"After working all night, I've debugged everything." Cam informed his friends as they stood outside of the school gates. It was the second day of a two day field trap to the near by ponds. Alexei and Cam agreed the night before that Kya should continue working with Cam for the reminder of the assignment. They just had to stay away from Mr. Z or else they'd have to explain why Kya and Alexei weren't with their partners. "Emi shouldn't have any problems contacting us, now."
Alexei entertained himself by flipping a coin. "Off to the desert sector after school?" Rarely did they enter Lyoko without a tower being activated. It offered X.A.N.A. the chance to attack them with more monsters. While a tower was activated, X.A.N.A.'s foucs and power is spilt in half. One half used the tower to attack the real world, while the other used monsters to defend the tower of the Lyoko Defenders. "For once, we'll have the upper hand."
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Alexei." Kya added, "We still don't know if a Key is really there. We're only going to explore and check everything out." She didn't want to get her hopes up. They'd been fighting X.A.N.A. for nearly a year and were still no closer to finding all the keys nor materizaling Emi. What the guys didn't know is that Emi and Kya had agreed to shut down the supercomputer once they'd recovered all of the keys. This would allow the group peace from X.A.N.A. and Cam to take his time in creating the materizaltion program. Once the program was complete, they'd restart the supercomputer one final time.
"Today, we'll be going to the pond in the near by park." Mr. Z announced, earning cheers from the students. "Keep the energy up, we'll be walking to the park." Mr. Z lead the way, while his students groaned and complained. The park was about a ten mintue walk from the school. However, it was an unsually hot day. By the time they reached the pond, most of the class was dipping with sweat. "Same rules as yesturday. Stay with your partner, explore and take notes, and meet here within thirty mintues."
Several pairs took the chance to espace the heat and seek shelter. Mara was among them, as she was already dragging Alexei to the closest shade. Kya crossed her arms and started for the pond, when Cam stopped her. "Mara has the right idea, it's to hot. Let's rest for a bit, before going down to the pond." Kya didn't want to agree (Mara didn't need a bigger ego) but she was melting from the heat. Nodding, she let Cam take her hand and lead her over to rest of the class.
"We're hanging out after school,right?" Mara cuddled up to Alexei on the bench, getting closer then nessacry. "You did run out on me, yesturday." She pouted, trying to make Alexei feel guilty."
"Sorry, Mara." Alexei's eye slightly twitched, as he thought what to say. "I've already got plans with Cam and Kya. But your welcome to join us." He added that last part, knowing Mara refused to willingly be around Kya.
"No, thanks. I just remembered Ally wanted to go shopping." Mara lied, not wanting to disappoint Alexei. Cam she could be around, without getting to annoyed. Kya, her figure skating rival, was a different story. She was already compared to Kya while skating, she didn't need that at school as well. "How about we just have lunch?"
"Can't." Alexei said, until Mara glared at him. "Can't wait to have lunch with you." He quickly added. He had planned on spending lunch in the nearby forest chatting with Emi. Emi hadn't contacted him the night before, since she and Cam had to debug the supercomputer.
Further away, Kya nearly coughed watching Alexei and Mara. "He really is a good friend. We should give him a badge of honor."
"Your forgetting that Alexei actually likes spending time with her." Cam glanced up, to found Mara now hugging Alexei. "He's to blind to see that she's a royal brat."
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Emi's POV
Staying inside the tower all day is boring. Normally, I'd be working on one of the programs, but Cam has locked me out of them. Something about how I desreve a break as well. I know he's trying to help, but I'm an A.I.. I don't need breaks or rest. Honestly, I'm sick of being struck in Lyoko. Whenever the others leave, I feel kinda lonley. There's no one else on Lyoko but me. The others have a life outside of the Lyoko, I want to be apart of that. "Maybe Alexei left something for me to watch." Bored, I pulled up a connection to the internet. Alexei isn't the best with computers, but he'll often leave something for me to watch. If he can get Cam to set it up. Scrolling through, I saw that just about everything listed I'd already watched. Alexei likes the cheesest things.
BOOM!!!
The entire tower shook, knocking me down.
BOOM!!!!
The tower shook again.
Racing outside, I saw that two megatanks were attacking the tower. When they saw me, they immedilty charged their lasers. Panicing, I stumbled back into the tower landing on my back.
BOOM!!!
Again, the megatanks attacked.
"Cam, Alexei" Pulling up a connection, I began to contact the others. If the tower was destoryed with me in it, I could lose all of my life points. "Cam, Alexei?" Why aren't they answering? Cam had debugged the supercomputer, but he hadn't been able to test it before school. 'I'm trapped inside the tower X.A.N.A.'s atacking.' The short message was sent, I just hoped they got it.
