Post-production note: I know many of my ideas have been refuted by the show, but that's b/c I wrote it before those ideas came to fruition. By the way the cover image for this story is Dan's character from his CL fic. Since he has a major cameo here I decided to post it.
9-1: Hooky
For the summary: X.A.N.A.'s new plan to use Pawns has failed thus far, but he is too stubborn and persistent to surrender. Not to mention that Aelita has decided to ditch her friends for the circus (nah, close enough) and that a new Pawn will very soon be on her heels.
(((-1-)))
Faces leered down at Aelita from all angles. Some wore cruel expressions while others smirked or feigned indifference. She shuddered at their grotesque forms and twisted bodies. A feeling of oppression stifled the room.
"You don't like them, do you?" someone behind her asked.
The pink-haired girl shook her head. "Not a single one. They're all so…malicious. What do you think about them, Talia?"
Her classmate shrugged uncomfortably. "The same. I think this section of the Hall of Gods needs to be junked. The good gods back there weren't so bad," she said motioning to the beginning of the hallway where statues of kinder gods than these were displayed. "I'd rather be just about anywhere other than a museum, though."
Aelita disagreed. The museum was interesting. She'd never imagined that human history was so complex or multifaceted. There appeared to be hundreds of thousands of different cultures constantly changing and making imprints on the world. The museum merely painted a few of them, though some were not very soothing images.
One of the terrible gods had dark stains all over him and the description said that they were from many thousands of animal and human sacrifices paid as tribute to it by an African tribe centuries ago. She shuddered again.
"Hey! Aelita, do you want to skip school?"
She paused. "Why would a school want to skip?"
Talia stared blankly at her for a few seconds before bursting out into laughter. "No, no! I meant cut class."
"What would be the purpose of cutting a class up?"
The other girl had to lean against something to keep from doubling over in gales of helpless mirth. "See? This is why I like you, Aelita. You take things so literally and you act so naïve! What I really meant was let's get out of here and go have some fun."
She looked quizzically at Talia. "Isn't that against the rules?"
"Tell me where it's written that we can't and I'll forget the whole deal. I promise," she said mock-sincerely.
"Well…I didn't see it in the Student Handbook," the materialized girl responded uncertainly.
"Then let's blow this joint and get going before anyone notices! See, they're all down at the other end of the hall."
"Wait, let me get Jerem—"
"No! This is something for us girls."
"Well, then I'll get Yumi or Janik—"
"Even worse! Those two have boyfriends. They're bound to want to drag those dweebs along too and then we'll all get caught. It's easier with just two of us, and ten times more fun. Now are we gonna get going or stand here all day?"
"Can I at least tell them where I am?"
"What? No way! This is most of the fun! No one knows where we are so we can go anywhere we want without getting interrupted. Now come on before someone sees us dawdling back here."
The two girls who looked remarkably like each other walked quickly through the museum, pausing every so often beside pictures and statuettes to blend into the crowd. Eventually they made it out the exit and Talia dragged her friend onto a bus.
They paid the fare and stood in the aisle, hanging onto poles to keep from falling on their faces as the bus jerked forward. There was a map at the front that outlined the path they were taking. Aelita's eyes lit up as she saw that the zoo was on the bus's route.
"Let's go there, Talia! Jeremy always promised to show me the zoo, but we've never gotten the chance."
"Don't they have zoos in Japan?"
"I've never been to one. I lived in a very isolated area." Not technically a lie. Aelita hated twisting the truth even though her friends had already told her it was all right. Dishonesty was a foreign concept to her and even when it was necessary, she hated to stoop to that level.
"I haven't gotten a chance to see the one here either. Well, I guess we'll be going to the zoo, then." Talia grinned at her friend.
(V)
X.A.N.A. sneered as he considered the number of remaining towers the A.I. had left to look over before discovering the one that contained the altered link from Lyoko to Earth. There was not much time left. He was hard-pressed to keep the program stable enough to be undetected by the mainframe computer.
He had to double—no, triple!—his efforts. The A.I. was the key. If he could rid himself of her, then triumph would be his. The Warriors could not hope to fight him without her support. Unless the one faceless Warrior who had never entered Lyoko's apposite expanse managed to take her place.
It was a remote possibility, but still a probable one that the Warriors might think of. He would have to destroy them both. If he was not mistaken, they had formed an attachment already, so it would not be that difficult to annihilate them since they were most likely near each other.
X.A.N.A. crafted his next Pawn carefully. Her instructions were clear and concise. There would be no mistakes this time or he would kill his creation himself.
(V)
Janika grimaced at a snarling creature with a lion-like head. It looked more comical than intimidating. And the artist who fashioned it obviously had bad taste.
"Hey Aelita, what do you think of thi—Aelita?" She straightened and looked around. Her friend was nowhere to be seen. "Odd! Where did Aelita go? I told her to stay right with me."
The spike-haired boy shrugged. "Last time I saw her she was with Ulrich and Yumi. Where are they?"
They weren't far, standing very close to each other in front of a statue with hawk wings and a bear's body. "It looks like something a kid might draw in kindergarten," Yumi chuckled.
"Show me a kindergartener who can draw something like this and I'll give you tickets to the play at the stadium." There was a twinkle in his eye. "But even if you don't, I've still got them. How do you like 'The Importance of Being Earnest'?"
Yumi stared at him in disbelief. "Are you serious!"
Just about that time, Janika and Odd came up. "Where's Aelita?"
"Aelita? I thought she was with you," Ulrich said through clenched teeth, jerking his head toward the main class in an attempt to get them to go away.
"No. And Jeremy's standing over there by himself. I don't think he's noticed she's missing yet."
"Why don't you go tell him?"
"You go tell him!" Janika retorted. "Idon't want to get my head bitten off by an overprotective boyfriend."
He stepped close so he could whisper to them without Yumi overhearing, "If you don't leave right now, I'm going to bite both your heads off. Do I make myself clear?"
"Touchy, touchy," Janika muttered as they walked away.
Jeremy smiled as they approached him. "Did you guys know that Nigerian gods were so brutal and bloodthirsty? Some of them actually demanded newborn babies to be sacrificed for their glory."
Janika wrinkled her nose in revulsion. "Sick. I can't believe people fell for that one." Odd nudged her and she rubbed the back of her neck nervously. "Um…Jeremy? We have a little problem. Aelita's…well, she just kinda…we were over there and…you see, the thing is that she was supposed to—"
"She's missing, dude," Odd finally supplied. "And we have absolutely no idea where she is."
Jeremy stared at them slack-jawed for an infinite moment that was suddenly interrupted by a strange beeping from his backpack. Startled out of his panic-induced carbonation, the blonde kid pulled out the mini-computer than he and Aelita had rigged up. "Shoot! Something's happening on Lyoko. I'll have to plug this directly into a phone line figure out exactly what, but it looks like X.A.N.A.'s making his move now."
"No problem. Let's just call Aelita and have her meet us at the factory," Janika suggested.
The two boys looked at her and Odd cleared his throat. "Erm…she doesn't exactly have a cell phone, so we really have no way of contacting her."
I'll just have to leave it like this for now. I hope you guys like it since it's a little longer than usual and it actually started in a place other than the school. As for the poll, just tell me what you would do if someone with glowing blue eyes started controlling water and came after you.