Episode One : A Time of Madness
Soundtrack: Edie Brickell's "What I am" (for Kloe)
Chapter Three: The Pen is Mightier than the Sword
"We might have a little bit of a problem," went Odd's high-pitched voice, made even squeakier by Jeremie's earpiece.
On the screen, a good two-dozen red-labeled dots winked into existence. "Oh, no!" Jeremie exclaimed.
"Exactly," Odd agreed.
"Krabes, blocks, and tarantules completely ringing the Tower," Jeremie reported. "And here comes our favorite - Scipazoa!"
In the virtual world, Odd grimaced, a feral expression with the purple tattoos banding his face. "Only one thing to do - I'll provide a distraction."
Ulrich swung aboard his bike. "I'll take Aelita."
They plunged forward into madness.
- - - -
"What's a scipazoa?" Asked Kloe.
"Uh - a monster created by XANA to steal memory. Careful, Odd!"
The catboy rubbed his virtual arm, where blue sparks fizzled a moment, then vanished. "Thanks for the warning," he muttered sarcastically.
"What's that?" Kloe pointed to a number on the screen.
"Life points. If - why am I explaining this to you?"
Kloe shrugged. "Because you like to show off. Only natural. Or because there isn't much else you can do at the moment. Or maybe because I'm pretty. Take your pick."
Jeremie was saved from the embarrassment of responding - none of those options sounded especially appealing - by the hiss of the elevator doors opening. He didn't look up from his computer screen. "Yumi - great. Get to the scanner room."
Kloe did look up. "Jeremie, that's not Yumi…"
There was a crackle, as of electrical discharge. The stolid figure of the policewoman stepped into the room, eyes flickering with XANA's symbol.
Now Jeremie did shift his bespectacled gaze. "Augh!"
"What is it?" Piped Odd's voice from Jeremie's earpiece.
XANA's minion sprang forward, trailing digitized afterimages. Kloe grabbed the pen from behind her ear and whipped it around; it sped like a dart from her fingers to lodge in the policewoman's shoulder.
Attention formerly directed at Jeremie shifted to the other blonde in the room. Oops, was all Kloe had time to think before a large hand snagged her by the back of the shirt.
Jeremie glanced at a red-flashing box… Odd's life points. "Odd, you're almost…"
A well-aimed laser from a tarantule's gun arm took the catboy squarely on the chest. He dissolved into flickering, fractal squares.
"Odd's been devirtualized."
Kloe, flailing wildly, managed to yank another pen out of her pocket. Grimly, she jammed the ink-tipped point into the corded hand holding her suspended. With a grunt, the policewoman released her. It was a two-foot, stomach-lurching drop to the hard factory floor - Kloe landed with an "Oof!" of lost breath. "Good. I could use a little backup," she managed, attempting to roll away from an incoming blow and rise. It might have worked too, if her knees hadn't gotten in the way, but somehow she ended up sprawled on her back. The idea that this might actually be dangerous was beginning to sink in through the syrup of panic, and she was no black belt or whatever Ulrich was. Her trick with the pens was from dart club, and that had been a hobby she had given up a good year ago. Still… did she have anything else sharp in her pocket?
She rolled again, desperately evading a crushing fist but smacking the chill, unforgiving metal of the factory wall for her trouble. A thick cable allowed her to rise to her feet, or at least into an ungainly crouch, from which she leapt away…
Tumbled backwards into the elevator, which had opened in the commotion, and landed at the feet of a purple-clad figure with gravity-defying hair.
"Looks like you could use a hand," quipped Odd, leaping over her to land in an easy crouch. "Hey, XANA! Over here!"
Panting, Kloe rose to her feet and stepped gingerly out of the elevator. Odd was already running circles around the possessed policewoman; she felt a stab of irrational envy, quickly suppressed by relief that someone who knew what he was doing could risk his life.
