Code Matriks

Episode 5: Breathe In (Part 1)

By B1ockh3d

Author's note: I decided to release this one a week early, in an attempt to repair my original schedule. But due to the time constraints of San Diego Comic Con, I will not be uploading the next chapter next week. It'll be the Monday after. But without further adue, read on!

Ulrich sliced a leg off of a Tarantula, then stabbed it right in the center of the XANA symbol, "That makes four, Odd!"

Odd arrowed down a hornet, "Now we're tied again!"

"Can you guys be a little less careless?!" Jeremie scolded, "You're both down to twenty life points!"

"Cool it, Einstien we're-" Odd got shot in the back by a Krab, devirtualizing him.

Ulrich drove up behind the Krab in the Overbike, jumping off and slicing it down the center, destroying it, "Five! I win!"

Aelita swooped in gracefully with her wings, and entered the activated tower.

"XANA played some real hardball today." William exhaled, "What did he do to you guys?"

"He turned all the traffic lights green, attempting to trap us in traffic on our field trip." Jeremie reminded, then spun his chair around, "And nice work you two."

"We tried our best to do it on our own." Yumi shrugged.

"But you sent yourselves there and cleared half the monsters waiting for us." Jeremie thanked.

The elevator doors opened, and there was Odd.

"What did I tell you about being careless?" Jeremie sassed.

"It wouldn't have happened if you didn't distract me." Odd glared.

"Tower deactivated!" Aelita announced.

"Alright, it's a shame we have to go back in time." Jeremie poked away at the keyboard, "...Return to the past now."

Cooke and Markus threw off their sheets simultaneously.

Cooke checked his phone, just to be sure they went back in time, "It's seven... We should really get Jeremie to give us some forewarning."

"At least I get another stab at that pop quiz." Markus accepted, "And now I won't be surprised there's a pop quiz."

"I kinda wish we got a chance to go to the lab at least." Cooke complained, "This sucked... Our school day ended and now we're doing it all over again."

"But we'll do it better!" Markus optimistically jumped off the top bunk, "Don't you want another chance at winning Mario Kart during lunch?"

"Nah, I think I'll skip it this time. I've got a date with an EFX 1000 to repair." Cooke pointed to a disassembled machine on his desk.

"Ah, very good. You can finally get through the growing pile of junk on your side of the desk." Markus kicked a midi keyboard sticking out from under his desk.

"Hey, I resent my pile of junk!" Cooke rolled his eyes, "It's good engineering practice!"

"I don't deny that, I just wished you practiced better organization." Markus pulled out an energy drink from the mini fridge.

"I wish you'd practice better nutrition." Cooke nagged.

"Blah blah blah... Neither of us are getting our wish." Markus chuckled, "Alright man, I'm gonna go hit the showers AGAIN, and I'll see you in Programming at eleven."

"Later." Cooke waved, and got out of bed.

Markus and Cooke finished their classes for the day, and headed down a short road to their lab. Markus called Jeremie and put it on speaker.

"Bonjour." Jeremie greeted.

"Bond-joor." Cooke laughed, "So, what was that thing about?"

"Our old pal put the entire city into gridlock, trapping us in traffic." Jeremie explained, "He put up quite a fight too."

"Ah, we would've helped!" Markus chipped in.

"It wasn't a big deal. He isn't your guy's problem, he's ours." Jeremie nodded, "Well, until we have to get you onto the Cortex."

"That'll be a fun experience." Cooke laughed.

"How long has it been since your last attack?" Markus asked.

"Three weeks and a day, that was the attack on you guys." Jeremie reminded, "Or rather, your school."

"Man, this time has been so relaxing." Cooke reminisced, "It's been over a week since our pal's last data attack."

"How much data is he at?"

"Sixty-five percent." Markus answered.

"Aieee... What's your plan for stopping it?"

"That's the weird part, we need to-"

Cooke halted and put his hand in front of Markus, stopping him.

"...We need to hang up and call back." Cooke abruptly finished, and hit the end call button.

"Dude, what-"

Cooke pointed to the entrance of their small building, which had four black government SUVs parked outside and the front door was wide open.

"...Oh no. Oh no no no." Cooke calmly panicked, "They found it."

Markus didn't flinch, "Let's go see what's going on."

They approached their lab cautiously, and saw a man outside with an AR-15 guarding the door.

Markus and Cooke quickly got out their wallets and Washington drivers licenses, and walked up to the man with both hands forward clearly showing their identification.

