More reviews! I'm touched...
Custom Magnum
Yes, I do agree that the characters are a little flat and bland at the moment. I do plan to give Glen, Fae, and Cody more depth in later chapters.
Other Anonymous Reviewer
Thanks for the very helpful review and the compliment! Now that you mention it, the first chapters are a bit tasteless. Well, this following chapter's going to have a lot of emotion, so I'll be sure to take your advice.
A more angsty chapter here, telling about what happened during the launching of Code: Pursuit. Lots of emotions in this one, for people who like that kind of thing.
WARNING : slight swearing and self-harm (Ulrich's cuts, in case I didn't explain it well enough).
A New Hope
Aelita pressed the rusting red button of the elevator, waiting impatiently for the dinosaur-aged doors to slide themselves closed. Her stomach felt like it was doing a gymnastics performance right then and there in the factory. For a moment, Aelita feared she was ill, and would have to miss the commencing of Code: Pursuit, but remembered that the last time she felt like this, Jeremy said it was called 'butterflies-in-your-stomach'. Obviously, a common human occurence, since students at Kadic used the phrase a lot.
The elevator began to make it's gradual way down to the computer room, Aelita cursing the infernal slowness of the machine all the way. Despite her good-natured cranking, she couldn't help but feel a tiny sliver of hope, nestled between all that anticipation. Suppose Yumi and Odd weren't alive? Jeremy may have been able to handle the news of the dissapearance, but Ulrich would be torn in two if he found out that something terrible had happened to his two best friends. Perhaps it would be best not to know, to live in ignorance, and still have their hopes. No, computer's were cold, cold creatures. They didn't feel sympathy, and give out little white lies to make others feel better. Yumi and Odd were dead or alive, and she, Ulrich, and Jeremy would find out soon enough.
The ear-splitting sound of metal against metal pierced Aelita's eardrums as the elevator came to a sudden halt, and with the same tortise-speed as before, the doors reopened, revealing two teenaged boys staring with hard concentration at the suspended monitor. Aelita stepped into the room, and greeted cheerfully "Hey Jeremy. Ulrich."
Their glares didn't leave the screen. Only Jeremy made an effort to reply, giving a small nod in response to her bright salutation. Aelita cocked her head in confusion, and said "Jeremy, what happened?"
The boy began to type ferociously with one hand, keeping his other to prop his chin up. "When I was waiting for you and Ulrich to show up, and I ran a quick systems check, just to be sure nothing would go wrong during Code: Pursuit. A few bugs turned up in XANAs database, mostly just commercials files from the internet. Then there was a problem in the 'Return to the Past' program. I clicked on the file to try and fix whatever was wrong, but apparently, I'm not allowed access."
Aelita jogged to where the two boys were standing, to get a better look at the computer screen. "That's very strange. You think it's XANA?"
"Who else?" Jeremy growled, almost savagely. "But why 'Return to the Past'? We haven't used that since the beginning of June..."
"It must mean XANAs plotting something. And obviously, his plans don't include us going back in time..." the previously silent Ulrich piped up.
"My thoughts exactly!" Jeremy confirmed. "We will launch Code: Pursuit, but it seems XANA has more in store for us, besides capturing Yumi and Odd. If only we knew, I could prevent him from causing more damage."
Aelita and Ulrich nodded their heads, not neccesarily because they were trying to say anything, but because it seemed the best thing to do with Jeremy there practically erupting in front of them. None of the two dared speak, so there was a moment of akward silence, broken only by a shaky sigh from Jeremy.
Without another word, the blonde boy minimized the current window he was working with, and opened the command center. Jeremy typed the code into the text field, and pressed the 'Enter' button. Another window appeared, showing the image of a load bar, with the words 'Loading. Please wait...' underneath. Three pairs of eyes watched intently, as the bar raised.
"Ulrich, I didn't see you at lunch." Aelita whispered, concern in her voice. She didn't know why exactly she was whispering, but it felt the appropriate thing to do. "Weren't you hungry?"
