September 1, 2024, 10:08 am
'How could everything go so bad so quickly?' Martin thought to himself as he ran with the group of "delinquents" that he had the misfortune of being associated with. Since the lunch detention he hadn't had the chance to get that darn super computer, or calculator. Whatever it is called, it needs to get shut down.
Martin notices over by the gym area his friend, and only friend, Stuart was ushering people into said gym. Martin felt a flash of hope enter his stomach, he was happy to see a familiar face.
Stuart looked well toned for his age, dark brown hair, a light blue jersey with the number "32" on it. As well as some light blue shorts, long socks and some cleats. He must've been at practice today. It would make sense, earlier he was told by the principle that they were still running drills today.
Martin made a mad dash over to where his friend was, getting away from the group he was running with. Stuart noticed his friend making his way to him, Stuart was waving his hand to get Martin closer quicker. Martin could hear shouting from Stuart but couldn't make out the words.
As Martin got closer, he heard Stuart finally, "Hurry up the three of you!" Martin stopped cold in his steps, he turned around and saw running behind him quite a ways, where the 2 kids he saw during detention. Remembering the situation he was in, he didn't have time to question them. He ran over to the door that Stuart was holding and yelling at the other 2 to get a move on. Martin could see the wires behind them, whipping back and forth wildly. Splattering lighting every which way it could.
At the last minute the kids all made it into the gym and put a long piece of wood to keep the door locked. The group of kids, minus Stuart, landed on their butt's and were panting heavily. Stuart kept looking out the window, seeing how bad the wires seemed to want to get inside.
"What the hell is going on!?" screamed the goth girl. Martin and the other punk looking kid looked at her with the same confusion she had. Clearly, she wouldn't get an answer from her punk friend, but the pink haired boy seemed to have had some puzzle piece finally put in place.
"I have a sneaking suspicion that I caused this." Said Martin in a cold tone. Everyone in the group stared at Martin, excluding other groups that were around them. They all seemed to be talking with each other without giving the current multicolored haired group of kids.
"What do you mean?" Stuart said finally, questioning his friend but having a sinking feeling in his stomach.
"You remembered how I was talking about this computer I found last night?" Martin said looking at his friend, ignoring the other 2 next to him, clearly out of the loop as they don't have any clue as to what was going on.
"Don't tell me."
"I won't, but I don't think I have a choice. I need to get to that factory as soon as possible."
"Why do you need to get to the factory?" asked the punk boy. Martin finally looked at the 2 next to them. With the look of determination and of slight guilt. He decided since no one else seemed to be paying attention to them.
"There's this computer, calculator. Thing that I need to turn off. I turned it on last night and saw a video urging and warning to turn it off at once. Except I didn't. I ignored it like an idiot. All I could see were just programs and sub routines to monitor and keep the factory secure." Martin sat explaining. Eyes on the gym floor not making eye contact with his audience. With the guilt that's been laying on his shoulders since the attack started, his eyes started to water. But no tears this time.
"I'm in" said the punk boy simply. Stuart, Martin, and the goth girl stared at him.
"What? This sounds like an adventure! Plus, Violet and I know a shortcut" the punk boy said winking and pumping his fist into the air.
"That'd be great if you showed me where, but I cannot in good conscious let you guys come with." Martin said as a matter-of-factly.
"Too bad! It's a package deal. You let us come with to see what science experiment caused this horror flick to happen!" said who Martin knows is Violet. Violet chuckled and jabbed her friend in his ribs playfully.
"And I in good conscious can't let you go get hurt, so I'm coming with." Stuart gave Martin a glare. A glare that spoke so many words to Martin, words that were silent but understood by Martin.
Martin sighed, looked at the pair and gestured to them. "Alright Bonnie and Clyde, lead the way." Violet and her friend looked at each other and gave a disgusted look.
"We are not into each other." Violet pointed at Martin as they were getting up.
"Sorry! You two just seemed so close." Martin said with his hands up. The punk guy seemed to be leading them to the locker rooms, they were able to slip out as the other groups of kids in the gym, minus the coach for some odd reason. All seemed to be in the midst of cowering in fear and trying to stay huddled together for protection.
"We are just really good friends, that's all." Said the punk boy in a calm tone. He led them to the boiler room that was down the hall from the locker rooms. Martin stopped again, the boiler room around him. It felt familiar? The others hadn't noticed and continued to the door in front of them. It was a big red metal door. Martin snapped out of it and continued with the group.