"Sirs, please turn around and leave, this area-"

"We're the students who work here." Markus talked, knowing Cooke would crack.

The agent glanced at a clipboard near him, and their IDs. He leaned over to his radio, "I have a mister Cooke and mister Edwards, a white male and a black male, claiming to be the benefactors."

A click was heard on his radio, "Keep them there, Juliet will see them shortly."

Momentarily, the same well-suited agent that assisted them in signing the contracts came out, "Yes, that's them."

The man eased up on his machine gun, Cooke and Markus put away their IDs and dropped their hands.

"We would like to take a look through your closet, and luckily, we don't need to drill out the locks anymore." she ushered the duo inside.

"All that's in there is dust, and spare parts." Markus shrugged, "But if you drove all the way here to see our closet, be our guest."

Right then, Cooke's laptop in his backpack started ringing, indicating an activated tower. "Of all the times!"

Agent Juliet panned over to Cooke, staring with a knowing, yet eerie intent. "Of all the times... For what?"

"For... A Skype call!" Cooke improvised. Markus made no eye contact, and remained with a poker face, "It's probably my parents... On their lunch break... It's like noon-thirty on the west coast right now."

Markus reached into his pocket subtly, pried the back of his phone off and the battery, and pulled out the keys to the closet, "We're sorry. Closet time?"

Agent Juliet switched between eye contact between the two boys, ultimately settling on Cooke. This made him uncomfortable, but he knew it was a scare tactic, and a surprisingly good one too. "...Yes. Unlock it."

Markus unlocked the door, and opened it up all the way. Agent Juliet stepped inside and looked amongst the shelves, moving things around.

Cooke positioned himself slightly in front of Markus, concealing a good portion of his face to the other agents searching the rest of the lab.

"We don't want your mother calling, remove the battery." Markus whispered, "Don't worry, I got this."

Cooke looked around inconspicuously, and when he saw the other agents looking away, he slipped his hand in his pocket and shut off his phone.

"What's this?" Agent Juliet moved aside a mop bucket on wheels, revealing the RFID scanner.

"No idea." Markus shrugged, "We found it when we were cleaning the place out, we figured you'd have a better idea."

"So... That was not installed by you guys?" Juliet pressed. They both shook their heads in unison.

"We're thinking it's a safe." Cooke added. Markus nodded lightly in agreement.

"Then you won't mind us opening it?" Another agent went in the room carrying a laptop with a credit card sized device plugged into it.

Markus shook his head, "Not at all."

Agent Juliet cocked her head, and stared down Cooke again, "I assume by your silence, you're okay with us looking?"

"Uhh, not at all! I mean, like, yes! Uhm, it's fine!" Cooke stumbled.

Agent Juliet smiled, without breaking eye contact, "You heard the men. They're consenting to the search."

The other agent placed the device on top of the scanner, and typed away at his computer for a solid minute. Then, the trapdoor popped open.

Cooke and Markus didn't react. Not a single flinch, or eye twitch.

The agent opened the door all the way, "...It's an empty safe."

Juliet looked down at the empty compartment, "Any traces of radioactivity?"

Cooke couldn't believe his ears. They just opened the door to the super computer, and they saw an empty safe! He looked over at Markus, who was completely unfazed.

The agent waved a wand-looking thing around it, "...Nothing."

Agent Juliet left the closet, "Anyone find anything?"

The observing agents each said no.

"Then we're done here." She corralled them out the door.

"Agent Juliet," Markus requested, "What was this about?"

"That's classified." She bluntly turned, "But what we're looking for isn't here. Thank you for your cooperation."

"I'm glad we could be of service." Cooke waved.

She began to walk away, then stopped, "Y'know... I find it oddly strange that you keep your spare parts and cleaning supplies locked under key."

"Agent, I find it strange you need a man with a machine gun guarding the front door to search a closet." Cooke retorted.

Juliet snapped around, "He's there for our protection. Is that troubling?"

Markus elbowed Cooke, "We keep our prototypes in the closet sometimes, and we don't want them stolen. And some of our spare parts are worth over a grand. That's it."

She slowly turned back towards the vehicles, and kept walking, "You boys are very strange."

"Security isn't strange." Cooke added, "You should know."

She turned back around, and Markus elbowed Cooke again.

"I should know?"

"The guy with the machine gun is what I mean." Cooke nodded.

Agent Juliet went back into her SUV, and they all drove away.

As soon as they were out of sight, Cooke and Markus let out a deep breath.

