In a room illuminated by LED screens, an old man's eyes were glued to his technology. It had now been a week since he began interacting with the Kadic Academy's most secretive student cliché. The recordings of the latest attack on the Lyoko warriors gave insightful intel into their fighting techniques as well as their personalities. He then switches to a live feed of the Kadic cafeteria. He listened in on their conversations about their day-to-day and who their new enemy is. His face gives way to a slight, appreciative smirk.
"It seems that these kids have more than proven themselves adept," spoke the man, "I believe we should make our intentions known."
Meanwhile, in the mess hall of Kadic, all the warriors are having breakfast. It was the first Saturday of the school year and it was long awaited. With the exception of Tuesday, they had to face a Lyoko attack every day. While most of the attacks consisted of the common spectre or possession, the one of Friday consisted of a slime monster straight out of a B-rated horror movie. If you were to ask any of the Lyoko Warriors about that day, they would give you the old Jim delivery.
"Who knew it was possible for just one Kankrelat to nearly beat us," Odd bemoaned, "At this point, we could use another vacation."
"Jeremy, how's the progress on the Skid?" asked Ulrich.
"I'm almost done with the main part of the Skid. But seeing more and more of how brutal the fights are becoming, I'm going to have to add modifications to it. I mean, who knows what they have for us in the Digital Sea."
"What we need is a new vehicle or something," Odd suggested with another mouthful of meatballs.
"Sorry, but Aelita and I have our hands full with programming the Skid. I don't have any time for new gear."
"All we need to do is improve on the way we fight and be more aware of our surroundings," suggested Ulrich, "If we can do that, we can get through the month."
On the other side of the room, Urma was sitting alone, mentally going over her first week at Kadic. While she hadn't gotten down the elevator, despite helping every now and then with Lyoko attacks, she had been spending quite a bit of time hanging out with Odd. Through him, she had been able to get interactions with the Lyoko Warriors, even if most of them get wiped with a Return to the Past. While Jeremy seemed to be cold and distant, Aelita was awfully sweet. Ulrich and Yumi, while stubborn, were reliable. And William, despite her first impressions were of him being an airhead, was very grounded. By all accounts, they were just normal people and yet that fact worried her.
In the chambers of the scanner room, one of the pillars opened up releasing a mechanical creature. The steel figure slinked its way up the ladder leading to the computer room. Climbing onto the chair, it began typing onto the keyboard with its titanium-clawed fingers.
The Lyoko Warriors had finished breakfast. Yumi had arrived to meet with Ulrich and Aelita and Jeremy were headed off to continue work on the Skid 2.0. But before they parted ways, all their phones began to ring. They all gave each other concerned looks, knowing that at the other end of the line was most likely the culprit behind their recent troubles.
A hoarse voice hung on the other end of the line, "For a bunch of juveniles, you are quite adept at operating the Supercomputer."
"Who are you?" said Ulrich, compelled to ask the obvious question.
"I have been … testing you this past week and you have surmounted the ordeals without fail. Because of your achievements, there is an offer for you all."
By then the group had scampered away from prying eyes to the smaller side of the cafeteria that faced the forest.
"What is it?" asked Yumi with a peeved tone.
"I don't need to brief you on the Supercomputer and its … capabilities. Between the towers' ability to influence both technological and natural systems and the scanner's complete disregard of the basic laws of matter, you possess the ability to greatly change the world.
"Get to the point," said William aggressively.
"The offer is to simply take part in a mission. A grand scheme to use the technology of the Supercomputer to elevate humanity into a new era. By utilizing the towers, we can mitigate the effects of global warming. With the combination of the scanners, the Digital Sea, and Mr. Belpois' Code Earth, we can create and destroy matter into a post-scarcity world. There would be no lack of resources. There would be no need for governments to struggle in order to provide for their citizens. Can't you imagine? A world without political upheaval. A world without desperation. A world without danger. … Wouldn't that be wonderful?"
