Ch. 5
This Means War!
Akioneko fell asleep to her roommate's tapping on her keyboard. She'd gotten used to her roommates late nights, although it helped that her house was next to a busy street to the sound actually helped her fall asleep. She was only asleep a few minutes before she heard a strange crackling and popping in the air, and a short cry. Her eyes flashed open and she turned on her side to see arcs of blue lightning come up from her roommate's computer around her roommate.
Akioneko reacted without thinking and grabbed the laptop. She felt the energy surge through her arm. Moving quickly she yanked the laptop out of her roommate's hands and tossed the laptop onto her bed. She saw a symbol that looked like an eye on the screen briefly before the laptop died. "What the hell was that?" Akioneko asked Champagne who was shaking her head and rubbing her eyes.
"I don't know…must have shorted out or something," Champagne leaned forward and picked the laptop off her roommate's bed. She turned it over and removed the battery and then placed it back in before turning the computer back on. "Well that was certainly odd. She began typing furiously."
"That thing just shocked you are you sure you want to continue what you were doing on it?" Akioneko asked wary of the machine.
"I'm running a diagnostic, so I can find where the error is. Then I can fix it before it happens again," Champagne told her haughtily.
"Well, fine just don't come crying to me when it shocks you again," Akioneko said as she went back to bed, pulling the covers up above her head.
Champagne filled took a sip of her coffee as she walked to class. Her computer hadn't found any errors. The shock seemed like it was a freak accident, but her father's equipment had never had problems like that before. They weren't like the red ring of death Xbox 360s that plagued the Americas a couple of years ago. She'd have to run a more inclusive diagnostic before she even started programming the robots or putting the interface together. A bug like that in her computer could mess up her whole coding.
She decided that she'd use the super computer in the factory to run the diagnostic; it seemed to have enough processing power for the job. And perhaps she could send Odysseus in and see if the AI picked up anything after she ran the initial diagnostic.
Akineko grunted as she hit the floor. Jim, the gym coach was quick to criticize her performance, "You're still hesitating when you swing around the bars. You need to make it smooth, if you focus and do it faster your routine will get easier. Try once more."
Akineko walked to the other side of the bars before taking a running leap. The uneven bars were the most enjoyable for her, but also her greatest weakness. Vertigo was the absolute worst. Whenever she had a routine where the floor was easily seen she was known to hesitate, the ground becoming fuzzy, and at the worst moments, the hesitation turned into falling. "OOff!" she grunted when the hesitation became much worse. Jim sighed and gestured everyone else off to the showers before approaching her.
"We can remove the uneven bars for this contest if you like, if it's too hard for you," Jim told her offering a hand to help her up.
Akineko shook her head, "No I'll get it coach, I'm just off my game today."
"I'll say. Go hit the showers and rest up, I want that routine to be in tip top shape next practice," With that Jim sauntered off to his office, not even bothering to put away the gymnastics equipment.
Akineko waited until he'd gone before attempting the routine again. She wasn't going to give up that easily. Her vertigo would not cost her the chance to do her life's dream. As she touched the bar she felt a shock jerk up her arm. She cried out as she was thrown back onto a mat. She shook her head and found herself looking at the lower of the two uneven bars. Lightning was dancing across the bar, "What the?" she questioned as her brow furrowed.
The lightning began to dance and flash to the floor forming itself into a dog. 'Crap,' she thought to herself. She was terrified of dogs.
The lightning dog made a lunge at her as she jumped over the rest of the mat, sprinting towards the gym door. Her heart pounded in her ears. She heard screams as she ran past other students. The dog only had eyes for her; she heard the cracks and pops of the electricity behind her. She sprinted through the park, hoping to lose it in the vegetation. She planted her foot wrong and wen tumbling down the open sewer hole and into the water below.
"Couldn't you watch where you were going?" Akineko looked up to see her roommate on the ladder reaching for the plate that was supposed to cover the man hole. "What are you doing down here anyway?"
Akineko didn't have a chance to talk as suddenly the lightning dog lunged its head in, spooking Champagne causing her to fall to the floor. Champagne didn't waste any time getting up and sprinting away calling to Akineko "This way!"
Akineko pulled herself onto shore and began running again easily catching up and over taking Champagne entirely. "Keep running until you get to a ramp! Then jump to the other side!" Champagne called as she struggled to stay ahead of the dog.
