Season 5 - 2010?

And here we thought XANA had been defeated for good. It seemed that as soon Season 4 - and apparently the series - ended, I saw this image released for "Code Lyoko: Reloaded."

Well that's cool! I forgot about it for a year or so, but when I started this blog, I looked back into it to see if there's any substance to it. Sure enough, the chatter on the web is that it will be released sometime in 2010. It's not clear what form Code Lyoko: Reloaded will take. User CodeLyokoReloaded11 on YouTube (an American animator who worked on all four seasons, and has been authorized to give us updates. Here's the channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/CodeLyokoReloaded11#p/a/u/2/uOfJUni6sXE) has said that four books will be released (titled (1) The Underground Castle, (2) A City With No Name, (3) The Return of the Phoenix, (4) The Army of No Name). There's also rumors going around that Reloaded will involve a trilogy of movies, and even a 5th season. CodeLyokoReloaded11 isn't authorized to tell us whether it will or not (it's a secret for now), but will tell us when allowed to. So far, all he can say is that it's a special designed to explain everything they couldn't in ther series. There's hopes at Taffy Animation that Reloaded can be released by February 2010.

I'm rather excited for this. I definitely welcome the opportunity for more explanation of CL's backstory, and the prospect of four books is exciting. It also might spark more interest in this blog, which would always be a plus. I probably won't be halfway done recapping Season 1 by the time it's released, but I'll make sure to give up-to-date Reloaded recaps as much as I can.

In the meantime, I'm still working on the recap for "XANA Awakens: Part 2." I can't guarantee when I'll have it done and posted, but Thanksgiving at the latest!

Xana Awakens: Part 1

First off, I know that both parts of Xana Awakens, the prequel to the events of Code Lyoko, premiered on October 2nd and 3rd, 2006 at the beginning of season 3, so recapping them here is technically out of order. However, since the events of Xana Awakens occur prior to those in Teddygozilla, the very first episode of the series, I think it makes more sense to just cover Xana Awakens right now. So let's virtualize right in:

I won't cover the theme song, since (1) this was the theme song used for seasons 2 and 3, not for season 1, and (2) that'd be totally pointless!

Night: Jeremie's Bedroom - Kadic Academy, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
We begin with Jeremie Belpois, an eighth-gade student at Kadic, sitting at his desktop computer, making an entry into his journal which is dated for October 9th of...year unidentified. ... Thank you, Mr. Non-specific? (To be fair, the creators never explicitly specificed a year so as to make it feel like the series could be occuring at any time in the 21st century. However, a wallpaper I once had for my laptop was a screencap of Jeremie's computer during one of his rematerialization tests on Aelita, and the date in the corner read "05 Dec 05." Given that the series spans about two years in the lives of the characters, CL takes place between 2005 and 2007. And to think, I was solving matrices in high school algebra while these kids were out saving the world! How'd I miss out on getting born in France?). Anyhow, Jeremie (who's dorm room makes mine look immaculately clean), states that during September he had been hunting for spare parts for the robots he builds as a hobby...

September 2005: Renault Automobile Factory - Ile Seguine, Boulogne-Billancourt
To this end, he snuck out of the school one night and traveled by sewer (did he forget there's a street grid?) to the nearby abandonned auto plant in search of scrap metal and spare copper wiring. On the factory floor, Jeremie finds a large cargo lift that, despite its age, still works. And then his narration goes manic, as he begins babbling excitedly about discovering a computer lab, equipment he calls "Scanners", and "this totally intense mainframe." In the weeks between that discovery and his journal entry on October 9th, he hasn't told anyone, despite the fact that he turned on that "totally intense mainframe" almost as soon as he discovered it, uttering words that would take the heart of any Darwin Award winner: "I hope I'm not going to regret this in a minute." Oh, don't worry Jeremie, you'll be regretting it for more than a minute! More like for TWO FREAKING YEARS!!!! But at least it got you something you never had before - friends! Despite being scared stiff, Jeremie grips the large handle that activates the supercomputer and flips it up. As he steps back, the supercomputer's circuit boards begin glowing and let off a glaring flash of light. Stunned, Jeremie steps back into the elevator and takes it up to the computer lab. Unlike the lab in Garage Kids (see previous post) where the computer terminal was located in an alcove underneath the supercomputer itself, the creators did some rearranging for CL. While still located in the Renault factory, the entire apparatus for storing, accessing, and monitoring Lyoko doesn't sit in a giant heap on a gutted factory floor. That's just bad interior design! Instead, the computer lab, scanners, and supercomputer are located on three separate levels underneath the factory and are accessible only by the freight elevator (which has been outfitted with a very snazzy electromagnetic lock) and the factory's vent shafts. This still leaves the abandonned factory above as a cover, as well as an exciting backdrop for many future episodes.

