A Whole New World
The three finally got to the factory, out of breath. Jeremie typed furiously at the keyboard and located Aelita. "There she is. She virtualized herself," he said.
"Wow, I didn't know you could do that," Sissi commented.
"Why would she do that? Homesick?" Odd asked.
"No time to worry about it. Head for the scanners," Sissi exclaimed.
"You're not coming with us?"
"I'll stick with Jeremie. I'd like to learn how to fight on Lyoko when the world's NOT falling apart," Sissi smiled broadly at Odd as the elevator closed. Sissi stood at Jeremie's side when Yumi opened the door.
"I came as quickly as I could. What's wrong?"
"Mean girls hurt Aelita and she went to Lyoko to feel better," Sissi summarized.
"Hurry to the scanners! The others are there!" In a short moment, the three were in the scanners and on Lyoko. "She's due North, get going!"
"Let's go!" Odd hurried.
"You might want to program their vehicles. They'll get there faster," Sissi suggested.
"Too late," Jeremie groaned as two crabs surrounded the three.
"Well, this is a bad welcoming party," Ulrich grumbled, pulling out his sword.
"Deal with the crabs quickly!" Jeremie urged.
"On it!" Ulrich sprinted and sliced one crabs' leg. Yumi backflipped behind the same crab and threw her fan. It cut right through the crippled crab's head. Odd drew fire from the other one, jumping up a tree. He dodged every fire that the crab shot at him as he climbed. When he was high enough, Odd jumped off.
"Laser arrow!" The arrows pierced into the crab's flat head and blew up. With the two crabs down, Jeremie finally programmed their vehicles.
"Jeremie, I need help!" Aelita cried as she ran from two blocks. The cube terrors whirred their heads and shot lasers out of their eyes. "Ahh!" Aelita cried, running faster.
"Hang on, Aelita. They're almost there," Jeremie frantically said. The blocks chased her to the edge of the sector. The bright yellow digital sky and the digital sea stretched until the horizon. Aelita spun around and saw the blocks cornering her. With her back to the edge, she didn't see the huge orb slowly coming up from the sea.
"AAAAHHHH!"
"Aelita!" Jeremie and Sissi shouted.
When Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi got there, they couldn't find Aelita. "What happened? She's not here? She must really be mad."
"Grrr," Sissi growled and snatched Jeremie's headpiece.
"Hey!" exclaimed Jeremie.
"Can it, dog for brains. This is serious! We don't know where Aelita is!"
"You mean, she-"
"No," Jeremie said, grabbing the headpiece back from Sissi, "I don't think so. I just can't find her. If I can just." Suddenly, the computer started running random programs. "What is going on? Ah! Found her. It's a weak signal, but I-... what is that?"
"Jeremie, where is that sector?" Sissi asked.
"I don't know. That's a sector that doesn't exist. A... A fifth sector," Jeremie said.
"Uh, Jeremie, could you explain that a little better?" Odd asked.
"No, I can't. This is so weird. If I can just fix this stupid-" Immediately, a little window entitled "Welcome to Carthage" popped up on the screen.
"Okay, so this is titled after the Punic wars? Maybe the notes in that book we found can help," Sissi suggested.
"That's right!" Jeremie reached into his book bag and grabbed the book, furiously flipping through the pages. But then,
"Uh, Jeremie, we have a bit of a problem," Odd said. A swarm of hornets came rushing towards them.
"Hang on a second, we have a little problem here. Buy me some time!" Jeremie shouted.
"Okay, could it be Rome? No," Sissi grumbled.
"Salameo? NO!"
"Okay, uh... darn it!," Sissi roared. "How do we get into this stupid thing?!"
"That's it! We have to get INTO Carthage. We have to defeat Carthage. Who defeated the Carthaginians?" Jeremie groaned as his eyebrow twitched. Sissi gritted her teeth in frustration. Then a light bulb shot off in their heads.
"Scipio!" They both exclaimed. Jeremie quickly typed it into the supercomputer. Suddenly, a completely different window popped up, showing a reddish orb. Then the hologram map displayed a spherical blue place with four cones coming out of it. A small fin ran from the bottom to the middle of the ball.
"Whoa, cool," Sissi said as the three warriors were teleported to a hollowed-out dome where a white line wildly span around.
"Whoa, how did you do that Jeremie?"
"I don't really know," he replied. "But we're here. Welcome to Sector Five, everyone." Sissi examined the hologram closer while Jeremie spoke with the others.
"What does it look like?" Yumi asked.
"It's a sphere that-" Suddenly a timer popped up on the computer screen. "That can't be good. Aelita's in trouble and time is running out. Quick, take the footbridge behind you. This is no time for sightseeing." They ran through the blue halls that veered to the left.
"Ulrich, you go on ahead, you'll get there faster," Odd said. Ulrich super-sprinted to the central room.
Jeremie furiously tapped away at the keyboard, desperately trying to figure out the layout of Sector five. As he located Aelita, a screen of her figure popped up, and her memories started decreasing. "What in the world?! It's taking Aelita's memories! Sissi, I don't know what we're going to do. What does XANA want? Sissi?"
