Code Dragon

by DemonicFury

Prologue

Nightmare at Kadic

“LeDuc, Pichon, Gauthier. Ready? Go!”

Jeremy groaned and pushed his glasses back. Odd looked at him. “Hey, what’s wrong Einstein? You afraid of a little exercise?”

“No, I just-”

“Yeah, Jeremy. Lately, all you seem to do is work on the supercomputer.”

“But, Umi, I-”

“Seriously, a little exercise couldn’t hurt.”

“Ulrich, you don’t understand-”

“All right, Belpois, Della Robia, Stern, you’re up.” Jeremy, Odd, and Ulrich stood and walked towards Jim and the starting line. “All right, run three times around the track. And go!” Odd and Ulrich raced off, leaving the struggling Jeremy behind. He had made it halfway around he track when he saw something he thought he’d never see, X.A.N.A.’s monsters from Lyoko. The only problem was that he was not on Lyoko. He was in the real world.

“But how?” He stopped and ran away from the two bleachers that were full of students. Some of the students screamed, causing Umi and the others to look up.

“Tarantulas? Here?” The pale spider-like creature sat on its hind legs and opened fire with its front legs.

“Hey! Over here! Bet you can’t hit me!” Odd did a back flip and taunted the tarantula, giving the others time to head to the factory. He raced through the woods and quickly opened the man hole they used to get to the underground passages to the factory. He waved at the tarantula and jumped in. The tarantula tried to follow but it was too big, so it uselessly fired down the hole after him. Odd jumped on his skateboard and raced down the tunnel. After a few minutes, he stopped and climbed out of the tunnel. He quickly headed into the factory and used the elevator to get to the supercomputer. “Hey, guys. What did I miss?”

“X.A.N.A. activated a tower. You guys need to get to Lyoko right away.”

“Right.” Odd, Umi, Ulrich, and Aelita boarded the elevator and headed to the scanner room. Once there, they stepped into their scanners and got ready to be virtualized. Jeremy typed on the computer and pressed a button.

“Virtualization. Umi. Virtualization. Odd. Virtualization. Ulrich. Virtualization. Aelita.” The scanners buzzed and a bright light covered them. Suddenly, an alarm went off. “Oh no.” He read the screen. “What’s Code Dragon?” He desperately tried to stop the virtualization but it was too late. The Lyoko warriors were being virtualized wherever the supercomputer was pinpointing.

Chapter One

What Happened?

Odd grunted as he landed. “Hey, guys, did anyone else feel weird after being virtualized?” Umi looked at him.

“Yeah. And look where we are.” They looked around. Instead of the expected tall glaciers of the Ice Sector there were tall sky scrapers. The sun was not visible and there were various city noises. Odd stepped forward a few feet and heard a squish. He looked down.

“Eww…” He tried to shake the stuff off of his foot. “Don’t people clean up after their dogs? I mean really. And on my Lyoko suit too.”

“Odd, I don’t think a dog did that.”

“What makes you say that, Aelita?”

“What dog is big enough to do that?”

“I don’t know but I’m gonna find its owner and-” Odd stopped talking as he saw something he thought he’d never see.

“Is that?”

“All right! A dragon!” He raced towards the black and red dragon. It looked up in surprise. Suddenly, it glowed red. It shot a beam of energy at him and sent him flying. “Aaahhhh!!!” He crashed into a nearby merchant cart. The dragon’s rider looked at him angrily.

“Hey! Don’t go around scaring dragons!” The dragon roared and raced away. Ulrich helped him up. Odd groaned and wiped at his suit.

“Oh great. Dragon poo and watermelon seeds. Just what I wanted.”

“Hey, kid! You got a lot of nerve smashing my cart.”

“You did it this time, Odd.”

“Me? What’d I do? It was that weirdo and his dragon.”

“Uh, guys. I think we should run.” The group headed further into the city to escape the enraged merchant.

“Aelita, hurry up!”

“I’m trying to reach Jeremy. Jeremy, can you hear me? Jeremy, come in. Jeremy?”

“I doubt we’re still in Lyoko.”

“You don’t know that, Odd.”