"My dorm...um...nowhere. It doesn't matter." Ulrich began, looking a little frustrated at his stuttering.
"Are you sure you're okay? Please don't take it out on yourself about Yumi and--" it was too late when Aelita realized the mistake she had made. Ever since the dissapearance, Ulrich had always thrown a tantrum at anybody mentioning Yumi, or his emotions for her. Aelita knew it wasn't her fault Ulrich was so hard-headed, but she felt guilty anyway.
"I said it's nothing. Just...mind you're own buissness, will you? It's always 'Don't blame yourself' with you, or Jeremy, or the fucking guidance counselours. Well, maybe I do blame myself. So what? Why can't anybody just leave me alone, so I can get over this by myself?" Ulrich's voice started out steady and dark, but ended in an emotional shout.
"Hey, don't talk to Aelita like that! So sue her for caring about you!" Jeremy yelled back, turning to face the older boy. "Go ahead and be a jerk! Just leave the rest of us out of it!"
Ulrich shot a menacing glance at Jeremy, and for a moment, the two stood there, Ulirch towering over the smaller blonde, but Jeremy not appearing the slightest bit intimidated. Aelita stepped in between them, and scolded angrily. "Stop it! Stop it now! This is the time we're supposed to be working our best to hang together. This isn't solving anything! What if Yumi and Odd are still alive in Lyoko? We're not doing anything for them by arguing."
Jeremy, always keeping his emotions under decent control, sat down huffily into his seat. He obviously didn't like it, but his obligations to his friends were much more important than arguing with Ulrich. Ulrich reatreated at the meantion of Yumi and Odd, and because there was, quite frankly, nothing left to say. Aelita resumed watching the computer screen, and didn't bother saying anything more.
But just because she wasn't saying anything, didn't mean she had nothing to say. Ulrich's words echoed in through her head, partially distracting her from the task at hand. Maybe I do blame myself...Aelita thought she was just randomly scolding him when she told him he shoudln't blame himself. What she didn't realize--until just now anyway--was that she had discovered the reason Ulrich never seemed to recover from losing Yumi and Odd. He had gone all these months thinking that all of it was somehow his doing!
"Ninety-nine percent. In just a while, we should have our answer." Jeremy informed unemotionally. He sounded more like he was about to give the stock reports for the month, rather than save two human beings. "Brace yourself for what's coming."
Aelita's body tensed, and she felt a shiver go down her spine. She glanced over at Ulrich, to see how he was handling it, and found he was hanging his head miserably, already assuming he knew that the results would be dismal. The boy lifted his hand for a moment to itch his shoulder. He lifted the sleeve of his green shirt, as Aelita tried to hold back a gasp of surprise building in her throat. There at the very top of Ulrich's right hand, was a monster-sized gash running across the width of his arm. The blood on the wound was dried, but it looked to fresh to have been made more than a few hours ago. When she looked at the rest of the skin, she found two more scratches (now scabs), not nearly as deep or long, but still noticable. She only had a momentary view of them before Ulrich's hand lowered again, his sleeve recovering the cuts.
"And the computer says...two non-virtual life forms on Lyoko!" Jeremy exclaimed. "It's them! It's them! They're not gone!"
He leapt off his chair in triumph, and unexpectedly planted a victorious kiss on Aelita's lips. He turned beet red afterward, but he didn't seem to regret the action. Aelita smiled, touching where he kissed her, as if to keep it there as long as she could. Even Ulrich seemed relieved, for he allowed himself one, slightly-crooked smile. The three paraded around the computer room, hooting with joy, and tripping over eachother in their clumsiness.
It didn't matter that they were just a few seconds ago, about to kill eachother in an argument. Neither did it matter about any doubts they've ever had before. Yumi and Odd were alive somewhere, and the three youths were filled with new hope.
See? Emotional. Next chapter will get back to Glen, Fae, and Cody. As you can see, there's hinted self-harm in this chapter, which will become a bigger event as the story continues. Please R&R. Sorry it's so short.