Code Lyoko: The New Girl (BK 1)

Chapter 4

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"Jeremie, what is happening?!" Yumi cried out, hoping for a clearer answer than what he had provided up until then.

When Yumi had virtualized on onto her Overwing, her first thought had been: great, no need to run all over the Forest sector, looking for anything "weird". Except, why couldn't she move? It was as if the vehicle was just stuck in place. Yumi had pushed down on the handle in the center, even stomped on the round platform, but nothing happened. When she called to Jeremie for help, he had been no help. Either their connection wasn't great or he was still busy going over things with Aelita, whatever it was, he wasn't coming to her aid.

When Yumi tried to get off the Overwing and start heading out on foot, she felt as if her feet were glued to it. That was when real fear started creeping into her. When Jeremie had mentioned that there were weird things happening on Lyoko, obviously Yumi didn't think too much into it. Weird things were their new normal now that X.A.N.A. had made it clear he was here to stay, whether anyone approved or not. But now that she was physically attached to her Overwing, Yumi couldn't help but wonder if they had rushed onto Lyoko without thinking some things over first.

Jeremie was pretty vague on the details and sure, the rest of the group wasn't super smart like him, but they could have at least discussed the situation before all running onto Lyoko. Not that anyone cared. It seemed Yumi was the only one in the group who had grown tired of playing hero every day. Odd and Jeremie relished it — the underdog and the scientist; not like they had actual real-world problems to stress over.

Yumi couldn't keep lying to her parents about after-school clubs or weekend Pencak Silat practice; she couldn't keep hiding the sore muscles and bruised body parts. One day, she'd slip and they'd find out something that Yumi just wouldn't be able to explain away with some white lie or even the truth, for that matter.

Sorry I'm never home, Mom and Dad, I'm too busy saving the world from a power-hungry computer virus that's trying to take over all of humanity!

Right. They'd have her admitted to the nearest — or furthest, actually — mental institute without hearing another word more.

Before she could freak out about not being able to remove herself from her Overwing, Aelita's figure started to materialize in front of her. The Overwing jerked forward, almost knocking Yumi backward, but she grabbed ahold of the handle and then stupidly realized, well if she was stuck, then there was a low chance of her actually falling off. Still, the movement was so sudden and random, Yumi could feel her heart beat rapidly against her chest.

She urged herself to calm down as the vehicle zoomed forward and came to a slow stop in front of Aelita.

"Hey," She looked down at her. "did everything go okay with your virtualization?"

Aelita smiled back. "Yeah. Everything was fine. Why do you ask?"

Yumi frowned. Something seemed off.

"What did Jeremie say?"

"We both looked through all the towers, there's none activated. I suggested looking through the backend of the system; there might be a glitch in the system we can't see, so he's working on that now."

"Alright, hop on. Let's do our sweep and then meet up with the boys in Sector 5."

The ride had been smooth enough, but very quickly, Yumi realized she wasn't the one in control of the Overwing. When she tried to turn them around and do a quick surveillance of the opposite end of the sector, the vehicle wouldn't budge. Instead, it moved ahead on its own and kept going even when Yumi tried to steer it in different directions.