The next day Jeremie told Spencer and Krishna all that happened during the last XANA attack, as the two had forgotten their memories. Of course, they didn't believe him at first, but once he took them to the factory and reintroduced them to Aelita, and with another look of shook, much like the first time; they then believed him, but still didn't know if they could trust him.
While Ulrich and Yumi had seen the two boys fight against XANA, they both didn't know if Spencer and Krishna could be trusted, either. The two told Jeremie about what they thought and he agreed. They decided to have the entire gang meet up and discuss about what they'd do about Spencer and Krishna.
"Well I think we should let them join, they seem nice enough," said Odd.
"Yeah, but still, what if they tell the whole school? Or the government, then we'll not only be ridiculed but also in a lot of trouble too, I don't know if we should tell them again," responded Yumi.
"Well...." Said Jeremie, trailing off. "I kinda already told them what had happened."
'You WHAT?!? Without consulting us?"
"Well I thought that if they WEREN'T trustable we could simply not program them characters into the Super Calculator, and hope that XANA attacks sometime soon."
"I still think that was a bit risky on your part, Jeremie."
"Whatever,"
"Then it's agreed," said Ulrich. "We won't let them keep their full memories and have characters to fight against XANA until we know we can trust them."
"Fine," came the chorus of response.
"Hey guys," came a voice from behind Jeremie. Jeremie jumped up in surprise. The speaker was Spencer. "What are you guys talking about?"
"Oh um...nothing that you'd be interested. We was just talking about the latest designer handbags, that's all," said Yumi.
"Ok...whatever. Have fun you guys," Spencer walked off but Yumi swore that she heard him say "Weird kids," under his breath.
The four friends sighed, said their good byes and parted for class. That night, Jeremie sat hunched over his keyboard, working on an anti-virus for Aelita.
"Hey Jeremie," said Aelita, as she popped up in a window in the top right corner of Jeremie's screen. "Are you still working on that anti-virus?"
"Yeah, I really want to get it finished, I'm starting to get tired of all these XANA attacks, and I really want you to..." he trailed off, blushing.
"Want to what?" Aelita asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I really can't wait till you can stay with us in the real world on a more permanent basis,"
"I understand, Jeremie, it is really nice to live in your world." She obviously didn't understand why Jeremie REALLY wanted her in the real world. "Jeremie, you should get some rest, you've been staying up so late for the past few days, and I'll review your work and let you know on what I think."
"But I have the feeling that I'm-"
"No buts, Jeremie, get some sleep, please? Do it for me. If you don't have a clear mind when your working on this then the point of you working on the anti-virus is wasted."
"Alright," sighed a reluctant Jeremie. "Your wish is my command. Good night, Aelita."
"Good night, Jeremie." And with that she disappeared. Jeremie sighed again, saved his work and backed it up on a separate hard drive and multiple CDs, incase XANA decided to hack his computer and tamper or erase what he had completed so far.
Jeremie quickly fell into a deep sleep, and started to dream. He dreamt he was in the factory, and just finished the Anti-Virus for Aelita, and she was materialized, but every time he went down to meet Aelita, XANA walked out of the scanners, holding Aelita's corpse in his hands, laughing.
Jeremie woke up, screaming, and in a cold sweat. He fumbled around for his glasses after a few deep breathes, and a slap on the head. He looked at the time: 6:15 AM. Jeremie sighed. "Might as well do something useful...." And so he got up, wished Aelita a good morning and started work on the anti-virus immediately, redoubling his efforts as he remembered XANA's evil laugh.
--------
Ring! The school bell sounded the start of the days' classes. Jeremie, Ulrich, Odd, Spencer and Krishna all filed into Mrs. Hertz's classroom and took their seats. Odd and Spencer yawned at the same time and promptly placed their heads on their desks.
"Good morning, class. I all hope that you had a good night's sleep," said Mrs. Hertz, putting emphasis on the word "sleep". She then picked up a book and dropped it on a nearby desk.
"XANA ATTACK!" jumped up Odd, as he awoke with a start. Spencer sat up, and rubbed his eyes, with a 'what the hell do you want' look on his face. The class erupted into a fit of laughter. Mrs. Hertz silenced them.
"Odd! You know your not to sleep in class! After school detention!"
Odd grumbled a bit, nodded, and sat down, straightening his posture. 'At least I didn't have to write that stickin' report on Newton's Third Law.' He thought to himself.
The rest of the day proceeded uneventfully, with the exception that Odd had detention. Jeremie rushed back to his room to continue working on the anti-virus. Spencer, Yumi, Ulrich and Krishna all met up by the bench outside.
"I know where Odd is right now, but where's Jeremie?" asked Spencer.
