Code Lyoko_02_'Player 02'_

Leona grabbed at her mother's sleeve, trying to stay close to her, but couldn't. "You think you can run away the way you are now?" a familiar voice said, "You can't protect nobody if it meant sacrificing yourself! You're nothin' but a chicken that's going do nothin' but peck the ground forever!" Leona began to wept and closed her ears, begging the insults to cease. She cried louder and louder until she woke up screaming.

             "SHUT UP!!!" she opened her eyes and saw around the room she was in. She was still in the clinic in bed with an ice pack and a towel to her head that slipped off as she got up. The thought of her mother's charm emerged and noticed something cold and metallic around her neck. Her charm was attached to a necklace. She sighed in relief and got out of bed. She peeked out of the draped window and saw everyone walking about. Smiling, Leona fingered her charm and knocking sounded from the door. Leona found it strange that the nurse wasn't in the room, but went over to the door to open it.
             "Yo~!" Odd grinned a wide grin, "You're looking well, but the nurse said that you'll be comin' to class tomorrow--that's a shame. I was looking forward to having you in class and P.E or something. Anyways, what are doing after school?" Leona had no comment. She didn't know how to answer. Does this guy play a wind instrument or is he a professional swimmer? She shook her head to pace herself from his fast talk. "Err... Listen, um, Odd?" "Yep." "Thanks for before." He stared at her awkwardly, taking another direction.
             "Hey, if you just wanna ask me out you could have asked me that already." Leona shook her head once more and blushed. "One: I don't know you that well, but you're adorable. (XD) Two: Whatever force hit me against the wall, you guys pretty much know about, so spill." Odd looked nervous. He didn't dare to walk closer to her or even talk much more than needed. He started feeling that this girl was too serious and probably too smart. Leona arched a brow, thinking that he and his friends were hiding something that they're hiding from practically the entire school. It had to be something illegal, right?
             "Seriously," Leona began to beg, sitting up on the bed she laid on, "Tell me what's going on." Odd paced around with his head low and his eyes squinted. He finally looked up to answer. "There's a world we all go to called Lyoko. Everything there is virtual, including ourselves, once we get in there. It's all inside a this huge supercomputer that Einstein controls to scan us and transfer us there." Leona's eyes widened, but paused to listen. "But then what does Lyoko has to do with what's going on now?" "There's this thing, person or whatever called Xana. He usually makes things go out of control. Anyone who gets in his way would be thrashed. He activates towers on Lyoko and that's how we know he's causing problems."
            Leona nodded, keeping up at all the info that's being thrown to her. Then something else came to mind. "Wait," she pointed, "You guys all go to Lyoko and go to an activated tower, but who deactivates it?" "Aelita, but she doesn't have any power for fighting and that's why me and the others have to protect from Xana's 'welcoming committe'." Leona stood with a slight jerk. "You mean monsters?! Are you kidding me? Then you guys transform into warriors like the Power Rangers?" Odd waved his finger. "Yeah, I guess, but it's a lot better than that. Right now, the factory is where we need to go to, because that's where the supercomputer is." "And Xana is using some weird force-field that's keeping you from getting there, huh?"
         Odd silenced to blink. To think she would catch up so fast, but his friends would be furious to figure out about his 'betrayal'. He looked down in disappointment. Leona summed it all to the point where there might be a problem with her prying into another person's business. "Thanks for telling me, but I'm sorry for prying. Your friends are going to be SO pissed, huh?" Leona chuckled sarcastically. Odd nodded and managed to smirk. "So," Leona folded her hands, "One more thing: Can anyone go to Lyoko?" "Yeah, pretty much. Last I checked, a person's form on Lyoko depends on their personality."
        Leona's eyes glazed with delight. Hearing this only caused her to go there even more, but she'd have to fight. The door was still open, so someone else easily came in. "Prying, eh?" Ulrich said in a low voice with his arms crossed. Leona leaped into bed, pretending she was asleep. "I'm sleeping. I'm not really awake nor did I hear anything. Never!" she declared as she hid under the sheets. Ulrich pulled the covers over and gave a very crude expression. Leona cracked a smile. "Don't tell anyone, but then again, we can fix that," Ulrich warned. "Hey, I already told her all she needed to know," Odd defended, "It's not her fault. I mean, Xana totaled her!" "And getting Xana totaled is our job."
