The yellow glow of the scanner room gave Marco a sense of warmth despite the room being roughly the same temperature. The three scanners towered over him as he stepped off the ladder and approached the center of the room.
"So, we just go in here?" asked Marco.
"Pretty much," said Eito, "You just step on in and Maya will do the rest."
"But there are only three… pods?"
"Scanners," corrected Michael.
"Right," said Marco, "Isn't there not enough room for all of us to go in at the same time?"
"Oh there's always room," said Eito, "If your nervous you can come in after us."
Not quite used to the technology in front of him, Marco felt best to take that offer, "Sure."
He watched as both Alysa and Michael were virtualized on Lyoko and disappeared from the real world. Par for the course, he was taken aback. But Marco only needed a few moments to recover and follow the others.
Even with his eyes closed, Marco was still blinded by the flash that came before virtualization. When the brightness faded away and sight returned, his face was on the orange ground of the Desert Sector. As Marco moved his body, he noticed his sense of smell and taste were nonexistent and everything felt the same.
"I guess messing up the landing is something that happens to everyone on their first time," said Eito.
As Marco picked himself up, he looked up to see Eito in a garbed outfit that was tied together with a big knot on his back and holding a naginata with a wide blade.
"What time period did you walk out of?" commented Marco.
"Same one you came out of," quipped Eito.
Befuddled, Marco inspected himself to find dressed in a 19th century colonial soldier. He noticed that a strap was wrapped around his chest, inspecting it found that a rifle was on his back.
"Someone got lucky on their roll," said Eito.
As Marco inspected the weapon, the sound of mechanical clicking from behind. He turned around to see an entourage of Bloks, Kankrelats, and a Krab, all with a dot where there would be any place for a face. The sight of them made him jump.
"If you boys are done goofing off," chimed Maya through their ears, "I need you to follow those monsters and join the others. The defense is already getting overwhelmed."
Despite the lack of needing to breathe in the virtual world, Marco still felt like he had to catch it. Eito and the monsters were already marching to the front lines by the time he calmed down enough to follow closely to them.
"If this is what our guys look like, I hate to see what the other side got," bantered Marco.
"More of the same," said Eito, "and then some."
Marco did not like that answer. As they began one of the narrow roads of Lyoko, he couldn't help but look down into the Digital Sea.
"Marco," stated Maya, "I would advise you to stay away from any ledges if you can. If you fall into the Digital Sea, you won't be brought back."
Stammering back further inland Marco asked himself, "What am I getting myself into?"
The invading force of monsters, consisting of Kankrelats and three Bloks, sent their scattered volleys into the line of similar monsters, with the addition of several Krabs. The streaks of red digital light, however, could only pepper a large pink barrier covering the Lyoko's Warriors platoon. At the center of the barrier stook Alysa, dressed as a pink, Japanese shrine priestess, holding up a gohei.
When a gap occurred with the X.A.N.A.-eyed monsters' attack, the defending monsters charged their lasers and fired at once the moment Alysa dropped the shield. The counter assault shredded through the enemy Kankrelats and a few of the Bloks, with the survivors only taking hits to their stony exoskeletons. Hastily, Alysa swung her weapon.
"Energy Pearls!"
Several small, pink orbs flung out of her gohei. The ones that landed on their targets caused them to freeze up as they were wrapped around a pink stasis field and lined up to be mopped up by the troops. Two Bloks, however, stood unharmed.
As the walking cubes spun their heads, Michael, clad in crusader armor and riding on the Overbike, burst through the lines. With his claymore, he slashed their eyes before skidding his vehicle to a halt. When the Bloks exploded, a lull was given to the rocky plate.
"Good job you two," said Maya over the comm line, "But that was just the initial wave. They are going for a blitzkrieg."
"Again?" said Michael.
"I'm counting about half a dozen Hornets in a V formation with a Manta followed by some Krabs and Tarantulas. Just hold off the aerial assault. Eito and Marco are arriving with back up. They'll be there before the next ground assault."
