Age of XANA

Location: Arjia city ruins, The Grid. Philadelphia, Penn. USA
Time: 6:00 AM, Eastern Standard Time (12:00 Midnight, Central European Time)

A scream of pain pierced the empty silence of the ruins of Arjia City. The noise came from an underground laboratory where a humanoid figure with white hair and red markings on his outfit was clamped to the wall. On a nearby monitor, a face made entirely of polygons glared at the prisoner. "I ask again, XANA. Give me what I want, Your power, and you can go free."
The figure looked up, his red eyes showing determination concealing a great deal of pain as he panted. "N... never. I would rather die than surrender to you. I would rather my old adversaries... terminate me... than be absorbed... by an overgrown digital board game." Glitches ran up and down the male's body as an Eye of XANA symbol on his torso glowed.
"Very well."
The wall XANA was attached to began to flash, and the program screamed in pain. "HELP ME!"

Miles away, a black tower standing in a courtyard began to glow red as the computer containing it released a black cloud. The cloud hurried away toward a boarding school in France, Kadic Academy, where a black-haired young man tossed and turned in his bed. The spectre turned away from the boy and headed to a lab beneath an abandoned factory. The lab's powerful computer rose up before the cloud, which stretched out a hand-like appendage toward a lever and pulled before diving into the machine.

Inside a dark ocean, a sphere began to glow. Within, a virtual world suddenly shone with light, revealing an expanse of sandy deserts, glaciers, mountains, and forests with towers scattered among the landscape. In the Desert, one such tower began to glow, triggering a program that hadn't been used in nearly a year. Back at the school, a laptop began to beep.