Code 17: WAR
The world was in a complete tailspin, and people were to the point of hysteria. The incident aboard the space station drove some to madness, convinced the world was ending. Others began to build bunkers and shelters. The devil blasts were being tied into it as well, as many speculated they were signaling alien invaders.
Of course, no one but their group knew the truth. And the truth was just as grim. Hopper sat in Amalia's kitchen, the morning of their second day at the house. The quarantine was holding firm... it seemed Xana was not even trying to break it. And that worried Hopper. He had gutted one of the laptops for spare electronic parts, but was still having difficulty assembling the device. He sat trying to sauder wires to Amalia's metal collander, muttering to himself. The other's tended to steer clear.
Aelita remained in her depressed state over Zaber's sudden flight. Jeremy remained by her side, constantly trying to lift her out of it, but to little avail. The others pretty much remained to their own devices. No one but Hopper knew how to proceed, and Hopper was not sharing.
"Does anyone else thing he's lost it?" Odd asked to Ulrich and Yumi.
"I dunno... what makes you think that?" Ulrich responded.
"The guy is wearing a spaghetti strainer on his head!!!" Odd replied rather loudly, but Yumi shushed him.
"Look... he's the only hope we've really got. We're just going to have to trust that there's a method to his madness. Ok?" Yumi said. Ulrich nodded quickly, Odd reluctantly.
Zaber sat at that park bench for most of the morning. A large amount of emotions that had long been suppressed had surged forth, and he was overwhelmed, unable to determine his next objective. One part of him wanted to go back to the others, but he didn't feel he could bare it. Another part of his just wanted to sit on that bench and wait for the world to end. And yet another part wanted to just go back to the way he had been, holding everything back with the cold and unfeeling demeanor he had spent years developing since his mother's death. It was nearly noon, and Zaber still sat there, spaced out in deep thought. He hardly noticed that someone sat down next to him, and he startled when the man spoke.
"Something on your mind?" He asked. Zaber snapped back to normal and turned his head. The man was clearly in his late 60's, his hair was a very bright gray, and he had a thick beard. He wore sunglasses, a brown leather jacket, a white shirt, and jeans. He carried a white cane with a red tip.
"Huh?" Zaber responded absently by reflex.
"I've just never seen you around these parts before." The man said, paused, and then chuckled. "Now that I think of it, I don't see mucha anything. But you get my point. So, what's on your mind?" He said as he looked in Zaber's general direction quizzically, but was clearly blind and could not determine Zaber's exact location. Zaber hesitated for a moment. He didn't sense any sort of ill-will from the man. He was clearly just a local blind guy who hung out in the park all day without a care in the world.
"I... I was just thinking about how the world's falling apart these days. Those blasts... the space station..."
"Never really cared to much about that." The man said as he leaned forward on his cane. "But... I can tell you don't care that much either. What's really on your mind?" Zaber mentally drew back. Clearly his sense of hearing was much more distinct to make up for his lack of sight, and he was clearly experienced in using this keen sense to tell when someone was lying.
"Just who are you anyway?" Zaber asked, hoping to change the subject. The man chuckled in response.
"You know... in the ten years that I've sat here everyday... you're one of the only young people who's ever talked to me." He said as he closed his sightless eyes. "I'm Remiel. And you are?"
"I'm Zaber Oc... Hopper." Zaber said, suddenly deciding to change at the last second. He couldn't explain why... the reaction was almost subconscious.
"And they made fun of my name in school." Remiel said with a smile. "Now... what's on your mind?" Zaber carefully formulated what he would say so as not to reveal to much to the senile old man.
"Well... I did some things that I probably shouldn't have... and some people got hurt because of it..." Zaber started. "After that I was just getting in their way and putting them in more danger... so I left."
"You mean you ran away?"
"No... well... I suppose that's one way to look at it..." Zaber muttered. "And then I wound up here."
"That's pretty vague kid." Remiel said with a smirk. "You're telling the truth so that I can't tell your lying, but you're only telling me the bare minimum so I don't know too much? You said yourself that the world's close to ending... how much could it hurt to tell me the real story? As far as the world ending goes, I don't know that much about current events. Obviously, I don't read newspapers... I don't own a TV. Wanna explain?" Zaber shrugged. He could tell him plenty about this... it was public knowledge.
"About a week ago... there was a blast in France... a big explosion that shot a pillar of light straight into the sky. A second blast blew up a plane over New York City, and a third shot out of an apartment building in New York. Then yesterday they found all the astronauts on the international space station dead."
"That's sounds serious."
"Obviously." Zaber said as he leaned back.
"So what are you going to do about it?" Remiel asked him as he looked in his general direction again.
