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When Sissi entered the room, conversations stopped. Of course. It wasn’t the first it had happened. Actually it was the 4th time this week. She hadn’t really counted, just noticed it. She was used to noticing this kind of things. It was hard not to. The small ways she had been excluded, not be made a part of things were never discreet. She forced a smile, waving at Aelita, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd and Jeremy that were already sited, getting lunch. There was one seat left, right next to Odd, which was what she had been hoping for. She had quickly realised that it was better to sit next to him than in front of him – anything to avoid seeing him eat, she didn’t want to have to witness that again.
“Hey guys,” she said somewhat hesitantly. The silence upon her arrival had been somewhat disturbing, and her attempt to start a conversation was clumsy. “How are you doing?”
It was still weird, sitting at their table, actually chatting with them. Being...friends? She wasn’t exactly sure they were. They had told her they were friends a few weeks ago, but she still felt apart most of the time they were hanging out. They were talking all together and as soon as she arrived, the conversation got more quiet or the tone shifted. It probably was normal though. She had started being friends with them only recently. They had a longer history of jokes and moments together than she had with them. Still, it was uncomfortable when it happened.
Aelita smiled at her, turning around.
“Doing good, it’s almost the weekend.”
“Finally a bit of time to rest!” added Odd.
“As if you didn’t spend all of the evenings resting instead of doing your homework!” Ulrich laughed. “How about you?”
A normal, friendly conversation. She had missed that type of conversation. Herb and Nicholas weren’t the best when it came to chatting. They weren’t the best at listening either. When she thought of it a bit more, she wasn’t sure they had actually been friends. It had been a few weeks without speaking with them outside of class, and she didn’t really missed them. They had been around, sure, but they mostly admired her, wanted to be in her sphere, instead of actually wanting to know her. She enjoyed that, having people look up to her, but it slowly had become apparent that they didn’t care that much if it wasn’t for her influence.
“Doing well as well.” Her smile was a bit more sincere now. “So, what were you talking about?” she asked, not longer thinking about the way the conversations had shut down a few minutes earlier when she had arrived.
The silence fell again, the people at the table exchanging looks, avoiding her eyes. And there it was again. The hesitation, the uncomfortable feeling of being too much, being somewhere where she wasn’t supposed to be. She shouldn’t have asked this question.
“We were…,” started Ulrich, unable to finish his sentence, adding to the weirdness of the situation, before being quickly interrupted by Yumi.
“You know, the usual stuff. Classes, Odd failing another exam.”
“Hey, I did not fail! I’ll let you know it was above my usual grades in maths so you could be happy for me!”
“A seven still isn’t a good grade.” Jeremy chimed in. “But I’d agree it was progress.”
“It’s not like I’ve had a lot of time to study later, I’ll be able to catch up now…”
The sentence felt like it was missing something, somehow, that it had been paused too soon. But maybe she was overthinking it, given how the conversation had felt. She couldn’t spend all of her time analysing every single detail, trying to find if something was hidden in the other’s way of acting. It had almost cost her the chance to actually be friends with them. Trying to find secrets that didn’t exist. She had to stop focusing on stuff like that.
“Well a seven isn’t too bad,” she added, trying to shake of the feeling, “I got a five last time.”
“Yeah I get the feeling,” replied Ulrich, sighing.
“Oh, by the way, me and Aelita were planning to go shopping this afternoon”, said Yumi, changing the topic once more. “Do you want to come with us?”
She usually went shopping alone or occasionally with her dad to pay. Herb and Nicholas had come with her a few times – mostly to carry her bags – but they had been more annoying than helpful in any way. She hesitated. It felt like an empty offer, made just to be polite. But again, maybe she was overthinking it. She wasn’t used to the way they were acting yet, to their expressions, to how to be friends with them. And spending a whole afternoon with them, outside of school? It would be the first time they had done that. She was somewhat nervous about that. Usually the people coming with her didn’t really care about clothes or anything that she wanted to buy. Here, she’d have to face Aelita and Yumi, their actual opinion about what she liked, and, of course, the way they had been acting with here. Still, she wasn’t going to miss out on the occasion to go shopping, even if it meant Yumi and Aelita being distant with her once more. Plus, it was a good opportunity to get to know them a bit better.
