Williams POV
Just as we made it into the elevator a thought came to my head. I stepped out before it started to close and said.
"Wait, ill go protect Astrid. Just in case." as I said it they nodded. I have a feeling Odd would've come to if the door wasn't closing. I looked around for a few seconds, anything that can help me Fight those things. I pick up a convenient pipe and swing it once to get the feel of it. glancing around i don't see anything else. I guess I've gotta try and find her now. Looking into the hallway she went in, there seems to be a whole lot of turns.
Oh well, I better just go in anyways. I go straight for most of the way but take a few occasional turns. After what seems like a half an hour I finally hear something.
"Gaaah! These things are so hard to navigate! I can't remember where it is. Do you two?" Astrid's soft voice said from not too far away. I started running in that direction. Trying to be as silent as I can I follow the voices that I hear.
"Astrid I hear someone coming." My own voice said and I stopped in my tracks. That can't be a good thing.
" Hmm, do you? I didn't hear anything." Astrid said, with a hint of exasperation. Peeking around the corner I see them with they're backs leaned against the wall. Astrid looked alert but at the same time tired. Like she didn't sleep any the night before.
"Harrah!" I hear as I'm flattened to the ground by an unknown force. Twisting and struggling I break away from my captor and scramble away. I stood up and felt Astrids back against mine.
"Promise me your the real William." She said
"I promise, where have you been? Are you okay? Aelita had some sort of heart attack. Odd and Ulrich went to lyoko to see if they could find an activated tower. The super scanner was bugged up." I said quickly as the two clones start walking towards us. We don have much time before we have to defend ourselves.
"What!? Is she okay? Wait the supercomputers messed up? What happened while I was gone? I had problems of my own... It's a long story but is everyone okay?" She says worryingly, as a matter of fact I have no idea what's going on. It's been a while since I started looking for her.
"I've been gone for a while, finding you in here wasn't easy. I have no idea what's happening now." I say dodging a punch thrown by a clone. This isn't exactly the best hime to be catching up. Just as my clone was about to throw a punch too they flickered. At the exact same moment Astrid started clutching her head. The specters dissapeared and Astrid collapsed to the floor.
"Astrid!" I called shocked and bent to her side. I knelt beside her and put my head to her chest. It took a few moments but her heart was still beating, slowly. Wildly I looked around. Anything, anything. I hear a faint noise of some sort of machine. Maybe it was the supercomputer. Not knowing what else to do I pick Astrid up and start to walk in the direction I think I came from. After walking for another minute she suddenly gasp awake in my arms. I kneel to the ground and gently lay her down.
"What? Huh? What happened?" She said a confused look glazed over her eyes. When she meets my eyes though it disappears. She stares at me in shock but icky shakes herself. Then she smiles up at me, until then I hadn't realized I had stopped breathing. I gulped in a quick breath and start breathing heavily.
"You okay?" I ask calming my breathing. She laughs and says
"Yes I'm fine. Thank you." As the last letter leaves her mouth a look appears on her face that Dissapeared to quickly for me to make out.
"Before you ask, it's a long story. Besides, the bump on your head has gotten bigger." When I said that she drew her hand up to her head. I'm guessing she had a fall earlier.
"Don't worry, I don't need to ask. I already know what happened. It's happened before." She said carefully, as if not to stir up feelings. She tried to get up but she was weak still. She let out a little squeak as I picked her up but i know she needs to recover for a minute. We don't want those Xana things to come back with her like this. I nearly peed myself when my phone rang. Setting Astrid down I reached in my pocket, but when I pulled it out it stopped ringing in the middle of its third ring. Confused I look to see who it was.
"Jeremy?" I say confused, "Wait a second...3:00! It's three in the afternoon! Have we really been gone that long!" I sag in disbelief. Astrid pulls out her phone to check.
"Well, technically it's two fifty eight in the after noon." She says, standing up after having time to rest.
"Great, that helps." I say sarcastically and Astrid smiles. Humors about all we got here. "On a different note, do you know how to get out if here? " I ask hopefully but she shekels her head.
"No, I haven't a clue. I don't know what I was thinking bringing those two clones in here." She says hopelessly. We stand there in silence for a minute or two, neither of us knowing what to do. Suddenly Astrid smacks her first into her other palm and says, "I got it! I remember my old physic teacher telling me that in a maze if you put your right hand on the wall to your right, and walk forward following that wall, you will eventually get to the exit! This should be pretty much the same concept!"
"Which right wall?" I say turning around. Each wall could be considered right depending on which way your going.
"Thats the beauty! It doesn't matter which, both should get you to the end!" She says smiling broadly. I smile back at her despite my doubts that it won't work. At least it's our best shot.
We both put our hands to the wall and walked. And walked, and walked. Eventually neither one of us really felt like holding up a conversation and Astrid kept getting lost in thoughts. Eventually I heard footsteps coming in our direction. I turn around quickly and at the end of the long hall way we are walking in the two clones turn the corner.
"Astrid." I warned and after a quick glance we both start running. Neither of us want anything to do with those guys. After a few minutes I could hear Astrid fall to the ground once again. "No!" skidding to a hault I turn around and run back to astrid. I scoop her up into my arms without looking to see where the clones were. I started running the way she told me to, following the right side of the wall. After a few minutes she woke up again. This time I dint set her din I just sat down and leaned hip against me.
"I'm getting sick of that." She said humorously and I laughed in relief. She can't be able to take much more of this, whatever's happening. Immediately she tried to sit up but I held her back.
"Whoa, hold on there. You fell a total of three times today. Hitting your head on all of them. Take it easy." I said worried.
