Lyoko Online

Chapter 1

"Ok class," the professor said as the bell rang, "After lunch we will go over the effects of potassium in water. Mr. Belpios," he said, referring to an 18 year old blonde who was packing his bags, "if you could wait a moment."

Jeremy paused, looking around to the Professor, he was short and thin but not sickly and looked mature for his age. Then turning to the others, he waved them off, "I'll catch up."

The others paused for a moment, then turned and walked out the door, "We'll see you out there." Aelita said waving goodbye.

As the group left, they closed the door behind them. "Mr. Belpois thank you. I've a favor to ask of you."

"Uh… yes?" Jeremy asked.

"We have a new student from America, his name is Deron Lea, he is 18 and scored perfectly on all of his exams and is highly recommended. I felt the best person here to show him around would be someone equal to him in intellect."

"So you just want me to show him around?" Jeremy asked surprised.

"Absolutely!" He responded. "Can we count on you?"

"Sure, happy to help." Jeremy said.

"Brilliant! Let me show you to him," The professor said, "He'll be rooming with you from now on."

"Wait what?" Jeremy asked, feeling slightly startled.

"You are ready for the best few months of our lives!" Odd yelled, pumping his fists in the air as they all walked into the courtyard, "No Xana! No Homework! No Problems! Just good old gaming and relaxation"

"You seem cherry Odd." Aelita chuckled, she was shorter with pink hair, with the build of a 17 year old. Although she was a fair bit older intellectually, having spent most of her life in Lyoko her body aged more slowly, giving her a youthful body.

"Of course I am! It's almost vacation! We haven't had a Lyoko situation for over a week, the release of that new SAO game is today, and I smell freedom!" Odd smiled stretching out, he was moderate height, limber and well built for 18 in his physical prime.

"Cool it off Odd you're gonna jinx something." Ulrich said coolly, he was 17 and strong, short not chiseled but it was clear he was athletic. He looked serious and solemn with brown hair and a stern face.

"Don't be such a killjoy Ulrich." Odd retorted.

"It actually has been a pretty calm week." Aelita said, looking at him with a smirk, "It's a bit odd isn't it?"

"Nice one Aelita!" Odd laughed.

Yumi sighed, she was taller than Ulrich and two years older by a few months. Leaning against a nearby tree, with black hair and an aloof air about her she said, "Puns… You had to start teaching her puns…"

"It's not like they're that hard to learn" Aelita smiled.

"So what do you think they're talking to Jeremy about in there?" Ulrich asked, leaning out on the grass.

"Probably just gonna give him some other award for being a genius or something." Odd said.

"Wait, there he is." Yumi said pointing over to the classrooms. Jeremy was walking across the courtyard with a tall blond boy wearing glasses, holding several bags and toting a suitcase.

"Who's he?" Aelita asked.

"I don't know," replied Ulrich, "Never seen him before."

The group watched them pass through the middle of the grassy yard, talking and laughing to themselves, towards the dormitories. Jeremy held the door open for him and they walked in.

"Seems like Jeremy found a new friend!" Odd said happily.

"Is he a new student?" Aelita asked.

"Seems like it, let's go say hi." Yumi said, getting up and moving towards the dormitories.

"Sure why not." Ulrich said following close behind.

Deron's P.O.V.

The day was going rather well, all things considered. The orientation was a breeze, (The same as the last three). He thought to himself as he followed the student who was now his roommate. He was shorter than him, but lanky like himself, he had a smart way of speaking and a knowledgeable manner, along with a shared fascination with computer programing. (You could do worse for a roommate Deron) he thought with a smile.

"So… uh Jeremy right?" he asked, trying to start up a conversation as they walked out into the courtyard.

"Yup." Jeremy replied.

"Uh, thanks… you know for uh showing me around." he stammered.

"Don't mention it." Jeremy smiled, "So. Over this way are the dormitories, across the way from the computer labs."

"Computer labs? They any good?" Deron smirked as they moved towards the dorms.

Jeremy chuckled in response, "They aren't awful but… eh." he finished making a so so motion with his hands.

"Lag time makes you feel like you're using carrier pigeons?" Deron snarked with a sideways glance at the building.

"Exactly!" Jeremy said cheerfully. "Finally someone else who knows!"

"These giant academies never put enough funding into their computer programs." he continued, "That's why I bring my own."

"You too?" Jeremy asked, opening the door for him, "What's the processing speed?"

