I'll be honest with you guys. When I created the first Phantom Evolution, I did it because no one else did at the time. I felt like I should have done it, and I didn't even have much inspiration when I did it. A couple years later I decided to do a remake of the story and make it better than it used to be. Now I'm including ideas I made over the years but never published for you guys. I will mention that Danny and Jan being cousins has been one of those ideas, and Aelita from Code Lyoko was another one. Anything I have mentioned about the relationship in the earlier chapters should be ignored for many good reasons. The relationship will remain male/female, and I will not reveal who Danny will be with in the end. There will be no threesome.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter, and I would really love reviews. I own nothing, and I still hate school.
Aelita stood in the cemetery looking down at the tomb stone 'Jeremy Belpois, a great friend and leader, 2000-2016.' She reread the tomb stone multiple times unable to believe that her boyfriend died. A few feet behind her stood the four Lyoko Warriors and Danny watching her sadly.
"Why did this have to happen?" William muttered ball his hands up.
"It was because he knows everything about Lyoko just like Aelita." Yumi answered crossing her arms with a frown. "Now he's gone, and Aelita is the last one with all of the secrets about Lyoko."
"This just means we have to be there for her." Ulrich told them. "It seems our stay here is going to be even longer than we planned."
Danny tapped his chin a couple times and asked, "Where are you guys staying?"
"Fury is having us stay in the Helicarrier before having us move to where guys live or with Tony Stark." Odd answered with a shrug. "I don't really care where we stay as long as we're here to help Aelita."
"Why would you say that?" Ulrich asked raising an eyebrow.
"We're not young like we once were Ulrich."
"It's only been two years since our last trip to Lyoko." Ulrich gave his friend an 'are you serious' look then wacked Odd on the head. "Did something clog your brain making you think we are not allowed near Aelita?"
"Stop putting words in my mouth." Odd gave a small sigh and asked, "Were you the one there at the secret facility holding Jeremy prisoner?"
"No, I couldn't go because someone took off before telling his friends about the situation."
"He had a good reason not to." William countered making Ulrich sigh.
"I know he has a good reason, but not caring about living close to Aelita is what's bothering me." Ulrich admitted.
"Mutants can only stay at the Institute." Danny told them in which Odd nodded his head agreeing with Danny. "I wish we could have you guys stay there to help Aelita, but there are some things about the others that need to stay secret."
"We know everyone is a mutant there though." Odd said with a shrug.
"That's not the reason, but it would be nice if you guys never mention anything about it to anyone." Danny told them. "The main reason is because barely anyone knows about Lyoko making it very unsafe for you guys to be there."
"I still don't see the harm…"
"Professor Xavier and Jean are telepaths." Danny said making William close his mouth. "They don't know anything about Lyoko, and if they accidentally go through your minds then they will find out about it."
Ulrich turned his head to Danny and nodded, "Ok, I guess this means we either stay with Tony Stark or on the Helicarrier."
"Well, I think it would be with Tony Stark since the supercomputer is with him." Yumi pointed out making the other Lyoko warriors nod in agreement. "It's too weird for us to stay on the Helicarrier."
"It didn't help that they decided not to tell us that Odd left to go rescue Jeremy until after they finished." Ulrich pointed out while pointing his left thumb at Odd. "Plus, it makes it easier to access Lyoko for us."
"True, but Tony Stark is a millionaire playboy philanthropist, whatever that means." Danny finished with a mutter.
"Now, I'm wondering if there is any safe place for us to live." Yumi sighed and looked back at Aelita. "We can't have another one of us captured by Hydra."
"We'll worry about Hydra later." William told them putting his hands in his pockets. "Right now we got other things to worry about."
"William is correct." Aelita said as she walked up to them. "The person who captured Jeremy is Professor Tyron, and he was after something Jeremy knew. I just wish I knew what it was."
"Well, I think I can help with that." Odd said as he pulled a flash drive out of his pocket. "I've been meaning to give it to you, but with everything going on, it just made it harder for me to talk about it."
"What's on the flash drive?" Ulrich asked raising an eyebrow.
"Everything we need to know about the 'Cortex' or the virtual world this scientist created." Odd answered with a smirk.
Aelita swiped the flash drive from Odd and asked, "How did you download all of this and get Jeremy out of the building?"
"I overheard some scientists talk about you stopping the memory stealer while I was hiding in the air vents." Odd started to explain before Danny put his hand over Odd's mouth.
Everyone looked at Danny who was looking around cautiously. "We need to get into a safer area with no one around. We can't be careless." He told them.
"It's not like anyone could be listening in on us. We're in the cemetery." Odd said raising an eyebrow at Danny's cautiousness.
Danny looked around carefully and said, "Fury could have security cameras on us right now believing we might talk about Lyoko and other important things."
"If Fury is listening in on us then other evil organizations might be watching and listening to us as well." Aelita concluded crossing her arms.
"Oh." Odd said lamely.
"Let's get to Lyoko and worry about things there." Aelita told them. Everyone nodded in agreement and left the cemetery.
"Is zere anyone besides us watching zem?" Kurt asked as he watched Aelita and her friends leave with Danny.
"I read four auras here, and none of them are near the location in the cemetery." Dawn told him as she looked around. "While the auras in the cemetery are sad to look at, Jeremy still doesn't have an aura around his body."
"Are you saying zat is not his body?" Kurt asked looking at Dawn.
Dawn shook her head and narrowed her eyebrows at the tombstone. "No, it is his body, but his mind was missing. It's like he removed his mind from his body before he was rescued." She replied as she jumped out of the tree.
"Zat doesn't make any sense though. He's not a mutant like we are, and he couldn't have figured out how to use dose machines since Aelita told us Jeremy never left his cell." Kurt told her as he landed on the ground next to her.
"I know which confuses me even more."
