12: The day before tomorrow
ULRICH
She likes you for being you.
Ulrich was lying on his bed, his head wrapped around what Odd had said over the weekend.
His friends frequently teased him about Yumi. During his several years at Kadic, Ulrich Stern had attracted much attention from his athleticism. In fact, he nearly became the youngest student to make the football team last spring. He may not have a superior academic record like Jeremie, but the qualities he did possess made him seem… well, cool.
The Halloween dance was a day away and he already had three girls approach him.
One was incredibly shy, but took it quite well when Ulrich declined and explained his 'the Halloween dance isn't like prom so dates are pointless' principle.
Then there was Marie Leduc, co-captain of the cheerleading team. Ulrich had to admit that she was absolutely stunning. He was tempted to accept her invitation; however, when he spotted her friends smirking and whispering behind her, he promptly said no and moved on.
Finally, he turned down Sissi – who was still head over heels for him. But the things she did, bullying others just for the heck of it and her sense of superiority was why he ignored her. He despised those traits, and was pleased every time she was reprimanded.
On the other hand, Ulrich liked Yumi. She was a good friend; kind, bright, understanding… Beautiful…
She may not be the happy-go-lucky type like Odd, but she had a strong sense of understanding and sensibility. Yet, she was by no means a goody-two-shoes; she definitely had her limits and never caved in to pressure. Ulrich had done many stupid things to get her attention – the pool incident being a more recent and forgettable one. Or his crazy plan to keep Yumi in France when her parents wanted to move back to Japan due to financial issues.
It seemed as though every time he wanted to express his feelings, things took a turn for the worse. It was as if the Greek goddess of love – Aphrodite – was making it especially difficult for him. Like on Valentine's Day, when he had written a poem for Yumi.
It was a pretty good poem.
However when he saw William with her, he presented it to Sissi instead. Of all people…
It went downhill from there. Ulrich didn't know why he did it. Perhaps it was his teenage hormones overriding his sense of morality. Or maybe he wanted to stir some jealousy. In the end, it led to another misunderstanding.
Ulrich really wanted to set things straight with Yumi. He just had to figure out how and wait for the perfect opportunity. But what if she said no, like on That Day?
In addition, Ulrich wasn't sure if he could even be a good boyfriend. What does one do? Always be by his girlfriend's side, hold hands and stuff? Well…he and Yumi have done that…sort of. Snuggle and make out? He had no idea.
Above all, Yumi was graduating this year, which meant that he didn't have much time left to tell her.
To let her know. How he felt.
The sun was up and there was not a cloud in sight. Odd took one big whiff of the fresh, cool afternoon air. He was finally free of the prison that was classroom 113.
"Ah! Another glorious Monday!" he exclaimed with a wide smile on his face.
Team LYOKO was heading towards the factory following a hiatus of nearly three weeks. In fact, it was the first time since William's conversion to the dark side that all five original LYOKO warriors were on board for the mission.
Jeremie had informed the others of his findings in Sector 5 and expressed his desire to retrieve more data from CARTHAGE's database. So far, he hadn't acquired much information pertaining to the virtual world itself, but rather on the history of NATO's supercomputer project. And he was hoping to get some clues as to permanently removing XANA's link to Aelita.
For Odd and Yumi, it meant that they finally get to try out their new LYOKO forms, that is, if XANA showed up. It had been surprisingly dormant for an evil entity that used to create havoc once a week on average.
"I hate Mondays," Ulrich muttered under his breath. Not sensing the gesture of distaste, Odd grinned and scooted closer to his friend.
"What's that Garfield? I dunno about you, but I LOVE Mondays!"
"The mother of all oxymorons," sighed Bryan. He wasn't quite fond of the first day of the week either. Something bad always happened.
Rather conveniently, Mother Nature decided to support his theory, as he tripped over a tree root, stumbled and fell onto his side. He heard laughter from some of the students nearby and he began laughing as well.
"You alright?" Bryan nodded as he dusted off the leaves and twigs from his clothes.
"Looks like you weren't kidding about Mondays bringing bad luck," Yumi remarked.
"At least it isn't the thirteenth."
"Oh come on, you guys don't really believe in that superstitious nonsense, right?"
"Jeremie, poor Bryan just tripped over a tree root."
"That doesn't prove anything."
"I'd watch out for the stray black cat that roams the forest if I were you," teased Aelita.
"Not you too," groaned Jeremie.
"Speaking of black cats, tomorrow's Halloween. You guys got your costumes all prepped up?" asked Yumi.
