A Different Beginning

Kadic College, Monday morning. Yumi Ishiyama was just walking in through the gates when she heard someone shouting her name from behind her.
"Not again", she sighs and turns around. "Will you hurry up Aelita?. Your always running late".
"Sorry Sis" Aelita said, running up to her big sister. Giving her sibling time to catch her breath, Yumi wondered yet again how the two of them where ever related.
While Aelita was sweet, kind and pretty, Yumi was tough as nails, though also pretty. 'How did I ever get stuck with her?' she wondered for the umpteenth time.
"Let me guess. Late night out?" she asked.
Aelita grinned at her. "Yeah. I met this guy last Friday, and spent the weekend with him in town"
Yumi raised one eyebrow and crossed her arms, a sure sign that trouble was on the way. "D-don't worry" Aelita said quickly, "Odd introduced him to me. He's his roommate here."
"Odd introduced him? The same Odd who hits on most girls in school?"
"Yep!" Aelita replied, smiling again. "His name is Jeremy. You know, the smart computer guy? He's a bit shy, but quite nice" A blush started creeping out on her face.
"Tell me more during lunch, O.K? In the meantime, I need to go have a talk with
Odd" Yumi said.

"So you know my weekend, but what about you?" Aelita asked during break.
She and Yumi were sitting outside, eating lunch, while Yumi was working on her laptop. "Not much. Music, Tv, and had a chat with my friends on the net."
"Those friends you made, Sugarr! and lightyumi?"
"That's them", Yumi nodded, "I'm just quickly checking my mail to see if I've got anything from them yet- What the!"
Her entire screen suddenly went static, then green coding started flashing over it.
"Hello? Can anyone hear me?" a voice asked, and then someone appeared on
her screen.
'Wow' she thought to herself. The guy on the screen had wavy brown hair, brown eyes and seem to exude an air of mystery. "Who are you?" she asked softly
"My name is Ulrich, and I need your help" "My help? Why? How?" Yumi asked
"You have to (static) Hurry be...(static) hurry!" The screen filled with static, then went black.
"Wait! Oh no, I've lost the signal!" she cried. "Now how am I going to find out who he is?".
"Um..". She looked up at her sister standing next to her.
"I think I can help" Aelita said, smiling.

"Come on!" she shouted running up the stairs in the school dorm.
"Are you sure about this?" Yumi asked, pushing open the door.
"Of course I'm sure. Trust me"
'Uh oh' Yumi thought to herself.
They walked down the corridor until Aelita stopped in front of one of the doors.
She knocked and waited.
"Yeah?" a voice asked.
"Can I come in?" she asked sweetly.
The door opened so fast Yumi wondered how it stayed on it's hinges.
"Aelita!" Jeremy said, smiling "Sure, come in, come in"
Yumi looked around the room as Jeremy closed the door. The one side was well kept and clean, while the other side looked like the city dump.
"Yep, this is definitely Odd's bed" she muttered.
"Whose your friend?" he asked, sitting down in front of his computer.
"This is my big sister, Yumi, and she needs your help"
"Anything for you Aelita" he said, blushing. 'Oh please' Yumi thought.
"O.k., here's the sitch. I got a weird message from someone, but the connection was bad. Can you track it for me? Found out where it came from?"
"Easy" he said, taking the laptop from her. He quickly connected it to his and started typing on his keyboard.
"Right, let's see now." He type in a few commands, read some code that came up, typed some more. He brought up a map of the city and leaned back.
A red line ran from the school on it to a building near the pier.
"That's it. That's where your signal came from. Also, in case your interested, the signal wasn't weak, it was actually quite strong. It's just it's broadband signal that was changing."
Yumi stared at the building. "Do you know where that is?" she asked.
"Um..no, but here". He printed the map for her and said, "Your going there, aren't you?". She nodded.
"I want to go too" He said. "Oh Jeremy, your so kind and brave" Aelita said, blushing.
'Oh no' Yumi groaned inward.

