Chapter 4- Analysis (09.06.07)
In the science building, a man with graying hair and round-rimmed glasses sat at his desk working. His cell phone started to ring. “Hello?”
“Franz?” came the harried voice.“Jeremie?” Franz said, surprised. “Is there a problem at the factory?”
“Uh…yeah,” Jeremie replied. “We’re trying to shut down a new Replika, but Ulrich and Aelita got…well, to make a long story short, there was a bug. I think you need to see it for yourself to believe it. Can you come over to the factory?”
“Of course,” Franz said. “It’s Sunday. I’m not teaching any classes today.”
“Okay,” Jeremie said. “Thanks!” He hung up.
Franz hung up as well, and gathered his things, wondering what could possibly go wrong today.
---
Jeremie was typing away on the computer. Ulrich and Aelita were watching on either side of him.
A green exclamation point popped up on the screen. Jeremie sighed. “Well guys, it looks like there wasn’t a bug after all. The Translation program is working fine. I have no idea why you got Translated here.”
“Have you checked the algorithm rewriting our virtual forms that bypasses the virtual flake?” Aelita asked. “It’s possible that it bugged up that way.”
“I checked that already,” Jeremie said, sighing. “The only possible explanation is…well…it’s confusing, even to me.”
The door opened. Everyone turned. Franz stood in the doorway. He stared.
“Is this what you meant by a bug, Jeremie?” Franz asked. Jeremie nodded. Franz rubbed his head, trying to clear it. “Let’s see…there could have been an error in the-”
“Dad,” Aelita said, cutting him off, “there aren’t any bugs. That’s the problem.”
Franz was still for a moment, thinking. Then he answered, “Well, the only possible explanation is that the supercomputer hosting the new Replika is the Lyoko supercomputer.”
---
On the Replika, Yumi and Odd were sitting on their vehicles. Odd was trying to think of some way to stop being bored.
“Guys?” Jeremie’s voice said.
“Einstein, what’s up?” Odd asked. “What happened to Aelita and Ulrich?”
There was a pause. “We’re trying to figure that out. They got Translated here.”
Yumi stared. “What?”
“Yeah,” Jeremie said. “Franz is here, and we’re trying to work out what happened. Oh, and Odd?”
“Yeah, Einstein?” Odd asked.
“Megatanks, three o’clock.” An elliptical laser beam barely missed Odd.
“Well, at least it’s something to take my mind off of boredom,” Odd said. He jumped up, and rode toward the three incoming Megatanks on his Overboard alongside Yumi.
---
Franz finished the scan, and got the results back. Jeremie was watching on his left.
“Well,” Franz said, turning around, “I’ve traced the Replika’s host. It’s the Lyoko supercomputer.”
“What?” Aelita and Ulrich exclaimed.
“But that’s impossible!” Jeremie said. “I thought a supercomputer can only host one virtual world!”
“That’s correct,” Franz said with a long face. “Normally, the system will recognize the bug, and destroy the newer world. But XANA just activated a tower on the Replika, overwriting the system error to make the system recognize Lyoko as the world that will be terminated.”
Everyone gasped. “If Lyoko is destroyed,” Jeremie said, shocked, “then the scanners won’t have any link to the Network. The scanners are linked to the Network through Lyoko.”
Franz nodded.
“I never imagined that I would have ever wanted Jeremie to not be right,” Ulrich said.
“But if the scanners don’t have any link to the Network,” Aelita said, still thinking, “then our return to Earth will be impossible!”
“Can’t you re-link the scanners?” Ulrich asked.
Franz shook his head. “It’s nearly impossible. I linked the scanners to Lyoko with a highly secure algorithm. Not even I can modify it. And even if I could, it would take a few days. We don’t have that kind of time. Lyoko is set to be terminated in two hours.”
“Can’t we just destroy the Replika by shutting down the supercomputer?” Aelita asked. She instantly realized the answer to her question.
“Doing that will destroy Lyoko permanently,” Jeremie replied, “since Lyoko is set to be destroyed. And we won’t be able to bring it back. This is the one time Lyoko will be gone for good.”
A pop-up window displaying a red exclamation point appeared on the screen. Franz immediately sat down and started typing. He stopped and turned back around. “The references to all of your DNA sequence codes have just been deleted by XANA.”
“So it was a trap all along,” Ulrich said. “If XANA wants to keep us busy, then what does he have in store for us?”
Everyone sighed, knowing that if XANA could go this far, he wouldn’t just stop after eliminating the Lyoko Warriors. XANA would take every chance he had. And unfortunately, with the Lyoko Warriors occupied, there was no one to stop him.