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.
I have a beta reader now, and I've updated the previous seven chapters with story edits and grammar corrections that he has made. The chapter that has the most edits is "Old Acquaintance", mostly around Hopper and Tyron's past, because my beta reader and I have further solidified the timeline since the previous chapter first went up. So, please, go back to that chapter and re-read it before reading this chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko or CL: Evolution in any way, shape, or form.
Beta read by FP7ETDP43
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~E~V~O~L~U~T~I~O~N~~~!
"A major computer bug at Kadic forces the Lyokowarriors to realize something they should've realized a lot sooner."
A World Without Danger
Code Lyoko: Evolution Rewrite
Season 5, Episode 8: Isolation
It all started with Ms. Hertz, one Friday afternoon, passing out to her tenth grade class their report cards before their final exams two weeks from now.
"Each of you will be told the area you need to focus on during the final exams," she was saying, the stack of report cards in her right arm. She took the one on top, "Della Robbia," she blinked in surprise, before double checking to make sure she was reading the name right, "head of the class."
Jérémie also blinked in surprise as Ms. Hertz handed Odd's report card to him. Odd had the highest grade?
"Are you sure, ma'am?" Odd asked, remembering the amount of effort he often put in his school work.
Ms. Hertz nodded, and a smile broke out on Odd's face. She turned to Nicolas, "And Poliakoff, excellent results. Second place."
Aelita suspiciously glanced over at Odd's report card (she was sitting next to him). Sure enough, the results on that piece of paper read that her faux-cousin had near-perfect marks.
"Stones," Hertz handed the pink-ette her report card, "I expected more from you."
The girl double-checked her scores. What?! That was impossible! She had one of the top four grades in the class (used to be top three, until Laura arrived and stole second place). This read her grade as one of the four worst!
"Pichon," Ms. Hertz continued, "worse scores than Stones."
"A-Are you sure, ma'am?" Hervé asked.
Their teacher just shrugged her shoulders apologetically, before moving on. "Gauthier, a very poor showing." She landed Laura her report card, and the blonde-haired girl's shoulders sunk in heavy disappointment.
"Something weird is going on here," Jérémie muttered to his deskmate Ulrich.
"Don't be so negative," the brunette whispered back. "Everyone has their moments."
Their teacher reached her usual top student, "And Belpois, I don't understand it! Dreadful results! You're dead last!"
Jérémie was dumbfounded as he accepted his report card from her. How was he last in the class, while Odd was first?!
Ulrich wisely chose not to say anything, only accepting his abysmal (like always) report card.
Aelita leaned in towards Odd and softly asked, "Don't you think this is kinda fishy?"
"No, it's all good," he whispered in return, a smile on his face. "These grades are fine!"
She rolled her eyes at his response. Of course, he'd be pleased. His grades were currently the highest in the class. He had officially just dethroned Jérémie, and of course, he was happy about it.
A knock then came to the door, and Mr. Delmas entered the room, "Excuse me, everyone. May I have your attention, please?" Once all eyes in the room were on him, he continued, "A virus has attacked Kadic's computer system overnight. It's been causing serious IT problems, and as a result, some errors have appeared on your report cards."
Odd immediately groaned, "Oh no..." That meant that his high scores were likely a mistake.
Mr. Delmas continued, "I need you to hand them all back. We will do everything we can to fix the situation as soon as possible. Once the virus has been eliminated, we will re-calculate your grades."
"You heard him," Ms. Hertz said. Her students began handing their reports cards back.
As Odd handed his to Ulrich, sitting in front of him, the blonde groaned, "Of course. Right when I get a perfect grade..."
Once Ms. Hertz gathered up all the report cards, she handed the stack to Mr. Delmas, asking, "You said the virus attacked overnight?"
The man shrugged, "We don't know what's happening. Everything's going haywire. Six tonnes of hay were just delivered to the cafeteria."
Six tonnes of hay? As in the food of farm animals? Jérémie turned around and shared a confused, yet concerned glance with Aelita.
"What?" Ms. Hertz clearly shared their sentiment.
"I know. It's unbelievable," Mr. Delmas replied. He added, "Classes have been canceled until we rectify the issue," before leaving the room.
Despite the news of no more classes for the day (at least), no one cheered.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The four younger Lyokowarriors ran into the elder two under the arches, both sides having rushed out of their respective classes to meet their friends.
"Did you guys hear–?" Ulrich asked the elder two.
They were cut off by the school's bell system, which like everything else, sounded off as well.
"About Kadic's computer system being down?" William continued once the bell stopped. "Yeah. Mr. Delmas told us."
"It was weird," Yumi admitted. "I thought we were all having an off-day, until Emilie Leduc was revealed to be dead last, when she's usually top of the class."
"Same with Aelita and Jérémie," Ulrich revealed.
"Yeah!" Odd exclaimed. "So unfair! I had the highest grades, and Jérémie's the worst, until Delmas took the report cards back!"
"Jérémie had the worst?" William asked in surprise, as Yumi blinked in shock.
"Yeah, probably the worst in the entire school," Aelita replied, "given his GPA."
