Emi's POV:
"Did Alexei tell you of his crazy theory?" Cam asked over the phone the next morning.
"That he thinks Lynn has a crush on Kya? Yes." I tossed clothes out of my warobe onto the floor, looking for my ankle boots. "I told him he's overthinking things."
"He's an idoit." Cam often calls ALexei names, but doesn't mean it. He's use to his best friend's random train of thought.
"Alexei know's Kya doesn't see Lynn in a romanct way, anyway. She likes someone else." I nearly dropped my cell after speaking that last part. Kya's gonna be mad when she discovers Cam knows she likes someone. Maybe she'll be less anrgy, since Cam doesn't know who she likes.
"Sorry Emi, I dropped my cell. Can you repeat that?" Cam said to my relief.
"I said you should spend sometime with Kya. Let Lynn use the time to clear things up with Alexei." I found my boots in the very back of the warobe. Quickly putting them on, I grabbed my bag and left the girls dorm.
"I can't, the anaylzing of the data still needs to be finished." Cam explained.
"I'll do it." I offered, before Cam could continue. "I should have it done by the end of school. The program I wrote will search for specific patterns. It'll save us alot of work." Now that I'm use to my new life, I plan on returning to helping Cam. He has way to much work for one person.
"Fine, but send me the results." Cam agreed.
"Only after I've recived word from Kya you've spent time with her." Now way am I handing the data over so easily. If I do, he'll get side tracked.
We ended the conversation there, because school was about ti start. Looking for my shoes made me mess breakfast, so I had to go straight to class. Wave was lergerly strolling along, with a crosstiant in her mouth. "Hey, Ems!" She greeted, breaking a piece of crosstiant off and offering it to me. "Where were you?"
Grateful for the food, I happily ate it. "Warobe issues?"
She wrinkled her nose, "That's why I perfer causal clothes." She gestured to her own outfit. "Come to my room afterschool, I've got some new tracks."
"Only if you take your headphones off during class and pay attention to the lesson." I said in a fake stern voice. Wave is a smart firl, who barely pays attention in class. Her headphones are always on, playing some kind of music. I don't know how she gets away with it. Mrs. Hertz and Jim are the only ones who appear to notice.
"So you say. But my grades are just fine." She placed her headphones on and danced her way into class. I followed her to our seat behind Jeremie and Aelita. Odd and Ulrich were already seated in front of them. The four were speaking in hushed tones, that stopped as we approached. Wave said nothing, to into her music. I wanted to ask them about it, but the teacher came int and class began.
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As soon as their last morning class ended, Emi headed for her dorm. Sneaking in was easy, since Jim was helping Mrs. Hertz. Once inside, Emi hopped on her bed with her laptop. She booted up her program, letting it run in the background, while she manually looked through the data.
Her goal was to filter out useless data. The program would do the differcult part of soughting the data into useable catorgies. They'd then be able to (hopefully) use it for other projects/programs.
Emi's cell buzzed with a text from Wave. Where are you? It's time for food. ;3.
Hidding in my room.
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Lynn's POV:
"I'm telling you. Kya's only a friend, nothing more." I explained for the third time. "End of story."
"No, nope." Alexei ran in front of me blocking the path. "What's the deal than? You looked like a jealous boyfriend."
I took a calming breath, debating whether or not to tie Alexei to a tree and leave him. We are in the woods besides the school. Someone would find him, eventually. "My 'deal' is Calex."
Alexei raised an eyebrow. "And?"
"And I don't like him." I admitted, than stepped around him. The forest is serrily quiet. Normally, there'd be birds chirping and flying around. Even the occasion quirrel eating a nut. Yet, there's nothing.
"I thought the three of you were friends." Alexei walked backwards, arms resting behind his head. "Does Kya now of this?"
"Correction they are friends. Kya and I are best friends. Calex and I only share a common friend, Kya." We continued along the path, deeper into the forest. By now, we've reached a part we rarely visit. "Kya knows we, meaning me, don't get along. She doesn't know how much I dislike Calex. Only that I perfer not to be around him."
The forest sit between Kadic and Kanna, providing a shortcut to each school. So naturally, there are parts we haven't been or go to very often, between it's by Kadic. That's why we were suripsied to see Mr. C just standing in the middle of the path.
