Chapter 30: Simulation
The next moment, Odd opened his eyes and gasped for breath. It took him a few seconds to realize Odd was still alive and not at Kadic anymore. That was something he thought of as strange – but what was going on? He knew for sure that, one moment ago, he was actually at Kadic ready to be buried under the boarding building caused by that one Megatank he was fighting. But now, suddenly, he wasn't ther anymore, but in the…
Wait, where exactly was he? When his eyes got used to the darkness around him, he saw more details. There was one door at the other side of the big room he was in, just as there were windows opposite of the door. Apparently it was night, as Odd noticed the stars shone bright. And if Odd had been twice as big, he would have been able to watch what was out there on the ground, if he was standing. Because now he lay on an iron table (sort of) and on his naked arms and forehead were all kinds of cable-things placed as a lot of stethoscopes which Odd quickly pulled off of him. You could never be too careful with a very dangerous AI on the loose. The Warrior stood up.
"Odd, you're awake? How are you?" the blonde heard his best friend say this. He turned around and came to stand eye to eye with Ulrich, behind whom were his two girl best friends standing. All three of them were alright, as far as Odd could see, and they were all looking at his chest. Odd noticed Ulrich was holding his shirt – his shirt! – in his hand, ready to toss it to his friend.
"With me it's going fine, what about you? And give me my shirt!" Ulrich tossed him his shirt and while he had been talking, he saw behind them three more table-like plates and one machine with four sets of stethoscope-cables. His friends had been through the same as he was.
"Everyone's fine," Yumi answered, and odd smiled at the, knowing there was something else.
"Say, were you awake before me? If yes, why didn't you leave already and, I don't know, find out where we are." This time, Aelita talked.
"We won't just leave you behind."
"Besides," Yumi said, "we know where we are. We're inside the factory. But we haven't found Jeremy yet."
"Have you actually gone further than the –" Odd was interrupted in a rough manner when a dampened scream for help was heard. The Warriors stayed quiet, to see if they really heard someone yelling for help. The second time they heard it clearer, and the four friends looked at each other, recognizing that voice. There was only one word, one name, going through their minds. Jeremy. It had been one of Einstein's cries for help. They did not hesitate anymore and sprinted towards their friend. The Warriors didn't need to run for long, as they found Jeremy just two corridors ahead. He sat with his back against a door and looked very tense and tired. Something was hitting the door, something that really wanted Jeremy at the moment. They could cry out of happiness to see he was alright. While Ulrich took over from Jeremy to keep the door blocked, Aelita helped him get up and Odd and Yumi searched a heavy object to block anyone (or anything) out who wanted to enter.
"Jeremy, are you alright?" Aelita asked him. He nodded, and she noticed he was trembling from head to toe. They didn't know which caused him to go in this state, but she was sure they would find out. After a while Odd, Ulrich and Yumi came standing closer as well.
"What's going on here?" Odd started to ask, "Why are we here at nighttime? What was that with that ridiculous machine? How came you fled from someth – it's XANA, isn't it?" Aelita, Ulrich and Yumi joined Odd, also wanting answers on those questions. They too wanted to now what exactly was going on. That heavy object against the door began shaking heavily and Jeremy was making himself ready to leave before giving them answers.
"I'll… I'll explain when you're on Lyoko," he said, confirming their thoughts that it was about XANA activating a tower, "Right now, we don't have the time. There's a Tarantula trying to kill me!" Four pair of eyes widened when their friend mentioned the Tarantula.
"There's, what now?" Odd said, shocked, while Jeremy just kept on nodding and trying to get them to the scanners because that Tarantula really scared him. He even already backed away from them to lead the way to the scanners.
"To the scanners! No time to lose!" he called out, and within ten minutes they had reached the scanner room without meeting a Tarantula on their way. Jeremy did not want to take risks and had already blocked the elevator to slow the monster down to to delay XANA's arrival here. Jeremy seated him self on the chair in front of the supercomputer and turned on the earpiece.
"Ladies first," he told them, "Scanner Yumi. Scanner Aelita. Transfer Yumi. Transfer Aelita. Virtualization!" he repeated this process with Ulrich and Odd and then he virtualized their vehicles on the platform in the mountain sector, where the tower is located. "The activated tower is in the west from where you are now."
"Now we're on our way, would you mind explaining what's happening?" Ulrich asked.
"You've got the right to know," Jeremy began, "A few days ago, we travelled with the Skid to a Replika, in which the forest sector was rebuild. The problem is that we really don't know what XANA wants with them, and we still don't. I have a few suggestions, but we still can't be sure. That's why I made the simulation; a program I designed which could somewhat predict what XANA could do with them. You volunteered to try it out, all of you, and you were sent in earlier this night. Too bad XANA realized we were doing something and just before Odd died in the simulation, XANA managed to place a virus. That virus disabled me from getting you out unharmed.
That's why I send in another program in the simulation. Some sort of specter, if you will. This had to bring you guys together, in the beginning, but after a while I realized I might have been able to get you out of there, but first all of you had to die in-simulation, because I didn't know if I'd be able to pull anyone out a second time. And because Odd was killed in an early stage of the simulation, I gave the specter his appearance, so you'd trust him more. XANA saw a chance and attacked the simulation. At some point he almost really killed you and the specter, but I managed to rescue you in time.
