Chapter 1: Mason

It was a cool morning at Kadic Academy, which was only expected as it was Mid-October. The trees in the area had begun to change color, providing a vivid show for passersby. The group had not witnessed any X.A.N.A. attacks for the past two days so everything was quiet. With no current threat, they resumed their lives as regular students yet remaining vigilant enough to make sure their enemy didn't surprise them. The extra time was just what Jeremy needed to focus on his search for some way to bring back William.

Aelita walked down the hall of the boys' dormitory and entered Jeremy's room. When she opened the door, she saw the blonde-haired boy immersed on the code flashing across the computer screen. He was wearing his maroon turtleneck with his favorite pair of olive green pants. She walked through the bits of computer and robots quietly, for she knew that Jeremy was busy at work helping the group on Lyoko however he could.

Slowly, she crept up to him before hugging him from behind, dislodging his glasses, "Good morning Jeremy!"

"Oh!" Jeremy gasped. Aelita had startled the boy as he flinched in his chair. He fixed his glasses before replying to his friend, "Good morning Aelita!"

By what Aelita could read over the boy's shoulder, Jeremy was working on what seemed code most likely for Lyoko. One thing she was definitely sure about was that Jeremy had, yet again, not gotten any sleep. His yawning the the dark circles nearly concealed by his glasses cued in Aelita on how long he had been working, "Let me guess," she sighed, "You were up all night again?"

"Didn't sleep a wink." Aelita tsked Jeremy for his lack of self-care, "I was too busy updating the tower scan, trying to find William and, adding a better locator on the Skidbladnir. " replied Jeremy pressing the enter key waiting for a program to perform a test run, "Surprisingly I managed to get it all done on schedule!"

"So what are you doing now?" asked Aelita peering on the flickering screen.

Jeremy looked and the data filling the screen and turned to his friend, "Oh, you know Aelita, just routine check-up stuff to make sure everything is running as it should, same-old, same-old."

Aelita was a little peeved that Jeremy had spent yet another night working on Lyoko, only to neglect sleep and food. One day he was going to crash and she took it upon herself to prevent that from happening. She came up with an idea to get Jeremy away from the computer, "Jeremy, since you're just letting the computer run right now, why don't you come down for breakfast? Rose says that today's breakfast is pancakes with syrup, one of your favorites!"

Jeremy turned around in his chair and looked at the girl who was staring at him with pleading eyes. He could tell that she wanted him to spend some time away from the computer. Plus, she was right about one thing; pancakes with syrup were one of his favorites. He just couldn't resist and he gave into her suggestion.

"Okay, okay, but this is the only time today I can take a break this long! Don't forget I'm trying to balance all the work with Lyoko with maintaining the search for William!" huffed Jeremy adjusting his glasses and turning away from the monitor.

Aelita gave a small giggle of pleasure and nearly dragged Jeremy towards the mess hall. Meanwhile, Odd and Ulrich jolted awake from the sound of the alarm going off. Odd raised his head out of from the sheets and let out a loud, obnoxious yawn before looking at Ulrich. Kiwi stretched his front legs out before letting out a small yawn. The dog decided that it wanted to pay Odd's roommate a visit and leapt off his masters bed. The dog sprinted across the room and jumped directly onto Ulrich's stomach. Odd snickered when Kiwi began licking Ulrich's face.

Ulrich squirmed around in bed as he tried to avoid Kiwi's signs of affection, "Odd! Get your stupid dog off me!" barked the boy, trying his best to avoid the dog trying to give him extra kisses.

"Sorry Ulrich, but it's not my fault Kiwi loves you so much!"

Odd walked over to end Ulrich's suffering and snatched up the dog. Odd tossed Kiwi on his bed before preparing the dog's breakfast. Ulrich at this point had given up on trying to get a few extra minutes of sleep and pushed over his covers. He let out a groan before stretching his legs out over the side of the bed, "Ah what's the point, your stupid dog already woke me up," he growled at Kiwi who barked back at Ulrich.

"Hey, Kiwi is an intelligent animal…whenever he wants to be!" protested Odd holding up Kiwi.

Ulrich muttered to himself as he got dressed in his usual attire, a pair of denim blue jeans and a dark green shirt topped with an almond colored jacket. He laced up his grey trainers and stood up to stretch. He then turned to his clock which read 9:30 a.m.

"Ah, just in time for breakfast," smiled Ulrich.

"Mhmm, yeah and today is pancakes with syrup! If I'm lucky, Einstein will give me his helping!" Odd smirked as he patted his stomach, "You think if I make Rose laugh today she'd give me a few more pancakes?"