“Maybe not, but I do know that in Lyoko we’re chased by monsters and not crazy people. Unless William counts.”

“Hey, don’t badmouth him!”

“Umi, he’s the enemy.” Umi growled and threw her fan at him. It just missed hitting his leg. It smashed into the ground and left a small hole. Aelita gasped.

“Our powers. We have our powers. We must be on Lyoko.”

“Since when has Lyoko had dragons?”

“Guys! Why are we still running?” The group stopped and looked behind them.

“He’s gone!”

“I guess he couldn’t keep up with a great warrior such as myself.”

“Whatever. Guys, we need to stop somewhere and try to figure out what happened.”

“We were doing fine until Odd messed with that dragon.”

“Hey! It wasn’t my fault!”

“Enough! Now, we’re going to sit out of the way in this dark alley.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Do you have a better one?”

“No, but-”

“Then we stop here.”

“Fine.” They walked into the alley and disappeared into the shadows. Unbeknownst to the warriors, they were being watched.

Chapter Two
Any Ideas?

“So, does anyone have an idea?” Odd raised his hand but a glare from Ulrich shot it down.

“I have an idea.”

“What is it, Aelita?”

“This place looks like a city.”

“So?”

“This city looks super advanced so there must be a computer somewhere. All we have to do is find a highly advanced computer and I should be able to contact Jeremy.”

“So, any idea which building would have a super advanced computer?” They walked out of the alley and looked at their surroundings. There were huge skyscrapers to which there seemed no end and large roads that wound across the city, some disappeared into the sky and others headed downward. There was little sunlight visible. In fact, the little light there was may have been artificial. The cool air smelled heavily of dragon dung. The group couldn’t help but gag.

“Are we in a city or a farm?”

“Odd, focus.”

“I mean geez, this place smells worse than a hundred Kiwis that all went to bathroom at once!”

“Odd, if Kiwi did that, I think the school would have to be evacuated.”

“Probably, but that’s not the point! How can these people live like this? Between the energy-blasting dragons and the smell, I would’ve left as soon as I stepped foot in this place!”

“Odd, enough about the smell, we have to find a computer!”

“Fine! Let’s try there!” He pointed to a building that had a large brick walls around it. They could see a little bit of a statue from where they were standing. “Anywhere with defenses like that must have something to protect! All we gotta do is get over that wall and find the computer! Easy peasy!”

“What if we get caught?”

“Then we hightail it out of there and try again later! Now let’s go!” He raced off towards the nearest piece of the brick wall. The others quickly followed him, unsure of where he was leading them.

 Chapter Three
Dragon Booster?

They slowed as they neared the narrow patchwork walkway. “Whoa.” Aelita cautiously walked to the edge and looked down. The only thing under the walkway was air and distant tracks miles beneath it.

“Whoa is right. There isn’t any ground under this thing.” Ulrich walked up to it.

“All right everybody, walk slowly and carefully. We don’t know if we devirtualize here or not and personally, I’d rather not have any of us find out the hard way.” The others nodded and followed him across the walkway.

“Now what? It’s a dead end.” Odd looked at it and then looked at his hands.

“I got an idea.” He extended his claws and ran up the brick wall. He got to the top and came to rest on a ledge.

“What about the rest of us?” Odd looked around before picking a cable up off of the ground. He slowly lowered it and held it as the others climbed up. From their position, they could see a giant statue that overlooked a patchwork stage with big speakers. Neon lights covered almost everything that they could see. The statue was a bust of a man with long hair and a unibrow. There were stage lights that seemed to act like the lights in prison guard towers, watching for intruders and escapees. And in the middle of everything was a boy, no more than sixteen, with long white hair, sitting atop a four-legged black dragon. The boy was holding what looked like a horn up to his mouth. Nearby, stood a man in gold armor atop a four-legged black and gold dragon with frills on its legs, tail, and throat. The man seemed to be talking but they could not hear him. Suddenly, the white haired boy blew the horn, creating a horrible screeching sound that echoed throughout the building and seemed to rattle their bones.

