Code: GRID

by Flameal15k

Still working to rebuild Lyoko after their defeat to XANA, the Lyoko Warriors find themselves facing unexpected developments. When they find another with experience in a digital world, new enemies and allies are brought into their secret conflict.

8. A Sixth Sector?

"So, back at it again, are we?"

"Yes, Keeva. We need to get Lyoko up and running as soon as possible."

The American girl raised an eyebrow. "Isn't Sector Five enough?"

Jeremie froze up for a moment, trying to determine a response, before shrugging. "Probably. But I just want to be safe."

Keeva nodded at that. "That is understandable...though, I do have to wonder what your plan would be after getting Lyoko back online."

"Figuring out a method to traverse the Digital Sea is our next step," intoned Aelita. "After that is less clear. Though I will say that acquiring the transportation sphere XANA was using should help us finish that step more quickly."

"Good to know. I do have one remaining question, though."

"And that is?"

"Why do you need me here for that? I don't have any experience with Lyoko's coding, so I can't provide much help with this task, at least at the moment."

"Well," began Jeremie, "Aelita and me wanted to explore Lyoko after we reestablished the base portions of each Sector. You know, to check for bugs."

Keeva gave him a flat look. "You just want to enjoy your new Lyoko Avatar, don't you?"

Jeremie immediately started blushing. "No, that's not true!"

Keeva kept staring at him.

"...Not entirely true."

Keeva smirked. "It's okay - I understand." Then her smile dropped. "But what am I supposed to do?"

"Aelita gestured to a small book Jeremie had put by the supercomputer's keyboard. "Just run the Sector recreation program so that we can get the first couple sections of the remaining four sectors of Lyoko set up."

"Okay. Also, why aren't Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich here?"

"They're not interested in this type of activity," answered Aelita, "and after seeing how we beat XANA yesterday, I don't think he is going to be ready to mount another attack anytime soon."

"If he does, though, we have them on call," added Jeremie. "Though, maybe you could contact your program-"

"The difference in time speed between the Grid and Lyoko would cause too many issues. Some of the new arrivals are still wondering why I take so long between messaging Mu and the others."

"...Oh."

"Yeah. Do the instructions you have for me include how to virtualize you?"

"Yes."

"Then let's get to work."

The trio nodded, after which Aelita and Jeremie made their way down to the scanners. As for Keeva, she opened up the instruction manual (for lack of better term) and started reading.

"We're at the scanners!"

"Gotcha, Jeremie. Sending you over now."

Carefully putting in the commands, and closing her eyes, Keeva took a deep breath. "Alright, he we go."

A moment later, she opened them. "Transfer Aelita! Transfer Jeremie! Scanner Aelita! Scanner Jeremie! Virtualization!"

XXXXX

Landing in Lyoko, Jeremie was pleasantly surprised to discover that yes, his change in attire on the Grid had been a permanent shift. He had been worried that the switch was temporary, and that once he returned to Lyoko, he would be forced to use his more whimsical (and impossible to take seriously) avatar again. He'd wanted to check the day before, but after all that had happened in the Grid, everyone had needed a rest.

With a flick of his wrist, a small drone formed and started fluttering around. Jeremie couldn't help smiling - it looked like that power was also here to stay.

"Enjoying yourself?"

Jeremie glanced sheepishly at Aelita, who couldn't help smirking at the situation. "A little."

"Don't worry, I understand."

"Hey, this is Keeva. Do you two hear me?"

"Yes, Keeva," replied Jeremie, "we hear you."

"Good. Still looking over your manual. It is...very detailed. I don't mean that as a bad thing."

"It's fine. Tell me when you reach the sector restoration startup program."

"Okay!"

XXXXX

"Mu?"

"Yes?"

"Program Beck would like to see you."

"Understood, let him in."

Within a few minutes, the program in question was in Mu's office.

"So, you wanted to see me?"

"Yeah. Wanted to talk."

'You could probably be more specific about that.' "About what?"

Beck sighed. "The Users we saw several cycles ago. Especially Ms. Flynn."

"My creator?"

"...I was wondering about that."

"I expected as much. So, what do you want to know?"