       "I'll help," Leona interrupted, "I know I'm in the way and I won't know what's completely going on, but I won't tell anyone. Just let me help." Ulrich sighed. "Not in your condition." Leona frowned and turned away. "I know I can't protect people the way my mom does..." she mumbled, "but I'll do anything." "Come on Ulrich. Please?" Odd pleaded. Ulrich sighed and waved his hand. "If you can sneak out without hurting yourself then I guess, but Jeremy isn't gonna be too happy." "Thank you---" "Don't thank me just yet," Ulrich stopped her from wrapping her arms around him. Leona shrugged.
       "Where's the factory though?" she cocked her head. "Meet us at the park," Odd said as he walked out with Ulrich. She curled up and felt only a stinging pain in her chest. She brought the bed sheets over and thought about what Ulrich had said to her. She looked out the window and wondered if she should go to the factory they mentioned. If she was going to sneak out she would need to get past the adults here... and HER. 'You've gotta be kidding me...' she thought, but took the risk anyway. She took some of the extra pillows into the sheets to make it appear that she was still in bed, then she took her purple vest that was hung up. She cautiously went out the door, but shook her head and went back inside.
       She pushed the window out and jumped outside. Luckily, there were a few students out and they really didn't pay much attention to her. "James Bond. James Bond. James Bond..." Leona said, crawling into the bushes along the building and soon felt someone's hand. "I knew you'd come around," Odd pulled her to follow. "The nurse will totally die," Leona joked. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about--"
       The strange pushing force came back, only now it was stronger than before. Leona tried not to scream or she'd get caught. Odd was slammed against the wall, but Leona covered him, causing her to be more exposed to the dangerous gravity that welled up. It took a while before it lit up and they both fell to the ground in exhaustion. The force still felt present. Odd was on his knees, gasping for air. "Wow... Xana means BUSINESS if he's trying to turn the school into pancakes." "How does he even do it?" Leona gasped. "I dunno. Einstein said something about controlling the magnets with electricity or something."
      They both got up and ran to the park. Odd kept looking back, hoping that they weren't being followed. Once they arrived at the park, they went to a man-hole. "Here?" Leona pointed. Odd nodded and lifted the lid, climbing down. "You skateboard?" "I have a pair of skates down here," she announced. "Oh, these? Why are they here?" "My mom probably put them here when she was checking out the school. She somehow puts things here. I don't know why, but--" "Hurry! Hurry! I'll hear your life story later."
      "Hmph. Darn. No hugs for you, then!" Leona crossed her arms and proceeded to go down with him. She was surprised at how mild the smell of the sewers were. It was a dim tunnel. She turned to see Odd picking up a skateboard from a small pile of skateboards and a scooter. Leona stuck on her skates and waited. "Alright, follow me," he said, skateboarding down the tunnel. "Like I have a choice!" Leona followed. It was nothing but turning that almost made her fall over and she held onto the railings halfway. They finally reached an exit and climbed up, but as soon as they got out the heavy force returned to repress them.
      "Urgh!" Odd grunted, trying to keep his footing. Leona came out with her skates still on. Whatever the repelling force was, it caused her to accelerate when she went about an inch forward. She embraced Odd and let the repelling gravity push them forward. Odd was both scared and excited for the fact that he's fighting this godly energy and being embraced by a girl in the process. He face lit up with various colors of red and pink, and Leona started feeling his body heat rising. Gravity even pulled down within the factory, which became more frustrating when they needed to go to the elevator.
      Odd didn't want to take the risk of breaking the elevator, so he pointed his attention to the ladder. Leona dared not to debate, but with the force still present climbing would be bone crushing. They went ahead, climbing as fast as they possibly could, but pain bled through to Leona's chest, causing her to slip. "Hey, you alright down there?" Odd worried, reaching out to Leona. "Don't worry, it's just two floors up. Gimme your hand." "I'm fine, Odd, it's okay. I just got chest pains." Leona chuckled weakly. Odd turned up slowly, but kept his eyes on her from time to time. Once they finally reached the supercomputer, the repelling force weakened.
     The boy with the spectacles sat near a large computer network with massive wiring to the walls. The computer filled up from the center of the room and up to the ceiling. The room was quite dim like the average computer lab, but gave a more overwhelming feeling to the supercomputer's appearance. "Hey, Einstein, I brought company," Odd smiled, but felt that he was doing something wrong. "I heard from Ulrich that you probably told her everything," he sighed, "It's a big deal; we're not supposed to let this secret out." "I won't tell anyone; I'm not a snitch," Leona confessed, "If it's that important, I'll keep my mouth shut." The boy smiled and fixed his glasses, getting up from his high chair. "Well, just don't spill it to anyone and we mean ANYONE. There's too much important things to do. First, you have to help us in our cause to fight Xana. Go to the scanner room and the others will explain." He pointed towards the elevator. "Follow Odd. By the way, my name's Jeremy." "Nice to meet you---" "Come on! Let's go to Lyoko!!" Odd pulled.
