This is a Code Lyoko fanfic I wrote a *long* time ago. I completed the first chapter, but I never did get Chapter 2 finished. Anyway, here at least is Chapter 1, and if enough people like it, I'll post what I have of Chapter 2 and maybe even get back to working on it again. Who knows? Anyway, enjoy!

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Edit: For another great Code Lyoko fanfic (which was my inspiration) go here.

As with many fanfics, it probably helps to have some basic understanding of Code Lyoko before reading this, but you can probably enjoy it even without it.

Also, When I started Chapter 1, Season 2 hadn't started yet, so it is only consistent with Season 1. Chapter 2 is semi-consistent with Season 2; I'll explain it in more detail when we get there.

-----------------------------

>BRRRING!<

"Come on, Jeremie! We have to get to the assembly!"

"I know, Ulrich, but I don't have time! We only have a little over a week until graduation, and if I don't figure out the antivirus before then, we're sunk! Come up with something to tell the teachers."

Ulrich watched as his friend returned to his furious typing. After a couple seconds he said "Alright, I'll do what I can."

------------------------------

Ulrich closed Jeremie's door behind him, then turned and found himself face to face with Yumi.

"Well, what did he say? Is he coming?"

"Nope. he's still working on that antivirus for Aelita. We'll have to cover for him."

"Again? If he keeps missing things like this, the teachers are going to get suspicious!"

"Yeah... Well, at least we do have Jimbo on our side."

"I guess... Come on, let's go!"

-------------------------------

"Jeremie?" came a soft voice from his computer.

"Oh, hi Aelita!" Jeremie's mood instantly improved.

"How are things going?"

"Badly. We only have about one and a half weeks unil graduation, and I still haven't gotten a working antivirus!"

"What is graduation?"

"Oh. Um, graduation is where one moves up to a higher level of education."

"Why?"

"Because, there is only so much one can learn in Collège. Once we've learned all of that, if our grades are really good, we go to a Lycée, where we study for two years for the Baccalaureat Exam, or if our grades are not so good, to some kind of Trade School to learn about a specific career. If we want to pursue a much higher education, after Lycée we can go to a University. It's like a systematic data transfer system."

"Oh. I see."
She remained silent for a while as Jeremie continued to type.

"But why must you find the antivirus before then?"

Oops. "Because when Ulrich and Odd leave for Lycée or Trade School, they won't be anywhere near the factory anymore. Odd might even go back to Sweden to live with his parents. Yumi still lives nearby, so she could keep helping like she does now, but even now she's limited. We have to face facts; our lives are going in different directions. I'm still here for another year, but I can't fight on Lyoko. Practically speaking, you would be on your own for deactivating the towers. We can't have that! That's why we have to get you materialized with the antivirus within the next week and a half."

"Oh my! Well, I'm sure you can do it, Jeremie!"

"I sure hope so. But we can't depend on that. We have to have a backup plan, in case I can't find the antivirus in time!"

---------------------------------------

"Do you think he'll do it in time?"

Ulrich looked over at Yumi. "He'll have to. I mean, what other choice do we have?"

"And if he doesn't?"

"Oh, I'm sure Einstein can handle a little ol' virus thing! I mean, how hard can it be, right? You just crunch a few numbers and presto!" Odd swung down to the ground from the branch he had been hanging on. He looked at his watch with an expression of mocked shock. "Hey, don't you now what time it is!? You guys should be going to the assembly now!"

"What do you think we're doing?" Ulrich said from far ahead. "Are you coming or not?"

"Right behind you!" Odd called as he ran forward to catch up.

---------------------------------

"Is this really necessary? Do I really have to start school on the LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL? that seems pretty futile, doesn't it?"

Calvin looked at his friend and replied "it's not really the last week of school, and no, it's not futile, either. It'll sort of give you time to get a feel for the school without all the start-of-school pressure. Trust me, it'll be fine."

"Alright, I'll stick around for the assembly, but if it's lame, I'm outta here."

"Hey, come on Shoga, don't be like that." Calvin said with a huge grin. "Push through, it'll be alright in the end!"

"Pfshw... All right, whatever."

"That's the spirit!"

----------------------------------------

"As the school year draws near to its close, I expect all of you to continue to..."

"Man, we're missing class for this?" Ulrich said quietly, bored out of his mind. "Even Mrs. Hertz's class is more exciting than this."

"Forget about that," Yumi said. "We need to come up with some sort of back up plan, in case Jeremie can't get a good antivirus together."

"Well, let's take a look at our options, shall we?" Odd interjected. "Okay, 1) Jeremie whips up the perfect antivirus by the end of next week. 2) We shut down Lyoko, also shutting down Aelita." Yumi and Ulrich looked surprised at this. "Hey, I'm just listing our options!"

"Killing Aelita is NOT an option." Ulrich said, keeping his voice low.

"Okay, okay, anyway. 3) We leave everything as it is and hope Aelita can fend for herself."

"Scratch THAT of the list too, Odd" Yumi said.

"Hang on, let me finish! 4) We tell everybody about Lyoko, and hope they'll care enough about Aelita to try to help us find the solution. 5) We stay here and spend the rest of our lives living in the factory, fighting XANA."

"You STILL haven't given us any useable Plan Bs!" Ulrich protested through clenched teeth.

"Calm down, Ulrich! I saved the best for last!"

"It better be good" Yumi rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry, it is. Choice number six: Get some new recruits! Find three or four little kidletts to take over for us! Pass the torch, take on some apprentices, give Aelita fresh protection by a brand new army of virtual warriors!"

"Odd, keep it down!" Ulrich whispered anxiously, but Ulrich wasn't listening.

Odd put his hand over his heart and stared dramatically at the sky. "Though it will be tough, I feel it is time to usher in the Next Generation of Lyokolites; a new collection of digital fighters; representatives to Lyoko from Kadic Academy!!!"

As Odd came back to reality, he realised that the principal had stopped talking, and that everybody was staring at him, except Ulrich and Yumi, who were fiercely ignoring him. His face turned beet red.

"Uh, I was just, y'know... practicing for my speech! ... In a play, that I'm... uh... writing... um..." he shrank down into himself and said meekly "I'll be quiet now."

The principal glanced at Jim, who nodded and started walking over to them. He grabbed them by the arms and said gruffly "Come on, let's go!"

Once they were out of sight of the crowd, Jim turned to Odd and said "Now look, I don't know what you were talking about back there, but I assume it had something to do with your little group secret, so I'll let it slide. But seriously Odd, you'd do well to try to keep your trap shut while the principal is holding an assembly!"

"Yes sir, Jimbo!" Odd said with relief.

"And don't forget, you promised to tell me all about it after graduation!"

"Don't worry Jimbo, we didn't forget" Yumi said with a smile.

Jim smiled back, then changed the smile back into his usual gruff frown. "Well what are you still doin' here? Go on now, get outta here!"

Jim went back toward the assembly, and Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich ran out to the park to talk.

"Odd, what were you thinking!?" Ulrich whisper-screamed through clenched teeth.

"Yeah, even for you, that was really stupid." Yumi added.

"I'm sorry guys, I just got carried away. I guess i kinda forgot where I was for a minute."

"Wonderful. You can't even have enough sense not to give a loud speech about Lyoko in front of the WHOLE SCHOOL!?!"

"Yeah, you'd better hope that XANA attacks, because I think that's the only way to undo that little outburst."

"Be careful what you wish for, Yumi!"

"Well, it's quite clear that we have only two choices, Aelita."

"Oh? And what are they, Jeremie?"

"Either I get the antivirus working before graduation, or we need to find ourselves some replacements."

>Blip!<

Yumi's cell-phone icon appeared on Jeremie's screen.

"Jeremie, Odd almost blew our secret... again... but in the process he got a maybe-not-so-bad idea."

"I've got an idea, too. Where are you?"

"In the park."

"I'll meet you at the manhole."

"OK."

"See you later, Aelita!" With that, Jeremie logged out and headed for the park.

-----------------------------------

>hup hup hup hup<

Sissy turned toward the footsteps.