"Well, vhat do you want to do?"
Dawn looked at Kurt as he landed on the ground next to her. She gazed at the tombstone then at the path the six went down. "I need to meditate." She answered with a sigh.
"Okay…"
"I know it sounds confusing Kurt, but Aelita is the only person to get the answers to my questions."
"When will she tell us den?" Kurt asked raising an eyebrow at the aura reader.
"She probably won't, but my aura reading will reveal everything I need to know." She told him truthfully.
"Isn't zat going into her personal space?" Kurt crossed his arms making Dawn sigh at his question. "Dawn, da Professor told us…"
"I know what he told us Kurt, but I rather feel relieved knowing everything that happened to Aelita's boyfriend then have my mind become jumbled up until she tells us."
Kurt blinked a couple times then stared at her feeling confused. 'What's going on with her to act like this?'
"Something is coming, and all I know is that Jeremy is in the center of it." She answered knowing the question on Kurt's mind.
'Now, I'm even more confused.' Kurt sighed then put his hand on Dawn's shoulder. "I sure hope you know vhat you're doing."
"I wish I knew myself." Kurt teleported both of them out of the park unseen by anyone.
"Are you certain that it's safe for them to go?" Danny asked Tony as Tony typed the commands into the supercomputer.
"Trust me Danny. I reworked the scanners to do exactly how Aelita's father programmed them to work." Tony assured the teen. "The only modifications I made was the design."
"It's not that I don't believe you Tony, but…" The two look up at the five teens staring at the one giant scanner in front of them. "…you should have asked Aelita before creating this new type of scanner."
"Relax, the scanner will scan everyone at once with no side effects to their d.n.a. I made sure that the scanner worked before you guys even got here." Tony got up from his seat and walked around the supercomputer. "Well, what do you think of the new scanner?"
"That will scan all of us?" Odd asked pointing at the new giant scanner.
"Yep, the scanner will work like the old ones did back at the factory, but I fixed the couple bugs the old scanners had."
"Which bugs did you fix?" Aelita asked cautiously.
Tony crossed his arms and smirked, "The first thing I noticed was that the scanners will scan anything including those pesky little insects. I made sure that those bugs do not get scanned or added to anyone's Lyoko form."
"I don't have any problem with that." Yumi said making the others nod in agreement.
"The other thing I noticed was that the old ones could only have one person at a time. If there was more than one person or living being then it would merge them together on Lyoko." Tony said making the hand motions of the merging happening with his hands. "It took a little while to crack it, but I cracked the code allowing you guys to go together without merging together on Lyoko. What do you think?"
"Why is there no outside protection?" Ulrich asked rotating his hand around with a raised eyebrow. "The old scanners had to close to fully scan us."
"True, and I looked over that part of the programming carefully. The technology, that Waldo Schaeffer used, had some drawbacks that would have caused problems." Tony rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Before you ask what kind of drawbacks, I sent the list of drawbacks to Aelita before finishing the new scanner."
"You did send me what the drawbacks were from the old scanners, but you never mentioned making this new kind of scanner." Aelita said crossing her arms.
"Well, what did you expect me to do?" Tony asked rhetorically. "I wasn't going to rebuild the scanners from scratch especially with a couple of certain drawbacks from the original. I'm surprised those scanners stayed in one piece."
Ulrich cleared his throat while Yumi and Odd made nervous faces. "Actually, they did fall apart a few times." He muttered.
Aelita glanced at Ulrich and shook her head slightly. 'Let's hope he didn't hear that.' She thought then looked back at Tony. "We'll worry about it later."
Tony rubbed his hands together and smiled, "Well, let's get this trip to Lyoko started." He walked back to his seat and sat down at the five Lyoko warriors got into the scanner.
"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Ulrich asked Aelita quietly.
"I'll give Tony the benefit of a doubt this time." She whispered back making Odd smirk a bit. "If he pulls something like this again then I'm going to question his methods."
"At least he did it for our safety." William pointed out.
"I agree, but there is so much Tony does not know that needs to be put by me. We can't have any new types of errors running across Lyoko." She reminded them.
"Can't argue to that." Odd muttered crossing his arms. "That virus Jeremy created to destroy Xana almost killed us as well."
"Alright, I'm starting the scanning procedure." Every turned their attention to the scanner and watched as the bright light comes up from the bottom of the scanner.
"Scanning the original Lyoko Warriors…" Tony trailed off as the five cards on the screen started to light. "Transferring Lyoko Warriors to Lyoko…" He types a couple codes into the supercomputer and pressed 'enter.' There was a small flash in the room as everyone in the scanner disappeared. "Virtualization complete."
"Why did you call them the Lyoko Warriors?" Danny asked.
"It seemed better in my head, and I didn't want to say all their names multiple times. It made the process easier for me." Tony explained not getting into detail. "I also know you're not that smart to understand everything I would have said."
"Hey, I can be smart."
"Your math and science say otherwise." Tony counter making Danny cross his arms and grumble. "Though your Literature and History are top notch for someone like you."
'I don't know whether to be insulted or to take it as a compliment.' Danny thought with a mental sigh. 'Be safe you guys. We don't know what this Professor has planned for us.'
Inside a giant round dome the five Lyoko Warriors become virtualized in the air and fall to the floor right when they were fully virtualized. The team lands on their feet and notices the dome moving around in circles around them. "I see that the cortex hasn't changed at all." Yumi said looking around.
"I wanted everything to be the way we had it before those Hydra agents attacked the school." Aelita replied with a shrug. "Besides, we got this new virtual world to find, and the only way for us to find it is to go back into the digital sea."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Odd asked crossing his arms with a smile on his face. "Let's go board the skid and get over to the Cortex immediately. I want to destroy that virtual world before that scientist decides to go after any more of us."
