Chapter Three

Secrets Revealed

Sorry I haven’t updated. I had school starting up and in October, I got West Nile Virus, in January, I got Hitler for a teacher and I’m failing right now, so I’ve been fairly busy…

“We’ve got to get the factory!” Jeremy cried. Aelita nodded in agreement. Audrey just looked at each of them confused. Then the group ran out of the courtyard and out of the school. Audrey tagged along, not wanting to be left in the confusion. They ran through the forest that was quickly catching on fire. Ulrich ran to a manhole and uncovered a pipeline going down to the sewer. Audrey backed up.

“Whoa, I am NOT going down there!”

Odd popped his head up out of the manhole and stretched out his hand. “Don’t worry, Audrey, it’s not as bad as it seems.”

Audrey looked down the manhole and, holding her nose, grabbed Odd’s hand. He led her down the ladder and towards where the group kept their scooters and skateboards. Audrey was just about to ask what she was supposed to do, when Odd told her to get on his skateboard. She reluctantly got on and wrapped her arms around his waist and then they were off. They were going so fast that Audrey put her face in Odd’s back so that the wind would stay out of her face.

‘Well,’ she thought, ‘Odd wasn’t right; it IS as bad as it seemed!’ The putrid smell offended Audrey’s senses so badly that she felt as though she wanted to vomit. And she would have if it not for the fact that if she did, that moment would probably go down in history as the most embarrassing moment ever! And Audrey loathed embarrassment. A few minutes later, they arrived at another ladder that led back up to the surface. Audrey ran towards the ladder and went up them as fast as humanly possible. When she surfaced, she gulped in the fresh, clean air. But there was something odd about the smell. It carried the strange smell of sulfur and smoke. Audrey looked over at the horizon as she pulled herself the rest of the way out of the pipe. Smoke billowed over towards the direction of the school. When Jeremy and the rest of the group had gotten out of the piping, Audrey pointed towards the horizon and said, “Look, guys.” The rest of the group looked over there solemnly. Audrey whispered, “I pray to God that no one gets hurt.” Yumi walked over to Audrey and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Let’s go.” She said. Audrey followed reluctantly, slowly. She still had no idea about what was happening or where she was going. Suddenly, as soon as the group was past the uncovered manhole, lava shot out about five meters out of the opening. Audrey looked at the lava shooting out in fear. Yumi then grabbed her hand and dragged her along. They all swung like monkeys down some ropes to a lower floor in what looked like an abandoned factory. “MOVE IT!” Yumi shouted to the group and they all fled into an elevator. Ulrich pressed a button and they were on their way down. The door opened a few seconds later into a room with a sort of surreal greenish-blue glow in it.

Jeremy stepped out and invited, “Audrey, come with me. There’s some stuff you need to know.”

“And the understatement of the year award goes to…JEREMY!” Audrey cried. Jeremy looked at Audrey seriously and she knew it was time to stop joking around. She couldn’t help joking; it was her defense mechanism. She followed Jeremy towards a chair with three computers around it. He sat down and put on a headset and spoke into it.

“Guys, can you hear me?”

“Loud and clear, Einstein!” Odd shouted back.

“Okay, I’m starting up the computer. Yumi, Aelita, you guys get into the scanner first. The activated tower’s in the mountain sector.”

“Scanner? Computer? Sector?” Audrey whispered. Jeremy looked at her. His eyes seemed to say, ‘Don’t worry, all will be explained in time.’ That relaxed her; but only a little.

“Transfer, Aelita; transfer Yumi. Scanner, Aelita; scanner Yumi. Virtualization!”

Suddenly an image of two cards appeared on the screen, one with a symbol that looked like a Pink target with four lines coming off of it, a longer one on the top and three shorter ones on the bottom. The other had a picture of the Japanese flower, Sakura, or cherry blossom. The cards flipped over and a picture of Aelita and Yumi were shown. But, they didn’t look the same. Yumi wore a short-sleeved/hemmed kimono over red tights, black thigh-length boots. She also had red eye liner, red blush on her cheeks, a white-painted face and neck, and some red on her lips to complete the look. Here hair was bunched up into a small bun and the rest was left hanging down along with three bangs.

Aelita wore a pink mini skirt and matching top that goes over pants and a long sleeve shirt that are both off-white. She also had maroon gaiters that wrapped themselves around her legs and matching shoes. Strangely enough, Aelita had elf-like ears with an earring dangling from her left ear.

