Crash Course

Karen

Karen sat in the factory listening to Jeremie lecturing her and her friends on the purposes of the supercomputer. Finally, Ulrich asked if they could actually do something on the computer and Jeremie agreed. Ulrich tried out first, by virtualizing Odd. That was a success, but then a tower activated. A specter materialized in the lab and knocked Jeremie out, leaving them to worry about Lyoko. Yumi ran off to find Aelita, who was also in danger, and Ulrich was left with only Karen to help him out. He found the timed virtualization program and rushed off to help Odd. Karen took over at the computer and held down the fort until Yumi and Aelita arrived. Yumi told Karen and Aelita to get to the scanners and…brown?

Later, Jeremie admitted that he trusted them a little, and Aelita told them that she was going to be gone all day the next day for a dress rehearsal.

I woke up feeling…weird. I looked at my alarm clock and – well, no wonder! It was five in the morning, a whole hour before I needed to wake up! I took advantage of that time to write down the lecture that Jeremie gave. Now, I knew perfectly well that my hands were normal, but seeing that paper being held down by a dragon's claw was rather unnerving. I could handle it; I can handle seeing a dragon's claw holding a piece of paper. However, if my imagined supernails punch holes in the paper, then I'll start getting worried. Now I had a new question in mind: what would I do for an hour; and what would I do during the lecture? I had to be there, or technically, it wouldn't happen. (How confusing.) Hmmm…I could always confront Yumi. She really cares about Ulrich, as in loves, if her dragon form was anything to go by. But she goes to a whole lot of trouble to put him off. I have to know why. She's going to be bored during this lecture; that much I'm certain of. So, I'll just put the question to her during that.

That still left what I was going to do for an hour.

We all were sitting in the lab, getting bored by Jeremie's lecture. Aelita wasn't there; she was auditioning for a techno thing. I flipped through his notes briefly; they were all over the place! I was very happy that I had taken notes of my own, because they were much more organized than his.

I looked over at Odd, who was sitting on my left. He was asleep, and wouldn't bother Yumi or me.

I leaned over to Yumi and whispered, "Yumi, can I ask you something? I'm new to your team, so I'm not sure about everything."

Yumi – obviously looking for a break – answered in an equal volume, "Sure. What?"

I asked, "What is it between you and Ulrich?"

Yumi blushed a little. "Oh. Um…we're just friends."

I snorted softly.

Yumi immediately took offense. She stood up and started raising her voice. "It's the truth! Why won't you believe me?"

Ulrich had noticed. Oh, well. I stood up also. "Believe you? Why should I believe you? You don't even believe yourself!"

Right about then, Jeremie saw fit to interrupt. "Are you girls paying attention at all?"

Yumi looked embarrassed. "Uh…"

I glared at him and answered, "No."

Ulrich snorted. At least someone thought it was funny. Then he asked, "Jeremie, couldn't we just start doing something practical now? We don't need to know everything you know; just a few of the basics, like virtualizing someone onto Lyoko."

Jeremie sighed. "Oh, all right. We can start doing some practical stuff now."

Odd lifted his head sleepily and asked, "Are we there yet?"

What in the world was he dreaming about?

Jeremie got Odd going down into the scanner, and Ulrich was sitting at the computer. I was so glad that it was Odd who was trying out as another person's guinea pig instead of me. Ulrich did it…but Odd did his best to unnerve him right after, and Jeremie scolded Ulrich about how he should be glad that this wasn't a Xana attack, or he wouldn't have gotten off so easy.

Too soon, Jeremie; a tower activated. Then a specter came down and took on the form of – to me – a large black dragon. It lunged at Jeremie and…okay, okay, this is probably not what really happened, but I saw the black dragon latch its teeth into Jeremie-dragon's neck and throw him across the room with a lightning shock. Then it faded away into the ceiling.

Ulrich and Yumi looked at me in worry. I shrugged.

Ulrich calmly stated, "Obviously, this time Xana's going to try to get rid of everyone who can run the supercomputer."

Yumi gasped and rushed off. Ulrich yelled, "Hey, Yumi! What do you expect me to do?"

"Oh, you'll think of something." The elevator door closed.

Odd yelled something about Bloks from the computer.

Ulrich sighed. "Now what?"

I held out my notes. "My papers are much more organized than Jeremie's. You can use them to materialize the Overboard, and Odd can go to the Mountain Sector using the Way Tower."

Ulrich took them and scanned through. "Okay, I can handle this." He punched some keys and…

Well, the next thing I remember was that Odd yelled, "Ulrich! You're supposed to give it to me, not to them!"

I couldn't help but laugh; Ulrich had materialized the Overboard behind the Bloks.

Watching the screen, I could tell that Odd was successful in destroying all the Bloks and getting his ride. Ulrich tried to get a window showing where the Way Tower was and instead got a window with a countdown on it. "Oh, great. What did I do?"

I decided to just tell him this part of my dream. "That's the timed virtualization. I think it's to the Mountain Sector."

