A/N: Sorry to make you guys wait. Here's the next chapter. Remember, if there's anything mentioned in passing to have happened during the past year, and you're confused about it, re-read 'The Theory of Evolution'. It's a very important piece of the puzzle.
And, if you want concepts on the main characters' appearances, go to my DeviantArt page (same penname as here) and search my gallery for "A World Without Danger". In this chapter, Sam makes her first appearance since the finale of Season 3, and she has a new look too.
Episodes to re-watch before reading this chapter: "Rock Bottom?", "Final Round" (aka: Sam's only appearances in the series)
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko or CL: Evolution in any way, shape, or form.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~E~V~O~L~U~T~I~O~N~~~!
"Samantha Knight returns to Kadic, elating Odd, while XANA tries a new tactic to protect the tower it's activated."
A World Without Danger
Code Lyoko: Evolution Rewrite
Season 5, Episode 6: Countdown
Jérémie and Aelita were both sitting in his room, her on a folding chair he kept in his closet, in front of his computer. On the cyan-colored screen was an open window, showing the source code to a digital profile—the one belonging to their mystery guest.
"I know you said 'encrypted'," the pink-ette commented, "but I didn't think it was to this extent."
The blonde held back a chuckle or two, "Why would you expect any different? I don't exaggerate. You should know that by now." He sighed, "Again, this person is better at coding than I am. I still haven't begun creating a cipher key."
"And Sector Five was no help," Aelita added. "It came up blank."
Because their guest wasn't actually on Lyoko, just hiding within their network. Jérémie was keeping a sharp eye on them just in case, but they didn't seem to be a threat. They weren't messing with anything, but they hadn't made contact yet either. They seemed to just want to...exist. For now, at least.
Aelita turned to her boyfriend, ready to ask about the possibility of using the Skid to confront their guest, only to pause when she saw him deep in thought.
She gently nudges him in the side. When his eyes turned to her, she asked, "What's on your mind?"
"Oh, I'm just considering the probability of our guest and Tyron both having a connection to your father."
She raised an eyebrow in confusion and intrigue.
He explained, "Think about it. We turn our supercomputer back on, thus reawakening XANA because it's found a second base with the Cortex—a virtual world that very likely has a connection to Project: Carthage, a.k.a.: what your father built Lyoko and XANA to destroy. Then, our mystery guest appears on our radar, and they have a coding style very reminiscent of your father's. Then, we explore the Cortex and find a video of Tyron that connects him to your father and your mother. Not to mention, all of this happens within the span of four days."
She began to understand, "You think it's not a coincidence?"
It wasn't a question, despite being phrased as one, yet it required (and Aelita wanted) an answer.
"It's just a feeling for now," Jérémie softly confessed. "I need more data to prove it. I mean, I'm still not one-hundred percent certain than Tyron built the Cortex like we're assuming."
"Speaking of the Cortex," Aelita jumped in, "we haven't returned yet. We probably should."
"Agreed," he admitted, "but I at least want to wait until that patch for the holomap is done first." The one meant to help them predict the Cortex's geographical changes, he meant. The special abilities one, however, was at a stand-still.
"How long will that take you?" the pink-ette asked.
"Impatient, aren't we?" he gently teased.
She lightly sighed, before confessed, "The Cortex was archiving a video file that mentioned both of my parents and addressed my father by his real name. The video also contained information that my father confirmed and elaborated on through his diary. Can you blame me for being curious?"
"No," he reassured her, "because I'm curious too." He then began typing in some commands. With them, he closed the profile window, before opening up the source code for his holomap patch. "I'll run the last set of calculations on it now. In eight hours, we'll come back and find out if we're ready to go back to the Cortex or not."
Aelita smiled, "Deal."
As he was typing in commands, his transwatch beeped once. He checked it, only to realize it was an alert to check the time.
"Uh-oh, we're going to be late for gym class."
As Aelita gathered up both of their bags, Jérémie finished typing in the commands to start the calculations, along with a timer window counting down from eight hours.
The two then left the room, closing and locking the door behind them, hoping Jim wouldn't notice their tardiness.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Ulrich and Odd were sitting on the bleachers with the rest of their class, listening to Jim lecture about the benefits of running, a lecture they've all heard many times before.
The brunette leaned in towards his roommate and whispered, "Hey, Odd, guess who I saw before class?" A pause, where the Italian shrugged. "Sam."
"Sam?" Odd was more alert now, which amused Ulrich greatly. "As in Samantha Knight?"
Ulrich blinked. He had to ask? "How many Sams do you know?"
Odd immediately became cagey, "Well, there's Samantha Suarez, but we don't talk about her..."
Yeesh, Ulrich thought, that date must've ended badly.
But he respected his roommate's wishes. "Yes, Sam Knight. She was visiting Mr. Delmas with her parents, and I overheard them talking about her transferring to Kadic."
"Really?" Odd exclaimed, elated, before quite literally jumping to his feet and beginning to dance. Badly, but Ulrich waved that off because Odd was clearly too happy to care.
Jim wasn't happy, though. "Della Robbia!" Odd was sad to stop dancing. "What are you interrupting me for?! This is not a disco class! Ten laps around the field! Now!"
Odd reluctantly took off, but then he got an idea.
Jim turned back to the class, only to turn back to Odd when the boy cried out in (fake) pain.
Jérémie and Aelita arrived in this moment, fully dressed for physical activity, and took advantage of im being distracted to quietly slip into the seats next to Ulrich.
Odd was holding his ankle as thought he had injured it. Jim sighed, exasperated, before waving the boy off, "Go on."
The Italian boy limped off in the direction of the infirmary.
Jim shook his head before resuming his lecture.
Confused, Jérémie softly asked Ulrich, "What was that about?" What did he and Aelita miss?
