Hornet Crisis

Jeremie: Aelita, what's going on?

Ulrich and Odd just left the main square's perimeter. Aelita's still within it, breathing heavily.

Ulrich: Aelita!

Ulrich goes back to check on Aelita; Odd follows him. They both stand in front of her, looking at her, worried. She can only breathe, and hardly takes a look at them before looking away.

Ulrich: Do you wanna stay this one out?

Aelita looks at him for a second, and nods.

Ulrich: Okay. (looks up) Jeremie, Odd and I will go deactivate the core this time. We need the codes for the deactivation.
Jeremie: Got it. Aelita, we'll only bother you so that you can give them the codes. We'll leave you at peace afterwards.

Aelita nods with her eyes closed. She then puts her hand on Ulrich's shoulder, after which they both levitate for a couple of seconds. Then, they follow the same procedure with Odd.

All set, thank you Aelita. Guys, let's move fast.
Odd: Roger that!

The boys retake their path uphill.

Jeremie: Given Aelita will stay behind this time, I'll call Yumi again. I think it's better that she comes.
Odd: She'll have to choose between Sissi and us. (sarcastic) What will she pick?

Jeremie redials Yumi's number in his phone. Yumi answers shortly after.

Yumi: Hi, Jeremie, I'm on my way.
Jeremie: Oh! Good timing, I was just calling you because we need you right now. How'd you manage?
Yumi: Looks like Sissi's being a bit magnanimous today. Don't know why, but she let me go without complaining.
Jeremie: Did you make sure she or her goons weren't spying on you?
Yumi: Until I climbed down the sewers. Hey, I'll take my skateboard now, see you in a bit.
Jeremie: Later! (hangs up) Odd, Ulrich, report.
Odd: Still on our way, Jeremie… Hey! What's that noise?

An insectoid shape barely shorter than the boys appears buzzing over their heads.

Odd: Whoa!
Ulrich: Jeremie!
Jeremie: I see it. Careful, they're armed with a program I haven't seen before. Let's see…
Odd: I hear more buzzing, looks like there's more than one.

Two other copies of the creature fly over Ulrich and Odd. Once they pass over them, they loop in the air and face the kids, approaching fast.

Odd: Let's see how much ammo these bugs can handle.

Odd shoots against one of them, but it detours skillfully. The other one spits a sort of acid trying to hit the boys. Ulrich manages to dodge it, but Odd gets some of it on his leg.

Odd: Ah, Jeremie, I'm hit!
Jeremie: Okay, I'm checking your shield… It's at seventy percent.
Odd: So now my leg's exposed?
Jeremie: No, no! If any part of your body were exposed, the shield would mark zero percent, and you'd be devirtualized in the act.
Odd: You'd better be right, it wouldn't be funny to turn my leg into a dissol…

Odd gets heavily pushed from his right side. It's Ulrich, who saves him from a second burst of acid. He falls over Odd, and stands up afterwards.

Ulrich: Less complaint, more focus.
Jeremie: May I remind you these things keep spawning. You gotta go to the mountain top, fast.
Ulrich: We cannot keep going just like that, Jeremie, we need more vision.
Odd: My peripheral vision, I forgot about it! Thanks, Ulrich. Cover me, please.

Ulrich does as asked. Odd focuses and manages to look at the scenery from higher up: two out of three hornets regroup in order to attack downhill while the third one makes wide horizontal loops.

Odd: Another round incoming… Ulrich, take cover.

Both boys take cover against the rocks. Two bursts of acid pass over their heads.

Odd: Now!

Odd shoots as the two hornets get near their hideout. One of them is reached by the projectile and is destroyed.

Odd: Bullseye!
Ulrich: They're too high up for my reach. Is it possible that I get a ranged weapon too?
Odd: I have a better idea: lemme check out the terrain uphill, and at my signal, you charge upward with your super-sprint.
Ulrich: Okay, I'll wait.

