Code Matriks
Episode 2: An Awkward Meeting
By B1ockh3d
Author's Note: I said in chapter 1 I'd post a new chapter either every Monday or every other Monday. I'm really spending my time with these chapters and writing full episodes, heck, this chapter along is over 7,500 words, and I'm going to college at the same time. I really want to make good content, so I am going to aim for every other Monday. The next chapter may be a week or two late, because I have finals coming up at the end of May. But after that, I'm off!
The bell rang. Odd, Ulrich, Aelita, Jeremie, and the rest of the class piled into Ms. Hertz's room.
"Welcome to class, everybody." Ms. Hertz welcomed.
"Afternoon, Ms. Hertz." Everyone greeted back.
"I know you're in the last class of the day, so bear with me. It's going to be a relaxed class." She pulled up a powerpoint, "Last week, I went to the east coast of the United States to attend the Young Innovators Showcase."
"Ohh boy, here we go..." Odd whispered to Ulrich, "I think I'm gonna take a nap."
"Just don't get caught." Ulrich whispered back.
They sat through some of the competitor's slides, and talking about the scientific principles behind each one. They got to the last group, a black student and a white student that made a new type of battery.
"This was the winning team from Washington State University, Markus and Chri- uh, Cooke, that was his name." Ms. Hertz stumbled, "They got lucky, as the original team that won returned the prize of a lab and grant due to the fact they plagiarized their project. The WSU team made an aluminum battery with graphene super conductor and super capacitors, prolonging the life of any device that uses a lithium ion battery..."
"Goodness..." Odd moaned silently, "Who cares..."
The bell rang about five minutes later.
"That's all for today class. Remember, read chapters 14 and 15 in your books that you may or may not be pop quizzed on tomorrow." Ms. Hertz waved.
The gang reconvened outside the classroom.
"So, you guys doing anything?" Ulrich asked Aelita and Jeremie.
"We were gonna head to my room to finish up Kiwi 3.0." Jeremie answered, "We don't wanna lose to Sissi bot again."
"You technically didn't lose last time." Odd reminded
"We have titanium plating this time, just to be sure." Aelita smiled.
DEEDLE DEEDLE DEEDLE!
Jeremie picked up his phone, and gasped, "No way..."
"What is it?" Ulrich pried?
Jeremie showed his phone, which was flashing XANA's symbol. Chills went down everyone's spine.
"Activated tower." Jeremie frowned.
"But, you shut down the super compu- uh- thingy!" Odd caught himself.
"I made this app to detect any XANA activity across the internet, specifically on Tyron's super computer." Jeremie whispered, "It looks like the professor beat our virus. That means we have to make a whole new one."
"That's wonderful to hear, Einstien," Ulrich sarcastically complimented, "But we might have a spectre roaming the school, and Yumi and William don't know!"
"Alright, you guys go grab them, Jeremie and I will head to the factory to try to figure this out." Aelita proposed. Everyone nodded in agreement, and split.
"Hey man!" Markus shook Cooke, "Wake up!"
"Ugh..." Cooke rolled over, "It's Mondayyyy... We don't have class on Mondays... What is it?"
"I've learned quite a bit about our new computer in the basement of our lab." Markus hinted.
"Ehh?"
"The super computer." Markus put bluntly.
Cooke sat up, and rubbed his eyes, "Ohhkay... Go ahead."
"It's possible to shut it down safely."
"Y'mean, no big boom?"
"Yeah. One tiny issue."
"What?"
Markus exhaled, "Remember that thing that attacked you in the Matriks?"
"Which one?"
"All of them."
"Oh, believe me, I haven't forgotten. As much as I've tried."
"Well, it's all under one main program." Markus sat down, "That program is a virus."
"Oh, for god's sake... Did the government really use Windows on its super computer?" Cooke joked, "Just put ESET or whatever on it and get rid of it. Call it a day."
"It's not that simple. It gets worse." Markus warned, "This virus is a super powerful one that's growing. Y'see, the computer has been on for quite a while. This virus has been using those towers to download data from the super computer, and gain more control."
"Uhm... So... What does this mean?"
"It's set up a safety net." Markus answered, "This virus made it so if the computer shuts off, it goes into nuclear meltdown mode."
"...Oh!" Cooke finally registered what Markus was saying, "Crap!"
"So, the data it was downloading gave it even more power." Markus explained, "It's at about 60% power."
"What is it trying to do?"
"Ah, I'm so glad you asked." Markus sarcastically smiled, "I discovered there's four more "worlds" in this computer. Whoever used this computer probably realized that this Virus was gaining power through the towers, and completely encrypted the other worlds within the computer. So, what our virus is downloading is decryption data. It wants the other worlds to gain even more power, and possibly even get out of our computer."
"Even more reason to hand it to the government!" Cooke rubbed his eyes, "This is becoming dangerous!"
"I know, I know." Markus acknowledged, "But... I've found a way to deactivate those towers." Markus pulled out his laptop, and showed a display of the virtual tower, "Now, you enter the tower from any side, and it should suck you in."
"Suck?"
"Then, you'll be on the bottom platform. You need to ascend to the top, and a control panel will be there. Markus took a breath, "Then, I'm gonna send you a virtual keycard that will deactivate the tower for you."
