Authors Commentary

Sorry for the very much delayed update, I had to take a break. I will blame it on how busy I was over the last few months, but ultimately I was just lazy. I have full intentions on completing this story, if only to just have the satisfaction of completing it. One big writer's block I have is in how I structure the storyline and dialogue. I try to get everything to have a flow to it, easing into the next line of story instead of blatant and rather dull dialogue like "Hey, let's go here."

This chapter and the next chapter are going to be significantly more relaxed; the eye of the storm so to speak.

Devastation: Code Lyoko Rebooted

Chapter 9: Delayed the Inevitable

The sky of Mainframe was still red and black, a constant reminder that they were not out of the hole quite yet. Down in the Mainframe docks, this image was only compounded since so much of the sky could be seen. Matrix crept up beside a crate with his gun in hand and peering around a corner. He was trying to be quiet, suspicious of activity down in that area. Odd broke the silence by saying, 'Hey big guy, I think there are more things to shoot at back at the park.'

Matrix replied, 'Those viruses are being taken care of, I'm wondering if that smoke show was just something to distract us.'

-=-

AndrAIa was sitting in on a bench, having a medic bandaging the cut on her face. Behind her was a command post working to correlate the crowd control. Bob came in on a zipboard and dropped down. Yumi and Aelita were close behind. Bob said, 'We've managed to contain all of the viruses, but we don't have jail cells for all of them.'

AndrAIa replied, 'Anything about Phong?'

'Dot told me that Joel recovered him before the viruses came. He's safe in the Principle Office.'

Aelita asked, 'If we had access to our ship, we might be able to help with your hardware difficulties.'

AndrAIa nodded, and then pointed across the way and said to Aelita, 'Your ship is in that truck over there, Dot had it sent out as soon as things calmed down.'

Surprised somewhat, Aelita said, 'You are prepared.'

Bob said, 'That's Dot for you. Come on…' Bob led the Lyoko group over to the truck.

Aelita said to Jeremie, 'You catch all that.'

Jeremie said, 'Yeah, I've started bringing the main power back on line.'

The trailer opened up from the top to allow the Skid to escape. Slowly rising vertically, it didn't take long for Aelita to be teleported into the main cockpit. She began working at the controls, guiding the Skid up towards one of the Principle Office energy pylons. Jeremie said, 'I hope this'll work, I don't want to fry their command pathways.'

Aelita said, 'We'll go with a low bandwidth pulse, until we know if it works.'

A red beam emerged from the Skid and interfaced with the energy pylon. The passing energy swirled for a minute before continuing on through. Jeremie said, 'We're in. Let's see what we can find.'

-=-

Everyone in Mainframe was curious to what they were doing, but especially in the War Room. Dot was looking over Mouse's shoulder, trying to make sense of what they were looking at. 'Any change? Do you know what they are doing?'

After a moment trying to figure it out on her own; Mouse shrugged, 'Not sure. They are moving through the various program files faster than I could think, but it's like they don't even know what they are looking for.'

-=-

Aelita called out, 'Wait Jeremie, go back to that last pathway.'

After doing so, Jeremie said, 'We found it; that looks like the networking controls.'

Aelita said, 'Mainframe is far from a supercomputer, trying to search through the command protocols it is like building a sandcastle with a bulldozer.'

Jeremie said, 'I'm activating the wash program, be my eyes and ears on this okay?'

'Sure.'

The program uploaded itself into the hardware, and it wasn't long before power all around the system dimmed for a brief moment, then returned to normal. A sonic "ping" was emitted from the system into the energy sea, which ran itself straight into the system wall, eventually clearing away the dark sky and returned it to the pristine white and blue.

-=-

As soon as the system sky was cleared, Bob quickly put in a call to Turbo. Turbo was at his desk, looking harried and stressed. As soon as he saw Bob's face he exclaimed, 'Bob! Mainframe is back on the network?'

'Yeah, I think you know about Lyoko.'

Turbo said, 'Yes, I do. This is good news, Mainframe is the first to go online again.' He got very serious, 'I need to talk with everyone, including Joel and the Lyoko sprites.'

