Disclaimer: I own absolutely none of the characters.
K wandered around the underground bunker that had been her home for as long as she could remember. It wasn't often that she just got to wander around so she was savoring the opportunity. She knew that she was sick and that sunlight would kill her, but she still wished that there could be a couple of windows.
She had read plenty of how this compound was on an island and that once it had been a factory. There were some parts of the facility that had been part of the original factory. Looking around, she made sure that no one was around before darting into a hidden passageway. She knew her allotted free time was almost up and this passageway was hard to find so it would take longer to find her.
Sitting in a back corner, she thought sadly. Tomorrow would be her twelfth birthday and she would give her usual request, but she knew the answer well enough.
Running her hand through the dust, she hit metal jutting up out of the concrete. Carefully she touched it to find that it was an old hatch that appeared to go to a chamber further underground. Fingering the hatch she found that someone had attempted to seal it. The seal was faulty and the hatch lifted.
Once the hatch was open she felt a blast of cold air. The cold air was so unlike anything she ever remembered seeing as the compound was kept at a constant temperature.
Looking around again, K decided to go down the hatch. Her only restrictions were that she didn't attempt to leave the compound but if she couldn't go outside, at least, she could feel the cold for a few minutes.
Climbing down the hatch, she found a ladder that descended into a circular room. She pulled out her tablet and turned the screen into a flashlight. There was a very old computer sitting in the center of the room. It, however, looked powerful and she stood in awe wondering if anyone else knew about this computer.
In the far distant hallways, she could hear the loudspeaker announce that she had not returned from her walk. Scientists would be looking for her with vigor so she pulled her tablet out and quickly transferred any data that she could from the derelict computer. She wanted to know more and she would be able to read up more when she was lying in her bunk in a few hours.
Climbing up the ladder she shut the hatch and waited for the right moment to crawl back into the main corridor. She didn't want her secret discovered because then it would become forbidden for her to play in any hidden corridor.
Later that evening after a reprimand for causing worry among all the scientists who looked after her she was sent to her room with only a light supper. Once she was alone in her bed she pulled her tablet back out and scrolled through all the information that the old computer contained. Most of the data was empty files or corrupted. It appeared that there was much more to the old computer than what she saw in that one room, but caution won over and she decided not to explore these chambers further. She did find some information on a helper program that used to assist whoever programmed the computer.
Climbing back up the ladder she sealed the hatch quietly and climbed back out into the corridor where she was quickly found and returned to her chambers. Her computer was brought to her and she was instructed to work on her assigned project and that because of her stunt she wouldn't get any more recreation breaks until after the program was finished. after being let alone in her utilitarian room with her computer, she fingered her tablet and wondered if she could perhaps use the old computer's helper program to finish her project faster.
Later that night she curled up in her bunk. the scientists had taken her computer for the night and left her in her room. they however never took her tablet as she had requested when she had asked for it. it allowed her to jot down her thoughts or test theories when she wasn't working on her assigned projects. So this is what she did that night. she set up a virtual laboratory on her tablet with high-security settings and she began activating the program. she soon learned that it was very aggressive but that if it stayed inside a well-protected and well-defined environment it would do what she said and it would do it very fast.
The next morning K worked on her project with her new program's help and got it done well ahead of time. the scientists were very pleased and even a little confused because they had thought the project she had been assigned would take her, at least, a week. Instead, she finished it before lunchtime. the next few projects, however, she didn't use her helper and decided that rather than raise suspicion that she would save it for difficult projects.
K celebrated her thirteenth birthday just as she had every year before. then she celebrated her fourteenth birthday and she was tasked with creating ranger powers because of her success with other smaller projects. on her fifteenth birthday, she received Gem and Gemma to help her with her project but she found that though serious they goofed off too much and hindered her productivity. So she upped the ante with her special program and started to give it a little more freedom. through this, she discovered that the program had viral traits and if left unchecked it could do grave harm. during this time she found out that it was aware and had even named itself. her program called itself Venjix.
On her sixteenth birthday, Gem and Gemma gave her a pencil, and soon after that, she discovered that her sun sickness was all a lie. so she decided to release Venjix into the alphabet soup mainframe. she knew from her tests that she could inject the virus with a self-destruct code so that it would do what she wanted to do and then terminate. however, both she and the twins were apprehended before she could inject Venjix with the self-destruct code or set up the secondary firewall and it escaped out into the network.