“Sure! I’d love that.”
“Perfect!”
****
After the last class had ended – an endless one about physics for Sissi and Aelita, and some Italian one for Yumi – they had walked directly to the city centre, and were currently looking at the different shops, trying to decide where to start.
“Well, we all know how to start a shopping session,” said Yumi playfully, a large smile on her face, after they had been turning around for about fifteen minutes.
“What is it?” Aelita asked, smiling back.
Sissi forced herself to calm down and relax. She had been tense ever since they had left school. But this was going to be a nice, normal afternoon out with friends, nothing more. Before she could join the conversation, Yumi’s hand grabbed her and Aelita’s arm, dragging both of them to a small stand that she hadn’t noticed.
“Ice cream! We can’t really do that on an empty stomach. So what are you taking?”
She was about to protest – after all, her dad hadn’t given her a lot of money and she didn’t want to spend too much of it on unnecessary stuff if she wanted to still be able to buy something that she really cared about later one – when Yumi stopped her train of thoughts.
“That one’s on me!”
“We’ve got to celebrate our first time hanging out outside of school don’t we?” added Aelita.
Behind her, Yumi nodded, waiting for her reply.
“Alright then. Thanks for inviting me!”
She opted for a chocolate one, while Yumi took a lemon one, and Aelita a strawberry one. Pink again, she noticed with a small smile. Her friend definitely had a type in everything. They sat on a bench in a park nearby, and Sissi felt the tension slowly decrease. It was just an outing with friends. Nothing more, nothing unusual. They were not trying to exclude her on purpose. Overall, it was nice to be able to sit and relax with people around. The day was still cold, as it was in early April, and the ice cream made her shiver, making Aelita chuckle, before she shivered herself, leading to all of them laughing.
They quickly finished to eat – shops were closing in around one hour and they wanted to have enough time to visit several of them – chatting about everyday stuff. What they were planning to do during the break that was coming next week, the too hard English class that Sissi was struggling with and for which Aelita offered to give her some help if she needed to, the headphones that Yumi was planning to buy as soon as they’d be done, a new TV show that Aelita had been wanted to watch but never had the opportunity to and for which Sissi offered to go watch together in the common room. It wasn’t something that she particularly cared about – something about DJ-ing – but Aelita had insisted that there would be a romance plot that she likely would enjoy, and she didn’t have anything better to do lately. It was weird how spending more time with their group had led her to having more free time. At least much more than trying to find some non-existent secret. The conversation kept going until they arrived at the first shop, and Sissi barely noticed they had arrived, too caught up in the discussion. It was a nice afternoon, she realised. Spending time together, having food, chatting about random stuff. It had been a while since she had been able to do all of that.
They entered the shop, and went looking to different things. Aelita quickly found out a full outfit that she wanted to try on, something with black pants a long pink tunic and dark pink summer shoes. A bit different from her usual style – Sissi wasn’t sure she had ever seen her wearing something that wasn’t fully pink – and nothing Sissi herself would wear but Aelita seemed happy about it, so that was nice. It felt a bit unusual, being actually happy to have Aelita doing something she liked, instead of mocking her for it. Yumi had taken this time to grab a new bag, hers getting old and about to break, and Sissi went looking at some jewellery without finding anything that caught her eyes.
After showing them the full outfit, Aelita went back to the changing room, and Sissi gave the shop another look. It wasn’t were she usually bought clothes, or anything else. A few months ago, she wouldn’t even have looked at that shop – it was cheap, and not good quality; nothing that she liked – but now that she was there, she enjoyed it. It wasn’t as bad as she had expected, and she even found herself liking a few pair of shoes. Maybe she could come back there at some point. She was looking at some hair clips when the lights turned of.
“Sorry about that,” said the shop assistant. “It’s been about to break for the past few days. The electrician said he’d come by in the afternoon, but we still haven’t heard from him.”
Sissi ignored her – she didn’t see any point in replying anything to that –, turning back to meet with the girls in the changing room. If the lights were broken, it was likely harder for Aelita to get ready and maybe she needed a bit of help. When she reached it, Yumi was already there, whispering something that Sissi didn’t hear. She immediately turned around hearing Sissi approaching, and by the look on her face, she immediately realised there was something wrong.
