Lyoko Warriors

"Was that the beginning, that evening?
It's hard to know. Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious.
They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, they lurk unrecognized.
Then, later, they spring."
― Margaret Atwood

Prologue

Elmerton wasn't known for its tourism. It was just a small podunk town located on Interstate 57, somewhat 50 miles north of Champagne, and 10 miles west of the suburbia Amity Park. Why Amity was chosen by the government and Fortune 500 owners, your guess is as good as mine. Elmerton was definitely more qualified for such honors, as Amity Park seemed to have almost nothing important of value. Everything that had to come and go from Amity had to pass through Elmerton.

Elmerton's exclusion on progress left it in the only position it could find; a pit-stop town. Gas stations lined up every corner, four corner blocks away from each other to avoid immediate competition. McDonald's, Subway's and any other form of fast business filled up the remaining area. If a business was to spend more than 5 minutes on a customer, then it would be swallowed alive by even faster ones. Because in Elmerton, it was get in and get out, or get left out.

With this factual philosophy, many small businesses had to retire. Most of the owners and their families left completely, looking for somewhere else to replant their roots. And because of the declining population of actual citizens, not one city official focused on those remaining. Many of these once outstanding citizens were left with base-wage jobs, for of many of these new, fast businesses hired only at the base salary.

It made living in Elmerton comparable to living in a slum. There wasn't even a community park for the children anymore. Vines crept up the side of homes and apartment buildings like leafy tentacles, stretching out to find the next window ledge to grasp. Water marks and other signs of decay were common if the vines weren't there to cover these injuries.

Elmerton wasn't a city anymore, nor even a town. It was just a destination. It was just a pit-stop.

And so not one traveling soul lingered at the city bus stop – anyone traveling would already have by car. Officials were thoughtful enough however, for those wanting to leave by bus, to put in a automated ticket vendor. Not for the ease of travel, but it was much cheaper than having employees there – even an employee doing all the other employee's jobs as well. The screen glowed at the destinations that could be reached from the depot – Champagne, Amity Park, and Chicago, another 85 miles going north on I-57. There was nowhere else to go besides these in Illinois. Payphones lined the wall next to the machine, untouched even when the bus stop was popular; for society had deemed it unacceptable to call for help or to just check in with the family.

The worn brass bell tied to the door handle twinkled lightly as a teen walked through. His clothes reeked of poverty – converses crusted with new, and old, dirt, dark jeans tattered around his knees and shins, and his once white sweatshirt displayed a battle between the two fashion disasters. Unnaturally natural white hair poked out from the hood, trying to hide the kid's eyes. But even the stray hairs couldn't stop the emeralds from lighting the darkness.

The teen groaned and flopped down on one of the sofas, too exhausted to care what might have inhabited it since the desolation of humanity from this place. His eyelids started to betray him, and when they closed, the panic ensued kept them open for another five minutes. He couldn't sleep. He was on the run. From whom you might ask?

Daniel Fenton was on the run from the world.

He groaned. Why did he have to be so interested in his parent's work? Why couldn't he just let his parents celebrate his birthday like any normal family would? September 5th was supposed to be the best time of the year. Today sure seemed to change that.

His hand cradled his face, the other hanging limply off his leg as he slouched over. He brought this upon himself, really. Why would you even bother working with equipment you didn't know how to work? Let alone equipment that was dangerous and unstable like a ghost portal?

Danny wasn't lying; his parents actually did build a ghost portal. In fact, his parents were the reason why the government and almost every major company in the world had zoomed in on Amity Park, leaving Elmerton to it's decline. They were the leading ghost experts of the world. And if the portal had worked, then it would have changed the world.

It hadn't worked the first time. It was the day before, September 4th. His parents had put the finishing touches on it.

"Danny, my boy, what we are about to do is going to change lives forever" his dad yelled excitedly. "Why, when the portal opens, the first thing I'm going to do is grab some ghost and rip it apart, molecule by molecule, so we can study it and learn how to defend ourselves from such evil things."

"That's right, sweetie," his mother had said lovingly. "Just think of how this could improve society!"

