Chapter 23 The Robots
Disclaimer – I do not own Code Lyoko, the plot, or the story idea. I am just a fan of the show, the plot is owned by the creators, and the idea was submitted by LittleRedRebel.
The factory again becomes the prime target for Xana's next attack. But instead of destroying it, he uses the assembly line for something…
At Kadic, Ms. Hertz is using a drill against a piece of metal. She wipes the sweat off her forehead before holding it up. "As I'm sure you've noticed, this sheet of titanium is much stronger than steel, which is why it is used by NASA for constructing its space shuttles." Nicolas leans towards Herb.
"You should've used it for your robot!" Herb looks annoyed.
"I'm afraid this alloy would be a bit out of your budget range Herb," Ms. Hertz interrupts, Nicolas placing his hands on his cheeks in unamusement. "But since your friend brought up the subject, let me remind you that the robot competition is scheduled for this afternoon. I hope you've all finished your models."
"Is yours ready Jeremy?" Ulrich asks.
"Mhm" Jeremy gives a thumbs up with a smile. He glances at Sissi, who places a hand in front of her cheek.
"And you Herb?"
"No problem," he shakes his head. "Come and see my masterpiece after school, okay?" She gives a smug smile.
Back at the factory, the assembly line whirs to life and scrap metal is placed on the conveyor belts. Things are built and begin to move, with a disturbing gnashing sound. The machines make a robot which comes to life and starts to acknowledge its targets.
Sissi taps her foot expectantly as she and Nicolas are in the boys room, waiting to see what herb built for the competition. "Well, let me see it Herb. I'm waiting" she says a little impatiently.
"Uh…well…" He looks at the sheet-covered robot and unveils it. "Tada!"
Sissi screams while Nicolas stares in surprise. The robot is in the likeness of Sissi, and not in a good way.
"What is that horror?!" Sissi demands.
"Well, it's…our team's robot," he twiddles his fingers. "Iron Sissi."
"Huh?!" Sissi looks in shock. "WHAT?! How dare you name that hideous monster after me?!"
"But it's a tribute to you," Herb protests. "And besides, it may be ugly. But watch how it works!" He turns on his control panel, making it move. It stops in front of Sissi and she bends down to it, examining the robot. It hits her on the cheek.
"Herb, Herb, do something!" She shouts.
"It's nothing!" He makes the robot move away. "A little more adjustment and it'll be just fine." He places a foot in front of the robot.
"It better be. If not, Jeremy and his pals are gonna humiliate you again. It's gonna win, ugly or not! And if it doesn't, say goodbye to Sissi's gang! That goes for you too Nicolas!" The boys give shocked looks, especially since Nicolas was just standing there the whole time. She slams the door, Herb cringing at the sound Nicolas turning to Herb, still in shock.
"Nothing to worry about. I thought of everything" Herb chuckles.
A dog robot walks up to Jeremy, who clears his throat. "I'd like you to meet Kiwi 2!" They give impressed looks exactly like him. Aelita giggles as she sees it. Kiwi 2 walks up to Kiwi. He just backs away.
"That's cool, Kiwi has another playmate" Odd says as Kiwi hides behind his leg.
"He's just as cute as the original!" Aelita comments. "Congratulations!"
"And he's probably better well mannered as well" Nadia adds.
"Hey, my dog has great manners!" Odd retorts.
"If he acts as well as his owner, than he has no manners" Ulrich tells him.
"Yeah, how's our nice little robot, huh? You want a bolt or nuts?" Odd asks before looking down. He raises an eyebrow, unamused as Kiwi 2 urinates oil on his leg.
"Correction, he's just as mannered as the original" Nadia says.
"Sorry, I didn't have time to take him out. He needs an oil change every day!" Yumi and Ulrich laugh with Jeremy and Nadia.
The bell rings, interrupting.
"Hey, it's time. Here we go! We're bound for glory guys!" Ulrich encourages.
