"Why do you do this? You go off into your dream worlds and..." her mother sighed, it was no use, "Kate your grades are horrible." she said frankly, feeling horribly about it. " Mom," her daughter whined for she knew what was to come of this conversation, Please, I'll do better I pro-" she was cut off, this time by her Mother, "Kate, no more promises, your taking that flight on Wednesday and that's final."

She ran. She ran to who knows where but that didn't matter, she escaped to where she knew her mother wouldn't find her. She wouldn't go on that flight; she couldn't go to some preppy boarding school in the middle of France. She couldn't.

"Its not going to be that bad, I mean France! You can hang with the frenchies!" her secret crush told her, she blushed and let out a chuckle, pushing a piece of golden-red hair out of her face and behind her ear. "I guess... but I mean... I never wanted to leave here this early," she said, looking at the lovely Long Island, New York scenery around her. "Maybe it's for the better." Paul offered, "Maybe, lets go." she said, pressing a small black button on a strange computer-like wrist band, "Yeah." and he did the same.

He drew closer...she could feel his body moving closer to her's, her face flushed a deep mauve as his large brown eyes stared into her almond-shaped green ones. 'This is it...' she thought, "Maydrain..." his name escaped her lips and what was left of the gap between them closed, she could feel his breath on her cheek and then...

A scream came out of no-where, echoing though the forest, Kate stopped, realizing it had come from her own mouth. The boy across from her stared down with worried eyes at the figure of his friend, who lay on the forest floor, her chest moving up and down in rapid motions, wincing with pain. He looked to the device on his wrist and pressed a button, suddenly the costume of his character, Maydrain was gone and he was back to good old Paul. He knelt down; even in this virtual state he could tell that this was not part of the role play, that something had pained her greatly.

Electricity soared though her blood stream, every second that ticked by pained her. She collapsed.

In the few minutes that had gone by the worst of the pain had abandoned her body, she took the chance of opening her eyes. Fog. 'When had there been fog in the forest?' She thought to herself, realizing that it was not the scenery but her own optics that were creating this illusion. She could see the form of her friend bending over her; though she could not see his expression she could tell he was worried. And then suddenly, she was gone, as if someone had taken the clicker and changed the channel, leaving a wide-eyed Paul behind.

Where she ended up was a surprise to her, for she expected to be zapped from the VRPW (Virtual Role Playing World) back to her friend's comfy basement bedroom but no. With a few shocks that felt much like static electricity she sat up, rubbing her aching eyes.

"Where am I?" she muttered, staring out at the Lyoko desert region that stretched out before her, 'This must be a mistake... I must have pushed a button by accident.' She looked to her wrist band, which was in the 'off' position. She shivered... in this world she couldnt feel anything. It was like she didn't exist anymore. 'That must be it, I must be dead.'


This was all a mistake, she had gotten that part right, but she was the opposite of dead. Before her stretched a tower, though she did not take the time to see it, the X.A.N.A symbol glowed an eerie red, this was all his fault. This was his mistake. But she didn't know that, she didn't even know if she was alive.

Somewhere in the real world, 4 friends were receiving the same Xana symbol on the display of their cell phones. An attack.