Code Lyoko Prequel Part 1

## Plot

The episode starts with Jeremie Belpois narrating. In actuality, he's started a video diary. He's an 8th grade student at Kadic Academy in France. He's 12 years old and a genius. The date is Saturday, October 9th, 2004. Whoa. So that means it happened 10 years, 4 months, and 3 days ago, when he and the others were toddlers. Sorry, spoilers for the end of season 2! It's traumatic! Jeremie explains that a few weeks ago, he was looking for spare parts to finish a robot of his, but couldn't find anything. He decided to rummage for old scrap in an abandoned factory nearby. He started geeking out over all the stuff he found: A complex with a computer lab and scanners, with an intense mainframe. So far, he hasn't told anyone. He decides to turn on the computer. He rides a cool looking elevator up to the main level/computer room. He activates the computer to see what's on it. A video chat like box shows up on the screen. On it is a strange looking girl with short pink hair, pointy ears, and odd clothes. She's animated in CGI. The girl wakes up. She asks Jeremie who he is and where she is. Jeremie is shocked. At school the next day, a weird kid with a purple spot in his blond hair and purple clothes asks for Ulrich Stern. Ulrich has brown hair and a bit of an attitude. The weird kid introduces himself as Odd Della Robbia, his new roommate. He's new to the academy. A girl comes up to Ulrich and acts as if they're dating or something. He denies this, saying that Elizabeth "Sissi" Delmas is just an annoying girl who's in love with him. She's also the principal's daughter. After school, Ulrich is getting really angry and annoyed with Odd. Jeremie goes back to the factory. He addresses the girl very formally as artificial intelligence. She asks him to call her something else. He names her Maya. She wants to know what she's doing in a virtual universe. Jeremie explains that Maya is part of a virtual environment called Lyoko. He advises her to try to get out of there by looking for a door. From Maya's point of view, we see Lyoko. She's inside a room with a catwalk and a circle in the middle. Other than that, there appears to be no floor. Maya touches the wall. She can't seem to find a door, but just then she phases through the wall to the outside world. It turns out that she was in a tower in a forest. Maya gives Jeremie a visual of her surroundings. A hologram of a map shows up in the lab. There isn't just a forest out there, there's a whole world! Jeremie says that there are four sectors, and each one is different. Maya runs into what she thinks are animals. Just as Jeremie asks her if she can get closer, the creatures fire lasers at Maya. She starts running back to the tower. One of the lasers strikes her before she can enter. She runs back into the tower and falls down. However, she's revealed to be okay. It seems like her life points regenerate once she's back inside the tower. A tall girl with black hair wearing all black gets a drink at a vending machine. Ulrich and Odd are arguing about Sissi. As Jeremie goes to get a drink from the vending machine, he's electrocuted. Ulrich takes him to the infirmary. Odd goes to tell a teacher. The buttons on the machine look weird. Ulrich says that he'll check on Jeremie again after his martial arts class. Except it's not much of a class. There are literally only three people there. Jim Morales is the instructor, and he's also the P.E. teacher. His students are Ulrich and the new girl who was at the vending machine earlier. Her name is Yumi Ishiyama. She says that she's Japanese after Jim incorrectly assumes that she's Chinese. Jim is apparently known for doing outrageous things back in the day, and also for telling tall tales, so neither Yumi nor Ulrich believe him. Ulrich and Yumi spar. Yumi pins Ulrich and wins, but suddenly they both stop and blush because of how close they are to each other. When Ulrich gets back to his room, it's a complete mess, plus a dog is on his bed. Odd tells him that the dog is his. His name is Kiwi. However, there are no pets allowed at Kadic. Jeremie is working on his computer when it suddenly crashes. A symbol appears on it. It's the same symbol that was on the vending machine buttons and appeared from a bird's eye view of the tower room Maya was in. Then Jeremie's robot gets the symbol and starts attacking him. Ulrich hears the commotion and helps fight the robots. Jeremie doesn't want to tell him what's going on, but Ulrich thinks that he can help. Jeremie decides to tell him everything, but first asks him if he can keep a secret. It turns out that Jeremie has been getting to the factory through a tunnel underneath the gym and another below campus. He and Ulrich slide down a rope to the factory. They then take the elevator underground and to the main level. Jeremie explains that the computer is really an ultra powerful supercomputer that runs a virtual world