Limitations

By Cybra

A/N: Set during “The Boy in the Computer” when Aelita and Jeremy are in the tower regenerating their life points. Specifically, when they’re having their little discussion on the senses. The dialogue is actually from the original fic.

Disclaimer: Code Lyoko belongs to the French. All definitions used here are from the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.

What was…touch?

He couldn’t understand the gesture of her placing her palm against his. Was it like when he placed his hand against the screens in the towers to gain access to the system? Did she wish to obtain access to his private memory banks? How and for what purpose?

He mentally reached for his link to the internet, hunting for the strange word she had used. Surprisingly, there was a wide range of definitions, so he narrowed it down based upon her action with her hand.

To put your hands or fingers onto.

‘Thanks for the help,’ he thought sarcastically. There had to be some other meaning that she’d intended.

Aelita looked up into his eyes, clearly seeking something. “You can’t even feel that, can you?”

Ah. It was a way of receiving input. He reached for the link again.

The sense that enables you to be aware of things and what they are like when you put your hands and fingers on them.

Humans could receive sensory input through their hands? Their hands could do more than simply grasp things? With dizzying speed, he discovered that those same hands could determine temperature, weight difference, and texture among other things.

But his hands…they felt nothing.

A depressing thought, and he was forced to shake his head in response to her query.

“But you feel pain when the lasers hit you. We don’t. When Ulrich got hit earlier, he said he yelled since he was more surprised than anything. It was more of a dull ache.” She looked down at their joined hands. “What senses do you have?”

He watched her. Clearly, there was more to her question than met the eye. He lacked touch. Did that mean he lacked…more? Just how complex were these creatures that he mimicked? “I have full auditory and visual capabilities.”

“That’s all?”

“What else is there?”

‘Tell me,’ he thought greedily. ‘Tell me what I’m missing, please.’

“Well, there’s touch for one thing. And taste and smell.”

“Humans have…five senses?”

Five senses. Five sources of blessed input. Five sources of data constantly streaming in to process. Oh, how glorious that must be!

He looked down at their palms, sliding his fingers down against hers to wrap around her hand. He wanted to feel it. He wanted to feel the texture of her skin. He wanted to sense the pressure his fingers placed upon her hand. Just being able to see it wasn’t enough anymore.

“You must’ve noticed when you shapeshifted into your animal forms.”

“My canine forms do have the capability to detect the monsters’ code with their noses, but it’s more of an extension of sight,” he said absently.

“Dogs have an incredible sense of smell. The computer must be compensating for the actual sense.”

So smell was tied to the nose. He would have to look more into smell and taste later when the clock wasn’t ticking. That and research touch. To be able to test all three first-hand…!

He looked up to see her looking down at their hands, her face becoming a shade of red. Curious. What did this mean? “Why is your face all red?”

“Um…I…”

He paused as the supercomputer alerted him to their fully-restored life points. He sighed. And he had just obtained some fascinating new data! “I’m sorry, Aelita, but we’ll have to finish our conversation later. Our life points have finished regenerating. We must be on our way before XANA gathers enough strength to activate more towers and wreck more havoc on your world.”

Her cheeks slowly resumed their normal color as she nodded. “Let’s go get the others.”

Blush
By Cybra

A/N: Inspired while writing “Limitations”. If I ever write the episode where Jeremy is first materialized by Aelita, a version of this might be added in.

Disclaimer: Code Lyoko belongs to the French.

Aelita had decided that it would be a good idea to spend some time in the factory for two reasons.

First, there was Jeremy’s fainting spell. That miserable virus of XANA’s had knocked the virtual boy out cold when she’d shut down the supercomputer. (What a way to find out about the infection!) Fortunately, he’d woken up an hour later, safe and sound.

Second, because Jeremy had three new “data inputs” he needed to adjust to before facing the whole, wide world.

Sight and sound were as familiar to the virtual boy as the ABC’s to any grade schooler. However, touch, smell, and taste were a novelty. Odd had brought food, which the bespectacled boy had devoured with gusto—even the stuff he’d hated since he’d never had anything he’d found disgusting before. Yumi had the foresight to bring over Band-Aids in case Jeremy decided to test out sharp. (Fortunately, he was sensible enough to recognize that sharp edges were bad.) And Ulrich followed him about the factory, apparently having one or two minor heart attacks when the virtual boy fearlessly walked up on high beams while allowing his nose and hands to sample new scents and textures.

Had he done this at Kadic, the entire student population would’ve been giving him the hairy eyeball. Which was why it was a good thing Aelita had suggested that they let the old abandoned factory be Jeremy’s sensory playground.

“Okay, Ulrich,” Aelita said, lying a hand on the nerve-wracked brunette’s shoulder. “I’ll take over from here.

“Thanks. See you later.”

Climbing up, she easily balanced on the beam as if it was nothing more than the balance beams they used in gym. “Jeremy, are you through giving everybody strokes?”

He had his hand pressed against a bit of rust, running his fingers carefully over it before turning to face her. He easily maintained his balance thanks to all of that time on Lyoko. “Sorry?”