What is it with them anyway? She thought. First the purple-shirt guy interrupts my father for some random nonsensical babble, then they all "disappear" into the park, and now Jeremie suddenly shows up running toward the park also. She pondered this for a bit. It's the second to last week of school, and I still haven't found out what they're up to. This could be my last chance.

"Herb! Nicholas!" Sissy whispered. "Come on!"

-----------------------------------

Jeremie stopped for a second. He thought he had heard something. He glanced over in the direction of the bushes and thought he caught a glimpse of pink. Oh no, Sissy! He ran off in a different direction, taking a long, convoluted route to the manhole. When he arrived, everyone else was already there.

"Okay--" Yumi began, but Jeremie interrupted.

"Nit here. I think Sissy's following me."

"Hey, yeah, what about Sissy?" Odd said. "Now there's a concept!"

"NO!!" Ulrich and Yumi said simultaneously.

"Let's just get to the factory. We can talk there."

-----------------------------------

>huff...puff...huff...puff...<

I can hear them talking. They can't be far away now. Sissy ran as quickly but quietly as she could, but by the time she got to the clearing, the voices had stopped and there was nobody there.

Hm... well, at least now I know where they go. Next time they run off, I'll know where to find them. She smiled, and started back off to the assembly.

Herb and Nicholas, who had just arrived at the clearing, turned and followed, bewildered.

---------------------------

>Pfsshh!<

The elevator opened onto a familiar sight. Jeremie got into his chair, which slid around on its track to its position in front of the Lyoko computer console. The 3D Holomap of Lyoko slowly rotated in the middle of the room. Jeremie put on the headset and started to type.

"Aelita?"

"Why hello, Jeremie! How are you?"

"I'm fine Aelita. I was just about to present our idea to everyone else."

"Ooh! Ooh! Can I go first?" Odd asked, jumping up and down, waving his hand enthusiastically.

Jeremie sighed. "All right, Odd, but make it quick."

"I think we should get some new kids to take over for us when we leave!"

"WHAT?!?" Jeremie yelled.

"Why, what's wrong with that? Odd asked, slightly offended.

"No, nothing! It's just... that was my idea, too."

"Wow, what a coincidence!" Aelita said.

"Well, all in favor?" Jeremie asked. Everyone, including Aelita, raised their hand.

"Alright, it's official. Time to get a new team."

"Yeah, but how?" Yumi asked. "I mean, we only have about one week to find three people strong enough to fight, brave enough to go, kind enough to care, and trustworthy enough not to tell anyone. PLUS we need somebody with all those qualities who is ALSO smart enough to handle the supercalculator!"

"Not necessarily," Jeremie interjected. "We would need three fighters, yes, but I could control the supercalaculator remotely from Lycée through Aelita over the internet."

"So," Odd said, "You're saying we need three new valiant warriors, but we don't need a new super genius?"

"Well, in a nutshell, yes."

"Dang. At this school, we're much more likely to find a super genius."

"Maybe we could have a contest."

Everyone turned to look at Ulrich, who had been quiet until now.

Odd got a huge grin on his face. "Yeah! We can have signs and stuff! Like 'Can You Keep A Secret? Are you good at fighting virtual monsters? Are you ready to risk your life every day to save all mankind? We need your help! See the current Lyoko team for details.'"

Ulrich glared at Odd. "That's not what I meant. I meant, we could hold a sort of... multi-aspect competition, with three prizes for the three top scorers. We would charge a little money to join, and then charge admission for the events, and all the money would go to the school; that way we can pitch it to the teachers as a fundraiser. It could be three events: a sprint race with Odd to test their speed for chasing or running from XANA's monsters; a chess match with jeremie to test their ability to strategize and think on their feet; and then a sparring match with me or Yumi, depending on if it's a boy or a girl. That tests general fighting ability. All of these qualities are important on Lyoko, but the events are all legitimate, spectatable contests."

Yeah," Yumi added, "And I hear the school is going to hold a bake sale. They usually do a few fundraisers near the end of the year for Summerschool. What better place to set up a bake sale than at a place with an audience like this!"

Odd added "Especially if they also sell water and sodas, and maybe chips and pretzels and stuff, too!"

"So, I guess everyone's agreed?"

"YEAH!!"

-----------------------------------

"A contest?" the principal asked.

"Well, more like a competition," Ulrich explained. "As a fundraiser! We would have a small joining fee, and then charge admission to the events."

"We could have discounts for the competitors' families!" Yumi interjected.

"And we could set up the bake sale there, and sell sodas and stuff, too!" Odd added.

"It would make the school a lot of money." Jeremie added.

"Hmmm..." the principal thought for a while. "That does sound interesting. What would the competition be?"

"A set of three events. A short-distance sprint, a chess game, and a sparring match."

"The faculty can be the judges!" Jeremie added. "Well, for the race, we can set a certain base time, from which each competitor's time would be subtracted to find their score for round one. The chess game can then be played by the official rules, including points, and their points total at the end of the game will be their score for round two. In round three the faculty can judge, and give the competitor a score from 0 to 10, like in the olympics. The scores from all three rounds are added to reach a final score, and the top three get prizes!"

"The prizes would be little things, just there to get more people to enter, and making more money for the school." Odd concluded.

"Well..." the principal began. "This does seem to be a very well planned, well-thought out idea, but who will be the competitors opponents? Will they face ach other?"

"Well, for round one they can race together, but at the end it's the score that would matter, rather than position." Jeremie explained. "For round two, I will be the opponent."

"And for round three," Ulrich interjected, "I will be the opponent for the boys, and Yumi will be the opponent for the girls. There will be very strict rules in place so that no one gets hurt."

"Hm. Well, this sounds like a very good idea. You have my permission, and I will see if any of the faculty would like to be judges."

The principal turned and walked out the door as the four kids exchanged high fives behind him.

-----------------------------------

"What's this?" Shoga asked Calvin, picking up a flyer that was blowing in the wind. "Hm. 'Announcement! Strong competitors needed! Those with speed, strength, and smarts are encouraged to join! Half a Euro to enter, two Euros to watch each event. One Euro for competitors' family members. See Yumi, Odd, Ulrich, or Jeremie for details.' Hm. 'Speed, strength and smarts' huh? We could totally kick their butts."

"Now Shoga, come on, why must you always be so violent?"

"I don't know, why must you always be so peaceful?"

"Because it suits me."

"Well, this suits me."

"I know." Calvin smiled, and Shoga sort of grunted, then they went off to find one of the four kids in charge of the competition.

------------------------------------

"Hey, Mia!"

Mia paused in her dance practice and turned to see her friend Jessie running towards her, waving a piece of paper.

"Hi Jessie. What's up?"

"Take a look at this!" Jessie shoved the piece of paper into Mia's hand.Mia read the flyer quickly, and smiled.

"Well," Mia began, brandishing her streamer like a whip. "I guess I could show those big shots a thing or two."

Jessie smiled. "That's exactly what I was thinking."

-----------------------------------------

"Milly! Milly! Check this out!" Tamiya ran up, camera in one hand and a piece of paper in the other. "I think we've got ourselves a super-scoop!"

Milly looked the flyer up and down, already starting to write an outline of her script in her head. "This is big news! Let's get straight to work!"

-----------------------------------------

"What's this?" Sissy asked Herb, as he handed her a piece of paper.

"It's a flyer."

"I can see that much! I meant what is it about? Oh nevermind, I'll read it myself!" She snatched the flyer, read it over quickly, then said "And why should I care about any of this?"

"I figured you would jump at the chance to put the Weirdo Bunch in their place."

"Well, of course I would! So?"

"So, this competition is being hosted by them! You could sign up to join, and show them who's boss! You could beat them, Sissy, I know you could!"

There are two things Sissy cannot resist: opportunites to show off her superiority, and sheer unadulterated flattery.

"Oh, alright I'll do it." She turned on her heel and strode off, without so much as a "thank you". Herb didn't mind; he was used to it. He knew that deep down inside she was grateful. And that was good enough for him.

>Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak<

"There!"

>Click<

"Done!" Odd eclared, replacing the marker's cap. He and Ulrich taped the banner to the front of the table, and Odd sat in his chair behind it. On the table was a clipboard with several signup sheets in it, a piece of paper decribing the competition, and a few pens. Once Odd was situated, Ulrich went off to find Yumi and Jim so they could start working out the competition's schedule. Odd pulled out his GameBoy® and started playing Tetris Annihilator.

