A/N: :3! Thank you.
I bobbed and swayed my head to the music that radiated from the screen in front of me, my hands echoing the movements of strumming a guitar.
"I walked across...An empty land. I knew the pathway like the back of my hand. I felt the earth, beneath my feet. Sat by the river and it made me complete. Oh simple faith, were have you gone? I'm getting old and I need something to rely on. So tell me when, you're gonna let me in. I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin. I came across, a fallen tree..." I sang, this song is called Somewhere Only We Know by Keane. It's my favorite song so far. I've learnt so much information since Aelita was materialized! But that's the problem, that's all that I've been doing. The monsters have almost completely stopped forming! I don't even have to be on my guard when I'm out and about. It's only when the Lyoko Warriors come into Lyoko that they have a reason to be summoned, and the worst part is, I've barely seen Aelita since she left. She only comes to deactivate a Tower. Aelita's here one moment, and the next, she's gone. So I guess I was wrong, it's just me here now and I think it's getting to me. Lately, I've found myself to be lying on the ground totally open to any attacks. Do I really want to be attacked? Totally defenseless? I keep saying defenseless because I usually slide or throw my scythe somewhere and leave it, and yes, I think I do.
As another song was starting, another window popped onto the screen and my second favorite person appeared before me. "Hey there, what's up Duckie?" Odd asked me casually.
"Why do you always call me that when we talk? I don't understand," I cocked my head to the side and smiled just a little bit, I think it's safe to say that Odd has kept me sane. He talks to me sometimes after school is dismissed on Jeremie's computer, which is now only used to see if XANA has launched any attacks since he doesn't need it to talk to Aelita anymore. But Odd isn't the only one who logs on to talk with me, Jeremie, Ulrich, and even sometimes Yumi do too, but not very often. It's just mostly Odd.
"'Cause I think the nickname suits you, don't you think?" he rested his chin on his hand and smiled back at me.
"Not really, how's everything out there? Did you pass your, um, math test was it?"
"It was history, and no. I bombed it." Odd's smile didn't waver for a second.
My eyes widened. "Isn't that bad?"
"Not really, for me anyways. I don't really care either way." Odd sighed and closed his eyes. I could see the door open from behind Odd, the rest of the gang walked in.
"Odd, what're you doing with my computer?" Jeremie yelled.
"Keep it chilly Jeremie, I'm just talkin' with Hiroko. No biggie."
"Hiroko? Odd, tell her I said hi!" Yumi yelled from the bed she was sitting on. I sighed and layed down on the Tower's floor, moving the screen so that it was above me. They continued to argue and almost ten minutes later I finally piped up. "Odd, I'll talk with you some other time, you seem busy."
"Huh? Oh, ok-" Odd started but I closed the screen off before he could finish.
"Eh, oops..." I said, I must have seemed rude to them.
I layed in the Tower for a while until I figured that it was time to migrate outside.
Ulrich's P.O.V.
"Huh? Oh, ok I guess..." Odd's voice faded out as he swiveled back around on the computer chair to face the screen.
"What's up with you?" I asked, folding my arms across my chest.
He sighed. "Hiroko disconnected with me,"
Yumi laughed. "You're acting like Jeremie did when Aelita was in the computer, you're up here alot lately."
"What? What are you saying exactly?" Odd stood up and put his hands on his hips.
"Two words. Love. Bug." I said trying not to laugh. Odd went to launch himself at me but forgot that he was still wearing the headset and got yanked backwards. We all busted out laughing like crazy.
"Careful!" Jeremie said and raced over to his computer to check and see that it was alright. I went over and sat next to Yumi.
She leaned over and whispered into my ear. "So? D'you think that Odd likes Hiroko?" Yumi asked.
Her breath sent brilliant, satisfying shivers down my spine. "Nah, it's only been at least two weeks since we discovered her, Odd can't be liking her, it's all too soon. Don't you think?" I whispered back.
"Yeah, you're right. But I still have my suspicions, you know?"
I nodded.
"Hey, I'm gonna go ahead and see if Hiroko senses anything happening in Lyoko." Jeremie said and began typing away madly. Shortly after he started to try to get a connection, Aelita walked in and set her bag next to the door.
"Hey, what're you guys doing?" she asked, walking up and peering over Jeremie's shoulder.
"I'm trying to see if Hiroko's feeling anything in Lyoko."
"Jeremie, I don't think she can feel them, she-" Aelita was cut off by a blood curdling scream from below and another window appearing on Jeremie's computer screen.
