Photographs

Chapter 2: Open Scanner

Yumi felt as if a giant weight was pressing on her from all sides. It wasn't completely unbearable, but it was annoying and made it a little hard for her to breathe.

Okay Yumi, she told herself, just keep calm. If there's anything wrong you know Jeremy will fix it as soon as he can. You're only going to be here for a little while…and it's not that bad, it really isn't. Aside from the crushing thing, nothing really bad is happening to you…so just CALM DOWN.

Unfortunately, Yumi's inner monologue wasn't helping her panicked state much. Especially when she decided to open her eyes so she could see…only to find that her eyes were already wide open.

She opened her mouth to scream, "I'm blind!" and then remembered that wherever she was…was a place in which there was no sound. She calmly assured herself that there just was probably no speed of light and no speed of sound in this purgatory-like place between Lyoko and Earth.

Jeremy was stuck here once, she dimly recalled. He'd described it as an almost-blindingly white place where he could only talk to Aelita.

But what she next remembered made her surprisingly still breath catch.

She was going to be deleted.

It was true, and she knew it. Jeremy had almost been deleted that time…but that was different. Jeremy had been in a place with sound, light, and to some extent, movement. This place she was stuck in now had none of those things…and if it did, there was very little of them.

She was trying so hard not to panic. She tried to remind herself over and over again that her friends had never failed her before and that they'd find some way to save her.

Then she remembered Aelita.

Odd fell out of the scanner with a gasp, dropping to all fours on the scanner floor. Why had the transition from Lyoko to Earth been so difficult? It had been almost as if Lyoko was trying to actually pull him into its world.

Fear gripped at his heart with the realization that he might have only just made it. He took a deep breath and stood. He looked to the other scanners. Ulrich had just fallen out of his, and was kneeling on the floor, gasping, just as he himself had been only a moment ago.

He cast his eyes over to Yumi's scanner. It was closed, and it wasn't even in the process of opening.

"Ulrich…?"

The brunette looked up from the floor to focus his eyes on Odd. "Yeah?"

"What's wrong with Yumi's scanner?" Odd asked tentatively.

"What do you—?" Ulrich cut himself off as he brought his gaze over to Yumi's scanner.

He ran over to the machine and put his hands on the door.

"Yumi! Yumi, can you hear me?! Please! Answer me!"

But nothing happened. There was no muffled voice coming from within, assuring them that Yumi was okay.

"Odd, what do we do?!"

Odd was panicking, but he guessed that Ulrich was even more upset than he was…so he had to keep his cool. He had to be the stable one.

"Ok, Ulrich…we should probably just go down to Jeremy…he probably knows what's—"

But Ulrich was already off and running. He was almost out of sight already, sprinting towards the elevator. Without a second thought, Odd ran after him. They both got into the elevator, neither saying a word. As soon as the machine stopped, they both rushed over to Jeremy, who was pounding away at his computer furiously.

"Jeremy, what's happening?!" Ulrich practically screamed at the genius-boy.

"Lyoko shut itself down! I think Xana might have done it, but why? I mean, he would have deleted himself too, unless he uploaded himself to somewhere else…somehow. But the point is, Aelita and Yumi couldn't make it out! I think Aelita is gone, but Yumi might just be stuck in the scanner with her mind still in Lyoko. I'm not sure, but I have an idea…come on!"

Jeremy then jumped out of the slightly raised chair, completely abandoning his computer. He grabbed what looked like a long pole and a drill from the ground as he ran to the elevator. Odd and Ulrich followed.

They broke out of the elevator and practically ran over each other in their haste to get to Yumi's scanner. It still hadn't opened.

"Ok Odd, I want you to take this," Jeremy handed Odd the drill, "and bore a hole anywhere in the scanner. Big enough for someone's arm to fit through."

Odd nodded, and immediately set to work on the scanner. It took about five minutes for there to be a sizeable hole through which a person's leg could probably fit.

Jeremy walked in front of the hole and peered through.

"It's no good. I can't see anything."

Jeremy walked away from the hole and over to where he'd discarded the other tool.

"Ulrich, take this," he handed him the pole-thing," and try to pry open the scanner."

Ulrich took it, and stuck the pole into the hole Odd had made. He struggled for about two minutes before the scanner was partially open. A Yumi-sized person could fit their entire body into it.

They all moved in front of the scanner for a good look inside.

There was nothing.