Bob asked, 'I'll get Joel and meet up with Dot in the War Room in just a nano.' He closed the vid-window and quickly opened new a vid-window to Joel. Joel was at work with an engineering crew in a hanger bay to repair the Expedition, his head was under an engine component, one hand was full of wires and the other hand held a soldering gun. A few binomes behind him were fitting the outside with new hull armor.

Bob called out, 'Joel.'

Surprising him, Joel reared his head back and slammed into the frame. Cringing in pain while holding his head, he turned him attention to Bob. 'Yeah.'

'Sorry about that.' Bob pointed at Joels bruised eye, 'Looks like you've found some action.'

Joel lightly rubbed it, 'I had a run in with one of those viruses.'

'Well, Turbo wants to meet with us in the war room.'

Joel looked at his ship, then back to Bob and sighed, '…okay I'll be there shortly.' He looked at the repair crew and suddenly yelled at them, pointing at a piece of equipment they were working with, 'No! This one goes there; that one goes there…got it?'

Ominous Revelations

By this time, everyone had gathered into the war room except for Matrix and Odd, who were still prowling around Mainframe.

Turbo revealed new images taken of Xana's ship. It was a relatively simple design; it had the general shape of a teardrop with the underbelly flattened. Everything else appeared completely internalized; the only real texture on the ship was layers of armor plating.

Turbo said, 'Even with our preparations, the ship overwhelmed our forces. The issue was that we simply could not do enough damage; it is about ten times the size of your principle office. We are doing our best to track it, but it is currently under our search engines. I can only assume it is looking for another system to conquer.'

Bob asked, 'You think it is going to target the Supercomputer soon?'

Turbo said, 'It's hard to tell. I'd imagine if it is collecting operating cores the Supercomputer would be the juiciest prize.'

Joel stated, 'I think it will be targeting Mainframe next.'

Turbo asked, 'What makes you so sure?'

Joel explained, 'Look at what just happened here. Xana tried to eliminate his only real threat.'

Dot said, 'I think I see what you're going. This "Xana" went through a lot of trouble to interrupt the latest battle, but he was targeting the Lyoko team. If the Supercomputer is the last stop, Xana would want to take them down before he makes his final plans.'

Turbo said, 'Xana can travel quickly across the net, about as fast as we use the portals. I can only assume that the ship is just too large to transport using his faster methods. If we do manage to stop this ship, what is to prevent Xana from escaping and start this up all over again?'

Joel said to Bob and Dot, 'I was told that there were two people here that hold the answer to that. Phong was one of them and he is recuperating in the infirmary. The other is someone named "Talon." It doesn't match any records that we have.'

Bob and Dot reacted in surprise to that name. Bob said, 'Talon? Where did you get that name?'

Joel said, 'Someone with a connection to Xana told me he could help, and that was all.'

Dot said, 'Talon is a former Codemaster. Phong gave him sanctuary here a long time ago.'

Joel and Turbos' eyes widened in surprise. Turbo said, 'A Codemaster ally would be very nice to have right about now.'

Yumi asked, 'What is a Codemaster?'

Mouse explained, 'They are a guild of powerful modders. They manipulate code using a staff weapon called a Gibson Coil Pike.'

Dot said, 'Old Man Pearson is what we call him now, he runs the data dump.'

-=-

Dot, Mouse, Bob and Turbo continued to talk about what they need to do, while Joel approached Ulrich, Yumi and Aelita and motioned for them to move into the corner. 'You saw all of that, what do you think?'

Ulrich said, 'If Xana is on the move and you've found a way to track him, we should go out and say "Hi."'

Aelita said, 'The Skid's weapons aren't operational in this environment. I'll guess that the Nav-Skids are just as useless.'

Joel suggested, 'What if I took you out in my ship?'

Yumi said, 'I'm not sure how far away we can get from the Skid.' She turned her head as she said, 'Jeremie, could we leave the Skid here in Mainframe and move out into the net with Joel?'

Jeremie replied, 'You would be able to exist in the net on your own terms, but the Skid's range extends to all of Mainframe, no further. That means I won't be able to communicate with you and the Skid won't redirect you back to the scanners if you lose your life-points.'

Yumi looked back to the others, 'I guess that isn't an option for us.'

Aelita said, 'Well, we are assuming Xana is coming after us, so we really don't need to leave Mainframe. We can be our own bait.'

Yumi said, 'That makes sense. Let Xana come to us, and we'll be ready for him. We have home field advantage.'

