The Key is Odd
Intro:
Now I decided to make an adaption of Code Lyoko with Odd as the main character. It may seem at first completely unrelated to the original characters but as you read on it gets better (probably). This is an AU story.
Disclaimer:
The show Code Lyoko and its characters don't belong to me they are owned by Canal J, I do not claim any of the merchandise associated with them, I think the only thing I can claim is the idea of this story.
Warning: main characters are going to be taken off and replaced by OCs.
You will notice that I've associated eye colour with all the characters, even on Lyoko where originally they didn't have eye colours except Aelita. So let's just all imagine that you can see what their eye colour is before Evolution it'd make things a lot easier.
Chapter 1
A 13 year old girl with violet eyes and long waist length Auburn hair tied back in a ponytail walked down the sewers. She wore a forest green shirt with a blue bow on her chest, lime green short tight skirt and blue over the knee socks with green/yellow pumps.
"Cherry! Why are we going to switch on this what-cha-ma-call-it?" A girl with short lilac hair asked her friend. The lilac haired girl wore an indigo crop top with a white jacket over with a short white skirt and dark blue knee high boots.
"I told you, it's a supercomputer! I invited you today to see it. It's underneath the abandoned factory near the school and this tunnel is the quickest route to get there. You always said you wanted a little more adventure in your life" Cherry explained irritated at her constant moaning.
"No, I'm just tired from having to fend off all those boys after me" she sighed.
"Maybe if you didn't encourage them so much" Cherry pointed out.
"What? Like you and Peter?" she smirked in satisfaction when Cherry turned as red as her name.
"Emerald! I don't like him!" she shrieked.
"I never said you did" Emerald replied calmly looking away.
"Geez, you're too much. And it was a misunderstanding" Cherry huffed.
The girls walked on until they came across the ladder that goes onto the bridge and began climbing up it.
"So how did you find this so-called supercomputer in the first place?" Emerald asked curiously as they walked through the entrance of the factory.
"I didn't have any parts to help repair your father's computer, so I figured this old factory should have a few parts. It did. And more" Cherry beamed.
"Aren't you the slightest bit scared?" Emerald asked bewildered by her friend's enthusiasm.
"Shouldn't you be scared if your father finds out you broke his mobile? I still haven't managed to get it repaired, and I reckon he's starting to wonder where he put it" Cherry sang and Emerald froze as a fearful reminder sparked in her hazel brown eyes before face palming.
"I'm so grounded" she groaned as Cherry pressed the big red button by the shaft while laughing.
"Don't worry, I'll cheer you up at school" she giggled.
"Cheers Cher" she grinned back at her smiling friend as the lift shutter opened and they entered. Cherry pressed the floor number and off they went.
The supercomputer room:
Cherry confidently walked forward to the switch while her friend timidly followed behind her, shy around this new environment.
Cherry placed her hands on the switch and took a deep breath hoping she wasn't going to regret this.
She and Emerald both gave a little squeak when she pushed down on the switch turning the computer on.
There was the sound of the computer starting up before a bright white flash burst from the power source. The girls cried out in surprise before it died down and they walked back towards the lift their hair a bit frazzled.
"Oh no, my hair!" Emerald exclaimed desperately smoothing down her hair while Cherry ran a hand over her own tied back hair that was in a ponytail with a green ribbon.
They moved up two floors to be in what appeared to be the control room. Cherry went and sat in the big computer seat where a few monitors were set up. She looked like she belonged in that seat.
"Let's see what the hype you've been raving is all about" Emerald announced as Cherry turned the computer screen on and put on the earpiece on the computer that had a microphone as well as a small earphone.
Several programs opened up but an unexpected window opened up revealing a sleeping blonde haired boy with hair spiked to a point and a purple splodge in it. He was dressed in what seemed to be a purple cat costume complete with tail in front of a green data background in full body view.
He wore a purple sleeveless polo necked crop top over what Cherry could only assume is a pink and yellow vest underneath. She couldn't tell very well with his crop top on.
He also had big purple paw gloves that reached his upper arms, and then he had purple trousers with yellow knee pads wrapped with a pink band around his knees to keep them there, yellow shoes and finally pink war makeup on his cheeks and purple marks above his eyebrows.
The boys was lying face up with one paw on his stomach and the other near his head so Cherry had a full body view of him. On top of that she could hear gentle breathing coming from the earpiece, that she could only assume was the cat boy sleeping on the screen.
"EM! Em, come have a look" she called to her friend who rushed over to see what it was.
"Well, well, well…Who's the cute virtual cat-boy?" she immediately asked licking her lips attentively like he was a delicious meal about to be served to her.
"He's not real you know? He's part of some sort of I-don't-know virtual game?" Cherry reminded her friend.
"Awww, come on! Can't I admire at least virtual boys as well?" Emerald whined.
In the computer:
Unbeknownst to the two friends their bickering was heard by the cat boy whose human ears twitched before being followed by his paws. Then he opened his amber eyes slowly before getting up as the grogginess left his mind and he leaned forward to peer at the data screen in front of him that showed two girls bickering over something.
"Um…" he started nervously and waited until they turned to face him before continuing.
"Why are you fighting?" he asked curiously tilting his head like a child thinking they should hear him if he could hear them.
Back outside the computer:
"Um…" said a boy's voice that made both girls freeze and turn their heads back to the computer to the boy's face on it looking at them close up no longer in full body view.
"Why are you fighting?" they see him tilt his head like a child would to a parent; his bright amber eyes made him look very innocent.
Cherry recovered first excitedly facing the screen and talking back hurriedly.
"Oh, nothing, nothing!" she assured.
"Ok… the next set of thoughts that spring to mind is: who are you? And where am I?" Odd asked confused looking around at the background surroundings of Cherry and his own which Cherry couldn't see.
"Me? I'm Cherry Morel and this is my best friend Emerald Cortes" Cherry smiled nicely giving a wave while Emerald had calmed down and gave a small smile along with a wave to the boy.
"Nice to meet you" the boy beamed back.
"What's your name?" Cherry encouraged wanting to bond further with this artificial life form.
"I was hoping you could tell me. I don't remember anything" the boy shook his head.
"Are you telling me an Artificial Intelligence like you doesn't have any memory on your activities or interactions you had with others before?" Emerald burst out.
"No, my body may be artificial, but my intelligence most certainly is not" the boy shot back defensively.
"Well, we must call you something if you don't like Artificial Intelligence, can you think of a name for us to call you by?" Cherry reasoned.
"What do you suggest?" the boy requested unable to think of any.
"Hmmm… how about 'Arti'?" Emerald suggested.
"Arti…" the boy put his claw on his mouth gently testing it on his tongue and thinking it over before a smile crossed his features.
"I like it! it gives a nice feeling" 'Arti' beamed closing his eyes with a happy nod.
2 hours later:
"Well, Cher this is all very exciting. But we both have an exciting day of school tomorrow as well. So don't go back too late, and be careful when going past Jim." Emerald yawned before leaving.
"Ok" Cherry waved without looking back at her too focused on exploring what was on this supercomputer than going back to bed at Kadic.
"What's school?" Arti asked tilting his head.
"Oh, it's an institute where we learn about all sorts of subjects ranging from maths to art. You also get to interact and have fun with the other students and work in groups to learn better" Cherry answered uninterestedly.
"So, you learn about stuff with your friends?" Arti hyped fascinated.
"Yeah, they're always adding new and old stuff to the curriculum though so it gets a bit confusing at times, but I manage" Cherry beamed at Arti still looking through all the data of the supercomputer.
"Wow, school…? It sounds like fun. I wish I could go" Arti chirped
"Maybe I could materialise you in the scanners downstairs and you could come to Earth?" Cherry suggested kindly.
"Really, you'd do that for me?" Arti exclaimed hopefully.
"Yeah, I'll link my laptop to the supercomputer so I can have a quick look and come by tomorrow. Right now though, I need to get back to school" Cherry synchronised her laptop with the supercomputer.
"Bye Arti, see you tomorrow" She winked before getting into the lift faintly hearing Arti say bye before she put the supercomputer on standby.
On the computer:
Arti sat there leaning back thinking about the past few hours with his two new friends and so far the only humans he knew.
Still Cherry seemed familiar to him, but he knew that he hadn't met her before today at least that's how his memory played it out. But she seemed like an echo of something or someone he met. Her friend Emerald also seemed the same.
