Chapter 1: Factory Inferno

It was 2:58 a.m. XANA was forcing the lava to flow through the city's sewers. It was only a matter of time before it reached the streets of Billancourt. Jérémie was very tired, not only had he been laboring on the Supercomputer since 10 p.m., the heat from the lava pooling outside was causing him to feel even more lethargic.

"Hurry up, everyone! Things are really starting to heat up here!" Jérémie said nervously. He was concerned for his friends, of course, but it was important that Ælita deactivate the tower in the Ice Sector soon because his health was being severely affected by the heat rising in the Computer Room. He checked the internal thermometer; it read 35°C.*

"Too bad you couldn't be in here with us, the weather's great!" Odd joked. Even when it was this close to possible defeat, he would still try to be funny.

"Yeah, sure, whatever..." Jérémie responded, not to be mean, but he had to devote his strength to staying cool as well as conscious. He started by removing his shirt.

All the Lyoko Warriors had left were a blok, a krabe and two kankrelats. They were down to about ten life points each (except for Yumi, who only had two), no thanks to the megatank they had dealt with earlier. As the monsters were being finished off, Ælita entered the tower and deactivated it.

"Tower deactivated." she announced. She then waited for Jérémie to respond with the usual: "Return to the past, now!" , but instead there was silence. She waited three whole seconds....."Jérémie, did you hear me?"

"Umm,.....Jér, you there?" Ulrich asked, frustrated. He was getting tired, they all were.

"Any day now, Einstein!" Odd added.

Something needed to be done. Someone had to go back and find out what had happened to Jérémie.

"I'll try to find out what's wrong." Yumi said. She figured since she had the lowest amount of life points, that she should be the one. So, she allowed the blok to finish her with an ice shot.

As soon as the scanner door opened, Yumi could see little through the smoke and fume-filled air. She felt the sting of the extreme heat against her skin. Her body was in shock (having just come in from the cold) and her eyes were burning. "Ow! Dammit! I hope he's still alive! " she thought.

Yumi ran over to the elevator without much difficulty. With every step she took, she left behind a footprint of melted rubber, so it was a good thing that the soles of her boots were very thick. There was only a small amount of lava near the door. She stepped over it, and as she tried to press the button to open the door, her hand was burned. So she kicked it.

She kicked the button inside the elevator car as well, sending it up one floor to the Computer Room. She then hurried over to the control panel and found Jérémie in his seat, down to his boxers and unconscious: "Jérémie!! Are you alright? Can you move? Can you speak?" She was worried.

He did respond, with a bit of vomiting; "...urrrbbhh.....Sorry, Yumi. Did Ælita...."

"Yes! She did! Hurry!" Yumi was getting nervous now.

"All right, then. Return to the past, now!"

[And return they did, but something wasn't quite right...]

* 35°C = 95°F (Very hot!)