Every now and then, someone would stop in front of the table and read the sign, and Odd would pause the game and look up at them. Some of them would come up and read the explanation sheet, and one or two people signed up, but overall it was very slow going. Fnally, one whole sheet was full, and Odd moved it to the bottom of the stack in the clipboard.

"Um, excuse me?"

Odd looked up and saw an interesting sight. Two people who Odd had never seen before stood there next to each other. They were both male and wore bluejeans, but there the similarities ended. The one to Odd's left looked American, wore light-blue jeans, a grass-green t-shirt, and a red fleece vest, unzipped. His hair was a light-ish, yellowy blond, cut to about ear-length, with a small cowlick in the front. He wore red and grean tennis shoes with white laces and blue soles. The one to Odd's right was Asian and had jet-black hair with extra-long bangs combed over the left side of his face. He wore baggy, dark-blue jeans, a long-sleeved olive-yellow shirt, and a black leather jacket with the entire right-hand third torn off. He wore tan suede slip-on shoes with brown rubber soles.

But they differed in manner even more than in appearance. The one in the vest stood straight upright, full of energy and enthusiasm, his bright blue eyes warm and kind. He looked Odd in the eye and smiled when he talked. He had his arm around the shoulders of the one in the jacket, who slouched, frowned, and darted his eyes everywhere. His olive-green eyes were dark and uncaring, and little emotion other than boredom showed in his face.

"We'd like to sign up," the one in the vest continued.

"Sure," said Odd, not missing a beat. "Just fill this out here," he pushed the clipboard and pen towards them, "and you're all set! We'll give you a schedule as soon as we have one worked out and printed up."

"Cool." the one in the vest replied, and started to fill in his info. "Oh, I'm Cal, by the way, and this here is Shoga." He smiled and nodded his head in the direction of the one in the jacket. Shoga merely grunted in acknowledgement. Cal finished filling in his info and passed it to Shoga, who quickly scribbled in an entry and tossed the clipboard back onto the table.

After they left, Odd took the clipboard and read their entries, which looked like this:



Hm, Odd thought, This will be interesting. He put down the clipboard and found himself face to face with Sissy.

"It's about time you noticed me!" she snapped. "I'm here to sign up for the competition."

"Sissy, we don't have any categories in being bossy or nosy, so why don't you go find someone else to annoy, huh?"

Sissy's eyes glinted menacingly as she said "I'm sure my father would LOVE to hear that your little competition is being exclusive. Don't forget the school's policy that all functions and activities must be open to all students!"

"Fine, finefinefine, sign here," Odd said, handing her the clipboard. She smirked and filled in her info, tossed the clipboard back onto the table, and stalked off.

Before Odd even got a chance to check Sissy's entry, Herb came up, glared at Odd with his finger at his mouth, silently filled out an entry beneath Sissy's, then ran off without a word.

Odd glanced at the paper:


Odd glanced back up to see Sissy back again.

"I forgot something" she said snippily, grabbing the clipboard and writing on it.

"Hello!" a sweet voice said from behind Sissy. Odd leaned to the right to see who was talking.

The girl there seemed to be the very embodiment of the stereotypical cheerleader: perky, ditzy, over-enthusiastic, and not-too-bright. She wore a pleated pink knee-length skirt, a relatively tight purple t-shirt with poofy sleeves, and purple slipper-like shoes. her light-brown hair was held back by a pink hair band. She was smiling a cute little smile, and when Odd made eye contact, she winked at him.

Sissy tossed the clipboard to the table and whirled around.

"You!?" Sissy said. "You want to compete against me in a contest of speed strength and smarts? I bet you couldn't even outsmart Nicholas!!"

There was a loud CRACK as of a whip, a flurry of pink, and about half a second later Sissy found herself completely covered head to ankles in a pink streamer, leaving only her eyes and nose uncovered. The other end of the streamer had a wand-like apparatus attached, and that was held in the hand of the cheerleader girl. She smiled sweetly, but not with her eyes, and pulled Sissy in close. Sissy's eyes widened in fear, and the new girl spoke in that tone of voice that is menacing simply by being so soft and sweet.

"Now, you don't want to be saying that, do you? I don't like being angry, and you wouldn't like it either. This competition is open to anyone; you said so yourself. You wouldn't go back on your word, now would you?"

Sissy shook her head frantically. The cheerleader girl's eyes softened and she smiled for real.

"Good." She flicked her wrist, and the streamer suddenly loosened, expanded, and unraveled a bit from Sissy. For a split second it hung in the air around her, then the new girl spun the handle in her fingers, and, snakelike, the streamer slid over the air away from Sissy and into the cheerleader girl's hand until she held it in a collapsed circle like a stowed lasso. She winked again. "See you there!" She turned and walked off. Sissy stood, stunned, for a second, then blinked twice and wandered off in a daze.

About two seconds later the cheerleader girl returned. "Oops! I almost forgot to sign in! Silly me!" She giggled, filled out her info, then skipped off. Odd stood in stunned silence for a few moments, then fell slowly back into his chair, staring off into space after this mystery girl. His GameBoy® toppled to the ground.

The paper now read:


-----------------------------------

"Good morning, Kadic Academy! This is Milly and Tamiya, bringing you the latest news! I'm sure you have all heard of the competition being held," she lifted up a flyer, which Tamiya focused on briefly before returning to Milly, "And I'm sure you're all just as excited as I am."

Tamiya zoomed out to show the school's running track in the background behind Milly, and gave her the "thumbs up" sign.

"I'm reporting to you straight from the track as Round One is about to begin. This first event is a 100 meter dash, and each competitor's time in the race will be subtracted from 50 seconds to produce their score." She turned. "Oh, and I see the first batch is lining up now." She faced the camera again. "The competitors will race in groups of three, and the hosts of the competition wait at the end with stopwatches."

Tamiya motioned for Milly to turn back around as Jim raised the starter gun in the air. Milly turned around just as he fired the gun. "And they're off!"

----------------------------------

>Click<

Jeremie hit his stopwatch as his assigned competitor crossed the line. He glanced at his stopwatch:

35.42

Not too bad, he thought. Not incredible, but not horrible either.

Jeremie jotted the time next to the name on his clipboard, then glanced up at the next set of three. Jeremie had volunteered to time the runner in the center lane, and the girl now standing there was quite a sight to see.

She wore her long light-brown hair in a ponytail, and wore a hot-pink tracksuit. Odd, who was timing the runner on the left, leaned over and whispered to Jeremie, "That's Mia, the girl i told you about; the one who tied up Sissy with her streamer!"

Jeremie merely replied "Well, let's just see how well she runs."

>BANG!<

The outer two runners took off, and a moment later Mia said "Oh!" and started running.

Even with the slight delay, she still crossed the finish line first. Jeremie checked his stopwatch:

24.31

Not bad, he thought. Not bad at all. He wrote down her time and looked up again. Herb was in the center, and two people Jeremie had never seen before were on the outside tracks. Odd leaned over again.

"The guy on the right, in the vest, is Calvin, and the guy in the jacket is Shoga. Geez, do they ever take those things off?"

Yumi, who was judging the runner on the right, said "Quiet down, you two, and just judge the race, huh?"

">sigh< Fine."

>BANG!<

Herb was instantly left far behind as Cal and Shoga streaked down the raceway. Shoga stayed just ahead of Cal the whole time, Cal smiling all the way.

Jeremie heard Odd and Yumi gasp in surprise as they looked at their stopwatches, but couldn't look up because Herb hadn't finished the race yet.

................>Click<

41.84

Not surprising, he thought, jotting down the number and going over to see what Odd and Yumi were so excited about.

"Look at this, huh?" Yumi said, shoving her stopwatch at Jeremie. "I didn't reset it, just so you could see for yourself." Jeremie looked down at the watch and did a double-take:

15.03

"Whoah!" Jeremie exclaimed.

"Yeah, but check out Shoga's time!" Odd interjected, giving jeremie his watch:

14.71

Jeremie stood in stunned silence as heard Cal saying something to Shoga.