"Why can't I figure this out?" he whispered looking down at the floor trying to ransack his memory.
Since nothing else seemed interesting at the minute Arti just lay down for some sleep.
The next day Kadic academy:
Cherry was in science class with Mrs Hertz, Emerald was in the year above so Cherry wasn't going to be able to talk to her until lunch. She had looked around the program files that morning but with no luck on the program for Arti.
Everyone got out their science textbooks and exercise books. While a new Japanese student with brown mid-back long hair flowing down her back with a blue flower hairclip walked into the room. She wore a peach tube top with apricot and purple flower arm sleeves; she wore burgundy jeans and blue trainers.
She searched the room with sparkling jade eyes before approaching a blonde Japanese boy with grey eyes sitting at a desk; his hair was short with a parted fringe to the right. He was wearing a dark green T-shirt with a maroon jacket and matching maroon combat trousers along with dark green shoes.
"Hey there Sora" the girl greeted and the boy looked up to see her.
"Kairi? What are you doing here?" Sora asked shocked.
"Well, mum and dad decided to enrol me in this school as well. Also I'm your new roommate, our parents managed to convince the headmistress to let us bunk together just like old times" Kairi beamed sitting next to him.
"B-but I'm a boy, I have stuff in there that I don't want you to see!" he protested.
"Oh please, you think I don't know about your nightlight or love of unicorns?" she scoffed.
"I don't like unicorns, they don't exist like fairies" he snapped back at her and Kairi's face turned dark.
"First of all don't say that! I do believe in fairies! And secondly I've seen your unicorn toy on your bed today so there's no use in hiding or trying to redirect the conversation." She chirped in a highly sugary but clearly toxic voice that made Sora sweat drop.
"Whatever…" Sora backed away from the conversation letting his sister get her way for now.
A girl with piercing, penetrating but pretty ice-blue eyes walked down the classroom past the siblings seats as Kairi leaned back in her seat. The girl stopped by the sibling's desk and looked at Sora with a flirty look flaunting her body to appear more attractive than she already was.
The girl had long light brown hair which had the front part of her hair tied back with a white ribbon into a small ponytail that trailed down her back along with the rest of her hair stopping midway down her back. She wore a pixie pink frilly short sleeved top; white disco trousers and pink shoes.
"Hey there, Sora-love. There's something important I must tell you!" the girl asked in a kittenish voice ignoring the fact that Kairi was there.
"Please, don't tell me it's important like: 'I lost my hair straightener' or 'I've lost my best make-up kit so I have to use rubbish products now'" Sora said uninterested.
"No, nothing that serious" the girl assured happily, ignorant to his complete disinterest in her. Kairi was surprised that she actually considered those sorts of situations serious.
"It's about you and me Sora. If you wish to know the rest, you know where my room is. So pop round at about half 8 kay?" she winked before walking on and Kairi swivelled her chair around to watch her as she went before turning back to her brother with a smirk on her face.
"So who's your girlfriend?" she teased.
"Lia, the headmistress's daughter. Lots of boys chase after her but she only chases after me… and she's not my girlfriend!" Sora replied irritably.
"Wouldn't you want her to be your girlfriend if boys fall for her that easily and she's only after you?" Kairi raised an eyebrow.
"At first, but she's completely brain-dead. She barely knows how to do basic stuff and is a complete attention seeker" Sora leaned on his textbook and put his face in his hand in exasperation.
"So in other words she's a sket. I figured as much" Kairi replied in a disappointed voice.
"You sound disappointed" Sora noted amused.
"Of course I am! Now, I can't tell her embarrassing secrets about you" Kairi pouted.
"W-what!" Sora spluttered but Kairi ignored him in favour of paying attention to Mrs Hertz who was beginning the class. Sora just sighed thinking that he'll never understand the way his twin sister thinks as he begins to take notes even though he'll just get a low mark anyway.
Strangely enough, instead of starting the lesson like normal Mrs Hertz waited patiently as the whole class quietened down as they realised she was waiting.
"Now Students, I have an interesting surprise for you today. We have a new student from England joining us" Mrs Hertz announced and almost immediately everyone started whispering speculation what gender the person would be, what they'd be like etc.
"There's only one way to answer your questions." Mrs Hertz silenced them all as they waited for her to continue. Instead she turned to the door.
"You can come in now" The door opening and a girl stepped in walking towards the front of the class.
Everyone was stunned by her appearance: she had bright red-orange long choppy hair that reached below her shoulders, she had a full on choppy fringe with chin length strands on both sides of her fringe framing her face; her eyes were a mint green colour.
Her clothes was a tight black off shoulders top that bared her midriff and reached her elbows; her bra straps also showed, but they were black as well, so they weren't that provocative. She had red-orange calf length trousers with lime coloured pumps.
"This is Erin Hughes, due to family circumstances she's transferred in the middle of the term. I hope you will all help her settle in and catch up with all that she's missed" Erin looked around curiously at everyone as if trying to distinguish them individually.
"Welcome to Kadic academy Erin" Mrs Hertz greeted warmly making Erin turn back to face her.
"Thank you Mrs Hertz" Erin returned with a smile.
"Now, we have a lesson to start. Why don't you go and take a seat behind Kairi Shimizu" She pointed so Erin would know where to look.
As Erin walked past Kairi and Sora she sent them both a friendly wink before sitting down.
"Now, today's lesson is on gravity…" Mrs Hertz started writing on the board.
Kairi quickly and quietly turned around to the second new girl in their year.
"Hi there, I'm Kairi the girl that was new until 2 minutes ago" she grinned.
Erin looked up in confusion at her words; then she smiled in reply.
"Why didn't you get an introduction then?" Erin wondered.
"I asked the headmistress to keep my admission quiet" Kairi answered easily.
"I see… Is the boy beside you your brother?" Erin grinned moving her eyes to Sora who had turned around wondering what they were talking about.
"Yeah, how'd you guess?" Kairi questioned surprised.
"Well, you both look Japanese excluding Sora's blonde hair, not to mention Shimizu sounds Japanese" she answered cheerily.
"I get the feeling you're going to stick to us two like glue" Sora admitted groaning at the thought.
Erin let a cheerful smile cross her face as she gave her answer.
"You're wrong there… I like you two, but the times when I appear to people I like are the times when you least expect it" she told them honestly. With that she went back to her notes and continued writing.
Sora and Kairi shared a look of bafflement at the girl's strange attitude.
After classes:
Cherry left the main school building to head straight for the factory where Arti was. Her friend Emerald had martial arts class that evening so she wouldn't be joining her.
Kairi followed her brother just to get a rise out of him.
"Why are you following me?" he asked irritated that he couldn't get a second of privacy from his own sister.
"Well, I don't know the school that well. So don't you think it's only polite that you show me around?" Kairi commented unfazed at his moody attitude.
"Ah, Mr Shimizu!" a big man greeted him; he was wearing a red tracksuit and was walking a miniature terrier bull dog.
"Hi there Jim" Sora waved back.
"I thought we weren't allowed cute doggies like this one at school?" Kairi asked bending down and speaking in baby talk to the dog while stroking him petting him which he just ravished in all the attention.
Jim smiled down at the girl petting the small dog.
"His name's Kiwi, you're right about that rule. But this dog isn't mine; it's the school's… Well originally he belonged to another student who was here as a boarder about 15 years ago, but his parents believe that their child is still around here somewhere and they want their dog to wait for him... Poor Kiwi still hopes that his owner will come and take him back, I see it every night before he goes to sleep as he stares at the door." Jim finished sadly while Kiwi turned a little down at the reminder of his previous owner.
"Awww, poor thing… don't worry I'm sure wherever he is he misses you." Kairi assured patting Kiwi's sad head before it barked in appreciation.
"Who are you, by the way?" Jim realised that she was a new face.
"Kairi Shimizu, I'm Sora's twin sister younger by about 5 seconds" Kairi smiled getting up and bowing like her parents had taught her in greeting.
"I see, well I hope you enjoy your stay at Kadic and I'll see you tonight at training Sora" Jim waved in high spirits walking along so Kiwi could finish his walk.
"So where's the canteen? I'm starving!" Kairi exclaimed not noticing her brother bury his face in his hands despairingly.
Back at the factory:
Cherry went to the factory to start on looking for Arti's materialisation program. She seated herself in the chair in front of the monitors and activated it from standby.