“Okay, Jeremy, we’re here.” Yumi’s voice sounded from the computer.

“Okay, Ulrich and Odd are on their way!” Jeremy said into the microphone hanging at his head. His fingers flew across the keyboard faster than anything that Audrey had ever seen before. She looked at his eyes as they followed the lines of programming as the letters and figures lined themselves up on the screen. He stopped typing for a moment and then two other cards came up. One of them had a purple paw print on the back and the other had three round shapes that almost looked like chrysanthemums. They then flipped over simultaneously and showed Odd and Ulrich. Ulrich looked somewhat like a samurai; outfit complete with a karate headband and a katana, or saber. Even though every one looked equally weird so far, Odd was, hands down, the strangest looking in the bunch. To put it simply, he was a cat. He had on a purple cat outfit, face paint stuff on, with a purple tail and, believe it or not, claws. “I’m sending you your vehicles.”

Audrey took her head in her hand and shook it. She mumbled to herself, “This is all a dream, I’m dreaming!” Not to mention the fact that none of them were old enough to have licenses!

“Wait, Einstein! We’ve gotta return to the past on this one, and when we do, Audrey won’t remember anything!” Odd said.

“I know that, Odd.” Jeremy calmly stated.

“And you’re not gonna do anything about it?”

“Don’t be so pessimistic, Odd! I know what I’m doing!”

“Do you mind explaining it to the rest of us here?” Ulrich asked.

“You’ll see.”

Faintly, Odd’s voice was heard from the speaker, “I hate it when he says that…”

“Just listen to me, the first one of you to be de-virtualized, just stay in the scanner room, I’m going to send Audrey down there when that happens, just wait for her to get there, I’ll explain what to do when you get there.”

Suddenly, a weird sort of map came up that looked like something that people used in the military. It had green squares and it only showed the basic level of terrain. Like where a mountain was and how high it was. And it also showed where the group was.

Suddenly, three other triangles appeared and a sort of beeping warning noise sounded from the computer. Jeremy seemed not to notice it and Audrey was just about to point it out when he announced it to the rest of the group. “Guys, just picked up on my scanners, you’ve got three tarantulas headed for you.”

“Thanks for the update, Jeremy!” Aelita spoke.

“Wait, wait, what did you say? Ta-tarantulas? Did you say ‘tarantulas’? I am NOT going in there with the creatures from the set of Eight Legged Freaks there!”

“Hey we’ve got a movie addict here!” Odd shouted.

“No, Audrey, they’re not real tarantulas, they’re-”

“Look, Jeremy, I don’t care if they’re real or virtual or your grandmother’s pet! I want to know what’s going on!”

“She’s the most stubborn of us all, Jeremy. We’ll be fine here, you just explain the basics and we’ll fill in the gaps.”

“It won’t matter if I explain it to her now; I’ll have to explain it all again later! And there are people up there that need the help that only we can give them! And if we stop and explain everything to Audrey, everybody up there will be dead or dying! Now come on; let’s get going!” Silence filled the room as Audrey looked at Jeremy in disbelief. Audrey backed up a bit. What was Jeremy saying? That she was going to lose her memory and not remember any of this? She walked over to the wall and leaned up against it; her mind trying to process all of everything that had happened. Her breath started coming in faster and faster, her brain going on overload. This wasn’t supposed to be real. This was only supposed to happen in science fiction novels, not real life! “Guys, you not only have those three tarantulas, but you’ve two Krabs and five hornets!” Jeremy informed.

“Thanks for the update, Jeremy, whoa!” Odd said. “I think we can handle the new arrivals…ahh-”

“Odd? Odd! Jeremy, Odd’s gone, it’s up to Yumi and me now.”

“Do you think you can handle it?”

“Sure thing, Jeremy. Go on and send Audrey down to the scanner room, Odd’s probably there waiting for her.” Yumi answered.

“Okay, Yumi.” Jeremy looked at Audrey and nodded. Audrey nodded slowly and made her way over to the elevator and the door shut. She pushed the button and was on her way down. As soon as the elevator started moving, she fell to the floor. She started crying. This whole thing that was going on, it scared her. She pulled her knees up to her chin and pushed herself in on of the corners of the elevator. She started crying even harder than before. She wrapped her arms around her legs and hugged herself.

Then the door opened, and Odd’s voice sounded from the room. “Audrey? Audrey are you there?” Odd came to the door and looked in. He looked down and saw her crying. He cocked his head for a moment but then knelt down next to Audrey. “Hey, you okay?” He asked softly.