"You were holding back Shoga! You can't fool me! I told you not to do that!"

Shoga said nothing and walked off, Cal following.

".......Wow." Odd and Yumi said in unison.

"Okay, so they're fast," Jeremie shrugged, but at a look from Odd and Yumi he amended, "Okay, so they're really fast, but tomorrow, we'll see how good they are at chess."

-----------------------------------

"Checkmate!"

Jeremie sat back and smield smugly as Herb plopped his head down on the table.

"Who's next?" Jeremie asked. He had beaten Sissy easily, and none of the other competitors so far had presented much of a challenge. Herb had been the first to make the game actually interesting.

Shoga stepped up and sat in the seat opposite Jeremie, and without a word began setting up his pieces. Jeremie extended a hand for a handshake, but Shoga ignored him. Jeremie shrugged and set up his side. Once the board was set, Shoga muttered "Let's go."

Jeremie made his first move, and the game was instantly underway. Shoga's only strategy seemed to be not to have one. He countered Jeremie's attacks, thinking one move at a time, at leats as far as Jeremie could tell.

Suddenly, with a move of his bishop, Shoga said sullenly "Stalemate" and got up and left without another word. Startled, Jeremie looked back down at the board and saw that Shoga was right. Jeremie quickly added up the points, and while he had beaten Shoga, it was not by much. Taking this in stride, he began setting up his pieces again, when a sweet lilting voice said softly "Am I next?"

Jeremie glanced up to see Mia standing there, clad in her normal pink-and-purple get up, smiling a cute little smile as she sat down in her seat. Regarding the board with interest, she said "I think I remember how to play this game. Let's see,..."

And so the game began. Mia seemed totally clueless, but seemed to fully subscribe to the philosophy "ignorance is bliss." She would joyfully narrate every move with endearing interpretation, such as "My pony kicks over your fencepost" when she took a pawn with a knight. It didn't take long to get her in checkmate.

"Oops!" she giggled. "I guess you won. Tee hee!" She winked at him and got up, then with a wave said "See you later!" and bouncily skipped away. Jeremie added up her points, and she had scored surprisingly high, though nowhere near Jeremie's score. As Jeremie began to set the pieces back up, Cal walked over and started to help.

"Hey, I guess I'm your next opponent," Cal said, smiling and extending a hand.

"Jeremie" he replied, matching the smile and shaking Cal's hand. Cal sat down, scooted his chair in, and said good-naturedly "Well then, shall we be off?"

They started right in. Cal was clearly no pushover. Jeremie was impressed, but figured he could still take him. They traded blows, set up strategies, watched them crumble, let new ones rise in their wake. This was among the greatest challenges Jeremie had ever had in a chess game, and he was loving every minute of it.

"Check" Jeremie said, moving his rook into position. There was only one move Jeremie saw that Cal could make to get himself out of check, and then with a move of a knight, Jeremie could clinch the game. Cal sat motionless, seeming to stare more through the board than at it. Jeremie smiled triumphantly.

"Checkmate."

Jeremie nearly fell out of his chair. "What!?" But he saw it was true. Cal had set a trap, and Jeremie had fallen for it. He had missed Cal's bishop, all the way across the board, which now took Jeremie's checking rook and clinched the game for Cal. Cal smiled warmly at Jeremie and extended a hand. "Good game, Jer. Very well played." Jeremie returned the handshake with a very impressed smile. As he started packing up the board, he heard Milly's excited voice from off to the side:

"Well, it seems they saved the best for last! I wouldn't have believed it, but Jeremie has just been beaten! This stunning turn of events brings Round Two, and the school week, to a close. Take tomorrow to relax, and we'll be back on Monday with the Final Round of the most exciting competition this school has ever seen!"

As Sunday dawned on Kadic Junior High, the sun also rose behind a nearby abandoned Renault motorcycle factory. Deep in the bowels of the factory basement, a small screen lit up with a symbol that would be only too familiar to some, as a great electronic evil awoke. Its circuits began to fire as it asked itself a question it had asked all too many times before:

How shall mankind face extinction today?

----------------------------------

>YAWN!<

"Well, good morning, Odd! Sleep well?"

"Oh, hush up, Ulrich. How long have you been up?"

"Since 8:00. It's almost noon now."

Odd instantly leapt to his feet and threw his clothes on. "Oh man! I almost missed breakfast!" With that he ran out the door, leaving Ulrich laughing behind him.

----------------------------------

"Good morning Jeremie!"

"Oh, good morning Aelita!"

"How are you doing?"

"Mmh, alright I guess. I mean, getting the replacements is all well and good, but I'd much rather get you materialized with the antivirus before graduation."

"I know. I'd like that too. But like you said, we have to have a backup plan."

"Yeah. Well, at least today I'll have time to work on the program. I've been set back a bit with this whole competition thing."

He cracked his knuckles, and then said with a smile "No time like the present!"

----------------------------------

>knock knock knock<

Tamiya opened her door and found herself face to ace with Milly.

"Come on," Milly said. "We have today off, so let's get a head start on editing what we've got so far on the competition. That way, we'll have more time on Tuesday to work on what we'll do for the Year End Dance."

"All right, let's get to work!"

Milly smiled, and they dived in.

----------------------------------

"Come on, Shoga! Get up!"

"Grrrrrmph..." Shoga rolled over.

"Come on! It's after twelve already! It's time to get UP!"

"Gowaaaayyy..."

Calvin sighed, then smiled as he got an idea. The plan was to drag Shoga to the desk and shine the lamp in his face to get him up. Cal grabbed the back of his jacket and started to lift him when he was suddenly thrown to the floor by a fist in his face. Cal felt his nose, and it was bleeding but not broken. Shoga was standing right above him, fist and teeth clenched, fire in his eyes.

"You... of all people... should know better... Cal..."

Cal suddenly realized his mistake and turned his eyes away. "I'm sorry."

"Good. You should be." Shoga stormed out, and Cal followed after cleaning up his face.

----------------------------------

"Good morning, Ulrich," Yumi said jokingly, walking into the cafeteria. Though she wasn't a student anymore, she still spent most of her time at school with her friends. The principal and her parents were fine with it, as long as she never interfered with their studies. "And how are you today?"

"Just fine, Yumi. You?"

"I'm alright. What about you, Odd?"

"Mfgh," Odd replied around a mouthful of breakfast. Yumi and Ulrich just laughed.

Yumi was about to ask where Jeremie was when she heard a voice say "Hey, can we sit with you guys?" Ulrich and Yumi looked up to see Cal and Shoga standing there with full lunch trays.

"Sure, go ahead," Yumi motioned to the mepty bench in front of them.

"Much obliged" Cal said as they sat down. "I'm Cal, and this is Shoga." Shoga sort of grunted and started eating.

"I'm Yumi, this is Ulrich," (Ulrich nodded) "and that's Odd."

"Yeah, we've met," Cal smiled at Odd, who made a noise of acknowledgement from behind his fork.

They fell into a silence that was punctuated intermittently by the sounds of Odd wolfing down his food.

"You guys sure can run fast," Yumi said, trying to break the silence. Cal almost blushed, averted his eyes and mumbled a quick "thanks". Shoga just shrugged and continued eating in silence.

Ulrich glanced Shoga up and down, then said "If you don't mind me asking, what's up with your jacket?"

Shoga shot a quick glare at Ulrich, said "I do mind", and went back to eating. Cal glanced at Ulrich apologetically and mouthed "he's sensitive."

"So," Cal said afer a couple seconds, clapping his hands together. "Are you two going out or anything?" he asked, pointing between Ulrich and Yumi. They both tried desperately not to blush, and each found fascinating things to look at in directions other than each other or Cal.

Odd perked up and said through his spoon "Tgy frlgy ssuhgd bnaof!" nailing Shoga on the forehead with a small piece of chewed food. Shoga froze in place, and only his eyes swiveled upward to look at the food wad, then slowly back down to glare at Odd. Not breaking eye contact, he slowly, deliberately, wiped off his forehead with a napkin, then went back to eating as if nothing had happened. Odd sat frozen, his spoon still in his mouth, one eyebrow raised. Ulrich hung his shaking head in his hand and sighed. Yumi was ignoring them all furiously. Cal just rolled his eyes and smiled.

