To the readers
I'm returning from hiatus!
Sorry for blowing my self-imposed deadline. It's a combination of episodes getting longer or more detailed and me spending less time. It's a constant struggle to fit working on this into my schedule. Or just spending the time I assigned for this in my schedule for working on this story for other activities.
All the prep work I did in between my initial episodes and my last post still applies. I've found I'm constantly referring to it so It's not like I'm reviewing the entire project again.
I've learned to stop justifying skipping the time on it. If it's in my schedule, I should be working on it during that time.
I'm still committed to finishing the story and I'm happy to see the community is still alive. Shout out to "High on Life" for the Code Lyoko reference. It shows that the people who loved this show are now creating projects in the industry.
I appreciate any comments on the story.
Notes
[] are used to indicate stage directions
All dialogue follows a "Speaker: dialogue" format
{} are used for author comments.
Episode 19: Let'5 Pl4y: Th3 Ch4mpi0n 0f th3 v1rtu4l w0r1d (Let's Play: The champion of the virtual world)
[In the virtual sea, a looming shape appears. It's a blocky vehicle with engines attached at the corners spewing green flames. It approaches the floodgate on the virtual world. A laser connects with the eye on the lock, and it opens. The ship enters. Then another, and another. They all float up out of the digital sea and heaven ward toward the desert sector above. Then, they all split off, docking at separate towers.
Ninjas disembark from each ship and march to the outer edge of the desert sector. One that has a different avatar from the rest walks forward.
They have the same as the green body skin suit design of the other ninjas, but with slight modifications. The black green of her main body grew into clothing. The upper body had a vest with a collar that surrounded her neck. Long sleeves and pants that ended in a V above the wrists and ankles in white trim. The arrow designs ran down the sides of her legs from her torso and merged with the trim on the ends of the pants. The white arrow on her chest ran up onto her neck and face ending on her chin pointing at her mouth.
Unlike other ninjas, she had a face although not much of one. The eyes were featureless white marbles, forest green hair in a crew cut, swept back and shaved along the sides, and face paint of small cursor like arrows with feathered edges at the corners of her eyes pointing toward her ears.
Once they reach the edge of the sector, a screen appears in front of them.
"Welcome to Carthage"
[Opening Theme plays]
[Back in the real world.
A technician looks up from his station to the back of the room. There are three rows of monitors before a giant screen in the center front of the room.
At the back of the room was Tyron, a balding man in a black suit. By his side was a woman with pink hair. There are guards with guns by the doors on either corner.]
{Unless otherwise specified assume people from the Deckard faction speak English.}
Deck Hand 1: Professor, they need a password to reach the core sector.
Tyron: Begin the decryption then, not talk.
Deck Hand 1: Uh, but –
Tyron: Are you speaking back to me?!
Deck Hand 1: [The technician gives an exacerbated look to his buddy on monitor next to him. Mouths] "What am I supposed to do?"
[The woman with pink hair sweeps in and looks at Deck Hand 1's screen. She looks to be in her 40s, had faded pink hair held back by a headband, a white lab coat, and a locket on a cord around her neck.]
Anthea: Let me look. "Welcome to Carthage." The first general. No, the roman senator? Six letters. Fabian?
Deck Hand 1: Incorrect.
Anthea: Scipio?
Deck Hand 1: …Correct mam.
[The ninjas wait at the edge of the desert as a transporter sphere flies at them from the horizon, scoops them up and quickly retreats to the point on the horizon where the wires interwoven into the plateaus converge and the space and sky fade to white. The sphere sets down and releases the abnormal ninja and three others into the arena. The abnormal ninja takes charge, waiting for the rotating door to come to halt, the slit to lower and finally, the operation can begin.]
Tyron: How did you know?
Anthea: He loves his history references.
[The transporter drops off four more ninjas. There is already a crowd in the arena. Two ninjas hold position in the center of the arena, while the rest march toward the light.]
[Show the outside of the Beaugrenelle mall. It's three separate buildings Its right next to the riverbank. Footbridges connect the buildings. One of the buildings is constructed of stacked rings of floors. Aelita and Yumi step off the tram. They lock eyes with Sissi on the sidewalk.
Aelita: We're finally doing this.
Yumi: Yep.
