Code Matriks

Episode 13: L'enquête

By B1ockh3d

Author's note: Hello! I'm still here! I know I've missed out on a few weeks, and I've just had a lot of both good and bad things happen. I'm sorry, it feels like all I ever use the author's notes for is apologizing, but that's just how it is. I'm back in my groove again, But due to the holidays coming up and finals as well, I wouldn't count on another chapter in two weeks. I have bigger plans for the next chapter, so I've set my deadline for Christmas!

Thanks for reading thus far, and the title translates to "The Investigation." I felt like I needed to at least translate that.

"Interesting." Jeremie analyzed Cooke's materialization code, "Nothing's out of place. All of your code is fine, there's no reason you should've materialized here."

"So, if we do this again, I should be able to go home?"

"Yeah."

"...Cooke, Jeremie," Aelita started, "Could it have been something physical that altered his virtualization code? Say, a bug?"

"Hmm... Maybe something small, with a transmitter that actively tampered with his code." Jeremie shrugged, "It's possible. Did you bring anything, Cooke?"

"Not that I can recall..." Cooke batted at all his pockets, and tapped on something metal, "...Except for that!"

He pulled out the metal case full of mints, and handed it to Aelita.

"Your mother wanted me to give this to you."

Aelita opened it up, and pulled out the flash drive, "...Thank you."

Jeremie took the tin of mints from Aelita, "...She handed this to you, Cooke?"

"Yeah. It was consolation for my dinner." Cooke laughed, "They gave me a grilled cheese sandwich made with Swiss cheese, I'm pretty sure that violates something in the Geneva Convention!"

Jeremie dumped the mints, and noticed a bulge in the metal backing, "Aaaand what do we here?"

He pulled it back, revealing a chip with a small antenna.

"I... Think we found our culprit!" Cooke tore the chip out, and handed it to Jeremie.

"Anthea must've known Cooke would've returned to Matriks, so she redirected him here." Yumi hypothesized.

"That would explain why she wanted me to deliver it to Aelita directly." Cooke deduced, "I was trying to figure out the logistics that."

"I'm kind of worried it's a GPS tracker. William? Could you please?" Jeremie threw it on the ground in front of William, who appropriately crushed it with his heel.

"Any time!"

Ulrich rolled his eyes, bitterly. Odd nudged him.

"It's because you don't have awesome faux army boots!" Odd stifled his laughter quietly.

"Well, now that we know what the issue was, and fixed it, what should we do?" Markus chimed in over the computer.

"It's a Saturday. We could take you to the movies!" Odd suggested.

"No, no." Jeremie shook his head, "Cooke's in our country illegally, we can't throw him out in public."

"Can't you make something up? A phony student visa or license?"

"Student... There's a thought." Cooke stroked his chin, "...Markus."

"Yes? Er, oui?"

"What was that place you said was a few miles from here that Kraig Bangalter worked at?"

"The Institut de France. It's a Saturday though, he's probably not there."

"Mmm... Maybe he is." Cooke snapped his fingers, "What time of year are we at?"

"We are roughly... Nine, ten weeks into the semester?"

"Which means his students probably took a midterm a week or two ago, and he's still probably grading them depending on his class size."

Jeremie cracked his knuckles, "I'm going to get you a student ID card."

"What happened to "can't throw him out in public," Einstein?" Odd scrunched.

"This is important, he needs more information from doctor Bangalter about Matriks." Jeremie shifted, "And NOT to go watch Carnival Zombies Four!"

"Ohhh, but it's so good!"

"Not as good as two, in my opinion." Cooke shrugged.

Odd spun around, "You like the Carnival Zombie movies too?! I personally love three, where Kendra kills that one zombie but drowning it in the dunk tank!"

Cooke bit his lip, "Uhh... I just said that to sound cool... I didn't think you'd go this far."

Ulrich laughed, "You clearly don't know Odd very well!"

"Hey, it's okay, I'll go back to my dorm, pick up the first three and binge them while you wait for the timer here!"

Jeremie spun around, "I... Card's done."

"...Alright then, I'm going to need two things. A method of transportation, and," Cooke pivoted around and glared at William, "A new shirt."

