He Who Calls
Chapter 28
Everyone was splashing around and swimming. Odd's swim trunks were characteristically purple, which was strange compared to Milo's bronze, Ulrich's green, and Jeremy's blue. Yumi wore black and Aelita pink. Milo was chuckling about how addictively they stick to their distinctive colors. He was also throwing a torpedo back and forth with Aelita, each trying to out do the other with acrobatic underwater tricks. Milo cartwheeled three times without touching the ground and tossed the torpedo upside-down. Aelita flipped over and tossed it into the air, kicking it toward Milo as it landed in the water. They continued the patterns. Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich were engaged in a splash fight. They were chasing after Jeremy, who was covering his head with his arms.
The Man in Grey was on a small hill next to the ocean. He clapped a silencer onto his pistol. He slowly lowered it and aimed at Aelita.
"Milo! The hill!" screamed Juanita as she ran out of the house. Milo looked up at the hill as the Man in Grey fired.
"Aelita! Get down!" Milo yelled, and jumped onto her. They fell under the water as the bullet passed. "Run! Everyone!" The Man in Grey was firing randomly down at the Lyoko Warriors as they ran toward the house. One bullet found its mark in Odd's leg.
"Ah! Ow!" he screamed as he fell.
"Odd!" Ulrich shouted. He and Jeremy quickly picked him up and dragged him into the house. They all got in and slammed the door shut.
"Lockdown," said Juanita. The door locked. Steel walls fortified all doors and windows. "Working for the government has its advantages," she said. "But if I had known the Man in Grey was back I would have made you stay in until he was gone. Your father was insane to make anything like him," she said to Aelita.
"You knew my father?" she asked, stricken.
"Maybe I should tell you the whole story," said Juanita.
"Yes," said Milo. "You should."
"It all started with a government project called Project Xanadu," she said. "Franz Hopper and I were supposed to design a virtual world to train soldiers in. We made the world and called it Xanadu. We also made an enemy to try to beat the soldiers. It was a dangerous program, capable of creating horrible monsters on Xanadu. We called it Black Ghost. But Black Ghost got the better of us. It went wild and killed many of the soldiers on the real world through Tower Attacks. It activated towers on Xanadu. And eventually ate it. With all the power of Xanadu in it, we thought we could delete it. But it hung on. When we created another virtual world, we called it Troy. It didn't have an intelligent enemy, just monsters. But Black Ghost infected it. It eventually enveloped Troy as well. At that point we had to stop. But Franz went farther. He created a virtual world called Lyoko. Black Ghost infected it, now calling himself Xana. When the government found out they tried to stop Franz. But he and his daughter Aelita went to Lyoko. Xana didn't like that. So Aelita was locked in a tower and Franz hidden away when the government shut down the supercomputer. Years later you reactivated it. I've been keeping an eye on you. You rescued Aelita, let Xana escape to the internet, rebuilt Lyoko, and incorporated my adopted nephew into your plans. So, Lyoko Warriors, Xana has stopped playing around. The Man in Grey was a robot designed to guard the supercomputer. He was deactivated for a while, but Xana has gotten control of him. The Man in Grey will try his best to assassinate you every time you turn a corner. And I need to know what you plan to do next."
"Is it possible to rebuild Xanadu and Troy?" asked Jeremy, his mind racing.
"I can do it. Why?" asked Juanita.
"Because, Xana wants to destroy Lyoko so we can't fight him. It takes a lot of time to rebuild Lyoko, and, theoretically, we could use Xanadu and Troy as contingency worlds to fight him."
"What are you going to do about the Man in Grey?"
"We're going to have to find a way to destroy it."