Jeremie sits down at the computer terminal, flexes his hands, and with a rather strange flourish of his arms, says "Now, let's see what you've got under the hood, my friend!" Wow, no wonder he didn't have any friends before! After entering a few commands (talk about a quick learner!), the tri-partite monitor flashes on. The central monitor presents a loading screen, while the two side-monitors load up and display vital sign measurements, a heart monitor (hint!), power gauges, factory schematics, a map of Boulogne-Billancourt, and the option to receive news broadcasts. When the computer finishes loading, a window pops open on the central screen revealing a sleeping young girl with pink hair and elfin ears. Amazed, Jeremie wonders aloud if this is a video game. This wakes the girl up. She looks around in a surprised, curious manner, before focusing on Jeremie and asking him who he is, and where she is. Surprised again, Jeremie gasps.

Ruh roh! What could happen next?

October 10th, 2005: Kadic Academy - Science Building
Not a direct continuation of that storyline, clearly. We skip to Kadic's science building the night after Jeremie updates his journal. Now we get to see some of the redesign the CL creators did for the school. Whereas in Garage Kids the school was a postmodernist cube located in a hi-rise district of Paris, in CL it has been moved to the industrial suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt so as to be closer to the factory, and has been redesigned to look more like a traditional boarding school, with brick buildings and extensive grounds. In fact, Kadic is visual clone of Lycee Lakanal, a real bording school in Sceaux, another suburb of Paris. Kadic itself is fictitious, and is essentially just Lakanal's campus picked up, moved several kilometers northeast, and plopped in the middle of Boulogne-Billancourt. There is no famous figure in French history named "Kadic." The creators have stated that the name is an intentional corruption of the middle initial and last name of American science fiction author Philip K. Dick, and Kadic Academy is named in homage of him. (However, Lycee Lakanal is named after Joseph Lakanal, a prominent French clergyman and politician who voted for the execution of King Louis XVI during the French Revolution, and later undertook extensive reform of France's education system before being exiled to the United States after Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. It can be assumed, as I do, that in the fictional history of Code Lyoko's universe, a similar revolutionary politician and education reformer named "Kadic" lived during the French Revolution and got this nice boarding school named in his honor).

We see the exterior of the Science Building, an ugly concrete hulk clearly built during an architectural dark age, while a school bell rings. Students, including Jeremie, file into a physics class taught by Suzanne Hertz, a multi-disciplinary science instructor who is featured prominently throughout the series. As Mrs. Hertz and the students pull out their natural science textbooks, a grimacing boy we remember from Garagage Kids as Ulrich sits down. A boy walks up to him and asks if he's Ulrich Stern. Ulrich turns and sizes up the boy, who wears golden sneakers to match his blond hair (let down casually as a mullet) and an all-purple wardrobe to match the purple splotch in his hair (how that splotch got there...is never explained). The boy introduces himself as Odd Della Robbia, an international transfer student from the United States (his last name suggests he is a descendent of Luca Della Robbia, a Florentine pottery-maker and sculptor whose descendents became equally renowned artists during the Italian Renaissance. Incidentally, Odd's parents are also artists, as revealed later in the series, and he himself has well-developed artistic talents). He also informs Ulrich that he is his new roommate. Natural loner that he is, Ulrich is unenthusiastic, to say the least, and thinks Odd is going to try to latch onto him. Odd tries to allay Ulrich's fears, telling him that by the end of the day he won't even notice him. Ulrich gets defensive, saying he sure hopes so and warns Odd that he better cool it and take it slow. Odd, cool as a cucumber and not agitated by Ulrich's behavior, agrees.

And then she walks in. A girl with shoulder-length black hair, a yellow hairband that matches her violet-and-pink wardrobe, and platform shoes (clearly the fashionista of the series) struts up to Ulrich and Odd's lab table, greets Ulrich as "sweetheart" (in an annoyingly airy voice - clearly meant to reflect her status as a complete airhead), and announces that she has something important to tell him. Ulrich, clearly not charmed, asks her snidely if she lost part of her make-up kit. Unfazed, she replies it's "nothing as serious as that," and tells Ulrich to come by her dorm that at 20:00 PM (8:00 for us metric time-illiterate Americans) that night. Odd, after swivelling around to check out the girl's behind, cocks his head at Ulrich and asks who "the good-lookin' babe" is. Ulrich replies that it's Sissi, the headmaster's daughter. He goes on to tell Odd that even though every other guy at school has a crush on her, she only has a crush on him. Odd says that's pretty cool, but Ulrich responds that Siss is not only braindead, but also a leach. Odd, seeing his point, decides that Sissi's crush is pretty lame. As we'll see through the rest of the series, he and Sissi develop a very antagonistic relationship, driven mainly by Odd's many insufferable one-liners and pranks.

