(A/N: I do not own Code Lyoko or Half-Life; only the character Shawn Davidson and the MELM shirt.)
Chapter 1
A car was driving through France on a sunny day in March. Its occupants consisted of a sixteen year-old teenage boy and his father heading for Kadic Academy. The boy seemed depressed about a matter as he stared blankly out the passenger window listening to his ipod. His father looked at him for a moment; he knows what was troubling his son.
"Shawn, I know you're unhappy about living here, and I'm sorry I've done this to you. You have to understand; the company made me transfer between countries."
"Yeah, and the company moved from America, to Italy, and now to France. I was happy in Italy; I went to a great school, and I found others who enjoy the same sport I like, and then we had to move all the way to France. Now I have to attend some pristine school for the next few years." Shawn scoffed.
Shawn's father sighed. "It was wrong of me to take you away from Miami when you were eight, and it was wrong of me to do it again. I couldn't just quit my job and find another one; it's not that easy."
They pulled in front of the Kadic school grounds. "Look, you're a smart kid; you've proven that in your skills. Also, there are many sports teams here, you may get recognized. Trust me, things will get better in time." He smiled as he pulled Shawn in for a hug. Shawn hugged him back before he gathered up his luggage.
"I'll miss you dad." Shawn slung his computer bag, a messenger bag, and a duffel bag over his body and pulled two wheeled luggage bags behind him. He waved his father goodbye as he drove away.
Brushing his dark brown hair out of his eye, Shawn took in the view of Kadic Junior High. He walked on toward the main building where he was confronted by a big man in sweats.
"So, you must the new kid, uh, Shawn Davidson?" he asked. Shawn nodded. "Good, I'm Jim, the gym teacher here at Kadic, and I'll be showing you to your dorm room." Jim lead Shawn to dorm building while giving him a hand with his bags.
"So you know, you'll be sharing with another boy here as we're getting short stocked in rooms lately." Jim told him. "By the way, that's a nice leather jacket there, you trying to be cool or something?"
"No, it's just comfortable, that's all."
"Well, I remember owning one a long time ago, when I would cruise down the road on my motorcycle with some old buddies from the Air Force. It was good times I tell ya'"
"Wow, you were in the Air Force? What was it like?"
"It was a thrilling time full of excitement and had a sense of freedom; but I'd rather not talk about it. Ah, here we are, you'll be holed up with one of Kadic's finest minds: Jeremy Belpois." Jim opened the door and Jeremy looked from his computer, surprised by the sudden appearance.
"Jim, what's going on here?" he asked.
"Jeremy, meet Shawn Davidson. He's your new roommate." Jim noticed his face. "Ah come on, Belpois. Why else would we move another bed and cupboard in here? You know new students are coming in like herding cattle." With that, Jim left, leaving the two boys alone.
"Hi, I'm Shawn Davidson." He said, extending his hand outward.
"I'm Jeremy Belpois." He said back, grabbing his hand. "So, where you from?"
"I'm from America originally, but I moved to Italy when I was eight and now here. Jim told me you're one of Kadic's brightest."
Jeremy nodded. "Yeah. You seem nice at all, but I have some important business to do right now, so if you'll excuse me—"And with that, Jeremy turned back to his computer. Shawn set his belongings on the bed and starts unpacking his clothes in the cabinet.
Jeremy watched Shawn from the corner of his eye, noting the stuff he had. He saw he owned many different clothing styles, a couple pairs of shoes, a wall plaque with a coat of arms, and a few other things.
"What's that plaque there?" he asked, pointing towards it.
"That's my family's coat of arms from my ancestors who hailed from Scotland long ago." Shawn said. "We were great, hearty people then, and some of us still are. My dad says I inherited my smarts and skills from my grandfather."
Jeremy went back to his computer while Shawn finished unpacking. After about ten minutes, Jeremy was briefly distracted when Shawn started playing some classic rock music from his laptop. Shawn, seeing Jeremy's annoyed look, turned the volume down and apologized before he started setting up his network and account data.
