Ulrich is laying in bed, determined to make some headway in the dense pages of a science fiction novel. A desk lamp casts a pool of warm light onto the book in his hands, but it is a losing battle against the encroaching evening darkness. All he needs now is a bit of peace and quiet to absorb the plot lines and character development.
Across the room, Odd is sprawled out across his bed, engrossed in an enthralling Super Smash match. The sounds of button mashing and triumphant exclamations fill the room, each button press a tiny dagger to Ulrich's concentration. He bites back a sigh of frustration, his eyes skimming the same paragraph for the third time. Closing the book, he shoots a glare at Odd, who is completely oblivious to his plight, lost in his virtual battle. Inwardly, Ulrich groans but chooses to maintain his composure.
Just then, the lights flicker. Odd pauses his game, his brow furrowing.
"What was that?" Ulrich asks, his curiosity piqued.
"Dunno," Odd replies, shrugging. He resumes his game without further comment.
The lights flicker again, and this time the Internet connection drops.
"What the hell?" Odd exclaims, his eyes narrowed in annoyance.
"Maybe there's a storm coming?" Ulrich suggests, his tone nonchalant.
"I didn't hear anything about a storm," Odd counters.
Ulrich retorts sarcastically, "Well, maybe it's a surprise storm."
"Whatever," Odd mutters back, returning his attention to his game.
The lights flicker once more, and the Internet connection drops yet again.
"That's it," Odd declares, tossing his handheld console aside. "I'm going downstairs to see what's going on."
Ulrich looks up from his book. "I'll come with you."
The two men make their way downstairs, only to find the lobby eerily empty.
"Where is everyone?" Odd wonders aloud.
"Beats me," Ulrich replies, his brow furrowed. "They're all probably hunkering down for the night already. It is, like, nine o'clock, after all."
"Weird. I'd still expect at least a few people still out and about.," Odd muses, his eyes darting around the deserted space.
"Yeah, it is a little weird." As Ulrich speaks, he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulls it out and sees Jeremie's name on the caller ID.
"It's Einstein," he tells Odd, answering the call. "Hey, Jeremie."
"Hi, Ulrich," Jeremie replies, his voice tense. "Listen, the SuperScan just picked up an activated tower. I need you and Odd to get to the factory as soon as possible."
"On it," Ulrich says. "See you soon."
"What's up?" Odd asks.
"XANA," Ulrich says, his tone serious.
"Shit," Odd curses. "Let's go." He walks towards the front door of the dormitory building. When he goes to push it open, however, it doesn't open, and he smacks his forehead into the glass. "Ow," he says, rubbing his head.
"What's wrong?" Ulrich asks.
"The door's locked," Odd replies, his brow furrowed.
"What?"
"It's locked," Odd repeats, exasperated. "From the inside?"
"How is that possible?"
"I don't know," Odd says, his frustration mounting. "What, do you think I just waltzed into the door for fun?"
"Calm down. Let's just try the back door."
The two men reach the back door, only to find it also locked.
"What the hell is going on here?" Odd exclaims. "This is getting weird."
"We need to get out of here," Ulrich says urgently.
Aelita and Sissi lounge on the couch in the living room of the Hermitage, bathed in the soft glow of the TV. The show they'd chosen to watch had been intriguing at first, but it had slowly lost Aelita's attention. Her eyelids grow heavy, and she shifts her position, snuggling further into the corner of the couch, using Sissi's shoulder as a makeshift pillow.
Sissi, engrossed in the drama unfolding on the screen, only occasionally notices her friend's increasing drowsiness. She can't help but smile as she glances down at Aelita, her head gently bobbing as she fights to stay awake. With a fond chuckle, Sissi reaches for a nearby blanket and tenderly drapes it over Aelita, ensuring her friend is warm and comfortable as she dozes.
Aelita sighs contentedly, feeling the warmth of the blanket enveloping her, and her eyes flutter closed. The show continues to play, but for Aelita - who hasn't been sleeping well lately - it is now a distant murmur in the background as she surrenders to the siren call of slumber.