"Hello, are you there Arti?" Cherry called.
"Loud and clear Cherry" Arti beamed appearing in a pop up window as he connected with her showing only his head.
"I hope you haven't been too bored while I was gone" Cherry spoke almost apologetically.
"Not at all, I've discovered there's an interface platform above me that I can access by wanting to reach it so I've just been going over the data I can from here trying to see if I can a logical location in the mainframe where you could possibly find the program you need. I can't access them from here, why don't you try looking in the core files or UMB?" he suggested helpfully.
"Alright, thanks I will" she chirped and began looking onto the files.
"So how was school?" Arti asked.
"The same as always." Cherry replied never getting bored of chatting with Arti.
"Anything interesting happen?" Arti inquired.
"Nothing really… oh! We learned about religious influence on human behaviour in the past and today" Cherry remembered.
"What's a religious influence?" Arti asked confused and fascinated.
"Oh, it's a thought stemmed from a religion" Cherry explained.
"What's a religion?"
"A religion is sort of a gathering for groups of people who believe in one common thing. This tends to be God."
"And who's God? Is that person the leader of you all?" Arti questioned further completely taken in.
"Not exactly… he's sort of like a person that no one sees but they know he is there. There are people who claim that God is the leader of us all but it's widely believed that God is just really a figment of imaginations drawn up over time. It's said that he created all the plants and trees we have on Earth"
"Wow, this God sounds amazing… But how does he do all that?" Arti voiced.
"He doesn't, that's just false information that people were fed in the past before modern science came and changed people's opinions. It's kind of like false data that was implanted into human minds before it was erased and replaced with the correct data, just some minds didn't get corrected" Cherry explained.
For a while Arti marvelled over this information he was receiving just as interesting as hearing about all the art subjects, what humans used to transport themselves from place to place, the colours that attract animals and how humans use them to make themselves look inviting for other humans etc.
"What's the air like?" He asked after a good while. Cherry actually paused in her typing as she thought about the answer.
"The air…? I guess, it's just feels really fresh inside your lungs when you breathe it in… it's like when a new string of fresh new data goes into your hard drive but feels a thousand times better" Cherry tried putting it into a context that he'd understand.
"I see… that sounds amazing." Arti fantasised happiness and excitement clear in his voice and Cherry smiled happy with a small blush thinking she was getting a slight crush on this cute virtual boy.
"Wait a minute Arti, I may've found something" Cherry shushed him before he could ask another question so he stayed quiet watching her type away on the keyboard.
20 minutes later:
After a while, Arti was starting to get bored as he leaned back watching Cherry work almost not even realising he was still on screen.
"Cherry, any luck with that program?" he asked becoming restless.
"No, but I've found out some interesting facts while I was at it." Cherry replied smiling at the bored looking boy.
"What you're on is a virtual environment called Lyoko, and at the minute you're currently in a tower in there" Cherry told him.
"Ok, for a virtual universe it's quite small from where I'm sitting" Arti commented looking around to see little screens all around him with data and his platform.
"Why don't you look around and see if you can find a door leading outside of your tower? Cherry suggested.
On Lyoko:
Arti stood up from the platform he was sitting on and looked around his tail swaying calmly. The platform he was on seemed to be shaped into some kind of logo. He faced the end that went to the tower wall and walked towards the wall.
He put his paws on the wall and tried looking for something like a handle. But it just came out smooth.
"Cherry I can't find a-!" Arti patted the wall and it rippled it did the same with his other hand before the wall pulled his first hand into the wall along with his body behind it.
Outside the tower:
Arti walked out of the tower and was blown away by the orange sandy landscape that he was in.
"Cherry, this is…! I can't explain it, it's something you have to see for yourself" Arti told her looking around as he walked away from the tower.
"I would love to; can you send me a visual?" She requested.
"I'll try" Arti said simply and linked himself directly to the supercomputer and looked around to give Cherry images from his point of view.
At the keyboard:
Cherry waited patiently seeing only a blank screen with Arti's life point card until a window opened showing a sort of visual link to what Arti was seeing which showed an incredibly detailed desert landscape with irregularities like in the real life.
"Incredible" Cherry awed.
Just then another window popped up showing a 3d image of a virtual world before a holographic image of Lyoko showed up in the middle of the room which depicted a sphere with 4 very different coloured miniature landscapes that were clearly sectors surrounded by a sphere.
"Arti, it's not just a virtual environment. It's a complete world" Cherry told him in disbelief.
On Lyoko:
"I can see about 4 sectors, each one is different from the other" Cherry announced.
Arti looked around as he listened to Cherry.
Suddenly ahead he saw, what looked like from the databases, massive sea animals from the real world.
The two red creatures seemed to notice him and he them. As they turned to face him they seemed rather familiar as they approached.
"Krabs…" Arti said quietly holding his head feeling a slight headache since they triggered a familiar sense.
"What?" Cherry asked from above.
"There are some giant Krabs in front of me. They seem familiar…" Arti answered approaching them with childish curiosity.
"That's wonderful! Lyoko has living creatures to provide their own eco system" Cherry cheered in happiness.
"Can you get closer?" Cherry squealed as Arti walked towards them.
The red Krabs charged up red beams and fired at Arti making him jump back and run as they chased after him.
"Arti, what's going on?"
"They're attacking me Cher!" Arti cried kept running.
"Quickly get back to the tower!" Cherry told him urgently.
Arti ran for his life when a beam hit him square in the back throwing him forward and he skidded to a halt in front of the tower face down momentarily disorientated.
"Arti!" Cherry shrieked panicky as she saw his life points go down.
"Quickly!" she ordered; Arti got up and gasped in fright that they were chasing him still.
He got up and quickly ran to enter the tower, but just as he was a red laser hit him pushing him inside.
Arti collapsed on the platform pathway in a heap exhausted and hurt from his short trip out of his tower.
Back in the factory:
Cherry patted the screen willing for his life points to recover, afraid what will happen when they reach zero. As if hearing her wish his life points stopped going down and replenished until Arti had a full set of health again.
"Your life points just recovered" Cherry gasped in amazement.
In the tower:
Arti woke up slightly dazed and crawled to the centre of the platform to communicate with Cherry.
"That was scary" he admitted as a video stream of Cherry appeared in front of him.
"I think it'll be safer for you to stay in that tower for the time being until I find out why you're there." Cherry told him sternly.
"Ok Cherry" Arti replied.
"I'm sorry; I couldn't find your materialisation program… I'll look later. Right now I have to get back to school" Cherry told him apologetically.
"That's ok, there's no rush. Take all the time you need" Arti smiled and she blushed with faint redness on her face but smiled all the same before logging off.
Arti sat back patiently and waited.
"I wonder if Emerald is going to come back…" he wondered aloud. Not knowing where the lilac haired girl was.
He eagerly awaited Cherry's return.
The next day:
Cherry was walking to the canteen to have some lunch when she noticed a bench nearby that was right next to a memorial statue. She went to have a closer look.
Engraved on a plaque on the bench said the words:
IN MEMORY OF THE 5 STUDENTS WHO STILL LIVE IN THEIR LOVED ONE'S HEARTS
THEY SHOWED THE QUALITIES OF KINDNESS, SINCERITY, BRAVERY, WISDOM AND LOYALTY
NOT ONLY TO EACH OTHER BUT TO EVERYONE ELSE AS WELL
Cherry looked to the side to see the names of the students below a portrait of them all. Cherry's vision was suddenly blocked by two hands covering her eyes.
"Guess who?" sang a familiar voice.
Cherry smiled before taking the lax hands off her eyes to face her friend.
"Where've you been?" Cherry demanded before hugging Emerald.
"I've had loads of homework to finish and other things as well." Emerald sighed guiltily with exhaustion clear in her breath.
"Never mind, let's have some lunch" Cherry beamed making her hazel eyed friend mirror her contagious smile.
They both strolled towards the canteen, the auburn girl having forgotten what she was looking at before.
Had she managed to have a good look at the picture, she would've seen a blonde and purple haired boy clad in purple clothing. He smiled brightly in the picture as he was hugging a small dog lovingly while standing along with the rest of the group…
After lunch:
Emerald went to go and get a drink from the vending machine while Cherry wanted to go back to her room to get her books for the afternoon lessons.