The five turned to the aforementioned blonde, only to find him sitting on the ground, his laptop open in his lap.
"What?!" He was intently studying the screen, and he clearly did not like the results. "The superscan came back clean!"
"No activated towers?" William began to noticeably relax. "Then, it's just a regular computer virus?"
"Apparently," Odd shrugged. "Works for me."
"Jer, you really think XANA is behind this?" Yumi asked the young blonde in blue.
"I don't want to cry wolf," Jérémie sternly replied, aggressively typing in commands in his laptop, "but my grade point average is 19.87 out of 20, and Aelita's 18.5. And nothing else I know could bring down the entire school's network like this."
"You know," Ulrich gently cut in, "XANA may have nothing to do with this. Sometimes a computer bug is sincerely just a computer bug."
"Yeah," Odd agreed, "even geniuses have their off days."
Jérémie frowned, "Hervé and Laura too? What are the odds that four academic geniuses have an 'off day' all at once?" Translation: He wasn't buying what they were selling. "I don't want to jump to conclusions without enough evidence, but there's no harm in being cautious."
"XANA attacking to raise my GPA?" Odd scoffed. "Yeah, I highly doubt it."
"Knock it off," the blonde in blue snapped, closing his laptop with a solid thunk to emphasize his attitude. "The least you guys could do is give me the benefit of a doubt here."
"Sorry, but we can't," Yumi interjected. "We haven't seen enough proof."
Jérémie immediately went quiet, as he began to understand that their suspicions went deeper than a simple computer virus being XANA or not. "I see. You guys...still don't think I'm being properly paranoid about Tyron. Do you?" He sighed, filled with heavy stress. "Grow up. It's been a week! And I have proof that I'm right about him!"
"Yeah, a clip from 1988," William reminded him. "That's twenty years unaccounted for, so are you sure you have proof that he's still Hopper's enemy or even still alive?"
Jérémie just lowered his glare at his friends, before rolling his eyes. He huffed in anger as he turned around, "I'll be at the factory, checking the superscan, if any of you need me." Him not continuing the argument was meant to be a punishment for them.
Aelita took a step forward to join him, "I'll go with you."
But Odd held her back, "No, you're not! Einstein's being a sourpuss, Princess, and I refuse to let you be influenced by it."
"But–!" she attempted, knowing why her boyfriend was so cautious of Tyron. The others just didn't understand.
"It's okay." The interruption here came from Jérémie, of all people, to everyone's surprise. "You and Odd are going to the music store, right?" His voice was soft, yet unnaturally stoic—indicating how upset he actually was.
"Yeah..." He'd certainly come a long way with his support for her love of music. "Keep me posted, okay?"
Her boyfriend walked away, towards the park passage, "I always do."
As a pool of concern began stirring within the pink-ette's stomach, her faux-cousin just rolled his eyes. "Typical Einstein. Throwing a tantrum over nothing. C'mon, 'Lita." He then grabbed Aelita's wrist and began pulling her along, towards the school's front gate. She just let him, knowing that Jérémie likely needed space right now.
The other three just watched the two faux-cousins leave, before Ulrich and Yumi shared a glance. They then turned to William. "Since we have time now," the brunette said, "William, you want to come with us to the cinema?" There was one movie he really wanted to see.
"No thanks," William replied. "I have a paper to write for Mr. Fumet."
He then left, the two lovebirds waving at him, only to let their hands fall once the eldest boy was out of sight.
"Mr. Fumet hasn't assigned any papers for us," Yumi called her classmate out. "We don't have any homework at all thanks to the bug."
"Something's bothering him," Ulrich realized. It was a comment, not a question, but Yumi still nodded in confirmation. "Well, seeing the movie without William doesn't feel right. Shall we just pass the time like we normally do?"
With Pencak Silat, he meant.
She turned to him with a smirk, "You have to ask?"
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jérémie didn't make his displeasure a secret as he entered the lab through the elevator. It had been a week since his solo trip to the Cortex. He did have proof that Tyron was still alive and still a very real threat. The others just didn't understand.
After setting his bag down against the holomap projector, he turned on the monitor. The first thing he checked was the superscan, opening up its source code.
Still no activated towers, and it was working just as he intended, as it always had. But there was definitely some digital activity going on, one that indicated there was a tower in use somewhere.
What if...what if the virus affecting the school's computer system was also affecting the supercomputer? Unlikely, given how the nuclear battery was its own power source.
But sabotage was still an option, right? Also unlikely, because why would XANA infect itself? Maybe because it was fully integrated in the Cortex's database and no longer needed Lyoko...
Jérémie got out of his chair and took the elevator down to the supercomputer room downstairs. Even if either option or scenario was unlikely, he still had to check.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Nope. The supercomputer was running just fine. No fried panels or wires.
Everything was working as it should be.
"Think, Belpois, think," he muttered to himself. He paused for a moment, before he let his instincts dictate his next actions. He reached down to retrieve his phone from his pocket.
But he stopped as soon as he moved.
There was no guarantee that the others would give him their honest input if he asked for it. They probably still wouldn't believe him if he told them what he had found so far.