"Uh-oh." Alexei muttered. "We're in trouble."
Mr. C silently closed the short distance towards us. His usual bored expression is now stoic. His face gave no hint as to how much trouble wee're in. Not only did we skip 'class', we left the school grounds during school hours. Mr. Hall will love this.
"We're not skipping school, promise." Alexei blurted out.
I shot him a warning glare to hush. He's only going to make things worst. Alexei's a great partner to pull pranks with. But he needs to learn when to talk less. This is how we get caught, Alexei's big mouth.
"We were taking a walk before afternoon classes." I added, hoping to distract him from Alexei's earlier comment. "Now we're heading back."
Mr. C said nothing, he just looked at us. For a moment, I wondered if he's okay. Than he grabbed Alexei's wrist. Not unusal when a certain someone's been known to not listen and refuse to _____. It became unusal when Mr. C's eyes flickered to a familar symbol.
"Lynn, run!" Alexei warned, as mr. C moved to grab me. "Nope, keep yout attention on over here/on me. He rammed the palm of his free han into the nurse's chin. The suripse attack knocked him back and loosened his grip on Alexei. Alexei jerked his arm free and stepped back. "Is that the real Mr. C or a spector?"
"Does it matter?" I glanced at him. "Xana's lanched an attack."
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The Xanaified Mr. C was back on his feet, ready for round two. P_______ by Xana Mr. C's body gained heighted strength/abilites. He shot a pulse of energy at Lynn and Alexei that knocked them down. Xana's orders were to capture the two males, nothing more. The rest of the plan wouldtake place on Lyoko.
Lynn recovered first, his body was use to being knocked down. He was silently thankful for his father enrolling him in different sports as a kid. "Now's not the time for a nap, Lex." He tried to pull Alexei up.
A second pulse of energy sent Lynn t the ground. This time he was to stunned to move. Alexei had used the time to serectly dail Emi. From what Kya said about the Xana Lillie, she had superhuman strength. Kya managed to wound her only because she was wearing her ice skates. They had no way to fight back. Their best bet was to alert the others and look for a chance to esapce.
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Emi was leaving her dorm, when her cell rang. Strange that Alexei called during, she answered. "Hello, Alexei?" There was no answer, only background sounds. Than the call cut off.
Emi figured Alexei could've called her by mistake. Yet, there as a weird feeling she couldn't shake. So she called Cam, to make sure everything was okay.
"Oh good, your okay." Cam let out a sigh of relief. "Are Alexei and Lynn with you?"
"No, that's why I'm calling." A sense of dred went through Emi. "Alexei called me, but didn't say anything. The called than ended abruptly."
Cam sat in the courtyard on his laptop with Kya. "There;s an actived tower in the forest sector."
"Are we going to the manison?" Kya asked.
"Not right now." Cam put the phone on speak so Emi could hear them. "We don't know what the attack is. I prefer not to send you two alone to Lyoko unless neassary."
Kya agreed. "Those tantrulas are dangerous. I've never defeated one."
"I'll go to the mansion and monitor the situtation." Emi offered.
"We'll look for Alexei and Lynn." Cam confirmed.
"Hopefully, we'll find them." Kya thought aloud.
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Cam's POV:
"Why are we going to the forest?" Kya asked. She followed behind, as we made our way to the edge of campus.
"I was able to track Alexei's cell phone to the forest." I pulled Kya behind a pillar. Some of the teachers were passing by. Sneaking off campus or back on, isn't new to us. Doesn't mean we're reckless or want to be caught.
"Unless you have a speific location, we'll be searching all day." Kya peeked around the corner. "Should we try calling them?"
I motioned for her to follow. "No, if their hiding. The ringing from their cells might alert Xana to their location."
"So we're just going to search the entire forest for them?" Kya whisphered.
We went further into the forest, following the signal. The familiar sceneray soon changed, we entered a part we rarely go to. The singal lead to a clearing, where Alexei's cell lay on the ground. "Now what Cam?" Kya picked up the cell. "How are we going to find them?"
Just than, my cell rang. "Hello? Lynn?" Lynn's number appeared on the screen.
"Send Emi to Sector 5 alone." Mr C's voice came out robotic.
