Ulrich sat next to Jeremy in Ms. Hertz class in the morning. Five minutes late and still fresh from a scolding, they all took their normal seats in the classroom. Only Aelita refused to sit by Jeremy's side. She was afraid of lashing out at him, since her anger cooled only slightly after laughing with the group through the hallway.
Ulrich struggled with his worksheet, staring at the dully typed questions in confusion, scrawling a hesitant answer on the paper, pausing, erasing, and then re-writing the answer completely. His entire worksheet was covered in dark smudges and eraser marks, the page had more creases on it than Jeremy's brow when he was lost in thought.
The brunette glanced at the boy sitting aside from him. Jeremy had his hands laced together, his head facing the paper in front of him, but his eyes were closed. The rise and fall of his chest made it obvious that he was fast asleep. Ulrich slid and arm towards Jeremy's sweater and tugged on it. "Jeremy, hey wake up."
No answer. Jeremy's closed eyes twitched a fraction but stilled, his breathing still calm and slow. Ulrich tried a second time. "Jere-"
"Ulrich Stern!" Everyone kept their gazes lowered to their classwork, though they peered up at Ms. Hertz with bowed heads. Odd and Yumi shared a concerned look, and Aelita strained to glance behind without turning her head.
The older woman made her her way slowly towards the middle of the class room, where both boys were seated. Ulrich gave a final sharp tug on Jeremy's sweater, causing his arm to slip to the side and his to head fall. Half suspended in air, he jerked awake, wide eyes and glasses askew. His shocked, almost lost gaze made him appear owlish. He looked around while setting his glasses correctly, lingering his eyes on the oncoming teacher.
She made her way to the desk, hands on hips. "I would somewhat expect this from Odd, but you?"
Ulrich bristled in anger, a small blush searing through his cheeks and he too lowered his head. He scowled at his page, waiting for Ms. Hertz to dish out the next abasing scorn for all to hear.
None came.
Turning his head again, Ulrich saw Jeremy tugging on the hem of Ms. Hertz's shirt, as she inclined her head towards him.
"Ulrich was just waking me up." he said slowly. He nodded his head towards his empty sheet of paper, to which the teacher stared in surprise. She stood a bit higher, staring at Jeremy in shock as he laid back in his chair while rubbing his face. "May I go to the bathroom? Just tired."
Ms. Hertz nodded numbly, and she made her way back to her desk. She watched Jeremy walk out of the classroom, and come back several minutes later, his slightly disheveled hair more tame, his gaze more alert. She cleared her throat and watched over the class like a hawk once Jeremy had taken his seat, smiling nervously.
Jeremy leaned a fraction towards Ulrich. "Thanks for the save."
Ulrich shook his head in mock disbelief. "Back at you."
~~~~ Code Lyoko ~~~~
The rest of the school day passed by without incident, as Jeremy had kept returning to the a bathroom after each class to splash water on his face.
After classes, they had all snuck away from the grounds and made their way towards the manhole in the forest. The short journey to the factory gave Jeremy an energetic rush and he carried on with a sense of ease as he climbed up the ladder and made his way to the large typist's chair in front of the super computer.
Cracking his knuckles, he began typing on the keyboard with a flare of confidence. "Head to the scanners. I need you guys to see it for yourself." He said boldly.
Aelita cocked her head. "It won't be like that time with the Marabounta, right?" In response, Jeremy shook his head, silently immersed in starting up the scanners.
"I promise it isn't like that." He muttered as the elevator doors were closing.
Aelita walked out of the elevator first, followed by the rest of her friends, each choosing an individual scanner until they were all taken. Ulrich stood in the middle waiting for the procedure to start so he could be virtualized.
The scanner doors closed behind Odd, Yumi, and Aelita, blocking out their view outside the scanners. Overhead they heard the amplified voice of Jeremy as he announced each part of the virtualization process.
"Transfer: Odd. Transfer: Aelita. Transfer: Yumi."