'See? It's just proof that you're being paranoid', was what they'd likely say.
Feeling unnaturally lost, the blonde genius just went back to the elevator and headed for the lab.
Was he even still a genius at all?
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The two faux-cousins were approaching the music store now. Odd's smile dropped when he turned around to ensure Aelita was happy, only to see that she was angry.
"Oh, great," he sighed. "Despite my best efforts, Einstein's sourpuss-ness has indeed rubbed off on you." It was joke, hoping it would cheer her up.
There was no hint of amusement anywhere on the pink-ette's face, though, as she stopped in her tracks. "Jérémie did not deserve you talking down to him like that." She folded her arms across her chest, to emphasize her point. "Whether Tyron is still alive or not, the Cortex still exists and currently houses XANA. That's all the proof you should need to know that we need to tread carefully with it."
Odd sighed again, this time to acknowledge defeat, "You're right. I'll apologize to Jérémie when we get back."
"Good." The pink-ette, though still angry, was pleased enough to continue their trek to the music store. "He's trying his best."
"I know, I know," the crazy-haired blonde replied. "I just don't really get why such a deep investment in Tyron when it's your father he was enemies with, 'Lita."
The pink-ette's response was a solemn, "There's a lot that you guys don't understand." And to be honest, they likely never would get it. But she did.
The two reached the entrance to the music store by now. Odd opened the door and let Aelita go in first. Once she was inside, he then followed, letting the door close behind them.
"You know, Jérémie never told us why he wanted to visit the Cortex so badly," Odd reminded her. "Did he tell you?"
"Of course he did." A brief pause. "But I can't tell you."
His shoulders sank in mild disappointment, "Aw, why not?"
"It's something that is strictly between Jérémie and me," Aelita softly confessed. "If he feels that you guys need to know, he will tell you himself. But right now, it's rather personal, and he told me because he knew I deserved to know."
The two began to browse through the music, as Odd respected her choice by changing the subject, "Alright, alright. Now, you wanted to go to the music store today for a reason, yes?"
"Yeah."
"And that reason was...?" He was teasing her, and she knew it.
But she eased herself into it, "To make a new mix for Jérémie," because it was much better and easier than talking about the previous subject. "He's starting to listen to music while he works, and I want to make a new mix that tells him how much he means to me."
Her faux-cousin only smiled, "Well, if you ever need my help, all you have to do is ask."
She (finally) found herself smiling back.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The monoscan results came back clean as well. Even the superscan's predecessor revealed no activated towers! Like the superscan, it was detecting digital activity, but it was unable to pinpoint where it was coming from.
Jérémie got up from his chair, again, and began pacing. "Come on! Think, Belpois! What could be the issue?!"
Maybe the others were right about this one. Maybe it was sincerely a computer virus that was not XANA, not evil and self-aware...
But surely they'd understand if he said he'd feel more comfortable admitting his paranoia after they checked all the sectors manually, including the Cortex...
Wait a minute! The Cortex! XANA had a base within it now!
The superscan was definitely picking up digital activity, but maybe it was oriented wrong. What if it wasn't detecting XANA's tower on Lyoko, because it wasn't on Lyoko this time?
If he was wrong about this, then he would admit defeat. But he had to check. He had to make sure.
Sitting back down in the chair, he typed in a familiar set of commands, before pressing the 'enter' key.
A tower in the Ice Sector gained a green halo...
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
William made his way to the nearby park, hoping to relax and ease some of the stress he was feeling—acting normal around Ulrich and Yumi was hard. He was fine with their relationship, don't get him wrong. He was the one who had encouraged them to get together, after all.
But it didn't mean that he didn't feel like a third wheel at times. It was an uncomfortable feeling, especially since he still had some lingering feelings for Yumi.
To his surprise, he came across the two people he was trying to avoid, just in time for Yumi to throw Ulrich onto the ground.
Both breathing deeply and both of their jackets slung over the nearby bench along with their school bags, Yumi declared, "I win."
"I know, I can see that," Ulrich replied. "I'll win the next round, make it even."
"Challenge accepted."
They certainly had chemistry, William couldn't deny that. But he had to interrupt, "Is the movie over already?" Weren't they going to the cinema? It had been about thirty minutes since the group split up.
The two glanced over at him, but neither seemed surprised to see him. "We didn't go to the cinema, actually," Ulrich admitted. What? They didn't? "We've been here the whole time."
Yumi got to her feet and held out a hand for her boyfriend to take, which he did, letting her help him to his feet.
"Why not?" William asked. "You two are dating, so I assumed you two would've made that a date."
"Because seeing the movie without you didn't sit right with us," Yumi confessed. His heart fluttered in sudden warmth. "You were the one most excited to see it."
"Oh." He was oddly touched. "Thank you for thinking of me, but I assumed you two would want some private time."
The two shared a glance of realization, before they both softly smiled at him, understanding where he was coming from now. "Inviting you earlier was no accident, Will," Ulrich admitted. "Trust us."
"If we want people around," Yumi explained, "we'll invite them ourselves, like we did earlier with you. If we want to be alone, we will just say 'goodbye' without inviting anyone. Just ask the others."