"He was after something Jeremy had or knew, and I'll know what it is once I got a look at the U.S.B. drive." Aelita reminded Odd. "The chances of any of you guys knowing about what Professor Tyron wanted are very minimal."
"What about you?" William asked as the door opened for them to exit the dome.
Aelita turned towards the exit and muttered, "I am the primary target." She ran off with the others running after her.
"Wait, are you saying that these guys were after you not Jeremy?" Yumi asked.
"It makes sense when you think about it." William said making everyone except Aelita look at him questionably. "Think about it. Our school was attacked by those Hydra agents, and they were after the super computer and Aelita since she is Franz Hopper's daughter."
"Of course, that's why this scientist captured Jeremy." Ulrich summarized as they got to the special elevator. "He's the only one besides Aelita that knows everything about the supercomputer."
"Why did they go after Jeremy instead of Aelita though?" Odd asked as they jumped onto the elevator as it flew up towards them.
"It's because she was in an environment where Hydra knew they had little chance capturing Aelita against people who would have her back." Danny answered from his com link. "Anyway, your ride is in the same place where you guys kept it whatever this place is called."
"I call it our docking bay for the Skid." Aelita replied back.
"I guess that makes sense. You did tell me that the internet is like an underground sea. Too bad Tony had to step out for a meeting. Pepper wouldn't take 'no' for an answer." Danny and Aelita chuckle at Tony's misfortune.
"Who's Pepper?" Odd asked.
"She's Tony's best friend and secretary of his company." Danny answered. "Actually, she might be more than a secretary, but I'm not good at anything when it comes to business."
"I think you're forgetting his friend in the military, Rhodes." Aelita pointed out as the five arrived at the docking bay.
"We never met him Aelita. Plus, he probably has more embarrassing stories of Tony than Pepper does."
Aelita walks onto the center platform in the docking bay as the others walked onto the smaller round platforms that surrounded the center platform. "That may be true if they hung out together more than he and Pepper have."
"Well, I hope you guys are ready to check this new virtual world out, because I am really interested in seeing what the digital sea or the internet looks like in person."
"Trust us when we say that it is awesome." Odd said crossing his arms with a smirk.
"Don't trail off the path Odd. We do not need another accident with the Skid." Aelita told him with a straight face.
Danny watched the group as they were teleported into their seats on the Skid and smiled at the scene as the group was talking to each other. He felt his phone vibrate in his jeans and pulled the phone out of his pocket. He looked at the caller id and widened his eyes when he read 'Tucker.' Danny moved the headset off his head and sighed sadly. 'I knew this day was going to be coming.' He pressed the answer button and put the phone up to his ear. "Hey Tuck, I know you have a lot of questions about why I left and everything that happened after it, but I can explain."
"You better have a really good explanation man. Do you know how long it took me to figure out what your new phone number was especially after your parents claimed that you're dead?" Tucker asked sarcastically. "You could have told us everything instead of making the decision to leave us!"
"There wasn't time Tuck. I told my parents everything about my powers and being a ghost, and the next thing I know is that I'm running for my life." Danny said truthfully.
"What about the letter you left at Sam's place, huh?" Tucker asked angrily.
"I had it prepared just in case my parents…" Danny sighed as Tucker's anger lowered a bit knowing the situation between the three became really intense. "I changed my phone number and my phone so they couldn't track me down."
"I get that." Tucker sighed and leaned back on the chair in his room. "What I don't get is why you didn't tell us?"
"Tuck, there is so much at risk now that I can't even explain. If I told you guys my new number, it probably would have been traced by my parents."
"You still call them your parents after everything they did against you?"
Danny sighed and put the headset back on his head moving the phone over to his left ear. "Tuck, I know they hate ghosts, but I found some things out that should clear some misunderstanding between me and my parents."
"Does Jazz know that you're still alive?"
"Why are you asking me that? I thought you guys would have talked to her about it." Danny returned with a raised eyebrow.
"We would have talked to her if she wasn't getting prepared for her summer trip to New York City. She's been in too much of a worry about that making it hard for anyone to talk to her." Tucker told his friend.
"Hey Danny, are you seeing this?" Odd asked over the headset.
"Hey Tuck, could I call you back? I'm a bit busy where I'm at right now." Danny tried to explain without mentioning the big secret.
"I guess…yeah, I should have guessed you were probably going to be busy with your whole new life…where ever that is."
"Sorry Tuck, but things are still a bit complicated to explain right now, and I mean it in so many ways."
"I get it man. I'll speak with you later." Tucker turned off the call and turned his head to the person on the bed. "Are you happy Sam?"
Sam stared out the window and asked, "Did you find out where he is right now?"
"Unfortunately, his location didn't show up on my computer or my pda." Tucker answered with a sigh. "He said he'll call later. I guess we have to wait until then."
"Did you get anything?" Sam asked as her bangs went over her eyes.
Tucker looked back at his pda and tapped it a couple times with a sigh. "The only thing it says is that Danny is somewhere in the Northeast."
Sam crossed her arms and got off of Tucker's bed. "We'll have to try again later I guess." She left the room without saying 'goodbye' leaving Tucker alone in his room.
Tucker sighed, 'It took forever to find his new phone number and everything about his new phone, yet you broke our hearts without telling us why you left. Sam's heartbroken about it, Danny. Why couldn't you talk to us about it instead of giving me the letter?' Tuck grabbed the paper on his desk and opened it up. "You better give me a really good conversation about this new situation Danny, or I am going to be dealing with a very pissed off Sam." He muttered.
"Okay guys, I got the location of the virtual world. The downside is that the ride will take at least another thirty minutes, but if we can make the connection to this 'Cortex' then you guys could be able to get there instantly with the new teleporter Aelita designed for the Skid." Danny told them.
