CODE LYOKO: THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY

CHAPTER 1: THE NEW JOURNEY BEGINS

One month has passed since Xana has fallen, the Lyoko warriors had finally defeated the monstrous super virus. Their lives were finally getting back to normal and for the obvious it was about time. Another school day, another day without having to worry about Xana's attacks, or the city and world in immediate danger, or lives on the line. As the gang sat out at their usual spot on the benches in the school grounds. Observing the daily things that they've almost forgotten.

Jim doing his usual rounds. Sissi still bossing Nicolas and Herve around like lackeys. Milly and Tamiya getting their next scoop. And the teachers doing what they do. Yes, their lives were finally back to normal after fighting their enemy for so long.

As the gang sat before the bell rang to get to class "Well guys another day, another no possible Xana attack, feels great." Odd said to no one in particular as he relaxed in his seat.

"Yeah, just another day." Jeremie replied to him.

"And another, and another, and another." Ulrich sighed. "When's Yumi getting here anyway?" He asked them.

"Don't worry she'll be here soon, Ulrich." Aelita says to him.

"Hey guys!" Yumi calls out to the group from the entrance and walks over and sat down them."So how's it going guys, anything new?" She asks them.

"Well other then the usual, no nothing." Ulrich answers her. Just then they notice William walked by the gang.

"Hey, William, come sit down with us, there's plenty of room." Odd calls to him with a wave.

William turns to them. "Umm, that's okay, I'm fine. I'm just heading to my class." He objects before turning away.

"William, you got to stop beating yourself up over what happened when you were possessed by, Xana. We forgive you already." Yumi says to him.

"But..." William tries to object again.

Ulrich interrupts him. "Come on, just sit down with us already." He said with a small smile.

Accepting defeat he walks over and sits down with the gang at the benches. The Lyoko warriors were all together again. "So, this is our life now, huh?" William asks them.

"I guess so." Ulrich shrugged to him.

"I suppose after fighting Xana for so long, we almost forgot how to live normal lives." Jeremie points out.

"But at least we still have each other after all the danger we've been in. It's because of you guys I can now live a normal life like everyone else without having to fight Xana anymore." Aelita said to her long time friends.

"That's right. We now got our whole lives ahead of us to enjoy. With no more problems like, Xana." Odd chuckled with a grin.

RING! The school bell went and they headed off to their classes and back to their normal life.

The day was as it always was. Ulrich staring out the window and looking to the sky. Odd sleeping on his desk with a snore. Jeremie showing up Herve in every subject like he always does. Aelita the perfect student. Yumi drawing her fan-blades in her history class. And William as he always is.

As the day came to a close, and after Odd stuffing himself at dinnertime, the gang says their goodbyes to Yumi as she heads home. The others then went back into the dorm buildings and settled in for the night.

In Ulrich and Odd's room after their shower.

"So, Ulrich, you gonna ask Yumi tomorrow or what man? It's been a month or so since our last return to the past." Odd asks while playing with his dog Kiwi as he tried to get the toy Odd was wiggling over the small dog.

"I'll ask her tomorrow. I promise you that, Odd. I'm just a little nervous about asking her out after all we've been through." Ulrich replies back in an almost annoyed tone.

"Don't worry about it, you will do fine. There's nothing in your way anymore." Odd says as Kiwi bit onto the toy. "Well we better get to bed then, so you can ask her first thing in the morning." He laughed with a grin.

"Yeah, sure. Night, Odd." Ulrich replied as he turned out the lights in their room and went to bed.

In Jeremie's room, the young genius was going over all the data he ever collected during their journeys and storing them on separate hard drives for possible future use. He was putting in the final log of his video journal.

"And so, after finally downloading all data to my hard drives, I can finally close the final chapter in our adventures. I'll keep all the data I've collected for my own use. Xana might have been a lot of trouble, but its abilities were very revolutionary. Maybe this data from Lyoko might benefit the world someday, but I need to be careful on how to use it. So in short, this is Jeremie, signing off for good." Jeremie spoke into the recording camera before turning it off.

He unplugged the final hard drive and took it to his shelf with all his other computer parts. "It's finally over. After all that's been said and done, it was fun while it lasted." Jeremie chuckled.

In Aelita's room, the pink haired girl slept peacefully in her bed with the stuffed doll, Mr. Puck near her. Aelita had slept well the last month without any worry of Xana and her friends. She happily looked forward to living a good life with her new family.

The night was late as William stirred in his sleep. The past month had been harder on him then the gang knew. Every night he would wake with a cold sweat after being haunted by the memories of being possessed by Xana. His eyes shot open as he lunged up from his bed and hyperventilated for a few minutes until he settled down and rubbed his head.

