A/N 9/18/09: Chapter One cleaned up and fleshed out. Dialogue has more tags so conversation is not so confusing. Dialogue content is almost the same, though.

Chapter One: What Happened?

Odd grunted as he landed on the ground after virtualizing. "Hey, guys, did anyone else feel weird after being virtualized?"

Umi nodded and replied, "Yeah, and look where we are." They looked around, their jaws dropping in shock. Instead of the expected tall glaciers of the Ice Sector there were tall sky scrapers. The sun was not visible and there were various city noises. Odd stepped forward a few feet and heard a squish, causing him to look down.

"Eww…" He tried to shake the stuff off of his foot. "Don't people clean up after their dogs? I mean really. And on my Lyoko suit too."

"Odd, I don't think a dog did that."

"What makes you say that, Aelita?"

"What dog is big enough to do that?"

"I don't know but I'm gonna find its owner and-" Odd stopped talking as he saw something he thought he'd never see.

Ulrich cocked his head and asked, "Is that...?"

"All right! A dragon!" shouted Odd, jumping up and down with a large grin covering his face. He raced towards the black and red dragon, causing it to look up in surprise. It narrowed its eyes and glowed red. Letting out a screeching roar, it shot a beam of energy at him and sent him flying. "Aaahhhh!!!" He crashed into a nearby merchant cart. A man standing nearby, dressed in clothing colored like the dragon's scales, looked at him angrily.

"Hey! Don't go around scaring dragons!" the man shouted, mounting a saddle on the dragon's back. The dragon then roared and raced away. Meanwhile, Ulrich helped Odd up, then Odd groaned and wiped at his suit.

"Oh great. Dragon poo and watermelon seeds. Just what I wanted," he said, his hands on his hips.

"Hey, kid! You got a lot of nerve smashing my cart!" shouted a man as he walked up to the group.

"You did it this time, Odd," said Ulrich, smirking.

"Me? What'd I do? It was that weirdo and his dragon."

"Uh, guys. I think we should run," said Umi. Agreeing with her, the group headed further into the city to escape the enraged merchant. They all managed a steady pace except for Aelita, who was looking around worriedly.

Ulrich shouted back to her, "Aelita, hurry up!"

"I'm trying to reach Jeremy," she called back. "Jeremy, can you hear me? Jeremy, come in. Jeremy?"

Odd rolled his eyes and said, "I doubt we're still in Lyoko."

"You don't know that, Odd," said Aelita, catching up to the group.

"Maybe not, but I do know that in Lyoko we're chased by monsters and not crazy people. Unless William counts." Umi's eyes narrowed.

"Hey, don't badmouth him!"

"Umi, he's the enemy," said Odd. Umi growled and threw her fan at him; it just missed hitting his leg. It smashed into the ground and left a small hole.

"Our powers!" cried Aelita. "We have our powers! We must be on Lyoko!"

"Since when has Lyoko had dragons?" asked Odd.

Ulrich chanced a glance behind them and, upon realizing something, asked, "Guys, why are we still running?" The group stopped and looked behind them.

"He's gone!" said Umi, a bit surprised.

Odd smirked and posed heroically, saying, "I guess he couldn't keep up with a great warrior such as myself."

Ulrich rolled his eyes and reminded his friends of the topic on-hand with, "Whatever! Guys, we need to stop somewhere and try to figure out what happened."

Umi crossed her arms and said, "We were doing fine until Odd messed with that dragon."

"Hey! It wasn't my fault!" said Odd, trying to defend himself.

"Enough! Now, we're going to sit out of the way in this dark alley," said Ulrich sternly, trying to focus his friends on what was important.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" asked Aelita. In most movies she had watched, dark alleys were the worst places to go in a crisis.

"Do you have a better one?" replied Ulrich.

"No, but-"

"Then we stop here," he said commandingly.

"Fine." The four heroes walked into the alley and disappeared into the shadows. Unbeknownst to the warriors, though, they were being watched.