Chapter 4: Canto's Message

"I'm afraid we're going to have to return to the past, guys." Jeremie said, his voice echoing around Lyoko. "Too many people saw their own tools attack them today. I'll bet there's been mass panic by now."
"What?" Ulrich nearly shouted, stomping his foot on the ground. "You've got to be kidding me! I've got to do all that homework AGAIN?"
"Sorry, Ulrich." Jeremie said with a sympathetic smile. "That's what you have to deal with when you battle a super psychopathic computer every day."
Ulrich just groaned.
"Return to the past, now." Jeremie said, pressing a button on the keyboard. A moment later, everything was engulfed in bright light.

Yumi opened her eyes what seemed like a minute later. She was in bed, on a repeated Sunday, and the sun was just beginning to rise outside her window. She groaned and got out of bed. The archeologists would come today, just as they had "yesterday", and Yumi had nothing better to do than wait for their arrival. She got out of bed, got dressed, and, after a quick breakfast, stepped outside, where the newly opened chamber stood waiting.

She wasn't going to let Odd scare her this time.

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Of course, he did scare her. He knew that Yumi would be prepared if he snuck up on her from behind, as he did last time, but instead, he changed tactics. The archeologists had only barely arrived when Odd swung down out of a tree in the back yard, hanging by his knees from a branch and making an upside-down face at Yumi.

"HIYUMINICEDAYISN'TITHOWAREYOU!" He shouted right in Yumi's face, who had decided to beat the heat by standing under the same tree.
Yumi screamed, stepped back, and fell on the ground in a sitting position, heart pounding.
"Hahahahaha! You should have seen the look on your face, Yumi! It was priceless! Priceless!"

Yumi responded by giving a swift karate chop to the branch he was hanging from, severing it from the tree and causing Odd to fall awkwardly to the ground.
"Ow." Was all he could say.
"Dork." Yumi muttered.

Yumi began to take a little more interest in what was happening about the point that the attack should have started. Now she watched, a little concerned and a little confused at the archeologists' behavior. They seemed to have gotten gradually more frantic as the hours went by, shouting at each other over the slightest disagreement. Mr. Della Robia was the only one who seemed to be calm. But Odd, knowing his dad better than Yumi, told her that he could be very worried without showing it.

It got slightly better when their friends showed up, superscan fixed, homework done, and eager to spend time with them and see what all the fuss was about.
"Sorry, Ulrich, but I don't really know why they're acting this way." Yumi said when he asked. Aelita gazed at Odd's dad and his coworkers, with concern on her face.
"We could just ask them what's wrong." Aelita offered. "And ask them if they need any help."
"Worth a shot." Jeremie said, trying to be cheerful, but also affected somewhat by the archeologists' frantic nature.

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Odd knew the people his dad worked with somewhat, and was not surprised when they were totally ignored. They had asked each of the four for an explanation, and offered help, but it seemed like that they didn't exist as far as the archeologists were concerned.

Odd's dad, though, was happy to vent his frustrations in an explanation.
"It all started with those little things that didn't make sense," he began, "like the time period it seemed to have been created in, the unknown language the writing is in, and those little black boxes."
He paused to take a deep breath.
"We thought that somehow somebody had already been in the chamber recently and sneaked that technology in, but as Yumi said, the chamber was still sealed and buried when she and her mom found it. We couldn't figure out what exactly they were, so we sent them to a specialist in engineering at the university."

Mr. Della Robia stopped again. He had a far off look in his eyes, as though his mind wasn't quite where his body was.
"Go on.." Ulrich said.
"Sorry. We got an analysis back an hour ago, and... and... it's a very futuristic security device, rigged to a cold fusion reactor.

Jeremie was the only one who reacted immediately. "A fusion reactor? But technology hasn't gotten that far! And in such a small box? That's insane!"
Odd's dad nodded. "Yes. We don't know how it was made, or who made it. The metal most of the devices were made of is a metallic compound that does not occur naturally on Earth. On occasion, it has been found in meteorites, but no one has ever shaped it into something useful."

Yumi thought for a moment. "You say it was a security device. But a security device for what? That gold hourglass thing over there?" She said, gesturing at the Grail, which was sitting placidly on a table. "What's so important about it?"
"I wish I knew." Odd's dad said, rubbing his forehead.

"Boss." One of the archeologists said, interrupting their conversation. Mr. Della Robia looked up.
"Yes, what is it?"
"Its the translating program, sir. It's made some progress."
"What does it say?"
"You'd better have a look for yourself. The kids can look too. Be careful... If what you read doesn't send a chill up your spine, then you don't have a spine."
The archeologist departed. Mr. Della Robia and the five kids followed him to a table on which there was a laptop, with a some words on the screen typed by the program that it was running. Beside it was a written copy of the runes on the wall, sitting on the table.

"What's it say?" Yumi asked.
"Look. There seem to be three parts to it. We translated the first part and the third part." The archeologist said.
Yumi looked, and she was soon given a stern reminder that she did, indeed have a spine.

THIS IS THE GRAIL OF HARAKAN-ZETH

THE BLUE END BRINGS LIFE, THE RED END BRINGS DEATH.

THE SWORD THAT IS THE KEY MUST NEVER BE FOUND

OR CHAOS WILL REIGN THE WORLD ROUND.

There was then some gibberish. The untranslated part. Then it continued.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
-CANTO REDSTAR

UNIT 5525432 OF THE INTERGALACTIC ZETHIAN EMPIRE