Akineko followed Champagne's instructions and jumped and slid over the water. She turned to see Champagne following her, falling to her knees as she landed. The dog stopped and growled at the water, the lightning flashing as it paced the length of the ramp.
"That won't keep it busy long, but it's worried about shorting out, we need to go now," Champagne told her in-between gasps as she got up and lead her through the tunnels of the sewer system.
"Where are we going?" She asked Champagne as they took a turn down another tunnel.
"A place where I can get a better reading on that dog. My laptop can't do things like that, but I know of a computer that can," Champagne said as she grabbed onto a ladder and began to climb. They had come to the outside of an abandoned factory.
"Hurry, we need to get inside before the dog does anything more. Any idea of why it may have been attacking you?"
"No, I was just practicing my gymnastics and suddenly I was shocked, and It came off the uneven bar," Akineko told champagne as they entered the factory to see cables hanging down towards the floor. Champagne grabbed one and slid down.
"You coming?" she called up, but Akineko had frozen. Her vertigo was acting up again, causing the ground to move back and forth. "Hurry up!" Champagne called standing in the cargo elevator. Akineko grabbed one of the cables and jumped with her eyes closed. She felt the air rush past her while her stomach rose into her throat. Her feet hit the ground and she let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding. She opened her eyes and jogged into the elevator before Champagne hit the big red button on the wall.
The garage like elevator door slowly moved into a closed position before the elevator started to descend. "So, where are we?" Akineko asked her roommate.
"An old abandoned factory what does it look like?" The elevator stopped and opened revealing a chair, a hologram and several keyboards and monitors.
"Just an old abandoned factory?" Akineko demanded as they stepped out and Champagne sat in the chair before pushing it back to the computer screen.
"Well it's not just that. I have yet to figure out what is with this super computer, but if I'm right it'll have the ability to see what that whole electric dog thing was about," Champagne slid on her headset, "Odysseus can you hear me?"
"Oh great now this computer has a name? You know what I bet this is all your fault and has something to do with your computer from last-"
"CHAMPAGNE!" Odysseus cried out as he popped up on the screen, "I was hoping I'd see you soon! The interface world is all buggy! There were things attacking me when I went to watch the latest update of the Blackrock Chronicles!"
"The what now?" Champagne asked confused.
"What is that thing?" Akineko interrupted pointing at the screen.
"It's an AI program no need to get your undergarments in a bunch," Champagne told her, "Now what's this about bugs?"
"I was going to the internet tower that allows me to access youtube and suddenly these things in the sky came flying at me. I shot them with a few arrows but there were too many. I got hit with a lazor and ran back inside here. They're still there!"
"Okay okay so now we have problems to deal with on top of the bugs. Odysseus can you run a diagnostic on the cities electrical usage?"
"Uhm…I don't know how to do that…" Odysseus said as he put a hand behind his head.
"Great, remind me to update your coding once I actually understand it," Champagne said as she connected her laptop to the computer and started to run her standard searching program to find a port into the electric companies systems.
"Let's see what this alert on the super computer is then we'll figure out what to do about that dog," Champagne said clicking on the red exclamation mark. A window came up flipping through many towers before settling on one. A warning beeping came from the computer, "Activated tower?"
"Oh is that what that red band around the youtube tower meant?" Odysseus pondered with a purr in his voice.
"I'd guess so," Champagne told him as she started to run a search program to find out how to deactivate the tower.
"Hold on, are you saying that this computer may be causing this whole dog thing?" Akineko asked in a low voice.
"Maybe," said Champagne as she furiously typed away at her laptop, easily gaining access to the electric company. Far too easy, well at least easier than the stuff she'd hacked when her dad was teaching her coding. Those were the days.
The electric company showed that there had been a spike near the factory then another near the school last night within minutes of each other, and then the same spike pattern had appeared about six minutes ago. "I think we're going to need to try and deactivate this tower to figure this out though. It may be coincidence but to happen twice in a row…" she murmured as she began to look in the scanner program to figure out how to deactivate the tower.
"Wait so this computer caused this? Then wouldn't turning it off just fix the issue?" Akineko asked her roommate.