"Wait, wait, wait, " Cooke held on to his head, "Are you saying we need to go fight this powerful virus?"
"Yep." Markus nodded.
"Why... Why don't we just tell Homeland security?" Cooke shook himself, "Let them deal with the nuke in our basement?"
"Because they don't know what we know, and they'll do one of two things," Markus held up two fingers, "One, they shut down the computer. Boom. Or two, they leave it on because it'll go boom, and the Virus gains even more ground because the government is too busy trying to figure out the issue, and it'll become unstoppable."
"...I see your point." Cooke nodded, "But why us? Why not tell the government what you know, and let them make a team to go to the world and stop the virus?"
"C'mon man, I just explained that to you!" Markus complained, "It's going to take too much time! Time we, the people of the real world, don't have time to wait for! We've already uncovered it and most of the critical programs needed, you've already been there, I have the technical prowess to run it, it just makes sense for us to go in there and finish the job. The government will take months to start, we can start today."
Cooke leaned back, and contemplated it, "...Alright. But we aren't bringing anyone else on board. The less that know, the better."
"Are you sure?" Markus bit his lower lip, "You struggled solo last night, maybe two or three people would be better."
"The less that know," Cooke harshly repeated, "The better!"
Markus sighed, "Alright, fine. I suppose as long as you're willing to go back to Matriks, we can make good progress."
Cooke rolled his eyes, "Let's head over to the lab."
Jeremie and Aelita stood over the console in the super calculator room, with start up key in hand.
"Should we turn it on?" Jeremie questioned.
Aelita shook her head, "Not until the others get here."
Jeremie nodded, and pulled out his phone and called Odd.
"Hello? Einstien?"
"Have you gotten Yumi and William yet?"
"They got out of class, we don't know where they went!"
Ulrich took the phone from Odd, "Neither one is answering their phones, I think they shut them off for their tests."
"Uh, alright. Give me a moment." Jeremie pulled out his laptop, and reactivated their phones, "Lessee... William is in his room, and Yumi is... Headed to the woods!"
Ulrich turned to Odd, "William is in his room, go get him!"
"On it!" Odd ran down the hall and upstairs.
"Ulrich, go find Yumi as fast as possible! If she gets touched, XANA wins!" Jeremie warned.
"I know, I know!"
Yumi's phone buzzed. She looked down, and saw that Odd was calling.
She picked up, "Hey Odd. What's going on?"
"It's Ulrich!" Ulrich looked down at the phone, and realized he forgot to give it back to Odd, "Look, as hard as it is to believe, there's an activated tower!"
Yumi stood up, and looked around. All around. "Seriously?!"
"Yeah!" Ulrich panted, "Where are you?!"
"Along the gate to the park!" Yumi picked up her bag, "What's the attack?!"
"I don't know! But assume it's a spectre!"
"Then how will I know it's you?"
"Same way as last time, ask me questions only I can answer!"
"Okay, I'll stay put."
Ulrich hung up, and called William.
"Uh, hello?" He started.
"William! It's Ulrich!"
"Oh, that explains why Odd is calling me even though he's right next to me."
"He found you? Good." Ulrich stopped, "Listen, Yumi's near the entrance to the park. Meet us there, we have to protect her."
"We're on it."
"Okay, Yumi's safe." Aelita hung up, "They're on their way."
"What should we do?" Jeremie fiddled with his laptop, "I can't run a tower scan on the Cortex or Lyoko until we turn the super computer back on."
"It's too risky, we might open our doors to XANA." Aelita shook her head, "And... What if it's a ploy by Tyron? Remember when he tricked us into coming to the Cortex to trap us? He tricked us into thinking it was activated by XANA."
"...You're right," Jeremie agreed, "He might just be testing us to see if we'll come back to the Cortex."
The elevator doors opened, and out stepped Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, and William.
"Wait-" Jeremie paused, "If Tyron was doing all that, he still would've had to beat our virus. In which case, we still have the same mission."
"The second we step on the Cortex, the second he'll shut it down." Yumi warned.
"And Aelita is the only one who can open the Cortex. If he doesn't shut it down, he'll surely come back for Aelita." Ulrich reminded.
All the warriors looked around at each other, awkwardly. Then ultimately redirected their attention to Jeremie and Aelita.
Jeremie took a deep breath, then let it out, "Well... I hope you guys enjoyed your two month vacation."
"At least I'll get another chance at communicating with my mother." Aelita lightened.
Jeremie went up to the control console, and plugged a chip in. The floor opened up, and the black tower of a computer rose from the ground. A light in the center flickered on blue. It was booted.
"Alrighty," Markus walked into the computer's lab, "So, remember that thingy you thought was an elevator?"
"How could I forget it? It's right there." Cooke pointed at the elevator looking thing.
"That's not an elevator after all."
"OBVIOUSLY!"
"It's a scanner!" Markus sat down in front of the computer, "It scans your body, breaks it down into digital particulates, and creates a virtual avatar that you're in control of."
"Yeah, I figured that one out on my own."
"Well, would it also interest you to know that there's another computer out there exactly like ours?" Markus smirked.