"What do you mean? There's nothing I can do about it." Remiel raised an eyebrow.
"Well... that's a lie." Zaber flinched. He had been caught again. "I don't know what it is you can do... but you can do something. Everyone can do something."
"Well not me... everything I've done has only made it worse." Zaber said, and he knew that technically it was true. Remiel also sensed this... and said nothing, leaning back and running his fingers through his beard.
"It sounds like you're lost in life." Remiel said.
"Well yeah... it's not like you can just pull over and ask for directions." Zaber said sarcastically. Remiel looked at him, finally managing to look directly at him.
"I understand sarcasm, but I'm afraid that's not quite true." Remiel turned and pointed dead on in front of him. At the far end of the park, across the street, stood a church. "You might find what you're looking for there... and I must say... the benches are much more comfortable than this one." Remiel smiled and stood up, leaning on his stick. "Goodbye." He walked away, and took an opposite path to the one he had come in on. Zaber scratched his head for a moment. That was hands down the strangest encounter of his life... even beating his first encounter with the tarantula before he was in on Lyoko.
Xana sat in his desk, typing vigorously. Three white pawns had been placed on the board, boxing in the black king and rook. The black bishop remained on the outside of this formation, unmoved from his last effort.
"Curse Hopper and his meddling..." Xana muttered, his human body seeming to lack an internal monologue. "He will pay dearly for this... his life will not be enough..." Xana grinned. "Two turns. No matter what piece you move I've won." He glared at the white king. "In 24 hours... the human race will destroy itself in madness..." Xana stood up, and ejected a CD from his computer. "And this shall make it all the more sweeter..." Xana placed the disk into a case, and then walked out to his car, heading for the factory.
Zaber remained at that bench for almost another hour, thinking about what Remiel has said. He may have been a senile blind man, but he did give good advice. The sides of him that wanted to stay put and return to normal lost some ground, but no side was clearly winning yet. He stood up, his legs fallen asleep from disuse, the silver bird now dangled around his neck along with the locket. He grabbed his bike by the handlebars, and wheeled it slowly across the length of the park. He parked and locked the cycle in front of the church, then took a deep breath and stepped inside. The floor tile was marble, and the walls and benches were a mixture of dark cherry wood and oak. Stained glass windows colored the light that poured into the room into varying shades of blue, gold, red. Zaber sat down near the back of the room and closed his eyes. He hadn't been in a church since his mother's funeral. It was a painful memory.
Xana sat at the supercomputer terminal, and inserted his disk into it. A program appeared on screen, which he promptly dragged into Zaber's mobile scanner program. He materialized two scanners, one black with red lining and the other black with silver lining. Both had been orated with large Xana marks. He returned to the terminal, and booted up the DNA tracing program Zaber had used to find Aelita when the enforcers had captured her, and adjusted the target. A blip appeared on the map, and Xana uploaded the program to his laptop. He shut down all the programs and walked into the elevator and out of the building, tapping each of the guards on the shoulder to renew his brainwashing.
"It's done!" Hopper exclaimed as he burst from the kitchen carrying the bizarre, makeshift helm. All but Jeremy stared at him awkwardly for a moment, except Amalia, who looked over her shoulder casually while continuing to dust. "I think you know what this is Jeremy."
"The uplink helmet... I used your old one a while back... before we even got Aelita materialized. It didn't work though." Jeremy said.
"Why'd you make another one?" Yumi asked him. "That thing's dangerous."
"It's more dangerous than you can guess... but it's our best shot to beat Xana to the punch." Hopper said as he sat down and connected several wires to Jeremy's laptop. "Listen closely Jeremy... if anything goes wrong... shut down the computer."
"What do you mean goes wrong?" Aelita asked. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to try and sneak a peak into Xana's mind." Hopper said quickly. "But if he catches me and I can't pull the helmet off fast enough... he can overwhelm and possess me through the helmet. That's why it's so dangerous."
"Wait! You can't risk it!" Aelita said as she grabbed his arm.
"I have to. If we know Xana's next move we can find a way to counter him." Hopper said as he gently shook off Aelita, and then placed the helmet on his head. He closed his eyes. "Quarantine breach in 3... 2... 1..." The laptop emitted a strange buzzing sound as Hopper seemed to drop out of consciousness. The five of them and Amalia, who had stopped dusting to watch, stood in a dead silence for a few moments.
"How do we know if something went wrong?" Odd asked. "What if something's wrong with the helmet... I mean it's a spaghetti strainer!"
"We get it Odd, now shut up." Ulrich said as he lightly jabbed Odd in the arm. When nearly a minute had passed, Hopper's facial expression suddenly changed, as if he was struggling against something. He began to scream out in pain as his arms suddenly flew up and grabbed the helmet, yanking it off his head.
