Code Lyoko Identities: Stones and Hopper

By Xanadu

Chapter One

“Fire! Fire! In Aelita Stones’ room!” Emily, the girl in the room next door to Aelita, shouted down the hallway to anyone that would hear. Smoke poured out of Aelita’s room, coming mainly from the wastebasket in the corner. Aelita stood, horribly frightened, in the hallway outside her room. Students down the hallway poked their heads out of their rooms to try and see what the commotion was about. Jim, the gym teacher, came rushing down the hallway with a bucket of cold water. He ran into Aelita’s room and poured the bucket over the wastebasket, getting water everywhere. Aelita rushed back into her room.

“How did this fire start, young lady?” Jim interrogated her. Frantically she looked for something that could quickly start a fire.

“It was the magnifying glass sir,” she said, picking up the large magnifying glass she had been using for a science project, “the light from my lamp much of magnified and started a fire in the wastebasket.”

“Really?” said Jim, “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely,” she replied. She didn’t mention that the actual cause of the fire had been a high-energy orb accidentally produced from her hand in a moment of stress. She was already labeled as “that smart girl from Canada,” she didn’t want to suddenly become, “that crazy girl from Canada.”

“Well if that’s all that caused it,” said Jim, “I guess it’s ok. I’m going to have to take away that magnifying glass though, school policy.”

“I understand,” said Aelita, handing over the magnifying glass.

“Well..er…good, I guess I’ll be on my way then,” he took his bucket and the magnifying glass and headed for the door, “make sure the next time you use one of these, you don’t put it near the lamp.”

“I’ll remember that sir,”

“Good,” he walked down the hallway to the door at the end. Almost immediately after closing the door, there was a knock at it. She knew who it was, and was glad they were there, she didn’t like being alone.

“Hello guys,” she said as she opened to door to let her friends Jeremie, Ulrich, and Odd into her room. Jeremie eyed the wet and charred wastebasket.

“Energy orb, right?” he asked.

“Yes, I was trying to write a history paper and got stressed. It just flew out of my hand and started a fire.”

“I don’t get it,” said Odd, sitting down on Aelita’s bed, “how could that have caused a fire, usually they just dissolve in the air or something.”

“On Lyoko they do,” said Jeremie, “But here they’re real, they’re like electricity, when there’s enough of it, especially with paper, it can start a fire.”

“So I take it you haven’t been doing any better at controlling your powers either, huh?” Ulrich spoke from his position against the wall opposite them.

“Not really,” Two years ago, Aelita’s friends had discovered a virtual world inside a giant supercomputer hidden in an abandoned factory by their school. Aelita had been trapped in the virtual world, Lyoko, asleep for ten years before that. Her father had taken her to it to escape from his life when she was twelve years old in 1994. She was initially believed to be just a virtual form inside a giant computer program. Aelita’s friends had gone into Lyoko to help her fend off the threats the virtual world gave her, but they could leave. If they were killed, they would just go back to the real world, while if she was killed she would really be killed. Thankfully, Jeremie had found a way to materialize her in the real world, but because she had been trapped in a world were aging wasn’t a factor, she was still twelve when materialized. While in Lyoko, she and her friends had special powers to help them fend off their enemy’s, XANA’s, monsters. There lives on Lyoko and their lives on Earth had always been exceptionally different, but about a week ago something had happened. Their identities from Lyoko and their normal Earth identities had started meshing together meaning that whatever powers they had on Lyoko, they now had on Earth too.

“I’ve been trying to figure this out,” said Jeremie, a genius who had first found Aelita and turned on the supercomputer, “but there’s nothing to go on. Nothing happened the last time we returned to the past, nothing happened in the scanners. It’s like it just…happened.”

“Maybe it did just…happen,” said Aelita, “Does everything have to happen for a reason?” Her voice sounded unintentionally hostile…again.

“Who knows?” said Jeremie, a bit frightened by Aelita’s outburst, “It’s the only explanation we have for now.” There was an awkward moment of silence, the only noise coming from outside in the hallway.

“I got a call from my Dad today,” said Ulrich, breaking the silence.

“Ouch,” Odd said sympathetically.

“He wanted to know why I quit the soccer team, why I had disappointed him so much,” Ulrich’s typical quiet, almost monotone way of speaking gradually became more frantic, “They wanted to know how I could do this to them.”

“All because you quit soccer?” asked Jeremie.

“My family’s screwed up.”

“Your family’s screwed up?” said Aelita, “You think your family’s screwed up?”

“I’m the son of an impossible to please perfectionist who thinks he can run the world by shouting at it,” said Ulrich calmly.

“I’m the daughter of a madman!” shouted Aelita, “At least your dad has his sanity! He may be an impossible perfectionist, but at least thy didn’t try to play God in a world they made but couldn’t control! You’re dad didn’t live under the delusion that he could just hide himself away and never come back!”

“Whoa,” said Ulrich, “Sorry.”

“It’s ok,” said Aelita, still clearly angry, “I’m kind of tired, I think I’ll go to bed now.”

“Me too,” said Odd, “I’d be lost without my beauty sleep!”

“You sound like Sissi,” getting up and walking out the door with Odd. They continued talking and joking down the hallway, growing fainter as they did. Jeremie packed up his laptop and stood up. He looked at Aelita with his usual concerned gaze.

“Are you ok?” he asked, “Lately you’ve seemed…very angry…all the time.”

“Human emotions,” said Aelita, “I’m still not used to having them again, it’s almost eleven years, I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?” Jeremie asked.

“Yes, I’m fine.” Jeremie turned to leave but quickly turned back.

“Don’t worry about your father,” he began, “What he did is in the past now. You’ve moved on. You have a new life now, with us. The new life of Aelita Hopper!”

“Stones,” she said quickly, “I’m Aelita Stones now. You said so yourself I should have moved on, new life, new name.”

“Yes…but that doesn’t mean you should completely forget everything from your past…”

“What do you want Jeremie!? First you say I should forget and move on, and now you want me to stay in the past!”

“That’s not what I meant Aelita,”

“Then make yourself clearer! You’re a genius, remember? Act like it!” There was a pause.

“I hope you feel better Aelita,” he said. He turned and left, closing the door slowly behind him. Aelita fell back onto her bed.

“What is wrong with me?” she asked herself. Jeremie had been right, she had been acting strange. Hearing people talk about their families had always made her feel a little uncomfortable, but she had never gotten so angry before.

Of course, she had never known the whole story before either.