“Oh Sissi. I’m sorry, something came up. Do you mind if we stop here for today and go shopping another time?”
Yumi’s voice was gentle, but firm and Sissi’s heart skipped a bit. The afternoon had been going well and she had almost forgotten the distance she had felt with the others the past few weeks. She didn’t reply, staying frozen in place, waiting for something to happen.
“I’m sorry,” said Aelita, still hidden behind the curtain. Her voice was shaking, though Sissi couldn’t tell why. “I’m not feeling well, but can’t wait to do that another time, it was nice.”
Sissi tensed. Of course this was going to happen. She had been naive to think otherwise, to think that the others would actually want to spend more time with her.
“If you say so,” she replied abruptly.
“By the way, I hope you don’t buy that outfit. It’s really ugly you know. Even more than your usual one,” she added before being able to stop herself.
****
Sissi collapsed on her bed, her cheeks burning. They hadn’t stopped burning since she had left the shop after snapping at Aelita. Well, there was her chance of actually being friends with them at some point. Maybe they had actually been getting tired with hanging out with her and found an excuse and in that case it didn’t even matter. Or, Aelita had actually been feeling unwell and she had completely ruined their friendship for good. Either way, it was over. She grabbed her plushy, letting her tears fall. No one was going to see her here. She had said that only to hurt Aelita, to not be the only one to hurt, but it wasn’t really true. The outfit wouldn’t have been her style, but it did suit Aelita well. She hoped that she had managed to buy it in the end. Not that it mattered anymore.
She turned around, trying to find a comfortable way to lay in her bed, putting on music as loud as she could. A few minutes passed, then a few more. Things didn’t feel better. If anything, they felt even worst now that she was able to think clearly. She couldn’t let things end like that, with her snapping at Aelita and Yumi after they had given up on her. If the others didn’t want her to be around, they could just say it instead of constantly pushing her away.
She got up, and sat in front of a computer, thinking of something that could help her. Maybe she could send an email? Aelita was a nerd, she’d likely be able to see that one quickly. No, that felt weird. She didn’t even have her email address saved anywhere. She open up the internet, trying to find out what to do in situations like that. Maybe to find some people who had been in similar situation than her and who could help her out. She was too old for advice and personal blogs – at least that’s what she had told Milly when she had caught her looking at some on one of the school’s computer – but she still opened some of these to try to figure out what to do.
After about two hours of search – during which at least 30 min had been spent fighting against the school’s internet connection – and several dozens of blogs visited, she closed her eyes, stretching her arms out. All blogs had a similar advice: she had to apologise. Of course she had thought of that before, but she wasn’t sure of it. The others were mad at her, so there was no reason why they’d want to hear her out. Plus, they had hurt her as well, and no one had apologised to her. She stared at her computer screen, hoping for something else to appear, to have another option. Maybe someone who would tell her that it was best to wait it out, or that she was losing her time by trying to be friendly, but there was nothing of the sort. So, she sighed and got ready to leave her room.
****
When Sissi finally knocked on Aelita’s door, it was already late. She had made a stop to have a quick dinner. Thankfully it had been late enough than no one was left at the cafeteria, though Rosa had been nice enough to let her have some leftovers despite dinner time being over for a good hour. Then, she had spent even more time in front of her computer, hesitating again on whether or not she had to do that. Apologising wasn’t her style usually. But neither was hanging out with Yumi, Aelita and the rest of the group, so she knocked at the door.
It took a few seconds for Aelita to open the door, during which Sissi constantly looked around. If Jim caught her trying to visit someone else that late at night, provisor’s daughter or not she was done for. Actually, she would be even more done for, her dad wouldn’t be nice about that and she’d likely have to stay on campus for the next vacation instead of visiting her family.
“Sissi? What are you doing there?”
Aelita looked tired, her eyes a bit red. So, she had actually not been feeling well. Sissi felt a pinch of guilt. She had been mean for no reason then.
“Can I come I? It won’t take long, I just don’t want to risk Jim finding me here.”
The girl in front of her sighed, looking even more tired than she had the previous minute. Her grip onto the door tightened, and for a second Sissi thought she was about to slam it in her face.
“Fine.” Her tone was snaky. “You have two minutes.”
