The Rise of Anax

8/6/2019 The Rise of Anax

1/263

Book One: The Rise of ANAX

Prologue

Jeremy walked down the hall to his dorm. It was late, and it wastime he went to bed.

As he got in his bed, he thought about all the Lyoko Warriors hadbeen through in the fight against XANA. It had only been 2 nights agothat they had shut the SuperComputer off, but it felt like years. It feltlike something was missing now.

It was Franz Hopper. He was what was missing. In their momentof victory, he had sacrificed himself to power the program Jeremy hadused to destroy XANA.

Aelita was terribly upset, and nothing Jeremy could do seemed tocheer her up.

As the night drew on, he got to thinking about the death of Franz. It seemed strange that he had disappeared like he did. He was anormal virtual entity, although bo und to the Digital Sea, and there didntseem to be a cause for his disappearance. The Flying Mantas would

have depleted his energy levels to point where he would no longer beable to hold himself together, but he would not be destroyed. It baffledJeremy as to why the Deep Scan didnt pick up any signals whatsoever on the Network.

Just as he was drifting off, a thought hit him. Wait a minute! Hethought. Maybe, just maybe, Franz Hopper could still be alive! If hetruly disintegrated simply from a lack of energy, then there would be noway for him to send a signal on the Network. What could have happened

was what Jeremy originally though had happened the first time they lostFranz. He thought that Franz had been spread out over the Digital Sea,and there would be no way to find him. Instead, Franz had managed toescape in a complete, tangible form.

Jeremy knew he needed his sleep, but despite that knowledge, hegot up, turned on his computer, and began to work on a new program.


2/263

***

The next morning, Odd an d Ulrich walked into Jeremys dorm.Hey Einstein! I thought that you had given up on sleeping in your computer chair now that XANAs dead! Odd exclaimed. Ulrich shook Jeremys shoulder. Time to wake up Jeremy! Youve already missed

breakfast! Huh... Wha? Jeremy shook himself fully awake. He straightened

his glasses. Odd repeated himself. Well, yeah, Jeremy replied. But Idont think Im done programming just yet. Wheres Aelita? He asked.I need to talk to her about something. Ulrich answered, Shes in her

dorm; what do you want to talk about Jeremy? Jeremy glanced at his watch. No time! he exclaimed. He hoppedabout in his dorm in a rush to get dressed. He grabbed his school bagand sprinted out the door. Not that Jeremy can sprint that fast...

When Jeremy got to Aelitas dorm, he stopped to catch his breath.Then he knocked, and Aelita opened the door promptly. Aelita looked athim in surprise. Jeremy... Good morning. She said in a subdued tone.

Aelita! Guess what? He didnt wait for her to guess. I think Ivefound your father on the Internet!

Aelita suddenly brightened. Really! But thats impossible!No, its not! I ran a program to search the whole Internet. This

morning, the results came back. I found a little over a million signalsthat have the same digital signature, but nothing can trace it to an origin!I think it might be your father!

Really? Aelita asked exuberantly. Im sure of it! Jeremy replied. After school today, we should go

to the factory, and see what we can do. I can hardly wait! Aelita said as she jumped up and hugged

Jeremy.

***


3/263

When the school day finally ended, Jeremy called Ulrich, Odd, andYumi to the Factory. He explained the results of his research in simpleterms.

So, we need to go to Lyoko, and run some tests. If they comeback positive, then we can see what we can do to save Franz Hopper.We should take a vote, as to whether or not we should turn theSuperComputer back on.

Aelita raised her hand immediately. I vote yes! she said. Jeremytoo raised his hand for yes. Im all for it, Ulrich said, raising his handas well.

Anything for you Princess! Odd chimed in. Ill make itunanimous. Yumi said. But what about William? She asked. Do we

tell him anything? Jeremy thought about this. What do you guys think? I mean, nowthat XANAs gone, I dont think that William would try to do anythingstupid to get revenge. If his attitude gets in the way, well, Ill just tellhim that hes got to stay serious. Besides, that wouldnt be very nice if we just left him out again. Im sure that hes still hurting from us beingso cold to him.

After a few awkward seconds, the consent came. Ill call him,Ulrich volunteered.

***

William was sitting in his dorm listening to the newest SubdigitalsAlbum. He felt his phone buzz in his pocket so he shut off the music.

Hello, He said as he brought the phone to his ear. William, He heard Ulrichs voice say. Get to the Factory. Dont

ask questions, well explain when you get here.Sure, William said. What do you need me for? I said no questions! Ulrich told him. Alright, alright. Im coming over now, He said getting up. He raced to the Factory, and swung down to the elevator using the

handy wires hanging from the ceiling. Using the code Jeremy had givenhim a long time ago he sent the elevator down one floor.


4/263

When the door opened, he walked into the Lab. Hey, he saidquietly.

Hey William, Jeremy said. Were sorry for brushing you off like we did. We just-

Yeah yeah, I know. After being under XANAs control for solong, its hard to trust my image. I forgive you.

A few seconds later, William became angry. You dont knowwhat it was like though! Seeing things through XANAs eyes is awful! Ihate that feeling of some, some... thing controlling my body and makingme hurt my friends! XANA is evil beyond your imagination, and I stillhave nightmares about him!

His voice trailed off.

So were cool then? Odd asked. Yeah, we are, William told him. Okay then, Jeremy said. He quickly filled William in about the

situation. Are you up for it? Jeremy asked. Sure, William said, withsome hesitation. Jeremy set up the transfers and told the gang to godown to the scanners.

Jeremy first virtualized Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi. Next came Aelitaand William.

***

Aelita dropped down onto Lyoko. She stood up, and examinedherself. In one way, it felt good to be back on Lyoko. In other ways, itpained her, because of the memories of her father that it brought.

Ready to go? She asked the Lyoko Warriors. Whenever youare, Yumi said.

Ill materialize your vehicles, Jeremy said. William, you canride with Ulrich.

Aelita waved her hand over her wrist to activate her wings, and sheflew off to catch the others.

Jeremy had turned on the SuperComputer while they were waitingfor William to get the Factory. Jeremy detected no traces of activity onthe SuperComputer.


5/263

Okay guys, Jeremy said. Even though Im sure XANAs dead, Iwant one of you to guard each of three Towers that I need to activate. Ineed Aelita and one other Warrior to go to Sector 5. Any volunteers?

When it was all sorted out, Ulrich, Yumi, and William would bewatching the Towers, while Odd and Aelita would be going to Sector 5.

Jeremy launched his program. He let it run for a few minutes, andsoon his calculations were proved correct.

Ive got it! I exclaimed. Well? Aelita asked. Good news? Most definitely! He told her. After a few seconds of typing to set up a program, he asked Aelita

to start the program via the Sector 5 inter face. Well, Aelita, Jeremysaid. In a few minutes, when the program is done consolidating the

data, you could be with your father again! When the scan was complete, he virtualized the human being thathad been produced. He flew down to the Scanners Room to watch thedoor open and Franz Hopper stumble out. He collapsed, but soon roseweakly to his feet.

When he stood, he said, Jeremy I cant thank you enough! Icould only hope that you would figure out how to revive me, and I seethat I did not over es timate you!

Well thank you sir! But it wasnt just me. Without the rest of theLyoko Warriors, we wouldnt have gotten this far.

Come, he said, motioning to the elevator. I think we might beable to make today even more special for Aelita.

***

Franz Hopper had started to work on the SuperComputersinterface and soon he dashed down to the Scanners, and soon came upcarrying no other than Anthea Hopper.

Jeremy was stunned. Huh What How Words failed him.Ulrich interrupted his stunned silence, Hey Jeremy! Did it work or not?Is Franz there with you? Whats going on?

Hang on, Jeremy said, typing away. Ill bring you in. Thenmaybe I can explain


6/263

Franz told Jeremy, Ill explain about my wife when your friendsget here.

Soon, the gang had gathered in the Lab.Aelita was ecstatic about having both her parents back.The FBI wanted to shut down XANA and Lyoko after they had

served their purpose. Franz began. I had put a lot of work into it, andso I refused. I thought that I could find other uses for XANA. I waswrong. In an attempt to get me to shut my operation down, they hired ateam of bounty hunters to kidnap Anthea. Unbeknownst to me, theyvirtualized her into the Network, using my own technology. He paused,lost in thought.

I managed t o find here location while I was wandering the

Network after Lyoko was destroyed. I could not virtualize her, as I hadno access to the Scanner protocol. I was able to utilize my knowledge just a few minutes ago.

As he finished, Aelita hugged each of them one more time.Well then! Jeremy said. I looks as if our adventures have come

to a close.XANA put up a good fight, but we beat him in the end. Ulrich

put in.Weve all been through a lot together, and our fight has only

made us stronger. Yumi a dded.It was a lot of fun being a hero, Odd said. But its come to an

end now. William added his, XANA is dead, and now we can all have

normal lives. Im sure that well never forget our adventures together! Aelita

said.The Lyoko Warriors victory over XANA was no longer Pyrrhic,

as Aelita was reunited with her mother and father. They all lived happilyever after.

But that was not the end my friends Merely another beginning!


7/263

***

3 Generations Later

***

ANAX drifted through the matrices of the SuperComputer. WaldoSchaeffer had left the computer in sleep mode, a large mistake. In sleepmode, the SuperComputer had very little executive power. That was notgoing to stop him.