Odd looks with his peripheral vision once again, as he hears no buzzing too close. He is able to see the two hornets from before, plus a third one that approaches.

Odd: Okay, they have reinforcements. Let's wait for the next attack and then you go.
Ulrich: Got it.
Odd: One ahead and one behind us, in five and three… two… one… Watch out!

The hornet that's charging from behind spits an acid shot, that the kids dodge. Odd aims at the second one before it attacks and he shoots, hitting his target. The hornet blows up.

Odd: Now, Ulrich!

Ulrich activates his super-sprint and runs uphill. When the terrain curves slightly down, other two hornets pass over him, without noticing him for a second. Then, they both turn back to face him. Ulrich notices.

Ulrich: Jeremie, new plan: I distract the bugs, and Odd moves forward. Tell Odd.
Odd: Jeremie, new plan: Ulrich distracts the bugs, and…
Jeremie: Ulrich had the same idea. Go for it!
Odd: Ulrich has such great ideas!
Jeremie: Go ahead, Ulrich.

Ulrich keeps super-sprinting, making sure the two hornets follow him. He then reaches a third one, who sees him and starts following him. Ulrich's speed lets him keep a distance between him and his chasers.

Jeremie: Odd, the coast is clear. Move forward, cautiously.
Odd: Got it, moving ahead.

Odd uses his feline agility to jump from rock to rock along the hillside. Every ten rocks or so, he stops for a while to inspect his surroundings with his peripheral vision. Meanwhile, Ulrich scouts ahead and distracts more and more hornets, incrementing the number of them on his tail. The terrain suddenly takes a bluish white color, as he approaches the top of Lyoko's mountain.

Ulrich: Approaching the mountain's peak. I'll report when I find the… Hey!

About thirty feet from the peak, there's a cave entrance, guarded by three kankrelats. Once they see Ulrich, they start shooting. One of them hits the boy.

Ulrich: (still sprinting) Damn, I forgot about those guys!
Jeremie: Shield at seventy percent. I'll see if I can recover some of that. Meanwhile, keep doing what you were doing. (to Odd) Odd, the peak's interface is guarded by three kankrelats. Careful when approaching.
Odd: This thing's getting steep.
Jeremie: Need extra help for climbing?
Odd: I mean the situation's getting hard.
Jeremie: I don't know what to tell you, I didn't know it was gonna be like this.
Odd: It's alright, I'll send my complaints later. I'll keep going for now.

After a couple of minutes, Ulrich has about twelve hornets chasing him, clearing the path to the top. Odd manages to get there in a couple of minutes, and notices the three kankrelats. He hides behind a nearby tree. Then, a hornet flies out of the cave.

Odd: Jeremie, mountain top cave in sight.
Jeremie: Perfect. Every hornet takes thirty-five seconds to spawn, so wait for the next one before going in.
Odd: I have to distract the kankrelats at the entrance. Any ideas?
Jeremie: Hmm, Ulrich's a bit busy at the moment, and Yumi hasn't arrived yet… Let me think.
Odd: (looks up) Don't sweat it, I think I got it!

Odd climbs the tree behind which he was hiding. When he reaches the leaves, he realizes that the top is just a solid blob instead of a curtain of leaves.

Odd: (to himself) Hmm, I have some notes to the one who made Lyoko's trees. Let's see if I can…

Odd manages to climb to the very top, using his claws to grab to the fake leaf surface. Once there, he waits, still trying to hide from the kankrelats. After five seconds, another hornet flies out of the cave.

Odd: Going in!

Odd makes a wide somersault and falls right at the cave's entrance, behind the kankrelats. His fall barely makes a noise, thanks to his cat-like dexterity, but the kankrelat in the middle manages to hear him. He turns around slowly and notices Odd entering the cave, exiting his field of vision once he takes a turn. The kid rushes deeper inside.

Odd: I'm in!
Jeremie: Great! You should see an interface, probably at the center. Simply interact with it using your extended palm.
Odd: Right.

