Chapter 2; Work and Chill
As Keifer opened his eyes, he realised that he was falling towards the ground.
"Whoa!" he said quickly, curling into his ball position and landing safely. "Where the heck are we?" he asked William who had landed next to him. For miles on end all he could see was…
"We're in Lyoko's Ice Sector" William said to him. "Just follow me and I'll fill you in" he said as the two took off, Keifer remembering to slow himself enough so William could keep up. His form hadn't changed much. His clothes had been replaced with a light blue fursuit similar to Odd's. His chest had been replaced with light peach fur and he now had a pair of white gloves.
"The tower is due North and over those cliffs" Jeremie's voice startled Keifer, causing him to slip.
"Thanks for letting us know" William called back to him as Keifer stood up.
"Man, I hate ice, but water even more!" he said as they kept going. Keifer took note of what William was saying as he began explaining how Lyoko worked and what exactly XANA was. "When you put it like that, it sounds as though it's like a complicated game of chess" Keifer said to him when William finished.
"That's one way of putting it. We're here by the way" William pointed to the tower, which was heavily guarded.
"So are those Mega-Tanks?" Keifer asked him, remembering how William described each monster.
"Three of them and a swarm of hornets. Wonderful" he muttered.
"Guys you need to be quick! He's drawing energy from the tower for something!" Jeremie said to them.
"Then let's blast through with speed!" Keifer said as he and William managed to get the upper-hand on the monsters, causing them to scatter a bit.
"Super smoke!" William cried as he turned into a purple cloud of darkness and bounced to the top of a Mega-Tank. "Impact!" he yelled, stabbing his sword through its eye, causing it to explode, sending him back a bit.
"Careful William, that explosion took 20 life points out of you!" Jeremie chided him.
"I wonder what moves I have" Keifer thought aloud, dodging several lasers from the Hornets. Then one clicked in his mind. "Super… SPIN!" he yelled, jumping up and putting his feet together before landing on the tips of them both. Using his speed, he begun spinning so fast he created a blue twister, sucking in the hornets before slamming them out, defeating all five of them.
"How did you do that?" Jeremie asked him, bewildered by Keifer's power as William decimated the second Tank, leaving only one.
"I dunno, it just clicked with me" Keifer said, shrugging his shoulders. He then felt another move pop up in his mind. "Spin Dash!" he yelled, curling up and charging an insane amount of speed before colliding with the last monster like a super-powered chain saw, causing it to explode on impact.
"Great job!" William said, high-fiving him before walking into the large tower. Keifer watched with a craned neck as the smoke above it went from an evil looking shade of red to white.
"Alright, I'm bringing you both back in" Jeremie said as William exited the tower. Keifer smiled as the two of them began devirtualizing into white pixels before appearing in the scanners on Earth.
"Grea - Keifer!" Jeremie cried out as Keifer face planted hard out of his scanner, William failing to catch him.
"Keifer, say something!" William shook his friend.
"S… something…" he coughed out, struggling to come to his senses. "I feel… totally wiped" he said to the two, sitting up groggily.
"What do you think happened?" William asked JEremie worriedly.
"Maybe his power causes this. The fact that he easily out-powered anything any of us have ever done" he said.
"So you think his body was just exhausted?"
"Basically" Jeremie responded as Keifer struggled up, a bit of blood trickling from his nose.
"Fantastic" he muttered as the three returned to the elevator and returned to the surface.
"It'll probably get better the more times you go to Lyoko" Jeremie reassured him as the elevator opened up to reveal a worried Yumi, Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd.
"We didn't get your calls until just now, what happened?" Aelita asked him before noticing Keifer and how he looked beat up.
"What the heck are you doing here?" Ulrich asked him.
"I should ask you why you weren't here sooner to help your friend!" Keifer said, slightly agitated.
"Something was stopping the Cell towers, and we put two and two together and rushed over here" Odd said to him before the two could start fighting. "But that doesn't answer his question. Why ARE you here?"
"Yeah Jeremie. Especially someone you met just today" Yumi added with a sideways glance to Keifer.
"Guys, let us explain ourselves" William said with a few coughs, his sickness nearly gone but not quite. "You guys weren't responding and Keifer happened to be with us"
"He's also practically the fastest thing alive" JEremie added quickly to try and get rid of everyone's angry tones.
"Prove it" Ulrich said to him, still mad at him for thinking that he had ignored Jeremie.
"Okay then" Keifer said. He begun revving himself up, his feet moving so fast they turned into a red infinity symbol before he took off to the other side of the factory and back in a mere 3 seconds.
"What the…" Aelita's words of shock pretty much summed up how everyone was feeling, aside from Jeremie and William who had already had this revelation.
