By Nyassa Kaiba
Chapter 3A fully rested, fully restored, and thoroughly irate Aelita met them in the desert region. "A tank ran over my sketches!" She cried. "I went to the tower to recharge and when I came back I found the wrecked dome and the tank tracks leading away from it!" Aelita growled, pacing the ground.
Odd picked up a piece of the broken dome. "Smashed alright."
Yumi sighed, kneeling next to the remains. "tsk, all that hard work for nothing. I'm sorry Aelita."Jeremy had used the third scanner for once and he offered Aelita his sketchbook. "Here, you can use my sketchbook to redraw them from memory."
"I'll try. Yumi, Odd can you guys keep an eye out incase that Tank comes back?" Aelita asked worriedly. "I don't want to have to make another dome, not if X.A.N.A. can locate them so easily." Aelita sat down on a nearby rock to draw. Jeremy looked over her shoulder to watch. Odd took a perch on a nearby butte to wait.
"You guys." Ulrich said over the radio. "What's taking you so long?"
"A tank came through and destroyed Aelita's work." Jeremy explained. "She's redrawing it from memory on my sketchpad. You know how to work the tracker right Ulrich?"
"Yes, but if an attack comes I'm helpless up here." Ulrich responded.
"We can take care of it Ulrich." Odd replied. "I've got a good vantage point up on this butte. I can shoot just about anything from up here."
"Artillary historically has always had an advantage from a height." Jeremy said absently to Odd as he watched Aelita draw.
Odd jumped about a mile. "I just had one of my visions." He said with a growl. "That tank is on it's way back. I think we have time though. But we need to get Jeremy and Aelita out of here."
Aelita stood. "I'm ready. I can finish my sketch in the real world. I'll be last off and work the scanners."
"Okee-dokeey." Odd hopped down.
"I'll get us out at the nearest tower, follow me." Aelita turned to run and found herself facing…
"You guys that tank's almost on you! Run for it!" Ulrich cried.
"Come, ON Aelita, we'll go to a different tower." Odd shouted as the tank separated. He grabbed Jeremy by one hand and Aelita by the other and began to run.
The tank's eyes appeared, refocusing on the figures who were getting further and further out of reach. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. I have to help Aelita! Was Jeremy's sole thought. She's in the range of that tank! Please, if there's any God or Goddess out there WHOEVER just help me!
That was when it happened. The tank opened to deliver it's lethal shot. The scenery shifted, so suddenly that Jeremy had only time to react. He grabbed Aelita by the shoulders. The scenery shifted again. Jeremy heard the shot go off, so certain that he and Aelita were done for!
But the shot was distant, so far away that he could barely hear it! How could he have gotten this far away? "I'm out!" He heard Yumi cry.
"Come on Jeremy!" Aelita tugged at him. "Get up! That tank will be here in minutes and we have to get to the tower!"
Jeremy realized that he was at the tower that they'd been heading too, curled up in a ball at it's base. "I… hey, how did we get here?"
"I dunno." Aelita replied with a shrug. "Look, once we get out of Lyoko we can figure it out but right now we need to get out of here!" She tugged him to his feet. "One minute I was facing down that tank and the next we were here."
"Teleportation." Jeremy realized.
"Jeremy, Jeremy speak to us!" Ulrich cried frantically. "Where the hell are you?"
"Out of your range Ulrich, sorry. We're coming, be ready to run for the scanner the instant we get there!"
Aelita led him into the tower. She lifted them both to the top platform. "Come on, let's go." She called up the screen and when it asked for code she wrote, 'Earth.'
The tower began to spin out around them and suddenly they were both falling out of the scanner Jeremy had used to enter Lyoko. Yumi and Ulrich were waiting. "Hurry UP!" Ulrich cried. "I can take care of that Tank but I NEED to get there first!"
That was when Odd came through. "Sorry, I held out as long as I could."
"That's okay." Ulrich answered as he stepped into the scanner. Jeremy ran upstairs to the Calculator Room and activated the scanner. "Scanning Ulrich… Virtualization."
It took about five seconds for Ulrich to destroy the wayward Tank, another thirty for him to get to the tower and type in the code they'd developed to exit Lyoko. Aelita finished her drawing. "There." She offered it to Jeremy, including close ups of the monsters and people she had seen.
Jeremy looked at the drawing. "Hey Odd, do you recognize this monster?" He tapped Wormon.