Sissi: All right, before the day begins. Fork 'em over.
[Yumi and Aelita look confused at her?]
Sissi: Your phones. How many times have you guys ran off after one of the boys called? If we're going to enjoy our day off, we're going to do it right.
Aelita: Eh, nono. We can't-
Yumi: [yanks the phone out of Aelita's hand] We can't be on the job every day. It's like what Jim says, "If you want to relax you need to work hard to not work hard."
Aelita: That sounds like something he would say, but … fine. [relents.] What are the chances that today is the day everything goes wrong.
Sissi: Great. [looks at Yumi's phone] Really? Nokia?
Yumi: It does what I need it to.
Sissi: Yeah I drop mine too. Oh one more thing. [They all start walking toward the mall] I invited someone last minute. Shouldn't be a big deal. Don't freak out.
Aelita: What do you…oh.
[They see Laura.]
Laura: Hi, I'm here I guess.
Aelita: …
[They all follow Sissi.]
[In the gym, there's Ulrich and William sparring on a gym mat. Ulrich is parrying William's punches, transitions into an arm grab, and performs a takedown on William sending him to the floor.]
Jim: My idea for the mixed martial arts program was pretty clever. No need for one small group for Silat or one for karate. It's one big wet ball of physical prowess sharping their skills against each other.
Millie: You mean whetstone?
[Hiroki, Johnny, Millie are there watching.
William is backing up. Ulrich, ambitious to continue the match, continues into another kick.
Jim: Stop, hold. Now tell me. What did William do wrong?
William: Aren't you supposed to ask, "what did they do wrong"?
Millie: [pauses recording the match on her phone] well yeah, but you are newbie here.
Hiroki: Oh oh. He kept dropping his guard.
Johnny: And he needs to lean back more when he throws out a kick.
Hiroki: Stop repeating the same attacks.
Millie: Switch your stance more.
William: Can I get some constructive criticism?
Ulrich: [smirk] You can take a hit very well.
William: [sarcasm] Thank you.
Millie: Come on. come on. We need to see how it ends.
Hiroki: Show us how it's done seniors.
[At the Kadic rec room, strange noises can be heard. Strange enough, Odd is singing. Diva is playing on her guitar. They are playing Garage Band on the TV. Diva has a perfect note streak and Odd has the "Dynamic Range" medal with 25% notes correct.]
[Odd hands her the microphone.]
Odd: Your turn.
Diva: If I'm singing, then I'll pick an English one.
[Selects "Getting Stronger" by Michelle Creber.]
[As the music ramps up, Odd starts playing on Diva's electric guitar.]
Odd: So, this thing is an electric guitar, a speaker, and works as a controller?
Diva: Yep, custom made.
Odd: That is so cool. And pointless!
Diva: [grin and double finger guns] That's what makes it a flex.
Odd: You know I was a bit iffy on hanging out after the rap, but you make a better second impression.
Diva: Yeah, I guess it was a bit cringe. I just wanted to do what I thought would work. Even if failed, I would have fun doing it.
Odd: …Want to go to a concert sometime?
Diva: Are you sure you should be asking me that?
Odd: Huh?
[Diva can't answer because the lyrics kick in just then.]
[Pan over to Odd's phone ringing.]
[The lyrics for "Getting Stronger" are playing in the background]
[The ninjas are in an interconnecting bridge room. Four bridges that meet in the middle with four doors, one on each wall.
The abnormal ninja runs into the opposing wall. She doesn't pause as the corridor turns and runs straight through the wall.
The ninjas choose the right path at the 4-way intersection, one scoring a slash in the ground as they run.
They silently bunch up at the end of the tunnel before the next room. One gives a hand signal to advance.]
PHLEW
[The first one to enter goes flying backward.
They silently retreat down the tunnel to the intersection as lasers impact the inside of tunnel
As slithering sounds behind them as lasers fly at their backs.
Anthea is looking over the shoulder of the deck hands.
Anthea: There's a countdown. It must be a lockout mechanism. There's some type of key you must activate before the timer is up.
Deck hand 1: There. They need to be in this room.
Deck hand 2: At the intersection, take a right, a left, then another right, then straight for two rooms and you should arrive.