Odd moves a bit deeper and manages to see the interface. But right then, a hornet spawns in front of it. Odd aims, waiting for it to move, and once it starts to flap its wings, the boy shoots, destroying it in the act.

Odd: Free road ahead.
Jeremie: Okay, hurry up, one of the kankrelats is inside following you, and the other two are going in as well.
Odd: Copy that.

Odd reaches the interface and puts his palm over it. The interface shows the usual message: "Lyoko key code accepted. Rebooting…", but it disappears in less than a second.

Odd: Jeremie, I saw a message, but it got erased immediately. Is that normal?
Jeremie: I don't know, but if you already interacted with the interface, should be enough…
Odd: Hey, another one of those bugs is spawning!

Indeed, a hornet starts appearing before Odd's. At the same time, the first kankrelat reaches the center of the cave. Odd, exposed manages to hit the kankrelat, but receives a hit in his arm.

Jeremie: Shield at fifty percent, Odd.

Odd doesn't respond; he's focused in the hornet that's being created. After three seconds, the hornet flaps its wings. Odd shoots, and the hornet is destroyed.

After this, Odd touches the interface again. The message comes up again, but same as last time, the screen quickly clears up. Odd taps the screen several times, without achieving visible changes in its behavior.

Yumi arrives at the computer room.

Yumi: (pants) Jeremie, I'm here.
Jeremie: Yumi! Good thing you're here.
Yumi: How's the situation?
Jeremie: Strange; Odd already reached the interface, but it seems like it doesn't work.
Yumi: What about Ulrich and Aelita?
Jeremie: Ulrich's distracting the hornets so Odd can maneuver inside the cave; Aelita's excused from the mission.
Yumi: What, why?
Jeremie: She's not feeling well, we got some info about… Uh, I'd better tell you later.
Yumi: (on the microphone) Aelita! Are you there?

No answer for a few seconds. Odd shoots another kankrelat that reaches the center.

Aelita: (visibly agitated still) Y-Yumi?
Yumi: Jeremie, send me to Lyoko right now.
Jeremie: Of course, head for the scanners.

Yumi heads for the scanners. Ulrich's voice is comes out of the speakers.

Ulrich: Hey, Jeremie, I'm getting tired here! Is Odd at the top yet?
Jeremie: Yeah, but he can't deactivate the program. We're figuring out what's going on.
Ulrich: I don't know how much longer I can… Ah!

A hornet spits acid, reaching Ulrich's leg. The computer's screen shows Ulrich's shield at forty percent.

Jeremie: Hold on, Ulrich!
Yumi: I'm at the scanner to the right!
Jeremie: Got it, virtualizing.

CONSOLE
IN: virt 2 yumi

Yumi appears in Lyoko, next to the fountain. She immediately looks in several directions, until she finds Aelita, sitting on the floor, hugging her legs. Yumi runs to her.

Ulrich: (pants) I can't… anymore… Jeremie…

Ulrich starts slowing down. The hornets take advantage of this and three of them shoot acid at the kid. Ulrich gets devirtualized, leaving in his place a smoky puddle of green liquid.

Ulrich: (at the scanner on the center, panting) I did what I could.
Jeremie: I know. Yumi! We need you to take Ulrich's place, the hornets are going back to the peak.

Yumi doesn't answer and gets closer to Aelita. Meanwhile, Odd shoots the third kankrelat, letting a hornet spawn completely and move. Odd manages to eliminate it, but receives an acid spit in his chest.

Yumi: Aelita, what's wrong?
Jeremie: Yumi! Odd's losing his shield, we need you!

Yumi still doesn't answer. She instead looks at Aelita. The other girl looks at her with a panicked stare. Yumi hugs her.

Yumi: Aelita, we're with you. Let it out. You're not alone.

Jeremie looks at the main monitor as four hornets head straight to the cave in the mountain top.

Jeremie: Odd, keep trying. Yumi!

Odd taps many times on the interface. Nothing changes.

