"Scanner Yumi, scanner Odd."

"Transfer Yumi, transfer Odd."

"Virtualization!" Jeremy said, pressing down on the enter key on his keyboard.

Yumi and Odd landed with a thud directly into position with the others next to the Skid.

"Jeremy, how did you virtualize us directly here?" Yumi asked.

Jeremy moved the mic closer to his face as it had fallen slightly over the last couple of minutes. "I've been working for the last few weeks on a program alteration for virtualization. Although it doesn't work everywhere, I have been able to get it to successfully work in Sector 5. I think it may be because Sector 5 had the most work put into it, allowing for me to easily..."

"Jeremy," Ulrich interrupted, tapping his foot, "we don't need a full explanation."

"Oh, okay." Jeremy responded, his ego taking a minor hit. "I'll go ahead and put you guys into the Skid."

Jeremy typed for a few seconds before the Warriors were transported into the Skid, their bodies particles separating only to be carefully reassembled inside the Skid. Aelita fell into her control pod at the helm of the ship, the others entering their own positions in their respective Nav Skids.

"Get ready Aelita, I'm preparing the undocking procedure." Jeremy said, starting to undock the Skid.

Aelita typed on her small keypad, the side engines moving into position. The Skid was released from the dock with a slight fall, but it was quickly halted by Aelita activating the engines.

The Skid made it's way through the opening in the roughly built dome, it's figure firm as it moved through the emptiness of its surroundings.

"Wow!" William exclaimed, standing in his previously unused Nav Skid. "This thing is awesome! Great job, Jeremy."

"Just give it time, you'll get used to it." Ulrich said.

"Jeremy, open one of the exits so we can get to the Digital Sea." Aelita said as the ship moved away from the dome of Sector 5.

"Already done." Jeremy replied, the opening just now making itself apparent to Aelita from her vantage point.

Aelita piloted the Skid through the opening, entering the Desert Sector. As she began her decent preparations, Jeremy spoke up.

"Aelita, maybe we could wait for a minute and see if the changes to the ships armor will effect its resistance to the Digital Sea."

Aelita moved around a bit in her seat, tilting her head slightly up as though she could see Jeremy above her. "If my father is down there, we have to reach him as quickly as possible. What if X.A.N.A. has already found him? What if we don't reach him in time because you ran some test?" Aelita's anger wasn't directly caused by Jeremy's request or any other events as of recent. Her anger was fueled by the determination to save her father. Since the death of her father, she blamed herself for letting him die. 'If only I had gotten there sooner.' 'If only I had just worked a little bit faster.'

At this point, any possibility that her father was alive would cause her to enter a state of extreme focus, as though nothing mattered other than finding him. Although the others could see this in her and understand why she felt this way, they couldn't allow it to put all of them in danger.

"Aelita, maybe Jeremy is right." Yumi said standing in her pod.

Ulrich spoke up shortly after her. "Yeah, it couldn't hurt to run a quick test or two."

Aelita sighed, knowing that she would have to give into reason somewhere. She knew in her mind that running the tests was the smartest idea, but her heart blocked that from ever getting to her.

"Okay. Run the tests, but make them quick." Aelita stated reluctantly.

"I'll be done faster than Odd can scarf down breakfast." Jeremy joked, attracting laughter from the others.

"Hey, that's a pretty tough record to beat." Odd said. "My fastest time was 25 seconds when I was five. My mom made eggs, Canadian bacon and crescent rolls. I cleaned my plate and some of my sisters before anyone knew what happened." The group continued in their laughter as Jeremy began conducting tests on the Skids outer plating.

—

Jeremy had been typing for the last ten minutes. Although he was making progress and was nearly complete, Aelita was quickly loosing her patience.

"Jeremy, I think you've run enough tests." Aelita said, her arms crossed as she sat in her seat.

"Well, I think I've run just about every test I could on the Skid." Jeremy replied.

"And...?" Ulrich asked.

"I don't know. The simulations seemed to all agree that the reactions wouldn't be the same, but the changes weren't within the range they would probably need to be to cause a structural collapse. Although I would probably choose for you guys to wait a little longer to allow me to make more complex tests, I think it's safe enough for you to go."

There wasn't a moment of pause between Jeremy's words and the Skid entering the Digital Sea. Aelita had been preparing to drop since Jeremy first started his tests, and she had no hesitation at all.

After a short ride, they exited through the opening in Lyoko and into the deep waters of the Digital Sea.

"Aelita, I'm sending you the coordinates now." Jeremy said, entering the coordinates into his computer and sending them to the Skid's on-board computer.

Aelita looked over the file she had just been sent and put entered the location into the Skid's guidance systems.

"Prepping engine." Aelita said, moving the Skid from its usual straight figure into its "L" shape. The main engine located at the back of the ship ignited, thrusting the Skid forward with extreme force. Although it would be hard to tell from looking at the ship due to how gracefully it seems to move through the water, the ships speed is extreme, reaching levels that only an expert could control.

"According to my maps, it should take about 20 minutes to reach the target location. Although I can't make any promises, it seems like X.A.N.A. isn't all that interested in us at the moment. No monsters, no activated tower, nothing." Jeremy said, taking a sip from the water bottle located on the armrest of his chair.

"Hey, even X.A.N.A. has to take naps." Odd said, getting a less amused reaction than he hoped for.

Aelita spoke up through the moment of silence. "I can only hope it stays that way."

Hey! It's been like... A large amount of days. I hope you all enjoyed your holiday break and I hope you enjoy this chapter! Schedules should be back to normal from here on unless I have something that comes up. Check the story description for posting days if something is to happen. Review!