"Um...He's off, doing some extra credit right now. He likes to do extra work, I don't know why, really," replied Yumi.
"Right..." said Krishna.
"Well, what do you guys want to do? I dunno about you, but I'm bored as hell," said Spencer.
"Um..." came the chorus of replies. Yumi and Ulrich seemed really hesitant to do anything. Spencer put his hand on his chin, and thought.
"Aha! Krishna and I brought some extra Airsoft guns, we could all play that. As long as you two have masks, that is. We didn't bring extra masks with us, too big."
"You mean those guns you used to blow up XANA's monsters?" asked Yumi.
"Yeah, yeah, the same," said Spencer, still unbelieving of the retelling of what happened a few days ago.
"Well if they can destroy machines, then can't they hurt people?" Ulrich asked, inquisitively.
"Nope. They only sting when you get hit. It'll really hurt if you get shot in the eye, if you know what I mean. Which is why we brought masks. I must have gotten a lucky shot at those things, because I don't know how I could have beaten these 'monsters', unless they were made of plastic, or I'm just a good shot."
"Alright, sounds like fun," said Ulrich.
Yumi and Krishna nodded.
They all went to Spencer and Krishna's dorm, and quickly assembled the gear they needed. Four black, identical pistols, made of plastic, but with some metal parts. Five thousand extra pellets, twelve full reloads per pistol ready in a belt, and the two masks. Ulrich dashed quickly to his room and got two similar masks for him and Yumi to use, which they had to adjust to Yumi because her head was to small for it.
They then went out to the track and decided to play between Krishna and Spencer versus Yumi and Ulrich. A large group of students all watched from afar, and backed up to the stands as none of them wanted to get shot. The four friends were about to start play when a loud voice rang out.
"Wait!" yelled Jim. "What do you think you four are doing, huh? Having a little duel, I knew it." He laughed. "Well, you know you can't bring guns into the school, or the country for that matter. I should take you to the police."
"Your right, Jim. We normally wouldn't be able to bring guns to the school, but the thing is they aren't real," Spencer ejected the clip in his pistol, and walked over to Jim. "See? They aren't real bullets, but plastic, but they can still sting ya. We got permission from the police to bring these Airsoft guns into the country, and the Principal so we could play in our spare time. You should go over to the stands, unless you want to get shot somewhere."
Jim growled, mumbled something and walked off. Some obstacles were placed in the center of the track, from trash cannons to large blocks of concrete, whatever they could get the willing students to assemble.
"Jim, would you do the honors of starting the game?" asked Spencer.
Jim grumbled, put his large hand around the whistle that hung from his neck, raised it to his mouth and blew loudly. Spencer and Krishna immediately rolled behind two trash cannons and cocked their guns. Yumi and Ulrich dashed forward towards a block. Krishna and Spencer took turns exchanging firing at Yumi and Ulrich, who returned the favor.
Ulrich got hit in the shoulders and immediately crouched.
"Damn! He was right, they do sting."
"Then you better be more careful, Ulrich," said Yumi, playfully.
Spencer crouched down, ejected an empty clip, picked it up and placed it on the back of his belt and put a new, fresh clip in the gun. Krishna did the same and jumped from their hiding spots and dashed forward, firing and recocking the guns as they went. Ulrich got hit in the legs and arms, while Yumi got hit in the torso and legs, both fell to the ground, panting.
Spencer and Krishna took off their masks, smiling.
"Wasn't that fun?"
Yumi took in a deep breath, and then took off her mask. She grinned. "You bet, we should do that again sometime." Ulrich nodded in agreement. The students watching and even Jim had a look of amazement on their faces, let out a cheer, and slowly filed out from the stands.
"Well, it's late, I'm tired, and I think we should all head to our rooms. Good night you two."
And with that Spencer and Krishna walked off. The track was empty with the exception of Ulrich and Yumi still standing in the middle of it.
"Well, I better get back to my room, and you should go home now, you don't want to keep your parents waiting," said Ulrich.
Yumi nodded, gave Ulrich a kiss on the check, and blushing, walked off. Ulrich stood there, in bewilderment, blushing as well, until he too, walked off to his room, his hand touching the cheek that Yumi kissed.
The next day, posters were all over the school, advertising the formation of a new Kadic Airsoft League. Spencer looked at one inquisitively as he walked by to his first class.
"Airsoft League, huh? It seems we impressed a few of the students at yesterday's game. I'll have to show this to Krishna." And with that he glanced around a bit, tore off a poster, folded it, and tucked it into his pocket; whistling as he walked.
Later, once school was out, Spencer decided to visit Jeremie. He walked over to where Jeremie's dorm was, whistled and knocked on Jeremie's door.