Sissi notices Aelita's phone vibrating and lighting up on the side table, but she doesn't want to disturb her friend. She picks it up and sees Jeremie's name on the caller ID. She answers the call, keeping her voice low so as not to wake Aelita.
"Hello?" she whispers.
"Sissi?" Jeremie replies, confused. "What are you doing with Aelita's phone?"
"She's asleep," Sissi explains. "What's up?"
"XANA's attacking."
"You've got to be shitting me," Sissi curses.
"I wish I was. Can you and Aelita get to the factory?"
"Yeah, we'll be there as soon as possible."
"Thanks, Sissi."
"No problem," she says before hanging up. She gently shakes Aelita awake. "Hey, sleepyhead. Wake up."
"Huh?" Aelita grumbles, her eyes bleary.
"XANA's attacking."
"What?" Aelita asks, her voice thick with sleep.
"XANA's attacking," Sissi repeats, her tone more urgent now. "We need to get to the factory."
"Okay," Aelita says, her voice still groggy.
"Come on," Sissi says, helping her friend to her feet. "Let's go."
Jeremie sits in front of the main console in the hidden chamber beneath the factory, the glow of the Supercomputer's screens reflecting in his glasses as he furrows his brows in concentration. He is focused on monitoring various data streams.
As he types away on the keyboard, a flashing news alert on one of the secondary monitors draws his attention. The headline is impossible to ignore: "Breaking News: Nuclear Reactor Faces Meltdown Due to Massive Power Outage."
Jeremie's eyes widen as he watches the live footage of the nuclear reactor in Nogent-sur-Seine. Panic sweeps through him as he quickly grasps the severity of the situation. He minimizes his work on the Supercomputer, allowing his other monitors to display detailed information about the reactor's status.
The news anchor's frantic voice provides a grim narrative of what is happening. The sudden and massive power outage has crippled the reactor's cooling systems, pushing it perilously close to a meltdown. Jeremie's heart races, and he knows that time is of the essence now. The reactor's core needs to be stabilized to prevent a catastrophic disaster.
Just then, Yumi enters the lab, making a beeline straight for him. "Jeremie, what's going on?" she asks.
He replies, "XANA's caused a massive power outage that's affecting most of central France. Due to which, the nuclear reactor in Nogent-sur-Seine is on the verge of a meltdown."
"What? How is that possible?"
"He must have infiltrated the power grid and caused the outage," Jeremie explains.
"Shit," Yumi curses. "How much time do we have?"
"Judging by the looks of that reactor, not much. We need to get this taken care of sooner rather than later."
"Right," Yumi agrees.
"Head down to the scanners. Sissi and Aelita arrived a couple minutes before you did, so I'll send you all in. You're headed to the Desert Sector this time."
"Got it," Yumi says, already stepping into the elevator.
Jeremie activates the scanners, sending Yumi, Sissi, and Aelita to the virtual world.
"Transfer Yumi. Transfer Sissi. Transfer Aelita. Scanner Yumi. Scanner Sissi. Scanner Aelita. Virtualization."
The three women appear in the Desert Sector, their weapons at the ready.
"Alright, ladies. Let's do this," Sissi says with determination.
"Hell yeah," Yumi agrees, smirking.
As they run across the barren landscape, the heat of the desert sun beating down on them, they spot a group of Hornets in the distance.
"Incoming," Jeremie warns.
"I got 'em," Sissi says confidently.
She launches her whip through the air, taking out the first Hornet with ease.
"Good kill," Yumi praises.
"Thanks," Sissi replies, a grin on her lips.
She continues her assault, taking out the remaining Hornets with astounding precision.
"Way to go, Sissi," Aelita cheers.
"Thanks," Sissi says playfully.
"Keep moving, ladies," Jeremie urges. "You're almost to the activated tower."
"Copy that," Yumi replies.
The three women continue their trek through the Desert Sector, their determination growing with every step. As they approach the tower, they spot a group of Bloks waiting for them.
