Chapter 8 - Meeting Jake
Soon they arrived at Starry's house. She unlocked the door with a key from around her neck, and led them all downstairs to her room. "Here we are," Starry announced. Jeremie couldn't help but stare at her computer system.
"Wow, that's an awesome computer. What version is it? How much storage does it have on the harddrive?" Jeremie couldn't help but ask.
"Thanks," Starry replied. 'Whoa I never had let go of his hand! Oh well...' "It's version 5.7 and-"
"5.7!" Jeremie interrupted. "That's a rare version! How'd you get that?"
"My mom helps out at a computer and other technologies developement corperation. It's a very prestigeous job. She's honored that the corp chose her out of millions of other applicants. Since she's one of their best employees and hardest workers, they gave her this at an employee discount, plus an extra 25 off!"
"Cool!"
"Oh, and it's got about 75 GB of storage."
"Sweet! That's so much more than my comp. in the dorm. It's only got about 50."
"You know you can get it upgraded."
"Really? That'd be cool!"
"I could have my mom come over and hook you up with the latest version for that type of computer, along with a few bonus features and up to 30 extra GB's of storage."
"Awesome, that's really nice of you."
"No big," Starry replied. (Sorry, sorta got KP on the brain, tehe.) Then she reluctantly let go of his hand and headed over to her computer to boot it up. In a matter of minutes it was up and running. Jeremie walked over and looked over her shoulder as she worked. Soon a window popped up much like the Lyoko window, only it was different. It was a guy in the window. Jeremie couldn't help but glare at him. 'Who is that?' his mind asked, but he didn't dare voice aloud.
The boy was thinking the same thing, only he asked Starry. "Who is that guy?"
"He's my friend, Jeremie, from my new school."
"I see..." the boy said warily.
"But anyway, he and his friends need help, big time! There's another virtual world out there, called Lyoko. A girl named Aelita lives there, and the world is control by a thing called XANA. Well, XANA is staging one last stand before they materialize Aelita, seeing as they've got the program finally up and running. We need your help, and I've recruited Melissa and Chrissi as well, so that we can stop him and save Aelita." Jake seemed to sigh in relief at this information. 'Perhaps he assumes, like many, that Jeremie likes Aelita or something, just like I used to like him. I'll fill him in later,' Starry decided. "So can you help us?"
"Sure, but are you coming in person or through your smaller scanner?"
"I'm going to use the bigger scanner pods this time around. Should I come as well, or just Melissa and Chrissi?"
"You could come, I suppose. I am able to virtualize you via the scanner pods once you're in them. No problem. Just head over to the warehouse and I'll send you through."
"All righty," Starry agreed. "See you there." She closed the window and turned around to face Jeremie. He had an inquisitive look on his face. "That's Jake," she explained. "The world our team visits is called Ekahj. That's where Jake is trapped, a virtual being. The only one of any intelligence there. The rest are monsters, sent out by Levvi - Ekahj's evil overlord - to attack Jake."
"Does this Levvi ever try to take over the world?" Jeremie asked.
"Yes, quite frequently actually. We always have to go back in and fight to unlock the bridge to go back through time."
"On Lyoko we have to type in the code in towers throughout the different regions...wait, that's it!"
"Hmm?"
"So that's why disasters happen sometimes, but when Aelita checks it out, everything's calm on Lyoko. It would be Levvi causing everything else then, wouldn't it?"
"Ah, yes. And that's why sometimes things happen, and we scan our cards through to Ekahj, but it's peaceful. No monsters, strangely enough."
"So now the mystery is solved..." Jeremie said. "It's both evil virtual rulers. If only we could shut them both down!"
"Well, how bout this, we work on shutting down XANA today, and if we pull through-"
"-then we can shut down Levvi the next day, or days." Jeremie finished for her. She grinned.
"Okay all, you two go to the warehouse, I'll help Jeremie get back to the factory, then I'll follow to the warehouse. Y'all ready?" Melissa and Chrissi nodded. They headed out the door and down an alley to the warehouse where their scanner pods were.
"Where's Starry?" Jake asked, hacking through the intercom system at the warehouse.
"She's helping Jeremie find his way back to the factory, then she'll be back here to go virtual."
"Jeremie," Jake growled through clenched teeth.