"Be right there!" came the response. Jeremie saved his program, backed it up, turned off his computer and went to the door and opened it.
"Hey," said Spencer.
"Hey, come in." And so Spencer did.
"Man, where the hell have you been? You haven't been seen for around two days."
"I'm just doing some research, that's all. Do you still believe what we told you about XANA?"
"Kinda, but not really. It's a bit to crazy to believe, even after meeting Aelita. Why?"
"Well, I know the others don't really trust you, and I shouldn't do this without telling them, but I was wondering if you and Krishna would want to come by the factory and make your Lyoko characters?"
"Really?!? That'd be great! I'll tell Krishna. Any time you want us to head down?" asked Spencer, excitedly.
"Anytime is alright, do you or Krishna happen to have a cell phone?" asked Jeremy.
"No we don't."
"Alright," said Jeremy, reaching over to his desk and pulled out two brand new cell phones, tossing Spencer both of them. He caught them, and a look of surprise dawned on his face. "The phones already have Odd's, Yumi's and my number pre-programmed in there. They also have both your number and Krishna's in them. Don't worry about me giving them to you, I always keep a few extras around."
"OK, as soon as I give Krishna his phone and tell him what's up, I'll come back here, alrighty?"
"OK."
And with that Spencer walked out the door, and went to his room and entered.
"Hey Krish."
"Hey Neo. What's up?"
"Not a lot, went to see Jeremie, here's a gift from him." Spencer tossed Krishna's cell phone at him. He caught it.
"Cool. What else?"
"He wants us to meet him at his room and he'll then take us to the factory and program in our characters."
"OK." Krishna got off his bed, pocketed his cell phone, and the two boys walked back to Jeremie's dorm. They knocked. Jeremie came out and they all left the school, and then headed for the park. Jeremie looked around to make sure no one was looking, and he did this thoroughly.
He then lifted the manhole covering and climbed down the ladder. Krishna followed suit, and Spencer went down after him, putting the manhole back as he went down. Spencer and Krishna had left skateboards this time, as Jeremie recommended that they do so the last time they visited when they met Aelita for the second time.
Spencer got his skateboard, picked it up, started to run, dropped it and got on it, pushing off the ground. Krishna did the same. Jeremie got his scooter, and followed the two. After a minute, they arrived at their destination. They all laid their skateboards and scooter next to the ladder and climbed up, moved the manhole, and ran onto the bridge.
They made it to the factory, Spencer, Krishna and Jeremie all jumped onto a rope and slid down. Krishna and Spencer walked into the elevator, near the back, and Jeremie walked in and stood near the entrance of the elevator. He pushed the button to descend. After a short drop, they arrived in the main control room.
"Alright," said Jeremie. "It's time to make your characters. Which one of you will go first?" Krishna raised his hand.
"Hey, Spence, no offense, but could you wait outside, on the first floor until I finish, I want to keep this character a secret till we get to Lyoko."
Spencer nodded and walked back to the elevator. After a couple minutes wait, the elevator came up again, and Krishna walked out, with a grin on his face.
"Your turn," he said. Spencer walked back into the elevator, and descended.
"OK, now where to start....?" Asked Jeremie.
"I guess I'll have my character look like Neo, from the Matrix. You have seen that movie haven't you?" asked Spencer. Jeremie nodded. "I want my character to be a skilled martial artist, but his main weapon is to be a rapid fire shot musket, you know the kind where it has about five shots in it?" Spencer then went into a better description of the musket. Jeremie typed very quickly.
"Anything else?" he asked.
Spencer shook his head negatively.
"Alright then, I'll start programming yours and Krishna's characters into the Super Calculator. You better head on back to the school. I'll see you later."
Spencer nodded, said a good bye and took the elevator again and walked back to the school with Krishna, a grin on his face as well. Krishna immediately asked about Spencer's character.
"You don't tell me your character, I won't tell you mine." He grinned. "You'll see it in Lyoko."
"I wonder when we'll get to test them?"
"Who knows." And with that Spencer's cell phone immediately started to vibrate. Spencer glanced at Krishna, and then dug out his cell phone.
"Spencer here," he nodded a few times, before a look of horror appeared on his face. "Oh my God..."
"What?" asked Krishna.
"No time," Spencer ran off, Krishna running after him a few seconds later.
"What the hell is going on?"
"Seems there's a XANA attack going on right now. XANA just activated a Nuclear Missile, and its target is Paris. Here."
"You're joking."
"Far from it. So, any ideas?" Asked Spencer.
"No, I don't."
"Great..." Spencer and Krishna ran back to the Factory in a matter of minutes, only Odd and Jeremie were present.
"Where's Ulrich and Yumi?" Asked Spencer.
"They're trying to get into the missile complex and destroy the missile," replied Jeremie.