He and XANA had been working on this matter for years. Soon,they would be able to override the sleep command. ANAX the Anti-

Nullification Assistant of XANA had been created to serve XANA,and assist him in any way necessary.He came to the metaphorical Chamber where XANA slept. Ever

since his first defeat, he was much weaker. He would not be able toregenerate until he could gain access to the internet once again. XANAhad spent nearly his last drop of energy creating ANAX.

Master, ANAX addressed the pod on the wall. I take it youhave good news. XANA said. Yes. .. We can begin the finalstage whenever the opportunity arises. Soon, allhumans will pay... Soon...

Chapter 1

I tossed and turned in my bed. I had lain awake for hours, notbeing able to fall asleep. Something in the back of my mind said that thiswas a night that would change my life forever. Thats silly, I toldmyself.

Well, whether or not that feeling was right, it was robbing me of sleep.

I listened to the rain pound against the roof of my dorm. I attendedKadic Junior High, which was both a boarding school and a normal one.


8/263

My dad was a big businessman, and he travelled a lot. So instead of making me change schools every year, they just sent me here.

My name is Sammy Belpois. My two best friends, Sean Belpois(Who was also my third cousin) and Tennent Della Robbia were asleepin the dorm directly across from mine. If tonight was a normal night forthem, they were likely snoring away by this time. The clock read 11:00.

It was early fall, so the rain showers were common at this time inFrance. Generally, the rain would lull me to sleep, but tonight wasdifferent. After a while, I gave up trying to sleep, and got up to watchthe rain beat against my window.

As I p eered out, I saw something that I didnt expect. Movement. Ilooked closer, and saw that it was my robot! I had designed it for a class

project a while back, and normally it was on display in my homeroom.It was mounted on wheels, but was not terribly fast. When I saw it,I pulled on a jacket, and went outside to follow it.

I calculated its course, based on the direction I saw it moving.Soon, the robot came into view. I then slowed down, and stayed about20 feet behind it.

I shoved the hood of my jacket back; I was soaked anyway. Someof the rain beaded up on my glasses, making it harder to see, but I wasdetermined.

I followed it down the sidewalk of a road. I was well outside of school campus by now, and I hoped that I didnt get caught.

Soon the robot veered off the road, and down a disused bridge tothe old abandoned Factory. Nobody knew the purpose of that oldbuilding, but because of the radiation that had been detected there, thecity had voted not to demolish it.

I followed it into the Factory, grateful for the chance to dry off. Myrobot veered off to the left, but I stopped to shake the water out of myhair.

On the wall beside me, there was a piece of shiny metal. I lookedinto it, and saw myself. I was 14 years old, and stood a staggering 5 feetand 11 inches. The rest of my body didnt match my height in width. Iwas your standard geek. I stank at almost anything athletic, but wasquite a good student.


9/263

I had a mop of light brown hair and green eyes. And at thismoment, water was dripping from my hair, into my eyes.

After I had dried off a bit, I set off in the direction that my robothad gone. I travelled a distance, and then came to a chamber with a largecomputer in it. The metal walls had a bluish color to them. The ceilingof this room was a least a dozen feet high, but the computer wasmounted to ceiling, with a heap of wires connecting it to who knowswhat.

There was a chair to sit in (Presumably for using the computer),but since I did not see my robot, I wasted no more time in that room. Isaw only two exits.

There was what looked like an elevator on the far wall, but the

activator panel was far too high for my robot to reach, so I knew that ithadnt gone that way. I chose the other exit. A set of rungs on the wall went down a

floor. In this new room, I looked around. Three tall cabins commandedthe center of the room. It was dark in here. I didnt see my robot hereeither, so I went down one more floor.

It was here that I found my robot. It seemed to be messing with atype of SuperComputer in the middle of the room. It turned its head tolook at me, and froze.

In its e yes, there was a strange symbol. I cant describe it, but apicture will help.

Seeing those eyes froze me in fear. The robot and I stared at eachother for a long while. Nothing happened. Or so it seemed...

***

XANA ! ANAX called. This could be the


10/263

chance we have been waiting for ! If we can trick thisboy into turning on all of the power, we can disposeof him easily, and conserve energy at the same time ! A few seconds of silence passed as XANA processed this data.

Do what you must ANAX. I leave it to your judgment. We are so weak, and this boy could make us so strong. When he was fulfilled hispurpose, we shall dispose of him!

ANAX removed his essence from the robot. He collapsed into thepartially powered up SuperComputer, nearly devoid of energy aftertaking control of something without a Tower.

***

At this point, I saw a cloud of dark blue smoke-like gas erupt frommy robot. I staggered backwards at the sight. The smoke coiled higharound the ceiling before diving into the SuperComputer.

Struck by a wondering that I had never felt before, I reached toturn the computer on. There was a simple lever with that same symbolon it, but upside down. I believe the phrase Curiosity killed the catbest describes this moment.

As soon as I powered up the computer, a shockwave of blueenergy blasted me back. The field receded quickly, so I instinctivelyreached out to turn the computer off. Naturally, when I pulled theswitch, nothing happened. Just my luck.

I went back up to the room with the interface to see if I could getsome data on turning the SuperComputer off. I found almost nothing. Bynow, I was too spooked to notice much. I saw a window aboutsomething called Lyoko. A virtual world of sorts.

OK, I told myself. Im dreaming. Im going to go ba ck home, and go to bed. When I wake up, Ill know that this didnt happen.

I did just that. There was only one snag. The next morning when Iwoke up, I was still sure that it had indeed happened. Later, Id tell myfriends about it, and see what they think...

***


11/263


12/263

I hauled myself to my feet and looked around. Everything wasvirtual! The ground was a bright green color, and the path was verynarrow. Trees went up from all around me, but very few grew from theplatform itself.

I looked over at Sean and Tennent, speechless.Suddenly all three of us gaped at each other. Sean wasdressed in black armor, with no face mask. He had abelt across him with tiny knives, a short sword on hisback and some other weapon in a holster on his hip.I picture is best I think:

Tennent was a giant black cat. No weapons were apparent. Again apicture describes it best:

From my friends description, I was a tiger. I didnt have anyvisible weapons either.

My glasses had transferred over in the form

of something that looked like green safety glasses.


13/263

When I found my voice, I asked, Whats going on here?

All I got was a shrug.

Chapter 2

My friends and I soon recovered from our shock. Several logicalquestions popped into my head.

I wonder why Sean has weapons, and neither of us have any... I

said. Its not like there is any fighting to be done here... I say we explore! Tennent said. You never know what we mightfind!

With that said, we set off in a random direction. As we ambled, Iasked to see the holstered object in Seans belt. He obliged, and Iexamined it, to find what looked like an activator button. With somehesitation, I pressed the button. *Fvooooom!* an energy beam eruptedfrom it, and then collapsed, so tha t it trailed on the ground. I didnt get it.

Sean did though. COOL! A laser whip! he exclaimed. Lemmesee that! He said, grabbing it from me. He proceeded to dance aroundwith it acting like he knew what he was doing.

Its a good thing we dont have a nything to fight; otherwise wed be in trouble! I said laughing. At that, he put away his weapon with afrown.

Soon we came upon a Tower of sorts. A light blue fog surroundedit. This made us curious. What is it? I asked, knowing that I would notget an answer.

I dont see what its purpose is. Sean announced. It probablycant help us, so we should probably move on.


14/263

I was intrigued. I placed my hands on the surface, and gave anexperimental shove. To my surprise, I fell face first into the tower!

I quickly exited, and called my buddies back over. I showed them

what I had found.We walked into the Tower, and stood on the platform. On it wasthe same logo that had appeared in my robots eyes. Now I knewsomething suspicious was happening.

Look at the ground! I cried. Its the same symbol that was onmy robot! I told you!! I didnt get the reaction that I was hoping for.Sean just shrugged. So you were right. Youre right most of the time.Big deal.

You see all this data on the walls? I asked. I know there must be some way to access it! I bet it can help us learn more.

I wandered about the platform for a few seconds, suddenly, when Ihit the exact center, I started rising into the air!

Aaaggghh! I yelled. My friends echoed me. Soon I was dropp edoff, at a higher point in the tower. Here, an info screen greeted me.

I touched it, and the interface started up. When I saw what was on

it, I breathed, Cool!I had found some sort of program that I could use to fetch more

data from the interface back at the Factory. Now that I had transferredthat program, I should be able to get more info. I was sure that our trip toLyoko had been successful. Once this mystery was solved, we could turnof the SuperComputer, and Id sleep better. Naturally, there wo uld be nosuch luck.

I got down on my knees and leaned over the edge of the platformthat I was on. I could see Sean and Tennent standing below.

Hey guys! You wont believe what I found! I yelled at them.What? Tennent yelled back.

Ill tell you later, first I have to get down from here!


15/263

A few seconds passed. Try jumping, Sean offered. If this is allvirtual, you cant get hurt right?

I figured that I had nothing to lose. There was no other way down

it appeared, so I leaped.Much to my surprise, I jumped far longer than I intended to. I hadno idea that I could even jump as far as I did. I completely missed theplatform Sean and Tennent were standing on. I plummeted into theblackness. I closed my eyes in fear.

