To the readers
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.
CONTINUE
[The elevator is descending toward the plateau with the red tower below.]
Ethan: Break it down for me.
Axel: So, you enter a virtual world.
Ethan: Check
Axel: Battle
Ethan: Ahuh.
Axel: And if you die in the game
Ethan: Life Points. Makes sense.
Axel: You just return to real life in the 3D printer thing.
Ethan: …You lost me. Are we bypassing some sort of killcheck?
Ai: NO! There are no consequences.
Ethan: Can I shoot you if you're wrong?
Ai: But, how… you'd be de- SURE!
[The elevator arrives at the tower platform. Three megatanks roll up to meet them.]
Ethan: OMG, a unique enemy. The humanoids and rainbow balls are so generic. [claps] Thank you XANA for the fun to kill monsters.
Axel: Ai, keep one busy while Obelisk and I each take one. Obelisk, my scout found out they only open their shell to fire, so you have to be ready to dodge and-
Ethan: I agreed to your plan. Let up, will you?
[Ethan takes a few shots at the megatank, but it just ignores the pings against its shell and tries to run him over. Ethan runs around it to get it off his trail. Ai is busy trying to outmaneuver the 3rd megatank and reach the tower, but it's accurately tracking her. Axel carefully walks to his target. It charges up its attack.]
Axel: One, Two, Three-
[It fires its laser grid. Axel blocks with the shaft of his halberd and gets pushed back to the edge of the plateau.]
Axel: Obelisk, I'm holding it. Break its laser grid. It might stun it.
[Ethan ignores him & is running away from his megatank which is currently trying to run him over.]
Axel: Of course, he ignores me.
[Axel attempts to push closer to the monster. The megatank charges its attack.]
Axel: 1. [It's charging.] 2 [It's charging.] 3.
[Pivots out of the way of the laser grid. It misses.]
Axel: …2 3
[He side steps the laser grid. He repeats this process and slowly makes his way closer. Just when he gets in range, he attempts a close range attack. The megatank closes and the attack hilariously clanks off it. The megatank charges up and fires. Axel fails to block and is knocked back, his suit sparking.
Axel LP: 45 - 5
BING
LP has dropped below 40%. Switch to phase 3.
[Back in the control room.
Despite The Boss's best efforts, she's too exhausted to continue. The golems both land a slash on her, the last one a wicked uppercut that left a deep cut on her face. She collapses.]
Inès: [too afraid to do anything] Come on. [shakes Mabel] Wake up. [She sees the golem's looking at her.] I'm sorry.
[She runs away, but the golems lock on to her and blast her in the back. She gasps surprised and falls to her knees. Both golems lock onto the girls.]
Ai: Everything okay?
Axel: [to himself] Last chance. This is my final form. But the scythe should be sharper than the halberd so…
[Axel dodges side to side to avoid the megatank laser grids. He spins around as one is about to hit him, dodging the grid, and slams his scythe into the laser grid, shattering it. The blow sends the megatank spinning around. It slows to a halt and rocks back and forth slightly, stunned.]
Axel: Now, Hammer Time!
PRUNG
[He starts to swing down but a shot from behind destroys the megatank's eye. It rolls back, crashes into a wall, and explodes in a flurry of red pixels.]
Axel: Obelisk, that was my kill!
Ethan: Then act FASTER!
Axel: Fine. Ai, lead yours over here!
[Ethan's firing his rifle back at his target, but it won't open up. He drops his arm after 4 shots and runs by Axel, leading his Megatank straight in the unprepared teammate. The megatank charges up and fires. The laser barely misses Axel whose distracted by Ethan. Axel winds up his scythe by spinning and then slams the point into the ground, cracking it in front of the megatank.]
Axel: This time, HAMMER TIME!
[The megatank clanks against the uneven ground and stops dead in its tracks, stuck in a crack. Axel lifts his scythe up so he can slice it in two.
The megatank rotates onto its side so its right side is sticking up in the air. His scythe misses the eye and just slashes some of its red biomass instead. But it pierces the otherwise invincible shell and is stuck there. The megatank devirtualizes Axel with a horizontal grid that covers the entire plateau.]