Ulrich looked at me, grinned, and got out of the chair. "You take control, Karen. I have a great idea."

He rode down the elevator, leaving me wondering what his "great idea" was.

I sat there, punching random keys to help Odd, when finally Yumi showed up with Aelita. Aelita got Odd headed the right direction, and then told me, "All right, Karen; virtualize me and Yumi."

I shook my head. "No. Yumi should virtualize both of us. That's the way my dream went."

Yumi took the chair and we both got into the scanners.

"Transfer Aelita; transfer Karen. Scanner Aelita; scanner Karen. Virtualization."

I dropped in, as did Aelita. Oh, that's why my glow-sight was brown: that's the Mountain Sector's color! I should remember that.

Aelita decided to tap Ulrich on the shoulder. The boy nearly devirtualized her right then!

"Hi! What's on the menu?"

Ulrich returned the humor. "The usual: Xana's sent us the entire seafood platter, and William's the lemon."

Odd cruised up on the Overboard and made a quip about how many towers he had to go through.

Then we heard a scream from above. Ulrich told Odd, "Shoot me."

Odd shook his head. "No, I should be the one going back. I've lost a lot of life points already; you still have all yours. Besides, this is what we did in the swimming pool attack."

Ulrich got ticked. "I told you never to bring that up!" And he destroyed Odd with both swords!

I just had to ask. "Um…wasn't that a little…extreme?"

Ulrich shrugged. "Maybe a little, I guess."

I decided to start making the strategy. "You two take on the monsters. William's mine this time." And with that, I took wing and started over.

While they were fighting, I was circling the activated tower, preparing myself for a sneak attack. I spun down, threw a fire ball at William's back and flew up again. I actually landed on top of the tower to watch what was going to happen. The fireball was gone when I looked, so he must have parried the thing. William started approaching Aelita, who looked very scared, when a fan spun out of nowhere and slashed his hand.

Oh, yeah! Go Yumi!

Um…I had decided to watch Ulrich for a little bit, so I'm not sure what happened to Yumi. But when I looked back, Yumi was disappearing! I got so mad that I just launched myself from the top of the tower, throwing an ice ball and a fire ball simultaneously. I actually hit his sword with the ice ball, and the fire ball walloped his other arm. He staggered at the blow, and I landed, feeling kind of cocky. "You took advantage of me in our first battle, but that's not going to happen this time!"

William looked up at me…and spoke! "Are you sure about that, Karen?"

I stood like a deer in the headlights. William could still talk?!

By the time it registered, William's now-unfrozen sword was coming down at my chest.

The scanner opened, and I fell out snarling at myself. Then I heard frantic sounds from the floor above. Odd was in trouble!

I forced myself to get into the elevator and went up. Yes, indeed: Odd was being held by the neck – by our old friend the black dragon. He was also holding a power cable in his other claw, with its end sparking just inches away from Odd's face. I grabbed another one and swung it at the black dragon. It noticed, but not soon enough to stop me. I got it zapped, and ran over to Odd.

I didn't quite make it when I felt claws – hands? – grab my neck and heave me across the room. Oh, he's got a faster recovery rate now. Brilliant.

I was just winding up for another attempt when the dragon just…stopped. Then he faded into the ceiling.

I sighed in relief, crawled over to the supercomputer, and punched in the numbers required to bring Aelita and Ulrich back to Earth. Then I went to check on Jeremie.

We all sat in the rec room, talking about today's happenings. Jeremie was fine, and…well, as a human, he wouldn't have seemed very happy. His dragon was preening, very proud about its students doing so well on their first day.

Aelita told us that her…techno thing…was what was picked for the Subsonics band, and that tomorrow was a dress rehearsal.

I told the others, feeling kind of down, "I really didn't know that William could still talk while possessed by Xana. I swear I'll never let him take me by surprise like that again!"

Aelita tried to comfort me. "It was because of you that I managed to get to the tower."

Ulrich added, "And you wore him down so that I could destroy him."

I wasn't in the mood to be comforted, but Odd had other ideas. "Oh, come on! What are you complaining about? You're Karen, with the coolest warrior key on Lyoko! Karen, who on her first time managed to destroy all the monsters before they could destroy the Core of Lyoko! Karen, who destroyed a Kongre on the Skid's first voyage! You've got it made, Snow-Hair!"

I punched his shoulder. "I don't need to be called that here too, thank you very much." But I was grinning, so I didn't really have much behind that punch.

Then Ulrich asked me something that I was actually partially expecting. "What were you and Yumi talking about during Jeremie's lecture?"

Yumi answered first, blushing. "Nothing."

I just looked at him.

Yumi asked me, shocked, "You're not actually going to tell him, are you?"

I shook my head, but the look on my face didn't change. Aelita would be able to tell you what that look is: my How-Much-Should-I-Tell-Him? Look.

Finally, I told him the truth: "You."

The look on his dragon's face was priceless.