Cooke skateboarded down the streets of France wearing a coat he borrowed from William, and his phone in hand.

"How far is this place?" Cooke spoke into a headset.

"About four more miles." Markus replied.

"Wonderful. I'll look at my map app from here on out."

"Okay. Don't get hit by a car!" Markus hung up.

Cooke dialed Jeremie, "Hey, Jeremie."

"You're about four miles away."

"I know." Cooke miffed, "I'm not calling about that."

"What do you need?"

"I was hoping you'd take a look at the code we got from Shelda."

"Oh! I've actually done that already."

Cooke stopped in front of a crosswalk, "And?"

"It appears it's some sort of directory. What it goes to, I don't know."

"Did you run it?"

"Yeah. It came back negative. I don't even know for sure that's what it actually is."

"Well... What did you run it on?"

"Our super computer. And if it can't find anyth-"

"Your super computer?" Cooke interrupted, "Did you run it on mine?"

"No."

"Well, there's your problem!" Cooke's light turned green and he continued onwards, "It can't find files if it's searching the wrong drive!"

"That's... A valid point. I'll send it along to Markus."

"Alright. I'll take care of business here. Seeya." Cooke hung up.

"Man, I can't believe we didn't think of this." Markus rubbed his forehead.

"Admittedly, we were stressed out at the time." Jeremie justified.

"Fair enough. I'll give the directory program thing a shot."

Jeremie sent the program, which Markus promptly ran.

"Now, we wait." Markus leaned back.

Not 30 seconds later, a dinging sound rang from the speakers, indicating a result.

Markus pushed his glasses up, "...Huh. I got over a dozen files?"

"Incredible!" Jeremie cheered, "What's on them?"

Markus opened several up and stared down each line, "It... Looks like garbage."

"What do you mean?"

"It's just random letters and numbers, I can't make any sense of it."

"Maybe I can. Send them on over."

Markus sent Jeremie the files, who also quickly reviewed them.

Dead silence.

"Sooo... Any guesses?"

"...No... Aelita?!" Jeremie shouted, "Voir ça!"

Aelita quickly joined Jeremie in front of the monitor, "Quel?"

"Voir! Voir!"

Aelita squinted at the screen, then her eyes shot open wide, "Cela ne... Veut pas le codage je pense qu'il est, est-il?! Franz Hopper?!"

Markus waved his hands, "Hey! What is it?! I don't know what you're saying!"

Cooke strolled up to the front desk, where a woman was working diligently on some paperwork.

"Hey, so, I'm a student here, but I'm kinda new, so... I'm looking for Professor Bangalter?"

She looked at him, dumbfounded, "Quoi?"

"Oh, right, I'm in France..." Cooke stroked his chin, "Uhh... Office de... Kraig Bangalter?"

She pointed to a sign on the wall, showing all the professors and room numbers. Kraig Bangalter, room 131.

"Of course it's room one thirty-one..."

Cooke walked around for half an hour, trying to decipher French words and find the office. Luckily, it wasn't hidden or tucked away in some corner of the campus.

He opened the door to the office, and saw a man with flat black hair working on his computer with his back turned.

"Mes heures de bureau ne sont pas le week-end." he shrugged off.

"I have absolutely no idea what you just said."

He broke away from his computer and side-glared Cooke, "Then you're attending the wrong school."

Cooke stepped in, "I'm actually just visiting. From afar. Came here to talk to you, actually."

"Please make an appointment and we can talk." He continued working.

"Well, you see," Cooke clasped his hands together, "I'm not here for very long, and I just need to ask you one question."

"Make it quick."

Cooke took a deep breath, "What does M-A-T-R-I-K-S stand for?"

His fingers stopped moving, and he froze up entirely.

"I don't understand the question."

Cooke rolled his eyes, "Sure you don't. You also don't understand why a computer that doubles as a nuclear bomb is sitting in a basement in a lab in the state of Washington DC. Right?"

He pivoted his chair around and pointed at the door angrily, "Out!"

Cooke backed through the doorway, "Right. Of course you don't."