"Thirty minutes!" Odd exclaimed dramatically crossing his arms. "Why does it have to be so long?"
"It's because the supercomputer is now in America." Ulrich pointed out.
"Yeah, but our other trips never involved long trips like this." Odd countered making the others, except William, sigh in agreement.
"That may be true Odd, but we just got everything back online. I never included the thought of another virtual world being designed by someone who worked with my dad." Aelita reminded the marksman. "We'll just have to wait this out Odd."
"I don't know how long Odd will be able to wait." Ulrich joked leaning back in his pod. "He could end up doing something stupid."
"Hey, I do stupid things all the time, okay." Odd said not helping his case. "Plus, this is way more serious than most of our other missions."
"That's true." Yumi voiced in agreement.
"Remember what the mission is about you guys." Aelita said getting their attention. "We get to the 'Cortex' and make the connection so we can find out what this scientist knows about my family."
"Hey Aelita, did you install the special particle absorption to the Skid?" Danny asked making everyone except Aelita confused.
Aelita nodded, "Yep, it was easy to install onto the Skid. It took some time to create it though."
"Cool, I'll go ahead and pull the readings up and see how much we have so far."
"Aelita, what was Danny talking about?" Yumi asked curiously.
"The invention that Danny mentioned is supposed to find particles of my father in hope of being able to put my father back together." Aelita answered truthfully.
"Wait what?!" The four Lyoko Warriors yelled in surprise.
"Tony came up with the idea to see if my father survived when he sacrificed himself to stop Xana." Aelita explained as she directed the Skid around some of the obstacles. "He hopes that my dad is still alive, but there is a fifty percent chance that dad is dead."
The four teens stayed quiet at that declaration. They didn't know what to say for that. 'What could I even say to that?' They thought without realizing that they thought the same thing.
"Aelita, trust me when I say that your father has a really good chance of surviving." Danny said catching everyone's attention. "If you two survived being inside the supercomputer while it shut off, your dad has a good chance of surviving being split into a million of pieces."
"Yeah, that sounds about right to me." Odd said making the Lyoko warriors raise an eyebrow at that declaration. "I mean…Jeremy did get Yumi back into the real world when she fell into the digital sea."
"That's true Odd, but this is not going to be easy to bring Franz Hopper back into the real world." Ulrich said.
Odd shrugged, "We'll worry about that when we get it to it."
"That's right." Yumi said remembering Franz Hopper's form on Lyoko. "Aelita's dad never had a physical form on Lyoko."
"Wait really?" William asked widening his eyes in surprise. "I don't remember much about Franz Hopper being on Lyoko."
"He usually stayed in hiding." Odd said.
"That would make sense." William muttered looking around outside the window. "Did you install those machines to our rides?"
"The particle finder is still in the early stages of development right now. I only have it programmed to the Skid to see if it works." Aelita answered as she brought the program up from her controls.
"Did you activate it yet, because my readings say that you have not collected anything?" Danny asked her.
"I'm starting it up now." Aelita started the particle absorption and kept focus on the screen as it came up for her to start searching for the particles of her father. "Is the screen up on your end Danny?"
"Yeah, I'm looking at it, and I am having a hard time to see what particles belong to your dad."
"Hm…" Aelita pressed a couple buttons on her control panel and narrowed her eyebrows. "We probably should have checked this out before we came here."
"Wait, I'm picking something up ahead. It might be some of your father's particles."
"I see it." Aelita zoned the camera in and nodded, "Yes, it seems some of my father's particles are nearby."
"Wait, if your father is in a million pieces, should he be everywhere in the digital sea?" Yumi asked curiously.
"Yeah, it would probably take forever to put him back together." Odd said.
"I'm willing to take the risk Odd even if it does take me a few years to get him back." Aelita answered with a mental sigh. She steered the Skid over to the spot on her map and sucked the particles of her father into the Skid. "What do the ratings say now?"
"Well, the computer says that there were twenty particles of your father and that this is only .02% of your father." Danny told them. "If I did the math correctly, then it would mean that there are at least one hundred thousand particles of your father."
"Whoa." Ulrich muttered in surprise.
"One hundred thousand!" Odd yelled gripping his steering wheel in surprise. "Why couldn't he have split up less than that?!"
"I have to agree with Odd on this one." William said as he leaned forward in his chair. "I mean, why does it have to be so high?"
"I wish I knew the answer to that one William, but we're losing focus on our main objective here." Aelita said as she steered the Skid back on course towards their destination.
"I guess what the digital sea can do to you is pretty catastrophic, but you did tell me that your father did not have a physical form on Lyoko." Danny said.
"Wait a minute, if her father didn't have a physical form before he sacrificed himself, does that mean he won't have a physical form when he is put back together?" William asked feeling a bit confused.
"Maybe, but we're planning on scanning him back into the real world the moment he is back into being one piece." Aelita answered with a mental sigh. 'Dad, why did this have to happen to our family?' She thought sadly.
'Just great, I get pulled into a long term mission to save the world again and to save Aelita's dad.' Odd thought leaning back in his chair with his left leg over his right and his arms crossed over his chest. 'Good thing I'm not doing this alone, or I would be in over my head.' He thought as a smile formed on his face.
'Man, so much has happened since our first mission.' Yumi thought as she gazed over the digital sea in front of her. 'To think I would be here in America to save the world the moment I got involved with the virtual world. I wouldn't trade this for the world.'
"Hey Ulrich," William started catching Ulrich's attention, "what do think about our current situation?"
"Why the sudden interest?" Ulrich asked curiously.
"I just want your opinion, and I figured it would be nice to start a conversation while we're waiting." William explained with a shrug.
"Hm," Ulrich shrugged, "I'm game. I think our current situations stinks, but it doesn't matter what I think about our situation. The thing that matters is to make sure we get out of it alive while saving the world and Aelita's father. Yeah, I rather be back home in France along with you guys, but Hydra ruined that. Now, I want to make them pay for what they did to Jeremy."
