Arno had done most of the explaining. Jonah and Maxwell both occasionally attempted to interject, but Jonah had such little grasp of the situation, and Maxwell's language barrier was difficult to surmount. Over the next half hour, Arno had explained everything he knew to Trisha and Oliver, from the first day he and Jonah had found the super computer, to the day they virtualized themselves, to today; the day they'd set aside to explore the rest of the the strange world.
Trisha and Oliver took the information well, or at least they didn't immediately call Arno mad, but how could they? They had the computer right before their eyes, and the room itself was something out of a science fiction novel. As Arno had been explaining, Trisha had taken to walking about the room, examining everything her eyes crossed. They were full of wonder, but not absent of fear.
"This," she finally said when Arno had finished talking, "is incredible."
"It's potentially dangerous." Arno shot back. She didn't respond, instead, she went about running her fingers over the machines, as though to test and see if they weren't actually a mirage. "But now you know, and if you feel so inclined, you can now leave."
"Leave?" She turned back to Arno, taking a few hasty steps in his direction. "Oh we're not leaving. I want to see how this works."
"Well, we could virtualize you!" Jonah piped up. Both of them turned to him, Arno with frustration, Trisha with curiosity. He continued. "We were going to virtualize ourself anyways! Max might not know French, but he knows code! We could bring you with us!"
"Out of the question." Arno snapped.
"What? Why? You said it yourself, you were going to go anyways, and you've been in and out several times!" Trisha argued. "Why can't we go?"
"Because this is your first time. We don't know what else is out there, we don't know what we'll find. You're staying here, until we know what's in the other-" He stopped, and turned to the computer. "Max! What are these things called?" Max peeked out from behind the computer screen, looking where Arno was now pointing his finger.
"Lyoko?"
"No! The things on Lyoko!"
"Sectors?"
"Yes! The sectors." He looked back, and started to address Trisha again. "You're staying put until we know what on the other sectors hold, got it?"
"Not a chance." Arno had already stepped away, but Trisha's arm shot out and grabbed his shoulder. He gasped, threw it off, and spun around with a snarl so quickly that it stunned both himself, and Trisha. She eyed him wearily as his expression softened, slowly, until it was back to his natural scowl.
For some time, their eyes were locked, as though they were scanning each other, neither one willing to give any ground to the other. At last, Arno surrendered.
"If you go in, you do what I say, when I say. Got it?"
"Within reason." She replied. That seemed to be enough for Arno, who (with a hefty growl) gestured over to the elevator.
"You two, onto the elevator. You too, Jonah. Maxwell, get ready to send us down."
"Yes yes!" Max called. He spun the seat around to face the computer again, and his hands flew to the keys.
One by one, all four of the children boarded the elevator, and the doors slid shut behind them.
The car began to slide down the shaft, and all the while Oliver looked about as pale as he could get. Clearly he wasn't much for words; he hadn't said a thing in the time that he'd been there, and he stuck very close to Trisha the entire time, and away from everyone else. Arno would've tried to reassure him, but it looked like that would just make things worse for him, so instead, he just kept his gaze forward.
The car came to an abrupt halt, throwing Trisha and Oliver off balance as the doors slid open. Jonah and Arno were accustomed to seeing the scanners, but the other two released an audible gasp as the bright orange lights flooded the cabin.
"Welcome to the scanner room." Said Arno as he stepped out, followed quickly by Jonah. He moved to the center of the room, and turned to face the others. "Jonah and I will go first. You follow our lead. When the pod opens, step inside. Just don't panic, and stand still if you can." As the others were still absorbing his instructions, he called out to Maxwell. "Max! Start the program! Jonah and I are going in, followed by Trisha and Oliver!"
"Aye aye!" Max's voice was followed by the clacking of eyes, and two of the pod doors opened. The glow on their interior spilled out, casting itself over all four of the children. Arno looked to Jonah, and with a curt nod, both of them stepped into the container.
"Remember, don't panic, and try not to move. Oh, and remember to take a deep breath before the process starts." Said Arno, as the doors to the cabin sealed themselves shut. There was the found of hums and whirs coming from inside the machine, and both Trisha and Oliver found themselves paralyzed in both fear and amazement. They stood, rooted to the spot while the intensity of the noises grew more and more, until at last, they ceased.
When the doors opened once more, the cabins were empty. No sign of Jonah or Arno anywhere.
"Hey, where did they go?" Asked Trisha.
"Lyoko!" Max replied. "Get ready!" The pods began to glow again. Trisha fet the warmth all over her person, as though the machine was trying to invite her inside. The noise of the machine wasn't overpowering, but her anxiety was deafening. Only after Oliver laid his hand on her shoulder, did she even move her head. His eyes were full of worry and fear. Her's weren't so different, but she knew that if either of them would make the first move, it would be her.
She gently pressed her hand against his, and feined a smile.
"It'll be ok Oliver." She reassured him. "I'll see you on the other side, ok?" He didn't seem fully convinced, but at the very least he did release her shoulder.
Trisha and Oliver parted ways, and each stepped into a different pod. As she turned to face the rest of the room, she caught sight of the worry displayed on her brothers face. She gave him a smile; a final reassurance that she couldn't offer to herself.
"It'll be ok." She said, one last time. The doors closed, and shut out the outside world. As the glow began to intensify, Arno's instructions came back to her.
"Don't panic, don't move." She reminded herself. "Don't panic, don't move. Don't panic, don't move." Then she remembered the last part of the instructions. "Take a deep breath before it starts. Why? Why do I need to-" Without warning, the whole of her body became stiff, and starting from her toes, she began to grow numb. Trisha couldn't feel anything beneath her waist, but more importantly, she couldn't breathe, then she couldn't see.
At last, color returned to her world, but beyond the familiar colors, she didn't recognize a thing. Feeling was slowly returning to her from the top down, and with that came control of her limbs. She flexed her fingers as though she might never feel them again, and the second she could breathe, she did so fiercely.
It only took a few seconds for feeling to return to her body, but those seconds felt so much longer than they should've. She knew she was floating high above the ground, but it wasn't until her feet came back into being that she fell. Her feet met the ground, followed by her knees, and then her face.
