Episode 1: A New Routine (Part 2)
The morning hours seemed to go on forever as the kids endured their less enjoyable classes. English class proved a bore as Jace and Oliver began to lull off to sleep, and it took a forceful shove from Yumiko and Adele to wake them up before they got caught by Mr. Malone.
Elsewhere, Kevin and Maya were on their way to math class, but both seemed to be highly cautious of their surroundings, carrying the lingering fear that X.A.N.A. could pop up at any turn without they knowing.
By the time lunch finally came around, Oliver bolted from Mr. Malone's class like a caged dog, and ran for the cafeteria as quickly as possible. At this point, he didn't care if the menu wasn't as good, he was just anxious to get out of class and get sustenance fast.
Almost as if on cue, Katie stood at the door smiling and holding out a container of chocolate pudding, which was his favorite dessert.
Smiling just as widely, the blonde teen took his girl in his arms and quickly placed his lips to hers, which she returned equally as strong, causing her to drop the pudding.
"Well now," she said parting from Oliver. "Was that because of the pudding? Or are you just happy to see me?"
Looking a bit smug, the boy replied, "Both actually. But more the latter because I couldn't get you off my mind during English."
While she was flattered by his words, after seeing him pick up the pudding Katie laughed and said, "I knew it. It was the pudding."
Oliver's face plead the fifth, though after mentioning her kiss was just as sweet as pudding, she blushed profusely, only to have the moment ruined by Tristan making a noise like he was throwing up.
"Jeez little bro," said Carine with the rest of the gang. "Is this your new routine now?"
"It was my idea Carine," replied Katie. Walking towards her, she whispered, "So is that his weakness? Chocolate pudding?"
Carine nodded and explained that their father had the same weakness, which even their late-mother used on him as a little ploy for fun.
Laughing, Katie knew she'd have some fun with this little plan for a long while.
After about ten minutes, the gang finally sat down to their table and prayed over their meals to charge themselves up again for their last classes.
But just as Kevin lifted his fork to eat his mashed potatoes, something felt a bit odd in the cafeteria as he noticed a pungent smell in the air.
"Hey guys," he said getting their attention. "You guys smell that?"
Thinking it was just a joke implicating the younger siblings, Oliver and Tristan replied, "We didn't do it."
"Not from you guys," he replied knowing what they meant. "I'm talking about that smell in the air."
"What do you mean?" asked Maya unaware.
Noticing a similar smell, Jace mentioned he could smell it too, and that it looked like it was coming from the kitchen.
Just as the rest of the gang began to pick up on the scent, an explosion rang out from the kitchen, causing everyone to duck and cover to escape the blow. At that moment, the cafeteria workers ran from the kitchen as a fire broke out from what looked like a blown oven.
Suddenly, Jim ran in and shouted, "Everyone out of here! Students, quickly evacuate the cafeteria, and line up outside for further instructions."
With no hesitation, everyone made their way outside and began to file into lines as instructed. But as they lined up, Kevin asked, "Jim, what's happening? What was that explosion?"
"Well," he began. "It looks like the gas-pipe in the oven pumped too much natural gas inside, causing it to blow. Everyone's safe, but until further notice, the cafeteria is closed."
Oliver's jaw dropped at hearing such words, though Katie tried to comfort him.
"Now listen up!" Jim began again. "No one, and I mean no one, is to go near the cafeteria grounds at all. If I see any one of you getting near the immediate area, you'll be looking at detention, you hear?
"Now," he continued. "Everyone report to your next classes at once!"
As everyone dissipated from the school grounds, the gang gathered and pondered what could've caused the gas to pump too much.
"It was probably just an accident," said Yumiko. "Dad's done the same thing before with dinner."
"Maybe," said Kevin. "But after what Mr. Belpois said about X.A.N.A. being able to manipulate things we use, I'm not so sure."
Just as he spoke those specific words, a loud bang could be heard from across the campus near the generator room.
"What was that?!" said Jace.
"Sounds like it came from the other side of campus," replied Maya. "Let's go check it out."
At that moment, the kids decided to forego classes, and ran off to see what was going on.