"I... Find that hard to believe."
Markus pulled up several thousand pages of scanned documents, with almost all the content blacked out.
"What am I staring at?" Cooke tried to construct the context with the very little info given.
"These are the official documents for what I believe is to this computer."
"Sooo... What can you tell me about our computer?"
Markus pulled up a few selected pages, "From what I can gather, this computer was created off of a design from another country by another scientist, who's name I don't know."
"...That means absolutely nothing."
"Not why I have these pages pulled up." Markus zoomed in to one particular line with tops of letters sticking out from the censor bar, "I had the super computer analyze these letters, and the line says something along the lines of "all assets used in PROJECT MATRIKS were based off material provided by PROJECT" and it cuts off. I don't have enough to work with on the next line, other than the first letter being a capital C."
"Huh. So, Matriks is a clone of whatever Project C is?"
"Yeah. I don't know of or detect any other super computers, but I don't think I'm able to anyways." Markus scratched his head.
"Does this change our mission?"
Markus shook his head, "Nope. Get in, find a way to get code back, and shut down the computer. For today, just go in, and look for activity."
"Well then..." Cooke nodded, "Shall I dive in?"
"Go for it." Markus began the startup sequence, as Cooke entered the scanner.
"Beam me down, Scottie." Cooke waved, as the scanner doors closed.
Jeremie ran the tower scan. So far, nothing was popping up.
Everyone waited anxiously as Jeremie and Aelita went through the various code. Maybe 10 minutes.
"...Okay, I've got some good news, some bad news, and potentially horrifying news." Jeremie opened, "What would you like first?"
"Lay it on us, Einstien!" Odd cheered.
"Okay, bad news, Tyron did turn his computer back on, and beat our virus. Good news, the activated tower isn't on the Cortex, nor has XANA launched an attack yet."
"And the horrifying news?" Yumi asked.
"Well, hold on to your hopes and dreams. The activated tower isn't on Lyoko, either." Jeremie sulked, "I found a Replika."
"WHAT?!" The four other warriors collectively shouted in unison.
"Now, hold on," Jeremie soothed, "It gets worse."
"WORSE?!"
"This Replika, it's not like any one we've seen before." Aelita continued, "It has almost the exact same infrastructure as Lyoko. Replikas in the past have been XANA's approximations. This isn't like that. It's a super Replika."
"Like an exact duplicate of Lyoko." Jeremie stated.
"Soo... A Lyoklone?" Odd laughed.
Aelita smiled, "Heh, that's a good way to put it."
"How does this horifying news?" William pieced together.
"Well, this is where it gets bad." Jeremie pushed his glasses up, "It has a beefed up firewall, unlike any of the other Replikas. It's written completely different. It could take minutes or hours to figure out, and you guys have to sit there while the Skid is connected."
"The beefed up firewall also means we can't run a tower scan." Aelita bit her lower lip, "We know there's an active tower somewhere, and it's not on the Cortex or Lyoko. We have to assume it's on the Lyoklone."
Everyone idled, figuring out what had to happen to restore their former normal lives.
Ulrich sighed, "We all know what has to happen. Let's just do it. Before XANA can rear his ugly face."
Jeremie pulled up the scanning procedure program, "Okay then, everyone head down to the scanners."
Everyone collectively grunted, and piled in the elevator.
"So, my good friend," Cooke started, "Anything unusual?"
"Nothing near you." Markus yawned, "Man, I should've slept last night."
"You didn't sleep?" Cooke stopped, "I thought you slept in the lab?"
"Nooope. I was too busy digging up information on this computer."
"Did you dig up anything useful that can help me?"
Markus reached into his backpack, and pulled out an energy drink, "As a matter of fact, yes I did!"
"Oh?"
"Hold on," Markus popped open the can and took a swig. He opened up a program, and these black towers started showing up on screen being rapidly scanned, "An activated tower finder!"
"That's... VERY helpful actually." Cooke nodded, impressed.
"And in a few minutes, we should know-"
The computer started beeping, and the tower on screen showed it was activated, but the scanning screen began glitching out.
"Uh, we got one!" Markus jumped.
"Where?!"
"Uhh..." Markus squinted, trying to read the location through it glitching, "...South by... Northeast."
"...What."
"Oop, sorry. South by southeast."
"Bro, there's no sun here and I don't have a compass."
"Oh, right. There's a... Path to your left. The tower is kind of far off."
Cooke drew his sword and began running, "How long will it take to get there?"
"At your current speed... Twenty minutes."
"WONDERFUL."
Aelita swayed the Skid right to avoid an obstacle.
"Are we there yet?" Odd annoyingly asked. No one designated that with a response.
"Hey, guys?" Yumi started, "How are we going to get in to the Cortex without being spotted?"
"One struggle at a time, guys." Jeremie answered, "First, let's deactivate the tower and destroy the Lyoklone."
"Speaking of which," Aelita cut, "We're coming up on it."
Aelita turned the Skid left, and there it was. The Lyoklone was massive. It was easily quadruple the size of the regular Replikas, maybe even bigger than Lyoko.
"Alright, I'll start the procedure." Aelita came up on the entrance, and activated the digital key that shot out and connected to the XANA symbol.