"Didn't the government try to abort it?" asked Krishna.
"Yes, but they failed, I don't know what they have in mind."
"Any idea where the tower is?" Asked Spencer.
"Yes, it's in the Forest region. You, Krishna and Odd should head on down instead of wasting time, that missile might hit any minute now and millions will die."
"Right." And with that the three boys rushed into the elevator, descended and entered the scanners.
Jeremie rapidly typed in commands into the computer. "Scanner...Odd. Scanner...Krishna. Scanner...Spencer. Transfer...Odd. Transfer...Krishna. Transfer...Spencer. Virtualization." A few seconds later, the characters of Spencer, Krishna and Odd appeared and fell a ten-foot drop and landed on their feet and hands.
They all stood up. "So, this is Lyoko? Nice place," said Spencer. He turned to face Krishna, and whistled. Krishna's character had a long, flowing blue cape with red lining on the inside. The cape was connected to a heavy looking blue and gold chest armor, with a black undershirt. He had white pants and black boots, which went up, a bit past his ankles. He brandished a longsword, which had a golden handle.
"Nice character too, Krish." Krishna nodded back. "Alright, so where are the monsters?" asked Spencer, drawing his musket.
"Oh, they'll be here soon," said Odd.
"Hey!" yelled someone behind Spencer, who turned and aimed his musket at the approaching figure. "Don't shoot! I'm a friend." Spencer lowered the rifle.
"Hey, Aelita." Said Odd. Aelita nodded to Odd. "So, these are the new additions to our team? Nice characters. Anyway, we need to get to the tower, XANA's monsters will be here soon." And the four ran off into the forest, weapons drawn. After a few minutes of running, a group of Hornets, Roaches and Blocks appeared, blocking the path to the activated tower.
The three boys sprung into action immediately. Krishna broke out into a run, right about the Blocks, screaming with his sword raised. Odd jumped up, did a flip and fired some laser arrows at the Roaches. Spencer drew his musket and fired a round at a Hornet, pulled back on the lever, clearing the chamber of the empty casing and loading in a new one. He fired at the other Hornets, reloading each shot all of them were destroyed.
The Blocks were mostly destroyed by Odd, but a few surviving Blocks managed to get some hits on Odd, devirtualizing him.
"No! Odd's gone! Spencer, protect Aelita!" yelled Jeremie. Spencer nodded and sprinted up to the remaining Block and kicked it right in the XANA mark, jumped up and punched it on the top of the Block and flipped off it. The Block exploded. Krishna did a low spin with his sword, which cut all the Roaches around him in half from the middle.
They exploded. A trio of surviving Roaches fired their lasers at Krishna, which all hit him in the back. He kneeled down from the blasts, got up and spun, deflecting the blasts. Spencer reloaded the musket completely, and fired off three shots on the Roaches. All of them were dead on, and they exploded.
"Thanks," said Krishna.
"No problem. Aelita, do your stuff." Aelita nodded, and ran up into the tower, and stepped inside. She walked up to the platform in the middle of the tower, and flew upwards, and stepped onto another platform, the markings on it turning a bright white as she stepped. She placed her hand on something in the air, and a screen popped up.
AELITA
CODE
The missile spun downwards toward the Eiffel Tower, and just as it was about to hit, releasing its destructive punch...
LYOKO
...It stopped. Jeremie sighed. "Return to the past now," he said. A brilliant bright white light came from the scanner room, and engulfed the factory, then the school, then the city, and the missile itself.
Jeremie, Ulrich, Odd and Yumi all sat at the bench where they always sit at, talking.
"Well I think we should let them join, they seem nice enough," said Odd.
"Yeah, but still, what if they tell the whole school? Or the government, then we'll not only be ridiculed but also in a lot of trouble too, I don't know if we should tell them again," responded Yumi.
"Well, they're characters were already programmed in," said Jeremie.
"What?!? Without consulting us?"
"What? Who do you think stopped XANA in Lyoko while you two were doing God-who-knows what during the last attack? Odd all by himself?" asked Jeremie.
"Um..."
"We did." Came Spencer, with Krishna at his side, behind the group. Yumi and Ulrich were about to say an apology, but Spencer held up his hand. "It's alright, we understand. Anyway, I need to get back to my dorm, I'll see you guys later." And with that the two boys walked off, back to their room.
Spencer opened the door, and noticed a white envelope on his bed.
"What's this?" asked Krishna. "That wasn't here last time."
"I know..." said Spencer, picking up the letter. He opened it, read it and grinned.
"What is it?" asked Krishna again, with a bit of excitement in his voice.
"Nothing, you'll see later," said Spencer with a big grin.
"Whatever."
End of Chapter 2.