The two continued talking shop all the way to their room, once inside, they packed everything away. After setting everything up they swapped computers.

"Great set up!" Deron smirked, admiring his firewalls, "Might even take me a whole three minutes to crack."

"Hah! Oh you're on." Jeremy smiled as they entered the battle of wits.

After several minutes of hard coding Deron was stumped, it was as if the firewall was learning and adapting to every move he threw at it. Every maneuver he tried was shot back and countered with such force he had to focus solely on defence.

"So this is what the brainiacs do for fun!" sounded a voice from the doorway, jolting them both from their work. The sudden distraction caused the security software to advance and lock them both out.

"Odd," Jeremy sighed, "I almost had it!"

"That was some intense stuff there!" Deron said in awe as the people outside walked in, "How'd you get the servers to work collectively like that?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets." Jeremy said, bowing slightly.

"So," Aelita popped in, "You going to introduce us to your new friend Jeremy?"

"Oh, yes. This is Deron everybody." Jeremy said, "He's a new exchange student from America."

"Nice to meet you Deron," Aelita said extending a hand, "My name is Aelita."

"Hi." he replied, shaking her hand.

"This is Odd," Jeremy said, pointing to the guy all in purple with spiky blond hair, "And that's Ulrich and Yumi." gesturing to the brown haired guy and black haired girl in the doorway.

"Nice to meet you." he said offering his hand to them each in turn. "So any tips about the big academy? Anyone's good side I should be on? Anyone I should avoid?"

The group all turned one to another, then back together and all said, "Sissy."

With a chuckle, he started to ask, "Who's Sis-"

Suddenly an alarm blazed across the screen of Jeremy's laptop, an intriguing symbol illuminated the desktop, and all of their phones went off at once. Confused, Deron looked around at them as they pulled out their cells. Odd got a grin on his face, Ulrich's grew determined, Jeremy and Aelita became distressed, and Yumi's darkened.

"What? Time for Gym class?" he said awkwardly not knowing how to respond.

"Uh you know I don't feel so good, I think I need to visit the infirmary." Ulrich said, turning to the group.

"Yeah! Me too must've been that old cafeteria food again!" Odd said cheerfully, holding his stomach dramatically.

"We'll help you over there." Yumi said nodding to the hallway.

"Uh… you guys want help?" Deron asked, slightly worried at this rapid change of behavior.

"Nah, it's all good Deron we'll be back in time for the next class." Odd said waving him off with a chuckle.

The group shushed him, and quickly rushed out of the room. "Sorry Deron, I'll be back to finish the orientation later!" Jeremy finished as they all started running off.

(Ok… that was weird…) Deron thought about turning back to his things. His curiosity piqued, he tried avoiding it by organizing his room… But the more he tried to put it off the more he thought back to the symbol he'd seen on Jeremy's laptop, it ate at him more and more. What were they hiding? A secret club? Some cool Government conspiracy? Deron smiled to himself, the second one was definitely a stretch but still, he thought. Still they were definitely hiding something. So peeking out into the hallway, he checked who was out there. With no one to be found, he carefully closed the door and locked it.

"Ok Jeremy," he said cracking his knuckles, "Lets see what you got hidden here." He pulled over his laptop and opened all of his invasive programs and got to work.

"He wasn't half bad you know." Yumi said as they ran through the halls and corridors of the school, "Seemed nice enough."

"It'll just make it a lot harder from now on. I'm afraid he'll suspect something." Jeremy said, "And with him as a roommate he'll see all of our Xana alerts."

"Yeah but with the return to the past he won't even remember! So what gives?" Odd shrugged.

"Why don't we just tell him? It'd be easier all around if we did." Ulrich said as they left the grounds, "Looked like a guy we could trust."

"You know we can't do that. We signed up for this, he doesn't know how dangerous it can be." Jeremy pointed out firmly, "remember what happened with William? We don't want another of those things happening."

"Yeah but William was a jerk." Odd said, everyone turned to him with a shocked face, "What? Everyone's thinking about it, I'm just saying it."

The group laughed together and kept going in silence. Within a few minutes they'd arrived at the factory and Jeremy ran to the console of the supercomputer as the gang headed down to the scanners.

"Ok guys the activated tower is down in the desert I'll try and send you in close." sounded Jeremy's voice from the speakers.

"Got it," Odd shouted as he entered the scanner, "We'll head in first Aelita."