Alysa took a deep breath, "Michael, come over here. I need a lift onto one of the Krabs."
Maya's lenses reflected the cluttered monitor of the Supercomputer. Between controlling squads of monsters and relaying intel towards her Lyoko Warriors, she was quite strained with her focus. At least she didn't have to keep up with the other Sectors at the moment.
By the time Michael dropped Alysa off at her requested position, the air raid came into the defense's sight. They were still about an island apart, too far for anything close to an accurate shot. Regardless, this was the only chance for the defenders to take their shots, any closer and only the Krabs, who weren't designed to hit something as small and fast as a Hornet, would be able to shoot at a high enough angle.
Another volley of lasers and Energy Pearls rang out into the sky; most resulted as expected, but one shot from a Kanakrelat took out the leading Hornet and another Hornet was caught by an Energy Pearl, which caused the insect to fall into the Digital Sea.
With the squadron now above the gap between the two islands and the Bloks reaching the edge of their firing angles, Michael flew his Overbike towards the formation. The stray shots of the Hornets whizzed past Michael. It wasn't until the Manta fired through the gap in the formation and landed the shot dead on the front of the flying motorcycle.
But by then, the knight was close enough. As the Overbike turned into a cloud of polygons, he leapt out of his seat and lunged towards the enemy. Thrusting his claymore, Michael craved the blade down the back of the Manta. However, Michael's timing was off and, before he could jump off with a trajectory to safety, the Manta's explosive death knocked him away from any terrain.
"I could use some help here, Maya," said Michael with a panicked look.
Maya furiously typed into the keyboard, inputting the correct sequence of commands into the terminal for spawning the next available vehicle. The hardest part was getting the coordinates right. The Overwing finished rendering a few seconds before Michael landed squarely on the platform just as a blue beam formed from the stunned Hornet hitting the Digital Sea.
The remaining Hornets bobbed their way through the light volleys of the three Krabs. Crouching on the Krab's slanted top, Alysa wounded her weapon over her shoulder, waiting for the swarm to close in. When the bugs' tails began to glow, she released the swing. Only two of the five fell to the ground where they would be finished off by the Kankrelats. The other three fired their volleys, one onto each Krab. Only the Krab that Alysa was standing on survived, due to the fact that she was standing on top of its mark and took all the hits instead.
"Alysa," chimed Maya over the comms, "You're down to 30 life points. We need that barrier for the next wave so don't take any more hits."
As Alysa regained her balance, Michael came in and swept up the remaining air force just as Eito and Marco arrived on the scene with reinforcements.
"How's the line holding up?" asked Eito.
"We lost most of our Krabs," replied Alysa as she hopped off her now kneeling Krabs to join her comrades, "Other than that, we seem to be holding up alright."
She then turned her attention towards Marco and after looking over his attire gave a slight chuckle with her hand half covering her mouth.
"What's so funny?" Marco asked with a hint of annoyance, "Is my outfit really that bad."
"No, no. It bit old fashioned, but I'd say your dressed for the occasion more than me."
"Well, I want a change of wardrobe."
"Not sure if that's possible. But for now, you should get up on this Krab. The height of the monster will be helpful for your weapon."
Just then their chat was interrupted by Maya over the comms as Michael swooped in on the Overwing, "Guys, the next wave is closing in. I'm counting about half a dozen Krabs and three Tarantulas. Michael, on my mark, I need you to carry Eito towards the Krabs and give them a taste of their own medicine. Alysa, get ready to bring up the shield when they get close. Marco, I gonna need you to take out the Tarantulas. Time to show us what you got."
The new monsters began to line up; their force no consisting of two Krabs, five Bloks, and almost a dozen Kankrelats. The new Lyoko Warriors stared out onto encroaching force strutting across the desert.
