . no, not necessarily. As we'll just need someone to keep watch outside the tower, I think two of you should be enough. That is, unless XANA's latest inventions show up, in which case we might need all hands on deck."
"I'll go," Leo said eagerly. "It'll be a lot easier now that I know what the lightning bolt actually does."
"Me too," Ulrich said, grinning. "Be fun for a little mentor-student workout, don't you think?"
"Okay, so we'll all meet at the factory after —"
"I got it!" Odd exclaimed. "Harbingers. The Harbingers of XANA!"
"Wow, I really like that name," Yumi said. "Only, let's just keep it at Harbingers, okay?"
There was a murmur of assent around the table.
"Um, does anybody want to tell me what he's talking about?" Jeremy said blankly.
At lunchtime they separated, Odd, Yumi, William, Mila, and Gabrielle to the lunchroom, and Ulrich, Leo, Jeremy, and Aelita to the factory. They moved as quickly as they could, taking the secret passage in the woods, as Jim was heard to have been patrolling the corridors inside. When they had arrived, Jeremy assumed his seat in the Lab and Aelita, Ulrich, and Leo travelled down to the Scanner Room. Once there, each of them took up a position in one of the scanners, awaiting Jeremy's voice.
"Okay, get ready now," he called at last. "I'm sending you to the Mountain Sector. The new programs I'm implementing will help to improve your general performance on Lyoko, we'll be needing that especially with XANA's latest creations, and another should help me try to get a more specific result on the whereabouts of the supercomputer hosting Xanadu. Hang on — Transfer, Ulrich! Transfer, Leo! Transfer, Aelita! Scanner, Ulrich! Scanner, Leo! Scanner, Aelita! Virtualization!"
With the familiar blinding surges of light, the trio found themselves hovering in midair in the Mountain Sector, a vast region filled with enormous, light purple rocks, which floated, unsupported, in midair. A light layer of mist drifted across the landscape, obscuring the mountains further below and above, and the silhouettes of yet more mountains loomed beyond their range of sight.
"The Overbike and the Overrose are on the way," Jeremy's voice announced, and a moment later the two vehicles appeared, the flat, rose-shaped platform with a protruding, thorn-like stalk, and the jet-black, single-wheeled motorbike. Ulrich and Aelita assumed their places at the vehicles' helms. Then Ulrich turned to Leo.
"Saddle up, cowboy."
Leo dashed onto the Overbike behind him, gripping the back of the seat firmly and positioning his lightning bolt carefully between his legs so that it didn't go off.
"The tower that I've selected is 51° north of your current position," Jeremy said.
The two vehicles took to the air, gliding smoothly above the narrow, violet trail. They crossed the large gap between the platforms where they had landed and the one hosting the tower, and came to a halt just outside the pillar, which was almost completely enveloped by a mouth of rock sprouting from the ground around it. Ulrich recognized it as the very one they had once used to decode Franz Hopper's diary.
Aelita too felt the painful stab of familiarity, but shook it off and hurried towards the tower, vanishing inside.
"Ah, mashed potatoes, nature's gift to the world," Odd sighed, gazing dreamily down at the mass of potatoes spread across his tray. He sat upright, his tongue sticking out of his mouth, and thrust his spoon into it.
William chuckled. "Take it easy, Odd, or you'll choke," he said, watching Odd force spoonful after spoonful into his mouth with barely a second's pause between each load.
"Don't worry, William, it's not my first rodeo with the potat-eos!" Odd said proudly. "I can do this all d —" He broke off, retching and choking. Gabrielle thumped him on the back and he slumped forward onto the table, gasping and spluttering, having managed to swallow at last.
"Thanks, Gabrielle!" he gasped, massaging his throat.
A gale of laughter erupted from the table. Everyone except Mila was howling. She frowned at Odd and said, "Ah look, your clothes are all messy now. Come on, let's get you cleaned up."
"I'll come too, make sure he doesn't somehow drown under the pipes," Gabrielle said, chuckling.