"Dad! Are you OK?" Aelita said as she shook him. Hopper's eyes opened revealing Xana marks, but they were very shaky, and shook violently for a few seconds before being replaced by his normal eyes.
"It's OK... I managed to get the helmet off before he could get any footing." Hopper said as he returned to normal. "And I know Xana's plan. He wants mankind to destroy itself. He's going to start a war."
"But just a war won't wipe out the human race, will it?" Jeremy questioned.
"I'm not talking the type of war you fight with soldiers. I'm talking a hot war. Like the cold war in reverse. Xana's going to activate all 40... 39 lyoko towers simultaneously. He's going to use them to take control of the nuclear weapons systems of every country... and launch them all simultaneously... strategically laid out to hit every major city with an explosion and everywhere else with radiation. What the bombs don't take out... the mass panic and hysteria will. People will be killing each other in the streets." Hopper said as he clutched his forehead. "And if by some chance we stop him he has even worse in store." Everyone looked down in depression. It was hopeless. "And so... this is how the world ends." Hopper said, defeated.
Zaber woke up after nearly three hours. He had dozed off in the church. It was still rather bright, and there were more people around than before, most of which were giving him strange looks. He rubbed his eyes and looked around. Someone else was sitting only a few feet away from him. He was holding a bible in one hand, and seemed relaxed, one leg crossed over the other at the knee. He had slick black hair and was clean shaven. Zaber suddenly felt a very bad vibe from him. He noticed Zaber had awakened and turned towards him, casually tossing the bible over his shoulder.
"You humans and your hopeless idealism. The more I study you... the less you make sense." The man said.
"Excuse me?" Zaber said confused. The man chuckled.
"Oh come now... I slip on a meatbag suit and you don't recognize me? Close your eyes... and see your enemy... Zaber Hopper.” Something in Zaber's mind clicked.
"Xana!" Zaber said as he sprung up, reaching by instinct into his jacket for his gun, but remembered it was gone. Xana chuckled.
"Relax. I'm not going to kill you... yet. It seems your "friend" Jeremy Belpois came pretty close to doing so the other day though."
"What are you doing here?!" Zaber questioned him angrily.
"Oh... just killing some time... until the apocalypse." Xana grinned. "I'm assuming right now you'd like nothing better than to shoot me... too bad you've lost your gun."
"Are you here just to taunt me?" Zaber said, confused. He had always assumed that Xana would be too busy orchestrating his grand scheme to come play a head game with him.
"Oh... I just thought I'd bring a proposition to you."
"Not interested." Zaber said as he turned away form him.
"At least hear me out... or maybe I will kill you now." Xana said wickedly. Zaber turned around again to face him.
"I won't help you."
"I'm not asking for your help. For that matter... I'm here to help YOU. Help you carry out your revenge."
"I'm past that."
"Oh... I doubt that. I've been in your head, remember? The hatred and anger inside you is far too deep to be shaken off in a mere two days." Xana drew the black scanner with red linking out of his pocket. "All I'm offering... is a choice." Xana threw the scanner casually over to Zaber, who caught it be reflex.
"What is this?"
"A scanner. Use it... and you'll have all your old powers and much more. Even the devil arm."
"Why?"
"The world will be changed by next crack of dawn. 98% of humans will be dead... and the few who survive will slowly pick each other off... as well as be picked off my me. What I offer... is the chance for you to savor your revenge with the few hours you have left." Xana grinned wickedly. "Of course... for my own safety, you still won't have any powers once you go to Lyoko. Can't give you everything of course." Zaber stared at the Xanafied scanner in his hand.
"I won't."
"Think about it. Once you decide... just... press the button. Remember... it's because of him that your mother is dead." Xana stood up, and walked out through the back door. A few had caught onto this bizarre scene going on in the back of church, and Zaber quickly rose and left the building, unlocking his cycle and riding it across town again.
"Even if we don't have a chance... we still have to try." Aelita said. "We can do something!"
"Like what? The factory's locked down, Zaber's MIA, and we've got six hours before we all die a fiery and painful death!" Odd shouted in frustration.
"But..." Aelita started... but could determine what to say.
"Odd... even if we are going to die... we ought to give Xana hell before we do." Ulrich said with a grin as he put his hand on Odd's shoulder.
"Yeah..." Odd grinned. "I'm up for that."
"If were going to try something, we need to leave soon. We'll have to retake the factory first... and that could get bloody." Yumi said as she fingered the scanner in her pocket.
"I'll fly." Jeremy volunteered. Hopper nodded in approval at this plan.