Ulrich clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes at his roommate, "Oh Odd, sometimes I don't know what's worse, your jokes or the size of your stomach...but what am I saying? You've probably heard that a million times by now, so I think it's safe to say your schemes are worse than both of those options!"

Suddenly Ulrich's phone rang from across the room. He finished up his stretches before walking over and taking his phone off from atop the dresser. The contact on the phone flashed as an unknown number.

"Who is it Ulrich?" asked Odd playing with Kiwi.

"I don't know, should I answer it?" asked Ulrich.

"Sure, I guess, but I bet it's those annoying salesmen who try to call to try and sell you something stupid though," replied Odd.

"Or it could be X.A.N.A. trying to fry my brain or something."

Odd shrugged and became interested in seeing who was calling his friend this early in the morning, "We can guess all we want, but we won't find out until you answer the call!"

Despite his paranoia about it being an potential attack, Ulrich clicked the answer button and held the phone away from his ear just to be safe.

"If it's an offer for a free boat pass the line over to me," teased Odd.

Ulrich shook his head, "Hello? Who is this?"

The stranger immediately responded to Ulrich, "Hey there! Is this Ulrich Stern?" asked the voice on the other side. The voice belonged to someone that of Ulrich's age, the masculine pitch suggested that it was a guy calling him.

"Yeah it is, and if you're planning on trying to sell me anything, I'm not interested," Ulrich looked over to see Odd smiling and giving two thumbs up. Ulrich nodded and gave a thumbs up back.

"Um no, Ulrich, I don't plan on selling anything to you…," replied the voice, sounding confused.

Ulrich was starting to get impatient and anxious to grab some breakfast before it got cold. He was tempted to hang up on his caller, "Then who is this?"

"You don't remember me? To be fair, it has been awhile since we last talked on the phone. Well then here's a hint, blonde hair and green eyes? Favorite color is maroon?" said the voice.

"Um…no?" replied Ulrich looking over at Odd who was giving him a puzzled look. Ulrich mouthed the words "I don't know who this is," to Odd. Odd just shrugged and continued playing with Kiwi.

"We went to soccer camp together?" replied the voice.

"Oh! Wait….," Ulrich's memory came flooding back and he quickly realized who has talking to, "Mason? Mason Laird?!" Ulrich surprise caught Odd's attention and a grin appeared as he recalled his old friend.

"Yeah in the flesh, or, um, voice. Anyway, I call with some good news hopefully. I'm heading to Kadic Academy as I'm now enrolled at your school now Ulrich. Isn't that good news?" asked the boy on the other end.

"Really, are you serious? Well, that's…good news, really good news!" smiled Ulrich looking over at Odd.

Mason on the other end looked out the window to see that he was on the outskirts of the city, "Okay Ulrich, I'll be seeing you soon! I should be there at about oh…11 a.m."

Ulrich was floored with excitement to hear the good news, "Oh, okay Mason, see you here then, okay bye!"

Ulrich grinned as he clicked the off button on his phone. Odd was intrigued seeing as Ulrich with a grin on his face was indeed a rare sight and wanted to find out more about who Ulrich had been talking to on the phone.

"Who's this Mason fellow?" asked Odd pouring some dog food into Kiwi's bowl.

"Come on Odd, I've mentioned Mason a few times now. Mason is one of the first friends I've ever had, and we used to be in soccer camp together long before I came to Kadic." explained Ulrich. His face gleamed with nostalgia.

"Oh really? What's he like?" asked Odd.

"Eh, I wouldn't really know what he's like now since it's been awhile since we've seen each other. He's a pretty cool guy though, but he can be very...passionate about things at times. I've mentioned you guys to him too though we haven't spoken in awhile. I couldn't even recognize his voice on the phone!" explained Ulrich.

"I see, but does he know about-"

"No, he doesn't know about Lyoko, or X.A.N.A., or anything of that matter," he replied putting his phone in his pocket.

"Well I hope he doesn't Ulrich! You know that no one outside our group is to know about Lyoko. With your friend hanging around us, we'll have to work twice as hard to play hush-hush then," replied Odd getting his bag.

Odd and Ulrich made their way out to the hallway and to the mess hall where the other warriors were. Once inside, they saw that the others were already sitting at the usual spot. The boys went through the breakfast line; Odd was unable to get extra food from Rose, despite the extra effort to try and make her laugh. Ulrich took the spot next to Yumi and waved at her, and she smiled in return. Odd sat down in his chair, and just started to chug down his carton of milk.

"So what's new with you guys?" asked Yumi cutting into a pancake.

Odd did his best to give a response with a full mouth, but it was hard to understand him as he shoveled food into his mouth. He swallowed and gulped some milk to get rid of any excess food, "Mmmm, nothing new going on for me."