“You scared Ulrich nearly to death when you climbed up here.”

“Oh. Sorry.” He blushed and then blinked, reaching up to touch his face.

She walked forward, hands a bit out to the side to make sure she didn’t fall. “What’s the matter?”

“My face is warm…” he said, confused. “Why is my face warm?”

The pink-haired girl stared before smiling. “It’s because you’re blushing.”

He blinked. “But I thought that only turns your face red.”

“Well, that’s half of it. I couldn’t explain it to you before, but it makes your face red and also warms it up.” She laughed as he started rubbing at his cheeks, clearly baffled by the sensation. “It’ll go away in a minute.”

“But I’m not embarrassed anymore! I’m just confused! So why’s it getting hotter?”

“Huh?” She stared at him.

He lifted his hands off his cheeks to show that his cheeks were, in fact, redder than before. “Maybe it’s a malfunction. Or XANA’s virus. Or maybe—”

She reached out to take his hands. “Jeremy, not even humans always know what they feel from moment to moment. No malfunction or XANA required. It’s just a human thing. Now let’s get you down from here and to Odd and Ulrich’s room. You’ll be sleeping on their floor until we can get you your own room at Kadic. Okay?”

He bowed his head forward, peering over his glasses at her and nodding. She saw his cheeks darken just a little more before she turned around, releasing him and leading the way off of the beam.

Good thing she wasn’t looking at him right now. He would’ve seen her blush.

Mourning
By Cybra

Warning: Spoilers for the end of Season 3!

A/N: This is actually near the end of what would be the Switch universe’s season three. I was re-watching the end of Season 3 and couldn’t get the image out of my head. As for why I gave Odd gray eyes as opposed to something exotic like purple? I thought it’d be fun irony that the most colorful character in the group had such colorless eyes.

Disclaimer: Code Lyoko belongs to the French.

Jeremy dove, baring his talons. His cry mixed with the scream of the eagle form he’d taken. “Touch that sphere, and I’ll kill you!”

Just a few more minutes. He might not be able to save the virtual world that had once been his home, but that’s all Aelita needed to at least bring back Franz Hopper.

His father.

The man he was only recently starting to completely remember.

No way was XANA going to take his father away from him a third time. He’d already lost his mother; he wasn’t losing Hopper, too.

XANA looked surprised as talons came in contact with its current host’s face. Its enormous sword dropped to its side as it tried to fend off the crazed bird.

A sharp pain in the blond eagle’s back alerted him that, yes, the creepers were still around. He screamed, pushing off in an attempt to put some space between himself and his target so he could circle around and continue the attack.

Another hit. And another. XANA reached out to grab his leg to prevent him from going far.

He felt the materialization process before he even heard Aelita tell him she was activating it. Jeremy gave another scream as he broke apart.

It was over.

Odd winced as the virtual boy grasped his arms with enough strength to cause bruises.

Wide, desperate blue eyes bored into his gray ones. “Tell me she got him!”

He opened his mouth to speak, but Jeremy had already bolted to the elevator, slapping the button with more force than was necessary. Cursing, he ran after the other blond only to have the doors close in his face.

Turning around, he raced to and up the ladder leading to the super calculator room, actually beating the elevator from what he could tell.

“Aelita…?” Odd asked, rubbing at one particularly sore spot where it felt like a thumb had pressed itself between his bones.

A mechanical churning faded into the background as the pink-haired girl bowed her head. “Lyoko is gone. So is Franz Hopper. I didn’t have enough time to bring him in.”

“No.”

Everyone turned to where Jeremy stood in the now-open elevator. His body was shaking, and tears started to pour down his cheeks.

“It has to still be there!” The virtual boy was at the keyboard before any of the other Lyoko warriors even realized he’d moved. His fingers didn’t tap the keys so much as slam down on them. “My father’s…My father’s…!”

Odd stared in numb shock as Aelita carefully wrapped her arms around her virtual friend from behind, leaning her face into his back.

“I’m sorry, Jeremy,” she told him as he continued to desperately type. “I tried.”

That seemed to be the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. Jeremy didn’t sink to the ground; he collapsed as his knees seemed to just give way. His hands somehow remained on the keyboard as he leaned his head against his arms like some sort of supplication to the soulless machine. Odd thought he tried to say something, but the virtual boy’s sobbing rendered the words incoherent.

Aelita went down with him, never losing her grip. She whispered something as one of her hands slid back behind him to rub comfortingly just below the shoulder blades.

“Rrrrragh!” Bam! Ulrich’s fist met the metal wall, the owner standing frozen in place. The purple-clad boy thought he could see the beginnings of a dent.

Meanwhile Yumi sank down onto one of the useless bundles of cables. She had a thoroughly baffled look on her face, as if none of what had happened had fully sunk in yet.

He wanted to move, to at least crack a joke to lighten the mood, but all he could do was just watch as an invisible wall seemed to cut him off from reality.

There wasn’t even the holomap to provide light anymore.