"Why? Why won't it stop? Why did I let myself become a tool for, Xana?" William moaned before lying back in his bed, hoping to get back to sleep.

()()()()()()()()

In the factory, the dormant supercomputer began to start back up on it's own. Electricity began to spark from various power cords. The power came back online and the screens clicked back on. The hologram that would show Lyoko instead showed an image of the cosmos spreading out, and on the main screen showed an image of Earth spinning around and then stop on the land mass that is France, then next a radio wave image starts coming closer to Earth, a signal from an unknown source as Xana's symbol appeared on the screen.

"This is not the end fools, I will win!"

The next morning, the day starts up as usual as the gang sat at their usual spot on the benches. Unknown to them, the entire city was suddenly starting to experience power shortage that messed with all electrical systems. People across the city were starting to take notice as the entire world also began to experience power shortage and quickly began a worldwide investigation.

"So guys, do you wanna do anything after school?" Odd asks them.

"How about a movie?" Aelita suggested

"Sounds like a good idea, Aelita." Jeremie replied to her as sat next to the pink hair.

"Hey guys." Yumi calls to them while approaching and then sits down on the benches.

"Hey, Ulrich, it's now or never man." Odd whispers to him.

"I know, Odd, just be quiet, okay?" Ulrich replies to him through gritted teeth. Ulrich got up from his spot and walked over to her. "Hey, Yumi, can I ask you something?" He says to her.

"Sure, Ulrich. What is it?" Yumi asks curiously.

"Follow me. I need to ask you in private." Ulrich said and leads her over to the big tree and leaving the others sitting at the bench.

"So what classes do you guys have today?" William asks the rest of the group.

"Well I have science with Mrs. Hertz class first, then I have..." But Jeremie didn't finish, as they saw a few students run by heading to the student room and overheard one of them say.

"Come on, it's happening all over the world. Let's find a news channel." One of the familiar students said.

"What are they talking about?" William questions.

"Let's find out. It may be very important." Odd said to them as the remaining gang got up and followed.

The four entered the students room with a few of the students as well. They turned the TV on, but the image on the screen kept fading in and out, but managed to find a news channel with a familiar news lady.

()()()()()()()()()

"Reports are pouring in all over the world, power is fading in and out for no reason. Power drops are happening in all major continents from America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Japan. And even small islands and so on are being effected as well." The news woman started. "Power drops have slowed down all major cities and towns almost anyplace where power is available with no reason or leads as to who or what is the cause. I'm...what's that?..." She pauses and presses her finger to the earpiece getting the latest update. "I've just been told the that the power and where it's going has been traced to a small factory in a small city in France. We now go to our reporter on the scene." The news woman said as the image changed to a male reporter.

()()()()()()()

"Thank you. The power has been traced to this factory as you can see." The reporter pointed to the factory from a far distance. It glowed bright like a beacon in the night with several other news teams on the scene for other news stations across the world. "High voltages of power has been converging to this one spot and has surprisingly not overloaded any power station or power transformers, but still no idea as to what is the cause of this strange event." The reporter continued.

()()()()()()()

As the reporter continued talking while the gang watched, all of a sudden, Jeremie's laptop starts beeping a familiar tone. "It can't be! It just can't be!" Jeremie says while reaching into his backpack and pulling the laptop out. He pulls it out and opens the screen up and the familiar alert of Xana appears.

"This is impossible! Xana is gone." William says to them.

"I don't know how, but we got to stop him no matter what. Let's head to the factory." Aelita said getting up from her seat.

"We need to get Ulrich and Yumi, then we will go to the factory." Odd reminded them of their missing members.

"Let's go then, guys. We don't have a moment to lose. William you come with us, we may need everyone on board for this one." Jeremie says to him. And with that, they head outside.

"Sure thing, and thanks for letting me back in, guys." William said while following them.

()()()()()()()()

Meanwhile by the tree where Ulrich and Yumi stood, the brown haired boy was trying with all his might to finally ask Yumi what he's been wanting to say for a long time as he scratched the back of his head.

"So, Yumi, we've been together for awhile, and we even had a moment when Jeremie did that last return to the past when Sissi found the factory... again." Ulrich said to her with a nervous look on his face.

"I know, Ulrich. The last return to the past when we...well, held hands." Yumi says, blushing slightly at the memory.

"So anyway, I was hoping to, well, ask you, uhh..." Ulrich tried to ask as his voice stammered.

"Yes, Ulrich?" Yumi asked, hoping he would say what she wanted to hear.

"Well, I was hoping..." But Ulrich never finished as Odd called out to them.

