Chapter 4: Cards
Jeremie had decided to take the next day off to be with Aelita. Skiing wasn't really his thing; he only went to be with his friends, but since he hadn't been in contact with two of them since the bus ride and the other called him Einstein every time they spoke (it got pretty annoying), Jeremie decided to spend some quality time with Aelita. Odd went out skiing with someone they had met in the cafeteria for lunch one day (Jeremie recalled that his name was Peter Brooks).
"Hey, Aelita, how are things in Lyoko?" Jeremie asked upon contacting her.
"Actually, not very good, Jeremie. Everything was alright and quiet up until five minutes ago, I started noticing heavier pulsations around the desert region when I went to check it out. Has anything unusual happened over there?"
"No, so that's weird. How can X.A.N.A. be attacking if we haven't noticed it yet? Oh well, it doesn't matter, because if you're experiencing pulsations over there, it means you're in danger, and an attack's bound to happen here soon. Hold on a minute; let me scan for activated towers.... Yes! There's one in the desert region like you predicted. I knew this would happen! I just knew it; it's never good to leave the lab! How are we going to get the others into Lyoko to protect you? Listen, start for that tower, but only until you see a welcoming committee. Don't try to get to the tower before I find the others, but no knowing how long that's going to take...." Jeremie left off mumbling.
"What do you mean, Jeremie? What's wrong?"
"Well, it's just that I haven't talked to Ulrich or Yumi since I got here, and Odd's supposedly out skiing now," Jeremie glanced at the clock on the wall. "But hey, if I hurry, he may still be at lunch. Hold on Aelita, I- " But he stopped short: the power had just gone out, leaving him in total darkness and out of contact with Aelita. "Aelita!" He yelled, even though he knew it was no use. He groped in the darkness toward his dresser and succeeded in finding his flashlight after being bruised badly in the shin because of hitting the low-set end table. He switched it on and clutched his shin.
"THAT'S IT!" he exclaimed to himself. "NO MORE! Aelita's in danger, and I won't tolerate that! I'm going to find Odd and the others! NOW! Don't worry, Aelita!" he shouted even though no one could hear as he raced out of his room and down to the cafeteria.
Once there, he noticed something peculiar: people were sitting at the tables, but no one was moving....
"Odd!" Jeremie spotted his friend's blonde hair from the back sticking up above the crowd. It was creepy... walking through a room of people who all seemed... paralyzed...
"Odd!" Jeremie rounded on him, but to his horror, Odd was paralyzed like all the rest. "This is definitely X.A.N.A.'s doing..." he muttered to himself. Then he noticed something about Odd was unusual, even more unusual than the fact that he was paralyzed....
Odd had evidently been playing cards when he was frozen. But what's more, he was playing a two-person game (Speed, Jeremie realized), but no one was sitting across from him. It looked like whoever was playing with him had gotten away....
"Or actually did the paralyzing!" Jeremie said aloud as he thought to himself. This was getting way too freaky. Thinking as quickly as possible as he could on his feet, Jeremie rushed to the front desk and quickly found an open binder listing the occupants of each room in the building. He scanned his finger down the list but never found Ulrich or Yumi. He knew that they had to be in the other building now.... He hurried out the door and through the freezing snow to the other lodge students had been residing in. There was no way he could do anything without the other two to help him now that Odd wasn't going to be much of a help.
He wasted no time in checking an identical binder on the second lodge's reception desk and finding that Ulrich was in Room 109 and Yumi in Room 224. He started off for Ulrich's, as it was the closest, but did a double-take. The other person in Ulrich's room was a Parker Brooks? And with Yumi, Paige Brooks? Was it too much of a coincidence that.... He shook it off. That wasn't important now- he had to get to Ulrich and Yumi, and fast. Aelita was in danger.
That last thought gave him a burst of speed, and he found himself in front of Ulrich's room relatively quickly. "ULRICH! YOU BETTER BE IN THERE! COME OUT NOW! WE NEED TO TALK!" he shouted as loud as he could, hoping he wasn't too late. He pounded on the door with both fists.
Before the power-outage
Jessie walked down to the lodge from the slopes, exhausted, but still happy from her exhilarating day spent skiing with her friend.
"Wow, that was awesome, Jessie! But now, I think I'm definitely ready for a rest!" Jessie's friend Marietta said, walking next to Jessie and carrying her skis over her shoulder.
"I agree!" The girls giggled all the way to the lodge. But as they passed the reception area, the power went out. They heard several people scream, and they stopped.
"Marietta? You there?"
"Yeah. I can't see a thing, can you? But I have a flashlight in our room; do you think we can make it there? We'll have to use the stairs, but I think I remember where they are."
"Okay." The girls held hands to stay together and made their way down the hall to where Marietta reckoned the stairs were. But as they walked, they went past the cafeteria and noticed that several people already had their flashlights and people were having a good time. They started to enter the cafeteria instead and unloaded their stuff at a table, being able to see due to the dim light provided by the few flashlights of people there.
"Hey, Jessie! Marietta!" Morgan, one of the girls' friends from school, spotted them and beckoned them over. As they smiled and approached, she held out a deck of cards and Jessie took it. "Stay and play cards in the cafeteria, won't you guys? This girl called Penny Brooks is handing them out. She has tons, don't worry about taking some, they should be fun seeing as there's nothing else to do!"
Jessie and Marietta smiled and obliged, seating themselves at the table they dumped their gear on, as Jessie took out the cards and started dealing them. They had a funny symbol that she hadn't seen before on them, she noticed vaguely, something like two circles, one within the other, and a dot in the very center. But then she started dealing out the cards and just as she and Marietta both picked up their hands, she couldn't move her arms... her legs... her whole body... then her mind shut down.