Jeremy grabbed his laptop and popped it into his bag. He also grabbed a flashlight from under his bed and tucked it in his belt.
"All right, let's go" He said, and started marching to the door. As he reached the door it opened and in walked Odd. "Hey, Jeremy, what's happening?" He asked.
Spying Aelita over his shoulder Odd grinned and poked Jeremy in the ribs.
"Way to go, Jer! Sneaking a girl into your room, you sly fox."
Jeremy started blushing, but before he could say anything Yumi cleared her throat.
"Oh, uh..Hi there, Yumi" Odd said, "Didn't see you there. Hey, are you guys going somewhere?" he asked, eyeing their backpacks.
"None of your business, Odd" Yumi said, and started to walk out the room.
Odd jumped in front of her, blocking her way.
"Odd" Yumi said, clenching her fist, "Move or else!"
"Uh uh," Odd said, shaking his head, "Jeremy's my friend. Where he goes, I go. Besides, he owes me for introducing your sister to him."
As Aelita held her sister back, Jeremy said "Let him come Yumi. He knows his way about, and he might be useful if things get hairy."
"All right" Yumi said, still glaring at Odd hiding behind Jeremy, "But one wrong move..."

"Man, what a dump!" Odd said, looking at the abandoned factory.
"Are we really going in there?" Aelita asked, holding onto Jeremy's arm.
"I wonder if the stories are true" Odd wondered out loud.
"What stories?" Yumi asked, heading for the entrance.
"Y'know, the ones about how this place is haunted"
"Haunted!" Aelita squeaked, clutching Jeremy's arm harder.
Yumi: "Odd!". Odd smirked.
"Don't worry Aelita, I'll protect you" Jeremy said, putting his arm around her and holding her close to him. Aelita started to blush again.
Yumi groaned and continued walking to the factory muttering "Why me?".
As she turned her back, Jeremy looked to Odd and winked. Odd smirked and winked back.
They entered the factory and encountered their first obstacle: the stairs were gone.
"Now how do we get down?" Odd asked.
"Don't give up yet" Yumi said. She walked to the one pylon at the stairs side and started climbing. "Come on, last one down is as slow as Odd's love live!"
"Hey!"
When they all had climbed down, Jeremy pulled out his flashlight and handed it to Yumi, then got out his laptop and turned it on. "We close" he said, looking at the data on the screen. He typed in a command, and the floor plans appeared.
"I think this were we are" he said, pointing at the map. "The signal seems to be coming from here". His finger pointed near the bottom. "Any ideas on how to get there?"
"How about we take the elevator" Odd said. They looked up and saw him standing in a large lift at the far wall. "That's strange, it's not on the map" Jeremy said.
"Who cares?" said Yumi, anxious to see Ulrich again.
They climbed in and Odd pressed the bottom button. The door closed, and the lift started going down. It came to stop, and then did nothing. They waited for the doors to open, but after a few minutes realised something was wrong.
"Think the power's out?" Odd asked.
"Oh no, what if we're trapped?" Aelita sobbed.
"Don't worry Sis, it's going to be fine" Yumi said, hugging her sister.
"Maybe I can jumpstart it" Jeremy said. He moved to the panel and started to pull a screwdriver from his pocket, then stopped.
"What?" He pulled lightly on the side and it swung open, revealing a number pad.
"Guess we need the code to get in, but where are we going to get it?" Odd asked.
"Never fear, Jeremy is here!". He quickly pulled out his laptop and connected it to the control pad. "Open sesame" he said.
With a whoosh the doors opened to them, giving them entrance to the massive room ahead. Silently they walked in, their footfalls rising small clouds of dusts.
"Oh wow!" Jeremy suddenly said, making everyone jump, "Look at that!"
A big computer was sitting near the one wall. Jeremy ran up to it, his face flushed with excitement. "This must be it" he said.
"Can you start it?" Yumi asked, just as excited.
"Sure" Jeremy said. He flicked on a switch near the bottom screen, and one by one the screens came back to life. A bunch of numbers began running on the screen, a blue download bar went from 0 to 100, and a window popped up, a familiar face looking out from it.
"Ulrich!" Yumi said, smiling, her heart beating rapidly