Ulrich knew that it was his time shine as he could barely contain his smile, "Oh nothing much you know, an good, old friend of mine is coming to Kadic for school, same boring day as usual," he explained as he bit into a piece of bacon.

Ulrich's news got the attention of Yumi, Jeremy, and Aelita. They all jerked their heads up to gain eye contact with Ulrich. The boy felt uncomfortable with all the eyes focused on him and had to look away to avoid direct eye contact. The looks on all their faces put a damper on Ulrich's mood, he knew that it wasn't a good sign.

Yumi looked at the others in shock before standing up in her chair, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Ulrich, when were you going to tell us about this?"

Ulrich couldn't help to feel trapped in his chair as Yumi looked down at him with ill intent, "Hey, easy! I just found out before heading down here for breakfast!" Ulrich calmed Yumi down enough to where she sat back down in her chair, "I'm sorry if I have to report every second of my life to you guys," muttered Ulrich,

"What?" she snapped. She barely caught Ulrich's comment but had the feeling he didn't say anything positive.

Aelita tried to steer the conversation a different direction before Yumi could harm Ulrich, "What does this your friend coming here mean for us then?"

Ulrich sighed in relief and mentally thanked Aelita for her intervention, "Well, he'll probably end up hanging around me until he can find some other friends."

"Nuh-uh. Nope. No way Ulrich," Yumi disagreed with Ulrich, "You can't have your friend hanging around us and finding out too much."

Before Ulrich could start an argument, Jeremy intervened, "It's fine Yumi, it's something we can't avoid. Even if Ulrich were to ignore his friend, the kid would probably just butt his way into the group to hang out with him. It would be easier to just let him hang around us until he finds his own niche. We just have to remember not to mention Lyoko around this guy, it could blow our cover and jeopardize our entire mission," cautioned Jeremy staring down at his food. Ulrich sighed and quietly blessed Jeremy for preventing him from saying something he would regret later.

"Fine," growled Yumi, "But this better not blow up in our faces." She stabbed her food with ferocity and forced it in her mouth.

Aelita was just as relieved as Ulrich that a fight didn't break out. The girl looked over to see a plate of food barely touched, "Jeremy, why haven't you eaten more of your breakfast?"

Jeremy could see Odd staring at the pile of flapjacks and pushed them his way, "I wasn't as hungry as I thought I was, nothing major."

Yumi looked at Odd's acceptance of the food with disappointment, "Jeremy, you should start to consider eating more; we get worried about you sometimes when you don't eat."

"It's no big deal! I'm just not hungry now! Odd you can go ahead and have my food," he replied. Jeremy pulled out his laptop and began typing away.

"Thanks Jeremy! You're the best friend anyone would be lucky to have!" the glutton smiled.

Odd pulled in the plate and began feasting off of the pancakes as the others were getting ready to leave the cafeteria behind. As the other left, Ulrich saw that Odd was still eating off of Jeremy's plate, "Meet us in the courtyard when you're done!"

Odd made short work of the remaining food on the plate and rushed to get rid of his trash before darting out the door to meet with his friends. Outside the group gathered together and stood near the vending machines. Before meeting him, Ulrich though it best to fill in the others on the details surrounding his friend.

"So what's this person like Ulrich?" asked Aelita.

"Well I told Odd earlier but he's pretty laid back. He can be a little difficult at times but overall, he's an interesting guy to hang around," Ulrich explained, getting more excited the more he talked about him.

"Does he have any hobbies?" questioned Odd.

"Oh, umm from the last time we talked, he was into boxing. Also, he likes soccer, and video games as well," explained Ulrich trying to remember all details about his friend.

"Anything else we should know about our surprise visitor?" Everyone could feel the bitterness that filled Yumi's question.

"If I remember correctly, he was a year older than me meaning that he'll be in your grade level Yumi," Ulrich completely ignored the emotion attached to that question.

"Where's he from?" inquired Aelita.

"Well, he was born here in France, but over the years he's lived in several different places. If I remember right, he's lived in America, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom."

Odd couldn't help but to be amazed at where his friend had been, "That's a lot of moving around for one guy!"

"His uncle works as an archaeologist, and Mason gets to travel the world with him. They usually have to move every few years to take part in different findings," explained the brunette.

Ulrich looked at his watch. The time was 10:45, nearly the time Mason had given him for the bus. The others decided to follow Ulrich towards the bench at the bus stop and they all waiting alongside him.