"Oh, look. A Blok party just for us," Sissi observes.
"I see Odd's been rubbing off on you," Yumi snickers. "Let's take 'em out!"
"With pleasure," Sissi replies, a wicked smirk on her lips.
She runs up to a Blok, dodging laser after laser. With her whip at the ready for a monumental strike, she suddenly disappears. The Blok is slashed through its Eye seemingly out of nowhere and explodes.
"What just happened?" Aelita asks, confused at the sight in front of her. "Where did Sissi go?"
"Guys, I'm right here!" Sissi yells.
Yumi almost dances around while contending with her own Blok, trying to find her teammate in the wastes of the Desert Sector. "I... don't know... I hear her, but where is her voice coming from?"
"What's wrong, ladies?" Jeremie asks over his headset.
"Sissi is just gone. Did she get devirtualized?" Aelita calls back as she fires off an Energy Field as two more Bloks advance on her position.
"Hello, I'm right here. I didn't get devirtualized. You guys saw how I took out that Blok, right?"
"We read you, Sissi. You're still on Lyoko as far as I can see." Jeremie pushes his glasses up his nose as he focuses on the data in front of him. "In fact, she's supposed to be close to you, Aelita. About 5 meters to your ten o'clock."
Aelita looks in that direction but sees nothing aside from Blok parts slowly disappearing. "Are you sure, Jeremie?"
At this point, Sissi is waving and making herself as big as possible to try and get her friends' attention, not realizing one very important thing. "Guys! I'm over here. I'm literally right next to y- where are my hands?!" She takes a second to try and reason this out, but she makes the mistake of looking down at herself. "WHERE AM I?!"
"Sissi? Are you invisible?" Aelita asks, still confused.
"Fascinating," Jeremie says, pushing his glasses up his nose as he looks at Sissi's data card on his screen. "Sissi, it looks like you've unlocked your secondary ability. This changes things. I'm gonna need to look into this."
"Secondary ability?" Sissi asks.
"Yes. Like Yumi's telekinesis or Ulrich's Super Sprint," Jeremie explains.
"This is all well and good," Yumi interrupts, "but isn't there a nuclear reactor about to blow? What's the status on that?"
Jeremie clears his throat. "Yes. Thank you. The core will go catastrophic in 15 minutes." Jeremie types on his keyboard furiously. "Here, Sissi. I'm gonna cancel out your invisibility for now, but we gotta find a way to get a handle on it."
As Sissi fades back into existence, she checks herself to make sure every part of her is back. Seeing she's complete, she breathes a sigh of relief and rejoins the battle, running over to Aelita's position. "I'll take care of these walking Rubix cubes. You gotta get to the tower!"
Aelita nods. "Right." She swipes her hand over her bracelet and flies off in the direction of the tower.
Back on Earth, Ulrich, William, and Odd are dealing with their own problems.
About twenty minutes ago, just after William had made his own way to the dorm lobby, a polymorphic specter that possessed the janitor came up the stairs from the basement. It looked at the three warriors and laughed before leaving the man's body on the floor.
"Shit. It really is an attack!" William yells, running over to check the janitor.
"Yeah, dude! Did Jeremie not tell you?" Odd asks incredulously.
"He did, that's why I'm here. But frankly, I wasn't really paying attention. I was taking a nap before this and Jeremie woke me up," William barks back as he checks the janitor's pulse. "He's okay, just out cold. One of you needs to go downstairs and see what's going on. XANA wouldn't stop controlling someone like this unless we either stopped him or he accomplished what he wanted."
Just then a blast of heat bursts past the boys and the fire alarm starts ringing.
"Great. Just what we need," Ulrich complains.
"But wait. Why aren't the sprinklers going off?" Odd asks as he looks around worriedly.
"He must've tampered with the sprinkler system. That's the only explanation," William says calmly. He slowly realizes the implications of this predicament. "Shit. We need to evacuate the building. You two, before this fire spreads, start rounding up everyone left in the building and get them out of here."