Ulrich replied, 'But we don't have home field advantage, Yumi. This isn't our home. We shouldn't be relying on everyone here to take care of our problems.'

Joel said, 'Then I'll find some other way.'

-=-

With this information Joel turned back to Bob and Dot, 'Here is what I think needs to happen…' He pointed to Turbo, 'Keep doing what you are doing, find that ship. Assume it is not coming to Mainframe and search other internet pathways in case we are wrong.' He pointed to Dot, 'Make preparation for the biggest war of your processing life. You likely only have a second or two.' He then looked at Bob, 'As soon as my ship is repaired, I'm going to take it into the outer regions of Mainframe's internet pathway. I will be the early warning system if anything is going on.'

He looked over to the Lyoko Warriors, then to Dot, 'They are here to help and are probably your best ally, but they don't know the rules around here.' He paused for a moment, then said, Joel replied, 'I need to repair my ship first, so if you'll excuse me.' Joel left the war room.

Dot quickly went to work. 'Okay, our first priority would be to complete containment of the viruses and infected.'

Jeremie called to Aelita, 'I actually have a plan if you think it is wise. Maybe I could link up with the War Room's communication monitors so I can talk to them directly.'

Aelita quietly replied, 'That sounds like a smart idea, since Joel is going into the net.' She then said to Dot, 'I think Jeremie has a plan.'

Suddenly another vid-window opened up. Jeremie's image came into focus and the Mainframers got their first look at him. He introduced himself, 'Hello, my name is Jeremie and I am the operations manager of Lyoko.' Everyone was caught off guard with his sudden appearance.

Seeing the awkwardness, Aelita quickly spoke up, 'We have an audio link with him and he has been helping us through our ship.'

Dot stood forward, 'Well, I would like to thank you for your help.'

Jeremie said, 'Well you're welcome. But I believe I can help you with you virus problem. In uploading the modem wash program, I found your system anti-virus scan. That should take care of everything.'

Dot asked disbelievingly, 'You can do that? That's a user operation.'

'Sure, I could do it right now, but I don't want to overstep my bounds, this is your city after all.'

Dot was about to give him the "go-ahead" but Bob spoke up, 'Wait, that program would not only clean infected citizens but also delete the viruses.'

Jeremie said, 'That is the programs function. What's wrong with it?'

'The viruses are right now prisoners of war. Just outright deleting them is not what I want to happen. I don't want to be part of a massacre.'

Jeremie nodded his head and looked over his information. 'Then I'll need Aelita's help to adjust the anti-virus settings.'

-=-

Joel walked into the repair bay, where his ship was being refitted with a new power conduit. After some time helping to get it locked into place, the technology manager Hugh approached him and said, 'We're not the Supercomputer, but your ship should be good to go soon.' He checked his clipboard, 'All things considered the cost of repair was minimal.' He handed a bill to him.

Joel looked it over and in disbelief he said, 'You're charging me for this?'

'You are not on the systems insurance. Your ship isn't part of the Mainframe CPU fleet.' Joel was about to protest again when Hugh added, 'You're lucky it didn't cost more. It's a tough little ship.'

Frustrated and indignant, Joel said, '…Little?'

Bob entered briefly with Ulrich, Aelita and Yumi behind him. He quickly walked to Joel's side and took hold of the bill, 'Dot will take care of this.' After Hugh had left, Bob said, 'Are you certain about this?'

'No. But that is beside the point.'

'I am all for going into things by the seat of your pants, but any plan ahead of time is always a good idea.'

Joel replied, 'Bob, you are this system's guardian, you are here to protect it. I am a net guardian, but our function is still the same, To Mend and Defend. I have my role, and you have yours.'

Bob quietly nodded, then said, 'Take care of yourself, okay.'

'I will.' They turned to leave but Joel had one last thing to say, 'Wait…' He paused to gather his thoughts, 'I…saw some awkwardness between you and Ms. Matrix.'

'How did you…'

Joel quickly said, 'I just want to suggest that you make the most of the time you have. We live in difficult times.'

After releasing a depressed sigh, Bob said, 'Thanks. May the user be with you.'

Joel picked up a tool and briefly glanced at Aelita, Ulrich and Yumi. With a modest grin, he said, 'You too.'

