A/N: A little fic that came to me after a painful snowboarding session.
Disclaimer: Don't own Code Lyoko or anything else included in this.
Surprises
Odd Della Robbia was a boy of many hobbies cracking jokes, skateboarding, playing the guitar, and snowboarding, just to name a few.
The last one mentioned, the art of using a piece of plastic to slide down a snow covered hill, was what he was heading off to do.
His plain black board lacked the fanciness of a professional's board, but had served him well. His ebony snow gear also was in good condition. He wore goggles, but, foolishly, no hood or cap.
Some thought that he was unaware of the dangers, most knew that he didn't care and wasn't worried. It was only about thirty degrees out and there was virtually no wind. As long as those conditions remained true, he figured that he would be fine. Odd was a daredevil or, at the very least, a foolish, teenage boy living his young years to their fullest.
His journey to one of the best slopes nearby Kadic was nearly complete. The artistic slacker was practicing while there was enough snow on the ground; not to mention the sake of getting his adrenaline pumping.
His parents were unable to afford the plane ticket for him to spend the holiday at home, so he was spending it at school, mostly with Aelita and Ulrich. They were three of a dozen or so students that were going no where this winter break.
It was Christmas Eve, a good day for celebrating with friends, but, for Odd, it was the perfect day to practice his skills.
Finally making it to the top, he secured his feet into the bindings and started down the slope. For him, this hill was mild in difficulty; the stunts he would perform would provide the challenge. A few yards downhill, he came close to a handrail, ollied up onto it, and slid down it, nearly getting acquainted with Terra Firma, but landed cleanly,
Silently, he vowed to focus on practicing grinding in the future, then he saw the tree several meters to his front and swerved around it. As soon he was past that obstacle, he heard a female call his name. Odd turned his head to the left to see who wanted to speak with him, reducing his speed slightly. The sapling off to his left wouldn't have stood a chance of survival if he had ran into it.
However, the evergreen pine tree less than two feet away would easily withstand impact. One second later, he was laying on his back, dazed and confused, only half conscious.
"Odd? Damn it, Odd, answer me!" It was that same female voice, though it spoke with concern this time. It wasn't any easier to put a name on it, though.
The lazy, snowboarding lad turned his head towards the source of the sound and saw a dark haired girl in a pink coat running towards him. She was trailed by a black haired boy and a middle aged man.
The girl who he couldn't identify knelt next to him and stared into his eyes, "Are you all right? Can you stand?"
He barely heard and understood the question, being on the brink of unconsciousness, shook his head, and answered, "Cookie flip." With that, his eyes went shut and unconsciousness claimed him...
He was in the middle of the woods, with three other people nearby. Two wore army helmets, the one a very muscular man, and the other, judging by her body shape, a female. Another wore no helmet and had black, buzz cut hair.
Off to his left are two train tracks, to his rear a river, and the bridge that led across it had been blown up. The blond noticed that he was wearing green camouflage and holding a rifle, an M4 from his video game experience.
With a gasp, he realized this was the level Railway from Ghost Recon 2. By some strange force, he was trapped in a video game.
"All right, Ghosts, let's move." A male member of the team stated, moving forward. Scott Mitchell, the team leader, was the man giving the order.
This was frightening for Mr. Della Robbia, because this game took place in North Korea, a country that Americans were not exactly welcome in, and he disobeyed the command, planting his feet in the ground.
Suddenly, he heard a voice from ahead, "Hey, Della Robbia! You coming?" It was the helmet-less male, who had turned around and stopped moving to address him.
"Come on, it wouldn't be fun without you here." The female said, an excited smile on her face.
"Yeah, Odd, hurry up." The team leader ordered, stopping for only a moment, gesturing for his team to continue. Reluctantly, the blond followed the orders.
Hopefully, the mission would not go terribly...
It went bad, but not horribly, almost everyone in the squad was unwounded, but Odd was unfortunate and lucky at the same time; a pistol bullet to his body armor was his only wound. They came under fire almost immediately and probably saw several thousand bullets fly over their heads.