"That's a bit harsh Ulrich." Yumi budged in.
"I know, but if Jeremy didn't explain everything to me, then none of us would be here." Ulrich told them.
"Oh right, you found Jeremy being attacked by his robots, and he told you everything about Lyoko." Aelita explained as she turned the Skid a bit left to avoid some debris.
"Yep, at the time we didn't know the scanners would work…"
"…And decided to use my dog as a guinea pig." Odd interrupted with a frown.
"Wait, you used Odd's dog as a guinea pig?" Danny asked in surprise.
"At the time, I had a very strong dislike towards Odd and his dog." Ulrich explained remembering how he use to find Odd's antics annoying. "He's still annoying at times…"
"I'm right here, you know!"
"…But he's someone who has my back." He finished.
"Thanks man."
"No problem."
"Wow, what happened that made you dislike Odd so highly?" Yumi asked curiously.
"His dog went to the bathroom on my bed."
Odd chuckled nervously while the others frowned or shook their head. "Your dog went to the bathroom on Ulrich's bed. I don't know whether to feel sorry for Ulrich or for Odd." William joked making the others chuckle except for Odd.
"Okay, I made a small mistake my first day of school. I did clean it up." Odd tried to defend himself.
"You're lucky that we had 'return to the past' to help you out of certain situations your dog put us in." Ulrich reminded Odd.
"Do you guys have to be picking on me?"
"It's not like the rest of us have done much that could get us in trouble." Aelita pointed out making Odd groan sadly. "Besides, we're getting near our destination."
"Let's go figure out what this scientist wanted from Jeremy." Odd said rubbing his hands together eagerly.
Danny moved the headset down around his neck and asked, "Jarvis, what's the progress with the flash drive Odd brought?"
"The files on the flash drive have been decrypted for Miss Aelita to look at them when she comes back from her trip in the virtual world." Jarvis told the teen.
"Could you bring up the files about Jeremy or anything about this new virtual world?"
"I'm bringing them up now, sir."
Danny watched as the files came up on the screen. He read some of the file names and stopped when he saw 'Cortex Designs.' He opened the folder up and read over the lines carefully. He put the headphones back over his ears and moved the mic up to his mouth. "Guys, I just received the files from Jarvis and found out that the Cortex is a moving virtual world." Danny told them.
"What do you mean Danny?" Aelita asked feeling a little uneasy in her stomach.
"The platforms move on their own or by whoever is in front of the supercomputer. This means that you guys have to be careful, or you could get devirtualized without any type of warning."
Jeremy Belpois hid behind a wall as two lasers flew by where he use to stand. "How did he get his hands on Xana's monsters?" He muttered before running off to stay ahead of the 2 krabs following him. He turned into an orb and flew up to another platform then dashed down the platform until he was near the other end. He stopped when he noticed that there was a huge gap between him and the next platform in front of him.
Jeremy turned back to his human form and looked down at the gap. "Yeah, that's not going to be happening anytime soon." He muttered before running to his right where he jumped onto another platform to find himself face to face with the two krabs. "Now I wish I trained more against Xana's monsters on Lyoko." He ducked avoiding the two lasers fired at him then ran to his right again with the krabs following him. 'I can't keep this up. I definitely need a miracle.'
The Skid popped up out of the water making everyone see the new virtual world in its whole form. Aelita parked the Skid onto a random platform and got everyone to teleport onto the ground. Everyone looked around carefully when they saw the different metal platforms. "This is definitely not your usual virtual world." Ulrich commented as they looked over the place.
"What's the plan Aelita?" Yumi asked as everyone turned their attention to the pink haired teen.
"We need to find the core and make the connection to the supercomputer. We do not need to have our codes to become blocked so we could never return to the real world." She told them with a serious expression.
Odd turned his head just in time to see a red flash making him narrow his eyebrows. "Hey Danny, could you materialize our vehicles? I think I see something over there in the distance." He said pointing left of their location.
William saw the red flashes and nodded, "I'll move on ahead and figure out what it is. Super smoke." He turned into his smoke form and trailed off in that direction.
"Vehicles should be coming your way." Danny said back as the vehicles started to form in front of the three Lyoko Warriors.
Odd hopped onto his Overboard with a 'huff' and flew off after William. Yumi and Ulrich get onto their vehicles with Aelita joining Ulrich and drove their vehicles after Odd. "I hope whatever it is that we're not too late." Aelita told them.
"Keep in mind that your vehicles are not able to fly making this place a maze for you guys." Danny reminded Ulrich and Yumi.
"I'll meet you guys at the core." Yumi said catching Ulrich and Aelita off guard. "I'm going to make sure the core isn't a maze like the rest of the Cortex."
Aelita nodded, "Good idea, this will help us in the future if we need to be careful or not."
Yumi nodded and flew off saying, "I'll meet you guys there."
"Let's go, Princess." Ulrich said to Aelita before driving off towards the attack site.
"Odd, William, you guys are getting close to this attack, and to be honest those crab like creatures are attacking someone." Danny said voicing his confusion.
"Oh yeah, Xana's monsters are here as well. That's just great to know." Odd said sarcastically.
"Whoever this person is will need your help, and his time is about to be up if you don't hurry it up." Danny warned them.
"Let's go William." The two rushed off towards the target hoping to make it in time to save whoever Xana's monsters were attacking.
Jeremy backed up against the wall of the platform and gulped in fright as the two krabs blocked his escape. 'This is bad. I wish my friends were here to save me.' He thought as his back was up tight against the wall.
