Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko or any of the original characters.
Authors Note1: This story was written before the second season and is based entirely off the first season.
Authors Note2: This story takes place immediately after 'Extensions'
Key: Scene change
Code Lyoko: Excursions
By. Tate Icasa
". . .and that's about it." Yumi said.
"Ok, I got it." Hope said. "But what about Okoyl?"
"Okoyl is paralles to Lyoko, on a sperate plane from Earth. They don't connect the same way, so the system doesn't connect them." Jeremie explained.
"Oh."
Aelita exited the tower. "Are we going back to Okoyl?" She asked.
"Not you." Yumi said. "That's why you aren't on Earth remember. Skipping universes could be bad for the baby."
"I'll Invert the rest of us now." Caramela said. They seemed to wink out of existence.
"Hey, Aelita, wanna see if we can connect Okoyl to the system?"
"I don't see how." Aelita said.
"You re-route the system through Lyoko." Hope said simply.
"What? Are you insane? Do you have any idea how hard it would be to re-route that kind of system?"
"It can't be that hard." Hope said.
"You'd have to retrace file subsystem patways, format, re-route. . .Hope, it's hopeless."
Hope giggled. "Wanna bet?" She put her hands on the keyboard.
They arrived in the lava region.
"Oh, great." Ulrich said. "I hate lava region."
"Jus point out the tower and I'll go alone." Jeremie said.
"Jeremie, are you crazy?" Yumi asked. "You can't survive lava region on your own."
"I can fly. Follow on the platforms if you want. Caramela, which way?"
"That way." Caramela said, pointing.
Jeremie spread his wings and lept from the platform.
"Hope?" Aelita asked. "You still here?"
"Busy." Hope said tersely, barely glancing up at the screen.
"Hope?"
"I already answered you!"
"Oh, come on Hope, answer me!"
Hope paused.
"Aelita, can you hear me?"
"Hope, this isn't funny!"
"No," Hope said. "It's not funny at all. I must have retreaced the Earth-Lyoko Audio System. Let's hook that up again." She did. "Aelita, can you hear me now?"
"What does that mean?" Aelita snapped. "And where have you been?"
"I've been right here in front of the supercalculator, tracing and retracing FSP's. I accidentally disconnected the ELAS." Hope said angrily. "And it doesn't really matter where I was, now does it? You can't tell me what do you."
And with that, she disconnected the ELAS.
"Hope! You lesten to me, young lady! There is no way to re-toute all those systems!"
Hope kept working.
"There are blocks on half the systems that Jeremie and I couldn't get around."
"Oh, yeah? Name one." Hope muttered, still not connecting the ELAS.
"For example," Aelita continued. "Theres a holomap subsystem that we believe could holographically transfer your image into lyoko. We can't even open the folder."
"Ok." Hope said, finding the program. She bypassed the security in seconds.
A small oval device decended from the ceilings. She picked it up and look it over. "Let's see. . ." She turned it over. "A lens." There was a button on the top. "On, right?" She pressed the button.
The device jumped into the air above her head. A bluish light fell from the lens, surrounding her. She could see lyoko in the light. She turned until she saw Aeliat. She stepped into her view and waved, smiling brightly, and very smugly.
Aelita's jaw dropped.
Hope's grin wided, and she disconnected the Holographic Virtual Projecter, or HVP as she called it, and when back to work. Aelita was silent.
Jeremie landed on the edge of a small platform, directly in front of the tower.
He stepped inside. The center platform was spinning. The two outer pathways seemed to be circling him.
"This could take a while." He muttered.
Hope reconnected the ELAS.
"Ok, Aelita." She wsaid. "Where can I find the RTM subsystem?"
Aelita didn't anser.
"Aelita? Are you ignoring me?"
Nothing.
"Aelita?" She ran a quick scan.
Aelita was not on lyoko.
"Looks like I'd better hurry." She said, rushing through programs. "Load program."
Somewhere in the factory, a shadowy figure moved. It made it's way into the elevator wires.
The holomap flickered and switched it's view to Okoyl. Hope rerouted the ELAS to Okoyal and took the HVP. She scanned the region for Non-Okoylan lifeforems. Found, she pressed the on button for the HVP.
The figure floated into the room and toward the girl. An energy barrier surrounded her suddenly, and it slammed into the barrier. It dissipated into a fine mist that evaporated into nothing.
In the desert, a tower flickered back to blue.
"Its this working?" Hope asked alound. "Can you see or hear me?"
"We see you Hope." Yumi said, startled. "And hear you." She reached her hand out a few inches before jerking to a stop. "Are you really here?"
"No. But that isn't really important. I'm using a Holographic Projecter. I hooked up the supercalculator to Okoyl-"
"But Jeremie said that was impossible!" Sissi interupted.
"No he didn't." Hope said. "He said Okoyl was only parallel to Lyoko, not earth. So I just. . ."She paused to compose so that they would understand. ". . .set it to skip over Lyoko and into Okyol. But like I said, that isn't really important."
"You're telling us that the fact that you created an entirely new program for the supercalculator isn't important?" Yumi asked. "On that Jeremie couldn't?"
