Where's Ulrich?

Karen

The white dragon had a conversation with the pink-gold, and the two of them went through their classes.

At the lunch hour, they all met up, and again had a conversation. Then White and Pink-gold walked off talking some more.

Night came and White lay down in her cave – alone. Then Pink-gold came back with her head hanging, the very picture of a dragon in mourning.

I looked up at the ceiling. If my dream was anything to go by, today was going to mostly be boring. Though, what was the tragedy going to be?

"So what was your dream?" I hopped up and looked at the other bed. Aelita was sitting up looking at me.

"It was just us talking together, going through classes, the whole shebang. We hooked up with your other friends in the lunch room, and Odd took a lot of your food, so I had given you mine and went off to get more myself. Then there was more talking, mostly between you and me again, and…" I sighed. "The end had me in the draconic version of this room. Alone. Well, okay, you came back, but you looked sad."

"I wonder what I'm going to be sad about." Aelita looked thoughtful.

"Yeah, that sort of thing always leaves me wondering."

Aelita

I looked at Karen. She looked like she was going to tell me something. "What's up?"

Karen answered, "I'm just glad we're friends. I haven't been able to tell anyone about my dreams, because I was afraid that they'd laugh. Since coming here, not telling anyone was actually easy, because it seemed as if no one really wanted me to be in their group or team. I was actually happy when Odd confronted me."

That hurt. See, I had yet to tell her about the one big secret that kept her from really being a part of our group: the secret of Lyoko. How long could I go without telling her?

We went off to our first class, and Jeremie whispered to me, "I have figured out something about Sector Five. Over the lunch period, we need to get rid of Karen so that I can explain it."

I nodded, but I wished that Jeremie could have phrased that a little better. I mean, "get rid of Karen?" Why couldn't we just tell her?

We all sat down for lunch. Ulrich asked, "So…what does my dragon look like, Karen?" He was probably trying to make for conversation until we could – sigh – ditch her.

Karen became all smiles, and she answered, "Well, like I told Aelita last night, her dragon is a pink-gold. You and Jeremie, Ulrich, are both bronzes."

She almost continued, but Yumi asked, "What's the difference between bronze and brown? I don't see it."

Karen told her, "Bronzes are generally larger, and they make for better leaders."

While Ulrich grinned at Odd, she went on, "Jeremie's bronze is smaller than Ulrich's, but it has a kinder face, and...rings around its eyes." Jeremie laughed and self-consciously straightened his glasses. "Yours, Yumi," Yumi straightened, "is a fairly dark gold, and for some reason it's smaller than Ulrich's dragon. Don't ask; that's just the way it is."

Yumi shrugged; then she looked at Odd and yelled, "Odd! Can't you get enough to eat?"

I looked down in surprise. Odd had finished off the food on my tray!

Karen laughed and said, "Here, Aelita. I didn't eat any of my food. I'll go and explain to Rosa. For some reason, she likes me." And she tossed her hair over her shoulder, gave me her tray, and walked off.

Jeremie watched her leave, then told us, "I have figured out how to get you virtualized directly into Sector Five. Unfortunately, in order to know if it works, I'm gonna need a…"

Odd filled in for him. "Guinea pig?"

"Right! Any volunteers?"

Nobody spoke. Not even me. Jeremie had tried to experiment before, and they didn't always turn out well.

Then Odd held up four string beans in his hand. "Short string bean is it."

We each took one, and I sighed in relief as I looked at mine. It was pretty long.

Ulrich looked at his hand and the inch-long string bean in it. "I guess today's not my day."

Jeremie told him, "We're gonna go to the factory tonight."

Ulrich gave his soda can to Odd. "Here, Odd. You can have my cherry soda if this doesn't work."

Odd started acting silly. "Really? Gee, Ulrich, I couldn't possibly take it. Here, Yumi. You are a better candidate to own something from the first person to make it into Sector Five without passing Go." And he gave the can to Yumi…just as Karen sat down at the table again.

We stared at her in worry. Would she figure out that there was a secret?

Karen said, sounding impressed, "That must be some video game!"

I could tell by her face that she was wondering why we all laughed.

Karen

We left the lunch room and I asked, "Were you talking about a video game?"

Aelita answered slowly, "Actually, its's more like a computer game. There is…a world in danger from a…dark spirit named XANA, and only a few warriors can stop him."

"Oh. And I guess there are five levels, all of them looking different? I mean, one is a forest, one a desert, et cetera, et cetera?"

"Yes! Exactly like that! And before you can play this game, you need to create your own character, and decide its stats. Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and I all have characters in this game. Jeremie is more like a game master; he tells us when monsters are coming, so that we can destroy them."

"Wow. I have got to try this game someday!"

Aelita looked worried. Was it something I said?

"Relax, Aelita. I said someday."