"Especially Odd," the German boy added, to which the Japanese girl nodded.
William finally found himself smiling. "Got it. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Would you guys be willing to see the movie with me on Sunday?" He felt so much more at ease now.
"Sure," Yumi's smile was almost blinding. Blinding.
"If XANA doesn't attack that day," Ulrich reminded them.
All three transwatches started going off, directing their attention to what was going on.
"Speaking of," William began. "Activated tower in the Ice Sector."
"It's green," Ulrich said. "Jérémie's the one in control of it. Still not XANA."
Their phones buzzed briefly, indicating a text message. Yumi read, "'Don't panic', he says, 'just experimenting with something'."
"So no update to relay." William glanced at the other two in curiosity, "Experimenting with what?"
Ulrich shrugged, "No idea. He'll tell us later."
"If he still trusts us, that is," Yumi muttered, which immediately put a damper on the mood. "I think we were unfair on him earlier. We should apologize. He's right to be so cautious, whether it's XANA or not."
"It's probably because none of us want to believe that there could be a bigger threat out there than XANA," William softly confessed. "It's a scary thought."
Neither Ulrich nor Yumi could deny that, so they didn't, instead remaining silent as they all hoped that Jérémie would forgive them after their earlier argument.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jérémie smiled at the results he was getting. He could've expanded the range for the superscan manually, but it would've taken a lot longer without a tower. He needed those results now, just in case XANA really was attacking.
It was working. The range was indeed expanding to the Cortex.
However, just before he could get specific coordinates, the superscan alerted him to XANA's activity converging on his tower.
He rolled his eyes, "Don't bother trying to take over, XANA. This version of yourself is not strong enough." He knew how to properly protect his towers now, after all. This version of XANA was too weak to get past its security.
But it was strange. The strength of XANA's pulsations were much weaker than he had expected them to be. Almost as if XANA attacking from the Cortex meant it couldn't focus on Lyoko at the same time (if his theory was correct, that is).
Jérémie attempted to type in commands to increase his tower's security, just in case, only to get an error message. He rolled his eyes.
Of course his tower was now bugged up. "Gee, thanks, XANA..."
The AI couldn't touch it, fortunately, but neither could he. He'd have to debug it manually.
His pause of hesitation was brief, but he decided it was best to handle this himself. It wouldn't take long to fix this. He activated the self-virtualization program, beginning the timer without second thought.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jérémie's avatar formed in mid-air before dropping down onto the ice below, a few hundred meters away from the tower. It still had a green halo, but not for long, he feared. He had to hurry.
In the distance, said tower was perched on top of a glacier, the same one XANA first used to materialize monsters into the real world (or a copy rather, given how the original was destroyed when Lyoko was). Anticipating some climbing, he used his bracelet to access the supercomputer's interface and send himself the Overwing. He quickly hopped on and took off.
He didn't get very far, though, as a shot suddenly destroyed the Overwing from behind him, sending him tumbling to the ground. Able to swiftly regain his footing, though, he glanced back to see two Tarantulas heading his way, one of them assuming walking on all fours like the other after firing its laser.
Jérémie stood up, readying a couple of daggers. Two Tarantulas? No big deal. He threw one, destroying the right-most Tarantula, as the left assumed its classic firing position. Jérémie threw the second dagger in the midst of performing a cartwheel in an attempt to dodge the shot it fired, only to get hit in the stomach.
Both Tarantulas were destroyed, but he'd gotten hit. The pain was brief, fortunately, and he quickly recovered, as he used his bracelet to send himself the Overboard. He activated his visor (or kinetic scanner, to be technical) before hopping on, double-checking for any more monsters before taking off towards the tower.
He was approaching a large glacier (though not the one the tower was on) when the holomap picked up two Hornets behind him. They immediately started firing at him—XANA clearly wanted to stop him from debugging the tower. He dodged all the lasers as best he could, swerving left and right and back again (he was still getting used to the Overboard). There was no pause in the laser shots, but all of them conveniently failed to hit anything except the ground.
Maybe he should've called the others before virtualizing himself, after all...
He flew around the glacier between him and the tower, before speeding up, and the two Hornets dove before firing again. He circled around the glacier, briefly looking behind him to see one Hornet following him and the other attempting to cut him off from the other side. That gave him an idea.
He accelerated the Overboard to ram into the Hornet following him, effectively disorienting it. It fired its laser uncontrollably, hitting and destroying the other Hornet, leaving just the one following him. He continued on towards the tower, flying around the glacier, as the Hornet regained control, before flying after him again.
His virtual stomach dropped with dread when his visor picked up six more Hornets entering the fray. He definitely should've called the others first.
The six Hornets separated their flight formation, splitting into groups of three, each one rounding the glacier in opposite directions, with the previous lone Hornet joining the group following him from behind.
He waited for a few seconds before breaking away from the glacier, causing two Hornets to collide behind him and destroy themselves. He rocketed up the glacier, before nosing the Overboard downwards and flying past the other five Hornets.