"I'll take it from here!" Jeremie started tapping away at his keyboard, decrypting the password to get in.
An alarm started ringing on the computer, and a message popped up indicating a breach in progress.
"Uhh... Cooke?" Markus furiously fought the code, "The system is being breached! Someone, or something, is breaking into Matriks!"
Cooke stopped, "WHAT DO I DO?!"
"KEEP GOING TO THE TOWER!" Markus commanded, "I'm gonna throw everything I have at this hacker!"
Markus opened up the system key, and started throwing in code in an attempt to distort the hacker's work.
"Good god!" Markus panicked, "I'm good, but whatever or whoever is much faster than I am!"
"Keep em going!" Cooke shouted, "I think I can see the tower!"
Cooke got to a ledge overlooking the tower, and he noticed something was off, "Hey, this tower isn't orange. It's red."
"DOES IT MATTER?" Markus yelled, still typing like a mad man, "DEACTIVATE IT!"
Cooke took up a spot, and scoped out the area. No monsters in sight.
"I'm gonna make a run for it!" Cooke began sprinting down the hill towards the tower, and then-
The tower deactivated.
Cooke stopped, "Uhh, what happened?"
"What?"
"The tower... It's deactivated." Cooke scratched his head.
"I've got more good news and bad news, guys!" Jeremie fought his keyboard. He had been at this for 15 minutes now.
"Good news?" William asked.
"Good news, I'm making progress on decrypting this Lyoklone. It's a little frustrating, there's all sorts of junk code, but I'm getting through it."
"And the bad news?" Ulrich finished off.
"We're gonna have to abandon it. There's an activated tower on Lyoko now." Jeremie panted, "XANA probably wanted to drag you guys out there so he had more time to cause chaos over here."
"The ol' bait and switch." Odd applauded, "Really not XANA's style. Well done."
"Has he done anything yet?" Aelita worried.
Immediatly, the lights inside the factory shut off, and red emergency lights kicked on.
"Uh oh," Jeremie looked at the security cameras, which were all offline, "The power just went off in the factory."
"Just the factory?" Aelita checked.
Jeremie pulled up a local news station on his screen, but there was no feed. He checked all the channels, and there was no feed. He looked at Internet traffic, and it decreased by 95% at the same time the lights went out. All outgoing calls increased by over 70%.
"I... I think XANA caused a blackout." Jeremie tuned through all the radio stations, and found one still operating.
"Well! This doesn't look good!" The radio host laughed, "Our power just went out, and our backup took over."
"Look outside!" Another host tapped on a window, "It's darkness and complete gridlock out there!"
The main host cleared his voice, "Uh, this is WDPK 83.7 FM, my name is Joel Moore, and if you're tuning in, it looks like we are in a blackout. We'll let you know more soon? I hope?"
"Guys, we are getting very close, but we need to deactivate the tower and probably return to the past." Jeremie sadly informed.
Aelita wasted no time, severed the connection, and turned the Skid around.
"...Hey hey hey!" Markus celebrated, "No more mister hacker!"
"You beat him?!"
"Or he gave up!"
"Yaaay!" Cooke jumped up and down, "Bring me home now?"
"I still haven't unlocked that program yet," Markus pushed his glasses up, "Just commit seppuku."
"Dork." Cooke sneered, as he turned his short sword into a whip, and devirtualized himself.
"Now," Cooke sat down next to Markus, "Do you think the glitchy tower scanner and the hacking attempt were related?"
"Oh, definitely." Markus nodded, "Without doubt."
"Okay, how do we filter them out of our super computer?" Cooke posed, "Chances are, it's a hacking group committed to getting into government computers. If they get into this one, they don't know what kind of danger this thing might pose."
"So, let's replace our firewall. I'll make it extra messy." Markus pulled the keyboard to himself, "They can return anytime and continue their work, but if we change it out, they'll have to start from scratch."
"Good place to start." Cooke approached the spiral staircase, "I'm not much good here. Need anything?"
"An energy drink, and some cup o noodles." Markus waved.
"The activated tower is in the mountain sector." Jeremie led.
Aelita didn't wast time docking the Skid, she just flew it right over to the activated tower. Being protected by three Tarantulas, and an evil William taking heed of the middle one.
"I'm really starting to hate him." William commented.
"Hold on," Aelita opened fire, destroying two of the Tarantulas and knocking evil William off the third.
"Can you beam us down?" Yumi requested.
"Transferring," Jeremie answered, putting all the Lyoko warriors on the surface except Aelita.
"I'll get him!" William and Ulrich demanded in unison, then charged after evil William.
Odd and Yumi just stood there and watched.
"I wonder who the egomaniac of our little circle is." Odd joked.
Aelita swooped in with the Skid and took out the last Tarantula, then flew off to sector 5 to dock it. "You got this, Yumi?"
"I think I'll manage." Yumi smiled, watching Ulrich and William taking down the evil William.
"DO NOT THINK I WILL EVER GIVE UP THIS EASY!" Evil William warned, "I AM COMING FOR YOU, AND I WILL REGAIN MY STRENGTH!"
Evil William super smoked, and fled the scene.