Odd looked. "I think Ken had it in his room." Odd said, curiously taking the pad. "I thought that it was a stuffed animal."
Yumi and Ulrich peered over his shoulder. "It sure doesn't look like Lyoko." Yumi commented curiously.
"Or like any monsters we've ever seen." Ulrich added.
"I'm telling you I saw them." Aelita replied. "It was like I was looking through a television screen into another world."
"How do you know about Television?" Asked Odd, mystified.
"Blame me for that." Yumi chuckled. "I showed her Gundam Wing and ever since then she's been coming over to my house to watch cartoons."
"You watch CARTOON'S Yumi?" Odd's eyebrows shot up into his hairline.
"The scariest mental image I have ever seen." Ulrich replied. "Was when she was watching the American version of Beyblades. I was at her house. Enrique opened his mouth, and the voice of this old Magic School Bus Character from when I was a kid came out of his mouth. Ever since then I've been disenchanted with her Otaku obsession."
Odd laughed. "Yumi an Otaku? I never would have guessed!"
"Ahem, stick to topic." Jeremy said pointedly. "It seems that there may be another world out there besides Lyoko. What do we do if X.A.N.A. can reach into that world? What sort of damage could he do?"
That brought total silence and removed the smiles from everyone's faces. "I… I guess we'd have to find a way to that world." Odd suggested tentatively. "Because where X.A.N.A. goes we have to follow right?"
"But what if we can't get there?" Ulrich replied.
"I guess we'll have to deal with that when it comes." Yumi said tactfully. "He hasn't so far, why don't we just wait until it happens. Besides, I'll bet that Ken and Davis can take care of it."
"Look on the bright side." Said Odd. "At least we've found somebody to use those other two scanners."
That brought total silence and dumbfounded looks from everybody. Then Jeremy chuckled. "I guess you're right."
"I'm sorry." Gennai rolled his eyes. "I cannot find a digidestined from France by the name of Jeremy. But if he's got the power as you say, he might very well make a good digidestined." Gennai chuckled into the D-Tector Beta. "Look, keep your eyes open for any potential Digidestined and E-mail me with their names."
"We will." Davis agreed. "Tell Tai hello for me. Okay?"
"Sure thing." Gennai chuckled. "And I'll get started on Searching for this 'Jeremy' that you think so highly of. He'll need a partner digimon. And I'll need to find one that will fit his personality. Then we'll need a crest, and maybe a digi-egg. Oh dear there's so much to do. I'll see you!" And with that he broke off the connection.
The D-Tector Beta was tied into the D-Chronos, like the D-Terminal, it held their spirits when not in use and served as a direct line to Gennai in an emergency. It was smaller than the original D-Tectors. They folded in half like a real Cell Phone, so that they might be mistaken for one by prying eyes.
"Alright then." Ken rubbed his hands together. "Davis, we've got Science homework. I'll help you with it if you want."
"Sure." Davis peeked over Ken's shoulder at his notes. "Hey, why'd you draw Jeremy in the margins?"
Ken slapped his hand over the offending sketch. "Who drew Jeremy, where?"
Davis rolled his eyes. "You're so transparent Ken." He rolled his eyes.
Gennai sighed as he cut the connection. Actually, he had business in that very part of France. But there was so much going on he didn't, he wouldn't have the chance to go there himself. But who could he send?
Then he hit upon a solution. He pressed a button on the receiver. "Kathy!" He called.
"Yes Master Gennai?"
"I have a mission for you. Can you meet me in the Hypnos Dome?" The dome had been rebuilt from Yomaki's design in the Digital World, now the Guardians used it to track nondigimon digital phenomena, such as time or space warps.
Kathy came running in with her digimon, WhiteVeemon about fifteen minutes later. "Yes… Master…?" She panted.
Gennai waited until she'd caught her breath. "Kathy, you know how there are some digidestined in Paris, France?"
"Yes." Kathy turned a chair around backwards and straddled it, leaning her chin on the back of the chair.
"Well there's another digidestined in France, rather far away from Paris actually. The problem is that we can't get ahold of her long enough to bring her to the digital world and give her her digimon. I want you to see if you can bring her to the digital world." Gennai explained.
"What's this Digidestined's name?" Kathy asked, pushing a lock of curly blonde and silver hair behind her ear.
"Her name is Yumi."