The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.
Jeremie woke the next morning to his alarm clock, not the police.
He went over to his computer, logged in, and checked with Zoe.
"Were you able to retrieve anything?" he asked.
"Yes. Several memory fragments were recovered. I believe one is completely intact, but you will have to verify this," Zoe replied.
"Alright, hold the information for me, and I'll look at it later. By the way, did the polymorphic clone return with the data packets?"
"Yes, the packets have been assembled and the container is awaiting the data transfer."
"Good. Can you examine the packets to make sure there are no surprises from XANA in them?"
"No. You will have to use another utility to perform that function."
"Okay, I'll do that later too."
The next sign that Jeremie received that the world wasn't quite ready to end yet was when Yumi joined the gang that morning.
"It was a near thing," Yumi said, "I've never seen mother that angry, not even at daddy. She went on and on, and all I could do was sit there in silence."
"I take it by your presence here that she settled down," Jeremie said.
"Yes. But I think if she could have thought of any way to keep me out of this, she would have. It was one thing when she thought it was just me hiding Ulrich from her. The possibility of something trying to kill me is something else altogether."
The warning bell rang. The gang broke up to go to class.
Franz Hopper waited until Mrs. Hertz's Science class before making his presence known. The teacher had just asked Sissi a question about one of the effects of global warming when Sissi started talking in the high-speed backwards tape recorder sound she made when Franz possessed her, stopped for a moment, then answered Mrs. Hertz's question in her normal, well, almost normal voice. The teacher was quite surprised that Sissi had the correct answer for once, and continued on. Sissi did nothing unusual for the rest of class.
After Science class ended, however, Sissi grabbed Jeremie by the arm and dragged him off to a corner.
"Jeremie, I must speak with you," Sissi told the boy.
"Sissi, we can gab all you want at lunch," Jeremie replied, "We've got to get to PE or Jim's gonna kill us."
"It is not Sissi," she said, "I was able to finally figure out why my I/O was being reversed at the access point."
"Franz! You can't keep doing this!" Jeremie said to the person behind Sissi's eyes.
"It was necessary," he replied, "I know you have been monitoring me. Why are you doing this?"
"Because the area where your memory is located is constantly being locked by different processes in the system," Jeremie replied, "we can't get you out until that stops."
"Those processes are necessary to enable me to work," Hopper replied, "it is the only way I can get sensory input until you can get me out."
"We have a contain... er, body for you, but we can't transfer you into it while those processes keep locking your memory."
Sissi took out a piece of paper and wrote something down. Then she said, "construct a pipe at this location. The processes check for a pipeline there. If it finds one, it will transfer my memory to it."
"Great! I'll do it after school," the boy replied.
"Do it now," Franz Hopper said, "I will not leave this body until the transfer is complete."
"I can't! I'm going to be late for PE as it is, and so is Sissi! If anyone finds out about you, there's no telling what will happen. You may never escape."
"Walk," Franz Hopper said.
Jeremie and Sissi started walking. Jeremie went to the gym, and Sissi/Franz followed him. He stopped when he got to the Boy's Locker Room door.
"Tell me you're not coming in with me," Jeremie said.
Sissi's face smiled, "I may be insane, but I'm not stupid. I will go to the Infirmary with a complaint about cramps. That should give you enough time to complete your class. I will return after PE and we will go to the factory. Remember, the longer I am in possession of this body, the longer its owner is trapped."
With that, Sissi turned and left.
Jeremie went in and dressed out for PE. He barely managed to make it on time.
When Jim called Sissi's name at role call, Jeremie piped up, "she told me just before I came in that she was going to the Nurse, something about cramps."
"Hm," replied Jim, "it seems like this is the third Monday in a row she's had 'cramps.' All right, everybody. Warm ups! Stern, lead the class!"
Ulrich came to the front and started leading the class in their warm up exercises. Jim, in the meantime, walked off to the side and made a call on his cell phone.
Odd, who had taken his place next to Jeremie, said, "that was a dirty trick, Jer! A year ago, I wouldn't have thought much about it, but now..."
"Odd, I'll apologize to Sissi later, but Sissi isn't the one I want in trouble right now," Jeremie replied, "Franz Hopper took her over during Science class and said he's not letting her go until we get him out."