His visor warned him of them swiftly turning around to keep following him, but it also alerted him of an ice tunnel within the glacier his tower was perched on top of. Getting another idea, he sped up. He didn't feel completely comfortable performing the actions needed to make it work, but if Odd could wait until the last minute to dodge trees and succeed, then Jérémie could pull this off.
All five Hornets fired at him, and he swerved a little to avoid the shots, before quickly boosting into the air, back looping into the ice tunnel, very near the edge.
It worked. The Hornets attempted to mimic his movements, only for two to fall for it and get destroyed when they accidentally rammed into the rim of the entrance.
There were three left, but the tower was in sight. It was just on the other end of this tunnel.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Odd and Aelita both left the music store, pleased with the haul they'd gathered. They were each carrying the the CDs they'd chosen in separate bags. They weren't in completely good spirits, though.
The pink-ette was staring intently at her phone, which was remaining silent ever since Jérémie's last text about his 'experiment'. "Why isn't he responding?" She'd sent him a message, but no answer.
"I don't know," Odd replied. "I hope he's not that mad at us."
"I'm sure he's not," she reassured. "But what could he be doing?" Hopefully, his experiment was nothing dangerous.
"Let's go back to our dorms," her cousin suggested. "We'll drop off our CDs, and then we'll head to the factory and check on Einstein."
She liked that. "Okay."
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The holomap read two Hornets following him, but warned him of the third entering the tunnel from the other side. Welp, so much for reaching the tower without engaging them. Damn you, XANA...
He concentrated hard, tapping into his power of Creation, and felt an ice wall begin to form behind him just in time for one Hornet to get destroyed. But since the wall was only partially formed, the second Hornet instead careened into the side of the tunnel and had fallen to the ground. It wasn't destroyed, but it took a few seconds to get back up into the air.
Two monsters left, both about to meet him from opposite sides.
He slowed down as he reached an area that was bigger than the circumference of the tunnel—a chasm—with rocks amidst a lake at the bottom. Getting an idea, he stopped in the center of the chasm and closed his eyes, readying a dagger in his hand.
He listened for the humming of the wings from the approaching Hornets, waiting for his visor to sound the inevitable proximity alarm. Once it did, he threw the dagger at the Overboard, devirtualizing it instantly and causing him to fall.
He landed safely on the rocks below, while above him, the two Hornets rammed into each other, destroying them both.
Jérémie stood up, pleased with himself, and hovered his hand over his bracelet, about to activate his wings.
His elf ears picked up the sound of tentacles before the holomap sent the alert to his visor, and his virtual heart immediately began pounding in fear.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, the Scyphozoa flew out of the tunnel he was about to go through, the one leading to the tower.
He threw a couple handful of daggers at it, only for it to dodge them all. With no choice and nowhere else to run, the boy could only let the Scyphozoa wrap its tentacles around him.
Strangely enough, his image began glitching out as it raised him into the air, and when it prepared to invade his memory, the blue elf disappeared completely.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
It was just a decoy. Thank goodness he was fast enough in creating it.
Donning his wings, the real Jérémie emerged from the end of the tunnel he had entered through. He flew up to the top of the glacier when he landed at the base of the tower before quickly entering it. He only relaxed completely once he had phased through the wall. At least the towers were a safe haven.
Debugging the tower didn't take long. All he had to do was use the interface and re-strengthen its defense, which successfully drove XANA's presence away. Once it was debugged, it resumed the task it was performing before the AI tried and failed to step in. Sure enough, his suspicions were correct. The digital activity was indeed much stronger on the Cortex than it was here on Lyoko.
But he began to pace. Frick, frick, frick. What now?
He needed back-up. There was no guarantee that a decoy would work on the Scyphozoa a second time. He needed the others here, right now.
But he couldn't call for back-up. He was on Lyoko, and the supercomputer interface wouldn't let him materialize or devirtualize himself. The only way he could give them an update at this point was if they just-so-happened to come to the factory of their own volition, and that could take a while, as he disheartedly remembered the argument earlier.
He didn't want to stay inside this tower any longer than he had to. There was some concerning activity on the Cortex, after all.
This tower... Einstein, you idiot! He mentally beat himself up for not thinking of it earlier. This tower was still under his control, and while it was, he could do almost anything, even send a text message to his friends while he was on Lyoko.
He approached the interface again and opened up a new window, praying that the others would believe him this time.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The two faux-cousins entered Odd's room, and were immediately greeted by Kiwi, his tail wagging and ready to play.
"Hey, my little diggity dog," the crazy-haired blonde knelt down to pet the top of Kiwi's head, just as both his and Aelita's phones buzzed with another text.
The pink-ette breathed a sigh of relief, "Finally, he replied!" It was from Jérémie.
"'S.O.S. XANA'," Odd read. And that was it. That was all the message said. "So he was right."
"Looks like it," Aelita muttered. Her relief was quickly turning into a gut feeling that she couldn't ignore. "Something's wrong..." Odd glanced up at her, waiting for her decision. Whatever it was, he was ready. "Leave your music here. To the factory. Now."