“Oh, man, what was that?” Odd started to stand but lost his balance as the ground began shaking. The warriors turned to see a giant grey dragon made of bones. Its bold green eyes glared at them. The group barely had time to jump off of the ledge before it smashed the wall and raced into the building. A girl on a two-legged red dragon raced past them, drawing the attention of the giant four-legged dragon. Its eyes changed from green to red as it shot an energy burst at the girl. It threw her from her dragon and stood over her. “Oh, man, we gotta help her!”

“That’s the smartest thing you’ve said today, Odd.” Ulrich drew his swords and raced towards the dragon. He struck its leg but he didn’t even leave a mark. It shot an energy burst at him, narrowly missing.

“Laser arrow!” Odd shot at it but it simply shot the arrow down. Umi threw her fan at it but it was deflected as well.

“What’s going on? Why aren’t our attacks working?” The dragon started to attack but stopped as the man on the gold dragon stepped between them and the grey dragon.

“Libris, stop! I won’t fight you!” A light went from the dragon to four other people. Beams made of the colors of red, green, blue, and black came back to the dragon who then shot them into the giant dragon, causing both of them to change colors in turn. After they changed colors six times, Libris bowed to the smaller gold dragon and his rider. Libris then ran and jumped over a nearby wall. The gold dragon then turned to face the defeated warriors. “Who are you guys? And where did you learn those attacks?”

“I’m Aelita, that’s Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi. And it’s hard to explain.”

“Get on Beau’s back, I’ll take you somewhere safe.” The dragon glowed gold and pulled them onto it.

“Hey, wait! Why should we trust you?”

“Because I’m the Dragon Booster.”

“The what?”

“You don’t know who the Dragon Booster is?”

“We’re not even sure where we are.”

“Oh man.” He motioned to the people standing nearby. “Come on guys.” The teenage boy standing by a large green dragon handed the horn to a man in blue and jumped onto his dragon. He then followed the man who called himself the Dragon Booster out of the building, followed by a boy on a four-legged blue dragon and the girl on the red dragon.

Chapter Four
I Know Who You Are, Artha Penn

After they got to the place that the Dragon Booster called Penn Stables, he had his dragon “mag” them off of it. None of the warriors were sure just why he called it that. But after doing that, he raced his dragon out of sight. Almost instantly, another teenage boy rode up to them. He was atop a red and blue dragon that looked almost exactly like the Dragon Booster’s dragon, Beau. It only needed a paint job and frills. “Hey man, why’d you run off?”

“Um, who are you and what are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb! You just rode off on that very dragon! All you did was change clothes and all Beau did was change colors!” The boy began looking distressed.

“Listen, I don’t know who you think I am but my name’s Artha Penn, as in Penn Stables.”

“Well, you may be Artha Penn now but just a few minutes ago you were the Dragon Booster!”

“Wait, you saw the Dragon Booster?”

“Yes, and I’m looking at him right now!” Artha began looking around.

“Where is he? Where is he?” Ulrich chuckled.

“Wow, Odd, you may have competition for idiot of the month.” Umi smiled.

“I don’t doubt that.”

“Odd, are you sure this is the same person?”

“Of course I’m sure.” He walked over to the dragon. “Look, I’ll prove it to you. Exhibit A.” He pointed to its chin. “Notice how this dragon’s chin is super long, just like Beau’s.”

“We haven’t seen enough of this place to know just how common a chin like that is.”

“Fine, moving on to Exhibit B.” He pointed to its eye. “It has the same color eyes as Beau.”

“Once again, we haven’t seen enough to know how common that is.”

“Fine, Exhibit C.” He pointed to its horns. “Look, they’re the same size and shape.”

“Well…” Aelita tried but couldn’t come up with an explanation.

“And Artha sounds just like the Dragon Booster. And this dragon is the same size as Beau. And look,” he grabbed Artha’s right wrist, “he has a weird bracelet made of gold, just like the Dragon Booster’s armor. And right after the Dragon booster disappeared, this guy appeared. Must I go on?”

“No, Odd, we get it.” Artha turned to the teenage boy by the green dragon.

“You didn’t tell me it was that obvious, Parm.”

