Chapter 4: Meet the Old Man

Less than a minute later they were hovering over the Desert's terrain. As they landed, the Overbike and Overwing appeared.

She looked down at herself and noticed some differences right away. The fur of her cheetah-skin was a much brighter orange than she remembered and her halter-top was dark blue, extending down into a short skirt, underneath which was a pair of skintight black shorts. Her boots were the same except for three black buckles keeping them tight against her ankles.

"Well, at least the update didn't turn me into a horse," she grinned.

She would have made a few more comments except that their goal at that moment was to find the man responsible for the supercomputer—and ultimately for XANA's existence.

William was on the Overbike before his companion had a chance to look around. "Man, I always wanted to use this thing! Uh, you won't tell Ulrich, will you?"

"I don't think he'll mind much in his current state. We don't have Jeremy to guide us, so we'll have to go by landmarks. Hopper said he would be in a canyon hidden by the outcropping over there, I think."

While she was getting onto the Overwing William looked at her with confusion. "You don't have your wings!"

She shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "I can't control when I do and don't have them, okay? This is my virtual profile. Now are we going or what?"

The hot landscape was empty, but Janika was sure XANA was already trying to track them. They made it to the canyon without incident and looked around expectantly. For a few moments there was nothing, but then a glowing ball of light came floating out of a crevice and stopped a few paces from them.

"Are you Hopper?"

The ball drifted closer until it was just a hand-span from her face. Not sure if she was doing the right thing, Janika reached out and pressed her palm against it. A tingle of electricity went along her limbs but she heard—or rather felt—a voice.

Without her memories, Aelita is no longer able to access the Towers in Lyoko. I could do nothing, and now I have no choice but to ask the two of you for help.

"That's not a problem. What do we have to do?"

As you know, Jeremy synthesized most of the algorithm but before I could give him the data he needed, he had to encrypt it. If you could find out where it is and how to decode it I will give you the key to destroying XANA once and for all.

"Sure, but he didn't give us any clues. The Scyphozoa caught him before he could say anything other than that I had to put my name somewhere and that it needed power. There were no files open or anything on the computer. I was hoping you might be able to point us in the right direction."

Before the glowing ball could answer, a laser buried itself in the wall over them. William and Janika ducked as more shots were fired and Hopper quickly drifted farther into the shelter of the canyon.

"Tarantulas!" William yelled as his broadsword appeared out of the air. He used it to block more shots from the creature that was more like a lizard than a spider. "It looks like XANA located us. We'd better get out of here if we want to keep from getting devirtualized."

Janika looked back and saw that an army was appearing out of the air around them. Every few seconds more monsters would take form and drop to the earth.

She summarized their problem: "Unless we find a place to defend ourselves fast, we're dead."

%*%

Meanwhile the rest of the gang made their way back to school. They were late for the morning's classes already, but for some reason that didn't seem very pressing while they discussed the appearance of their friends—and their obvious lunacy. Odd was the only one who had stopped making fun of the pair as soon as the factory was out of sight. He seemed troubled and kicked rocks until Ulrich nudged him.

"Are you upset that she was with William?"

He shrugged but refused to say anything on the subject. Yes, she'd been gone for a long time, but earlier when he brushed against her arm to let her know he missed her…why hadn't she looked at him? She'd kept her head down as though ashamed. Was that because she already had feelings for William? Maybe he should have emailed a little more often.

They were just entering the campus when a host of screams from a nearby building disrupted the peaceful picture. An entire floor of classes spilled out into the court as a thing chased them.

All five students stared at the creature as it followed one group of fleeing children and then changed direction to go after more of them. The scene was so unexpected and bizarre that they simply stood there slack-jawed as other students came running in a panicked mass toward the street. Common sense seemed to hit them all at once and they started fleeing with the other kids.

Odd bumped into Aelita as they rushed away from the school. Her eyes were wild with disbelief and he shouted to her as they ran, "That's got to be the thing Janika talked about—the monster with the tentacles and all that. They were telling the truth!"