Jeremy picks up the robot. "See you later Aelita. Call us if you see or hear anything suspicious on Lyoko!" He tells her.
"I promise. But I hope Xana gives you enough time to win the contest!" He nods and leaves, Yumi holding the door open.
"Bye bye!" She closes the door, Aelita logging off.
The robot in the factory gets into the computers memory banks, downloading Jeremy and the Lyoko Warriors portraits into its memory. (I don't know why the creators choose this, but if you look closely at this scene, you'll see Yumi without a shirt on and Odd what looks like his season 4 outfit. Seriously, season 1 has a lot WTF moments and season 1 and 2 have a lot of sexual innuendos before they tone it back.)
In the gym, the students talk excitedly as Jim stands in front of them with a microphone. "And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, that's right folks, the grand finale! In this corner, Iron Sissi! And in this corner, Kiwi 2!" They all clap and cheer, Milly recording the whole thing.
"Jeremy versus Herb. Boy isn't that original?" She comments with a sly eyebrow.
"And the winner will be Jeremy. Boy, what suspense" Tamiya places her fists on her cheeks. For as long as the competition had been going on, Jeremy has always won. The two boys stand across each other.
"Remember, both robots are forbidden to use any physical force. Shake hands now" Jim says.
Jeremy offers his hand politely. While he was part of Sissi's gang, Jeremy couldn't let himself be a bad sport. And sometimes Herb wasn't that bad. Herb just stares, looking at a smiling Jeremy. He sweats, knowing the risks if he lost. And because he didn't want to be rude, he shook Jeremy's hand.
"Let's roll!" They back away. "The first to score five baskets is the winner! Go!" Jim throws up the small basketball, the students cheering. Kiwi 2 take sit by the mouth.
In the mountain sector, Aelita stands at the edge, feeling pulsations. Which means that an activated tower wasn't too far. "Hey Jeremy, can you hear me? Jeremy?" She didn't know that the competition was going on at this moment.
Jeremy makes Kiwi 2 get a point, the students cheering.
"Yeah, great!" Ulrich cheers as Yumi, Odd, and Nadia high five each other. "Kiwi 1, Sissi 0."
The elevator stops in the main area, and it opens.
Now Iron Sissi has gained a point. The two boys concentrate, Iron Sissi running. Herb sweats and glances at Jeremy. He growls, getting another point. Sissi nods at him in approval. Her father is sitting next to her.
"Very good. I've never seen a robot so ugly!"
"DAD!" Sissi shouts.
"Jeremy!" Aelita calls out. "Jeremy, please answer." She hears something behind her, turning around to see two bloks approaching her. She shrieks and runs off. She looks behind her and they fire lasers at her. Aelita runs to the right as there's a giant rock in front of her.
It's 2 to 1 as Herb chuckles a little. Jeremy looks nervous as he has the ball. Milly keeps recording, Tamiya not even watching. Kiwi gets to another shot, the students clapping and cheering. His friends cheer for him. Jim blows his whistle.
"Timeout! One minute for halftime."
Jeremy wipes the sweat off his forehead as his friends come to him. "You're doing great Jeremy, keep it up" Odd places a comforting hand on his shoulder. He gives a little smile.
Back on Lyoko, Aelita is still running. They continue to fire at her, and she hides.
The ball is thrown up in the air as Milly records. Sissi smiles as Iron Sissi has the ball and gets a point. Jim blows the whistle to start the next round, Kiwi also getting a point. His friends cheer Jeremy on. Iron Sissi gets the fourth point first and Kiwi 2 jumps near the basket, getting a fourth point as well. Jeremy pants, pushing up his glasses. He looks at the scoreboard.
"Game ball!" Jim throws up the ball, everyone watching intensely, especially Jeremy's group. They knew how much this meant to Jeremy.
Aelita has made it to the edge, looking down. She turns back before jumping. She drops through the fog and lands on the hidden platform.