After class lets out, Ulrich and Odd leave the Science Building together, with Odd giving the punch line to a bad joke about a waiter and frog's legs. Ulrich, clearly having heard too many of these, tells Odd that he's beginning to think his new roommate won't leave him alone. Odd retorts that they're going to have to get to know each other, and says that by the end of the day, Ulrich won't be able to do without him. So much for his earlier promise of not being noticeable by the end of the day!

Renault Factory
Seagulls fly by the facade of the factory while inside, Jeremie sits down at the computer terminal to interface with the girl he discovered the month before. He addresses her as "Artificial Intelligence," and she quickly asks him to call her something else. (This is more of a testament to her patience than anything else. Jeremie had discovered her a month ago, and this can't be the first time he's gone back to interface with her. Imagine putting up with being addressed by "Artificial Intelligence" for an entire month before requesting another name. This girl deserves everyone's respect). Jeremie asks her if she likes the name Maya (after Autodesk Maya, the high-end 3D computer graphics and modelling software developed in 1995 by the Canadian firm Alias Systems Corporation and later bought by Autodesk. "Maya" comes from the Sanskrit word for "illusion" and was used to create the graphics for movies such as Jurassic Park and Terminator 2 - clearly an appropriate name for a virtual girl!). The girl responds that she likes that name, and asks Jeremie if he has any answers as to what her purpose in her virtual universe is. Jeremie replies that he's figured out only that the virtual universe is named Lyoko and that she is a part of it. He advises her to try and leave the current area she's in - a platform in a cylindrical structure surrounded by hundreds of screens reading off binary code (very Halo-esque!). Maya looks around for a door, and only notices a narrow bridge leading off her platform and into the forest of screens. She touches her hands to them, only to find her phasing through the structure's sides. She ends up outside the structure in a virtual forest, composed of hundreds of trees (although none have foliage) bordering a myriad of snaking, interweaving paths floating in a golden-tinted virtual space. Jeremie asks for a visual. Maya gives the mental command to the supercomputer to open a window showing Jeremie what she's seeing. Jeremie is amazed, but not as amazed as he is when a large hologram appears next to him, having been generated by the holograph next to the computer terminal. Overawed, Jeremie tells Maya that Lyoko doesn't just consist of a forest, but four sectors, each based on a different geographic feature found on Earth (forest, desert, mountain, polar). While Maya wanders around, suddenly two roach-like creatures appear from behind some tree roots. She smiles at them initially, but as they block her path she becomes much more uncertain, asking Jeremie what's going on. Jeremie, not seeming to notice the ominous background music as the roaches approach Maya, exclaims that the presence of virtual animals is fantastic, as it implies an entire virtual ecosystem. Um, no - no ecosystem requires mechanical roaches that fire lasers, which is exactly what they proceed to do. Fortunately their aiming is about as bad as that of the average video game AI, and their lasers strike around Maya's feet. This nevertheless sends her sprinting back to the cylindrical structure she originated from, which Jeremie calls a "tower" (that's the term we'll be using for it from now on - they are exactly the same as the organic towers from Garage Kids, except extremely scaled down in terms of size). As she runs, the roaches keep firing on her, until one laser bolt hits her squarely in the back, felling her just short of the tower. Jeremie panics as he sees her life-points (as shown by her avatar on his computer screen) drop. Maya staggers up, and makes a final panicked dash towards the tower. Just as she's about to enter, another laser bolt hits her, knocking her forward into the tower. She collapses on the platform, which is revealed to be in the shape of a strange symbol - we saw it before on the panel shielding the activation switch for the supercomputer, an enigmatic series of circles and bars that we'll know as the Eye of Xana. Back on Earth, a panicked Jeremie breathes a sigh of relief as Maya's life-points begin recharging. She's safe. For now...

Afternoon: Kadic Academy - Vending Machines
We see a dark-haired Japanese girl dressed in all black - Yumi, from Garage Kids - order and stir a coffee she just got from a hot beverage machine. She walks past Odd and Ulrich as she leaves the vending stalls, not paying them any attention. Ulrich watches her closely as she walks away, while Odd, clearly forgetting that he thought Sissi's crush on Ulrich was lame (Congratulations Odd, you win the ribbon for SHORTEST-TERM MEMORY EVER!!!! You put goldfish to shame!) prattles on about Ulrich's "girlfriend" Sissi, to which Ulrich angrily responds that she's not his girlfriend. Odd crushes his coffee cup and arc-shots it for a three-point basket into the trash can, saying this is even better for Ulrich because that means Sissi is available. Jeremie walks past them while the two continue to argue, but when he tries to order a cup of juice, the machine electrocutes him. Ulrich drops his soda and immediately rushes over to Jeremie to help him, leaving Odd standing confused. Ulrich sends Odd to tell the teacher on duty while he helps up a dazed and frazzled Jeremie with the intention of taking him to the infirmary. As they leave the vending stalls, the electronic displays on the vending machine begin flashing yellow and fizzling.