"Oh, nothing," the brunette acted casual and nonchalant, but he was too amused to fully commit, "I just told Odd that Sam may be transferring to Kadic." She was the only person Odd acted differently around, getting all blush-y and flustered when he didn't do that around anyone else, not even his friends.
"Sam Knight?" Aelita let loose a giggle. "Things are certainly about to heat up now."
A smiling Ulrich could only nod in agreement, finally having something to hold over Odd's head.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Instead of the infirmary, Odd went directly to the courtyard and began hunting for that familiar dark-skinned girl with red streaks in her dark hair.
He had to see if Ulrich was right. His roommate wouldn't lie to him about this. Tease relentlessly, sure, but never outright lie and trick. That was going too far—the entire group had agreed on that.
After what felt like an eternity (but was only about seven seconds), he finally spotted her. She was chatting with Sissi on a bench underneath a tree.
He called out to her, "Sam!" She turned face him, to see who had called her name. When she did, he saw her eyes immediately soften with recognition.
As he jobbed up to her, Sissi waved 'goodbye' to her, before winking and then leaving to return to class, her job as principal's daughter (which was greeting new students) completed.
"Sam, is that really you?" he asked, slightly out of breath.
She pretended not to know him, turning away from him with a scowl, "No, it's the President's daughter."
She was only joking, but Odd pouted anyways, just to mess with her.
A smile broke out onto her face, "Of course it's me, you dummy! It's good to see you again, Odd. Nice shorts."
His cheeks twinged with red from embarrassment. He hadn't changed out of his gym clothes; he was too excited to see her. "Well, I ditched phys. ed. to come see you. Don't tease and instead show some gratitude," he joked.
"Oh, my hero," she playfully mocked. "So, why couldn't you wait until your class was done to see me? And not wait until lunch?"
He joined her on the bench, sitting down beside her. "I had to make sure Ulrich wasn't kidding. He said he saw you earlier with your parents, talking to the headmaster about you going to school here. Is it true?"
He hoped it was. He never liked separating from Sam.
She smiled, "It is, and no, that's not a joke." He breathed a sigh of relief. She continued, "My dad got a promotion and had to move here to accept it. I needed a new school to attend so I suggested this one when I remembered that you went here. I'm in a grade above you and a day student," she shrugged, "but it's good enough for me." She paused, "What do you think?"
"I think it's great!" he exclaimed, and she smiled in relief. Now, whenever he said 'goodbye' to Sam, it wouldn't hurt as much, because she would just be going home for the day. She was in William and Yumi's grade, but that was fine.
Maybe, this time, there wouldn't be a repeat of what happened at the skateboarding competition...
But he chose not to focus on that. "Let me change clothes and then I'll show you around Kadic. Meet me by the vending machines in an hour."
Sam relented rather quickly, "Sure!" She winked at him, "Don't be late."
He felt himself blushing as he ran off towards the dorms, passing by an electrical socket that began sparking with a strange amount of electricity...
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Odd was weirdly nervous as he threw his usual outfit down on his bed.
"No, that's not good enough," he muttered. "I have to look presentable."
He then crossed over to his closet and began digging for a better look. He had to have at least one, right? Meanwhile, Kiwi was following him around, wagging his tail.
"Gah! None of my outfits work! Maybe I should style my hair the normal way? What do you think, Kiwi?"
Said mutt just stared at his owner, likely waiting for some food.
"You're right, bud. Just be myself," he felt relieved somehow, despite Kiwi not saying a single world. "Sam likes me for me." He leaned down and gave the dog some head scratches. "Thanks, Kiwi. I'm so lucky I have you. My little diggity-dogg."
Kiwi responded with a bark.
However, the mood was ruined by an alert from his transwatch. What terrible timing, XANA...
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jim was timing Julien Xao, Naomi N'Guyen, Jean-Baptiste Pujol, and Claire Girard when Jérémie got the same alert. The boy immediately tensed up and turned to Ulrich and Aelita, both of whom were sitting on the bleachers beside him. On their respective transwatches was the same alert.
Activated tower in the Desert Sector.
"Let's just wait," Ulrich whispered. "Class is almost over, anyways."
"Yeah," Aelita agreed, her voice just as low. "Whoever gets there first can start on clearing the passage."
Jérémie tried sighing his anxiousness away, but didn't succeed. "Fine."
He had chosen to wait, but he could not relax until that tower was deactivated.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Yumi and William arrived at the factory first, only to be greeted with an empty lab, which surprised them at first. Thinking about how they got the alerts now, though—individually rather than relayed by the person that carried the laptop—it made sense that they'd now be more likely to get here before Jérémie did.
The two glanced at the vitals window Jérémie had pinned to the supercomputer's desktop. Odd was tense, while Jérémie, Aelita, and Ulrich's heartbeats were all elevated, as if they were running.
Yumi typed in Jérémie's number to call him, William standing beside her and tentatively watching.
The blonde picked up on the second ring, "Yes, Yumi?"
"Something hold you up? William and I are already here."
"We had to wait until gym class was over," Jérémie explained, "but we're on our way right now. Don't wait for us. Go on ahead and start clearing the passage to the tower."
"Okay," Yumi agreed. "Just don't drag your feet."
"We won't," the young genius promised before hanging up.
Yumi turned to the boy beside her as she began typing in commands. "Head down to the scanner room. I'll join you soon."
"Are you activating the self-virtualization program?" She nodded. "Oh, this is how it's done." He explained, "Aelita added a page of supercomputer shortcuts in that handbook you guys gave me, but I need to see them in action to commit those shortcuts to memory."
That's right, Yumi remembered. William learned best by doing—the hands-on technique.
