Chapter 4 Miss Einstein
Yep time to meet Laura already. As of right now I kinda feel sorry for Laura in the show the way she's treated just like William once was which is why on Crystalic's reference sheet I noted that they would be friends. Oops I'm giving too much away hehehe. Well on with the chapter!
-Library-
"Really?!" Crystalic sighed.
She looked around the library seeing every table packed with students. Crystalic had hoped that by coming here early she would be able to work on a program Franz Hopper had given her, but it seemed that she'd have to find somewhere else. She started to leave when she noticed an empty seat by a blonde girl a year behind her.
"Excuse me. Is this seat vacant?" Crystalic asked.
The girl shook her head. "No it's empty go ahead. I'm Laura, Laura Gauthier."
" It's nice to meet you Gauthier-san. My name is Crystalic Landers." Crystalic sat down and opened her laptop.
"Strange hair color, if you don't mind me saying." Laura looked at Crystalic's sky blue hair in curiosity. "Almost like a video game character."
"Nope it's fine. It's natural if you're wondering." It was somewhat of a lie. Before it was just dyed every month to hide from the men in black. However a few weeks prior she had slipped a program into the supercomputer from Franz that really was able to alter genetics and change her hair blue for real.
"Natural like Aelita Stone's?"
"Well Aelita inherited it from her mother. My mother visited my father at work in a lab while she was pregnant with me and an accident happened. Thankfully it only messed with the DNA for my hair."
Crystalic tapped away on the computer and grunted when the program beeped in failure.
"What are you working on?" Laura peeked over.
"Nothing really. Just an upgrade for my avatar in a video game my friends and I are making. Although it doesn't seem to be working."
She moved her seat closer to Crystalic. "Can I take a look? I'm good with computers, and video games are my forte."
Crystalic shrugged. "Go ahead, you might have better luck if that's the case. What harm could there be." It reality she was going to have to ask Jeremy, even though she wanted to keep it a secret for now. "The program seems to fail to run at all, I'm not sure how though."
"It could be possible that it's not meant to be run on this laptop." Laura clicked on a few things before a screen popped up with CARTHAGE. "Carthage? What does that mean?"
"It's one of the levels in the game, but I don't see…" Crystalic saw another set of vague instructions.
" Carthage, activation through two means."
"That's it!" Crystalic jumped up and packed up her laptop. "Thank you so much Gaauthier-san" She bowed.
"Just call me Laura, and you are very welcome Crystalic. Seems like so much for a video game upgrade."
Crystalic didn't hear the last part as she ran off to the boiler room. Whatever started the program correctly, the clue led her to sector 5.
-Math class-
" A equals G… multiplied by R …." Jeremy struggled to answer the math question, which was a first for him. Mrs. Meyers stood back astonished that the boy genius was unable to answer a question. "No no sorry I forgot the mass. So that makes A equal to…"
Near the front row, Laura the new student, shook her head at the fact he struggled. She raised up her hand.
"Laura." Mrs. Meyers called out to her.
Laura smiled and walked up to the board, taking the chalk form Jeremy's hands. "Posing A is equal to the mass S multiplied by R squared, which gives us the root values of 6.67 multiplied by 10 to the 11th power…. Multiply all of it…. " She wrote up everything she said on the chalkboard.
Jeremy stared at Laura writing the answers. If one could read his mind, then Jeremy mentally kicking himself would come into view. Aelita looked over to him.
"Therefore, the answer is 29.7 kilometers per second." Laura put down the chalk and returned to her seat.
-Courtyard-
Jeremy sat on the bench sulking as Odd jumped up onto the brick wall behind him.
"Come on Einstein, it's not the end of the world. Beind humiliated in front of your girlfriend isn't too bad." Odd 'attempted' to cheer him up.
"Odd!" Aelita snapped and sat next to him, while Ulrich flicked Odd on the forehead.
"Don't listen to him Jeremy. You know being the smartest isn't such a big deal."
"Yes it is a big deal! I drew a blank and the exercise was so simple!" Jeremy held his head down.
"Yeah well that explains everything." Odd muttered.
"You're lucky Crystalic isn't here right now to slap some sense into you." Ulrich joked.
Jeremy disregarded Odd's statement and continued on. "I spent a week working to program the virtual vehicle that should allow you to return to the Cortex without getting squashed!"
"Hey what are you talking about?" Laura walked up to the group. "I heard you were programming a virtual vehicle in the Cortex."
"It's just a video game we are making." Aelita said with a hard stare of slight anger.
"Ah I love video games. Well not to play but to program. There was a girl this morning in the library, Crystalic was her name, that mentioned she was working on upgrading her avatar in game she was making with friends." Laura beamed.
Ulrich leaned over to Odd. "We really all need to stop speaking of this stuff in public areas."
"I love all kinds of scientific classes like you. Only I don't mess up super easy problems." Laura struck a nerve in Jeremy.
"Who does she think she is!" Aelita grunted.
"Great, a girl version of Jeremy!" Ulrich laughed.