The door opened wider, and Sissi walked inside as fast as she could, only to be met by Jeremy, Odd and Ulrich, two of them sitting on the bed, Ulrich on the chair in front of Aelita’s computer. Great. So everyone probably already knew what happened.
“So, what do you want?” asked Aelita, closing the door behind her.
All eyes were now focused on her. Well, she didn’t have a choice now.
“I…” Sissi paused. She had read about what she was supposed to do, but in front of everyone it wasn’t easy to fully recall it. What had that blog said? The one with the purple colours and random music recommendations at the end of each post. Well one of these. First apologise. Then say what you are apologising for. And why it’s important to apologise for it or something like that. She wasn’t sure about that last part, but the rest was easy. At least it did sound easy. Wasn’t easy at all when she thought about it for more than one second, but she still had to do it. “I wanted to say I’m sorry. For earlier I mean. For screaming at you before leaving.”
Aelita was still staring at her, saying nothing so she added.
“For the record, I don’t think your outfit was ugly. It’s not something that I would personally wear, but it does suit you. So yeah, I’m sorry about that.”
It wasn’t the best possible apology, but at least she had said something.
“Oh,” said Aelita. “I wasn’t expecting that, um, thank you.”
She smiled at her, with a sincere smile. Well, at least that’s how she perceived it. The others stayed silent, but she didn’t pay attention to it. They weren’t there earlier, and they weren’t to one to whom she had talked to.
“Well, that’s it. That’s what I wanted to say. I, um, I probably should be going now.”
There wasn’t any notes on any of the blogs of what to do after apologising. Was she just supposed to wait for someone else to say something? Or to try to add something else? She turned around, walking towards the door.
“Thank you for coming by.” Aelita’s voice was flat. Granted, it was late at night and the day had been long. “See you later.”
So that was it. Just a simple exchange and then what? Would they talk again? Would they be back to how it was before, with those awkward silences when she entered a room. If she was going to constantly be excluded from her friend’s group maybe it was better to not be a part of a group at all. She turned back, trying to control herself as much as she could – she wasn’t going to look even more fragile than she was now, it wasn’t like her –, her voice still shaking.
“Why do you avoid me? All the time. You keep changing the topic or getting silent when I arrive, keep leaving early when we do stuff together. Just tell me that you don’t want to see me, if you don’t want to, we can go back to not talking to each other. I don’t need you.”
The silence fell again for a few seconds, all eyes directed at her. She had been too harsh, too mean again. The others exchanged a look. Time felt suspended, as if everyone was holding their breath. Finally, Jeremy broke the silence.
“We should talk about it tomorrow after class.”
Another unanswered question.
“Fine.” she let out.
Before anyone else could say anything, she left the room, closing the door behind her and collapsing onto it.
“...maybe we could…” Odd’s muffled voice was audible through the closed door.
“...show it directly.” said another voice. Ulrich’s one maybe.
A few more sentences were heard here and there, making no sense to her. Something about a factory. Going back if something failed. That is was stupid.
She grunted. Hearing part of the conversation was worst than to not hear anything at all. It wouldn’t help her to try to guess what was going on. She walked back to her room, realising a few seconds later by hearing noise on the corridor that Jim had almost been able to see her, and, for the second time of the day, collapsed onto her bed.
****
The day had been slow to pass. Despite the others’ effort to smile at her and act as if nothing had happened, Sissi had done her best to avoid them, eating on her own at breakfast and lunch and actively focusing on her homework during study time. She didn’t want to pretend that things were alright, to spend every moment with them questioning what they were really thinking. At least now, classes were over. She walked up to a bench in the park surrounding campus, were the others had told her to meet them. It felt strange, overly formal for a small discussion with friends, even with classmates, but at least no one else would be there to see her if things didn’t end up well. It would be nice to have some quiet after that meeting. The others were already sitting at the bench, enjoying the sun and the warm weather when she arrived. Upon noticing her, Yumi waved, gesturing at her to join them. She sat next to Odd and Ulrich, facing everyone else. One more time an awkward silence settled, Yumi and Jeremy looking at her, Aelita avoiding her glaze.
“So…” she started, unsure of what to say either.
The rest of the group exchanged a look, another one that she didn’t understand the meaning of, and Ulrich nodded.