Everyone but Jeremie nodded.
"What about you, Einstein?"
"Nope. It's a waste of time and money."
"Guess Jeremie's going as the Scrooge again. That's what he was last Halloween as well. And he didn't take it off 'till Christmas," Odd murmured to Bryan.
After descending down to the remarkably spotless sewers, the LYOKO warriors grabbed their skateboards and scooters while Bryan strapped on his inline skates.
As they set off for the factory, Aelita watched as Bryan glided along effortlessly, occasionally going up along the walls. And at times, it would appear as if he was flying over her; while she remained fixed on the ground, her feet unable to break free of its grip.
"…And virtualization," said Jeremie as he finished sending Odd and Bryan into LYOKO to join the other three.
That's odd. At the bottom corner of Bryan's profile was a small number '5'. Had it always been there? He was puzzled. None of the others had this on their avatar displays…
Odd and Yumi were inspecting their new attire. Indeed, Jeremie's designing capabilities nearly matched that of Superhero clothing designer Edna Mode from The Incredibles.
Yumi's outfit had changed from that of a traditional geisha to a sleek, maroon jump suit. In addition, she now had four fans strapped to an X-shaped case on her back. Despite the extra weight of her armament, she felt much lighter and more flexible than before.
Yumi Ishiyama: now a Kunoichi with a 21st century fashion statement.
Odd also now sported a full purple jump suit. And going the extra mile, Jeremie added cat ears above his forehead to go along with his tail.
"No offense Jeremie, but aren't you taking this whole cat thing a bit too far?"
"Those ears are to help improve your hearing on LYOKO. And I've also enhanced several more of your other senses as well."
"You can do that?"
"It's not that difficult, though a bit more time consuming. All I had to do essentially was tweak the function–"
Not wanting to listen to a lecture on stuff he knew he wouldn't be able to comprehend anyways: "Got it, anything's possible with technology. No complaints here. Awesome job, Jeremie."
Odd Della Robia: more Hello Kitty cuteness, less Puss in Boots ferociousness.
"Thanks Odd. I'm sending you all to Sector 5 now," said Jeremie as he typed in SCIPIO to transport the five LYOKO warriors into CARTHAGE.
"Wow," Aelita whispered to herself, unable to conceal her excitement. After performing a brief search of the Sector 5 database on the Interface panel, she had found them.
There were plenty of LYOKO files stored under Franz Hopper's private folder, including his diary. Or in a more professional term: his logbook.
To increase efficiency, Jeremie ran his new program that compiled a list of possible passcodes related to the Punic Wars. And within moments, several restricted files were successfully unlocked.
Once again, there was no sign of XANA. Other than a soft humming sound coming from the light-blue streams that outsourced data from inside CARTHAGE to the other sectors of LYOKO, it was relatively quiet.
Too quiet.
As a precaution, Jeremie had provided vehicles for Odd and Yumi to patrol the perimeter, while Aelita, flanked by Bryan and Ulrich prepared to export the documents. Her hands moved rapidly across the touch screen.
"I've compressed the files. They should start uploading on your end at any moment."
"Okay," Jeremie replied as he noticed a bunch of red dots beginning to show up on his screen.
So XANA finally decided to come out.
"Guys, Mantas and Creepers are heading your way."
"Yeah, I see them," said Odd.
"We're on it," added Yumi. The two of them left to intercept XANA's air force. Meanwhile, several Creepers had begun scaling the walls up to the walkway.
"I'll take care of them," said Ulrich. He dashed off using his super sprint, leaving a momentary trail of yellow light.
Bryan leapt down to a tiny crevice below. "Aelita, keep watch, okay?"
She looked away from her screen. "What are you doing?"
The boy didn't reply. His eyes were closed shut as three bodies with multiple piercings materialized. Aelita had seen one of them before – the tall, thin man with spiky hair. But the other two were new. One had long, straight hair extending to his torso with a diagonal piercing on his nose. The other body had no hair at all, though he had a thick neck and an eerie smile. Bryan's Deva, Human and Asura Paths.
That makes it five of the six bodies revealed, Jeremie noted. Bryan's life points were down to ninety. It appeared as though three was his magic number; to optimize performance without using up his limited health; perhaps that's why he never summoned all six bodies at once.
The bald man went after Odd and Yumi using the rockets fixed onto his boots, while the other two bodies headed in Ulrich's direction.
"How long is it going to take, Aelita?"