The ground was cold, and for whatever reason her ears didn't feel fully functional. The voices that she could hear were distant, muddled, like she was under water. Trisha quickly pushed herself up off of the ground, and shoved herself to a standing position with her arms near to her chest.
"Welcome to Lyoko."
There were two figured standing before her. One was obviously Jonah, with his bright hair and smile, but his standard attire had been replaced with a set of green robes, and a large, wide brimmed point-tipped hat, like the wizards she'd seen before in old children's books. The other one stood much taller, by at least a head and a half, and was dressed almost entirely in black. Unlike Jonah, he was imposing almost to the point of being frightening, and on his face was a mask that bore paint in the vague shape of a skull. It was definitely Arno.
"What the hell?" She staggered back a few paces, her head swiftly swiveling left and right. All she saw was ice and water, towers and glaciers, blocks large and small. She'd seen snow and ice before back home, but nothing like this. "Where are we? What is this?" She didn't leave time for the others to answer her questions before another more pressing one entered her mind. "Where's Oliver?" She twisted around, screaming his name. "Oliver!" She waited, then screamed again over the words of Arno. At first, there was nothing but silence to meet her cries, but then she heard a sound overhead.
She recognized the form that was taking shape as Oliver, immediately. He was taller than her, almost at Arno's height, and just slender enough to match Oliver's physique. He slowly materialized in the same was as Trisha had; from the top down, and slowly.
As his head became visible through the rendering mesh, she knew it was him, but she didn't recognize the clothes that were appearing with him.
His shoulders, elbows, wrists, every joint was covered in a dark brown leather, and beneath all of that, there was a clear red cloth that ran from his neck, to his feet. He looked something akin to a fantasy forest ranger, armored lightly and well equipped with a bow slung over his shoulder, a quiver full of arrows, and a set of throwing knives on his legs. Trisha took a few steps forward, both admiring the new attire, and preparing to catch him when he fell. She counted down the seconds until he was fully virtualized, and as he took a sudden breath in, he fell from the sky.
Although she had prepared to catch him, she wasn't prepared enough, and he fell directly on top of her, forcing her down onto the ground with a very audible "Oof!"
It took a few moments for Oliver to realize who he was sitting on, but the second he did, he very quickly moved off of Trisha, and tried to help her up. Although he didn't audibly say 'sorry', Trisha recognized his hand motions as an apology, an open palm and worried eyes could've told anyone that.
"It's ok, I'm ok." She assured him, taking his arm to help herself up off of the ground. "Are you ok? Are you alright?" Her question almost threw him off balance, but he did manage to nod as he pulled her up to her feet. Even if Trisha couldn't feel the cold of the ice around her, she did still feel a bit of welcomed warmth as Oliver ensured she was balanced enough to stand. "Thank you." She said to him, to which he replied with a friendly nod. Oliver stepped back, looking Trisha up and down, just as Arno and Jonah were doing a few paces away.
"Alright," said Arno, "you look pretty damn cool, I'll give you that much."
"What?" For the first time, Trisha looked down at herself. "Whoa." Almost her entire body was covered in shining silver plates. She looked as though she could smash her body into a wall, and walk away with less damage. The plates were laid on thick, and every last joint was protected, while still offering enough flexibility for her to defend herself with. The only thing surface that covered the plates themselves was a wide white cape on her back, and upon reaching back to feel the cape, her hands encountered two strange shapes. She pulled them off of her back, and upon doing so they suddenly opened, and spiraled out into large shields that were almost half as tall as she was. Without even having used them, she already felt ready to take on anything, and she couldn't deny that she did look pretty cool.
As she examined her armor, Arno stepped forward, and began to speak.
"Welcome to Lyoko." He said again. "This is the ice sector. And if you'll follow me, I'll fill you in on what we know so far.
"Another day, finally done." Aelita put all of her papers in a stack, and tapped them against the desk. Her students were out of the room, and once again she was alone with her thoughts. The rest of the day was hers, as she'd been ahead of schedule on grading papers, and the lesson plan for the year was long since thought out. With the exception of date night with Jeremy later, she was free to do as she pleased.
As she gathered her things, she sorted through her thoughts, trying to figure out what she wanted to do with this day. She knew that she didn't want to do more programming work today, but that was about all she knew.
"At least back then there wasn't a dull moment." She muttered to herself. At last, she'd collected everything that she needed, and with her folders under her arm, she set off for the door.
Then she heard something.
She twisted about. Aelita could've sworn that she'd heard some sort of static coming from her computer, but upon a distant inspection, she found nothing. Still, a double check couldn't hurt. She stepped over to her desk, and moved the mouse of the computer around. The desktop monitor woke up, and displayed her screensaver. There was nothing out of the ordinary. She was curious, but also in a bit of a hurry, and she moved swiftly out of the room to meet with Jeremy.
As she walked through the hallway, she was careful not to run into any of the students that were still wandering the halls. With her papers clutched to her chest, she made her way out of the building, and from there it only took her a few minutes for her to reach the car, where Jeremy was already waiting.
He greeted her with a smile and a wave, a motion that she reciprocated.
"Hi Jeremy." She said, resting her papers on the roof of the car as she reached for the door. "Are you ready to go?" He nodded.
"I am. Are you?"
"Yep."
"Alright then, let's get going." The two of them opened their doors, and stepped into the car. They exchanged a few words about the day as Jeremy slipped the keys into the ignition, talking about their students, their work, their co workers, as much small talk as two teachers could exchange. Then their conversation was abruptly stopped.
Their car wasn't the most advanced, although their combined salaries, along with the revenu that came from their work as professional programmers, offered them enough funds to purchase a low end luxury vehicle. It was entirely electronic, with a system computer that controlled most of the functions. The vehicle was a very recent purchase, which is why it was so strange when the center screen flickered and died, followed by the car itself.
The abrupt shut down threw them both off, and Jeremy was slow to start the car again. He turned the keys, and the engine roared the life once again as though it hadn't just shut off.