“For the record, I don’t think this is the right way to do that,” grumbled Yumi. “It’s not even been two months.”
Great, so that was up for a good start then.
“We’ve all voted”, said Ulrich calmly.
“Fine. But I still think there would have been other options.”
“Things aren’t going to be like last time,” added Jeremy, before pausing for a second. “But, now, we should probably start to explain it.”
He turned around to look at her, ready to deliver a speech.
“There are some things we have to tell you Sissi, but you must promise to not tell anyone else. It’s really important.”
She wasn’t sure what type of things required her to swear to secret, nor what required them to be that formal, but if she wanted to have answers, it was probably best to agree to it and see after. She wasn’t going to start debating what the others asked of her, the faster they’d get to the point the better it would be. Worst case scenario, she’d have to break a promise, and if she had to reach that point, they’d likely already wouldn’t be friends anymore, so it didn’t really matter.
“Um, ok, I promise I won’t tell anyone then.”
The others nodded, more solemn that she had expected.
“I’ll go directly at it then,” Jeremy continued. “We’ve seen you searching around for quite some time, and you were right, we did have a secret.”
Sissi nodded along. So she had been right in the end. After all those months of trying to figure things out, she finally knew it. She had been right.
“This is likely going to seem crazy to you, but there isn’t any easy way to explain it. More than a year ago, I went to the old factory near the school. It has a few passageways that go directly from the school to there, strangely enough. I wanted to find construction material, but I also found a quantum computer.”
“Quantum...computer?”
Odd chimed in.
“Very complex and powerful computer.”
“Science fiction stuff,” added Ulrich, before being cut again by Jeremy.
“Well I found this computer, and I turned it on. And inside, I found out much more than I could have imagined. A whole virtual word, with a person stuck inside. Aelita.”
“That’s why I only joined school around a year ago. I was stuck there before.”
This was crazy. A virtual computer, with a world and Aelita trapped in it? Sissi felt her head spinning a tiny bit. That was stupid. Impossible. They were playing games with her, she was sure of that. None of this existed. But they all looked so serious, so convinced. Almost convincing enough to make her question it. It was a crazy story. It would have been a crazy one to imagine as well. The reasonable part of her brain kept screaming that this wasn’t possible, but if they had just wanted to stop meeting with her, they wouldn’t have imagined some complex story like that. Unless it was some sort of mean joke to her. Knots formed in her stomach as she waited for the rest of the explanation, decided to let them finish before asking more questions.
“There was equipment allowing us to go to that world to try to free Aelita from it. Unfortunately there was also an evil artificial intelligence trapped in it, that tried to destroy us and her as well.”
“Couldn’t you have turned it off instead?” she asked, immediately coming back on her resolution to let them finish. None of that made sense.
“We could. But that would have mean letting Aelita to die.”
Her throat tightened at the thought. Aelita was her friend. At least she hoped she was, and she didn’t want to see her die in a computer, if any of this was even real. Still, the evil artificial intelligence part seemed dangerous. Not only for them but for everyone.
“Wasn’t the risk too big? Couldn’t someone die?”
They exchanged a look that she still didn’t understood, but she didn’t push it. There were things that were better not to ask.
“We fought it. For a long time. Missing classes and nights of sleep.”
“And time to rest and do homework,” added Odd, quickly cut by Ulrich.
“Well you mostly missed homework in your case here.” He laughed, followed by the others.
It was strange, hearing them talk about such important stuff so casually. Like it meant nothing to them, was just their regular everyday life. Which was probably the case if they were telling the truth. She was starting to believe that. Or at least to be willing to consider the possibility of it being real, at least enough to let them finish their story. Still, it was insane. All of this was insane.
“And after some time we managed to bring Aelita back to Earth, but by then, the evil artificial intelligence had managed to reach the rest of the internet, and we couldn’t just turn off the computer. It took us a few more months but we finally defeated it fully a few week ago,” said Jeremy with a controlled voice.
Aelita looked away, slouching down on the bench. The story felt incomplete. Some explanations were missing.
“I still don’t understand, if it was that bad why not contact someone? The police, the authorities or someone?”
“Do you think they would have believed us?” Yumi seemed less upset than earlier, though it was hard to tell. “Even if they had, that would have meant leaving Aelita to die, as Jeremy said. And once the artificial intelligence had escaped, they wouldn’t have known how to deal with it, and the whole world would have been in danger.”
