Chapter 3: Great Findings

I was on the verge of tears as the main computer console of Lyoko came to life in a buzz of static and data transfers going on in Lyoko. I was at the factory, thinking that they were still on Lyoko. I knew this was highly unlikely, but it was all I could think of to do.

I pressed a couple keys and the computer started an autonomous search for any avatars present on Lyoko. I was hit with a large amount of despair as it came up with no results. It stated that the DNA scans of Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and Jeremy were not present on Lyoko.

I decided that the scan just couldn't find them by itself, so I went searching myself, by scrolling on the computer through the many different areas of the numerous regions.

Desert region: nothing.

Forest region: nothing.

Mountain region: nothing.

Polar region: nothing.

I was about to leave when I remembered something.

The 5th region! That was where they were!

I went back to the controls being sure that they were there.

Scroll after scroll after scroll, I checked everywhere when, suddenly, a couple green arrows appeared on the screen. They were there! I was so happy that it was hard to contain. I set up the devirtualization program and took the elevator down to the scanner room.

A surge of energy, a blast of steam and I found Yumi, Odd and Ulrich lying in the scanners.

But what about Jeremy? I was about to panic when I remembered. There were only three scanners, so Jeremy would have to wait for Ulrich or someone else to get out of their scanner first.

I helped Yumi out of the scanner as it closed again and reopened with Jeremy inside.

"Thanks Aelita," Yumi gratefully sighed, "You found us."

"Oh, my stomach." Odd groaned. "The… steam… roller… effect…" He moaned again.

Jeremy smiled quickly. "You got us out Aelita."

But I was confused. "Jeremy, I found incapacitated doubles of each of you. What does it mean?"

Jeremy's smile faded as quickly as he had gotten it. "It was XANA's main attack. The other wasn't the real one. He trapped us in Lyoko and left fake ones here."

I was still confused. "How do you know that?" I asked.

Jeremy just smiled. "It's logical."

I shivered as it reminded me of the time when there was another world like Kadic College in Lyoko. When the fake Jeremy had yelled about Odd's friendship not being logical.

Jeremy's smiled seemed completely artificial. Not a fake smile. I mean really artificial. It wasn't just his smile that was artificial. It was him.

Ulrich and Odd seemed the same.

So did Yumi.

I wasn't ready for how artificial it was going to get.