Dr. K sat at her desk and sighed. she would be celebrating her twentieth birthday soon and oddly enough she was thinking that it was time for her to return to Alphabet soup. she had to find out if there was anything left of her childhood home. Scott, Gem, and Gemma had taken aerial photos of the complex to find that Venjix had left its place of birth almost completely untouched. She wanted to find out when everything around it had been razed. She also wondered if maybe she could locate a file there that might tell her, her original name. she had deeply grown tired of everyone calling her Dr. K. she had tried on a variety of names but nothing seemed right.
She heard Dillon, Summer, and Tenaya return from one of their trips so she decided to broach the subject with them and see if they would be willing to travel that far north with her.
Walking out into the garage she looked the three travelers in the eye, "Would you perhaps be willing to take me to Alphabet Soup when you head out again?"
Dillon looked at the other three, "Why do you want to go out there? you barely like leaving the lab much less going around Corinth now that the dome is down. Not that you traveled around the city when the dome was up."
"Dillon, I need to see my childhood home and get answers. you and Tenaya are traveling the wastelands to get answers to your past. Can't I have the same luxury?" Dr. K asked with a slight frown on her face.
Summer stepped in front of her boyfriend, "of course, you have that right. Are you sure you want to go back there? there isn't much out there. Venjix was pretty thorough."
"Gem and Gemma sent me pictures and the compound is still standing. it is the only thing for miles, but it is still there. I want to find out why." Dr. K nodded, "please take me with you."
Tenaya looked to her brother with her nearly sightless eyes, "She has done a lot for us. Let's give her this one thing."
Dillon nodded, "we will leave tomorrow, at first, light. it is going to be about a two-day drive and we have to be careful. there are some dangerous nomads between us and there. You will have to do exactly as I say. out there we are the experts."
Dr. K nodded, "I will be ready."
RPM
Dillon leaned back in his seat, "Where is she? I thought we told her first light!"
Summer reached over and put her hand on her boyfriend's knee. "I will go check on her, she has never really traveled before."
Tenaya leaned over the front seat as Summer got out of the car, "this ought to be fun, I wonder what sort of gadgets she has packed."
Dillon looked at his sister, "You told her it would be a good idea for her to come with us. so you get to put up with her back there in the backseat."
Summer and Dr. K walked out of the lab carrying three large suitcases, "Dillon I don't suppose we have room for these do we?"
Dillon jumped out of the car and looked at the suitcases and popped his trunk, "we can take one of those."
"I need all of this for my evaluation of the complex." Dr. K replied with a pout.
"I don't have any room for extra things. most of our storage space is taken up with relief supplies to help the nomads make their way here to Corinth. we already carry the bare minimum up supplies for ourselves. As are you and Tenaya are sitting in the back with crates of food that needs to be dropped off at an outpost on our way."
Dr. K quickly rearranged her suitcases and Summer put the ones that weren't going back in the lab which would be locked during their trip.
Ziggy walked into the garage and hugged Dr. K, "K are you going to go on this trip."
K smiled, "Ziggy I need these answers. I will be back soon, I promise."
Dr. K climbed into the car and very clumsily climbed into the backseat with Tenaya.
The evening was falling on their second day and Dylan was scanning the area for a place to hide the car for the night. they had stayed at an outpost the night before, but they were well beyond the areas that had been secured
by Corinth City Defense and it would be very dangerous to travel at night.
Dillon had just found a safe location when Dr. K spotted the Alphabet soup complex off in the distance. the building a dark shadow against the setting sun.
Dillon weighed his options and decided to travel on and try to take shelter inside the complex if it appears safe and not overrun by nomads. he knew the chance of that is slim, but he didn't want to spend the night in the car with Dr. K so he decided to take his chances.
When they arrived at the complex Dillon reached down and pulled out a portable pulse cannon. with the cannon, he could explore the building and stun any attacking nomad before they could get a jump on him. "Stay in the car I will be back if it is safe for us to enter."
Dillon quickly entered the building quietly and skillfully and made a sweep around the building. surprisingly there didn't seem to be any nomads in this entire building. Either they knew that this was the foundation for Venjix and stayed clear or Venjix had obliterated all living people in his home neighborhood.
Dillon returned to the car and opened the door, "We can go inside it appears to be safe enough."