"Now can I relax for a bit please?" Keifer asked them all nicely. "I feel like I got hit by a truck"
"I think you've earned it my friend" William said to him as the others didn't even talk.
"Now you should see him on Lyoko" Jeremie said to the others as they all left the factory together.
"Sorry we weren't here to help" Odd said to him as they crossed the bridge towards the forest.
"Even if you were, I don't think there would have
Been any monsters for you guys" he said, recapping the days battle to them.
"Man, that sounds like complete overkill" Yumi said as William told them about Keifer's super spin.
"I'd hate to be on the receiving end of that" Aelita added as William finished summing up what had happened.
"And now Keifer is part of the team" Jeremie concluded.
"I can't agree more" Odd said as they made it back to the school in time for dinner. "It's spaghetti tonight!" he cheered, charging ahead of everyone and into the large building.
"Knucklehead" Keifer joked as they walked in to find that Odd had already gotten his plate and was devouring it at the table.
"You should see him when it's Gravy and Meatballs" Ulrich told him as they got their food and went to sit down.
"I miss my mom's cooking" Yumi muttered as they begun eating. Her father had gotten a job opportunity back in Japan, but Yumi didn't want to go. Thus, she got a dorm at Kadic which happened to be with Aelita.
"I can't blame you" Jeremie said through a forkful of Spaghetti. "But hey, at least Rosa's cooking has improved a lot, considering they upgraded all the kitchen equipment" he added.
"It's pretty good in my opinion" Keifer said, stabbing a meatball with his fork. "But the best thing I've ever eaten are Chilli dogs, and I have undoubtedly the best recipe in the world for those"
"He's not kidding" William said. He decided to join them rather than go back to bed as he felt that the sickness had been fully purged from his body. "He's the one who made me like hotdogs" he added as he finished his dinner.
"That's cool" Odd said, eating his third bowl of Spaghetti. "I'll have to try them some time"
"How about tonight?" Keifer asked him. "I can take you guys to my house" he said.
"Like a guys night or something?" Ulrich asked him. Keifer nodded. "Then I'm down" he said, handing his bowl to Odd.
"How about we all go, in case something happens?" Aelita asked.
"The more, the better" Keifer smiled as they dumped their plates, all except Odd anyway, who crammed the rest of it in his mouth.
"Whphm Umph!" he said to them as they begun leaving, causing them all to laugh.
"Sorry, we don't understand Spaghetti Monster" Yumi said to him as he swallowed hard as they left the campus grounds and out into the starry night.
"You guys gave me no time to finish" he whined as they entered the city. "Plus, you KNOW I love Spaghetti!" he added with a huff.
"Well excuse us, next time will give the big king all the time he needs to eat" Ulrich joked as they stopped in front of a large mansion.
"We're here" Keifer said to them as he put in a code on a padlocked gate.
"Holy cow!" Jeremie gasped at the size of the house. "You're rich?" he asked as the gates swung open.
"I WAS" Keifer corrected him as they walked up the long cobbled pathway and past an old, crumbling fountain covered in vines and bushes.
"This place is ancient" Aelita said, noticing the fading paint on the walls.
"It's been in my family for 125 years" Keifer explained to them as he pulled a small key out of his pocket and opened the large, old oak door. "The only reason it hasn't been demolished is because of the fact my Great Great Grandfather had deep roots with the city" he said as they walked into the living room, which was huge. All the furniture was covered in white sheets except for a long couch, table, and a recliner, with a large T.V mounted on the North wall.
"What happened to this place?" Odd asked him as he lead them through the living room, past the fancy Dining room and then into the kitchen.
"My parents passed away when I was young, along with my sister. They were my only family, as my Uncle had passed away before them" he explained. "My dad still had a small fortune and I was living off of it up until now when I decided I really needed to start pursuing my Education" he told them.
"That's a bummer" Yumi said to him.
"Sorry to hear that" Ulrich stated, leaning on the counter next to the entrance.
"Don't worry about it" Keifer said. "My dad and mom were horrible towards me. My sister, on VERY rare occasion, would say something to me" he told them as he begun getting ingredients out for his Chilli Dogs. "All that aside though, let's get to cooking!" he told them as he began giving instructions on what to get out, and what cabinets to open to find things.
"Think we got everything?" William asked him as he put a large pot of cold water on the middle stove to boil.
"Yep, all we need now is… crud!"
"What?" Odd asked him.
"I'm out of Chilli powder! I forgot to restock at the store last week" he face palmed.