Kya looked at me and mouthed 'Who is it?'
'Mr. C,' I mouthed back.
Kya moved closer to hear. "Send Emi to Sector 5, I have your friends." Mr. C ordered. The call ended.
Kya looked at me. "Cam?"
"Xana's poccessed Mr. C and has Alexei and Lynn." I closed my cell, trying to come up with a plan. "He wants us to send Emi alone to Sector 5."
"So what's the plan?" Kya immedaitly asked. "we don't know enough about the three new sectors for a solo mission."
"That's exectly what we're gonna do." A plan began to form. "Call Emi, I'll explain everything."
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Kya's POV:
"This sounds risky, Cam." Emi's voice filtered through my cell. "Are you sure about this?"
"There's risk no matter what we do." Cam glanced up from his laptop. "At least, this way we'll buy sometime until we can find Alexei and Lynn."
"I still think you should be the one who goes to the mansion." I shared my thoughts.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Kya asked. "It's very risky. Espcailly since you won't be going to the lab."
Cam had thought through several different ideas and each outcome. The one chosen was the least worst one. "It's for the best. Should something happen on Lyoko, you'll be there to help Emi."
Kya sighed, she really didn't want to do this. But they had no other option. "Okay. We'll try to buy you sometime." She gave a slight smile than headed for the mansion.
Once Kya left, Cam took out his laptop. Hooking his phone to the laptop, Cam used the locator program to search for Lynn's cell. He waited for te program to load, than redailed Lynn's number. The phone rang three times, beore switching to voice mail. "Bingo." THe locator zoomed in on a possbile location. Cam quikly took note of where it was, than packed everythign away. He sent a text to Kta, than headed off.
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The evelator opened, letting Kya enter the lab. EMi was seated in front of the supercomputer. She appeared as happy as Kya was about the pln
"You ready?" Kya asked.
Emi nodded, "Ready as I'll ever be." The girls switched spots, allowing Kya access to the supercomputer. "Emi stood nearby to explain a few things. "The sub-hacking programs are ready, just pres start when your ready." She pointed to a digital map of the city. "I'm using the map to track Cam's location. Hopefully, he'll find Alexei and Lynn."
"I still tink Cam should be here instead of me." Kya was the only Defender, other than Cam and EMi, who knew jow to use/work the supercomputer. SHe didn't know much, just how to virtualize someone and use the sub-hacking programs. This has helped the Defenders many times. Kya still doesn't like using the supercomputer. If something went wrong, he wouldn't know how to fix it.
"You'll be fine." Emi placed a friendly hand on Kya's houlder. "I'll be on Lyoko, so I can guide/walk you through anything." Smiling, she got insdie te evelator and headed for the scanner(s).
Kya took out the witten intrustions Cam gave her on how to reah Sector 5. "You'll need to head to the edge/end of the ice sector. Once there I'll send the transport." She typed in the commands needed to send/virtize Emi on(to) Lyoko.
EMi landed with a thud. "I made it." SHe looked around to see a tower behind her. "Kya can you send me the cyberjet?"
"Sorry Emi, that's not possbile. Cam hasn't shown me how to yet." Kya answered.
"That's fine. There's a tower here, so open access to the supercomputer for me and I'll send it." Emi entered the tower and waited for access to be given.
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Lynn's POV:
"Now you wake up." Alexei's voice broke through the fog clouding my mind. He leaned against the wall, holding his right arm. "You missed all the fun." He gestured to our surroundings. Grey walls greeted us coldly, follwed ________________________________.
"Where are we?" My voice came out hoarse. "How'd we get her?"
"Turns out Xana can now control people in addition to making polymorphs." Alexei explained. "A Xana poused Mr. C knocked you out and grabbed me. That's how we got here. Where we are, I've got no clue."
My first instrict was to call Cam. Unfortualy, my cell's nowhere to be found. "Please tell me you have your cell." If you can't alert the others, Cam's locator program will. He modifited the locator program to also scan for activated towers. So far it's been very helpful. Although, we still don't have about an attack until we've a;ready been affected. Like now.
"Nope, I dropped it when he grabbed me." Alexei's tone didn't match his grimance. With a smirk, he said. "I managed to call Emi. She'll know something's wrong since the call ended aburptly."
