The Search For Franz Hopper
3: There and Back Again
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko
"Oh crap where is she?" Jeremie exclaimed.
"Jeremie, you should go back up to see if she's still on Lyoko", Yumi said.
"Alright then."
Jeremie went back to the lab and picked up the microphone.
"Aelita?" asked Jeremie. "Aelita, are you there, do you read me?"
There was no answer. Then.
"I'm here Jeremie", replied Aelita.
"Thank goodness you're fine", said Jeremie. "Do you know what exactly happened?"
"I don't know but I was never devirtualized", replied Aelita.
"That's weird. The test showed the program would run fine."
"I don't know what's wrong then."
Jeremie looked through the program only too see he was missing something.
"Found it!" Jeremie exclaimed.
"What's wrong?" Yumi asked as she, Odd and Ulrich exited the elevator.
"Nothing. Just that I missed a small part of the program", replied Jeremie. "Problem is, I don't remember how this part actually worked."
"Okay, so how long do you think this will take?" asked Odd.
"Not sure", replied Jeremie. "A few minutes to maybe hours."
"Well I think we should head back to school", said Ulrich. "There's nothing we can do here."
"Go ahead then", Jeremie said. "I'll call if something comes up."
"Yeah and we'll call if XANA's up to no good", replied Yumi.
"Okay later guys", said Jeremie.
"Bye", said Odd.
Odd, Yumi and Ulrich left the factory and headed back to school. It was still the weekend so they didn't really have anything to do. Meanwhile Jeremie typed away at the computer.
Later that night, Jeremie finished the program and tested it. All was good.
"Okay Aelita, this should work", said Jeremie.
"Ready", Aelita replied.
Jeremie hit the return key. He watched the program run for a moment and then went down to the scanner room. The doors opened and out came Aelita.
"Are you okay?" asked Jeremie.
"Yes I'm fine", replied Aelita. "I think we should get back."
"Okay."
The two went back and met up with Odd and Ulrich. Yumi had gone home by then and soon went to their respective dorms. Later in the night, Jeremie's computer was frantically making a beeping sound. He put on his glasses and opened his computer to find a tower activated by Franz Hopper. He called Ulrich and told him to wake up Odd and call Yumi. Then Jeremie called Aelita. They all met up at the factory.
"What's up Einstein?" asked Odd.
"Franz Hopper activated a tower", replied Jeremie. "Problem is I don't know how he's trying to reach us."
"Well we need to work fast", said Yumi. "XANA won't like us getting help to get rid of him."
"Okay then it's off to Lyoko", replied Jeremie. "Sorry Aelita, but I'm gonna have to risk having you go again. Let's just hope the program works."
"No problem", Aelita said.
The four headed for the scanner room and once again they were on Lyoko, this time the Forest Sector. Jeremie sent their vehicles and quickly reached the edge of the sector where there was a large clearing. Apparently they were on the far side of the sector so Odd was gonna have a fun time hurling later. Then in a flash, they were in Sector 5.
"God dammit I hate that transporter!" exclaimed Odd as he held his stomach in discomfort.
"Sorry Odd but that was the closest end of the sector", replied Jeremie. "The door's about to open, get ready."
The door opened and Ulrich led the way. The group entered the large cube shaped room, all flat with nothing to it. Problem is, the key was nowhere to be found.
"Remember guys, 3 minutes", Jeremie said.
"We know, but there's no key", Yumi replied.
"Huh? How can that be?" exclaimed Jeremie. "Uh oh, two minutes!"
Suddenly, the walls of the room began to close on the heroes.
"We got a problem Jeremie!" said Ulrich.
"Wait I see it", said Aelita as she pointed straight ahead.
"Where?" asked Odd.
"It's a trick", she replied. "It's invisible to you guys. Someone just dash straight ahead. It's about half-way up the wall."
Ulrich sprinted with all his might, but the walls left only about two feet of space.
"GOT IT!" yelled Ulrich as he fell to the ground.
The exit opened in front of him. "Let's go", he commanded.
Instead of entering the balcony where the interface was, the exit led to a tower. It was glowing red.
"What the? How did we get here?" Yumi asked.
"Hey wait, why's the tower glowing red?" asked Odd.
"What?" Jeremie exclaimed. "How can XANA activate a tower, he's not a part of the supercomputer anymore? He can't possibly have access to Lyoko."
"I'll try getting in then", said Aelita.
She approached the tower and leaned in. But to her surprise, her body didn't phase through into the tower, but rather bounced off.
"Huh?" said Aelita. "That's weird."
"Aelita try again", said Jeremie.
The same thing happened.
"Oh no!", said Jeremie as he looked at his materialization program. "There's a huge bug in the materialization program! The program made it so Aelita's avatar isn't recognizable by the towers. Ugh, this is all XANA's fault. He just had to erase the programs."
"Okay I really need to lie down now", said Odd.
"There's no point of us staying here", Yumi added. "Let's go home."
Jeremie sent the vehicles and the group exited Sector 5 without having to fight the mantas. Soon they were back in flesh and blood, including Aelita, so the materialization part works thankfully. But Jeremie began to worry about the activated tower the group discovered in Sector 5 and how or why the program did what it did to Aelita. They called it a day and went home, but Jeremie decided to stay up and fix the program, which he did and made Aelita's avatar able to enter the towers, but Jeremie modified it so everyone could since the towers were like fortresses. Then he went to sleep...at 4:00 AM...ouch.
The mysterious tower...why's it activated. Who knows? Only XANA does. The next episode of The Search For Franz Hopper will be up soon. Sorry if it read quickly. R&R and try to guess what happens.