Episode Six : Cats
Soundtrack: Barenakedladies' "It's All Been Done" (Yumi. Ulrich. It's perfect.)
Since I don't feel an overwhelming need to comment on this episode, I'll take the opportunity to respond to some reviews from episode five.
Mirawriter: Thanks. I do my best :) .
Millenium'sPharoah: You're pretty much right. In the show, Jeremie goes into Lyoko a grand total of two times, and one time I don't think he even gets all the way there. The show never revealed how he looks in Lyoko, although Odd apparently found it amusing. This was why I wanted to get him into Lyoko. The in-story reasons for his going is as a favor to Aelita; I skirted around the problem of coming up with Jeremie's Lyoko appearance by having him use Aelita's 'template' – a concept I don't think exists in the show, but the idea I had was that if you have someone's character information saved, you can ask the computer to virtualize someone else using the same information. Okay, before I babble any further, the concise answer –Yes, this was a departure from cannon.
AussieUlrich – I'm continuing, I'm continuing!
But, right on the heels of that statement: after Episode Six concludes, I will be going on a three-week hiatus. Season 2a will resume with Episode Seven in early August.
Chapter One: Opening Number
Rain pounded on the windows of the science classroom of Kadic Junior High. The white noise of the rain seemed to have a soporific effect on the students: one boy with a patch of purple in his upswept blonde was reclining in his chair, head back, eyes closed; a pink-haired girl was staring abstractedly at a diagram of a food web tacked up in one corner; and another girl with a broad yellow headband and a serious makeup overload doodled aimless spirals in her notebook. Only one student, in fact, seemed to be paying any attention at all, a badly dressed boy with dorky glasses and blonde hair. His name is Jeremie, and he currently holds the Kadic records for both highest average and longest-maintained 99 or above. While his friends chalk this up to genetics, he does have to work for it. Natural genius is just an added bonus, i.e. the last ten points in a hundred.
"To open our unit on life science," the grey-haired teacher said over the sound of the rain, "the Traveling Museum has brought its Cats exhibit to our school. Cats belong to the feline family, order carnivoria, class mammalia, phylum chordata, and kingdom animalia. To remember these classifications…" Her desultory class had taken about a page worth of notes between them, not counting Jeremie, all period. "…binomial nomenclature, so the house cat would be…" The bell rang shrilly. Suddenly energized, the class pounded for the door.
There were four exceptions. The boy with the gravity-defying hair was still dozing. The pink-haired girl was carefully packing her bag. A rather grim looking, brown-haired boy loitered by the door, and Jeremie strolled up front to have a word with the teacher. "Uh… Ms. Hertz? What kind of exhibits did the museum bring?"
Ms. Hertz was erasing 'King Philip Comes Over From Glasgow, Scotland' from the board with some vigor. "I believe they have several preserved specimens of great cats, and – Jeremie, you look pale. Do you need to go to the infirmary?"
"No…" said the boy quickly. He did look a little pale. "Just… uh… need some lunch."
So saying, he hurried out. The three students remaining in the room followed.
A tall, black clad girl joined them in the otherwise empty hallway. "Jeremie, did you hear about the-"
"Traveling museum," he cut in, "yeah."
The boy with the spiky hair looked both ways to ascertain they were alone in the hallway, then squeaked indignantly: "Preserved specimens! Here! Just hang up a sign that says, 'XANA, Posses These.' It would save some trouble."
"Calm down, Odd," growled the serious-looking boy. "XANA's not that predictable."
"Actually, since it's a computer program, it's theoretically possible to…" Jeremie put in.
Odd cut him off. "Come on. You think he's going to pass up something like this?"
"Shhh!" The girl in black protested, "Someone's coming." A knot of students chattered past, heading for the cafeteria. "So," she continued in a forced-cheerful voice, "Dance this weekend."
"I thought you didn't read the paper," the brown-haired boy said skeptically.
"I don't," the girl agreed. The group of five merged seamlessly into the cafeteria bound stream. "William asked me… um… to go with him…"
"Oh, Ulrich, dear!" interrupted a shrill voice with its usual impeccable timing. Parting the crowd like the red sea, a girl in pink swept down the hallway, trailing a pair of disgruntled cronies. She had the latest issue of the Kadic Herald in one hand, folded open to the Events page. "Dance this week," she purred, insinuating herself between the girl who had been talking and the brown-haired boy, who was looking hurt. "You will be coming with me, won't you?"
Ulrich shot a cutting glance at the black-clothed girl who had been pushed away from him, mouthed William? Withan accusatory expression, and after a pause, during which she shook her head quizzically, answered, "I'll think about it, Sissi."
