Note: I do not own Code Lyoko or any characters regarding it. I simply modify and add my own characters to the story. All original ideas regarding Code Lyoko thus belong to Moonscoop, Taffy Entertainment, France 3, and Canal J.
Chapter 9
Trap on Virtual Earth
Over the next two days, things were quieter than usual. Xana was in a state of worry, both that Ulysses was still recovering from the symptoms of being released from HADES' obelisk prison, and how she would tell or show him how she feels about him. Everyone else only had to worry about their homework assignments and what was going on on Wakusei.
While Ulysses stayed in the infirmary, the gang brought him his homework so that he could at least do the work that was assigned that day. When Xana walked into the infirmary on the 2nd day however, Ulysses said to her, "Hello beautiful."
Xana felt herself blush instantly. "Hi Ulysses," she said, trying to hide her blushing, "How are you feeling?"
"Better than before," said Ulysses, "How are you?"
"I'm doing well," said Xana, "Anyway, I have your homework for you."
"Thanks," said Ulysses, "And I have something to tell you." Xana leaned in so he could tell her, "I dreamed about you last night. I dreamed that it was the day of the final fight... and before I went into Wakusei, you kissed me. It was an amazing experience."
Xana couldn't hide her blushing when Ulysses said that, so she turned away.
"Sorry," she said, "I have to be somewhere."
Ulysses smiled at her as he said, "Alright. See ya later beautiful."
Xana blushed again before she rushed out of the infirmary. At dinner, she told the group what Ulysses had said to her in the infirmary. "...And he called me beautiful!" she exclaimed.
"Well he hasn't seen you in a while," said Jeremie, "He likes you too. Enough that he would miss you after a few days."
"I know, but I still wonder," said Xana.
After dinner, they went to bed. Xana thought she may have had a bit much to eat, because she had a very strange dream.
She dreamed she was in what looked like an abandoned secret service building and she was walking down ominous dark corridors. Had she known what it was like to be afraid of the dark as a child she would not have been frightened like she was now. She entered a dimly lit room which opened onto several other corridors. "Is..is anyone there?" asked Xana in a trembling voice. No answer.
Xana heard something coming her way. "Who's there?" she asked.
"Xana? Is that you?" came the voice of Aelita.
"Aelita?" came Carly's voice.
As they came into view, Xana asked, "What are you doing in my dream?"
"Wait a minute," said Carly, "This is your dream too?"
"Ours as well," came Ulrich's voice as he, Yumi, Odd, and Jeremie came into view.
"What's going on here?" asked Xana.
"I've been in this kind of dream before," came Ulysses' voice from behind Xana, "This is a Dream Rendezvous. It's a rare event when two or more people dream of the same thing and end up being able to interact and speak with each other in the dream."
"But why is it happening with us?" asked Jeremie.
"I don't know," said Ulysses, "But it must be happening for a good reason."
Just then they heard cries of fear and turned in the direction they were coming from. They saw a pink-haired woman being pulled by two men dressed in black. "Aelita!" she cried out.
"Mommy?" said Aelita as she watched the woman.
"Aelita! Save me!" she cried out as the two men in black dragged her into a room and closed the door behind them.
"Mommy!" cried Aelita as she ran for the door.
No one knew what would happen if Aelita opened that door, but they knew somehow that it wouldn't be good.
"Aelita, it's a trap!" Jeremie called out.
"Don't open the door!" yelled Ulysses as he ran after her, but it was too late. Aelita opened the door, and instead of opening onto a room, it opened onto pitch black. The gravity of the room seemed to shift and aim toward the open door. They all started falling toward it.
"Aelita, close the door!" yelled Odd.
Aelita attempted to close the door, only to find that it was no longer there. They tried to escape the gravity of the doorway, but there was nothing to grab onto and they fell in screaming. The doorway suddenly cracked and broke around the frame, turning into a black hole. Xana held on tightly to one of the pipes on the wall and called out to Ulysses, "Ulysses! Take my hand!"