-=-

Bob, Aelita and Yumi excited the PO and walked up to the Skid. Aelita quickly materialized into the pilot's seat. Aelita began working with Jeremie to customize the anti-virus program.

After a short time, Odd and Matrix arrived on zip-boards. They got off and joined with the others outside. Matrix said, 'We found one virus that escaped the security sweeps. Other then that I think we are safe.'

Bob said, 'Not yet. We've received information on a massive city destroying net cruiser heading our way.'

Matrix and Odd say in unison, 'What!?'

Bob opened a vid-window and quickly briefed them on what was going on. '…and the Guardian Joel is about to leave to scout the surrounding internet hub.'

Matrix sighed, 'No time to rest, is there?'

Bob said, 'Mainframe seems to be the focal point of so much disaster because we are the only ones able to deal with it all. Any other city would have been deleted a long time ago. We can deal with the ship, we always have.' He paused for a moment, then said, 'We should probably figure out a name for the thing, we can't just keep calling it "The Ship."'

Yumi said, 'All of Xana's creations we have had to name ourselves. Odd is usually the one to name it.' She looks over at him.

Odd put his hand on his chin, thinking for a moment. 'Let's see, an ominous weapon for the Harbinger of Death. Let's call it Thanatos.'

Yumi asked, 'What's that?'

'One of the names of the Grim Reaper.'

A long silence prevailed in the group, both because Bob and Matrix had no idea what he was talking about, and because Yumi was somewhat disturbed. 'You scare me sometimes, Odd.'

Bob received a notice from Glitch that Joel was ready to leave. Within a nano, the repair bay doors opened and the Expedition took off into the sky. Far off in the distance, a portal was opened and the ship exited into the net.

Everyone had their necks craned up to watch and Aelita called out, 'We're done, activating the program now.'

The sky above Mainframe warped into a golden vortex above, the system called out, 'Warning: Incoming Virus Scan.' The vortex erupted with fireworks, as green energy swirled around everyone in Mainframe, including the Lyoko sprites. It didn't take long before all the infected people all over Mainframe were cleaned. Matrix was visibly confused, looking around Mainframe and back to the Skid. He pointed to Aelita and asked Bob, 'They did that?'

Bob nodded and shrugged his shoulders, 'I'm not complaining.'

Odd looked up at Aelita in the pilot seat, then over at Yumi. With just a mild observation, he asked, 'Hey, where's Ulrich?'

Both Yumi and Bob looked behind them, realizing that Ulrich had not been by them for some time.

Yumi quickly said, 'Jeremie, do you know where Ulrich is?'

Jeremie glanced at his map of Mainframe and Ulrich alias card. Confused, he said, 'That's strange, Ulrich is not in range of the skid, so I can't contact him. But his alias information is still operating. Where did he go?'

Yumi and Bob exchanged glances, and then looked into the sky where the Expedition had left.

New Directives

Upon leaving Mainframe, Joel swung the ship around a hub and said, 'You can come out now, we've already left.'

Caught by surprise, Ulrich got out from his hiding place, 'You knew I was here? Why didn't you kick me out?'

'I figured you knew what you were getting yourself into. Plus I wouldn't mind the company.' Ulrich took a seat next to him. 'The question I have is why are you doing this with me?'

Pausing for a moment, Ulrich explained, 'It's a lot easier for me to be active then just wait. My team mates are willing to just let this thing attack us. Your strategy made the most sense to me. I'd rather help you track it down and stop it here, instead of letting it get to Mainframe.'

'I can respect that.'

Ulrich turned the conversation around, 'Here's my question. You don't really know the people of Mainframe, or even us from Lyoko. Why are you doing this?'

Joel paused, then answered with, 'I gave an oath to keep the net safe, To Mend and Defend. Some things go beyond family or friends.'

-=-

The group had returned to the war room and Mouse brought up the repair bay security cameras. Very shortly after Bob left with Aelita and Yumi, Ulrich had slipped back in and snuck inside the Expedition. Mouse said, 'He's with Joel, all right. And Joel is right now on radio silence.'

Yumi exclaimed, 'He actually went on that suicide mission! Of all the stupid, empty-headed moronic…'

Matrix said, 'Don't worry about it. Just hope he doesn't get deleted.' Yumi shot a glare at Matrix that made even the mighty renegade check his wording twice. She stormed off to the other side of the room. Matrix leaned toward Odd and whispered, 'Is she always this intense?'