"A few things. First, where did they go? Most programs here seem to know that they'll return, and I know that you receive communications from them every few days, but they've already been gone for quite a while-"

"Oh, that's easy - they went to the Analog World, which runs a bit...slower than ours."

"Slower?"

"Time on the Grid progresses faster than that on Earth by a ratio of 50:1 - for us, over seven weeks have passed, but Ms. Flynn has only been in her native world for roughly a day."

Mu was fairly certain that if this were one of those comedy shows that Keeva had provided for the enjoyment of programs, the sound of breaking glass would fill the air to accompany the look of dumbfounded shock on Beck's face. "...what?"

"I had a similar reaction why Keeva first told me that truth. But her evidence was incontrovertible, especially after she took me to visit her world-"

"You've been to the Analog word?!"

Mu smiled and nodded. "Yes," she replied, standing up out of her desk, "several times. Not for very long, but enough to enjoy its majesty."

Now Beck was feeling completely lost. "That's a lot to take in."

"Perhaps. What else did you want to know?"

"How much do the Users know about me and the others?"

"I don't quite know - however, they had to examine your identity disks while recovering you from the old grid, so you could safely assume they know everything that matters."

If programs could go pale, Beck certainly did. "Oh. I-"

"Let me get something out of the way now: I know that you are the Renegade...

Beck froze in shock.

"... but I don't care. It is possible that Keeva knows this, but she was not with me when I learned that fact."

Now Beck was not sure how to feel. Not that Mu was going to give him an opportunity to interject yet. "Look, you were a hero to Argon before the Grid was corrupted. Programs looked up to you. So we would appreciate you aiding our cause. But that has to be your choice. I won't force you to aid us, nor will Keeva or her family. That decision is yours and yours alone."

"...Thank you."

"Anytime."

XXXXX

"Alright, ready to start up the procedure."

Jeremie smiled. "We're ready and waiting."

"Well then, here we go!"

Striking the enter key, Keeva watched as the program activated. Of course, a progress bar popped up.

Meanwhile, within Lyoko, Jeremie and Aelita gasped as the world changed around them. At first, nothing happened, but then, slowly, the empty space before them resolved into a path. After a moment, Keeva materialized the Overwing and Overbike for the duo, allowing them to follow the pathway. The path continued onwards, until finally terminating, at which point it spread out into four different pathways. Aside for their base locations, though, the paths only appeared in wireframe - further fixes would be needed to restore the sectors in their entirety.

"Did it work?"

"Yes, Keeva," confirmed Aelita, "it worked!"

XXXXX

"Alright!" squired Keeva. "Looks like the fully restoration of Lyoko has begun. What next?"

"For now, we should return to Earth. We still need to fill out the next parts of the Sector Restoration Programs."

"Understood. Prepare to devirtualize in-"

Before Keeva could even start the countdown, she received a system notification from Lyoko. Confused, she pulled it up, and found that an aberrance had been detected in Sector Five. Unfortunately, there were no other details on the subject, leaving the Flynn girl in the dark on that matter.

"Keeva?" Questioned Aelita. "Did something happen?"

"Yes, actually - the supercomputer detected an oddity in Sector Five. Since you're already in Lyoko, would you two be willing to investigate before we call it a day?"

Jérémie was the one who answered "Sure. Where is it?"

"A short distance away from the entrance to the Data Tunnel you are inside, oddly enough. I'll lead you in."

"Thanks."

XXXXX

It didn't take the duo too long to reach the target area, though what they found was a rather large surprise.

"Do you see the oddity?"

"Yes, Keeva. We see it."

"Well, what is it, then? Please tell me, Aelita."

"It's...a Data Tunnel. But we don't know where it leads."

"...So you mean we might've found a other Sector in Lyoko? One that apparently survived William breaking the core, since you didn't have to reprogram this one into existing?"

"Correct," confirmed Jeremie. "I'm not even sure how it exists, but it's here."

"Do you want to examine it?"

"Seeing how it might have towers that XANA could use against us, yes."

"Alright, then get going. And keep me posted o n what you find."

