So, you're all hoping to find out what the heck is up with the "deadly scanners," aren't you? TOO BAD! Instead, this story gets a space of Oddity (heh, I made a pun). Odd is fun to write.
Odd watched as Jeremie… Oh, heck, Odd had no idea what Jeremie was doing. He turned around and paced back and forth until he heard the supercomputer making weird computer noises. He returned to the lab station to see two big red square things on the screen with X's on them.
"What goes on?" he asked.
"I can't seem to initiate any form of telecommunication with the…" Jeremie stopped and snapped, "Oh, why am I trying to explain? You've no clue what I'm saying!"
"True dat," he admitted.
After some panicked typing on Einstein's part, a familiar symbol danced across the screen as an audio clip of evil laughter from a cartoon Odd remembered watching back when he was little. He recognized the voice of Megatron anywhere. What with the "Yesss" and the "Noooo" and the other goofy things the rubber-duck-obsessed supervillain said.
Transformers: Beast Wars. I just love throwing in cameos. Yeess…
This rubber-duck obsessed supervillain is Megatron from
"XANA…" Jeremie groaned. "Yumi, Ulrich," he called into the microphone, "XANA won't let me do anything; come back up here."
"Now what are we supposed to do?" Aelita asked.
"You go back to school; class starts in ten minutes, since I don't know what a Return To The Past will do to those two in their state," he explained. "I stay here and work on hacking back into the system while you cover for me with the teachers."
"I'm staying, too," Aelita insisted.
"I know you want to help them," Jeremie said, placing his hand on her shoulder. "But right now the best thing for them is to have someone to help them through this. You know this is going to be hard for Yumi and Ulrich as much as I do. The way they are, things could get kind of…"
"Awkward," Aelita finished for him.
"Besides," he continued, "don't you think it would be a bit… conspicuous if you and I were both absent at the same time?" His faced grew warm with embarrassment at what he'd implied; he hoped he wasn't visibly blushing.
"I guess," Aelita admitted, equally embarrassed. "So, what's your excuse going to be?"
"I'll leave that to Odd," Jeremie replied. Odd, who had been listening the whole time, pulled a notepad from his pocket and started flipping through it. Walking up to read over his shoulder, Jeremie found that it was titled "Excuses for being absent."
"I hope," Jeremie scolded, "that you only use this for XANA attacks."
"Let's see," Odd thought aloud, ignoring him, "the entire XANA attack was stopped during lunch break, so…" He flipped to a page marked "Missing after lunch."
Jeremie looked over some of the reasons, "choked on lunch and passed out (works for being late up to twenty minutes)," and "important long-distance call from family" struck him as interesting excuses, while "hit on the head during food fight" just sounded stupid.
"Why is 'attending uncle's funeral' crossed off?" asked Aelita, who was also reading along.
"Because of the confused letter from my parents when Delmas sent flowers with a note that said 'Sorry for your loss,' and the detention that followed," he answered painfully. "Ah. Here's one that should work: severe allergic reaction to something in the meatballs."
"We had frog legs for lunch, Odd," Jeremie answered, remembering what he ate of the delicious dish before XANA interrupted their two hour lunch break.
"Yeah, well, I ordered Subway," Odd answered. "Honestly, there are some things in this world that just should not be eaten. You Frenchies eat what you will; I'll stick to my burgers and pizza like a good little American."
"Hamburgers actually come from Hamburg, Germany," Jeremie corrected, "and pizza is obviously Italian." Odd was so uneducated. He didn't know what he was missing.
"Did I hear someone say burgers?" asked Yumi (who was actually Ulrich), emerging for the elevator.
"No," Jeremie simplified. "But I have developed a severe allergic reaction to something in Rosa's frog legs."
"That's terrible!" complained Yu… Ulrich, who hadn't yet caught on. His mood quickly changed, however. "Will you still be able to fix us?"
"No, I'm afraid it's fatal," he joked. "Tell Ael-" he quickly stopped himself, "tell my mother I love her."
"WHAT?"
"He's kidding, Ulrich," Odd explained. "That's his excuse to skip school so he can work on the problem from here."
"Right," said Jeremie, "except for the fatal part. Ulrich and Yumi, I want Odd and Aelita with you at all times in case something happens. Odd, you're with Yumi. And Aelita, you're with Ulrich."
"Why do I get Odd?" Yumi complained.
"Because you're a guy now, and Odd knows how to help you act like Ulrich better than Aelita does. The same goes for you, Ulrich."
"Fine," Yumi groaned with an Ulrich sounding groan.
"Good work, Ulrich!" Odd grinned and slapped her/him on the back. "OW! HEY! What was was that for?"
"Lesson 1: Guys hit guys when they do stuff right – usually on the back or shoulder," Odd instructed. Jeremie just laughed. He never did get involved in such strange customs, but he did know enough to understand that the pain wasn't intentional.
Usually.
"So what do we do when they do something wrong?" Yumi asked innocently, though Jeremie knew what she was planning. He didn't want to miss this.
"We punch them in the face!" he proclaimed. "Wait, what are you-?"
Yumi proceeded to utilize her slightly larger fists to obey her new master.
"AUGH! THE FACE! AGAIN WITH THE FACE?" Odd screeched once the deed was done.
"All right, you two, knock it off," Jeremie instructed. "We don't want Odd in the hospital, too."
"Well…" Yumi considered.
"Sure thing, Jeremie," Ulrich answered.
"So," Yumi asked Ulrich, "What class do I have next?"
"Oh, uh, Physics," he answered. "But Mrs. Hertz is out of town, so there'll be a sub: Mr. Flambeau. From what I've heard, you'll do nothing. How about me?"
"A.P. History with Mr. Lyndevau," she groaned.
"Oh, no…"
Mr. Lyndevau has made a cameo in one of my sister's stories as well –