"Wahoo!" Odd yelled as he flew up over the krabs with his left wrist pointed down. He fired a shot and hit one of the eyes on target. His eyes widen when he saw the person against the wall. 'Jeremy…'
"Ah!" William yelled as he materialized above the other krab. He stabbed his sword right in the eye of the krab then jumped off taking the sword with him. He landed in front of Jeremy and smirked at the krab blew up into data. He turned around and gasped when he came face to face with Jeremy.
Odd flew down next to William and whispered, "Jeremy, how are you here?"
"Wow, you guys made it just in the nick of time, but we need to get out of here and head back to Lyoko so I can reconnect my mind with my body." Jeremy told them.
"Jeremy…we thought you were dead." William told the blond bluntly.
"What?! Why would you think that?!" Jeremy asked with wide eyes.
"I recovered your body from that Hydra facility, Jeremy. When we got you to the infirmary, your body died." Odd explained sadly.
Jeremy bald his hands up and muttered, "Odd, please don't joke about this."
"I wish this was a joke Jeremy, but…" Odd trailed off as the sound of the Overbike hit the group's ears.
"Wait, does Aelita…" Jeremy trailed off hoping that everything Odd said was false.
The two teens glance at each other then back at Jeremy. Before either one of them could say a word, Ulrich made the Overbike fly over the group, making them watch as Ulrich and Aelita swerve around then get off the Overbike. Aelita looked up at Jeremy and gasped putting her hands over her mouth. Ulrich stared at Jeremy for a couple seconds and asked, "Are you really Jeremy?"
"Nice to see you too Ulrich." Jeremy answered back jokingly while crossing his arms.
"No one can joke like that, but how are you here?" Ulrich asked as he walked up to his good friend.
"I was able to come up with a formula that allowed me to transfer my mind to this virtual world while hooked up to one of Tyron's machines. I only needed to be hooked up something for me to transfer my mind to stop him from stealing the information he needed from my brain." Jeremy explained.
"What did he need?" William asked cautiously.
"He needed everything about the virtualization process, and I mean the scanners Odd." Danny answered.
Odd looked up at the sky and nodded, "Okay, I probably wouldn't have gotten that if you didn't mention the scanners."
"Anyway," Jeremy said getting Odd to look at him again, "I found this out the moment he blackmailed me by using my family. I resisted everything the man threw at me until that day. To be fair I would love to be reconnected with my body, but Odd said that you guys thought I died."
"Your body shut itself down." Aelita said as she walked up towards Jeremy with her arms by her side. "Do you realize what you've done Jeremy?"
"What do you mean Aelita?" Jeremy asked not liking where this was going.
"Your body shut down to the point where it can no longer be used. I tried to see if there was a way, but nothing came up. You might be living on the virtual realm for the rest of your life." She told him bluntly making everyone widen their eyes in shock.
"Wait what?! I did all of this to stop Tyron from stealing the information from my brain, and now you're saying I have no way to return to the living!" Jeremy yelled in fright as his hands went up in his hair.
"Uh guys, I know you guys are having a serious conversation, but we're going to be having a problem real soon if you guys don't make the connection to the supercomputer." Danny said stopping the conversation.
"What's Yumi's situation at the core?" Ulrich asked as he and Odd got on their vehicles.
"She says that the area around the core is stable and not much of a maze over there, but the door to the core is closed tight."
"Then we better find a way to open it." William said as Aelita activated her wings.
"I'll take Jeremy to the Skid and meet with you guys at the core." Ulrich said as Jeremy got on the Overbike.
Aelita nodded, "Sounds good." The gang splits up into the two groups and head towards their destination.
Tony entered the lab with a sigh. "Glad that's over." He muttered as he walked up to the supercomputer where Danny was looking over the map. "What's the status of the Lyoko Warriors?"
Danny moved the mic away from his mouth and said, "The team made it to the Cortex and are heading to the core to make the connection."
"Is the new particle collector up and running yet?" Tony asked as he sat down on the chair behind his computer.
"It works fine for now, and we found twenty particles of Aelita's father, but the amount we found was only .02% of the particles needed to be found." Danny explained before moving the mic up to his mouth. "Guys, I got more of those crab monsters heading towards Yumi and the Skid."
"Great, that's just what we needed." Ulrich replied back sarcastically.
"You're facing against three of them Ulrich. I guess it's time for you to try out your new powers." Danny suggested.
"Heh, thanks for the reminder."
Ulrich glanced back at Jeremy and said, "Be ready to jump Jeremy."
"Are you crazy Ulrich?" Jeremy asked fearing something bad would happen to him. "If we jump one of us could get hurt, and I mean me."
"Trust me Jeremy. We got three krabs heading towards the Skid, and you have no powers or weapons to deal with them."
Jeremy looked up and saw the top of the Skid come into his view. "Is there a way for you to get me into the Skid before the krabs make it there?" Jeremy asked curiously.
"Danny…"
"I'm looking at the speed you guys are going, but the krabs are moving a bit faster than you guys are right now."
"Darn it."
"Relax, I installed a new speed booster to all of your vehicles that will allow you guys to go faster and still be in complete control of your vehicles." Tony told them catching everyone off guard for a second.
"Where would it be?" Ulrich asked giving Jeremy a side glance as he looked over the Overbike.
"Your speed booster will be in the center of the handle bars. You just have to tap the new speedometer I installed into your vehicle."
Ulrich looked down at the speedometer and nodded, 'I hope this works.' He tapped the speedometer and felt the bike jerk a bit. He grabbed the handle bars and pushed the gas making the Overbike speed up even more. He pushed the gas again and smirked when he felt the speed pick up even more. "Oh yeah, now we're moving."
"I didn't program the Overbike to go this fast!" Jeremy yelled in fright as he held onto Ulrich.
"Your speed increase has made some nice pacing, but the crabs are still going to make it there before you guys would." Danny told the two.