"Transfer Odd, Transfer Ulrich, Transfer Yumi. Scanner…" Jeremy said, Typing in the keys "Virtualization."

The desert felt hot and dry as they materialized into existence. Falling to a crouch on the ground, the trio looked around, taking in the surroundings and dunes.

"Ah, I love the sight of sand dunes in the morning." Odd said happily as he stretched out.

"What are we looking at here Jeremy?" Ulrich asked.

Within a few seconds Aelita joined them. "Which direction is the tower Jeremy?" she said, turning around to the others.

"It should be north, but buckle up, Xana's got some heavy hitters out." he responded.

"Aw come on Jeremy, what's the worst that could happen? We're basically professionals!" Odd laughed.

The crew rolled their eyes collectively, then ran off towards a pass that was in the way of the tower. Ulrich used his super sprint to get there first and scope it out. He saw three Crabs, a Tank, and several Blocks all patrolling and surrounding the red tower.

"Wow Jeremy you weren't kidding, Xana sent an army for this thing!" Yumi said as she approached.

"Well. Let's take 'em." Ulrich said cooly followed by a, "Super sprint!" as he ran towards them at super speed.

Yumi followed suit and opened one of her fans. Whipping it out she spun it at one of the Blocks. Ulrich by this point was nearing the creatures and triplicated, creating three Identical copies of him all running at the same speed. As the beasts noticed him they all began firing at him. The two on either side of him ran split off to the sides as the speed down the middle, just as the Tank opened up, aimed directly at him.

"I've got ya Ulrich! Laser Arrow!" Odd yelled, shooting at the Tank before it could blast at him. It closed up as the arrow neared and deflected the blast.

"Oh, so it's going to be one of those days…" Odd sighed.

"HAH!" Deron shouted, having finally gained access to the desktop, "Victory is mine! Now let's see what you've been hiding here."

Opening up several programs, he got a decent schematic of what was taking up most of the computers processing power. It was an Icon called Lyoko, the same symbol appeared on it as what he'd seen before. Intrigued, he continued his search and opened the program, it showed a set of stat cards, the type one would generally see in a MMORPG. The faces on them were familiar. It was all of Jeremy's friends!

"Hello there! What are you doing here?" he asked himself, "You went off gaming… But where?" he finished, thinking of the possibilities. Running a search of the system, he found the root code that led to a server near the old factory a fair distance from the school.

"Of course!" he said, "Think of the power output of those computers! And the Processors must be insane!" quickly thinking through his options he looked around. He was basically in orientation for the whole day, and exempt from all of the classes. So he had free time to do a little exploring, quickly downloading the address of the factory he input it into his laptop and set out. Using the Gps on his device to guide him to the factory.

"I'm getting in on this," he smiled, "What could go wrong?"

"Laser Arrow!" Odd said shooting a Block in the target, causing it to spin rapidly and then explode.

"Hyah!" Yumi shouted, throwing a fan towards one of the Crabs, and using her other to block a shot from one of the Cubes. "Odd watch out!" she shouted, throwing a fan at one of the other Blocks, slicing it across its side target.

"Whoa! That was a close one!" he shouted as it exploded.

Ulrich was taking on several Crabs at once, dodging in between several blasts and cutting at their legs. He managed to nick one and it fell over, sprinting around it he stabbed right in the target atop its head, causing it to explode. As he recovered, he was shot in the back by one of the other two.

"That's 20 life points Ulrich!" Jeremy said from above.

"Thanks for that one Jeremy, I hadn't noticed." he grumbled, rising up and dodge rolling to avoid a ray of energy.

"Watch out for the Tank!" Ulrich shouted.

"Laser Arrows!" Odd said shooting two arrows at the Tank as it shot at Ulrich, it closed and turned for him. "Oh crap."

"Odd!" Yumi shouted, jumping at him, and pushing him out of the way as the Tank shot again. Taking the brunt of the blast she was devirtualized.

"Yumi!" shouted Aelita.

"Aelita get behind me!" Ulrich shouted waving her behind him so he could block the laser blasts.

"Odd, Ulrich, you guys have to get out of there, there are too many!" Jeremy shouted from the console.

"I'm a little busy at the moment Jeremy!" Ulrich said as he deflected several more blasts.

Odd shot several more Blocks causing them to explode, then the Tank opened again. Seizing the opportunity he fired, but his clip was empty.