"OUT!"

"It's gonna be a shame when JAER takes it over and sets it off! KA-BOOM! There goes the White House with our Commander in Chief! Oh say can you seeeee, by the bomb's furling light~"

The man bit his tongue, "...In."

Cooke smiled, stepped in and shut the door, "Care to set the record straight?"

He shook his head, "I do know the project."

"Gee, what a surprise."

"But! I merely helped build it. I'm afraid I'm quite useless when it comes to anything involving the power on."

Cooke sat down, "What is Matriks?"

The man pulled a filing cabinet drawer all the way out, "To be quite honest, I don't know. I do remember the essential functions of it, but it ultimately went to waste when it happened."

"Ah yes, the cliché "it" incident... And what is it?"

He took a breath, "Look, there was three of us. And some fourth person we never met."

"Let me guess... Shelda Fercaow?"

He looked at Cooke in bewilderment, "Who?"

"The... Fourth person?"

"I guess. I don't know that name." He shrugged, "They supplied the base for Matriks. From where, I don't know. But it looked like it was copied from another project, or maybe a prototype."

"You mean Carthage?"

He leaned back in his chair, "Why did you come here if you know more than I do?"

"Because I don't know what Matriks was for!"

"Oh, right." He pulled off a strip of tape on the backside of the drawer, revealing a memory card stashed under it, "Here are some of the documents they had us sign. I kept a copy in case I had to cover myself."

Cooke took the memory card, "...Why are you being so helpful?"

"Because ever since whoever Shelda is locked us out, it's caused nothing but trouble. I'd rather solve it and hopefully get my lab back in the United States."

Cooke held up his hand, "Hold on... Didn't JAER lock you out? Like he's locking us out?"

He shook his head, "I have no idea who or what JAER is."

"And you think Shelda locked you out?"

"I know so." He stuffed the drawer back into the cabinet, "They programmed the entire thing. One day, we showed up to work on it, and everything was locked out. All eight test zones."

"...What were you testing?"

"A new form of super artificial intelligence. It didn't work very well, actually."

Cooke stared, stunned, "And you said you didn't know what Matriks was. How did it fail?"

"Well... We aren't quite sure." He paused, "The concept of this project was creating R-class intelligence from the ground up. Just making certain parameters and letting it do its thing."

"Wha... What's R-class?"

"R-class is roughly equivalent to human intellect." he pulled out a piece of paper and started drawing diagrams, "Y'see, when most people hear "artificial intelligence," they think of War Games or 2001: A Space Odyssey. But truthfully, there are many variations. M-class would be military, such as drones. S-class would be system automation, like SIRI or Cortana. But R-class, which is real or "true" intelligence is one that has hardly been tested."

"How come?"

He shook his head, "It's dangerous. A computer learning vial cues from humans can be catastrophic. We are an inherently violent species. Look, if we could teach a robot to love, it could just as easily learn to hate, and that could end with a horrifying outcome."

"So..." Cooke snapped his fingers, "What were you guys doing differently?"

"Aha! Good question." He turned the page over and kept drawing, "Now, how did we as a species grow our many languages? Innovations?"

"...I don't really know."

"That's because you've been doing it all your life. You learn from other people! Other cultures! Music, movies, radio, almost anything!" He breathed, "We made eight different worlds with beings that were created under minimal guides, and learn from each other, instead of us. From there, we can accelerate and predict evolution. Like a sort of... Forecast for the human race."

"Hold up..." Cooke grabbed his own head, "Let me get this straight, Matriks was just a big game of My Sims?!"

"No, no. More like Spore, or No Man's Sky."

"Okay, so... Why did my government want R-class artificial intelligence?"

He laughed, and rubbed his fingers together, "It's all about the money! But, if it had worked, we'd be decades ahead of other countries developing similar technology. You see, the more the intelligence grows, the better we can predict where the human race will go. And with that information-"

"-we can better prepare ourselves for what can happen."

He nodded, "With this knowledge, your government could predict a revolution years before it could happen, and prevent it."

"...So, a crystal ball."