With Cherry:
Cherry went into a light jog towards the dorms but unfortunately didn't see the orange haired figure walking along before crashing into it.
Both girls cried out on impact before they were sent down to their respective bottoms.
"Owwww… I'm sorry about that- You're that new girl Erin right?" Cherry realised when Erin lifted her head up showing curious mint green eyes.
"Yeah, I saw you in science. I'm sorry I never knew your name" Erin laughed sheepishly in embarrassment.
"I'm Cherry, Cherry Morel" she introduced while standing and helping Erin up.
"That's a pretty name, in England you'd get picked on for have a weird name like that" Erin commented smiling making Cherry blush slightly.
"Erin's a nice name too" Cherry told her politely.
Even though it was only a polite compliment, the corner of Erin's lips turned upwards as she studied Cherry her eyes full of expectation and approval.
"You seem interesting… I think things are going to be very interesting for you, me and those other two"
Emerald:
Emerald walked to the vending machines ignoring the girl and boy who were chatting. It seemed like the girl was just embarrassing the boy more than the other way around.
The Shimizu twins:
"Say, do you know any fit boys?" Kairi asked out of the blue while Sora was drinking.
He choked on his drink at the sudden question. "Why would I consider other boys fit? I'm straight!"
"It was just a question. I wasn't asking if YOU considered them fit" Kairi turning her head away saying her retort.
"I just can't win with you…" Sora sighed ducking his head in despair. Kairi smirked at her victory.
"So, like I said do you know any boys I might like?" Kairi repeated.
"Well… what type do you like?" Sora asked trying to avoid the question.
"I love many types really, but I suppose I'd really love the sweet, cute and caring type. I'd want him to be confident, cool and he has to…" Kairi went on talking which Sora almost automatically tuned out especially when a girl with short purple hair walked past wearing an indigo crop top and a white jacket along with a matching short white skirt where she had dark blue knee high boots. She clearly was a year older than him or his sister.
She bought a hot drink from the machine stirring it before walking away to do whatever business she had.
"…in summary, I guess I'm very open to many kinds of boys. That's not the same case with you though is it?" Kairi grinned mischievously at her brother who snapped his attention back to her with an attentive face on as if he had been listening the whole time despite already being caught.
"W-wh-what do you mean?" he stuttered nervously trying to act innocent.
"I saw you checking that girl out. So, do you like older girls instead of younger?" She purred leaning closer trying to pry into her brother's mind like she always managed to do in the past.
"I've got no idea what you're implying" Sora turned his head away in annoyance.
"Come on! It's like you're trying to hide the moon. It's obvious you like that purple haired girl. Maybe I could help you get her" Kairi suggested with a wink.
Sora turned back to his sister pissed off "Maybe, you could lock your mouth shut and bury the key!"
They continued to argue, meanwhile Cherry walked by since she decided to have a soft drink before she went back to her room. She ignored the bickering twins figuring that it was going to become routine amongst all her classes. She put her coin in the slot and selected a Sprite can; she pressed the number button that released it.
Out of nowhere an electrical current came from the button and went through Cherry making her scream in pain.
"Hey, are you alright!" Sora exclaimed after Cherry collapsed against the vending machine, so throwing away his drink into the bin while Kairi was startled by her scream.
Sora rushed beside her and kneeled down seeing how that shock made her violet eyes look dazed and glassy whilst her hair was frazzled out.
"Cherry… right? Come on let's go to the Infirmary" Sora hooked one arm around his shoulders supporting her hooking one arm firmly around her shoulders to keep her steady.
"Kairi, go and tell a teacher what happened" He told her and Kairi nodded, she didn't have to be told twice.
While Kairi hurried to get a teacher Sora stood up helping Cherry up as well and started walking.
As they walked away a logo appeared on the vending machine screen that shows how much credit you've got to use; it pulsed like a heartbeat fuzzing like static before disappearing.
Later in the Infirmary:
Cherry came back into reality when she was lying on a bed staring up at a white ceiling. She turned her head tiredly to see Nurse Yolanda setting up the blood pressure equipment.
"Oh, you're finally better" Yolanda said relieved before she checked her blood pressure. Cherry had no objections, she just watched tiredly as the nurse did her job.
"It's nothing very serious. Just a mild electrical shock and shallow burns. Thank you for bringing her here Sora" Yolanda thanked what appeared to be a Japanese boy who from Cherry's memory was from her class.
"Glad to hear it's not too serious" Sora smiled nicely.
"Thanks… Sora Shimizu right?" Cherry asked hesitantly as the nurse took the strap off her arm.
"You can call me Sora. You just get some rest" he told her gently going to leave the room.
"I have martial arts class tonight so I'm going to check on you after" He warned before shutting the door.
"What a nice boy" Yolanda commented. Cherry felt a bit dizzy but thanks to her shock Yolanda has given her the school afternoon off since she doesn't want any more accidents to happen today.
Cherry went back up to her room to 'rest' as Yolanda ordered but instead she worked on Arti's materialisation program.
Later that evening after dinner in the gym:
Sora was dressed in a maroon vest and dark green trackies sitting on the floor of the gym while he and Jim waited for another to show up.
"Who is this girl anyway Jim?" Sora asked impatiently.
"Well, she's been training with me at the other training nights that you weren't available. I've wanted to pair you two up to train together…" Jim trailed off looking rather sad.
"What's wrong?" Sora became alarmed at his instructor's sudden change in energy.
"You two just reminded me of another boy and girl from 15 years ago. Ulrich and Yumi… They were born fighters them two. I think they had a thing for one another but wouldn't admit it, it never got in the way of their training though." Jim laughed at the memories struggling very hard not to lose face.
"You mentioned that something happened 15 years ago earlier today. What happened then?" Sora delved.
"I'd really rather not talk about it" Jim said quietly.
Sora knew he was holding back but he decided not to push it.
Suddenly Jim stood upright with determination burning in his eyes.
"Right! How on earth did we get onto this depressing topic!? Shimizu, if you turn down the atmosphere like that again I'll make you run laps on the roof! Do I make myself clear?" Jim shouted like a drill sergeant making Sora laugh quietly at how quickly Jim's mood changes. One moment he was sad and down like the world stole something precious to him and the next he was back to his normal hot-tempered self.
"Yes, coach" Sora smiled.
"I'm not late am I?" someone asked entering the gym.
"Miss Cortes, late is anytime over the agreed meeting time. In this case 10 minutes!" Jim snapped sternly.
The girl entered the gym wearing lilac trackies and a matching hoodie with a cream coloured hood. The girl had short lilac hair as well she walked confidently wearing white and cream coloured trainers.
Sora gaped as she walked in and sat down next to him.
It was the same girl from lunchtime.
"Right, both of you introduce yourselves" Jim ordered.
"Sora Shimizu"
"Emerald Cortes"
Sora blushed slightly, that was a very pretty name 'Emerald'.
"Alright, let's pair up and have a quick fight before we go to bed" Jim announced.
Emerald and Sora stood up and walked to the fighting circle. They faced each other, bowed and got into their fighting positions.
Emerald went in with a kick which Sora dodged before he went in with a chop which she blocked. He then tried to swipe her feet from under her but she managed a backflip landing perfectly on her feet again.
Emerald flipped stray bits of her hair away from her face as she regarded Sora seriously.
"You're alright for a girl" Sora complimented impressed in his stance but he wasn't prepared when Emerald quickly performed a spinning kick in mid-air hitting him in the face and knocking him down. She pinned him down by his shoulders while he tried to get her off him.
"You're alright… for a boy" she retorted altering his words from earlier with a smirk.
After struggling for a while they both realised how close they were and blushed; they were about to separate and continue when Jim ended the match.
"That's it for tonight, bow to each other and then we can all go to bed" he told them.
Sora bowed politely with a smile and respect for her; Emerald returned it bowing as well.
"You're a good fighting partner, call me sometime for a spar" Emerald called as she left. Sora left happily; perhaps he had a chance with this girl.
At 7:50 at the dorms:
Sora walked happily to his room humming a happy tune, he opened his door to his now shared room and dropped his PE bag in shock.
"What happened in here? This mess!" Sora exclaimed in disgust.
"Coral needed to stretch her claws" Kairi yawned not caring what her brother thought.
Just then a small ginger kitten appeared from under Sora's bed covers looking innocently at him like she had nothing to do with the current mess despite there being slash marks everywhere.