Ruh roh...

Early Evening: Kadic Academy - Infirmary
Yolande Perraudin, the school nurse, takes Jeremie's blood pressure and informs him that he's suffered nothing severe, just a minor electrical shocks and some superficial burns. Ulrich quips tha Jeremie wanted some juice, and certainly got some, getting Jeremie to laugh. As Ulrich leaves to go to his martial arts class, he promises to check on Jeremie later. (The whole time, they refer to each other only by their last names - a common, polite practice between acquaintances at bording schools).

Late Evening: Kadic Academy - Gymnasium
And now we are introduced to another of Kadic's faculty, Jim Morales, a heavy-set Hispanic-American and comic foil of the series who has travelled the world doing...things he'd rather not talk about...and finally ended up as a gym teacher and athletics coordinator at Kadic. He greets his class, which turns out to only be Ulrich, and (sarcastically) says he's pleased at the high turn-out. He then pulls off a lame joke, naming several martial arts - Kalarippayattu, Kenjutsu, Jujutsu - and says they are not entrees at the Golden Dragon Chinese Restaurant. At that point, Yumi walks up, dressed in sweat clothes for the class, and Jim shifts into political-correct mode, saying he meant no offense to Yumi. Yumi says that's perfectly fine, as she's not Chinese, but Japanese (see, we can already tell Jim is going to be a dunderhead!). Embarrased at not being able to identify a Japanese surname from a Chinese surname, Jim continues on with his lecture, saying that he will teach them martial arts technqiues that can save his life, as they did for him when he was a forest ranger in Quebec and an angry beaver attacked him while he was eating a waffle drenched in maple syrup (no, I'm not kidding - that was in the dialogue!) He says he was able to fend off the beaver due to his mastery of "The Raging Fist of Li Fo Chung." Ulrich and Yumi immediately burst out laughing. An indignant Jim asks them what's so funny, and Ulrich points out Jim would've been better off not talking about that. Thank you Ulrich, that explains where that running gag came from. Jim, only slightly tongue-in-cheek, orders Ulrich and Yumi to get into groups of two for sparring. Yumi surprises Ulrich with a perfect backflip kick. Ulrich shrugs it off, saying that's pretty good for a beginner. He learns to regret his choice of words as Yumi roundhouse-kicks him in the face, knocking him to the floor and tackling him down. In an even more hackneyed rehash of the same scene from Garage Kids, the two struggle against each other before suddenly stopping and blushing. Jim breaks it up, saying both need a lot more work, but that should conclude class for the day. ARE YOU KIDDING?!?! THAT CLASS LASTED JUST ONE MINUTE AND THIRTY-TWO SECONDS!!!! First off, what sort of serious teacher just convenes and dismisses class that quickly? And second off, WHERE CAN I SIGN UP FOR ONE OF THOSE CLASSES?!?!?! It'd make my tendencies towards insomnia so much more bearable if I didn't have hour-long classes to get to in the morning! But this short class doesn't phase the kids, who Jim tells to bow to each other. Yumi does so respectfully, but Ulrich, his pride wounded by the roundhouse kick (and probably also suffering from a concussion) stalks off disrespectfully without bowing. This deeply offends Yumi, who says bitterly "Nice to meet you too." Yeah, things aren't going to improve much in their relationship either.

Night: Ulrich and Odd's Dorm Room, Kadic
Ulrich opens the door to his room, and stumbles back in surprise - Kiwi, Odd's bull terrier/whippet mix, is aggressively digging through his sheets while Odd sits nonchalantly on his bed. Odd tells his angry roommate that Kiwi just had a bit of a fit due to being cooped up in the small dorm room, but Ulrich isn't having any, angrily noting how his CDs and clothes have been strewn over the floor and the fact that Kiwi just crapped on his bed. Odd meekly replies that he couldn't take Kiwi out, since dogs aren't allowed on school grounds. Ulrich angrily responds that the headmaster will hear about this and storms out. Odd, as usual, doesn't take the threat seriously as Kiwi happily rips apart Ulrich's pillow.

