Chapter 3: Close Encounter
The Scyphozoa opened the door, tentacles waving eagerly as it glided out onto the rooftop toward its two victims. Janika couldn't help shuddering more than a little herself. There was just something eerily creepy about this thing.
"Don't move a muscle!" she said to William in a low tone as she shrugged one arm out of her jacket, but he probably wouldn't have been able to move even if she'd told him to.
The girl got her jacket off and threw it at the monster as it came in range. One tentacle whipped up to bat it away, then it lunged. Before it could reach them, Janika had grabbed William from behind and tipped over backwards off the rooftop! The monster practically pounced after them, only to find itself falling downward.
Whether its anti-gravity abilities were somehow altered in the real world or whether they were limited to a foot above a solid surface to begin with, the jellyfish most certainly fell four stories to the ground, smashed into many pieces, and did not get up again.
However, William and Janika were having a much different experience. As soon as her jacket was off, the girl's secret escape plan was revealed: five pairs of gossamer-type wings fluttered, keeping them both from plummeting down too. That didn't mean it was easy, by any account. She struggled to keep from descending too rapidly, but the best she could do was slow them down and not much else. It was hard enough to fly alone, which made it pretty close to impossible while carrying someone heavier than herself.
The monster nearly caught them as it fell, but she managed to flutter out of reach as it rushed past. They still landed with more than a little bump but at least they were alive.
William sat on the ground, his eyes darting between the dead Scyphozoa and Janika's wings. He opened his mouth to voice the question but she held up a hand to stop him.
"There's not enough time for the whole story, so let me just say it was a Lyoko-related accident and leave it at that." She whipped out her cell phone as she pulled him up and took off running for the woods. "C'mon, Jeremy…pick up, pick up!" There was no answer and she gave an irritated noise.
William had looked back at the remains of the creature and noted, "It's much smaller than it is in Lyoko. They're usually more than twice my height, but that one was just a little taller than us."
"XANA must have made an adjustment, probably because it couldn't have been materialized in the scanner if it was any bigger."
"Don't forget there's still another Scyphozoa is still here at school," William reminded her. "Should we get the others first and then go after it?"
"I hardly know anything about those monsters. XANA updated his army after I left, remember? Well, maybe you don't. Anyway I don't know how to handle them and I know how you feel about it, so we'd better go find the others right now."
The boy stiffened even though he knew she was simply stating a fact, not trying to jab at him and his reaction to the monsters. He managed to say nothing as they found the entrance to the sewers. There weren't any extra skateboards, so they had to hoof it on their own.
"Hey, if you can fly why aren't you doing it now?"
"I don't want to leave you behind. It isn't really that polite, plus I have no clue what kind of attack XANA is planning. I'd rather not be separated from you right now."
William's curiosity simply kept pestering him. "What do you do when you go swimming?"
"Never wear a bikini."
"But don't you ever take your jacket off when it's hot?"
"I just make sure to wear a shirt that doesn't have any wing-holes in it. I can lay them flat against my body like this."
It was hard to tell in the shadowy sewers, but the gossamer gleam seemed to curl around her torso so that it looked like a decoration on her shirt. She kept them that way the rest of the trip, likely because that was their usual position.
By then the two had reached the end of the tunnel and saw a scooter alongside three skateboards. Apparently the others were still there at the factory. William clambered up the ladder first and got out, then turned around to give Janika a hand. As he pulled her up, there was laughter behind them.
"That's really gross, you two," Aelita said, her face pinched in disgust. "I can understand making out behind the gym, but the sewers?"
She and all the others were standing a few feet away just outside the fence of the factory. Janika ran over but the locked gate was between them. "What happened with Hopper? William and I got attacked at the school by one of XANA's monsters and you didn't even warn us. Did something go wrong?"
There was a moment of silence and then the boys exchanged mischievous looks.
"Of course not," Ulrich said in slow, almost sarcastic voice.
"The monsters are right where we left them," Odd grinned.
"Yeah, they're set up to attack anyone who trespasses," Jeremy played along, giving a snicker – very much unlike him.
Yumi and Aelita still were focusing more on the fact that the two of them had just been inside a sewer. The Japanese girl cringed away, "Seriously, why don't you go take a bath or something?"
William seemed to catch on quicker than his companion. "You guys don't remember anything? What about XANA and Lyoko?"
The five now appeared to be trying very hard not to laugh.
Janika couldn't help giving it a try. "What about that Scyphozoa that attacked us? You know, that creepy thing that hovers above the ground with all the tentacles?"
William touched her arm and shook his head slightly. The dark-haired girl looked back at her friends and only saw skepticism and ridicule in their faces. Without bothering to say anything else, they turned away and ran across the bridge toward the factory.
"XANA must have done something to make them lose their memories. I'll wager it has something to do with the Scyphozoas—but if so, why wouldn't he brainwash them into his own warriors the way he did with me?"
Janika was running down the stairs beside him. "Wait, I think I know why! What better way to get them out of his hair? If they can't remember anything, they'd have no reason or way to fight him."
"But what about you and me?"