Ulysses tried to grab Xana's hand, but the area he was holding onto cracked and he screamed, "XANAAAAAA!" as he fell into the black hole. She cried out in sorrow as she saw Ulysses disappear into the gaping emptiness, but soon she felt herself slipping from the pipe and she screamed in terror as she fell into the hole as well.
Xana awoke screaming and drenched in sweat. "Oh, my God!" she exclaimed, "What a nightmare!" She looked at her clock and was surprised to see that it was 3:35 in the morning, so she tried to go back to sleep, but was unable to. Little did she know that everyone else had the same nightmare and woke up screaming, including Ulysses.
By morning, Ulysses was back, but the whole gang was incredibly tired from the previous night. They all grabbed some coffee before sitting down to have breakfast together.
"I see I wasn't the only one who slept terribly last night," said Xana.
"You got that right Xana," said Ulysses sleepily before he drank his coffee, "I had a nightmare that we were all in some secret service facility and when Aelita opened the door her mother was pulled into, it created a black hole and pulled us all in."
Everyone else looked shocked.
"That means my dream was the same as yours!" said Xana.
"Mine too!" said Aelita.
"I've done this three times before," said Ulysses, "It was a Dream Rendezvous. We all had the same dream, creating a connection with our minds like an internet video conversation. However, I still need to figure out what it means."
"'What it means'?", asked Carly, "What do you mean by that?"
"Sometimes dreams have meanings," said Ulysses, "We dreamed of falling into darkness, and falling usually means we will fail in something. My guess is that it has something to do with our next mission, but why was Aelita's mother in the dream as well?"
"I've had previous nightmares about her and my father told me that she was taken by the government, but he doesn't know what happened to her," said Aelita.
"Let me think about this," said Ulysses.
The bell rang and since it was Saturday, there wasn't any class to be done, Ulysses did some analysis on Wakusei and found an unfamiliar digital signature. He called the others to meet him in his room, and they met up within five minutes.
"Anything?" asked Jeremie.
"Yes," said Ulysses, "While analyzing the whole of Wakusei, I happened upon a strange digital signature on Virtual Earth. The signature matches to your DNA, Aelita."
"What is it?" she asked.
"It's your mother," said Ulysses, "I don't know how she ended up on Virtual Earth though."
"That means my mother is alive," said Aelita sounding completely relieved.
"Yes, but something doesn't feel right," said Ulysses.
A sudden surge told Ulysses that HADES had launched an attack, but it wasn't just an obelisk that he had activated. Jeremie checked his laptop and saw that all 80 towers on Lyoko had been activated.
"Why activate all the Lyoko towers and only one obelisk?" asked Carly.
"Same question here, but the bright side is that he has no access to the core tower in Sector 5," said Ulysses.
There was a sudden screaming coming from everyone's rooms. They ran into the room opposite them and saw that the students had suddenly gone unconscious and their computer screen had HADES' symbol on it.
"What the hell happened to them?!" exclaimed Ulrich.
"HADES!" said Ulysses, "He has managed to transfer all of these human minds to Virtual Earth via the computer screens and imprison them there! That's what he had planned with the towers on Lyoko. We need to get to the factory and the warehouse pronto!"
Jeremie contacted Franz and he headed for the factory. The group knew that it would be impossible to deactivate 80 towers before it was too late, so they headed only to the warehouse. When they got into the computer lab, Ulysses activated the super-scan.
"The obelisk is on the ocean sector," said Ulysses.
"At least we know where the obelisk is," said Xana, "But what about the towers on Lyoko?"
"That will be easy," said Ulysses, "HADES is using the tower access to strengthen the lock on Virtual Earth. If we activate at least two obelisks on Wakusei, we will be able to shut down his connection to the towers and they will be deactivated, thus unlocking the Pylons to let us get to Virtual Earth."
"That's good," said Jeremie, "I can activate them from this end."
"Impossible," said Ulysses, "The obelisks can only be activated and deactivated from the inside. I will activate the obelisks with a new code I implemented into the system, and the best part is that HADES can't take control over any obelisk we activate."
"Great thinking," said Jeremie, "I'll start up the procedure."