"Guys! I'm out!" he shouted, jumping out of the way as the Tank fired at him.

"Working on it, Odd!" Jeremy shouted, "I've sent you a little help!"

A few feet away, the three could see their vehicles spawn in. Ulrich nodded to Aelita to run towards the speeder, nodding back she bolted to it, Odd following close behind. The 3 remaining Crabs turned and began a renewed assault on them. Ulrich blocking the majority of the lasers and dodging the others, noticing the change in tactics, the Tank turned to Ulrich and began charging.

"Triplicate!" he shouted, splitting into three and running in different directions around the creatures at lightning speed. Confused, the Tank turned and followed trying to decide which to attack.

Aelita and Odd made it to their vehicles and started them up, Odd jumping onto his hoverboard and Aelita taking the speeder. Leaving Ulrich's Bike behind.

"Ulrich! Come on!" Aelita shouted.

"GO! I'm right behind you!" Ulrich replied, the Tank was still confused but the remaining 4 Blocks and one of the other Crabs had taken the opportunity to follow the others.

"No!" Ulrich shouted, turning," Super Sprint!" he said, darting off after them, trying with his might to get there before it was too late. But he was blasted off his feet and dematerialized by the Tank.

"No!" Odd shouted.

"Ulrich!" Jeremy yelled, from the controls, "Aelita, Odd, get out of there! Get some distance and spread them out!"

Yumi had devirtualized and was now in the lab next to the supercomputer with Jeremy, Ulrich had just devirtualized and was probably on his way up by now.

"What are we going to do?" Yumi asked, "Look, I know that Odd is a good shot and all but there's no way he can take on a Tank, 4 Blocks, And 3 Crabs."

"I don't know, you have any suggestions?" Jeremy asked frantically as he reloaded Odd's magazines with arrows.

Just then the elevator clanked and whirred as it arrived at their level and the doors began opening.

"Well it's not like we have anyone el-" Yumi began, but was cut off by who she saw in the elevator.

"What?" Jeremy asked turning to look at the entrance, his face froze and the two of them sat in disbelief.

"Deron?!" they both shouted.

"Now if I was a secret gaming hangout… where would I be?" Deron mused to himself, walking around the empty lot, "You'd think it'd be easier to find."

"Well well well. Why am I surprised?" came a man's voice from the entrance, "I leave you alone for the first day of school, and where do I find you but in an old abandoned building outside of town. Are you trying to get me fired?"

"Aww cool off Al," Deron voiced without turning to look at the man, standing in the large doorway was a tall muscular giant of a man, wearing a business suit, arms crossed and looking annoyed. "My parents don't even check in more than once a month, I've seen the phone records. I bet they just had the secretaries do it the last two times."

"That's beside the point. What're you even doing out here?" Al asked, looking around, "I thought you were going through orientation."

"Well I was," Deron defended, "But the guy who was showing me around ran off here, so I'm lookin for their gamers hideout."

"Gamers what?" Al asked.

"Look," Deron said, showing him the screen with the character stats up, "Looks like some new MMORPG and I want in, but I haven't been able to find out where their set up is."

"Ok so let me get this straight. You ditched school, and followed a few kids to an abandoned factory, just to crash their gaming party?" Al sighed with a hand to his face.

"Basically." Deron said cheerfully, "You gonna help me find them or what?"

"You're lucky I don't put you under house arrest." he said grumbling to himself, but then held his hands up in surrender, "Whatever, let's go find your truants."

The two looked around for any sign of activity, the stairways were locked and there were no signs of forced entry. They found no lights on or any other indicators of anyone but themselves there.

"Ugh." Deron groaned, checking his computer to check if the signal was still active. After five minutes there was still no sign, "This is hopeless."

"Have you tried the elevator?" Al asked.

"No, but this place has been abandoned for ages there's no way that the electronics work." Deron replied.

"Well, if these kids are as smart as you think they are, then the first thing they would do is build a reliable entrance." Al concluded walking over to the elevator and pressing the button.

The doors groaned to life ratchets clanked and gears spun as the door opened slowly. Al turned to him smuggly with a smirk, Deron ignored it and ran inside, Al following suit.

"Wait wait, you can't come!" Deron said, panicking.

"What do you mean? I found the door." Al said.

"Yeah but they don't know about my whole… situation, I don't want them to find out! Please, if you want, you can stay up here but don't come with me."