"I get the feeling he hasn't forgotten us, so we'd better be careful. We've got to get to the lab and find out what's going on."
They went over to the elevator and pushed the button to call it up. William was keeping an eye on all the dark spaces around the main room where any nasty surprises might be hiding, but just as the elevator pulled up he wondered why it was down a level if the whole gang was gone.
"I think—"
At that very moment the panel slid open and a pair of tentacles whipped out! Janika was in the air in an instant, her wings carrying her out of range. Her friend had slipped behind the elevator and was pressed flat against it, terror all over his face.
The creature floated forward but seemed to give up on Janika. It waved its arms about as though scenting the air. It would find William if she didn't find a way to stop it! The girl saw some old bars and strips of sharp metal on the upper level of the factory. Zooming over, she grabbed one bar and took a deep breath.
This particular trick she discovered quite by accident several months ago when she was sick with a cold and coughing up enough phlegm to fill a milk jug. The back of her throat started tickling maddeningly and then the next thing she knew, there was green acid eating through her Kleenex. Attempting to explain to her mother why the wicker wastebasket by her bed (and everything in it) had partially disintegrated was very difficult. Apparently she'd gotten more from being turned into a Hornet than just the wings.
The acid started to melt the end of the bar where she'd spat and she immediately mashed one of the jagged metal pieces to it. When the stuff dried after a few seconds, she had a short but effective spear.
Down below, the Scyphozoa had located William when he bolted for better cover. It was nearly on him when she attacked from behind, slicing into the almost-clear globe of its head. There was a crack and electric sparks, but then before she could so much as think, the weapon was knocked from her hands and the creature's coils wrapped around her like vines.
Janika uttered a scream and tried to struggle, but three of its tentacles poised around her head and she lost control over her muscles. Her eyes went blank as the monster began to attack her mind.
Suddenly there was a battle cry from behind as William leaped off the top of the elevator directly onto the Scyphozoa. Janika's makeshift spear pierced the target on the 'face' and it shuddered in midair, dropping its prisoner just before it exploded.
William pushed himself up from the floor. "As I was trying to say earlier, I think the elevator would be the perfect place to set a trap for us."
She sat up, rubbing her arms as though cold. "Now I understand why you acted the way you did back at school. That thing was—ugh!" Her eyes closed in an effort to push the unpleasant experience away. "Thank you for saving me, William."
He shrugged. "When I saw it attacking you I was able to do something. Good thing you had that weapon. Should we go downstairs?"
The lab looked the same as always. Nothing seemed to be wrong but as they approached the computer, Janika saw that there was a recording running. She stopped it and then played it back from the beginning.
Jeremy's terrified face stared out at them. "XANA knew we were meeting Hopper. The others have all been caught by Scyphozoas and won't respond to me. I have to be quick because I don't know what he's planning. I've encoded the multi-agent system but it can be unlocked and decrypted if Janika puts her name into—"
His eyes darted left and instantly his face went white. He was out of the chair and running as he shouted, "Power, any power!"
The Scyphozoa glided after him quickly outside the recording's range. Less than a minute later, Jeremy walked calmly across the room toward the elevator (though his eyes didn't appear to focus on anything), followed closely by XANA's robot.
There was nothing else on the video worth watching so Janika pushed stop. "Well, that confirms the Scyphozoas are responsible for their behavior. Do you think they might have left some…uh, subliminal commands just in case something happened once they were outside the factory?"
William shrugged uncertainly. The girl looked at the screen again and noticed there were two different messaging windows—both from Franz Hopper. One of them had to be a ruse by XANA.
She closed her eyes, thinking hard. There had to be a way to figure out which one was the real professor… What had Aelita told her about him? Not much, of course, but there had to be something Hopper knew that XANA didn't. Her eyes snapped open. "I've got it!"
She typed the same sentence into both boxes and waited for a response. William looked over her shoulder. "Huh? 'Oh, shall I tell you, Mama?' What's that about?"
Janika grinned and gave him a wink. "You'll see."
There was an immediate response from one of them. "What causes my torment?"
"Yes! I've got a lock on the real Franz Hopper!" She typed busily into the box. "I'm asking if he can meet us in a different place. XANA has Scyphozoas crawling everywhere in the Ice Sector."
"But how did you know that was him?"
"Aelita told me about that song her father always played on his piano. Those are the opening lyrics. XANA isn't much of one for nursery rhymes, it seems. But he knows we're here so we'd better get ourselves to Lyoko before he tries to send us a larger welcoming committee."
He went over to the panel in the floor and peeked through. "All clear. If he did materialize more Zoas, they're not here."
"He'll meet us in the Desert Sector. Just a minute…it's been forever since I've done this. Got it! The timer for the scanners is running so let's get down there."
They climbed down the ladder and rushed to the scanners. Janika couldn't help feeling nervous. For the first time in a year she would be on Lyoko. Hopefully she hadn't lost all her skills.
I always wondered what the deal was with the little "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star" ditty. Of course, even knowing the original lyrics doesn't help understand it either or why it was used for Aelita's father. As far as I can tell it's just some little kid whining about not being able to do what they want.