"She's ruined everything! My CD's, clothes, books and even my bed!" Sora pointed in abhorrence at the dark stain on his bed along with the small present Coral left him beside it.
Kairi stood up and walked over curiously to see what her little kitten did so terribly.
"Oh, Sorry about that. I'm just starting to litter train her and she's not very compliant with me on it. Not to mention I can't take her outside because there's no pets allowed at Kadic" Kairi shrugged nonchalantly.
"I think the reason for that is so THIS does not happen! I'm sure the headmistress will be pleased to hear this dear sister" Sora grinned leaving the room shutting the door behind him.
"Meh, we'll find a way won't my lovely little ball of love?" Kairi chirped happily along with her kitten that nestled in her lap lovingly purring in content as Kairi stroked her soft fur.
With Sora:
Sora wasn't really planning to tell on his sister, he just needed some time away to cool his head. While he was down the corridor, he figured he might as well check on Cherry and see how she was doing.
Cherry's room:
Cherry was searching the supercomputer files she could access from her home computer; but strangely her screen turned off suddenly.
"What's this?" Cherry tried turning her computer back on but it wouldn't. Instead the logo that was on the power source of Lyoko when she switched it on appeared on the screen in red pulsing.
"That's the logo from earlier" she realised.
Then a whirring sound from beside alarmed her. It was her writing Automaton along with her drawing one. They both suddenly had the logo in both of their eyes and approached her.
She shrieked in fear as her robots attacked her.
Back to Sora:
Sora heard a cry for help from Cherry's room so he burst down the hall and entered her room only to find two miniature robots sparking her with electricity.
"Hold on!" He cried trying to yank one off her but it seemed to be attaching itself with the electricity.
Sora just managed to get one off but then it started attacking him and so did another one while the third still went after Cherry who tried furiously to get it off her.
Finally Sora kicked one of the automatons into the wall on her bed and karate chopped the other; then the attack stopped.
The two stood for a few moments just breathing slowly to calm down from the sudden attack.
"Your robots seem a bit aggressive… Are you sure you didn't mess up their settings?" Sora questioned jokingly but Cherry clearly wasn't in the mood for jokes right now after nearly being killed.
"It was nothing I did to them. They're not even meant to move" she explained confused.
"So if it wasn't you, then what was it?" Sora crossed his arms wanting an answer.
"I have an idea… but you wouldn't believe me if I told you" Cherry warned turning away hoping he would just leave.
"Why wouldn't I?" Sora laughed in good nature.
Cherry stayed silent so Sora sat down in her chair stubbornly.
"Well, I've got all night. So you might as well tell me now so we can both get some sleep" Sora said plain and simple spinning around on her chair both to annoy her and keep him preoccupied.
It wasn't long until Cherry stopped him spinning her chair anymore with one hand glancing at him with a defeated face.
"Ok, I'm already in neck deep so if you insist you can join me" Cherry eyed him susceptibly which levelled her gaze with unwavering determination.
She then walked calmly towards her door shutting it before turning back around to face Sora.
"Before we begin, tell me if you can keep a secret otherwise there's no point in me telling you anything." Cherry strictly said.
Sora placed a hand on his heart with the other one held up "I swear to keep this secret until the day I die"
"Then follow me, I'll explain on the way" Cherry smirked opening the door and leaving expecting Sora to follow.
Later at the factory:
"How'd you find out about this place anyway?" Sora wondered as they walked across the bridge.
"I needed more spare parts for my automatons, so I went scraping around and found it" Cherry answered honestly.
They both got to the ropes and Cherry without fear grabbed one and swung down to the front of the lift.
"Isn't there a safer way down?" Sora called.
"No, there are no stairs" Cherry called back apologetically.
"Oh well" He shrugged before he took a rope and swung down to join Cherry.
As soon as he landed Cherry pushed the button for the lift and the shutters opened. They both stepped inside and pressed the button for going down to the control room.
They both stepped out after the long process of the doors to the lab in the lift unlocking finished.
"So is this the Supercomputer you spoke of?" Sora asked sceptically as he looked at the monitor showing data he didn't understand.
"Yeah, it's as its name suggests. Its super powerful no… scratch that, mega 'powerful." Cherry responded excited to be showing someone else.
"While I looked around in this, I've discovered that it harbours a virtual world called Lyoko" Cherry smiled smugly.
"What makes you so sure that this isn't just the control centre of the factory?" Sora asked mockingly.
Cherry simply turned to the keyboard and tapped a few keys until a window showing Arti's face came up.
"So what would this be then?" Cherry pointed at Arti who was curiously watching the interaction between the two until they addressed him.
Sora stared in amazement at the level of detail Cherry supposedly put into this AI.
"Hey there Cher!" Arti grinned.
"Nice AI you made there Cher. But still, if you wanted a boyfriend that badly shouldn't you have gone out and found one?" Sora teased.
"Haha… no. This is Arti, an Artificial Intelligence who lives on Lyoko. Though I haven't the slightest idea why he's there though" she put a hand on her forehead to emphasis her frustration.
"Don't try and trick me. You programmed him didn't you?" Sora accused.
"No she didn't" they both turned to Arti who started to speak.
"I woke up when Cherry and Emerald restarted the supercomputer. I remember nothing, my memory is gone" Arti backed up.
"Arti has to hide in a sort of tower, when he leaves he's attacked by monsters" Cherry stepped forward in front of Sora with uncertain eyes.
"I'm telling you Sora. Only I, you and Emerald are aware of this discovery" Cherry pressed pleading for him to believe.
"Wait, are you telling me that Emerald, the girl with lilac hair from year 9 has been down here?" Sora burst in shock.
"Yes, she's my best friend. Only she doesn't know about that thing that wants to kill me" Cherry said unfazed by his outburst.
"Yeah… So what if this is just one giant video game?" Sora asked unsure.
"If that's so, then it's very dangerous. My automatons are only programmed to do their respective tasks and they attacked me!" Cherry pointed out loudly.
Sora went to the computer chair while Cherry kept talking.
"Also when the automatons attacked a logo appeared on my screen. The same ones that were on the monsters on Lyoko" Cherry further expanded.
"This just gets peachier by the minute" Sora laughed spinning in the chair before facing Cherry again.
"So you mean to tell me that that thing wanting to kill Arti also wants to kill you?" Sora asked slowly.
"It appears so…" Cherry agreed.
There was silence for a few seconds.
"If it's this dangerous… shouldn't you shut it down and let the authorities handle it?" Sora suggested hesitantly.
Cherry looked down for a moment "I would love to, but I promised I would help Arti first"
Arti looked away in guilt that she still wanted to help him despite the dangers.
"How can you help him? He's a virtual being who lives on a computer" Sora questioned ludicrously.
"I wish to help him understand why he's on Lyoko and we may be able to materialise him here to Earth" Cherry hopefully replied.
"Materialise a virtual being? Now you're tickling my funny bone, what gives you that idea?" Sora retorted in amusement.
"Don't worry you'll see soon" Cherry smiled confidently.
On Lyoko in the tower:
Arti watched the interaction between the two with curiosity and confusion as they headed over to the metal ladder that Arti could just see from his screen. Arti sighed realising they weren't going to come back so he just shut his connection off and sat there meditating until Cherry needed him again.
Meanwhile back in the scanner room:
Sora was examining the scanners with awe; it was something straight out of a science fiction novel.
"Cool right? These massive tubes are scanners." Cherry explained walking inside one and waiting for Sora to finish examining it all around before stopping at the opening.
"Unfortunately I've been unable to locate the program to materialise Arti, but I've found the one that allows people to be sent to Lyoko." Cherry paused for a second to see if Sora was listening, so he nodded to acknowledge he was all ears.
"These scanners scan and store your molecular structure, DNA, everything, before storing them onto the supercomputer until the next time you go to Lyoko where it will recognise you." Cherry explained not caring that Sora didn't understand much of it.
"How you get on to Lyoko is that after you've been scanned, your atoms are broken down and sent through the supercomputer. Then finally your atoms are digitalised into an incarnation that is your digital avatar" she finished with a flash of a smile.
"What's the short version?" Sora groaned not having caught a word.
"You're scanned, recognised and virtualised on Lyoko" Cherry repeated slowly.
Sora still looked rather doubtful.