"Shoga doesn't exactly subscribe to the 'hilarious antics' style of personality," he glanced at Shoga with some unreadable mix of emotions, then turned back to Yumi and continued. "I guess you could call him the 'strong and silent' type."

"That sounds a lot like Ulrich," Yumi replied. Ulrich glanced up as she continued, "But he has his lighter side, too." Ulrich smiled and went back to eating.

Shoga glanced up at Ulrich, swallowed his mouthful and said "'Strong and silent', huh? So far, you've been very little of either."

Ulrich glared briefly at Shoga and answered "You'll see plenty of both tomorrow. I don't talk much during a one-sided beat-down!"

Shoga glanced up, seemingly unfazed, then returned to his food and said simply "We'll see."

----------------------------------

Deep beneath the school, in what would ordinarily be a perfectly innocent room, an innocuous electrical outlet began to spark, and an ominous dark grey cloud began filtering out. Had it had a mouth, it would have smiled.

Much damage could be done here.

----------------------------------

"Over here! Pass it to me!"

Back on the surface, a few of the students were playing an impromptu game of soccer. The goalie prepared for the worst as Ulrich swept down the field with the ball. Ulrich hopped over the last defender as he failed to hop over a small pothole. The goalie braced for a dive. Ulrich kicked the ball up and to the right, and the goalie dived just as Ulrich used his momentum to leap into the air after the ball and catch it with his other foot, sending it careening down and to the left.

"GOAL!" yelled Jim, who had agreed to referee.

"Yes!" Ulrich exclaimed in celebration.

"Alright Ulrich!" Yumi, Odd, and Jeremie cheered for their friend from the sidelines. "Way to go!"

As the small gathering cheered, a silent pair of eyes was also watching Ulrich from behind a bit of long, dark-ish golden hair, which hung from the head of a young man, hanging back in the shadows. His olive green eyes widened just slightly at the kick, then narrowed as he thought to himself, He's not bad. Not bad at all.

----------------------------------

Deep within the circuitry of the most sophisticated piece of hardware this world has ever seen, the same hardware which contained an intelligence of great evil, there also lay an artificial, digital world. In this world were many things: trees, mountains, ice and snow, and several tall towers, all glowing with a blue aura now save for one. Two buzzing creatures flew away from this tower's ominous red glow, fully prepared to complete their newfound mission.

Elsewhere in this digital realm, a cute pink-haired girl began to worry as she felt a low rumbling beneath her feet.

----------------------------------

>snap!<

>HSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!<

Steam billowed out from the now open pipe. Soon afterwards, scalding hot water began to flow. The dark, gaseous entity would have nodded, if it had had a head, then it flowed back into the now burned out electrical socket from whence it came.

Its work here was done.

----------------------------------

The pink-haired girl continued to take small, slow steps through the forest as the intermittent rumblings slowly grew in intensity.

"Pulsations?" she realized, then her eyes widened and her head snapped up. "XANA!"

----------------------------------

Ms. Hertz was grading papers at her desk when she began to feel a bit warm. She loosened her collar slightly, which helped for a bit, but the temperature continued to rise. That's odd, she thought, getting up to check the thermostat. When she saw it, her eyes widened. The thermostat itself was not very exciting; the display showed nothing out of the ordinary. The wall on which the thermostat lay, however, was bloated, cracking,m and secreting steam. She turned and ran from the room, closing the door firmly behind her.

As she looked around the hallway, noticing the walls in here were in similar condition, she heard a loud crack, followed by the sound of rushing water from inside the room she had just left. She ran for the exit, pausing only briefly to hit the fire alarm.

>BWAAAH!...BWAAAH!...BWAAAH!...<

The soccer game came to a screeching halt as the school's fire alarm went off. Yumi glanced over at the school, then at the dorms, and didn't see any smoke from either one. She leaned over to Jeremie and whispered, "You think it might be XANA, maybe trying to distract us from an attack?"

Jeremie replied, "Unlikely, it's probably just a fire drill. But I'll check with Aelita just in case."

----------------------------------

Milly looked up from Tamiya's computer, which they used for film editing, as the fire alarm sounded. Milly and Tamiya took one look at each other, then quickly began gathering their film stuff together. No way were they leaving the building without it. Even in this state of emergency, their minds were still focused on their work.

----------------------------------

Mia was so startled by the fire alarm that she tripped over herself in the middle of a spin. She fell, legs tangled, to the floor, but not even once did she loosen her grip on her streamer, which had been spinning with her and now slowly collapsed around her.

Jessie ran up to her, yelling, "Mia, are you okay?"

"Of course," Mia replied, getting up and stowing her streamer. She looked around and then added, "But let's get out of here!"

----------------------------------

Cal stopped in mid punch at the sound of the fire alarm, his fist mere centimeters from the rebounding stuffed leather bag, which, now unhindered, smacked into his face. Hard. Cal didn't even blink, but was instantly on full alert, looking all around as one thought permeated his entire consciousness:

Where is Shoga??

----------------------------------

Sissy looked up from her makeup kit when the alarm went off, barely stopping herself from smearing the lipstick she was putting on.

They wouldn't hold a drill on our off day, would they? It wouldn't be fair, the day students are gone. she thought. She suddenly noticed that it was quite hot in her room, and in a panic she threw some clothes on and ran for the exit as her room filled with something like smoke.

----------------------------------

"Where do you think you're going?" Jim asked gruffly, standing between Jeremie and the dormitory.

"I need to go to my room! I left something important in there!"

"Look, Jeremie, I know I've given you a lot of breaks in the past, but I'm not gonna let you run around inside a burning building!"

"But Jimbo--"

"No! And that's final!"

Darn it! Well, that at least proves it's not a drill. I'll have to go to the factory. The park entrance is too far away; we'll go through the boiler room.

----------------------------------

"He what?" Yumi asked in surprise.

"He wouldn't let me in. It's definitely not a fire drill. Come on, we've got to get to the factory!"

Odd held one finger high in the air and announced, "To the boiler room!"

Ulrich looked at the building. Grayish clouds were filtering out of it. "Man, it's really burning! Let's go!"

----------------------------------

"Shoga, there you are!" Cal called out, panting as he slowed to a stop.

Shoga just stood there, not turning his eyes from the building at all.

"...It's really going up..." was all he said.

Cal looked around, trying to see if he noticed anyone missing. "Hey, I don't see those reporter girls out here -- Hey! Shoga, wait!" But Shoga was out of earshot already.

Cal was almost tempted to smile as he couldn't help but think, He's not holding back this time.

----------------------------------

>cough! cough!<

"Come on...Milly!" Tamiya cried out through the hot, thick air with some difficulty, dragging her coughing friend along. "We've got to -- Ow!" She dropped the camera as it began sparking and shorting out.

"Now why would that..." Then she realized that the choking gas in the air was not smoke. It was something worse.

Because everyone knows the emergency procedures in case of a fire...

...But what the heck do you in a building boiling to the ground!?

----------------------------------

Please, let me not be too late! Shoga screamed to himself, panting with each bound as he ran towards the dorm. Jim saw Shoga coming and barely had time to step in front of the door.

"MOVE, DAMMIT!!" Shoga yelled, still running. Shoga didn't even give Jim a chance to respond, but merely leapt at him, vaulting over his shoulders and planting a flying roundhouse kick on the door.

It never stood a chance.

The blast of steam from the broken door bowled Jim over and he was knocked unconscious briefly.

Shoga just kept running.

* "... we'll be back on Monday with the Final Round of the most exciting competition this school has ever seen!" *

He replayed the memory over and over in his head. She sounded so happy, so innocent... so oblivious to the horrors of the world...

...So much like Amy had been...

Shoga ran faster.

----------------------------------

The four kids reached the door to the staircase that led to the boiler room, from which there was an entrance to the sewer tunnel they used to get to the factory.

Jeremie grabbed the handle... and it burned his hand. "Ow!"

