Untitled chapter
Chapter 1: Disagreement
Kya POV:
“Anytime now, Cam!” I shouted as Alexei and I ducked behind a boulder for cover. We’d entered the mountain sector of Lyoko, only to be ambushed by several Krabs. “Where’s Emi?” I asked, while Alexei threw two shuriken at the Krabs. The shuriken exploded at the feet of the Krabs, releasing ice. Two of the three Krabs were immobilized by the ice at their feet. That didn’t stop their lasers from working.
“She’s almost there.” Cam’s voice informed us. “Once she arrives, you’ll have seven minutes to get to the tower.”
A laser nearly grazed my head, as I looked behind the rock. The activated tower is just behind the Krabs. Of all the times for Emi to arrive after us. As the Guardian of Lyoko, she has unlimited access to all of Lyoko. Is what I would say, had she not lost all of the Lyoko Keys, along with her memory. “How long until we can enter the tower?”
Cam sighed, “Seven minutes at the most. Weren’t you listening, Kya?”
Another laser whirled past my head. “Your try paying attention to anything, while being attacked by Krabs!”
“Llaw nepo!” A voice said, as a solid wall of materialized around the Krabs, trapping them.
“Mi’Lady.” Alexei bowed to Emi, like he was a knight. “Nice trap. What did you say this time?”
Emi giggled at Alexei. “‘Open Wall’“. She gestured to the solid wall. “I wanted to trap them. Wasn’t sure it would work.”
Emi’s power to manipulate Lyoko required her to speak the opposite effect she wanted, backwards. Often, Alexei and I don’t know what she says until the affect activates. “Shall we go?” Emi asked.
Alexei was the first to pass the wall, followed by Emi, and me. Unlike us, Emi didn’t have a weapon. Should her life point decrease to zero, Emi will disappear forever. Alexei and I would get devitalized and return to the mansion. Our avatars on Lyoko granted us powers and weapons. Alexei’s avatar was a ninja. Complete with an all-black outfit and dual sai and shuriken for weapons. My avatar was a figure skater, dressed in an icy blue dress and leggings. White shoes concealed blades that became ice skates. With them, I could glide over anything and shred enemies. The white gloves I wore, generated energy shields for protection.
Glancing over, I noticed Emi had changed her usual outfit. Her purple hair was in a ponytail, with a white ribbon. She wore a light purple dress with black leggings with a black belt on the dress. Emi was known to create the randomness things in Lyoko in her free time. This outfit is unusually...pain.
“Watch out!” Racing forward, I held out my hands. Warmth built up, until two body size orbs generated from the palms of my hands Emi shrieked as the mega-tank’s laser forced us back. The shields barely held, shattering once the laser stopped. “Where is Alexei?” My palms throbbed from the attack, a sign I’d lost some life points.
“He used ‘Shadow’ to dodge.” Cam said. “You’ve only got fifty life points left.” Usually mega-tank attacks deal fifty points of damage per-hit. The gloves were able to block half of it, giving me twenty-five points of damage.
“Go hide, Emi.” I ordered. ’I’ll distract the mega-tank, so Alexei can take it down.” Alexei wouldn’t remain hidden for long. Shadow allowed Alexei to blend into any environment, at the cost of draining his life points.
Emi ran behind a rock, while I summoned my skates. Sprinting forward, I kicked at the mega-tank. X.A.N.A.’s eye is the target needed to destroy any of his monsters. Mega-tanks are like bowling balls that open and close. My blade hit the armor of the mega-tank, missing its target. Pushing off, I did a backflip mid-air, before landing. “Four minutes.” Cam counted down, letting us know the hacking was almost finished. Emi had to be in front of the tower before the countdown ended. Otherwise, the tower would remain activated.
The mega-tank opened and began charging a laser. It’s target, the rock Emi behind. Dashing forward, I charged the tank head on. Just before the laser was fired, I slammed my first into X.A.N.A.’s eyes on the tank. “Freeze!” I shouted, activating my power. Ice quickly crawled on X.A.N.A.’s eye, engulfing the mega-tank. Frozen mid-attack, I went to strike the frozen tank. “Kya!” Emi’s warning came too late. A second mega-tank materialized, quickly releasing a laser. The massive beam slammed into me, knocking me to the ground.