"This can't be real. Virtualisation just isn't possible for humans yet!" Sora protested.
"You still don't believe me? Even after I showed you all this?" Cherry glared angrily.
"That's not it! It just seems like something from a sci-fi" Sora quickly waved his hands in protest quelling her temper with that as she got into a thinking face leaning back against the scanner wall on the inside.
Finally she lifted her head up with an idea.
"Why don't we have a go at it?" Cherry's thoughtful face adorned with a smile.
"Why? It's only possible in science fiction" Sora argued reasonably.
"What's the harm? If nothing will happen, then there shouldn't be a problem with us trying it out" Cherry had a very good argument.
"I guess… But we shouldn't scan ourselves. We don't know what could happen in these scanners once the doors are closed" Sora looked around wearily as if the scanners were gonna jump out at him.
"You're right. I assume that means you have a guinea pig in mind?" Sora looked at Cherry to find her with her hands on her hips and tapping her foot effectively to highlight her expectations of him.
Sora sweat dropped for a second as his mind went blank. Inwardly he cursed his sister for being the more intelligent of the two. Then his face lit up as he remembered what else was sharing their room at Kadic.
"Don't worry I have just the guinea pig in mind" Sora said with an evil grin.
"I need to head back to get it, so just prepare the scanner for when I get back" Sora called jogging back.
8:40pm Lia's room:
Lia was made up wearing a teal satin one shoulder ruffle dress with a delicate design on the shoulder. She had her hair in a loose low bun with a white flower in it.
She glared at her clock angrily while it fearlessly did its job changing one digit, revealing the time to be 8:41pm.
Losing patience she flipped her phone open; scrolled down to Sora's number that she got off someone and pressed ring.
In the Shimizu twin's room:
Sora loomed over his sleeping sister's form, who was sleeping peacefully on top of her bed in her top and jeans. Sora figured that she was too tired from today to change.
Sora's focus however was on the small ginger ball that was curled up beside Kairi's legs. Coral woke up groggily hearing breathing above her; she looked up to see Sora shadowing over her.
"Guess what kitty? How do you fancy being virtualised?" Sora asked his voice full of mirth.
Before the kitten could even give any sort of response, Sora picked up the little kitten by the back of her neck paralysing it. He then held it close to his chest still ready to stop it if she started struggling.
Quietly he crept on his toes trying to sneak out without his sister hearing, since she was very sensitive to sounds.
Suddenly his phone went off and he cursed himself for not switching it off. Not having time to reject the call that was probably from Lia, he ran for it.
Quick as a bullet Kairi shot up from bed just in time to see Sora bolting from their room with Coral held captive.
"Just wait a minute you!" Kairi yelled running after her kitten.
In the corridor:
Lia had given up waiting for Sora to answer so she decided to go and see him in his room.
As she was storming down the hallway Sora suddenly passed her barely even acknowledging she was there. She turned to see where he was going in such a hurry when suddenly a heavy weight barged into her from the side knocking her down.
Lia looked up into the face of an Asian girl looking straight at her.
"Sorry Lia" Kairi apologised before getting up and running after her cat.
"Wait a moment!" Lia cried chasing after them.
With Erin:
Erin was sorting out things in her closet having just sorted everything out. She stood in her room before sighing as she looked a picture of her with her parents; she reached out a hand touching the top of the picture.
She slammed it face down with a snap out of frustration.
"Stupid people" she muttered before turning around to head to her wardrobe.
Suddenly she heard a commotion outside in the hallway; cautiously she opened her door and stepped out only to see Sora running down the corridor carrying a small bundle while Kairi chased after him.
Erin could see a girl wearing a teal satin one shoulder ruffle dress walking around the corner looking back as Sora weaved around her; Erin could foresee the incoming crash that Kairi fulfilled when she accidently ran into the other brunette girl. Kairi gave a quick apology before she shot up and went down to race down the stairs while the brunette girl followed her.
Erin had a peek around the corner wondering where they were all heading. She had originally planned to get ready for bed but following them seemed more appealing.
"Here I thought the year would be boring" Erin whistled before hurrying to catch up with them.
Sora:
Sora ran towards the boiler room way ahead of the other two chasing him.
Kairi and Lia followed him into the boiler room and dashed inside with Kairi opening the door to see Sora rushing down the steps.
"Where's he going?" Lia wondered accusingly.
"That's what I want to know, why did he take my cat?" Kairi frowned in thought and slight anger.
Both Lia and Kairi raced down the steps to find themselves in the sewers. Neither noticed an orange haired girl follow them with a gigantic grin on her face.
At the factory:
Sora just managed to get into the factory thinking he'd lost them; he breathlessly slammed his hand on the down button and breathed a sigh of relief when the shutters closed and the lift started going down.
Kairi and Lia just got there when the lift went down. Lia had complained the whole way through the sewers about them being smelly; Kairi was so glad they were out now.
"Why on earth does he need Coral?" Kairi wondered.
"Maybe he's going to dissect and use her body for a weird science experiment?" Lia suggested dumbly.
"With a kitten?" Kairi gave her a flat stare that clearly said 'Are you stupid?'
"I don't know, but he's definitely going to do something with your kitten" Lia unhelpfully told her.
"Not if I have anything to do with it" she growled and leapt onto the metal ladder that was across them climbing down. Lia soon followed her scared to be wandering into this unknown area.
Scanner room:
"There's a good kitty, stay there" Sora cooed coaxing Coral to stay where she was as she wondered why her mistress's brother brought her here.
Sora climbed up the ladder at the side of the room to get into the control room.
"We're good to go Cherry" Sora confirmed and Cherry immediately set to work.
"Ok, let's see if I'm skilled enough" she muttered as she dug into the file to run and then access it.
With Kairi and Lia:
Kairi opened the small trapdoor from on top of the lift and jumped down crouching gracefully. While Lia had a less than graceful fall just barely managing not to fall over.
Kairi walked forward into the scanner room looking in awe at the three cabins in the room.
"What are these things? They look like some sort of set of scanners" she wondered walking forwards to examine the one closest to her.
"Maybe they're some sort of Egyptian Pharaoh's tomb" Lia said brightly.
"With cables attached?" Kairi asked in clear disbelief as she looked around at the offending subject.
"Uh… Sure, why not?" Lia shrugged after not being able to come up with a decent explanation. However Kairi ignored her and continued searching for her kitten.
With Cherry and Sora:
"I'm starting the process now" Cherry announced starting the program up.
While back in the scanners Kairi found Coral sitting unharmed in one of the massive tubes.
"Oh Coral! That ugly brother of mine didn't hurt you did he?" Kairi squealed rushing into the scanner relieved that Coral was alright. Coral jumped into her mistresses arms in happiness loving her warmth.
Just then Coral sensed something happening and jumped out of the scanner hoping her mistress would quickly follow. But Kairi was only surprised and shocked when the doors to the scanner closed trapping her inside.
"Oh no! They're going to mummify you!" Lia shouted in horror while Coral desperately tried to scratch her owner out of the scanner.
"Lia, I don't know what's happening…" Kairi began calmly making Lia blink.
"But this place is NOT an Egyptian tomb! The keyword is EGYPT-ion! You really think there's one in France" Kairi yelled in annoyance her temper snapping, Lia recoiled from the booming voice that yelled at her from beyond the doors.
Cherry:
"Transfer Kitten" she tapped a key and it started scanning Kairi.
"Scanner Kitten" a 3d computer model showed the figure of a girl wearing something that Cherry couldn't quite make out yet. But she could definitely tell that it wasn't a kitten.
"That's not a kitten" Cherry realised as it started to virtualise the object.
"No, that's my sister!" Sora realised as her face became more recognisable and distinguished.
"I don't know how to cancel it!" Cherry panicked.
The computer beeped showing that the procedure was still continuing.
"Help!" a girl's voice screamed from the scanner room below.
"Please don't tell me!" Sora muttered thinking as he heard the recognisable tone. Nonetheless he raced to the ladder and climbed down.
Kairi:
Kairi looking around in confusion and panic as a ring moved up and down around the scanner, well scanning her body. She didn't know what was happening at all, and then everything went black as a white flash lit up the whole scanner.
On Lyoko desert sector:
Kairi's body materialised before she hovered in mid-air for a moment and fell to the ground unexpectedly.
"Ow, no one said there was a drop" She moaned rubbing her back as she stood up.