Back by the computer, Jeremie's expression had gone from grim to doomed. Kloe couldn't stop the question - "What's wrong?"
"Everything!" Jeremie answered, "Ulrich's just been devirtualized!"
Kloe's mouth twisted to one side. "Aelita?" She prompted.
"If Aelita loses all her life points, she'll be gone," Jeremie explained, staring at the computer screen as if he could change the facts by sheer strength of will. "But XANA won't risk that. It's after her memory."
"XANA being the evil supercomputer trying to take over the world?"
"Yeah, that XANA." Jeremie paused, and when he began again, he was addressing his earpiece. "Aelita, just watch out for the scipazoa. I'm going to contact Yumi."
A picture of a girl in a kimono and Asian face paint popped up on the screen.
- - - -
Outside the metal hatch left carelessly open and the tunnel leading to the factory, a cell phone rang. The prone figure of Yumi stirred weakly, emitting a small "unh" of pain.
Ring ring.
Pushing herself up on her elbows, Yumi opened her eyes hesitantly. The policewoman was gone. Long gone? How long was I out?
Rring.
She reached for her phone and flipped it open. "Jeremie?"
"Yumi, where are you? Aelita's alone in Lyoko!"
"Lyoko? How long - it doesn't matter. I'm just outside the passage. Be right there." Tucking away her cell phone, Yumi dropped down into the tunnel.
The first thing apparent was the lack of her skateboard. "Huh?" There was no reason for that; XANA snitching it hardly seemed likely. Another question she could ask later. Settling her expression grimly, Yumi began to run.
- - - -
In Lyoko, Aelita was running too. Running, dipping, dodging, easily evading half-hearted shots. It wasn't the lasers of XANA's monsters she had to worry about.
"Aelita, stop!" Shouted Jeremie's disembodies voice, "The scipazoa is right in front of you!"
The pink haired elf froze, panting heavily. Looming in front of her like the ghost of a particularly menacing jellyfish was the one creature in Lyoko that would harm her - a memory-draining scipazoa.
She whirled, but not quickly enough. Translucent tentacles lashed out, catching waist, legs, and arms, and lifted her from the dusty ground. "Ah!" She tried to struggle, but the red glow was sliding down the tentacles and into her limbs. All-too-familiar paralysis spread through her. No! she wanted to scream, but her body was too stiff. She couldn't use her mouth anymore. Not even her eyes would shift. Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi! Help! Anyone! But there would be no sudden release as tentacles were severed by a whirring fan or deftly swung katana; Yumi was too far, and Ulrich and Odd had both been devirtualized. Anyone… Red pulsed down the tentacles, surrounding her in a rubescent glow. …help. And the memories began to flow.
- - - -
"No!" Jeremie shouted.
Kloe watched with some puzzlement as a figure appeared on the screen. Rendered in monochrome though it was, the distinctive pink hair unrecognizable, there was no mistaking it for anyone but Aelita. A three-dimensional image of a brain appeared inside her head, shifting out to the side. Next to it, a countdown began.
"Does that represent memories, perchance?" Kloe ventured as Jeremie stared at the beeping screen.
Jeremie held his head in both hands, his expression one of total defeat. She doubted he heard the question. "I can't believe I let this happen! Yumi's never going to get here in time!"
Kloe pursed her lips and glanced sideways, wondering where Ulrich and Odd had gotten to. An idea was forming in her mind; she didn't like it, but she couldn't see an alternative. "Send me."
"I can't virtualize Odd or Ulrich again, and I can't pull Aelita out because-"
"Send me!" She spoke louder this time, and firmer, with more confidence then she felt.
Jeremie broke off with a satisfying "Huh?"
"Send me into Lyoko," Kloe clarified, "if you can. I don't want the world taken over by a supercomputer and all of us to wind up in The Matrix any more then you or the others do."
