"Bang!" Yumi sounded the beginning of the race, and they were off. Her and Ulrich sprinted across the park, grinning competitively. The morning sunshine peeked through the trees leaving paches on the ground, that marked their starting line. Destination; the park bench.
The stakes were high, tension, higher. Who would win this ultimate challenge?
They were closing in on the bench, with Yumi holding a slim lead. "Hahaha!" she laughed triumphantly.
Ulrich scowled, but wouldn't give up without a fight.
And.
The.
Winner.
Is...
Odd? That's right. At the last second, Odd rolled past on his skateboard, claiming first place with ease.
"Hey!" Yumi yelled as she and Ulrich crossed the finish line.
"That's cheating!" Ulrich told Odd.
Odd still wore his trademark goofy grin. "Hehehe..."
"Come on Yumi, let's redo that race," Ulrich suggests.
"Ok. As long as Odd promises not to wreak it this time," Yumi glared ay him.
Odd shrugged, "I won't."
Ulrich replied, "Good."
• • •
Meanwhile...
In her room, Aelita was curled up on the bed, happily reading, and basking in the silence of the empty dorm building. It had been a dream come true the past few weeks, no XANA attacks, lots of sun and a nice long summer vacation. At first, Aelita and her friends didn't know what to do with all this spare time, but they'd gotten used to it.
Yumi and Ulrich brushed up on their pencak silat, while Odd practiced on his guitar. Jeremie, as usual, was still found at the computer desk, but had lately gone back to his study of mechanics and what not. As for Aelita, she was probably the most confused of all. She hadn't had any free time really since before she was in the supercomputer, but it isn't like she remembered that either. What was she going to do with herself, she would always wonder. After trying out multiple pass-times, such as pencak silat and guitar, she found herself wandering the school library.
To most, this was as bland a place as any other, if not blander, but Aelita liked it. It was calm and peaceful, and had so many books. She already had time to read at least five novels since the end of school. Aelita figured it would be reasonable to read these classics people were always talking about, Shakespeare, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen. Who was Robinson Caruso anyways?
Aelita's eyes drifted across the printing until it came to a stop, then there was just a blank page. Aelita closed the book and sighed, now she knew what happened to Romeo and Juliet.
She slid off the bed and started wandering to the library. Books could only entertain a girl for so long, and besides, what was going on with XANA? Was the virus's power really draining? Or is he just planning a massive scale attack? And what would happen if it was all over? Would the gang fall appart? No. The kind of friendship that had grown between them couldn't be broken by XANA, it was too strong. And that was for sure.
Still, there were things Aelita didn't understand, and didn't want to think about. Like Tyron, and who actually turned Xana back on. But as said, Aelita would rather not think about that. She would rather think about, what book to read next.
As she stepped into the library, yet another silent room, she approached the librarians's desk. The librarian was currently residing in Mexico, and had informed all the students she knew would actually read, how to work the front desk. Aelita casually scanned the bar code of her book and headed to put it back on the shelves.
Just as she stretched out, tiptoeing to slide the book back into place, she felt a little vibration coming from her pocket. The distraction threw her off balance, so Romeo and Juliet was placed on the shelf a little unevenly, but Aelita was a bit more occupied with the incoming call.
"Hello?" she asked.
"Aelita, get to the factory ASAP. There's something weird going on here, and I hate not knowing what it is." She could imagine him scratching his head in contemplation, and then fixing his glasses and typing in another code, just by the concerned tone of voice.
"Ok Jeremie, I'll be right there. Do you want me to get the others? I think their in the park," Aelita offered, already leaving the library.
"They're already here," Jeremie informed her. "I really can't figure this one out," Aelita heard him sigh. "Just, get here quick ok? I have a feeling this isn't going to be good."
Aelita smiled, "I'll be there in a flash, bye."
"Bye."
As she ran through the park, she wondered what was up. Were the supercomputer's batteries on the blink again, or was XANA just up to his old tricks again? Probably the latter, but there must be more to it, judging by Jeremie's vague discription.
Aelita tore back the man-hole cover, and slid in, not giving it much thought as she climbed down the ladder and saddled up onto her scooter. Some would call it nerdy, but it was much more stable than a skateboard, despite having less wheels, and Aelita wasn't about to change for a trend.
Like she had said, in a flash she was at the factory, hopping into the elevator. When she reached the lower level and the massive door opened, she saw the giant computer, then a bit of Jeremie's hair sticking out the top, and his feet dangling bellow, as usual.
She didn't want to disturb him so she kept it short, "To the scanners?"
Jeremie poked his head out from behind the computer. "Oh, Aelita, um, yes. There all already in lyoko."
"Ok," Aelita pushed the button, and saw the workaholic Jeremie slide back behind the giant contraption and type something else in before the door shut again.
Weird, she thought as the elevator descended. I guess we're all having a bizarre day.
Aelita got off and positioned herself in the scanner. "Ready!" she called, but chances were Jeremie already knew that. She really liked the materialization process, it gave her an interesting tingling sensation. First the scanner closed and she would get scanned, then that data would be transferred, so in a matter of seconds she would be virtualized.
Landing on the mountain sector, Aelita saw her peers. Yumi, Odd and Ulrich all stood there, all waiting for her. Now she was here.
"What's going on?" Aelita asked, jogging over to the rest.
The majority just shrugged. Jeremie answered, "There have been strange pulsations coming from around here. Aelita, I want you to check the way-tower's interface. There is definitely something wrong here." he paused, most likely to type, because it is very hard to type something while saying something completely different, and chances are you're going to mess up one or the other. "North by north-east. Here come your vehicles."
~END~
AUTHORS NOTE
Yup, another story. Yes, I'm a Code Lyoko fanatic, isn't that obvious? Please review.