“Plus, if they had taken us seriously”, completed Odd, “we’ve been to that virtual world. It wasn’t sure if they would have wanted to see the effect onto us or not.”
“There is something else.” Aelita’s voice was still quiet, as if she was scared to speak. “We know who built the computer but the reason why remains unclear. There are a lot of things we don’t know. Franz...the person building the computer had been part of a military project and that’s what led him to build it. We don’t know what those people know, what they want, nor who they are. If we had contacted any form of authority, they could have found us.”
That was...a lot. If they were telling the truth… But they couldn’t, it was too big, too much information. She couldn’t think anymore. It had to be a joke, right? Evil artificial intelligence, virtual words, the military? She looked at the group, still all looking so serious, so...hurt? A joke wouldn’t have gone that far would it?
“Why telling me then?”
“You’re our friend.” Aelita had spoken, a gentle voice. “At least, we want you to be. And if we keep going like that, we’ll have to keep hurting you. Yesterday, when the light turned off at the store, I started panicking. The artificial intelligence, it used electricity to do things, and for a moment I though…” Her sentence stayed suspended there.
Yumi placed her hand on top of Aelita’s one, comforting her.
“I’m sorry for screaming at you,” Sissi said again. She had made things worst, she knew that, and it hurt to think about it.
She took a few seconds to think, to trying to absorb more of the information.
“Still, I’m not sure I fully believe you. It seems...too much. Too big.”
“If you want, we could show you?” offered Jeremy.
****
Sissi still wasn’t sure how she had let herself be convinced to do that. She wanted to know, but she wasn’t ready for that. To see whatever secret they had been hiding, especially if they were telling the truth. First they had walked in the sewers – it had been gross and uncomfortable, but normal all things considered. And then, they had arrived at the factory, and things had started to get weird. There was a huge structure – the supercomputer had said the others, but her knowledge in computers was too limited to determine if the thing actually looked like a computer – and a few floors above a huge screen, that, when turned on had projected a large hologram that couldn’t have been fake. They had argued on whether or not the thing should have been turned on, but they had deemed it save, which was only half reassuring. And now, she was standing in front of what appeared to be a giant coffin.
“...and those are the things you were using to go to the virtual world?”
“Lyoko, yes.” Yumi seemed more confident now than they had reached the factory, after spending a part of the trip mentioning that turning the computer back on was a mistake, before finally agreeing for Sissi’s sake. It felt nice actually. Being told the truth, being included. And Yumi deciding that showing Sissi was important enough to push back her fears.
“Isn’t it...dangerous? To go there?”
The voice of Jeremy came from the speakers. It was weird, how well the voice came through the different floors.
“We’ve done it a very large amount of time I can assure you it’s completely safe.”
“So, what do you say,” asked Odd “do you want to go see by yourself?”
She paused. Seeing the factory and the computer was one thing, but getting in the virtual world herself? It felt like an unnecessary risk. She had just seen the rest, realised that they had been telling her the truth, and barely had any time to register all of this, she couldn’t simply go in a virtual world right now, not after all of this. But if she didn’t go now, she’d never understand. She’d have to hear the others mentioning Lyoko, discussing about their past experiences without ever knowing how it felt like.
“I think so, yeah.” She had replied too fast, without fully taking the time to think about it. Well, it was too late now.
“If you are going to be doing that, you have to swear to never mention that to anyone,” insisted Yumi.
“I swear I won’t tell anyone.” She meant it. From what they had said, if she tried to warn anyone, she would be putting them – and likely herself as well – in danger. And, the artificial intelligence – she still couldn’t believe that she was using this word so casually now, a few hours ago it would have seem too unreal to even consider – had been defeated anyway, so there wasn’t any danger anymore.
“Perfect! I’ll send Ulrich and Odd first, and then you and Yumi in that case.”
“Me and Jeremy will stay behind to supervise the process,” added Aelita.
Ulrich and Odd entered the large coffins – scanners, and the doors closed, opening back a few seconds later. Empty. Despite herself – or mostly, despite her fear – Sissi stepped in. It was too late to back down now, but if she had been able to, she likely would have. The idea of being locked in a box and then to disappear didn’t seem much appealing now that she was facing it. Inside another scanner, Yumi gave her a reassuring smile, and she smiled back at her, trying to mask her anxiety. Then the door closed, and it took all of her strength to not start punching on the wall for someone to let her out.