Ulrich could see faint wisps of something like smoke escaping from around the door. Maybe that's where the fire is, he thought. "Everybody stand back!" he yelled, pointing to an area off to the right that he judged would be out of range of anything that could burst through that doorway. When everyone was safely away, he crouched, leapt into the air, and kicked down on the door handle.

The now unhindered, hot, waterlogged door slammed into Ulrich, throwing him back, as it was flung open by the intense water pressure that had been building behind it. Boiling water and billowing steam clouds shot out of the doorway with the force of a fire hose, then it slowly died down to a steady, scalding, steaming flow. Ulrich looked up at the others from his position sprawled out on the ground, and said with a weak smile, "I think we'd better go through the park."

----------------------------------

"Oh... my head..." Jim awoke to see a big light blur against a bigger, lighter blur above him. He sat up and saw something moving towards him. He blinked a few times and refocused his eyes as he regained full consciousness.

"Jim?" the blur asked, becoming clearer.

"Sissy!" Jim finally recognized her. "Come on, let's get you out of here!"

Suddenly they both heard the sound of running feet. They turned to look, and saw Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi running toward the park. Ulrich seemed to have a slight limp. He noticed Jim and Sissy and came to a stop, waving the others on. He ran up to them.

"We've got to get out of here! The boiler room has blown, and somehow the water is flooding the walls! The whole building could collapse any minute!"

Sissy pushed away from Jim and ran to Ulrich, grabbing his arm. "I'm staying with you!"

Ulrich looked like he would rather have a rabid wolverine latched onto his arm than Sissy right now, but reluctantly he agreed.

"Okay, you can come with me. But if I tell you to stop and wait for me somewhere, you do it, alright?" Sissy nodded, and Ulrich looked back up at Jim. "Is anyone else still inside?"

Jim tried to remember, but his brain was still a bit fuzzy from the fall. "I... don't know!"

Ulrich sighed in exasperation, then quickly said, "Well don't go in there now. Just stay here and don't let anyone else in!" he turned to run, then turned back. "Oh, and if the building starts to fall, RUN!" With that, he and Sissy took of for the park.

----------------------------------

Shoga waved his hand around, trying to brush some of the steam away from his face. He wasn't sure what it meant that it was steam and not smoke, but he wasn't thinking about that right now.

He almost called out "Amy!" but caught himself. Dangit, what was her name? Mimi? Misty? No... Oh, right!" "MILLY!!"

----------------------------------

Milly looked up as she thought she heard her name. She and Tamiya were huddled together in the middle of the floor somewhere in the second story hallway; that was all they could tell. Other than that, they were lost, and could barely see three feet in any direction even on the floor because of the steam. It felt like they were being cooked alive.

"H-h-hello?" she squeaked out of her burned throat, then steeled herself to the pain and tried again. "HELLO?"

----------------------------------

Shoga heard, or thought he heard, a voice from somewhere above him.

Don't jump to conclusions, part of him was saying. t might be nothing, and getting yourself killed at this point won't help anything. But the rest of him wasn't listening, and he continued running toward the stairs.

----------------------------------

"Okay Sissy, this is where you have to stop and wait for me."

Sissy looked around and saw that they were in the same clearing that the others had disappeared from a few days earlier.

"There's no WAY I'm letting you go now! Not when I'm this close to you and your friends' big secret! I know this place has something to do with it! Why can't I ever find out what you guys are doing? YUMI knows! Why won't you tell--"

"Alright alright! Sheesh, you'd win any whining contest hands down. Alright, here's the deal: I'll tell you our secret, but you have to SWEAR never to tell anyone anything about it, and you have to stay RIGHT HERE."

"No. I'm coming with you."

"No, you're not. Do you want to know what we're doing?"

"Do you want the principal to find out?"

"That hardly matters anymore at this point. If we fail here, it doesn't matter who knows about it."

"...And if you succeed?"

Ulrich smiled smugly. "Then none of this will even have happened."

Sissy raised a very incredulous eyebrow, then crossed her arms and said snippily, "This had better be good."

----------------------------------

"Aelita? Aelita, are you there?"

"Jeremie! It's XANA! He's launched an attack!"

"Thought so. He's flooding the school with boiling water!"

"Well, it's no picnic here either. I'm hiding in the Forest Region cornered by two Hornets."

"Okay. Yumi and Odd are on their way."

The elevator doors closed in front of Odd and Yumi, and reopened soon one floor later on a familiar sight: the Scanner Room. Yumi and Odd stepped into two of the Scanners as, one floor higher, Jeremie was speaking into his headset.

"Transfer: Yumi." Yumi turned around and the Scanner door slid closed in front of her.

"Transfer: Odd." Odd turned as his door closed.

"Scanner: Yumi." On Jeremie's screen, Yumi's character card was selected as Yumi was lifted into the air by some unseen force, and began rotating slowly.

"Scanner: Odd." Odd's Character card was selected as he began to float and turn.

"Virtualization!"

In the forest, about ten feet above the ground, two sets of four light blue holographic arrows began turning in the air, moving downward, each drawing in its center a virtual figure: the digital versions of Odd and Yumi. They became fully present and fell to the ground, landing in a crouch on hand, foot, and knee, then standing up.

"Over here!" Aelita waved to them from inside a large, hollowed out stump, just as two Hornets flew up over the top of it and came flying at Odd and Yumi, firing lasers.

Yumi dived to the right and Odd dove to the left, then they rolled past each other to the other sides of the stump and ran inside.

"Hi, how are you?"

"We're okay, all things considered," Odd joked. "How about you?"

"Oh, I'm fine." Aelita replied.

"Good," Odd answered. "Then it's time to go hunting. Yumi?" Yumi nodded, and they each dived out of opposite sides of the stump.

"HYA!" Yumi cried as she threw her fan like a Frisbee up over the side of the stump.

"Laser Arrow!" Odd yelled as he fired an arrow up into the air. Each weapon hit one Hornet, and they burst. Yumi caught the fan and closed it.

"The coast is clear!" Yumi called to Aelita.

"You're doing great, guys!" came Jeremie's voice in their heads. "I've located the activated tower. It's in the desert region. There's a Transport Tower nearby; 30 degrees North."

"Follow me." Aelita said and started running. Odd and Yumi took off after her.

----------------------------------

"Hey, you! You're Jim, right?" Cal asked, running up.

"Yeah, that's me."

"Have you seen Shoga? Tall-ish, black hair, torn jacket...?"

"Uh..." Jim suddenly remembered the kid that jumped over him. "Yeah, he... he's still in the building!!" Jim whirled around in worry, then whirled back in case he had to stop cal from running in to rescue him.

Much to Jim's surprise, cal visibly relaxed, and said, "Oh, okay. Just so long as I know where he is. Mind if I sit here and wait for him?"

Jim stared agape at Ca;, who sat down and then, noticing Jim's look, smiled and said, "If anyone can get out of this, Shoga can. I wouldn't worry about him." cal suddenly glanced at the building and added, more to himself than to Jim, "Not about this kind of thing, anyway."

----------------------------------

* ... "Shoga, help me!" ... "I'm coming, Amy!" ... *

"AMY--damn--MILLY!! Where are you?"

"We're up here!" came a voice from the top of the stairs.

"Don't worry, I'm coming!" Shoga began running up the creaking, bloated stairs, trying to ignore the crumbling, gushing sound he heard behind him.

We'll need to find another way down, I guess.

----------------------------------

"Okay, now do you understand?" Ulrich asked Sissy, after finishing his explanation.

"Let me get this straight," Sissy said with flagrant incredulity. "There is an evil super computer virus named XANA that wants to take over the world, and you four go to some imaginary place called Lyoko where a holographic girl turns off towers, which somehow stops the virus thing and sends you all back in time!?" She clearly didn't believe a word of it.

"I don't care how crazy it sounds, and I don't care if you don't believe me; I've told you our secret, now stay here and don't move!" With that, Ulrich climbed down through the manhole into the sewer, leaving Sissy sulking at the base of the tree, feeling cheated, disgruntled, and wholly unsatisfied.

----------------------------------

Yumi, Odd, and Aelita stepped out of the tower, and were greeted by the glaring sun, dusty winds, and golden sands of the Desert Region.

"Let's go." Aelita said, and took off running. Odd and Yumi followed right behind her.

