Cam's Pov:

"Calex..." Emi's voices sounded unsure. "Kya is fine, trust as." She looked to me for help.

"She's right. Kya's with Lynn and Alexei. Their safe together. " I tried to keep my voice calm. Now isn't the time to deal with Calex. We should ignore him and head for the mansion. He won't remember anything after a Return to the Past. But he could follow us to the mansion which is an even bigger problem.

Calex watched us, disbelief esketched on his face. "Don't try to trick me, Cam. I know she, Alexei, and Lynn aren't in school. I saw the teachers questioning you."

Sighing, I nodded to Emi. She looked at Calex, than me and nodded back. We're in agreement, we're not staying to calm Calex. Everything will be fixed once we know what's happening on Lyoko.

"Cam, explain." Calex took a step forward. "You lied to the teachers and know where they are don't you."

"Yes, I lied. But I honestly don't know where they are." I took a step back, putting some distance between us.

"Calex, trust us their fine as long as their together." Emi reassured him. "We're on our way to find them now."

Calex nodded, "Good, than you won't mind if I come with you."

I shook my head. "Even if you do come, you won't be any help, let alone know what's happening. We don't have time to entertain your questions and watch over you."

"I can take care of myself. Didn't Kya tell you, I use to go hunting with my father growing up." Calex explained.

"Those skills won't be of any help where we're going." Trying to keep my cool is diffcult when the others situation is unconfirmed. They could be danger or fine, either way not knowing is scary. They would've at least answered their phones or let us know if they were skipping school.

"How do you know I won't be of help?" Calex countered. "I know Lynn isn't a fan of me and Alexei's been nice cuz that's who he is. I also know that you don't know me well and this is the first time I've spoken to Emi. Only reason I know who she is, is because I've seen her hanging around you guys on campus." He looked at us, serious. "But please, give me a chance to help."

Emi answered before I could. "You can help by covering for us. If the teachers ask where we went, make something up. Even if we'll get in trouble later. Just don't let them go searching for us."

Calex looked confused. "What's happening that you can't inform the teachers? Their adults, it's the job to know where we are and to help us when we need it."

"Yeah and they're 'help' will cause more trouble." I snapped. "Calex get it through you thick skull. You can help by either doing as Emi asked or staying out of our way. The more you talk, keeping us here, the worst things might get for the others."

"Cam." Emi's voice is laced with worry and warning.

I turned to her. "I know Emi, but this is an unusual situation. But not enough to bring another outsider to the lab. This isn't like when Kya and I were trapped and we had to relay on Wave's last minute assistance." Even that had been a gamble. As a general rule, we try to limit how many people get involved during a Xana attack. The help can be great, nesscary, yet dangerous. The Return to the Past can't restore everything,

Like clock work, the mention of her name summoned Wave. She came jogging down the path behind Calex, calling out to Emi. Out of breath, she stopped short of Calex. I don't think she could tell who it was from the back of his head. But it's clear she might know him. Her expression dropped when he spun around to see her.

"Waverly?" He asked, disbelif on his face. "What are you doing here? You should be attending school back home. Do mom and dad know your here?"

"Ah, hey big bro." Wave smiled sheepishly. "About me being here...it's a long story. But the short of it is...no one knows I'm here."

Calex pinched the bridge of his nose. "Of all the crazy things you've plotted, this is the...I have no words."

Seeing the two distanced by each other's presence, I quietly grabbed Emi's hand and pulled her along. Catching on, she picked up her pace and we dashed into the deeper parts of the forest. Not sure if Calex or Wave noticed, but we looped around a bit to make sure no one followed us. Once we thought we were alone, we headed for the access tunnel through the man hole in the park.

I kept an eye out while Emi opened the man hole. She climbed down first, than I followed sealing us in by recovering the man hole. Lined up at the bottom were a pair of skates, skateboards, and scooters. The skates were attachments that locked onto Kya's shoes. While the skateboards belonged to Alexei and Lynn. Emi and I use the scooters to travel through the tunnels.

Emi grabbed her scooter and was half way down the tunnel by the time I got on mine. She moved quickly and easily through the walkways. Eventually, I caught up to her when we reached the exit that lead to the mansion.

Emi went up first, than waited for me before heading into the mansion. This exit lets us out by the second floor of the mansion's balcony. Enter through the balcony, we have to swing down by the hanging ropes to the first floor. I went first, followed by Emi. From here we ran straight to the library for the secret entrance to the lab. The button is located on the bookshelf that opens to reveal the elevator. The elevator leads to three sublevels; the lab with the supercomputer interface, scanner room, and the hub that houses the core of the supercomputer. I usually get off on the first sublevel and the others go to the scanner room. Today's going to be different.

Exiting the elevator, I hopped into the chair to access the supercomputer. Being up the connection to Lyoko, I ran the locator program while trying to call the others again. No luck, all three calls went to voicemail. Alexei's going to voicemail made sense, he forgets to charge his phone at times. Lynn can block out the phone ringing if he's into his music. But Kya, she'll answer until she's at figurer skating practice. We always know when she's there, plus it's the middle of the school day. She rarely has practice during school, unless a competition is near.