"Valid," she admitted. "First, you type in the coordinates of where you wish to land. In this case, let's virtualize a safe ten meters away from the activated tower. Then you select the ID cards of the people you are sending to Lyoko, or just yours if it's only you." On the screen, hers and William's IDs appeared, ready to load. "Then you bring up the timer, and give yourself enough time to make it down to the scanners. Aelita recommends thirty seconds at minimum. This time, I'm going to give us a generous three minutes." A window popped up, showing three minutes ready to start counting down. "Then, we warm up the scanners, and once I press enter, then the timer will count down." She paused. "Got it?"
"Yeah, thanks." William was giving her a grateful smile. "Now, let's go." As he headed for the side ladder, he commented, "We'll take care of this tower in no time."
Yumi shook her head as she pressed enter. The timer began counting down, and she climbed down after him, replying, "It's not a contest, William."
After a minute, both scanners doors closed with the two inside. A burst of air upwards depixelized their bodies.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The duo's bodies reformed mid-air, and they dropped onto the hot, dry ground of the Desert Sector. A canyon was in front of them.
"According to the superscan, the tower is right in front of us, in the middle of that canyon," Yumi nodded her head at what awaited them. "52 degrees West of our current position. But–"
He cut her off by running ahead.
A little surprised, she quickly ran after him. "But be careful!" she finished. "We don't have Jérémie at the controls yet! That means we don't know what's waiting for us!"
"We don't know what XANA's attack is yet either!" he called back. "We have to hurry before anyone gets hurt!"
She managed to catch up with him by this point, "That's why it's important for us to stick together."
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Sam was waiting for Odd at the vending machines, like he told her to, with Hervé and Nicolas nearby, chatting away about something Odd held no interest in. However, this time he was on edge, and it wasn't from his feelings for Sam. No, it was from his transwatch still alerting him to that activated tower that the others were likely on their way right now to take care of.
He kept an eye out for XANA, unsure what it's plan was this time. Well, obviously activate a tower to bring the group to the factory, and then devirtualize Aelita to bring Jérémie to Lyoko (if her theory about XANA needing Jérémie's half of the Keys first was indeed correct, that is). But the real world attack was yet to be seen.
In order not to scare her, he decided to act as calm as possible, pretend that nothing was wrong.
"Hey, Odd!" she greeted him with a smile.
"Hey, Sam. Sorry if I'm late."
She checked her phone, "No, you're not late at all. You're a couple minutes early, actually." He was? Must've been because he was eager to make sure Sam was out of danger. "You that excited to see me?"
"Oh, well, yeah," he decided to roll with it. It was the truth, after all. He was excited to see her after so long, and he also needed to ensure her safety.
Just then, he saw the electrical outlet for the hot chocolate vending machine start to spark.
Somehow keeping his panic under control, he continued, "But let's head back to the courtyard."
"Sure," she agreed, her tone giving no indication that she was suspicious about anything Odd was doing or saying.
But as she moved away from the vending machines, Hervé moved towards them. He inserted a coin for a cup of hot chocolate, but when he pressed the button, a large jolt of electricity surged through his body. It was only for a second, but he collapsed onto the ground, his glasses askew and his entire being looking rough.
"Hervé, are you okay?" Nicolas immediately ran up to his friend and knelt at his side.
Odd knelt on his other side, feeling guilty because he hadn't meant to save Sam at the expense of someone else. "Pichon, you still alive?" Hervé just gave a pitiful groan, and Odd made his choice. As he slung Hervé's arm around his shoulder, he told Sam, "I'm going to take him to the infirmary and then tell the principal what just happened. You and Nicolas need to prevent other people from using these vending machines. The same thing may happen to them."
Sam and Nicolas, to their credit, both nodded in agreement and let Odd walk towards Yolanda's office with Hervé.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Yumi and William were making their way through the canyon, a few moments after she had managed to convince him to slow down because rushing into it would get them nowhere. Not wanting a repeat of his possession, he had relented to following her lead.
She suddenly stopped and held out her hand to talk William in his tracks as well. "You hear that?"
He tried his best to listen carefully, to hear what she was hearing. Sure enough, there was an unnatural sound occuring—the sound of a small machine crawling.
"Sounds like..." he muttered.
"Kankrelats!" she exclaimed, pointing above them.
Sure enough, from the top of the canyon appeared six Kankrelats, two on one side and four on the other, all appearing right after the other and firing at the two down below.
Yumi summoned her fans, while William used Super Smoke to travel up to the cliffs. He re-emerged as himself mid-leap over the cliff with four. He landed, swinging down his Zweihänder, destroying one.
The geisha down below, block a shot with one of her fans before throwing it. The Kankrelat she was aiming at leaned its head to the other side, making it miss, only for it to circle around and destroy it on the return trip.
William deflected a laser from one Kankrelat, which sent it directly to another, destroying it. He then glanced back at Yumi to check on her, watching as she threw her second fan just as the first returned. She destroyed two more Kankrelats, while he took out the last one with a downward slash.
He de-summoned his Zweihänder as she did the same with her fans. "That's it?" he asked. "Just six Kankrelats? I expected more than that."
But she resummoned her fans, "William, jump!" before throwing them.
He did as she saw, resuming his Super Smoke form, just as her fans hit a seventh Kankrelat about to ambush him. He landed, in his human form, in front of her as she got her fans and put them away once more.
"You were saying?" she was smiling.
He rolled his eyes, "They're still small fry."
"But still dangerous," she corrected. "However weak, their lasers can still devirtualize us if we're not careful."
"She's right," Jérémie's voice cut in, from the lab. "Stay focused. I can see a lot of unknown activity happening around the tower, but I can't tell what it is."
The two were smiling. "Hey, Jer, you made it!" Yumi exclaimed. "Are we going the right way?"
"You are," he confirmed. "I'm sending Ulrich and Aelita over right now, but you two keep heading towards the tower. I need to see what's up."
William shrugged. "You heard him, Yumes."
She rolled her eyes, before the two resumed their trek towards the tower.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
"Virtualization!"