That's good news. Now if we can figure a way out. "Got any ideas? One of us needs to get to the manison. With the new monsters, Kya won't be able to protect Emi for long."
Alexei shrugged. "The door's locked. Even if we can open it, how will we get past Mr. C? He's got superhuman abilities thanks to Xana."
The sounds of footsteps echoed through the silence. It quickly grew closer, than stopped outside the door. Alexei raised an eyebrow, than mouthed 'Xana?'. My response was a shrug. 'What should we do?' I mouthed back. There's nothing in the room to use as a weapon. The door's the only way in or out. One of us could distract him, so the toher can escape. But how much time could one of us buy?
Something rattled the door handle. Seconds later, the door opened. "Ther you two are." Cam wiped the sweat off his head. "Hurry, we need to get to the manison."
Alexei and I stared at him in shock. "How do we know your the real Cam?" Alexei asked. A good idea, now that we know Xana can create polymorphs. Xana Lilie fooled Kya, which means anyone of us could be tricked as well.
"Really, Alexei?" Cam rolled his eyes. "Now you decide to use your brain."
Alexei shrugged. "Better late than never. Besides Cam would never _______________."
A tick formed in Cam's jaw. "So you want me to tell Lynn and Kya what happened when Emi borrowed Kya's body. I'm sure-"
"Enough!" Alexei shouted. "Yesh, you don't need to go that far."
Cam smirked. "You asked and I answered. Don't blame me if you don't like the answer."
"How'd you find me?" I asked, while making a mental note to question them later. ____________________________________________________________________________.
"Mr. C has your cell, Lynn." Cam explained. "I hooked my cell into my laptop, than redailed your number. The locator program was able to trance the trance the signal here."
Still craddling his arm, Alexei stood up. "Great plan. Only problem is Mr. Ca might've heard the cell ringing."
"Hench, why I said 'hurry'." Cam gestured towards the door. "Emi's in Sector 5 alone. We need to get there before the S______ does." He peeked out the door, than gestured for us to follow.
Cam lead the way door grey corridors and the maze like layout of the building, until we got outside. We slowed our pace slightly, on the lookout for Mr. C. There were many palces he could hide in this construction site. According to Cam, we're fifteen mintues away from the manison. Kadic is closer than Kana, so we'll have to head to Kadic and take the underground tunnel to the mansion. Hopefully Kya and Emi can manage on their own for a bit longer.
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Kya's POV:
"I'm at the edge of the sector." Emi announced. "So far, no sign of Xana."
"That doesn't mean we can let our guard down." Following the written instrustions, I opened up a connection to Sector 5. A window popped opened, needing a password to continue. "Okay, the transporter should be coming." We haven't been to Sector 5 since discovering it. We know nothing about it, which makes it twice as dangerous to send Emi alone.
The holomap changed, to show Scetor 5. On the screen, Emi was let out in the arena. She began moving towards the maze. "Do you see anything?"
"No." Her avatar lit up as she spoke. "But this is interesting." She sent a visual, allowing me to see what she saw. "The maze has changed." The visual showed the maze's formation was different than before.
"Careful Emi, something's coming your way." Three red dots were quickly headed towards Emi. "Take the corridor on your right." I directed Emi as best I could. A purple dot showed Emi racing towards the corridor. She ducked inside and continued. The maze that is Sector 5 is diffcult to understand. Yet another thing I'll have to get trained on.
"Kya are they still following me." Emi asked. The purple dot indicated that Emi hadn't moved.
"Let me check." Since the map had followed Emi's movements, I had to back track to her past location. My full attention was on the screen, so I didn't notice the elevator open. "No, your safe for now." A firm hand gripped my shoulder. I paid no attention to it, thinking it was Lynn or Alexei. "Great your here, head for the scanners. You'll have to pick Emi up in Sector 5 so we can deactivate the tower."
"Not going to happen." A robotic voice spoke with hints of a familiar sound.
Looking up, I saw that Mr. C stood next to me. Xana's symbol showing in his eyes. "Now be a good girl and move." One hand tossed me aside like I was a ball. My body slammed into the wall, sending a jolt of pain up my back.
"Kya something's happening." Emi's panicked voice drifted through the headset. "The walls are beginning to move. I need to leave."