Axel LP: 5 - 0
[Axel reappears in the scanners.]
Axel: Ethan, you team killing-
[Notices the golem about to stab Mabel. They notice him.
Inès uses the opportunity to scramble under one of the desks. The golem above Mabel stabs downward and the other one aims its blaster at Axel.
The blast sends Axel flying backward. Direct hit. He's on the ground, twitching. He's barely able to move, keep his eyes open, or get an arm underneath him in an attempt to get up. Inès, wide eyed in terror, can see Mabel from underneath the desk. She watches as the golem removes its wicked hook sword from her body.]
[Ethan jumps back from the third megatank's laser grid, rolls out of its path as it charges toward him, and stops himself in a kneeling shooting position so as he pulls his weapon off his back, the master rifle lands perfectly onto his hands. He fires at the second megatank with Axel's scythe in can't close its shell with the handle in the way and its helpless as Ethan finishes it off.]
Ethan: Ha. OW!
[Ethan's hit from behind by a laser grid from the 3rd megatank. He goes flying across the plateau and rolls over several times before hitting the tower and coming to a halt. His avatar spits out a few sparks.]
Ethan LP: 100 - 20
[While still laying on the ground, Ethan scrapes the other orb attached to his shin guards onto the ground. It expands into a soccer ball. Ethan rolls back onto his feet and fires his canon of a leg. The ball goes sailing toward the open megatank.]
Ethan: [thinks] Now close up.
[It closes up, the ball exploding uselessly against it. As the explosion clears, Ethan runs up and slaps the megatank's shell. Red circuits bloom across the black metal. Just as the monster starts rolling back…]
Ethan: Integration!
[Absorbs the small patch of metal the circuit's covered, revealing the megatank's eye. Ethan equips his master rifle from his back. The megatank stops its roll, the exposed side facing away from Ethan. Ethan goes to kneeling position and stares the megatank down through his rifle's holographic scope.]
[Beat]
[The final monster charges at him. Ethan shoots at it in single fire. He keeps timing his shots at the same exposed spot on the shell over and over.]
PRUNG
Ping
PRUNG
Ping
PRUNG
Ping
PRUNG
Ping
CLICK
[He's out of ammo. He looks frustrated at the "00" on the ammo counter, simultaneously throws away the rifle, draws his secondary, jumps back to gain a modicum of distance from the crushing sphere and aims at its eye. It looks like it will land.
A male song voice fills the air, the megatank's shell magically regrows somehow and Ethan's shot just bounces off. He's crushed. Both emotionally and physically.]
Ethan: [As he's devirtualized] Hacks! I call Ha-
[The final megatank turns toward Ai.]
[The golem that just stabbed Mabel turns toward Axel. He's barely conscious, but manages to get up, the front of his sweatshirt and part of the middle of his T-shirt underneath burned away. Something is dripping off him as he raises himself.
As the golem passes the scanners, it raises its sword…
Which disappears in a flash of red light.]
Ethan: Integration.
[Right next to where the golem's arm just was, Ethan now stands with a red plasma blade, the energy coming out of the metal nubs on the sides of his wrist. The two blades have ripples in them forming a wave like points before they join to form a single point, creating an energy blade with a hollow space in the middle.]
FLASHBACK
Ethan: Awesome [aims at Ai] Then I don't have to go through all that trouble of an escort mission when I can just shoot all of us and turn off the computer in real life.
Axel: [smiles] Actually no.
Ethan: [frowns] Whyyyyy?
Axel: Ai has access to the upgrade protocol. It allows you to keep any abilities you earn here. Basically, superpowers in real life. I'll allow you to use it to fight the golem and MIB and then keep it so long as you help me.
Ethan: Sooooo, real world loot for in game progress. [thinks about it for a second] … fine. Deal.
END FLASHBACK
Ethan: Hey egghead! Your ballsy friend ruined my perfect K/D ratio on the second best game ever.
[Ethan lunges at the golem. The golem pulls out its shield and brushes aside Ethan's attack, then brings its own blade down. Ethan tries to pull away while blocking with his own sword arm. It appears he did it.
Ethan's sword hits the ground…
Along with the rest of his arm.]