Ulrich and Aelita's respective arrows appeared at the same time Jérémie sent the Overbike.
"Yumi and William are nearing the tower," he relayed. "I don't know what's guarding it but I want all of you facing it together."
"It's that big a reading, huh?" Ulrich asked, as he and Aelita boarded the Overbike.
"Yes, and it's concerning." The cell window popped up on screen, showing that Odd was calling him. He picked up, "Yes, Odd?"
"XANA may be causing short-circuits all over the school," Odd told him. "Hervé got a nasty shock from the vending machines, but Yolanda says he should be okay. I just warned the principal, who absolutely started to believe me I saved him from one of those short-circuits. I need to stay and warn Sam, but after that, I'll be at the factory shortly."
Finally, some news about XANA's attack may be. "Okay. Watch your back."
"I will," Odd replied, before hanging up.
Jérémie took a deep breath as the call window closed. He hoped everything would turn out okay. He just had a bad feeling about that tower.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
As Ulrich and Aelita sped off towards the tower located within the canyon on the Overbike, Jérémie spoke to them from the lab, "Odd just told me that XANA may be causing short-circuits all around the school. It seems to just want to cause chaos."
"It's probably because XANA wants the Keys to Lyoko," Aelita reminded him, "and in order to get them, it needs to lure us to the factory with an activated tower."
"Agreed," the blonde replied, "but be careful, Aelita. If it really does need my half first, then it stands to reason that it would want you devirtualized in order to force me to come in your place."
And it had done so before, first with the tower controlling William's clone, and again with the tower controlling the materialized Bloks.
"I'll try my best," she vowed. "I know you hate the unwanted side effects associated with the Scyphozoa." She knew she did, and she would never forget how bad he seemed to feel after his first encounter with it.
Jérémie didn't deny this; he couldn't, because she was right. Nor would he have gotten the chance to, as Ulrich jumped in. "I think Jérémie needs to worry about the side effects associated with you more, Princess," he teased.
A blushing Aelita slapped Ulrich's shoulder in retribution.
An equally flustered Jérémie cleared his throat. "Keep your minds on the mission, please."
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Sam was still by the vending machines, her and Nicolas still guarding them from other students. He ran up to her, slightly out of breath.
"Hey, Odd," she greeted when he stopped in front of her. "Did you tell the principal?"
"Yeah," he informed her and Nicolas. "He said he's going to call an electrician to take a look at the school's power grid. They'll be here tomorrow afternoon. Until then, he's telling everyone to stay away from any and all electrical outlets. He asked me to spread that message."
Nicolas nodded, before taking off to do just that. Unplanned, but Odd welcomed it.
"I need to run a quick errand, Sam," he told her. "An important one. But I'll be back, I promise. For now, you and Nicolas just spread the principal's message to others."
"But, Odd–"
He cut her off, "I'm sorry!", as he ran away towards the sewer passage.
His heart twinged with pain and guilt the further he got away from her. He wished he could tell her the truth, but he couldn't. He made a promise, after all.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
William and Yumi could see a small glimpse of the tower's red halo on top of the cliffs now. They were close now, almost there, but they hadn't run into any more monsters yet.
"Hey, Jérémie," William asked, "are you sure about your readings? It's very quiet where we are."
"I'm sure," the blonde answered. "Be careful."
"Take it easy, William," Yumi fell into step beside him. "XANA's likely making it quiet to throw us off."
He shrugged, unable to deny that, "True."
However, the moment the two turned the corner, they halted in their tracks. Jérémie was right. In between them and the tower was something they'd never seen before.
A massive wall of Bloks. Height and width both of eleven.
As soon as it saw them, the Blok in the middle of the wall charged up a laser, and fired it. Too shocked to react right away, William was devirtualized instantly, while the blast from the powerful shot threw Yumi back a great distance, before she too felt her body depixelize.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jérémie watched in utter horror as William's ID card begin fading from the screen, with Yumi's quickly following.
The screen was showing a massive Blok Wall guarding the tower—the source of those concerning readings he was getting. With one shot, it was able to devirtualize, not one, but two Lyokowarriors.
He had to warn the other two. They were nearing the tower right now, which meant they were in danger.
"Ulrich, Aelita! Red alert: Yumi and William just got pulverized! Take cover! NOW!"
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The moment he said this, the two people he was warning had arrived at their destination. Ulrich halted the Overbike, he and Aelita staring on at this thing in amazement.
The Blok Wall didn't give them any time. The center Blok charged up its laser and fired at them.
Fortunately, it only hit the Overbike, as Ulrich and Aelita quickly jumped out of the way.
Now each hiding behind a rock, the pink-ette peered out to look at their enemy. "I've never seen anything like this. Jérémie, what do we do?"
Jérémie was quiet. "For now, just take cover and don't engage. I'll find a way to destroy it." He then muttered, "Somehow."
It seemed that he didn't know what to do either.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jérémie did not know how to handle this. The best he could do in this situation was to find that thing's weakness and how to exploit it long enough, at least, for Aelita to enter the tower.
The call window reappeared on the screen. It was Odd, again. "Odd, you better have good news," he said, as he typed in commands to view the Blok Wall's schematics, as shown on the holomap, a little closer.
"Is 'I'm on my way' good enough?" Odd asked. In the background, Jérémie could hear his friend riding his skateboard.
Relieved, Jérémie decided to humor him, "Yes, it is. But you better hurry. There's a wall of Bloks guarding the tower and the others could really use your help."
"I'm going as fast as I can."
Odd then hung up, just as the elevator doors opened. Jérémie did not glance away from his screen even once as Yumi and William joined him at the monitor, both looking exhausted.
"You two okay?" he couldn't help but ask.
"We just got devirtualized by one-hundred-twenty-one Bloks all combining their respective power into a single laser," William quipped. "What do you think?" Yumi was leaning against the holomap projector, rubbing her shoulder.