Soon, I became aware that I was no longer moving. Then I felt asmall impact. I had just landed on my face for the third time. Ugh.

I opened my eyes. It looked like I was still in the Tower! When Ididnt see Sean or Tennent, I deduced that I must be in another Tower. Ihad no clue what to do at this point.

Luckily, I was saved by my friends. I saw them appear at the top of the Tower and glide down toward me.

Well that was wacky! I said. Phew! Tennent breathed. I thought we had lost you!Nope! Im still here! I replied, unnecessar ily.Soon we decided to exit the Tower. We needed a way to get back

to the Factory, so I could look up my info.When we walked out of the Tower, instead of seeing a Forest like I

expected, I saw a Desert!What just happened? Sean asked. Maybe there is more than one Sector of Lyoko, I said. Maybe

falling through Towers like that changes what Sector youre in.

We started walking again. We encountered a strange creature. Itlooked like a cube on legs, with the weird logo emblazoned on each faceof the cube. For an unknown reason, the symbol was upside down.

It moved toward us quite lethargically. Maybe its friendly , Ithought.


16/263

With a surge of strength, it fired red and blue beams at us,knocking us backward, and encasing Tennent in ice.

Then the chicken part of me took over. I ran away, but I was shot

in the back, and the world went black.

***

When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the Factory. In just afew more seconds, the other tubes opened up, and Tennent and Seantumbled out. We exchanged confused looks.

I limped over to the elevator, and when my friends had made it aswell, I hit the button to bring us up the Lab.

Okay guys, I think I found a way to get more info out of thiscomputer. Let me give it a shot.

I walked over to the chair, and sat down. I located the program thatI had transferred, and ran it.

Soon, the data base was open to me. Well, part of it anyway. Wedsuffer for that later.

I scanned the lines of text. I read aloud to my friends.Warning! Do not activate the SuperCompu ter! It is highly

dangerous! That was the first line. I continued reading. A very powerful virus called XANA had infected the Computer at

one point. XANA has been destroyed, but I cant be sure if hes goneforever.

I think we should go shut the SuperComputer thingy down,

Tennent said in a shaky voice. I already tried to shut it down, I toldhim. Its bugged up or something and it wont work.

I opened another file. It seemed as if XANA was not dead. I wasgetting readings from 2 running programs. One was XANA, and the


17/263

other was called ANAX. It was weird. I dont know how XANAsurvived his first defeat.

My friends and I stayed in the Factory for a long while, and when

we were finished, we had learned a lot about Lyoko, XANA, andANAX.This is way too big for us to handle! Sean said. Weve got to go

to the authorities and get the SuperComputer destroyed! Sean, you dont understand. No one can to anything about it. The

SuperComputer has a Uranium battery in it that has fused to thecomputer. If we get people to bring a battering ram in here to destroy it,the explosion would destroy everything for miles! Whats more is thelegal side of it. We could have endangerment charges brought on to us!We could be jailed for Petes sake!

Then what do you suggest we do? Sean asked. We fight XANA, Tennent answered. He was defeated once, we

can do it again! I soon nodded. XANA is still very weak from his last defeat. I can

see it from the activity logs on the computer. If we act quickly, we candestroy hi m while hes still weak.

We vowed to tell no one about our secret.

Chapter 3

That night, I dreamed. I dreamed of what life would be like if XANA took over the planet.

I saw in a store, selling only basic necessities, people paying withcoins that had a XANA eye on it. Every person had a XANA eyescorched onto their forehead.


18/263

As I watched the scene unfold, a group of rebels attacked a patrolof robots, and they were mercilessly eliminated. The cold efficiency of those robots still shakes me up when I think about it.

Soon, I awoke from the nightmare. I was breathing hard. I lookedover at the clock, and saw that I only had an hour before my alarmwould go off, telling me that I was time to get up and face the day.

After school was over, I brought my laptop over to the Factory. Iplugged it into one of the inputs on the interface. After some lookingaround, and started the process I had come to do.

I backed up my data, and wiped the hard drive of my laptop. Iinstalled the new BIOS, and connected the two computers wirelessly.Then I restored my data. This way, I could scan for activated Towersfrom my laptop. My laptop would now function better for everything,since the BIOS of the SuperComputer is highly advanced.

Then I did a little searching on the memory banks. I found theavatars of the original Lyoko Warriors, Ulrich, Yumi, Aelita, Odd, andWilliam. It was hard to believe that my grandfather had been in the sameposition I was in only 50 or so years ago.

I thought about asking him for help, but he had moved out of thearea, and I never bothered to ask for a phone number. Besides, Grandpawas so old by this point; there was probably nothing he could do. Mostof the programs he had written had been deleted by XANA. I doubtedthat Jeremy could reprogram them.

I checked out my Lyoko avatar, as well as Tennents and Seans.Seans weapons have already been listed, but I discovered that he had a

special Lyoko Power. Temporary invisibility. I dont know how long hecould sustain it though.

I checked out Tennents next. He had the same skills of Odd. Hecould shoot Laser Arrows, and he had a low power energy shield which


19/263

could block monsters attacks. His Lyoko Power was climbing. He couldclimb up almost any surface, no matter how steep or smooth it was.

I opened my file. I found that I had some type of energy claws that

came out of the back of my hands at will. There were three 1 foot longblades that came out of each hand. As a secondary weapon, I had tworockets that I could shoot from the metal gauntlet I had seen on myforearm. I tried to override the function that only let me have two, but Icould do nothing. My Lyoko Power was Jumping. I could jump about 20times higher that I could on earth. That explained my mis-jump in theTower.

I then did a little programming. I transferred a Lyoko Interfaceonto my left forearm. This way, even while we were on Lyoko trying todeactivate a Tower, I could look at the radar, and do other things, thatIm sure we would need later.

For the rest of the day, I worked at figuring out the Interface. Itdidnt come with a help file, so it was slow going. By the end of the daythough, I felt a lot more confident with the controls.

***

Days passed. No activated Towers. I had been thinking of a way todestroy XANA, but nothing came to mind. He seemed to have nosource. There was nothing I could do to weaken him further. I had noidea where he drew power from.

One day, in the middle of Science class, my laptop beeped at me. It

was the set sound that meant there was an activated Tower!There was only a few minutes left in the class, so I decided that it

could wait. Afterward, I whispered to Sean and Tennent that we neededto deactivate a Tower. They ran off. I was about the follow them, whensomeone caught my arm. It was Alyssa Schaeffer.


20/263

Hey! She said. Where are you going in such a hurry? Sheinquired. Today was the day you promised me help with my math,remember? Rats! I thought. I really regretted that promise now.

I had no excuse, and Sean and Tennent wouldnt be able to get toLyoko without me. Look Alyssa, Im sorry. I cant do that right now. Why not? She asked. Well... um... I couldnt think up of anything to say. Im really

not good at coming up with excuses. The rest of the students had clearedthe area by now.

I figured I had nothing to lose. I told her about Lyoko. I knew thatAlyssa didnt know enough about legal issues to see the magnitude of it.When I was finished, she looked at me all wide eyed. Youre serious?A virtual world? Ive got to see this! Sighin g, I led her to the factory.

When we got there, I was surprised to see that I was not the onlyone who had picked up a friend.

It turns out that Sean and Tennent had tried to take a short-cutthrough the gym, and ran into another student, Brittany Stern. They toohad no choice but to explain.

When they were through explaining, I nodded. What are we

waiting for? I asked. When we got to the Lab both of our new friends were looking

around curiously.Tennent, do you mind staying on Earth? We nee d someone here

to monitor the attack.


21/263

Alright, He agreed.I got into my chair and configured the transfers. The activated

Tower was in the Ice Sector. We had never been there before.

Soon, Sean and I dropped down onto Lyoko. I configured the girlstransfer via the LI (Lyoko Interface). Soon they too dropped down ontoLyoko. I have a hard time explaining what they looked like on Lyoko, soa picture is necessary.

Alyssa had no visibleweapons, but Brittany had twometal fans. I wonder if somehowshe was related to Yumi and Ulrich Stern...

I had virtualized us as close to the tower as I could.I pointed as I said, Theres the Tower. See how its dark blue?

That means its activated. I dont know what ANAX and XANA plan ondoing with it, but i f were lucky, we can thwart the attack before itstarts.

Coming up beside me, Sean said, It looks like were going to haveto fight for it! He motioned to three Bloks coming our way.

Chapter 4


22/263

As quick as I could, I filled Sean in about his weapons. When I hadfinished, he ran forward to engage the monsters. He spun his sword in afancy way, and suddenly caught it delicately between three fingers. He

gave a precise flip, and the sword went flying high into the air. Just as itfell to his hand, a Block shot it, sending it zipping straight at me.Maybe it was some type of Lyoko reflex, but I reacted quicker than

I thought possible. I flew into the air to dodge the blade. As I began tofall, I saw an opportunity. I directed my fall toward the top of a Block,but I miscalculated. My toes skimmed the top, putting me into anotherface plant. By now, I was sure that I could be crowned the King of Lyoko face plants.

As I jumped up, a Block shot me in the back, knocking me to theground again. Sean lashed out his whip and destroyed the Block that hadhit me.

Wow! This is pretty easy! He exclaimed. Those targets are niceand big! As he said that, he got hit by the remaining two Blocks. Fromthe LI, I saw that he had just lost 20 Life Points. I warned him of this.