"…Thirteen minutes. Maybe more. These are pretty big files."
"Alright. You guys think you can hold off XANA for that long?"
"Shouldn't be too difficult," Ulrich responded. He brandished his kantana and sliced through the first Creeper in his path, as more stirred below.
"Need some help?" asked Bryan. The boy looked back and found himself face to face with two orange-haired figures with multiple piercings. Ulrich was going to have to get used to this.
"Okay. Take your pick."
"Left."
"Fine by me," said Ulrich as he veered to his side and with one quick move, cut another monster into oblivion. He leapt over the scattered fragments, flung his sword into the chest of another Creeper, before taking out his spare kantana.
Using the Deva Path, Bryan splayed his hand open, emitting an invisible force on the Creepers along the edge of the platform.
The monsters didn't move a millimetre as they fired back. The Deva Path again spread his palms to repel the laser fire.
But they didn't change course. Guess the five second rule still applies on LYOKO, thought Bryan.
The Human Path grabbed the other body's waist and tossed him upwards; and the lasers hit and devirtualized it instead.
The spiky-haired body frowned. It appeared as though XANA's monsters had dug their tails into the ground, nullifying his technique.
The Creepers turned their heads upwards. This time, the Deva Path deflected the lasers and managed to take out some of the slimy slugs in the process, as more poured in to take their place.
Odd and Yumi had come within range of the Mantas. Using his improved sense of vision, Odd locked on to the topside of one of the monsters and:
"Laser Arrow!"
Apparently, Jeremie had also given him an elite sniper firearm. No sooner had he fired his precision projectile was the target hit and eliminated. Odd swerved, before repeating the process on the monster's wing mate.
Two shots fired. Two Mantas down.
"Nice," commented Yumi as she expanded one of her fans to block incoming laser fire, keeping one hand to steer the OverBoard. She went above the remaining Manta and threw her fan downwards at its Eye of XANA. The monster floundered before bursting into scrap parts. However, three more Manta squadrons could be seen in the distance.
"Yumi, do you see what I see?"
The girl looked back to see a bald man closing in on her.
So Bryan took that Path out. Good choice.
"It's one of Bryan's bodies. Think this one has missiles."
"Cool. But…I was kinda talking about the guy in front of us."
The Manta in the middle was unlike the others. For one thing, it was jet-black instead of the regular navy blue skin. It was also carrying a single passenger on its back.
Captain Cockshaw had arrived.
"You got him?"
"Yep." He aimed and fired two darts at William, who transformed into a dark cloud of smoke and zoomed towards them. The two braced for impact.
But he merely accelerated past them. William momentarily morphed out of his smoke ball form as it came near the Asura Path. Bryan didn't even have a chance to respond as the body was sliced cleanly in two by the Zweihander and vanished.
Smirking, William reverted to his dark cloud state and continued his way to the Interface platform.
The Mantas re-opened fire, making it impossible for Odd and Yumi to turn around and pursue William. Yumi took out another fan and prepared to take down another one of XANA's monsters as Odd attempted to out-manoeuvre the lasers. He was hit once from the oncoming barrage, although he managed to remain on his OverBoard. Shrugging it off, he aimed at the nearest Manta.
Make that three for three.
XANA had scattered the five LYOKO warriors to various pockets of Sector 5. Evidently, it had been up all night reading Sun Tzu's The Art of War.
"Bryan, behind you!" Aelita called out from above.
The boy snapped his eyes open and made to turn around. But William had already materialized and struck him in the back with a sphere of dark energy. Bryan vanished along with the Deva Path, which left Ulrich surrounded by Creepers.
The girl gasped and instinctively created an energy field in the palm of her hand. She threw it at William, who negated it with his own energy ball. Yet, he had a look of dissatisfaction. And with good reason – a wooden stump had taken the place of where Bryan stood, as he reappeared beside Aelita.
"That was close. Thanks for the heads up."
"Anytime," she replied, relieved that he hadn't been devirtualized. Yet.
"So…he's the one possessed by XANA?"
"Mhmm."
"Right. You finish the file transfer then. I'll take care of this Wilhelm guy."
"William."
"Can I call him Wilhelm? Sounds cooler. I also grant you permission to use your energy fields on him if you get the chance."
Aelita smiled. "Permission much appreciated, Master Jedi."
"Guys, this is no time to fool around," said Jeremie's reprimanding voice as William leapt up to the landing, a few metres away from the two LYOKO warriors. With his usual smug look restored, Captain Cockshaw righted himself and reached behind his back for the gigantic Zweihander.