"But it's dangerous," Jeremie protested, "I would need more time to prepare…"
"Jeremie," Kloe glanced meaningfully at the countdown, "I have a feeling if something isn't done, it won't matter if I'm here or in Lyoko - everything will be dangerous."
Jeremie stared at his computer screen. For a long moment, she was sure he would refuse, but when he finally spoke, without looking away from the flickering count down, it was to say a grim, "Alright."
- - - -
Odd and Ulrich had backed the policewoman almost out of the Factory, but both were beginning to tire. XANA's possession granted the victim unnatural strength and agility; all the boys had was natural skill, coupled with human inventiveness and strength in numbers. It wasn't much. It wasn't enough.
Their opponent hadn't shown some of the other abilities of XANA-fied humans, though, no balls of electricity or beams of purple sparks. Of course not. XANA had focused his attack in Lyoko. And it worked, Ulrich thought bitterly. Aelita should have been to the Tower by now; by his aching limbs, it seemed he had been fighting hours. Maybe this was it. Maybe this time there would be no moment when the symbol of XANA vanished from his opponent's eyes to be replaced by glassy confusion.
He dodged a kick and leapt onto a pile of crates for a moment of respite. That was no way to think. Yumi was probably already in Lyoko. The Tower would be down soon. Just had to hold out for a few more minutes.
- - - -
Over the pounding of Yumi's footsteps, her cell phone rang. Fumbling it free of its holder without breaking stride, she glanced at the display on the front to confirm the caller, then flipped it open and held it to her ear. "Hi, Jeremie," she panted.
"Yumi, how far away are you?" the computer operator asked.
"About five minutes," she guessed. "Why? Is something wrong?"
"No. Yes. I'm sending in Kloe, it might buy you some time."
"Kloe?" Yumi demanded incredulously, but the line was dead. She grit her teeth and increased her speed.
- - - -
As the doors of the scanner clanged shut, Kloe was seized by a wave of claustrophobic indecision. Grace, but she was an idiot. Why had she agreed to this? Because it was my idea. Honestly, though, there probably wasn't really an evil supercomputer trying to take over the world, it might all be some insane joke and wouldn't she look a fool…
Stop blathering, she told herself, but the fact was what had seemed real and compelling in the Factory was beginning to seem rather silly.
"Scanner, Kloe," said Jeremie's disembodied voice, sounding somewhat dubious. A ring of light blinked on, and an upward rush of air lifted her hair - a fan, or was she falling? If so, she was falling very, very fast. Her skin tingled and unpleasant thoughts about dangerous radiation sprang to mind.
"Transfer, Kloe," went Jeremie. She must have closed her eyes, because the light was replaced be a tunnel striated with red, and when she lifted her hand, she saw nothing. Although she couldn't feel anything either - there was no feeling, no sense of having so much as a finger to her name.
"Virtualization."
It was rather like being assembled piece by piece at high speed, fragments flying together and clicking into place. She wondered fleetingly how Odd and Aelita and the rest could stand doing this as often as they apparently did, then realized she was falling.
She hit the ground hard, letting out a breath of air in a noise rather like 'oof.' Her eyes wrenched open, and what air remained in her lungs escaped in a sharp gasp.
It was a computer game.
Well, of course it was. But somehow she hadn't quite expected this: computer rendered sand, flat sky, and colors too saturated for life. Yet it all felt solid and moved when she tilted her head.
Pushing herself to her feet, feeling strangely light, she reached up a hand to brush off her shirt.
Stopped.
Her hand was as computer rendered as the landscape, and her coral-colored shirt had vanished, to be replaced by some kind of button-up coat, crimson embroidered in gold, harkening back to the Revolutionary War era British uniform, perhaps. Breeches in the same flamboyant shade covered what leg the flaring bottom of the coat left bare, ending in turned up cuffs above brown, flat-heeled boots. She wondered if she was wearing the quintessential plumed, tricorne hat as well. Blast, but I hope not. It didn't matter. The crowning accessory was a tooled leather bandolier hanging across her chest. A dozen narrow tubes held as many heavy metal rods, fletched on one end, coming to a needle-fine point on the other. Maybe Jeremie had done it, or maybe the computer program had picked up some mysterious resonance, but she wouldn't be helpless in Lyoko.