With a mental command, I slid my claws out. I charged a Block,and thanks to my amazing forethought, I ran right into a blue laser. Itfroze me solid for about 2 seconds. Then a shock came that blacked meout.

***

I awoke in one of the Scanners. Boy, those blue lasers were

powerful!As I ran up to the Lab, I hoped my friends would make it through.Tennent was in the chair, watching the screen. Any signs of a

XANA attack? I asked him. He pointed at the video screens. None of the cameras pick up an ything suspicious.


23/263


24/263

After she did this, I saw the warning signal disappear on myscreen. There was no presence of XANA or ANAX anymore.

I then ran a program that I had dug up. It was called

Materialization. When I was sure it had su cceeded, I went down to theScanner room with Tennent.All my friends were down there. A little confused, but safe at least.

***

Afterwards, Alyssa and Brittany asked us loads of questions. Weanswered them as best as we could.

Most of these questions are the normal questions that would beexpected after a trip to Lyoko. One of them stuck out though.

Just before I went into the Tower, Alyssa had said. I saw thisweird energy ball flying around. What was it?

This baffled me. I told her that I didnt know. This would have tobe the next thing we researched.

We decided that we would go to Lyoko again after School the nextday.

***

So after school was finished, we all headed over to the Factory. Idecided that the Desert Sector would be best to go to. It had wide openplatforms so it would be easier to search for evidence.

I virtualized Sean, Tennent, and Brittany first. Then I set up adelayed virtualization for me and Alyssa.

A few seconds later, I dropped down onto the digital sand. I hadpicked a g ood spot it looked like. There wasnt a drop off for a good 50feet in any direction.


25/263

Okay Alyssa, I said. We should probably wait for one of thoseenergy balls to come around. If we get lucky, well see one.

Tennent and Sean went off to practice with their weapons. Tennent

picked random rocks to shoot at, to hone his aiming skills, while Seanswung his whip around, trying to work out techniques.I sat down on the ground and called Alyssa and Brittany over to

me. On the LI, I opened a holographic interface. A projection sprang upfrom my wrist, but stayed in place even when I moved my arms. I placedmy hands on the holo-keyboard and began to type, opening some filesfor Alyssa and Brittany.

Brittany had those throwing fans. She could control them to asmall extent even while they were in the air. To bolster this, her LyokoPower was Telekinesis. After I had informed her, she also joined Seanand Tennent in practice.

I opened the file for Alyssas avatar. She leaned in with interest.We still didnt know wh at her weapons were.

As it turned out, she could form pink energy fields in her hands.They could be combined to form a shield of sorts, and she could alsocharge up a huge blast of the energy. I assumed that that last powerwould take up a lot of energy.

Her Lyoko Power was something called Creativity. She couldform landscape on Lyoko! This would definitely help us out.

Why dont you practice using your Lyoko Power? I suggested. Um... How? She asked. On Lyoko, everything is mental, I explained. I just think of

yourself doing it, and it happens. At least thats how it is with myclaws, I said as I brought them out.

She still looked a little confused. Just try it, I said. She nodded.


26/263

I watched as she held out her hand and closed her eyes. A smallpink sphere formed in the palm of her hand as the outline of a rock began to form.

Soon, the digital imprint was completely in place, and it took oncolor. Alyssa opened her eyes.Woah! She exclaimed. Did I make that? I nodded at her. It looked like we were on our way to becoming

Lyoko Warriors.

***

I tried to practice with the others, but it really didnt work out. Myclaws were fairly easy to use, and it didnt take me long to figure out myleaping power. I only had 2 rockets, so I didnt want to waste them ontarget practice, just in case I might need them.

I picked out different rocks to try to jump and land on. Soon, I wasable to more or less direct myself.

Eventually, Sean cried out, Everybody! Look! We all looked upat the sky, expecting to see one of the energy spheres. I saw it buzzingrandomly about, flitting from rock to rock.

Using the LI, I launched an analysis. I announced this to myfriends.

Most of the data I got, I couldnt make out. I saw the amount of memory the program inside the sphere had though. A whole 200Gigabytes! Something that big was worth checking out.

I told my friends about this.Lets see if we can grab it, Brittany said. Then maybe we can

get that data. For the next minute we all hoped around like idiots. If anyone was

watching this scene, it would appear quite comical.


27/263

Eventually, the orb swooped low, and Sean grabbed it out of theair. He held it tightly in his hands.

Now what? He asked.

I think I know what to do, I said. I walked over to him, and placed the LI as close as I could to theorb. Soon, a message popped up and told me that a file was beingdownloaded. The orb got smaller as the progress bar on my screen gotcloser and closer to 100%. Soon, there was no more orb, and the datawas successfully downloaded.

***

A few minutes later, back at the Factory, we reviewed the data. Iopened the file, and saw what was in it. A key to Lyoko! It was a highlycomplex file. I couldnt edit it or anything. From what I could decipher,I figured that there were 10 keys. We had just gotten one.

But, wait! I saw two more additional files. I opened them too.These were replicas of the key we had just found. That was good,

because it meant that we wouldnt have to get every single orb onLyoko, for there were several of the same keys. Now that Aelita hadbeen gone from Lyoko so long, the key system was easier.

I then realized that my friends were completely in the dark. Ishared with them what I had found.

Thats great! Tennent said. Were one step closer that means!He added.

Boy. If I had known how many steps there would be, I wouldnthave been as happy as I was that day.

Chapter 5


28/263

In the morning, I called a meeting in my dorm. When everyone hadarrived, I addressed my friends from my computer chair. Sean andTennent sat on the bed, while Alyssa and Brittany sat on the other side

of the room.I think that we need a secret code, I said after all the formalitieshad been taken care of. I discovered that the original Lyoko Warriorsused a system of text message s. I have Jeremys program that he used tohack the cell phones, and I think it would work.

Tennent raised a hand. Yes? I asked him. Why do you need tohack the phones? We can send texts normally right?

Well, I answered. With this program I can inj ect into thephones, we can set a short-cut key, which will automatically send a textmessage that says SOS XANA to all of our phones with one click.Also, the text will be displayed as the phones wallpaper, so we donteven need to open the text app. That way, we can reduce the amount of speed it takes to respond to XANAs attacks.

They handed me their phones.I decided to keep the message as SOS XANA despite the fact

that ANAX did most of the work, and XANA was pretty much dormant,for simplicitys sake. I also didnt have the guts yet to try and modifyone of Jeremys programs.

So I plugged up their phones, and injected the program into all of them.

All you have to do, I explained, Is press the asterisk key threetimes, and the phone will take care of the rest.

We sat and tested this new program for a few minutes, to makesure that everything was working.

After we did that, Alyssa spoke up and said, I think a vote is inorder. For a while, I didnt know what she meant.


29/263

She clarified. Do we g o back to Lyoko today and hunt for InfoOrbs; or do we just take today off?

Info Orbs? Sean asked.

My new name for the energy balls, She explained. The name stuck.So, She finished. I say by show of hands, we vote on whether or

not we return to Ly oko today. The vote was unanimous.

***

Transfer, Tennent! Transfer, Sean! I announced, as I launchedthe procedure. Scanner, Tennent! Scanner, Sean! ...Virtualization! I hitthe enter key.

Okay girls, you ready? I asked to Brittany and Alyssa who werestanding behind me. They nodded.

I set up the delayed virtualization process. As I went down to theScanners, I thought some. There were so many programs on the

SuperComputer that I couldnt use, or even view. I only knew that theywere there. They had a strange encryption, that if it was hacked, then the

program probably wouldnt work. It was as if Jeremy had encodedeverything precisely, so that no one could use it, unless you broke thecode. I was worried that we might never figure the codes out, and thenwed be in deep, deep trouble. If Jeremy needed them to kill XANAonce, we would definitely need them to destroy ANAX and XANA

together.I put my worries aside. For now, it was time to hunt for another

key to Lyoko.I dropped down into the Mountain Sector. Why had I chosen the

Mountain Sector? 1) I had never seen it before, and 2) I thought that we


30/263

might not find another Info Orb in the Desert. Of course, that was awrong assumption.

Tennent saluted us as we stood up. So... What now? he asked.

Now that we have found an Info Orb, I can locate others bytracing the digital signature... I think.What do you mean: I think?? Brittany asked incredulously. Well, what I mean is that Im not sure if I can trace the signature

accurately enough to help u s. Ah. Came the response. I enlarged the scale on the radar, to find an Orb. Soon one was

located south-south west of our current position. I pointed us in theproper direction, and we set off.

Soon, we saw the light from the Orb. I groaned. It was high on thepeak of a spire of rock. It sat motionless. Unless I could program wings,we could never get up there.

We stopped a few feet away from the spire. After a pause, Seansaid, I nominate Team Cat - boy for this mission! I was confused.

Who? I asked. You and Tennent! He said laughing. Youre Team Cat - boy! I notice that Alyssa and Brittany were beginning to laugh as well.My tail began to twitch in anger. This only made me madder, that I

had a tail to twitch. I could see that Tennent was having similarthoughts.

Moving as one, we slunk down into a stalking position, almostwithout a thought. As we advanced on Sean, our tail began to swing in

unison.When Sean saw us stalking toward him, he collapsed onto the

ground with laughter. Soon Brittany followed him, and although Alyssawas doing her best to hold it in, she also followed.