The robot is traveling through the boiler room passage.
Iron Sissi jumps to take the ball, but Kiwi 2 snatches it in its mouth. "Oh no!" Sissi exclaims. "I don't believe it!" Kiwi 2 runs to the basket.
"Come on Kiwi, come on!" Tamiya exclaims.
"Yeah!" Milly agrees.
"Ready, set" Herb laughs to himself, pressing a button and Kiwi 2 somehow exploding. Jeremy gasps in shock, Sissi looking surprised herself. Herb giggles and takes the shot.
"We won; we won!" Sissi hugs Nicolas, who blushes. "Oh, we really did!" She feels Nicolas touching her and she pushes him off.
"Ah…well done and thank you to all our contestants. The robot contest is over for this year. And remember class 9b, you got Phys Ed in five minutes!" The class groans, standing up.
The robot smashes through the door in the boiler room.
Jeremy sits on the arena, looking at a piece of his destroyed robot. "It's okay Jeremy." He looks up to see the others, who are giving him encouraging smiles. "Don't worry about it."
"You can't win all the time" Yumi sits down, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I know this is a somber moment, but anyone else wondering how Jeremy's robot exploded?" Nadia asks.
"Yeah, but I don't know what happened" Jeremy responds.
"We could show you." He turns to Milly holding up her camera. "Take a look at this" she gives it to him, and they all watch the video. As Kiwi was running, Iron Sissi was close behind. And then Iron Sissi's mouth opened up, a bolt shooting from its mouth and creating a hole in Kiwi 2's mouth, which caused the explosion.
"So that was it. He cheated us!" Jeremy realizes and goes to confront him.
"I can't believe even Herb would go as low as to cheat. No honor" Nadia says.
"Must have had a reason" Yumi replies.
"Well, am I still a part of the gang or what, huh?" Herb brags.
"I guess. We did win, but it's still the ugliest robot I've ever seen!" Sissi voices.
"Herb?" He turns to Jeremy. "Can I see you for a minute?" He walks up to him. "I-" There's a scream and a noise as a student runs away. The robot then steps into view. "Huh? Where did that come from?" The robot turns to Jeremy and Herb, it scans Jeremy, matching his portrait. It starts running towards them and Sissi screams.
"I'm getting out of here!" Sissi runs away with Herb, the robot grabbing Jeremy by the shirt. The others look in shock, Ulrich running up and grabbing the basketball. He throws it at the robot, making him drop Jeremy. He crashes against the wall.
"Come on!" Ulrich helps him up, the others following them out. They run into the boys locker room.
"Hey yo, what are you doing in here?" Christophe asks after seeing Yumi, covering himself.
"You gotta get out" Ulrich warns them as Yumi crosses her arms with a raised eyebrow. The robot starts to break through the door and the two boys run away, the five barricading against the door. The robot steps back a little.
"You thinkin what I'm thinkin?" Odd asks.
"Xana" Yumi clarifies.
"If it's true, Aelita's probably been trying to reach us" Jeremy runs to the bench and brings out his laptop. He opens it up, putting on the headphone. "Aelita?"
"Jeremy! At last!"
"Everything okay?"
"Well, not really. Xana's activated a tower and the bloks are after me."
"We've got a humongous robot at school that's causing total panic wherever it goes."
"But how could Xana have ever made a thing like that?" Yumi wonders.
"I wish I knew, but one thing is for sure, it's us he's after" Ulrich answers.
"I'm thinkin the factory. Only place with enough material, and quiet enough not to raise suspicion" Nadia answers.
"Either way, we gotta go there to deactivate the tower. Ulrich, Yumi, try to neutralize that thing. Nadia, Odd, and I will head over to help Aelita."
"You better hurry" Aelita says logging off. Jeremy shuts his laptop off, looking up to hear more banging. They back away, Yumi gasping.
"Let's go" she turns to the three.
"Good luck you two," Jeremy says, odd waving. "And stay in contact."