However, now him and the team were sprinting away from a whole bunch of enemy soldiers firing their AK-47's at the fleeing American Special Forces.
Their helicopter was landing soon, and they were just reaching the landing zone, now they just had to hold it for a few minutes longer. They all crouched down and returned fire, mostly on burst fire and full automatic.
"Watch your spacing." Their squad leader reminded them as a grenade landed nearby, but too far to off the right side to even wound any of the team. At this statement, everyone spread out, leaving at least a yard between them all.
After two more minutes of exchanging bullets, and insults in a few languages, the helicopter flew towards them and began a slow descent to the ground. The Ghosts backed up, slowly towards the vehicle, which fired at the DPRK as it pulled closer to the ground.
It finally landed and the team piled in, starting with Scott Mitchell, continuing the male soldier with no helmet. The female soldier hopped into the vehicle and Odd went to follow her. As he lifted his right leg up to enter the vehicle, he felt an intense burning sensation in his leg and fell backwards to the ground.
He screamed, groaned, and moaned from the pain. It was the most terrible thing he had ever felt. Instantly, someone was on the ground next to him, trying to help him up, "It's ok, come on Della Robbia, it's gonna be alright."
The girl had a pistol in her free hand, emptying a clip in the enemy soldiers' direction as she assisted her comrade.
It had taken only a second for it to register what had happened, a lucky AK-47 round had caught him in the leg. The blond used his right leg, as well as the young woman's assistance, to get to his feet and into the helicopter.
"Thanks, thanks a lot." He told the girl that had helped him to safety.
"No problem." Her voice was familiar, but his memory didn't serve him, "This'll be over soon, wanna get together for a party back home?"
"Sure." He found himself answering, "We'll be looking back at moments like this and laughing..."
The scene faded to black as the helicopter pulled off the ground and away from the DPRK...
When he awoke some time later, he was laying down under the white sheets of an infirmary bed. He was dressed in the white T shirt and brown pajama pants he had been wearing under his snowsuit. Yolande didn't hear him awaken, but he could see her working on the computer just a meter to his right.
She was facing towards the wall to Odd's front, so that she could see anyone who came in, around her computer.
"Probably updating medical records..."
He didn't bother to stand up, she would probably stop him and make him lay back down; the exact details of his injury were hazy, but he did know that he smacked his head off of a tree.
At that moment, the nurse turned around, finished with her clerical work, and saw that her only patient, "Good to see you up, you've been out for a while now."
"Whoa, how did I get here? I remember snowboarding, hitting a tree, and some girl who called me...then I was on the ground," The blond American paused, shaking his head, " after that it's all a blur."
"Well, that girl may be Sissi, she was the one who brought in your snowboard, with Mr. Delmas and William carrying you. Poor girl, she said she caused your mishap." She shook her head, in a slightly sad fashion, before informing him, "You've been going in and out of consciousness since you got here at about twelve thirty, it's going on six 'o clock right now."
"I...er...never mind, how bad am I hurt?" Odd asked, swinging his legs off the side of the bed with no difficulty.
"As far as I can tell, you only knocked yourself out and you didn't break anything, but you should rest a while longer. It's your choice, though."
He felt a little bit dizzy, just sitting on the edge of the bed, slid back under the covers, nodded and politely answered, "I could use a little bit of rest, if it ain't any trouble."
The only medical professional employed by Kadic Academy smiled warmly, nodded, headed over to another corner of the room, and switched on the radio. A serene, calming sort of music filled the room. Odd relaxed a bit as the music fulfilled it's purpose, sending him into a daydream and, with every passing minute, closer and closer to slumber...
At least until the door, with its terribly squeaky hinges, opened so slowly that the slightly disoriented boy nearly in dreamland was wide awake again. Nurse Yolande was sitting at her desk and saw the person who was entering.
"Hello, Sissi," The woman with short blond hair greeted, looking in Odd's direction, "he's awake if you want to talk to him."
