Code lyoko Xover with skulduggery pleasant.

When two worlds collide who comes out second best? Valkyrie? Or XANA?

CHAPTER 1

I had the job of looking after the new case…..again. I was sick of it but somehow this case had drawn me to it. I didn't know why at first. But it just compelled me to look into further. I decided to take a few weeks off until something dire came up so I could go and trace where these strange occurrences were taking place. So I decided to go and investigate. The things that had been reported were somewhat supernatural, 'Giant crabby things', whatever they were. These things had been spotted in France, in a school to be exact and going to school was not, in fact nowhere near good but it had to be done and I wanted to see if this was an elaborate hoax or not.

So here I am outside of the school about to walk into the office. I was posing as an exchange student. I walk up to the office.

"Ugh… Hi." I say lamely walking over to the secretary. "I'm the new exchange student from Ireland."

She nods tapping at her keyboard mindlessly. She looks up and shoots me a charming smile and picks up the phone. I slowly make my way over to some seats and sit down warily.

"The headmaster shall be with you shortly." She chimes. I nod my head in her general direction and smile gratefully.

I sit out here waiting for the headmaster. It must have been a ten minute wait as I find myself tapping my foot impatiently.

Damn I hate that. But I can't get myself to stop so I just start whistling a random song. I think about skulduggery and what he would be doing now. Presumably freaking out over my shock exit from the country. Only Tanith knew that I had left on the case. At first she wanted to come with me but after weeks of me saying no she gave up and promised not to tell skulduggery unless I told her to. Maybe I should have brought Tanith with at least for some backup and for someone to talk to while I was bored. Oh well I was here at least so that counted for something I hope. The reason as to why I was on this case was for as long as I have been with skulduggery he's only ever let me go on a few solo missions, other than that nothing, nada, zilch. And that's what annoyed me to no end. The missions were easy! So I decided I'd take this case before he even knew about it. Mwuhahaha- my evil thought laugh was cut off by a door opening. A tall man in about his forties walks out and looks at me.

"Ahh you must be Valkyrie Cain." He says. "I'm the headmaster of this fine establishment."

I laugh nervously at the joke and follow him in. Inside the office was clean and clear of junk unlike my old school. There were two chairs in front of the desk one of which was occupied by a small girl who looked to be my age. The headmaster went over to his desk and motioned for me to sit down. I nod and sit next to the girl. I risk another glance at her. She was smallish and wore dark clothes, with boots. Her hair was as dark as my own. Her skin was slightly pale and almost waxy the way the lights were on her.

After about half an hour of introducing me to my subjects and other "stuff", the principal finally introduced me to the girl.

"This is Yumi. And she'll be your guide until you feel comfortable enough to continue on without her; by the way you'll also be sharing a dorm with her." He says and the girl turns to me and smiles. She has a nice smile I note as the headmaster gets up and opens the door for us. I get up letting Yumi go before me.

"Thanks" I say to the principal as I walk out. He nods in return.

"So this is the dorm you'll be sharing with me for the moment and this is the end of the tour." Yumi says. I nod my head as Yumi opens the door.

"You don't talk much, do you?" she asks.

"Hmmm… you're right I just realized." I say just noticing, "I'm usually quite the opposite."

She nods thoughtfully and I smile at her as I walk over to my new, freshly made bed. I sigh as I sit on the bed. But instead of getting comfy I sit my laptop bag on my knees and open it. Before looking at the screen I sit on my pillows and cross my legs. A sudden beeping makes me look at my screen. Someone was requesting a webcam chat. I think I already know who. I accept looking over at Yumi and flash her a grin, she smiles back and returns to reading her book. A high pitched squeal forces me back to my laptop. Tanith was on the screen smiling happily. I sigh unable to stop the grin spreading on my face.

"Hey Tanith!" I squeal.

"Hahaha. Hey Val!" She says with more enthusiasm than me- I didn't even know was possible.

"How are things on your end?"

"Ugh… good."

"Are you sure Tanith because it doesn't sound that way?"

She sighs miserably, "Skulduggery knew that I knew that you had left and where you were so in other words he made me tell him."

I feel the colour drain from my face. "No way! You didn't tell him did you?" I practically shriek, freaking out.

"I told him that you had left on a case but not where, so you're safe." Tanith said her voice dropping to a whisper.

"Oh… geez I thought you had told him where I was." I say letting out a sigh of relief. I realize Yumi was giving me a strange look. I laugh and roll my eyes.

I look back to see Tanith with a worried expression on her face. "Uh… Tanith? Are you ok?" and then I realize something. She was at Gordon's house- my house.

"Tanith why are you at Gordon's?" I ask. Tanith looks over her shoulder at someone or something that I couldn't see. She puts a finger up to her lips and I nod understanding that she needed me to be quiet.

And then I see him, Skulduggery Pleasant, walking into the room. I quickly dodge out of view of the webcam, earning myself another weird look from Yumi. I put my finger to my lips motioning for her to be quiet. I grab my notebook out of my rucksack and write a note on it,

If you're wondering what's happening I'm having a webcam chat with my best friend Tanith but the reason why I'm not on it at the moment is because one of my friends that I didn't tell I was leaving is there and I don't want to talk to them.

I pass the book over to her with the pen. She looks up and nods almost in understanding.

Ok right so why are you telling me to be quiet? It's not like they're gonna jump on the next flight to France?

I can't help but to laugh a little too loudly. Yumi looks at me quizzically.

I'll tell you later?

She nods. I look back at the screen to see a silent argument had taken place. It was between Tanith and Skulduggery and they were fighting over… you guessed it, the laptop. Before I could react Skulduggery had hold of the laptop and was staring at me with his big hollow eye sockets.

"If you're gonna get up me at least put your façade on!" I hiss at him. He did just that, tapping the tattoos on his collarbones.

"Where are you?" he asks in that gloriously velvet voice of his.

"On a case that you don't know about!"

"Who else knows?"

"No one except for Tanith and I made her swear secrecy!"

"Well that didn't work for you now did it?"

"Of course not that's why you're talking to me over webcam Skulduggery!"

"Where are you?" he asks again

"like I said on a case that you don't know about and I'm certainly not going to tell you where I am and if you trying to find me with a GPS think again I bought a new phone and the signal on my laptop is blocked and anything else you may or may not have bugged has been checked and checked again."

"So why aren't you wearing you protective clothing?" he asks amused

Tanith walks past in the background looking glum.

"What did you do to Tanith?"

"Nothing! She just takes defeat badly."

"Yeah sure."

"Are you in a dorm?"

"Ugh no….?"

"Right then…"

"Look, Skulduggery I can handle whatever is thrown at me, surely you know that by now. If I run into any trouble I'll be sure to call you. OK?" I say closing my laptop.

Great now I had to deal with Yumi who was looking at me expectantly. This is gonna be a long day.