As soon as Keeva finished talking, Jeremie and Aelita surged into the Data Tunnel. Soon they were in its heart, following the stream of data to parts unknown. In the real world, Keeva was monitoring their progress, wondering where the tunnel would terminate. It had to end somewhere, right? And if so, then where?

Eventually, Jeremie and Aelita came to a stop, though why was unknown to Keeva. "Hey, why'd you stop?"

"There's...well, there is some kind of gateway here that closes off the tunnel," was Jeremie's reply.

"Can you open it?"

"It has a screen where I could put in an access code."

"...Do you want to open it? I mean, if this fate is here, it must exist for a reason?"

"We've come too far to go back now."

"Alright then, Aelita. You and Jeremie be careful."

"We will. Trust us."

"I do."

Smiling Aelita put her hand to the panel. Moments later, as the screen read 'Code Lyoko', the gateway began to rotate, after which the center opened radially, with the rest of the door resolving into petal-like shapes that gradually fell away, until at last the door was open. On the other side lay the new sector, which Jeremie and Aelita swiftly entered.

"Well, don't keep me waiting. What is it?"

XXXXX

"Sending visual now."

A few moments later, the visual feed arrived and...oh.

Keeva needed a moment to shake out of the stupor she fell into upon seeing the new sector. In many respects, it was very similar to the Mountain Sector, or at least what Jeremie had described that sector as looking like.

There was one big difference, though.

Namely, that this sector was filled with lava. Lava rivers, lava lakes, lava water falls, you name, this sector had it. Even the e Digital Sea took the form of lava here.

"...Did we just go to Subnautica?"

"No, Keeva," was Jeremie's reply, "but I get where you are coming from."

"I see. Well, it seems that you have good taste in games."

"Thank you. Can you tell us where we are now, and which Sectors we are closest too?"

Keeva glanced at the map of Lyoko. "Yeah, the sector's data is being filled in now and...oh."

"Keeva? What is it?"

"Two things, Aelita. First off, this sector looks more like a latitude line than the longitude lines the other sectors look like."

"...okay. What is the other thing?"

"This sector appears to be underneath all sectors except Sector Five."

"...Wait, what?"

"I said that this sector appears to be underneath the rest of Lyoko." And indeed, according to the map, this new Volcano Sector was underneath the four 'classic' sectors. Due to this, it was able to wrap around the core of Lyoko fully instead of occupying one quarter of it. Moments later, its list of towers came in as well.

"...Well, this isn't the weirdest thing we've seen," noted Jeremie. "But as interesting as this is, I think we should head back for now - much as I want to explore here further, it would be better to do so with Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd."

"Fair enough. Preparing to devirtualize in 3-"

Suddenly an image of an exclamation point popped up on the screen. Confused, Keeva glanced back at Jeremie's Lyoko handbook for help, only for dread to fill her when she found out what she was looking at.

"Keeva, what is it now-"

"I don't know how, but you have incoming monsters, Jeremie! Not sure if XANA activated a tower, but it looks like three are headed your way, with a larger one behind them."

"What?! But how...Nevermind. Can you run a superscan of this new Sector? I made the program so that it could accommodate new sectors if they showed up."

"Obviously, it hasn't been put into practice until now, but sure. Though if I were you, I'd suggest dealing with those monsters."

XXXXX

"Don't worry, we're on it!" As soon as he finished speaking , Jeremie and Aelita turned to face their opponents, only to almost get knocked over when said monsters charged toward and ran past the duo, soon leaving them behind in a cloud of dust. Perplexed, the two considered attacking them, before deciding instead to turn and face the last monster.

Moments later, they regretted not taking a third option and just running.

Said monster turned out to be a huge, tripedal creature, which possessed an abnormally large laser cannon where it's mouth would be. The torso and forelimbs were almost comically massive and covered in black armor resembling a turtle shell, making the spindly, insect-like hind limb seem almost comical. It had an eye of XANA atop its back, but Jeremie noted that the symbol almost looked as if it was painted, which told him that it might not be the creature's weak point.

Keeva, who was watching all of this, did not like what she saw. "I have a bad feeling about this. You should get out of there now."

"On it," affirmed Aelita. "Let's get out of...uh oh."

"What is it?"

"The fate clsoed."

"What?!"