"Right." Ulrich turns to Odd. "I've got the top floors, you get the middle floors."
"Aye, aye, cap'n!" Odd says, saluting.
William adds, "I'll stay here and find a way out."
Ulrich and Odd begin running through the crowded halls yelling at everyone to get out of the building.
"Fire! Everyone out! Fire!" Odd yells.
"Get out! Get out! There's a fire!" Ulrich echoes.
The students begin to panic, and the halls are filled with the sounds of people screaming and running.
"This is a fucking nightmare," William mutters under his breath watching the fire start to spread. He tries the front door again, but it's still locked. He tries the back door, but it's the same. "Fuck," he curses. He looks around the now smoke-filled lobby, his eyes landing on a small table. "That may come in handy," he says as he picks it up and gauges its weight. "Guess it's time for a little property damage," he says mischievously as he gets ready to throw the table through a window.
Meanwhile, Odd is making his way down the hallways, ushering everyone out.
"Come on, everyone. Move it!" he shouts.
Odd and Ulrich are leading the panicking crowd down the stairs.
Suddenly, a deafening crash rings out, followed by the sound of shattering glass.
"What the hell was that?" Ulrich wonders aloud.
"Odd, Ulrich! Get your asses down here! I broke a window and we can get out this way," William's voice calls out.
"Coming!" Odd yells back. "Let's go, people!"
They make their way down to the lobby, where they find William standing next to a broken window.
"Everybody, out through here!" Ulrich shouts as he waves the crowd through.
The three men help the last of the crowd out of the building and onto the lawn just as fire and rescue pull up.
"Is everyone out?" Ulrich coughs.
"I think so," Odd replies.
"Good," William says, wheezing a little. "We need to get checked out. We have to trust that the girls have this. I'll call Jeremie."
"I've got good news, bad news and worse news, you three," Jeremie barks. "Good news is, the guys are safe."
"Oh, thank God," Aelita sighs.
Jeremie continues. "Bad news, they were caught in a fire. Worse news, you've got 7 minutes to deactivate that tower before Nogent-sur-Seine becomes a second Chernobyl."
"We're trying as hard as we can," Yumi struggles to get out. "XANA is really fighting back this time! We can't make any progress!"
"I'm doing everything I can, too, ladies. I'm rerouting all the power I can to you, but it's not enough," Jeremie says, his frustration evident in his voice.
"What can we do, Jeremie?" Sissi asks, her tone serious.
"I'm not sure," Jeremie admits with defeat.
"We have to keep trying," Yumi insists, her determination unwavering. "Sissi, do you think you might be able to use your invisibility to create a diversion?"
"Good thinking, Yumi," Jeremie says. "Sissi, if you can possibly get in the center of XANA's monsters and distract them, it may give Aelita enough time to make a break for the tower."
"I'll try," she groans as she scrunches her face, trying to concentrate on making her power work.
Yumi and Aelita both gasp as they watch Sissi start to fade.
"It worked!" Aelita shouts.
"This is actually really cool," Sissi admits. "Alright, Lita, let's get you to that tower." She breaks off into a sprint and slides to a stop behind a couple of particularly nasty Tarantulas. "Hey! Uglies! I'm over here!" she taunts.
The Tarantulas look down at the ground, behind them and then at each other, confusion evident in their motions. Suddenly with two well placed whip cracks, the monsters explode.
"Go, Aelita! Go!" Jeremie orders. "Just two minutes left!"
Aelita takes off towards the tower, dodging lasers and explosions. She enters the tower and quickly ascends to the second level. Once inside, she places her hand on the interface and begins to deactivate the tower.
"Tower deactivated."
Jeremie slams his finger down on the enter key. "Return to the past, now!"
As William, Ulrich, and Odd are getting checked out, a familiar white beam of light shoots up from the direction of the factory.
Odd lets out a loud cheer, startling the paramedics working on him.
"Looks like they did it," Ulrich says proudly.
"Good job, Aelita. I'm proud of you," William says under his breath as the light washes over the three men.