"This was way too easy!" Odd complained, "I didn't even fire a single laser arrow!"
"For someone who said they wouldn't give up so easily, they sure threw in the towel pretty quickly." Ulrich sheathed his swords.
"I remember some things when serving XANA," William recalled, "He wasn't here to fight us. That was a threat."
"He can threaten us all he wants, we're not slipping up." Ulrich replied.
Yumi had already taken this time to deactivate the tower, and Aelita docked the Skid. Jeremie devirtualized everyone, and the blackout was over.
"So far, over a thousand car accidents have been reported, over two dozen of those accidents have landed people in the hospital, one is in critical condition." The news anchor announced.
The gang all watched the report from Jeremie's monitor, somewhat mortified.
Jeremie swivveld around, "I think... It would be best if we launched a return to the past. Anyone oppose it?"
Everyone shook their heads.
Jeremie turned back to his computer, set the time for about five hours ago, and hit enter. "Return to the past now!"
"Last week, I went to the east coast of the United States to attend the Young Innovators Showcase." Ms. Hertz began, yet again.
Odd leaned over to Jeremie, "Hey, Einstien, couldn't you have cut to after this class?"
"Sorry, this was the closest I could go back." Jeremie whispered, "I had to go back before XANA launched the attack. And considering the super computer wasn't active before this class, I'd say I did pretty good!"
"Mr. Belpois," Ms. Hertz shot, "I take it you're very excited about this showcase?"
"Uhh, actually, I am!" Jeremie improvised, "I read about it online! I was very intrigued by the group that made an aluminum and graphene battery, and all I was doing was explaining to Odd what graphene was and why it's so cool."
"I still don't know what it is." Odd contributed.
"Oh!" Ms. Hertz lit up, "I see, it is indeed quite fascinating. I'll explain it when I get to the last group. Now, this showcase..."
"Hey man!" Markus shook Cooke, "Wake up!"
"Ugh..." Cooke rolled over, then sprang up. How did he get here? He was just standing in line to purchase Markus' lunch. "What... What happened?"
"I've learned quite a bit about our new computer in the basement of our lab." Markus hinted.
"Yeah, you've told me. There's a super virus that made it so our computer goes boom unless we reclaim the code." Cooke dazed.
"How... How did you know that?" Markus puzzled, "I just found that out about an hour ago!"
"Yeah, and that you found a way to deactivate the towers- what on EARTH is going on?" Cooke slapped himself, "What time is it?!"
"It's nine in the morning, on Monday. No classes today." Markus observed the panicked Cooke, "Are you alright, man?"
"How's the work on the new firewall?" Cooke stopped.
"Uhh... What's wrong with our current one?" Markus questioned.
"Don't you remember the hacker busting into our system?"
"No, it's super strong. That can't happen."
Cooke jumped out of bed and right into his shoes and grabbed his backpack, while still in his pajamas, "Alright man, either I had he most realistic dream that told me the future, or I went back in time somehow. Either way, we need to go to the super computer STAT!"
Cooke scrambled out the door, with Markus chasing in tow.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Markus unlocked the door to their lab.
"I keep telling you, I was on Matriks, we had a red tower, NOT orange, that deactivated itself, and a hacking attempt that went awry." Cooke explained, "When I left to get lunch, you were replacing the firewall so the next hacking attempt was slowed down."
"How would you remember all this and not me, though?"
Cooke furiously put his arms up, "Beats me!"
They went down into the super computer room, and woke everything up.
Markus sat down and started going through the various code, "...Oh my god, our firewall is in shambles!"
"Because you were replacing it!" Cooke pointed, "...How does the computer remember this?!"
"I don't know, but this is an utter mess! How can I figure out what I was doing if I can't even understand what I did here?!"
"You said, in my timeline anyways, the hacker was faster than you, and you were throwing in random crap code to throw them off." Cooke explained, "They were getting through our original firewall, so you were making a new one that was "extra messy" to buy us time."
Markus scrolled through the coding, "...Okay, I'm starting to pick up on what I was doing."
"Finish it as fast as you can." Cooke calmed down, "I don't know when the hacker will return."
"Well, THAT was a waste of time." Odd complained.
"Gonna go hit the hay?" Ulrich asked.
"Maybe." Odd yawned.
"Not until we destroy the Lyoklone, guys." Jeremie reminded.
"We have to wait, what, eleven more hours?" Odd recalled.
"Actually, we don't." Aelita held up the computer chip to activate the super computer, "We went back to a time the super computer wasn't on. It's been reset."
"You mean, we can go back now?" Ulrich pieced together.
Jeremie nodded, "The sooner we jump on it, the sooner we can get in without any XANA issues. Plus, with all the progress we made on the firewall to the Lyoklone, we'll be inside in seconds."
"Alright, let's get it over with then." Odd slumped, "Pizza's on Einstien and Princess though!"
"Only if we're successful!" Aelita agreed.
"We know where to find Yumi and William, we'll gather them up." Ulrich promised. They all split up.
"It feels so weird to be here twice in one day." Yumi commented, as Aelita steered the Skid past a network hub.
"Don't get used to it." Jeremie replied, "We got lucky."