Marco drew his rifle and prepared to fire. The first thing he noticed was the lack of weight he felt; the only sense he got from it was the smooth surface of the grip and the fact he could see it. Standing atop a Krab, he looked down the crosshair towards the marching enemy crossing the bridge to their plate. Though the Krabs were taller, the Tarantulas were far enough behind them that he could see their eye, albeit still somewhat obscured by the Krabs. When his aim became confident, he took his shot.
A streak of regal purple rang down the barrel. The recoil was very light with only a few centimeters of kick back. But the laser whizzed past all possible targets. He took another shot. And another. And he kept firing until finally, a bolt collided with a Tarantula's joint, leaving no mark behind. He immediately went for another, but nothing came out.
"Your weapon seems to have an ammo system," said Maya, "Give me a moment to find the right commands."
"You're doing great, Marco," encouraged Alysa, seeing the discourage on Marco's face, "You're still adjusting to Lyoko. Just keep at it and you'll get the hang of it."
The soldier could only stare at her encouragement and say: "Thanks."
"Marco, your rifle is rearmed," said Maya, "Now try to actually land a shot."
"It's not easy. I can barely see their eyes half the time with those walking chum buckets in the way," said Marco.
"…Very well," conceded Maya, "Michael, Eito, give him an opening."
As Marco continued to fire with poor results, the Overwing bolted towards the side of the enemy forces, flying at an altitude above a Krab's height. Reacting to the calvary charge, the Tarantulas walked on their hind legs to send a volley. Michael weaved through crossfire as Eito drew his naginata. When one of the Tarantulas stood up to fire another pair of shots, it was hit square on the mark by Marco's last stray shot, devirtualizing it.
"Nice shot," applauded Alysa.
"I'm… pretty sure I got lucky."
With Marco waiting on Maya to give him another clip, he could only take a seat and watch with Alysa as Eito and Michael picking off the Krabs one by one much like how a bird would fight any terrestrial animal.
"Don't be too hard on yourself," comforted Alysa, "Our first time didn't go so well either."
"Really?"
"Yeah, we ended up wiping on our first few trips," she motioned towards the other, "Now look at them."
They turned to look at the fray only to find a massacre. The Overwing had been shot out of the sky and the boys were each fighting one of the remaining Tarantulas. Michael was stuck parrying whacks from his Tarantula's arms. Meanwhile Eito, before even getting up from the fall, was already two-shotted by the other Tarantula that had pinned him down using the barrel end of its right arm.
"Hey Maya," panicked Marco, "Where's that fresh clip?"
The two were so shocked at how bad the situation turned that they barely paid attention to the two remaining Krabs barreling towards them. The consequence of that mistake was paid when Marco got knocked off his mount by a blast. The defensive line began to return fire.
"Marco, you have another clip, but you're down to 60 life points," said Maya.
"And what happens when I lose all my life points?" inquired Marco as he got up and watched the Tarantulas pound Michael into a literal polygonal grind.
"You'll be sent back to the real world with no problems. That is if we can hold the line."
While Marco repositioned himself behind the safety of the Bloks, Alysa swung more volleys of her Energy Pearls to stagger the Krabs. When they became stunned, their poses caused them to lower their heads and allow for their forces to shoot them down. But at that point, the Tarantulas were finished with their crusader toy, had moved up, and assumed their firing stance. There was not enough time for Alysa to pull up her shield.
Their twin cannons fired like flak cannons, moving their aim upwards, popping Kankrelats one by one, until they punched holes into the Bloks' eyes. Marco was helpless as the anatomically incorrect arachnids focused their fire directly on him the moment he was exposed. And with that, Marco experienced his first devirtualization.
The steamy fog poured out of Marco's scanner as he dropped to the floor, trying to catch his breath and keep up with all his other three senses returning.
"Welcome to Earth," bantered Eito as he held his hand out.
Marco was too disoriented to complain, not with his nausea. "How did I do?" he asked as he took Eito's help and walked to the elevator.
"Well, you took out a Tarantula, which is more than what I can say."