"Then a surprise attack it is." Ulrich said as he pulled one of his katanas out. He made the Overbike fly up off the current platform he was on and land on the platform that was going up just in time. He saw the Skid was coming in close and noticed the krabs getting into position in front of the Skid. "Jeremy, you're going to have to jump on my word."
"Are you crazy Ulrich?! I'm not like you guys!" Jeremy exclaimed in surprise.
"Trust me Jeremy!" Ulrich yelled back making Jeremy gulp slightly. "Now!" Jeremy jumped off to the side unaware Ulrich stayed on the vehicle. "Let's do this." Ulrich got up on the seat as the krabs aimed at him. He pulled the other katana out from his back and jumped straight towards the center krab using his super sprint in the air to get right at his target. "Impact!" He smashed both katanas into the eye of the center krab. He jumped back and looked up at the other two targets as the data of the first krab disappeared. "Let's dance."
Odd flew in the air and asked, "Hey Tony, where's the speed booster on my Overboard?"
"Do you see the yellow square at the front of your board?" Tony asked.
Odd looked down at his board and saw the small yellow square at the end of his board. "Yeah, I see it."
"Some part of your body needs to be on it for your board to pick up speed, and the great part is that you can make yourself go faster and slower by using your mind."
"Cool." Odd put his foot on top the yellow and leaned forward a bit as his Overboard started to go faster leaving Aelita and William behind him. "Wahoo!" Odd yelled happily not realizing he was getting close to the krabs.
William reformed to his human form and shook his head as Aelita landed next to him. "Do you want to tell him, or should we have him find out on his own?" William asked her as they watched Odd fly off in the distance.
"The virtual world isn't that big, but…" Aelita stopped talking as lasers started to fly up into the air as Odd dodged everything being fired at him. "We better go help him."
"You were going to volunteer me." William muttered making Aelita giggle.
"Well, I am the girl of our group, and I do need to make it to the core safely to make the connection." Aelita countered before flying off.
"I'll never understand women." William sighed then went into his smoke form following after her.
Odd moved the board up to his left and fired a laser arrow at the krab not paying attention that he hit it on the eye. He spun around in a big circle and ducked behind a big platform. "Oh man, how many are we looking at?" Odd asked curiously.
"I'm seeing seven of them. You destroyed one of them when you decided to do your crazy flying stunt earlier." Danny answered while shaking his head at Odd's antics. "You have all of them behind your position, but you might have left William and Aelita in the dust."
"Oops." Odd muttered. He looked at his arrow launchers and asked, "Did Aelita or Tony upgrade my laser arrows like I asked?"
"Yep, I decided to add some new type of ammunition to your arrows." Tony said making Odd smirk. "All you have to do is tap a small button on your wrist and choose the type of ammunition you want, but keep in mind that your new ammunition is still in the works so some of it will backfire."
"I'll keep that in mind." Odd pressed the button on his right wrist and looked through the type of ammunition he got. "Bingo, explosive arrows." Odd tapped on the type of ammunition and did the same with his left laser arrow trigger.
"Each type of ammunition has a certain amount of ammunition as well, and it will take some time for some of them to get refilled of ammunition." Tony finished explaining.
Odd looked at number of explosive arrows he had and asked, "Is it for each wrist?"
"Yes."
"Then I'll be careful." Odd set the explosive arrows on his other wrist and smirk, "Let's see what these babies can really do." He looked around carefully and stopped when his eyes landed on a high platform. He teleported onto the high platform and muttered, "Forgot how my teleportation worked for a bit there or that I even had it reinstalled as one of my powers." He looked down at the krabs and fired one explosive arrow from each wrist and watch as it explodes the field destroying all the krabs below him. "Cool."
"I knew the blast radius and destruction was too high." Tony muttered making a mental note in his mind. "Well, it did get the job done at least."
"Not quite, there are more of those monsters heading for Yumi in several directions." Danny said making Odd groan.
"Well, that's just great." Odd muttered as the overboard flew up next to him. "I'm guessing that he doesn't want us to into his supercomputer." He got on the Overboard and flew off towards Yumi.
"If that was the case then we're going to be in even more trouble than we are now." Ulrich said as Jeremy got into one of four smaller vehicles connected to the Skid.
"Wait, since when could we hear and talk to each other from long distances?" Yumi asked as she kept a lookout for her friends and the krabs.
"I see you noticed the communication system I added for you guys." Tony said confusing everyone. "I programmed it to allow you guys to talk with each other no matter how far apart you guys are. It was something I designed so you didn't have to have a com link on you guys just in case you guys ever ended up separated."
"Tony, we got other things to worry about." Danny said stopping a conversation before it could start. "Yumi, you're going to end up surrounded by over fifty krabs if you don't get out of there now!"
Yumi gasped and flew up into the air on the Overwing. "I'm leaving now. Danny, is there a way for me to get out before I'm surrounded?" She asked as she looked around in fear.
"Yumi, the monsters have you surrounded on all sides, but they're still far apart for you to break through and get out of there." Tony told her. "I would suggest the spot closest to the Skid, but the weakest point would be what they would not expect you to do."
"Great, so I have to go the opposite direction then." Yumi said before taking off the opposite direction of the Skid. "What is it looking like right now?"
"Yumi, Tony misinterpreted the length of escape for you to get out of there." Danny told her.
"What?!" Yumi ducked just as two lasers flew over her head. Yumi pushed down on her handle bars and asked, "What makes the Overwing go faster?"
"Just press the button between the handle bars and push down on the handle bars…"
"Yumi look out below you!" Danny yelled.
Yumi pushed the button between the handle bars and twisted the handle bar to get more speed only for the Overwing to get hit making her fly backwards onto the ground below her. She sees the Overwing get devirtualized and got up on her feet pulling her two fans out. "This day is going to get worse if we don't get out of here." Yumi told the others.