"I said it wasn't important, didn't I? While I was working, I turned the ELAS off."
"ELAS?"
"Earth-Lyoko Audio System. You turned off the two-way?" Yumi asked.
"Right. After a while, Aelita stopped trying to get me to turn it back on. When I finally did, she was gone."
"Gone?" Timiya asked. "What do you mean gone?"
"Just how it sounds. I ran a scan. She isn't on Lyoko or Okoyl."
"So she just disappeared?" Ulrich asked.
"I don't know. That's why I came here. Where's Jeremie? I should tell him."
"He went to the tower." Milly said. "That way."
"Luck." Odd said.
"I'll need it." She muttered, running another quick scan. She turned the HVP on.
The world inside the tower was. . .strange. There was volcanic ash lining the path and through that was a stead train of lava, flowing from the volacno.
Jermei coughed on the smoke and when he looked up, a slightly distorted and transparent version of Hope was standing in front of him.
"Jeremie, listen to me!" She wsaid urgently. "This Tower World is interferringwith my stransmission."
"I must be hallucinating." He said, and touched his head.
"No." She said. "You aren't hallucinating. It's me, Hope. I'm using the HVP."
"You expect me to believe that a five year old child could bypass security that Aelita and I couldn't, and create a program that we couldn't?"
"I did." The figure flickered. "I'm lo. . .sing. . .sta. . .illi. . .be ba. . .k." She winceked out of existence.
Hope took the HVP in her hands an d reprogrammed it. The light shone down.
"Sissi." Hope said. "I need your help."
"What?"
"Jermeie doesn't belive it. He thinks I'm a hullucination."
"Well, what do you want me to do about it?'
"Duh, Sissi, you have telepathy. So come into my body and convince me!"
"A-are you sure?"
"Yes." She closed her eyes.
Sissi reached her hands to the Holographic temples.
Sissi:
I opened my-Hope's eyes and waited for her knowledge to tell me what to do. I looked aoround, the HVP was still on, and I could see my abandoned body lying on the ground. Neeless to say, I dind't exactly like that. So I turned the HVP off, switched modes and turnedit back on.
"Jeremie!" I said.
"Oh, the hallucination is back." He said, still walking up hill.
"This is Siis. I'm in Hope's body."
"Sure you are." He said.
"What do you want me to do? Prove it? How?"
Jeremie didn't anser.
"Jeremie you stubborn idiot, do you even know why Hope's come to see you?"
"You're a hallucination brought on by inhaling too much smoke."
I almost screamed at him. But I had a better idea. I reached Hope's hands out to his temples and skipped into his head.
Hope disconnected then.
Jeremie started to panic, and I realiezed that skipping into the head of a guy who'd only recently recovered full control of his body was probably not a great idea.
Jeremie. I said. It's just me. It's just Sissi.
But he wasn't listening to me. He was fighting with everything he hand, and I hadn't anticipated it. I had nowhere to go. My body was on the other end of the region and Hope was on another plae of reality, So I ended up pinned in a very tiny part of Jermie's mind, and I was very slowly being crushed to death.
Jeremie! Jermie, stop - ow! Stop that! You're crushing me!
Get out!
I can't! My body is over on the other side of the region. If you can just calm down. . .
Get out of my head!
Calm down, you dolt! It's only Sissi. I am NOT controlling you!
I could almost feel him realizing that I was telling the truth.
Sissi?
Yes. I said. Yes, that's right. I'm not controlling you, but you wouldn't listen. Can you get me to my body?
Where?
On the other side of the region. But you have to listen to me. Aelita's missing.
Missing?
Missing. MIA. Gone. She disappeared. Not on Lyoko, Okoyl, or Earth.
Keep talking. Let's go.
He began to run back toward the tower and I ket talking, filling him in on what was happening.
They sat in a circle on platform Caramela assured them was stable. Sissi's empty body slay in the center, ands at her sides, staring straight up into the sky.
"How long do you suppose this will take? Until they show up?" Odd asked.
Hope flickered into existence.
"Not long." She said. "According to my scans, Jeremie is on his way now, with Sissi in his mind."
"Is she insave!" Yumi exclaimed. "She has no idea how dangerous body skipping could be!"
"Oh, I think she has a fairly good idea." Hope said. "She, however, doesn't seem to care."
"Of all the times to-"
"Quiet." Timiya said. "I felt something."
"What?"
"Quiet." The platform trembled slightly, tiny crackes appearing.
Ulrich glared at Carameal. "I thought you said this rock was stable."
"It is! Or. . .it sohuld be!"
"Well then, what's happening!"
" have no idea." Caramela said tautly. "But I doubt it's a good thing."
Aelita swerved around the corner of the maze. There was something after her. A monster of some sort.
She turned and synthesized a wall to hold the moster. She knew it wouldn't last long, but she need time to think.
Maybe Inverting -alone- while carrying a baby, was a bad idea. She was in the Tower World. It was just like the labyrinth region outside, except for the creature.
She remembered something. A myth. An earth-myth Jeremie had mentioned once. A similar situration.
She put her hand out to the wall and an interface popped up. Begin search. She had to hurry.
The monsters footsteps came closer.
