Arno couldn't breathe.
His chest heaved up and down, he followed through the motions that would ordinarily fill his lungs, but not once did he feel the rush of air that filled his chest and erased the heavy feeling. He was beginning to panic, until at last his body was suddenly thrown into being.
From his feet to his head he felt the strange sensation of being pushed, or pulled, towards the ground, yet he hung in the air for the longest time, until finally the invisible hand that held him suspended above the ground released him. He fell, landed on his feet, then fell again to his face, into ground that was cold as ice. Or rather, it should have been cold, but it wasn't. The slick white surface was clearly a mix of ice with enough snow to keep him from slipping about, but while he felt the pushback of the surface, he didn't feel any sensation that should have accompanied the ice. He was able to breathe again, but he felt nothing, smelled nothing, heard almost nothing.
For the first time, Arno looked up and about. He came face to face with an endless expanse of icy spires and icebergs emerging from flat, deep blue sea. There was no wind, no snow, just the grand nothingness. His eyes scanned the empty horizon, watching, as if waiting for some strange animal to break the surface of the ocean, but one never did. Arno was alone. Then he remembered.
"Jonah!" He screamed into the darkened sky before quickly looking around. He had spawned in on a single lengthy strip of ice with only a few towering icicles and raised platforms to break the monotony. "Jonah!" He called out again, but his call was followed by silence.
"I'm here!" At last, the voice of Jonah called back. It was faint, far, but Arno saw the boy step out from behind a tall icicle about fifty meters away.
"Oh thank god." Arno muttered.
His feet carried him swiftly in the boy's direction, and he pumped his arms at his sides. He was split right down the middle, both relief, and anger rising in his chest.
"Hey Arno!" Jonah called to him when he's gotten close enough.
"You absolute maniac!" He shouted back. As he drew closer, however, he noticed that something was different about Jonah, namely his clothes. Instead of the baggy pants and shirt, he now had on a cloak. It was green, and fell from his shoulders, to almost the bottom of his feet, and the edges were decorated with a golden vine that wove its way across the tail, and then up to a hood that rest atop his head. The vine also circled around the cuffs of his sleeves, and the tops of his deep brown boots. Under his cloak, the clothes were far more simple, a set of black robes just peeking out between the flaps of his cloak.
"Just look at this place!" Jonah stretched his arms to his sides, one of which was holding tightly onto the dark brown surface of a long stick, with a pale white crystal embedded in its top. He spun around, but then stopped, and pointed both of his arms towards Arno. "And just look at YOU!"
"What do you mean?" He looked down, and saw that the clothes he had been wearing before had changed. His new clothes were just as dark as his jacket, but in place of loose fitting jeans he now wore proper combat pants, their tight black fabric adorned with dark red camo pads on his shins and thighs. His entire body was covered in the same material, he felt from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, and his arms were fitted with the same durable micro-shields as his legs were, on his wrists and shoulders. He felt around his face with his hands. A mask covered every inch of his face, and around its center, just barely rising from the mask, was the unmistakable shape of a painted skull. "What is this?" He asked, turning about to get a look at this strange new uniform. "What happened to my clothes, what am I wearing?" The moment his back turned to Jonah, he heard the boy give off a shout of awe.
"Your weapons!" He called out, prompting Arno to turn back.
"My what?"
"Your weapons!" He repeated, pointing to Arno's back. "Pull them off!" He did as he was asked to, and upon reaching to his back he, he felt a rod covered in leather, like the hilt of one of the machetes he had back home. He gave the hilt a quick tug, and something heavy was released from his back. Pulling this object around to get a good look at it, he was stunned to see a heavy-looking hammer. It was short, just shy of the length of his arm, but it looked as though it should weigh much more than it did.
Arno turned the weapon around in his hand, admiring the rounded head of the weapon, and examining its flat bludgeoning side at its front. Then he looked down at the base, and saw a small button just north of the hilt. Curiosity got the better of him, and upon clicking the button, several spikes emerged from the head in all directions. He almost dropped it in shock, just barely managing to hold firm to his new weapon.
"What in the world?" His voice trailed off as he clicked the button again, retracting the spikes.
"That weapon's even better than mine!" Arno turned his focus to Jonah as he waved his staff around. It was about as tall as he was, and it looked significantly lighter than his own mace. "I'm not complaining though, check this out!" He took a few steps away from Arno, and pointed his staff straught ahead. "Fireball!"
All of a sudden, the crystal at the tip of his weapon ignited a fierce orange, and from the crystal, a great plume of fire surged. It collected itself in the shape of a sphere before launching itself ahead, darting a few hundred meters before vanishing into the dim night.
"Isn't that awesome?!" Arno ignored Jonah's question, instead turning his attention back to the mace he held in his hands. He examined it up and down a few times before making a response.
"This is insane." He said under his breath.