Aelita suddenly surrenders to Yumi's embrace, surrounding her with her own arms. As she does it, she starts crying.

Odd tries once again, and this time the text doesn't disappear. The screen keeps showing it for a while.

Odd: Jeremie, I think it worked now!
Jeremie: Really?

Jeremie checks the state of the mountain top core, and indeed, it's not active anymore.

Jeremie: It worked! (looks at the main screen) Although I doubt you'll be able to get out, the hornets will devirtualize you.
Odd: Let them do their worst!

Odd watches the passageway that leads to the room he's in, as he aims his weapon. Suddenly, a swarm of hornets enters in less than half a second. Odd shoots once and eliminates one of them, but is soon overwhelmed by the swarm's attacks.

Yumi: (still hugging Aelita) Hey, Jeremie, I heard you completed the mission, is that so?
Jeremie: Yeah, looks like it… although I don't understand what…
Yumi: Then come here, and bring the rest. Aelita needs us.
Jeremie: Oh… Yeah, okay, of course.

The five kids are in Lyoko, sitting on a circle. Clockwise: Aelita, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, Jeremie. Aelita looks at Waldo Schaeffer's picture.

Yumi: So, you don't have any memory of this city?
Aelita: No, none…
Jeremie: Aelita, we'll find your missing piece, I promise.
Aelita: Thanks, Jeremie. I'm better now, anyway.
Odd: We'll bring you photos of the hermitage, maybe they bring some of your memories back.
Aelita: Maybe…
Ulrich: How are you now, Aelita?
Aelita: Better… Still confused, of course. It's frustrating not to understand my situation… nor to remember some things. But I'm glad you're with me… Thank you, guys. You have no idea how fortunate I feel of having you as friends.
Yumi: It's nothing, Aelita! Thank you for letting us be your friends.
Jeremie: Yeah, I second Yumi. I uh… Sorry we took so long to worry about you, Aelita.
Aelita: No, no, it's okay. There were more urgent matters.
Odd: In any case, we now have a clue about your father. That's a good thing, right?
Aelita: Yeah, of course: now we know he lived in the city for a while.
Jeremie: The hermitage must have more information, we'll keep looking into it.
Aelita: I'm anxious to know more about it.
Yumi: That's great! Hey, I must go now, my folks must be missing me at home.
Ulrich: Let's go then.
Jeremie: I'll stay here for a while longer, I need to know what happened to the interface.
Odd: Yeah, go for it! I wouldn't want to go through something like that again.
Aelita: We could work on that for a while, I'm also interested.
Jeremie: You sure?
Aelita: Yeah, let's get to it! It'll help me get distracted, for sure.
Yumi: Tell us if you reach any conclusion.
Aelita: We will.

Jeremie types in front of the monitors. Aelita looks at the interface in the forester's shack.

Aelita: The history file shows that the server hosted several procedures along that timestamp. Let's see… (checks the timestamps from start to finish) Matches with how Odd interacted with the interface. Seems like the procedures were being reactivated half a second after being shut down.
Jeremie: So when Odd interacted with the interface, it was working… What was happening was that XANA restarted it immediately.
Aelita: Seems so.
Jeremie: This is worrying… Never before had happened that XANA prevented one of its programs to be terminated.
Aelita: It's true.
Jeremie: What does it say after last time it activated?
Aelita: (checks the history) Nothing that calls my attention, the last entry is also the hornet spawning program.
Jeremie: (also checks the history) Nothing unusual. How strange… Could it be a bug?
Aelita: It's possible, but is it a Lyoko or a XANA bug?
Jeremie: Hopefully it's Lyoko's. If it's XANA's, it might be harder to deal with.
Aelita: Yeah, but we should be able to reproduce it. What was happening at that time?
Jeremie: Let's see, there were at least two more hornets. Odd was in the cave, and had eliminated some kankrelats. Could it be about them?
Aelita: I doubt it, they were spawned further below; and even if they were spawned there, the pointers to the instances don't depend on the creation core. (thinks for a while) And what was happening last time it deactivated?
Jeremie: Let's see… Odd was still in the same spot, he'd already eliminated the three kankrelats, he had his shield at forty percent if I recall correctly. Oh! Yumi was already on Lyoko then.
Aelita: Hmm, it might have something to do with her virtualization… Check the scanner log.
Jeremie: I'm on it… (types and looks at the left screen) I don't see anything strange, there are no errors related to the transfer.