"Sorry," Aelita apologized, turning her attention back to the computer screen.
"Hmm…" Bryan frowned as he sized up his opponent.
Wilhelm – or William was much too close for him to effectively control the bodies without leaving himself wide open for an attack. That would be bad. Yumi had mentioned that his defensive abilities were his Achilles heel, during Pencak Silat practice. Plus, XANA had already seen some of his abilities and probably figured out how to counter them. On the other hand, Bryan had never faced William, though he was definitely more powerful than XANA's other monsters.
However… He pulled out a long black rod from his sleeve, as Jeremie's screen flashed the following message:
BRYAN (HP: 60) VS. WILLIAM (HP: 100)
Game on.
An ancient policy on one-on-one fights states that the bad guys always made the first move. WilliXANA was no exception.
He changed back into its smoke ball form, plunged beneath the surface and went for Bryan, whose ripple-patterned eyes were wide with shock.
Fast… But he can't attack in that state… Bryan recalled he had to revert into his physical form to incapacitate one of his bodies. He leapt upwards and the shadowy substance followed him. As it came into contact with Bryan's foot–
William's head began to emerge. Bryan swiftly conjured a pink ball of energy and hurled it at the boy, who was blasted downwards and hit the ground with a thud. However, Bryan's energy field was not a one-hit-wonder like Aelita's. And so, he flung his black rod at William, spearing him on his left thigh. WilliXANA hissed and appeared to be struggling to move.
Perfect.
Jeremie was surprised to see that Bryan was…regaining life points as William's health meter decreased. But–
"Bryan, stop! You're transferring XANA's data onto yourself."
"Crap!" Not wanting to turn into another XANA puppet, he hurtled downwards, landing beside William. He made to remove his stick from the possessed boy's leg. William – now free to move – pushed Bryan aside and aimed a dark ball of energy at his chest.
Preta Path. The sphere was absorbed before Bryan extended his left palm and threw William back several metres. He looked up briefly to see Aelita still in front of the Interface panel. He also noticed something slowly creeping towards her.
"Ael–"
"Watch out for the Scyphozoa!" warned Jeremie. She looked up from the screen and saw the monster of many tentacles. Aelita took a step back and fired a pink energy field at it. Like before, it merely glanced off its body.
Bryan's attention shifted back to William, who was charging at him, sword raised with both hands. Again, Bryan extended his palm outwards and the boy was tossed back and disappeared; revealing the real William was behind him.
A doppelganger?
One of Ulrich's kantanas suddenly materialized in his hands as Bryan held it up to avoid being felled by William's sword. His arms started shaking and one of his knees sunk to the ground. He saw the sneer plastered over William's face and could feel himself giving in; the Zweihander was simply too powerful.
Back at the factory, Jeremie grew worried as he watched the battle unfold in front of him. Everyone was involved in their own skirmish. And the Scyphozoa was now moments away from Aelita, while the downloading process was only 83% complete.
"Ulrich?"
"Kind of busy, Jer," Ulrich replied briskly. The Creepers were beginning to overwhelm him with sheer numbers.
"What's up?" asked Yumi. She whirled another fan around but missed the Manta entirely.
"It's the Scyphozoa. Everyone else has their hands full."
"Yeah. Us too. In fact–"
She was unable to complete her sentence, succumbing to a volley of laser fire. Keeping with a Team LYOKO tradition, she was the first to come out of the scanners.
Odd had no time to lament. The Mantas now only had one target – him. He tried to weave around all of them, too occupied to counterattack. And after being struck several more times, he was devirtualized as well.
At the other end, Aelita looked back at the Interface panel. 77 seconds remaining. All she would have to do was keep the Scyphozoa at bay until then. She tried to harness the power of the Wind. Just like Bryan, she extended her hand outward and focused on her release point.
She felt a sudden invisible force expel from her palm, which sent the Scyphozoa hurtling backwards. However, the monster managed to latch several of its tentacles around the walkway to withstand Aelita's attack. It moved towards her once more, albeit much more slowly.
Bryan sensed an opening. Letting go of the kantana, he swiftly rolled to his side as the Zweihander came crashing down. He extended his leg outward and slid across, tripping William and causing him to relinquish control of his heavy sword.
He then directed his palm at William. Only this time, the boy was lifted off his feet and hurtled straight at Bryan. With a clear shot, Bryan's left arm morphed into a robotic limb that opened up and fired a small rocket.