Mr. C sat at the supercomputer smirking. "Your not going anywhere." His hands moved radiply over the keyboad, inputting an unknown command.
"Get away!" Forcing my body up, I doved into the chair. Mr. C was knock out by my weight. He fell to the ground under me. "I don't know what your planning Xana. But you won't win." I shifted my weight to pin him.
Mr. C laughed. The sound sent a chill up my spine. "To late." A beeping on the screen indicated monsters had found Emi. Sprinting back to the chair, I checked the montior. A new window opended, showing a shilttoe of Emi. Numbers began counting down, like something was being downloaded.
"Emi can you hear me?" No response. "You need to get away from that thing!" A lump formed in my thorat. The only way to save Emi is for someone to go to Lyoko. Problem is even if I could figure out how to use the self virtauztion program, I still wouldn't be able to reach Sector 5 without someone in the lab to input the password. Not to mention there's the Xanaified Mr. C currently within the lab.
"Wow Mr. C how nice of you pay a doctor visit to Kya." Only once person could make a joke that corny. "Lynn, your up." Alexei stood inside the elevator with Cam and Lynn.
Lynn let out a sigh as he stepped into the lab. "You lucky your already injuried, or else I'd hurt you myself." He got a running start before slamming into Mr. C. He used all of his weight to keep the nurse pinned to the wall. "Well, don't just stand there! Head for Lyoko!"
Cam was already at the computer bring up the virtaztion program. "I'll try to buy you sometime, Kya. I can't stop the Scyphozoafrom here, but I can make it diffcult for Xana to extract Emi's keys."
Wordlessly, I got into the elevator. Alexei had moved to help Lynn with Mr. C. Alexei used his good arm to hold down Mr. C, while Lynn continued to pin him. The boys have everything handled here, I'm off to Lyoko to save Emi.
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Kya landed in front of the tower she'd sent Emi to earlier. To her surpise, no monsters were around to ambush her. "Cam, a vechile please."
"You'll have to go on foot, Kya." Cam's fingers worked feverishly to slow the Scyphozoafrom extracting Emi's keys. They didn't know what would happen if she lost them or Xana obtained them.
"AAAHHHH!" Alexei's pained cry drew Cam's attention away from the screen. His best friend was on the ground several feet away, while Mr. C held Lynn by his shirt. Lynn was then sent flying, as Mr. C made his way to Cam. Cam hoped out of the chair to avoid being grabbed. He ducked under the equinment to the other side of the holomap.
"Guys, a little help!" Cam tried to circle back around, but Mr. C was behind him in a blink of an eye.
"Cam!?" Kya called, worried something had happened to her friends. "I'm heading for the edge of the sector." She was about to activate Lightening Dash, when a laser whirled pass her shoulder. Two tarantulas were quickly making their way towards Kya. She let out a sigh, than moved to engage them
"I don't have time for this." She grumbled, as she skated past the first one. Her skates kicked off the ground, sending her into the air. She twirled her body, as she sailed over the second one she activated Freeze. Ice crept from her gloves onto the monster. "One down, one to go." Landing, she used the momentued to go into a spin. Lightening built up in the soles of her skates, geneatoring more power from her radipy movement. One leg went out wide, kicking in an arc. The second one completed the same movement. Lightening shot out, striking the first tarantula. It explosed into digital dust.
Back in the lab, the guys were having their own 'fun'. Alexei recovered first, using his good arm he jumped onto Mr. C's back. The nurse forgot about Cam, as he tried to toss Alexei off. "Get to the computer, General!" It was a shrug to hold on. Alexei had intended to do a choke hold on their school's nurse. A plan that didn't a count for his injured arm.
Luckily, Lynn was back in the fight. He threw himself onto Mr. C's legs, trying to hold him in place. Lynn's visual swam from hitting his head against the wall. "Tell the girls to speed it up! We're not gonna be able to hold him for much longer!"
"Emi, you can come out of the tower now." Cam smirked. He watched the numbers reach zero, indicating the S_________ had finished it's job. Xana wouldn't be happy through.
"Is it safe?" Emi poked her head out of the tower. "Did the plan work?" She was worried Xana would figure out the 'Emi' in Sector 5 was a clone she'd created.