"That's weird." Said Jeremy. He waited to see if the car would shut down again, but it didn't. It simply hummed, waiting for Jeremy's input.
"What happened?"
"I don't know, but that was weird." He faltered for a moment, looking around the car to make sure everything was running properly. "If that happens again I'll take it to the dealership to get it checked out. It's definitely still under warranty."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that. Say what you want, but I don't like that dealership. It's so slow."
"At least that gives us some time to work."
"Fair enough, but I'd rather work on the comfort of the couch, than in that place." Their car troubles were at an end, but it was strange enough that Aelita's thoughts drifted back to her computer, and how it had come alive with no reason or warning, but in the end she thought nothing of it. This was an old school that had been around since her father was young, and faulty wiring was nothing new. Nonetheless, she humored the thoughts for a little longer, wondering if there was a connection between the two. In the end, her logical mind found no link between the two events, and she forgot all about it by the time she and Jeremy arrived at their home.
They lived not far from Kadic Academy. In fact, it was just about a ten minute drive, and a ten minute walk. When the two of them had decided to become teachers at Kadic, they decided that they wanted to live nearby, and this quaint little home in the forest was the perfect place. The Hermitage was carved into the front gate. Back before they'd decided to live here, the entire building was in disrepair. Now, it stood with vibrant colors painted across its surface, and the rotting wood was replaced with strong and hardy planks. It looked just about good as new.
"I just have to get changed and put my documents in the office, and then I'll be ready to go." Said Jeremy. True to his word, Aelita knew he would be ready in no time at all. In no time at all, they would be on their way to the movies, and the memories of her nightmares would be just that; memories, no more vivid than those of the school day.
One last time, her nightmare resurfaced. It was strange more than anything. She hadn't thought of those events in years, and now without warning they were back, as though she was still fighting against Xana.
Aelita shook the thoughts from her head, and Jeremy noticed.
"Are you ok sweetheart?" He asked. He had already taken the steps up to the front door, but he was quick to return to Aelita's side. He held her hand and rested his other arm across her back.
"Yes, I'm ok." She said, holding one hand against her forehead. "Just trying to shake away the nightmare."
Jeremy rubbed her back in large circles, softly guiding her towards the front door.
"It's ok Aelita. I'm here." His words were reassuring. He wasn't often the best at consoling her, as he still knew how to deal with computer code better than people, but he tried his best. Aelita appreciated that.
With his help, she entered the building, and he took a few extra moments to ensure she was stable, before leaving to go get dressed.
As she waited, she took a long look around the room. The bookshelves whose contents were once scattered across the floor were now neat and tidy, and a few of them had been replaced with their own personal servers. A few computer lined the walls, along with large monitors that they two of them constantly worked with. Their living room alone was the envy of tech workers across the world. When she was younger, she never would have dreamed of living in a place like this, of having a life like this. In the silence of the moment, despite the nightmares and constantly nagging thoughts, she felt happy. This life was all she'd ever wanted.
Then, she heard a noise.
Jeremy adjusted his white button down shirt and light blue tie. He knew that the movies were a very casual event, but he still enjoyed being professional outside of school, or at least looking as orderly as he could. He pushed his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose, and brushed his fluffy blond hair one last time. He was ready to go, and his mood was at a high point. He stepped towards the door, but the second he touched the knob, his blood went cold.
From downstairs, he heard the unmistakable sound of a scream. It was Aelita. He threw open the door and rushed down the stairs, his feet barely tapping against the steps as he did so.
"Aelita!" He shouted down the stairs, landing on the bottom step and coming across a terrible sight. Aelita was on the ground, shuffling away from their work computers. They had been tipped over, and one of them had been torn open, but there wasn't another person in the room besides the two of them. What there was instead, was a single lengthy arm composed of black smoke. It was writing around, and from the arm came a sound like a low guttural scream. It looked so very familiar, but Jeremy wasn't about to think about that.
He rushed forward, and grabbed one of the chairs that had been thrown to the floor. He hoisted the chair above his head, and slammed it down into the tendril of smoke. It screamed again, and like a turtles head it retracted quickly, back into the computer that had been torn open. The static hiss that the smoke had emitted quickly turned to silence. Jeremy and Aelita were speechless.
Shaking himself from his stupor, Jeremy stepped, and knelt down next to Aelita. She was in shock, her eyes wide, her mouth stammering in broken silence. Jeremy did all that he could, brushing his hands through her hair and lifting her up to a seated position. The only words he could bring himself to say were "it's ok," and he struggled to even convince himself.
He stayed by her side, struggling to calm her down, but he knew he most likely wouldn't be able to. That form, that smoke, there was only one thing he knew of that could have possibly created that.
With shaking hands, he reached for his phone. His fingers tapped against the screen, and he moved the device up to his ears. He waited, and the ringing of the phone did nothing to soothe his nerves. Finally, he heard a click at the other end.
"Hey Jeremy, what's up?" Said Ulrich.
"Ulrich, get to the factory. Now."
"Max, is there anything on the radar?" Arno asked. He was of course being as vigilant as he could, but there was only so much he could do when there were towers of ice spiraling to the sky in every direction. They'd been on Lyoko for almost an hour now, and not a single monster had reared its head. He was cautious as always, but his peers were anything but.
"Nothing." Max replied. The four of them had been walking for some time now, and across the ice bridge, there'd been nothing but more ice. Well, almost nothing.
They'd been few, and very far between, but every once in a while the team caught sight of strange white spires with black roots that dug into the ground. These towers were all glowing with a strange white aura, one that almost looked haunting. They hadn't gone near one yet, as their main objective was just to explore, but Arno couldn't shake the feeling that they were important.
Jonah, on the other hand, stuck to Trisha's side like glue. He spent most of his time talking, showing off his outfit and his staff to the two new members of the team. They seemed the humor him enough. Trisha even held up a conversation with him, as though he were the most interesting thing in a science fiction virtual universe. Oliver, on the other hand, hadn't said a word the entire time. In fact, Arno was beginning to doubt that the boy could speak at all. He seemed defensive, withdrawn. Arno could relate to that.