"Actually, I forgot to ask, but what's your name?" Stuart said as the punk boy looked like he was lock picking the metal door.
The punk boy laughed a bit, "Yeah, I tend to forget a lot. My name is Alexandre, but you can just call me Alex, I actually don't know you're two names," he pointed at both Martin and Stuart. They both responded with their names. Satisfied with the answers Alex finished picking the lock and opened the door. Through the doorway it looked like a weird dirt dungeon spiral stair case. There were lights wired up going down and through the tunnel down to who knows where.
"Freaky" commented Stuart.
"Actually, a good description of it." Commented Martin. The two friends looked at each other and grinned at how they believe they are on the same page. Alex and Violet started down the stairs, Martin and Stuart in tow following them. Once they reached the end of the stair case, a big pipe was at the bottom of the opening, if someone didn't pay attention they would trip. Of course, Martin and Stuart didn't notice it, they were more disturbed that Alex and Violet led them into a sewer.
"Ew, your shortcut is in a sewer!" Stuart exclaimed as Alex and Violet stepped over the pipe to enter the sewer. They looked back at the 2 friends to see if they were paying attention. They weren't. Both boys tripped and fell on top of each other.
"You guys do realize fall doesn't start for about a month?" Alex said keeping his tone steady to not let any giggles escape his mouth. Violet put her hands up to her mouth and started cackling. Though the cackling was muffled through her hands.
Both Martin and Stuart brought themselves up and dusting themselves off. "It's not our fault! You didn't warn us about the tripping hazard!" Martin said annoyed, he's now realizing they're wasting some time. Some people could get seriously hurt from those wild whipping power lines.
"Oh yeah, by the way. There's a tripping hazard right before you enter the sewer." Violet retorted as she was able to get out in between chuckles. This snapped Martin out of his thoughts.
"We don't have much time, can we please just hurry up to the factory!?" Martin wasn't shouting but Alex and Violet stopped laughing and grew more serious. They both nodded to Martin with a twinge of sadness in their faces.
A couple minutes go by and they reached the factory, coming out of the sewer lid that was hidden by a long piece of metal covering the sewer. Each tried to get out of the sewer as quickly as they could in an orderly fashion. Martin felt a sigh of relief starting before he heard Stuart yell at them.
"They're here!" There were four wires whipping wildly, coming at them. The whole group made a mad dash into the factory, grabbing onto the ropes that were dangling from the ceiling to reach the ground. As Martin was the last one to grab a rope it snapped, and he fell to the floor with a big thud. Stuart went over to him and checked in on him. He was worried about his friend.
Martin seemed dazed, but fine. He got up and the group seemed lost. Looking around to see where the next place to go. Martin noticed them seeing a bunch of open areas and some doorways leading to other places in the factory.
"Quick, everyone to the elevator!" Martin shouted, as his command reaches all their ears, they all booked it to the elevator near them. Martin was the last to enter and started punching codes into the elevator. Glad to have checked out the computer last night, he found the codes to the elevator during his "research" on the computer. As he punched in the last few codes, Stuart quickly exited the elevator.
"I'm going to buy you all time! Martin, I trust that you can get this computer thing shut down!" Stuart ordered.
"No! They'll kill you!" Martin said as the elevator door starts to close its shuttle doors.
"You're smarter than you think Martin, but you have to realize these are after you!"
That's when Martin stared back at Stuart, as Stuart picked up a stray metal pole and got into a ready stance. Martin didn't say a word as the door finished closing and the elevator started it's descent.
"You weren't going to stop him?!" Violet shouted at Martin. "He could die out there!"
"Martin did say that, are you paying attention? Or is all the dye seeping into that brain of yours?" Alex shot back at Violet, clearly on Martin's side. Martin had no idea why Alex was on his side. Violet just shot a glare back at Alex.
Martin stood there, wondering of all people. Why were these seemingly sentient power lines after him? Was it because of him turning on that computer? That has to be the only reason. Martin quietly but audibly cursed under his breath.
"Careful, God is listening," Alex said as if the curse was directed to him. Martin shot him a glare as well. Violet not seemingly aware of Martin joining in her anger.
"Damn I'm getting attention from both genders, this is great!" Alex responded to his situation. Martin sure was glad this guy seemed to not have a care in the world!
The elevator shook as it stopped at the level the Super Computer stood. The doors opened up as the room started to light up. Noticing it now had occupants. The chair moved around the semi circle in the center of the room. The chair open towards the group of 3. Martin walked over and hopped up on the chair. The chair now sensing heat and weight on the chair, moved the chair back to the computer.