Danny hadn't really cared, but because he loved his parents, he tried his best to be supportive. But the portal only sparked with electricity, its energy surging but never becoming stable. It had failed. He looked at his parents, only to see dejection in their eyes. There must be something he could do to get them in high spirits again before tomorrow, no matter how selfish it sounded.

It was around midnight. Danny slowly crept out of his room, cringing as the floor underneath him creaked under the weight. Tip-toeing down to the kitchen, he made a mad dash to the basement door, and then down to the lab. Dim lights kept the room from being completely dark, but on the wall at the end of the lab held the black, gaping hole. Danny gulped, and grabbing a white HAZMAT suit, he slipped it on. He silently praised God that his dad hadn't put his face on this one.

He stepped forward into the hole. He knew that he shouldn't be inside it, but there was feeling that whatever the problem was originated from inside here. His hand traced the wall to keep his balance and location in the dark, but his fingers suddenly brushed against something. And that something was pressed under the pressure.

He couldn't deny that it was supposed to be pain. Extreme heat was felt everywhere on his body, as if he was melting. His eyes saw nothing, only blackness. He didn't know if they were open or not. He knew his mouth was, the only thing he could feel was his throat hurting. But he couldn't hear the noise escaping. He couldn't feel anything except the heat. And then it was gone. Danny's body laid there, his mind still racing, but unable to move. He was in shock.

Maddie and Jack were thrown out of bed by the explosion. Both leapt off the floor, Jack heading to Jazz's room to see if she was okay, and Maddie to Danny's room. Her heart stopped when she saw the door open. She peeked around the corner, only to see an empty bed underneath the stick-up glow in the dark stars on the ceiling.

"Danny!" Maddie screamed, running downstairs. The room was lit in green, and she turned to the source. The lab door.

All of them tumbled downstairs to the basement to see the glowing green portal. But it wasn't the only thing different about the room. On the floor in front of the dimensional door was his body. Danny's. Maddie slowly walked up to him, fear etching her every movement in space. She slowly crouched down, and turned the body over.

Tears were streaming down the now alone boy's face. Jazz had cried, her baby brother hurt by their own parents. But they weren't done hurting him emotionally. Their faces of shock, of disgust. Their son, now a ghost. He was now evil, and he would need to be dealt with.

Exterminated. Ripped apart molecule by molecule. And why not work on a body that they knew so well?

The real world took shape again. Shadows around him stretched and grew, signaling the end of the day. Buses would stop traveling around this time. He looked over at the door. They were looking for him. He couldn't stop like the buses. But maybe for tonight…

He slowly pulled himself into the standing position, and dragged his feet over to the door. The memories still flashed through his head. He was glad he grabbed these clothes from his closet while he could, putting them on in a hurry. Someone would have looked twice if they saw a boy in a black and white gloved/booted HAZMAT suit.

Not that being covered in dirt was any better. He had crash landed too many times in the woods and plants below to even care. He never looked over himself physically. It just hurt. The pain never stopped, externally and internally.

He twisted the lock as the dead bolt found its hole. But he dared not move. He could see the shadows of his former parents walking past the building, ecto-guns aimed and ready. Danny slowly backed into the shadows to hide some of his glow.

"He couldn't have gotten far, Jack, did you see how tired he was?

"I know, Maddie, that's why we're checking these buildings. He has to be hiding." The man stopped at the door of the bus depot. Danny put a hand to his mouth, trying to control the fact that his breathing – while not need as much anymore, he realized that he still needed oxygen – was effectively increasing. Jack's hand rested on the door handle, and…

"Jack, Danny won't be in there. Why would he be at a bus depot? It's one of the most public places to be at, and he isn't trying to associate at this point."

The hand retreated from the handle. "I guess you're right. But if we haven't found him by now, we won't for the night. We can put a BOLO out on him when we get back. But for fact, our Danny's dead. It's time to plan a funeral. Maybe experiment on another ghost if one comes through. Weren't we lucky when that mistake fixed the portal?"

As the figures retreated, Danny slumped to the floor, and curled himself into a silent, sobbing ball. His parents… they called him a mistake? Something they don't want anymore? How could they just toss all the love they had for him aside like that?