"And teach Xana a lesson" Nadia adds. They leave and Yumi turns to Ulrich.
"Ready?"
"Ready." They move away from the doors, the robot barging his way inside. Yumi and Ulrich run out of there, the robot turning around to see them getting away. He chases after them.
Odd opens the door to the boiler room, seeing the damage that the robot did. "Hey, it looks like our visitor has already gone to the factory."
"I think Nadia was right though. He was made at the factory" Jeremy states.
"And now, who knows what damage Xana did to the supercomputer or the scanners" Nadia adds.
Aelita is still running from the bloks. She sees a gap in front of her and jumps down. She grabs the edge of the other platform, gasping. She looks down at the fog below pulling herself up and turning to the bloks. She gives a little smile as the jump is too far for them and follows the pulsations. She hoped the others would come soon.
The elevator doors open to the lab and they all gasp. "Look at that!" They see the damage the robot has done.
Ulrich and Yumi run in the park, Ulrich turning around. "He won't quit!"
Jeremy tries to make the computer work, but the robot has severely damaged the systems. "I can't access anything! All the programs, the scanners, the holomap, nothing! Everything's down." Jeremy sighs, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "That means I can't send you two to Lyoko."
"And Aelita needs us now!" Nadia points out.
"Got any ideas?" Ulrich asks.
"Not really," Yumi pants. "We should try to find a specialist in robots."
Odd and Nadia give Jeremy worried looks as his phone rings. "Hey Ulrich."
"Jeremy, how are you doing?"
"Not so great. Xana made a robot on the assembly line at the factory. And he messed up all the controls. No way of getting to Lyoko."
"The time's come to eliminate the robot." They appear in front of the science building. "Jeremy's too busy."
"Jeremy's not the only one who knows about robots" Yumi turns to him.
"Who have you got in mind?"
"Herb" Yumi simply says.
"We haven't got a choice I guess," Ulrich rubs the back of his head, the robot appearing at the fence. "Quick, we gotta find him." They run off to the courtyard.
"Odd, plug in the IDE" Jeremy calls out, Odd on the wires. He does so.
"It's done." Jeremy tries again, managing to get in. "Bingo, you're a genius Jeremy!" Jeremy gives a proud sound.
"You're coming with us!" Yumi pulls Herb away from Nicolas and Sissi, to their confusion.
"Hey, where are you going? Come back!" She demands, but they don't listen. "The school's being evacuated!" She screams as she sees the robot, running away.
Yumi and Ulrich stop at the hall with Herb. "Herb, we've got a favor to ask you" Yumi starts.
"Will you help us disconnect that robot?" Ulrich finishes.
"Uh, I'm sorry, but you're not in my gang" he shakes his head, about to leave, but Yumi stops him.
"It's a tremendous danger Herb!"
"I said no!" He moves her arm away, starting to walk off.
"I wonder what Sissi would think if she found out you were a cheater" Ulrich calls out, crossing his arms.
"What?" Herb turns to him, silently wondering how he could possibly know that. It was a very small bolt; he was sure of it.
"Milly and Tamiya have it all on tape. Positive proof."
He groans, clenching his fists. Sissi would chew him out and kick him out of the group for sure. "Okay! But if you tell her-" There's a groan and they turn to see the robot.
"You stay with Herb. I'll take care of this guy" Ulrich runs off.
"Come on Herb!" Yumi takes off with him. Ulrich prepares himself as the robot looms over him. He tries to punch Ulrich, but he rolls under him, running away to distract him from Yumi and Herb. "Hey, you better have a way to eliminate this horror!"
"I may have an idea. But we'll need Ms. Hertz's drill!" He explains.
Ulrich runs into the park, the robot appearing from behind the cafeteria.
The tower is in Aelita's sight. "Jeremy!" He looks up as she appears. "I finally found the activated tower!"
"You can't go by yourself" he tells her.
"We'll go" Odd and Nadia stand up.