"Woah! I've never been to this part of the factory!" Violet chimed looking around astonished.
"Come to think of it, you guys didn't explain how you knew your way so quickly and out of sight to the factory?" Martin mentions as he started clicking some keys on the keyboard, to see if he can do a shutdown from there instead of heading all the way down to the heart of the super computer.
"Hang out spot, me and Violet come here to tag up the place." Alex responded quickly. "Say what's that?" Alex pointed to the computer Martin was sitting in front of.
"To be honest not sure the exact name. To my knowledge it's either Super Calculator or Super Computer. I've been using both but neither felt right."
"How about Super Computer, calling this thing like a supped up calculator is dumb." Violet said, still looking around at the room in front of her. Martin just nodded as he was now putting full concentration on the Super Computer. He, for the life of him, couldn't find the power off function. It simply didn't exist on the interface.
"Damn computer doesn't have a power off button?! What kind of computer doesn't have a power off button?!" Martin shouted as he slammed a fist onto the side of the keyboard. He then heard a voice coming from a headset he never noticed before until now.
He grabbed the headset and put it over his right ear, he noticed there was a microphone attached like a limb away from the ear piece.
"Hello?" Martin said nervously. To his astonishment a voice responded to him, in a dark tone. Someone who is using a voice modulator to make sure no one could recognize them.
"Martin, you cannot shut off the computer. The virus has grew in the time you let it live. And now it has backups on servers we cannot access." Said the mysterious person on the other end of the headset.
"Who are you? How do you know my name? What is this about a virus?!" Martin started to become nervous and scared. Alex and Violet noticed and made their way over to the Super Computer to see what was going on. So far, they're only hearing a one sided conversation.
"For now, just know that I'm a friend, we don't have time to get into details right now. But you need to send your friends there to a virtual world called Lyoko. Can you do that for me?"
"I'm sorry I'm going to need more explanation than that. What the hell are you talking about?" Martin started to look more stern at the screen in front of him. Alex and Violet began to have nervousness grow in the pits of their stomach. Worriedness began to blossom as Martin continued to have a conversation that they're only hearing 1 part of.
"Again, we don't have time. Send them down to the scanner room and I'll walk you through the virtualization process." The deep voice continued.
"Fine" replied Martin before he moved over to the two next to him. "I'm going to need you two to hop into the elevator. I'm going to send it down to a room. I need you two to trust me." Martin said.
"Not until you explai-"Violet got cut off by Alex grabbing her arm and bringing her to the elevator.
"Aye aye Captain Martin!" Alex said with a pointed finger in the air and military marching over to the elevator.
"Hey! Let go of me! We need answers on what the hell is going on!" Violet shouted as Alex successfully got her into the elevator. Martin turned back to the computer and entered a couple commands into the command window. The elevator closed as Violet kept shouting and started moving downward towards it's destination.
As Violet and Alex reach their destination, the elevator door opened to reveal 3 yellow cylindrical tube's. All in a circle facing each other. There were cables running from these yellow tube's all meeting at the ceiling in the middle. Each cable varied as different widths and sizes.
Violet calmed down and started looking around in the semi dark room at these, big cylindrical towers. "What are these?" she asked.
A voice came from a speaker that sounded like Martin. "From what the guy who I'm talking to said that it's the scanner room. My assumption is what is in front of you would be called scanners."
"Where the hell are you?" Alex exclaimed as he darted his head every which way he could, trying to find how Martin got down there.
"Some speakers in the room, don't worry about the details. I'm opening the scanners now. Please enter them once they do." Right after the words left Martin's mouth the scanners opened up to reveal a blinding white light that lit up the room.
"Nuh-uh! Not until you tell us what the hell is going to happen when we step foot in there!" Violet chirped out. Noticing Alex was already making his way to a scanner.
"Not sure but the guy said it's to virtualize you guys to a world called Lyoko? Said something about an activated tower."
"I trust Martin, and if he trusts this guy he's talking to. Then that's good enough for me." Alex said as he stepped into one of the scanners.
"What if they're coffins! Something that'll kill us like a SAW trap? What if we are in some sort of SAW experience? That's got to be the only explanation!" Violet yelled as she tried to pull Alex out of the scanner. Alex fought back a bit.