"Exactly." He tore the paper in half and crumpled it up, "But, we were locked out of the project by someone or something, and then the project was abandoned."

"Right, Shelda." Cooke rubbed his chin, "...How did someone unrelated to Carthage get access to the entirety of it, and make it into what it is now? And how did JAER take over?"

He raised an eyebrow, "How did you get here?"

"The... Uh..."

"Don't tell me you used the matter manipulator. It hasn't been tested on people or animals yet!"

"...Yeah, I believe you're talking about the scanner?"

He cradled his face into his palm, "That was not smart. I didn't even think that thing worked."

"Then... Why did you build it?"

"It was in the schematics with detailed explanations sent from... Huh. I guess that was Shelda too."

"Everything keeps coming back to her..." Cooke pondered.

"Yeah... Hey, if you went into the matter mani- er, "scanner," in America, how did you get here in France?"

Cooke looked at him, wide-eyed, "Uhh... Uh oh."

"Incredible." Jeremie kept analyzing the code, "I can't piece it together, but that's just how he was."

"So, what is random bits of code written by Franz Hopper doing in our computer?" Markus puzzled.

Jeremie shrugged, "Much less, how did Shelda write code that pinpointed it out?"

Aelita peaked over Jeremie's shoulder, "I think we all keep forgetting the fact she looks exactly like me, but older?"

Jeremie and Markus paused in unison.

"Yeah, it's pretty freaking weird." Markus broke.

"How did your government get ahold of Carthage?" Jeremie continued.

"I don't know, but it was credited in the document."

"Hm... I hope Cooke has luck."

Right then, the door to the elevator opened up to Cooke standing there...

...With a professor.

"Wow..." Kraig awed, "This is extraordinary!"

"Cooke, did you-"

"Yes Jeremie, I brought Doctor Bangalter along." Cooke shrugged, "I didn't have much of a choice!"

"Just- Doctor..." Jeremie calmed down, "Please keep this a secret."

"Are you kidding?" He fawned over the holographic display, "I'm half-tempted to ask if I can rent this place!"

"Well, it's a lot more dangerous than it looks." Aelita advised.

"Cooke told me all about it. You guys fighting XANA, JAER, and lots of other things."

"Cooke, why did you-"

"Look, it was game over once he asked how I got from America to France going through the scanner. I figured a bonafide doctor who'd actually like to help would be a good asset." Cooke reached into his pockets and handed Jeremie the small memory card, "And here's some more stuff."

"...Alright, whatever."

Kraig prodded at the keyboard, "May I?"

"...Sure." Jeremie carefully got out of the seat, and watched over Kraig.

"Incredible, it looks a lot like the interface for Matriks." He noted, "And here I thought it was one of its kind."

"Uhh, hello?" Markus called over the web cam, "Doctor?"

"Call me Kraig, what is it?"

"What is Matriks?"

Cooke pulled the screen away and towards him, "Buddy, it's a lot more than we thought."

"How so?"

Kraig cleared his throat, "It's a simulator for observing human trends, in short. Until we were locked out by the one we call Shelda."

"Huh?"

"It's like Sims meet Spore, and JAER might not be the one locking us out. I'll explain it later." Cooke rushed, "Jeremie, Markus, any luck whatsoever with that information?"

"We were just about to call you, it's scrap code written by Franz Hopper." Markus answered.

"Wait, Franz? Franz was involved in the project?!" Kraig scratched his head, "My god..."

"How..." Jeremie froze.

"Who is Franz to you?" Aelita piqued.

"He was on the reviewing committee for my dissertation. He was a true genius at the top of his field, which made it puzzling when he decided to leave and teach at a nearby boarding school."

"Well, now you know why!" Cooke splayed his arms out, "Hey, does the name Waldo Schaeffer mean anything to you?"

"Other than that last name being written on the soles of your shoes, no." He shrugged, "Saw it when you were getting in my car."

Cooke picked up his right foot, and saw the taped on SCHAE slowly rotting away, "Right, I gotta clean that..."

Jeremie shook his head, "Okay but- You know who Franz Hopper is, but not Waldo Schaeffer?"

"...Should I?"

