First Plunge

Karen

Karen watched in almost horror as Jeremie attempted and failed to scale the rock wall in gym class. At lunch time, Sissi threw an insult and Aelita made a brilliant comeback.

All the other warriors suggested to Jeremie that they test out the Skid, and he reluctantly agrees. The principal mentions the fire safety drill and they take advantage of that to go to the factory. Then…blue.

Later, they were conversing in the lab. Something about the digital sea and another sphere.

I opened my eyes and sighed. (I seem to be starting a lot of mornings that way lately, don't I?)

"So what's on our schedule for today?" Aelita looked as half-interested, half-dreading as a dragon could get. The dragons I see can show emotion far better than humans can. For example, I look at Ulrich, who I know from before my dragon sight came up is very stony-faced and emotionless, and I can tell that he's in love with Yumi and afraid of me. Big laugh, huh? What's there to be scared of from me?

But anyway… "Rock climbing in gym class. Jeremie is going to fall off the wall, and Sissi will insult him at lunch time. Better start thinking of a good comeback now."

Aelita was very obviously confused. "But won't Odd do that?"

"He'll…have his mouth full. You know how he is about that."

Aelita laughed. "Okay, okay. A good retort for Sissi about rock-climbing… What did she say?"

"Um…something about Jeremie having trouble lifting his brain."

Aelita

Well, that got a laugh out of me. "I have it. You'll hear the comment at lunch."

Karen grinned big.

Then it occurred to me. "Karen, what else is happening?"

She sighed again. "Well…we have a fire safety drill today, and the gang's going to take advantage of that to go to the factory and test out the Skid. Oh, and Jeremie's going to be against the idea."

Actually, that wasn't a big surprise. He doesn't want to risk any of us on a half-finished experiment.

Jeremie

After falling off the rock-climbing wall, I wasn't in too great a mood. My mood got worse when Sissi decided to pick on me.

"Are you having trouble lifting your brain?"

I looked at Odd. He would have a good comeback. "Odd?"

Odd looked at Aelita. "Aelita, do you mind? I don't like talking with my mouth full."

Aelita made the best comeback I had ever heard. "Sissi, your head's so full of helium you could just float to the top!"

As we all laughed, Herb said to Sissi, "You know, sometimes I think you ask for it."

That made Karen laugh even harder.

When those two walked away, our conversation shifted to the Skid. And Odd suggested we take it for a test run.

"Odd, the Skid isn't fully tested yet. We can't just fly it out and expect it to work smoothly."

Aelita suddenly piped up. "Well, how are we to really know if it works if we don't try it out?"

I looked around the table. The entire original gang was set on going for a joyride in the Skid. Then I looked at Karen. "What do you think, Karen?"

"Um…" She looked hesitant. "You know that my dreams don't reveal what happens in Lyoko, right?"

I nodded, not entirely sure where this was going.

"Well, I don't know what's going to happen on this test run, but we're going to find something of critical importance. We should just, um…let this little adventure run its course."

The principal was announcing the Fire Safety and Prevention drill. I sighed.

"All right; we'll use the fire drill to get to the factory."

Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita all cheered. Karen still looked worried, and I could understand why – kind of. She couldn't see what was happening in Lyoko, and shewould be virtualizing, too.

Ulrich

We materialized in Sector Five. "Okay, Jeremie, where do we go?"

"Just take the elevator up to the Skid."

We ran onto the elevator, and it took us up. As we went, I took a glance at Karen. I just don't see her on Lyoko very often, and she takes some getting used to. I mean, she's got fangs! Okay, okay, I'm a little nervous of her.

When we saw the Skid, I felt a little awestruck. So, apparently, did the rest of us. Yumi gasped, and Aelita called it beautiful.

"All right, people, get onto the transporters."

I looked down and ahead. There were five circles on the floor in a kind of cross. We each stepped onto one, with Aelita in the middle.

Odd asked, "So, um…who'll be driving?"

Aelita smiled. "I am, of course!"

Jeremie said, "Energize!" and we all…were transported into different places on the Skid.

Aelita's voice came over the comm. "Skid to Nav-Skids, are you reading me?"

Yumi answered, "Loud and clear, Aelita."

I agreed, "Loud and clear, Aelita."

Odd broke the system with "Hey, me too!"

Karen sounded a little spacey. "Uh…yeah, I read you…Jeremie, what happened to my wings?"

"Um, they…went offline when you entered the Skid."

"Oh. That makes perfect sense."

It made sense to me, too. Obviously, she couldn't use her wings while in the Skid; the Skid would be flying. I wonder what that would look like. Maybe sometime I'll ask her. Maybe.

Aelita piloted the Skid out into the sky. So far, everything was working perfectly. Then Jeremie called. "Okay, the test was a success. You can come back now."

Odd wasn't happy, and to tell the truth, neither was I. "Aw, come on! Couldn't we explore the Digital Sea first?"

Aelita agreed, "Odd's right, Jeremie. It's not much of a test just sitting in the sky of Lyoko. We should find out if it can take the big plunge."