"Hurry it up Jeremy!" Ulrich yelled. He heard Jeremy snort through the microphone as he continued speaking, opting to move on with the transfer rather than respond. A few seconds and a virtualization later, Odd, Aelita and Yumi waited patiently for Ulrich to arrive at sector five. When he did, the rest thanked Jeremy's ability in silence. At least he didn't mess up virtualization despite his fatigue.
They ran towards the bottom floor, a few meager hops and lunges guaranteed them an easy passage towards the Heart of Lyoko.
"Alright, just stand around the heart. Do you guys see the protective layers?" Jeremy asked.
Yumi nodded and looked around at the others, whom were standing around various spots around the core. "Yeah, so far, so good. What now?"
"Just wait. I'm setting up the program." Jeremy replied. He added the disc onto the supercomputer, relishing the comfortable whirs and clicks as it registered its data onto the mainframe of the supercomputer, where he could download easily. The icon appeared on screen with a small blip, and sported a rather small line of abbreviated code.
HOL: Heart of Lyoko
Jeremy hovered the mouse icon in front of the newly created program, speaking out to Aelita. "Can you give me a visual, Aelita?"
In response, another screen opened up and Jeremy could see the Heart of Lyoko floating in front of him. It was breathtaking. It appeared so fragile and yet had two protective layers encased around it. Inside the actual core, he could see the the four sectors attached and roving about in circles, spinning endlessly.
"Woah." He whispered.
In Lyoko, the others smirked at each other and shrugged. It wasn't new to him, but his profound sense of awe never seemed to diminish for it, and he glanced at everything in Lyoko with new attitude every time he interacted with it. Aelita called out to Jeremy. "Yes, Jeremy but we don't have all day."
It was enough to knock Jeremy out of his reverie, and he coughed awkwardly into his fist, opening the application on the screen. Instantly, lines of familiar code rained from the top of the database, and Jeremy minimized the screen so he could see the other lines of code surrounding the Heart of Lyoko. He peered at the both of them scrutinously, searching for the lines of code that he needed. There.
He kept glancing back at each individual window that he needed, making changes here and there, adding code and taking some out.
At last he was done and muttered for the others to stay on high alert, focusing most of their attention on the Heart. He sighed, pressed enter, and sucked in a breath, gripping his earpiece so tightly he almost wrenched it off. He waited quietly for several seconds when he began to believe that he had done something wrong until the computer began to whir again, much stronger, louder. Jeremy could feel the pulsations from the computer running through his chair and through his body. He sat stiffly, his concern growing, making itself manifest that he did do something wrong, when it stopped.
Just as fast as it had began, the whirring and the humming died down, and the others on Lyoko gasped in shock and they stared at the Heart in a manner similar to Jeremy's when Aelita's visual had first appeared.
"Jeremy, look." And so he had. With narrowed eyes he brought the visual to full screen, sitting back as the Heart of Lyoko continued floating in the center of the room. But there was another layer around it, a more solid cubic frame floating around with the rest of the core, at peace with it's new surroundings, no longer caged in a lifeless file and reinstated in the virtual world.
Maybe that was the cause of the mini tremor within the computer, or maybe there was some other reason behind it?
It didn't matter at that moment since the program proved to be a overall success, but Jeremy needed one more thing in order to complete the program.
"Odd."
Said person looked up despite the fact that Jeremy was nowhere in Lyoko. "What is it Jeremy?"
There was a sigh from the air, echoing through the room and away from the core. "This is going to sound crazy Odd."
What?
"But I want you to shoot at the core of Lyoko."
AAAAaaaaaand there's the second chapter. Granted, I meant to leave it off here, but no worries no worries. I may or may not update quickly.
On another note, PLEASE leave a review so I can a least tell how you readers enjoys this story or see where my faults are. I can't really see that unless someone points it out to me. All minds do work differently.
Till next update, see you later.