The Lyoko Warriors could only look at each other in silence. They all knew how dangerous the Supercomputer can be in the wrong hands. They knew what it could do to a person. There was a reason they decided to shut it down. But their faces were filled with uncertainty of the situation. Eventually, they all turned their head towards Aelita, the natural inheritor of Lyoko.
The pink teen closed her eyes and took a heavy sigh before answering, "That machine that you talk so highly of has taken so much from us. I lost so much because of it. If you think we would just let anyone use the Supercomputer for their own idea of utopia then you can just forget it!"
"Well isn't that-," and like that, the other end of the line went silent. For a solid minute, the only sounds that could be heard were the background noise of loud typing and the creak of a chair.
"Well isn't that unfortunate… Just remember, that you have made a grand enemy today."
And with that, all that came from their phones was the monotone sound of a cut line. One by one they hanged up their phones until one ringtone occupied the air: the Superscan of Jeremy's laptop. While questions still lingered, they had a job to do and a factory to attend to.
On the industrial bridge of the Factory, Urma stood on the road bordering the city and the bridge. She had skipped breakfast, replaced with granola bars from the school's vending machine, in order to get to the factory as early as possible. As she crossed the bridge, she heard the distinct metal scrapes of a manhole being uncovered. Thinking light on her feet, she dove to the edge and hanged off the side of the bridge, hands and feet gripped to the girders. The rumbling footsteps of her classmates passed her by as she slowly pulled herself up.
"Is there another one of those attacks?" she wondered as her walk to the other side was interrupted.
"What are you doing here?" a shrill voice cried out.
Urma turned around to see Sissi coming out of the same manhole.
"I'm pretty sure the one coming out of the sewers should be the one to explain themselves."
Sissi could not argue with that logic, "Well if you must know, it has to do with my friends, Ulrich, Odd, Jeremy, the others."
The claim insight made Urma raise an eyebrow, "Friends?"
"Yeah, my friends. What's important is that they've acting weird since school started. Keeping to themselves, looking over their shoulders, more so than they used to be. I was going to ask them about it, but then I overheard them having this group phone call before running off to here. They're keeping something secret and it's not doing them any good."
"Yeah, that sounds about right," said Urma as she helped her up the ladder, "I've been exploring this factory for a while now and they've been doing… something in there."
"Hmm. How about we work together. You help me reveal their secret and I'll …," Sissi began to ponder on her offer.
Urma didn't know what to make of the girl. Between her first encounter with Sissi and basic questioning from fellow students, Urma was given a profile writhe with vanity and pettiness. Yet at was in this moment that Urma decided to give her a second chance.
"You don't need to give me anything," Urma firmly stated, "The task itself is enough of a reward."
And with that, a small alliance between the two teens was formed.
The elevator cables whirred and rumbled as they pulled the box stock up. An antsy Aelita tapped her feet amongst the waiting. For the past half hour- no, the past week, her mind was riddled with questions on what was going on. How did someone get access to Lyoko? Did a Replika survive? Is this going to take another two years? Will she ever get to move on from her father's creation? The coldness of dread encroached the upper regions of her spine, causing Aelita to crumple up with goosebumps. Her malaise was only dispelled by a sudden rush of warmth from her hand. She turned to see it being held by Jeremy, who was wiping away the tear forming in Aelita's eye. She looked around to see the reassurance in her friends' faces.
"Don't worry," consoled Jeremy, "As long as we're together, we can deal with anything."
Before Aelita could fully enjoy the encouragement, the shriek of rusted metal tearing and a stumbling Sissi, falling down the stairs, interrupted the moment.
"Sissi, what are you doing here?" asked William.
Ulrich looked up the steps to see Urma standing like a deer in headlights, "I think we should ask the tour guide."
"I could ask you the same thing!" snapped Sissi as she tried to get up, "You've been going blowing me off and back to your old habits ever since the school year started and I want to know why!"
"Sissi, you need to get out of here," ordered Yumi.
"Not until you tell us what you are hiding."
"It's dangerous," warned Odd, "You should get out of this place."
"He's right you know," spoke a voice from the shadows.