"I am so going to kill you." Markus punched Cooke's shoulder, "You nearly-"

Cooke covered Markus' mouth, "Loose lips sink ships... Let's get to work."

Cooke mimed a shushing motion, and pointed Markus to the closet.

They entered the closet, and Markus grabbed a strong microwave magnet from one of the various bins of spare parts and stuck it on top of the door. He then pulled out his phone, put it back together, and used it to open the door. This time, it opened up to the spiral staircase. Markus removed the magnet as Cooke descended into the super computer room, and he followed in tow, closing the door behind him.

"OOOOOKAY!" Cooke let out, "I'm sorry, I'm worried the place was bugged."

Markus ran over to the computer, and started running a scan on the facility, "...Nope."

"Okay, good, good." Cooke clapped his hands once, "Now, I have a few questions."

"I bet you do."

"First, we have a bug detecting program?"

"Jeremie sent it to us. Told me it might come in handy, based off experience apparently."

"Okay... How did the Agent see an empty safe? And what was the magnet for?"

Markus sat back, "Paranoia made me do it. Now it paid off!"

"Huh?"

"I was worried about something like this, the government busting in and finding Matriks, so I installed a tray over the staircase that's magnetized to the outer frame of the door, making it so anyone who opens it will see the tray. The magnet on the door reversed the magnetization, and the tray stuck to the door instead-"

"Revealing the stairs..." Cooke laughed, "Brilliant."

"Now, where was I?" Markus satirically pondered, "Oh, yeah, you nearly blew it!"

"Forget that, we have an activated tower to deal with!"

Agent Juliet opened up her laptop in the backseat, "Simmons, what was that place used for?"

The agent sitting next to her pulled out a file, "According to the file, it's been used by four groups over the last five years."

"Our groups, correct? Not college kidiots?" She sneered.

The agent nodded, "All low-level declassified projects. The last one being document storage."

"Where are those documents now?"

"On our servers." The agent pulled a sheet of paper out from the folder, "This is the inventory of the warehouse as it was being emptied."

She took the sheet, and scanned down the list, "...This isn't the stuff we're looking for."

The agent shrugged, and took the paper back. "Anything else?"

"Yes, actually." She pulled up the government files of Cooke and Markus on her computer, "Cooke was acting awfully suspicious. I want an extensive background check done on both of them. If either one has so much as an old psychology report from elementary school, or littering ticket, or a stupid fan fiction posted online, I want to see it in my report."

The passenger in the front seat turned around, "Juliet, that's a lot of work and resources to conduct a thorough investigation on two college kids. We still have four more warehouses to check. The director is not going to approve it, and he signs all those requests. Our background check on them has shown no evidence of anything we should prevent of, or any reason to dig deeper."

She shut her laptop, "I'll talk to the director myself if I have to, but it was clear Cooke was hiding something."

A call rang from Jeremie on the super computer, and Markus picked up.

"Enfin! There you guys are! I couldn't reach you two! Do you realize how panicked I was?!" Jeremie scolded.

"Oh man, I'm sure we can't fathom it." Cooke deadpanned.

"What's going on, Jeremie?" Markus sat down, and began a tower scan.

"There's an activated tower, and it's not on Lyoko." Jeremie warned.

"Then it's probably another data attack from JAER. Wouldn't surprise me, it's been over a week." Cooke shrugged.

The computer beeped, indicating the activated tower was localized.

"Uhh... Uh oh." Markus bit his lower lip, "Take a look."

Cooke looked at the screen. The tower avatar had a XANA symbol blinking next to it.

"Thaaaat's not good, is it?"

"Apart from you being the only one who can deactivate it, we can't give you backup for another three and a half hours. Except for Yumi and William, they're only three hours." Jeremie informed.

"Meaning I have to do a solo mission, and not get devirtualized, because then we'll be waiting another twelve hours." Cooke nodded, "I see. No pressure."

"I'll put you as close as I can to the activated tower. I don't see any monsters yet." Markus readied.

Cooke stepped into the scanner, "Alright, let's go kick some artificial intelligence butt!"

"Alrighty then," Markus began the scanning procedure, "Transfer..."

The scanner doors closed. Cooke inhaled deeply.

"Scanner... Virtualization."

Cooke fell on to the icy surface. He spawned onto a long pathway, with the digital sea hundreds of feet below him on both sides.

"I made it." Cooke stood up, "Which way?"

"End of this path in front of you." Markus answered, "Huh... Interesting. It appears this tower is on the inner edge of the sector."