As the three of them left, Yumi stopped laughing, having realized that she and William had been left alone. The smile faded from her face, and she threw a sidelong glance at the blue-haired youth, who was carefully avoiding her gaze, tucking into his meal again and pretending not to notice her looking at him.
There was a little silence. Then Yumi took a deep breath. "Thank you."
"Hmm? For what?" William asked, feigning surprise.
"You know what. Back in the Swamp. We didn't know whether or not we'd be able to return from Xanadu if we got devirtualized, but you jumped in to save me anyway. Risked your life. So, thank you."
"If you really wanna thank me," William said coldly, "you'll stop trying to undermine me in the group."
"What?" Yumi said, taken aback.
"You heard me. You've been doing it ever since the others accepted me back into the group. I know I messed up in the past, and I'm trying to make up for it. But you won't give me the chance! You think I'm still the same arrogant hothead —"
"It's not like you've given me any reason to believe otherwise!" Yumi said, anger flaring up now.
"So give me a chance then! Let me prove it to you! You saw what XANA did the other day for yourself, clearly he doesn't need me anymore, what with all the new freaks he managed to create. So why not give me the chance? You're supposed to be my mentor — you're supposed to be my friend."
Yumi stared at him, guilt bubbling up inside her. Before she could respond, however, Odd, Mila, and Gabrielle returned, and William turned away, laughing with them, as if nothing had happened since they'd left.
"Ulrich, can you hear me? Ulrich!"
Ulrich, who had just been showing his twin katanas off to an intrigued Leo, looked up as if he might spot Jeremy's face looming above them. "Huh? What's going on, Jeremy? Is something wrong?"
"I just picked up something on the screens, a sort of disturbance taking place a bit farther east of your position. When I checked it out, I saw that there was a tower nearby, and it's been activated. But something's wrong. The tower — isn't red."
"Is that a bad thing?" Leo asked.
"That's the problem, I have no idea. Towers that have been activated under XANA's influence only show up with a red halo. This tower . . . it's purple."
"Purple?" Ulrich repeated, bewildered. "Are you sure?"
"That's what it looks like," said Jeremy.
"Well, can you get anything else on the tower?" Leo asked.
"No, but it seems that XANA's spotted it too. A squadron of monsters is headed in its direction, and the last time that happened —"
"Okay, we'll check it out," Ulrich told him. "But what about Aelita? Should we wait for her?"
"No, she'll have to stay where she is until the programs are finished installing. You get to the tower, she'll meet you after she's done."
"Any chance of backup, is there?" Ulrich asked as he and Leo mounted the Overbike once more.
"I'll alert the others, for now, you just concentrate on getting to the tower."
"Got it. Better hold on, back there," he added to Leo.
"Woah!"
Ulrich revved the bike and sent it streaking off down the path, its single wheel ripping across the landscape. The end of the platform was speeding towards them, drawing nearer with every second, and as they reached it, Ulrich revved again, so that the rocket thruster blazed to life as the Overbike let out a roar, boosting their jump. The Overbike shifted to flight mode in midair, so that their dive turned into a smooth takeoff flight and they went whizzing through the mist towards the tower.
"I'm telling you, if it wasn't for that swamp gas, that Harbinger would've gone down — hard."
"Right, 'cause you were doing so well before the gas, weren't you?"
"Believe me when I tell you this, William: a lot of new monsters have gotten the drop on us, but once they lose the element of surprise, they're no match for Odd the Magnificent," Odd said smoothly. Mila, Gabrielle, and William laughed again, but Yumi, preoccupied, did not respond. She was too busy wondering what was going on with the others on Lyoko, barely hearing what was happening beside her as the group strode down the halls outside the building.
Almost as though in reply to her unspoken question, her cell phone buzzed in her pocket, displaying Jeremy's caller ID. She pressed answer at once.
"Hello, Jeremy?"
"Yumi, we've got trouble on Lyoko, need you at the factory ASAP," Jeremy said urgently.