The two left their CDs on Odd's bed, and Kiwi behind, before rushing out of the room.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Due to already being next to the park passage, Yumi, Ulrich, and William were waiting in the lab by the time Odd and Aelita got there. Of course they got Jérémie's message too.
Aelita rushed to the monitor and quickly studied the screens. "He's in the tower he's activated," she relayed to the others. "And he's surrounded. Two Mantas and the Scyphozoa." On the holomap, Jérémie's yellow arrow was inside the tower, with three red circles symbolizing the monsters cornering him.
"What's he doing with the superscan?" Yumi asked, nodding at the still-open source code for said program on the screen. The window showed codes being added to it.
William leaned in closer, "It seems like he's updating it."
"He is," Aelita explained. "He's using the tower to expand its range. Apparently, he thinks that there may be a tower elsewhere within the virtual space. Head for the scanners. His safety comes first."
"Right!" Yumi replied, before leading the other three to the elevator.
As the doors closed, Aelita slipped on the headset, "Jérémie? Hang in there. Back-up is on the way. You okay?"
The blonde breathed a heavy sigh of relief, "Yes, I'm fine now. Thank you."
"You're welcome. Now," her relief was replaced with slight anger, "what in the world possessed you to go to Lyoko by yourself?! You know that's dangerous!"
"I know," he reassured her. "I'm sorry. Trust me, I wish I had called you guys sooner."
"Don't apologize," she softly replied, the argument earlier flashing through her mind. "We're the ones who left you alone."
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
"Virtualization!"
William dropped to the ground, landing near Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi, just as all three vehicles appeared in front of them.
The tower was a few hundred meters away, giving them the element of surprise. They immediately jumped onto their respective vehicles (with William as Odd's passenger), reaching the tower in no time, but by then, they already had a battle strategy.
William jumped off the Overboard, turning into a trail of black smoke. He traveled in front of the two Mantas, annoying them both to the point that they followed him when he moved away from the tower.
However, they were met by Odd's Laser Arrows and Ulrich's katanas, which promptly destroyed them both with ease.
Meanwhile, Yumi threw a fan at the Scyphozoa, slicing off its tentacles. Knowing it was useless without them, it wisely chose to retreat.
William reassumed his human form at the base of the tower, while the other three lowered their vehicles toward the same area. Jérémie was safe now, but he didn't show his face yet.
"Is he okay, Aelita?" the raven-haired boy asked. "He's not coming out." Was he seriously that mad at them?
"He's fine," she reassured them. "Just be patient. He's doing something."
A couple seconds after she said this, the tower's halo turned from green back to the neutral white. Jérémie then exited the tower, phasing through the wall.
"I know where XANA's tower is," he revealed.
"So the computer bug is indeed XANA's doing?" Ulrich asked.
"Yes," Jérémie explained. "The superscan didn't pick up any activated tower on Lyoko, because the tower's not on Lyoko at all. It's on the Cortex." In other words, he was right.
What?!
"On the Cortex?!" Yumi asked. "How is that possible?!"
"He'll explain on the way," Aelita ordered. "We need to deactivate that tower. Head for the edge of the sector. I'll meet you in Sector Five's Arena. But before you do, devirtualize Jérémie."
Odd promptly obeyed, shooting a trio of Laser Arrows at the blue elf's chest, devirtualizing him.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The Transporter dropped the four off in the Arena, and William quickly noted how pale Odd seemed to look.
"Odd, you okay?" he asked, concerned.
"Ugh," the cat groaned, "my stomach has never agreed with the Transporter."
"I can see why," William truthfully admitted. "I don't like it either."
"Virtualization!"
The four glanced up in time to see Aelita's avatar form in mid-air before dropping down to the ground. She landed in the middle of the group as the passage opened.
"Let's hurry!" she said, before leading the way to the Skid Hanger.
The five quickly boarded the lift, which promptly began taking them up to their virtual ship.
"So XANA's able to attack from the Cortex now?" Yumi asked. "How is that possible?" she repeated this question, genuinely wanting to know the answer.
"I'm sorry for not thinking of it before," Jérémie softly answered, sounding guilty. "Now that I think about, it makes a lot of sense. This version of XANA was placed on the Cortex's database, so a link between the two does exist. Actually, it already attacked from the Cortex before, when it was trying and failing to activate a tower on Lyoko because the supercomputer was turned off. But the activity was so weak that I thought it couldn't do it again. I'm sorry."
"Take it easy, Jer," Ulrich cut in. "No use beating yourself up. You're right, XANA is attacking."
"It is. XANA's gotten stronger," the blonde genius added, "if it's able to launch even a weak attack from a virtual world that is not its home."
"We don't blame you, Jérémie," Aelita reassured him, as the lift entered the Skid Garage. As long as he was safe, she thought. XANA clearly attacked his tower just to get him alone on Lyoko. "At least this information tells us what we need to do to beat this version of XANA."
"Really?" Odd glanced up in anticipation.
"Yeah," Jérémie replied. "It means we have to focus on the Cortex, but I'll save that lecture for later. Our priority right now is the activated tower."
The lift came to a stop, and the five rushed to the transporter pad, each of the claiming a spot, with Aelita in the center one.