They entered the synchronizer room and Jeremie sent them to the mountain sector so that they could activate the obelisks first.
Jeremie called the factory and said, "Franz, are you there?"
"Yes, Jeremie," said Franz, "Everyone's in Wakusei?"
"Yes," said Jeremie, "Their going to remotely deactivate all of the towers on Lyoko so that they can get into Virtual Earth and free the minds that HADES captured."
"Good," said Franz, "I'll keep an eye out on the towers and I will tell you if the plan is successful."
Ulysses headed for the nearest obelisk and jumped in. After he scanned his palm, instead of putting in Code: WAKUSEI, he entered Code: LYOKO and the obelisk turned red. "Obelisk online!" said Ulysses, "Is the data being recovered Jeremie?"
"Yeah, it's coming in fast!" said Jeremie.
Ulysses jumped out of the obelisk and Jeremie desynched them out of the mountains and resynched them into the volcano sector. They were coming up on the obelisk which was just over a cliff, when out of nowhere, seven Lavafalls appeared in front of it.
"Cowardly defense," said Carly.
"How like HADES," said Ulysses. He jumped down from the cliff and yelled, "CHARGE!"
The group charged with attack yells and fought furiously against the Lavafalls, but occasionally being desynched and sent back in to fight again due to the magma shooting from their mouths. The monsters were defeated in a few minutes and Ulysses entered Code: LYOKO in the obelisk. After the obelisk was activated Ulysses told Jeremie how to activate an access firewall in between Wakusei and Lyoko's towers.
"One final thing," said Jeremie as he entered the last bit of code, "...and towers deactivated!"
Franz called and said, "Great work. All of the towers have gone neutral."
"Alright," said Jeremie, "The Pylons are unlocked guys. Virtual Earth is open!"
"Thanks Jeremie," said Ulysses as he and the others headed for the Pylon on the volcano sector.
The Pylon looked like a tall polished pyramid crystal of some sort. Ulysses placed his palms on it and his voice distorted as he said, "Pylon Access Code: GAEA." A triangular hole appeared in the Pylon revealing a city beyond. No one could believe their eyes when they saw how Virtual Earth looked so similar to the real world.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to Virtual Earth," said Ulysses.
"Incredible!" exclaimed Carly.
"Unbelievable," said Ulrich.
"Amazing!" said Odd.
"Very well done," said Yumi.
"I have to agree with the others Ulysses. Very fine job," said Aelita.
"Thanks guys," said Ulysses, "But let's not forget our mission, to free the minds of the humans trapped here, and that includes your mother's, Aelita."
"Speaking of which," said Jeremie, "I found your mother's physical self, Aelita. She's in a secret underground room kept under heavy guard by the government."
"I'll go fetch her in the real world," said Ulrich, "That way Franz, Aelita, and Carly can be reunited with her when her mind is set free."
Aelita grabbed Ulrich and hugged him. "Thank you Ulrich!" she said.
"Alright Aelita, calm down," said Carly, "We still have to find and free her mind."
"Carly is right," said Xana.
"We better get going," said Odd.
"Alright," said Jeremie, "Desynchronization Ulrich!"
Ulrich disappeared from Virtual Earth and Wakusei and got off of the synchronizer. "I'll be back in no time," said Ulrich as he headed for the elevator. As soon as he got out of the elevator, Jeremie gave him the coordinates of the government facility and he activated his super-sprint and ran north at the speed of light.
"Alright guys," said Jeremie, "Ulrich's off to find your mother's body Aelita. When Ulrich gets her here we can implement her mind back into her body, but first we have to find where HADES is keeping the human minds hostage."
Ulysses placed his hand on the ground and felt pulsations coming from an abandoned asylum. "You have got to be kidding me," said Ulysses, "He's going to go Saw on us? How lame can you get?" They had no choice though, so they went inside. The interior of the asylum was just as creepy as Ulysses remembered it from one of his favorite horror films, Saw. He led the group through the corridors and rooms of the asylum, disarming almost every booby trap HADES had set as they went. When they had reached a room on the third floor, there was a hole in the floor full of broken glass and on the other side of the room was a metal bolted door. As soon as they all crossed the threshold, the door behind them slammed shut and locked. They were trapped.
