[DATE: September 19, 2004, ten years after the events of the Prologue]
[LOCATION: Earth, abandoned Renault factory in Bolougne-Biliancourt, Paris, France]
[TIME-FRAME: Between the Code Lyoko Episodes Exploration and A Great Day]
The mission was not going as planned. Between Ulrich and Yumi nearly getting themselves killed and Aelita almost falling into the Digital Sea, Jeremy thought it was a miracle that they were still able to get to the area in the Forests of Lyoko where the Transport would take them to Sector Five. After all, they still had to deal with the swarm of Freilons buzzing around their heads while Jeremy input the code that would summon the Transport, "SCIPIO". Then, things got even worse.
"There are Krabes headed your way!" Jeremy shouted into his mike.
"Great! Just what we needed!" Ulrich responded in his usual dry, sarcastic tone, all the while killing any Freilons that got too close to the blade of his Katana.
"Come on, Ulrich! Lighten up!" Yumi then said, "at least they're not Megatanks or the Schyphozoa!" The shudder from Aelita prompted Yumi to mutter, "Sorry," before killing three of the buzzing wasps swarming around their heads with her Tessen Fan. As the swarm got smaller and smaller, another shout from Jeremy came from overhead.
"What the...? The Krabes... they're... disengaging! Why are they disengaging? It's like they're... pursuing something else!" was his exclamation.
"Can't you track them down?" Yumi asked.
"No. I mean, yes! But why? It's not like they're going to threaten you guys anymore!" Jeremy responded. Exasperated by his response, Ulrich prepared a long slur of words that would have gotten him expelled from Kadic Academy had he said them there when the spherical monster known only as "The Transport" scooped the three of them up and took them away to Sector Five. But while the Transport took them there, Jeremy decided to let his curiosity get the better of him, and he switched the camera view to that of the Krabe squadron initially sent to take care of Aelita and co.
What he saw terrified him.
The Krabes were stopped and fighting something. No, not something, someone. A whole group of someones, in fact. And the someones were losing badly. Then, as if it couldn't get any worse, Jeremy saw one of the someones topple over the edge of the platform he was on and fall into the Digital Sea. Then another. And another. And yet another. Eventually, all that was left of the group was one person, fighting the Krabes with what appeared to be a sword. But there was something wrong about that someone. He was too pale and his hair was blue--if that someone was even male. As Jeremy watched him take out one of the giant crabs that served as XANA's foot-soldiers and then get devirtualized by the lasers of the other two, two questions popped into his head, one after another. Who was he? was the first, and the second, far more important, was, How did he and his friends find Lyoko?
Aelita's voice, asking him, "Jeremy? What did all of those words Ulrich shout mean?" brought him back to reality; and he responded, rather uncouthly, "It's not important."
"Okay," was Aelita's response, and at that moment Jeremy realized that Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita were in Sector Five, waiting for his orders. And with that, he changed the Holomap from the standard display of Lyoko to the spinning display of the spherical world that was Sector Five.
No need to let them know what happened, Jeremy thought to himself, there's a mission we need to finish.
A world apart, two members of the Royal Guard, clad in their golden armor, pulled the unconscious body of Lieutenant Shining Armor from the cylindrical cabinet he had appeared in. None of the other Guards, not even the expedition's commander, Captain Light Shine, came out of the other cabinets.
As the Lieutenant came to, they asked him, "What happened, Lieutenant Sparkle? We saw you get into a fight, and then your comms went static!"
All that Shining Armor could get himself to say was "Giant crabs..." before finally regaining the ability to speak. "There were giant crabs," he said, "they ambushed us while we were charting out a part of the forest area. Almost everypony fell off of the platform and into the drink below during the ensuing fight. I managed to take out one of them, but the other two took me out."
"What?" one of the guards asked, "What do you mean, 'into the drink,' Lieutenant?"
Looking up, a pained expression on his face, Shining Armor responded, "That body of water below us you advised us not to fall into, Major? Most of the expedition did. Sonic Boom, Flash Sentry, heck, even Light Shine. They all fell in; and they're probably all dead. The truth is, Major, that world is dangerous. If you want my opinion, we need to shut it down."
The Major then looked at his fellow guards, then gave one of them the order.
"Shut it down," he stated, "and make sure nopony ever finds this place." And with that, the guard in question went into the elevator not too far away from where they were and headed down towards the primary supercalculator that they had switched on a few hours ago.
Upon entering the room, he saw the primary supercalculator itself, the primary control console for the supercalculator, the switch that gave it life, and the unblinking, eerie looking four-pronged bulls-eye looking back at him above it, and promptly switched the computer off before heading back into the elevator, going up to the room where his fellow guards were, telling his commanding officer, "It's done," and then joining his comrades in the ride back to the surface. After Shining Armor and the other guards had left, the guard who had turned off the computer exited the Canterlot warehouse where they had found it, pulled out a can of emergency spray paint, and painted a skull and crossbones on its front, as a warning to anypony who wanted to go inside that danger awaited them, whether or not they cared.
Nopony needs to know what's in there, he thought to himself, and that's all I need to know. What he didn't know, however, is that he had performed one of the most heroic feats that would never be recorded in Equestria's history. In turning off the supercomputer, he had stopped XANA from invading their world.
For the time being.