"...Meaning?"

"That's the Way tower." Jeremie chimed in, "Be careful Cooke, XANA can do a lot of nasty things from a Way tower."

"Like?"

"Erase an entire sector."

"Ooo...kay." Cooke feared.

Cooke came up to a large plateau of ice, complete with a large cliff against the back.

"Lemme guess, the tower is on top of the cliff?"

"Close. Inside it." Markus corrected.

"I see. I'm just gonna scan the area real quick." Cooke furrowed his brows and focused, activating Extrasensory, and scanned for any monsters he couldn't see.

He didn't find anything, though.

"Y'know, I thought this would be a cool power, but it's not very practical... Or useful." Cooke complained.

"You say that now, but when you need it most you'll be glad you have it." Markus advised.

"Do they print that on the side of the energy drinks you drink so you'll keep coming back?" Cooke jabbed.

"You can't eat salad without bacon bits, so shut it!" Markus retorted.

Cooke rolled his eyes, and entered a tunnel in the front of the cliff.

"Hey, guys, I'm getting a buggy si-i-i-i-" Jeremie timed out of the chat, and disconnected.

"Get him back!"

"I'm trying, man!" Markus pulled out his phone, but saw he wasn't getting a signal in their computer bunker, "Shhhhoot! We've lost him!"

"Then we keep on going!"

Cooke pressed on, until he came upon a large room that had two branching pathways to the tower in the center of the room. Below those two pathways were chasms that we covered by a thick layer of fog.

"Uhh... This is gonna sound like a stupid question, but, are you sure this is the tower?"

"Yes! My screen even shows it as red! Right in front of you!"

"Then either XANA must be fantastic at camouflage, or your tower scanner is busted, because this tower isn't active."

"...What?"

"This tower is not activated. It's clear." Cooke repeated.

"For real? Man... This sucks."

Immediately, Cooke's foot got shot at.

"Ah, crap!" He dashed across on of the paths, and two Krabs came up to the two pathways and blocked them.

"Cooke!"

"I'm fine! But now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place!"

Cooke looked around, and noticed the room was closed in, and the Krabs were blocking his only exit... And they stopped firing.

"What on... Matriks..." Cooke shook his head, and pulled out his short sword-

Which was immediately smacked out of his hand into the chasm, assumedly landing in the digital sea. Cooke whipped around, and came face to face with a giant sword being held by an exceptionally evil William.

"Hey... Markus... Why didn't you tell me we had visitors?"

"Problem! I can't see any enemies on screen!"

"I am staring down a blade to a mister Willevil here, and he disarmed me."

"That's it, I'm bringing you back-"

The computer started an alarm, notifying Markus of an issue with the devirtualization program.

"Uhh, more bad news! There's a problem with the devirtualization program! You're trapped!"

Cooke looked back and forth, between William and the Krabs, and pieced it all together. "...I'm right where XANA wants me."

"What?!"

"Stuck here, alone, disarmed, exits blocked, no backup for at least another three hours, and in front of our world's Way tower. He tricked our tower scan to draw me out here alone, and cut us off from Jeremie." Cooke activated his Extrasensory and scanned around for exits, "But... What for?"

A large pinkish tentacle-y thing rose from the fog below, and floated over to Cooke. He didn't know what it was, but he saw XANA's mark clear as day on it.

"Uhh... I'm gonna assume whatever that thing is isn't good."

"...Huh?"

"Did our friends ever mention a big squid-jellyfish looking thing to you? Because it's not ringing a bell for me."

"No...-" Markus recalled a conversation with them.

"XANA… Took you? How?"

"There's a XANA controlled monster we call the Scyphozoa, which is capable of altering and controlling your brain. You'll know it when you see it."

"I take it that it looks like a jellyfish?"

"-OHHHHHH COOKE DON'T LET THAT THING GET NEAR YOU!" Markus panicked, and frantically opened the devirtualization code, which he now saw was sabotaged, "IT is GAME OVER if that thing TOUCHES YOU! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

"Loud and clear!" Cooke jumped to the other pathway, "What is it?!"

"That is the Scyphozoa and I was WARNED EXCLUSIVELY TO NEVER LET THAT GET NEAR YOU!"

"I need a weapon! Or an escape plan! NOW!"

"HOLD ON!"

The Scyphozoa advanced towards Cooke, who was unable to escape between William and the two Krabs, as well as the digital sea under his feet.

"I don't think I can hold on for very long!"