Karen's First Virtualization

Karen

The white dragon strode out to the large room in the school. There was an obstacle course set up in the center. Small Brown was up right then, and he was doing the best. She waited for her turn and suddenly, Strong-Bronze reacted like someone was calling him, tried to leave, and was confronted with a larger bronze dragon who seemed to be upset with him. He stopped by a gold dragon who was darker than Yumi, and said something in an urgent tone. She wondered what was up. Then…Karen! Get to the factory as quick as you can! Xana's attacking the core of Lyoko through William!

She reacted, and then chose to stay for Odd's round of the finals. She went through one round and lost, then rushed of to the cave. She entered a large crevice and…blue. Just…blue. No sign of anything happening, it was like she blacked out!

She opened her eyes again. She was lying outside the crevice! But…what had happened? Later, the group was inside a musty old cave, where other dragons once lived, though that time was long past. They were probably discussing what to do now.

I snapped my eyes open. Whoa. Two things that have never happened before! One, I actually understood something in my dream, and two…what happened in Lyoko?

"Is something wrong, Karen?"

I looked at Aelita, who was just…looking back at me.

"Um…I'd prefer to tell everyone about this dream." And, I added to myself, I wasn't telling about William. I just don't know how he would take that. Maybe I will tell Aelita…later.

Ulrich

We were all gathered in Jeremie's room. I thought back to last night. That had progressed fairly well, bringing William and Karen into the team at the same time. But what was Karen's dream about after being scanned?

Odd piped up from Jeremie's bed. "So what's our schedule for today, Karen?"

Karen hesitated. "Well…Odd? You, Ulrich and I are going to be in the…I think it was the gym. I mean, the skateboard competition?"

Odd looked at me. "You're coming with me? Thanks!"

I decided to insult him a little. "Well, someone's gotta pick you up and dust you off every time you face-plant. I mean, what are friends for?"

That got Karen and Aelita to laugh a little. Finally, Snow-hair's starting to relax around us.

William looked at Yumi. "Why are we asking her this?" Whoops. We forgot to brief William about Karen's dreams.

Yumi filled him in while Jeremie asked, "So what else?"

Karen said slowly, "Um…Xana's going to launch a direct attack on Sector Five again, and, uh…I think Aelita tries to contact Ulrich, but…"

"You don't have a clue how to explain this part, do you?" I was getting frustrated with her constant stopping. "And where are Jeremie and Aelita in all this? Where's Yumi and William, for that matter."

"Not in the gym, that's for certain! My dreams only show what's going on around me, remember?"

That caught me a little off-guard. I didn't think she could actually get mad at someone!

William laughed. I think it was my expression. "So what happened to Ulrich that he couldn't get to Jeremie?"

Karen said calmly, "He was stopped by the principal and another adult bronze dragon."

I thought. Who would rate a bronze in Karen's dream? "Uh…Jim?"

"Ulrich. Jim's a brown. This guy's married."

I didn't know what to make of that. "O…kay. So what happened after that?"

"You stopped by a gold dragon and left a message. I think it was for Odd."

Yumi suddenly interrupted. "Hold on. Who was the gold? You just said that I wasn't there!"

Karen sighed. "You're not. This gold's darker than you. She's almost a bronze in shade!"

Odd asked, "Did I get the message?"

"Uh…no. She didn't relay the message. You were called later, and you had to run off. I got a call of my own, but I knew that something would be suspected if both of us disappeared, so I took Odd's place."

Odd suddenly started acting kind of goofy. "Thanks, Karen. You're really sweet."

Karen rewarded him by throwing a pillow.

I smirked at her. "Direct hit!"

Karen glared at me. "Don't even think of trying to make up!" But she was grinning, so she didn't mean it. Which was a good thing, because I wasn't even sure when I got her mad anymore.

"I lost a round, and then ran off to help. And, um…I guess that's it." Liar. There was something else that she didn't want to tell us.

Aelita noticed that, too. "Karen. What happens in Lyoko?"

Karen stared at Aelita. She looked almost scared. "Aelita, I don't know."

Jeremie

I sat down in my room with Aelita. This would be so nerve-wracking, knowing that there was going to be some difficulty in dealing with a Xana attack.

"What now, Jeremie?"

"We just wait, I guess." Suddenly, a knock came at my door. I opened it, and there were Milly and Tamiya!

"Don't tell me you forgot about the interview we were going to do on the smartest kid at Kadic!"

Um…I had forgotten! "Aelita, could you - "

"Okay, Jeremie." She ran off to the factory, and I turned back towards the two news girls.

Aelita

As I rushed off to the factory to find the attack on the core, something suddenly occurred to me. How did Karen know what the attack was going to be? She doesn't normally recognize an attack unless it happened outside Lyoko. Well, I would just have to ask about it later.

I got to the factory and called Ulrich, then Yumi. Ulrich said he would get here quickly, and Yumi told me she would try to sneak out when her brother wasn't looking. Well, that left just two people to call. I called William, even though I had a bad feeling about this.

William got here quickly enough. I wasn't sure I wanted to virtualize without Jeremie, so I called to make sure that was what we should do.

It was. I decided to call Karen, just to make sure.

"Um…you remember that I was going to virtualize last?"