called Lyoko. Ulrich doesn't believe him, but then Jeremie shows him Maya. Ulrich still doesn't buy it, but then Maya explains that she has no memory of who she is. Jeremie says that she has to stay locked up inside a tower, otherwise monsters attack her. When his robots attacked him, Jeremie noticed a logo on his computer screen. He identified it as the same logo that appeared on the monsters in Lyoko. Ulrich says that if it is true and the supercomputer is that dangerous, then Jeremie should shut it down and call the police. He wants to help Maya discover who she is and what she's doing there first. He also believes that he could materialize her on Earth. He shows Ulrich the scanner room. He says that he hasn't found a program to materialize Maya on Earth, but he did find the program that allows someone to be scanned and sent to Lyoko. Jeremie and Ulrich decide to test it out on a guinea pig. Ulrich steals Kiwi to test it out on him. However, Sissi calls him in the act, which wakes up Odd. He chases after Ulrich and slams straight into Sissi. They chase after Ulrich and follow him to the factory. He places Kiwi in the scanner. Odd and Sissi enter the scanner room. Jeremie starts up the virtualization process just as Odd enters the scanner to get Kiwi out. The doors to the scanner close. Jeremie starts the process. Just as he starts to scan Odd, Ulrich and Jeremie realize that it's him in the scanner and not Kiwi. Jeremie doesn't know how to stop the procedure, so Odd is virtualized. On Lyoko, Odd's avatar is a bipedal purple cat with a picture of Kiwi on the front of his outfit. How fitting. Odd is attacked by monsters. Since Jeremie needs time to figure out how to devirtualize him, Ulrich volunteers to go in as backup. Sissi is too scared to go. Ulrich is virtualized onto Lyoko. His avatar is a samurai. His weapon is a katana. Odd is complaining about how lame his avatar his and how he has no weapons when he accidentally shoots an arrow from his paw that Ulrich barely dodges. Jeremie advises them to meet Maya at the tower. Then the symbol appears on the screen of the supercomputer. The cords attack Jeremie and Sissi. Ulrich and Odd discuss Maya. Ulrich thinks that Jeremie has a crush on her. Odd is astonished that Jeremie has a thing for a virtual girl. He can't give them the coordinates because he's busy being attacked by cords. Odd spots a tower with a blue glow in the distance, so they go check it out. While Odd looks for a door, his hand touches the wall and he phases through it. However, he does it wrong and ends up hanging onto the edge of the platform, with what looks like an endless fall below him. Ulrich follows him and has to cling onto him. Odd can't hang onto the platform and they both fall. Instead of dying, they end up in a different tower, in a different sector covered with ice. They spot another tower, but this one has a red glow. Monsters approach them and fire at them, so they run away. Meanwhile at the factory, Sissi and Jeremie are in danger of getting fried by the cords. Ulrich and Odd are surrounded by the monsters. Ulrich uses his katana to deflect the lasers and Odd uses his shield to protect himself. Ulrich jumps on top of a monster and slashes it with his katana, but that doesn't destroy it. Odd gets hit and is devirtualized. Ulrich hits the monster with his katana right on the symbol. The monster promptly blows up. However, Ulrich is devirtualized anyway by the other two monsters. A lot is taken out of them when they're devirtualized. Jeremie is dangling in the air and tied up by the cords. Ulrich tries to cut the cords, only to be electrocuted. Odd tries it a second time. It works and the cords go back to normal. Jeremie contacts Maya. She's alright, and so are they, but they still don't know anything about that red tower.

## Review

This episode had a TON of stuff packed into it, and this was only part one! I've got a lot to cover, so let's get started. I liked the characters. I thought Yumi wasn't used as much as she could have been, but with all of the other characters and plot to establish I understand the low use of her character. I liked Maya. Her clothes are different, but that's why I like them. Jeremie is obviously the incredibly smart and formerly friendless prodigy of the group. Odd is, well, odd and mischievous. He and Kiwi remind me of Ron Stoppable and Rufus from *Kim Possible*. Ulrich is adventurous and brave. Maya is very intelligent in her own right. She's also my favorite character. Sissi is my least favorite character. Jim is a close second. They both seem to be unnecessary and incredibly annoying characters. This was a good episode, but more will revealed about everything in part 2. The predicament Maya is in is very much like a fairy tale, especially the story of Rapunzel, with the others as her knights in shining armor. She also has similarities to Sleeping Beauty. I wonder if that was intentional or not?