"Did you find anything?" Emi came up beside me to check the montiors. It's nice having someone else who can look at the supercomputer screen and understand everything that's on it.

"No and neither of them are answering." As I said that, the locator program picked up an anomly in the Deresrt Sector. "Look here, Xana's up to something."

"An actived tower?" Emi asked.

The locator program was unable to locate an activated tower due to the anomly happening. I explained this to Emi and suggested that going to Lyoko is nessacry to both check out the anomly and search for the actived tower.

"What are you doing, Cam?" Emi asked when I joined her in the elevator.

"Joining you on Lyoko." When I answered, she give me a questioning look. "Look, without the others here it's too dangerous for you on Lyoko on your own. Xana's still after you and the Scypzoha might show up."

The elevator opened to the scanner room and we each entered a scanner. I've been to Lyoko a hand full of times, but it's a drop compared to the amount of time the others have went. Thus the rush of wind signaling the beginning of the virtualization process feels weird. The blinding white light didn't provided comfort either.

Our virtual bodies digitalized on Lyoko. Emi landed with grace and I fell flat on my butt.

"Your not built for Lyoko, are you Cam?" Emi giggled.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm a 'General' who commands from the lab. Now hush and get on the Cyberbike." I hopped onto the grey and dark blue vehicle first. I'd materialized the Cyberbike before setting the delayed virtualize program. It's the only way to have a vehicle when there's no one in the lab.

"Actually, can I drive Cam?" Emi asked. "Alexei and Lynn always drive. I never get a chance."

"Be my guest. I'm not to confident in my ability to use it anyway." Getting off, I allowed her to get on first. Before joining her, I gave her a moment to get a feel for the controls and driving the vehicle.

"I think I've got it." Emi patted the spot behind her. "Ready?"

I nodded. "Yeah, let's go. The coordiates lead north by northeast."

"We're off!" Emi revved the engine and took off at full speed. She drove faster than Alexei or Lynn ever did. She weaved through the open platform like something was attacking her. 'Practice' she called it.

Most of the sector was the same yellow platform of blounders and flat surface. It'd be a peaceful ride, if not for the threat of Xana. A Xana who hadn't attacked yet.

"Things are too quiet." I mentioned. "This is why I like having someone in the lab to be our eyes in the sky."

"You could've let Calex tag along. Who know's he might be acomputer whiz like his younger sister Wave." Emi teased.

"I didn't know they're related. Why'd they not know Wave went to school at Kadic?" I don't know either of them well, but I've had more interactions with Wave. Emi's the reason we all know her. Wave is more of a friend of a friend. We all trusted her to help during Xana's last attack because of Emi and from kind of knowing Wave. Her computer skills helped too. If we were to ask anyone for help again it'd be Wave. Emi explained how Wave wouldn't leave when she asked her, too. Wave wanted to help Emi. From Emi's recount, Wave didn't question or auger with Emi when she told her to get us at Kanna. She did auger when Alexei and Lynn tried to leave her behind. Yet throughout it all, Wave didn't ask any questions about Lyoko or Xana that didn't have to do with the mission.

"Their step-siblings." Emi's explaintatien broke through my thoughts. According to her, Wave wanted to attend school with Calex. But for some reason their parnets said no. Wave went to a school for gifted and talented. She figured out how to hack everything and transfer to Kadic without anyone knowing.

"She's better at hacking than you." Emi slowed down as we reached the point of the anolmy. "Says it's more 'fun' to hack into an already existing program, than to make entire new one from scratch."

The Cyberbike came to a stop a few feet from a chasm. We opted to dismount and continue the search on foot. Emi noticed the pulsetions, a sign of an activated tower. We'd have to relay on following it to find the tower. Brings back memories of the early days. Emi was still as Lyoko and the pustations were the only way to find the tower before the locater program was updated to also search for activated towers.

The pulseactions followed the edge of the chasm. We gave a wide berth so as not to accidently fall in. The further we went, the more rapid and powerful the pulsations. The worst part was no sight of a tower. Normally this strong a pulsation, the closer the tower.

"Cam, I've found where the pulsations connected ." Emi's voice was shaky. She's leaned over the edge of the Chasm, piercing down below. "Xana's done something compeletely off the record."

Below, inside the chasm is a glowing dome. Completely white, the surrounding is engulfed. A low humming sound came from it's direction, a machincal whirling. The pulsations convened in it's direction.

"We should find a way down to get a closer-" Something slammed into my back knocking me down. The force sent me rolling to the chasm edge.

"Cam, Kranlets!" Emi dove into action. "LLaw Nwod!" She spoke the words, 'Down wall', to create a soild wall to protect us from the lasers.

"Get to the Cyberbike and head for a Way Tower!" I order after recovering. I'm as defenseless as Emi on Lyoko. It's part of the reason I dislike coming here myself. Still, I've got one ace.

Emi didn't aruge, she sprinted for the Cyberbike and I for the kranets. They split their attack to target both of us. Rushing for the kranlets, I dogded the lasers as best I could. I took some damage, but managed to close the gap. Hand outstretched, I took control d the first kranlet I touched. "Override!" My special Lyoko power activated. The kranlet turned light blue, matching the color of my gloves. Xana's mark turned white. All effects showing the kranlet is fully under my control.