“I just assumed that the darkness of Down City would cover it up.” Artha gave him a look of disbelief.

“You’re kidding, right?” Parm shook his head. “Oh, man! I’m through!” The girl by the red dragon rolled her eyes.

“Artha, nobody besides these kids has said anything, right?”

“You’re right, Kitt.” Artha looked at the warriors. “You guys won’t tell anybody, will you?”

“Of course-”

“Maybe we will. Maybe we won’t. It all depends on what you guys are willing to do to help us.”

“But, Odd-”

“Come on, Aelita, this may be our only chance and I for one am taking it.” She slightly frowned before nodding in agreement.

“So, what do you guys need help with?”

“We come from another place. We were supposed to virtualize in a virtual world called Lyoko but we think something went wrong because we were virtualized here. We can’t contact the guy that usually figures out how to get us out of bad situations. After a little bit, we thought that maybe we could hack a computer and contact him.”

“That’s why you broke into the Dragon Eye Compound.”

“You mean the building where you found us?”

“Yeah, that one.”

“Right, we believed that any building with security like that would have a computer. However, all we found was a giant psycho skeleton dragon.”

“Libris.”

“Right, and we have to get to a computer and get back to Jeremy before it’s too late.”

“What’ll happen if you don’t get back in time?”

“X.A.N.A. could take over our world, destroy it, destroy Lyoko, or even takeover or destroy this world.”

“Oh, no! We can’t let this X.A.N.A. guy destroy Dragon City! We’ll help you!” Artha ran to Beau and yelled, “Release the dragon!” Kitt ran to her dragon and magged on. Parm ran to his dragon and did the same. “Come on, Lance!” The kid playing games by a blue dragon turned off the game and magged onto the dragon. Suddenly, a laser hit at Aelita’s feet.

“Oh no.” A group of five small creatures, each with four pointed legs and a large head with a strange marking on their heads, moved towards the group. Artha stared in awe.

“What are they?”

“Kankrelats. They’re some of X.A.N.A.’s goons.”

“So they’re the bad guys?”

“Right.”

“You heard ‘em, Beau.” Artha raced towards the creatures and blasted them with mag energy. Two of them disappeared. The other three opened fire on him. Beau roared and blasted the attacks. They attacked again. This time, the attacks connected with Beau. However, instead of acting like the blasts had hurt him, he fell over and seemed to be laughing. Artha crawled off of him. “Beau?” The kankrelats fired again, causing Beau to go into another laughing fit.

“I don’t believe it. Their lasers have been turned into tickle rays.”

“Oh no way!” Odd let the monsters hit him. However, he did not laugh. “Ow! That didn’t tickle!”

“Odd, maybe only the creatures of this world are affected differently.” Odd growled and took aim at the creatures.

“Take this! Laser arrow!” The arrow hit, causing one of the kankrelats to explode and disappear. The other two continued firing at Artha and Beau. Artha fell down next to Beau and joined him in laughing.

“Super sprint!” Ulrich destroyed the other two monsters. After a few minutes, Beau and Artha shakily stood.

“Wow, you guys fight those things every day?”

“Yep! So, can we get going?”

“We can’t go find a computer until we make sure that there aren’t more of those things.”

“Fine, but don’t we need dragons?”

“Uh, right, I think that we could find a rental place somewhere…”

“Wait, people here rent dragons?”

“Yeah, some people don’t have a choice.”

“Where we come from, people rent cars.”

“What are cars?”

“They’re these man-made machines that have four wheels and run on gasoline.”

“What’s gasoline?”

“Oh boy.” Umi turned to Ulrich.

“He’s not serious, is he?”

“I think he is.”

“Hey! Could we forget about cars and focus on getting dragons and hunting down the other monsters so that we can go home?”

“Fine, let’s go.”

“Wait, Artha, you can’t go as the Dragon Booster.”

“Right.” He pulled the amulet out of the gauntlet. “Chose who you want to ride with. Odd rode with Lance. Umi rode with Kitt. Aelita rode with Parm. And Ulrich rode with Artha. They raced off towards the dragon rental place.