Garage Kids 2:
Aelita and the Code of Lyoko

The end of a beginning...

Chapter 1

Odd Della-Robbia was looking forward to the future year at this new boarding school, known as Kadic Junior High, and this new country of France. But, he never would've expected the moment that would turn him into a warrior of a virtual world, along with his new friends.

To explain the strange appearance of a shadow monster out of Jeremie's computer, and why Jeremie started floating in mid-air, after falling from the roof, the kids took him on a trip across a sewer to an abandoned factory, containing some powerful computer equipment. Ulrich Stern, the 12-year-old that became Odd's roommate, was running around in a strange other world... and needed reinforcements.

The 13-year-old Japanese Goth girl, named Yumi Ishiyama, turned to Odd. "Odd, we're going!"

The 12-year-old New Zealander boy turned from his dog, Kiwi, in surprise. "Me?"

Yumi motioned him to one scanner, while she stepped in another. Odd looked around inside the scanner. Suddenly, the doors closed.

Jeremie Belpois, the 11-year-old boy genius, immediately started keystroking and shouted out the commands as he was imputing. "Transfer: Yumi!" A digital card of her flashed on the screen. He opened up a "Create New Digital Card" program and started work on a new one. "Transfer: Odd!" An incomplete, new card flashed on the screen.

"Scanner: Yumi!" A metal ring, within Yumi's scanner, examined her up and down. "Scanner: Odd!" Another metal ring, in Odd's scanner, did the same to a confused Odd. The computer used the information it took in to complete the card.

"Virtualization!" Jeremie cried before he hit "Enter".

Odd shut his eyes and a burst of incredibly bright light flashed around him. When he opened his eyes, he stood in a virtual world. Xanadu, did they call it? What was going wrong that was threatening Earth, too? And, how did they find out about it all?

He asked Yumi those questions. "Odd," she told him, "two weeks ago, Jeremie got a coded S.O.S. from a mysterious person who addressed herself as 'Aelita'. It was pretty hard to decode, even for him, but we managed to find out everything I told you, already, before we went in."

A shadow monster loomed up behind Yumi. "Yumi, LOOK OUT!" Odd cried, pointing to the monster, He placed his other hand on his forearm to keep it up, and--ZAP--something projected out of his wrist. It hit the monster, destroying it.

"Odd!" cried Jeremie from the computer. "You just figured out your weapon: Laser Arrow!"

"Wow," he said. He aimed at another monster. "LASER ARROW!" he yelled before firing another.

"Careful, Odd," Jeremie warned. "Your laser arrow supply is not unlimited."

Odd nodded. "Gotcha. So, where is this 'Aelita' person, anyway?"

"I don't know, Odd," he responded.

In the distance, a seemingly 11-year-old girl, with pink hair, watched.

"I just don't know."

Jeremie observed his friends, via a grid map on his screen. They were actually doing surprisingly well, fighting off the shadow monsters. Yumi's fan had charged and she had begun slicing and dicing with it.

Suddenly, the image of a girl's head appeared on his screen. "Huh?" he said in surprise. "Who are you?"

"My name is Aelita. Are you the one who received my S.O.S.?"

"Uh-y-yeah," he stammered. Wow, he thought. She must be pretty smart to have coded it in such a complicated way. She's kind of pretty, too. He blushed. Okay, I did not just think that! "My name's Jeremie."

"Pleased to meet you, Jeremie."

"It wasn't easy decoding it," Jeremie told her. "But, I pretty much got the part of the supercomputer, where it is (which is how we got here), and how the virtual world called Xanadu, along with our world are in danger, because something went wrong."

Aelita frowned. "'Xanadu'? You must have had more trouble with decoding than you thought." She started to explain: "The world you have discovered is called Lyoko. It is separated into four regions: Mountain, desert, forest, and glacier. Your friends, and I, are on a small island in the Mountain Region. The name of the supercomputer was once Xanadu, but after taking in a supervirus, the thing that went wrong, it became known as X.A.N.A.

"Ever since that virus infected him, X.A.N.A. has been plotting to destroy the world. By attacking the towers, he can shake the ground around the supercomputer, as you have found out already. However that is not enough. Though this is a good thing, X.A.N.A. may have figured out how to have more access to your world. He may have figured out how to activate those same towers."

"How can we help?" asked Jeremie.

"Listen:" she explained, "Only I can deactivate towers. However, I have no way to fight X.A.N.A.'s minions. So, it is lucky that you have friends with you that you have transferred into Lyoko warriors."

"Yeah," he said. "I guess so."

"There's something else I must tell you," Aelita warned. "Now that X.A.N.A. knows there's stronger resistance coming to Lyoko, I fear he is trying to figure out ways to create stronger, more dangerous minions. Ones that can shoot lasers, spit acid, and do other damage."

"I'll let the other's know that." he said. He focused back on the location of his friends. "Guys, I think I just met our mysterious Aelita."

"Really?" Odd said. "Is she with you?"

"Nope." Jeremie replied. "She's behind some boulders some distance west of you."

"You mean, she's in Xanadu?" asked Yumi.

"Not Xanadu. Lyoko," Jeremie corrected. "I must have mis-decoded a bit." He added, "Oh, and there could me more dangerous monsters on the way. Head toward where Aelita is. She'll explain everything."