Odd shrugged his shoulders, 'Not always…but often.'

Hearing his remark, Yumi stormed back to that side of the room and grabbed Odd by the shirt. 'Do you think this is funny?!' Terrified, he took notice that he wasn't normally at eye level with Yumi, and glanced down to see that Yumi was holding him off the ground. He clenched his mouth shut and nervously shook his head "no." She added, 'You know full well that if he leaves the area of Mainframe then the Skid can't protect him.'

Dot moved to Yumi's side, 'Please, let him down. Not in my War Room.' Yumi grudgingly obliged, and Dot consoled her with, 'Joel is a guardian with an advanced ship. Your friend is a skilled fighter. If we do our part I'm sure we'll bring him home.'

Bob said, 'Hey, Yumi. Why don't you go with me to see Old Man Pearson?'

The tactic didn't make any sense to her, 'Why me?'

Bob said, 'Well, he doesn't like me very much, but if you come and explain your story it might have more weight.'

Dot said to Aelita and Odd, 'With the infected military now clean, I think we can handle the preparations. If you want, you can sight-see around Mainframe for the time being. We'll need you for the battle, but there isn't much you can work on now.'

-=-

Shortly afterwards everyone split up, Yumi left with Bob to go see Old Man Pearson and Dot organized a transport to take Odd and Aelita to Dot's Diner. They were given a few tickets offering free meals. They took seats at the bar while Cecil handed them a few things to eat.

Eyeing the food, Odd took hold of the energy shake and said, 'Now this should be interesting.' He carefully sucked on the straw, swallowed carefully and gave a satisfied smile. 'I like it.'

Aelita took a sip off hers and her reaction was pretty much the same. 'I can't really taste any flavor, but it just feels good to have it, like a glass of ice water on a hot day.' Odd nodded in agreement.

They spent some time eating their food, but then noticed a few people walking by, giving them a strange look. Aelita released a sigh and said to Odd, 'I'm not sure how much longer we can convince them that we are merely "advanced sprites." They're going to wonder who we really are.'

Startling them, Enzo showed up behind them, 'What do you mean by that?'

Startling them, Odd and Aelita both turned inward to look at Enzo, accidently bumping their foreheads together. After recoiling back, rubbing their heads in pain, they exchanged worried glances at each other, dumbfounded as how to respond. Odd eventually said, 'Nothing… we're not hiding anything.'

'Dude, I wasn't compiled last second. I know all about being sneaky and the adults are always keeping things from me. You just said something you didn't want me to hear.'

Caught in his trap, Odd said, 'Just don't tell anyone, okay.'

'I don't really know anything except that you aren't who you say you are.' A mischievous grin came upon his face, 'I could use some incentive…'

Responding with shock, Odd said, 'You're a little extortionist!'

Aelita stepped between the two and said, 'I'll handle this.' She looked at Enzo and smiled brightly, 'How about this, if you don't tell anyone and show us around Mainframe for the afternoon, we will tell you everything you want to know later. And it'll be our little secret.'

Aelita maintained the sweet smile as Enzo looked back at her, deciding upon her conditions. Then a large smile crossed over him and he said, 'You got it.' He moved to lead them somewhere, 'I'll take you to see the Circuit Races Grand Prix.' He led Aelita out of the Diner.

Aelita kept up with Enzo and slyly gave a wink to Odd. Incredulous, Odd followed behind shaking his head. He muttered under his breath, 'Oh the advantages of being a hot chick.'

-=-

Bob knocked on the door to the dusty old building in the midst of the data dump. From inside a cranky old voice with a Scottish accent said, 'Go away. I'm not open.'

Raising her eyebrows, Yumi said to Bob, 'He doesn't sound pleasant.'

'Did you think he would be anything but?' He pounded on the door a second time. 'Mr. Pearson, we don't have anything to recycle, we are more interested in talking with a certain Codemaster.'

A moment passed by before the door swung open and the old binome stepped outside and pointed at Bob aggressively. 'You had better not be wasting my RAM on this boy. You don't dare say something like that half-ascii'd.'

'Trust me, this is for real.'

Pearson looked around and took notice of Yumi. 'Is this your girlfriend?'