"Where am I?" she wondered out loud as she looked around and saw what looked like a virtual landscape.
She then saw her hands and found they were bare but there was no longer any sleeves visible on her arms. And on her feet she could see fringed sandals with her toenails visible and painted sky blue.
She looked down at her clothes only to find that they'd been changed.
Luckily there was a pool of water in this weird desert landscape so she rushed over to it and looked at her reflection. Her whole outfit had changed.
She now wore a one-shouldered, dropped waist sheath-style dress in brown faux suede. The skirt was trimmed with three tiers of faux-suede fringe. The shoulder edge had a trimmed faux-suede fringe and a tapestry ribbon with colourful geometric figures. The belt was a wide strip of faux suede with a ribbon in the centre. The arm cuffs were the same faux suede as the dress, trimmed with fringe at top and bottom, and fastened with a leather cord threaded through a series of eyelets, and the ankle cuffs were faux suede with fringed lower edge and ribbon trim at the top
She also wore dark brown fringed sandals and finally a braided leather cord that wrapped around her hair like a halo while her dark brown hair flowed down her back stopping midway.
She had a composite bow attached to her back with nothing holding it in place however the laws of physics wouldn't apply and it stayed on her back held diagonally.
"I look like a Native American princess" Kairi gasped amazed loving her outfit.
"Kairi Shimizu?" a voice called from above startling her.
"Who's there?" Kairi asked looking up to see where the female voice was coming from.
"Cherry. Cherry Morel." The voice introduced itself.
"Well Cherry, not that I'm complaining but is this some sort of sick joke that my brother forced you into?" she questioned suspiciously.
"Not exactly… It's no joke, and I wasn't forced into anything. It was rather the other way around." The girls shared a giggle at the comment.
With Sora:
Sora jumped down the ladder and nearly fell over in disbelief not believing she had followed him. Lia was looking rather startled by Erin who was smiling friendly like at her.
"Lia? Erin?"
Lia whirled around with a look of extreme relief at the sudden shock while Erin looked slightly surprised at his appearance in the room.
"Sora" she said loudly in relief going to run to him but was stopped by a voice.
"Sora have no fear, your sister is safe on Lyoko." Cherry said on the intercom system.
"That's good news" Sora sighed glad his sister wasn't hurt.
"What's this Lyoko place?" Erin asked curiously.
"Oh yeah, why are you here?" he questioned suspiciously.
"I told you, I only appear when you least expect me" Erin easily replied back.
Back on Lyoko:
"Is this a video game? It looks like the graphics for Myst" Kairi noted looking around.
"I don't know exactly, but it's definitely a virtual world" Cherry answered.
"That's brill!" Kairi cheered. But her excitement was short lived when she felt a sharp and sudden sting hit her back.
"OW!" she cried and turned to find two giant red crabs approaching her.
"That's not brill at all, are these giant red crabs meant to be here?"
"Yes" Cherry told her shyly.
"So I shouldn't be concerned that they're shooting at me?" Kairi raised an eyebrow in question as one charged up a laser beam.
"Nope, concern is exactly what you should be feeling. Get out of there"
Kairi didn't doubt her and ran not willing to find out what happens when her life points reach zero as the crabs kept shooting at her.
In the scanner room:
"Sora, you need to help Kairi. She's in danger but I need time to devirtualise her" Cherry pleaded.
"She can handle herself for a little while. In the meantime, send me, Erin and Lia to Lyoko. After all, we know that it works now and Kairi will need all the help she can get" Sora grinned smugly.
"OK, get in the scanners you three" Cherry commanded.
"Wait, where are we going?" Lia demanded scared as she grabbed Sora's arm to stop him from entering a scanner.
Sora turned and smiled with a devilish smile.
"To a virtual world where danger lurks at every corner… This is the only offer I'll give you to go out with me. Take it or leave it"
"I'm good thanks, I'm much better with real worlds" Lia shook her head and Sora chuckled as he walked past her into a scanner.
"Your loss, Peabrain" Sora jibed turning to face her in the scanner.
"What about you? I never imagined you to be a fearful person" he asked Erin who was beside Lia.
"No believe me; I would love to go to Lyoko it sounds exciting." Erin assured before patting Lia's shoulder.
"But to look after a special child you need two parents" she grinned knowing full well that Lia was glaring at her but she didn't mind.
"That's true! Cherry, I'm all set" Sora laughed.
"Right, one trip to Lyoko for the fearless passenger and an invitation to join me in the control room for the body in there as well as the lovely mistress from England." Cherry announced like a bellringer as the scanner doors closed and Lia shouted in indignation.
"I'm a person!" she screamed.
"I thought a 'person' needed a brain" Cherry threw back.
"Ohhh, Ice-burn!" Sora taunted from inside the scanner.
"You shut up while I virtualise you!" Cherry snapped quickly straightening him out.
In the scanner:
Sora looked around as the ring scanned his body before closing his eyes as a warm blast of air blew up making all his clothes and hair go up.
"Transfer Sora"
"Scanner Sora"
Sora felt the scanner begin to increase the wind being blown before everything turned white and he couldn't see anymore.
"Virtualisation" she tapped enter.
On Lyoko:
Kairi managed to run away from the monster and got to a big sandy rock stopping when Cherry called out to her.
"You have a visitor Kairi" Cherry sang.
"Ah, I've missed seeing my dear brother's face so" Kairi sighed dramatically.
Just then Sora's body was creating in mid-air into virtual form; he hovered for a moment before dropping to the ground unexpectedly.
Kairi winced as he landed before smiling kindly. Sora groaned as he got up before looking down at his attire.
Sora wore a black short sleeve Chinese shirt with red button strings and a dark blue sash around his waist with the end trailing down his left side stopping at his thigh. He wore dark blue Chinese trousers that were tightened at the ankles and black slip on shoes; on his arms he had black forearm sleeves.
"Cool outfit" Kairi whistled while Sora noticed that there was a small red stick in his sash on his left hand side. He took it out and it suddenly extended itself scaring the hell out of him.
Then he examined it in awe as it revealed a Qasalan double bladed staff. Tricky to handle but effective against enemies.
"Wow! This staff is legend" He exclaimed happily giving it a little expert twirl.
"Awww, I wish I got a double bladed staff too" she grumbled jealously.
"How are we dressed like this anyway?" Sora asked.
"I don't know, maybe the computer looks into your subconscious desires and then projects them into your avatars" Cherry answered logically.
"But this bow is no good without any arrows. How do I use it?" Kairi complained detaching it from her back and holding it in front of herself.
She put a hand on the other side of the handle where her other hand was holding it before she trailed back to pull back the string as if a real arrow was there. As she pulled the string back an Indian style arrow materialised over her thumb in position to be fired.
Kairi was startled by this and without warning released the string like she had touched fire sending the arrow flying straight towards Sora. He barely managed to avoid it.
"Hey, I could've lost an eye there!" Sora warned.
"Whoa, that's pretty cool" Kairi laughed happily twirling her bow in one hand.
"What about short range fighting?" she realised wondering how she was supposed to fight someone close up to her.
"What's that in your belt?" Sora pointed and Kairi looked to see a spearhead with a small handle; she put her bow back on her back before taking out the spearhead.
Like Sora's staff it suddenly extended in her hand revealing it to be a light blue Tepoztopilli spear that was a little above her height.
"Wow, it looks as if you've got an ancient Aztec weapon. A Tepoztopilli, a cross between a spear and a halberd; it seems to be fairly good for close combat." Cherry commented whistling.
"I've always liked the Aztecs, they are such an interesting race" Kairi positively beamed to be getting a virtual old weapon as she spun it with energy.
In the factory:
The heavy lift doors opened up to Erin and Lia to reveal a massive room with a holographic image in the centre with a small compute monitor with cables all around connecting everything.
Both Erin and Lia gasped in astonishment at the advanced technology around. Coral meanwhile simply sauntered in with kitten like grace unlike her human companions.
Cherry didn't notice the two come closer to her as she was too engrossed in the computer.
"Try to get to Arti's tower, give me a tic to give you coordinates" Cherry started tapping a few keys.
"Is this Arti some sort of girlfriend to Sora?" A shrill voice from beside her spoke making Cherry jump and turn to be faced with Lia.
"Are you brain dead? Does Arti sound like a girl's name to you?" Erin deadpanned.