"Yeah, yeah, focus on her, okay," Sissi absentmindedly waved off as she examined the hologram more. There was something weird about it that she couldn't put her finger on. She remembered the holo-map before, and she compared it with the map of the new sector. "Hmm."
"Uh, Jeremie, there's this... thing in here," Ulrich said. A huge pencil bodied thing with a huge clear brain wrapped its transparent tentacles around Aelita. Around it were brown creepy crawling things with just a head and no eyes. They had a long silver tail with a brown upper body.
"Get rid of it! It's stealing Aelita's memories!" Jeremie shouted. Yumi flung her fans through the creepy octopus' tentacles. It dropped Aelita, who was still faint. Ulrich and Odd took care of the brown creepy crawling things. "I wonder what that timer is for. Oh no!" As Yumi helped Aelita up, the room started changing. "Get out of there!" The four of them raced out of the central room. The walls started closing in on them, and as the last one closed up, they escaped back into the entry room. "Just in time!"
"Okay Jeremie, how do we get back?" Ulrich asked.
"Hang on, I'm reentering the code," Jeremie said, typing in Scipio. As the ball came back to grab the team, Jeremie's lungs breathed easier. "Alright, Aelita. Just enter the tower and I'll rematerialize you. Materialize, Yumi. Materialize, Odd. Materialize, Yumi." Soon, the scanner room was full of panting teens, crawling out of their cases. "Whew, that was close."
"A core."
"Huh?"
"A core. Sector five is the core of Lyoko," Sissi said. "The sphere had four outside terminals, and since there are four sectors, Sector Five must be the place where all of the information comes together."
"That would explain why we've never seen it before," Jeremie said getting out of the chair.
"If what you told me about XANA is right, that would mean that the data in Sector Five could be exactly what we need to make Aelita's Antivirus ," Sissi said. Jeremie thought for a moment.
"It's a good idea. But for now, we can't worry about that. It could be-"
"Could be?" Sissi rose her eyebrow and crossed her arms.
"Okay, it is dangerous. But for now, it's uncharted territory."
"Fair enough. Let's see how Aelita's doing."
"You should have seen it, Jer. There was this huge squid thing, and there were these creepy crawly things," Odd exclaimed as he petted Kiwi on his lap. Growling at the mention it, Kiwi rested in his lap on Jeremie's bed. The whole team, save Sissi, was in Jeremie's room, retelling Jeremie about the wonders of Sector Five. "It was crazy."
"Could you believe that thing was stealing my memory?" Aelita shivered.
"That means XANA wants them for something, but what?" Jeremie asked.
"I guess we'll find out when we go back to the Sector. I can't wait to explore it," Ulrich smiled.
"I'll come with you. It'll be cool," Yumi smiled bashfully, brushing aside a strand of hair.
"Hey, right now, we don't know what's there. For now, it's unmarked territory," Jeremie firmly said.
"Uh, Jeremie. You're not mad about me going to Lyoko, are you? I... I don't know what I was thinking, I-"
"It's okay, Aelita. I know why you did it, and we're not upset about it. I promise to spend more time with you," Jeremie smiled. Aelita beamed brightly, but then she looked around the room. Yumi beat her to the question.
"Hey, where's Sissi?" Suddenly, Sissi rushed into the room and slammed the door shut. She was panting heavily, and a kind of shaky grin was on her face. She placed her back against the door as if to stop a mob of people from coming in. "Sissi, what's-"
"SHHHHHHH! I'm not here, okay!" Sissi pressed her ear to the door. The hallway slowly rang out with little feet patting around.
"Look at my hair! AW! Where is she! I know she did this!" Said a girl's voice. Then a loud knock came on the door. Sissi hid behind the door as it swung open to three girls. They had ugly green hair and towels wrapped around their bodies. Odd pressed his lips together. He couldn't laugh, he mustn't. "Where is she?"
"Who?" Jeremie asked.
"The Dragon Queen," the girl shouted. "She switched our shampoo for this! Look at this!"
"Maybe that will teach you to not tease Aelita," Ulrich firmly stated.
"Hmph! Well, I'm sorry that Mrs. Pink hair got a little hazing. Everyone gets bullied," muttered the girl.
"Yes, but at least my hair doesn't look like grass. I'd be careful with going outside. The woodland creatures might think you're a walking tree," Odd smiled.
"More like a shrub," Aelita added. Everyone laughed while the other girls huffed and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind them. Sissi smiled as she came out of her hiding spot.
"Well, looks like you're adjusting to this place." She said.
"What did you do to those girls?" Yumi asked.
Sissi winked with a smile and laughed along with the group. She jumped onto the bed and hugged Aelita. "I'm just glad you're safe, Aelita," she said.
"Why are you so protective of Aelita, Sissi?" Odd asked. The Mechanist's smile faltered for a moment, and she stared at the ground. But then she shook her head and widened her grin.
"Don't worry about it. Right now, I'm just glad that you're okay." She smiled and hugged Aelita tightly.
Continued...