"We're in position, Einstein," Yumi relayed to their mission control.
"Copy that. Energize."
Bright beams of light engulfed all of them, teleporting all of them to the seat of the Skid that corresponded with their spots. As usual, Aelita was in the main cockpit.
"Everybody ready?" Jérémie asked. "I'll give you the coordinates for the tower once you arrive on the Cortex. Here we go. Stand by for liftoff. Releasing supports, now."
The docking supports' lights grew dim as they moved away from the Skid, setting it free. Aelita pressed the red button underneath her left joystick, "Ignition, powering vertical," and then pulled both joysticks towards herself. She took a deep breath, "Here we go. Liftoff!"
The Skid lifted up and flew out of the hanger through the hole in the ceiling.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
"Cortex system, connected," Jérémie announced, as Aelita flew the Skid out of the Digital Sea, flying it up towards the edge of the circular platforms.
She docked the Skid right outside the boundaries, to keep it safe, before disembarking them all. She teleported to the ground, with Ulrich and Yumi appearing on her left, and Odd and William on her right, as Jérémie sent them all three vehicles.
But luck was against them.
"Shift in three seconds!" Jérémie warned.
It felt a lot shorter than three seconds, though, as only Odd managed to jump onto Overboard right before the shift occurred right below their feet.
Yumi barely managed to save Aelita from falling into the fissure. The two hopped onto the Overwing and immediately took off into the air.
Ulrich wasn't so lucky, as he lost his balance and fell backward, as the Overbike (the only vehicle attached to the ground) began to slip from the slope that inclining more and more. Odd caught Ulrich with the Overboard, as William sacrificed twenty of his lifepoints to use Super Smoke to reach the Overbike in time.
One minute later, all three vehicles and all five Lyokowarriors were safe now, to Jérémie's relief.
"That was too close," they heard him say, and they all mentally agreed with him. "Next shift is in two minutes. You guys have to deactivate the tower before then. Direction: 38 degrees southwest."
"Got it," Aelita said. "Let's go."
All three vehicles took off in that direction.
"Watch out! Two Megatanks are tailing you!"
Aelita, still as Yumi's passenger, and Ulrich, as Odd's, both glanced back. Sure enough, two Megatanks, both closed up, were chasing after them at full speed.
"Spotted!" Ulrich said.
There was a gap up ahead, and all three vehicles managed to make it over. As did the Megatanks. Apparently, the gap was too small.
"Aelita, fire an Energy Field at them or something!" William suggested.
"It won't work!" she called back. "Not while their shells are closed!"
"Nevermind that," Jérémie cut in. "At the next block, take a hard left, ninety degrees."
They chose to trust him. He was the one with the holomap, after all.
The next block was at a wide drop down into the Digital Sea. The three pilots performed the turn, with William on the Overbike just barely avoiding the edge, and while one of the Megatanks made it, the other was not so lucky, taking the quick way down into the Digital Sea, into deletion.
"Nice one, Einstein!" Odd said.
"Don't congratulate me yet," Jérémie replied. "There's still the second one to worry about."
"I've got an idea," Yumi exclaimed. "Aelita, head for the tower! The rest of us will handle this!"
"Okay," Aelita agreed, before taking off with her wings activated, in the direction of the tower.
The Megatank immediately opened up and charged its laser, obviously intent on devirtualizing the pink-ette. Seeing this, Odd caught on to Yumi's plan and immediately fired a flurry of Laser Arrows at its eye, destroying it.
They then adjusted their paths to follow Aelita, catching up with her just as she landed at the base of the tower and phased through the tower wall.
The tower was very different from the ones on Lyoko. It was square-shaped and black, with panels that hovered in mid-air, showing a red glow underneath.
The interior, though, Aelita found, wasn't that different. The panels on the walls were shaped a little differently, but there was still the necessity of levitating up to a second platform in order to access the interface.
She placed her hand on the interface, and the lines surrounding her handprint blinked three times before letting her hand go.
AELITA_
CODE_
She had to physically enter the code herself as well, apparently. She tapped the interface twice, and the letters appeared.
LYOKO_
The windows on the wall all around her began to fall, indicating that the tower had been deactivated. She smiled. She did it.
Outside, the panels went back into the tower, as the red color disappeared.
At school, Mr. Delmas breathed a sigh of relief when the virus was suddenly deleted, thus clearing up the system.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The next day (a Saturday morning), classes were reinstated, if only to pass out the now-correct report cards. Jérémie was correct, in that XANA was indeed causing the bug in Kadic's computer system. The system had been fixed (and the bell sounded normal this time, too).
"Della Robbia," Ms. Hertz said, "dead last. You have a lot of work to do if you want to pass the final exams."
Odd sighed sadly as he accepted his report card, "Are you sure, ma'am?" XANA was so good to him this time.
"Belpois," Ms. Hertz continued, "cream of the crop. Well done."
Jérémie wore a pleased smile as he accepted his report card. That was more like it.
"Nicely done, Jer," Ulrich whispered to him, his own report card in hand.
"You too," the blonde replied, still wearing his smile. "You worked hard this year. I'm proud of you."