"Aieeee... Nahhh." Cooke waved, "It's all good."

Kraig got out of the seat and let Jeremie back in, "Okay... This place is exceptionally fantastic."

"Hey now... Could Kraig and I see the physical computer tower to compare?"

"Uhh-"

"Yes, I'll take you guys." Aelita quickly cut in, and led both Cooke and Kraig the elevator.

"Huh." Markus grunted, "If JAER supposedly isn't locking us out, who is?"

The elevator reached the bottom floor, and the three stepped out. In front of them was a podium with a card sticking out of it, and a tall black tower with a white light glowing in the center.

"Impressive."

"It does indeed look like the nuclear warhead we have in our basement." Cooke raised his right index finger, "But, how is it powered?"

"Uranium. Remember, we had to steal some to keep me alive?" Aelita reminded.

"Oh, right. I forgot that diary."

"You... Stole Uranium?!" Kraig grabbed his hair, "Are you guys responsible for that Uranium theft a few years ago?!"

"Uh, maybe?" Aelita bit her lip.

"Now, Kraig, don't freak out, but the reason they did it is because Aelita here was linked to the supercomputer through XANA, and if they shut down the computer, she died." Cooke recalled.

Kraig ran his fingers through his hair, "Then... Why don't you shut it down now?!"

"Because-"

"Because I explained this in the car, Kraig! XANA resides on another supercomputer, and as long as he's there, he can destroy the world! Which is why we're fighting him!"

He shut his mouth, "...Well alright then."

Aelita stepped back into the elevator, "Have you two seen enough?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah..."

Kraig left the factory, and Jeremie plugged in the card.

"Hmm... He-hey!" Jeremie celebrated, "It has all eight documents! With nothing redacted!"

"You'd think the US government would have a better handle on the documents they handed out to their scientists." Markus commented.

"Well, it looks like they're all a few thousand pages. We'll get to that later."

"Soo... What do we do now?" Cooke sighed, "How much time do I have to wait?"

Jeremie checked the clock, "Another... Eight hours."

"Man, I hate this time wasting crap. Who even came up with it?!"

"Uhh, guys?" Markus tapped on the microphone, "Funny you should bring that up..."

"Huh?"

"How so?"

"I... Think I may have solved the puzzle that is Franz's code."

Cooke hopped up next to Jeremie, "And what is it?"

"It's an algorithm." Markus bit his lower lip, "I think it allows point to point transportation between two systems, or in this case, scanners."

"HOLD... Hold up..." Cooke calmed down, "You mean to tell me, we can turn our scanners into instant teleporters?!"

"Actually, yes!" Jeremie began a simulation on his screen of the program, "You can walk in our scanner, and walk out yours! And, possibly the opposite!"

"Which would make the countdown clock completely moot right now!" Markus smiled gleefully.

"Wait," Aelita looked up from her laptop, "Who would design such a program?"

Cooke froze, and looked down on Aelita, "...Only someone who knew Carthage existed."

"Shelda." Aelita firmed, "Who also made this code in my father's style."

"Who also looks like you..." Cooke puzzled, "Who on earth is she?!"

Aelita stroked her chin, and walked over to the super computer, "Markus, she said she had no middle name, right?"

"Uh, she said that to me, actually." Cooke reminded.

"I know, but she introduced herself to Markus."

"So, what's your main question?"

"She said she had no middle name, but how did she introduce herself?"

"She said "I am Shelda Fercaow" and sat down like a robot."

Aelita snapped her fingers, "Exactly! But she's missing an F!"

Cooke, Jeremie, and Markus looked at Aelita strangely, "She's missing an F?"

"Ugh..." Aelita rubber her face, "Did she say my name is Shelda Fercaow, or possibly Shelda "F." Fercaow?"

Markus widened his eyes in sudden recollection, "Actually... It was the latter..."

Aelita turned to Cooke, "Cooke, your shoes."

"What about them? They're comfy and all..."

"No, hand me your shoes."

"I... Okay." Cooke, completely flabbergasted, took off and handed Aelita his shoes.