Aelita scratches her chin, thinking.

Aelita: What if…? Jeremie, I have an idea, but it's a bit strange.
Jeremie: I'm listening.
Aelita: What if what changed has to do with my mood?
Jeremie: …What?
Aelita: As I remember it, Odd was able to deactivate the program after Yumi was virtualized… But more specifically, after Yumi came to comfort me.
Jeremie: (frowns) Maybe, but sounds a bit far-fetched to me.
Aelita: I know, but remember the previous instances when XANA got activated. What did those instances have in common?
Jeremie: Whoof, I don't know, there's been several along different places, right?
Aelita: (eager) If I recall correctly, every time XANA activates, there's a situation of stress for somebody.
Jeremie: Hold on, wait… (thinks, remembers)
Aelita: When you turned on the computer for the first time, both me and you were on high alert and scared… When the incident with the cell phones happened in Kadic, Odd was shaking off a bully, right?
Jeremie: (serious) It's true… And the incident in the principal's office was after…
Aelita and Jeremie: Sissi's prank.
Jeremie: Wow, I didn't expect that… But seems consistent enough.
Aelita: That seems to point out that XANA activates in situations of stress.
Jeremie: Honestly, it's really strange to me that it's like that… but I can't ignore the evidence.
Aelita: Thus, what happened today was that I was in a panicked state. As a consequence, even deactivating the hornet spawn program, XANA (who, as per my hypothesis, activates in situations of stress) simply started it again every time.
Jeremie: And when Yumi arrived, she managed to calm you down, deactivating XANA and letting Odd terminate the program once and for all.
Aelita: Exactly.

Jeremie runs his hand over his face and head, still in disbelief.

Jeremie: Wow… Aelita, I think you unmasked XANA.
Aelita: (chuckles) Maybe… However, we could wait for some next cases to confirm.
Jeremie: So that means Yumi, when she went for you instead of listening to me, actually saved the day… Wow, I feel like an idiot now.
Aelita: C'mon, Jeremie, you couldn't have known!
Jeremie: We're really fortunate to have a friend like her… Her worrying about you saved us a lot of hours of work.
Aelita: It's true. Uh, maybe you should call the rest to tell them about our discovery?
Jeremie: You mean your discovery.
Aelita: (chuckles) Okay, okay. Just call them.

Jeremie looks for Yumi's contact in his phone, and dials her number. Yumi answers.

Jeremie: Yumi, we've got news.

- END OF CHAPTER 25 -

Author's note: This concludes episode 6. I think the credits song for season 2 goes well here. This chapter was a lot more action-packed than most previous ones. It's strangely tiring to narrate action scenes. In any case, I hope you enjoyed it :)

As a side note, hardcore fans might have noticed (among a lot of other things, surely) that Aelita is never called "princess" in this fan-fiction. I really love that nickname, I think it's nice and fits the series' Aelita perfectly. The thing is, I think the nickname's meaning wouldn't translate well in Reboot's context. In the original series, Aelita is called "princess" because she's introduced as a sort of guardian of Lyoko, both her inhabitant and her protector. In Reboot, since the beginning, Aelita is depicted as misplaced in Lyoko, like she doesn't belong there and shouldn't be there. In that regard, using the term "princess" would either not make straightforward sense, or depict her as a sort of "damsel in distress". I don't mind the former, but I'm not a big fan of the latter. So I decided to not use it. Among the tropes from the series, this one's probably the one that hurts me the most to put aside.

Thank you so much for reading! See you when Episode 7's ready to publish!