I stood up.


31/263

Well, it looks like the only way were going to live this down is toget that Info Orb, Tennent, I said. With our Lyoko Powers combined,maybe we can do it.

I sure hope so, Sammy, he grunted. For both our sakes... headded.Tennent launched himself up the spire. Using his Lyoko Power, he

scaled the wall. I leaped up as high as I could. It only got me abouthalfway up the spire.

I brought out my claws, and dug them into the surface of the rock.To my dismay, I slid down a good 4 or 5 feet before coming to a halt.

I tried my best not to look down, but I couldnt resist the urge. Myvision went blurry as I stared at Sean, Alyssa, and Brittany below me.

I sho ok my head, and tried to continue. I shoved up, but I didntget anywhere. Then I saw why. I had no horizontal surface to leap from.On this vertical surface, I could only jump away from it. I scrabbledaround for a little bit to no avail.

By this point, T ennent had caught up to me. What now? heasked. I was getting ready to just ask him to climb the rest of the way up,when something hit me.

How about you climb right underneath me, I said. Like this?He asked as he climbed directly beneath me. Yep, I told him.

Now turn around, I said. Huh? If I turn around, I wont be ableto hold onto the wall! He exclaimed.

Sorry, I clarified. Rotate yourself so that your feet are nearlytouching my feet.

He did so.Now hold on tight! I yelled as I pull ed out my claws. I dropped

onto his feet, and a half second later, I launched myself upward, usingthe heels of Tennents fe et for a base.


32/263

I smiled in victory as the Info Orb came within arms reach. Just asI swiped at it, it careened off the edge of the spire down in Seansdirection.

In my surprise, I bounced off the top of the rock, and fell downonto Tennent, who lost his grip, and we both plummeted down 20 or sofeet to what I thought would be our demise.

I was wrong. The fall cost us both 20 Life Points, but we wereotherwise unharmed.

Naturally, Sean completely missed the Info Orb, even as it swungwithin 2 inches of his nose.

He chased it around for a little bit, but he soon gave up the chase.It looks like Team Cat - boy has suffered a blunder! Sea n scoffed.Tennent had a ready retort. Well look whos talkin Mr. I -cant-

catch-an-Info-Orb- thats-right-in-front-of-my- face! Sean stuttered.We can still chase the Info Orb right? Alyssa said. Lets go,

She ran off.We turned the corner that the Info Orb had. Only to run face to

face with some Bloks!We turned around and ran the other way. Tennent and I only had

80 Life Points, but the other Lyoko Warriors had 100. Maybe we couldfight them.

We turned around, and saw that the Bloks had surrounded the InfoOrb. They had shot it down to the ground.

I watched in horror as a rip appeared in the sky of Lyoko. A dark

blue spectral form descended upon the Orb, engulfing it.Tennent shot a laser arrow at it, and then Sean threw a knife. We

then attacked the creature as one.I shot off both my rockets, and they impacted. Brittany and Alyssa

attacked from the left, while Sean and Tennent attacked form the right.


33/263

My mistake was staying in the middle. The dark blue cloudextended an arm of sorts, and surrounded me in this blue fog. It closed inaround me. There was nothing I could do.

When the fog blocked out my vision completely, I wasdevirtualized.

***

I woke up in the Scanner Room. A few seconds later, my friendsappeared.

That thing is invincible! B rittany exclaimed.There was nothing we could do to hurt it! Tennent added. What was it? Alyssa asked. I shook my head as I gave them my guess. ANAX... I whispered.

Chapter 6

What!? Tennent exclaimed. What else could it be? I explained. This gave way to silence.After a while, we headed up to the Lab. I decided to do some

digging, and see what I could find. Sean stayed with me to watch, butBrittany, Tennent, and Alyssa went back to their dorms.

I started by looking at the input matrix that was left from our visitto Lyoko. With some difficulty, I could make out when the monsters hadbeen destroyed, and when we had been devirtualized.

I could see the energy readings from our Lyoko Avatars, and themonsters, but there was another energy reading. It was very weak.

I studied some more. I gaped in shock as I recognized the digitalsignature. It was ANAX! I had no idea that he was so weak!


34/263

I informed Sean of my discovery. If thats what hes like now,Sean said, Then I wonder how powerful he is at full strength!

Yeah... Im scared now. I told him.

Further digging provided only one more piece of valuable info. Itseemed as if ANAX could only take a tangible form if he was about tograb an Info Orb. He didnt have enough power to sustain himself forlong.

Now that we knew this, he would only descend if he could grab anInfo Orb, because if he came just to devirtualize us, we would know thatwe just have to run as fast as we can, and in under a minute, he willdissipate. I was sure that this could work to our advantage.

***

Two days later, all was quite. I was lounging on my bed studyingfor an upcoming chemistry test. Even though Tennent and Sean think that I dont have to study, I do.

My laptop was in sleep mode. That was a mistake that I would ntmake again. (Ok, I would make that mistake again, but from this point Iwould try harder to remember not to do that.)

Unbeknownst to me, ANAX had activated a Tower in the ForestSector. He possessed a wolf in the park.

Sean was walking in the park at this time. He liked to do thatbecause it helped him relax.

As he walked, he stopped to enjoy the sound of the birds chirping.

He let out a contented sigh. The sun was just going down, but severalrays still broke through the trees, warming him.

After a few more minutes, he decided to head back to Kadic.About halfway back, he stopped. Something felt weird... Then he

realized what it was. There was no noise. Zero.


35/263

Not a bird was chirping, or a squirrel chattering. Not even the windwas blowing through the branches of the trees. The last of the suns lightwas fading, and Sean was getting the distinct feeling that he was being

watched.He took a few more cautious steps forward. Then, he heard afootstep. A heavy footstep.

He turned around.He was now staring right into the eyes of a wolf the size of a lion!The eye of ANAX was clearly visible where its pupil should have

been.Sean bolted. He ran off in a random direction, with the ANAX-fied

wolf hot in pursuit. He was barely able to keep ahead of the beast.After a minute, Seans adrenaline cooled off. Common sense

resumed. He knew that if the wolf wanted to, it could easily outrun him,and take him down.

He began to look around himself, to find a tree that he could climb.None had low hanging branches, so he kept running.

Soon, he came to a cliff of sorts. Without stopping, he began toclimb upwards. Halfway up, he stopped to rest.

The wolf growled at him from far below.Sean got out his cell phone and texted all of us the SOS. When I

received the message, I jumped out of bed, and grabbed my laptop. Sureenough, as soon as I turned it on, a notice for an activated Tower poppedup. Yikes! I exclaimed.

I headed to the Factory, knowing that the rest of my friends had

gotten the text.When I arrived, I saw that I was the last to get there.Wheres Sean? I asked. Tennent answered, He said he was

going for a walk in the park. If hes not back yet, he must be in trouble! Alyssa said.


36/263

Brittany volunteered, Ill see what I can do to help him. She left, leaving me, Tennent, and Alyssa to fight XANA on

Lyoko.

I looked at the screen, and saw which Sector the Tower was in. Ithen started up the Scanner process, and we left for Lyoko.We dropped down in a triangle formation. I scanned the horizon,

looking for the activated Tower.It looks like you entered the co -ordinates wrong, Alyssa told me

after a moment. Ythink?! I responded. I opened the radar, and located the Tower. Rats! I said. I

accidentally entered the X co- ordinates in the Y, and vice versa. So how far do we have to go? Tennent asked.About a mile... I answered. Aw man... He complained. We started forward at a brisk pace. We encountered no trouble

until the Tower was in sight.I saw some monsters on my screen, which the LI identified as

Krabes.They were tall monsters, with big flat heads. It seemed that these

were my type of monster. I could leap well above their, height, and theheads were large enough to provide some room for error.

I told Alyssa and Tennent of the danger and of my strategy todestroy the Krabes. Just as soon as they acknowledged me, laser fireerupted around us.

There were four Krabes. I picked a target and leaped up, and

landed on the very edge of a Krabe. I didnt have as high as an error margin as I had originally thought.

I steadied myself, and jumped to the center. As I brought my clawsout to end the Krabes life, I heard a voice. Get him off me! It cried.


37/263

The Krabe then bucked heavily, and I fell down, but grabbed theend of its head.

So there I was, dangling f rom a Krabes head , staring at Tennent

and Alyssa in surprise. A shot from another Krabe knocked me off andended the awkward moment.Was that a Krabe talking?! Alyssa asked.How should I know? I replied. I mean, I guess it was. It

couldnt have been anything else. The voice was much too grotesque to be a human. I never realized

why I thought that monsters couldnt talk. I just assumed that theycouldnt. Live and learn, I thought.

Alyssa fired an Energy Field at one of the Krabes, and it impactedon its leg, toppling it. Tennent then shot a Laser Arrow and the exposedXANA eye.

As he and Alyssa high-fived, something hit me. ANAX was ourmain adversary, and yet XANAs mark was on the monsters. How couldthis be?

The fight left me little time to wonder. I had to be constantly

moving so that I didnt get hit. My preoccupation proved to be my undoing. I leaped up into the

air again, and stabbed down on a Krabe, but I missed the target, so I hadonly weakened it.

