Eventually February wound down and March came. In Calvin's dorm at Kadic Academy, a black spectre emerged from one of the outlets on the wall and took the form of Mr. Xavier. It began looking around the room and started tearing apart what it could see. Mr. Xavier, who had sensed this, ran up to the dorms and entered the room.
"Is something the matter, XANA?" Mr. Xavier said before he was pinned up against the wall.
"You're hiding something from me, aren't you?" XANA said
"I don't know what you're talking about." Mr. Xavier said
"Where is the binder?" XANA said getting closer to his face.
"I don't know. Calvin had it last, you know that." XANA just threw him to the floor.
"He doesn't have it anymore. I can sense it."
"Well, I can assure you, I had nothing to do with it." Mr. Xavier said. "And why do you care? Neither Calvin nor Dennis can read your notes."
"Fool." XANA said pining his slave to the floor. "If he doesn't have it, he probably gave it to someone who can read Esperanto. And that person is probably translating our files and jeopardizing our plans as we speak."
Just then, a black spectre shot out from his hand and flew in Mr. Xavier's mouth, constricting his airways.
"Now tell me what you know."
"I swear. I don't know anything." Mr. Xavier said lying on the floor struggling to breathe. "I swear on my brother's grave."
XANA let him choke for a few seconds and then recalled the spectre.
"If I find out you're lying, I'm not afraid to kill you much slower than this." XANA said. "I'll pay a little visit to Calvin later; find out what he knows."
"What do you plan on doing?"
"Even if I told you, you couldn't stop me. Just as you couldn't stop your own agency from hunting down the Scipio scientists." XANA said as his spectre flew back into the outlet and disappeared. Mr. Xavier then grabbed his stuff and went out.
A short time later, Calvin's science class had ended and Calvin decided to ask Mrs. Hertz about something.
"Yes, Calvin?" Mrs. Hertz asked.
"I was wondering if you knew anything about computer multi-agent systems that you could tell me."
Mrs. Hertz paused for a moment.
"Well, I suppose." She said. "A multi-agent system is not as much one system as it is a series of programs working together to solve problems that the most complex individual agent can't solve by working on each individual problem simultaneously."
"Like a multi-tasking human." Calvin said.
"Uh, sure. You could say that."
"So logically, a human could project his intellect and subconscious to create a fully sentient program." Calvin said
"That's impossible even with today's technology, I'm afraid."
"But say in a hypothetical situation, if that were to happen and there were to be an error, what would happen?"
"I don't quite follow." Mrs. Hertz said.
"A human could control what parts of his conscious goes into the program, right? Well, suppose something bad like a repressed memory or a dark-natured belief were to become of this program."
"Okay, now you're contradicting yourself there." She said. "If a human could control the projection of his thoughts onto another environment, then he could hold back what he didn't want in that environment."
"But not if the human wasn't aware of what thoughts were bad or if those thought were subconsciously projected." Calvin said "Not to mention the ironic process theory."
"Shouldn't you be getting to your next class?" Mrs. Hertz said changing the subject. "Now go on."
The rest of the day passed by uneventfully. When school ended, everyone was heading off downtown to spend the evening since it was a weekend night. Rumiko went with Dennis, Sam went with a few freshman girls, Ami stayed at the school, and Calvin went with Antea. After a few hours, Calvin and Antea were walking back to the school when they noticed that it was getting dark.
"Great." Antea said. "We'll never get back in time and if Jim catches us up after curfew who knows what he'll do."
"Well, we could cut through the alley." Calvin suggested.
"Are you serious?" Antea asked. "Alleys are full of creeps and killers."
"Oh please." Calvin said. "That type of thing happens only in campy horror films. Now don't worry, I'll be right beside you."
Antea just clinged onto her boyfriend's arm as they walked through the alley. Just then they were ambushed by three men: XANA's thugs.
"What's going o..." Antea said as Alain grabbed her and Jean-Claude held a switchblade to her throat; Thomas then grabbed Calvin from behind and wrapped his arms around him in a sleeper hold.
"At long last we meet again, Calvin" Said a voice from the alley. from the source of the voice was a spectre which took the form of Dennis. (A/N: I'll explain why later).
"XANA, you son of a bitch! Let her go!" Calvin said struggling to break free.
"I'll let both you and her go." XANA said. "But first tell me what you did with the files."