Eventually the specter did his job and I finished it, I snapped you out of it. And off course, XANA didn't like it. He utilized the tower he used to attack the simulation to send that Tarantula to me. And now he can't find me, he'll probably go rampaging through the city. Then we come to the part where you guys go to the tower, deactivate it and save the world." the four Warriors didn't know how to react, so they stayed quiet. In the meantime, the small dot in the distance grew bigger until it resembled the tower they needed. Odd started to talk when the tower gained a form instead of being just a dot.
"I died first?" the others sighed because of the comment.
"That's not our priority now, Odd," Ulrich said, rolling his eyes.
"First the tower, than you can complain about that." Yumi added to that while they followed the narrow mountain way to the activated tower. They flew (or drove, in Ulrich's case) closer with each second, without much disasters or monsters until that one moment when Jeremy warned them.
"Guys, there's a swarm of Hornets right behind you." Just after Jeremy warned them, the Hornets fired the lasers as if they had waited for Jeremy to announce their arrival. Ulrich dared to look behind him and then saw how many Hornets there were – there were six. After this, he turned back around to make sure he wouldn't drive off the small pass and have to lift with Yumi or Odd. Yumi flew a bit ahead and then stopped. She threw her fans to the Hornets and while she missed one with the first one, the second on hit a Hornet. Aelita completed the same movements, except that she didn't miss them with two of her energy fields. Odd was almost shot off of his Overboard, and he changed his course, flying towards the three last Hornets. He shot lasers at them and when he's passed them, only one was left. Ulrich slowed down his Overwing, stood on it and jumped, with one of his sabers ready to stab and kill the last of the swarm. The Hornet tried to stop and turned around quickly, but Ulrich finished it before the Hornet could.
These actions followed each others that quickly it might have seemed they were performed simultaneously.
In the meantime, they had almost reached the tower, Ulrich standing behind Odd on his Overboard, when they landed where the small pad evolved into a platform of size. They barely landed or a Megatank appeared from behind said activated tower, already charging up to shoot them down. When it tried to land a blow, they all jumped aside – Ulrich and Aelita one side, and Odd and Yumi the other side. The Megatank charged up again and decided Aelita was top priority. He hadn't counted on Ulrich's crossed sabers, temporarily stopping the laser. Little by little Ulrich was pushed to the edge as Aelita ran past him and the Megatank to the tower.
"Laser arrow!" Odd yelled, aiming for half of the eye inside the armor, split in half by the laser, and that was enough to kill that Megatank. Ulrich and Yumi looked at him, surprised: no smile, no little victory dance, just seriousness with a hint of happy. He turned to his friends, who had been staring at him, he knew, and he shrugged, giving them the smile they've been waiting for. "I don't really like Megatanks," he told them while behind them the tower was deactivated, thanks to Aelita.
"So… what happened in there could happen in real life?" Ulrich asked after Jeremy gave an extended explanation, yet explained as easy as possible, of the inner workings of the simulation, and for an answer, the blonde genius nodded. The others stayed silent, letting the information sink in. everything could go that way. Yumi could die fighting, Ulrich could in a way to protect the people he loves to run away, Odd could in a way to protect the people he loves while actually fighting and Aelita … Well, she was a tough case now, since she's been unconscious most of the simulation time, almost dead. The most terrible about the simulation was they would all die within half a year, all in their own way.
"We need to train," Everyone looked at Aelita, "If this is going to happen, we need to be prepared, and s we have to be trained to withstand such attacks."
"That's a great idea." Odd said, being the first to accept her idea. She looked around in the group and saw Yumi nodding in agreement, Ulrich giving her a thumbs up and Jeremy smiling at her.
"We've agreed, then? You will be trained." their blonde friend told them, confirming what they already knew. The all nodded, except for Aelita.
"You said 'you'. What are you going to do?" she noticed, and Jeremy shrugged.
"Me? I'll be the one training you." With those words, their agreement was sealed and they would begin with their training the next free afternoon.
Now one more question: when did the simulation take place? I'd say it had taken place in season four, as there were Replikas mentioned and William was XANA's puppet. Then we need to know when exactly in season four. The beginning, or maybe at the end? Think of any episode in which they actually have trained in real life to be prepared when XANA attacked, then the first episode coming to mind is "I'd Rather Not Talk About It".
If you look at it that way, you could say Simulation was a sort of prologue to that season 4 episode.
~THE END~
So... that's it, the end of Simulation. How did you like the end? Did you expect this, suspect anything, or didn't you think it would end this way? Well... *sighs* no more udates, I guess, so just enjoy life and other authors with other stories instead. There will be more CL stories from me to come, but not just right this moment. And we close this story off with the last reviews.
Bluedog197 (If this is wat you thought it was going to be, than congratulations! Well, the title implied it, but I couldn't think of anything else being the title. And yes, that Odd was no robot, it was Jeremy's specter, that's all, and thanks for all of the wonderful reviews!)
Icyicy3 (ch 2) (Yay, another reviewer! Now you've mentioned it, I really should have gone into detail about those things... I forgot throughout the whole story! Now I feel dumb... but anyway, Herve is the dark-haired boy always hanging around with Sissi. I thought that was clear... Well, thank you for the review!)
See ya later!
-Dutchwriters2