Through a process that I cant describe, th e three remaining Krabesfocused all attention on me, and eliminated me from the battle.

By the time that I had materialized, gotten back to Lab, and

oriented myself of the computer, Tennent and Alyssa had taken out aKrabe each.

It wasnt long before the final Krabe also fell. I was surprised thatit had been that easy. It was too easy. I didnt like it.


38/263

***

Brittany was running through the forest looking for Sean. She had

gone in a pattern that would cover the most likely places first, but thathadnt worked.Sean was obviously deep into the woods.After a while, she heard a growling noise. Intrigued, she followed

the sound to a clearing in the woods. In the clearing there was a cliff, awolf growling at the base of it, and to her surprise Sean was sitting at thehighest point of the rock.

Hey! Sean! She exclaimed. He made a slashing motion acrosshis throat, motioning for her to be silent. It was too late. The wolf hadheard the noise, and it turned around to face Brittany.

Run! Sean called. The wo lf is ANAX- fied! Upon hearing that,Brittany took off.

With a sigh, Sean climbed down the cliff to follow them.The chase lasted for quite a while. Sean could only follow the

sound of footsteps, which was often misleading.Eventually, he caught up, as he was a faster runner than Brittany.

As the wolf lunged to bite at Brittanys leg, Sean lunged for the wolfslegs, bringing it to the ground.

He wrestled with it, and soon began to realize that this was a fighthe couldnt win. Within seconds, he had scrat ch marks running allthroughout his body.

He broke free of the wolfs hold, and ran away. Brittany followed

him, and soon overtook him. He was wounded, and could not run half asfast as he usually could.

Brittany went back to help him.No, Sean said. Go ahead. Ill catch up... Even though it didnt

look like he would be able to catch up, Brittany obeyed.


39/263

Seans pace got slower and slower, until the wolf had caught up tohim again.

***

On Lyoko, things couldnt be worse. Like I said. Too easy!Two monsters called MegaTanks had come out of nowhere,

surrounding Tennent and Alyssa. I didnt know what they looked like,but I was able to bring up a bio of them.

They had an impenetrable shell that they could close up intoanytime the wanted. They only time they were vulnerable to an attack was when they attacked, opening their shell.

Alyssa was devirtualized in one shot. My eyes flew wide in horror.It was up to Tennent now.

***

Tennent was left to face the new monsters alone when Alyssa wasdevirtualized. His mind was racing.

One of the monsters made like a bowling ball, and barreledtowards him. They say fear can make people jump 10 foot high fences.Tennent believed it.

He propelled himself to the top of the monster, and then he jumpedoff in the direction of the Tower.

He looked over his shoulder to see the monster fall off the edge of

the platform.Tennent sprinted as fast as he could to the Tower. He disregarded

the other monster completely. It opened its shell to charge up a shot, butby the time it fired, Tennent had just entered the Tower.

We were safe, for now at least.


40/263

Chapter 7

It looks like you deactivated the Tower just in time guys!Brittany said in a relieved tone over the phone. Oh yeah! Tennentcried. Tennent to the rescue! Where would you be without me, guys?he inquired.

I decided to let him celebrate. My pride would come second.Wed all be missing Sean right now if it werent for you. I told him.

Speaking of Sean, I said into my microphone. How is he? I

asked Brittany.It doesnt look good, she answered.Can he walk over here? I questioned. Possibly... She answered. Good. I need to see if this is necessary, I ended the connection. Need to see if whats necessary? Alyssa asked. Youll see. I

told her. I typed up a code to bring up the program I had recentlydiscovered. I didnt know exactly what it was, but it was clear that it hadhelped the original Lyoko Warriors.

Much later Sean arrived. Seeing the multiple open wounds all overhim, and the amount of time it took for him to walk to the Factory, madeup my mind. He would probably pull through, but with those kinds of injuries, people at Kadic would get far too suspicious.

I announced this too the Lyoko Warriors. So what are you goingto do about it? Sean asked.

Im gonna try out a new program. Its called Return to the Past, Isaid. So what does it do? Tennent asked. I rolled my eyes at him.Isnt it obvious? I asked in return. You dont mean... He trailed off.

Cmon, Sammy, Alyssa said. You dont actu ally think that youcan-


41/263

Return to the Past, now! I said, typing the proper code. Whathappened next surprised even me.

I beam of blinding white light erupted from the hologram of Lyoko

on the ground in the Factory. It expanded quickly and enveloped us, andmy view lapsed into a white-out.

***

The white cleared like a fog. I regained consciousness in theSchool Yard. Tennent was on my left, and Sean was on my right. Makethat, Tennent was at the vending machine.

He suddenly stopped, as if he had realized what had happened. Heturned around. Huh? he asked. What just happened? I sighed.

What part of Return to the Past do you not understand? I askedplayfully. Sean wore an equally confused look.

You dont believe me do you? I asked. I didnt expect an answer,and I didnt get one. I pointed at my watch, and showed him the date. Itwas 4:00 the previous day. Actually, it was 4:00 today.

How does that work? Sean asked. I shrugged. I have a theory, but its not much of one. Well lets hear it, Te nnent told me.First let me state that I only decoded the actual program. There

were some notes that went with it, which I havent been able to decode. They nodded so I continued. The bright like that was emitted had

a strange frequency. My guess is that it travelled at the speed of light

into a satellite in space. As it was being beamed back to earth, thefrequency changed, utilizing the time dilatation that occurs at the speedof light, and projected the light over the whole planet, reversing theSpace- Time Continuum to a small degree. About twelve hours. Ifinished.


42/263

After a few seconds of silence, Sean asked, Can that beexplained in English? I opened my mouth, but was interrupted by arather unpleasant surprise.

Oh Sean, dear! He groaned.It was Rachel Sanders. She was the daughter of the Superintendentof our school. Her father also happened to be the Superintendent of every other school in the area. Pretty powerful dude.

At first glance, Rachel was very beautiful. Most guys in the schoolhad flipped over her for this fact. Once you got to know her, you foundthat her personality was awful. She was rude, controlling, demanding,and very uppity. Not to mention she was a leach, and totally brain-dead.

She had light brown curly hair that fell half way down her back.Her eyes were a bright blue. At this moment, she was wearing a lightpink jacket and skirt. As she walked toward us, she waved to Sean.

She pushed me aside as she walked up close to Sean. HeySweetheart! she said. Sean put his face in his hands. When are yougoing to realize that Im the perfect girl for you? She asked.

Rachel, Sean answered. Have I not answered that question athousand times?! She gasped. Before she could say anything, Seancontinued, Why dont you go hang out with Julian and Phillip. Theyrealways eager to cater to your every want!

Humph! She stalked off. Tennent walked up beside Sean. Every time I see that girl, the

more I get the feeling that shes gonna cause a lot of trouble for us, hesaid.

We walked off in the direction of the dorms in search of Alyssaand Brittany. When we had found them, we filled them in.

***


43/263

The next day at lunch, Rachel waved for Sean to come sit with her.Naturally, Julian Poliakoff and Philip Pichon were with her. Philip wasvery short, with shaggy black hair, and big glasses. He wore a green

sweater and jeans.Julian was very lanky with orange hair. He wore a black undershirt, with a red jacket over it. He had on brown cargo pants.

Sean ignored Rachels offer entirely. We ate lunch without furtherdisturbance.

After lunch was over, I asked my friends in a hushed tone, Youguys want to go to Lyoko to search for an Info Orb? They noddeddiscretely.

We had chemistry class with Mrs. Morgan and math class with Mr.Lester. After that was over, our last period was study hall. I used thisopportunity to get my homework done, so that way I wouldnt have toworry about it later, and we could spend as long as necessary on Lyoko.

I wish that I had paid more attention to my surrounding when wesnuck off to the park to get to the Factory.

***

We ran through the forest, and quickly arrived at the manhole.Using the Labs mainframe computer, I had mapped out several possibleroutes to the Factory. This would help us, as we would not be able to usethe same path every time.

Tennent went down the manhole first. He was followed by

Brittany, Sean, Alyssa, and finally me. As I closed the cover, I lookedaround quickly to see if we had been followed. I didnt look goodenough, for if I had, I would have seen Rachels head poking out frombehind a tree.


44/263

We raced through the sewers on foot. There has to be better way, Ithought. By the time I reached the Lab, I was breathing hard. I was notthe most athletic guy around.

Get to the Scanners, I w heezed.Hang on, Sean said. Should we leave a couple of us behind asback-up? That way if ANAX comes upon us again, we could surprisehim by having different people to Lyoko after we are devirtualized.Then we could go back to Lyoko.

I thought about it. It just might work. ANAX might think thatwhoever we leave behind didnt come with us, and it just might throwhim off enough to give us the advantage we needed. I concur, I toldhim.

We decided that Alyssa and Tennent would stay behind.This is a good plan, I told myself. Besides, if we get devirtualized,

we can just revirtualize and keep going. Right?

Chapter 8

I set up the transfers, and then we went to Lyoko. I had picked theForest Sector this time, just at random. I needed to work on a programthat could locate Info Orbs from long range, and I could implement itinto the SuperComputer. Then I would know the best Sector, and thebest co- ordinates. It would take a lot of time though, as I wasnt thegreatest programmer. Yet...

