Code Matriks
Episode 7: Eyes of Ember
By B1ockh3d
Author's Note: Hey there! I see I have a good number of readers, and my schedule is softening a bit. I have school starting in a few weeks (which is weird to think about, when you saw only a few chapters ago I was taking a break from writing for finals,) and I'm hoping to get the next two chapters done before the next one is posted to give me a cushion, so you can't tell when I'm taking a break.
Now, I have something to address that kind of annoys me. At this time, I have 14 reviews, and at least half of them say "great chapter, update soon." First, thanks for reading and taking time to review, but could you leave me a bit more information? Tell me what you like? Who your favorite characters are? Etc.? This way I can see what you guys like and improve those aspects? Please give me something to work with is all I'm saying. Thank you.
Cooke was sitting in the school cafeteria, with his face on the desk. His laptop was open, compiling various code for a robot.
Markus sat down across from him, and slid over a burger, "Hey man."
Cooke looked up, "Mmm? Burger?"
"Yes, burger." Markus nodded, "How's the script coming along?"
"It's compiling." Cooke opened up the burger wrapper and began eating, "Should be done before Engineering."
"Good, good." Markus pulled out his laptop, "I've got news too."
"Oh?"
"That port I found? The mysterious one hidden in tens of millions of lines of code?" Markus bit his lower lip, "Yeah... Dead end. It was nothing."
"That's mildly annoying." Cooke rolled his eyes.
"But! Better news!" Markus paused, "I found two things interesting while reviewing the security camera footage!"
"...Why do we even have- never mind. What are they?"
Markus turned his laptop around, and showed a shot that was over Markus' shoulder, "Look carefully on the screen to the right. I didn't see it when it happened. This was when that waterfall froze in place."
He played the clip. On the screen Markus was noting, was the basic mini map of the area and surrounding enemies. It was highlighting Cooke as green and William as red. And for a split second, a yellow dot indicating an unknown monster appeared and disappeared.
"...So?"
"So?! This could be the reason the waterfall froze!" Markus argued, "I'm sure of it!"
"I doubt it. But, let's keep things moving, what's the other thing?"
Markus let the video continue, and switched the camera to the one in the room containing the physical super computer.
"Now... Wait just a moment. You're walking down the corridor at this time, going to the purple tower."
The light on the middle super computer was glowing blue.
"That just means it's on, man..."
"Shh! Watch!"
About thirty seconds later, the blue light turned purple and blinked eight times, then returned to solid blue.
"And that was when you entered the tower."
Cooke sat back, "...Huh. So, whatever happened was supposed to happen."
Markus fast-forwarded the security footage ahead two hours, and the same thing happened. Eight purple blinks.
"And that was when you left the tower."
Cooke replayed the footage, "...Any theories?"
"None yet. I already sent it along to Aelita and Jeremie, who are in the middle of a XANA attack." Markus casually mentioned.
"What- they didn't invite me?!"
"Dude! Remember! XANA is their war, JAER is ours. We're merely helping behind the scenes." Markus reminded, "Not to mention, XANA has a Scyphozoa with your name on it."
Cooke rolled his eyes, "As long as they don't restart our day abruptly."
A white flash engulfed them.
Cooke and Markus threw off their sheets.
"Son of a-"
"You jinxed us!" Markus blamed.
"Next time you talk to Jeremie, ask him to program something that gives us a heads up!" Cooke huffed, "There must be at least a few seconds delay from when they start it to when it affects us!"
Markus peered over the railing of his bed, "Sucks you have to recompile that code."
"...Oh GREAT!"
Cooke was sitting in the school cafeteria, with his face on the desk. His laptop was open, compiling various code for a robot.
Markus sat down across from him, and slid over a taco, "Hey man."
Cooke looked up, "Mmm? Taco this time?"
"Yessir!" Markus nodded, "How's the script coming along this time?"
"Well, unlike last time, it'll be done in a few minutes."
"Excellent," Markus opened his laptop, "By the way, I wasn't done sharing the good news."
"What?"
"There's a ship on Matriks with your name on it!" Markus flipped his laptop around, showing a model of a ship that looked like one of the NavSkids with a large wingspan.
"It looks like a Manta ray."