"Hey, where do you guys think the super computer will be this time?" Odd pondered, "Mars?"
"Mars? Don't be ridiculous!" Ulrich laughed, "Yeah, XANA built a super Replika on the Curiosity rover, I'm certain."
"You never know!" Odd laughed.
"Hey guys," William asked, "Can I go this time?"
"Any particular reason?" Yumi queried.
"I've... Just never gone before. I've had the whole XANA thing going on when you guys went." William shrugged.
"I don't see any problem with that." Aelita allowed, "It'll be Yumi, William and I."
"You mean I have to stay with stinky Odd at the Skid?" Ulrich complained.
"Hey now!" Odd retorted, "I've been showering every day since we first shut off Lyoko, my hygiene is waaaay better!"
"You still only do your laundry once every month." Ulrich stuck his tongue out in disgust.
"Guys, we have ladies present," William reminded, "They, and I, don't want to hear about it!"
"We're coming up on the entrance!" Aelita announced, effectively shutting everyone up, "Activating digital key."
"Okay, it should only- oh no." Jeremie stumbled, "The firewall's been replaced!"
"Uhh..." Markus stared at the warning on the screen, "Breaching notice!"
"ALREADY?!" Cooke ran over and looked over all the screens, "Can you send me in?!"
"Not for another thirty minutes!" Markus slammed the keyboard, "They're gonna be inside in fifteen! What will going into Matriks solve?!"
"The're breaking into the world, right? They're some sort of entity! What can we do to delay them?!"
Markus pulled out his laptop and shoved it over to Cooke, "Plug in and we're gonna send them loads of pop-ups!"
"Will that really hold them off?!"
"Got any better ideas?!"
Cooke grabbed a USB cable and plugged in. The two of them combined sent the hacker pop ups and random execute programs.
"Man!" Jeremie kept closing windows, "These guys are desperate!"
"What's going on Jeremie?" Aelita begged.
"They're sending me a barrage of pop-ups and small viruses!" Jeremie cracked his knuckles, "Nothing good ol' Einstien can't handle though!"
"How long is it going to take you?" Yumi looked up at the doorway to the Lyoklone.
"Twenty minutes, thirty at most." Jeremie tapped away, "These guys are good, but I'm faster."
"Assuming there's a person at the other end." Ulrich corrected.
"Ulrich, a computer doesn't reprogram its entire firewall after a breach. And it doesn't prepare pop-ups for us." Jeremie shook his head, "There's someone on the other side of this!"
"Then they should know you're going to get through anyways, why delay it?" William pondered.
"Like us, they aren't going down without a fight." Aelita answered.
"How much more time?!" Cooke yelled.
"Five minutes until they breach!"
"I meant until I could go back!"
"Ten!"
Cooke picked up the laptop, and stretched the cable all the way to the scanner, and sat down in it, "Send me in the second you can!"
"Figure out how to delay them an extra six minutes and you got a deal!"
"Believe me! I'm never gonna give up!" Cooke continued, then stopped, "...Ohhhhh I've got a good idea!"
Jeremie kept fighting back, and winning, "Three more minutes!"
Suddenly, the computer stopped responding, and opened over ten thousand pages to YouTube, and a familiar beat began.
"We're no strangers to loooove~ You know the rules, and so do I!"
"HAHAHAHAH!" Odd busted out laughing, "They aren't giving up!"
"Jeremie, what happened?" Aelita asked, concerned.
"I've been Rick Rolled about ten thousand times at once!" Jeremie closed all the windows, only for ten thousand more to open, this time it was an airhorn rendition, "Aaaaugh!"
Cooke kissed his fingertips like an Italian chef, "My finest work!"
"It's delayed them by-" Markus slammed his fist on the table, "Four minutes!"
Cooke set the computer up for a ten minute auto pilot, "Keep em busy for just one additional minute!"
"You still have six minutes before you can get in!" Markus reminded.
Cooke ran over to the desk, and threw his backpack over the camera sitting in front of Markus. "I know! Just enough time!"
He then checked around for other cameras, only seeing the one in the scanner, which he wasn't worried about.
"How long?!"
"I got you another thirty seconds!" Markus informed.
"Great!" Cooke sat back inside the scanner, and continued work on the laptop, "How much longer?!"
"Three!"
Cooke pushed a button, and shoved the laptop away from him. He stood at the ready.
"That should buy me another minute, so I'll have thirty seconds to get ready!"
"I hope you're right!" Markus slamming away at the keys, "Two minutes!"
Cooke quickly dashed out, and grabbed an energy drink from Markus' bag, popped it open, and set it down for Markus, "You earned it!"
"Thanks! Get in the scanner! One minute!" Markus shooed. Cooke took his position inside the scanner, "Alright, transferring in three... Two... One!"
"Get ready guys, I'm about to break the code!" Jeremie announced. Not twenty seconds later, the access port opened up, and the Skid flew in.
"It was a valiant effort, I'll give them that." Aelita looked up into the world, "It's an ice world."
"Aww, my least favorite!" Odd exaggerated, "I always forget my jacket!"
"Very funny, Odd." Ulrich fake laughed, "Haven't heard that one before."