She shook her head emphatically. "No, it's just a trick or something."

"But shouldn't we go talk to them? Ulrich, don't you think we should find them?"

The brown-haired boy almost shuddered and didn't bother to answer. Jeremy looked nervous too.

"Don't tell me you guys are scared!"

"No, I just don't want to," the boy with glasses said. "I'm not going anywhere near that factory, so don't try to convince me."

"Me neither," Yumi said behind them.

Odd threw them dirty looks and then split off from the crowd. If they wouldn't ask Janika and William about the monster at school, he would.

%*%

The canyon twisted and then broke off in three different directions. Hopper quickly headed down the left path and they followed on their vehicles. There was a screech from above as a Manta came swooping down, firing its lasers twice. The shots missed, but they could hear the other monsters in pursuit, called by the Manta's signal.

Around the corner they came in sight of sanctuary: a Tower nestled between the ledges of rock.

They aimed for it but Janika faltered on the Overwing, nearly plowing into the canyon wall as she seemed to reel in near-shock. Hopper went in first then the others pulled the Overwing and Overbike to a halt, diving for the entrance as more lasers were heard behind. William grunted and his thigh sparked from an attack.

Janika ran to the edge of the main platform then bit her lip, muttering, "I really hope I'm right…"

"About what?" William wondered from his spot by the exit.

"The recording Jeremy left. I thought he said 'power', but what if it was 'Tower'? Aelita is the only one who can really manipulate data here, and if I do it without her who knows what could happen?"

"Is there much choice?"

"I don't think so. Just pray the Tower doesn't explode or something." She raised her hand and an interface appeared. The first thing it asked for was identification and she entered her name. Immediately a document opened and Hopper floated over almost excitedly (for a ball, anyway). He was so close that Janika could hear his words.

The algorithm! Yes…this is everything and only missing minor keys. May I?

"Um, sure."

The girl stepped back and watched as changes were made throughout Jeremy's multi-agent program. In less than a minute it was ready, and a good thing too, because there was a flash of red light and the entire Tower shook. Both Warriors were thrown to the floor, William nearly rolling off the side.

"They're attacking the Tower! What should we do, Hopper?"

Carthage is the only place this program can be activated, but I cannot do it myself. The two of you may not be able to transfer there without Jeremy to transport you directly.

"Are you saying one of us has to be devirtualized and then send the other alone to Sector 5?"

Before the ball could answer, there was another voice. "Hello? Is this thing a mike or something?"

"Odd?" This additional surprise nearly made Janika lose her footing as another shockwave hit the Tower. The boy heard her startled cry and asked if everything was alright. "I'm fine so far, but what are you doing in the factory? Is Jeremy with you?"

"No, I'm the only one. Nobody else wanted to come. Where are you?"

"See that big glowing sphere next to you in the lab? William and I have been digitized into that. There isn't time to explain but we need your help. Hopper, can you send him a set of simple directions to send us both to Sector 5 from this Tower?"

Despite his usual ineptitude at anything relating to computers, Odd found the instructions fairly straightforward. He couldn't type fast, of course, but he was encouraged to speed things up when he heard Janika cry out from another attack on their refuge.

"This Tower isn't going to last much longer," William said warningly. "Odd, you'd better pick up the pace if you don't want to be picking up our pieces instead."

"I'm trying! It's almost done…"

The girl looked over at their newest companion and said, "Wait, what about you, Hopper? How are you going to get out?"

Even if the Tower is destroyed I can hide within the darkness below us. XANA's creatures would never look for me there…but I would be unable to assist you in Carthage. You will both be on your own.

She nearly stumbled back in shock. If he wasn't going to be there to make sure she didn't mess up… Could she really do it accurately enough to complete the program and destroy XANA?

Before there was time for her to say another word, Janika and William felt themselves dissolve, a moment later reappearing in the arena of Carthage. After a few seconds of disorientation they saw part of the wall had opened, allowing further exploration.