"Kloe?" Came Jeremie's disembodied voice, "Is everything okay?"
Lifting the topmost dart from its holster, Kloe grinned wolfishly. "Yeah. Everything's great."
Jeremie paused as though trying to determine what she meant, then apparently decided it didn't matter and barged on. "The Tower is dead ahead. I'm sending in the overwing; you don't have much time."
A patch of arid air shimmered, then was suddenly shaped by a fluorescent green grid. Kloe blinked and the grid was gone, or at least, covered by the steel blue skin of the strangest vehicle she had ever seen, a round platform swept up at the sides into handlebars like a scooter's. Certainly the strangest vehicle she ever intended to ride.
Leaping aboard, Kloe grabbed the handlebars with both hands. "How do you - !"
The kick of the vehicle abruptly starting forward cut her off, and indeed nearly knocked her off.
"Handlebars control speed," Jeremie read from his computer screen, eyes flicking anxiously between the overwing program box and Aelita's dangerously low countdown. "Lean over to steer."
It was an effort of will to loosen her white-knuckle grip on the handlebars, but a slight lessening of the dizzying blur that the landscape had become allowed her to breath again. At least her hair couldn't be messed up in a video game. And if she had been wearing a hat, it must have blown off by now.
"Slow down, or you'll crash right into a monster!" Jeremie gulped.
"Easier said then done," Kloe muttered, voice sharp as one of her darts despite its low volume. Something large loomed in front of her: panicking, she leapt off the overwing. Unable to halt, the vehicle crashed into…
Kloe didn't see the vehicle dissolve into fractal bits before vanishing. She was too busy staring at a large, reddish creature looming up before her on multi-segmented legs. A domed top, inscribed with a vaguely familiar symbol of concentric circles, tilted towards her, malevolent eyespot flashing red.
"Watch out, it's a krab!" Jeremie shouted. The urgency in his disembodied voice made her jerk - a lucky thing, as a laser whistled through the air towards where her head had been. Without conscious thought, she whipped a dart out of her holster and tossed it. Another was in her hand before the first struck home and the krab fell apart in a pile of cogs and components.
Where did that come from? She stared down at the weapon in her hand. I never got those reflexes from dart club.
"More krabes coming your way. Hurry up!" Jeremie pleaded, "Aelita's straight ahead."
Kloe nodded, for all the good that did. She could see something ahead of her, translucent, glowing faintly red. It looked almost like a jellyfish - far larger then any jellyfish of earthly seas, but that was the closest comparison she had. Held helpless in its tentacles was a pink-haired elf.
Running, Kloe let her first dart fly… and realized she wasn't alone.
- - - -
The policewoman had Ulrich pinned to the ground with one hand. Odd lay dazed against the opposite wall. Exhausted, Ulrich only struggled weakly; Odd wasn't moving at all.
"Yah!" With a cry, Yumi slid down the rope at the entrance, swinging free crazily to land on the possessed officer's shoulders. Momentarily distracted, she released Ulrich's throat. He gulped air and managed, "Aelita's alone in Lyoko! We can handle this."
"Yeah, right you can." Yumi was putting a great deal of effort into keeping her tone light. "You two are getting your butts kicked." She dodged a blow and swung back into the fight with a strong uppercut.
- - - -
A laser clipped Kloe's ear, tingling, and struck the ground two feet away. A ring of blocks had closed in around her and Aelita, targeting with utmost care, but she didn't have time for that. Snatching another pair of darts, she held one in each clenched fist like a pair of siangham and leapt into the air.