A sharp sound was heard as Odd was knocked sideways by a laser. "Whoah!" he cried, then looked up and saw two Krabs approaching from either side.

"Be careful, Odd! You don't want to lose too many life points!"

"Thanks, Jeremie, I never would have guessed on my own! LASER ARROW!!" he leapt into the air, dodging another laser, and fired an arrow at one of the Krabs, which dodged and fired at Odd again.

"HYA!" Yumi threw her fan, which arced in front of Odd, blocking the laser but being knocked to the ground by the hit. Odd did a back flip and kicked the fan back to Yumi, who caught it just in time to block a laser for herself.

"Hurry up guys! You have to get to the Tower!"

"Come one!" Aelita said, and they all started running, Odd firing arrows back at the Krabs now and then and Yumi using her fan to block their lasers.

"There it is!" Aelita called out as the Tower hove into view.

"Alright!" Odd yelled, but in his moment of distraction he was hit by two lasers.

"Odd, you only have twenty Life Points left! You need to be careful!"

The elevator doors opened across the room from Jeremie and Ulrich ran in. "How are we doing?"

"Badly. Odd and Yumi are facing two Krabs, and Odd only has twenty Life Points left!"

"Alright, I'm going in."

----------------------------------

"Transfer: Ulrich...

...Scanner: Ulrich...

...Virtualization!"

----------------------------------

Odd looked up at the Krab and smiled. "Twenty Life Points, huh? Twenty is more than enough! Here we go!" Odd leapt into the air at one of the Krabs, shouting "LASER ARROWS!!" Odd fired two shots at the Krab, and both Krabs fired at Odd. All four shots hit their mark. The Krab wobbled a bit, then fell over and burst. Odd smiled and gave Yumi the "thumbs-up" sign as he began to devirtualize.

Yumi looked up at the other Krab, which turned to look at her. She got out her fan, which was almost instantly knocked out of her hand by a laser. She saw it skid across the ground, stopping about ten meters behind her. She looked back up at the Krab, which was preparing to fire.

"IMPACT!" a voice yelled from above the Krab. Ulrich landed on the Krab and stabbed his katana to the hilt into the center of the XANA symbol on its back. He twisted it around for a second, then leapt back off and landed next to Yumi as the Krab fell and burst behind him.

"Hey, Yumi. How's it going?"

"We're fine. Aelita's on her way to the Tower now."

Ulrich looked up to see Aelita running toward the Tower. She paused and leaned down to pick up Yumi's fan, and a light blue beam of energy shot over her head.

"Oh no!" Aelita dove to the right and hid behind a rock as two Blocks stepped into view.

"Be careful, guys! Those are Ice Blocks! Their beams take fifty Life Points away!"

"Thanks for the tip, Jer!" Ulrich said with strained sarcasm as he blocked an ice beam with his sword. "I kinda knew that!"

"Yumi! Here!" Aelita called, tossing the fan back to Yumi. Yumi caught it with a flair, said "Thanks," and threw it at one of the Blocks. "HYA!"

The fan struck true and the Block burst, sending the fan sailing back into Yumi's hand. She smiled.

Ulrich turned to the one remaining Block and brandished his sword.

The Block prepared to fire.

----------------------------------

"Milly! There you are!!" Shoga shouted over the loud hissing and gurgling in the background.

"Wh-wh-who are you?"

"I'm Shoga. Come on, let's get you and your friend out of here." He smiled as comfortingly as he could, and started leading them down the hall in the opposite direction from the way he had come.

"Wait, didn't you come up the stairs? Aren't they back there?" Tamiya asked.

"The stairs are out." Shoga replied simply. "We're finding another way out."

"B-b-but that's the only staircase! The... the only other way down is the fire escape, but you can only get to it from inside the rooms!"

Damn it! Shoga cursed to himself. "Don't worry, we'll find a way."

He smiled, then suddenly snapped his head up as he heard a sound he really, really didn't want to hear. Oh, CRAP! "Come on!" he yelled, picking them up one in each arm and running down the hall.

What he had heard was the floor giving out beneath them.

----------------------------------

Outside the building, Cal heard the same sound that Shoga had, and his head also snapped up. "Uh-oh," was all he said. He then got up and ran to the nearest fire escape and began to climb.

"Hey, where are you going?" Jim called after him.

"I'm going to help Shoga! I know you probably don't approve, but quite frankly," he smiled, "I don't care!" He continued climbing.

Sissy sat in the clearing, hugging her knees, wishing she could be anywhere else but here.

"Hey there!" a slightly over-perky voice said over to her left. "What are you doing?"

Sissy glared up to see Mia standing there, Jessie standing unobtrusively off to the side. Sissy turned away and rested her chin on her knees. "I'm waiting for Ulrich." she said, motioning to the manhole.

"Mind if I join you?"

Sissy looked back at Mia in surprise, and found no hint of sarcasm in her face. Only genuine kindness and sincerity shined through.

"Um, okay..."

----------------------------------

"Shoga, what's that sound?" Shoga didn't answer, but said "Which room is yours?"

"I don't know, I don't know where we are!"

Damnit, we need to get out of this hallway now!

The floor gave a menacing shudder beneath their feet.

----------------------------------

Cal thought he heard some faint voices from behind the window. Bingo, he thought, and kicked it in. He jumped into the steam-filled room and yelled "Shoga, is that you?"

----------------------------------

Shoga heard Cal's voice from behind a door nearby. "Yeah! Where are you!"

Cal's voice replied, "I'm in one of the rooms! Follow my voice! Wait, what am I saying?" then a door opened and Cal poked his head out. "In here!"

Shoga felt a tremor and the floor jolted. "GO!" he yelled, shoving Milly and Tamiya into the room. "Get them down safely!"

Cal caught them and set them down lightly, then turned back to Shoga. "What about you?"

Shoga turned to Cal one last time and said "I need to see if anyone else is in here!"

Cal knew better than to try to stop him at this point. "Be careful," was all he said, and led Milly and Tamiya to the fire escape.

----------------------------------

...

"So, what do you think they're doing down there?" Mia asked Sissy.

Sissy looked up for a moment, then turned her eyes away. "He wouldn't tell me."

"Oh."

...

----------------------------------

"Triplicate!" Ulrich yelled as the Block fired an Ice Beam. Ulrich split into three, and one of the copies was hit by the beam and instantly devirtualized. The other two charged.

"Impact!" yelled one of them, plunging his sword deep into the XANA symbol. The block skittered around a bit, then burst.

"Fusion!" The two Ulrichs said as they recombined into one. "Yumi! Aelita! Let's go!" The three of them took off for the Tower.

>roll roll roll roll roll...<

"Guys, be careful. There's another monster ahead, coming in fast!"

"Yeah, I can hear it," Yumi replied, then suddenly realized what she was hearing and screeched to a halt. "Oh no!"

Ulrich and Aelita came to a stop as well as a Megatank rolled out from behind an outcropping of rocks and stopped right in front of them. Its several XANA symbol eyes opened, then it split in two, revealing its only weak spot: the XANA Eye inside, which was only exposed when it was about to fire.

"Looks like the battle's not over yet!" Ulrich said, swinging his sword.

"Let's go!" Yumi said as she opened her fan.

Aelita hid behind a pile of rocks off to the side.

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"Is anyone in here? Hello!" Shoga yelled as he ran down the hallway. "Hello?" He suddenly turned as he thought he heard a sound just as the floor gave way beneath him. "SH*T!!" he yelled, barely grabbing onto a red-hot doorknob in time as the entire hallway floor crumbled to the ground beneath him, spraying searing hot water all over him. Though it was only a two story building, the stories had incredibly high ceilings. If he fell right now, it would be at least a ten meter drop onto the boiling hot shards of the second story hallway floor. He winced at the pain in his hand, and in his body as his clothes became soaked with the scalding water. He began panting through gritted teeth, trying to dull his mind to the pain as he tried to think of some way out of this.

"Hello? Is somebody there?" Shoga heard a voice coming from a room about two doors to his right... on the other side of the hallway.

Crap. How the heck am I gonna get over there? "I'm coming!" he called out in spite of himself.