On the other side of the city, Mr. and Mrs. Belpois were preparing to test a new program designed to help balance electric output for their company's servers to prevent shorting out easily.
As they prepared to launch the program, a familiar alert noise came from Mr. Belpois' personal laptop, which caused both to immediately cease their program launch. Opening his laptop, the super-scan revealed that X.A.N.A. activated a tower in the mountain sector.
"Of all times, why now?" asked Mrs. Belpois.
But before her husband could say anything, an explosion could be heard from the R&D lab of their company building which appeared to come from a gas line channeling natural gas to help power their electrical systems.
Looking down at the damage done, both ran out from their office to help their co-workers who were slow to get up.
Thankful no one was seriously hurt, Mr. Belpois asked, "What happened?"
"One of the gas lines blew up," replied a service worker. "I don't get it. They've never exploded like that before. At least not that I remember."
Looking at each other, both lipped the exact same word… "X.A.N.A."
As rescue workers came in to help the injured, Mr. Belpois looked at his wife and asked, "Are you okay?"
Mrs. Belpois nodded but expressed her unhappiness that X.A.N.A.'s presence meant others could be easily hurt by attacks.
As she finished her thought, she and her husband received calls from Mrs. Stern and Mr. Della Robbia respectively informing them of similar situations happening at their respective workplaces. Each knew that this had to be X.A.N.A.'s doing and immediately hung up knowing what had to be done.
Realizing it himself, Mr. and Mrs. Belpois nodded in agreement and made calls to both Adele and Maya respectively to let them know that X.A.N.A. was on the attack, and it was time to go to Lyoko.
As the kids rounded the corner of the administration building, their jaws dropped at the sight of the gym with a hugle hole blown out from it's side.
Walking slowly towards the wreckage, each agreed it had to be the work of X.A.N.A., given that this generator used natural gas to power up.
Before they could get in closer, Maya heard her cellphone ring loudly, and quickly answered when she knew who was calling based on the ringtone.
"Hi mom," she said. "What's going on?"
"Trouble sweetheart," she said in a solemn tone. "X.A.N.A.'s activated a tower. He's taking control of gas manes around the city and causing them to explode."
Upon hearing this news, Maya informed her mother of what happened earlier on campus, reaffirming the urgency needed for the kids to report to the factory.
With no time to waste, Maya called up Kevin, Yumiko and Tristan, while Adele notified Jace, Oliver and Katie.
All of them quickly gathered at the gates of Kadic and discussed who would go and who would stay.
"Your dad said the mountain sector?" asked Kevin looking a bit sheepish.
"Yep," replied Maya. "Why?"
At that moment, Kevin quickly decided he wasn't going to go. Everyone looked at the oldest one among them and parroted Maya's question.
"Look, it's nothing big," he said a bit hastily. "It's just… well… I kinda have a fear of… of heights."
It took a moment for Yumiko and Tristan to remember that as a kid, he had a bad experience climbing a rock wall while at a theme park. While his father had conquered his feeling of vertigo as an adult, it seemed Kevin had inherited his father's fear early on and felt paralyzed when at higher heights.
"Don't worry Kevin," said Maya putting her hand on his shoulder. "We can stay here and protect the school."
After that quick decision, Jace, Adele and Carine volunteered to go and fight on Lyoko, while Oliver and Katie would be on standby, and the rest would remain at the campus in case danger came their way.
With a quick prayer spoken, the gang split up and made their way to their respective destinations to combat their first full-on attack by X.A.N.A.
Making their way back onto the campus grounds, Kevin and the others spotted Jim walking near the office building and ran to inform of the earlier gas explosion.
"Jim!" shouted Kevin as they approached him.
"Hmm?" he grumbled turning around. "What are you kids doing out here? Didn't I mention to stay in your classes after that earlier incident happened?"
"We know," he replied. "But that's why we were looking for you. We heard another explosion earlier near the gym."
Shocked, Jim had them elaborate more and they quickly made their way to the damaged portion of the gym.
Stunned by the amount of damage caused, Jim said, "I don't understand. These manes are designed so nothing like this happens. What is going on?"