      The next floor they arrived to had tall, mechanical tubes that touched from the floor to the ceiling. The room gave off a dim, golden light and large wires connected from those tubes to the wall. "These look like--" "Scanners. Just step right in," Odd offered. Leona did as he said and went inside the scanner. She faced its doors and saw how quickly they closed. She gasped and gave the doors a soft knock. "What's going on?" Leona move clumsily. "Stand still, Leona. I need to scan you." "Sorry," Leona froze at the middle and put her arms to her sides and faced forward. As soon as she heard, "Transfer Odd. Transfer Leona," scattering lights flew up and down, and a zephyr blew at her face. "Scanner Odd. Scanner Leona." a circular light surrounded her as the lit up particles moved up. The floor she stood on began to move up and down, but she whimpered trying to stay still.
     "Virtualization..." a massive flashing light with a gust of wind blew up and nearly blinded Leona and she yelped. When she opened her eyes, she felt a skin-tight outfit and furs. She looked down at herself and saw that she now wore a light brown, skin-tight outfit with fur cuffs that varied in dark pink and olive green with similar coloring of marks on the areas and her own skin. "Wow. Not too shabby," Odd complimented. There was only one word to describe him: "giant purple cat." (^_^) What was more was that they were now 3-D. She extended her arms and noticed she was carrying two spears. "I look like an Amazon," Leona awed at herself. "Alright. Now go to Aelita, she's not far off. Head north."
      The area was very misty and mountainous, but the appearance of the sector did not surprise or overwhelm Leona. This gave her the sense of a MMORPG. "The others are there, too, right?" "Yeah, but we have to get Aelita to the tower no matter what, okay, Leo? Oh, and don't fall into the digital sea." "Digital sea?"
Jeremy answered as they ran. "Your data will be lost and I can't rematerialize you if you fall into the digital sea." Leona nodded and kept running. Soon they met up with Aelita, Yumi, and Ulrich who were fending off strange inhabitants. Leona easily passed them off as enemies when they began to shoot at Aelita violently. She leaped in front of Aelita hastily and stabbed the block-shaped monster. It blew into tiny particles after a moment.
     "Not bad for a newbie," Yumi chuckled and resumed to throw her fans back and forth. "Hurry and go to the tower. Protect Aelita!" Ulrich exclaimed and grunted, blocking beams with the blade of his sword. This all became amazing and frightful at the same rank. "The tower's close," Aelita huffed, jogging alongside Leona and Odd. "You guys don't ask questions, huh? I come here and no one complains." Aelita laughed and grinned. "We're a little short-handed anyways. I trust you, Leona." "You look so cute in your Lyoko form, Aelita." "It's all based on our interests and personality that materializes our forms."
     "I really wanna go out with you now..." Odd ran closer to Leona, but they had to separate because a large slash of energy nearly cost Aelita's life points. "Careful, guys," Jeremy warned with a choke in his vioce, "It's William!" "William?" Leona looked up and saw a boy with a broadsword and a dark attire with Xana written all over it. He chuckled deeply and Leona stood in front of Aelita with both spears pointing forward, ready to thrust in. "Out of our way," Leona growled, "I played Soul Caliber, I can KILL you." He cackled and jumped near them, holding his broadsword over his shoulder and swinging it forward. Odd set off a few shots to get him off balance, but were deflected instead.
      "Get Aelita to the tower, I'll hold 'im off," Odd remarked and Leona refused, but took Aelita to resumed northward. William snarled and summoned some monsters to occupy Odd and ran after the other two. "Oh, come on! No fair!" Odd scoffed, pestered. Leona held onto Aelita's hand and ran at full speed. "William's catching up!" Jeremy shouted. Leona quickly looked over her shoulder and saw him catching up and looked in front of her and saw a large cylinder with red flares emitting from it. "There it is!" Aelita gasped in relief, but William ran faster to grab onto Aelita. Leona shouted for Aelita to duck, but whether or not she did, Leona would swing the end of her spear at William. Aelita was slightly injured and William leaped back, holding his reddened torso.