[Ethan raises his sword arm only to realize it isn't there. He looks down. His hand is on the floor with the plasma blade emanating from it. Ethan, realizing what happened, starts to feel the pain.]
Ethan: AHHHHHH!
[The golem kicks him across the floor into a desk.]
[The megatank focuses on Ai. She's at the edge of the plateau. She clasps her hands. A female song voice fills the air.
Ai LP: 80 - 40
The megatank rolls fiercely at her and tries to crush her. She falls backward off the plateau. The megatank goes sailing over and hits the electric surface of the blue planet. A spire of light rises from the spot of its impact. Ai is smiling at the sight from the platform she made just below the edge of the plateau.]
Ai: [smirks] And he called me useless. Now I just have to deactivate the tower and-
[realizes she didn't make a way back up to the plateau.]
Ai: ["I-messed- up" voice] Ohhhhhhhh.
[Somehow, Ethan gets up by bracing on the desk with his good hand. The golem walks up to him to finish its job. Ethan tries kicking the golem in the groin which fails because it doesn't have one. The golem stabs him through the gut and raises him into the air.]
Axel: Holy…
Ethan: [gasping] You, you call this penetration? I'll show you a real-
[The golem tosses him over its shoulder. He lands HARD on top the terminal platform. It turns toward Axel. The golem charges up its cannon. It's a moment away from firing.
Something lands gracefully on top of the golem's head, forcing its gaze upward. A purple knuckle slams into its eye.]
LASER ARROW!
[The golem explodes into tiny florescent bits. Axel just stares at what just appeared in front of him.
A slim figure dressed in a purple suit with yellow circuits on it. He had cone shaped blond hair with a splash of purple in the middle. He noticed cat ears sticking through the blonde tangles. He had purple triangle marks above his blond eyebrows and purple slashes that go up from the bottom of his cheeks to near his eyes. They had yellow jagged stripes that run up his gloves. He had purple kneepads and shoulder pads with a yellow liner around them. On his back, he had a purple tail with a lilac stripe pattern on it. He had yellow boots sticking out of the bottom of his pants. They each had 3 blades sticking out of the tip, like claws. He had Black gauntlets made of overlapping metal plates that went up to his elbows and also ended in claws. It had slots cut out of the sides to allow the yellow stripes on his gloves to show through. The part of the gauntlet over the gloves had 3 laser projectors in the shape of teardrops with electric blue discs to shoot the lazer arrow attack from before.]
Odd [the man] Della Robbia: [French] Sorry we're late. [Gives Axel a wink] Finding parking for our ship was terrible.
[The other golem immediately focuses on the new threat. It starts to charge its cannon only to be suddenly in the air, upside down and covered in orange aura.
Two more figures appear in the room.
The girl wore a dark violet sleeveless gi with a black liner and a flower pattern on it. She had short black hair with a small pink hairpin in and had two grey metal studs above her eyebrows. She wore grey kneepads and a grey bracer on her left arm. Also, she had long dark violet arm sleeves that end in fingerless gloves. Her kneepads connected to dark red shin guards that transitioned to her heavy dark red boots with a pink locking strap. On her back, she wore a glowing golden yellow obi sash attached to her with metal brackets that were fastened to the gi's liner. Underneath the sash was a small turquoise rod attached to the small of her back. Strangest of all, she was carrying two glowing metal Tessen.
The boy wore a grey skin suit that ended in fingerless gloves. He had messy black hair. He had black shoulder pads with a red outline. He wore a black plackart with red stripes running down the side. On either arm, he wore long black gloves that have tattered ends that transition from black to grey to orange frayed tips that glow softly like embers. Over the glove on his left forearm, he had a spiked chrome gauntlet and over the glove on his right forearm, a gauntlet of black metal with curling bands of orange around it and a small orange hole on top. He had two noticeable black belts wrapped around his upper left leg. He has an orange corruption over his skin suit. Unlike the precise circuits on the catboy, the pattern is like tendrils creeping on the other boy. In much the same way was the boy in black's weapon; A huge zweihander with black tendrils surrounding the hilt with a ruby red pommel. The corruption crept up from the hilt and toward the tip of the blade.]
Yumi: [French] You want this?