"What's going on, are Ulrich, Leo, and Aelita —?" But her question was drowned by a sudden outbreak of blaring on the other end, as though of alarm bells. "Jeremy, was that the Super Scan?"
"Yes, I can't believe our luck!" Jeremy cried. "Hurry, now we have two activated towers to deal with —"
"Two?"
"Yes, one of them has just been activated by XANA, no doubt in response to whatever else is happening on Lyoko. But the other seems to have been activated by a second, unknown entity. Ulrich and Leo have already gone on ahead, they'll be needing backup, and Aelita is going to need help getting to the second tower too."
"Okay, we're on our way." Yumi turned to her peers, who had all been listening raptly. "Trouble on Lyoko," Yumi said. "They need us at the factory now."
"Uh, I don't think that's going to be an option," said Mila in a tremulous voice.
"Why?" Odd asked.
"Look!" She pointed to the sky, and as they followed the line of her finger, they saw a massive plume of dark purple smoke billowing into the sky, which was turning a murky black. Menacing-looking storm clouds suddenly blossomed across what, only seconds before, had been a clear dome of forget-me-not-blue.
"XANA," Odd breathed. Without warning, nets of lightning began to crack across the cloud-laden sky, and a heavy downpour picked up, carrying what seemed to be a gale-force breeze along with it. The lightning lashed out at the building, blasting the stone apart, sending chunks of debris flying like shrapnel; it struck trees and set them on fire, but the flames were extinguished almost at once by the dreadful showers. Kids were screaming, trying to get inside the classroom as the water level on the ground began to rise at an alarming rate. One group was struggling to keep hold of one particularly thin youth, whom the wind seemed quite determined to carry away.
"Get inside!" Yumi shouted.
They barely heard her over the sound of crashing thunder, howling wind, and pounding rain, but as she was pointing in the direction of the cafeteria, they got the point at once and began to forge through the sudden, raging weather. Sticking close together, they managed to force through the cafeteria door and slam it shut behind them, bringing Mila inside just before the rising tide outside swept her away.
The other students inside were, like them, shivering and drenched to the skin, looking horrified by the sudden storm.
"Well now what?" Yumi cried.
"Guess they'll have to do without us on Lyoko, in this weather we'll have a higher chance of being blown across town before we manage to get to the factory," Odd said in a hopeless voice.
"I'll tell Jeremy," Yumi said miserably.
"I don't believe this!" Jeremy exclaimed, throwing up his hands. Even from where he sat in the Lab Room, he could hear the rain lashing against the walls of the factory, the thunder booming menacingly overhead.
"What's going on, Jeremy?" Ulrich demanded.
"I just found out what XANA's attack is: he sent a specter into the air and summoned a massive thunderstorm. Yumi, Odd, William, Mila, and Gabrielle are trapped at school, fighting not to be washed away. You two are on your own with the purple tower."
"Wow, isn't that a surprise?"
Ulrich squinted into the distance. The tower came into view, ringed, as Jeremy had said, with a violet halo, glowing through the fog.
"Look!" Leo said suddenly, pointing. Ulrich looked down. From where they sat upon the Overbike, cruising through the air, they could see a large dome of crackling, bright-green energy upon an isolated platform hovering near the tower. It was like the bubble that XANA had once lured Aelita into, under the guise of an invitation from her father: a Ghost Channel, Jeremy had called it. But something was different about this one. He could see shadows of small squares similar to the ones that made up the walls of Sector Five streaming around inside.
"Jeremy, we just found the disturbance," he said. "It looks like that thing XANA trapped Aelita inside, when he messaged her to make it look like Franz Hopper had called her to Lyoko."
"I know, I just got back the results of a scan I launched a few minutes ago — it looks like some kind of data stream," Jeremy said.
"What does that mean?" asked Leo.
"It means that whoever has activated the tower is trying to upload a steady flow of raw data, but created an encrypted channel to keep something — and I think I have a good idea what — from getting access to it. I should be able to crack the encryption code and tap into it, just give me a few minutes. Careful!" he cried suddenly. "XANA's airforce incoming!"