"It closed, Keeva" was Jeremie's reply. "I think the monster's presence forced it to seal itself."

"I see. So what now?"

"...Stand and fight?"

"Does Aelita support that decision?"

"Yes."

"Well, good luck, then."

"Thank you."

As soon as that line was said, Jeremie summoned forth his drones and started firing at the charging monster. Unfortunately, his attacks had no effect on it. Aelita attempted to aid him with an energy blast, but to her shock the creature simply leapt over the attack and kept advancing. It soon became apparent that the creature was not going to be stopped by their attacks. After sharing a glance of acknowledgement, Jeremie and Aelita decided on a new plan - board their vehicles and run for it!

The monster roared at them as they retreated, but for all its size and power, it was still rather slow, and soon they left it in the dust. Not that they were going to slow down until it was well behind them.

Unfortunately, that meant they weren't looking ahead of them.

"Look out!"

Jeremie just barely had time to look forward before the Overbike slammed into something, sending him flying. When he recovered from the landing, he tried to figure out what price of debris he had hit, only to stare flummoxed at a Blokk.

Specifically, a very malformed Blokk - its cuboid head looked as if someone had made a few mistakes cutting it into shape, and the eyes looked all wrong and silly. A quick glance revealed that it was the only malformed monster here - Jeremie and Aelita had apparently run into the trio of monsters they had encountered earlier, which consisted of the Blokk, a Krankrelat with a tiny head, and a Tarantula with a malformed head and body and what could charitably be described as stilts for legs.

As soon as the Blokk noticed Jeremie, it started making strange sounds. It took him a moment to realize that it was actually crying. Surprisingly, Jeremie actually felt sad for the creature, and against his better judgement, gently placed a hand on it and started petting it.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you."

"Jeremie, what are you doing?"

"I have no idea, Aelita. I'm just playing things by ear right now."

The Blokk, which had moved from crying to screaming, was now much quieter, with Jeremie realizing it was now mewling. Somehow. For a moment, Jeremie felt as if he was about to get lost in petting it, until a familiar roar filled the air - their pursuer had caught up.

Jeremie and Aelita prepared to retreat, only to watch in surprise as the trio of monsters (including the Blokk, which Jeremie had righted) began to fire at the tripod. After a moment of hesitation, they joined in. The combined volume of fire surprised the tripod, and it came to a halt. The shock, however, was fleeting, and moments later it was on the move again. Once more Aelita tried to fire off an energy field at the tripod, but instead of dodging, it fired a laser blast straight at the energy field. The collision of the two projectiles happened just in front of the motley group, sending them all flying. Without missing a beat, the creature ran up toward Jeremie and surged into him.

Jeremie just barely managed to roll to the side and dodge the attack. The creature responded by trying to crush him under one of its feet, though a blast of energy from the bespectacled boy managed to repel that attack. The monster refused to give up, though, and followed up with another attack, which Jeremie once again barely dodged.

Nearby, Aelita had recovered, and was priming an energy blast to release at the creature. But unfortunately for her, she didn't have a good opening - from her location, if she missed the attack, then it would hit Jeremie, and while that was one way to get him out of the fight, she didn't want to devirtualize him right now. If there was another way to free him, she'd take it.

Jeremie seemed to realize this, because he started looking for any openings that he could use to get free. Unfortunately for him, though, the tripod had all of its bases covered, and there were no paths to freedom before him. Groaning, Jeremie glanced back at Aelita, in the process noticing that one of his drones had escaped to flutter by her.

Jeremie glanced at Aelita, the drone, and then the monster twice, before the pieces finally clicked.

"Aelita, shoot the energy blast now!"

"What?"

"Do it!"

With some hesitation, Aelita complied. Moments later, Jeremie had his drone open fire as well.

The laser and the energy field collided, triggering another explosion, which slightly injured Jeremie, but also freed him from the monster's assault. As he struggled to stand up, the boy also noticed a very juicy detail - there, exposed on the underside of the monster, was an Eye of XANA. And unlike the one on its back, this looked like a weakpoint.