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"Yumi! Aelita! I have an idea! I'll hold back its laser wall while you use your Lyoko Powers to get over to the tower!"

Aelita nodded, knelt on the ground, put her hands together at the fingertips, leaned her head back and began to sing.

Music like a chorus of angels joined in her song, as the ground beneath her lifted up, stretched out, and encircled her in a giant bowl of rock.

The Megatank pulsed as it began charging up a shot.

"Yumi, now! Get in!" Yumi nodded, hopped into the bowl with Aelita and said "Telekinesis!"

The Megatank pulsed again.

Yumi squeezed her eyes shut, put her hands at her temples and began to glow lightish-red. The rock bowl began to glow the same color, and lifted into the air.

The Megatank pulsed a third time.

"NOW!" Ulrich readied his sword like a batter preparing to bunt, and ran forward.

The Megatank fired. The vertical edge of a huge laser disc came flying towards them, as the circular laser wall expanded rapidly from the Megatank's center. The wall would have cut into Yumi and Aelita's rock bowl, but at that moment Ulrich slammed into it with the edge of his sword, and began to push it back.
The Megatank pulsed again, increasing the power and pushing against Ulrich's sword. He dug in his feet and pushed harder, staying roughly even with it as Yumi and Aelita floated slowly past.

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"Rrrrrgh!" Shoga grunted as he pulled himself up to be roughly even with the door he was hanging on. Where the floor had fallen, there was still a small, thin ledge left over, on which Shoga now held himself up. He looked down the hall at the door across from the one he thought he'd heard the voice from. Getting there will be tricky enough as it is, let alone the trouble of crossing the hall.

"Can you open your door?" he yelled down the hall.

"It's too hot! I'll burn myself!"

"Find something to insulate your hand! Wrap it in a shirt, or something!" He pulled out his pocket knife, flipped it open, and stabbed it into the door. Using his knife and the ledge, he made his way from doorknob to doorknob and reached his destination just as the door directly behind him opened. He glanced back over his shoulder, across the hall.

Inside the now open room was a little girl, her hand wrapped in a spare shirt, looking very frightened and not very hopeful.

"We... we're gonna die, aren't we?"

Not if I have anything to say about it! Shoga thought, then said "Move away from the door!"

Once she was out of the way, he moved a little to the right, looking straight back, aligning himself with the door. The ledge was so thin here that trying to turn his whole body around at this point would be suicide. He turned back towards the wall, took a deep breath, closed his eyes, braced himself, and then leapt straight backwards as hard as he could.

>Thud!<

He landed on the floor inside the girl's room. He could feel it cracking beneath him from the impact, adn quickly pulled the girl and himself to the other side of the room.

"Why didn't you use the fire escape?" Shoga asked her.

As answer, she merely pointed out her window. It only took one look for Shoga to see that there was no fire escape out her window.

It had collapsed as well.

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Cal, Jim, Milly, and Tamiya all looked at the building as they heard the sounds of crumbling walls and rushing water. Even Cal seemed a bit worried.

But only a bit.

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"What are those noises coming from the school?" Mia asked Sissy.

Sissy didn't even look up, but squeezed her eyes shut and began to rock back and forth a bit as she replied, "The building is collapsing."

"WHAT!?" Mia was instantly on her feet. "Well, don't just sit there, come on! What if someone's inside!"

"What if someone is? Putting ourselves in danger as well won't help anything. Besides, Ulrich told me to wait right here."

Mia stared long and hard at Sissy, then said "You're wrong. We can help. Even if we can't, we still have to try! And I'm going to, whether you're coming or not!" Then she ran off in the direction of the school, and jessie soon followed.

Sissy hugged her knees tighter and continued to rock back and forth.

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Shoga and the girl sat huddled in the corner of her room farthest from the door, which is where Shoga judged to be safest. We can't stay in here much longer, Shoga thought. We're literally being cooked alive! Come on, Shoga, think!

Suddenly there was a resounding >thwom!< and the floor dropped about a centimeter beneath them.

Ah, screw it! "Come on, we're getting out of here! Get to the window!"

"But the fire escape is--"

"I know! But anywere is safer than here right now! Now GO!"

They ran to the window which Shoga slammed open. He looked out and saw the mangled remains of the fire escape on the ground, at least ten meters below. All that was left was a few pieces of railing still attached to the outside wall. At least it will get us out fo this heat! Shoga thought, and climbed out onto it. He then lifted the girl out with one arm as the floor of her room jolted one more time, then crumbled away.

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"Look! There they are!" Tamiya pointed at the broken fire escape where Shoga now stood with a little girl.

Cal and Jim could tell that the metal railing couldn't hold that weight for long, and knew that neither Shoga nor the girl could survive a fall onto that sharp pile of broken metal. They looked at eachother, nodded, then started running that way.

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"Look! Someone's on the side of the building!" Jessie yelled, pointing.

"I see them!" Mia called back, and took off running.

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The little girl began to cry.

"It's okay, shh, it'll be alright." But the cracking of the railing seemed to disagree.

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The rock bowl tumbled over on the other side of the Megatank. Yumi collapsed to the ground from exhaustion. Aelita ran forward into the Tower.

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Jim, Cal, Mia, and Jessie converged on the rusted pile of sharp, hot metal that once had been a fire escape. Without a word, they started pushing and pulling on various parts, trying to get it to move. They all ignored the pain of the heated metal, but even with all of them working together, they couldn't get it to budge.

"This is impossible!" Jim exclaimed. "It may have collapsed, but it's still all connected! There's no way we can move the whole thing all at once!"

"Impossible for just us, maybe" Jessie interjected suddenly. "But it's just a Physics problem. We just need enough force. If we get enough people pushing and pulling at the right parts, it will move!! Everybody go bring as many people as you can! I'll work on finding the points of force." She then began examining the twisted mess of iron, carefully looking for good gripping points, and places that would distribute the force of a push or pull efficiently.

Jim and Mia ran off to get help, but Cal stayed, eyeing the pile of metal with a different goal in mind.

He was judging whether or not he could jump over it.

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"Ahmm..." Aelita sighed as she passed through the virtual membrane into the Tower. She walked along the stem of the giant XANA symbol, the rings lighting up as she stepped over them. When she reached the center, she began to float upwards.

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Ulrich saw Aelita enter the Tower safely, and dropped his sword. The Megatank beam hit him square in the chest, and caught Yumi's tired form in the back. They both began to devirtualize.

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Shoga held onto the girl tightly, and with his other hand gripped the railing. He felt and heard it begin to give way.

No... not again... YOU WILL NOT TAKE HER! "I WON'T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN!!" he yelled defiantly as the railing broke loose and they began to fall. Shoga quickly wrapped himself around the girl and twisted in the air so his back was to the ground.

He was using himself as a human shield.

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Cal took a sharp breath in and whispered, "Shoga, no!" Cal knew he couldn't make the jump, but prepared to try anyway.

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Aelita reached the upper platform and a flat blue screen appeared in fromt of her. She lay her hand on it, and it registered her handprint.

*AELITA*

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Cal blast sprinted toward the pile and leapt forward, trying to intercept Shoga midair. In his mind he knew he had jumped too late, but his heart still believed he could make it.

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*CODE_*

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Shoga braced for impact.

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* L Y O K O _ *

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Shoga stopped falling.

The water stopped flowing.

Everything froze in place.

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In the Tower, all the blue screens that lined its inner wall began, one by one, to fall.

Aelita smiled.

The screens all reached the bottom and the Tower was momentarily filled with darkness.

Suddenly a bright, almost liquid light shone up through the Tower.

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"Return to the past, now!" Jeremie said, hitting the "Enter" key on his keyboard.

A white dome of energy expanded out from the factory, engulfing everything.

Events began to rewind...
...And time itself reversed.

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The sun rose behind Kadic's Junior High as yet another Sunday dawned. A day for fun, for play, for laughter.

A day for joyful relaxation.

Only four people in the world knew what really happened that day.

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The End of Chapter One

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wow man, not bad at all....its really good

It is. I've watched Code Lyoko before and I have to say, you've done a great job with the characters, keeping them in touch with how the show portrays them.

Thank you very much ^_^