"Roger that, Jeremy," Ulrich said. He swooped, veering towards the data stream. At the same moment, a loud buzzing sound reached their ears, and they looked around in time to see a large swarm of hornets, around twelve in total, burst from the mist and come soaring towards them. Ulrich spoke over his shoulder to Leo. "Ready to test it out?"
Leo nodded, smirking, and raised the lightning bolt, which crackled with electricity. Lasers flew through the air. Ulrich manoeuvred the Overbike around them, dipping in and out of the clouds, winding his way through the descending volley. He changed direction abruptly, soaring upwards, and Leo let out a yell of panic as they rose. But the hornets were temporarily distracted. Ulrich sped up past them and flipped over in midair, then yelled, "Now!"
Electricity burst into life along the bronze cylinder in Leo's hands and streaked through the air. The blast ripped through their ranks and struck one of the hornets, sending it flying backwards as golden currents danced along its figure. Then it exploded, showering the area with digital bits.
"Yeah!" Ulrich yelled approvingly, but the swarm had recovered. Four of them broke away from the hive, soaring towards the dome, and the remaining seven were rising out of the fog to meet them. Ulrich put on a burst of speed and dove, hurtling towards a large cave entrance visible around fifty feet below.
They zoomed into it, coursing along the length of the tunnel, and the hornets' buzzing echoed through the passage as they streamed in behind them. They burst out onto the other side and Ulrich drew back, hovering stationary to the right of the opening. As the hornets emerged, Leo fired again, exploding yet another.
"Nice going, guys, but there's still too many of them, and the others have started attacking the dome!" Jeremy said urgently.
Ulrich pulled a saber from the digital scabbard upon his back, intercepting the laser that was flying towards him. Leo sent out another burst of lightning, causing the swarm to scatter once more, but again he managed to pick off a slower-moving hornet.
"Don't worry about us, Jeremy, we're working on it. But how's it going with the key?" Ulrich asked.
"Still nothing yet, but I'm getting closer. Just hold them off for a little while longer."
"You got it, boss." Ulrich took off again, and this time he sped straight towards the oncoming hive.
"What are you doing?" Leo shouted, looking at his mentor as though he'd gone mad. But Ulrich only smirked and said, "You hold the controls for a moment."
""But what are you going to —"
"Super Sprint!" Ulrich launched himself off the Overbike, a tail of golden light streaming behind him. With the reflexes born of his Pencak Silat training, Leo dove forward and seized the vehicle's handles. He managed to keep the bike moving, watching as Ulrich spun through the air, his gleaming katanas whipping around him like the blades of a fan as his speed propelled him forward. He hurtled into the swarm, the revolving blades blocking the lasers pelting at him, and he rocketed through, slicing through two more of the hornets as he passed.
They exploded just as Leo zoomed beneath what remained of the hive, streaking ahead of Ulrich, who was now coming in to land. Leo drew back, positioning himself directly underneath his falling comrade, and Ulrich fell neatly back in his seat, grinning.
"Not bad, huh?"
"You're right, not bad, crazy is more like it. You could have given me a little more warning, you know."
"Ah well —"
For the first time, a laser crashed into Ulrich's back. The impact made him stagger, causing the Overbike to spiral. He pulled up firmly and the descending vehicle righted itself in the air.
"No time for small talk," Jeremy said gravely. "You've gotta get back to the data stream — the Scyphozoa just showed up."
"Wow, XANA's pulled out all the stops, hasn't he?" Ulrich pulled the Overbike to an abrupt halt and wheeled around, sending the vehicle speeding once more through the ranks of the hornets and back to the tower. As they passed, Ulrich heaved one of his sabers from the scabbard and cleaved one hornet in half, and Leo smashed his lightning bolt into another, sending it flying out of the way; it crashed into the wall of a nearby mountain and burst apart.