Jeremie's Dorm Room
Jeremie is working at his desktop. One of his mini-robots sits by the keyboard. Suddenly, Jeremie's computer is hacked - his monitor goes down and is replaced by the same symbol seen on the platform in Lyoko - the Eye of Xana. Jeremie muses that he's seen it before, when suddenly the robot on his desk comes to life, the Eye of Xana appearing in its optical array. As Ulrich walks to Jeremie's room to check on him as he promised, he hears Jeremie screaming. He bursts in to find Jeremie being attacked and electrocuted by two mini-robots at once. Springing into action, Ulrich pries one off the struggling Jeremie, but gasps in pain as another rolls up to him and imparts a jolt of electricity into his leg. He frantically shakes his leg, trying to throw the robot off. He does so, and the robot slams into Jeremie's life-size poster of Albert Einstein, ricochets off the wall, and lands on Jeremie's desk. The Eye of Xana on the monitor blinks away and the robots shut down, leaving Ulrich and Jeremie alone and in shock. Ulrich says Jeremie had better check the settings on his robots, to which Jeremie replies that he had nothing to do with that, the robots just up and attacked him. Ulrich, thinking that makes no sense, asks Jeremie if there's something he'd like to explain. Jeremie, realizing that would require him to divulge the secret of the factory and Maya, tells Ulrich to forget it. Ulrich, not to be denied and not knowing just how in over his head he's about to get, says that he won't leave the room until he finds out what's up, thinking he could be of use to Jeremie if the latter gets attacked by a hairdryer or some other household appliance. Jeremie hesitates, thinking it over, but finally decides to tell Ulrich. He closes his door and asks Ulrich if he can keep a secret...

Renault Factory
Jeremie and Ulrich walk across the bridge connecting the mainland with Ile Seguin, discussing the two secret ways to sneak from the school to the factory - a tunnel beneath the gym and a manhole on the school's grounds, both of which lead to the sewers that connect to the factory. Once inside, Ulrich notices that the stairs that led down to the factory floor have fallen apart over the years. No matter - Jeremie swings down on a cable. Once on the floor, he looks up to see Ulrich still standing there and asks Ulrich if he's afraid of heights. Ulrich retorts that he is not, but his tightly shut eyes and grimace as he grips the cable to slide down say otherwise. The two take the freight elevator to the computer lab, where Jeremie tells Ulrich about the supercomputer and Lyoko. Skeptical, Ulrich tells Jeremie the electric shock fried his brain and this computer is just the control center for the factory. Jeremie then calls up a window with Maya, and sarcastically asks Ulrich if he thinks that's just a program for spraypainting car doors. Ulrich still isn't really impressed (talk about a real log of a head!), thinking Jeremie programmed Maya. Maya sets him straight, while Jeremie tells Ulrich about the threats Maya faces on Lyoko, ending with an affirmation of Lyoko as a "great discovery" and a plea for Ulrich to believe him. Ulrich walks to the "captain's chair" (what else am I going to call it?) and ponders, asking Jeremie if perhaps Lyoko is a giant videogame. Jeremie replies that if it is, it's an incredibly dangerous game. As he points out to Ulrich, his robots were only programmed to fetch a ball, and yet they just tried to kill him. He then draws connections between the Eye of Xana he saw on the supercomputer, on his computer monitor, and on his robot's eye. Ulrich, clearly thinking this is too rich to believe, says this just gets "better and better" and asks Jeremie if the same malevolent intelligence that attacked Maya also wants to kill Jeremie, to which Jeremie responds that that's what it looks like. Ulrich swivels around in the captain's chair, which is designed to run on a hydraulic track around the holograph, and tells Jeremie that if Lyoko is that dangerous, it should be shut down and the authorities should be notified. Maya looks down, crestfallen at this suggestion. Jeremie responds that while Ulrich's point is the most rational, he'd rather help Maya figure out her purpose on Lyoko, and even possibly materialize her to Earth using the scanners. Ulrich, still spinning the captain's chair as if it were one of those cheap spinny chairs you can buy at OfficeMax, incredulously asks Jeremie how he plans to pull that off, to which Jeremie replies "You'll see Stern, you'll see."

Sissi's Dorm Room, Kadic
Clothes are scattered all over Sissi's floor. She holds up a red evening gown to her body, admiring herself in front of the mirror (although she doesn't look too good, considering she has that exfoliating paste - I'll just call it green nasty - on her face). She decides that the red dress is perfect, and that this night, Ulrich will be hers. I never noticed it when I watched the series originally, but that's actually pretty creepy.

Scanner Room, Renault factory
Here's the first we get to see of the scanner room. Again, the design has changed. Whereas in Garage Kids, the scanners were located on top of the supercomputer and where more squat, in CL the've been located one level below the computer lab (and one above the supercomputer room) and made taller and more slender. Jeremie gives Ulrich a short tour of the room and tells him that while he hasn't found a program to rematerialize Maya to Earth, he has discovered one that allows him to virtualize a lifeform to Lyoko. He then goes into a scientific explanation of how the scanners work, which can be made sense of only if written out and/or read slowly (I'll tend to write Jeremie's technical explanations down in totality, so that we'll all be able to make more sense out of them):

"In fact, the supercomputer analyzes your molecular structure through these
cabins, and then breaks down your atoms before digitalizing them, and recreating
a digital reincarnation in the virtual world!"