He hadn't seen any monsters yet, but he was almost certain that they could hold their own if they encountered any. Arno's mace and Jonah's staff had been enough for the occasional monster that popped up before, but now they had two shields, a bow, and a set of throwing knives at their disposal too. They were prepared for whatever fight the world would throw their way.
"What's that?" At first, Arno paid no mind to Trisha's question, thinking that she was talking to Jonah, and either way the chances he would have an answer for her were very low.
"I don't actually know." Jonah replied. This caught Arno's attention, but not enough for him to actually turn around until he was called on. "Hey Arno?" He turned at the sound of his name, but before his eyes had even reached Jonah, they were snagged by something else.
"What in the world?" Off in the distance, there was another one those strange towers. It was on a wide plateau of ice, with nothing to disrupt the view. It was just like all the others, with one exception; its aura was glowing a dark red, and even from a ways away they could hear it humming, growling.
"That's not happened before?" Trisha asked. Arno simply examined the structure, looking for anything that could tell them what it was, but he found nothing.
"Maybe it's an objective!" Jonah cried out, and without much more than that, he took off in the direction of the red tower, followed by quick and unsuccessful orders from Arno to stop.
"Jonah!" He shouted after him, but it failed to stop the boy. He released a frustrated growl, and took off after him. "Come on," he told the others, beckoning for them to follow, "Lets go get him."
The second Ulrich had ended the call between him and Jeremy, he immediately dialed up another number. He struggled to keep the phone up to his ear as he made his way across the field.
"Hey Ulrich, what's up?" Said the voice at the other end of the line.
"Yumi!" Ulrich struggled to take in enough air to talk as he ran. "Get to the factory, now!" He heard silence, but then, he heard the sound of shattering glass, followed quickly by a stammer.
"What-" Before she could ask her full question, Ulrich continued.
"Jeremy and Aelita just called me. They think that they just saw Xana. Just get to the factory, I'll explain it all when you get there!" Then he ended the call. He wasn't 100% certain if Xana was back, but from what Jeremy and Aelita had said, this couldn't have been anything else. In the back of his mind, he wanted to doubt that they'd seen anything at all, and he caught himself praying that they were wrong, because if they weren't, then he, Yumi, Jeremy, and Aelita were the only people who could do anything about it.
The supercomputer began to beep as the screen flashed with red. A few different windows popped up, none of which Max had full time to read. One of the windows was a general scan, with a myriad of strange pillars that lined the window. It cycled through them, one after another, until it landed on one that began to flash red.
"Uh oh. Bad." He said to himself. He began to sort through the windows. He was already aware of the existence of the towers, as he and the others had seen them while wandering the great ice planes, but one had never activated like this. He wasn't sure what it meant for them, and he wasn't sure how to figure out.
"Max, what's this? Why's that tower red, is that normal?" Arno's questioned went unanswered, at least while Max spent the time to look through every tool at his disposal. The red flashing probably meant that it was a bad thing, but aside from that, he knew nothing.
"Red bad, right?"
"I have a feeling that that's just about the most coherent answer I'm gonna get. We're going to check it out."
"Aye aye!" Max replied, still sifting through the various windows. None of the screens before him did anything to explain themselves, only displaying the least bit of information that they had to in order to function. Max was going into this situation blind.
He hummed to himself while he sifted through the pages of the old journal. It hadn't left his side once in the past few weeks, but even so, he couldn't seem to find exactly what he was looking for.
"Stupid." He snapped the book shut. Max was on his own.
A noise behind him caught him off guard. It wasn't the elevator doors, nor was it the sound of footsteps. In fact, alongside the sound of metal scraping against metal, he heard the crackling of electricity. It was a sound that, when isolated, he was used to, but this was anything but. The crackling noise came in a stream, unending, and now accompanied by the sounds of crashing metal.
Max spun around in his seat. The scene before him was mostly the same as it always was, but the ground beneath him was beginning to glow. He watched in confused terror as the pannels that made up the ground beneath him were beginning to seperate. Small cracks formed on their surface, and those cracks began to bleed a strange smoke-like aura. It was black, with flecks of grey, red, purple, and all manner of dark colors swirling in the mist. Like a phantom, it began to dance and sway, emitting a strange haunting breath-like sound. It spent some time to form into one amorphous shape, but as it grew to its full height it began to grow something akin to a set of arms. It towered over Max, who had long since stepped out of his seat. He took slow steps backwards, as though the beast could detect his movements. His body was convulsing, shaking in pure terror as the beast unleashed a roar. Max screamed, but there was nobody around who could help him. Max was on his own.
It had been a very long time since Yumi had heard the words Ulrich had said over the phone. They still echoed in her head, get to the factory, over and over, like a ghost that refused to leave. She ran as fast as her legs would carry her, with her arms pumping at her sides.
As she ran, she found herself blessing the clouds; it would've been more difficult to run in her current attire if it had been sunny out. Her clothes were as dark as ever, and her fashion sense had barely changed in the page 20 years. A black shirt and pants were all that she needed. The only thing that had changed was her hair. When it wasn't done in a braid, it reached down to her mid back, although when it was in a braid it only reached down to the top of her back. Despite it being shorter, it didn't fail to stay of her face. Her hair was constantly tapping against her back, and every once in a while it even came around and slapped her face, but in times like these she couldn't bring herself to care.
The others would already be at the factory by the time she got there, and with any luck they would have already dealt with the problem. Nonetheless, she continued to run as fast as she could. The sooner she got there, the better.
Ulrich's hands hadn't felt ropeburn in a long time. Fortunately his calluses protected his hands from the brunt of it, but they weren't thick enough to keep his hands from running red. Then again, he was impressed that the ropes hadn't snapped beneath his weight. Time apparently didn't affect everything poorly.
The impact of his feet to the ground sent a shockwave up his body, but he didn't stop for more than a moment. He pulled his phone from his pocket the second his arms were free, and he rushed over to summon the elevator.
"That's weird." He said to himself. He hadn't seen the elevator be used since they last left the factory. That was over a decade ago. His thoughts were quickly pushed away as his phone call was answered.