The four of them entered the building and Dillon led the way towards the back where there appeared to be a door that could be secured. "We will spend the night in this room here and then tomorrow we can explore the rest of the building."
Dr. K nodded and sat down on the floor, "This was Gem and Gemma's room. I only saw it a couple of times as they were usually brought to my room to do our work. but I did get to come here a few times."
Summer flashed a flashlight about the room, "Wow it looks totally unlike them, how did they survive in this room."
"We were not allowed anything extra. we had just the tools we needed to do our work. childish pastimes were removed from us. I still wonder how Gem and Gemma got to keep their personality when mine was washed from me in the first year."
Dillon looked at Tenaya, "it is because they had each other. I think that is why Venjix dumped me because he couldn't get the two of us to act the way a machine soldier should. but Tenaya on her own was much more compliant."
Dr. K looked at the siblings, "Do you think that is what happened Ranger Black."
Dillon looked over, "I thought we had dropped those titles when we gave back our morphers."
Summer chuckled as she opened a few packages of rations and handed them out to the group. "we should eat and then get some sleep."
In the morning, Dr. K awoke to Summer opening more rations. "You are up early."
Summer shrugged and handed Dr. K a ration bar, "I had the early watch so I have been up for the last few hours. This place is creepy, but I think the creepiest thing is that there is nothing alive, not even a rat in this building."
"When I lived here there were always scientists and soldiers traveling around at all times of the night. it was never quiet."
Summer nodded, "Dillon and Tenaya will be up in a few minutes. they never sleep past sunrise even in a building that blocks the sunlight."
Dr. K looked at her watch, "The sun will be rising in one minute and thirty seconds."
Soon after she said that Tenaya began to stretch out and shift her weight. Dillon followed shortly after. within the minute, Dillon and Tenaya were sitting up and eating their ration bars.
Once breakfast was complete they gathered the supplies that they would need for the journey around the building.
Dr. K checked every room, but all the information in every room was destroyed. as they journeyed about the building Tenaya became very uneasy about the whole building. After looking at everything Dr. K led the group to her old room. it was in there that they found the reason why they had not seen anyone for quite some time and why there wasn't anything living in the building at all.
In the center of Dr. K's room was a huge pulse cannon. the cannon was set to emit a very high-powered beam whenever it detected movement and it would destroy everything organic within five miles of the compound.
Dillon stopped moving as soon as Dr. K told them that information from her scan of the device, "Are we in any danger here?"
Tenaya ran her hand over it, "I believe it has been inactive since we shut Venjix down."
Summer nodded, "but the threat of such a thing is enough to put the Nomads that we encountered yesterday on edge. they barely know that Venjix is gone and they wouldn't know that this device is powerless without Venjix."
Tenaya nodded, "All they do know is that if they came into this region then they would go boom and there wouldn't be anyone left."
Dillon looked at Dr. K again, "there has to be a much bigger reason as to why Venjix would go so far as to leave this building fairly unscathed but to obliterate all living people in this region."
Dr. K nodded, "I didn't think of it till now, but I think it has to do with what is underneath this place. I discovered it by accident and got the idea to create Venjix from the information I found down there." She led the way down the hall and climbed into the narrow hidden corridor.
Summer crouched in behind Dr. K as they traveled through the corridor. "What is this?"
Dr. K shrugged, "I can only guess that this was part of the building when it served a different purpose. I discovered it when I was twelve while trying to get away from the scientists. I did that you know. I tried to hide just to get longer breaks from my work."
Dillon chuckled, "I find that hard to believe."
Dr. K shot a glare back down the corridor, "I was a child. I may have been a child genius, but I was a child nonetheless."
when they got to the end Dr. K released the latch and climbed down the hole that was revealed. and everyone else cautiously followed her down into the very cold chamber. once down they all turned on their flashlights and gazed at the very old computer that sat in the center of the room.
Dr. K walked around it, "from what I can tell this was one of the original quantum computers. I could not make it work, but I was able to download from its limited memory the blueprints that became Venjix.
Tenaya squinted to make the supercomputer come into perspective for her, "You are saying that Venjix came from that computer there and that you didn't create it?"
Dr. K shrugged, "I didn't create Venjix outright, but I did have to reactivate and reprogram the information that I took that created him. I would like to believe that what I took from this computer was much different than what Venjix became. I have to wonder though if his dormant programming to take over the world came from this original program or if it was my alterations."
Summer sat in the chair of the computer, "Can we turn it on and find out?"