The question was rhetorical (apparently, they were feeling the effects still), so Jérémie didn't respond. Instead, he turned his attention back to the two on Lyoko.
"Ulrich, Aelita, I'm back to you two. How's it going?"
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Aelita was emerging from her cover as her boyfriend asked that question. She threw about five Energy Fields at the Blok Wall, none of which did any damage, to cover her dash towards Ulrich's cover.
Once she was safely ducked behind that rock with him, Ulrich responded to Jérémie's inquiry, "The wall seems to be indestructible. I don't think we're going to make it to the tower."
"What if I use my wings and fly over it?" Aelita suggested.
"You may not be fast enough to make it over," the samurai remarked. "And out of us two, only you can deactivate the tower, so that's a chance we can't risk taking."
Fair point, even if Aelita didn't like it, which she emphasized by pouting.
"Jérémie, find a solution. And fast," Ulrich urged.
"You want to trade places?! What do you think I've been doing these past couple minutes?!"
The Blok Wall began charging up another shot in the middle of his sentence and caught the two off-guard by destroying their rock cover.
As they recovered, they heard Jérémie say, "Aelita, you gave yourself access to real force fields. Protect yourselves with them!"
He was right, was her first thought, so get up. As she got back to her feet, the Bloks within the wall all turned one face to their collective left—likely their way of re-orienting themselves the way a single Blok often did.
They were ready for another shot, but so was she. Ulrich stood behind her, as she formed a force field made from the same energy as her Energy Fields. The Wall fired—from its right side this time—and the blast hit her shield dead on. It forced her back, but Ulrich was right behind her to make sure the pink-ette didn't fly back.
Her force field eventually absorbed the entirety of the Bloks' shot, and as her shield disappeared due to her exhaustion, Ulrich cheered, "Nice one, Aelita! It worked! We can inch forward if we pace ourselves."
But the pink-ette found herself falling to her knees. Absorbing that shot took a lot out of her.
However, Ulrich quickly caught her before she hit the ground.
As the Bloks all rotated to the next face, Jérémie warned, "Don't get too close to it. No matter what you try, it's still too risky."
Ulrich ignored that warning, of course, in favor of encouragement, "C'mon, Aelita, you can do it."
Both of them were right, but she chose to listen to Ulrich. She had to get to that tower before XANA (whether it was using short-circuits or not) killed anyone.
So she forced herself to form another force field through her exhaustion, letting Ulrich support her from behind. The two of them then inched forward as the Wall charged up yet another laser, this time firing from the middle.
This one bounced off of her shield and hit the rock-face to their upper right.
As she de-summoned her shield, Ulrich told her, "Good job, Aelita. We can do this."
But the rock-face that just got hit began to crumble. Oops.
"I told you not to get too close to it!" was Jérémie's only warning.
The two tried to run away, but it fell and crushed them both anyway.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The screen was reading four out of six ID cards on cooldown. The only ones who would be permitted to virtualize right now were Odd and Jérémie.
William was fuming. "I can't believe it. It's so embarrassing, being snared like–"
"Like rookies, yeah." So was Ulrich.
Yumi just rolled her eyes in amusement at the two, she and Aelita both standing next to the monitor.
Aelita, meanwhile, was focused on Jérémie. "Sorry." She had promised she wouldn't do anything to get devirtualized earlier, so he wouldn't be forced to go to Lyoko.
"It's alright." Her boyfriend was staring intently at his screens, on which was a schematic of the Blok Wall. "But I refuse to step foot on Lyoko without Odd."
Aelita nodded at the fair point he just made. The Scyphozoa was likely waiting for him, after all.
"Where is Odd anyway?" Yumi asked.
"He said he was on his way," Jérémie replied, typing away as he tried to find a chink in the Blok Wall's armor.
It had to have some sort of weakness. The Kolossus did, so why not this thing too?
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Odd was traveling through the sewers on his skateboard when he got a call on his phone. He stopped, expecting Jérémie and thus ready to explain that he was on his way, only for his train of thought to derail once he heard Sam's voice instead.
"Odd?" A pause. "Odd, are you there?"
"Oh, yeah. Of course. What's up?" he asked. What did she want?
"I need to tell you something. You remember the time I kept your friend's message from you?" she asked, surprising him. "I'm sorry I didn't keep my promise to him; I should have. I just wanted to spend as much time with you before I had to leave." That's what she wanted to talk about? He had forgiven her a long time ago. "I'm sorry. I don't want you disappointed in me like that again, so I won't let it happen a second time. Go on and do whatever you need to do."
"Sam, it's okay." It really was. "I don't blame you for that day at all. If it wasn't something that was super important, I would have stayed." Truth. He only left her because he knew that Lyoko being destroyed would put the entire world in danger. "But you're enrolled at Kadic now, so we don't have to worry about it."
"But you had to go somewhere. Again. Leaving me without a hint as to what you're doing or where you're going."
He didn't blame her for being upset. He was only dragged into Lyoko because Ulrich had decided to use Kiwi as a test subject. What if Ulrich's phone didn't go off, and thus waking Odd up that night? What if he was never involved with Lyoko but Ulrich remained his roommate? He, for sure, would be curious as to what Ulrich was up to, and why Jérémie had anything to do with it. If all of that was the case, he'd be just as upset as Sam was now.
"I'm the one who's sorry," he confessed. "I can't tell you where I'm going or what I'm doing. It's a secret that I promised a very dear friend of mine I'd keep."
"And you can't tell me? You know I can keep a secret," she replied. "I promise I won't tell anyone."
"I can't."
"Why not?!"
"Because the entire world is at stake, so I can't mess up even once!" he let himself reveal. His voice now soft, he continued, "Sam, what I'm doing requires me to risk my life, but I really do like you. So I can't ask you to risk your life too. There's no way I'd be able to live with myself if I did and something happened to you as a result. Just...don't give up on me, please. When all of this is over, I'll explain everything to you. I promise."
