Feels Like Home

"Help! Xanafied buzz saw!"

Odd leapt up onto the safety of the couch as the power tool crawled speedily along the floor. Its' circular blade was cutting thin grooves into the floor.

"Odd, I told you not to play around with it!" Ulrich was perched on top of the table.

They were in the living room of the abandoned house known as The Hermitage. Strewn about were various tools and household furnishings. They had come to try and fix up the old house; to make it look like more of a home. Since, so far, all efforts to rematerialize Franz Hopper had proved unsuccessful; the Lyoko Warriors had decided to try to give Aelita something else from her old life.

Aelita knew nothing of what they had planned. Odd had thought it would be better if they did it as a surprise. So Jeremie was taking her into town for a day, while the rest of them set to work. Of course, the out-of-control buzz saw zipping around the room had put a halt to their renovations.

The front door opened and Yumi walked in, carrying some buckets of paint and brushes.

"Okay, guys; I've got the paint – What the -?!"

"Yumi, watch out! It senses your presence!" Odd yelled out as, by an unfortunate coincidence, the saw quickly ate its' way along the floor towards her.

Yumi gave a yelp and jumped onto a rickety chair, narrowly avoiding the blade nipping at her feet. Ulrich grabbed her hand, and pulled her onto the table with him.

"What happened? I only left you two alone for five minutes!" Yumi had to raise her voice to be heard over the sound of the saw eating through the floor boards.

"It's Odd's fault!" Ulrich pointed to his blond roommate. "He brought that stupid buzz saw, and now it's stuck on auto!"

"Hey, I was trying to speed things up!" Odd called back in defense. "It would've taken forever to cut those new shelves with that rusty old saw you brought!"

"Okay, okay." Yumi held her hands up, playing peace-maker. "Any ideas on what we do now?"

"I don't know." Replied Odd. He looked down at the buzz saw, which was now circling the couch. "Though this does remind me of when I was ten, and went to stay with my Aunt June. She left me alone in the house with her creepy chihuahua. The thing went crazy and tried to eat me. I was trapped on the kitchen counter for three hours!"

"I don't want to be stuck here for three hours!" Said Ulrich. "How long until its' batteries die?"

"Well, I just put in two of those long-life batteries, so… I think we're going to be here a while."

The three of them groaned. Just then, the sound of fabric being shredded filled the room.

"There go Aelita's new curtains." Yumi looked gloomily at what remained of the brightly coloured drapes she had left folded on the floor.

"Hey Ulrich, you're good at soccer." Said Odd. "The window's open. Maybe you could boot the saw out of the house."

"And lose a toe in the process? Why don't you do it, Odd? It's your saw!"

"But it'll cut through my sneakers like butter." Odd looked over at Yumi's footwear. "Yumi, your boots look pretty tough."

"No way, Odd. I've already lost one pair of shoes to your dog. I'm not losing another to your saw."

At that moment, Yumi's mobile rang. She fished it out of her pocket, while Odd picked up a metal rule and began trying the knock the buzz saw over.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Yumi. It's Jeremie." The blond genius was standing in the boy's bathroom of a café in town. "I want to know when to bring Aelita over for her surprise."

"Uh…" Yumi looked over at the rogue buzz saw devouring a floor rug, while Odd was swiping at it with his rule. "We're kinda still working, Jeremie."

"Yeah, I can hear that." In the background, Jeremie could hear the buzz saw going and Ulrich yelling, "No, Odd! Turn it on its' back! Its' back!"

"Jeremie, I gotta go. I'll call you later." Yumi hung up and looked down. The buzz saw was now on its' side and spinning viciously. It was still moving around the floor at possibly a greater speed than before.

"Oh no. Not the paint cans!"

The saw cut into the sides of the cans, letting the paint leak out onto the floor. Also, since its' blade was now coated with the stuff; as it spun, it sent paint flying everywhere. The three teens screamed and held their arms up as they were hit by the spray.

"Ugh!" Yumi looked down at the multicoloured streaks that adorned her dark shirt and pants. "How can this get any worse?!"

Her answer came in the form of the table shuddering beneath her and Ulrich. The saw was now cutting through one of the legs. They jumped onto the couch with Odd, as the table tilted on its' much shortened support.

"Okay, I've had it." Said Odd. He wielded his rule like a sword. "I say we attack it together, head on! We've defeated worse things than this. What do you say?"

Yumi and Ulrich looked at each other briefly, and then reached over the side of the couch. They came back up with their own weapons. Ulrich was holding a hammer and Yumi had a long chisel.