Dillon cautioned Summer, "We need to be careful. we don't know if turning this computer on will activate the device upstairs. if it does then we will all be incinerated where we stand and Venjix could be free again."
Dr. K walked around the computer, "I think the core is in another chamber. being as old as I think it is the core must be massive. I don't think that turning this computer on will immediately activate the device upstairs. I will, however, set up a dampening field which will prevent this computer from connecting to another network until at which time we can decide if it is a threat or not."
Tenaya quickly located the hatch to a lower chamber, "I found a hatch maybe the core is down here?"
Dillon walked around, "I found an elevator here so people used to come and go from here pretty regularly. it doesn't appear to work not, though."
Summer laughed, "All the power out here in the wastelands has been cut. it wouldn't be surprising. plus you have alphabet soup that was built right over this place."
Dr. K nodded, "I never went below this chamber, but I did figure that it would probably be right under the computer itself."
Dillon led the way down into the lower chamber but when they go down there they found that there were only three strange pods that were facing each other in a triangle formation. each of the pods had an open section that appeared to have doors that slid over them.
Summer walked around the room, "what was this room used for?"
Dr. K shook her head, "I wish I knew, but I can't even hazard a guess but look at all these wires. the pods appear to be connected to the computer and I would even hazard a guess to say that there is a room below this yet still."
Dillon nodded, "I found another hatch so I think your guess is correct."
This time, Summer led the way down the hatch and the four of them found themselves in a large empty room save for a pedestal at the edge of the room near the elevator. the room was by far the coldest room that they had yet been in. it had to be just about freezing in this room.
Dr. K led the way over to the pedestal and flipped a lever which started to raise a giant tower from out of the floor.
Tenaya looked the massive shape over and shook her head, "That is way too much of a coincidence."
Dr. K nodded as she turned another button and the entire thing lit up. the entire chamber began to glow and get warmer almost instantly. it was hardly five minutes before the room was at room temperature.
When the tower had lit up Tenaya jumped behind the others. even in her limited eyesight, she could tell that the tower was almost exactly like the one used by Venjix in his palace and she didn't want to revisit those days.
Inside the computer beyond their knowledge, six figures opened their eyes and looked around, "Jeremy does this mean the supercomputer is back on?"
A blonde-haired boy stood up and looked around. the other five were well armored and appeared ready to fight, but the boy known as Jeremy was less protected and seemed almost out of his element with the group. "That is the only way we could be awake."
A
girl with short pink hair and elfin ears who was called Aelita began listing off things and the others all agreed with her so she turned to Jeremy, "You were right if we stayed in Carthage and near the core our memories wouldn't be affected by the shutdown."
"The supercomputer is programmed to protect everything surrounding the core. the reason why we always lost information before was that the outlying sectors are not as protected in the computer's systems," Jeremy nodded, "and it protected us here as well."
A girl of Asian descent spoke up, "Jeremy I will volunteer to devirtualize myself and check on the situation out there. If it is safe I will devirtualize the rest of you."
a boy dressed in yellow armor who had twin swords on his back, "Yumi please don't leave us. what if something happens out there and it isn't safe for us to leave."
"Ulrich I need to leave and check this out. if it is safe I will contact you from the supercomputer." Yumi smiled before nodding at the tall boy in black armor, "William will you do the honors?"
William nodded and lifted his heavy weapon before swinging it around and slicing Yum in half. Yumi promptly disappeared.
Back out in the rooms, the group was climbing back up into what they would soon learn was the scanner room. as they climbed up they saw the doors to one of the pods close and the pod began to light up. Dillon reached for his weapon not trusting that the pod-shaped thing was going to release a friendly figure.
To all of their surprise when the doors opened a human girl of about sixteen stepped out. she was very clearly of Asian descent and she took a deep breath before turning to face them. when she saw them she took a fighting posture ready to try and fight them.
Dillon loaded his weapon but Summer stepped in front, "I am summer and this is Dillon, Tenaya, and Dr. K, could you tell us who you are?"
The girl gulped but stood up more relaxed but still ready to fight, "I am Yumi and what are you doing here? are you the ones who turned the computer on?"
Dr. K nodded, "I turned the computer on yes. but where did you come from?"
Yumi pointed to the scanner, "that is a scanner and it can devirtualize people and turn them into a computer program. my friends and I were trapped here so we devirtualized ourselves and then the computer was set to turn off shortly after devirtualizing ourselves. we are just lucky that our human bodies still had a template to return to."