Her jump carried her above the lasers, and before the blocks could follow her she was diving. Folding into a smooth somersault - I can't do a somersault! - she extended her arms and landed lightly amongst the scipazoa's tentacles. Down came her hands, and the weapons they grasped: severed feelers fell like so many snipped threads around her.
- - - -
The beeping on the computer stopped. Jeremie opened his eyes, dreading what he might see…
Aelita's remaining memory had frozen at 000010.
"Yes!"
- - - -
Aelita climbed to her feet, shaking her head dazedly. Her eyes fell upon her rescuer. "Kloe?"
"Long story, no time, gotta get to the Tower," the journalist summarized, "it's right on the other side of those blocks."
Not waiting for Aelita's nod, Kloe sprang to her feet, loosing a dart at each of the two blocks in front of her, and sending another two off before the first pair struck home. A laser caught her in the back, but she was running after Aelita, the Tower growing closer. Almost there…
Another laser struck, and she felt herself dissolving into a shower of numbers.
- - - -
"Yumi…" Ulrich struggled to his feet. "You have to - ah!" He touched his leg. It felt broken.
"I won't leave you," she said. Not even a proclamation; a statement of fact. It was all very touching, but it had distracted her at a crucial moment. The policewoman's hand caught her in the stomach and flung her back against the wall.
Ulrich struggled to stand. Yumi!
- - - -
Aelita touched the side of the Tower, feeling it part and ripple under her fingers. Two steps took her through.
All sounds of laser fire cut off. The Tower was serene. She wished she had time to luxuriate in it, but she didn't, not while a battle was on. Not since Jeremie had materialized her. There would always be some things she missed about Lyoko.
The rings of Xana's symbol lit quickly as she all but ran to the center. An updraft of air and familiar weightlessness swept her upward; she tilted her head back, eyes closed, expression beatific. This she couldn't rush.
The scanner cracked open, spilling Kloe out, weak as a sack of flour. Light! Video games shouldn't hurt that much.
"Aelita's in the Tower?" she asked the air, limping towards the elevator.
"Yeah," came Jeremie's voice, "but I'm getting some pretty weird programming artifacts…"
His voice was cut off by the elevator.
- - - -
IDENTIFICATION: AELITA
CODE: LYOKO
She knew that, however weird her head felt. Around her, the Tower dissolved into darkness. Was she meant to say something else, now?
- - - -
"No, no, no…" Jeremie muttered, reading lines of computer language. "Return to the past now!"
- - - -
Yumi stood up, bent over her stomach. The policewoman had lifted Ulrich, and she didn't think he could take getting flung against the wall again. With a defiant cry, she ran forward, hitting the cop in the side. Ulrich, Yumi, and the policewoman fell to the ground. "Huh?"
The possessed officer's eyes flickered and resumed normalcy. "What's going…" she started.
A sheet of white light swept over them.
- - - -
School. The cafeteria. An atmosphere of delighted freedom, augmented by light pouring in through the windows. At one table, Kloe and two other journalists interviewed Sissi; for a moment, the blonde girl looked uneasy. But she never glanced two tables down…
…where Odd appeared to be nursing a headache, Ulrich was rubbing his leg, and Jeremie looked anxious. "I thought going back in time was supposed to get rid of injuries," Ulrich muttered, hand on his calf. "It's not as bad as it was, but…"
"I didn't have much time to load the program," Jeremie explained.
"Yeah - thanks for saving us and all," Odd said, "but something tells me that wasn't why you were in such a hurry."
"No. After the scipazoa lost Aelita, I started getting some weird programming messages, and…"
"Jeremie?" Aelita broke in. She was staring at Odd, no hint of recognition in her eyes. "Who's he?"
"…I was afraid something like this might happen," the computer geek sigh. "Oh, man."
– Fin –
Cliffhanger! And... that's episode one. Nine more to go. To my eternal shame, I did, in fact, virtualize Kloe in the first episode - but she's not in the next one at all, and I assure you all, it only gets better from here.
Taidine