"It kinda does, huh?"
Cooke unwrapped his taco and began eating it, "Did you ever find out what happened on Lyoko?"
Markus shook his head, "Haven't gotten in touch with him yet."
"Alright, so we'll test it out tonight."
"That's the plan!" Markus checked his watch, "Alright, I have English in fifteen minutes."
Cooke waved, "Bye."
Markus sat down for his class, two rows from the front in a room of about 50 people.
"Welcome back to class. I hope you're all working on the paper due this Friday, hint hint nudge nudge." The teacher reminded, "We're going over contractions today, I'm pretty sure you're all familiar with them."
The whole class grunted in acknowledgement.
"Buuut you probably aren't familiar with our new student!" The teacher introduced, pointing to a girl standing next to him. She appeared to be about 19 or 20, short pink hair, and a pretty fair height.
Markus quietly gasped, "Holy... She looks just like..."
Aelita!
Except, her eyes were unnaturally orange. Like a bright shade of ember.
"Please introduce yourself to the class."
"My name is Shelda F. Fercaow." She answered robotically.
"Hm." Markus quietly grunted. What a peculiar name.
"Miss Fercaow, please take a seat behind Mister Edwards."
Shelda walked over in a soldier-like manner, and sat behind Markus.
Markus turned around, "Hi there, I'm-"
"Markus Josiah Edwards." She panned, emotionless.
This was just too weird. A girl who looks like the grown up version of Aelita with a very strange name and she knew who Markus was? And his middle name? Not to mention, her strange personality?
Markus turned back towards the board, knowing things just got even stranger.
"There are no activated towers on Lyoko." Jeremie informed, "I've triple-checked."
"What is this about?" Cooke demanded.
"I think XANA launched an attack!" Markus convinced, "There's this girl in my class, just got here, and she looks exactly like an older version of Aelita!"
"Have you checked the security camera footage? Maybe he made a clone from your scanner?" Jeremie suggested.
Markus nodded, "I've checked, there's been no activity."
"Anything else you can tell us about... Shelby?" Aelita asked.
"Shelda... She has dark orange eyes that are clearly not contacts, walks and talks like a robot, and knew who I was! Including my middle name!"
"What's her last name?" Jeremie started pounding away at his keyboard.
"Fercaow, spelt F-E-R-C-A-O-W."
Jeremie looked up her information, "...Huh. All her legal records seem to be in place. Time stamps are correct, handwritten tax forms from last year. But..."
"But?"
"She has no picture on file. Not even in the DMV or Passport databases. No social media sites, no... Phone number or known emails?"
Aelita closely looked at the screen, "...This is definitely unusual."
Cooke snapped his fingers, "Maybe she's a government agent! Like an undercover narc!"
Markus shook his head, "No, narcs are supposed to blend in. She sticks out like a sore thumb."
"Maybe she's just not that good at her job?" Cooke sighed, "Look, she has a bunch of legitimate looking documents and no picture on file. She knows your full name, and enrolled in a class you're taking. The only logical explanation is that she's an undercover!"
"Then explain why she would reveal the fact she knew who I was? Even a bad agent knows to let the target introduce themselves!" Markus scratched his head, "And why does she look just like Aelita? Except older?"
Cooke leaned against the table, "...Fair points. But, maybe the semblance is just uncanny."
"Wouldn't be the first time." Jeremie commented.
"Really man? Short pink hair?" Markus rolled his eyes, "I guess you'll have to see her to believe me."
"...Sooo... You guys wanna talk about this while testing the MantiSkid?" Jeremie proposed.
"That's what it's called?" Cooke raised an eyebrow, "...Not too bad of a name, actually."
Markus pulled up the keyboard closer to him, "Alright, let's get this show on the road. Beginning the transfer sequence."
Cooke stepped inside the scanner, and the doors closed.
Cooke landed on the surface, right outside of a tunnel at the base of a cliff.
"Where to?"
"The Way tower, where you were almost captured last week."
"Ah, thought the place looked familiar."
Cooke ran inside and came upon the room with two paths leading to a tower. He grabbed his sword and held tightly as he drew it, keeping tabs on his backside and front side. Luckily, no one "greeted" him.
"Alright, coast is clear."