Suddenly, Yumiko had a realization and asked Jim if these explosions could occur at other parts of the campus including the dorms as well.
"I mean, if the students are in their rooms," she said. "We gotta get them out of there before they happen there."
For as much as Jim didn't want to hear it, he realized the students were indeed in danger if these explosions were going to continue with the manes in the dorms. So much so, he deputized the gang to go and gather the students out of their rooms, in order to make sure no one got hurt from potential explosions.
In a split-second, the gang split up into two groups to go from room to room, calmly warning everyone to leave their rooms due to the gas manes being unstable. Kevin, Oliver, and Tristan grouped off to go warn everyone on the boys floor, while Maya, Yumiko, and Katie warned the girls floor. While students were initially wondering if it was a joke, their doubt quickly faded as another explosion could be heard from the boys' floor of the dorms near the bathroom.
Realizing that the noise came from the boys' floor, Maya, Yumiko, and Katie feared the worst, and detoured away from the girls running down the stairs to check on their friends.
Approaching where the explosion came from, Maya called out Kevin's name, praying to God he was still okay. No response came at first, so Yumiko and Katie shouted out Tristan and Oliver's names to garner a response.
After about five seconds of silence, a muffled sound could be heard from behind the fallen drywall that appeared to say, "Maya!"
"Kevin?!" Maya asked loudly. "Where are you?!"
"I'm trapped behind the wall," he replied sounding winded. "The gas mane blew up the wall in front of me as I was running, and blew up part of the floor behind me."
Worried for her brother's safety, Yumiko asked, "Bro, can you get out?"
"No can do sis," said Kevin. "The gap's too wide for me to jump. I think I'm stuck guys."
As everyone contemplated on what to do, Kevin suggested they get to the factory as quick as possible after everyone was evacuated to lend backup. Everyone initially protested the idea of leaving her boyfriend behind, but the oldest Stern son was adamant, as there was no telling what further damage X.A.N.A. might inflict on the city, let alone their school.
After deliberation, everyone but Maya made the choice to depart for the factory, as the oldest Belpois daughter couldn't bear the thought of leaving the boy she loved in a precarious position.
Wasting no time, the gang quickly hurried off to the factory. As they departed, Maya kneeled down to where she assumed Kevin was kneeling and put her hand up on the wall. Placing her other hand against her heart, she began praying for God to protect her boyfriend and to be with the gang as they made their way to the factory.
As Mr. and Mrs. Belpois ran furiously across the bridge near the factory, the damage X.A.N.A. was wreaking became even more noticeable. Billowing smoke, and loud explosions could be seen and heard from various points in the city, as the skyline began to turn a sinister shade of gray.
"Heaven above," said Mr. Belpois as he stood near the ropes to descend down. "X.A.N.A.'s has grown exponentially more violent with his attacks since he was offline. It's only a matter of time before he starts targeting areas with more dangerous gases."
"You're right," replied his pink-haired bride. "And what's worse, is we have no idea how far those types of systems run through the city."
Just as she finished her statement, the two Belpois parents noticed three familiar figures in the distance running towards them on the bridge. As they came into focus, both ran to meet them halfway.
"Adele, sweetie, are you all alright?" asked her mother worried.
"We're okay mom," her youngest daughter replied. "Jace, Carine and I came to help. The others are working to keep everyone safe at the school." She also explained how they also noticed the dark atmosphere enveloping the city as they came up through the sewer hatch.
Knowing there was no time to lose, Adele's mother and father quickly lowered themselves down the rope to head towards the elevator. Carine then followed suit, as Jace and Adele decided to swing down together. Much like the last time, Adele found herself struggling to let go of the rope to drop down, but as always, Jace was there to safely catch her.
As Jace let her go, the youngest Belpois daughter said, "You know, I don't know if I'll ever get used to that drop."
"I know what you mean," he replied back. "I get flashbacks to my old school and the rope we climbed for gym."
Surprised, Adele asked, "Really? Did something bad happen?