After a short ride, the elevator doors opened up to the console room to reveal a tense scene. Michael sat on the couch manually controlling one of the Krabs through the laptop. Meanwhile, Maya was chatting through the comms. On the center of her cluttered computer screen was the window of a program, dubbed the Monster Command, giving a simplified bird's eye overview of all the Sectors, with the window for the Desert Sector being the enlarged for focus. Green icons, representing allied monsters, littered across the Sector, forming a rough, lopsided perimeter around the middle of the Sector with scattered groups throughout the middle. On a platform amateurly bolted to the keyboard, Maya used a wired mouse to give orders to their monsters.
"That's the last of them," said Maya, "I've sent some more reserves to bolster the front lines. Get ready for materialization."
"So, I take it we won?" asked Marco.
As Eito stayed silent and Michael looked up from the laptop, the general consensus of who would answer the new guy's question fell onto Maya. Unfortunately, she was too focused on checking on the statuses of the other Sectors to notice the rest of the room. Roughly ten seconds of silence passed before Eito let out a cough to get her attention.
Maya's composure did not flinch as she gave her answer, "Despite the heavy firepower, the integrity of our defense remains intact but frail. Fortunately, our opponents placed much of their heavy weight into their push." Her briefing continued as Alysa arrived through the ladder that led to the scanner room, "They won't try to breach our defenses for now, if they did, they would risk giving us an opening. If we can build up our forces before their next shipment arrives, we could make their whole plan turn from a failure to a backfire."
"That sounds great," exclaimed Alysa, "Thanks for helping us out, Marco."
"Well, no problem," thanked Marco sheepishly, "Is there anything else we can do?"
"It's best if you boys start heading back now," said Maya, "It's getting late, and we don't need any of you unavailable."
The Alysa and the boys traded 'good nights' with each other as Marco, Eito, and Michael took the elevator to the top floor.
Now alone, the Belpois girls were left with an air of stiffness. Alysa's composure turned from upbeat to disheartened.
"Maya, are you sure we're doing the right thing?" asked Alysa.
"What are you talking about?" replied her sister with a mild inquisitorial tone.
"I'm talking about Marco. We're not telling him everything."
Maya answered coldly, "Does it matter?"
"Yes, it matters! He doesn't have the full picture. He can't make an informed decision."
"He remembers the return trips. There's nothing we can do to change that. He was going to get involved in this whether or not our explanation got cut short."
"If the assault didn't happen tonight, would you have told him about his father? Would you have told him about our parents?"
"Alysa!" Maya's tone took both of them aback. After a few moments of silence, Maya continued, "We both know what's at stake here. With the way things are going, we can't keep losing. We need all the help we can get."
The truth of their situation hung in the air, revealing how exhausted the two were.
"I think we both need to check in for the night."
Since Eito couldn't risk getting back to his grandparents' house too late, Marco climbed down the sewer entrance with Michael as his guide. With the flashlights on their phones illuminating the tunnels, they began to make the trek to Kadic. After five minutes of nothing but the dripping ambiance of the sewers, Marco felt the need to break the ice.
"So, what brought you to Lyoko?" a curious Marco inquired.
"I've been friends with the girls since childhood since our parents hang out a lot. So, when the whole Lyoko stuff happened, I naturally wanted to help them."
The phrasing response caused Marco to stop in his tracks. He couldn't help but wonder: "Do their parents know about this?" But before he could give the follow up question, something else in his immediate environment caught his attention. Echoing throughout the man-made caverns, was the sound of skittering and scratching along the stone. It wasn't even coming from one source; it was coming from every direction. Whether it was the adrenaline leftover from his trip on Lyoko or sheer rationale, he couldn't ignore it.
"Do you hear that?"
"That's just the rats," assured Michael, "Probably."
"Is it always like this? There sounds like a lot."
"City just has a massive rat problem. Been like that as far as I've been going through here. I've gotten used to it at this point."
"Should we not be worried about you know… a swarm of them trying to eat us alive?"
"Mmmmmm no."