Jeremie had decided to take the next day off to be with Aelita. Skiing wasn't really his thing; he only went to be with his friends, but since he hadn't been in contact with two of them since the bus ride and the other called him Einstein every time they spoke (it got pretty annoying), Jeremie decided to spend some quality time with Aelita. Odd went out skiing with someone they had met in the cafeteria for lunch one day (Jeremie recalled that his name was Peter Brooks).
"Hey, Aelita, how are things in Lyoko?" Jeremie asked upon contacting her.
"Actually, not very good, Jeremie. Everything was alright and quiet up until five minutes ago, I started noticing heavier pulsations around the desert region when I went to check it out. Has anything unusual happened over there?"
"No, so that's weird. How can X.A.N.A. be attacking if we haven't noticed it yet? Oh well, it doesn't matter, because if you're experiencing pulsations over there, it means you're in danger, and an attack's bound to happen here soon. Hold on a minute; let me scan for activated towers.... Yes! There's one in the desert region like you predicted. I knew this would happen! I just knew it; it's never good to leave the lab! How are we going to get the others into Lyoko to protect you? Listen, start for that tower, but only until you see a welcoming committee. Don't try to get to the tower before I find the others, but no knowing how long that's going to take...." Jeremie left off mumbling.
"What do you mean, Jeremie? What's wrong?"
"Well, it's just that I haven't talked to Ulrich or Yumi since I got here, and Odd's supposedly out skiing now," Jeremie glanced at the clock on the wall. "But hey, if I hurry, he may still be at lunch. Hold on Aelita, I- " But he stopped short: the power had just gone out, leaving him in total darkness and out of contact with Aelita. "Aelita!" He yelled, even though he knew it was no use. He groped in the darkness toward his dresser and succeeded in finding his flashlight after being bruised badly in the shin because of hitting the low-set end table. He switched it on and clutched his shin.
"THAT'S IT!" he exclaimed to himself. "NO MORE! Aelita's in danger, and I won't tolerate that! I'm going to find Odd and the others! NOW! Don't worry, Aelita!" he shouted even though no one could hear as he raced out of his room and down to the cafeteria.
Once there, he noticed something peculiar: people were sitting at the tables, but no one was moving....
"Odd!" Jeremie spotted his friend's blonde hair from the back sticking up above the crowd. It was creepy... walking through a room of people who all seemed... paralyzed...
"Odd!" Jeremie rounded on him, but to his horror, Odd was paralyzed like all the rest. "This is definitely X.A.N.A.'s doing..." he muttered to himself. Then he noticed something about Odd was unusual, even more unusual than the fact that he was paralyzed....
Odd had evidently been playing cards when he was frozen. But what's more, he was playing a two-person game (Speed, Jeremie realized), but no one was sitting across from him. It looked like whoever was playing with him had gotten away....
"Or actually did the paralyzing!" Jeremie said aloud as he thought to himself. This was getting way too freaky. Thinking as quickly as possible as he could on his feet, Jeremie rushed to the front desk and quickly found an open binder listing the occupants of each room in the building. He scanned his finger down the list but never found Ulrich or Yumi. He knew that they had to be in the other building now.... He hurried out the door and through the freezing snow to the other lodge students had been residing in. There was no way he could do anything without the other two to help him now that Odd wasn't going to be much of a help.
He wasted no time in checking an identical binder on the second lodge's reception desk and finding that Ulrich was in Room 109 and Yumi in Room 224. He started off for Ulrich's, as it was the closest, but did a double-take. The other person in Ulrich's room was a Parker Brooks? And with Yumi, Paige Brooks? Was it too much of a coincidence that.... He shook it off. That wasn't important now- he had to get to Ulrich and Yumi, and fast. Aelita was in danger.
That last thought gave him a burst of speed, and he found himself in front of Ulrich's room relatively quickly. "ULRICH! YOU BETTER BE IN THERE! COME OUT NOW! WE NEED TO TALK!" he shouted as loud as he could, hoping he wasn't too late. He pounded on the door with both fists.
Before the power-outage
Jessie walked down to the lodge from the slopes, exhausted, but still happy from her exhilarating day spent skiing with her friend.
"Wow, that was awesome, Jessie! But now, I think I'm definitely ready for a rest!" Jessie's friend Marietta said, walking next to Jessie and carrying her skis over her shoulder.
"I agree!" The girls giggled all the way to the lodge. But as they passed the reception area, the power went out. They heard several people scream, and they stopped.
"Marietta? You there?"
"Yeah. I can't see a thing, can you? But I have a flashlight in our room; do you think we can make it there? We'll have to use the stairs, but I think I remember where they are."
"Okay." The girls held hands to stay together and made their way down the hall to where Marietta reckoned the stairs were. But as they walked, they went past the cafeteria and noticed that several people already had their flashlights and people were having a good time. They started to enter the cafeteria instead and unloaded their stuff at a table, being able to see due to the dim light provided by the few flashlights of people there.
"Hey, Jessie! Marietta!" Morgan, one of the girls' friends from school, spotted them and beckoned them over. As they smiled and approached, she held out a deck of cards and Jessie took it. "Stay and play cards in the cafeteria, won't you guys? This girl called Penny Brooks is handing them out. She has tons, don't worry about taking some, they should be fun seeing as there's nothing else to do!"
Jessie and Marietta smiled and obliged, seating themselves at the table they dumped their gear on, as Jessie took out the cards and started dealing them. They had a funny symbol that she hadn't seen before on them, she noticed vaguely, something like two circles, one within the other, and a dot in the very center. But then she started dealing out the cards and just as she and Marietta both picked up their hands, she couldn't move her arms... her legs... her whole body... then her mind shut down.