"Ulrich! Yumi! We need to head to the factory, it's Xana! He's back somehow." Odd cries out as they all ran up to the two.

"What are you talking about, Odd? Xana's gone for good." Ulrich says to Odd.

"It's true, Xana is somehow drawing power from all over the world and sending it to the factory. We saw it on the news." Jeremie adds in.

"But how, and for what purpose? What will he do with all that power?" Yumi asks him

"I don't know, but we have to stop him, let's go before it's too late." Jeremie says and they all began to run to the forest.

"Just when things were finally getting back to normal." Ulrich says to himself before running off with the rest of the group.

As they ran, the gang passed Yumi's brother Hiroki and his friend Johnny.

As they passed by, Hiroki calls out to her. "Hey, Yumi. Where are you going to in such a hurry?" He asks his sister.

"Not now, Hiroki. I got something important to do, okay?" Yumi replies while stopping for a moment to answer him as the gang got ahead of her.

"Something to do with Ulrich, huh?!" Hiroki asks as he began to laughs.

"You are such a pain! I've got to go, so just leave me alone already." Yumi says in anger and then runs off to catch up with the others and leaving Hiroki a little hurt.

()()()()()()()()

In principle Delmas office.

"Well then, all the forms are signed and notarized, and your parents will be here soon with your stuff. So with that, I welcome you to, Kadic Academy, Miss. Knight." Delmas said as he put the files away in his desk and reaches to shake Sam's hand.

"Thank you sir, and you can just call me Sam by the way." Sam says shaking his hand back.

"Now then, you should head to your class to get acquainted, and also get the rest of your class schedule for the day." Delmas added.

"Sure thing, Mr. Delmas. Have a nice day." Sam says and then headed out of his office.

As she left, Delmas sat back down to play the weird penguin game on his computer, only to fail at having its head land on its body.

As he played, the power suddenly cut off and then turn back on again. "Now what's going on?" He says while looking over his computer by clicking on the files, unaware of what was about to happen soon.

()()()()()()

Sam left the office and walked out into the school grounds. All of a sudden she sees the gang running by very fast at the other side of the school grounds. She then noticed Odd was with them as well. "Odd? What's he doing?" She asks herself and decides to follow them.

Near the school borders, Sissi and her group looked at one of the street power poles.

"What's going on with the power?" Nicolas questions while looking at the power transformer form across the street as it sparked with electricity.

"It is pretty weird, it should have at least blown by now." Herve says to them.

"Who cares, let the city workers deal with it." Sissi says to them, annoyed by their conversation. The gang suddenly runs by and almost knocked her to the ground. "Hey! Watch where your going! And where are you going anyway?!" Sissi demands them.

"Sorry, Sissi, but we don't have time to deal with you right now." Ulrich cries out as they head to the secret manhole in the small forest on the school grounds.

"Wait, you can't just leave, what's going on?!" Sissi shouts, but they were out of view.

"Weird, I wonder what they're up to now?" Nicolas says to them.

"I don't know. but Daddy's gonna hear about this!.." Sissi says to her followers. Just then, Sam comes running by, bumping right into Sissi and knocking her down to the ground as she passed by. "Hey! Watch it, new girl!" Sissi yells as she pushed herself back up.

"Sorry about that, but I can't help you up right now." Sam turned and said, then ran out of sight into the forest.

()()()()()()()()

The gang found their manhole and opened it and slipped in, not bothering to put the cover on. Sam saw them just as Odd was last one that got in and she followed in as well. They all grabbed their skateboards and scooters, and headed down the familiar sewer line that they traveled countless times before. Sam saw them head off as she got to the spot where their boards were. Thankfully she had her skateboard with her backpack and pulled it out and followed down the sewer line not far behind from the group.

()()()()()()()()

On the surface things were getting worse, the light from the factory was getting brighter, people were panicking in the streets, fear of the unknown that was about to happen.

As the news reporter continued to report the event that was going on, one of the cameraman spots the manhole on the bridge being pushed open. "Look! There's some kids on the bridge!" The cameraman said and pointed his camera to the group coming out of the manhole in the middle of the bridge and went into the factory.

"Ladies and gentlemen, a even weirder turn of events has happened now. A bunch of kids have emerged from a manhole and have now headed into the factory. This day has certainly got even stranger, as to who or where they have come from only adds more to the mystery that has been going on this day." The reporter said to the camera pointing at him.

()()()()()()()()

Back in the school in the student recreation room.

"Hey isn't that Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, Jeremie, Aelita, and William on TV?" The girl Emily asked the students out loud, wondering what they were doing there.

"Look, it's that new girl, Sam. We tried to interview her on what it's like to be new here at Kadic academy." Milly says to everyone.