“It’s done, go Emi!” Cam ordered. Emi raced towards the tower, as Alexei threw his last sai and shuriken into the second mega-tank’s eye. All of this happened, as my digital body devitalized. The laser had taken the reminder of my life points to zero. No longer able to maintain my virtual body, digital pieces broke away from my torso and feet, towards my head. Soon, nothing was left as I returned to the real world.
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“That was boring!” I groaned as the three of us left math class...again. Alexei, Cam, and I are all eight grade students at Kanna Academy. Kanna Academy is a boarding school, that usually doesn’t allow commuter students. Of the three of us, I’m the only boarder. Cam lives with Alexei and his mom. Cam’s older sister is a former student of Tiya, Alexei’s mom, who also teaches at Kanna Academy. “How about we go to the mansion?”
Alexei glanced at Cam, who ignored me. “You just don’t wanna go to biology class.” He snickered, knowing why biology bothered me. “Mara’s not that bad.”
I glared at Alexei as we stopped at the vending machine. “Mara doesn’t attend figure skating practice with you or whine around you.” Everyone knew of Mara’s crush on Alexei. Except Alexei, poor obvious male.
Cam rolled his eyes, “I’m skipping bio.” He brought a candy bar. “Emi’s got a possible Key location.” He left while Alexei walked me to class.
The biology classroom was down the hall from our math class. The room was divided into several sections that allowed people to work in pairs. Mr. Z (we don’t know what the Z stands for) gave assigned seat on the first day. While Alexei got to sit with Cam, I’m stuck with Mara. Ms. Princess doesn’t care about grades and even less about mine. All assignments are group work, a.k.a I get stuck doing the work of two people. Unlike Mara, my parents aren’t rich. They can barely afford my figure skating bills, let allow boarding school. I’m on a scholarship, which pays for all my schooling and boarding. However, should I get anything less than a 3.0 gpa, I’ll immediately lose my scholarship and be kicked out. But does Mara care? Nope.
“Good morning class.” Mr. Z addressed the class. “Today we will....” While he explained the day’s lesson, I tuned everything out. Having already suffered through this, I already knew what to do. Sometimes a Return to the Past, can be helpful. Like the time Alexei needed an extra day to study for our bio test. Other times, it was annoying. “You better not screw this up.” Mara hissed. Knowing that detention would follow should I answer her (again), I only shrugged.
“Alexei,” Mr. Z called. “Where is Cam?”
“My mom needed him to grab something from home for her.” Alexei lied. Mr. Z didn’t question it, since Cam or Alexei were always running errands for Tiya. Tiya is Alexei’s mother, who teaches upper level history. Tiya is a great teacher, but also a scatter brain. She’s always forgetting something or losing things. She’ll often said one or both boys to retrieve her things.
“Well then, Alexei you’ll have to do his part until he comes to class.” Mr. Z began passing out supplies, as Alexei groaned. Alexei is really good with anything that involves science or math. Doesn’t mean he always likes doing them. Cam is going to hear it later tonight. If he doesn’t spend the night at the mansion again. Lately, he’s been skipping classes and staying out late. Is working on freeing Emi that important to him? Cam may speak to Emi the most, with them being the techies of the group. But Alexei is the one who Emi prefers spending time with. Alexei is often on his cell or laptop talking with Emi. They talk about everything from sports to daily teenage life.
“Mara, could you stop being self-absorbed long enough to assist me?” I began lining up the different items on the table in the order they’d be used. The assignment is to look at several different cells and determine which were plant and animal cells. Easy enough to do alone. The hard part is the written essay on why and how we determined everything. Writing isn’t my strength. Mara, however, is on the school newspaper. Today, I’m determined to get her to use her writing powers for good.