"Llaw pneo!" 'Open Wall' From inside the tower, I spoke these words. Peaking out, a giant wall caged the tower, cutting me off from the rest of the sector. The sound of lasers could still be heard, but it was entire tempoarly keep me and the tower safe.
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Kya's POV:
"What's smoking?" A kid from class asked. Smoke rose up from several leaves near the pond, as the pond's water began to boil. Suddenly, people began screaming. The surrounding area was in chaos, students and others quickly ran for the closest shade possblie. Why? Simple, everything not in the shade began smoking or boiling. Curious, Cam threw a pebble into the grass. It too, began smoking before it boiled into mush. "What's happening?" After kid asked.
Cam looked at me, we had the same idea. "X.A.N.A." I shielded Cam from prying eyes, while he checked his laptop. " ''I'm trapped inside the tower X.A.N.A.'s atacking.'" Cam read the message aloud.
"Either Emi's being attacked while hidding instead a tower or it's a warning that X.A.N.A.'s attacking." I theorzied.
"Could be both. We have to get to the Manison." Cam typed a short reply to Emi, letting her know our situation. "Problem is, how do get get pass that?" The enter area outside of the shade was now smoking, some parts were even boiling.
"If we had something big enough to cover us, we could make a run for it." Only things that were in direct sunlight appeared to be affected. "You wouldn't happen to have a giant tarp, would you?" I half-joked, causing Cam to stare at me. 'What? We're going to need one to avoid being directly in the sunlight."
"I'm leaving!" Mara's sherik, drew all attention to her. "Let me go, Ally!"
A short blonde girl, Ally, held onto Mara, refusing to let go. "Are you crazy? This is no time for a tan!"
Before Mara acould do something idoitic, Alexei went over to her. "Don't be reckless Mara. We'll stay here until help arrives." Taking her hand, he lead the two girls to a bench further away from everyone. Moments later, Alexei joined us. "I'm guessing you got Emi's message/"
"X.A.N.A.'s given us three times the trouble." Cam explained the situtation. In addition to the attack her and on Emi, the key could reveal itself at any moment. "Two of us at least have to get to the manison."
"Any ideas, general?" Alexei asked.
Cam pulled up a map of the park on his laptop. "There's a sewer enterance twenty yards away. Looks like it leads towards the access tunnels."
"Great, but how do we get over to the enterance?" Crossing my arms, I glanced around. "Didn't Mara bring a whole beach bag?"
"And tanning lotion, makeup, nail polish." Alexei listed. "Should I continue?"
How do you know that?" I asked, shocked by Alexei's random knowledge.
He shrugged, "Mara likes to talk, alot. She mentioned having everything she needed for 'tanning'."
We quickly used this information to form a plan.
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"Alexei actually made himself useful." I joked, to which Kya sighed. Alexei lead Mara and Ally away, allowing Kya and I to 'borrow' Mara's bag. Digging through, we discovered Mara carries alot of makeup. "Mirroi, makeup, snacks..." There must've been five mini makeup bags and several layers of snacks.
"Found it!" Kya pulled out two umbrellas. "Which do you want pink or pinker?"
Rolling my eyes, I grabbbed an umbrella. "Your not funny. Now, lets hurry." I opened the umberral, before stepping into the sunlight. It offered protection from the harsh sun. How long it'll last, I don't want to find out.
Kya rolled her eyes, before opening the second unbremall and joing me. "Where's the sewer enterance?"
"Other side of the pond." I lead the way across the bridge, that connected both sides of the pond. Next, we corssed the pinic area toawrds the woods that bordered the park. "Hurry!" The umbrellas were beginning to smoke and boil. "Here!" We found the opening.
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"Emi?" The sewers weren't the best way to travel. The horrorable smell alone, almost made me faint. "Kya and I are in the manison."
"Than goodess!" Emi's fare appeared on the screen, she appeared relived. "The wall won't hold much longer."
"Two megatanks are currently surrounding the tower." I informed Kya. "Emi, I'll be on Lyoko soon."
Kya crossed her arms. "Your going to Lyoko?"
Heading for the elecator, I explained my plan. "Alexei can't help us today, so everything mainly falls on you. I'll go to Lyoko first and free Emi. We'll head for the Key first. I'll stay on Lyoko from that point for as long as I cn." Unmlately, I'll have to come back to begin the hack. Kya has enough knowledge of the supercomputer to viurlaze people. If Alexei were here instead, I'd fear for my life. I refuse to being his guipa pig. "I've set the cooridates. Begin whenever your ready."
"This is a bad idea Cam." Kya said, before starting the viration process. "Transfer Cam, Scanner Cam, Viraztion!"
