Chapter 8: Would you take the risks?
Even before he had the whole world in its grasp, XANA had been master of the whole digital network.
It hadn't been that hard to take over the network first. The many supercomputers he created helped with this task. It started for real when he let all electronic stuff in France crash, and he's activated towers on the many Replikas at the same time – the last action to possess puny human beings to create more scanners. These were mostly placed and built on places where they wouldn't find them, like the cold tundra and the Amazon forest in Latin America.
At that same moment in France, nobody could have guessed what happened that day. The Lyoko Warriors – or most of them – were attending their classes. Three were in science class, and Yumi and the William clone at geography. They were halfway through – Mrs. Hertz had already asked for Odd and Ulrich's attention three times – when Ulrich heard a familiar beep. The whole class turned to him, because the beeping could be heard through the whole classroom. Aelita and Odd also recognized the sound of Ulrich's phone, and looked at their friend. Mrs. Hertz couldn't really laugh it off.
"Ulrich! What is the meaning of this? You know as good as everyone else that your phone can't be turned on during school hours!" He put his phone anyway and, before turning it off, he looked at the automatic message from the supercomputer. In the message, the eye of XANA was visible, as well as the sector in which the activated tower was located. Ulrich raised his eyebrows – Jeremy had never been this vague, which must mean… it was a trap of XANA's. In "Jeremy's" text, it could be read that there was a tower activated in the Forest Replika they just found, so they couldn't know if any towers could be activated there. If he could, Jeremy would've already explained how. It had to be a trap. He quickly turned off his phone, and turned back to the teacher.
"I'm sorry, ma'am. It won't happen again." Mrs. Hertz nodded and continued her teaching. When he was sure Mrs. Hertz wouldn't notice, Odd shoved his chair a bit closer to his best friend's.
"XANA?" Odd asked him, and Ulrich nodded.
"He tries to lure us to Lyoko with a fake text from Jeremy. It might be better to turn it off, you'd never know." Knowing wouldn't lie about that to them, they both turned off their phones, too. Yet, that's what Ulrich thought. Odd kept his on because he expected a text from Sam, and Aelita didn't turn hers of just in case Jeremy would want to warn her for real. You could never know for sure…
Like always, the two boys couldn't pay attention during these classes. Ulrich drew something in his notes, while Odd was looking outside, being bored like ever. The only one really paying attention was Aelita. And actually, she was paying attention for two, now Jeremy had decided to work on the supercomputer rather than attending class. In the last ten minutes, Odd notices something weird. Something which, looking through their eyes, should be unnatural. Odd elbowed his neighbor.
"Ulrich, you should see this," he said, and Ulrich tried to look outside. Odd was the one sitting at the window, and to look outside, he should stand up. He did, but the moment he got up, he was thrown to the ground. The class started to scream – they also had felt the shaking building.
"Come now, class, there is nothing to worry about!" Mrs. Hertz tried to calm down the class, sounding shocked and scared herself. In the meantime, Ulrich had gotten up and went to stand next to Odd and Aelita, who stared out of the window. His eyes widened as he saw what happened in front of him: outside the buildings, he saw all monsters XANA once made in his entire life – excluding the Scyphozoa and those which lived in Carthage. A few Megatanks were powering up to release another shot on the building.
"Would XANA really warn us?" Odd wondered, and then they realized it really had been Jeremy. Ulrich wanted to respond, but they were thrown against the ground again, now knowing it's the Megatanks causing it. The students screamed again.
"Do they know we're here?" Aelita asked, and Ulrich shook his head.
"They know what XANA knows, and he knows we're somewhere around here." Nobody knew what those three were talking about, even if they listened: most of them panicked because of the building shaking. And the few who heard, thought they were going crazy.
"Let's go, before someone gets hurt." Odd suggested, and they ran out of the classroom. Mrs. Hertz tried to call them back, but the Lyoko Warriors didn't want to hear it and ran towards the entrance of the building. On their way, they crossed Yumi – she had let the William clone in her classroom.
"Guys, XANA..." she began, but Odd interrupted her.
"We know, he brought his army." How he could have done this, would be a mystery. It was tricky when those three Krabs were brought to the real world, but now XANA has got an army to their school, it would be hard to even get into the sewers. And how did he manage to bring that army here, when he's only got three, small scanners he could use?
"It might be better to split up, there's less chance to get caught," Ulrich suggested. The other three agreed – it sounded logical. But then, they didn't know splitting up would be one of the worst decisions they've ever made.