"Dude! We don't have time to question Martin if this is how we save others, then so be it!" Alex said, no joking tone coming from him. No sarcastic quip. He was dead serious. Violet has only ever seen this side of him a couple of times. With her realization, she let's go of Alex. Alex settles himself back into his scanner as Alex mirrors him and settles into her own scanner. The scanners close and they hear Martin's voice one more time.
"Transfer Alex."
"Transfer Violet."
"Scanner Alex."
"Scanner Violet."
The rings inside of the scanners started to move up and down. With a green light coming from the inside ring. Violet noticed her hands having some sort of wire frame look, as they are starting to look transparent. Her whole body started becoming transparent. She looked scared. But before she could scream, she heard Martin's words one last time.
"Virtualization!"
Violet quickly closed her eyes and held her breath. Even though she had her eyes closed, she could see what seemed like a light brown tunnel she was flying through. Her body felt weightless. Her body felt different? She couldn't see her body, all around her was flashes of red rings flowing through the tunnel she wasn't able to scream. She couldn't even feel her mouth. She was scared, she thought she died. Until she felt her body stop. It didn't hurt, she didn't feel the gravity of her body trying to pull her forward as she stopped. Feeling started to appear at her head. She can hear her thoughts fully. Then her eyes, she was now able to see her environment. It was a very green terrain, with floating trees around and what seemed like floating grass platforms that were connected to each other with grass paths. Her mouth began to have feeling again until the rest of her body.
She started to sway back and forth before realizing. She wasn't touching the ground. That last thought came too late as she began falling quickly to the ground. She fell flat on her butt. She noticed her body was. Not her body. She was wearing a black, seemingly latex full body suit with spikes all around her waist like a ring of spikes. More rings of spikes were around her shins, her forearms and neck. Her head was free from latex, but her hair was put up into a huge Mohawk. She had a black looking cylinder on her right hip. She couldn't see her face, but her face was caked in black makeup. She had black makeup that looked like it was inspired by the band KISS.
Violet started to scream as she got up running around, forgetful of her friend who also fell on his butt next to her.
"Where am I?! What happened to me?! Who Frankensteined my body?!" Violet was screaming into the skies as if she was going to get an answer. She did, but not from someone she was expecting.
The deep voice said," The Super Computer scanned your consciousness and built a body around how your subconscious views yourself. Think of it as an avatar for a video game. Your real world body is safe and intact.
"And who are you?!" Violet screamed out.
"Again, I'm a friend. I don't have time to explain the entire situation. So, I'll give you the cliff notes. You guys need to fight you way to a tower that gives off a red smoke. Once there you need to protect it while I remotely deactivate it from my end. Don't get too comfortable, we need to find a lyoko key as I'm not able to do this every time." The deep voice responded.
Alex got up rubbing his back. "Violet let's not- woah." He stopped as he looked at Violet. Looking at her new outfit up and down. Violet turns around and is shocked to see what Alex is looking like now.
Alex had a more exaggerated blue spiky hair, except it's missing the gradient like color, it was fully blue. On his face he still had his blue eyeliner, except now he has blue lips. There was a blue choker with a metal heart in the middle, on his neck. He wore a baggy blue full body suit with some light blueish grey squares around his chest, his waist, and knees. He had a glove that had cones for fingers that ended at a sharp point.
"You look rock n' roll!" Alex said as he made a rock in roll gesture in his right hand and made a gesture with his left hand like he was hitting the strings of a guitar. He stopped during the gesture to look at what he thought were claws on his hands.
"And you look like a living blue spike dude." Responded Violet as she was wondering where to go next. Though thankfully she remembered what the disembodied voice said. So, she said out loud. "Do we get a hint of where this "tower" is?" She used her fingers as air quotes.
"Head straight and take the first right you see, I'll continue to give directions as we go." Martin's voice came through, which startled the two now digitized kids. They snap out of it and started running in the directions given by Martin.
A/N Dang I cannot keep promises about long chapters. Then I will keep the promise of having close to 3,000 – 4,000 words per chapter give or take. I can't give out an exact schedule of when new chapters come out. But I can give a deadline by Wednesdays every week. So anytime before hand is free game for publishing.
Also, quick side note. I've been making small updates to previous chapters, I don't change any huge ideas unless I make an edit at the end of the chapter. Mostly it's been my terrible math skills. I will also be changing any small errors Word likes to make without the context of my writing.
Also, you can't get upset! Deal is a deal! They virtualized this chapter! It's more that I ended it at the word count. But at least next chapter will be more action packed than the first couple chapters.
Thank you all for reading and get ready to virtualize!