Al looked stern for a moment, but then relaxed a little, "One chance. You burn this bridge and we're roommates." he finished holding up a finger. "I'll be watching."

"Thanks Al you won't regret this!" Deron said punching the button to head down, "I doubt there are any secret exits anyways." he joked as the doors shut.

As the elevator lowered down he thought to himself what he would end up saying. He'd basically be crashing their gamer party, and he'd have to play it cool, so he smoothed over his hair and tried to look nonchalant about things. Holding his laptop to his side as the machine came to a clattering halt and the doors opened slowly. Revealing a giant computer console with a 3D holographic display, and Jeremy sitting in a large chair with Yumi beside him, both giving him incredulous looks.

"Deron!?" they both shouted.

"Uh.. Hi guys." Deron began, trying to act cool, but then he got a better look at the computer, "I thought you'd have a nice set up but this is ridiculous! What is this? Ex-Government tech?" he asked as he walked over to the holoprojection of Lyoko.

"Deron, what are you doing here!?" Jeremy panicked.

Yumi charged him grabbing him in a painful hold, causing him to drop his laptop and restricting his movement and pulling him away from the layout. Startling Jeremy and causing Deron to gasp in pain.

"OW! What the heck!" Deron shouted.

"Yumi! What are you doing?" Jeremy said getting out of his chair, but Yumi shot him a glare and he sat back down.

"Why are you here! How did you find us!" she asked fiercely, "What, are you with the Government?"

"Wh-Wha government, No! I just wanted to OW!" Deron stuttered and cried out in pain as Yumi tightened her grip.

"The Truth!" she said.

"No! Seriously! I wanted to know what the weird symbol meant on Jeremy's laptop! So I hacked in and saw you were all gaming here at the factory so I put the address in my laptop and ran here to join in!" he forced out as his arm seethed in pain from the hold.

Yumi glanced up to Jeremy, "Gaming?" she asked, "What do you mean gaming?"

"I saw the Avatar stats in the file marked Lyoko! Now let me go before you friggin break my arm!" Deron retorted. Finally Yumi relented and let him up, as he rose and dusted himself off, she glanced over to Jeremy.

"How did you even break into my laptop?" Jeremy asked.

"I used to hack into things for fun, the pentagon was a breeze, once I got my invasive software into your computer took me less than a minute." he said slightly proud, and massaging his arm.

"JEREMY!" Odd shouted from the computer, "I need more ammo! Duck Aelita!"

"Hey yeah, where are the others? I'd have thought they'd all be here with you guys." Deron asked.

Just then the Elevator opened again, this time Ulrich stepped out, "What are we going to do Jeremy, Odd's in…" he trailed off seeing Deron standing in front of him, "What's he doing here?"

"JEREMY!" Odds' voice rang out again.

"No time! Yumi, Ulrich get him down to the scanners! Explain on the way, I'll prep things up here." Jeremy shouted.

Yumi and Ulrich nodded and grabbed Deron, running into the Elevator and slamming the button before he could blink. Jeremy was back to the computer in a flash, opening up a new character program. Unable to think about how to customize it he turned back to Deron's laptop, still on the floor.

"Don't worry Odd, we're sending backup." he said confidently.

"Will someone explain what's going on?!" Deron shouted as Yumi and Ulrich practically dragged him into another huge room with insanely advanced looking tech inside.

"You wanted in on what we're doing here? Well this is it." Yumi said, pointing to a scanner.

"What? This tube thing?" Deron asked, "I thought you were in some gaming group! What's really going on!"

"Look Deron, there's a digital world inside there called Lyoko, and right now a sentient virus is trying to take over the earth and unless we stop it a lot of people are going to get hurt."

"You're nuts!" Deron said.

"I'm either insane and it'll do nothing, or I'm right and the world is in danger." Ulrich said cooly, "Why would we make this up?"

Deron was at a loss for words. The entire situation was almost impossible, but Ulrich's face was hard not to believe, he was so emphatic. And what would be the point of lying? He'd seen the computer! It explained everything… and if people were in danger… he wasn't just going to sit there and do nothing.

"What do I do?" he asked softly.

"Just get in." Yumi said.

"And after that?" Deron asked.

"You'll see." Ulrich said.

"Thanks that really clears it all up." Deron snarked, rolling his eyes. Squaring up, he walked into the machine and turned to face the two of them, as the doors shut slowly.