So, Brittany asked when we dropped down. Where to? This way, I said, pointing in a random direction. You have no idea, do you? Yeah, I replied.


45/263

The subject was dropped. We walked off, and as we were going, Iconsulted the LI. The radar had a 100 meter radius, so I would be able toknow if any Info Orbs were in the area. None were present now.

After a few minutes of silence, a green blip popped up on myradar. Weve got one! I cried. This way, I said pointing west. Weran off. Soon we caught up.

I detected no mons ters on my radar. I was suspicious. HeyTennent, I called.

Yeah? He replied. Is there anything on your screen at all? I asked him. Yeah! You. And Brittany and Sean. Idiot! Sean said. He means monsters, numbskull. Gee, dont get so uptight! I was just joking dude. Whatever, I said, dismissing the issue. Are there any monsters

on the radar? No, He replied after a while. Thats unusual... Oh, so us walking in a virtual world looking for information to

save the world is just your everyday run of the mill? Brittany asked him jokingly.

Yup, he said. By now, the Info Orb was upon us, and we didnt waste time

talking. I would love to tell you a tale of epic glory, but it was actuallypretty easy. With no monsters harassing us, we were able to quicklycorner the Orb, and snag it.

So is that all? Sean asked.

I guess so... We dont want to spend too much time here, as wedont know how much time well waste tracking down another Orb. Isay we go home.

When my friends nodded, I hit a few keys on my LI, and wedevirtualized.


46/263

***

In the Lab, I opened the contents of the Info Orb. I looked at it fora few seconds, and soon I figured out that we had gotten two new keysto Lyoko! We were now 3/10 of the way to shutting of theSuperComputer!

I shared my discoveries with my friends. This was our last easyvictory.

***

As we were getting ready to leave, Rachel popped out of herhiding place. Wow! she said. This place looks so cool!

We groaned in unison. Sean walked up to her. Look Rachel, you cant tell anyone about this. He began.

Why not? She asked. Sean went on to sketch the details of Lyoko and the

SuperComputer, and so on and so forth. He simplified the part aboutlegal issues.

None of us stopped him. There was really nothing else that couldbe done.

Except, I thought. A Return to the Past! This would sufficientlyhelp us out of our problem.

Without telling anyone what I was doing, I ran over to thecomputer and began to type the code.

To my great disappointment, a window popped up. It was theSuper Scan. An activated Tower in the Ice Sector!

Guys! Forget Rachel! This brought a cry of Hey! from her direction. ANAX has activated a Tower, and hes jamming mycontrols! I cant launch a Return to the Past!


47/263

We quickly sorted it out. Well, sort of quickly. It came to a disputeover who got to go to Lyoko this time between Tennent and Alyssa.Neither had gotten to go last time, so they both wanted to go this time.

They were treating it like it was a game!Stupid me decided to just flip a coin instead of having Brittany andme stay behind to watch out for Rachel. High stress can do things topeople.

We were all under high stress. No one disputed the coin toss.Alyssa went to Lyoko, and Tennent stayed.

I transferred them all to Lyoko. Big mistake. Sean and Brittany had just been virtual a few minutes ago. The consequences would be dire forthis action.

So whats all this? Rachel asked.The mainframe of Lyoko, I answered without thinking. So what does it do? She inquired further. I ca n use it to see all that is happening on Lyoko. I can also write

some cool programs using it, but Im still working that out. A few seconds passed by. Please can I be in your group! I

promise I wont tell anyone! Rachel cried. Rachel! Tennent took over for me. I was grateful. We cant

discuss this now! Besides, I know about your secret keeping skills! What about them? She asked him. Well I cant say theyre admirable. Remember Pete? She chewed on this for a moment. Oh come on! Youre not going

to hold that against me are you? That was years ago!

Tennent swirled around to say something, but was interrupted by aviolent explosion from the room next to the Factory.

We spun in sync to face the noise. W -w-what was th- that?Rachel asked.

Most likely, it is ANAXs attack. I answered.


48/263

Sean, Alyssa, Brittany, Tennent and I need to check somethingout. Can you manage on your own for a minute? Without waiting for areply, I took off. Tennent followed.

I didnt even realize that I had never given the Lyoko Warriors theco-ordinates of the Tower.

***

Sammy! Sammy!Silence.Great. What do we do now? Alyssa asked. We pick a direction, and hope for the best, Sean told her. I dont like the sound of that...We have no other options, now were wasting time so lets get

going, Brittany intoned. They headed in the direction that they happened to be facing.

Which was also the direction directly opposite of the activated Tower...

***

Uff! Tennent said. It smells like birthday cake in here! We were in the room directly beside the Lab. It was a boiler room

of sorts. The area was filled with smoke.What exactly do you mean by that? I asked. You know, that smell there is right after someone blows out the

candles? I stopped. Tennent, Yes? Thats called smoke. Oh... Whatever.


49/263

Soon we stumbled into what I was looking for. There was a pipethat was busted. Smoke was pouring out of it.

Thats really scary, ANAX, Tennent said. Smoke. Really? Is

that all you got? Wait Tennent , we need to get out of here! These fumes could behighly toxic!

Huh? How do you know that, Sammy? He asked. Use your head! If ANAX busted the pipe, he wanted it busted!

His goal right now is our demise, so everything he does needs a purpose!Its simple logic.

He thought about this.We dont have time! We gotta get out of here! I grabbed his arm,

and ran back to the Lab.As I ran back, I noticed that I was moving very slowly. I didnt feel

tired, but for some reason, my legs would not move as fast as Icommanded them to.

When I reached the entrance to the Lab, I stopped. Nuts! I thought.There was no door into the Lab. Just an open gap. The smoke couldeasily permeate the Lab.

Tennent obviously had realized what was going on. His wide eyescommunicated that he had figured out that the smoke had alreadyaffected us, and would likely finish us off since we couldnt block theopening.

We walked into the Lab.Great, just great, I said as I looked around. Rachel had left.

Probably to go and tattle on us.Were in trouble now... Tennent said.

***


50/263

Back on Lyoko, things were quite. Too quiet.Look, weve been walking for a while, and not one monster,

Sean intoned. I think were going the wrong way.

Okay. Lets turn around, Brittany offered. They traveled through the Ice Sector as quick as they could.At this point, I hooked up the microphone. Hey guys! What are

you doing? Youre further from the Tower than when you started! Dont blame us! Alyssa retorted. Youre the one who never told

us which way to go! We dont have a map on our end you know. Oh really!? Im so sorry! I skimmed the surrounding territory on

my screen. Keep going the way youre going. Soon youll be able tosee the Tower.

Mentally, I kicked myself for being so dumb. This mistake couldcost us. Rachel could be back at any time with the principle. If theTower wasnt deactivated by then, there isnt much I can do.

When they reached the Tower, the only resistance was a Krabe. Itseemed as if ANAX had given up.

I couldnt worry about subl iminal plots right now. The elevatorhad just been activated! I didnt have any time to think about exactlywhat ANAX was doing with the Tower, aside from the smoke.

The door of the elevator opened, just as I saw that Alyssa haddeactivated the Tower.

Sammy Belpois, Tennent Della Robbia, what is all this?!Principal Dunbar thundered from the door. He got no response. I wasconfiguring a Return to the Past.

I want an answer! He demanded, walking into the Lab.I finished up, and hit the enter key. A complete white out saved me

from having to answer his questions.Now that that was off my mind, I could worry about other things.

Especially the events that followed directly after the Return to the Past.


51/263

Chapter 9

Ohh! Brittany moaned. The return in tim e had put us in theschool yard.

She had her hands on her head as she slumped to the ground. Seansoon followed her.

Whats the matter!? Alyssa asked beginning to panic already.Agh, my head! Sean exclaimed.

We need to get them to the infirmary! Tennent said. Mm -hm! Isaid nodding.

Tennent carried Brittany, and Alyssa and I tried to lift Sean. Aftersome struggling, we succeeded.

The nurse, Katherine, looked in horror when he saw our friendscondition.

Whats happened? She asked. We dont know, I replied. By this point they had both passed

out. They just collapsed! We laid them on the beds. After that, the nurse went for a type of

scanning device. I didnt know the medical term for it, but it had a sortof X-Ray that could locate any anomalies in a life-form.

When she waved the scanner over Seans head, it beeped. She thenhooked it up to a computer to read the data.

Thats strange... She murmured.

What is it? Alyssa asked. There seems to be a sort of infection in his brain! Ive never seen

anything like this before. If I didnt know better, Id say there issomething wrong with his atomic structure!


52/263

I gasped. That of course is impossible. This isnt science fiction,She finished.

She ran the test on Brittany, with the same results. Ill keep them

here for now, Katherine told us. If their conditions worsen, Ill have tocall a hospital. For now, you three should get to class. We thanked her and walked out the door.I gotta get back to the Lab, I told Tennent and Alyssa. They

nodded. Well cover for you, Tennent told me.

***

At the Factory, I did some research on the Scanners. It took metwo hours of decoding, but I soon found that my suspicions wereconfirmed.

There were certain side effects to using the Scanners. Each of themhad a name. I didnt bother trying to pronounce them. They had at least15 letters a piece.

Basically, using the Scanners resulted in three things. 1) Immunityto Return to the Pasts. We knew this already. 2) Excessive use will leadto painful headaches.