They turned to see a set of red, glowing lights emerge from a pile of old boxes.
"Who's there?" demanded William.
The figure walked into the light, revealing a metallic, panther-like creature. Its four eyes stared back at the teens' gaping jaws. Everyone was taken aback by what was in front of them as they grouped together for safety. Many of their eyes focused on the white mark on its forehead that matched the same symbol that all the monsters from the past week had.
"You may refer to me as Kat," said the creature as its claws, equipped with apposable thumbs, scratched the stone floor with every step. "But what matters is that you're surrounded."
"You must be joking," scoffed Odd, "We outnumber you seven to one."
"Don't you mean eight?" corrected Sissi.
Right then the elevator finally arrived. When it opened, there were five Kankrelats, and a pair of slithering Creepers exiting the elevator shaft. Then, more of these Lyoko monsters came out of their hiding spots from every direction. Dozens of Kankrelats scurried out debris and covering, Creepers came the ceiling and beams, crawling down the walls, and Hornets hovered down from the ceiling beams.
"What are those things?" cried out Sissi.
"Fresh virtual monsters spawned with the help of Mr. Belpois' Code: Earth and some modifications."
Sissi quickly got out her phone to call the police, but Kat extended her arcade-clawed tail, yanked the phone out of her hand, and tossed it at a wall, guaranteeing damage to the device.
"That was a brand-new phone!" an angry Sissi shouted, "You better-"
"You had better be quiet unless you want to go last."
The words grounded Sissi into the reality of the situation. The thick musk of lurking death washed over her body, freezing her in place. At that point, Urma's fight-or-flight response kicked in.
"Not if I have anything to say about it."
Urma lunged at Kat and grabbed the necks of two Creepers that stood by Kat. Urma motioned to sandwiched Kat's head with the two Creepers' heads, but Kat jumped back, leaving the two bipedal slugs to have their skulls smashed together. As the heads folded from the impact and Urma raised herself from the landing crouch, a hornet head-butted her back and fired a laser. Urma was thrown off balance before the laser caused her to fall onto the ground. Knowing she couldn't continue fighting, she threw a nearby wrench lying on the ground at the elevator switch, causing it to close.
"What are you doing just standing there!" shouted Urma, "Just run! Forget about me!"
As much as they stalled, their senses came back to them. They ran to the elevator, charging through the monsters in their way. Sissi, still frozen with fear, had to be dragged away with the others. With the door closed just in time, the group began to calm down.
"I can't believe we just left her there," said Odd.
"We didn't have much of a choice," said Ulrich as he tried to recover his breath from the shock, "Escape was our only option."
"But we can't just leave her out there! We have to help her."
"That's suicide," countered Yumi.
Aelita stomped her foot down in protest, "That doesn't mean we just let her die. We already lost one… we aren't going to lose another one.
As tears rolled down her face, the warriors were reminded of the day X.A.N.A. died. With everyone else looking at different parts of the elevator's walls, Sissi hesitantly asked a question: "Who… did you lose?"
"Her… dad," replied Jeremy.
Before Sissi could process what she heard, the elevator door opened to the computer room and she was once again left speechless.
Jeremy began sending in orders as he sat on the computer chair, "I'm putting the elevator on lockdown. William, defend this room. Ulrich, Odd, go rescue Urma. You girls will have to be on your own on Lyoko."
Everyone scrambled to prepare their roles. William found a pipe laying around to fight with. Odd and Ulrich climbed up the ladder to the scaffolding where a square hole was located that led to another part of the Factory. Aelita and Yumi scaled down the other ladder leading to the scanners and were surprised to see no monsters spawning. They stepped in the scanners.
"Scanner, Yumi. Scanner, Aelita. Transfer, Yumi. Transfer, Aelita. Virtualization."
The duo spawned in the forest sector on the end of a pathway connecting to an island. The treeline and the bends of the path blocked any clear view of the other side.
Jeremy's voice echoed through their ears, "The tower is just up ahead on the other side of the route."