"Uh!" A laser hit my ribs, lowering my life points. I stayed my ground and sent the kranlet to take out the ones attacking Emi. In the distance, she's made it to the Cyberbike.

"Go!" I shouted, when she turned to me, hesitation on her face. "Emi head for a Way Tow-" The attack came from above, acid. Hornets have joined the battle.

In my last moments before complete devirtaizlation, I gave a final order to the sole kranlet I controled, protect Emi.

Emi hopped onto the Cyberbike as the hornets turned their attention to her. With Cam's devirtialzation, she's alone on Lyoko. Nothing new. But she also didn't have to worry about the Scphzora coming out of nowhere.

Revving the engine, she put the Cyberbike on full throttle, heading away from the strange dome and pulsations. The further away she drove, the weaker the pulsations. Problem was, she didn't see a nearby Tower. Luckily, Xana sent 'guests' to keep her company. Lasers whirls past, as she dodged the best she could.

"CAM!!" She called, hoping he as back in the lab able to direct her. "CCCCAAAAMMMMM!!!"

"Wow, you've got a set of lungs. Ever thought of joining Lynn in he's purst of music?" Cam joked as he brought up the map.

"Not funny!" Emi hollered. "Kindly. GET ME OUT OF HERE!" She didn't miss the days of playing hide-and-seek with Xana. Had living on earth dulled her reaction time and sense of danger? Did it matter? Not in the moment, she'd ponder this later. Right now, she needed to get away from the hornets.

"Keep heading south, there's a Way Tower three hundred meters away." Cam checked the map, watching Emi's purple arrow get closer to the Tower. A red arrow came over to block the path to the Tower. The monster card flipped over to reveal a lone Trantranal. He relayed the information to Emi.

"Great more problems." Emi huffed. The tower came into view, along with the Trantranal. Behind her, Cam said three hornets were closing in. Emi knew she could out run the hornets for a bit longer with the Cyberbike. But the vechile stood no change against a Trantranal. The narrow path allowed for no away around. So Emi set the Cyberbike on auto and let it go. She timed her jump, so that she's be safely on the ground as the Cyberbike rammed into the monster.

Meters before impact, Emi hopped off. She landed on the ground in a roll. Standing up in time to see that the Trantranal was being rapidly pushed off the platform by the Cyberbike, The speed of the Cyberbike pushed them before into the Digital Sea.

Emi didn't have time to enjoy her victory, the hornets were catching up. She quickly closed the last few meters to the tower. Upon entering, she walked to the center so that Cam could being the process of returning her to earth.

Cam imput the program 'Code: Earth' to bring Emi back. When the program was finished running, he saw that she'd successfully been materailzed to Earth once again.

Emi's POV:

Stepping out of the scanners, I took a moment to catch my breath. Since getting to the lab, it'd been non-stop movement. Go, go, go.

Eventually, I made my way to the elevator to join Cam in the lab. There, he focused on computer, typing away.

"We're back to square one." Walking over, I found several tab and programs open. Each one was running a different task. "Cam? Explain."

He didn't pause or look at me. "I'm running several different programs to try to anazyle that dome. We weren't able to get close or locate a Tower."

"That dome is the only clue we have." I agreed. Than I remembered Cam trying to call the others earlier. "Can you bring up the cell towers in the area? Than cross reference it with the last time each of the others answered their phones."

Cam stopped to look at me, eyebrow raised. He did as asked and brought up the information. The cross referencing showed the calls each of the other's locations from when they answered their cells over the weekend.

Seeing that the information is accurate, I shoved Cam out the chair. He's not going to be able to do much until his programs find something or stop running.

Bring up the cell towers again, I called Alexei, Kya, and Lynn. Their cells went to voicemail, but the towers pinged the signals nearby. To get a more detailed location, I repeated the process several times, narrowing the search area as I went. Finally, the final search showed a tower pinging the call from in front of the school gate.

"I think they disappeared around here." I hopped out the chair to let Cam return to work. "Don't know how accurate it is, since they didn't answer. But this is where the signal's coming found."

"It's more than we've had so far." Cam typed in a command code and a sercuity system popped up. The sub-hacking programs were opened and ran. Seconds later, they found the correct combination to get inside the sercuity program. Cam poked around a bit until he found the cameras outside the school gate.

The footaged showed Kya skating towards the entrance, with a panting Lynn and Alexei following. In the next shot, they headed inside the school gate and poof, gone.

We rewatched the footage several times. Cam even found the cameras that showed them leaving Alexei's house, making their way to school. Everything's normal until we get to the school's gate.

"We knew they were on their way to school, like Ms. Tiya said. But where did they go after entering the school's gate?" I repeated the footage in front of the school's gate again.

Cam let out a sigh. "Good news is, we know that the others are somewhere at 'school'."

I have a feeling I'm not going to like what he says next. "What's the bad news?"

Cam stood up from the chair, making his way to the elevator. "That dome has something to do with this and we might be running out of time."