"Cam?" Kya sounded worried. She always gets like this when viruatzting someone. It's almost been a year since we meet Emi and began fighting X.A.N.A.. Kya's sent Alexei to Lyoko without me around plenty of times. She should've gotten over her fears a while ago.
"I'm several feet from the tower." Unlike the others, my Lyoko avatar doesn't have a weapon. My power is also useless. These two factors are the main reason for my refusal to going to Lyoko. The others dont relies how useless I am when on Lyoko. All Alexei cares about is brating me about not coming more. Only during emergies do I willingly step foot on Lyoko.
"Cam, the wall just clasped.!" Kya informed me.
Sneaking up behind a megatank, I placed my hand on it's outer armor. "Overight." I whisphered, as blue blue engulfed the monster. The eye of X.A.N.A. became blue, showing the megatank is now under my control. "Attack." Obeying, my command, the megatank rolled towards the other one. "Emi, come out!"
"Cam?" Emi asked, looking at me. Like me, she wasn't to seeing my Lyoko avatar. My avatar is a mix between a video game warrior and army soldier. The overall color design is dark green and black. A pair of googles (useless) rested on my head. "Welcome to Lyoko." She custeyed, before looking at the two megatanks battleing each other. It appeared to be a drawn. One would fire a laser, the other would close it's armor to protect itseslf. Switch and repeat.
"Where's the loaction of the key?" My head began to throb, a sigh X.A.N.A. will soon regain control over his megatank. Override, allows me to tempoarily gain limited control over one of X.A.N.A.'s monsters. Key words being one, limited, adn tempoary.
"Just beyond that valley?" Emi held the way, heading between two hills. The narroiw path provided no protection, as three hornests prosued us. "Kcor gniylf." 'Flying rock'. Emi summoned three blouders above the hornets. The blouders gell, only crushing one of the hornets. "In here!" Emi pulled me into a small cave, as a laster hit my shoulder.
"Cam, let's switch. There's a small army of bloks guarding the Key. Which will appear soon." Kya sounded stressed and worried. Unlike Alexei, Kya worries whenever I'm on Lyoko. I don't want to be seen as weak and needing protection.
Once the hornets passed, I lead Emi out of the cave. "No, Kya. You'll come to Lyoko once I run out of life points." Which will happen soon.
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Kya's POV:
I don't know how Cam does it. Sitting her guiding us, not being able to directly help when needed. Other then Emi, Cam is technocally the weakest of us. For him to solely to go Lyoko was a crazy, but brillant idea. "What are you planning?" The screen showed Emi stopped several feet away from the valley's exit point. Cam appeared to have went ahead, as it showed him sneaking up on a blok. "No. No, no, no. Cam you idoit." Override's ability is powerful, but to much use will case Cam to collaspe. Last time he over used it, a krab nearly pushed him into the digital sea. "Emi, what is he thinking!?"
"He's going to make the bloks attack each other." Emi answered. "You know how sturnborn he can be. But he has no chose if he wants to use Override." Override required direct physical contact on the target for Cam to gain control. Often, Cam sneak up on distacted monsters to use Override.
Seveal tense moments passed, as I helplessly watched the screen. Cam contiuned moving closer, until he was directly behind the bloks. Managing to reminded unseen, he gain control over a blok.
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Emi's POV:
Cam did it! The bloks began attacking each other, since they didn't know which one was under Cam's control. While they fought, Cam waved for me to apporach. Glancing around, I saw no sign of the hornets from earlier. "Kya, is there any sign of the key appearing?"
"How would I know that?" Kya sassed.
"Look for the Ulimate Blaster gaming symbol." Cam suggested, to which I stared at him. Of all the things to use, why a video game symbol? Alexei did says Cam and Kya love video games. They'd spend all day playing if they could. "What?"
"Nothing." I shrugged.
"Under the symbol, there's some kinda timer. There's five second left." Kya said, just before a blue orb materialized several feet away.
"Our program worked!" Cam cheered. Moments later, he was devialated as a laser hit him.
"Emi, grab the key and hide!" Kya ordered. "I'll be there soon."
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Kya was already heading for the scanners when Cam exited the elevator. Holding his head he groaned, "Hurry, Emi's alone with two bloks and three hornets." Being devirtlated meant his control on the blok had been deactivated. Kya wanted to check on Cam, but hit the elevator button instead. While she was worried about Cam, there was still a tower to deactivate. Cam would recover once a 'Return to the Past' was activated. Since the beginning of their battle with X.A.N.A., Cam had been the only one to feel the after affects of using his Lyoko powers while in the real world. This greatly concerned Kya and Alexei. But Cam always brushed the issue away. Since he rarely went to Lyoko, there was no need to concern themselves, currently. "Get ready." Cam quickly went through the viratltion process, sending Kya to Lyoko.