The ninjas are sprinting over an open room with giant pillars falling from the ceiling smashing into the floor and rising back up. Shadowy indentations pepper the sides of the walls.
Their goal is the doorway on the other side.
Creepers emerge from the crevices. Their look is half-organic snake head with a laser inside their mouth, half-mechanical snake tail with shriveled spindled arms pushing it along the floor.
The ninjas clash but keep moving forward. Between the ninja sword flashing, the creeper death explosions, a small group of the ninjas manages to make it into the room.
They see the key on a pedestal. In the middle of a giant pit and out of reach of any of them.]
[Jeremy is at his IT job at a help desk station. His boss walks up.]
Mr. Bisset: Sorry to make you manage the support phone line on your day off.
Jeremy: That's fine. I came here because I like it here.
Mr. Bisset: [grins] You're already hired, no need for flattery.
[Jeremy phone pings and he gets the same notification on his computer a second later.]
Jeremy: That's not right. Oh, you little sneak. How are you there?
[Jeremy brings up William's number on his phone.
Just then, Jeremy's work computer starts ringing with a customer number.]
Mr. Bisset: Um, are you going to do your job?
[Jeremy sighs, puts down his phone and answers the call on his work computer with a forced smile on his face.]
Jeremy: Hi, this is Jeremy. How may I help you?
[The ninjas are making attempts to reach the key in the center of the room. Below them is a giant pit with mists from which grow lone skinny poles with small pedestals on them creating pathways to the key the ninjas can jump between.
Another ninja falls off into the mists below as a curved metal strut rushes out of a hole in the wall, slammed into a ninja who rested too long on one of the platforms before it disappeared into a square hole on the far wall. These holes were in both side walls and ceiling.
Just as another green avatar jumped to a pedestal right before the key, another curved slice of Carthage metal fell from above and grazed it on the side, sending its course just enough off to miss the disc and flair as it swallowed into the mists.
There are two ninjas back at a shallow ledge hugging the door holding the entrance and blocking shots from the creepers in the hallway.
Which doesn't help much as more creepers are virtualized onto the skinny poles and not only stop the ninjas from jumping to them but start shooting them off.
Two ninjas are close to the key. One jumps to the next tall pole, instantly blocks an attack by the creepers. Relaxing its dual swords, it instantly gets splattered by a passing curved metal partition of Carthage.
While that was going on, the final ninja in the challenge lands on the key platform. The creeper right next to it growls and fires. The ninjas ducks around the pedestal with the key on it and stabs it in the side. It stands up to put its hand on the key-
Just for a laser from the doorway that the two guarding ninjas missed nails him into the back sending him tumbling head over heels into the pit.]
[William's phone is ringing. In the background, Jim is having the other martial art group students perform kicking practice against foam targets their partners are holding up. William notices and walks over. Ulrich puts down the target he was holding for William.]
William: What's up, XANA attack?
Jeremy: Someone is in Carthage.
William: Could it be one of us?
Jeremy: No, I'm checking the GPS of everyone's phones. Odd is at school and Aelita and Yumi are downtown.
William: Ulrich is here with me so that can only mean...
Jeremy: It's Tyron. He somehow made a virtual ship so he could travel to Lyoko.
Ulrich: He shouldn't be able to access the digital sea. That was the whole point of infecting his computer.
Jeremy: Well, whatever the case, you need to get over there, pronto. The data flow into Lyoko's port to the network is too much for my security program to process instantaneously-
William: So, they've probably been there for a while already…
Ulrich: …Meaning we need to stop them as soon as possible.
Jeremy: You guys ARE getting better at this.
Aelita is interested in getting some recording equipment for making music.
Aelita: Do you think I should get a record player?
Yumi: What? I dunno. Do you want one?
Aelita: I'm not sure. I just got kind of a fondness for playing records all of a sudden.
Yumi: Then get it.
Aelita: I'd feel guilty. Anything I spent isn't really my money.
Yumi: Then I'll get it for you. My treat.
Aelita: What do you want?
Yumi: I'll tell you if I see something.
[Yumi notices Aelita looking at something. Aelita is glaring over at Laura who Sissi is trying to get to try on some clothes that aren't Emerald colored or business attire.]
Yumi: hey. None of that.
Aelita: What?
Yumi: You're upset with her for something she doesn't even remember doing.
