“I know, Mom,” Aelita smiles at her mother, who has been recovered just yesterday- just in time for Mother’s Day today. The two moved back into the hermitage, accepting the fact that Franz Hopper was dead for good. Aelita can barely remember him so she doesn’t miss him so much.

            “Okay then, Aelita dear. I’m picking you up early from school today. Have fun- you know where we’re going tonight.”

            “Lyoko, as usual.” The family of two had also accepted the fact that XANA was still a threat and that the fight is not over. Aelita and Amerald (her mother’s name) are both infected with a virus. If the supercomputer is turned off, so are they. But now there are three to work on the antivirus. Amerald kisses Aelita goodbye as they both run out the door to their separate occupations- Aelita to Kadic Academy and Amerald to the police station.

            It was hard to explain Amerald Hopper’s mysterious disappearence and claiming Aelita Stones, an innocent girl, as her daughter. But everything worked out- Amerald’s story was that she was on a long vacation in Cuba and never heard that Franz Hopper was dead. It was hard to believe, especially since it had been a decade since Amerald was last heard from, but in the end everybody accepted it. Not only that, but Amerald got a part-time job as a police officer.

            Aelita runs to Kadic Academy, estimating that she will be one minute and forty three seconds late. It’s one of the habits she can’t get rid of- she always tries to be precise. She pulls her backpack strap up as she tries to run faster. Today report cards come out- and she is now in the ‘H’ category, not the ‘S’ category. Aelita Stones is no more- Aelita Hopper is unvieled. It had also been hard to explain why Aelita had passed herself off as a ‘Stones’ instead of giving her real name, but that too is now settled.

            Amerald bikes to the police station, biking is healthier than taking a car and she enjoyed the breeze slapping her face, her ponytail of pink hair blowing behind her. She arrives in no time, and signs in at the front.

            “Amerald Hopper.” She hands her ID to the secretary and walks to her station.

            “Aelita Hopper!” Calls Jean-Pierre Delmas, better known as Mr. Delmas, the principal of Kadic Academy. A tedious job, yes, but somebody had to do it. The pink- haired girl walks up to receive her report card. Like all normal students, even though it’s against the rules, Aelita goes and meets up with her group. Only Jeremie Belpois and Odd Della-Robbia from her friends have their cards. “Yumi Ishiyama!” The Japanese girl walks to receive hers. The friends sit down, with only Ulrich Stern to go out of Aelita’s ‘group’. Jeremie, who most obviously has a crush on Aelita, makes conversation.

            “So, Aelita. How’s your mother?”

            “Great!” Aelita responds with a grin. “She has a job at the police station. Before we go to Lyoko, I’m going to get her flowers. It’s mother’s day, remember?” Jeremie, Yumi, and Odd smile inwardly. Aelita is fitting in perfectly, despite the fact that for most of her life was spent on Lyoko.

            “Wendy Steffcovar!” Mr. Delmas calls. The girl steps up, and the Principal calls the next person on the list: “Ulrich Stern!” As Ulrich steps up to receive his card, Mr. Delmas tells him warningly, “I’m sure your parents will love this one.”

            Ulrich joins the others, and grins. “On three,” he says. The group counts off together: “One…Two…Three!” The report cards are ripped open. As each member examines his or her grades, Elisabeth Delmas, the principal’s daughter, better known as Sissi, pops up to attempt to win Ulrich. She had a huge crush on Ulrich, but Ulrich was with Yumi. Sissi didn’t respect that.

            “Oh Ulrich Dear!” she calls in her annoying singsong voice. “Normally I would report you and your friends for breaking the rules like that, but since you’re my sweetheart, I’ll let you slide. And, I’m in a good mood, because I average a D-! That’s an improvement! What did you get?”

            “Go hang out with Herve and Nicholas,” Ulrich mutters.

            “Oh, but I already know their grades! F+ for Nick and B+ for Herb!”

            “Whatever. Leemee alone.”