“Jeremy here.” The voice came from the speakers, as audible as it had been a few minutes before despite the scanner doors being locked. “I’m going to start the process, it’s only going to take a few seconds now.”
She closed her eyes, focusing on the voice instead, trying not to think of said process.
“Transfer Yumi. Transfer Sissi. Scanner Yumi. Scanner Sissi. Virtualization.”
She felt her body become different in a way, and then she was falling. She opened her eyes, just in time to see herself falling towards a white ground, falling on her knees. Next to her, Yumi appeared as well, standing up, and offering her a hand, which she took, getting back up.
“Don’t worry it’s a matter of habit, we’ve all fallen a few times at first.”
“Welcome to Lyoko! The ice sector of it to be precise.” Odd made a large gesture, showing everything around them. “It’s only one of them. There are five sectors in total. Ice, mountain, forest, desert, and another one that is more of the data part of it.”
Sissi looked around, trying to catch her breath, and realising that she didn’t need to. Her fall has also not been painful, despite the height being pretty important, although it had been uncomfortable. That felt weird overall. As if she wasn’t fully real anymore. Everywhere around her was a vast spread of white land, looking like ice, and a bit slippery, but not cold. It was somewhat pretty. Not a place she would ever consider going to for a vacation – she wasn’t really found of the cold –, but nice. It was really detailed as well for something that was only virtual.
“It’s not cold.” She commented, still confused. She would have expected it to be at least colder than the real world, as it was ice, but she couldn’t feel any difference.”
“When we are in Lyoko, we only have two sense.” The voice of Aelita came from nowhere, making her jump.
“What is…”
“Oh yeah sorry. Since me and Jeremy are in front of the computer and you are well, inside of it, we can talk to you and monitor your current state. As I was saying, you only have two sense at the moment: sight and hearing. You won’t be able to feel the cold or the pain, since those haven’t been programmed.”
She nodded, trying to get used to all the information. It was a lot, and she was getting tired. She hasn’t slept much and the day had been long and now it was a lot of new information.
“Don’t worry, we’ve all been there, it’s a lot at first.”
Ulrich smiled at her, and she finally noticed the different outfits the others where wearing. Yumi had a purple outfit, Ulrich a brown one, with two swords, both looking really nice in it. Odd was wearing...something. He had cat ears and a dog drawing in the middle of his chest. She might have been making a face because he immediately chimed in.
“Yeah, I know, I know, it looks weird. Don’t comment on that.”
The others’ laugh was barely contained and she chuckled as well.
“Hey, it’s not that bad. Yours is pretty nice though.”
She looked down. Her everyday outfit had been replaced with another one. She was wearing something that resembled a majorette outfit, a black top with shiny pink motives and sparkles, enough to make her shine, but not enough to look ridiculous. She had black close fit pants, and was wearing fingerless black gloves. She had never worn any of these but it was a nice look on her, so maybe it was something she could actually consider wearing. At her waist was a grey stick, and when she tried to grab it, it opened up, getting longer and revealed two pointy ends. The stick dropped from her hands and she stepped back immediately. Yumi picked up the stick and closed it, handing it back to her.
“Pretty nice. That would have been useful to fight when XANA – the artificial intelligence – was still around.”
“You were fighting it? I mean physically fighting it?”
She hadn’t pictured it like this, though she wasn’t sure exactly how she had picture it.
“Well, not XANA directly,” Ulrich replied. “It was creating some monsters to fight us, but yeah that’s the idea.”
“Ok…” She didn’t know what else to say. It was a lot, but it wasn’t any weirder than the rest. Not any weirder than literally being in a virtual word that looked like an ice field with her friends. She looked around once more, trying to fully process it. It didn’t seem as strange as before, and in front of her Odd, Ulrich and Yumi were looking at her, calm and with the air of people that knew what they were doing. It was alright. She smiled at them, more confident than she had been earlier.
“So, is that all like this?”
The other exchanged a look, and Yumi was the one to reply.
“It can be more varied than that. Come on, we’ll show you around!”