"Hey! Hey!" A voice called out, filling the once silent air and making the two boys jump. The voice belonged to Max, but neither of them could see where it was coming from. "You ok? I can talk to you!"
"Max?" Asked Arno. "Max where are you?"
"I'm in the chair. It's like telephone! Are you ok?"
"About as ok as we could be." Arno answered, his face turned to the sky to address the disembodied voice. "Are you able to see this? Where are we?"
"Uhh," The voice stammered a few times, and they heard that familiar snap as Max tried to grasp for the right words. "Mirror? No, Ice cream? No! Ice! Ice!" He gave off a celebratory laugh before recollecting himself. "You're in Ice world, on Lyoko!"
Arno took a few moments to collect himself. His eyes scanned the almost invisible horizon, trying to take in this strange and foreign environment, trying to process it all. He could only barely convince himself that he was lucid.
"This is crazy." He murmured to himself.
"This is awesome!" Cried Jonah. The boy showed absolutely none of the fear that should've been present in his tone, or on his face. Instead, he wore a smile that stretched from ear to ear, and he waved his staff around in a gleeful dance. "Just look at this place! It's an entire world!"
"Not quite." Max's voice drew their attention once again. "This is only part of the world. There much more."
Max's fingers clicked against the keyboard with relative ease. The commands and prompts were easy enough to understand, and there was a measure of added simplicity, seeing as how the computer seemed to already know what it was he was trying to type. Everything that he struggled to say with his mouth, he could easily produce with his fingers on the keys of this wonderful, mystical device. He was absorbed in each line of code that his fingers created, and as they passed his eyes, they wormed their way into the depths of this program, bringing about exactly what he was looking for; the source code.
Before his eyes, a wall of text typed itself out at thousands of words a minute, spanning page after page until it had all been filled. Max watched with growing eyes as the words vanished near the bottom of the screen, only to continue past his eyesight, allowing him to scan the present words before scrolling down. He muttered to himself in english, a few words of awe and wonder.
Everything outside of the computer screen became unimportant, and he delved into the lines of code that pulsed on the screen. It was the source code for the entire world, in read-only format, and despite his limited understanding of what this source code was for, he was able to easily decipher its nature. It listed out the functions of the world, and what each area was about. It detailed everything from the levels of friction of the ice, to the physics of floating rocks somewhere else in the world. For a computer to simulate this level of detail in a world as expansive as this one had to have the worlds most advanced memory, and a powersource more capable than that of the strongest computer.
Max was so engrossed with the screen, that he almost failed to notice a few development the chamber he occupied. The light around him grew brighter, as the last of the computer systems were booting up. Startled by the light, Max almost threw himself out of his seat to get a look at the light source.
It was the same platform that had been glowing before, but this time there was something different about it. Max recognized the shape as Lyoko, but it was altered. Instead of four long fins stretching out from the sides of the sphere, there were eight, and each one was very different from the others. He couldn't make out the details, but there was a faint color to each of these new areas. One was bright red, and almost looked as though it was moving. The other was dark grey, jagged, with bright flashes every few seconds. The third was dead black, and nothing much could be seen, but the fourth was very different from the other three. It was bright green, but all through the area there were lights like stars in various shades and colors, all seemingly centered around a central pool of blue, shaped not unlike the strange symbol that Max had seen on the computer tower earlier. This new development captured his attention for a minute as he examined these new shapes. They were different from the world depicted in the journal. He muttered something else in english before turning his focus back to the computer, upon hearing a strange beeping sound.
"Uh oh."
Arno and Jonah heard Max's voice echo through the world, and those two simple words did nothing to inspire confidence in either of them.
"Uh oh?" Arno echoed back. "What's uh oh?!"
"There's uh, uh, bad? I think? South."
"What in the world are you talking about?" Arno's head was turned skyward, but Jonah's focus was elsewhere, specifically down the long ice path on which they both stood.
"Uh, I think that's what he's talking about."
Jonah pointed a finger in the direction of two vague shapes made of pale grid lines. They were taking form, but it was slow, jerky, like an unoptimized loading screen. Color began to floor the form in a very similar manner, revealing a strange creature with four oversized limbs, a bug-like body, and a lengthy snout. It hovered in the air as its sand colored limbs, green underbelly and white head began to fill with color, only dropping from the sky when its full form had been colored in.
"Max, what are those things?" Arno stepped forward, placing a hand on Jonah's chest to move him back.
"I don't know. Bad?"
Max quickly scanned the screen, looking for any helpful information that he could find. What he found instead, were cards that lined the bottom of the screen. Two of these cards were obviously Jonah and Arno, depicting their avatars with weapons drawn. The other two were the creatures that had materialized on the ice. At the top of the card was the name of the beast, 'tarantula', followed by a picture, and a series of green dots dubbed 'HP'.