"We don't know that, the activating of the tower may just be a reaction. The question now is how to deactivate it and hopefully get the information we need," Champagne told her annoyedly. "Besides there is so many things on this computer turning it off would be a shame."
"A shame?! We got chased by an electric dog and all you can say is that turning this off would be a shame? It could stop the dog from hurting people, isn't that more important?" Akineko demanded.
"Like I said, there is no proof that the computer caused it, perhaps the computer was made to counter something," Champagne told her. As a program popped up with screeching audio. Champagne quickly jerked her headset out of the computer and covered her ears. Whoever had made this had a bad mic.
A robotic voice came over the program, "If you are listening to this then XANA is still active. You've attempted to deactivate a tower from the control room. If the tower is glowing red this action is impossible. You must enter the scanner," the program pulled up the virtualization program as well as a schematic of the scanners a floor below, "and leave one person who understands the programs in the control room. Please note: XANA is connected to the computer but also to the Internet. Defeating him will require locating his code and deleting it. If his attack has been seen by too many civilians you must use the return to the past program. Please use this program only when you must as it seems to make him stronger and able to pull off more powerful attacks." Most of the windows disappeared as another program popped up, "This program is an audio rendition of my records fighting XANA. There is also an instruction manual hidden in the far side of the room for those who need it. Good luck."
The program canceled out of itself before Champagne looked to Akineko. "Well I guess we can't really turn this off can we? If the threat isn't here but instead infecting the web."
"Well how do we get rid of it?" Akineko asked.
"I guess someone has to get into the scanners and then manually deactivate the tower, but we'll also need someone on the outside," Champagne said as she pulled up the scanner program and the return to the past.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, since when did this become a we thing?" Akineko asked her, "I ran with you because I was scared of the dog, and it's only the fact that you seemed to have caused this mess that I'm still here!"
"What do you know of programing?" Champagne asked her roommate, "Have you ever been taught how to hack a simple fire wall or crush a virus that takes over a computer with no virus protection without wiping out the hard drive?" Akineko stood silently fuming.
"Thought not," Champagne said, "I need to stay here in order to work the program or react if something goes wrong. You're the only other person here."
"Okay, but does is it safe?" Akineko asked her. Champagne found several locked cards connected to the scanner program, with one that labeled add new, and another labeled Odd which resembled the AI.
"Well it seems people have used this computer before, and look Odysseus is already labeled," Champagne told her, "I guess where you go he's supposed to act as a guide."
"I don't remember any of that," Odysseus told her, "I only remember being able to travel from tower to tower or being trapped in the internet."
"Well these other cards are locked, perhaps your memory was wiped to protect the people who you worked with before," Champagne said as she pulled up the beginnings of the scanner program, "Akineko the scanners are downstairs, I'll see about getting one of them to open for you, then you can tell me what you see. We'll have to take our chances."
William cursed. He'd been peacefully grading papers when students had run screaming down the hallway a few moments ago. It seemed like his previous experiences at Kadic had come back to haunt him as he was now being chased by a crazed lightening dog. He turned a corner and sprinted out of the building. He'd figured the dog had to be after him, after all its eyes betrayed who its master was. He ran down the driveway hoping to at least get away from the students before he fell victim to the beast. He faintly heard one of the teachers call after him before more screams echoed. He turned his head to make sure the dog was still following him. It was.
He bent lower and focused on running now. There was nothing he could do to stop the demon dog. He'd never been a real warrior anyways, he kept the weakness that other people had to Xana's powers.
"You ready?" Champagne asked as she pulled up the tapped on the keyboard.
"As ready as I'll ever be," Akineko responded as she stood in the scanner thing. She didn't trust it, but she felt as if she had no choice, if the computer caused the dog then perhaps she could convince her roommate to close down the factory.
"Okay, closing the scanner," Champagne said as the doors rattled shut, "It has to scan you first, but I'm going to try and get you as close as I can to the activated tower. It won't let me put you right next to it. Odysseus will be waiting for you. "
A bar moved up and down around Akineko's body as the scanner began to configure itself to send her to Lyoko. The computer began to load a new card showing Akineko in an ninja outfit, a mask covered the lower half of her face and a hood kept her hair in place. "Sending now," Champagne said, not looking at the card but instead at the loading bar at the top of the screen.