"I'm not telling you anything." Calvin said.
"Jean-Claude?" XANA said. Jean-Claude then took the switchblade and cut Antea right on the arm. She screamed in pain as Calvin watched helplessly.
"Now will you talk?"
"No." Calvin said angrily.
"Suit yourself. I'll let you five get situated." XANA said as his spectre disappeared. "When you're ready to talk, I'll be there."
Jean-Claude then began wailing on Antea as Calvin watched in pain. Disturbed by anger, Calvin reached down and bit Thomas right on his finger as hard as he could. Thomas just screamed in pain as he let him go. Calvin than ran up to Alain and beat him to the ground landing blow after blow on his face. Jean-Claude then jabbed his switchblade in Calvin's shoulder, Calvin pulled out the switchblade then turned around and started wailing on him and even cut his face a few times with the knife. As Calvin went to help the now unconscious Antea up, Thomas came up to him and delivered a right cross to his eye; he passed out within seconds next to Antea.
What seemed like a short time later, Calvin woke up in a hospital bed. He could only see out of one eye and his body was covered in bandages. He turned and saw that he was surrounded by his friends and family along with Jeremie and Aelita.
"Look, he's waking up." Rumiko said.
"Oh, thank God. Thank God." Yumi said on the verge of crying.
"Uhh... What happened? Where am I?" Calvin said regaining consciousness.
"You're in the hospital, Calvin." Sam said. "You and Antea were found wounded and passed out in an alley."
"The doctor said you were both lucky that someone found you." Dennis said
"Well, who was it? Who found us?" Calvin asked.
"We don't know." Ulrich said. "He didn't give a name. Anyways, how are you feeling?"
"I'm hurting a little bit, but other than that, just fine." Calvin said. "How's Antea."
"I'm fine." Calvin heard someone say. He turned around to see Antea in an adjacent bed also covered in bandages. "Aside from a split lip, a deep cut on the arm and heavy bruising of course. But hey, compared to the torn ligament in your shoulder, and the black eye you also got, I got off just fine."
"Really? I took that much of a beating?" Calvin asked.
"That's what your charts say." Ami said. Just then the doctor walked in.
"Ah. Mr. Stern, Ms. Belpois. I see you've made excellent recovery."
"So, are they going to be okay?" Aelita asked.
"We're going to have them stay for a week just to keep an eye on them, as well as physical rehabilitation." The doctor said. "You just go on home, everything will be just fine." Everyone then walked out. Calvin then turned to Jeremie.
"Hey, Mr. Belpois." Calvin said.
"Hmm?"
"How goes the translations?"
"I've almost finished work on the documents containing XANA's plan. It should be done by the time you both get out."
"Thanks again, Mr. Belpois." Calvin said. "By the way, I'm sorry."
"For what?" Jeremie said.
"For getting your daughter in this mess."
"Don't be. It wasn't your fault." Jeremie said as he walked out.
Later that night, Calvin was lying awake in bed about what had just happened.
"Hey, Cal." He heard Antea whisper to him. "Why did you do it?"
"Do what?" Calvin asked.
"Why did you put so much of your life at risk to help me."
"Because that's what you do for one another." Calvin said. "You do the noble thing even if it involves your life. That's what your grandfather did thirty years ago that saved the world from XANA the first time."
"I see. Well, thank you" She said. "Hey Calvin?"
"Yes?"
"If we were in a predicament where XANA could only be destroyed by sacrificing yourself, would you do it?"
"I guess I would. It's one life compared to the billions that XANA will claim if he gets his way."
"I guess that makes sense." Antea said. "Good night Calvin."
"Good night, Antea." Calvin said as they both fell asleep.
The week flew by rather quickly. On the first evening back from the hospital, Calvin was already in the rec room playing a game of pool with Dennis. He had left his cellphone on his desk when it was ringing. The caller then left a message"
"Calvin, it's Jeremie. Listen to me. It is very, very important that you call me back as soon as you get this message. It's about the files you gave me, I know what XANA's plot is. Call me back and I'll tell you everything, otherwise anyone could just listen to this message. Please call soon."
Unfortunately for Jeremie, XANA had found his way into Calvin's phone and when the message was recieved, he immediately went back into Mr. Xavier's body and uttered only one word:
"Belpois."
Coming next week: Not a joke, not an illusion.
The Death of Jeremie Belpois.
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