The brown haired boy raised an eyebrow when he saw the others waiting, "You guys don't have to wait for him at the stop with me if you're not wanting to…"

Jeremy spoke up representing the other members of the group, "We figured it might be a good idea to get a read on the person if they're going to be hanging around us. We don't want to be surprised like with William do we?"

All was quiet for a few minutes when one of the group members began to grow impatient and loudly tap his foot on the ground, "To think, I could have just eaten and gone back to sleep," sighed Odd leaning back on the bench.

"I would have woken you up anyway Odd. Due to your last little stunt, Jim won't let you sleep past 11, even if we don't have classes," reminded Ulrich.

Odd groaned and prepared to defend himself against Ulrich's justified behavior, "Hey it's not my fault X.A.N.A. attacks so late at night that it causes me to sleep through 3 of my morning classes!"

"Sure, X.A.N.A. or that you were working on another lame music video," joked Yumi causing everyone to laugh.

Odd crossed his arms and scrunched down on the bench. Ulrich's watch let out a beep notifying him that it was the top of the hour. Ulrich stood up to look down the road. Moments later, a bus turned the corner and sped towards the stop.

Ulrich's smile returned in anticipation, "I think that's his bus you guys!"

The others stood and gathered by the bus sign. The bus opened its doors, and let people out. As people pushed past the group, Ulrich saw no sign of his friend until no others were seen leaving the bus.

"Is that it? Are you sure that he isn't on another bus?" asked Odd to Ulrich.

"Impossible, he should have been on that bus," he replied. The boy checked his watch again to make sure that he hadn't read the time wrong.

The doors to the bus began to close before a shout was heard from within the bus, "Hey hold on a second, this is my stop! I need to grab my last bag!"

Rapid thumps could be heard from the outside as a figure ran to the front. A tall, blonde boy jumped off as the doors closed and the bus sped off. He whistled in relief with an enormous backpack on, complemented with a matching gym bag. The lad looked around for a moment before spotting Ulrich near the bench. A smile spread further across his face the closer he got, as he was able to recognize his friend he hadn't seen in so long. He stopped right in front of Ulrich before setting his gym bag down beside him, "Ulrich…Stern?"

"Mason! Yeah it's me Ulrich," said Ulrich patting Mason shoulder.

Mason reached both of his arms around Ulrich and gave him a tight hug. In his excitement, he nearly lifted Ulrich in the air, "Nice to see you again. It's been too long since we've last talked with one another, how have you been?"

"I've been good, hey Mason these are my friends I've talked to you about...do you mind putting me down?"

Mason became a little flustered realizing that he got carried away and let go of Ulrich. The rest of the group came in closer towards Mason, ready to introduce themselves.

"The name's Della Robia, Odd Della Robia good sir," said Odd shaking Mason's hand.

"My name is Aelita; I'm Odd's cousin from Canada. It's very nice to meet you," smiled Aelita. She held her hand out as well and assumed that was the best way to introduce herself without making it awkward. Mason gladly took the hand and gently shook it.

"I'm Jeremy, it's good to make your acquaintance," greeted Jeremy sitting on the bench, typing into his computer.

Yumi didn't say anything, but gave a quick nod to acknowledge Mason.

Ulrich let out a small groan before taking the initiative to introduce her, "That's Yumi, sorry she's got a lot on her mind at the moment. Usually not very talkative to new people either."

"So you're the same Ishiyama that came from Japan! At least that's what Ulrich told me the last time we talked. Could you tell me what area you're from?" asked Mason tapping the tip of his shoe on the pavement.

"Oh nowhere special, our family used to live in Kyoto but that was when I was a baby. Then, he quit his job, got a work visa to be here, and then we all just ended up staying here. Eventually I even had a little brother come along," she explained. Mason seemed surprised at how she spoke, she seemed very passionate about her origins.

"That's very interesting." replied Mason, "We lived in Nagoya while my uncle was doing some work with uncovering ancient Shinto shrines, and then in Osaka for some restoration. My uncle then got a job in Wales and we moved out there."

"Enough with exchanging life stories," Odd pushed past Yumi and looked up at the stranger, "Now I have several questions for you mister," said Odd waving a finger in Mason's face.

Ulrich picked up Mason's gym bag and pushed Odd's finger away from Mason's face, "Okay we can get to those as soon as we get to Mr. Delmas's office," Ulrich led the way towards the school for Mason to follow. The other walked in front as well and began to hold conversation between themselves while asking Mason a few more questions here and there.

Mason looked at Ulrich, and then looked at the others as they led the way towards the school. He had a good feeling that he had encountered some very unique people. He couldn't exactly figure out what made them unique, but he didn't worry too much about it. For the time being, he was excited for the new experiences he was ready to encounter at Kadic.