"Hush guys, I'm picking up a signal that looks a lot like evil William's!" Jeremie panicked.
"Send me down!" William demanded.
"It's almost certainly a trap laid out for you!" Yumi warned.
"Hold on- huh." Jeremie scratched his chin, "It's not evil William, but it has a funny signal. Like a spectre."
"Ooo!" Odd danced, "Spectres are my specialty!"
"Okay, transferring." Jeremie transferred.
Cooke hid behind a rock. He caught a glimpse of a weird looking craft with spore-looking things hanging off of it hovering above the pathway.
Cooke peeked over, and saw a purple human cat with a blond point hairdo, "What the..."
"I'm picking up movement twenty meters in front of you." Markus informed.
"Yeah, it's a purple cat man." Cooke whispered, "And I did say that with a straight face."
"Purple cat man?" Markus chuckled, "Are you sure you're okay man?"
"Positive." Cooke drew his sword, and hovered his finger over the switch to change it into a bladed whip.
He heard the cat man walk closer to him, then stopped.
"Bonjour, XANA!" It called out.
"Did... Did I just hear someone say hello in French?" Markus asked, "I can't hear it very well."
"Who is za-nah?" Cooke questioned.
"Ten meters, man. Make your move!" Markus advised.
"Those two karate lessons I took when I was a kid better pay off now!" Cooke turned the corner, and immediatly dodged a barrage of tiny projectiles.
"Laser arrows!" He called out.
Cooke ducked, spun around, and turned his sword into a whip. On his finished rotation, he managed to hit him square in the chest, knocking him back.
"Ah!"
Cooke took this time and jump kicked him onto the ground, and the cat man immediatly fired back, nailing Cooke in the arm.
"70 life points remaining!"
"Don't nag me, Markus." Cooke breathed, and blocked the next round of projectiles with his sword.
Cooke swung left, and right, and left, but the cat man was too quick. Which, in itself was kind of embarrassing.
"Hahah!" Cat man laughed, "Je suis trop vite!" ("I'm too fast!")
"I'm about to smack your cat face to the digital moon!" Cooke activated his bladed whip.
The cat man froze, somewhat confused, "Eh, English?"
"This ain't France!" Cooke swung and wrapped his whip around the cat man, and pulled.
Devirtualizing him.
"It could've been from Canada." Markus reminded.
"Uhh, the cat man devirtualized."
"Great!"
"No! He devirtualized," Cooke emphasized, "All the other enemies explode!"
"Wait, that means-"
"The virtual entities are people just like me!" Cooke realized, "Then, that must mean they have their own super computer and scanners."
Markus gasped, "PROJECT C!"
"I'll go find their odd looking ship, you try to come in contact with them!" Cooke ran off.
Odd stepped off the elevator, and ran over to Jeremie, "Hold on!"
"What?"
"The weird signal wasn't a spectre!" Odd warned, "It was another person!"
Jeremie adjusted his mic, "Guys, we have an issue! Stop the Skid!"
"We're closing in on the Way tower, what's going on?" Aelita asked, bringing the Skid to a halt.
"The spectre is another person!" Jeremie answered.
"What?!" The Skid crew shouted in unison.
Aelita turned around, and saw the man waving his sword, and shouting. He was too far away to hear anything.
"...Let me go down and talk to him." Aelita suggested.
"Let's all go down here and talk to him." Ulrich glared.
Yumi shook her head, "Ulrich, we shouldn't-"
"Seconded." William agreed, "We don't know what kind of threat he poses."
"You must've really pained yourself to agree with Ulrich, huh?" Odd laughed.
"Shut up Odd!" William and Ulrich retorted.
Cooke stared at the weird ship, wondering how it got into Matriks from wherever it came from.
Suddenly, he saw four bodies digitalize in front of him. One person with pink hair, one person that looked very Japanese, one person that looked emo, and one person that reminded him of a human version of Zer0 from Borderlands 2.
"I take it you guys speak French too." Cooke started.
"Oui. But our English is just fine." The pink one answered, "Who are you?"
Cooke cocked his neck back, "Nuh-uh. You came here, to my world, who are you?"
"I'm Aelita, this is Yumi, William, and Ulrich." Aelita introduced.
Cooke nodded, "Call me Cooke. What are you guys doing here on Matriks?"
"Matriks?" Ulrich queried, "This is Matriks?"
"Excuse us," Aelita interjected, "We come from, er, have a world like this called Lyoko. This is what we call a Replika."
"Hey!" Markus interrupted, "I can hardly hear them, I don't think their computer operator can hear you. Can you tell them to open a channel with me with their computer user?"
"Right, right," Cooke shook off, "Can you tell your user to open up a communication-"
"Done!" A strange voice overhead answered, "My name's Jeremie."
"And I'm Odd! You devirtualized me! The big purple cat!" Odd reminded.
"Ohhkay..." Cooke looked around, confused.
"I'm Markus." Markus greeted overhead as well.
Everyone looked around at each other, dumbfounded.
"...Well... This is awkward." Cooke stated.
"What are you guys doing here?" Markus began.
"Honestly, we're here to destroy your super computer." Aelita answered, "It would be best if you guys turned it off."