With Michael's dismissal, the conversation died from there with nothing but the scratching stone filling the silence, much to Marco's unease. To the new recruit's relief, as they continued to Kadic Academy the sounds of a potential rat horde grew more and more faint. Soon, Michael raised his hand to stop and then pointed down one of the dark corridors.
"The end of this tunnel will take you back to the campus forest. Have a good night. See you tomorrow."
With that, Marco was left to his own devices in the dingy tunnels.
The cool, night air alleviated Marco from the musk of the sewers. He checked the time on his phone. It was 23:40, not… too late. There was only the matter of sneaking back in. Once Marco got his bearings, he made his way northeastward to his dorm, sticking to the forest away from any night patrols.
As he got to the edge of the tree line behind the administrative building, the only thing between Marco and a door inside was the large green field. Marco prepped himself up and made a full sprint towards the archways. He hugged the outside wall before going under the roof to the first set of doors.
"Locked. Need to try another one."
The next nearest door he could think of would be across the next dirt field. With no one in sight, he dashed to the back of the building with the vending machines and restrooms. With the home stretch in sight, Marco makes his way to the archway only to hear the distinct sound of a door being pushed open by its big metal bar. Thinking light on his feet, he backs off into the boy's restroom.
However, when he turned the corner to the row of stalls and urinals he saw a girl at the back of the room, causing both to let out a yelp cut short from them covering their mouths.
Cautious of how much noise Marco made, he asked, "What are you doing in here?"
"Waiting out Ms. Monet," whispered the girl, "She's almost always on night watch and she never checks the boys' bathroom."
"Is that so. Then it's a good thing I went in here cause she is right outside."
Those words caused the girl to perk up and tighten her lips and Marco to realize. The two shared a few long minutes of silence before either dared to say another word. During the moment, Marco took a good look at her. She had brunette hair going down to the neck and gray clothes with splotches of yellow on her shoes.
"So, what brings you out here?" inquired the boy.
"Stargazing," she explained, "It's always nice to do in the forest. Especially while in a tree. What about you?"
"Well, I…" Marco had to think for a moment before giving a convincing lie, "I wanted to get some fresh air. My part of the dorms was pretty noisy when I left."
"And you stayed out till like what," the brunette checked her phone, "Practically midnight."
"I… lost track of time," said the boy as he looked away. When he turned back to look at her, he saw a look of inquiry on her face.
"I've never seen you before," she said.
Marco was getting nervous, "Well, I'm pretty sure you're at least a grade above me. So we wouldn't be sharing any classes."
"I mean, you're not wrong. But everyone knows mostly everyone else," she stared at Marco for a few more moments, "You don't happen to be the new kid everyone's talking about?"
"No," he flustery denied.
"You definitely are," she confidently said, "That face gives it away. What was the name going around? Marco, right?"
At this point, he had no choice but to concede, "Alright, you got me. But it's Monday night, it's late, and I think the coast is clear. So, now's our chance."
With silence falling between the two, they scurried up to the door and slowly opened it to maintain the quietness. Three flights of stairs up, they began to part ways.
"Well, it was nice to meet you," the girl whispered, "I'm sure we'll see each other around the campus. Good night, Marco."
"Yeah, good night uhhhhh…"
"Urma."
"Good night, Urma."
As the two went to their respective floors, Marco was finally left with the time to dwell on tonight's events. Or at least he would if he hadn't fallen asleep the moment he plopped down onto his bed.
A/N: Okay, it's been a couple chapters and I have to ask a few things.
1)How many of you noticed Urma was gone? I'm just curious, no one has mention this for ~8 months now.
strawpoll. me/45577012
2) On another note: the original chapters. When I first started writing this fic, I originally used the script format to write the chapters. I have since learned that the format was not generally like within the community. Since then, I have been juggling between reuploading these old chapters in literature format and continuing the story with new chapters. Now I'm wondering if you readers like how I'm updates are coming or you what to change how I go about them.
strawpoll .me/45577033
Other than that, feel free to leave a review!