If they wanted to be that way, fine. He needed to move on anyway. But Danny couldn't forget them the way they could forget him, no much how he would try.

One of the phones rang, making Danny jump. Payphones weren't suppose to ring… were they? Wiping his face, he eyed the ringing phone, and slowly inched towards it. He unhooked it, and lifted it up to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Ah, I see you finally answered, Daniel."

If Danny still had any blood, it would have run cold. "How… What… Who are you!?"

"Not of that is really important at the time. However, if you insist, you can refer to me as your Guardian. Yes, it is possible for ghosts – yes Daniel, I know – to have guardians. But I didn't call to explain that. Go to the desk behind the ticket booth window, and you will find some new clothes, a passport with a plane ticket, as well as a wallet with your new identity, a debit card, and 200 dollars in cash. The debit is infinite, as ghost money is, well, infinite, and should work find in replacing any sort of human cash."

"Why are you even helping me?"

"That will be revealed in time, young maître. Once you land, grab a taxi and tell them Kadic Academy. You will continue your secondary schooling there. Daniel, please be careful. Its cliché, but the future holds many paths for you. Try not to stray from the high road."

"But what is the high road?" Daniel spat, exasperated. Here he was, talking to someone who somehow tapped into a payphone. Someone who had been apparently following him since he became a ghost. Maybe even longer. Was he to trust him? A feeling kept pushing him to do so.

A click in the line told Daniel that the man had hung up. Sighing, he looked over to the abandoned ticket window. He could see the desk, and a cardboard box resting underneath it. Groaning again, Danny forced himself to phase through the wall into the room. He still wasn't used to it, being a ghost and all. It was all so new; he didn't know what to do or how to control his newfound abilities.

He opened up the cardboard box and sifted through it. Inside was a black sports jacket and a heather grey t-shirt, as well as some burgundy cargo pants. Danny set those aside for later, and took out the wallet. Sitting inside was the Visa debit, as well as two fifties and five twenties. He put that on top of his new clothes.

Finally he grabbed onto the dark leather book with the official passport logo printed in gold on top of it. He fingered the edge, wondering if he should accept this fate he was being put into. Trust seemed so hard to find after today. But seeing he had no other choice other than continue running, he opened it.

Inside was a plane ticket. "To Paris, France?" It would explain why the man had spoken French to him, which he confusingly understood. The man probably knew that he would become bilingual, too. He looked over the ticket and the new ID, rolling his eyes at his new name. What irony. He probably would have done the same thing if he had to create an alternate identity himself.

And for once in his life, Daniel Fantôme had never wanted the future to come so bad.

A blond haired kid walked passed a few brown-bricked buildings that he had been calling home. He sighed, pushing up his circular glasses. There was nothing here he could use for his robots, nothing of any sort of value. But the genius knew where to look.

He had become curious his seventh grade year, finding multiple tunnels of the school that went down to the sewers. The only passage the sewers had taken him was to the abandoned Renault factory. The now eighth grader smiled. Where there was a factory, there was bound to have some nice mechanics.

But nothing surprised him more than when he took an elevator down to what he thought would be an excess supply room. Instead, it was bare clean, with a super computer hanging from the ceiling. The thing in the middle of the room looked like a projector, but the genius knew underneath them somewhere was the nuclear mainframe, or the core for the big computer above.

Taking the elevator down again, he saw a room with four giant tubes that looked like scanners, somehow connected to the computer above. "Strange…" He thought, but it wasn't the mainframe. He continued down again.

The elevator opened to a freezing room. In the middle rose the towering black mainframe. There was a small door on the side, with a golden design; 3 circles with four squares coming out – one on the top, and three on the bottom. The small door opened up, and Jeremy pulled down on the handle. The computer hummed to life, parts of it glowing gold.

The blond boy traveled back up to where the actual CPU was located, and started messing with the controls. A screen popped up, and a 3D CGI of a girl with pink hair came to life on the screen. She was sleeping.

"What is this?" The blond asked aloud, trying to find out what caused the window to appear in the first place. The noise, however, seemed to wake the girl. The blonde gasped. The girl looked around the screen, and then at the boy.

"Hello? Who are you?... Where am I?"