Jeremie sighed. He didn't sound at all thrilled. "All right, five minutes."

Aelita asked us, "Ready to go, everyone?"

I answered, "Ready."

Yumi chorused, "Ready."

Odd broke the system again. "Whenever you are, Princess."

Karen's voice shook. "Ready as I'll ever be…I guess."

We plunged in.

Karen

I was terrified. Really. There was no way that I couldn't be terrified in this place. But once Aelita got us out into the Digital Sea, I was amazed; there was so much space! Oh, wow, that just totally rhymed.

Aelita gave Jeremie visuals, and for a long time, all we could do was stare out into the glorious shimmering…I don't know what to call it.

Then Jeremie called. "Okay, Skid, time to come back."

Odd moaned about it, saying something along the line of it not being nearly long enough. Jeremie laughed about it. "I said five minutes, Odd."

Then things started happening. According to Aelita, the Skid's navigation system was down! And without the navigation system, there was no way to get back to Lyoko.

Jeremie ran off to get his decoding CD, and we just…cruised some more.

After a time, the blue light all around us shifted to red, and up ahead, I saw a large sphere, like Lyoko. Everyone else was positive that we made it back all by ourselves.

Then Aelita voiced what I was thinking: "But it's not Lyoko!"

Everyone voiced their confusion, and Aelita repeated, with more certainty, "It's not Lyoko." Then she slammed on the brakes and turned around.

Soon after that, we noticed some fish things. I loved Ulrich's crack: "Hey check it out, it's Ugly and Uglier."

Almost right after that, they started shooting at us, and Aelita had to go into evasive maneuvering. Some very extreme evasive maneuvering.

Odd yelled after a barrel roll, "Careful, Aelita, or you'll get us all killed! Who taught you how to pilot?"

Aelita answered sweetly, "You did, Odd."

Then we heard Jeremie's voice around us. "Okay, I'm back. What's going on?"

Aelita gave him the briefing, and he told her, "You're using too much power. Separate the Nav-Skids from the Skid. And the rest of you: keep those things away from the Skid, so that I can fix the program."

We all gave acknowledgements (yeah, I've got an extensive vocabulary), and then I felt a shudder. I grabbed hold of the controls in almost-panic, and zoomed out.

"Now remember, the Nav-Skids have limited life points, so try not to get hit!"

I remember Odd whooping as he piloted his little pod, so he was probably enjoying himself to the max. I saw Yumi try to destroy one, but nothing happened. I heard Ulrich let off a quip about "Looking for some more bait?" One chased after him, but the other suddenly looked at me.

It lunged, firing off its lasers, and I made the pod flip over them – and the eel thing. Then I saw it.

It wasn't very big; just this round spot on its tail. And on it was the Eye of Xana: the weak point of any monster created by that virus.

I didn't think; I just pulled the trigger, watching the missiles anxiously. To tell the truth, I was aiming too far to the spot's left. If it wasn't moving forward, I'd miss the dot completely.

It was still moving forward.

Missiles made impact, and the eel-thing writhed in agony and exploded, while I made a very swift getaway.

Around then, Jeremie called, saying that we needed to get back to the Skid. I and two others flew to our designated spots and latched on. Before I had enough time to get worried, the last one flew in to its place.

I guessed it was Ulrich and commented, "Took you long enough."

"Hey, I had to get that eel freak off my back."

Aelita engaged the thrusters, and we were outta there!

We started talking in the lab about the sphere. Obviously – according to Jeremie – this sphere was a new world created by the data stolen from Aelita's memory.

Yumi – or maybe it was someone else, I was pretty tired by the time this little comment was made – suggested that maybe we could explore it.

Jeremie answered, "Maybe. But right now, all I'm interested in exploring is my bed. I'm beat."

Odd quipped, "If you're tired from just sitting in your comfy chair, imagine how we must feel!"

Jeremie calmly told him, "Odd, if I told you what I was doing while you were on the network, you'd never believe me."

Odd guessed, playing psychic, "You did a little rock-climbing on the dormitory roof."

Jeremie was very obviously surprised, if his dragon was anything to go by. "What? How'd you know about that?"

Everyone else was just…shocked. I knew this would happen, so I was the only calm one. Then they all started laughing.

Odd crowed, "Gee, Einstein, you can be extremely funny when you want to be, or even if you don't want to be!"

When they all calmed down, Ulrich suddenly said, "Hey, right before we left the battle scene, I noticed that there was only one fish behind us. Where'd the other one go?"

Odd suggested, "Maybe it left to get reinforcements."

I shook my head. "No. It didn't get away." I left it at that.

That was all I had to do. All any of them could do was stare at me. Then Yumi got it. "You actually destroyed one of those things?! How did you pull that off?"

I smiled and answered, "If I told you, it'd spoil the surprise for next time."

Odd started begging me to tell him how I did it. And let me tell you, the sight of his dragon crawling around on the floor groveling with his wings dragging was quite enough to make me laugh.