1-4: Activation

She's just like me, only I wouldn't steal from a bunch of people I don't know. Or maybe that's just what I want y'all to think. (My Texan accent is coming out)

(((-4-)))

It was easy enough to find the factory and even to get inside, but reaching the lower levels posed a problem. After a while of wandering around, she found a door that led down some stairs and discovered the lab. It was dark. Wasn't there supposed to be a—aha! A panel in the floor shifted and she made her way down the small tunnel.

She explored the scanner room and compared it with the few blueprints she had memorized. Good, good. The other place must have been the control room since it had the computer. She returned to it immediately.

Her laptop hooked up without a problem. The new card representing her appeared on the other screen. It was almost completely blank, the picture more of a drawing than anything. The teenager set up a timed program and made sure it connected. Janika punched in some random coordinates and pressed enter. She had one minute to get back down to the scanner room.

She reached the scanner just as it opened and stepped inside. Not being sure what to expect, she just decided to wing it. Hopefully it would all work out.

She closed her eyes to relax and suddenly felt a sort of lightness. Gravity faded to nothing and for a moment Janika felt like a cloud. Then she felt solid again.

(V)

As the teenager entered Lyoko, something slipped through the factory. A wisp of smoky essence wound its way toward her laptop. A hiss of anger escaped from it, but the thing's thoughts flowed smoothly to a new plan. Perhaps this would work to its advantage. It melted into the smaller, unprotected computer to sift through the files there. Ideas came to it...

(V)

"If only the elevator was the only way to reach the lab," Odd sighed, "we wouldn't have this kind of problem."

"It's not like we don't need another route occasionally," Jeremy reminded his friend.

The elevator came up and all three boys got in. They got out in the lab and saw the laptop connected to the main computer by a thin cord. Jeremy sat down and typed furiously at the keys.

"Guys, that Janika created her own Lyoko identity. She's been virtualized for about ten minutes. It looks like she had a timed program to activate the scanner so she could do this on her own. Kind of ingenious. She combined the memory of her own computer to meld with ours and allow her passage despite any barriers that might arise." He stared at the other files in Janika's computer. "Hmm...I wonder how she did this. It's pretty intricate."

"Forget that, Jeremy," Odd interrupted. "Where is she?"

"The Forest Region. I can't speak to her because I don't have her personal ID code. You two are going to have to go get her. I'll contact Aelita too. She's in the Mountains. Get down to the scanners and I'll transfer you. This girl should be okay if I deactivate her link."

Jeremy unplugged Janika's laptop and got online to find Aelita. Her face appeared onscreen. "Jeremy, I've been trying to contact you but something kept blocking me."

"Aelita, we have an emergency. Someone is inside Lyoko and she doesn't know anything about it. Odd and Ulrich are on their way."

"But Jeremy, X.A.N.A. has activated a Tower! I noticed it a while ago when it interrupted the flow in another Tower. I've been looking for it but I can't seem to locate it on foot. You'll have to do that for me."

"I'll run a scan to pinpoint its location and you can meet up with them after they're virtualized."

(V)

Ulrich looked around. He could hardly stand because the ground was shaking so much. He didn't like this at all. Jeremy's voice spoke to them, "Aelita's coming and Janika, is due west of where you are now. A live Tower is also in that direction."

"What!" Odd cried out incredulously.

"A hacker gets in and X.A.N.A. attacks. That doesn't seem very coincidental."

Aelita exited the Tower they were beside. "Here you are. Oh, these pulsations are terrible! X.A.N.A. knows we can't walk well on this terrain, but we still have to deactivate the Tower immediately!"

"Then what are we waiting for?"

All three friends started running with Jeremy keeping them on track. "Ok, guys. Janika is just up ahead. You should be able to see her now."

They looked around, perplexed. "Well we don't."

"Are you sure? You should be staring straight at her."

"Jeremy," Aelita said in her soft cadence, "there is no one here."

"Well, there's about to be. You have company: four Hornets are approaching from the southwest!"

"Hornets? Oh, great! I've been meaning to practice my aim." Odd turned to face his enemies.

Two headed straight for him while the other two zeroed in on Aelita and Ulrich. Lances of energy fired out and Odd backflipped to dodge them, but even so he was shot in the arm. A Hornet dove in to get a good shot and received an arrow to his bull's-eye for the trouble.

Ulrich guarded Aelita fiercely, whipping his sword back and forth to protect her from the giant insects. She hunkered behind an outcrop of rock and yeeked occasionally as shots came close. The samurai gave his war cry and leaped straight up, sword aimed. The Hornet tried to get out of range, but it was too late and went down in a fireball. The other took advantage of Ulrich's distraction and blasted a laser into his back!

Odd was having trouble too. His arrows kept missing the extremely agile bug. Poison goo coated the forest floor and made steps treacherous. He leaped away as the Hornet proceeded to fire rapidly at him.

Then suddenly without any warning, both Hornets exploded! As their ashes disappeared, the three friends looked around for the cause of their escape. Laughter echoed through the forest.

"You'd think you'd be able to take care of yourselves in your own game." Someone dropped from the tree foliage high above, leaping down on thin branches and finally landing before the stunned trio.

"You're...Janika, right?" Ulrich wondered, squinting.

"Ulrich?" Her eyes widened and she backed off, blushing fiercely. "I—I had no idea you'd be here!"