It turned out that the computer bug also affected Ulrich's report card. It wasn't abysmal grades for him at all, but rather 12's to 15's. The brunette was glad, and his chest radiated with warmth at his friend's words. His father would never be proud of him, but with his friends, he never had to try.
Odd sighed again, "Jer, 'Lita, I'm gonna need your help for the final exams again."
Aelita, back in fourth place, giggled, "You should've studied harder then, dear 'cousin' of mine."
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
It was after lunch hour now, and the six had retreated to Jérémie's room.
"Why would XANA attack Kadic's grading system?" Ulrich asked, he and Yumi lounging on the blonde genius's bed. "It's so random."
"Experimenting, if I had to guess," Jérémie replied, sitting in his computer chair, "but definitely to increase its strength without our interference. I've fixed that with a simple update to the superscan. Now, it will be able to detect towers activated on the Cortex as well, no matter who or what activates one."
"You're worried about Tyron," Odd guessed, knowing he was right. He was sitting on the ground in front of Jérémie's closet.
"What tipped it off?" came Jérémie's response, almost a low growl. It was sarcasm, though, and the others knew that.
Yumi cut in here, "You think Tyron knows how to activate a tower like you can?"
"God, I hope not," the blonde in blue confessed. "But I wouldn't put it past him, given how Lyoko and the Cortex share similar coding." He sighed, "We'll find out soon enough. That tower on the Cortex was just made known to us, so Tyron either already knows or will find it soon."
"So you are indeed treating Tyron as an enemy," William began, sitting next to Odd on the floor.
"Until proven otherwise," Jérémie cut in.
William continued, "Why?"
The young genius noticeably hesitated, before sharing a look with Aelita, who was standing next to him. She nodded at him with subtle encouragement. He paused before returning the gesture in silent acknowledgement.
"Someone's been using the Cortex's supercomputer to try and hack into our network with the intention of finding Lyoko," he revealed. "And the signal and IP address match that of the Cortex. I saw Tyron's face for myself, so I know for a fact that he's still alive. And given what we know about him so far, he makes the perfect suspect. Even if it's not Tyron, I still know that I can't let this person have their way."
Odd brought up his concerns here, "But Jer, Tyron is Aelita's problem, not yours. It's her parents the dude has a history with, after all. So why are you so obsessed with this?"
Aelita sighed, remembering he brought up the same argument yesterday at the music store. She had to interject. They just didn't get it, so she would make them.
"It is Jérémie's problem," she solemnly explained. "He's the one my father entrusted Lyoko to, so it automatically falls to him to protect what my father has built. There's no telling what exactly Tyron will do if he does manage to find Lyoko, but he will most likely want to either destroy it or use it for his own gain. And we can't let either of those happen. So, yes, we do have to consider Tyron as an enemy, one that poses a greater threat than XANA will ever be able to. Tyron is not just my problem. He's all of ours."
No one could deny this, so they didn't, only offering stiff, yet stern nods of agreement.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~E~V~O~L~U~T~I~O~N~~~!
Inspiration: CLE's "Chaos at Kadic"
Up next: Episode 9, Green with Envy - "Laura catches a bad case of jealousy as Jérémie and Aelita begin their work on the modified multi-agent program."
A/N: Chapter Meaning: refers to Jérémie's isolation throughout the episode, both physically as well as emotionally; could also refer to the attack being isolated on the Cortex this time
-The kids' grades are out of 20 in the French dub and 100 in the English. Since they are in France, I'm going to respect and acknowledge the French side if there's a difference.
-The name 'monoscan' comes from the IFSCL game. Go download it. It's great.
-The tower Jérémie activates is the same one XANA used in "False Start".
-The towers are on the Cortex, I've decided, are the ones from Evolution. Meanwhile, the towers on Lyoko are the ones from the animated show. Again, different worlds, different rules.
~Evolution concepts~
First off, the group not believe Jérémie at first. In EVO, it doesn't last long because he has his phone app, but they don't really believe XANA's attacking until Laura confirms that the attack is coming from the Cortex. Here, the group not taking him seriously holds a bit more weight, because the superscan comes back clean at the start, and it also goes a bit deeper than that, as they're struggling to accept that Tyron could possibly be a bigger threat than XANA. Speaking of Laura, in the episode, she jabs that Jérémie should've thought of XANA being able to attack from the Cortex before, showing her condescension. Here, he already feels bad without anyone insulting him like that.
Also, EVO never gives a reason, in the episode at least, for XANA attacking Kadic's computer system. In reality, it's likely because of it being live-action, which means the real world attacks have to be mild, so the stunt people aren't pushed past their limits. Here, XANA has a reason, and I'll be addressing it in a later chapter.
And when I mean XANA can't focus on Lyoko and the Cortex at the same time, I'm referring to it taking over towers. Here, it can't take over Jérémie's tower when it already has a tower activated on the Cortex. This is important.
If you watch the EVO episode, the school's bell at the start sounds weird when it rings, which I think is a nice touch. Here, I draw a bit more attention to it, because it's a sign of whether things are normal or not.