"What do you mean by us?" Dillon asked looking at the pods.
Yumi nodded, "I have five friends who are waiting to be devirtualized, I have to go upstairs and call them back. will you allow me to do that or do you have hostile intentions for being here?"
The group uneasily allowed Yumi to walk to the ladder and climb up ahead of them into the computer room.. they watched as she naturally sat in the chair and pulled out an earpiece from under the keyboard. soon she was chatting to the computer and with a few strokes managed to turn on a speaker on the computer so that they could hear what was being said. what they heard were five very human voices and expressing different personalities.
Yumi became concerned as she tapped at the keyboard, but the program that she wanted didn't seem to be coming up. "Jeremy when you cleared the system you forgot to tell me how to get into the devirtualization program. in the past, you have always left the program where I could find it. I am not the programmer that you and Aelita are."
A voice which must have been Jeremy came over the speaker describing how to find the program. Yumi shook her head, "Jeremy it is no use I can't seem to find it. You are going to have to devirtualize yourselves from inside the computer."
Jeremy came over the computer speakers, "Yumi try routing through the system files… Ulrich what are you doing…. No…."
There was a laugh on the other side of the speakers, "Jeremy should be arriving shortly and I think... uh... that Odd is loading an arrow to shoot me…"
Down Below, there were two thuds and two scanners activated and dumped two more people into the room.
Ulrich climbed up into the room, "William, Odd, and Aelita you might want to just devirtualize yourselves. Mr. Einstein didn't take landing back on earth very well and he is pretty dazed."
Yumi started to jump from the chair, "will he be alright?"
Ulrich looked down into the scanner room, "oh yes he will be fine once the earth stops spinning and he can stand up straight. He did pretty well for this being only his second time in the scanners. I remember that it hit me pretty hard my first few times."
Yumi nodded, "And it should be considered his first time because the last time he was loaded was a very traumatic experience."
there was the sound of the scanners all shutting and opening again and soon two boys came up through the hatch. "Aelita is down, talking Jeremy through the process of accepting reality again." Odd proudly stated as he pushed his hair back up into its proper position proudly displaying his purple spot.
Jeremy and Aelita rejoined the group soon after and Jeremy made a point to make sure Yumi knew that the chair was his, "I never want to do that again as long as I live!"
William shrugged, "it does get easier the more you let it happen. the next time you devirtualize you will barely feel it and you should be able to just walk right out of the scanner."
Dillon waved to the crew, "Mind telling us what is going on here?"
Jeremy's fingers raced across the keyboard, "I don't understand, Yumi was right the program is not responding. but if that was the case then we wouldn't have been able self devirtualize as we did."
Aelita picked up Dr. K's tablet, "Jeremy this device appears to be emitting a field of some kind, "I believe that this is the reason.
Jeremy reached out and examined the tablet before holding it out, "Did one of you put this in here?"
Dr. K nodded, "we were worried about releasing a virus so we made it so that the computer couldn't connect to any networks."
Jeremy paused what he was doing before spinning the chair around to look at Dr. K, "What do you mean computer virus?"
Dillon smirked, "The good doctor here found this computer a few years ago and took some information from it in which she created the Venjix virus. We came here today looking for answers."
Yumi crossed her arms, "Jeremy I thought that you deleted XANA from the computer before we uploaded ourselves."
Jeremy deactivated the tablet and began searching the computer and ended up shaking his head, "When I deleted everything I missed a background document that was running the matrices of XANA's program."
Tenaya attempted to lean over Jeremy's chair, "What is XANA?"
"XANA was a program created by my father to maintain the virtual world of Lyoko. Something went wrong with his program and he became a destructive sentient virus bent on destroying the world. We just barely managed to save the earth numerous times."
Dillon rolled his eyes, "History does repeat itself then doesn't it?"
Jeremy spun his chair around, "what do you mean by that?"
Everyone looked away from Jeremy and the rest of the kids who had appeared out of nowhere.
Summer caved first, "Dr. K recreated this XANA into Venjix and he did manage to destroy the world. almost the entire planet lies in ruin. We just managed to come through the war alive but not unscathed down in Corinth."
William charged, "You let XANA free? How stupid were you, people."