"Enemy, maybe?" Max flipped through a few pages in the notebook before scanning through a page he'd come across. His fingers then flew to the keyboard, and typed out a rather lengthy command.
A new window appeared on the screen, one that displayed the very world that Jonah and Arno were in, seemingly from Jonah's perspective, as he saw Arno before him.
"Maybe?" Arno called back. "We're going to need something more concrete than a 'maybe', Max."
"The book doesn't speak!"
"What does that mean?!" Arno's sudden jump was enough to make Jonah jump, but he wasn't the only one who heard him.
The two creatures at the end of the path suddenly jerked to life, like an old machine starting up to shake off some dust, and their heads snapped forward in their direction.
"Uh oh." Said Jonah. They watched as the slim forms shakily stepped up, and took a few slow steps forward. "I think they heard you." Arno pushed on Jonah's chest, trying to get him to move backwards, but the boy was resolute. "Maybe they're friendly! Like NPCs!"
"Wait, what? Hey!" Arno's shout did nothing to stop Jonah from moving past his arm, and waltzing over to the two creatures. He gave them each a wide wave, moving his arm back and forth through the sky.
"Hello there!" He yelled. "I am Jonah, and this is Arno! We are friends!"
The two creatures stopped, then they knelt down with one foot and one knee on the ground, before pointing both of their oddly cone shaped hands towards Jonah. Besides the hissing sounds they made, they were silent, uttering not a single word to the boy. Instead, their hands began to glow for a split second before they launched a bolt of light in his direction.
Jonah ducked down with a scream, and Arno was quick to rush forward.
"Jonah!" He took off running with his hands pumping at his sides. His hand flew to his back, and grabbed his mace. "Get down!" Another bolt was fired, but it was directed at Arno instead of Jonah. Just barely in time, he dove out of the way, rolling back up to his feet just in time to dodge a second blast, but his third try wasn't so lucky; he was hit square in the chest, and knocked off balance.
"Arno!" Jonah reached out to stabilize him, but he was too far away. Instead, he turned back to the enemy and drew his staff through the air, smashing the underside of its head. With a pained scream, it stumbled backwards, but the other one merely turned its attention back to Jonah and fired two bolts. The first one missed, but the second his shoulder. He staggered backwards, clutching the invisible wound while the creature fired off a third shot. This bolt was another direct hit, but not to Jonah; Arno's arm absorbed the blast. The plating on his arm glowed red hot for a moment, but much to his own surprise it quickly cooled down. He didn't even feel it.
There was no time to dwell on this discovery, however, as the tarantula that Jonah had hit had already recovered, and now there were four arms ready to blast them both to oblivion.
"Jonah, get back!" Arno growled, keeping his eyes glued to the oversized bugs. "Run, and don't stop until you find cover!"
"But-"
"NOW!" Arno held the line as Jonah finally did as he was told. The boy took off running while Arno took cautious steps backwards. His eyes were fixated on the tarantulas, and his hand was glued to his weapon. "Come on you oversized bugs," he taunted, "show me what you got."
Just as they were asked, the monsters fired off shot after shot. His arms absorbed the first few, but a constant barrage was too much for Arno, and before long he was stumbling backwards from the force of the bullets. One after another they collided with him, until he finally fell backwards. Two shots pounded into his chest, and he felt his form growing weaker as both of the creatures began to stand, and move. He heard their hands and feet scrape against the ice as they closed the distance, and Arno struggled to push himself up off of the ground. His chest heaved with deep breaths as he tried to prepare to fight again, but a voice from behind him drew their collective attentions.
"Hey bug face!" Arno turned his head just in time to see Jonah, holding the end of his staff as though he was about to swing it around. Then he did just that, screaming. "Fireball!" The end of his staff ignited, and a ball of fire was flung through the air. It landed square in the center of one of the creatures' heads, colliding with the strange symbol on its head. With a scream, the creature exploded with a force that caused the other tarantula to recoil, giving Arno time to grab the hilt of his weapon, push the button on the hilt, and smash his weapon into the head of the still living beast. Just as the other had done, the beast exploded.
Arno huffed a few deep breaths as the remains of the creature were scattered across the ice. They slid to a halt, but after a few moments they began to vanish. They turned to data, then to nothing, as Jonah took a few quick steps to reach Arno.
"Arno! Arno, are you ok?" Jonah reached his side quickly, tugging at his arms to pull him up off of the ground, but he didn't budge.
"Are you crazy?!" Arno's head snapped around to glare at Jonah through his mask. He rose on his own term, dusting himself off with quick and powerful motions. "You nearly got us both killed!" Jonah stepped back, his hands pulled back to his chest, and his eyes softly narrowing. His eyes grew soft, and his gaze turned to the ground.
"I'm sorry." He said. It was the first time Arno had heard the boy get this quiet.
The anger that had been rising in his chest began to fade. It was slowly replaced with a quiet calm, following Jonah's apology.