Instinctively Bob raised his hands and protested, 'Whoa! No..no…no. This is Yumi, a friend.' Both embarrassed and disturbed, Yumi became shy and blushed.

Looking them both over again a few times, Pearson then turned around and went inside, barking behind him, 'Come in, then.'

-=-

Aelita took her seat in the bleachers overlooking a sports court. Odd was playing against Enzo; the object of the game was to prevent the center puck from reaching the wall behind you. They had on boots that kept them hovering in the air, and paddles on each hand that allowed them to hit the puck back and forth.

The match continued as Enzo demonstrated how proficient at this game he was. The first round Odd was completely aced by Enzo, made even worse by the fact that he wasn't able to return a single volley. The second round wasn't much better, also being easily beaten, but he did get really excited when he managed to make his first return pass.

Aelita enjoyed the game, watching the puck rebound off the side walls, adding to the already fast paced nature of the game. Various people passed by, stopping for a moment to stare at her. She wasn't completely oblivious to it, but did wonder what the deal was. A teenage group gathered behind her, eventually someone approached her, a teenage female binome with a blue dress and pigtails. The girl seemed extremely shy as she approached her, so Aelita tried to help her relax a little and said, 'Can I help you with something?'

The girl folded her arms behind her and fidgeted, gathering the courage to speak. '…You're Aelita, right?' Aelita nodded and the girl continued, 'We were wondering…' she looked back at her group of friends, who silently urged her on. 'How were you able to do all that stuff?

Trying to be casual about it, Aelita asked, 'What stuff?'

'You know…' The girl waved her arms and pantomimed the things she was describing, 'Flying in the sky, shooting energy bolts from your hands, stuff like Hexadecimal would do. And were you the one who started the system anti-virus command? Only the user can do that kind of stuff. What's your format?'

Caught by surprise, Aelita stumbled to create an answer, having to think of things in their terms. 'Uh…I'm the System Administrator for Lyoko. It allows me to do some…random… stuff like that.'

A bell went off that indicated the game was finished. Aelita politely nodded to the girl, 'Excuse me.' And she went to the court floor.

Enzo said with a little pride, 'Game, set and match.' Odd was on the ground, panting slightly after loosing so horribly.

Because Odd is rarely the one to lose at a game, Aelita rubbed a little salt in the wound saying, 'Wow Odd, you just got…what's the word? Pwned?'

Odd flashed an indignant look her direction, while Enzo added, 'Don't feel too bad. I've been doing this a lot longer then you have.'

Odd added, 'Who would have thought Pong would beat the adrenaline out of foosball?'

-=-

Enzo led Odd and Aelita to another section of Mainframe, heading into the theater district in Baudway. They could see the marquee sign lit up and proudly displayed up front. The True Stories of Mainframe. Enzo said excitedly, 'If you want to know Mainframes history, this gives you a good idea.'

Aelita looked over to see a long line to get to the box office, but to her surprise Enzo led them right around it and straight towards the front entrance. 'You already have the tickets?'

Shaking his head "no," Enzo explained, 'Dot owns 40 percent of the company. We have a private balcony to watch it from.'

Without warning, the sky turned dark and cloudy, with a purple vortex opening in the sky. The system voice announced, 'Warning, incoming game. Warning, incoming game.'

Enzo looked up, seeing that it was going to land directly on top of them. The box office line started to panic a little and scatter, trying to escape. Aelita began to worry herself a little and quickly contacted Jeremie, 'A game is going to land on us. Should that be a problem?'

Jeremie replied, 'No, you are linked up to the Skid, so there shouldn't be any danger of being dragged out from it. I'd recommend just having fun. And Odd, this should be a good learning experience for you on the other end.'

'Real funny Jeremie.'

As the game landed on top of them, the purple energy stabilized into a large landscape, with them standing on a ledge looking over a forested valley. Enzo said, 'I think I've heard of this game before.'

Matrix's gruff voice spoke up behind them, 'This is "The Legacy of Paracelsus." …Enzo, you know you're not supposed to run into the games.'

Enzo said, 'Hey, it dropped down on us, okay.' He paused for a moment, then realized, '"Legacy of Paracelsus," I think I heard Bob talking about this one. It's supposed to be one of the more intense games to play.'