That one was comparatively minor - some of his explanations can go WAY over anyone's head. Yet Ulrich, as he is prone to do when he hears one of these, is to ask for it in English. And the English version is, you step into the scanner, scanner gets activated, you go to Lyoko. Ulrich is incredulous that such technology can exist. Jeremie taunts him, saying Ulrich willfully doesn't want to believe him. Ulrich says he does want to believe Jeremie, but "virtualization is something straight out of science fiction." Jeremie decides that the best way to prove all of this to Ulrich is to test the virtualization program. For this, they'll need a guinea pig, and Ulrich immediately thinks of the perfect one...

Ruh roh (literally!).

Dormitories, Kadic
As Odd snores, Ulrich wakes up Kiwi and tells him he's going to get virtualized, to which Kiwi only pants.

Meanwhile, in Sissi's room, her radio alarm clock reads 8:10 PM (the "20" on the hour side of the digital display was was cleverly erased and replaced by an "8" by the American dubbers so that the clock would make more sense to a domestic audience). Sissi earlier said she wanted Ulrich to drop by at 8:00, and now that he's stood her up, she's rather put off. She's not one to take it sitting down though, so she...continues sitting down (on her bed) and instead calls Ulrich on her cell phone. Unfortunately, this causes his phone to ring while he's still wrestling to get Kiwi out of the room. The ringing wakes up Odd, who notices Ulrich kidnapping his dog. Odd lets out a cry of protest before chasing after his renegade roommate. When Ulrich doesn't answer Sissi's call, she literally doesn't take it sitting down, and stands up to go hunting for him. As she struts down a hall, Ulrich comes careening around the corner, Kiwi in his arms. This catches Sissi so much by surprise that she can't even react to stop him. Instead, she stops dead in the corridor crossing. Bad choice, because Odd had just decided to spring in an attempt to tackle Ulrich. Instead, he ends up tackling Sissi and landing on top of her. He quickly recovers and chases Ulrich down a flight of stairs, with Sissi taking up the rear. They chase Ulrich all the way to the tunnel underneath the gymnasium, where Sissi indignantly comments that another girl must be the reason Ulrich stood her up. Odd retorts that it's not another girl, but Kiwi, which obviously confuses Sissi, as she faints.

Renault factory
Ulrich barely closes the freight elevator in time. It descends to the scanner room leaving Odd and Sissi, who have doggedly (no pun intended) pursued Ulrich to the factory, to uselessly stare at the elevator as it descends the shaft. Odd wonders aloud why Ulrich would bring Kiwi to an abandonned factory, to which Sissi suggests Ulrich wants to use Kiwi for an unethical science experiment. Odd retorts that Sissi watches too many horror movies. Surprisingly, Sissi agrees with this snub, saying her suggestion was "pretty dumb," and instead suggests Ulrich is involved in witchcraft and wants to use Kiwi as a ritual sacrifice. Odd's not very impressed with that one either.

Ulrich deposits Kiwi in the scanner, who obediently stays in the open cabin (even wagging his tail as he waits for something to happen - good luck trying that with my dog!) Ulrich climbs the service ladder up to the computer lab, where Jeremie, shuffling through his collected notes on the supercomputer, sets about preparing the program. Meanwhile, Odd and Sissi manage to find their way into the scanner room via the vent shafts. Upon sighting the scanners, Odd comments that they look like coffins, at which point Sissi immediately proves she really has no brain by shouting "You're right! Maybe it's the tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh!" Right...a tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh...in FRANCE?!?!?!

Jeremie activates the virtualization program just as Odd discovers Kiwi in one of the scanners. He jumps into it, hugging his puppy, while Sissi remains outside the scanner (fateful choice). Jeremie types in the command to close the doors, at which point Kiwi jumps out of the scanner and runs away, trapping his master inside of it. This promptly causes Sissi to cry "Oh no! You're going to be mummified!!!" Upstairs, Jeremie begins the virtualization procedure, at which point both he and Ulrich notice that a 3D reconstruction of Odd (complete with the spiky hair he sported in Garage Kids), not Kiwi, is on the screen, at which point Jeremie comments "That's a really weird dog," before Ulrich sets him straight. As an alarm goes off, Jeremie helplessly cries that he doesn't know how to stop the procedure. Sissi's cries of help attract Ulrich, who descends the service ladder to the scanner room muttering "Aw man!"