She planted a finger on his chest. "I can't wait forever, you know. But I'll give you a chance, all right?" With a cat-in-the-creamery smile, she moved back into the crowd.
The girl Sissi had displaced stared at Ulrich, aghast. "What?" He growled belligerently.
"I'm going home for lunch," she announced, and stamped off into the crowd.
Ulrich glared after her, defiant. His remaining three friends had turned the full force of their attention on him.
"What?" He repeated defensively, then, "if Yumi's going to hang around with William…"
"But you don't even like Sissi," his spiky-haired friend pointed out.
Ulrich snorted and began to walk again.
"I don't think I understand Ulrich," the pink-haired girl observed.
"Join the club, Aelita," piped the boy with the gravity-defying hair, "but then," he added melodramatically, "who are we to judge in matters of love?"
"It's not love we have to worry about," practical Jeremie put in. "How can we expect to save the world if we can't even stay together?"
The other boy drew breath for a witty retort, then thought better of it. "Let's hope that works out then. Can we get some food now? I'm starving."
"I thought you were Odd," pink-haired Aelita quipped weakly.
"Well done, young Padawan," he responded, and they were off.
- - - -
Outside, the rain drummed on the canvas tops of a pair of tents hastily erected on the school green. Under one, a pair of workmen wearing 'Traveling Museum: CATS' buttons pinned to their shirts sat on the hood of a gutted trailer, sipping coffee and taking bets on how long it would be before the kids came in. Under the other, a woman with the same pin was putting the finishing touches on the exhibit itself. A long table holding brochures, several feline skulls, a brindled cougar pelt, and a paw print cast in plaster was stretched out in front of her; she was setting up a diminutive model of a prehistoric feline skeleton. Behind her, three glass cubes with painted backgrounds held the usual museum dioramas: a housecat, grey tabby, frozen as it leapt after a sparrow; a lynx, set in a crouching position on a pile of rocks; and a pair of stuffed lions lazing in faux grass. A bird in the lion's display had fallen to the floor at some point during the travel, but they weren't allowed to open the exhibits until they got back to the museum, so there it would stay.
"Hey, Lou!" The girl called over the static of the rain, "drag an extension cord over here for the felus model!"
One of the workmen dropped off the hood of the truck and moseyed around to the back, from which he eventually produced an orange extension cord. "Yes, Ma'am," he said, uncoiling it and ducking between the two tents. "Your wish is my – ow!" The cord dropped to the ground.
"What?" Asked the girl, emerging from behind her table.
Lou picked up the cable. A wisp of black escaped it, but that might have been his imagination. "Shocked me. Must be the damp or something, I dunno. Here."
She accepted the cord and plugged in the cable she was holding. The Felus skeleton began to tread air in a mechanical fashion.
Behind the table, one of the stuffed lions twitched his tail lazily in a fashion that wasn't mechanical at all.
- - - -
Odd finished Jeremie's lunch. His own was long gone, white foam tray consigned to the garbage can. He didn't seem to care about the texture, taste, content, or composition of the food, all of which were dubious at Kadic. This was a good thing – otherwise, what would all his friends do with their obligatory slices of pizza?
Actually, today's lunch crowd consisted of Odd, Jeremie, and Aelita, so 'all' didn't come into it much. Yumi was at home, and Ulrich had vanished to sulk. The remaining three sat at one of the long, white cafeteria tables, wearing rather glum expressions, as was typical when their members had a spat. As Odd put it – "It's always some stupid misunderstanding. You would think they'd have figured that out by now." Yumi and Ulrich, it had been unanimously decided, were too alike for their own good.
Aelita took her mostly-empty lunch tray cautiously to the garbage can, then returned to the group, resting her hands on the tabletop and leaning over. "Well, I think we should go see the cats. I haven't been around a lot of animals on Earth."
"Yeah," Odd agreed caustically, "And when XANA attacks, we'll be right there to see the action."
"Calm down, Odd," Jeremie urged, standing up and snagging his laptop. "We have to go for science anyway. If XANA launches an attack, we'll just-"
Beep, beep, beep, chirruped his laptop.
Jeremie balanced the computer on one hand and opened it with the other. His glasses reflected twin images of the tall, red-wreathed shaft displayed on the screen. "Active Tower in the mountain sector," he sigh, "One thing you can say for XANA – it doesn't waste time."
Odd dumped his lunch tray and peered at the computer. "That he doesn't. Let's get this show on the road."
Jeremie folded his laptop. Seconds later, the three burst free of the cafeteria. The lawn outside, where two tents had been set up, was filled with irritated people. They were more interested in the three smashed diorama cases, now sans lions, lynx, or housecat, then a trio of running students. But someone saw Jeremie, Aelita, and Odd leave for the Factory. And someone followed.