“As if.” Mara flipped her long dark hair. “I’ve got better things to do.” Which turned out to be texting on her cell. Oh, how I wanna smack some sense into her or better yet, let her fail. If our grades weren’t linked together, I’d do just that. Glancing at the clock, I decided to get to work. I’ll get Cam to read over the essay.
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Cam POV
“Do you think this will work?” Emi’s voice drifted from the screen. Unlike the others, I preferred to avoid going to Lyoko. Only during emergencies do I willingly go to Lyoko. The others have skills and powers to protect them, I have nothing. The best I can do is be a living shield for Emi. Keeping Emi safe is always our main goal, even if we fail to deactivate a tower. As the physically embodiment of Lyoko, she is Lyoko itself. “The last few tests didn’t go beyond fifty percent before crashing.” Our main goal is to finish a program that will allow Emi to be materialized into the real world. The program is fifty percent complete, however, anything beyond results in the program crashing.
“We’ll have to determine the reason of the system crashing. Otherwise continuing will be pointless.” Typing away, I loaded the materialization program. After imputing the additions Emi created, I pressed enter. “Cross your fingers.”
Currently Emi has hidden herself within a Way Tower located in the Desert Sector. X.A.N.A. could attack at any moment, hiding is the only way Emi can protect herself while alone. It’s not all bad. Inside the Towers, Emi is able to scan for both Key locations and X.A.N.A.’s activities. “Shouldn’t you be in class? I can run the tests by myself.” Most of our research is stored within Way Towers, allowing Emi easy access to them. It’s the only way she can work on the program without me having to upload it from my laptop.
“I’d rather do something productive instead of reliving today again.” Normally, I work in my room during the day. But the current tests required the supercomputer to run multiple tests. “60%, 65%, 70%...” Several numbers popped up, as the program loaded. So far so good.
“75%! Emi breathed a sigh of relive. “Should we run it again?” She asked once the program stopped. Working since morning, this had been the fourth test of the day. After months of work, we’ve finally gotten the program above fifty percent without shutting down. This a huge break through!
“No.” Rubbing my eyes, I looked over the newest data. “I’ve recorded the changes we’ve made today. Let’s keep those for now, while adding more.” Glancing at the clock, I saw that it was lunch time. “I’ve gotta get back.” Lately, Alexei and Kya have been lecturing me about skipping class. They’ve agreed to cover during morning classes for me if I attend afternoon classes.
“I’ll keep working on the program.” Emi waved, before logging out. I wanted to devote all my free time to finishing the revitalization program. Once done, Emi will be able to live on Earth and we’ll shut down the supercomputer. It’s the quickest way to rid ourselves of X.A.N.A.. However, Emi and Kya believe recovering the Keys are more important. A problem since we don’t know a Key’s location until X.A.N.A. attacks. By then it’s too late, X.A.N.A.’s already gained two keys.
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“We missed you in bio.” Alexei sweetly said. The glare he gave didn’t match his sweet voice.
Worried, I sat beside Kya. “Should I run?”
Kya stuff a spoonful of rice into her mouth. “You abandoned him during a project.”
Rolling my eyes, I turned to Alexei. “We’ve already done the project. You should’ve had no problems, even working alone.”
Alexei grumbled, before opening his chips. “So, what?”
I shrugged, “So, stop complaining.”
Alexei huffed, before getting up and leaving us to join Mara. “He’s right through.” Kya said. “You shouldn’t be skipping class. Also, Alexei’s been lying a lot for you and doing your share of the group work.”
“I’m sorry, I thought we wanted to stop X.A.N.A. for good.” I’m the only one who fully knows how to use the supercomputer safely. Which leaves all technologically stuff to me. Kya knows this and yet she’s siding with Alexei.
Kya shook her head, causing strands of dark brown hair to fall into her face. “I’m not siding with either one of you. Goodness knows the mess that’ll cause.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m only doing what I always do when the two of you fight. Get both of you to listen to the others’ side.”
“I’m going back to the mansion.” Grabbing my laptop, I got up to leave. “Tell Alexei, I’ll be spending the night at the mansion.” Kya tried to stop me, but I ignored her. Alexei’s my best friend, how cannot understand how important our work is?