"Okay. Ulrich and I will go through the entrance. You two try to get to the sewers by the back entrance." Yumi said, and the two groups went their own way. Odd and Aelita ran to the back entrance when Yumi and Ulrich would try to get out at the front. This run came along with some shocks from the Megatanks and within a lot of time, they got to the back entrance. They did not need words to express who would do what job. So hen Aelita kept an eye on the corridor they've passed, Odd looked through the small window in the door to see if there are any monsters out there. It was nothing they couldn't handle. Because there were none walking around at that point.
Without making too much noise, Odd opened the door and the two waited a few more seconds, just in case. The biggest damage was inflicted at the front, and at the back there were no fights, no monsters. Quickly, they crossed the space between this building and the boarding building, without looking too much around. Yet, Aelita saw someone, a young boy that stood out. He did not see them, and they breathed out of relief as they entered the open door.
"Now we only need to get to the factory," Odd said, a little too optimistic. Aelita stopped him in his tracks.
"Odd… I saw William." His sort of smile turned into a grimace.
"You know that for sure?" Aelita nodded.
"It was… strange. He wore the same outfit as if he were on Lyoko."
"That's indeed strange." He put his fingers against his chin, "This can't be some average attack. We could at best…" then, this building shook and they heard two girls scream. Odd and Aelita stood there, and their looks crossed each other, filled with worry. For a while, it looked like they were both gonna run to the two girls,to help them. Even if they knew they'd better activate the tower.
"We need to help them," Aelita said.
"I'll take care of that. You take care of the tower." For some weird reason, Aelita felt this was kind of official. Like they would never see each other again. And with such a big army out to kill them, this could be their last day. A second later, Aelita pulled Odd into a tight hug, and he returned it.
"Be careful, Odd," she whispered, and they broke their hug. Odd smiled at her.
"You too, princess. See you after the return to the past." And Aelita and Odd went their own ways. Odd towards the two girls, and Aelita to the factory. They didn't know he wouldn't see her again, and she wouldn't see him again.
She ran as fast as she could to the sewers, and hoped she wouldn't get caught. A lot of students and teachers ran outside, in the chaos. Yet, there was need of only one Kankrelat to notice the oddly pink hair and to chase her own with some comrades. She didn't remember much about what happened next, only the clicking of the Kankrelats chasing her, the pain their lasers caused and the darkness that took her into its arms.
"…I've made a few faults in the past, you know that. I… I just don't know what to do right now," Jeremy shook his head. He was, once again, visiting Aelita, who hadn't suffered under the lessening of the energy. The last three days he had been thinking about their defense.
"It was a bad choice coming here, Aelita. I didn't know a better place to stay. I didn't know others would be coming here as well. They didn't need to come at all! We're trapped here, we can't leave it. If we wait, the Krabs will sure break through the barrier. We'll die then. But if we leave, the Krabs will attack us for sure. We can't go away, there's no back entrance. Oh, Aelita what should I do?" He looked at Aelita for a while, until he got an idea.
"The others… if we can reach them, they could help us out here. But that would mean they risk their lives. And we can't exactly reach them unless… unless we use the network! Off course! It'll be quickly spread like that! Too bad that's XANA's territory." He stopped a while to think. "There's a small chance of him not noticing the message and the others seeing it. But then, there's an even bigger chance for XANA to find out and attack us with it. Or else he'll wait for the right moment … why is this so difficult?!" Jeremy sighed.
"Aelita, if you were in my position… would you take the risks?" He stayed silent for a while, before sniffing. "Off course you would try, as long as there's a chance they'll see it. But would you do it, even if you knew they might die?" No answer. Off course there was no answer. He nodded. "We could use all the help indeed. We … yes, we have to do it. And just now at this moment!"
He looked one more time at Aelita. "Just watch, when they're here, it will go a lot better! I gotta go now!" Jeremy stood up and ran to Jim. He knew Jim was at the other side of the factory, with the student refugees, to give those especially a safe feeling with those Krabs at their front door. He ran as fast as he could to Jim, and 10 minutes later, he knocked on the door. He knocked three times, and waited. He heard from the sound inside the room that Jim must be awake, or that Jeremy made him get up. Jeremy guessed the last option.
He's never been good at guessing, because when the door opened, he looked like he just wanted to get to bed. His previous PE-teacher looked surprised. "Belpois! What are you doing here at this hour? Shouldn't you be asleep?"
"I know, Jim, but this can't wait. You've got to help me!" and Jeremy ran back to Aelita, Jim only following with small steps. Eventually, he arrived there five minutes later than Jeremy, who already cleared up a few things. There was a small camera at the table, and for once, he stood with his back to Aelita. Jim didn't understand what this was about. What did the young blonde wanted to do?
"What the…" Jim couldn't finish his sentence. He now understood what this was about.