Odd pushed Aelita a little. "Looks like you aren't the only Miss Einstein anymore Aelita."
-Courtyard a bit later-
Yumi walked up to the stone table the rest of the group was sitting at. "Hey guys. Boy Jeremy you don't look too happy. Forget a decimal point?"
Jeremy sat there looking down at the table in a depressed mood. Aelita grinned a little next to him as if joking with Yumi.
"Actually Einstein met his match. " Odd said.
"Laura Gauthier, the new gifted student who joined our class." Ulrich added.
"Can we stop talking about this!" Jeremy almost shouted. "Where is Crystalic?"
Yumi looked at him with no clue on her face. "I don't know. She didn't come to class so I assumed she was testing something for you."
"No I havn't asked her to do anything."
"Laura mentioned she saw Crystalic this morning so she isn't dead." Odd replied. " Maybe she's just busy with something. You did ask her if she could find anything out about the Cortex."
"Speaking of the Cortex, any news Jeremy?" Yumi asked, interrupting Odd.
"Yes, I recovered quite a lot of data the last time. Remember Xana's replikas based on Lyoko's sectors? " Jeremy replied.
"Using codes my father gave me." Aelita said.
Jeremy nodded. "At first I thought the same thing, that Xana created a kind of Matrix thingy. "
Ulrich spoke up. "But that isn't the case this time?"
"No, the Cortex existed before Xana's rebirth. I'm sure it was created by a quantum computer, different than ours though."
"By who this time? Another by my father?" Aelita asked.
"For now, we don't know if Franz Hopper was involved or not." Jeremy shook his head.
"I saw a photo of him while I was in the Cortex."
Jeremy was silent for a moment. " We'll just have to go back there tonight." The group all voted yes in agreement.
"Anyways where the hell is Crystalic?" Odd pondered.
Jeremy pulled out his phone and tried to call her. "It's going straight to voicemail. Did she turn her phone off?"
Aelita grabbed her laptop and connected to Lyoko with it. "Found her. She's in Sector 5."
"Hey Crystalic what are you doing by yourself?" Jeremy plugged in his headset.
The blue haired girl jumped when the interface appeared in front of her. "Oh hi. I was just trying to see if I could find any information on the Cortex in sector 5's database. So far nothing." she lied.
"That's what you have been doing all day?" Yumi questioned.
"All day?" Crystalic looked at the time displayed on her visor and read off the 1pm time. "Ah crap."
"Speaking of the Cortex, we are actually going to explore it and see if we can gain access to the interface there again." Jeremy pointed out.
"If I devirtualized now, then I won't be able to return to Lyoko in time for the mission." Crystalic 'turned' to Yumi. "Cover for me in classes please?" She begged.
"Alright. Next time tell us if you're going in solo." Yumi caved into the pleading. "For all we know Xana could have put you out of commission."
"I apologize. Odd you can have my dinner." Crystalic winked.
Odd jumped up in glee. " Woot! Thank you it's spaghetti and meatballs night!"
-Hallways later that afternoon-
"Jeremy!" Jeremy, Aelita, and Odd heard a familiar voice behind them as they walked.
"Hi Laura" Jeremy said, with Aelita giving a 'hmmph' quietly.
"I was looking for you. Are you gonna work on your game?" Laura smiled, she was obviously intrigued by the lie they told her.
"We can't hide anything from you. It's still being developed and there's a lot of work to do."
"In any case, like I said, if you need help, I'm real hot…." She looked at Aelita slighty, as if she choose wrong words to describe. "With computer science that is."
"That's nice, Laura, but it's top secret." Aelita to get Laura to drop the subject. "We don't want the idea to get stolen."
Laura seemed disappointed, but understood what she was saying. "Alright but ask me if you need help. I'd love to be a part of it."
Odd spewed some fumes. "Unbelievable! that's the second time she spoke to you in one day!" He grinned a little. "I think she's in love with you."
Aelita's expression dropped. "Or she's just nosy." The pinkette walked away.
-Factory-
Jeremy sat in his chair and put on the headset. "Crystalic I'm sending the others to meet up with you."
She sighed in a way that Jeremy couldn't hear her. "Ok I'll meet them in the Skid Hanger then."
"That's fine." He pulled up the virtualization program and switched his attention to the rest of the gang downstairs. "You all there?"
"Ready to go Jeremy!" Aelita replied.
Transfer Odd, Transfer Aelita.
Scanner Odd, Scanner Aelita.
Virtualization!
"Ok Yumi, Ulrich. You both are next."
Transfer Yumi, Transfer Ulrich.
Scanner Yumi, Scanner Ulrich.
Virtualization!
Yumi and Ulrich landed in the Arena next to Aelita and Odd. A few quick looks to make sure everyone was ready and they were off for the elevator.
-Kadic-
William strolled around the school grounds texting on his phone. He looked up to see a girl talking to him.
"You're part of Jeremy Belpois' group right?" Laura asked him.
He chuckled a little and grinned. "Depends on the day."
"Are you aware of their project?"
William was confused a little. "Project?"