Jeremy held up his hand, "I have worse news and these idiots may be the only ones to help us out. "We have been trapped in Lyoko for over sixty years"
Odd shook his head, "I guess we can't just return to the past then can we?"
Aelita shook her head, "Returns to the past are not meant to go more than a week at most into the past and are far more effective for only periods of 24 hours or so.
Tenaya gasped, "This computer can return to the past?"
Jeremy nodded, "Yes it can reverse time however there are side effects to doing so too often.
Aelita nodded, "We have evidence to say that my father lived an entire year in the space of one day. He always suffered from massive paranoia towards the end. I only remember bits and pieces, but I know that it was hard to hold a conversation to the end of it. Before he locked me into Lyoko where I slept for about ten years."
Dillon shook his head, "So you are ten years older than everyone else? I think we need to have a regroup and discuss this."
Jeremy shut down the computer, "I would agree to that. it seems that a lot has happened out here that we need to know."
Odd raised his hand, "You wouldn't happen to have any food, would you? I haven't eaten in what sixty years."
Ulrich and William laughed but also nodded as they realized that their stomachs were empty as well."
Summer nodded, "We have some rations upstairs that we should be able to share."
The group went upstairs to the room that they had stayed in the night before. the Lyoko gang as they called themselves looked around curiously at the alphabet soup complex that they were now in.
Once sitting down each member introduced themselves. after the Lyoko gang had done so the rangers and Dr. K introduced themselves.
All of the Lyoko warriors were in shock at the lives they had all lived. Aelita and William found solidarity with Tenaya and Dillon.
When Dr. K explained that the original reason that they had come out here from Corinth was to find out information about her past and her real name. Jeremy nodded, "I can probably find that information in the Supercomputer, I have always been amazed at what it can find out."
Going back down to the computer room Jeremy logged into a search on the computer and typed in a few keywords and Dr. K's birthday. it wasn't long before the computer came back with a missing person file, "According to this file you are Karen Gauthier."
"Are
you saying that she is descended from Laura?"
Jeremy nodded, "Yes apparently Laura adopted two children. Hannah and Mark. Dr. K your grandfather is Mark Gauthier who was the adopted son of a rival classmate of ours."
Tenaya gasped, "Do you think you could find out about us?"
Jeremy nodded, "I can try, but I can't promise anything. Karen had a birthdate that I could use.
Jeremy entered information on the two of them and at first, a ton of matching data came back but after a couple of hours, he was able to come up with a few possibilities, "You are either Tanya or Tina ad Dillon you are either Drew or Derek.
William asked, "If we can't return to the past could we send information back in time?"
Jeremy thought about it, "In theory it is possible, but we would have to be careful not to reveal this information to XANA."
"Haven't you been able to send yourself messages on your personal computer before?" Yumi asked as an afterthought.
Jeremy nodded, "Yes but to do something of this magnitude I will need to have someone go into the core and rewrite the program directly."
Aelita nodded, "And rewriting the core would be a problem how? you have had me do that many times. At least, this time, I won't be dodging monsters or ninjas."
Jeremy laughed, "Alright then we have eight hours before you can re-enter Lyoko. We should get writing what we are going to send."
Dillon looked at his watch, "Why do we need to wait eight hours?"
William explained, "We have to wait twelve hours before we can be revirtualized. It is a limit set on the supercomputer."
"We will have to spend another night here if we wait that long," Dillon replied impatiently.
Summer shrugged, "We are safe here as long as that device upstairs doesn't go off. there aren't any nomads within five miles and the ones that close are too skittish to enter this town."
Odd tilted his head to the side, "What device is this?"
Tenaya shrugged, "Venjix had a little device upstairs which killed all organic life forms. from what we can tell it hasn't gone off since they deactivated Venjix."
Ulrich shook his head, "So even your Frankenstein version of XANA had self-preservation of the supercomputer. well, that is lucky for us I guess."
Jeremy nodded, "It allowed us to survive. if only this Venjix knew that we were still in there. I doubt he would have been so quick to preserve the supercomputer."
"Yumi smiled and pounded her fists together, "We can make sure that this Venjix doesn't rear its head again. Maybe we should take the skid and check all network connections in the digital sea?"
Jeremy nodded, "Let's get this message finished and then I will do a scan of the network connections if we have time."
During this time, Dillon who was getting nervous about being stationary for so long took William out and showed him what they had been fighting for and to scan the area to make sure that none of the nomads had moved in on their location.