"Ulrich, we're almost there!" Said Jeremy, out of breath. "We took the sewers, we'll be at the factory in a couple of minutes!"
"I'm waiting for the elevator now." He replied. "But I think someone's been here. The elevator was down when I got to it."
"Do you think that-"
"Xana? Maybe. I don't know. Let's just get this done, and pray that Aelita was just seeing things."
"I would've been seeing things too Ulrich, but this felt real. It busted open one of our computers." Ulrich fell silent. He thought about it, contemplating anything he could think of to disprove his fears. He couldn't think of anything.
"Just get here as soon as you can." He finally said. "Yumi's on the way too, we'll get this taken care of." Just as he was taking the phone from his ear, the elevator slid back up to the surface. Ulrich stepped in, and just as quickly as it had risen, the tram started its descent.
Max was scrambling with his back against the wall, his feet scraping against the floor in an attempt to flee from this shadowy specter. His pleading words had long since turned into incoherent babbles, and his eyes were beginning to grow red with terrorized tears. The ghost that towered over him showed no sign of mercy or humanity, and it's glitching amorphous form only lumbered forward. There was no facial expression that he could see, and the hands were beginning to sharpen into rounded claws. The only sound he could hear behind the static was a sort of low growling, as though the creature were intelligent enough to know that it wanted blood.
The growl was interrupted. Behind the monster, there was the sound of electricity, followed by a sound that Max had gotten used to; the sound of the elevator. The specter twisted around, and it was met with a sight that it didn't care for. Max could see through its form, but only enough to make out a human body that was running very quickly towards them both.
"Eat this!" The body drove his arm forward, and a fist broke through the ghastly form, enough to temporarily shatter it into mist. Max didn't see much beyond that, as the second he had control of his body, it crumpled into a ball, holding its legs against its chest and softly quivering. The man spent very little time wallowing in accomplishment. He knelt down, gently shaking Max's shoulder. "Hey, kid, are you alright?" Max looked up with red misty eyes. He looked around, just to make sure that the monster was gone, before slowly nodding. "Good, cuz I might need your help."
"Still no word?" Asked Trisha. Arno nodded.
"Still nothing." There'd been no word from Max for the past few minutes. Even when he didn't have an answer, there was still some form of explanation or affirmation that he was listening. Now, there was nothing.
"Does that normally happen?"
"Not at all. He might not speak French but he's as much of a chatterbox as Jonah is sometimes."
"Why thank you!" Jonah quipped. Arno didn't bother responding. Right now, all they had to do was wait for something to happen. They'd been standing around the strange tower for just as long as Max had been silent, but there'd been no trace of any monster or oddity.
"Does something normally happen before the monsters appear?"
"Right now, you know about as much as I do." Arno replied. "They come out of the sky, but they have to load for a second before they can do anything."
"You mean like that?" Trisha's arm shot out, her finger pointed off into the distance. There, a shape was beginning to take form. "What is that thing?"
"I don't know. It just looks like a giant box?"
The distant shape of a box was indeed starting to take form, about 50 or so meters out. First its shape was defined, then its colors became clear. Then it was materialized.
This new creation was nothing more than a box, with a few tiny legs on its underside. It looked like it was made of sandstone, but at the center of each of its horizon-facing-faces was a white sphere embedded into it, bearing that same strange shape that Arno and Jonah had seen on the Tarantulas. Whatever it was, chances are, it wasn't friendly.
Arno raised his arms to his chest, keeping his protective micro-shields close, but he didn't make it one step forward before Trisha stepped ahead of him, raising her shield to her own chest.
"Is that thing a friendly?"
"I doubt it." He reached to his back, and pulled out both of his maces to hold them by his side. He extended the spikes.
"I'm ready to defend."
"You seem pretty well adjusted."
"I could say the same about you." She replied. Arno shrugged.
"I still have my reservations. But I guess I've been through a lot." He leaned back, just enough to talk to the other two without taking his focus off of the block. "Hold steady. Oliver, get that thing out of the fight. Jonah, be ready to hop onto the offensive, alright?"
"You got it!" Jonah replied. He and Oliver stepped out just enough to keep an eye on the block, which was now being followed by three more of its kind.
"Oliver." Said Arno, but the boy was already notching an arrow.
With the projectile on his string, he waited for the perfect moment to strike. When it came, the block didn't even have time to see the arrow before it landed in the center eye. The creature staggered back, and exploded, sending fragments of its form across the ice. One was down, but there were three others on their way, and Oliver's second arrow missed its mark. The blocks were drawing closer, and they seemed to get faster the further along they went. Another arrow whizzed by, and another block fell, leaving only two with a rapidly shrinking distance between the two parties.
Arno raised his hand.
"Hold your fire. Jonah, take the right, I'll take the left, you two stay here and defend the tower." He took a step, but then reconsidered. He twisted about, and yelled out to Trisha. "Trade!" He called, giving her barely a moment's notice before he threw one of his maces in an underhanded arc. She dropped one of her shields in a panic to catch the mace, and upon hitting the ground it happened to slide over to Arno's foot. "Thank you." He said, slapping his foot down on the rim of the shield. It flipped upward, slipping out from under his boot, and he caught it at eye level. "Alright Jonah, let's go." He ordered, resuming his pace towards the blocks with Jonah hot on his heels.
"Just so you know," Said the boy, struggling to keep up with Arno's quick pace, "that looked awesome."
"Thank you." He replied. "It would've been even cooler if I had meant to do that."
Arno held Trisha's shield high, keeping it at the ready to deflect any stray blaster bullets. He was able to block a majority of them, but the ones that he couldn't shield were easily avoided by him and Jonah, who stuck very closely behind him, waiting for him to give the word. The two approached quickly, even causing the blocks to cease their pursuit and hold their ground. A few more laser bolts later, the two were ready to strike.
"Now!" Arno called. He and Jonah dove in different directions as two more laser bolts were fired off. Before the blocks even had a chance to charge up another attack, Jonah threw a fireball at the center eye of the right block, and Arno had lodged the spikes of his mace in the eye of the left. The both exploded just as the first two had done, and after a few moments their remnants vanished too.
