He Who Calls
Chapter 34
It was late at night on Christmas Day. The Lyoko Warriors were sitting in Aelita's room with a pizza, popcorn, soda, chocolate, and every other awesome party thing known to man.
"I haven't revealed my present yet," said Milo. "To Aelita, mainly, but we need the Mini-Scans to run it."
"All right," said Ulrich, and they ran out into the hall.
"I've been working on it for a while," said Milo as he typed. "And may I present to you, Franz Hopper!" A man materialized in the Mini-Scan. He took off his orange glasses and rubbed his eyes.
"Aelita?" he said.
"Father?" she asked tentatively.
"How did I get off the internet?"
"Milo did it!" said Aelita excitedly. "He was working on the virtualization program this whole time!"
"Milo? Is that the boy who reactivated the supercomputer and Xana?"
"No, that was Jeremy."
"I know about people called Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich, and I knew they had a friend who activated the computer. Who is Milo?"
"The new team member. My boyfriend."
"Oh, well, you could've mentioned you were dating him. Where is he?"
"Um, here," said Milo. He stepped away from the computer. "I'm Juanita Black's adoptive nephew."
"Son," said Juanita. "I just finished the process and I adopted you, and Odd. Franz, is that you?"
"Juanita? You're the one harboring the Lyoko Warriors? I should have guessed," he said with a smile. "It's good to see you again, old friend."
"So Milo and I are brothers now?" asked Odd.
"Yeah," said Milo. "Not stepbrothers or half-brothers, even. Brothers. Adoptive brothers."
"Father," said Aelita. "It's Christmas and we're in a state of lockdown. No one can come in or go out. Because Xana has made copies of the Man in Grey."
"Oh, no," said Franz. "What has the Man in Grey done?"
"Killed Milo's and Odd's parents, for a start," said Yumi. "Then made us think Aelita was an adulteress and a whore. We've killed two, but Xana has tons more."
"How exactly did he make Aelita look like a whore?" asked Franz, now apparently interested. "He doesn't know a thing about emotions. How did he manipulate yours?"
"He learned from Xana," said Aelita before anyone could go into a detailed explanation. "It's good to see you again, even after all this time."
"It's… Good to see you too," said Franz. "But we'll have time for celebration after I've figured out how I can help."
"All right. Jeremy and I are recreating Xanadu and Troy. Milo is trying to isolate Xana's hiding places so we can virtualize there. Odd is recovering from when the Man in Grey shot him in the leg. Ulrich and Yumi are watching out for Xana attacks. And Juanita is healing Odd's leg. He can walk now, by the way, but he can't fight yet."
"All right. What were you all doing right before you virtualized me?"
"Um…" Aelita muttered as everyone's eyes went straight to the floor. "Christmas party."
"Well then," said Franz with a smile. "You better get back to it. Juanita and I can reprogram Troy and Xanadu in minutes."
"All right. Just don't get too close. You can't have a romantic relationship without ruining mine," said Aelita, smiling back. The Lyoko Warriors ran off to have their party.
"Do kids always joke like that?" Franz asked Juanita, confused.
"Always," said Juanita wearily. "Always."