"Hello warriors," came a voice from the speakers in the room, "I see you have found the room which will take you one step closer to freeing the minds of the humans, however in order to do so you must locate the key to the door in front of you. It's in the pit of broken glass in the middle of the room. Staying in the glass pit for too long will result in desynchronization, so hurry if you want to save those humans."
"Imitating Saw," muttered Ulysses, "I should never have programmed this place in here."
To avoid desynchronization of anyone in the room, Ulysses activated his psychokinesis and disintegrated the glass into dust and carefully raised the key out of the pit. He unlocked the door and went in, the others following him. The room they had just entered had a large safe in the middle. "The human minds are under the trap door underneath that safe," said Ulysses.
"I'll move the safe," said Yumi, "Telekinesis activated!"
The safe flashed white and began to move as Yumi focused hard until it knocked over. Ulysses opened the trap door.
"Jeremie," said Ulysses, "We may need your help down here. You can come into Wakusei by using the emergency access program. It will send your mind into Wakusei while your body still operates the computer perfectly."
"Alright," said Jeremie as he located the program.
Just then Ulrich came in carrying a woman with pink hair. "I found her!" he said.
"Good work Ulrich," said Jeremie, "Now get into the synchronizer and I will transfer you. I'm going to try to enter after you."
"What?" said Ulrich.
"I'm going to use Ulysses' emergency access to synchronize myself into Wakusei so that I can help them as well as you," said Jeremie.
Ulrich nodded and got into the synchronizer. Jeremie contacted Franz Hopper and told him that he would be inside Wakusei to help out the others, so he needed him to be the operator. Franz understood and Jeremie activated the emergency access. On Wakusei, Jeremie wore a blue metallic digital armor and his glasses were replaced by a visor and his weapon was his eyes themselves as they produced blasts powerful enough punch a hole through a mountain.
Remembering the access code Ulysses had used to open the Pylon, they went in and found themselves with the rest of the group in the asylum room.
"Good job Jeremie," said Ulysses, "Thanks for coming in here with us."
I'm just glad it wasn't complicated to activate, thought Jeremie.
"You have telepathy," said Ulysses, "I just heard your thoughts."
"Interesting," said Jeremie, "Easy communication without using cell phone minutes."
"Anyway, let's get going," said Ulysses, "We have to free those minds."
"Speaking of which," said Ulrich, "I placed Aelita's mother on the last synchronizer so we can re-insert her mind in the warehouse."
The ladder down was old and rusty, so they were very careful when climbing down. Ulysses lit his hand on fire with his pyrokinesis to illuminate the tunnel. They heard cries of terror coming from the corridor to the left of the ladder, and they followed it to a locked room. "Damn it, HADES is good," muttered Ulysses, "The door requires a pass code and I'm not good at hacking a system."
"Leave it to me," said Jeremie as he placed his palm on the lock and closed his eyes. Ulysses suddenly heard computer signals and the door turned into code for a second before turning back to normal. "Door unlocked," said Jeremie.
Ulysses turned the knob. Indeed it was unlocked. "Not only is it telepathy," said Ulysses, "It's technopathy! You have the ability to control electronic machines with your mind!"
Jeremie smiled. They opened the door and found the minds of the staff and students of Kadic Academy, all of them chained to the pipes in the room. They appeared to have just woken up from the sudden shock of being taken from their bodies.
"Who are you? What's going on here?" asked Milly.
"Where are we and why are we shackled up?" asked Tamia.
They obviously didn't recognize the warriors because of their Wakusei outfits, so they chose to keep their identities secret.
"All of you have been taken against your will," said Carly.
"We're here to set you free," said Xana.
Ulysses used his aerokinesis to weather the chains and set them free. "We don't have much time left," he said, "We're taking you to the nearest obelisk to get you out of here."
Aelita's mother stepped forward. "Where are we going?" she asked.