A little later, Jeremy was busy programming some features for the Skidbladnir when Shawn poked his head in. "What is all this, some kind of video game?" he asked.
"Yes it is," Jeremy lied. "I'm programming a part of it right now. Some of the other guys and I have been working on it for a while. Right now, I'm programming a vehicle to use in water environments." Jeremy prayed Shawn will buy his story, and he did. He shrugged it off and went back to his laptop.
"So, what's the schedule for today?" he questioned.
"It's Saturday, so right now, its lunch time until two-thirty, where we have chemistry with Ms. Hertz in the science building." Jeremy answered.
Shawn thanked him for the information before rushing for the cafeteria. When the door closed behind him, Jeremy let out sigh of relief. He's going to be an annoyance to me. He thought.
Over at the cafeteria, Shawn had gotten a tray of food and was walking past the tables when he heard something.
"You think Jeremy is working too hard?" said a girl's voice.
"Yeah, Einstein needs to get out more. If he stays in his room any longer, he'll forget what the sun looks like." Said a boy in purple clothes.
Shawn sat down at the table. "You know Jeremy Belpois?" The kids there just stared at him.
"Who are you?" asked a pink-haired girl.
Shawn introduced himself, and the others did the same. Shawn seemed the most interested in Aelita Stones. He felt some kind of aura around her. Shawn chatted with the group while eating his meal, which he had a lot of though it was not close to Odd's tray. He got to know them a little and they the same.
"Hey Shawn," said Aelita. "Can you go tell Jeremy to come here? He needs to get away from his computer for a while, but tell him it's important."
"No problem Aelita." He said as he left to find Jeremy.
"Aelita," Odd said, with food in his mouth. "I can tell that Shawn likes you. You just met, but I can tell. I've seen it with other people before." He then stared at Ulrich, who responded by kicking him from under the table.
Back at his room, Shawn had told Jeremy the message. His only answer was a sigh as he left for the cafeteria. Shawn, after looking at his watch, saw he had about forty minutes till chemistry, went to his cabinet. Inside, he pulled out a blue and white athletic sleeveless shirt, some grey sweatpants, a pair of parkour grip gloves, and running shoes. He also loaded his messenger bag with his class supplies, a water bottle, and his ipod. After changing his clothes and strapping his bag to his back, Shawn ran out the door towards the school grounds.
At class, Jeremy, Odd, and Ulrich sat between each other, chatting about the new kid. Odd thought he was a cool guy, but Jeremy kept commenting on his somewhat annoying behavior.
"Speaking of which," Ulrich said. "Where is Shawn? Class is gonna start in three minutes, what can he be doing on his first day?"
They did not have time to question Shawn's absence when Ms. Hertz walked through the door and began attendance. Everyone was accounted for until she got to Shawn's name. "Shawn Davidson? Shawn Davidson? Where is he?" she asked.
Everyone stayed silent, unsure of the whereabouts of the new student. Ms. Hertz dismissed him, thinking he will show up soon and began the lesson, discussing about the effects of liquid nitrogen. In about ten minutes, everyone started hearing noises in the hallway, consisting of doors slamming, the sound of shoes hitting the floor, and a few unrecognizable sounds.
Then, Shawn burst through the class door, drenched in sweat and out of breath. Everyone just stared at him as he grabbed his water bottle and squeezed the last of it into his mouth. "Sorry I'm late Ms. Hertz," Shawn gasped. "But I lost track of time out in the city while I was running."
Ms. Hertz opened her mouth to say something, but closed it and just motioned to him to take a seat ad continued the lesson. Shawn sat next to Jeremy, who did not particularly like the smell of sweat emanating from him.
"Where were you?" he whispered, holding his hand to his nose.
"I was running, that's all," He whispered back. "I think I pulled a muscle in my leg though. I haven't done this in a while."
Jeremy scoffed at him and turned his attention back to the teacher. When class ended, the boys met outside by their park bench to plan the rest of their day.