Aelita and Yumi made a mad sprint to the tower. At the last turn, they were greeted with a barrage originating from two Krabs, two Tarantulas, and two Blocks guarding the tower. Scrambling from the ambush, they took cover behind a nearby boulder.
"Hey Jeremy, why didn't you tell us about those monsters?" asked Yumi.
"What monsters? There aren't any on my screen." Jeremy's virtual map froze and as soon as it unfroze, the monsters popped up on the screen, "What the- what's going on?"
Almost as if on cue, a video phone call came up on the Supercomputer, "There are many things going on right now that you don't know about."
A video feed soon popped up, revealing an old man in a dark room. He had a lab coat and hair much like Kadic's drama teacher. He had wrinkles on his forehead and the veins of his eyes were easily visible, proving that he slept even more rarely than Jeremy does.
"Who are you?" asked Jeremy.
"My name is Dr. James Wagner," the scientist answered with a heavy German accent, crispened by the mic quality.
Aelita and Yumi could hear everything as the call was seemingly linked to the comms. "So you're the one behind all this madness," berated Aelita.
"Yes, and once Kat finishes you, Lyoko will be free for the taking," James replied.
"Not if we have anything to say about it," said Yumi.
"Like any of you can defeat one of the first A.I."
Those words made William's eyes widened, "You don't mean it's-"
"X.A.N.A.? No," reassured Dr. Wagner, "Katherine is much older than him and has more experience. You don't have much of a chance. You see, not only have I obtained vast information on Lyoko's technology, but I have read your journal, Mr. Belpois and it has shed much-needed context into some… unanswered questions I have had."
"What's your point?" interrupted an annoyed William.
"I have a full view of the board, Mr. Dunbar. We know what you all can do. From that, we know your strengths and weaknesses. We have full view of the board and let me tell you, you don't know what's in store for you."
Urma slowly walked through the halls of the Factory, exhausted from the sprint. With Katherine and her monsters out of sight, she decided to sit behind a pile of boxes to catch her breath and regain her strength.
"Urma, that was one of the most downright ridiculous things you have ever done," she told herself. As she pressed her back against the boxes, the Hornet's laser burn on her back seared for attention, "Those Kankrelats can pack a punch."
As she spent another minute in silence and isolation, she began to ponder how her day was going. Were they really out to kill? How could she not notice the ambush? What did she do to deserve this situation?
Her thoughts were cut off by the sound of footsteps coming towards her around the corner. Urma tried to stand, but she felt too heavy to lift herself up. As the origin of the sound came around the corner, she was relieved to see Ulrich and Odd.
"You okay?" Odd asked.
Urma began to get up, "Yeah, just give me a sec-" the moment her knees stretched into an obtuse angle, her vision blurred, and she lost her balance.
Odd was able to catch Urma and wrapped one of her arms on his shoulder.
"You're lucky to survive that," said Ulrich.
"I'll be lucky to be alive when this is all over," scoffed Urma.
The sound of skittering Kankrelats soon echoed the corridors.
"Let's move," Odd quietly panicked as they quickly scampered away from the creatures and towards the Supercomputer.
Meanwhile, on Lyoko, Yumi and Aelita struggled to break through the defensive line. Yumi threw her fan at a Block and Aelita fired an energy field at a Krab both landing their marks. But the firepower of the troops only gave them small windows of opportunity to do so before being forced back behind cover.
It was moments like these Jeremy hated the most. No one to virtualize, nothing to keep an eye out for. The only thing new was the speaker on his headset being filled with the obscenity of a, quite frankly, childish, old man. All he could do was watch.
"How long have you been… dealing with all this?" asked Sissi, who up until then was curled up into a ball, now sitting back onto a wall.
"Two years at this point," Jeremy replied, "Though it's never been like… this."
The boy's words caused Sissi to sink back down into her inner thoughts and silence. Just then, a series of grunts and dragging friction from above filled the air. They all looked up to see Ulrich and Odd slowly go down the ladder simultaneously as they both carried Urma.