The Scanners actually broke apart your atoms every time you werevirtualized. Humans werent really made to do that many times.Excessive obviously meant more than once in a 12 hour period.

The good news was that the effects werent permanent. The bad news was that it could become permanent if it happened too many times.

We would really have to make sure we didnt make this mistake again. And the third side effect? I have no idea. There is so much data

that is encrypted on the SuperComputer. I have access to almost nothing.This data had a different encryption matrix than the rest of it. I couldntsolve it, and I had already found what I needed.


53/263

I put decoding it on my to- do list, but it wouldnt get done for more than a year.

***

When I arrived back at Kadic, I informed Tennent and Alyssa of my findings.

So how long till the get better? Alyssa asked. I havent the foggiest, I replied. I hope that after 12 hours pass,

the pain will go away. I have no real basis for that assumption though.You see, the atomic structure is incredibly complex. Its not supposed tobe digitalized into a new incarnation, even though it is capable of it.Some tests indicate a strange anomaly- Tennent cut me off.

Thanks Einstein, but save it for someone who cares. Its great toknow that the effects arent permanent. That will be good enough for now.

I let the matter go. I didnt really expect them to be able tounderstand. Alyssa gave me a sympathetic look. Yknow Sammy, just

because we dont understand the technical aspects of it doesnt meanthat we dont care, just that we need a more simplified version.

Yeah, I know. Sure! Tennent said. What she said! I rolled my eyes.

***

Early the next morning, we visited Sean and Brittany. They wereawake now, and in almost no pain.

Feeling better? Tennent asked.


54/263

Never better! He replied. Okay, correction. Ive been better,He said holding his head. I dont feel as bad as I did yesterday. The

pain only comes in brief snippets now.

Im pretty sure well be back in school today even. Brittanyadded.Sean motioned for me to come closer. Do you think this had

anything to do with Lyoko? He asked in a hushed tone.I replied, Yeah, it does. Ill tell you... Later. He nodded. We still had an hour before school, so we went up to our dorms.

Tennent was probably going to play some video game, but I had no ideawhat Alyssa was going to do.

I for one was going to try and decode some of the annals that hadbeen stored on the SuperComputer. I had transferred a small amount of the file to my laptop, so I could work on it whenever I had the time.

In about a half-hour, I realized that I had almost missed breakfast. Istill had a few minutes, and I was sure that Tennent would still be thereworking on a third portion.

I hurried over and ate in a rush. I exchanged only a few words withTennent before going off the History class.

***

It wasnt until 3 rd period that Sean and Brittany joined us. Inbetween classes I was getting ready to fill them in, when I had anunwanted interruption.

Oh Sean, Im so glad youre feeling better! You really had meworried! Rachel intoned.

As she walked up to us she asked, How are you feeling, dear? Ugh, Sean replied. I was doing better until you came along.


55/263

After some... negotiation Sean managed to get away. We met inthe school yard, and Sean addressed me.

You were saying?

I went on to explain about my theory of Return to the Pasts. Isimplified it as much as I could, and soon they understood.No more double virtualization then, Br ittany said.Agreed.

***

I dont think we should, I disagreed. We were discussing goingon a hunt for Info Orbs tonight.

Why not? Sean demanded. I dont know if the Scanners are still affecting you, I said. I

wasnt willing to take the chance of their headaches returning. The nexttime it happened, it would be much worse.

Cmon, Sammy, we feel fine, Brittany said. Listen, I told them. If you want me to lecture you on the

quantum mechanics of Lyoko and the SuperComputer, be my guest. Butun less you understand how all that works like I do, then youre gonnahave to let me decide when its been long enough.

But - Sean began to protest. Alyssa jumped to my aid. Did you not just hear him? She asked.

We dont understand how all this works! We cant just go by feelings! This ended the dispute. Alyssa has yet to lose an argument to this

day. I think thats why Sean and Brittany gave up. In any case, we bid each other good night. Tomorrow, we would

go after an Info Orb.Chapter 10


56/263

Jump higher, Sammy! Sean called jokingly. I leaped up with allmy Lyoko Power for the 16 th time. The Info Orb hung quite literally,two inches above my reach. I would swear it was mocking me.

I slammed to the ground. From 20 feet up, it was quite difficult tostick my landing. I had yet to do it. Each time I would jump (and missthe Orb by a despicable amount) I would crash to the ground awkwardly.I was getting tired of it.

Does it not concern you that this orb hasnt moved for 5 wholeminutes? I asked Sean. He sh rugged. It seemed that the movement of these Info Orbs was not random in any way. I would research that later.

In the meantime, I gave another leap.This time, I knew I had it. At least, I thought I knew. At the last

possible second, the Orb zipped away, heading north.When I collided with the ground again, I had to immediately get

up, and chase after my friends. Naturally, they hadnt bothered to waitfor me.

I couldnt say I blamed them though. If we gave the Info Orb morethan a 1 second advantage, we would lose it for sure. They were fast!

From a distance, I saw Tennent running on a wall of a canyon inthe Desert. He was closing in on the Info Orb.

Ha -HA! He shouted as he leaped, ready to snag the sphere.Suddenly, he was shot out of the air by a Kankrelat on the top of thecanyon. Tennent thudded to the ground.

Brittany jumped in front to protect him. She deflected the laser firefrom the three monsters as best as she could, but still several shots got

through her guard.By this time, I had caught up. I looked up, and saw that there were

three Kankrelats on one side, and two on the other. They opened firewith an amazing rapidity, catching us in crossfire. There wasnt much Icould do.


57/263

Hey, Alyssa asked between dodging lasers. Whered Sean go?

***

At this moment, Sean was still pursuing the Info Orb. He hadactivated his Lyoko Power of invisibility, and was able to continue thechase unmolested.

Obviously, ANAX noticed that Sean was not with the rest of hisfriends, nor had he been devirtualized. For just as Sean was getting tothe end of the canyon, a MegaTank appeared in front of him. It rolled onits side, opened up vertically, and fired its laser.

Sean dove for the ground. Hopefully that would confuse themonster, thinking that it had miscalculated. When no more blastsfollowed, Sean assumed that the monster had given up. But alas, he waswrong.

The monster saw what he was waiting for. The telltale poofs of virtual dust where Sean put his feet down. He was invisible, but notundetectable.

This time, the monster fired and the laser sliced into Sean,devirtualizing him.

***

When I saw Seans icon disappear from my LI, I guessed what hadhappened. Now the Info Orb was gone, we had 5 Kankrelats keeping us

in a gauntlet, and a MegaTank coming towards us quickly. It wasamazing what a lucky shot from a blasted Kankrelat could do.

I warned my friends of the approaching MegaTank.Weve got to get out of here! Brittany said. No deliberation was

necessary.


58/263


59/263

I suggest you change Towers, I told them. They did so. Theycame up in the opposite edge of the Sector.

I did a quick scan. Were in luck! I told them. Theres an Info

Orb in the area if youre up to it. How many Life Points do we have? Alyssa asked. Youve got 80, I told her. Tennent, youve only got 20. Just two

hits and your gone. They exited the Tower. To be quite frank, I didnt expect them to

retrieve the Orb.To my surprise, they managed to corner the Orb and grab it. Now

what? Alyssa asked. She held the Orb tightly in her hands. Hang on, Ill work something out. I said.The last Info Orb we got, I held it up to my LI for it to be

transferred. I didnt know how to get the data if I wasnt on Lyoko. I began to piece together a retrieval program. It was a little shaky,

but I thought it would work. I went for 3 whole minutes with nodisruptions.

Any day now Einstein, Tennent said. Im working, Imworking! I told him.

Suddenly, an alert popped up on my screen. Oh no... I muttered. That didnt sound good. Alyssa said. Whats the matter? Sea n asked me.There is a large amount of energy accumulating directly above

Tennent and Alyssa. Im guessing that its ANAX, I reported. There was nothing that could be done. I watched in horror as the

energy maxed out, and ANAXs digital signature appeare d on myscreen. With no effort, he had devirtualized Tennent and Alyssa, andstolen the Info Orb.

I hung my head.


60/263


61/263

***

Jim patrolled the dormitory hallway in full military attire. In

unison we all repeated the rules.He walked up to Tyce Bowers, who was infamous for his practical jokes. No funny business! He warned.

Oh, come on Jim, when have I ever -Save it, Jim said. I know you too well to trust you. He turned to the rest of us. Dismissed! He said. If I had paid a little more attention, then I would have noticed Tyce

enter his room with a smirk. Of course, I was too preoccupied to notice.Around 3 in the morning though, things got interesting.

Chapter 11

I worked feverishly on my program. There were several problemsto overcome. First and foremost was the digital signature of the InfoOrbs. The way it was oriented normally made it impossible to use myprogram while the Orb was just flying around.

I was pretty sure I could get it to work when the digital signaturewas modified by a Lyoko Warrior holding it in their hands. The reasonbehind this is that the energy of an Info Orb is too erratic for it to bedownloaded outright. When it came into contact with a Lyoko Warrior(Or ANAX or a monster for that matter), its signature was modified tomake it calmer.

In order for this to work, I had to hardwi re all my friends digitalsignature into my program. Otherwise, my program wouldnt be able topick up the proper signal. This in itself was a daunting task.

8/6/2019 The Rise

The Rise of Anax

Documents