Asura Path.
William threw a dark ball at the projectile. But the rocket was already too close to him; the energy sphere caused it to detonate over his body as he disappeared behind a cloud of smoke.
Satisfied, Bryan prepared to jump up to aid Aelita when he felt – and looked down in horror – the tip of the Zweihander sticking out in front of his chest. He began to devirtualize as he sensed William smirking behind him.
Another clone.
"For XANA!" said William as he raised his sword in victory.
Transfer complete.
"And not a moment too soon," Jeremie muttered, before addressing Aelita and Ulrich: "I'm devirtualizing you guys now."
"And not a moment too soon," Ulrich echoed just as he was about to get hit by a barrage of red lasers.
Aelita wasted no time in logging off of the Interface panel, and she got out of Sector 5 before the Scyphozoa or William could get to her.
Bryan emerged from the scanner with one hand holding onto the wall for support. Unlike his first time on LYOKO, he was panting slightly, feeling weak and completely drained.
"Looks like William got the better of you today," said Yumi, helping him up. She also looked quite exhausted.
"Yeah. Couldn't keep up. He countered everything I threw at him."
"No sweat, Captain B. There's always next time. And now you've got a taste of what he can do."
Bryan chuckled lightly. "True, Odd. Always next time," he murmured as Aelita and Ulrich showed up beside him.
Jeremie finished saving the files onto his USB stick. He leaned back on his chair and let out a long sigh.
XANA had gotten better. And today, it was truly a force to be reckoned with. The virus had isolated the LYOKO warriors and then picked them off one by one. Of course, it was by no means a total defeat. After all, Team LYOKO had achieved what it set out to do. Jeremie had managed to obtain the information he desired.
Nevertheless, he always believed that with Bryan joining the team and his modifications to the avatars it would be smooth sailing in the fight against XANA. But now he realized that he had left out one pivotal aspect.
The ability to adapt.
And XANA adapted brilliantly, leaving the LYOKO warriors scrambling to meet the challenge once again. Even more troubling was that it frequently brought out the Scyphozoa in an effort to take possession of Aelita's memories. His mind drifted back to what Bryan said earlier:
"You do know what happens when Aelita loses all of her memories, right?"
He had forgotten to ask Bryan what he meant by this. What would happen?
Jeremie felt a gentle tap on his shoulder, breaking his train of thought.
"Hey. Ready to go?" asked Aelita.
"Sure." The boy nodded and got up from his seat to join the others. Not wanting to question Bryan over this while Aelita was around, he put the issue away, pondering instead on whether it was going to be another Mystery Meat Madness Monday at the cafeteria.
JEREMIE
"I'll let you know what I find in those files tomorrow," he said to Aelita as the two headed back to their rooms after dinner.
"Sure thing."
The two continued to walk in amiable silence, both unable to strike up any further conversation.
"So…are you done all your homework?" asked Jeremie timidly.
"Most of it. I'm done the functions assignment. All I have to do is proofread and type up my works cited page for my essay. You?"
"Pretty much the same. You know, you can always go on citationmachine, it compiles the reference for you after you provide the details and type of citation you want to use."
"Really, there's a website that does that?"
"Sure. There's even one that can find the material and automatically cite it for you. Beats doing it yourself and making mistakes. You know how strict Mr. Hodgson is when it comes to references."
Aelita nodded in agreement. "Thanks."
"Anytime."
"So…you're really not going tomorrow?"
"Yeah. Sorry…it's just…I don't find these events appealing. And to be fairly honest, dancing's not my strong suit."
"True."
"Gee. Thanks for your moral support," said Jeremie sarcastically.
Aelita giggled as she moved closer alongside him. "Anytime." Jeremie felt his cheeks heat up.
"By the way, what are dressing up as?"
"Not telling, since you're not dressing up at all."
"Darn. What if I said please?"
"Mmm…nope."
"Pretty please?"
Aelita shook her head.
"Can I get the first letter at least?"
She considered it. "Fine. 'K'."
"You're dressing up as a kangaroo?"
"What? Don't be silly!"
"I mean, yes, you did your geography presentation on Australia but – hey – ow!" he exclaimed as his friend playfully poked him in the ribs.
"Okay, okay! You're not a kangaroo. Is it a person?"
"Sort of."
"What do you mean sort of?"
Aelita shrugged. "I don't know. Sort of."
"How many letters?"
"…Fifteen. No more clues. You'll find out tomorrow," she added with a wink as they reached Jeremie's floor.