Aelita turned them over, where they still roughly spelt out SCHAE FFER, and started peeling off letters and sticking them on the armrest of the chair.

"What are you..."

She spelt out F FERCA, leavin on the shoe.

"Tell me, what letters am I missing to spell out Shelda's full name?"

"Uhh... L, D, A, O, and W." Cooke pieced together.

Jeremie put his palm on his head, "How could I be so blind, those are the same letters that spell out Waldo!"

Aelita nodded, "Shelda F. Fercaow is an anagram for Waldo Schaeffer, my father."

"Oh my god." Markus finally tuned in, "It all makes sense now. Why Shelda looks like you. Why that code works. Why she gave us that middle name hint- albeit, not very clear. He built this computer under the guise of a helpful project, but he then locked everyone out, and built another Lyoko for... For what?"

"And it would make sense he made that teleport code, so he could bypass Lyoko and escape-" Aelita choked up, "Escape the men in black."

"Wait, there's only one scan- Ohhh..." Cooke sank, realizing the predicament, "He didn't count on having another person with him."

"But, he did." Jeremie disagreed, "He never mentioned making another system, but he did say his intentions were to transfer both him and Aelita to Lyoko."

"Which means... Matriks must have built after that had happened." Aelita pondered.

"That would also explain why Kraig didn't ever see him, or "Shelda," in person. Because he was on Lyoko without a physical form." Cooke theorized, "And he probably picked those three based on their knowledge and location. Using things such as Kraig's dissertation as a subtle job interview."

"And Shelda looks like me... Because Shelda is my father and he was leaving a clue!" Aelita teared up, "This must mean Daddy's still alive! He must be using a spectre that looks like me!"

"Don't pop out the champagne yet, we still have to figure out if JAER is the one responsible for all these data attacks." Markus reminded, "And, I have the program ready to run. Maybe we can continue this conversation when Cooke comes home?"

"Absolutely. Cooke, are you ready to disembark France?"

"Yes, I'd love that. It's been too long!" Cooke headed towards the elevator, "Jeremie, are you ready?"

"Of course."

Cooke went down a floor, and strolled into a scanner, "Whenever you're ready."

Jeremie and Markus simultaneously hit the enter key, and the scanners on both sides close.

"Transferring Cooke."

"Aaaand receiving Cooke!"

Markus' scanner opened, and there stood Cooke!

Cooke felt up his body, "No... Missing parts! Hallelujah! It's good to be back!"

The countdown clock suddenly sped up, going from eight hours to zero in seconds, followed by an activated tower alert.

"Wh... What just happened?"

"The story continues to unfold." Markus shrugged.

Jeremie pulled up a map of the area, "...Alright, it's an orange tower. Your specialty, Cooke. It looks like you have two mecha wolves... Attacking the tower?!"

"Yeah, they do that every time. Seems kind of backwards, if you ask me."

Aelita glanced up at the screen, "If they're attacking the tower, they're trying to force-deactivate it. If a tower sustains enough damage, it'll shut down."

"So... They're trying to deactivate their own tower?"

Jeremie shook his head, "That wouldn't make sense. What would make sense would be if those towers aren't controlled by JAER at all."

"Well... Let's just let it happen this time. See what becomes of it." Cooke suggested.

They watched for a solid fifteen minutes, and the tower shut down. Bumping up the download from 70% to 72%.

"Do you think, maybe, we're supposed to let this happen?" Cooke suggested, "Given how much we've learned in the past hour, we might have been preventing something important."

"Like...?"

"Well, we know Shelda is Waldo, right? What if those seven other sectors that we thought was controlled by JAER are actually controlled by him?"

Markus scratched his head, "Well, that would make sense. Why we can't shut the computer off, why JAER asked for help fending off XANA... Maybe JAER isn't even remotely a threat."

Cooke rubbed his fingers deep into his hair, "Geez... Everything I had sorted in my head has just been upturned. Shelda is Waldo, Waldo is alive possibly, and he tricked the US government into making such a computer."

Markus nodded, "...Lunch?"

"Absolutely! Let's get out of this cave!"

Cooke and Markus left the lab, and indulged on some real grilled cheese.