William looked at Dillon, "So Venjix took your memory and forced your sister into service for him? Sometimes I wish I could have been the one to have lost my memory instead of being locked into the supercomputer for months fighting the others at XANA's bidding. he even got his hooks into me a second time when I listened to Laura over the others."
"Trust me losing one's memory isn't any cakewalk either, I am sure Aelita would tell you that as well. At least, my wipe was almost complete. I don't think I could stand having flashes of little things here and there although sometimes I do wish I knew some things." Dillon replied to William.
When they returned to the lab William shook his head, "they weren't kidding when they said everything was destroyed. there is nothing left, not even a hint of Kadic or Yumi's neighborhood."
Yumi let a tear roll down her cheek, "Jeremy could you check to see if maybe my brother is still alive?"
Jeremy shook his head, "That will have to wait till we get to Corinth. I tried to look up recent things, but Venjix made a mess of the networks. it was a wonder that I could even access pre-Venjix material. Summer was telling me that there are logs that people leave with their names and identification so if family members are looking for each other."
Yumi nodded sadly, "I don't even know if he would still be in this country or if he would have moved back to Japan after finishing school. we never really talked about it, but we were technically Japanese citizens as you very well remember."
Aelita wrapped her arm around Yumi, "I remember, we fought tooth and nail when you thought you were going to be deported because your father had lost his job."
Jeremy made a few more keystrokes and then slid out of the chair and stretched, "We should be ready to go when the eight hours lapse in about an hour."
Jeremy then jumped into his chair, "Yumi would you William and Odd like to take the Skid out while Aelita goes with Ulrich to the core?"
William pumped his fist, "Of course we would like to go for a swim."
Jeremy nodded and got back into the chair and began reuploading the skid. "I deprogrammed the skid to save memory space, but it is still loaded so I shouldn't have to do too much reprogramming to it. The Mega pod will be another story if you need to go to another computer however so you will be limited to the Skid for now."
Yumi nodded, "We will make due out there. but if we haven't seen any activated towers on Lyoko then I would hope that there is nothing out in the digital sea.
An hour passed with Jeremy explaining the properties to Lyoko and the supercomputer to Dr. K.
Jeremy sent Odd, Yumi, and William down to the scanner room and proceed to scan and then and virtualize them into the Arena and then directed them to the Skid as he opened the sectors.
After they had had fifteen minutes in the skid he sent Aelita and Ulrich down. Summer stepped forth, "Could I go in with them? We were discussing that it would be nice to see the inside of this Lyoko."
Aelita stopped and shrugged to Jeremy who considered it but turned to Summer, "If we let you do this then you need to know that if we ever do a return to the past you will forever be linked to the supercomputer and you will remember alternate timelines."
Dr. K asked, "What do you mean by that?"
Ulrich jumped on the answer, "Basically when Einstein over here launches a return to the past everyone who has been scanned into the supercomputer remembers the alternate timeline that has been reset. however, the average person just revisits the day without any knowledge of the day that was supposed to happen."
Jeremy nodded, "We, however, made a vow that we won't use our knowledge to give us an advantage of the day. So like if we got an answer wrong in the original timeline we try our hardest to not answer right the second time around."
Summer shrugged, "I think I could live with the chance of living the occasional groundhog day."
Jeremy nodded, "Take her down and show her the scanner room and I will prepare the scanner to receive a new participant."
Dr. K's communicator beeped and a voice issued forth, "Dr. K, Flynn, and Ziggy told us that you were out here."
Dr. K lifted her communicator and talked to the voice, "Scott Dillon, Tenaya, Summer, and I are inside the Alphabet soup compound."
"I hoped that that was where you were. We just flew by and spotted Fury parked nearby. Are you alright in there?" The voice responded.
Two voices came over the communicator, "Question is…. where are… you…. inside the… compound?"
Dr. K smiled, "Gem, Gemma, Scott are you inside?"
Dillon gestured up, "I will go and bring them down here."
Jeremy spun around, "Do you trust these people? It isn't a great idea to show many people this place."
Tenaya nodded, "They are members of the former ranger team that everyone else was a part of."
Dillon went up and got the three of them and showed them down to the lab just as Jeremy was preparing to Scan Summer.
Scott jumped towards Jeremy, "Who is this?"