He sighed. "Alright. See you tomorrow," said Jeremie repeated as he watched Aelita go up another flight of stairs; moving further and further away from him.
YUMI
With a look of satisfaction, Yumi took a seat in her office chair. She had finished the final touches to her Halloween costume.
It looked amazing.
All ready for Tuesday's Spirit Day and evening dance. Her smile turned into a slight frown over what transpired last week.
It seemed that Ulrich had picked up a date with Marie for tomorrow. Yumi saw him talking to her as she was coming out of class and instantly turned away and took the long route to the cafeteria. Not prone to displaying weakness or sadness, she tried her best to remain upbeat for the rest of the day; not mentioning one word of what she saw.
Perhaps Ulrich really had moved on.
In Yumi's opinion, Ulrich was more than a good friend. He brought in a sense of calm in situations where others would merely panic. He was brave, willing to take risks to help others. Then there were times when he was a…stubborn idiot. Though this proved frustrating, there were instances when Yumi struggled to fight back a giggle. Sometimes, his foolishness was kind of sweet.
There was less of a restrictive bubble between them. They've held hands, hugged and even sat together half-naked the time XANA looked them inside a boiler room. She didn't feel awkward over such actions that some consider being of a more intimate relationship.
And that's because Yumi trusted Ulrich; her first, true camaraderie. Through the ups and downs, they remained side by side.
Still, a part of her was afraid of progressing further. But times have changed and Yumi wondered whether she could ever find someone like Ulrich – who was great to be around with and respected her for who she was.
For the past couple of months, Yumi promised herself that she would resolve this dilemma. A lot has changed since That Day, when she stated that they were only friends, nothing more.
It was what she said, but did she really mean it?
Above all, she was graduating this year, which meant that she didn't have much time left to tell him.
To let him know. How she felt.
Fragmented Legacy Fun Fact 012:
Team LYOKO's Bryan is spelled with a 'y' instead of an 'i', so I wouldn't misspell his name as 'Brain' .
A|Ns:
This chapter brings an end to the first 'season' of CL:FL! I think it's time for me to take a short break; I'll pick this up again within a couple of months.
I'm pretty sure I stress this enough, but I'm really thrilled with the amount of support I've been getting!
Feel free to leave a comment, and as always, thanks for reading Code LYOKO: Fragmented Legacies =)
Replies to Reviews:
[Soul Jelly]
First off, I'd like to thank you for your support! Your comments have been very insightful and a pleasure to read. In fact, they have even influenced me to change certain aspects of upcoming chapters! Regarding exciting XANA-combat-action sequences, those will be coming up shortly (I didn't want to have viruses ruining one of the favourite holidays of teenagers). As for the Men In Black…with XANA still up and about, I don't think giving Team LYOKO a second supervillain to deal with is such a good idea. However, MIB will likely make an appearance sometime in Season III (long-term planning, I know =D) and will also possess a cooler name than 'Green Phoenix'. Finally, there's Anthea Hopper. Aelita made it clear in the first chapter that she was going to find out what happened to her family – and that's exactly what she'll do!
[Spinzaku]
LOL! I completely forgot about that line…I'll have to add it in to a future chapter =D Anyways, thank you very much for your reply! Although it is without a doubt that from here on out the story will have a much sombre tone than the more upbeat first season, the endless humour will still carry on!
[Small Voice]
Thanks for your reply! To be honest, I had no idea on how to start Fragmented Legacies, but I knew that it had to be flamboyant and stand out. I wanted to insert that quote from Spiderman: "with great power comes great responsibility" – which is usually how I start all of my essays for school. Even though it didn't mesh in quite well, it got me thinking about superheroes in general and how the job of saving the world isn't as great of a career as it sounds. Everything began to fall in place from there. Sorry you got bored during my attempt to summarize Code Lyoko Seasons 1 to 3…but I needed to restate it all before moving on, since my story takes place later on. That being said, thanks once again for your support =D
[Adventurer411]
RTR number two goes to you! CL:FL is indeed my first fanfic, and is probably the first thing I've ever written for fun and not for academic purposes. An ongoing struggle that I have with writing this story is balancing description with fast-paced, realistic dialogue; so I really appreciate you brining this up. I'm also an avid reader and sometimes, I can't believe how authors manage to convey their imagery through various literary devices that make me feel like I'm actually where the characters are standing. This is one of the things I'm currently looking to improve on. In retrospect, thanks for your comment and for reading Fragmented Legacies! =)