She was quiet, making him worry about screwing up by saying something she didn't like. But her response relieved him, "I'll hold you to that, but that promise requires me to forbid you from dying. You understand me?"
He smiled, "Yes, ma'am."
"I'll be waiting for you, keeping people from coming into contact with the electrical sockets," she reassured him. "Good luck."
He could only nod, speechless, before hanging up.
Hope now filling his entire being, he slipped his phone back into his pocket, before continuing his trek on his skateboard to the factory.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The moment the elevator doors open, releasing Odd out into the lab, he was immediately met with five relieved faces.
"Odd, you made it!" Aelita exclaimed. "Thank goodness! We were worried something had happened to you!"
"Yes, I'm here," he replied. "Please, hold your applause. I haven't done anything yet. I just got here."
He was surprised that Aelita, at least, wasn't on Lyoko. Jérémie getting out of his chair and handing the controls over to her in that moment, though, told him everything.
Aelita had gotten devirtualized, which meant Jérémie was heading to Lyoko in her place.
He had to ask, however, "What is XANA protecting its tower with that you four are all devirtualized so quickly?" His curiosity was too strong.
Jérémie was the one who answered, as he joined Odd in the elevator, "I'll explain on the way to the scanners."
It could've just been his imagination, but as he pressed the down button to close the doors, Odd thought he saw William and Ulrich both ducking their heads with embarrassment.
Only when the elevator doors shut and the lift began descending did Jérémie start talking, "The tower is being guarded by a massive wall of Bloks. Since it's one-hundred-twenty-one Bloks all combining their power, its laser can take you out in one hit."
"One hit?!" Odd exclaimed. A Blok Wall? XANA had never tried that before. "That makes it just as bad as the Kolossus!" The same monster that had destroyed the Skid in one swipe of its arm...on second thought, maybe the Kolossus was still worse.
"Exactly, so be careful," Jérémie warned. "XANA will want you devirtualized as quickly as possible, so please do not go in guns blazing." He sounded as if that's what had happened to the others.
"I won't. I promise." And he planned on keeping that promise. Sam was still in danger from those short-circuits at school, after all. Deactivating the tower was the only definite way to ensure her safety. "But please tell me that you have a plan."
"I do," came Jérémie's reassuring response, as the elevator let them off into the scanner room. "While we were waiting for you, I managed to find its weak spot. However, I'll need a closer look to pinpoint its exact location."
The two crossed the room and each got into a scanner.
"So protect you while you find the Blok Wall's weak spot. Got it."
"That's pretty much it," Jérémie replied. "We're ready, Aelita."
"Okay. Transfer Jérémie." His scanner doors shut. "Transfer Odd." As did his, sealing them both inside. "Scanner Jérémie, scanner Odd." A gust of wind began hitting him as the white circular bar began spiraling upward. "Virtualization!"
One final rush of wind from below and Odd felt his body pixelize.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
His and Jérémie's bodies reformed in mid-air before dropping to the ground of the Desert Sector.
This was Odd's first time seeing Jérémie's upgraded avatar in person, and honestly, Odd was both impressed with how much better it looked and disappointed that he could no longer make fun of it.
Oh well. At least he still had those elf ears.
"I'll keep an eye out for the Scyphozoa," Aelita told the two, as the Overboard appeared in front of them. "You two just focus on the Blok Wall."
"Right," Jérémie replied, as he activated his visor, before he and Odd both hopped onto the vehicle. "In the meantime, Odd, you and I have work to do."
"Cool glasses," Odd said. He meant it. He was a little jealous, honestly.
"Thanks, but this is not a pair of glasses," Jérémie explained. "It's a kinetic scanner that allows me to detect, scan, and analyze monsters, towers, and terrain from afar. Now let's get going. Fly over the canyon, but don't get too close to the tower."
"Roger that, Einstein."
The cat then took off, ascending to the top of the canyon. There he could see the top of the tower, as well as its red halo. He couldn't see this wall of Bloks yet, but he had a feeling that he would very soon.
When they were about five meters away from the tower, Aelita called out, "You're approaching the Blok Wall now."
"That's our cue," Jérémie told Odd, before hopping off the Overboard. Odd chose to listen to his friend's advice from earlier and followed suit. Once both pairs of feet were firmly planted on the ground, the blonde in blue continued, "From now on, we continue on foot and stay hidden."
Right. No guns blazing or charge of victory or death. Odd cracked his knuckles, "Got it. It's stealth time. Yumi taught me how to go into ninja mode, you know."
"In that case, I believe the appropriate term is 'Master Ishiyama'," Jérémie quipped back, as Odd leapt towards a nearby rock and peered around it with a watchful as the blue blonde joined him.
"Ha ha," Yumi sarcastically shot back in jest.
The cat turned to the elf, "Can your visor see anything from here?"
Jérémie shook his head, "No. I need to get closer."
Odd got down on his hands and knees and began sneakily crawling up to the edge of the cliff, with Jérémie following and dropping down onto his stomach next to his friend. Said friend immediately marveling at the sight in front of them.
Sure enough, there was a wall of Bloks, about one-hundred-twenty-one of them.
"Whoa..." he murmured. "Quite a Blok party we have here."
Jérémie's visor was already getting to work. As it scanned the wall and subsequently sent data back to the boy, the wall began to rotate to the next side.
"It looks like the departures board in a train station," the cat commented on the rotating, his voice low. "Next thing you know, it'll give us train timetables. 'The train from Lyoko and leaving for Kadic is about to depart. Please, for your own safety, step back from the edge of the platform'."
"Now's not the time for jokes, Odd," Aelita softly cut in. "Focus."