"Good job Jonah." Arno congratulated the boy with a pat on his shoulder. "Now let's get back to the others."
Before they had even turned around, they heard Trisha yelling after them.
"Arno! Jonah!" She called. They turned, and saw that the other two had company.
Oliver stuck to Trisha's backside as the two backed away from the tower, followed by three flying worm-like creatures with the wings of dragonflies. They were quick, agile, able to swirl around through the air fast enough to dodge Oliver's arrows, and every so often they would launch a red hot bolt from their tails.
"Jonah, go! Fireball them out of the air if you can!" He pushed on Jonah's back, shoving him a few steps into a run while Arno cupped one hand to his mouth, with the other around the rim of Trisha's shield. "Trisha!" He yelled, his voice echoing across the ice. She turned, between the blocking of blaster bolts, with a worried expression across her face. She saw Arno, with the shield readied like a frisbee, and she pulled herself and Oliver down to the ground.
Arno took a few steps forward, and after pulling his arm as far back as he could, he spun the disk through the air so hard that it almost popped his shoulder. The disk soared through the air, waving above Jonah's head as it barreled towards the flying creatures. It struck the center one, instantly destroying it, and the other two began to swirl around, shocked and stunned, before a fireball from Jonah wiped the others out.
After making sure his shoulder was still attached to him, Arno took off towards the others, both to make sure they were alright, and to reclaim his other mace.
"Are you all ok?"
"Yeah, thanks to you two." Trisha replied. She stooped down to help Oliver up, and even after he was, she kept a hand on his shoulder, until her eyes went wide and she screamed.
"Look out!" Trisha shoved past arno, and her shield just barely blocked another laster, but not from a block or a flying creature. Instead, it came from a pair of tarantulas.
They moaned and croaked to each other as they fired, and the lasers were almost enough to push Trisha back, but she was smart enough to know how to hold her ground. She waited for just the right moment, when the blasters ceased their firing, then with a grunt she shoved her shield into the ice. It cracked, and gave way beneath her weight. She then placed her other shield on top, and when the firing squad continued, it failed to push her back.
"Jonah, fireball between them so that Oliver can get a clear shot!"
"I'm on it!" The boy held his staff close, and the tip was igniting.
"Fireball!" His words summed a ball of flame to the tip of his weapon, and he rolled out into the open for just long enough to blast a sphere of flames into the open air. Before the fireball had even reached its destination the firing had stopped, and Oliver spun out of hiding. He notched another arrow, took aim, then he fired. The fireball was a perfect distraction, and one of the tarantulas was dispatched with ease, leaving one one other. This was was slightly more evasive, but only slightly; two more arrows were expended, with the second one hitting the mark in its forehead. It gave off one final groan, and then it died.
At last, the group was met with a haunting silence. If nothing else, it gave them time to catch their breath.
"Is it normal to have to fight this many?" Asked Trisha.
"This is a first for us." Arno replied. He took a moment to scan the horizon. "The monsters aren't normally this abundant. Something's probably up."
"It's fun though!" Said Jonah. He skipped out into the open, humming a little tune under his breath. "This is one of the best games I've ever played!"
"Don't get cocky, kid." Arno ordered. Jonah's skipping came to a halt, but the humming continued. "We don't know if they're coming back, or how many others there'll be."
"Hey! Hey!" The sudden ringing of a voice from the sky was enough to startle all four of them. Each one of the children almost fell over from surprise, and Oliver immediately leapt to Trisha's side. The voice belonged to Max, but the sudden start and high volume wasn't appreciated by any of them.
"Max!" Arno's voice came out as a roar. "Where've you been?"
"Bad!" Max shot back. "Later, horses are coming!" Arno gave the heavens a silent and frustrated glare.
"What the hell does that mean?!" Max offered no response. Arno's hands flew up to his sides with a huff.
"Horses are coming?" Asked Trisha.
"I like horses!"
"Shut up Jonah."
"Not now Jonah." Trisha and Arno shot back.
"What? They're cool!" Arno didn't have the time to shoot him down again before they heard something else.
A sort of skittering could be heard across the ice, like the sound of a block when it was walking, but this sound was much lighter, and significantly faster. After a lot of looking around, Jonah finally spotted, and pointed out to the group, a rather small monster that was making its way across the ice. It was small, about the size of the flying things from a few minutes back, but the back of its body was covered in small spikes, and its legs looked something like a spiders. It had one single eye in the center of its brown prickly body, and that damn symbol was on display across its forehead. It was a symbol Arno was getting tired of seeing. He stepped out, ready to deal with it. However, upon stepping into view, he was met with not one, but five of the creatures. He was so tired of that symbol.
He immediately scrambled backwards, as the second the creatures eyed him, their eyes began to glow. He needed to be closer than he was now to deal with them. They fired, but Trisha heard the noise, and was there to block the bolts. They were softer than those of the tarantulas, so even taking five of them wasn't enough to knock her down. She turned to Arno, and with a nod, they both understood what to do.
She moved forward, crouched low to the ground, taking as many of the bolts as she could until they were finally close enough.
"Spin!" Arno ordered. Trisha spun around, and Arno stepped forward to fill the vacated space, swinging his mace into all five of the little vermin creatures. With that single arc of his arm, all of them were obliterated, but as the sound of more footsteps told them, they were far from done. More monsters were approaching, this time from ahead, and far off to the left.
"More?!" Trisha sounded just as exhausted as Arno felt, but he didn't show it like she did.
"Looks like it." He replied. There were two more blocks coming from each direction, four in total. "Shield." He reached out one hand, onto which she laid one of her shields, which he exchanged for a mace. They held their weapons at the ready, but holding out against the monsters was becoming more and more of a hassle. Arno wasn't certain how much longer they would be able to hold their ground if they continued to spawn.
"Arno! Trisha!" Jonah called out to them, panic rising in his voice. They turned, and saw that both Jonah and Oliver were being pushed away from the tower by a new pair of monsters. These ones were different than before; large salmon colored disks suspended by four long armored legs. The top of their heads bore the familiar symbol, and at the front of their thinly sliced heads were a set of eyes, out of which Arno presumed they could fire even more lasers. The two creatures lumbered forward, and the few fireballs that Jonah shot up to them were either blocked by their armored limbs, or they simply smashed against the creature's underside with no effect.