"Hello? Odd? Jeremie?" Hiroko's frantic voice asked from the computer.
"Hiroko, it's Jeremie. What's happening?" all of us ran to look at the screen, the window that popped up showed Hiroko running as fast as she could away from a whole heard of monsters. Her bright orange hair looked as if it was being pulled back as she ran.
"I-I think XANA's launched an attack, a whole pack of XANA's monsters are," Hiroko's hard breathing cut into her sentence. "chasing me. They caught me off gaurd, I wasn't ready..."
"It's ok, the others are on their way, either get to a tower or try to take some of them out,"
Hiroko didn't respond, her breath only quickened as she pushed herself to run faster.
"Hiroko, were's your scythe?"
"It hasn't regenerated yet,"
Jeremie swiveled in his chair to face us. "Who's gonna stay and who's gonna go?"
"I'll go," Odd volunteered first, raising his hand.
"Yeah, Ulrich you go and I'll stay," Yumi stated and ran out the door. Odd, Jeremie, Aelita and I followed soon after.
Hiroko's P.O.V.
There was no Tower in sight and the monsters were hot on my trail. "Damnit!" I growled and felt the pouch at my side to see if my scythe had regenerated yet, luckily for me, it had. Hastily pulling the weapon out of the cloth, I clicked the tiny button on the handle and swung the weapon as hard as I could. Two of the cubes exploded as my scythe made contact with them and I started to swing again.
After an intense workout of me taking out a whole variety of the monsters, I was utterly exhausted.
"Hiroko? I just virtualized Ulrich, Aelita, and Odd, they should be there soon." Jeremie's voice echoed from above.
"Thank you..." I breathed and sank to my knees, my computerized hands seemed to be very real right now, they were raw and red from throwing and catching the scythe so many times. Not a moment later, another group of XANA's monsters were racing in my direction.
I began to stand up when one of the creatures blasted my right hip and I collasped on my hands and knees. "Ow," I moaned and clutched my hip with a hand. The monsters skittered closer and I forced myself to get up, I swung my scythe again. Were where they? I gave up on trying to fight them and went back to trying to find a Tower. The monsters followed me without missing a beat, after a few minutes of running, a Tower revealed itself to me in the far distance.
A lazer beam from one of the monsters shot between my legs as I ran. I peeked over my shoulder to see how many were still following me, there was still seven.
"Jeremie, where are they?" I yelled at the sky.
"Aelita's heading towards the Tower and Ulrich and Odd are coming to your aid. Don't worry, just head towards the Tower." he commanded, I nodded and obeyed like a good girl. Just likee Jeremie had said, Odd and Ulrich came running towards me. When they reached me, I slowed down to give my aching body a rest for a minute while they took care of the monsters.
"Hey, Hiroko, you ok?" Odd asked, touching my shoulder in comfort.
"Odd, take Hiro to the Tower so she can regenerate her Life Points alright?" Ulrich said without looking at us as he pulled out his sword.
Odd snorted and put his hands on his hips. "Why do I have to take her? You're not the only one who wants to fight you know,"
"Forget it, I can take myself," I huffed as I started to bolt towards the Tower again.
"No I changed my mind! I gonna go with you!" Odd yelled, God he acted like such a child sometimes. But that's one of the best parts about him. We ran along side eachother and he started to talk to me again. "So, Jeremie's got you Materialization Code almost figured out, you excited?"
"You said that last week, my anxiousness is fading by the day," I said bluntly, focusing on the Tower ahead of us.
"Well it takes time you know, and when you do get out, we could hang out all the time!"
"Hang out? What does that mean?" I asked as we arrived at the Tower. We slowed down to a halt and walked in.
"You know, socialize, do things together." he explained. Beeping echoed from above.
I smiled impishly. "That would be great."
Odd smiled back at me. "So it's a date then,"
The squares on the inner walls of the Tower slid down rapidly, the signal that the end of this mission was near. I looked from the walls to Odd. "Date?"
He just laughed. "You'll see Hiro, it'll be so much fun, you'll be glad we got you outta here. Then the squares rose from the depths of the Tower. I mouthed a "bye" to Odd before the was devirtualized back to his own dimention.
After everybody was gone and I was all by my lomesome again, a small smile slipped over my face. "Hiro...I like it."
My smile faded when the thought of a date came to mind. What was a date anyways?
Welp. That's it. Yaaaaay! I'm finally getting my internet back at my own house so I can update more often...Yay! R&R! Thanks to awl of my Giddy Readers.