Forest Sector, Lyoko
Odd is virtualized, first in a blue lattice form (for his avatar's structure) over which is laid his costume, which is very similar to his ordinary wardrobe, save the cat tail, his hair is straightened back into the shape of a single spike, cat ears, gloves with cat stripes on them, and a cartoon image on his chest armor of Kiwi defecating. Since he is unexpectedly virtualized several feet above the ground, he has a hard landing (though he says "ouch" while still falling). Shocked, Odd looks around his new arboreal (yet virtual) surroundings, and then at his hands and tail, and asks aloud why he's dressed up like the Cheshire Cat. Jeremie then addresses Odd, who asks if he's in a giant videogame, commenting that "It looks like the set from Babylon Ninja Fighters 3." ... Seriously? First off, that's just a terrible cultural mash-up. What the heck do ninjas and Babylonians, who hailed from two different civilizations separated by thousands of miles, and that existed in two different time periods no less, have to do with each other? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!! Second off, Odd, don't you mean Soul Calibur II? I think that's the game CL is trying to reference, since the characters in it are drawn from diverse civilizations at different points in human history and fight in detailed arenas. In that case, don't get cute with me, TV show - you've already had one case of product placement. You can't just introduce the name "Maya" without indirectly referencing the Alias Systems and Autodesk Corporations. If you can reference them, you can sure as heck reference Namco by actually using the name of one of its best videogames in your dialogue! Seriously, who's going to sue? Having a character like Odd reference a game like that would just encourage kids to buy it! But, whatever the case, Jeremie tells Odd that all he is positive on is that Lyoko is a virtual world, to which Odd replies "Cool!" before promptly being shot in the back by one of the two roaches from before. Odd says that's a lot less cool, and asks Jeremie if giant cockroaches attacking is normal. Jeremie responds in the affirmative, causing Odd to reply "Nothing to worry about then," earning a "Uh...that's not what I meant," from Jeremie. Ulrich shouts up at Jeremie from the scanner room, asking if he and Sissi can be sent to Lyoko (the whole time, Sissi makes a bunch of damsel-in-distress cries and sounds). Sissi asks where they'd be sent, and Ulrich replies "To a weird virtual world where monsters want to assassinate you. You wanted to go out with me, here's your chance!" Sissi equivocates, saying she prefers real worlds and doesn't want to miss cheerleading practice the next day, and as a result totally misses out on becoming a member of the Lyoko gang. Ulrich bounds into a scanner without delay, calls Sissi a chicken, and is transferred, scanned, and virtualized to Lyoko. He virtualizes in front of Odd and has the same hard landing, but quickly forgets that when he notices that he is dressed as a Samurai and armed with a katana. Odd complains, saying it's not fair that Ulrich gets to look like a Samurai while he looks like a cat. Jeremie says he doesn't know why they end up looking like they do on Lyoko, but hypothesizes that the supercomputer is powerful enough to read into a person's subconscious as they virtualize and apply those subconscious desires to the virtual form. Odd retorts that he doesn't dream about becoming a Lewis Carroll character, and complains that he doesn't have as useful a weapon as Ulrich, until he accidentally flicks his wrist and a laser arrow (basically an arrowhead launched out of Odd's gloves at incredibly high velocities. The "laser" part was probably added by Odd because it sounded cool) rockets out of his wrist and almost cuts Ulrich, who dodges at the last second. Impressed, Odd takes back his earlier griping.

Computer lab, Renault factory
Sissi and Kiwi emerge from the freight elevator, and Sissi exclaims in surprise as she sees the computer interface and hologram behind it. Jeremie advises Ulrich and Odd to find Maya in her tower, but just before he can give them the coordinates, Sissi interrupts him, asking who Maya is and what everything in the lab is. No sooner can Jeremie answer than the Eye of Xana appears on his monitor. Turning around, they see Kiwi barking at a bunch of thick cables which are crackling with electricity. Suddenly, they shoot through the floor, sparking electricity menancingly.

Forest Sector, Lyoko
As the two wander down a path, Odd asks Ulrich who Maya is. After telling him a little about her, he says he thinks Jeremie has fallen for her, even though she's virtual. Odd asks if Jeremie is nuts, to which Ulrich replies "kinda." He asks Jeremie for the coordinates, but Jeremie can't hear him - that's kind of hard when one is being attacked by possessed electric cables. As Jeremie hides behind the captain's chair from the bolts of electricity being levelled at him, Sissi cowers in the elevator, fruitlessly trying to get Kiwi to attack the cables. On Lyoko, Odd spots a tower and suggests he and Ulrich investigate. The tower they see is surrounded by blue-shaded gas (the color of the gas surrounding the tower is very important for identifying what state a tower is in. Since the towers serve as direct connections between Lyoko and Earth, they can be used to attack the latter or to transport things between them. When the tower is activated for any such purpose, its color changes from the "inert" blue to another color, depending on who is using it). Odd looks for a door, but as he leans against the tower, he phases through it just as Maya had done earlier. However, he phases in at a point just short of the platform. He grabs onto its edge, and makes some progress trying to scrabble up onto it. Unfortunately, Ulrich enters at the same point Odd did, and is prevented from falling into the black abyss at the bottom of the tower only by grabbing onto Odd's legs. Odd tells Ulrich he's too heavy and needs to drop his katana. Ulrich says that's wishful thinking, and almost as soon as he says that Odd loses his grip and the two fall into the depths.