Sure enough, Sissi got in trouble. Jim placed a call to her father, the principal. Mr. Delmas went to the Infirmary, confronted his daughter, and placed her in detention in his office for the rest of the day, with the promise of running laps around the gym under the watchful eye of Jim Moralés tomorrow. The only thing Franz Hopper could do is glower.
At lunch time, Jeremie and Aelita managed to sneak out to the factory, to make preparations for the transfer, so Jeremie said. They barely made it back to their afternoon classes, but Jeremie told the gang that everything was ready for after school.
Sissi's body came stomping up to Jeremie and his friends as soon as the final bell had rung.
"I should do something memorable to this body for what you did to me," Franz told them, "my patience is wearing thin. We will go now to the factory, and you will get me out, or I will take out my anger on this body! You talk about her suffering, boy? Cross me again and I will ruin her life!"
The gang got hard looks on their faces, even Aelita. "I never knew you could be so cruel, father," she said.
"I'm sorry, Princess," she/he replied, "but I'm desperate. I will not remain a moment longer in this prison. Let us go, now."
The gang set off for the factory.
When they arrived, they all gathered around the console. Jeremie said, "you must leave Sissi in order to complete the transfer. I have no idea of what will happen if you don't."
"Very well," Franz Hopper replied, "but do not attempt to deceive me. I have other backdoors I can use if need be. Play me for the fool one more time and I will retaliate."
Sissi then collapsed into Odd's arms.
Jeremie typed something on his terminal.
"Zoe, can you hear me?" he said.
"Yes, standing by," the Scyphozoa replied.
"Run program Hopperout, and be prepared to transfer Franz Hopper's memory location to the container."
"Running... Memory region unlocked, transferring to container... Transfer complete. Verifying... Memory transfer verified. Franz Hopper is now in container."
"Jer.. Jeremie?" came a new voice from the computer's speakers.
"Is that you, Franz?" Jeremie asked.
"YES, I'M FREE!" Franz Hopper yelled, "now, get me out of here! I want to feel the real world again!"
"I can't, sir," Jeremie replied.
"Why not?"
"The body you now inhabit is not your original one. It doesn't have a DNA sequence code. XANA must have removed it to put its own code in when it last used the container."
"This isn't my body?"
"No, according to the Scyphozoa, sorry Zoe, your body was deleted a long time ago, and can't be recovered."
"NO! IT'S A LIE! You little bastard! You think you can stop me! I'll... WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME! I can't access anything!"
"One of the first things I did when you gave me the system administrator's password was to change it," Jeremie said, "I knew that you would need time to recover from your isolation. The one thing that had me scared through this whole time was the program that you wrote to keep your memory locked. It had administrator level access, and was unaffected by my password change. The access level you have now is the same level that Aelita had for all the years she was in Lyoko alone. I have also disabled the polymorphic clone's morphing ability. Until we can figure a way to rebuild a DNA sequence code for you, that is your body."
"I knew it! You weren't real after all! This is just some new torture! But I'll find a way out, XANA! And when I do, I'll erase you one byte at a time! I'll..."
Jeremie turned off the audio, and hung his head down.
"I was knew it was going to be bad, but not this bad," the genius softly said, "I don't know if I did him a favor, releasing him. It might have been more of a kindness to have erased him."
"You don't mean that," Aelita said, "you wouldn't harm anyone."
"Yes I would," he replied, "I would do whatever I had to to protect the ones I love."
Jeremie turned back to the console. "Zoe, are you still there?"
"Yes, standing by," Zoe replied.
"Is Franz Hopper still there in the tower with you?"
"Yes. He is still ranting."
"Take him and move him to the Mountain Region. Be gentle with him. Keep an eye on him. Keep him company."
"That is beyond my capabilities."
"Do the best you can for now." Jeremie closed the session.
As the gang left the factory, Jeremie said, "the funny part of the whole thing is Franz Hopper is finally where he wanted to be all those years ago, in a world without danger."
Jeremie apologized to Sissi for his getting her in trouble by joining her the next day. He told Jim that he was in part responsible for Sissi's trouble and would take Sissi's detention with her. The two spent the next two hours jogging around the school's gymnasium, with short breaks of walking and drinking water. The conditioning he had been receiving over the last few weeks helped, but it was still a grueling trial. The rest of the gang sat in the bleachers, calling out encouragement to both of them.