Aelita spoke this time, "Mommy, we have to listen to Ulysses. He can set you all free."
Her mother thought about it for a second before it hit her. "Aelita?" she said.
"Yes, Mommy, it's me," she said, "But first we have to set you all free."
Aelita's mother nodded. Ulysses placed his palms on the wall and said in a distorted voice, "Pylon Access Code: WAKUSEI." A hole appeared in the wall and they ran out of a Pylon onto Wakusei's ocean sector.
"What is this place?" asked Mathias, an 8th grade student.
"A world called Wakusei," said Ulysses, "When we get you into an obelisk, we can set you free."
"Is it that obelisk?" asked Melany, Odd's ex-girlfriend, as she pointed to a blue obelisk underwater.
"Yes it is," said Ulysses, "When you go underwater, don't hold your breath. You can breathe in this water."
Ulysses jumped into the digital ocean and the others followed him. The students jumped in after them, and they found out immediately that they could breathe underwater in the digital ocean. Ulysses swam toward the obelisk, but stopped because two sea monsters, one with five heads and the other a giant squid, appeared in front of it. "The Scylla and Charybdis!" Ulysses shouted, "Keep your distance! Pyrokinesis! Solar Flare!" A blast of boiling water shot from Ulysses' hands and struck the Charybdis, destroying it. Unfortunately, that alerted the Scylla and its five heads charged for the warriors.
"Triangulate!" yelled Ulrich. Oddly enough, his power worked underwater as he swam at an intense speed creating his three triplicates. They managed to sever three of its heads, but it still wasn't destroyed. The remaining two heads swallowed Ulrich's clones whole, but Ulrich himself managed to escape. Carly and Aelita charged up their energy fields and hit the heads, causing it them to explode. The Scylla sank to the bottom as it died. The group charged for the obelisk, the student and staff minds following them.
"Get into the obelisk," said Ulysses as he floated into the pyramid top, "Alright Jeremie, get back to the monitor by saying 'Desynchronization Jeremie'."
Jeremie did so and got back to the monitor. He called Franz and told him to get to the warehouse as soon as possible.
When they got into the obelisk, before Ulysses entered the code, he said, "Mrs. Hopper, in order for this to work with you, I need to know your first name."
"My name is Anthea," she said.
"You heard that didn't you Jeremie?" asked Ulysses.
"Loud and clear," said Jeremie, "Transfer Anthea! Scan Anthea! Synchronization!"
Anthea suddenly gasped as she felt something like a jolt. "What just happened to me?" she asked.
"Nothing that will harm you," said Carly, "Just something that will take you with us when we get out of here."
Ulysses scanned his palm and entered Code: WAKUSEI. Immediately, the minds of the Kadic staff and students disappeared from the obelisk. "Obelisk shutdown!" he said as the data reset itself, "Okay, Jeremie, get us out of here and activate Code: EARTH for Anthea."
"Will do," said Jeremie, "Desynchronization! Code: EARTH!"
They all got out of Wakusei and Anthea got up off the synchronizer.
"Where am I?" she asked.
"You're safe here in the warehouse," said Ulysses, "We set you free so that you can live with Franz and Aelita again."
As soon as they exited the synchronizer room, Franz arrived. He and Anthea stared at each other for a while before Franz said, "Anthea? Is it you?"
"Yes, Franz, it's me," said Anthea.
Franz walked up to her and said, "I thought I would never see you again."
Anthea kissed Franz and said, "So did I. But we're together again, and that's all that matters."
Aelita ran up to hug her parents. Everyone smiled as the reunited family rejoiced. After they left the warehouse together, they helped each other clean up the Hermitage so that Franz, Anthea, and Aelita could live there again, and they practically cleaned it all in a few minutes using their abilities given by the bleeding effect. However, Aelita and Carly decided to wait until the end of the school year to live in the Hermitage again, and everyone laughed at that. They were enjoying the time they had so much, that they were completely unaware that HADES was planning his next move.
Anthea Hopper was found and Aelita's family has been reunited! However, there's still that problem with HADES. What has he got planned next? Find out later on...