"Well, it could be…" she argued weakly making Erin scoff before addressing Cherry again.
"So what's this thing anyway?" She wondered.
"It's the mainframe of a supercomputer" Cherry told her easily going to type a few commands in. However all of a sudden an eye logo appeared on the screen of the monitor.
"This again!" Cherry cried out in horror.
They all heard a crackle of electricity and turned to see the cables come to life sparking electricity as well as fear into the females in the room. One cable faced them with its head and fired an electric bolt at them which they narrowly dodged followed by a barrage of bolts.
Lyoko:
Kairi and Sora walked calmly through the desert waiting for Cherry's voice to tell them where to go.
"Who's Arti?" Kairi asked remembering Cherry's orders.
"A virtual boy who lives on Lyoko" Sora told her promptly.
"You means there are fit boys here too? Awesome!" Kairi cheered.
"I wouldn't get my hopes up, I think Cherry's head over heels for him" Sora commented amused.
"For a virtual boy? is she alright?" Kairi put her hand on her hip as she stopped walking wondering how you could fall in love with a virtual being.
"I think so" Sora laughed, stopping alongside his sibling.
"Cherry, can we have the coordinates?" Sora called but no reply came back.
In the computer room:
"Cherry. Cherry! Cherry are you even listening!?" Sora shouted from the computer.
Unknown to the virtualised siblings Cherry was currently under attack from electric bolts being fired at her from tentacle like cables.
Coral had her hair standing on end and was hissing angrily at the living cables while Lia tried urging her to do something.
Erin gave a cry as she charged against the living cables to get them to stop but was electrocuted on the spot making her collapse.
Lyoko:
Kairi looked around while Sora waited for Cherry's reply; and saw what she thought was a tower with a white glow around it.
"Look there's a tower, it could be that one" she pointed.
They both ran to the tower expecting to see a door that allows it to be entered.
"Where's the door?" Sora wondered patting the wall when suddenly he was sucked in.
Sora got sucked in the tower so abruptly that he barely noticed a platform a little away from him meaning he had entered from the side rather than the proper door.
Kairi followed after him thinking he had entered the door and screamed when she fell following her brother down the tower into what she thought was a bottomless pit.
They both saw the data screens around them change as they yelled their lungs in fear and rode the data stream.
Then the platform appeared again and they both floated up and landed on the platform before quickly walking towards the exit thinking to look for another tower.
Outside the tower:
When they exited instead of an orange barren desert region they were expecting, they were greeted with a narrow purple rock pathway that lead to more rocks and mountains in the distance that were covered in a fog as was the ground below their platform which originally had a sea in the other sector.
"Um, where is the desert?" Kairi asked dumbly.
"I presume back where we started" Sora answered as they both scanned the landscape.
"Don't you think that tower over there is weird?" Kairi asked pointing over at the tower in the distance.
"Weird? how?" Sora questioned confused seeing the tower.
"Well, why does it have a red glow instead of white glow?" she emphasised.
"Why do you think I know the answer?" Sora snapped at her.
"You knew about this place well before me" Kairi retorted.
"Speaking of which, are those creatures' friends of yours?" Kairi pointed behind Sora and he turned to see 3 tarantulas heading their way.
"No, no they are not. Run!" Sora shouted as they started firing lasers from their legs while they walked.
In the Lab:
Lia shrank back in the lift while Erin tried to pry the cables off of Cherry which were wrapped around her so the electric bolts could possibly hit, but Cherry still managed to avoid them.
Finally one stray cable thwacked Erin to the side with a sickening bang as she hit the wall and slid down unconscious.
Back on Lyoko:
Somehow, the tarantulas trapped the two surrounding them in a triangle while shooting at them. Kairi had her Tepoztopilli (Tepoz for short) in hand since she was in close range combat and it would be difficult to aim and fire her arrows with this barrage of lasers around her; Sora wielded his double bladed staff blocking the attacks expertly.
They felt outnumbered especially with the seemingly endless barrage of laser firing at them from all sides.
Sora wished he could be in all three places at the same time; then suddenly he saw another him behind the Tarantula in front of him.
"When'd you get over there Sora?" Kairi cried looking behind her to see her brother still there.
"It must be a power" Sora smirked as all three Tarantulas' turned around to see Sora there and stood up to whack him with their legs but the Sora bodies went static almost as soon as they were touched and vanished.
This gave Sora and Kairi plenty of time to launch counterattacks. Kairi switched her weapon for her bow; she quickly materialised and fired and it hit the Tarantula's body but didn't seem affect it.
"How on earth do we defeat these things?" Kairi shouted in exasperation as her Tarantula turned its head around with one leg and fired a few shots.
"Watch out Kairi!" Sora yelled but Kairi was too slow, so she shut her eyes and hopelessly willed the laser beam to not hit her.
She waited a few seconds but nothing happened except she could still hear the sound of laser fire.
She opened her eyes and was surprised to find the Tarantula still firing at her, but she looked down to find that it was going right through her.
"Wicked! I can go intangible" Kairi cheered as the Tarantula increased his firing in irritation.
"Say, would your powers happen to tell us how many life points we have?" Sora asked quickly dodging and blocking the lasers with his staff.
"I don't think so-whoa!" suddenly a laser made contact with her and she fell to the ground devirtualised.
"Kairi!" Sora screamed looking back at the disappearing body of his sister.
His eyes showed anger; he charged in at the Tarantula who shot her and stabbed one end of his staff into the eye on the Tarantula's head before jumping off.
The Tarantula never saw him coming so it stumbled a little before exploding making Sora smirk in satisfaction before a laser hit him and he too was devirtualised.
In the scanner room:
Sora's scanner opened revealing an achy and slightly tired Japanese boy.
"What a cheap shot" he grumbled.
"At least your power didn't fail you" Kairi groaned from across the room.
"Well, every power has limits" Sora told her wisely getting up while she followed suit.
"Yeah! Yeah!" she rolled her eyes.
"Somebody! Help!" someone screamed making the twins jump. They both recognised the voice to be Lia; they both rushed up the metal ladder.
In the lab:
Sora and Kairi went up and saw Cherry wrapped in coils of cable wires struggling madly while Lia was in the lift crying in terror.
"Do something Sora" she begged tearfully.
The cables charged up a bolt at point blank range at Cherry who was screaming for the thing to let go. Sora saw a metal plate on the floor; so he grabbed it and swung it into a cable cutting halfway into it. Kairi did the same thing with another cable holding Cherry.
However the twins didn't anticipate electricity to course through their bodies until they let go and fell to the ground dizzy and weak.
Cherry looked at the charged up bolt in horror before looking away as it was about to fire. Suddenly the electricity stopped charging and Cherry along with everyone else in the room looked to see Erin had another metal plate wedged in one of the already halfway cut cables.
"I told you, I only appear when you least expect me" she winked before slicing off the rest of the cable head to which it fell to the floor and the rest of the cables let Cherry go before going back into place.
The room went quiet as the attack died down and Lia opened her eyes before steeping into the room hesitantly.
Everyone got up wearily and walked towards the computer.
They all gathered around the monitors as Cherry sat in the computer seat returned it from standby state. The supercomputer loaded and everything appeared normal.
"Arti, are you there?" Cherry called and almost immediately a pop up window opened revealing a boy with spiked up hair to a point in a purple cat costume and amber eyes.
"Yes, I am. But are you all ok?" Arti asked his amber eyes filled with worry.
"Just a bit shaken up" Cherry assured before she began making plans with everyone in the room what they were going to do about Arti before heading home.
All of them were very unaware that a red tower was still glowing on Lyoko its' just waiting for the perfect opportunity.
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There it is my first fanfic on Code Lyoko and my second fanfic overall. I really hope I did alright, I did my very best to not make it like a plain copy and added and changed bits for the story.
Here are the outfit and weapon inspirations for the new Lyoko warriors:
Arrows:
Bow: .
Tepoztopilli:
wikipedia/commons/3/36/Tepoztopilli_%28Jubinal%
Native American sandals:
/images/I/31veJCyzK%2BL._SX342_.jpg
Native American princess costume:
.
Qasalan double bladed staff:
items/bd_qasala_bladed_
Sora's costume:
Inspiration is mainly from the male half of Ranma Saotome wardrobe.
I hope I did alright with this story please read and review so I know what you thought.