"Guess what?" said a very ecstatic Odd. "I have a date tonight with Natasha Rosenthal, and I'm gonna take her to the movies." Clearly Odd was stoked for tonight.
"No way, that Russian girl in the tenth grade?" questioned William. "I couldn't get a date with her. Nice job man." The two of them fist bumped.
"I need to look for more information about Tyron, as well as do a check on your Lyoko form programs," Jeremy said. "I've been trying to make some improvements to your performances on Lyoko, maybe make you guys stronger. It'll just be another sleepless night."
"I think I'll just sit in my room and relax for the night. Too much has been happening with Lyoko and XANA and it's just a pain." Ulrich said, letting out a sigh.
They continued to chat for a while when Yumi and Aelita joined them. They talked a little about their day until Jeremy brought up the subject of Shawn.
"He's just strange to me," he said. "He bugs me a little; he came to class drenched in sweat, while wearing some exercise get-up, and claims he was only running in the remaining time before class. Not only that, he also poked his head in on my computer, but I managed to convince him the Skidbladnir was for a video game. I feel like he's going to get in our way."
At that moment, Shawn showed up, this time showered and dressed in new clothes consisting of blue jeans, a blue "MELM" t-shirt, a grey zipper hoodie, and black sneakers. "What's up guys?" he asked.
William introduced himself, and learned about his background a little before everyone, except for Yumi who headed home, left for dinner. Like every other time, Odd took enough food to feed a den of wolves, Shawn took a normal size portion, and everyone else cracked a joke of how scrawny Odd is.
"Hey Shawn," Ulrich asked. "What this talk about how you came to class sweaty and that you were only running? People are talking about it."
Shawn wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Well, you see here, I am a parkour runner."
"What is that?" asked Odd, still stuffing his face.
"A parkour runner is one who, just runs. Parkour is the art of running. It is a state of mind; one that allows the user to see things in a new way. Runners aim to move quickly and efficiently through the environment with only their bodies. For me, I run to feel a sense of freedom, like nothing can stop me. You can think of it like running through a military obstacle course. It can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing and act carelessly."
"It sounds exciting." said Aelita.
Shawn smiled at her. "I know, parkour means something different for each person, but to everyone, it is still a state of mind; being able to overcome and adapt to mental and emotional obstacles along with physical barriers and to touch the world and interact with it, instead of being sheltered by it."
"That's amazing," commented William. "I never thought that someone can do things like that."
"I find it interesting myself.' Ulrich chimed in.
"Big deal, you're just jumping on roofs to show how strong you are, nothing special." Jeremy muttered, looking at his laptop.
Shawn felt anger rise up in himself. "People don't run to show off, Jeremy!" he yelled as he pounded his hand on the table, attracting other students' attention. "Only a few people have used their skills to show off, but they did it to reach out to the public to spread the art form!" He sat back in his seat, taking deep breathes.
"Please, I don't understand how your fancy footwork makes you feel free, when you're catching people's attention in the street and appearing on the six o clock news as an athletic ninja or something. To me, all your state of mind talk is just bull shit."
Shawn jumped out of his seat and slammed his hands on the table, making everyone jump. "Shut your god damn mouth!" he yelled. "You don't know what you're talking about. Parkour has helped me a great deal in my life."
Jeremy scoffed at him. "Yeah, I can clearly see how muscular you look."
Shawn's temper could not take it anymore. He reached across the table, grabbed Jeremy by his shirt collar, and dragged him onto the table. Shawn stared into the frightened kid's eyes and spoke into his ear, loud enough for the rest of the gang to hear. "When my mother died four years ago, I overcame my depression through parkour, and then it became my passion so I wouldn't become depressed about it again." He pushed Jeremy back to his seat and stared at him while everyone in the cafeteria stared back at Shawn.
"What is going on here?!" shouted a booming voice. It was Jim. He listened to one of the girls for the situation and then stormed over to team Lyoko's table. "Davidson! Were you fighting with Belpois here?"