William: [French] Leave it to me. [points to the golem to get its attention.] You. Too Ugly. Die immediately. [He throws his gigantic zweihander through the golem. It goes straight through leaving a huge hole. The ninja girl stops her telekinesis.]
William: [French] [turns back to face the others.] That wasn't as big a deal as the MIB made it out to be.
[The golem reforms on the floor. It stands up without the boy dressed in black noticing and slashes at his back.]
William: [French] [without even turning around] Blade Beam! [holds up a hand]
[The sword in the wall shifts, its tendrils glow orange and it flies into the boy's hand. William deflects a golem's downward strike with a soft arc …
and turns it into a sharp upper cut that annihilates the top half of the golem, its head, and center of the FREAKING ceiling with it. Twilight streams through the wrecked ceiling illuminating the ruins of the golem.
The sprites guarding the supercomputer zoom through the door. One knocks into Odd. They swish around the room in circles. Yumi takes care of a few sprites with her Tessen, but there's too many to deal with quickly.]
[Ai drags herself over the edge of the plateau. She rolls onto her back panting, then gets up and starts running toward the tower. Ai power slides into the tower. The second Ai touches the central circle of the platform, she's covered in a blue aura and starts to rise.]
Ai: Comeoncomeon. Faster!
[The sprites glow orange.]
Axel: They're going Kamikaze mode!
[One kamikaze sprite sails toward Mabel's body & the desk with Inès under it. Inès reels back, but before the impact, Yumi had caught them with an orange aura.]
[Ai lands on the platform and stumbles forward. A screen appears before her.]
[The last sprite zooms toward Axel. None of the Lyoko Warriors have their attention on him.]
[Ai touches the screen on the second platform.]
"Register"
Ai types in "Ai"
[It disappears followed by "Code Lyoko"]
[The sprite disappears before it impacts Axel's face. The other sprites collapse into plasma.]
Odd: [French] [points to a pile of plasma that used to be a sprite that disappeared just as he shot it.] That counts as my point!
William: [French] Fine.
Yumi: [French] I can't believe this is it. All we have to do is destroy this supercomputer and it's all over. [sad] I wish she could be here for this.
[Axel is eyeing the Lyoko Warriors suspiciously.
Someone clears their throat off to the side. It's the boss. She's somehow on her feet, despite the cuts and burns on her … everything. The Lyoko Warriors are suddenly very still. The boss's eyes pass over them one by one, then snaps her head to Axel.
The Boss: [sees Axel for the first time] YOU! I need you to come with me.
Axel: [thinks] Not yet. [Takes a deep breath] [out loud] I am truly sorry, uh…
[The boss limps over and grabs his arm.]
Axel: Wai! Before any of us do anything, I need some basic questions answered.
William: [French] [trying not to look at what the boss is doing.] The attack sure did a lot of damage. I hope no one got hurt.
Yumi: [French] [looks up at the ceiling.] I think you caused most of the damage.
[The other teens in their avatars all pause to listen to something in their ears.]
Odd: [French] [over comms] Wait are you saying you haven't even reached the tower yet?
Axel: [Trying to get the LW attention] I'm the one who deactivated the tower.
[Yumi holds an arm out to stop the Boss, noticing the injuries on him and Mabel. She stops, but still maintains a grasp on Axel's arm.]
Axel: Who are they?
The Boss: They're the Lyoko Warriors. They specialize in this kind of threat.
Yumi: [French] Ask him what he means about him and the tower.
The Boss: What did you do while virtualized?
Axel: [playing charades] Supercomputer. Equal. Deckard incident?
The Boss: Answer the question.
Odd: [Answers Axel's question.] Oui
Axel: What happens now?
The Boss: Now, we destroy this supercomputer. This machine is dangerous and too powerful to be controlled.
Axel: I can't let you do that.
The Boss: You can't LET us?! We are the ones in control. [indicates the LW behind her who can't tell what's she's saying in English.]
Axel: Right, it it is dangerous. But it can be controlled. But not by you. I've decided. [confident] I'm going to take over the world!
[Everyone's attention, which was previously on the aftermath of the attack, is instantly on Axel]
Episode 2 end.