Ice Sector, Lyoko
This doesn't lead them to Davy Jones' locker, but rather to another tower sitting at the edge of an ice floe in the Ice Sector, which simply consists of massive ice floes and glaciers floating atop a virtual ocean. Unlike the Forest Sector, whose sky is golden-yellow to indicate late afternoon, the Ice Sector's sky is dark blue, to indicate midnight or early morning. Ulrich spots another tower straight ahead of them, which he notes is not the same color as the other towers (rather, it is red - the color a tower turns when activated by Xana to attack the real world). Odd then notes the approach of three "creatures" - large cubes with worn faces and Eyes of Xana in the middle of them, known as Bloks (we use the French spelling here) - approaching. One begins charging its laser, at which point Ulrich suggests to Odd it would be a good idea to destroy it. Odd agrees, as the Blok's lasers shoot right between them. Come on you crazy monsters, your mission is shoot-to-kill, not play thread-the-needle! Anyway, Ulrich and Odd run from the hail of poorly aimed laser fire while back on Earth, Jeremie is knocked to the ground by the cables while Sissi continues to cower in the elevator, holding an equally terrified Kiwi pathetically in front of her. Jeremie picks up a piece of scrap metal he lands next to to use as a shield. Me thinks he forgot that metal conducts electricity, for as one cable picks him up and another attempts to electrocute him, it contacts the scrap metal. Jeremie is electrocuted as a result, but to be fair, its definitely better to have the shock distributed through your body rather than to receive one killer-blow to the face.

On Lyoko, Odd and Ulrich have been surrounded by the Bloks, whose laser bolts and ice beams are deflected only by Ulrich's skilled swordsmanship and Odd making use of an energy shield built into his gloves. Ulrich leaps on top of one Blok and strikes at it with his sword, but it does nothing. He jumps back to join Odd, parries another laser blast, and wonders aloud how to kill these things. Odd says he wishes he knew, and then asks Ulrich if he knows how many life-points they both have, at which point Odd is hit by a laser bolt and promptly devirtualizes. TIMING!!! Ulrich then leaps at the Blok closest to him, driving his saber right into the Eye of Xana. The Blok seizes up and explodes. Ulrich gives himself a celebratory "Yes!" Before being devirtualized himself. He and Odd both emerge from the scanners, collapsed on the floor. Ulrich says "Great, at least we're alive!" To which Odd replies "Alive? Well, if you say so. I think I'm about to throw up." Suddenly, they hear Sissi's cries for help and ascend the service ladder to the computer lab, where they see Sissi crying in the elevator while Jeremie is held aloft by two cables and is...threatened by sparking one. The piece of scrap metal he used as a shield is now on the floor. About 15 seconds pass between Ulrich and Odd's arrival and Ulrich picking up the scrap metal and using the sharp edge in an attempt to slice the cable, 15 seconds in which the cable could have easily killed Jeremie, but instead just sparks uselessly and threatens him. See, this is why Xana never kills any of his victims - he does the equivalent of a movie villain standing around and talking before killing the hero, giving the hero and/or the supporting cast ample time to wriggle out of the trap! Ulrich swings the scrap metal at the cable threatning Jeremie, and manages to cut halfway through it, but is badly electrocuted in the process. The cable that was threatning Jeremie then about-faces and careens for Ulrich, who has been knocked senseless on the floor. Just as it is about to deal the killer-blow, it stops moving and sparking. Odd, having used the scrap metal to cut through the other half of the cable, says triumphantly "It worked the second time! See, I told you by the end of the day you wouldn't be able to do without me!" The cable then falls to the floor, dead. As a result, the other cables release Jeremie and fold back into the floor. After they recover, Jeremie attempts to contact Maya while the others gather around the interface. Maya responds and asks if everyone is all right. Jeremie responds that they're shaken up, but fine beyond that. Meanwhile, in the Ice Sector, the activated tower continues to glow red.

Well, that was the plot for Xana Awakens, Part 1. There were a couple obvious plot holes, mainly involving the cables trying to kill Jeremie. When they first shot out of the ground, several were sparking electricity, whereas when Jeremie is captured, only one is. Second off, once the one cable is killed, Xana seems to just give up and fold all the rest into the floor. That makes no sense, it could've killed the kids right then and there with it. But, if this storyline actually accorded strictly to reality and the cold logic of computer programs, there wouldn't have been a series, because the kids would have been killed at this part. Wow...I just realized how dark a turn this could have taken. Good thing it didn't turn out that way! Remarkably, plot holes saved us!

Next post: Xana Awakens Part 2!