"Ready?" They all focused their eyes on the buzz saw that was currently stationary, as if awaiting their advance.

"Lyoko Warriors, attack!"

Had someone other than a few squirrels and birds been present outside The Hermitage; they probably would've been alarmed by the loud crashing, banging and yelling that issued from the house, and called the police. Fortunately, this was not the case, and the boarding school students would not have to explain their presence in a supposedly abandoned house.

They were still going to have to come up with an explanation though.

Yumi sat with her head in her hands. Her clothes were even dirtier than before, and her hair was messed up.

"Aelita is going to hate us." She said miserably, looking at the bombsite which had once been The Hermitage's living room.

Ulrich sat next to her, mournfully holding one of his shoes. The sole was almost completely cut off. By some miracle, his foot had escaped unharmed.

"And I doubt Jeremie's going to forgive us any time soon." He said.

Odd poked at the demolished buzz saw with his rule. The slain power tool made no movement, save for its' wiring giving a slight spark.

"Do you think I'll be able to get my money back at the hardware store?"

His two friends turned their heads and glared at him. He held up his hands defensively.

"Just wondering."

"What is wrong with us?" Ulrich put his hand over his eyes. "No matter what we do, we always end up wrecking something!"

"And Jeremie and Aelita are usually the ones to put it back to normal." Yumi added. She took another gloomy look around the room. "Though it's going to take more than a coat of paint to get this back the way it was."

Odd's head perked up.

"Guys, I just had this really crazy idea."

Ulrich and Yumi looked at him with curious expressions. A grin slowly grew on the purple-clad boy's face.

"We're going to need some more paint."

--

Jeremie walked along the worn-down path leading to The Hermitage, with Aelita beside him.

"Come on, Jeremie. Tell me what this big surprise is." The pink-haired girl grinned with anticipation.

"If I told you; it wouldn't be a surprise." Jeremie was excited himself. He couldn't wait to see Aelita's face when she saw her old home restored to the way it was.

As they approached the house, the front door opened and their three friends stepped out. Splotches of multicoloured paint adorned their clothes and specks had made it onto their faces and hair.

"Hey there, Aelita." Odd held up his hand in greeting. "We've got something special to show you."

"Yeah. You see, we wanted to fix up your home to give you a piece of your old life back." Said Ulrich.

"But then we realized that, no matter what you do, you can never really bring back the past." Yumi held the door open for Aelita and motioned for her to go inside. "But you can use parts of it to make a new future."

Aelita walked in, with a somewhat confused Jeremie behind her. She stepped into the living room and her eyes widened. Jeremie's mouth dropped open at what he saw.

The entire room had been painted over. Each of the four walls now resembled a sector of Lyoko. The orange and red of the Desert sector; the dark blue and white resembling Ice; Forest was portrayed with various shades of green and yellow sunlight; and Mountain had purple-coloured rocks with blue sky.

On the floor, there were random grooves cut into the woodwork. But they had been painted in to resemble their Lyoko vehicles. The Overbike, the Overboard, the Overwing and even the Skidbladnir.

In the centre of the room, the table had had its' front two legs shortened so that it leant forward like a makeshift plaque. Upon its' surface, the five friends' faces had been painted, with their names written underneath. Below their names, Yumi, Ulrich and Odd had all put their handprints in different colours of paint. Yumi's was in black; Ulrich's in green and Odd's in purple. Above it all, the words 'Lyoko Warriors Forever!' were written in white paint.

Aelita stood in silence for a while, just taking in the scene before her. Jeremie seemed to be at a loss for words too.

Ulrich, Yumi and Odd traded nervous looks, and then stiffened up as Aelita turned around. There were tears in her eyes and her mouth was open in a wide smile.

"Oh you guys!"

She ran over and pulled all three of them into a hug. They each let out a silent sigh of relief and grinned at each other.

"Hey Princess, don't forget Einstein." Odd pointed at the still gaping Jeremie. "This was his idea."

Jeremie was snapped out of his stupor by Aelita throwing her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek.

Ulrich leaned in close to Odd and whispered,

"Odd, you're a genius."

"Yeah, I know." He replied with a toothy smile.

Yumi held up two paint can lids smeared with blue and pink.

"You two want to add your signatures?"

Jeremie and Aelita pressed their paint-covered hands against the tabletop, completing the picture. The friends then set about discussing what they could add to their new 'clubhouse', such as bean-bags, plants and photos.

"Hey, Ulrich?" Aelita suddenly asked. "What happened to your shoe?"