"This is a barking school?" Deryn asked in awe.

Alek couldn't have said it better. Kadic didn't feel like a school at all. Kids in the weirdest clothes Alek had ever seen were milling about talking—some on strange devices that Aelita explained as cell phones, though his understanding of what they actually were was sub-par at best—while some of the others were playing with a ball, or studying out of books that were only slightly bigger than the ones he'd seen Dr. Barlow tote around sometimes, but no one seemed to be learning anything.

"Of course it's a school!" Odd exclaimed. "There's just no class right now."

"What sort of jacket is that?" said an obnoxious, high-pitched voice behind them. "It looks like a old army uniform."

Alek turned around and was greeted by the sight of a tall girl with long black hair, a scowl on her face, and two boys following close behind.

"How would you know what an old army uniform looks like, Sissy?" Jeremy asked.

"Yeah," Aelita put in, "I'll bet you don't even know what soldiers wear now."

Alek was about to agree when he realized that he didn't know what soldiers wore now, either. That was, as Deryn would say, a squick embarrassing.

"It is an army jacket," Alek confirmed. "But it's not exactly-" He broke off when he remembered where – or, rather, when - he was. "And it is pretty old. From the Great War."

"The Great-" Sissy started, but Yumi interrupted her with, "He collects artifacts from World War One."

Deryn was shocked. "World War One!?" she cried, but thankfully not loud enough for Sissy to hear. "You mean there's barking more?"

"Well, yes. But only one more," Jeremy said. He was holding his hands up in surrender, which was peculiar considering how this wasn't an argument.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Sissy toss her hair impatiently and stomp away with her friends—or, rather, sidekicks—in tow. Alek hoped they wouldn't run into Sissy too often; she seemed like a great load of trouble.

"Only one more! Is that some kind of joke? Because I've seen war firsthand, and it isn't funny." Deryn's hands curled into fists at her sides, and Alek quickly put a hand on her wrist.

"Don't pick a fight with our only allies here," he whispered gently. Suddenly, a ringing sound split the air.

"Is that an alarm?" Alek jumped, startled.

"Lunch!" Odd corrected, very excited. "I wonder if I can get extra potatoes." He jogged off for the building.

At this, Deryn pursed her lips in consideration. "Potatoes? Hey, wait for me!" she called, sprinting after him.
"What do you know?" Yumi laughed, strolling calmly after them. "They've found something in common."

Alek raised an eyebrow. "Potatoes?"

Aelita laughed. "Well, it's something."

"These are really good potatoes," Deryn said through a mouthful of food.

"I know, aren't they?" Odd said. "Rosa makes them better than anyone else." He was shoveling food into his mouth faster than seemed humanly possible.

Deryn darted in with her fork and stole a scoop of Odd's potatoes. "Hey!" he cried. "I worked hard to get extra potatoes!"

She shrugged. "And I worked hard to get a hundred years in the future. Now we're even."

Alek watched as the two talked back and forth, seeming very involved with their discussion of potatoes, of all things. Mashed, sliced, baked, fried—there were so many ways to make them...

He was half asleep when Yumi's voice snapped him awake. "Have you enrolled yourselves yet? You should do that now if you want a place to sleep."

Alek looked down at the table. "Volger was supposed to do that for us," he explained quietly. "He never told us what we should actually do."

"Oh, I see. You don't have an adult chaperone anymore, do you?" Aelita asked.

Alek shook his head. Thinking of the wildcount stuck in the supercomputer made his head spin and his heart rate pick up. This was just such a strange situation to be in. The sensible part of him said to let their new allies handle it, yet Alek wanted more than anything to help his old fencing master.

If only he knew how!

"I can do that," Jeremy said confidently. "We'll have to go back to the factory after lunch, but it's really a simple program."

Deryn blinked incredulously. "You're going to enroll us here?"

"Yes. It won't be the first time." He pushed his glasses up onto his nose and sat back in his chair, seeming to be very pleased with himself.

"But will work?" Deryn raised an eyebrow in question.

Jeremy nodded. "It will, don't worry."

Alek raised an eyebrow. A "simple program"? Just how technologically advanced was this futuristic world?

"Are you all done eating?" Aelita asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"No!" Odd and Deryn said in unison.

Yumi laughed. "It's not like you two could get any more food anyway."

"No more potatoes?" Deryn looked sadly at her empty plate.

Alek spoke up. "I'd like to see this 'virtual world' that you keep talking about. Lyoko?"

Jeremy nodded. "We'll show it to you right away." He stood up and added his tray to a stack.

Alek did the same. This place had some strange customs.

"You want us to get back in the scanners?" Deryn asked dubiously. "What if something goes wrong?"

"It won't go wrong," Jeremy assured her. "I've done this plenty of times."

Deryn wasn't totally convinced. That was what that clever-boots boffin had said before Volger disappeared. She got in the scanner anyway, after making sure that Alek had done the same.

Jeremy's voice came from some hidden speaker in the room. "Transfer - Yumi. Transfer - Alek. Transfer - Deryn." The tube lit ominously around Deryn, and she hoped Jeremy really did know what he was doing.

"Scanner - Yumi. Scanner - Alek. Scanner - Deryn." Air started blowing up from beneath her, setting her hair and clothes fluttering. She shut her eyes against the wind and waited...

Suddenly, she was in a strange room. It was blue and white, and shaped like half of a sphere. The room was spinning around them - or maybe the floor was spinning? Deryn couldn't quite tell.

She glanced at Alek, and couldn't help but burst out laughing. He looked barking ridiculous. He was in a skin-tight blue jumpsuit, and his fencing saber hung at his side. He also looked strangely smooth, almost as if he was made of clay.

"You aren't much better," Alek told her, a smile playing in his eyes. Deryn looked down at herself. She had the same strange, made-of-clay look, and - barking spiders, what was she wearing? It also clung tight to her skin, accenting all her curves - not that she had many to start with. It was tan, like the rigger's uniforms, and a rigging knife was in a small sheath at her hip.

They both turned to Yumi, who seemed unfazed by the strange makeovers. She looked up at nothingness and addressed the air. (Was there air here? Deryn wondered. It didn't feel as if she had to breathe.) "Where to?" she asked. Had she gone crazy?

Jeremy's voice answered out of nowhere, making Alek and Deryn both jump. "Show them around," it said.

Yumi led them toward a crack in the massive domed wall, which had stopped spinning at some point. They walked through into one of the strangest rooms Deryn had ever seen - and she'd walked around inside a whale.

Smooth blue blocks stretched out before them at seemingly random places. Yumi jumped onto one of them, gesturing for them to follow. "Are you going to give us vehicles, Jeremy?" she asked.

"I haven't programmed one for Alek and Deryn yet," Jeremy explained. "You'll have to go without."

Yumi nodded, which Deryn didn't understand. Jeremy couldn't see them, could he? She was shaken out of her thoughts when Yumi started heading off, doing crazy gymnastics that shouldn't have been possible.

What was this strange place?

Yumi turned around and smirked knowingly. "Welcome to Lyoko."