"Thanks." Ms. Delmas replied, making her way to the boy's bedside and pulling up a chair. She was holding a medium sized, blue gift wrapped box. The girl was dressed in a sky blue T shirt and fashionable faded jeans.
"Hey." The artistic slacker said, still shocked by the fact that she had actually worried about him or felt guilty about, unintentionally, causing his accident.
"Hello," She paused, seemingly unable to speak for a moment, "how are you doing?"
"Ok, just recovering from the slight concussion." Odd joked, trying to lighten the mood. His efforts, however altruistic in nature, were in vain; Sissi seemed to take it as sarcasm.
"I am so sorry." The black haired girl apologized sincerely, bowing her head in shame.
"It's ok, Sissi, you never knew that that tree would sneak up on me." Again with the humor and a chuckled added on, either he didn't know that it wasn't working or he was hoping that the second time was the charm.
"Odd, stop with the sarcasm!" She shouted, startling Yolande, before quieting down and using a very serious voice, "Please, just forgive me."
"Sissi, your forgiven. It's no big deal." The boy replied seriously and shrugged, "I've been hurt worse before, one time my friend back home broke my arm, it took me a week to forgive him."
"I...good, I'm glad, I never meant to hurt you." Sissi explained, breathing a sigh of relief beforehand; visibly relaxing.
The joker of Team Lyoko waited a few seconds and asked quizzically, "I know, but what did you want, anyway?"
She looked around the room for a few moments, clearly uncomfortable with answering the question, before responding, "I wanted to give you this..." She moves to hand him the parcel in her hands.
A few seconds passed before it registered to the blond artist that she was actually giving him a gift. Though nearly stunned with surprise, he took it and thanked her.
A quarter of a minute goes by before the black haired Frenchwoman asked, "Well, aren't you going to open it?"
Odd nodded and began to remove the packaging. He noticed a blue teddy bear between the bow and the gift wrap, so he took it off, stared it for a moment, and looked at the raven haired prep next to his bed.
She laughed nervously and explained, "I thought it'd be cute."
Rather than being offended like she feared, a hint of a smile came to his face, before he went back to unwrapping. Moments later, he had removed the shielding around the gift and revealed the items inside.
He grabs one and holds it up to study it, it was a blue blanket, with glitter-like sparkles littered about it. He can't help but look at her curiously.
She sighed and said, "Come on, Odd, I've seen your bed, it looks too plain. At least sleep with it tonight."
The lazy artist laughed and assured her, "Hey, it was a good thought and the present isn't bad either."
Sissi couldn't help but grin at this point, the male's smile proving to be contagious and his attempts at humor working.
He grabbed something else and pulled it out, "Reese's Pieces, Kit-Kats, and M and M's, how did you know those were my favorite kinds of candy?"
With a small bit of chagrin, she replied, "I had a little help from Aelita."
He nodded understandingly and reached into the box for the last item, which possessed its own wrapping. The square shape excited him and he made quick work of the gift wrap. The present turned out to be a game boy advance game, and from the look on Odd's face, it was the one he had really coveted this holiday season.
"How did you know?" He asked, clearly astonished and the look on his face was absolutely priceless.
"Like I said, I had a little help from Aelita." Ms. Delmas explained, thankful that the blond boy liked her gifts, but very grateful for the pink haired, girl genius's help and advice.
"Thank you so much! I've been waiting for this all year!" Odd exclaimed, wondering if getting up and doing the happy dance would help to accentuate his joy.
Sissi stood now and went to leave him to his presents.
"And Sissi?" He said, attempting to get her attention. She stopped about one meter from the door, pulled an about-face, and wondered what he wanted.
The blond American stood up, walked over to her, and gave her a friendly hug, "Thanks for caring." They held this position for several seconds, before pulling apart.
"You want to go get dinner?" The raven haired girl offered.
He nodded, "I'm starving, let's go!" She led the way towards the mess hall, which ran in a reduced capacity during the holiday season...
Yolande Perraudin smiled inwardly and chuckled a little bit at a thought, "Boy, is Ulrich in for a surprise..."
A/N: The end, hurrah. Read and review, keep on rocking, yo.