August 7th, 2029, Tuesday
Eito was awakened by the touch of a wet tongue, licking itself all over the boy's face. Cracking open his eyes, the teen finds Hogo, a shiba, right on top of him. As far as Eito remembered, Hogo had been with his grandparents for as long as he could remember and Hogo had always been fond of Eito just as long.
"Okay, okay, I'm up," pleaded Eito as he pushed Hogo's head away. Hopping out of bed, the boy got dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast, shiba in tow. As he walked down the stairs, he checked his phone to see new a string of text messages from a group chat, all sent by the same person: Maya.
"Geez, when did she sent all this?" Eito asked himself only to find that the timestamp was marked at around 3:00, "She really needs to get some sleep."
Looking through the messages, it summarized a new timetable determining who would be undergoing raids on the enemy line and when someone would hang back in reserve in the event of a Lyoko attack. There was also a file attachment for a spreadsheet, but it was too early to look at charts.
"I would rather be doing all the raids," Eito texted, "No use for me sitting on the sidelines."
With the message sent, he entered the dining room and continued his morning routine. Sitting down at the table, he noticed his grandpa, Takeho, reading an article on his tablet; something about international treaties, not that Eito cared.
"Morning, Grandma. Morning, Gramps."
Grandpa Takeho only gave a mumbled response.
"Morning, Eito," greeted Grandma Akiko as she placed down Eito's food in front of him.
As Eito went through the daily motions, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty tricking his grandparents all the time. It's not like he could just tell them about the Supercomputer but giving them the impression that their grandson is someone who does study groups and doesn't sneak out at night. Eito guessed in this instance, it couldn't be helped.
Ready to head out to Kadic, Eito sent off his usual goodbyes, "Heading to school. See ya later."
"Have a good day," said Akiko, "Oh, and Eito."
That wasn't a good sign, "Yeah?"
"Try not to stay out so late again."
Then again, he probably should give them more credit.
By the time Eito stepped onto the sidewalk, his phone buzzed for a text from Maya.
"We can't be having any patterns occurring in our engagements. Using consistent team makeups will give them a chance to develop counters."
Passing by the poster-filled streetlight, he couldn't help being annoyed. It wasn't like he could ever win any arguments with her strategies, but she could at least go over the process with the rest of us. Just then, another text came through.
"Then how come Alysa is set to standby for all the days?" questioned Michael.
"She has the keys to Lyoko," explained Maya, "If a Lyoko attack happens and Alysa is still waiting on the 12-hour cooldown, there will nothing to stop the attack."
"But Alysa's barrier is what keeps our monsters alive half of the time."
"Disposable casualties are a fair trade if it means closing off a fatal vulnerability. I'll be trying to add on to our troop variety to compensate. With Marco, we'll be able to make it work."
"Wait is Marco even on the text?" asked Alysa.
"Oh, crap. We forgot Marco," realized Michael, "Eito, can you add him to the chat?"
"Why me?"
"You got his number. Right?"
Eito looked up his phone and took a good minute to think it over.
"No."
"In that case," responded Alysa, "My sister and I just got to Kadic, we'll try and find him."
Standing at the northern entrance, the Belpois girls, with the exception of the gate guard, were alone, since not many students that commuted to Kadic took that entrance.
"Go through the halls," ordered Maya, coffee in hand, "I'll check the cafeteria."
Maya proceeded to head down the main forest path since it went directly to the cafeteria. Tucking away her phone, Alysa began her loop of the outdoor hallways starting from the end of the library. She only travelled to the door of the first stairwell before she found Marco being held up by two reporters for the Kadic Herald.
"Didn't I tell you guys 'No comment' like, literally yesterday!?" asked Marco.
Seeing the distress in Marco, Alysa quickened her pace. But before she could interfere, the head dean, Jim, arrived on the scene. She watched as the reporters' demeanors turned sharp as they excused themselves from the conversation.
Between his aging figure and the prosthetic legs, Mr. Morales appeared quite intimidating on the onset. If it wasn't for his personality and stories he would rather not talk about, the more orderly students would be inclined to avoid him. Since Alysa was unsure whether or not Marco took after his father's prankster behavior, she kept her distance, just in case. The conversation between the two was brief; Jim left as quick as he came, though Marco seemed to be a bit shaken up.
"Morning, Eito," greeted Alysa, "How are you holding up? You look nervous."