"Good luck." Yumi said as Ulrich nodded to him. Then the doors shut.

Jeremy's voice crackled to life in the speakers, "Transfer Deron," the machine sparked to life, light illuminated the tube he was standing in and energy began charging.

"Scanner Deron," A wave of electrical currents pulsed down his body, a green light flashed as it passed over his head.

"... Virtualization" Air whooshed around his body followed by a blinding light as the ground gave way below him and he felt weightless, a tingling sensation curling up his body. And it all whited out.

The air was dry, the climate hot, the first sensations to his body were these. Second he felt a jolt as he came to and realized he was in midair, floundering around for a moment, he remembered from the TV shows how people usually landed. Positioning himself as best he could, he landed in a rough squat.

Looking around him he saw the desert environment, interesting cables flowing with energy and electricity. The environment was plain and tranquil, in stark contrast to how his past few minutes had been. Examining his clothes, he saw that he looked rather like a samurai armor covering his legs and upper arms including a japanese style breastplate and sash in red, hooked to his waist he found two short thick swords joined by a decently long chain. His forearms were covered by leather looking bracers and his calves covered in cloth wrappings down to large sandals that wrapped up his ankles.

"Whoa!" Deron said to himself as he examined his character, "They weren't kidding." he finished pulling out the broad chained swords from his belt.

"Ok Deron listen carefully," Jeremy's voice said from above, "The Tower is ahead a fair distance, you've got to get Aelita inside."

"And how am I-" Deron started to ask as he examined his blades, but stopped as he saw several figures in the distance approaching fast, "what the?" he said, confused.

Squinting to distinguish them, the world seemed to freeze and the terrain unfolded in front of him in a wave of energy. The wave continued onwards in a bubble of sorts until it encompassed the figures, the two in front glowed a bright yellow, the ones behind a bright red.

"Whoa…" he said, amazed by this new ability. "What was that?"

"That was your radar," Jeremy said, revising his data sheet, ``you've got some new abilities and I don't have the time to explain them all right now."

"Gang way!" came a shout as Odd and Aelita zoomed past in their vehicles, Deron barely had time to duck, to avoid being splattered by them.

"Hey watch it!" Deron shouted, but then he heard a mechanical whirring behind him as the 3 Crabs strode up to him, charging their lasers. On instinct, he reacted, spinning the blades by the chain, he deflected the first shot and threw his other in a side swipe, cutting off its front to legs and bringing it to the ground.

"Hah!" Deron laughed whipping the blade back to his hand, "This is gonna be fun."

"Laser Arrows!" Odd shouted from behind him, hitting two directly in the now exposed target atop the Crab, destroying it. "Hey thanks!" Odd finished swerving back around on his hoverboard.

"Deron!?" Aelita said, shocked, "How did you-" She started, but was cut off by the lasers of approaching Blocks and Crabs.

"Talk later, fight now!" Odd said, shooting two Blocks directly at their targets.

"Couldn't agree more!" Deron shouted, spinning both of his blades around deftly, blocking several shots from the 2 remaining Crabs and Blocks. The two began making substantial progress, Deron's chain blades creating almost a wall of defense from the lasers of the oncoming mobs. As Odd shot, it gave Deron the opportunity to take some shots at the closer of the enemies, and soon they were free of them, left standing alone in the hot sand.

"Wow! You were great!" Odd said, stretching out after the skirmish, "You got like training in this or something?"

"Eh," Deron said, shrugging it off, "I guess I'm just good at videogames." he finished as Aelita zoomed back in her speeder.

"Come on!" she said emphatically, waving Deron on, "We've got to deactivate the tower."

Odd smiled and backflipped onto his hoverboard which was waiting just behind him, "Well, what're you waiting for? An invitation? Let's go!" he finished shooting off towards the tower.

Deron chuckled then jumped onto the hoverspeeder with Aelita, "After you." he smiled. " as Aelita chuckled and followed after Odd at a high speed.

"Remember guys there's still a Crab and a Tank to take care of." Jeremy warned.

"We'll be fine Jeremy." Odd said, "Just hit me with a reload could ya?"

"Sounds pretty confident for the guy just running away from all the bad guys." Deron chuckled.

"So I had a bad run, I'm in the zone now man." he retorted.

"So what's the plan?" Aelita asked over her shoulder.

"I've got an Idea." Deron said.