"Yeah!" Ulrich and Leo high-fived, then they soared back into the cave they had darted through a while back. The sight that met them on the other side sent a virtual chill down Leo's back. He had heard much about the Scyphozoa before, but the words did not provide a vivid enough image to prepare him for the altogether more repulsive vision his eyes had fixed on now.
It had a massive, bulb-like head, attached to a dark purple cone-shaped receptacle, from which protruded several short, scuttling, leg-like limbs and long, transparent tentacles, which were coiled around the data stream, siphoning its energy.
"Eurgh, I forgot how ugly that thing was," Ulrich said in disgust. "Ready to crack it open?" he said to Leo.
But before Leo could respond, Jeremy positively shouted, "Are you crazy? If it misses, the lightning strike could destroy the bubble completely! You'll have to get it from close-up."
"Ugh, do we have to?" Leo said.
"Now!" Jeremy ordered.
Ulrich sighed. "Okay, here we go!" The Overbike zoomed downwards, heading straight for the Scyphozoa's gigantic, see-through form. As they moved, the four hornets that had broken away from the group now emerged on all sides. The first advanced boldly towards them, but Ulrich took a swift, clean swipe with his saber and deflected its laser strike, sending it right back towards the monster, which broke apart like so many before it.
Leo missed his first strike upon the other two, but Ulrich brought them closer to the pair and cleaved off the wings of the first, slicing the second in half so that it disappeared as its flightless ally sank into the clouds and out of sight. The last one rained fire down upon them, but Leo retaliated with another jet of lightning, and this time his aim was true.
"Great work, you two, now get to the Scyphozoa, it's just about ready to destroy the data stream!" Jeremy told them.
"We're on it, Einstein!" Ulrich said, and with the coast clear he dove yet again. "Take my saber!" he called over his shoulder. Leo grasped one of the protruding handles and pulled the shining blade into his hands. They descended until they were near enough to see the sign of XANA imprinted against its metallic body, but still it remained wrapped around the dome, siphoning the energy like an over-sized parasite.
"Now!" Ulrich said.
At his words, Leo swung down, preparing to cleave through the monster's tendrils —
But the hornet they had left behind had caught up with them. A laser streaked through the mist above and knocked Leo off the Overbike, and he began to fall, straight towards the Digital Sea.
"No!" Ulrich changed direction again, threw himself flat against the Overbike, and sped down towards Leo, the rocket thrusters blazing full-force behind him. But he was too far — Leo was screaming, the Digital Sea flying up behind him — he was going to fall before Ulrich caught up with him —
"Energy Field!"
Ulrich looked up in spite of himself, distracted by the new voice, and saw an orb of pink energy shooting across the sky. It struck Leo, coating him in rippling pink energy, and devirtualized him just before he was swallowed up by the sea.
"Oh, perfect timing, Princess!" Ulrich said, relieved, as he saw Aelita flying towards him on the Overrose.
"No problem," she said, smiling. Then her face suddenly darkened. "Ulrich!" she screamed, pointing behind him.
Ulrich looked around to see thick jets of a steaming, viscous, mossy-green fluid falling through the air behind him. The hornet was bearing down upon him again, blasting sheets of poison. He maneuvered around them, in the same way he had dodged mines dropped by Flying Mantas in the past. But he was too slow; as he wove around a descending burst, yet another jet of poison caught him directly on the back. He could feel the corrosive poison melting through his virtual form.
As the Overbike spun out of control, he leapt off, grasped one of his sabers, and flung, just before he was devirtualized. The blade spun sideways in midair, rippling like a windmill, and soared straight towards the Scyphozoa. It ripped through the monster's tentacles, severing its parasitic hold on the data stream at last.
"Energy Field!" Aelita shouted again. Another orb of pink energy flew through the air and collided with the final hornet, vaporizing it, while the second flew at the Scyphozoa, which had recoiled with a screech as it was disentangled from the dome; the energy coursed along its massive form, but as it faded away so it too rose and disappeared from sight.
"Nice one, Aelita!" Jeremy shouted triumphantly. "I broke the code, I'm downloading the data right now. You can head for the tower."
