Chapter 4:

"Did you find anything?" Aelita asked as she and her other friends walked out of the elevator, after going back to school in order to make sure everything was okay. Oddly enough, it appeared that Xana had nothing to do with any of this newest weirdness.

"You could say that." Jeremy admitted sourly as they gathered around him and he pulled up a new video, this one of the lab, showing the very computer they were looking at as their intruder limped over to the chair and plugged something into the main frame.

"Whatever he did there, it must have removed the knowledge of his transfer from the system." Jeremy continued mutely. "The programs that brought him here, his ID card, everything."

"Can you get them back?" Yumi put in only for their friend to shake his head.

"Unfortunately, no, it was a complete removal. I don't know who this guy is, but he was prepared."

"What about the cameras?" Ulrich asked, pointing at said video. "He didn't get them."

"Likely because he didn't have time." Jeremy proclaimed just as the movie showed the stranger getting out of the chair in a hurry, so he could climb up into the rafters of the lab, just as the five of them arrived in the elevator.

"I don't believe it." Odd stated as he looked up at the space. "He must have been right above us the whole time."

"We really need to start paying more attention to these things." Ulrich muttered sourly under his breath.

"Good news is I do have a plan for finding him." Jeremy added quickly, causing them all to look back at him again as he started typing away on something. "That little device he used might have left a signal behind, if I can find it – we can track him."

"Well, why didn't you say so?" Odd complained jokingly, leaving everyone to smile for a moment as they waited for Jeremy to work his magic.

…

"There –" He called after several minutes, causing them all to quickly rush back over to the chair, after having moved about the area to keep from dying of boredom. "I've got it." He announced with a smile as they watched a map of the area show up on screen and rotate a bit in an attempt to find the location of the signal.

However, when it did, his grin promptly dropped.

"What is it, where is he?" Ulrich demanded, only to receive an answer in the form of Jeremy jumping out of his chair and rushing to the elevator, throwing out his answer as more of an afterthought than anything.

"He's at the school." He proclaimed worriedly as his friends followed him into the elevator, still trying to find out what was so bad about that – until he finished the statement that is – then they completely understood.

"He's in my room."

…

"Wow." Jonas stated as he looked up at the academy and smiled. He'd almost forgotten what it looked like. He made to quickly duck behind a pillar as a form he recognized all too well as Jim Morales walked by, before moving to make his way through a door that he knew would take him to the stairwell.

Thankfully, he only ran into one other person on his way upstairs, but the younger boy was too concerned with rushing off to start his three-week vacation to even notice someone that was clearly too old to still be at their school, walking the halls.

Once he'd reached a seemingly random door he knelt down to carefully pull a set of lock-picks from his pocket, which allowed him to enter the room with barely 30 seconds going by.

"I can't believe he still has that." Jonas laughed as he eyed the poster of Einstein on the wall before walking over to the computer at the other end of the room and sat down.

Pulling the same little device he had used before from his pocket and stuck it into this computer as well, he then quickly started typing as the thing did its job. However, once again his task was interrupted when his watch beeped and he looked down to realize that the Lyoko Warriors had discovered he was there, given that their location was quickly converging on his.

"Good thing I have a lot of time on my hands." He joked sourly as he finished the message and once again removed the device before making like a tree and left the building before he was discovered.

"Hey, who are you?" Jim commanded as he slipped out the opposite way his pursuers were taking, only to run into the slightly over weight teacher. "Non-students are not allowed in the dormitories." He proclaimed sternly as he stormed up to the younger man.

"That's right, I'm sorry Jim." He stated cheerily, as if he'd just remembered such a thing, causing the man to stop and raise an eyebrow at him.

"Do I know you?" He asked skeptically as Jonas walked up to pat him on the shoulder respectfully.

"Not yet." He answered truthfully before heading for the school gate, leaving the confused and misinformed man in his wake.

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