"This is the stupidest Idea in the world." Odd said, from in front of a large sand dune, waiting for the signal from Aelita.

"Aww what are you whining about, Deron said from atop the dune, "This plan works out. I'm the one takin on the Crab."

"Yeah and me a Tank!" he complained.

"Well who's got the laser wrist crossbows?" Deron asked, turning away from his watching position, eyebrow raised.

Odd looked like he was preparing a remark, but instead said, "Toché."

Deron smirked and went back to watching, with his enhanced radar he could see Aelita walking towards the entrance to the enclosed depression where the Tower was. The plan was simple, Aelita draws out the Crab, he takes care of it, and Odd snipes the Tank. Foolproof, he thought to himself. But his pondering was cut off as he saw Aelita waving.

"Ok Odd this is it, I'm heading over, take aim." Deron said, sliding down as Odd nodded in return.

Deron ran quickly, sliding down the side of the hill, coming to a stop right in front of the gap that worked as the entrance to the semi-canyon leading to the Tower. He could see Aelita on the other side, waving to her and giving a thumbs up, she nodded and took a deep breath.

"Come on," Deron said in anticipation, "You can do it."

Aelita steadied herself, and bolted, running straight through the opening and towards the tower. The Tank and Crab both turned towards her and fired. Aelita dodge rolled out of the way, narrowly avoiding the large ray of energy launched at her. Recovering quickly, she ran back towards the exit, the Crab moving in fast. As the chase commenced the Tank prepped another shot, but as it loaded, a laser arrow deflected off of its side.

"Crap!" Deron said, watching Odd take aim yet again, as the tank now closed rolled in his direction. Aelita was still busy with her own problems, the Crab was gaining fast and she was still a decent distance from the entrance, out of range of Deron's chainswords.

"Aelita!" Odd shouted, jumping onto his hoverboard and flying after her.

"No Odd! Stick to the plan!" Deron whispered fiercely to himself. Holding back until the right moment to strike.

"Laser Arrow!" Odd shouted, firing several shots directly in the Crab's Target. As it dropped and exploded a blast of energy fired at Odd, destroying his hoverboard and sending him tumbling to the ground as Aelita made it to safety.

Once Aelita was back Deron saw the need to change tactics, "Aelita get to the tower, I'll help Odd!" he shouted running into the fray.

The Tank was rolling straight towards Odd, who was cooly aiming with anticipation. As it approached Deron began circling from another direction, swords out and ready, allowing some slight cover for Aelita to start edging in.

The Tank was confused, with only one shot and two attackers it seemed as if it couldn't decide which to focus on. As the two edged closer and closer, the Tank made a decision, spinning around rapidly it opened up and fired at Odd who, trying to make the shot, missed and took the full force of the ray.

"Odd!" Deron shouted, with a quick check of his radar, he saw Aelita was almost to the tower, the only thing he needed to do was keep the Tank occupied a few seconds. "Ok. Let's do this."

The Tank turned to him as he prepared his swords, moving in a circle to keep its attention on him and not Aelita. Swinging his blades in wide circles he advanced slowly, being as loud and visual as possible.

"Hey Shotput!" he said, "Come and get me!"

The Tank opened again and charged its shot, Deron prepared himself and waited for the right moment. With a bang, the Tank shot a huge ray of energy, Deron Dodgerolled out of the way.

"You call that an attack?!" he taunted, "My magic eights ball can do better!" The Tank spun around following him back over, away from the tower.

As it charged Deron kept taunting, "What do you think? You gonna hit me?" he asked sarcastically. The Tank fired, and Deron nimbly dodged again, "Don't count on it." he snickered to himself, pleased with his pun.

Checking his radar quickly he saw that Aelita was at the base of the tower smiling and he shouted to the Tank. "Hey! I was distracting you! Guess what? We won!"

The Tank was confused for a moment until it turned towards the tower and saw Aelita entering with a sly wave goodbye. In desperation the Tank opened and prepped a shot to take out Aelita, Giving Deron the opportunity to take it out. Swinging his blades rapidly he threw them at the miniscule targets in the Tank's inner circumference. One missed but the other landed dead on sticking firmly.

"Hah!" Deron smiled, "I actually did that." Then the Tank exploded throwing him back into the walls of the canyon. The last thing he remembered hearing was the sound of Jeremy's voice. Followed by a bright white light.

"Return to the past now!"