Aelita: And I'm just supposed to forget the trouble she caused?
Yumi: No. But think about how she would feel if it constantly felt like we punished her for some reason. Eventually she would resent us, and we'd be enemies for something that never happened.
Yumi: Does that remind you of anyone.
Aelita: She nearly got William… you know.
Yumi: And I am trying to be the better person by forgiving that version of her.
Aelita: How difficult-
Yumi: [Immediately] It's hard. She aggravates the soul.
Aelita: So, kind of like reverse chicken soup?
Yumi: So rather than creating a self-fulfilling prophecy, let's give the new her a chance.
[Sissi runs over and drags Aelita over to a rack.]
Sissi: You need to try this. Designer work
Aelita: Gucci?
Sissi: [amused] No no. VETTA, Boden, and ABLE. They go great together. But only with Zara.
Aelita: …Is this what you feel whenever me or Jeremy open our mouth?
Yumi: [smiling] Suffer as we have suffered.
[Ulrich and William are in the elevator in the factory]
Ulrich: How far have they gotten.
Jeremy: Yes, please wait for a moment. Your time is valuable to us. [hits the "hold" button on his work computer screen and turns back to his laptop.] Well, I thought they would be stuck on the face sectors.
William: But they're not?
[They step out into the computer lab. Ulrich sits in the seat and rotates it over next to the monitor hanging from the ceiling in the background while William talks with Jeremy.]
Jeremy: Yes, they are in Carthage, but they haven't gotten far.
[The Holomap pulls up as Ulrich wakes up the monitor.]
Ulrich: It looks like they are still in the labyrinth. They haven't reached the celestial dome yet.
William: No wait, one is close. How did they get there?
Jeremy: You remember all those traps XANA created in Carthage to devirtualize you guys in every painful way imaginable. Guess what's happening to the ninjas right now.
Ulrich: Jeremy, you are literally a god to me right now.
Jeremy: Took you guys long enough to realize it. I reenabled them, but only for those with unauthorized access. If the super scan picks up anyone, it alerts me. You need to stop them from reaching the terminal in the dome and stealing, whatever it is they want, and defend the skid. We can't fight back if we can't cross the digital sea.
William: I'll take that. They might have destroyed the elevator.
Jeremie: I'll walk you through the virtualization. Okay Ulrich it's like a delayed virtualization except…
[Cut to William and Ulrich being virtualized.]
[Ulrich and William are virtualized in the arena. The ninjas below them catch sight of them as their avatars load and prepare to attack. As soon as their avatars are fully formed…]
William: Blade Beam!
[He blasts one ninja and the other is taken out by a thrown saber from Ulrich. William lands and notices the extra-long tendrils growing along his sword, the tips glowing orange and withering away to half their length.]
Ulrich: Wait I thought it was called Heaven-
William: Dude, I'm shooting an energy beam out of my sword, I can call it whatever I want.
[Cut to the abnormal ninja exploring different rooms in Carthage. She takes a running jump before she phases through each wall. She comes into another intersection room with bridges like the one where she split from the main group, the room with balance beams sticking out of one wall of various sizes, a vast empty room with nothing in it, and then finally as she walks through a wall, she sticks out head out into the gap between the inner shell and outer shell of Carthage. There's a POV shot of her turning left and right to see the horizons of the shell. She's sliding down the wall towards the floor as she's doing this.]
[Back in the Deckard operations room.]
Anthea: Since you appeared in the center, it stands to reason they would place it furthest from there-
Tyron: -On the outside. Yes. Thank you for stating what I already guessed.
Deck hand 1: When did he guess-
Deck hand 2: Just go with it. Don't get his attention.
Anthea: Oberst Grand you'll have to trigger the key, which should create some way to cross.
[They're eating at Cojean restaurant in the panoramic room on the ground floor. It's the cylindrical building of the mall they saw from outside. Sun light streams down from the spiral stain glass set in the ceiling. Tiers of stores above on rings stacks above this level with the middle of the cylinder holding a spiral staircase to underground. The store they visited was on the upper floors looking down on this area before.]
Sissi: …it's dumb that they haven't gotten around to fix it. Actually, nothing has gotten repaired in years, the dorms are falling apart-
Aelita: The bathrooms don't have hot water half the time
Sissi: There hasn't been anything new since the track field and they stopped halfway through that.