            “Okay okay, I’ll leave you and Miss Hopper.” Sissi walks away. When she’s out of range, Odd says,

            “Alrighty. Who goes first?” The group gathers into a circle.

            “Clockwise, Yumi goes first,” Ulrich decides, quick to make sure he goes last. Yumi glares at him for a second, then says,

            “Fine. I average an overall B.” Jeremie, who’s next, smiles.

            “I average an A.” Next is Aelita.

            “Why, Jeremie! I average an A+.” The group laughs as Jeremie, the star student, gets beaten in his grades for once. Once the giggles die down, Odd shares his grades.

            “I average a C+.” No comment is made, nothing special about that. Not very bad, but not very good either. And now it’s Ulrich’s turn.

            “D-,” he utters simply. “My parents are so gonna love this. I would have an F if it weren’t for gym. And I would fail that if Jim wasn’t… you know…” Ulrich is good at sports, but his attitude is bad.

            Jim knows the Lyoko Warriors’ secret. He even goes to Lyoko sometimes. He is mostly useful for writing the teens passes and warning everyone. And raising people’s grades- Jeremie got an A- in gym, which he couldn’t have gotten without Jim’s help.

            Aelita smiles. “I’m leaving early today, Mom has something planned before we go to Lyoko. I’m going in about an hour- right after Phys Ed.” (AN: Phys Ed stands for Physical Education.)

            “Okay, we’ll see you on Lyoko though, right?”

            “Of course. Well, we’d better get going to gym. What do you have? I have track.”

            “I have Swimming,” says Yumi.

            “I got soccer,” says Ulrich. “Lucky me.”

            “I got gymnastics!” Odd exclaims happily.

            “I have track too,” Jeremie mutters. “Track is completely pointless. No matter how fast you run, you always end up in the place you started.” Everyone laughs except Jeremie, who really meant it. He has never been fond of sports.

            Jim walks over to the kids. “Sorry I put you all in separate sports besides Aelita and Jeremie, but I chose what you were best suited to.”

            “I am not suited to track,” Jeremie mutters again and kicks dust.

            “No, but you’re suited to Aelita,” Jim says slyly. Everybody giggles, besides Jeremie.

            “Hey Jim, can I skip track? I’m working on the antivirus and I think I found something.”

            “You can work on it plenty tonight, Jeremie. Everyone is suspicious about you getting good grades in gym when you barely attend.”

            “In that case, can I give myself a ghost?”

            “Umm, no need to for that…” Aelita points toward a black XANA ghost, with a trembling finger.

“WHY is XANA obbsessed with our destruction?” sighs Odd, as the others watch the mist, hypnotized by the sight of something so evil. Then Jeremie reminds the group:

            “We’d better get to the factory!” So they run off, as Aelita calls her mother while running after her friends.

            “Mom! XANA attack! You should test your new profile!” Amerald has gotten a profile, an empty one. When she gets in the scanner it will be decided what she looks like.

            Unfortunately, Amerald is on strict duty, reading a man his rights. She sighs. The man tries to escape, but the officer grabs his wrist.

            “Not now honey. I’ll try to get there as soon as possible! Go without me.” She turns off her cell. “Now then, Mr. Yetzim. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say or do can and will be used against you in court of law.” Then, a black mist drifts toward the man. “Oh god.” Then, before Amerald can move, the ghost possesses the man. The XANA symbol flashes in his eyes. Frantically, Amerald yells into her walkie talkie: “Backup! I need backup at 453 Rainbow Court…urgently!” She ducks a spark of energy. XANA, a virus, operates through electricity, so he can use electric sparks as a weapon on Earth.

            Meanwhile, Aelita is climbing the ladder to the scanner room, with Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd behind her. Ulrich will go first, the others after him. As Ulrich steps into the a scanner, Jeremie starts the virtualization process:

            “Transfer, Ulrich. Scanner, Ulrich…Virtualization!” Jeremie hits the enter key and Ulrich lands on Lyoko, in his usual Samurai attire.