"Amalia..." Hopper said. "I won't say goodbye. I'll say good luck." Amalia nodded grimly, and the five team members and Hopper stepped out into the backyard. Jeremy triggered the transporter mode of his scanner, and slammed his light ringed hand into the ground, causing the transporter to rise up around them.
Zaber sat in the booth of a small diner, a pay phone behind him. He stared at the scanner in his hand. The Xana eye seemed to be glaring at him hypnotically. Since his encounter with Xana, the side that still wanted revenge had regained the ground it lost... and more. Zaber was torn... unable to decide who he wanted to be. His bike lay on the ground outside, abandoned. It was out of gas, and he had roughly 40 cents left in his wallet. He had hit rock bottom. And if Xana was not bluffing, he had hours to live. Several glanced about the restaurant, full of people involved in animate conversation, blissfully unaware of the end being so near. He clutched the scanner tightly, then set it on the table and clutched his forehead. His conscious and his rage locked in combat within his mind to the point of actual pain. And one side finally won. He picked up the scanner.
Sanderson sat in a hotel room in Catic. Another man was in the room, an American that he had contacted after Representative Alexander. He was a member of the US's counter-terrorism unit, and Sanderson had felt that international cooperation was necessary, with or without his superior's approval. He had just finished briefing the man on everything he had learned before Alexander suspended the investigation.
"You realize I think you are insane." The man said.
"I assure you Mr. Bauer... this is not a joke." Sanderson said with his arms crossed.
"Then show me."
"I can't. My superior is trying to cover something up, he's posted armed guards at the only entrance and taken away my clearance to get in."
"Well... aren't you already breaking the law by contacting me without your superior's approval? When your superior's go corrupt you have to find out what their up to so that you can get them out of power." Bauer said.
"That still doesn't change the fact that their are armed guards." Sanderson muttered.
"That's not a problem... let me tell you about the hell I've been through..." Bauer began before trying to begin to recount one of his harrowing exploits, but the phone on Sanderson's desk rang.
"Hold on a moment." Sanderson said as he picked up the phone. "Hello?"
"Enforcer Agent Sanderson?"
"Who...who is this?" Sanderson asked with slight shock. The enforcers were top secret... who knew about them?
"That's not important. I know that you've been investigating the building containing the supercomputer."
"How could you possibly know that?!?!" Sanderson exclaimed.
"I'll explain everything when we meet. Meet me at that building in ten minutes. Bring heavy ordinance." The connection died.
"Who was that?" Bauer asked him.
"We have to leave. I just got us a lead." Sanderson said firmly. "I'll explain on the way."
Xana sat in his office once again, grinning. The quarantine had been broken when Hopper had breached his mind. The white pawns were gone from the board. Xana fingered the rook. The clock on the wall read 7:59 PM. The clock ticked to 8.
"It begins." Xana said as the pupils of his human hosts eyes flicked from normal to black Xana marks. On his laptop, a display of Lyoko was shown, displaying all four sectors. The ten towers in each section lit up red, although there were only 9 in the forest, as Zaber had destroyed one. A large, black tower appeared in Sector 5. All around the world, red alerts went off in military facilities. Every computer was rendered useless, and the nuclear missiles were fired.
The transporter dropped down in front of the factory and the six of them hit the ground running. They got into the building, and pressed themselves up against the wall, out of the guards vision. The two guards were heavily armored in Kevlar armor that would stop all their attacks. They were carrying massive, sub-machine guns that could kill them all in seconds. Large red Xana marks shown in their visors.
"What do you think?" Ulrich asked.
"Telekinesis and Energy fields?" Yumi offered.
"I don't think the fields could get through that armor." Aelita responded.
"Why don't you just drop a big rock on them? That always works on Lyoko." Odd suggested, but then suddenly gulped. The guards had heard them and snuck up on them. They aimed their guns, and it was too late for any of them to activate the scanners. They wordlessly tightened their fingers around their triggers.
"WAIT!" A scream rang out. The guards stopped and turned to look up at the entrance. Zaber stood there, silhouetted against the dusk light. He grabbed one of the ropes and swung down to the floor level.
"Zaber!" Aelita exclaimed, surprised at his return. Jeremy looked at him suspiciously. Why did those soldiers listen to him?
"Stand down you two." Zaber said quietly, his hands in his pockets, his back to the rest of them. The two guards lowered their guns and stood at attention, shoulder to shoulder. Hopper frowned severely. Jeremy grimaced in anger. Aelita drew back in fear. Zaber turned to face them his eyes closed. "After all..." He opened his eyes, revealing black Xana marks. "Xana said I could finish them." Zaber grinned as he drew the black scanner from his pocket.
Code 17: WAR...END