"Got it, on my way, Jeremy," Aelita said, and she sped off into the pearly mist.
"It's getting really bad out there, are those guys going to deactivate the tower or not?" demanded Odd, who was peering through the cafeteria windows out at the raging tide outside, which had risen almost to the height of the door.
"Patience, Odd, you know full well how difficult it can get on Lyoko," Yumi chastised. "Besides, don't you think it's strange?"
"Think what's strange?" Mila asked.
"Knowing XANA, normally he would have tried to summon a tornado to blow away the whole school with us in it. But here we are, perfectly okay —"
"Speak for yourself, I'm soaked to my bones over here!"
"— so it seems to me that XANA's priority wasn't really to attack us, per se," Yumi continued, ignoring Odd, "but more like, detain us."
"But why?" Gabrielle asked.
Yumi shrugged. "All I know is, something big must be happening on Lyoko, otherwise we would have been sailing across the country on a storm cloud right now." There was a pause during which everyone continued to squint out at the dark sky. Then Yumi said abruptly, "William, can I talk to you?"
"Huh?" William said, with genuine surprise this time. "Oh, yeah, sure."
He followed her over to the corner of the room, away from the other students, who were crowded around Rosa, the lunchlady, who was handing out cups of hot tea. William waited with a curious expression on his face, then Yumi turned to him and said, "You're right. I've been being pretty hard on you since all this came back up again, but you have to understand, when you were under XANA's control . . . You were like a monster on Lyoko," she said bluntly. "The things you did, if you could remember. . . . It was awful."
"And is that all there is to it?" William said.
Yumi frowned. "What do you mean?"
"When I was under XANA's control, is that all you were thinking of, how dangerous I was?"
"No! Of course not! I was worried about you. I've never been possessed by XANA, so I can only imagine what you were going through, being forced to do all that. . . . But if you think that's all we were thinking about, then you're wrong. We wanted to bring you home, not just because you were dangerous, but because you —" Yumi took a deep breath — "because you're our friend. And it's time I stopped treating you like the enemy."
William smiled, and so did Yumi. Simultaneously they walked forward and hugged.
"Hey, Romeo! Juliet!" Odd called.
Yumi and William broke apart, looking over at the group. Odd was waving his cell phone triumphantly in the air and smiling widely. "Any moment now!"
"You mean they —" Yumi began, relieved.
"Yep. Get ready for a return trip!"
They waited, watching the rain settle outside. Then a piercing white light appeared in the distance, drawing towards them, swallowing the schoolyard. The last thing Yumi saw before the light passed over them was William's easy smile, the one she had so loved when they had first met. . . .
Half an hour later, Aelita had deactivated the tower, a return to the past had been launched to cover up the damage done at Kadic, and the Lyoko Warriors were once again inside the Lab, watching Jeremy work in silence.
After a few minutes in which he had typed and clicked to his heart's content, he sat back in his chair with his hands upon the arms, and Ulrich thought it safe to speak at last. "Anything good?"
"The data analysis program is running now," Jeremy said. "It should be done by tomorrow, but I can't imagine that whatever — or whoever — created that data stream would have gone to all that trouble to send us anything like a weather report, now, would they?"
"I guess you're right. But do you have any idea who could have sent it, Jeremy?"
"Well," Jeremy said, shifting uncomfortably in the chair, "the only possibility is — is —"
"My father," Aelita said.
"Yeah. But on top of — you know — everything else that went down with him in the past, I also don't think it could have been him because the towers he operated with in the past always had white halos."
"So could there be someone else joining the fight against XANA?" William asked.
"I don't know," Jeremy said. "And I don't think we will know until tomorrow morning, so we might as well get back for lunch."
"Mashed potatoes twice in one day," Odd said dreamily as they all swarmed towards the elevator door. "One of the few benefits of a XANA attack."
"I agree," William said, as he pressed the up button, "but just make sure you don't choke this time."
Odd scowled as the lift door closed, the others roaring with laughter around him.