Jeremie tried to order one of his drones to strike the tripod, but it proved unnecessary - a red ring flew into the eye, causing the tripod to convulse for a few moments before exploding. Jeremie turned his attention to the glitched Blokk, which seemed to be making satisified noises despite now being upside down.

After a moment of awkward silence, Jeremie right the Blokk, while its Tarantula friend did the same with the tiny-headed Krankrelat.

"...Are we friends now?" Wondered Keeva.

"Just with these three, I think."

The group was sure how to act, but then the answer to that question arrived - a loud, sonorous roar echoed from the distance. Glancing at it, the group saw the distant form of a strange, hexapedal, reptilian monster.

"...Run?"

"Run."

The two humans beat a retreat toward the gateway, while the monster trio found a crevice to hide in. Not that it proved necessary - the giant beast never noticed them.

In the Analog World, Keeva thought over the new monsters they had encountered and wondered what to call them. Then she decided to leave that be - Odd apparently came up with those names, and he would at least want an opinion.

XXXX

"...I say we call the tripod a Volcanoid!"

Well, there goes points for originality.

"...Sure."

"I can't believe we missed discovering a whole new sector of Lyoko," groused Ulrich. "A Volcano Sector, three friendly monsters, and two new enemy ones, and htat's just what you've told us!"

"And that's all we found," noted Jeremie.

"Why do you think those monsters were there?" asked Yumi. "XANA doesn't normally create glitched ones."

"My best guess is that he dumped them there for being failed designs, though I'm not sure why he didn't just delete them. And that doesn't explain the Volcanoid and the, well, the other one."

"Got any name ideas, Odd?' asked Aelita.

"...I'm working on it."

Keeva cleared her throat. "May I make a suggestion?"

"Sure. What do you think the name should be?"

"Given that it has six legs, looks like a lizard, and that it was found by a group in France...How about the Tarasque?'

"...I like it!"

"Thanks. Though, I don't think that's the biggest issue we'll have with the Volcano Sector."

All but Jeremie and Aelita glanced at Keeva. "What do you mean?" wondered Odd.

"The fact is, the Volcano Sector was locked off from the rest of Lyoko. Maybe that was why it survived the destruction of the core, maybe now, but whatever the case is, as far as we know, XANA never accessed it before he took down Lyoko."

"And that means?" asked Ulrich.

"One of two possibilities: either whatever is inside is something Franz Hopper didn't want XANA to get access to...or it was so dangerous that XANA himself sealed it away. And frankly, I think option two is most terrifying.

Everyone was silent at that remark - Keeva raised an excellent point.

"Um, Einstein, you find anything in Hopper's notes about that?"

"Not yet, Odd, but I'm working on it. In the mean time, I think we should all get ready for class tomorrow - take our minds off of this issue for now."

"If you insist. Funny - first time I've been happy to think about class."

XXXXX

Several Hours Earlier, United States

Sighing, Dido finished up the report - it wasn't much, but it would have to do. She'd already sent one version to Langley to get some aid on the ground, but this one was bound elsewhere - New York, specifically.

After all, these were the guys who knew how to handle the weird.

XXXXX

Path to Coalescence: Phase 2 of ? Completed.

XXXX

AN: Pay no attention to the line above this author's note, it means nothing.

So, yeah, Lyoko focused chapter today. And what's this? A new sector, with new monsters, and a few friendly ones too? Heresy!

Hahaha, kidding. Now to get you all in the know.

The Volcano Sector was created for the game Code Lyoko: Quest for Infinity. It's the Central Replika in XANA's network, such that taking it out allows them to crash the rest of the Replikas and permanently kill XANA. The Volcanoids also originate from that game.

The three friendly monsters are from the Code Lyoko comic, The Best of the Two Worlds, which also features the Volcano Replika. Here, it's used by XANA as a dumping ground for failed monsters. Jeremie ends up going there and befriending the three monsters featured in this chapter (XANA threw him in there), but they are all unfortuantley slain when they fight William to protect Jeremie. Side note, Jeremie looks like he does on Earth when in Lyoko in that comic.

The Tarasque is the first original monster to show up in this story. Explaining too much about it would be spoilers.

I wonder where Dido is sending that report too...

Read, Review, Do What You Want! This is Flameal15k, signing off!