Odd asked, 'Why is that?' His line was punctuated by an earth shattering noise and they turned to see a mountain cliff crumble apart and fall into a nearby valley.

To answer his question AndrAIa said, 'That's why. Just watch your step.'

Matrix double-clicked his icon and said, 'Reboot!'

Matrix was enveloped by purple energy and the game character information downloaded into his format and when it cleared he was shorter and slimmer then he normally was, had red armor and a pair of broadswords at his side. AndrAIa and Enzo followed suit and did the same. She also became shorter and had her hair intricately braided down her back and a blue and white robe. Enzo actually increased in size to match their height and had a similar colored outfit as AndrAIa, but had a sleeveless tunic with loose fitting pants and his hair was into a short knot in the back.

Jeremie observed what was happening digitally to them and exclaimed, 'This is interesting. It's a temporary shell program being installed overtop of them from the game information. It is a completely random process.' Curious, he quickly applied a simulated process of doing the same thing to their alias cards.

Enzo asked, 'Aren't you going to reboot?'

Jeremie's simulation finished with a compatible success. 'Hey Odd, you want to be a game character?'

Grateful for Jeremie's timing, Odd said, 'Uh…sure. How about you, Aelita?'

'Sounds okay.'

Jeremie stretched out his fingers and began working on the process. 'You guys ready. Say the word.'

Confused, Odd mumbled, 'Is that necessary?'

'No, but hey, when in Rome…'

Odd and Aelita looked at each other, then shrugged. With no icon to click, they just said together, 'Reboot!'

Jeremie activated the randomized game character program on their alias cards and they changed appearance. Aelita had a green and brown tunic with dark hair and a wide brimmed conical hat. Odd was completely bald and had an orange tunic with a maroon cloak and came with a staff.

Aelita took one look at Odd and snickered. Confused, Odd said, 'What's wrong.' He looked himself over, then looked up to see Aelita referencing her own hair to him. Panicked, Odd ran his hands over his head and felt how it was completely smooth. 'What? My hair!'

-=-

The Expedition was cruising through the net pathway, set on a specific course. Things were uncomfortably quiet for a while, then Ulrich asked, 'What do you think is going to happen? To the net and everything.'

Joel shrugged, 'I'm thinking we only have one chance to stop Xana. We know the destination, and unless we stop that ship now, we aren't going to.' He flew into a hub marked Hub 509 and went through a corridor. After a little while he started to approach the designated location. 'We're arriving at Hub Worf 507.' As he exited the transfer stream, the image overwhelmed their scope of vision. Scraps of ships were scattered as far as they could see. Surrounding the hub, torn shreds formed a morbid ring around it. Burned out husks of large command ships were also there.

Gloomily looking at the husks of destroyed ships, he could make out several of the larger command ships and including the flag ship.

With a stunned intonation, he read off, 'Milgauss, Cestello, Danaos, Explorer.'

Remaining respectful, Ulrich asked, 'What was that?'

Saddened, he replied, 'The names of those ships.' He looked at Ulrich humbly, 'Your Xana crippled the backbone of the Guardian armada.'

Authors Commentary

I wasn't very subtle about the inspiration for the game, was I? Oh well.

I said before in the commentary that I didn't want to create a new character for this series, but that I needed to. Since I made that decision, I've been very meticulous about his role. To make sure he didn't overshadow anything, I've been throwing a lot of crap Joel's way. Getting shot down and beaten up, etc. Getting overcharged for repairs is probably my favorite moment.

Although the reason I took so long with this chapter is because I didn't have an individual character taking charge. Everyone else, including Dot, was mostly concerned about the present problem with viruses. The Lyoko Warriors only help on a tech level with Jeremie, otherwise they are mostly in combat. Without really meaning to, I fulfilled what Franz Hopper said a few chapters ago about Joel being the emissary between the two groups. I wrote it in that earlier chapter because I thought it sounded interesting, and the organic flow of the story made it work. This chapter didn't start working for me until I had him step in and issue orders.

Teaser for the Next Chapter-

Odd and Aelita learn what it means to be a part of "The Games." Yumi and Bob confront a retired Codemaster. Dot begins arming the Mainframe military. Joel and Ulrich talk about their lives and responsibilities. Everyone prepares for the arrival of Thanatos.