Jonah and Oliver were being pushed away from the tower, and neither Arno nor Trisha could deal with the other monsters without taking their attention away from the blocks. As usual, Arno had a plan, but he wasn't sure it would work.
"Trisha do you think you could launch Oliver up?"
"I don't think so. Even if I could it wouldn't be very high." The two examined the four monsters that were closing in on their position. The blocks were starting to charge their attacks; even if Arno moved back to defend the other two, he would more than likely be hit by the crossfire of all six of the monsters. He wouldn't make it further than a few paces before he would be shot to death, whatever death was in this virtual world.
"I don't see any good options here." He confessed to Trisha. The two drew closer together, almost standing back to back.
"You and me both. Here, hand me my shield. I'll run back with you and try to cover us while we make it back to the others." Arno moved to return Trisha's shield to her, but before he could move, they both heard a voice that was didn't come from Jonah or Oliver.
"Impact!"
The two allowed themselves to be distracted for a moment, enough to turn and see one of the disks explode in a flurry of scraps. A vague and quick moving shape leapt from the top of the monster before it had exploded, and immersed in a strange yellow aura, it was very quickly making its way over to Arno and Trisha. Although it took a few seconds to recognize, Arno was certain that the man looked familiar.
He stopped just before them, skidding to a halt on the ice.
"I don't remember ordering seafood." He said.
"Who are you?" Arno stepped in front of Trisha. The man gave a two finger salute just under a head of dark brown hair, and above a face covered in tiny stubble hairs. He looked like some sort of unarmored samurai; dark brown knee-high boots, yellow headband, and a uniform of yellow and brown with leather armor on his shoulders and arms, and with two katana blades, one sheathed on his back, the other in his hand.
"Ulrich Stern." He said. The name rung a bell in the back of Arno's mind.
"The gym teacher?!" He said, in disbelief. He opened his mouth to ask another question, but the skittering of the approaching blocks were a bit more pressing. "Go deal with the other monster back there, Trisha and I will handle the blocks." He ordered. Ulrich, however, seemed to have other plans.
"Or," he said, drawing his other blade, "I could show you how a Lyoko veteran handles things." Before Arno or Trisha could question him, he gave off a shout. "Triplicate!" Suddenly, he dashed off in three separate directions. Arno almost couldn't believe his eyes, but three Ulrichs were taking off at incredible speeds, two in the directions of the blocks, and the third running back towards the other creature. Within three seconds, all of the Ulrich's had drawn their blades, and both pairs of blocks, along with the unidentified monster, were gone in a flash.
"Come on." Arno tugged at Trisha's arms, and the two of them started to run back to Oliver and Jonah.
"That's so cool!" They heard Jonah singing Ulrich's praises before they had even reached the tower. "How did you do that? Can I do that? Can we all do that?"
"Slow down kiddo." Said Ulrich, sheathing his blades. "Right now we have a mission to complete. After that, I have a lot of questions for you all." He then turned his head skyward, and addressed someone else. "Yo Jeremy, you there?"
"I hear you Ulrich."
It was a very familiar feeling, sitting in the chair again after all these years. Although he was a bit rusty, his fingers felt right at home on the computer keys. He'd been there for a few minutes already, checking the primary systems and attempting to figure out what exactly was going on. Meanwhile, the kid who'd introduced himself as Max was watching with wide eyes as he watched one of the computer science teachers work a super computer like it was nothing.
Every expectation that he'd had upon reaching the factory had been shattered. He'd expected to find Lyoko empty, yet there were four children already in the world fighting monsters. He wasn't certain if this reassured him, or if it discouraged him. Nonetheless, he continued his work, and before long he had a full view of the field that surrounded the others.
Ulrich was at its center, and the four children surrounded him. He heard the sound of shockingly casual conversation, along with the general ambiance of Lyoko itself, and the hum of the red tower.
Seeing so many people on Lyoko, Jeremy had thought it unwise to send everyone available, so Yumi stayed behind trying to make sense of what Maxwell was trying to say at any given time. Aelita, however, was immediately sent down the the scanner room. There was no time to lose. He wasn't certain if or when the specter would return, but they had to be ready for when it did.
There was a sense of dread instilled in his chest as his fingers scanned the keys, trying to get a good sense of what was happening. One of the towers had been activated in the ice region, but how strong it was, was something he didn't have enough information to answer. Instead, he simply kept a close eye on the situation, waiting for Aelita to touch ground.
"Aelita, are you there?" He asked. He had started the virtualization process for her, but there was some sort of error. It said she wasn't even in the scanner. "Aelita!" Just after he'd called out for her, he heard her from down below.
"Jeremy!" She called. There was panic in her voice. Jeremy was out of his chair in a split second, and in just one more he was sticking his head down the hole that led to the scanner room.
Aelita stood in the very center of a massive mess of scrap metal, at the border of which was a flurry of sparks emanating from the wires that used to be connected to the scanners. Now, they were only connected to the air, and the scanners had been reduced to scrap in the time between Ulrich had virtualized himself, and now. Aelita couldn't set foot on Lyoko.
"So how about you explain things while your friends do what they need to do?" Asked Arno, his arms crossed over his chest. Ever since Ulrich had arrived, the ice had been mostly silent. There hadn't been a single new monster in a few minutes, and even still, he'd failed to explain anything. Arno wasn't sure what he was waiting for, but even the simplest explanation would still suffice.
"I said I would explain everything when all of this was said and done." Ulrich shot back, not even bothering to glance in Arno's direction.
"And when will it be said and done? I don't see your friends anywhere." Ulrich didn't respond to this. Instead, his eyes continued to scan the horizon. He called up to Jeremy again.
"Jeremy?"
"Ulrich, we have a problem." Jeremy's voice came across in a highly worried tone, and in the background everyone could hear heavy steps being taken back and forth. "The scanners are down. All of them. We can't get to Lyoko."