"She just brushed us off..." Tamiya said to no one in particular.

"I can't believe those punks are there! Their parents are gonna hear this, I'll tell you that much." Jim said furiously, watching the news as well.

()()()()()()()()

In the factory, the gang arrived inside and slid down their hanging ropes and headed into the elevator lift. "Well guys here we go yet again." Jeremie said, pushing the button for the door to start closing.

"I thought this nightmare was over. I thought we would finally start having a normal life again." Yumi says to her friends.

"Well I guess not, so here goes another round with Xana." Ulrich sighed as the elevator door was almost closed as Sam rolled in just before the door fully closes and surprised the gang.

"Sam?! What are you doing here?!" Odd almost shouts surprised.

"What is this, Odd? Why are you here?" Sam questions him as she got up.

"Who's this girl, Odd? Do you know her?" William asks Odd while pointing to her.

"There's no time to worry about that, we have to deal with Xana right now!" Jeremie said as the elevator door open to reveal the computer room and the gang walked out to look at the monitors. "Okay guys, get to the scanners, I'll get them started. And Sam, just stay with me." Jeremie says sitting into his computer chair.

As the group started to head towards the elevator, the doors suddenly slammed shut locked everyone in the room. "Jeremie! We're locked in, we can't get to the scanners!" Aelita cries out to him.

"What do we do now? The elevator door is closed and the hatches are sealed with electricity sparking off them." Ulrich says as he looked to the cable covered ceiling.

"Great, what do we do now?" Odd said in disbelief.

"You fools!"A strange, echoing voice calls out.

"Who said that?" Yumi asked while they all looked around the room in worry.

"I've dealt with you and put up with your interference long enough."The voice called out from an unknown source.

"Is that... Xana?" Odd asks them with a panic.

"It can't be. How is he talking to us?" Jeremie questions as he looked around from his seat.

"For too long you have stopped my plans, foiled my plots, and prevented me from claiming my rightful place as master of all beings. So now I will take you all to a place where the odds will be in my favor. If I can't stop you here, then I will finish you all elsewhere." Xana's voice cried out to them.

"What does he mean by that?" Aelita asks. Suddenly the power from the computer core lights up, sending a wave of light from the hologram station upward into the room and blinding the gang.

"What's going on?!" Sam shouts while trying to cover her eyes.

"I can't see anything!" Odd cries out as he covers his eyes too.

"I'm starting to feel very strange!" William said as he fell to his knees. It's like I'm falling apart from the inside out!"

"Guys, our bodies are starting to fade away!" Jeremie cries out while looking at his fading hands.

The gang was starting to fade from view as the white light enveloped the room. Yumi looked to Ulrich as her lower body was about to disappear. "Ulrich!" Yumi calls out to him with her hand outreached.

"Yumi!" Ulrich calls back as he ran towards her. they both reached for each others hands, terrified of what was happening to them and their friends. All of them faded away as the light got brighter and shot outside and into the sky for all to see.

()()()()()()()()

The reporters and camera crews were startled by the light that shot up into the sky. The news stations broadcasted the blinding light worldwide as it passed the clouds and out through the atmosphere with a loud buzzing noise that filled the city.

()()()()()

Back in Delmas's office.

"Hold on, officer, you said you saw some students near where?..." Delmas asked while on the phone from a call that he received from the police.

"Daddy! I need to tell you something, I saw Ulrich and his gang heading off into the woods." Sissi said as she suddenly entered his office.

Delmas covered the phone with his hand. "Not now, Sissi, I'm on the phone with an officer, he might actually be talking about them." He said to her with a stern tone.

"But, daddy, I..." Sissi tried to say. But she never finished as the light from the factory shined so bright that it poured into the office window and blinded them as well. "What's happening?!" Sissi cries out while covering her eyes.

()()()()()()()

Hiroki and Johnny were standing outside the school near one of the class buildings as Hiroki saw the light in the air. "Johnny, look!" Hiroki pointed to the blinding light before they too were struck by its glow.

()()()()()()()

The students in the student recreation began to see the light from the windows.

"Where's that light coming from?!" Emily shouts as she and the other students were blinded as well and cried out in a panic.

"Aahhh! It's the end of the world!" Jim screamed as he covered his head and began to panic worse then the students.

()()()()()()()()

The whole city was blanketed by the great light, it was seen for hundreds of miles across the land. Its brightness shined through the sky and into the atmosphere and then into the cold depths of deep space, with no one even aware of where the gang was going, or even where they were right now in the first place. Their whole lives were about to change in a way they would have never expected. As the light from the factory finally died down and faded away, leaving only a panicked city, the world was left to wonder. What will happen next?

END CHAPTER.