"She's right," Jérémie replied. "Now, the wall behaves like a closed circuit, which is a circuit without interruption, providing a continuous path through which a current can flow."
"Meaning?"
"In the context of our friends here, it means that the wall is composed of 'slave' Bloks all taking orders from a 'master' Blok," Jérémie explained. "Destroy the 'master' Blok, and the whole wall will be destroyed."
"So where's the master one?" Odd asked.
"That's what I still need to find out," the blonde in blue admitted.
Odd immediately asked, "You sure you'll find it? They won't stop spinning, so the location of the 'master' Blok could change, and they all look the same."
"They're not all the same," Jérémie replied. "According to my research, one of them has to be different, because that's the only way XANA is able to get the wall to stay standing, much less actually work. Basically, this will be a high-stakes version of those 'spot the differences' puzzles."
"I hate that game," Odd sighed.
Jérémie just smiled, "It's a good thing I'm the one with the kinetic scanner, then. You just don't have the patience for those kinds of games."
Odd couldn't deny that, so he didn't. He just relented to waiting until Jérémie found the 'master' Blok, so he himself could shoot it and clear the passage.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The four teens inside the lab were all gathered around the screen, intently watching, unable to get rid of the tension in the air. Things appeared to be at a stand-still—Jérémie and Odd were not attacking the Blok Wall (yet) but XANA hadn't yet attacked them with anything (electricity or otherwise) either.
"It's too quiet, don't you think?" William asked the others. "I mean, I expected Squid Breath, at least, to show up by now."
The Scyphozoa, he meant. He clearly gave it a nickname in order to avoid naming his fear.
"It's probably because XANA wants to wait until Odd is either preoccupied with the Blok Wall," Aelita explained, "or devirtualized by it."
"Right," Ulrich agreed. "And we know the wall won't fire at Jérémie, because XANA needs him on Lyoko."
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
"Don't worry," Odd reassured his friends, having heard their conversation. He was glancing behind him every few seconds to make sure they weren't about to be ambushed. "I'm keeping an eye out."
"So am I," Aelita added. "And the holomap currently says 'all clear'." And she would tell them if any monster's suddenly appeared.
There was a brief pause, until Jérémie broke it, "I got it." He moved from his stomach to his knees. "It's the sixth row from the top and the seventh one in from our left." Odd squinted his eyes. "You see it?"
Six down, seven across. Sure enough, there was a Blok there that somehow had a slightly wider eye and more cracks around said eye than the others around it. Now that he saw it, it was obviously different than the others.
"Yeah." He summoned his right gauntlet, as he also hopped onto his knees. "Now, how do I tackle this?"
"What kind of question is that?" Jérémie asked. "Do what you always do. Shoot the 'master' Blok, like any normal monster. You take it out, the entire wall falls."
"Easy for you to say," Odd muttered as he took aim.
He fired a few Arrows, but all of them unfortunately missed. He growled as the Bloks all began rotating to their collective right this time, in order to get a better lock on Odd.
"Odd, use the Overboard!" Jérémie called out, right before the wall shot at the cliff-face right below his purple friend.
Odd barely managed to dodge the shot, so it fortunately only hit the cliff side. He glanced back at the Overboard, which seemed to immediately understand, as it began flying towards its usual pilot. The cat summoned his left gauntlet as the wall charged up another shot. It fired, but Odd leapt up into the air to avoid it, before landing on his Overboard.
Meanwhile, Jérémie was watching this go down when his visor indicated a monster approaching him from behind. At the same time, Aelita, sounding panicked, told him, "Jérémie, behind you!"
Sure enough, it was the Scyphozoa. Jérémie immediately waved a hand on the bracelet on his left wrist, summoning a pair of technological-looking cyan-colored wings. He promptly took off far up into the air before any tentacles could reach him or that magnetic field could paralyze him.
He just had to hang in there until Odd took out the Blok Wall.
Odd took aim at the 'master' Blok once more, firing a few more Arrows at the one Jérémie had pointed out. They, fortunately, hit their intended target this time, making the Blok explode. Now with a piece missing, the other Bloks began to faded away one by one, until the last one was gone, resulting in a large explosion to signal the wall's defeat.
"Yes!" he heard cheers from the lab.
"Nice one, Odd!" William exclaimed.
Odd then steered the Overboard back in the direction of the cliff-face, before ramming the vehicle in the Scyphozoa's bulbous head. This resulted in the Overboard's destruction (for now), but it also forced the creature to retreat.
The cat then turned back to Jérémie, who was slowly lowering himself to the ground, "The passage is clear, Einstein."
Jérémie sent Odd a grateful and proud smile, before flying over to the tower and deactivating his wings, making him drop to the ground right in front of the base. Odd watched as the blue elf phased through the tower wall, and he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Back inside the lab, some of the cables began to spark with a dangerous amount of electricity. They finally got confirmation of XANA's attack when all those volts began to take on a life of their own, forming a giant electric ball.
Just like the very first attack the group had encountered, and very likely just as dangerous as well.
JEREMIE_
CODE_
LYOKO_
Before it could attack anyone, though, it disappeared, no longer able to sustain itself without a tower to control it.
The four all breathed sighs of relief.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
No Return to the Past was launched. Despite the concerning amount of short-circuits the school had experienced, Mr. Delmas had handled the situation calmly and the electrician he called would still be coming by tomorrow (and would find nothing). Besides, no one got hurt; Hervé was the only one who got shocked (and his incident would be later ruled as a one-off thing).
Odd had also advised against it, before revealing what had gone down between him and Sam, as well as his promise to tell her about Lyoko and XANA once the fight was over. The others were a little mad about this promise at first, before they remembered Sissi and chose to let it go, and trust Odd to know what not to share.
Said Italian boy, once the group returned to Kadic, had spent the rest of the day showing Sam around Kadic, giving her the proper tour. His friends, meanwhile, had stayed in the courtyard, watching him excitedly point out all the mundane details about their school, knowing full well that it was Sam he was excited about.