Dillon held Scott back, "That is Jeremy, and long story short, but we found him inside that computer. He and his friends are virtual warriors bent on destroying an early version of Venjix known as Xana. He is a master encoder and I think Dr. K is somewhat envious of the boy's skill even though he is over sixty years old."
"Scan Summer!" Jeremy called out as he pressed a key and the computer began to form a picture of Summer. however, before it could complete the scan stopped and Summer's face began to flash red. Jeremy quickly aborted the scan and called the three back up to him.
Summer climbed back up into the lab followed by Aelita and Ulrich and asked, "Why did you stop?"
Jeremy shook his head, "I can't virtualize you, the computer is viewing something within you as a hostile threat. You by chance don't have this venjix virus do you?"
Summer looked at Dr. K and they both shook their heads, "I scan clean all the time when tested for the virus."
"If we have more time I would like to check this out but for now, I will just send the two actual members of my team on into Lyoko. You should realize that the scan was complete which means you will be connected to the supercomputer.
Aelita and Ulrich asked, "Can we go back down now?"
Jeremy nodded, "Yes I will prep the scanners."
Aelita and Ulrich climbed down into the scanner room and loaded themselves into the scanners as Jeremy commenced the scan of their bodies. He then turned on the virtualization program and dropped them into the arena outside Carthage. "Once you are ready to proceed to the labyrinth I have unblocked the way for you."
Everyone watching Jeremy watched as two green dots appeared on the screen and began moving through a maze of corridors.
the display shifted and a female voice issued through, "We have traveled out pretty far Jeremy and it is strange out here. the digital sea used to be
a very busy location but not now it is so quiet. no one is logged onto the internet moving files around. we traveled pretty much in a straight line for quite a while without dodging any data files."
Jeremy nodded, "Alright Yumi, why don't you bring the Skid back to Lyoko and I will devirtualize you.
"Already way ahead of you Einstein!" Odd called out and Jeremy shook his head as the dot that indicated the skid moved into Lyoko's atmosphere and its birth. Jeremy pressed some keys and the devirtualization program started up returning three of the files to their human selves.
Aelita and Ulrich reached the core and Aelita spoke, "Jeremy we are in the core, can I have the virtual key now?"
Jeremy pressed a few more keys, "You should have it Aelita. Once you get the key uploaded I need you to open all of the conduits that we discussed earlier. Once you have done that I will bring you back and send the files."
Yumi William and Odd come up into the lab and took fighting stances when they saw the newcomers, "Please tell me you guys are friendly."
Scott nodded, "We are friendly if you are."
Jeremy turned to the returning members of his team, "They are members of Dr. K's team."
Odd skipped over to Dr. K, "Oh you mean Karen Gauthier?"
Scott, Gem, and Gemma were about to speak when Odd wrapped his arms around Dr. K's neck, "You should know that as Laura's great Granddaughter the mantle now falls on you to be greatly annoyed by Odd the great."
Dr. K pushed Odd away, "Please you haven't been this annoying and you have known who I was for several hours now."
Yumi shook her head, "He is usually a little more silly when he returns from Lyoko, it is how we all cope with the stresses of virtualization, Ulrich and I usually throw ourselves into our Martial arts training if we didn't have to go run from a specter that is."
Aelita spoke again, "upload complete Jeremy and the conduits are open as well as several towers, "You now have manual control of Lyoko."
Jeremy nodded, "Prepare to reenter the world Aelita and Ulrich I am bringing you back."
Ulrich replied, "Shouldn't we stay in case something goes wrong? you are drawing a lot of energy and if there is still something out there you could draw its attention."
Jeremy shook his head, "It is going to get very heated in there and I would like you out here." Jeremy then without a further word devirtualized Ulrich and Aelita.
Ulrich and Aelita climbed back up, Jeremy jumped out of his chair and hugged Aelita and everyone else came in for a group hug. "No matter what happens now we are a family!" Jeremy responded from inside the huddle.
Dillon asked, "What do you mean what happens next?"
Dr. K explained, "it is a possibility that by them sending this message to the past that they will effectively change the past and that our timeline will be rewritten canceling our lives and the Venjix virus out."
Jeremy released himself from the hug, "And if it doesn't the rest of us will shut down the supercomputer and join you in Corinth and go on with our lives."
Jeremy went to the keyboard but turned around, "Karen, would you like the opportunity to possibly set your mistakes right?"
Dr. K walked over to the keyboard and together they pressed the enter button.