She gasped for air as she tried to get out, “Y-you’re all-all c-cra-zy!”

“I know, I know, Audrey. I know that this is all strange for you. But it was just as crazy for me when I first found out about it. You’ve just gotta trust Jeremy. He knows what he’s doing.”

“Trust Jeremy? Jeremy’s barely said two words to me ever since he saw me. How can I trust someone who doesn’t speak to me?”

“You’ve just gotta, Audrey. He’s got so much going on up in here,” he said touching his head, “that he doesn’t always know what’s going on around him. You just have him time.” He stood and held out his hand to her. She looked at his hand for a moment before taking it.

“So what does this supercomputer nerd Jeremy want me to do?” Audrey asked, standing up and taking her hand out of Odd’s as she walked into the room. She wiped a stray tear off of her face and looked around at the scanner room. “What is this place?”

“This is the scanner room. This is where we go to be sent to Lyoko, the virtual world that Yumi, Ulrich, and Aelita are on right now.”

Audrey walked up to one of the scanners and touched it. “And what do these do?”

“These are the scanners, they, well, they scan you and then they virtualize you, sending you to Lyoko.”

“Okay, guys,” Jeremy’s voice sounded from above. “This is what I want you to do. Audrey, step into one of the scanners. Odd just stand there, she’ll need you there when she comes out.”

Audrey looked at the scanner in fright, as if there were a monster in there ready to come out. Odd put his hand on Audrey’s shoulder, “Are you okay?”

Audrey looked at Odd and said, “Did I fail to mention that I have a slight case of claustrophobia?” Odd laughed slightly. Audrey took a deep breath and said, “Oh, well, what the heck. I came to France looking for an adventure, and it looks like I found it.” She took a step towards the scanner and stopped. She leaned forward and took off her loose brown shirt; underneath was a dark purple camisole. Audrey tossed her shirt off to the side and stepped into the scanner. She turned around and looked at Odd. He winked and gave her a thumbs-up sign; Audrey smiled in return. She looked up into the scanner and said, “Okay, Jeremy, I’m in.” She kept looking at Odd as the door shut. Audrey took in a shuddering breath. She looked around her at the yellowish walls circling her. Suddenly, wind started kicking up around her. Her hair started blowing around and her clothes started whipping around. She looked around, wondering what was going on. The wind grew even more intense and she had to close her eyes. She felt herself starting to rise. Her last thought was, “Oh, I hope it doesn’t hurt.”

Jeremy was typing away furiously at the computer. He had never done this before, so he hoped it’d work. He whispered to himself, “Transfer, Audrey. Scanner, Audrey. Virtualization!” But as the computer started to virtualize Audrey, Jeremy started typing quicker. When he was done, he looked over what he had written and the status of Audrey, he leaned back in his chair and heaved a sigh of relief. It had worked! Audrey hadn’t been fully virtualized, only half-virtualized. He then started working on the process of bringing her back.

Ulrich jumped up and jammed his sword into the back of the last Krab. He pulled out his sword and jumped back just as the Krab exploded. He looked back at Yumi who was catching her two fans after throwing them and killing two of the hornets. “Aelita, go on! Run!” Ulrich shouted pointing to the activated tower. Aelita nodded and took off running towards the activated tower.

“Ulrich, look!” Yumi shouted. Ulrich looked to Yumi; she was pointing to something in the sky. Ulrich looked up to it and his jaw dropped in surprise. Up in the sky was Audrey, but there was something weird about it. She looked almost translucent; there was a bright golden glow around her, like a blanket. A wind seemed to be blowing around her because her hair was flying around her. Her head was moving around like the wind was moving it. She didn’t seem to be awake, or even conscious. Then, slowly, Audrey seemed to disappear. Ulrich and Yumi looked at each other, confused. “Jeremy? What was that?” Ulrich asked.

“I’ll tell you later.”

Odd looked at the scanner as it started to whine, signaling Audrey’s return from…somewhere. He straightened and walked a little closer to the scanner, ready to catch Audrey when she came out. The doors opened with a hiss and the release of some steam. Audrey was still standing when the doors opened, but she fell down when they had opened fully. Odd jumped forward, catching her before she fell on the floor. When he had her, he knelt down slowly, setting Audrey on the ground. She moaned slightly as she opened her eyes. “Hey, hey there. Its okay, Audrey, just rest.” Odd whispered. Her head fell to one side as she lost consciousness.