Kya materialized behind two bloks. They were to distanted with chasing Emi, to notice Kya's attack. Several spins and kicks later, there were only three hornets to deal with. "Cam, I could use some help."
"Working on it." Cam paused hacking into the tower, to begin materialzing a dozen shuriken onto Kya's belt. Kya hated using the shuriken, since it required strength and a kean eye. She also hated battling hornets because of this. Her ice skates were best suited for bloks and kankrets. Megatanks required more timing and luck to defeat. Their outer armor and powerful lasers often deviratled Kya before she could attack. While Krabs were easier then megatanks, Kya had to use acrobatics just to get to the eye on their back. "Got anything else you can send me?"
"Kya." Cam warned. "I've got a tower to hack. You'll have five mintues."
Rolling her eyes, Kya took off towards the hornets. Emi was several feet ahead, using her manpliation to drop rocks onto the hornets. Skillfully dodging, two managed to hit Emi. Emi fell to the ground, as another laser hit her in the torse. "Emi only has fifty life point life." Cam shouted, annoying Kya, who was right behind the hornets.
Tossing a shuriken, Kya drew their attention to her. She threw two more, clipping the wings off of one. Kya taunted the monsters, skating like she was performing for a aduience of one. The two that could still fly, forgot about Emi was they followed Kya into the valley. "Over here!" She paused in front of a rock, before throwing three shurikens. The attack failed, as the hornets knocked the shuriken away. "Your down to seventy life points." Cam informed Kya. "Emi head for the tower, Kya's got the hornet's attention."
"How much time?" Emi began following the pulsations.
"Less then a mintue." Cam answered, while he continued working on the hack. X.A.N.A. coded each of his activated towers with several layers of code to keep Emi from entering. A hack has to be completed before Emi could safely enter the tower. They weren't sure what could happen should Emi enter the tower without a hack being completed. "Twenty seconds." Cam always had a two sub-programs running to assist with the hacks. Hacking wasn't a strength of his, plus time was also an issue. "It's finished!"
Emi was in front of the tower, just as Cam finished the hack. She entered the tower, on the first platform. Each step took her into the center of the platform, a giant cirlce in the shape of the eye of X.A.N.A. As Emi passed a smaller circle on the eye, it lit up. Once in the center, Emi was lifted up to a second identical platform. Emi walked in to the middle of this platform, causing a small screen to appear. Placing her hand on the screen, the word 'Code' came up. Second later, 'Lyoko' came up.
As the data on the walls fell off, Emi said. "Tower deactiavted."
"Return to the Past Now." Following the tower's deactiation, Cam began a return to the past. A bright light came from the supercomputer, spreading out and engulfing everything.
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"We deactivated the tower and got a key. I'd say it was a good day." Once again at the school gates, Alexei entertained himself by flipping a coin. "And you said it was a trap. Don't undereismate Emi!"
Rolling her eyes, Kya moved closer to Cam. "Don't you think it was weird? X.A.N.A. didn't send any extra monsters to guard the key."
Closing his cell phone, Cam smiled. "For once, let's not worry about Lyoko or X.A.N.A. We desevre a day to rest."
Shocked by Cam's un-Cam-ness, Alexei rasied an eyebrow. "Are you feeling okay, General? Usually, your all. 'Must finish programs.' and 'Blah blah tech stuff'."
"Yeah, Cam. Are you sure? This last trip to Lyoko has me worried." Kya placed her hand on Cam's forehead, trying to see if he had a fever.
"I'm fine guys." Cam took Kya's hand off his head and held it. "I have a feeling today's going to be a good day."
"Listen up class." Mr. Z clapped his hands, gaining everyone's attention. "There's been a change of plans. We'll be doing research in the library. Every one will work alone to research something they've obsevered yestuday and turn in a two page essay about the topic. Your free to leave once you've completed the assignment, or else it will be for homework." Several boos were muffled by the cheers. Most students didn't mind doing Mr. Z's essays, since he graded them easily. As long as the gudielines were followed, one could easily get a B.
"This isn't fair." Mara grumbled, knowing she'd recive a bad grade. She didn't know what Kya had obsevered at the pond and refused to ask her about it.
Kya laughed when she saw Mara's face. "Did you have something to do with this Cam?"
Cam grinned, "Someone may have suggested it was to hot to go to the pond."
"And that most of the students would apparitate an easy A?" Alexei added/
Cam didn't answer, as he folllowed the rest of their class into the library. Alexei looked at Kya, who shrugged before following Cam. "Maybe today will be a good day."