-Return to the past-

Deron's eyes snapped open, he sat bolt upright in his bed. He was in his room, scenes from Lyoko still fresh in his mind, vibrant and focused. The room was normal, but it was too real to be a dream. There was no way he could've dreamed up something that cool. Hopping out of bed he looked at the clock, it was the same day, but earlier.

"Ok this is some sort of crazy Matrix crap we got goin on here." he said to himself, hearing a vibration on the end table to his right. Moving over, he picked up his phone to look at the message updates, skipping through several notifications including an update about that new sword fighting VR game that would go online tomorrow. Not giving it a second thought, he scrolled to the messages.

~ First day of school. Don't be late or you're getting an ankle monitor.

Al ~

Looking up from the screen, he turned to the closet and started getting ready. There was only one place he could go for answers, where it all started. He pulled on his clothes and grabbed all of his things, including his suitcases and extra laptop, something gave him the feeling he'd appreciate it this time around.

The trip to the school was a fast one. Much quicker than the first time, due to his ulterior motives for heading there and determined pace. So he quickly found his way to the offices and checked in with the secretaries. Once in, he remembered the way to Jeremy's room, so rather than wait for him he went straight there.

Upon entering the room, and discovering it empty, he dropped off his things and set up his shop. Taking the spare desk, hooking up his electronics and making everything livable. Once everything was all in place, he was about to head back out to look for Jeremy and the others when the door swung open, revealing the whole gang there waiting for him.

"Well… saves me the trouble of looking." he chuckled to himself.

The others didn't look so amused, as they walked in Jeremy went over to the computer and Ulrich shut the door behind them. And everyone waited expectantly looking at Jeremy, either sitting on one of the beds or leaning against the wall.

"What's with all the silence?" Deron asked awkwardly, "I mean so what? I find out you guys have a secret virtual world you all run off to every da- Owch!" he finished as Ulrich punched him in the arm.

"Sheesh blab it to the whole world why don't you." he grumbled.

"Ok ok I get it." he said massaging his arm, "First rule about virtual fight club, you don't talk about virtual fight club."

Odd chuckled at that, and everyone else turned to look at him. "What?" he defended, "It's a funny reference."

"This isn't some sort of a game Deron." Jeremy said, turning away from the computer to look at him. "The choices we make and the battles we fight have real life consequences."

"What do you mean real life consequences?" Deron said, "It's a videogame, I mean I'm all for street fighters but if Ryu loses to Ken, no one dies."

"When we found Lyoko, we discovered a world that is connected to this one," Jeremy said, "In Lyoko we can influence parts of our world in ways you can't imagine. But," he paused.

"There was a virus, got that." Deron said, "Or I guess I do. But either way, five teens against an evil glitch monster? It sounds like you need all the help you can find."

"It's dangerous," he warned, "Once you decide to join you're a target."

"Seems like either way the choice has been made for me," Deron said, "I want to help, and if I don't I know too much. So… what now?"

Jeremy nodded and turned to the group, "That's why we're here. It's not my decision, we're a team, so we all have to agree." he finished, looking to each of them in turn.

"Heck, I'm down! He really saved our buts back there. I'd say he earned it." Odd smiled with a shrug.

"Aelita?" Jeremy questioned.

"I think it'd be a good Idea." she said looking to Deron, "We could use the help."

Jeremy nodded in response and moved on, "Ulrich?"

"He seems nice enough, seems like he can handle himself, he's less annoying than Odd." he smirked getting a glare from Odd in response, "... I'm fine with it." he said cooly.

"Yumi?" Jeremy asked, "We know what you're worried about… but if he's willing to try, we'll keep an eye out for him."

"I know. And Xana has been amping up his attacks lately. Some extra backup couldn't hurt." she said.

"Well that settles it! Welcome to Team Lyoko Deron!" Odd shouted with a smile, catching Deron around the neck and giving him a noogie.

"Now who's shouting it to the world?" Deron chuckled as he fought Odd off of him.

"We aren't calling ourselves Team Lyoko Odd." Yumi sighed.

"Oh come on, it's catchy!" he retorted, as Jeremy walked over and extended a hand to Deron.

"Welcome to the team."

Deron took it and shook, "Happy you'd have me!"

Then the bell rang again signaling it was time for lunch, and the group started their way out. Talking about the standard things, life, their likes and dislikes. Deron could tell that this year would be the best of any he'd had in his other academies.

-End Chapter 1-