The cheetah-Warrior didn't know anything about Sector 5 so William was the guide. Since the terrain was never the same twice, she wasn't sure how he could act as a 'guide' exactly, but within the first minute she found out.

"Drop!" William yelled as something slid out of the wall toward them.

She slid into the space between two gray-blue blocks. The sheet of clear substance was thin but it sliced over her head with a sharp noise that made her think it might take off a limb if she was too slow to get out of the way.

The girl stood up slowly and looked around for her friend. The strip of ice (or whatever it was) was about five feet wide and half an inch thick, and even as she stared at it, another sound came from behind. She did a wild back spring, just narrowly avoiding a second one. She landed on top of the first and promptly slipped, falling on her side.

William had been harassed by a couple as well, though he avoided them easily enough, but the look on his face seemed to say something wasn't right. "Odd, is there anything on the screen?"

"Um, yeah. Some kind of countdown, I guess. It showed up as soon as you guys entered the place. It says you have two minutes and three seconds."

He gritted his teeth and made his way toward Janika, dodging another ice sheet as he did so. "XANA must have changed something. Jeremy was able to get rid of the countdown when he rebuilt Carthage, but now it's back. We've got to find the key and hit it before our time is up. Janika, look for a button on the wall."

She lost no time, darting along the wall and scanning every surface. Every so often she would jump or duck to avoid one of the protrusions, but she nearly lost her tail when two came at her from different directions at once. The whole room seemed to be filling with icy plates.

Her foot slipped when she half-landed on one, and then she barely managed to flatten herself against a shallow depression in the wall in time to avoid another as it came at her from above. But then Janika couldn't squeeze out! The space between the main wall and the ice was too narrow and she couldn't get up high enough to climb over. She beat her fists against it, but the noises were hardly audible.

William was using his sword to block one of the ice plates and it seemed to be working, but he was too distracted to hear her. One hand went to her belt and for the first time she looked at her weapons.

Janika remembered them being fairly simple and effective, but as soon as she took off a star, it expanded into a larger shuriken with a red jewel in the center and five wickedly curved claws. But there wasn't time to admire it.

Not wasting another second, she raised her hand back as far as she could and then brought the weapon against the ice with a loud shing! that caught William's attention at once. He threw himself away from the dangerous glassy plates that were hassling him and wove between about ten others to reach her. Not without slipping, unfortunately, but that's to be expected when his sword weighed more than himself.

He checked to make sure there weren't any more coming straight at him, then he swung his broadsword in an arc directly at her. Janika crouched down and covered her head, then there was a crack and she was suddenly covered in ice shards.

The boy grabbed her arm and pulled her out, but as she looked up to thank him, her eyes focused beyond him. "That's it way up on the ceiling, right?"

He looked up and caught sight of it. "Yeah! We just have to figure out how to get there."

"Are you very strong?" she wondered. "I mean strong enough to throw me up there."

The boy looked at her doubtfully, then pulled her aside as another sheet of ice veered toward them. "I'm not so sure. That's a long shot."

"How about just halfway?"

"I think so."

"Okay. I really hope my idea works. Odd, how much time is left?"

"About thirty seconds."

She let out a shocked noise. "You could have given us a little warning! Do it now, William!"

Without further ado he dropped his sword, which thoughtfully vanished, and then grabbed her wrists, swinging around as quick as he could until her feet were well off the ground. Another of the strange obstacles came zooming straight at them, but before she could do more than gasp, William's grip loosened and she was flying straight upward!

Janika curled herself into a ball and felt for a shuriken. As she came to the peak of her flight, she straightened out and took aim. The weapon flew in a direct line and struck the key, pressing it into the ceiling.

Honestly I can't remember if they have to physically touch the key or not, but I figured it was worth a shot. Besides, it is a little unfair to have the thing on the ceiling. That's just mean!