"I'm sending you the cyberjet. The tower is just south of your location." Cam programed the vechile for Emi. "Kya will catch up when she's done playing."
"Easy for you to say." Kya ducked as the tarantula swatted at her. She countered with a backflip, that cut the leg off with the blades of her skates. She than bent down to follow up with a kick to his head. "Almost done!" A second kick finished the monster off.
"Cam!" Alexei's shout drew Cam's attention. He saw that Mr. C was holding him by his shirt and Lynn had been kicked into the base of the holo-map. "We're out of time!" Alexei swung his legs to wrap about Mr. C's thoart. He put most of his weight into his lower body, as he used his good arm to slam his elbow into Mr. C's arm. The attack did nothing. His body was slammed against into the wall behind him. He went limp from the impact.
"I'm almost to the tower, Cam." Emi spotted two more taranulas guarding the tower. She almost stopped the cyberjet, when a blur of white zoomed past. A trail of lightening followed behind Kya, as she kicked off the ground. The blade of her skates hit the eye of the first taranula. A laser from the second one knocked her to the ground.
"Keep going Emi! I'll hold it off." Kya was breathening hard from the battle. One of them was hard enough, two was just differcult. Had this been a video game, she'd have lost. But this wasn't, which was good for her and bad for Xana. She charged head first towards the taranula. Defeating it wasn't her plan, no she needed to keep it's attention.
"I've completed the hack." Cam entered the final code needed to destory Xana's firewall around the tower. Just in time, he now had to deal with Mr. C alone. Alexei and Lynn's time on Lyoko, combined with their physical activties in the real world allowed them to put up a fight against Mr. C. Cam barely had any of that to aid him. That's why he jumped out of the chair before Mr. C could grab him.
He sprinted to the other side of the holomap. "Over here Xana!" He stuck his touge out, taunting his option. He needed to keep Mr. C away from the supercomputer until the tower was deactivated. "Your just an old program that needs to be deleted."
The game of cat and mouse was on. Mr. C jumped over the holomap to land in front of Cam. Smirking, he grabbed the student. "Did I mention your well made program?" Cam joked. He gulped as he was backed into a corner. Mr. C reached out to grab him, than dropped to the ground.
Confused, Cam poked him. When he didn't move, Cam went to check on Lynn and Alexei. The two were knocked out, but okay. "Cam!" Focused on checking over his friends, he was startled by Emi's voice. "The tower's deactivated, but Kya was devituralized."
The elevator door(s) opened, letting Kya into the lab. "What happned here?"
"I'll explain later." Cam retook his place in front of the supercomputer. "Head for a Way Tower Emi, I'll bring you back."
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Emi's POV:
"Xana's gotten stronger than we thought." Cam stated. He sat in front of the supercomputer looking at us. "These polymorphs are more trouble than we oringally thought."
Lynn sat on the ground beside Kya, rubbing the back of his head. "What do you suggest? We don't even know how Mr. C got possiced or the point of this attack." He winced, probably from pain. He didn't look to good when I returned from Lyoko. Once Cam activates a Return to the Past, everyone will be as good as new.
"Are you sure it's a good idea to wait until he wakes up?" Kya gestured to Mr. C, who was still unconious on the floor. "He'll probably ask alot of questions. Are we gonna explain everything to him?"
Cam shook his head. "Some things, only enough to see if he remembers anything before Xana possuced him." Cam suggested waiting until Mr. C woke up that way we could question him, than use Return to the Past. It's a bit risky, but our only chance at getting some answers.
"I doubt he'll know the reason behind Xana's attack." Alexei chimed. He leaned against the wall by the elevator. Other than his arm, he's in better shape than Lynn.
"Xana wanted to get me alone on Lyoko." I answered. "Cam figured that'd be the only reason Xana would demand I go to Sector 5 alone." I'll admit, Cam's plan was risky, but worked great. Instead of actually sendng me to Sector 5, we sent a digital clone in my place. The clone exited the tower instead of me and took my place going to Sector 5. Had I really went, Xana might have my keys right now.
"Let's discuss this later. He's waking up." Kya pointed to Mr. C who sat up rubbing his head.
"Where am I?" Mr. C asked.
We all looked at Cam, who went over to the nurse. "That's a long story that your not going to believe."