That didn't stop them from being amused, though.
Eventually, Sam had to leave for home, and Odd had walked her to the front gate, and the two said their goodbyes before promising to see each other tomorrow. She then left, and Odd returned to his friends.
"I take it the tour went well," William said, as he sat down on the bench.
"It did," Odd sighed, this time out of affection. "And tomorrow will be just as magical, I can feel it."
"I'm glad today went well for you, Odd," Aelita admitted. "You and Sam really connect."
"We do, don't we? I think it's because we're so alike," he explained. "Like two peas in a pod." He then noticed the amused smirk on Ulrich's face, which the German boy was trying to hide and failing miserably. "What's up, good buddy?"
"Oh, nothing," Ulrich remained calm and nonchalant. "I was just thinking about your challenge. Y'know, the one where you dared me to find something embarrassing about you in the love category, like the gym attack for Jérémie and Aelita."
"Or the pool attack for you and Yumi," Aelita snapped back with a reddened face, an expression that Jérémie was also wearing.
"Sorry," Ulrich offered, before turning back to his roommate. "I just wanted to warn you that I'm actually getting really close to finding something."
"Why? Nothing's changed for me, good buddy." Odd was so confident that he forgot all about who he just got done showing around the school.
"You sure about that, Odd?" Yumi asked.
Confused, he replied, "Yeah. Why? What are you guys thinking of?"
"We're not thinking of it," Jérémie cut in, with a smile, "but you are."
"Sam, perhaps?" Aelita offered.
Odd's face immediately turned red. But instead of fighting it, he quickly relented, "Fine. I appreciate the warning, Ulrich." He could not deny how much he liked Sam, so he had chosen not to a long time ago.
The mood was interrupted by an alarm coming from Jérémie's bag. The group was on edge as the genius pulled out his laptop and opened it. "Relax, guys. It's not XANA," he reassured them.
They all double-checked their transwatches, and sure enough, the superscan was dead quiet.
He continued, "The calculations I ran this morning are complete."
Aelita leaned over to read the screen, "What are the results?"
He let her read them, as he explained to the others, "My patch for the holomap is done. Within two hours, we'll officially be able to predict the Cortex's geographical changes with little trouble."
"So we're going back to the Cortex soon?" Odd asked, excitement filling his entire being.
"Yes," Jérémie replied. "And this time, I'm going with you."
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~E~V~O~L~U~T~I~O~N~~~!
Inspiration: CLE's "Countdown"
Up next: Episode 7, Suspicions - "Special circumstances force Jérémie to stay virtualized overnight, but it's not as bad as it sounds. In fact, he meant for it to happen that way."
A/N: Chapter Meaning: refers to the timer Jérémie sets up in the first scene, though it could also refer to the Blok Wall taking the group out one-by-one
-The tower is the same one (or rather a copy of) the tower XANA uses in 'Hard Luck' to control the materialized Kankrelats.
-Also, why only use the kinetic scanner once (as Odd did in Evo)? Why not give it to the one who'd use it to its full potential (aka: Jérémie)?
-As for Jérémie's wings, think of DA's whiskii's old version of his Lyoko form or DA's nelbsia's Overpowered Jérémie. Something along those lines.
~Evolution concepts~
Samantha Knight and Samantha Suares have been confirmed to not be the same person. Differences between them, other than appearance, include financial status, personality, hobbies, and attitude towards Odd, with their only similarity being their rebellious streak, or at least bad grades, due to both versions of Samantha moving schools in both shows. Rather, Suares is an adaptation of Knight, due to the uncommonality for a main or secondary character to have dark skin in French live action media. Regardless, them being different characters just proves my theory that Evolution, like Chronicles, takes place in an alternate universe to the animated show. It's the reason why, in this story, I've made them separate characters. I've also chosen to bring Samantha Knight back because I want to explore her and Odd's dynamic more, and why he acts so differently around her as opposed to other girls he's dated or expressed interest in.
As for the Evo version of the episode, 'Countdown' actually holds up pretty well; I don't really have any complaints about it, other than the dullness of the characters. It begins with Jérémie and Aelita discussing Tyron (in Evo's case, it's a video of him with Franz Hopper; in this story's case, it's a question of when they'll return to the Cortex). Then it moves to the episode's main plot: Odd finding out about Sam transferring to Kadic, and he then spends the rest of the episode catching up with her (in this story's case, it's a continuation of the plot thread I set up in the "Rivalry" chapter about Odd's love life). In the midst of this, XANA attacks and decides to experiment with the Blok Wall (which mainly stays the same in both versions), and Odd has to leave Sam in order to help clear the passage to the tower. In this story, however, the characters are given more emotional depth and the Odd/Sam situation also tackles what happened between them in "Final Round". In Evolution, their relationship is constantly being strained due to Odd needed to take care of XANA combined with his inability to tell her the truth about why he's ditching her. In this story, I've allowed him to bend the rules a bit, with him admitting to Sam that he can't tell her the truth, or at least all of it, but promises to once it's all over. Then it ends with the focus back on Tyron and/or the Cortex, except this story uses that scene mainly to set up the next chapter, which will be an important one.
Speaking of that last scene, when watching the clip with the others, Aelita at first claims not to know who Tyron is, which makes sense. She had no idea what her father was up to when he was building the supercomputer, as evidenced in 'The Key' (or anything about Project: Carthage at the time). But then at the end, she's the one who reveals Tyron's name, contradicting her earlier stance. Both of these points are why I had Jérémie reveal Tyron's name in the "Old Acquaintance" chapter; it just made a lot more sense for him to know that name through Franz Hopper's diary, given how the man logged everything about Lyoko and its creation in it, as opposed to Aelita knowing it from memory somehow.