"Yes. I just wanted to let you know what was happening."

"Is William with you?"

"Uh-huh."

I heard a sigh on the other end of the line. "Karen? Is there something you're not telling me?"

She hesitated. "No."

That didn't make me feel any better.

Odd

I had gotten all the way into the finals when I got a call from Jeremie. "Odd! You've got to get to the factory!"

"Aw, come on, Einstein! I'm in the finals!"

"Sam didn't tell you?"

That was something. "Tell me what?"

As Sam came over to me, I asked, "Sam, why didn't you tell me Ulrich's message? It was important!"

"It was? I'm sorry. I didn't know."

I hated to break this to her, but I knew I had to. "Sam, there's something really important I have to do right now."

She looked very hurt. "Even more important than hanging out with me?"

"Unfortunately, yes." I looked at Karen.

She nodded. "I'll take your place, Odd. Although…I won't guarantee that I'd last very long."

I ran off to help my friends.

Karen

I rushed up to use the half-pipe whatever. Though, I think there were two reasons that I didn't win. One was – obviously – that I had lost the first round of this competition, and Odd's level was out of my league. The other reason, though, was that I just couldn't get that phone call of Jeremie's out of my head. "Karen! Get to the factory as quick as you can! Xana's attacking the core of Lyoko through William!"

As soon as I was told that I was out for good, I walked out of the gym. The door closed behind me, and I ran. I ran all the way to the factory.

As the elevator doors opened on the scanner room, I shuddered. What fate was waiting for me in Lyoko? I stepped into the open scanner and turned around. Jeremie's voice echoed through my head.

"Transfer Karen. Scanner Karen. Virtualization!" There was a lot of light and wind and then…

I was falling? "OW!" That landing hurt. Somehow I had ended up on my back – I have this crazy tendency to lean backwards when I'm falling.

I struggled to sit up. My back felt very heavy, and that was making it tough. Finally, I got myself sitting. And I couldn't stop staring at my hands.

No. Not hands: claws.

I looked over my shoulder in surprise at the scaled white wings there and asked, "Jeremie? What's happened to me?" My voice sounded strange in my own ears. Maybe…I tapped against my teeth with a finger.

Bingo: I had fangs.

"Um…the virtualization process reads someone's subconscious desires, so I guess the dragon thing came from your dreams. Now hurry up! You have to stop William!"

I struggled up to my feet and ran. I ran to the elevator thing and got all the way up to the big dome.

"I can't bring you any vehicle, Karen. Sorry, you'll have to manage on your own."

I looked over my shoulder again and grinned. "Who needs a vehicle?" And with that, I tipped off the edge of the path. A simple thought got my wings flapping, though I wasn't impressed with my own flying technique: I probably looked like a dying duck or something!

"The entrance to the core is at the south pole of the dome. Be careful."

So I started down. Then I saw it: a door that was opening and closing almost like some kind of mouth.

Oh, man. I have so much trouble with this kind of game! Okay, girl; timing…timing…

I lunged through the doors, and I think it nearly got my tail. Uh…was my tail still there? I looked over my shoulder. Yeah, it was. Looking up, I saw a bright explosion, and then everything stopped. I flew higher and saw a glowing sphere. I also saw a whole bunch of monsters staring at the sphere – but they weren't attacking. Then I saw William. It couldn't have been anyone else. I lunged before it occurred to me that I had no idea what my weapons were. Oh, well. I did have claws, after all.

Suddenly, lasers were firing at me from all directions! I started doing the craziest maneuvers trying to avoid getting hit. One of my wild swings sent a fireball rocketing at one of the monsters and destroyed it! I tried that again at a different one and instead got an ice ball! Not that that didn't work.

Somehow, I managed to destroy all the monsters in the room! I still say that it was sheer dumb luck. Then I felt like I had to land.

Easier said than done. I crashed on the floor. As I struggled to get onto my feet again, I heard footsteps. Looking up, I saw William coming towards me with that big sword thing of his upraised.

Huh. He probably thought he would stab me from behind. Ah, well; let him try. I bounded to his left and went right past him, discovering that I could move just as well on all fours. Then I felt something hit my back and heard something – I can't say for sure if that was William, because it didn't sound like him. But it did sound like frustration. I stood up and turned around. There was William, looking irritated. The way his sword was positioned, he had tried to slash me.

"Dragons have armor scales, Xana. Nothing can penetrate them."

Then…I guess I stood still too long, because he ran me through.

I toppled out of the scanner, clutching my chest. That one hurt – bad.

Later, we met up in what Jeremie called the Hermitage. So this was the old cave that was in my dreams.

"Karen, what do you think happened?" Ulrich asked. Personally, I was wondering why he was asking me.

"I'm afraid I just don't know. Maybe I just stopped at the wrong time or something. But I think that if we managed to get Lyoko back somehow, I would like to practice flying."

Aelita was very upset. That actually made a great deal of sense to me. I'd be upset too if my father was gone, then there was a chance of getting him back, and suddenly that chance was gone.

Jeremie suddenly yelled, "I don't believe it!" He was fussing with his laptop as usual.

"What's up, Einstein?" Odd asked.

"I've found a fragment of Franz Hopper's DNA!"