Not wanting to dredge up memories, Jace simply said, "It's a long story. I'll explain it later." This left Adele a bit curious, but there was no time to spend thinking, as the two joined Carine and Adele's parents in the elevator to begin their journey into Lyoko.
"Everyone, keep moving!" shouted Jim as the students evacuated their dorm rooms. "All students, report to the front of the campus grounds. Authorities will be here shortly to escort everyone off the premises to safety."
As the last students exited the dorms, Jim noticed that the gang were not present among the students that came out from the dorms. Having this notion, Jim asked if any of the students noticed if Kevin or any of his friends came out of the dorm, to which each student replied no.
"Oh no," he uttered to himself. "They must be trapped inside from that explosion earlier.
"Everyone," he said to the students present. "Please remain here until the authorities arrive. I'm going to do a sweep of the dorms to make sure all students made it out safely." And the surly gym teacher ran off, hoping that no one was still inside.
As Maya rested on her knees against the wall, she said, "Listen Kevin. I'm going to go Jim, so we can get you out. Try to hang on for a bit, okay?"
"Maya… I… ," he stammered sounding slightly scared. Unknown to Maya, because the earlier explosion blew through three floors, the gap below Kevin left him on an edge of flooring hanging above a deep chasm. This was enough to stir the boy's vertigo, causing him to panic slightly at the thought of falling.
"Kevin, are you okay?" asked the elder Belpois sibling concerned.
"… it's just…" he said stammering again. "I'm… I'm sitting above a huge hole. Wh… What if the floor gives out?"
Remembering his fear of heights, Maya said in soothing voice, "Kevin, listen. Try not to focus on the hole. Just focus on the sound of my voice."
While he was still slightly scared, Kevin closed his eyes and let himself become focused only on the voice of the girl he loved.
"It's okay Kevin," she continued. "I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere."
The girl's voice seemed to have an effect on alleviating Kevin's nerves, as his hands began to stop shaking.
Taking a deep breath, Kevin said, "Thanks Maya. I needed that."
From behind the wall, Maya smiled and said, "Hey, I know you would've done the same for me."
Placing his head against his hand leaning on the wall, Kevin said, "In a heart-beat." Both knew they were lucky to have each other to rely on for strength, and now it was time for that same strength to be with their friends as they prepared to face X.A.N.A. head on.
The doors to the factory opened with a flourish of speed, as Mr. Belpois ran and took his place in his chair to begin preparing the virtualization sequence for his wife, Adele, Carine, and Jace. As he began typing in the algorithms necessary for the program, he said over his headset, "Honey, the tower X.A.N.A.'s activated is on a rock-formation that's floating next to a string of mountains. Approximate distance is about 5 miles from where you and the kids will be virtualized."
"He can never just make it easy," replied Mrs. Belpois. "Get ready for a run kids."
Almost in a cocky manner, the pinkette's husband said, "Not so much sweetheart. Remember, we do have our vehicles to use."
Mrs. Belpois blushed with slight embarassment remembering the vehicles her husband created when they were young. "Ohh… that's right. I suppose I did forget we had them."
"It's okay Aelita," her husband replied. "I'll have them all ready to use when you arrive. Get ready everyone…"
As Mr. Belpois finished preparing the transfer protocols needed, Mrs. Belpois and Carine stepped into the scanners first to be transferred to Lyoko, while Adele and Jace followed after them.
"Here we go!" said Mr. Belpois beginning the sequence. "Transfer: Aelita, Transfer Carine… Scanner: Aelita, Scanner: Carine… Virtualization!"
In a rush of blinding light and wind, both Mrs. Belpois and Carine vanished from the scanner, and began to virtualize over the rocky ground of the mountain sector. Unlike last time, Carine managed to land on her feet just like her elder teammate.
"Phew! Managed to avoid falling hard like last time," she said looking around her. "I'm starting to get used to this."
Mrs. Belpois looked up to the sky and said to her husband, "We made it Jeremie. No sign of X.A.N.A. yet, so you should send Jace and Adele quickly."
"Already on it Aelita," he said beginning the sequence again. "Transfer: Adele… Transfer: Jace… Scanner: Adele… Scanner: Jace… Virtualization!"