Shawn took a deep breath. "I did. This little bastard has the nerve to insult both myself and my sport." Jim asked Odd if it was true, which he nodded to. Jim escorted both boys to the dorm rooms, while everyone else discussed what had happened.
Jim led the two boys to their room and threw them in. "You're both lucky Principal Delmas isn't here and I'm feeling tired tonight, so you both will stay in your room for the remainder of the night and settle your problems by morning." He then closed the door, leaving the two alone.
Shawn sat down on his bed while Jeremy started up his computer and began working. Shawn pulled out his laptop and began playing Half-Life 2. By nine o clock, the two did not say a word to each other, when Shawn decided to break the ice. "I shouldn't have grabbed you like that at dinner." He said. Jeremy continued to type codes however, which got Shawn irritated. "What are you working on this time?" he walked up behind him.
"Leave me alone, this is private stuff." Jeremy snapped back.
Shawn pushed Jeremy aside to see the screen. All he saw was some 3D models of what looked like a purple human cat, a couple of ninja, and what looked like a pink-clothed elf when Jeremy attacked him. They both fought each other, waving their arms around until Shawn accidentally slammed his hand on the keyboard, causing the drop box to display a message before disappearing.
Jeremy shoved his roommate aside to address the issue. He typed some commands and in no time, the drop box of the models came back up. "Look what you've almost done!" he shouted. "You almost permanently deleted my character data files!"
Shawn tried to apologize, but Jeremy shushed him. "No, ever since you got here, which is only one day; you have been a pain in the ass. I hate you. My friends might like you and think you're an okay guy, but I don't! And now, you almost deleted important data from my computer! I want you out of this room by tomorrow and into your own and I don't care what you do from now on as long as you stay away from me and my friends."
"Fine, I'll go," Shawn said. "But know this; I will get you one of these days Jeremy. In fact, I hope you live a shitty life of loneliness and depression. I don't understand how your friends even like you the way you are. I tried reaching to you to try to be friends, but you think I'm just strange and an annoyance." Shawn crawled into bed and pulled the covers over his face, without even changing his clothes or removing his shoes.
Jeremy stood in place and just sighed. He went back to his computer and continued working until quarter to ten. He then checked if Shawn was asleep, which he was, and called Aelita. "Jeremy? What is it?" she moaned.
"Hey. You up for going to the Cortex to find some information on Tyron or XANA?" he asked.
"Um, okay. Are you and Shawn okay now?"
"No, that's why I want to go to the factory. Can you call the others and let them know? Great, see you at the factory." He hung up and, as quietly as he can, left the room.
Shawn opened his eyes and threw off his covers. What do you have planned at this factory Jeremy? He thought as he followed after him outside to the forest. Staying close behind, Shawn saw Jeremy meet up with Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita before opening a manhole and descend into the sewers. He then followed suit. From there, they grabbed scooters and skateboards and rode deep within the sewer system. He followed behind them with a skateboard lying nearby, which he guessed was for Yumi.
Shawn followed them to the end of the sewer system and took cover and watched them climb up a ladder to the surface which, after they all went up, he did the same. Shawn poked his head out and found himself in front of an old, abandoned factory with the gang rushing inside.
I'll see what you're up to. He thought as he sprinted after them, only, when he made it inside, he came into contact with air as he fell off the platform. He fell down to ground level, but survived thanks to his parkour training. He rolled on impact, absorbing the damage.
"Was that Yumi?" Ulrich's voice rang out. Shawn rushed behind the elevator shaft nearby as Ulrich came out to check. He saw nothing, shrugged, and went back to the others. "Must've been a rat or something." He said. Shawn, however, had climbed onto the ceiling of the elevator since the shaft was open. He held on as the gang activated it and descended down.
Shawn wondered what was going on at the factory, but, unfortunately for him, things will take a big turn for the worse.
(A/N: Sorry if this chapter was really long; tried squeezing in a lot of character development here. If you enjoyed this chapter, leave a review, and give it a follow.)