Sissi: [to Yumi] At least you don't have to deal with it for much longer.
Yumi: Well maybe not.
Sissi: Where are you going for college?
Yumi: I'm not sure I want to go that route.
Laura: Does your family want you to go to college?
Yumi: No not as much as my other relatives.
Laura: What do you want?
Yumi: I don't know! Everything is just okay. Is wrong to like what I have?
Sissi: Well, what do you like to do?
Yumi: [nonchalant] I like to kick ass.
Sissi: So, you kick ass and wear black. You could be a...
Yumi: [half joking] I swear if you say ninja, you're getting a kabob down your shirt.
Sissi: I was going to say mercenary.
Laura: [chimes in] Or security? Military. Spec Ops.
Yumi: Why? What are you doing?
Sissi: Well, for the longest time I was destined to be a model or an idol, I mean, have you seen me? But now I think I'm going to be a doctor.
[Aelita and Yumi almost choke. Laura looks confused.]
Sissi: What I'm serious, I would be great. Whenever I show up people would know everything would be alright, I get to go to a bunch of fancy events, and the seven-figure salary doesn't hurt.
Yumi: [finishes wiping her mouth with her sleeve despite the stack of disposable napkins they got with their meal] And the 10 years of medical school?
Sissi: Well, I'm sure I could speed through it in half the time.
Sissi: [looks at Aelita and Laura] But enough about me. I never know anything about you guys.
Aelita: What's there to say?
Laura: What she said.
Sissi: Well, you came to Kadic for a reason. You both transferred in.
Laura: Needed to get away from my old school.
Aelita: Nothing left for me to where I came from.
Yumi: Do you ever think of going back?
Laura: Absolutely not. I hated that place.
Sissi: What school is France is that bad?
Laura: Try America.
[beat]
Laura: I heard your making a game.
Aelita: Yeah, but it's supposed to be a secret. Where did you hear?
Sissi: Oh, so she was asking about it while we were waiting. What is it?
Aelita: [sighs] We just have a couple of floating islands in sky. We let William help and he destroyed the entire thing. We had to start from scratch.
Sissi: Oh, so that's why you don't want anyone else in your group. You're afraid someone new would William it.
Aelita: Ehh close.
Laura: And what's next for you?
Aelita: I'm still exploring. I feel like I barely know anything. If I had to pick something… hmm music. Something with music. Where I'm always working with people.
[beat]
Laura: I should be leaving.
Sissi: Really? We thought we'd hit a couple more stores.
Laura: It's fine. This was … [searches for the right word] nice. I'm just not the biggest people person. You could say my social battery is dead… Bye.
[Odd is breathing heavy from his huge streak of notes. The song ends and he collapses on the couch. He notices his phone notifications and leaps on it. He clicks through the messages. Gets a "wowed" look on his face new ones keep popping up.]
Odd: Hey I uh, gotta go. Great playing with you. 'Again some other time.
Diva: Huh, but we just started-
[He scoots to the rec room door and opens it-
-and sees Sam further down the arcade walking toward the rec room. Odd slams the door shut.]
Diva: Uh weren't you leaving my dude.
Odd: Why couldn't she come at any other time?
Diva: Oh, ya talking about Sammy. Yeah, I invited her.
Odd: Why would you tell her?!
Diva: Didn't I tell you? Oops. Could have sworn I did. [derp face]
Odd: Sam can't see me hanging out with another girl. I just got out of the doghouse and if she jumps to conclusions, she'll think I'm cheating on her or get jealous.
Diva: If you thought that would happen why did you agree to hang out in the first place.
Odd: I thought it might happen, but I didn't think it would ACTUALLY happen to ME. Do you think I can squeeze through that window?
Diva: Sure, you're spelt enough.
Odd: [turns back from opening the window] …you're not pulling my leg, are you?
Diva: Noooooo. I respect you too much for that.
[The door opens and Sam steps in.]
Odd: …Hey.
Sam: Where are you off to? I just got here.
Odd: Uh.
Sam peaks past him and sees Diva. [gets a suspicious look on her face.]
Odd: Ohhhhhhh I know where this is going.
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