"That means we can't get back." Said Arno. Jeremy's silence on the other end was as much of a confirmation as Arno needed. "Who broke the scanners? Why? What's going on?" Arno pushed Jeremy for an answer, but he and Ulrich carried on casual conversation as though he weren't even there.
"Can a return to the past fix it?"
"Well, yes, but the tower is still active, and making Xana more powerful in the middle of an attack is super risky, we don't know what he'll be able to do."
"But is it worth a shot?"
"I think we have to try it. What else can we do?"
"And the scanners are broken beyond repair?"
"Whatever that specter did, it'll take a week to get it back up and running. We don't have that time."
"If you two are done, I think that we'd like to know what the hell is happening!" Arno stomped his foot into the snow, sending a flurry of snowflakes into the air, and drawing Ulrich's agitated attention.
"Then I'll tell you this once, got it?" He continued without waiting for a response. "You kids just so happened to wake up an old computer virus that can mess with the outside world, so we have to clean up after you! But Aelita is the only one who can deactivate the tower, but that virus that you guys woke up just so happen to destroy her only ticket to Lyoko!"
"Wait, so this is a bad thing?" Asked Jonah. He turned and looked the tower up and down, scanning his eyes along the pure white surface and the red smoke it spat out. "Oh that's easy then! It's like a boss then!" Everyone turned to the boy just in time to see him raise his staff into the air, and both Ulrich and Arno shot their arms out, simultaneously yelling 'no!', but it wasn't enough to stop the boy. His staff collided with the tower.
Suddenly, the entire structure began to glow white, and his staff, followed by the rest of him, was quickly swallowed by the tower with a yelp.
"Jonah!" Arno yelled, his feet carrying him a few steps to the tower. He planted his hands on the black surface of its roots, and much to his surprise, the same glow began to spread from his hands while his body was pulled inside.
Unable to stop himself from being pulled into the tower, he braced himself. He didn't know what was on the other side, but he did know that whatever it was, it probably wasn't good.
At last, Arno felt the pull release him, and he stood in the middle of some sort of digital tube, with a myriad of light blue screens separating them, from a black void. The ground he stood on felt otherworldly compared to the outside world. It was grey and white, and it bore that same damn symbol that Arno was growing tired of, but that wasn't the focus of his attention.
Jonah stood at the center of the circle, his eyes moving everywhere except for the data pannel that had popped up before him. Arno was far too frustrated with the boy to point it out.
"You lunatic!" He exclaimed, taking a few angry steps in the boys direction. "I swear you're going to get yourself killed, or worse! Did you even know what was inside this thing, do you even know what this thing is for?!" Even with a tight grip on his shoulder he couldn't get Jonah to focus on anything, and when he at last turned to face him, he saw a smile on his face. He pointed forwards, towards the pannel that hovered in the air before him.
"I found something!"
For a moment, Arno was dumbfounded. Nothing could faze this child. He wasn't sure if he were impressed by that or not. Nonetheless, Arno looked with Jonah towards the control pannel. It was empty, save for a few windows that were running some strange program. Neither of them could figure out what exactly what it was for, but it seemed important.
"Just don't touch it yet, got it?"
"Got it." Said Jonah, tapping the screen a few times with his fingers.
"Jonah I swear!" Arno gripped the boys shoulders and tried to tug him away, but all he did was knock the boy off balance. With a yell, he fell backwards, and then forwards again, and his palm slapped flat on the screen.
For a moment, there was nothing but an affirmative noise, followed by four rounded corners that surrounded the handprint on the screen. Then, something happened.
The screen glitched. Its borders were suddenly null, as though it were broken, but then it quickly fixed itself, and a couple lines of text began to appear letter by letter.
Code Glitch.
Arno watched the screen with a mix of fear and curiosity. The text remained on the screen for some time, but after a while it faded away, and the data screens around them began to fall into the void beneath them. The sudden blackness sent a chill down Arno's spine, and he softly placed his hands on Jonah's shoulders.
"Come on, lets get out of here."
Jeremy watched his computer screen with disbelief. The tower was deactivated. The red aura that it had worn just moments before was gone, as in typical fashion, the super scan went dark again.
"Ulrich, tell me I'm not seeing things." He said. His hand roughly tapped his cheeks a few times, as though he were trying to make sure he wasn't asleep.
"You're not. The tower's been deactivated."
"How? What happened? You said that the two kids went in, and then suddenly the tower went dark?!"
"Yes! That's exactly what happened!" Ulrich replied. Jeremy was speechless. He wasn't certain what to do, but he knew that after that, he needed some answers.
He watched his on screen radar as the two kids emerged from the tower, one after the other. They started talking. Jeremy slipped his glasses off of his nose, and rubbed the bridge while trying to process what he'd just seen.
Xana was back, there was no questioning that, but just as they'd experienced their first Xana attack in 20 years, a group of children appear with the ability to solve the problem. If he hadn't just seen them do it, he wouldn't have believed it, but right now wasn't the right time to stand on ceremony. He knew that all four of them would remember everything now, all except for the Maxwell, but he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. However, no matter what, it was time for a return to the past.
"Everyone, brace yourselves. I'm launching a return to the past." Before he'd typed in the command, he'd heard the voices of three of the four children, but he didn't process exactly what they were saying. He wrote out the code, and then with the click of a button the world began to wash with a pure white light. It was a sensation that Jeremy hadn't felt in years.
Authors Notes:
20 pages in google docs. If any of you were waiting for this chapter I really hope it delivered, because I really felt shaky about this one at the 17 page mark, but I felt like spoiling you all with a long chapter anyways. The pacing might feel off, but honestly, that's because it seemed like y'all wanted things to speed up a bit, and for the conflict to really start, so here it is; the first Xana attack, and the first time the whole group meets. If I seem slow to upload at all, that's because I'll either be working on my YouTube or Twitch content, or I'll be writing my own Novel; a short story anthology.
Leave your thoughts if you feel so inclined, I'd love to hear what you all think.
If you feel like making any donations, and doing so would not put you at risk, the link to do so is pay name is BlueWing10