"The Community Market is still open" Ulrich said, looking at the clock. "But only for five minutes"
"Grab on" Keifer said to him. "And the rest of you might want to grab something!" he added quickly as Ulrich reluctantly wrapped his arms around Keifer's neck. "We're gonna blast through with super speed!" he yelled, pulling his ring out. He held it up and a golden infinity symbol swirled around him. "Juice time!" he yelled, zooming out of the house at top speed, almost causing everyone to go flying had it not been for his warning.
"Turn left here!" Ulrich told him as they passed some Skyscrapers. Keifer did so so fluently Ulrich didn't even see any kind of motion blur.
"I see it now!" Keifer called to him over the wind, beginning to slow down and stop in front of the white building covered in food ads. "Now let's go get some Chilli powder" he said, pulling out his wallet and fishing out a five.
"You… go on without me" Ulrich said, sitting on a bench next to the door. "That was… a little too fast for me"
"Okay then" Keifer said, walking in and heading to the spices rack. "Bingo!" he said, grabbing the 'zesty' Chilli Powder. "I should probably get a case of drinks…" he thought to himself before walking to the soda isle and getting a 14 pack of Cherry Soda.
"Your total will be $4.50" the woman at the counter said to him as he was checking out.
"Here you go" he said, handing her the five before getting his change back. He left with the Chilli Powder in a small paper bag and the case of soda in his other hand as he found Ulrich standing up and waiting. "Feeling better?" he asked him.
"Yeah, some-what" he said groggily.
"Well, we've still got the return trip"
"Then let's get it over with" Ulrich said, grabbing on to him before they took off, getting back to the house and into the kitchen in a mere half minute.
"Only 3 minutes" Yumi said to him as he pulled out the sodas and Chilli Powder.
"I've been faster" Keifer said. "And I think our good buddy Ulrich gets Speed Sickness" he added jokingly.
"I am never doing that again" he said, popping open a soda and chugging half of it as Keifer made his special Chilli.
"Hey Will, get into the fridge and grab the hot dogs" Keifer said to him as he set the chilli to simmer.
"Alright" he said, pulling out a massive 24 pack. "This gonna be enough?" he asked.
"Should be" Keifer said as he added a few extra spices to his Chilli. He then dumped the hot dogs in the water and began conversing with everyone. "So how long have you guys been fighting XANA?" he asked them.
"For nearly two years" Odd said to him. "When Jeremie turned the Super Computer off, he discovered Aelita and we made it our goal to get her here to Earth"
"And once we succeeded, we couldn't shut off the super computer, otherwise it would've killed Aelita as XANA had them both tethered together" Yumi continued.
"And a while after that, I joined the group, but ended up getting possessed by that jellyfish thing for almost half a year" William said to him, shuddering slightly. "It was my fault though, had I listened to Aelita, it wouldn't have happened"
"Don't be hard on yourself" she said to him. "We couldn't have known what XANA was up to" she reassured him.
"Well, on a brighter note, the food is done" Keifer said to them as he pulled the hotdogs out of the pot and put them on a plate next to some buns. "You guys get yours made, I'm gonna go set up the dining room" he said to them, zipping off to the room next door. "And done!" he said proudly, zipping back in in 10 seconds.
"Dang" Odd said as he made his plate and walked back into the now clean dining room. "How do you do it?" he asked him as they all sat down and begun eating.
"Just a little bit of speed" Keifer said, turning on the T.V in the corner and flipping it to the late night news.
"These are so good!" Jeremie said in between bites.
"Agreed" Odd said, finally breathing again after devouring his third one.
"Listen Odd" Keifer said jokingly. "THIS is how it's done" he tossed his loaded Chilli Dog in the air and let it fall in his mouth before patting his stomach and burping. "'Scuse me" he said.
"I have to agree, these are the first, and probably best Chilli dogs I'll ever eat" Aelita said to him, finishing hers.
"Like I said, it's all in my secret recipe, which took three long days to perfect" he said as they finished.
"Well, that definitely seemed worth it" Ulrich said to him in response. "So should we all head back now?"
"Yeah, that seems to be the best thing we can do" William said.
"I can't agree more" Keifer said, stretching before grabbing everyone's empty plates and zooming off into the kitchen for a brief moment before returning. "Everything is put away, so we shou-"
"We repeat, this is not a joke!" everyone turned towards the the female news reporter was panicking. "There is a ten-ton meteor sailing right towards us as I speak. We are doomed!" she cried as the broadcast went out.
"She can't be serious!" Jeremie moaned as they all ran out of the house.
"But she is" Keifer pointed to the sky, where in the distance, the meteor was coming right at them, except it was surrounded in a black aura that kept flashing the XANA symbol.