"It's alright." He said, ensuring his voice was softer than before. "But from now on, please don't rush into things like that, alright?" Jonah turned his head back up. His smile was soft, and understanding.
"I'll do my best." He replied.
Arno, uncertain of what to do next, gave the boy a few pats on his shoulders, before rising to his full height. He placed his hands on his hips. In the heat of the battle he'd managed to forget that they were still in a highly unfamiliar world, and they had no idea how to get out. Fortunately, the one who might know chimed in.
"That, was awesome!" Max exclaimed. "This game is so cold!"
"Yeah yeah, but how do we get out?"
"Out? You just got in!"
"Yeah, and it's getting old." Arno snapped back. "Besides," he turned back to Jonah. The boy's eyes were glued to the spot that once held the two monsters, and he didn't seem eager to have them return. "I think we're all funned out for now."
"Aha!" Max's voice boomed through the air, suddenly shattering the silence and once again making the two boys nearly jump out of their skin.
"Geez, cut that out!" Arno called up to the sky from where the invisible voice had come from. "Did you find the code that would get us out of here?"
"Even better!" Max replied, although Arno strongly doubted that that was indeed the case. "I found the code to leave!" With a frustrated sigh, Arno raised his hands to his sides, as though to ask the heavens 'why'.
"Alright then. And while you work on that, what were those things that attacked us?"
"Tarantulas." He felt the shiver that shot up Jonah's spine, even a few feet away.
"Those did not look like tarantulas." The boy quipped. His hands were still clutching his staff over his chest. If he was shaken, he certainly wasn't showing it, although his silence could have easily hid any sort of emotion.
"Ok, are you ok?" The two automatically assumed that Max had meant to ask, 'are you ready to leave'. It was a question they were both eager to answer, and they did so in unison.
"Yes!"
"Alright then! Devirtualize!"
A few seconds later, he heard Jonah give off a little yelp behind him, but upon trying to turn around he felt his chest seize up, and his arms and legs went stiff. He couldn't breathe. Then he couldn't feel. Then he couldn't see.
The second Arno's mouth was able to open, he threw it wide and allowed the earth's air to fill his lungs. He was not at all comfortable.
"I don't think I ever want to do that again." He breathed heavy as he took a few lurching steps out of the pod. Looking up, he felt his vision stabilize. Jonah was dusting himself off, and Arno could see the hints of his trademarked grin forming at the corners of his mouth. He looked up, saw his friend, and smiled wide.
"See? Everything's fine!" He threw his arms up into the air, as if to prove that he was alive.
"We are in way over our heads." Arno took one more heavy breath, and marched past Jonah with a simple wave for him to follow. "Come on. Let's get back upstairs. We have a lot to talk about."
"Daddy, no! Energy field!"
The sky was bright, but not by the light of any celestial body. Lasers were darting through the air as the beasts slipped in and out of sight. They were circling around her, circling around him. The mantas, they were quick, and deadly. Aelita threw another energy field, but missed her mark. She threw another, and another, to the point of exhausting herself, but only the occasional shot managed to strike the creatures.
"Daddy, please!" Her mind was screaming at her, and the noise of the celestial dome was almost drowned out by her own thoughts, and the orders of Jeremy.
"Aelita, run the program!" His words were harsh, and sharp, but they passed in one ear and out the other. She couldn't risk it. She had live so many years to see her father again, and now he was trying to sacrifice himself.
Another bolt pierced through the blue-pink veil that separated the white core of Franz Hopper from the rest of the world. It was followed by another, and then Aelita felt her heart snap. The world seemed to fall away as Franz exploded ina flurry of digital particles.
"NO!"
Her eyes shot open. It was the dead of night. The sounds of her nightmare were all but gone, replaced with the quiet chirping of crickets, and the soft singing of the winds. Aelita was safe.
She lay in her bed with Jeremy beside her. He was sound asleep. Despite her fatigue, she managed to lift herself up out of bed. She couldn't just lay down and sleep again, not after that. With one hand on her forehead she tried to reassure herself that it was only a nightmare, one that would never come back.
"Aelita?" Jeremy's voice sounded as though he was still asleep. "Go back to bed. It's still night." She couldn't.
Careful not to fully wake him, she slipped out of the covers, and out of the bed, approaching the window until she was able to catch a glimpse of the full moon.
"It was only a nightmare." She said to herself, but for some reason, she could never fully convince herself.
Authors Notes- I'll be honest, writing has been kinda tricky over this past week, but I'm going to continue to try. Leave your thoughts, cuz for some reason I can never be productive without some form of external positive reinforcement and validation. Stupid brain.
Also, I am working on my own original stories as well. Let me know if you would want to see anything from that, because I might be willing to post teasers as I get closer to finally finishing the work.
I'll try to have the next chapter out next week.