"Oh, morning Alysa. It's nothing," reassured Marco, "He just compares me to Dad. Apparently, he was around when dad was my age, at least. When he gave me the tour of the school, he kept mentioning stories about the pranks my dad only to then go: 'I'd rather not talk about it."
"So he was giving you hard time just now?"
"No, just telling me about a meeting with the school counselor. Something my mom signed me up for," corrected Eito, muttering the last part.
"Oh, well anyways. I came to ask for your number," said Alysa dotting her eyes amongst her surroundings, "Between all the 'stuff' that's happening and the 'things' we had to get you up to speed on, we forgot to add you to the group chat. I can give you everyone's number if that's all right."
"No problem."
As they exchanged contact info, Alysa felt compelled to ask him a question that was at the back of her mind: "Marco, just so you know, if you ever want to back out of this, we won't blame you for doing so."
Marco gave another glance at Alysa's contact list, "It's alright. It… honestly looks like you need all the help you can get."
Marco hands back Alysa's phone, "Well… thank you for the concern. Good luck with the meeting."
And with that, Alysa left Marco by his lonesome and rejoined her sister by the vending machines where she was getting another cup of coffee.
After the morning classes had ended and the lunch period began, Marco headed to the administrative building for his meeting. After a brief gander around the main lobby, he found himself in front of a door with the plaque: 'Student Counselor William Dunbar'. He gave a simple knock.
"Come in," responded a muffled voice.
Marco opened the door to find the counselor sitting at his desk in a relaxed posture. Between the black hair and the sweater vest, Marco couldn't shake the feeling that something about him seemed familiar.
"Uh…. hello," Marco awkwardly greeted.
"Ah, Marco. It's good to see you came," reciprocated William as he put on his thin-rimmed glasses. "I know you've still only started your first week here, but recent… developments have made me… concerned on your end. Tell me, how are you settling into Kadic?"
"If it wasn't for the constant wave of paparazzi, I would say it would be fairly average," responded Marco as he took a seat, "For the most part."
"Yeah, the gossip scene got really big ever since I was a student."
"You were a student?"
"That… was a long time ago," dismissed Counselor Dunbar as he clicked his pen, "For now let's focus on your time here. Aside from the members of the Kadic Herald, how are you interacting with the rest of the students?"
"Oh god, it's awful," said Eito as he slumped back into his chair, "Everyone's always coming up to me asking me about my dad. I can't get even get to breakfast without someone asking for me to get his autograph."
"So, you're having a hard time making any friends?" said William as he continued to jot down notes on a notepad.
"Well- no. I've been hanging out with a guy called Eito."
The scratching of the notepad came to a halt at the sound of that name, "Eito?"
"Yeah. He seemed to have the same problem when he started out here, so I've kind of- been hanging out with his friend group."
"The Belpois girls?"
"Uh… yeah."
"And how are they?" asked the counsellor as he raised his eyebrow.
"Outside of all that stuff about the Supercomputer, they seem- I mean them being- super geeks with… computers" by the time Marco realized his mistake, it was too late to cover it up. His heart tightened as he curled into his seat in shame, "Are school counsellors… still required to practice patient confidentiality?"
As silence hung between the two, William placed done his pen and paper and leaned back in his chair, "So… they made you a Lyoko warrior."
"You know… what Lyoko is?"
"Yeah. No need to worry, the secret is safe with me. Just be more careful in the future."
The confirmation only confused Marco further, "Maya didn't say anything about you."
"I could tell."
"What is even going on? I mean why me? Why do I have to be immune to getting my memory erased by time travel?"
"Well, I can answer that last one."
"Huh?"
"Normally, when someone gets virtualized onto Lyoko or scanned into the Supercomputer's system, they get placed on a whitelist, immunizing them from the memory erasure. However, we recently learned a few months back that if a scanned individual were to have kids… they inherit that immunity, with the kids who only have one scanned parent, like yourself, bearing more hazy results."
And then something clicked in Marco's head. Despite hating the prospect, despite the meaning of it washing over him with betrayal, the conclusion was obvious, "My dad was a Lyoko Warrior." Slowly, Marco got up from his seat and went for the door, "Excuse me, I need to head to lunch."
"Okay, but while you're there, can you get Maya for me?"
"…Sure," the boy reluctantly accepted.
"And Marco."
"What?" he asked, giving one last look back at the adult.
"If you need to talk about something- anything, there is always an ear here for you."
Marco could see the genuine look of concern on Counsellor Dunbar's face. As much as he wanted to take the offer, Marco was more concerned with finding answers.