A/N: Okay folks, here's where it's going to kinda begin to branch out. Several things from later seasons of CL are going to start appearing (and I don't really remember the exact circumstances about how they began, either,) so just bear with me cause I'll be breaking canon. And I'm not sure if I ever mentioned where this is in the Animorphs Canon, but I'll tell you now, it's after book #37- Just to make sure that the Anis have had at least two years of French, depending on their school system, three.

Chapter Eleven

Yumi

"Marco" had been taken out.

The alien, Aximili, had dealt with him using that strange tail of his. It was a little creepy- this gigantic knife at all times connected to him. I assumed that he had it under control, but I couldn't help but think that maybe he'd lose track of where his tail was and accidentally hit me with it. Ouch.

We all huddled around the supercomputer's screen, both the so-called "Animorphs

"Okay, so what do we do now?" I asked. "We can't just leave him here until he wakes up."

Cassie added, "And what do we do about the Marco in the guardian? How do you get him out?"

"Last time, Einstein made a clone of Aelita," Odd explained.

"Yes, but I don't have enough data on Marco to create a clone. We'd have to scan him in again." Jeremie's fingers danced across the keyboard, undoing whatever it was that "Marco" had done.

"Whoa, wait, clone?" Rachel asked. "You clone people?"

"Well, not exactly—"

Jake appeared as though he was listening intently to something. He gave a slight nod.

"What do you mean, 'clone'?" He asked cautiously.

Jeremie paused. "A data image on Lyoko. Kind of like a shadow, actually. Hey, Aelita?"

A window popped up on his screen. "Yes, Jeremie?"

"Could you make an image of Marco?"

"I'm not sure, Jeremie. I could try."

There was silence for a moment.

"Jeremie?"

"What is it, Aelita?"

"XANA's got more monsters surrounding it. And some sort of... creature. Something I've never seen before."

Jake leaned closer to the screen. "Can you send us a visual?"

Another screen popped up.

The creature was gigantic, towering over everything else. It had a round head and tentacles coming off the bottom.

"Looks like some sort of jellyfish," Rachel pondered.

The guardian seemed to unzip, and out came Marco, unconscious. Slowly, the jellyfish-like monster approached his body.

"Oh my god, we have to do something!" Cassie yelped in English.

"Ulrich, Odd, let's go," I said, walking toward the elevator.

Ulrich gave me a look that clearly said "No way am I helping that idiot."

"Actually, I want to go," Cassie said, noting Ulrich's expression. "I want to see this."

"Well, no time to lose! Heat 'er up, Einstein!" Odd grinned.

Cassie

The virtualization process was strange. It was kinda like morphing into a small animal- without the control. You painlessly felt your body sort of squeeze into nothing and then reform.

Reform about ten feet above the ground.

"Uff!" I landed awkwardly, on all fours, between a purple cat-boy and a geisha- I assumed Odd and Yumi.

"Hey, you okay?" Odd said, reaching down to help me up. "Whoa, you look cool," he added with a grin.

I got almost upright before realizing that my legs were, ultimately, not human. They looked almost canine, silvery-cream in color.

I looked like a Chee. Complete with a dog's snout.

"Okay, Jeremie. Where are we headed?" Yumi spoke to nowhere.

A disembodied voice replied, "Head north."

"Come on," Yumi ordered, hailing me to go with her.

We were on some sort of platform that branched out- multiple levels above and below. There were trees and the ground looked grassy but wasn't. Like a board game almost, except that there were trees sticking out of the game board.

Running was oddly easy. I thought given my strange physiology it would be weird. Running on a dog's hind legs would be difficult. But it wasn't. It was natural, even given the strangely unnatural circumstances.

Giant gaps appeared in the ground and the two Lyoko Warriors leapt across them effortlessly. I reached the end of the first section and paused.

"How did you get across?" I asked.

Yumi shrugged. "Just jump. Now come on, Marco and Aelita are in trouble."

I took a few steps back and easily cleared the opening.

The jellyfish looked a lot more menacing up close.