      "Sorry about that," Leona took Aeilta over her shoulder and carried her the rest of the way. "It's fine," she replied, "That was a nice shot, though." Jeremy's voice came through again, only now he sounded aggressive. "Hey, you're supposed to protect Aelita, not run her through as well!" Leona scoffed and continued to run. "She's still here and breathing. Stop worrying, Jerry." When they finally reached the tower, there were two large balls with Xana's insignia on the center point. They rolled and stopped to where Leona and Aelita were headed. There was a stone arch that came over the path that they proceeded in that had more mist encircling it. Leona carefully let down Aelita behind it.
     "Stay here," Leona said to her. Aelita shook her head. "You'll have to run them through, but that's suicide." Leona grinned, understanding what she meant. She described to her that they are called 'tanks' and could easily wipe out her life points. Leona smirked as she heard more. "This gets better and better, but that William guy might catch up. I'll go ahead and distract them. You head into the tower." Aelita sighed and nodded. "You know your duty full well." Leona leaped out to receive attention and saw that William had appeared. With this scene, she immediately knew that Odd was taken out. She positioned her spears and moved quickly from the arch to make it seem like she was running away.
     Moving and dodging the massive beams, Leona tried to fend off William. "Where is she? In the tower?! I'll kill you!!" "Someone has some bad migraines," she joked and pushed him back. Aelita noted an opening, seeing that Leona caused quite a bit of confusion and when William gave all the attention to Leona, she sprinted forward through the tanks. William's head turned and Leona slapped him to avert his gaze. The tanks finally took notice of Aelita and readied their lasers. Aelita was an inch away from the tower, but the lasers launched forward and close. Leona pushed Aelita aside and was hit instead.
    "Hurry--!!" Leona disappeared into small specks and fell over in pain as she was rematerialized in the scanner room, feeling the awesome force struck her down even more. "Aelita..." she groaned softly. Yumi covered her to protect her from the exposition of massive gravity. Aelita was inside the tower, walking slowly towards the center of the Xana emblem. Once she reached the center, a small screen appeared in front of her, requesting a code to be given. She passed her hand carefully along the screen and the code read as 'lyoko'. The blue-lighted room darkened and data fell to the abyss. After a second, a light envelopes the tower.
     Yumi and Leona felt the pressure dissipate and began to move around. "It stopped," Leona whispered. Yumi looked towards the elevator and smiled in relief. Leona stood up and looked around. "You did good for your first time, but don't get reckless," Yumi patted Leona's shoulder. She replied with a soft giggle. "Where's Odd?" "Down a floor, but don't worry." "Huh?"
    
      "Return to the past now..." Jeremy pressed an 'enter' button and Ulrich and Odd remained still. The screen of the supercomputer flashed and enveloped the room and reached to Yumi and Leona as well. Leona's eyes widened as the light took her in...

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        Feeling a gentle hand go through her bushy pigtails, her mother sighed and beckoned. "I want you to come with me, but you know you have school. I can't even leave you by yourself; you know I'm an only child, Leona," her mother tried to hold back tears. Leona stared off, confused of what had happened. Was it all a dream...? Leona smiled at her mother and heard a large flock flying over the school. "It's alright, mom," she felt her hand against hers, "I'll make new friends, I'll get good grades, and I'll learn to get stronger. Her mother widened her eyes and closed them. She rustled through her purse to give her the charm.
       'It wasn't a dream...was it?' she thought and a spear charm was placed in her hand. "Remember that Greek mythology project I helped with you on?" she reminded and Leona nodded. "I love Amazons. I'll be strong just like them!" she posed like a Spartan at war. The mother laughed and embraced her daughter. "I'll write to you all the time," Leona said and lifted her suitcases. She jerked to the tip of her toes to kiss her mother on the cheek. "Be good, then," the mother slipped into the taxi cab and waved goodbye, blowing kisses as the cab drove off.
      Leona went to the cafeteria area and saw kids running and talking about. She saw a familiar face and wondered if it really was all in her head. Aelita turned to her and waved. "Leona!" she ran over and hugged her. "So I wasn't dreaming?" Leona asked. Jeremy walked up and shook his head. "It was a rewind in time slot. You're back to the point where you got here." "Where's--" "Go out with me, you won't regret it!" Odd blurted. "Go to hell..." Leona hissed in sarcasm with a Wario-like tone. Ulrich and Yumi laughed at the scene and looked at each other as they leaned in giggling.
      "Kiss before I die!" Leona announced and the group laughed. "We're just friends. How would you know?" Yumi conflicted. Leona picked up her suitcases and gave an irritating gesture. "Please," she walked away to the office, "You just wait. I'll start singing 'Kiss de Girl' in your sleep..." Running off, Aelita folded her hands and looked to the sky...