Aelita entered the activated tower and went to the center of the floor. She was gracefully lifted up into the air to the second floor of the tower. A blank screen appeared in front of her. She walked up to it and placed her hand on it. As she pulled her hand away, her name was displayed on the screen: ‘Aelita’. Next flashed: ‘Code ’ and the computer filled in the rest… ‘L-Y-O-K-O’ The screen was deleted as the tower deactivated. Aelita announced with relief, “Tower Deactivated.”

Jeremy’s hand flew over the keyboard. He pressed the enter key as he said, “Return to the Past, now!”

A bright white light erupted from the factory and encompassed everything. When the light receded, it was earlier that day.

Audrey shot up in bed. She looked around and held her head in her hands. “What a strange dream.” She whispered. She looked around and, remembering what day it was, jumped out of bed and started packing. She was working on her second suitcase when she stopped suddenly; she remembered something from her dream. She sat down on her bed, trying to remember everything that had happened. All she remembered what being afraid for some reason, no, she was crying. Then some boy, a boy about her age with golden blond hair and a purple spot in the middle came and comforted her. She remembered in the dream that she felt strangely drawn to this boy, like he was there to help her, but to help her from what, she wasn’t sure of. Then she remembered stepping into this tube-like thing and the wind being picked up around her. Then the wind had stopped and she fell out of the tube, exhausted. But the boy was there to catch her. He whispered something to her and she had nodded and fallen asleep. She couldn’t remember everything, like what the boy’s name was or why she was there, but she felt secure around the boy.

She smiled slightly; embarrassed that she realized that she thought that he was cute. She stood up and kept packing, the image of the boy staying with her the entire time she was working.

Aelita sat in her room. She smiled and walked over to her door. She opened it just as Audrey was about to knock. Audrey looked up in surprise, “Uh, I’m sorry, I was looking for Sissi Delmas, are you her?”

Aelita shook her head. Audrey kept looking at the smiling girl in front of her. “I-I’m sorry, have we met? I feel like I’ve met you before.”

Aelita said, “Yes, from a certain point of view, we have. Why don’t you come meet my friends, I think you’ll recognize them, too.”

“O-khay.” Audrey said, confused.

Aelita took Audrey by the hand and led her to the courtyard. Standing there were Jeremy, Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi. Everyone smiled when they saw Audrey. Aelita introduced Audrey to the group, even though everyone knew who she was. Audrey smiled at everyone, but when she laid eyes on Odd, she stopped. He looked exactly like the boy from her ‘dream’. She stared at him with a puzzled look on her face.

Jeremy looked at Audrey with a slight smile on his face. “Do you know Odd, Audrey?” he asked.

She looked at Jeremy and back at Odd, “I don’t know. I feel like I have. Well, okay, I had this dream last night, and there was this guy that looked just like Odd.”

Jeremy nodded like he expected this answer as if it was normal. “Do you know something that I don’t?” She asked.

“Why don’t you come to my room, I think that I do know something that you don’t.” Jeremy offered. Audrey nodded and they all left for Jeremy’s room.

“So you mean that all that happened to me and I don’t remember any of it?” Audrey asked. Jeremy nodded.

“As I explained, I didn’t fully virtualize you like I did to Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, and Aelita, I only half-virtualized you. I knew you’d remember most of everything that had happened, but not all of it; really, I knew that you’d think of it as if it were a dream.”

Audrey looked at all of them. They all had solemn looks on their faces. Audrey asked, “So, what do we do now?”

“Well, if you don’t mind, I’d like to take you to the factory so that you can be immune to the return in time. Is that all-right with you?” Jeremy asked. Audrey looked down for a minute.

Her head came back up as she said, “I’d just as soon not return to the factory right away. I’d like to spend some time getting to know you and getting to learn the factory. Is that okay?”

Jeremy nodded. “That’s great. What do you want to do first?”

“Well, I think a tour is in order, and then how about you guys give me some tips on the school?”

“Sure thing!” Aelita exclaimed. “Let’s get started.”

“Okay, well, first thing you’ll need to know is the kids and teachers to stay away from. Students, at the top of the list, Sissi Delmas. Teachers, the entire list is only one person, Jim Morales.” Ulrich said. At this, everyone but Audrey busted out in laughter.

She looked around, confused. “What’s so funny?”

Odd sat down on Jeremy’s bed next to Audrey. “If you’re gonna spend time with us, and then you’ll find out why soon enough!” Audrey giggled. Soon, the entire room was filled with laughter.