"It's risky, but we've got to take the chance. I want you to film me." Jim scratched his head.
"Risky? Too risky, you mean! What do you want to reach with this?"
"Getting the others here, off course."
Do you mean Della Robbia, Ishiyama and Stern? If not, you're still crazy."
"It's worth the risk." the tone he said those words, demanded no resistance, and Jim picked up the camera. He as convinced it wouldn't work, and looked at the small thing. Alright, how did that thing work again? Don't tell me he's stupid, because it's been five months since he's used one properly. He pressed at a small red button – a tip from Jeremy's – and pointed it at the blonde Einstein.
"Is it rolling?" he asked, to make sure Jeremy wasn't pranking him.
"Yes, Jim, it is rolling." He looked rather irritated by this question, and Jim simply shrugged. Jeremy sighed. "Here I go…" he looked in the camera before speaking up, "Like all of you know, France and almost the whole world have been under the tyrannic rule of XANA for five months, which some of you may know as the virus affecting the human ruler William. I should have informed you earlier only five of us knew him earlier and fought him. We could only delay his arrival here…" He paused. Wow, was it this hard to talk about this topic?
"But this war isn't over yet. If you see this, come over to the old factory close to Kadic Academy immediately. I will not move, even if you get there within years. If XANA wants me out of here, he'll have to kill me. Yes, I know the path to the old factory will be difficult, coming close to the very core of XANA reinforcements, but they won't find us this close to him. I won't tell you must come here, it's optional. If you want to, just come. If not, well… you all are free to go wherever you want but remember, that if you ever need help, we're never far away. Don't lose faith in the Lyoko Warriors." Jeremy finished. This was all he hoped to tell them, and other people, might they see this video.
"Where did you get that name from?" Jim wondered, and Jeremy turned to him.
"XANA was from Lyoko, Jim. We were the Lyoko Warriors, unofficially." Jim shut up about the Lyoko Warriors, because of the tone of Jeremy's voice. The previous PE-teacher looked at the blonde. There was something bothering him, he knew. After finding out how to stop the recording, he sat down next to Jeremy.
"What's bothering you?" Jeremy looked at him, but looked away immediately after. There's really something bothering him, Jim thought.
"I … will someone even see it? Is someone going to react? If XANA knows it's online, it'll be taken down immediately and it will be done for nothing!" Jim heard the despair in his voice – he started to doubt since the beginning of filming the message, and Jim sighed.
"I feel in my gut at least one person will watch it. That's good, right?"
"At least," Jeremy repeated.
"Isn't there any hope? Yes, there is! There can't be despair if there is no hope. How do you think we've survived these five months of hell?" He picked up the camera. "You go to sleep, Belpois – you're going to need it." Jim already walked away, but he turned around one more time, face suddenly stern as if they made a jump back in time. "And if I catch you one more time in the corridors after lights out, you'll find yourself having two hours of detention, young man!" he winked once, and then disappeared.
Luckily, Jeremy fund it funny. After a while, he got up and walked to his room. It looked the same as he had last left it: a bit messy, but you could still find everything. He walked into the small room and sat down at his 'bed'. At the table across the room stood a small television. It resisted just enough to have four stations of four different countries: the US, India, Russia and Denmark. Too bad he only understood a bit of English, and only knew what was going on at the American continent. He took the control in his hand, and pressed a series of buttons, for the American television news. First, there as some static on the television, and they gave him a look at the city of ruins, and it's not Detroit.
" … are still trying to control the attack on the rebelling Texas and Florida. All rebels have gathered there to try one last time to defy the mechanic monsters from France. For the rest, they should be able to–" Jeremy put out the television. Every day the same. 'We keep on rebelling until we're dead.' He lay down on his bed (read: the mattress).
It was as if they were programmed to keep rebelling.
And that was chapter eight. Did you recognize the words from the taped message? Because it was in the trailer and from now on, the plot will be rolling. No more prologuing (if that word exists), no more flashbacks or made-up memories. The story gets darker as well, so brace yourselves. And we will be greeted by a mystery guest next chapter. Will Jeremy leave? What's Jim gonna do about the situation? Shall Aelita ever wake up? Who do you think is the mystery guest? You'll find out as the time goes, as the story continues and the plot thickens. Chapter nine: When he lied will be posted on the 27th of February! On with the reviews:
Allycat826 (I know, I know, I hate myself for doing that. Sam just tries to survive the invasion at the other side of France, and Kiwi - I'm not sure what I planned for Odd's dog to happen... killed by the collapsing boarding building?)
Bluedog197 (I have yet to figure out how they'll get to know about him, and thanks for the compliment. I can't promise everyone will survive the end, though...)
See ya next time!
-DutchWriters2