"Look around, do you see a pad?"
Cooke saw a target-looking pad attached to the left path, "Yeah."
"Go stand on it!"
Cooke walked over and stood on the pad. The pad pressed downward, and slowly the MantiSkid with its lengthy wings folded up rose from the fog below.
"Heh. Very impressive, Jeremie." Cooke complimented.
"Merci!" Jeremie thanked, "For now, just come to Lyoko. We aren't going straight to the Cortex just yet."
"Okay." Cooke slouched back, "Sooo... How do I get in the thing?"
"Transferring now." Markus announced.
Cooke teleported into the MantiSkid. Inside, it looked just like the interior of the NavSkids, down to the same control setup. The only real difference was that the cockpit was a bit slimmer. If the glass was any closer to Cooke's face, it'd fog up!
"What exactly did you guys do? It looks like one of your little spore ships."
"Well, because it mostly is. We just took a NavSkid and modified it." Aelita chimed in.
"We are in a bind for time, it was just quicker and easier to take what we had and improve it." Jeremie explained.
Cooke shrugged, and started it up. He carefully guided it towards the digital sea, "Hey, this is pretty easy!"
"Just be careful and don't lose all your shields! That's the only thing separating you from the virtual grassy knoll!" Markus warned.
"Or, in this case, the virtual ocean that can very much kill me for realsies." Cooke lamely joked, and dove into the digital sea.
Cooke shot out of the gateway to Matriks.
"I'm alive!"
Everyone took a collective sigh of relief.
"Okay, there should be a blue button on the right-hand panel to extend the wings." Markus advised.
Cooke peered over the console, and pressed the blue button above his pinky. The wings folded out fully, and a message popped up, reading: "Turbo: Online"
"Where's the turbo?"
"Big ol' button." Markus laughed.
Cooke saw a big button surrounded by three smaller buttons under his thumb, and pressed it.
FOOOSH!
"Ah!" Cooke slammed back into his seat, and regained control, "Thing packs a punch!"
Unfortunately, the sea began to glow red.
"Uh ohhh..." Jeremie panicked, "Uhh, bad news."
"I know enemies are after me!"
"No, it's not that," Jeremie bit his lower lip, "I... Didn't upgrade the weapons."
Cooke raised an eyebrow, "Okay? So? At least I have a weapon?"
"It won't work in winged mode or turbo mode, unless the target is head on."
"Then I guess I'll have to stop, genius." Cooke rolled his eyes, and stopped the MantiSkid to return it to its non-winged form.
Three sharks started swimming towards him. He activated the gun, and let loose.
He hit one immediately, and the two others swam off. He chased one of them down, and started shooting, but the shark ducked them all and swam downwards.
"Cooke! On your right!" Markus yelled.
Cooke looked to his right, right as a beam from the other shark hit him square in the glass, "Gah!"
He swung the ship upwards to aim his gun, and shot the shark.
Direct hit!
"Alright, one left!" Cooke checked his radar, and saw a ping directly behind him.
He pushed the nose downwards and hit the reverse thrusters, launching him above the shark with his gun aimed at him. He fired-
KA-PFFT!
The sea turned back to blue.
"Three for three! That was easy enough." Cooke relaxed, and re-extended the wings and restarted the turbo thrusters.
"Don't be so reckless!" Markus complained, "It'll be a pain to do all the paperwork alone if you die in a government sponsored lab!"
"Really feeling the love, man." Cooke laughed.
Cooke made it to Lyoko, with no further issues.
"Alright, made it! It works!" Cooke celebrated, "Uh, now what?"
"Go back." Jeremie shrugged.
"You're... Kidding." Cooke leaned back, "This was the most pointless thing. I can't believe it was written in here. It serves no purpose. How lame."
"...What are you- we just tested the MantiSkid! There wasn't much beyond that we had planned!" Markus defended, "We'll upgrade the gun to work in turbo mode so you don't have to slow down. Come on back."
"When are we going to attack the Cortex anyways?" Cooke asked.
"As soon as possible!" Jeremie breathed, "We had a major attack today that took out half the school's gym and everyone saw it. Luckily, the spectre didn't get any data."
"Oh, so that's what that return trip was about." Cooke guided he MantiSkid towards the digital sea.
