Okay, the first thing that I want you all to know is that I wrote this on Zero Sleep. I woke up, face planted on my keyboard, and immediately had to post this. I don't recall writing very much of this at all, but it was too awesome not to share.

What Just Happened.

Aelita was down. One of Xana's monsters had taken a shot at her exposed back, and devirtualized the totally virtual girl. Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich were cornered on the edge of the Digital Sea, and Jeremie Belpois was extremely close to crushing despair. Unable to do anything except stare, Jeremie was deaf to the terrified screams of his compatriots. The unthinkable had happened. They had lost. Xana was already taking advantage of this, and towers flared red all along Lyoko. The Lyoko warriors were finished. It was over.

Jeremie pulled himself up from his chair, and headed toward the elevator. He had some vague notion of suicide, or shutting down the supercomputer, or maybe both, but regardless, the Belpois boy had lost all hope to live. Then, it happened. As he depressed the call button for the elevator, the doors opened on their own accord. A tall, dark, and tattooed figure stood in the door, his face obscured by the fickle lighting. Without a word, he grabbed Jeremie by the shoulder, and spun him around, to face the Supercomputer Terminal. Jeremie, somewhat terrified by this new development, feared what was going to happen to him at the hands of this new stranger. He could only cower in fear as the stranger sat down at the terminal, and beckoned Jeremie over. Then, the figure spoke one sentence, and Jeremie dared allow a small sliver of hope into his heart.

"Alright you zetta son of a hectopascal, whats your login?"

Jeremie stared, not entirely sure how to answer this bizarre question.

"Stop moving so zetta slow, do you want to save your girl, and your friends or not?"

Jeremie gave the tattooed man his information.

The man turned back to the terminal, his hands a blur over the keyboard. Information on Lyoko opened up the Jeremie had never seen before. It was a data stream of the Digital Sea, and the stranger plunged inside, fearlessly sifting through data no human mind would be able to comprehend.

Without turning from the delicate work he was doing, the stranger directed him to go the scanner room, because "the inverse of this yoctogram was about to hit the function"

Jeremie went to the scanner room.

From down below, Jeremie stood by the scanner doors, as they smoked and steamed, and finally, erupted with yellow light. Ulrich, Yumi and Odd, stumbled out of the Scanners, looking like hell warmed over, but the second Odd was out of his scanner, the doors snapped shut. A second explosion rocked the room, and the doors hissed open again. Standing inside, clothed in a pale pink robe, was Aelita, in the flesh. As the Lyoko warriors pulled her from the scanner, they rushed upstairs, as the lights dimmed, and they heard the distinct sound of the Supercomputer shutting down. The tattooed man was leaving, and they reached him just before he got in the elevator.

"Who are you?" Breathed Jeremie

Instead of answering, the figure knelt next to Jeremie, and the still unconscious form of Aelita. Ruffling Jeremie's hair, he spoke.

"You remind me of me, you appreciate true art, true beauty. Take care of her. Also, keep these for you and your girl, you may need them someday."

The stranger stood, and flipped two, black coin like objects to Jeremie.

With that, he turned, and boarded the elevator. Before the doors shut, he tipped his baseball cap and called through.

"I'm a Deus ex Machina, and a Ghost In The Machine. But you can call me Sho Minamimoto"