"You guys okay?" asked Jeremy.
The two boys gently set Urma down against a wall. "We're fine," replied Odd, "But Urma isn't in good shape."
"Something doesn't seem right," said Ulrich.
"What do you mean," asked William.
"The monsters had to have been created by the scanners. But there isn't a single one here and they didn't make any more while we were gone. Right?" Jeremey nodded to confirm, "So then what gives?"
"I see the valiant heroes have returned," mocked Dr. Wagner in a condescending tone.
"Better question: who is that?" asked Odd. "Wait let me guess," his pitch turned to a more sarcastic tone, "Aelita's long-lost, evil uncle."
The old man broke down into laughter for a good minute, "No, no. It's not quite like that. Waldo and I have been old … colleagues."
Aelita piqued with interest, "You knew my father?"
"Yes, yes. It's a shame what he did," said James dismissively, "I'm quite surprised how he went, he was an absolute fool to sacrifice himself. For a genius, he would've thought of a better idea. It's stupid really."
At that moment, Aelita became enraged at how James spat at her father's sacrifice. Using her angel wings, she flew up and charged a big energy field. The remaining monsters only had time to aim upwards before the attack was flung into the center of their ranks and wiped them out. The path to the tower was clear but when she landed, she was drained of any energy to get up.
"Aelita are you okay?" asked Yumi.
"I'm fine… just tried," replied Aelita before collapsing.
Jeremy, as if on cue, spawned the Overboard in front of Aelita, "Yumi, get Aelita to the tower."
Yumi placed Aelita on the Overboard and started to push it towards the tower.
"Not so fast," a synthesized voice interjected.
They all looked up to see Kat laying on the scaffolding above with Kankrelats in tow.
William was the first to speak up, "How long were you there?"
"Long enough to see the two boys crawl in here," Kat replied, "I just wanted to see how long it would take for you to notice. Well now that we're all in one place, it's time to end this."
Jumping down, Kat began her attack while Yumi and Aelita entered the tower. Kankrelats poured out of the hatch with major congestion preventing the larger monsters from entering. Aelita had enough strength to stand up and walk. Ulrich went face to face with Kat. Aelita slowly ascended the tower. William and Odd defended Sissi and Urma from the mechanical bugs dropping from above. The pink princess entered the code: Lyoko.
When the tower deactivated, the monsters all froze and collapsed. Shortly after, the video call with Dr. Wagner ended and the window for the program closed. Amongst the piles of lifeless machines, only Kat was still standing as he made distance between the Lyoko Warriors.
"Till we meet again," said Kat only to then left climb up the ladder and leave through the hole in the wall with the sound of monster debris being shoved aside like a pile of soda cans.
With the abrupt end to the conflict, Ulrich could only ask: "What was that about?"
The group could only explain the awkward end to the conflict with silence. Sissi was the first to break the ambiance, "I think we should alert the authorities."
The suggestion grounded Jeremy back into reality, "Just in a sec I just got to return to the past now."
And with a few strokes on the keyboard, the world was engulfed in white light.
Ulrich, Jeremy, William, and Aelita convened outside the cafeteria going over each other's perspectives.
"What really gets to me is that Kat A.I.," griped Ulrich, "I'm surprised it takes orders from someone else rather than striking out on its own."
"Which is why we need to be on our toes with this guy," said Jeremy, "There's no telling what he can do."
Jeremy's head turned to see Aelita looking down.
"Something wrong?" asked a concerned Jeremy.
"James said he knew my father," said Aelita, "…I just wonder exactly what connections he had with him."
"Are you sure that he wasn't just playing some kind of mind game with us?" questioned William.
"And wouldn't we have found out something about him at the Hermitage?" added Ulrich.
"I guess," Aelita deliberated, "But it still bugs me."
"I could do a background check," Jeremy suggested, "I'll see what I could find in any government databases. There has to be some answers there."
The conversation died down as they entered the mess hall as not to alert prying ears. Once their trays were gathered, they went to sit down and catch up with Sissi.