"Okay, but I don't know if the scanner management program is operational" he voices in concern.
"It's never too late to test it" Odd shrugs.
"As long as we don't end up in the digital sea or lost, we'll be fine" Nadia adds before following Odd to the scanners.
The elevator doors close in on them as Jeremy starts the process. "The mountain sector's where you two are headed." The doors open and Jeremy looks up at the computer. The two stand in front of opposite scanners. They step in slowly, turning around to face each other. "Transfer Odd." Jeremy presses enter. "Transfer Nadia." They both close their eyes. "Scanner Odd. Scanner Nadia. Virtualization." They are successfully virtualized. They appear in the mountain sector, landing safely next to each other.
"Nadia, Odd, are you two okay?" Jeremy asks.
"Fine. We made it Jeremy" he looks around for Aelita.
"Yeah. We landed on a platform instead of over the digital sea" Nadia adds.
"That's great. Aelita's just a little further north" Jeremy informs them.
Herb works on a tiny robot using Ms. Hertz's drill. Yumi watches him.
"There we are. Let's hope the robot's not made of titanium" he holds up an airplane robot.
Ulrich hides behind a tree, catching his breath. He looks around to see nothing before he moves away.
Odd and Nadia run across the path. They see Aelita emerging from a large rock. "Aelita!"
"There" she points left, both of them seeing the tower.
"We better make a little detour" Odd see the bloks jumping onto the path, now in front of the tower. They run around, going the other way.
Ulrich continues running, panting as the robot appears right in front of him. He gives a shout of surprise, getting hit into a tree. He falls onto the grass.
"Xana," he turns around to see nothing. "No." Yumi appears from behind a tree. "No, don't hurt him." She's hiding the robot that Herb made behind her back. He runs up to her and she throws it. Herb, hiding behind a bush, controls the robot so that it pierces the shell, and crawls inside. Yumi helps Ulrich up, the robot turning around. Yumi breaks the door to the garden shed open, closing it with her foot. The robot looks around for them, seeing their inferred signatures from inside the shed. Yumi holds her breath as she holds the unconscious Ulrich. The robot starts to try to break in and it does, grabbing Yumi by the throat. He starts to choke her, and she struggles before it shuts down, thanks to Herb's robot. Yumi manages to free herself, the robot dropping to the ground.
"Hey Ulrich!" He slowly gains consciousness. "We got him."
"Behind you!" Jeremy warns, all three of them ducking from the laser. Odd runs up to them, backflipping. He jumps from another laser, Nadia running after him. Odd appears behind the blok.
"Laser arrow!" He fires an arrow, destroying it.
"Oh, watch out, Nadia!" Aelita calls out, Nadia moving out of the way, as the laser only inches from her face. If it was real, she would've felt the heat from it. Odd on the other hand, gets hit.
"Odd only 50 life points left" Jeremy reports.
"Thanks Jeremy, but who's counting" Odd stands up.
"Basically he's saying be more careful. We are supposed to be protecting, not be reckless" Nadia tells him. Aelita bends down to Odd.
"Are you alright?"
"The second one's coming!" They run off, but Nadia stays behind.
"Just you and me," she holds her sword in front of her. She then goes invisible and the blok looks in confusion. "Surprise!" Nadia stabs it from behind and it explodes. She reappears and takes off after Odd and Aelita.
"Hern, I've gotta hand it to you. Your droid worked miracles" Yumi winks at him.
"Thank you" he blushes slightly.
"Well, I've gotta go now. There are a couple of things I've gotta do" they walk off. Herb giving a small smile, proud of what he's done.
Ulrich opens the manhole cover, Yumi climbing down first. Ulrich closes it once he's down.
"Hey, this isn't exactly summer camp here! Tell Ulrich and Yumi to move it!" Odd calls out as they're almost at the tower.
"They'll be there soon."