Being virtualized was the weirdest sensation Akineko had ever felt. It felt like icy streams of water were moving down her body while she formed out of unnaturally still air. She fell to the ground, landing on her feet out of instinct. "Huh," She looked down at her body which was now covered in black form fitting clothes, a mask and the hood. She noted that she had two half-length katana's strapped to her side.
"Well howdy partner?" Odysseus called making his way over to her.
"What the heck am I wearing?" Akineko questioned before turning to the AI, "So you're supposed to get me to the activated tower right?"
"Well I can get you near it, but getting to it that's going to be a problem. There are these weird things buzzing around there," he told her as he began to jog down the forest path. Akineko noted that the paths were floating in the air, with nothing below them to support them. Her vision started to get distorted but she shook her head. She couldn't allow her vertigo to get a hold of her right now.
She followed the strange cat program, being careful to not lose him through the trees, which it seemed he was really familiar with.
"Akineko can you hear me?" Champagne's voice came from the sky.
"Yeah I can hear you, it's weird here," Akineko called up, unsure of how loud she'd have to be to get heard.
"I just noticed something in this big book of notes, if Odysseus loses all his life points he's gone. I don't know how to reset him, or program something as complex as he is so make sure he does not die." Champagne told her.
"Okay, but then how am I supposed to deal with the scary things he mentioned earlier?" Akineko asked.
"Well, according to this you should have a weapon," Champagne told her. Akineko glanced at the swords at her side, "Yeah I do. Two half-katanas."
"Well I hope you know how to use them, looks like the rogue programs have spotted you," Champagne said as two flying beetles with huge pincers came flying at them.
"Oh no it's these guys again," Odysseus said as he fired something from his wrist causing one of the bugs to explode on impact. Akineko grabbed one of her katana's and, using her gymnastics and marital arts training, jumped and sliced the bug in half.
"Wow nice work, can I try one of those sometime?" the program asked.
"I don't think there is going to be a next time for you to try them," Akineko said as she began running down the path again.
They found the tower in short order, guarded by five bugs, which took the chance to fly at them, firing red lazors the whole while. One hit Akineko on her arm as she and the cat AI jumped behind a bolder. It stung, and she hear Champagne tell her that she had lost ten hit points. "How many do I have?" Akineko called up taking out the second katana. Five against two were only good odds if you were amoung the five, or if you could take more of a beating.
"Ninety hit points, so you could take nine more of their lazers." She heard. A plan began to formulate in her head unbidden. If she was right she might just be able to pull it off.
"What about the bugs?" She asked as she grabbed onto the boulder. If she could vault over it, she'd have it made.
"Fifteen hit points each, with their eye mark being a weak point," Champagne told her.
"Great, well lets not keep them waiting," Akineko said as she pulled herself up and over the top of the rock. As she entered the air she slashed taking down two bugs and surprising the other five. She threw both blades for direct hits at two of the other bugs, and narrowly dodged some lazers with some fancy landing work. Without thinking she threw up her hands and willed the blades to turn and slice through the other bugs wings. It worked and the blades came back to her, turning themselves blade down and hovering at her sides.
"Waoh that was cool!" the program cried as he too jumped over the bolder. Akineko raised her hand to find that the blades followed her movements. She could use either her mind or her body to fight.
"Less jabbering guy's," Champagnes voice came over the landscape with a sense of urgency, "The dog has left Kadic. I've made the dicision to launch the return to the past program but I can't do that safely with the tower activated."
"Okay okay," Odysseus shouted as he lead the way to the tower. He slipped in easily but Akineko found herself running into a hard wall.
"Ouch! hey what gives?" Akineko called up to the sky.
"It seems only Odysseus can enter or leave an activated tower."
Slowly the tower began to turn blue, "I did it Champagne I fixed it," the AI called as Champagne entered the last few keystrokes activate the return to the past program.
Okay guys I was late getting this out so I put 1000 more words than what my beta demanded. I'm running into problems with Akineko doing gymnastics so if someone is knowlegeable drop me a pm. Also I've had issues with school and possible allergic reactions to something I love so I'll be back and forth for a while. Also, (and I'm only putting this here because I received a review asking) do not ask to take over my stories if it seems I'm gone for a long time in reviews. I'm a college student and need time to work on my studies. I may not update a work all the time because I have other works. Thank you.