"Yeah. XANA only needs to steal back five percent of his energy from us, then he'll be back at full power!"
"Five percent, huh? That might explain why it prefers to go after me."
"How so?" Markus raised an eyebrow.
"C'mon man, I'm an easier target. XANA has ninety-five percent of its power, so naturally, it can afford strong attacks against me that are bound to be more successful. I have less backup, less experience, and if XANA got its grimy paws on Matriks, it has two quantum computers at his disposal." Cooke noted.
"Sooo... We need more Matriks warriors?" Markus hinted.
"God, NO! We have five Lyoko Warriors available, why risk more lives?!" Cooke argued, "We just need a way for them to spawn on Matriks without having to make a trip through the sea."
"Aha!" Jeremie cheered, "And that's exactly what we did when we created the MantiSkid! As long as it's docked at your Way tower, we can spawn on Matriks or the Cortex directly."
"Then I guess I'll be sure to keep it docked." Cooke dove into the digital sea.
"Y'know what I don't understand?" Cooke asked, as he shoved a dollar into the soda machine.
"What?" Markus looked up from his notebook.
"Most of whatever you and Jeremie do." Cooke selected Coke.
"Pff... Don't look at me." Markus defended, "Jeremie is oodles faster than me at coding. Most the stuff we have is stuff he made for Lyoko, but I just change it to work for Matriks."
"No wonder." Cooke opened up his coke and took a swig, "Mmm! Dinner?"
Markus checked his watch, "It's only, like, five thirty. Isn't it a bit early?"
"Nahh, it's never too early for food. C'mon."
Cooke grabbed a food tray, and got in line for a Chinese food place. Followed by Markus.
...Followed by Shelda.
Markus nudged Cooke and whispered, "Dude! That's her!"
Cooke glanced over, and widened his eyes, "Oh... Holy crap. You're right, she does look like Aelita!"
Shelda didn't notice them talking. She stared robotically at the menu.
"Act cool." Markus advised.
"James Dean or Robert Downey Junior?"
"Robert after taking a hit."
"Ahh, gotcha." Cooke relaxed, "Ayyy can I get some chicken lo mein?"
Markus nudged Cooke, "I said Robert, not James!"
"Shush!"
Markus looked over at Shelda, who was now blankly staring at the food behind the glass.
"She hasn't noticed us yet." Markus whispered.
"Then let's keep moving." Cooke hurried.
Cooke and Markus sat down at a small round table, and Shelda took a seat at a table facing them at the other side of the room.
"You're definitely right, there's something weird about her." Cooke nodded.
Markus pulled out his laptop and plugged his flash drive into it, "I'm gonna do a no-no."
"Oh oh?"
"I'm gonna look up her schedule."
"Ah... Hacking into the school directory." Cooke moved his chair to the side of the table.
Markus spent a solid 30 seconds breaching the servers, then quickly pulled Shelda's records, "Lessee... She's in my English class... Math... Our Engineering class..."
"She's in all of our classes." Cooke leaned in closer, "Except one."
Cooke pointed at a French 134 class.
Markus slammed his laptop shut, "Alright, there's no way this is a coincidence."
"Should we stalk and spy on her?"
Markus looked over to the table Shelda is- well, was sitting at, "I have an eerie feeling it's going to be the other way around."
Cooke flopped down into his bed, "Well... Today was boring."
"Aside from Shelda." Markus reminded.
"Well, we're in our room. It's not like she can follow us in this building. All male dorms!"
"Yeah." Markus half laughed, "...But the female dorms are only a hundred feet away from us."
Cooke sprang back up, "And our room is in sight of them, crap!"
Cooke opened the curtains and looked across the commons towards the female dorms.
Markus opened his laptop, "And to think guys fight over the odd numbered rooms!"
"What room is she in?!"
Markus reopened her file, "...Aw jeez... Four-eighteen."
"Even number... That's the left side of their building."
"And we're on the right side of ours- She can see us!" Markus pried Cooke away from the window, and narrowed his eyes down to the fourth floor of the building they were across from-
And there was Shelda, staring out the window with her ember eyes.
Markus lurched back, shut the window, and closed the blinds.
"It's official... Things just got scarier."