Aelita jumps, landing on the circle platform. Odd and Nadia are behind, a blok still following them. They jump across, the blok hitting Odd. He grabs the edge of the platform.
Ulrich and Yumi run across the bridge. They use the ropes to land in front of the elevator. "I don't believe this!" Ulrich exclaims as they look in the distance.
"It's a nightmare!" Yumi says as another robot watches over them.
"We've gotta go back to Lyoko" Ulrich runs off to face the robot by himself.
"Jeremy, how many points?" Odd asks, after pulling himself up.
"Only ten left for you. Odd, you've gotta jump." The three stand in front of the tower. Which is surrounded by a circling path. The elevator opens and Jeremy looks up to see Yumi.
"Okay Jeremy, what's up?"
He turns to her, her face in his glasses. "Odd's losing all his life points. Head for the scanner."
"Right" she nods, running for the scanner room.
Ulrich runs down the stairs and into the small machine room. The machines come to life, and he gasps. "It's never gonna stop." The machines are creating weapons for the robot, which aims them at Ulrich.
Jeremy starts the transfer. "Get in." Yumi steps inside, turning around. "Transfer Yumi. Scanner Yumi. Virtualization."
Ulrich shouts, running for the stairs.
"Okay, concentrate on the rotation speed" Odd encourages.
"We got company" Nadia says.
"Right, more monsters." Two kankerlots fire at them from the other side. They are both hit and Odd is devirtualized. Odd pants as she steps out of the scanner.
Ulrich stops when bolts are fired in front of him. He runs down after another path, only to find himself at a dead end. The two kankerlots surround Aelita and Nadia. Nadia can't find a way to defend herself and Aelita at the same time. One is about to fire when a fan destroys it. They turn around to see Yumi landing near them. Nadia then uses her electricity ability to destroy the other one.
"Go Aelita" Nadia says as Yumi lands next to her.
Ulrich backs away, looking in fear, as Aelita enters the tower. Ulrich growls, sitting on the floor.
Aelita starts floating to the top.
The robot points his weapons at Ulrich.
Aelita lands on the top pad, walking up to the interface. She presses her hand against it.
Aelita
Code
The robot fires more bolts, Ulrich yelling and shielding himself.
Lyoko
Everything stops as the tower is deactivated. The return in time starts and Jeremy presses enter. "Return to the past now!" Time is reset back to the game.
It was a tied game. Herb still planned to cheat, but this time Jeremy was prepared. Jim blows his whistle and then the competition starts.
"Game ball!" He throws it up into the air. Kiwi 2 catches the ball in his mouth.
"Go on Kiwi 2!" Odd cheers. Iron Sissi chases after Kiwi 2 as he jumps up to the basket.
"Oh no!" Sissi yells.
"Ready, set" Herb laughs evilly, Jeremy watching him. He makes Kiwi 2 move away from the bolt just in time, winning the competition. Herb narrows his eyes, the students cheering.
"I now declare Jeremy the winner of this year's robot contest!" Jim shouts.
"Yeah!" Odd, Yumi, and Nadia high-five each other.
"Okay, you two, I want both of you to shake hands, come on." Jeremy offers his hand, Herb looking down at it.
"No way!" He runs off, Jim confused.
"What a sore loser" Odd crosses his arms, not knowing the real reason why Herb wanted to win.
"Just proves cheaters never prosper" Nadia adds.
"I forgive him," Yumi states. "He's nice every now and then."
Ulrich glances at Yumi before they both laugh, Odd rubbing the back of his head. "Come on, we'll tell you tow all about it." Odd thinks to himself.
"I knew it!" Sissi shakes her fist at Herb. "You're a loser and so is your robot! It's exactly as you are!"
A.N. – Next time, a piece of Nadia's past is revealed, but if you read the introduction chapter, then it won't come as much of a shock. Personally, how Nadia reacts is what really sells it. PM me with story ideas! Review with questions or comments! I will respond! As always, till next time! See ya! -lyokowarrior97