"Ah, no can do." Cooke shook his head, "We tried that. And what happened was our nuclear batteries began overheating, and they would've gone super nuclear if we didn't turn the computer back on."
"So, your coolant is linked to the computer." Jeremie figured out, "Can't you guys just run them separately?"
"We can!" Cooke nodded, "But! There's a virus here on Matriks that made it impossible for the coolant to run on its own."
"You mean, XANA?" William clarified.
Cooke shrugged, "Does Xena attack with mechanical wolves, birds, and skeletons?"
Yumi shook her head, "That doesn't sound right at all."
"Yeah, it's a different virus." Jeremie seamlessly answered, "I'm doing a scan of their system, they are incubating a new virus."
"Oh great, now we have two viruses to take care of?!" Ulrich whined
"How are you in our system?" Markus interrogated. A window opened on Markus' screen showing Jeremie and Odd at the helm of their super computer.
"Uh, I've been inside since I got through your firewall." Jeremie bluntly reminded, "Props to you guys, though. That was quite an effort to keep us out."
"Thanks. We had to replace it when you broke through the last one." Cooke thanked sarcastically.
"Wait, you remember that?" Aelita puzzled.
"Of course I-" Cooke stammered, "Woah woah woah, hold on, you know what happened?!"
"Huh." Jeremie pondered, "Even though he's not linked to our super computer, he wasn't affected by the return to the past."
"Told you I wasn't going crazy, Markus!" Cooke air punched.
"Return to the past?" Markus scratched his head, "You mean, you guys time traveled?"
"In a sense." Aelita confirmed.
"I take it you haven't set foot in the scanner?" Jeremie asked.
"You are correct to believe I wouldn't step into that thing." Markus shook his head.
"It happened to me too. Just get yourself scanned, and you won't be affected by the return trips." Jeremie advised.
"Alright, it's pretty clear we have a lot to talk about." Cooke interrupted, "Let's talk over webcam."
"I think we're all okay with that." Yumi agreed.
"Sooo..." Cooke trailed, "Can someone kill me please?"
William summoned a giant sword, and struck down with a mighty blow, effectively devirtualizing Cooke.
"Huh." Aelita tilted her head, "Now that I see you both side-by-side, I swear I've seen you guys before."
"Well, you believe us, we'd remember you guys if we've met before." Markus shrugged.
"Yeah, you guys have very distinct... Faces." Cooke nodded, while looking at Odd and Aelita's hair.
"How did you guys get your super computer?" Jeremie asked.
"Funny you should ask, we won it from the government." Markus bit his lower lip.
"Hahahah!" Odd laughed, "Incredible! Did they lose it in a poker game? Do tell!"
"Well, that's the thing." Cooke continued, "I don't think our government knows they gave us this... Thing!"
"We took part in a scholarship competition, and part of the spoils was a lab in our respective town." Markus elaborated.
"What did you guys do to win?" Yumi asked.
"We built an aluminum and graphene super cell battery." Cooke proudly answered.
Jeremie snapped his fingers, "So THAT'S how we know you!"
"The Young Innovators thing from Ms. Hertz's presentation, right!" Aelita relieved.
"Ah, Mademoiselle Hertz!" Cooke reminded, "What a small world!"
"How long have you guys been visiting Matriks?" Jeremie interviewed.
"Since last night." Markus answered.
"Really?" Jeremie raised an eyebrow, "Need any help with anything?"
"Uhh... Yeah. Can you help Markus figure out how to devirtualize me like you guys do?" Cooke requested. Jeremie nodded.
"And, we're trying to figure out more about this computer. We have a document that's mostly censored, and we're trying to figure out what it contains." Markus sent over the file.
"Hm." Jeremie grunted, "What do you guys know?"
Cooke shrugged, "Uhh... Matriks was based off of something called Project C. Well, the C is all we can make ou-"
"Carthage?" Aelita proposed.
"Carthage?" Markus puzzled, then punched into the computer to match it with the censored text, "…Yeah, that's it!"
"What is Project Carthage?" Cooke queried.
Odd spread his arms, "You're looking at it! It's Lyoko!"
"Very funny." Cooke deadpanned.
"We'll share some of our information with you. We'll also help you guys decipher the document." Aelita promised. Jeremie turned off the mic.
"Uh, should we really be sharing that kind of information?" Jerremie asked, concerned, "We don't know what they'll do with it."
"Jeremie, it's pretty clear they're smart." Aelita reminded, "They aren't going to misuse it."
"Don't forget, they have a nuclear bomb to defuse in their basement." Ulrich added.
Jeremie turned the mic back on, "We're gonna help. But we can't transfer or receive files without the risk of your little virus worming its way over here."
"I was just about to make that point. We can set up a secure transfer tunnel." Markus agreed, "But we best not screw up to begin with."
"Yeah, it's gonna take a few days." Jeremie bit his lower lip.
"Uh, guys?" William raised, "It's dinner time."
"I'll send you our phone numbers." Markus waved.
The video chat ended.
"Hm." Cooke grunted, "Who would've thought we weren't alone in our escapades?"
"Think we can trust them?" Markus raised an eyebrow.
Cooke nodded, "I don't see why not."