            “It’s clear,” he tells Jeremie. Satisfied, the boy genius virtualizes the rest. Then, the supercomputer gets a call from Amerald Hopper.

            “Jeremie! XANA has possessed a criminal, a man accused of child abuse. And he’s chasing me! Help!”

            “Come to the factory, Amerald! Hurry, the others are on Lyoko! When you get to the elevator, press the buttons 2637253! It’s your identity code!”

            “Jeremie, it’s not that easy! He’s gaining on me, he grabbed a bike!”

            “Argh!” Jeremie pounds his fists on the keyboard. Then he tells the people on Lyoko: “One of you has to come in, Amerald is in trouble.”

            “I’ll do it,” volunteers Ulrich. After consent from Jeremie, Odd fires a laser arrow at Ulrich, devirtualizing him.

            “Jeremie, I’m around Westination Corner! He’s- I’m too out of breath- oh no! My cell!” There is a breaking noise on the other end, and Jeremie tells Ulrich:

            “Westination Corner, and fast!” Ulrich takes off, typing ‘857425’ into the elevator.

            Meanwhile on Lyoko, the group is having some trouble. “Energy field!” yells Aelita, and hits a hornet monster. It implodes. Yumi throws her Geisha fans.

            “Hiyah!” The fans, traveling boomerang-style, hit a crab, but then she’s devirtualized by a tarantula hitting her from behind. Now, it’s only Odd and Aelita.

            Amerald takes a hit of energy, tripping and falling onto the sidewalk, breaking her wrist. She clutches it; one of the unpleasant things about Earth is the pain. Mr. Yetzim advances on the officer, sending more sparks of energy. Amerald lies on the ground in pain, curling up, waiting for it to stop. Then, it stops. Amerald looks up to see Ulrich throwing a spinning back-kick at the XANAfied man.

            “Thank you,” she tells her savior. Then she runs to the factory, typing in 2637253. This is only her second trip to the factory, she has never been to Lyoko as a warrior. She was materialized only yesterday in her previous human form. She had also been trapped on Lyoko, in a prison. But now she would finally get to go freely on Lyoko. And, she would get her profile.

            “Amerald! Go to the scanner room, and step inside a scanner. The others need help,” Jeremie says. So Amerald goes to the scanners, and takes a step to the middle scanner. She goes rigged with fear, remembering her claustrophobia. Like she has learned at training, she calms herself, stopping hyperventilation, and waits. Her hair slowly began to rise, and soon there is a flash of light and Amerald falls to Lyoko, free, for the first time.

            She has the same long hair, except in pigtails. She looks somewhat younger, a bit older than the Lyoko Warriors, about a college student. She was actually 27 when she got trapped on Lyoko, so now she’s 37. She looks about 16.

            Her clothes are somewhat like Aelita’s, but she has a visible weapon- a spear.

            “What? I am not a neanderthal!”

            “Apparently, Amerald, you can’t ‘program’ a profile. You need to wait for the computer to reach into your subconcious, it’ll tell you what you dream of…”

            “I do not dream of cavemen!”

            “Actually, the spear is more advanced, more in the range of Native Americans.”

            “Tell me, Jeremie, do I really look like I care?” Jeremie opens his mouth to truthfully answer that he doesn’t know because he doesn’t have a visual, but then red dots appear on the screen.

            “8 blocks, headed your way!”

            “Gee, thanks for the heads up!” says Yumi, who is already blocking lasers. Odd gets into his position, kneeling and arm raised, and takes aim.

            “Laser arrow!” An arrow sails out of Odd’s wrists and hits a block right on the target. “Oh yes! How’s that for a hit?” The monster explodes. Amerald, meanwhile, is raising her spear, trying to find the center of balance.

            “Umm… that’s the pointy side, so…” Suddenly the spear balances the right way, and Amerald charges one of the blocks. She throws her spear and hits the block, and goes to retrieve her spear, only to find that she has another one. “Cool, unlimited spears. Not bad.”

            And that’s when the sciphozoa arrives.