"I feel fine now though. besides we have to get out of here." She said standing iup with ease. I shook my head in exasperation but she didnt give up. Looking at her ,though, I could tell she some how felt better. There was no sign of exhaustion in her eyes and she was bouncing up and down, ready to get aaa move one.
"Okay, let's just go help the others." I said and we started running again on our rightside path.
Astrids POV
Finally, finally we made it out of that dumb system of hallways. My stomach growling and heart racing we ran into the elevator. Tapping my foot I anxiously awaited what we would find. As soon as the doors opened we ran inside. Only to find no one there.
"What's this?" William asked and I pulled out my phone. Hopefully Odd will pick up. Right before I press the first number I get a phone call.
"Hello?" I asked hesitantly
"Where are you? Are you okay?! You missed a lot. " Odd said worriedly and I instantly felt a stab of guilt. If I hadn't gone running off we wouldn't be in this mess.
"It's hard to explain, but yes I'm fine. Williams here too. Where are you guys though? I would've sworn there was an activated tower. Why aren't you at the factory?" I asked and Odd was silent for a moment.
"Come to my room!" He said quickly and suddenly I heard twuck! As the phone hit water. Curious I told William and we hurried back as quick as we could. Ten minutes later we opened the door to Odds room. This time everyone was sitting down in the middle of a rough conversation. Everyone looked up as we walked in. Odd gave me a smile full of relief and contentment. I sat down next to Odd and William sat down next to Yumi. The momentarily bright attitude of getting everyone together was soon put out again.
"Did you fall?" Odd asked suddenly breaking the silence. His fingers were brushing he spot on my head where I had manage to hit every single time I fell. Thinking back to the black outs I had brought on a wave nausea. I was so scared every time I fell that it would be like the time ten years before when I didn't wake up for years. At the thought I gave an involuntary shiver.
"Yeah, a few times." I said quietly and Odd looked at me shocked.
" A few!?" He said amazed I had fallen more than once.
"I'm guessing there's a story to that. We need to tell you what happened with us too. It might make more sense if we go first. " Ulrich said and they all started explaining the Peter Duncan thing, along with Aelita and the factory's battery. All of it made my head ache more. Something however seemed a little Odd. They said that it had problems two times, then Jeremy shut it off to put the new battery in. I black out.. Three times as well, is there any connection?
"Wait but," William said and we gave each other a knowing look. Something's wrong with this. Instead of sharing what we thought was wrong, as everyone was asking, we took turns telling what happen. Most of it though was trying to get out of the dang hallway system. After we were done we sat in silence. Odd squeezed my hands gave me a reassuring smile. Then he brought his hand back up to the bump on my head. It hadn't gone down yet And it still throbbed. I felt a wave of exhaustion and all I want to do is go to sleep.
"Astrid what was wrong? Why did you black out so many times?" Ulrich asked and Yumi jabbed him with her elbow. It's pretty obvious by this point.
"The super computer. When it was off both Aelita and Astrid were effected. " Jeremy thought out loud. Suddenly I remember this morning, I guess it's now or never.
"Listen, I have something I should probably tell you guys. Although I'm not sure how much it relates to this." I say hesitantly. If everyone wasn't already staring at me I'm sure they would be now. Odd squeezed my hand encouragingly and i went on.
"You see, to put it plainly. I'm really about ten years older than... What I look." when everyone was silent I continued. "
"About eleven years ago I went into this coma out of the blue. I didn't wake up from the coma until ten years later. That's what Brynga and Sissi were trying to pull. They wanted to blackmail me with it. But the thing is, while I was in the coma I dint grow. In fact to my body it was as if I had just closed my eyes, thats what the doctors told me and this what it felt like. Last year, when I woke up from the coma, it was hard. A lot of things had changed. I dint have any family and all of my friends were well, grown up. I probably should have told you earlier but, Ive been trying to forget about it. After all there's nothing I can do." I explain slowly but quickly too. Trying to think of a good way to explain but an easy way go. I stared at the ground and waited for whatever there reply would be.
"Im sorry," aelita said and we all looked at her in surprise.
"Aelita its fine, Its all behind me now. I just felt everyone should know." I said quickly but aelita looked up at me with sadness and guilt.
"Don't you see? Your somehow connected to the supercomputer. The thing my dad created." She said and I sat there confused until it finally hit me. She was trapped in the supercompuer for ten years too. Most likely the exact time I was. That explains why I blacked out. Everyone seemed to hit this conclusion together, and we sat in silrnce for a few minutes.
"Its not your fault, or your dads. However how exactly am I connected to the supercomputer?" I asked and look at jeremy who's thinking hard on how I am.
"Maybe you can find out by the locket." Odd wispered in my ear so the others wouldn't hear. I looked at him greatfully that he didnt say we. But the next time I open that thing I want it to with Odd. Or william, I thought suddenly. Where did that come from. I pushed the thought out of my mind.
"The same time as Aelita... We need to figure out how to stop it. Or something, if not finding Aelita's antivirus will be pointless." Yumi said worryingly, I looked at her with gratitude and friendship. A sunder reminder of my past experience with adventures and friends who wouldn't leave me threatened to flood my thoughts. I pushed my thoughts away from me again and focused on Jeremy's steady voice.
"I can scan you to try and find something. This could take a while, because we have no clue as to why your involved with the supercomputer." Jeremy said and a wave of exhaustion rushed over me. Just then my stomach grumbled loudly and everyone laughed.
"What? I didn't have lunch... Or breakfast... and I to tired to go down to dinner." I said and produced a long yawn. Everyone laughed again and I smiled. I love my friends.
Miss me? I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've had a lot to do (studying), and I had a concert. It's complicated but hopefully this should tie you over till I can produced the next chapter. I've had a lot of fun with this fanfiction and it's the only one I can stay committed to. Thank you guys for being supportive! Stay creative!