Her expression didn't change any. Oh, well. Maybe their game had a limit of four players; most video games did. Yeah, that was probably it.

So why did Aelita still look so worried?

Jeremie

We went to the factory that night to try out my new program.

"Are you sure about this, Jeremie?" Ulrich was probably a little nervous. Understandable, considering what has happened on other experiments of mine.

"Positive! Well, about nintey-eight percent."

I typed in the code to send Ulrich into Sector Five. "Virtualization!"

Then we all knew something was wrong. Ulrich no longer showed up on my screen!

Karen

The white dragon and the pink-gold dragon met up with Little Brown, and all of them went into the kind bronze's cavelet. He was working on something at the other side. White stepped forward into the center of the cave and suddenly straightened as her scales took on a bronze shade! Then she started talking to the others urgently and Kind Bronze acted as if he had just had an idea. Seconds later, the bronze tinge vanished, and White shook her head woozily.

Then the rest of the day passed normally for White, though the other dragon-friends disappeared for some time, and they returned with Hunky Bronze at mid-evening.

I opened my eyes. That was interesting. Why would Ulrich be coming back to the school with them at that time, when he wasn't with them when they left?

"What was your dream this time?"

I looked at Aelita. She had been crying when she came in last night, and she didn't look as if she had fully recovered.

"I saw us going to visit Jeremie. I'm wondering…is there something wrong with that game you mentioned yesterday? It seems to mean a lot to you all, and if something happened…"

Aelita thought for a minute. "Well…what did you hear us talking about at lunch yesterday?"

That took a minute of recall. "Um…Odd said something about going to Sector Five without passing Go."

Aelita nodded. "Well, last night we tried it with Ulrich's character, and now we can't find it anywhere in the game! Jeremie's still looking for it, though."

"Ulrich must be really upset about it. Let's go see what Einstein's found."

We both went off to Jeremie's room.

Aelita

We met up with Odd outside Jeremie's room. Odd looked at me with a weird look on his face.

"Karen wants to know if Jeremie has had any luck finding Ulrich'scomputer game character."

Odd looked confused for a minute, but then he brightened up and replied, "Oh, I get it! Let's see if he's had any luck." And he pushed open the door for us girls.

I asked, "Have you had any luck, Jeremie?"

He answered, "Not yet, but I'm still looking. I just can't see how he could have disappeared into thin air!"

Karen walked towards him, adding, "Or into cyberspace, as the case may –"

She never finished. Karen got into the center of the room and just…stiffened.

I decided to ignore her and suggested, "Maybe something went wrong with the virtualization program." I was expecting her to ask me what part of the "computer game" that was.

But the voice that answered me wasn't Karen's! "Looks more like a big system bug to me."

Odd and I were both looking around in shock. Then Karen turned around with a big grin. "Surprise!"

Odd asked, "What kind of system bug do you mean?"

Then I realized something: I knew that voice! "Ulrich? How can you be in Karen?"

He answered, "I guess I entered Karen's body by accident. It's thanks to her that I'm talking to you; otherwise I was like some kind of disembodied ghost!" Then he looked at Karen's hair with a strange-for-Karen look on his face and added, "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to comment on this hair of hers, though."

While Odd laughed, Jeremie snapped his fingers. "I figured out what went wrong! Somehow during the virtualization, Ulrich's mind was separated from his body!"

I asked, "Is that why you couldn't find him?"

"Yes! Because it's not Ulrich in Lyoko at all – it's his inanimate body, his corporal envelope, which doesn't give off the same signal."

Ulrich turned around again and asked, "Think you can put me back together?"

"In theory, since there is no school, I'll have time to do it. Now that I know what I'm looking for, I can put a lock on your body. Once I do that, it shouldn't be any problem putting you in it."

"Great, and how long will that take?"

"I hope I can get it done before this afternoon."

"That's great! That will give me time to think about my future!"

Odd asked, "What do you mean?"

Ulrich looked back at Odd and me. Then suddenly, with the correct voice groaning, the girl started shaking her head.

Odd asked hesitantly, "Uh…Ulrich? Are you still there?"

Karen said, sounding a little cranky, "So that was what my dream meant. I'll be spending the rest of the day trying to get that, though."

Karen

At lunch time, Aelita asked me, "Karen, is it okay if I go with Jeremie for the afternoon?"

"Depends. Is it about Ulrich's character?"

"Yes. But the only way to get it back is for someone else to play the game, and we might not be able to get Yumi."

"Oookay. I guess I can survive until you come back with Ulrich."

Aelita gave me a strange look, but dropped the subject anyway. I guess I forgot to tell her that part of my dream. Ah well.

I had to go through two flamings by Sissi before the students in question got back. I wondered just what secret they were keeping from me. I mean, if this thing was a computer game, why did Ulrich disappear? And now here he was, returning as if nothing had happened. I would have to ask Aelita.

Tomorrow.