"I'm coming Yumi!" Odd yelled as he shot over the krabs dodging the lasers being fired at him with ease.
William and Aelita stopped short of the line of krabs and looked over it carefully. "Do you think Odd would get Yumi out of there in time?" William asked her quietly.
"We have to hope." Aelita answered making her hands glow with her energy fields.
"What about the Skid? It wasn't programmed to hold six passengers." William reminded her.
Aelita made her energy fields disappear then turned her head towards the Skid. "We came to make the connection to their supercomputer, but it seems Tyron was waiting for us. Odd, you get Yumi out of there and distract the krabs. I have a new plan to make the connection to the supercomputer."
"Are you certain?" Odd asked getting a bad feeling from the situation.
"Trust me."
"Ok." Odd muttered as he swung around and grabbed Yumi's hand.
"Thanks Odd." Yumi said as she got on the Overboard behind him.
"No problem, but how good are you at driving the Overboard?" He asked her suddenly.
"Why are you asking me this now?" Yumi asked him as he avoided the lasers by doing a barrel roll with the Overboard. "How can you even do something like that?!"
"Lots of training and talent." Odd answered with a smirk. "Seriously though, do you know how to fly it?" He asked turning serious.
"Odd, I can try, but wouldn't it be better for you to do it?" She asked just as he jumped off the Overboard. "You can't be serious Odd!"
"Right now you need to get to Ulrich and Jeremy." He said as he slid down the wall on one of the moving platforms. 'Why does my gut tell me that something bad will happen even though my future vision hasn't activated?' He thought when a flash appeared in his mind. He gasped when he saw the vision and muttered, "I made a mistake."
Yumi flew the Overboard around avoiding the lasers coming her way when a laser hit her directly in the back. "Ah!" She fell off the Overboard and hit the ground with the Overboard crashing into the wall. She got up just in time to find herself surrounded by krabs. "Guys…" She started only for the krabs to fire and devirtualized her from the cortex.
"Yumi!" Danny yelled making everyone widen their eyes in realization.
"Danny, did she reappear back in the real world?" Ulrich asked narrowing his eyebrows.
"No, her data hasn't returned back to the scanner." Danny answered.
"Oh great, Aelita, you better make the connection to the supercomputer. We can't leave with Jeremy until you do." Ulrich told her.
Aelita and William got to the door and looked over it curiously. "I hear you loud and clear Ulrich." Aelita replied back as the giant door opened for them.
William took a couple steps forward when Aelita grabbed his arm making him stop and look at her. "What's wrong Aelita?" He asked her.
"I need you to keep an eye on the door. We can't have those krabs come in and stop us before we even make the connection." She told him.
"But…"
"We don't have time to argue William. Odd won't be able to keep those krabs distracted long enough for both of us to get in and out." She explained.
William sighed, "Fine, but you better make it back."
"Don't worry. I will." Aelita activated her wings and flew into the room as the door continued to open completely.
William heard something be created in front of the door and turned around to find himself face to face with the tarantula. "Guys, we got a tarantula."
Danny watched as the tarantula card and the William card came up next to each other with the vs symbol between them. "William, I sure hope you know what you're doing." Danny said.
"Relax man. I got this taken care of." William replied back. "My main worry is focused on the krabs."
"Odd, you need to get out of your spot, or you'll get surrounded." Danny reminded the teen.
"That's a lot easier said than done." Odd said as he moved left just in time from getting hit.
"You can teleport!"
"Oh yeah, that slipped my mind." Odd looked up and instantly teleported to the top just as two lasers hit the spot where he was standing. "Thanks for reminder Danny."
"No problem Odd, but there is still too many krabs for you guys to handle."
"You just worry about Aelita making the connection to the supercomputer. We'll worry about the monsters."
Danny turned his head to Tony who just keeps his eyes on the screen. "You want to go in there and help, huh?" Tony asked the teen.
Danny moved the mic up and asked, "Is it that obvious?"
"It's written all over your face, and I can't find myself disagreeing with you since the situation looks pretty bad." Tony leaned back on his chair asked, "Do you think it's wise for you to go? The Skid can only carry five people max which means someone will become devirtualized since Jeremy is already on board the Skid."
"It's a risk I'm willing to take." Danny said as he removed the headphones from his head. He got out of his seat and walked over to the scanner.
Tony got in Danny's chair and put the headphones over to the side and started typing in the command codes. "I don't like doing this Danny. You don't know what you could end up with as your powers and abilities. What are you expecting from this?"
"I have no idea." Danny said as he stepped into the giant scanner.
"Let's hope this works in your favor then." Tony muttered. "Scanning, transferring, Virtualization." The bright light goes throughout the room, and Danny goes into the virtual world for his first time leaving Tony alone in the room. "Be careful kid."
Ugh, I finally found a stopping point for this chapter. I will tell you guys that it took me a long time to get to a stopping point. The chapter would have been at least two thousand words shorter than it is now. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. I know it took a while but almost ten thousand words will have to make it up in some way. The good news is that there is one more chapter for this Jeremy Arc; then it will go into the next mutant joining the Institute.
The person joining the Institute will be a surprise since I never did reveal anything about this show or the people who come from it, but I will mention that it is a show that is still being aired right now. You guys can take as many guesses as you want to say who it is an what his or her mutant power is.
I still want PMs about the idea of who from the original Total Drama cast should be mutants and what their powers could be. I only got one vote so far which is making me receive some mix signals right now. Right now the people are Duncan and Alejandro. I would love it if people cast their votes for this. You don't even have to PM me if you do not want to.
Well, I have nothing left to say...Oh yeah, Ulrich's fight was left out of this chapter for a reason. It will be explained in a future chapter. I hoped you guys enjoyed the chapter, and R&R.