"They told me that they're working on an online game that's ultra secret. I saw Crystalic Landers working on some avatar upgrade this morning, and then Jeremy was speaking about a vehicle in the Cortex."
William relaxed a little, realizing it was a story they told to hide Lyoko. "Ah yeah it's something secret I can't tell you anything about it. I better go check on them."
"They left through the park in a hurry. If you talked to them could you get me in?" Laura begged.
William shook his head. "No sorry it's a secret, and even I took awhile to get in." He disregarded the conversation and hurried off to catch up with them.
Laura, being a nosy pest she was, slowly followed in pursuit.
-Cortex-
Aelita parked the Skid near the edge of the Cortex, in case the area shifted again. They disembarked and watched the new vehicle appear before them. It was a yellow and black sphere cockpit with legs for the wheels spitting out form the corners.
"WOW! Can I drive?!" Odd inspected the new ride.
"NO!" Crystalic shouted in fear, partly because of the thought of him driving, and the other part being her phobia. "I'll drive, it will be much safer!"
"Oh please if you drive we wouldn't get there for hours!"
"No I'll drive." Ulrich offered.
"All of you stop!" Jeremy yelled. "Anyways it's my present to you. The Multipod Rolling Articulated Spheroid Cortexian Tecto-compatible Mega Vehicle. It's built to be able to withstand the landscape changes that occur in the Cotex, so you don't get devirtualized if you hit a wall."
Ulrich and Yumi smiled at each other, Aelita walked up to the vehicle, while Crystalic and Odd looked at each other in confusion over the name.
"Could you make a more complicated name?" Odd complained.
"Why is it too easy to remember?" Jeremy joked.
Crystalic rolled her eyes. "Well with Odd here I think he'd get stuck on Multip…" She struggled, forgetting what Jeremy rambled off. "Hell let's call it the Megapod and get it over with."
"Hey you stole my name." Odd poked her.
"I didn't steal it, I thought of it and said it first. Anyways you guys can ride in it and I'll just take my Overdisk nearby and check the pathway." Crystalic summoned it and hopped on.
"No Crystalic, it's too dangerous with the unpredictable nature of the Cortex's movement." Jeremy explained.
She looked at Odd and quietly said, "Damn it! If anything happens I blame you, regardless of who is driving."
"Who is piloting it anyways Jeremy?" Aelita rubbed her hand on one of the wheels.
"ME!" Ulrich and Odd shouted.
"I said it first!" Odd pointed at himself, while Ulrich put up his fists.
Yumi face palmed. "It'll be Yumi." she heard and smiled. "Sorry boys."
Odd and Ulrich's jaws dropped. "But why?!" They both complained.
"She didn't ask." Was all Jeremy said.
"Why do the girls always get to drive the cool things?" Odd muttered.
"Because we don't drive like you." Crystalic gulped and virtualized inside with the others. She sat in the back with the boys, who had mad faces, while Yumi took the driver's seat with Aelita next to her.
"You'll see Yumi, it's super simple to drive." Jeremy said, as Yumi looked over all the controls. "It's like the vehicles in Galactic Destructor."
"But I haven't played Galactic Destructor." Yumi hovered her right hand over some buttons, not knowing which ones to press. Aelita, seeing her confused, pressed a few of them to pull up the interfaces for the Megapod's stats and vision.
"Don't worry it's intuitive."
Yumi didn't feel so reassured. "If you say so…"
Crystalic leaned against Odd a little bit. "This isn't going to go well is it?" she whispered.
"Well I'm not driving!" Odd, still mad, replied. He jumped up and leaned next to Yumi. "We could switch places! I'm good at Galactic Destructor!"
Crystalic pulled him back into his seat. "If you're driving I'm taking my chances walking there!" Everyone laughed.
"Hold on" Yumi said, grabbing the steering joysticks and sent the Megapod racing forward.
Odd leaned against his seat. "I'm gonna be sick!"
"I hope you thought to add barf bags, Jeremy." Ulrich smiled. "Odd and Crystalic both look like they don't enjoy the ride."
The Cortex began moving again, this time platforms ahead of them opened up to the digital sea.
"Watch out!" Aelita shouted. Yumi put on a serious face, and drove the Megapod so that it started to fly over the gap. Ulrich and Odd began screaming in the back, while Crystalic curled up into a ball counting in Japanese.
"Be careful Yumi!" Jeremy reminded the Geisha.
"You said your Megapod adapted itself!" She paniced a little as a wheel got stuck dragging on the edge of a paltform.
"Yes it adapts. Even so, you still need to anticipate the terrain!" Jeremy explained, wondering now why he chose Yumi to drive.
"Jyu san , Jyu yon, Jyu go." Crystalic got to 15 now, and was still going not daring to open her eyes,
"We can still change places!" Odd demanded.
"Stop it!" Yumi looked back to him. "If you think this is easy, you are wrong!"
In the process of not paying attention, the Megapod hit walls that poked out and flipped over before flying off onto another platform a bit lower. Yumi made it skid to a stop.
"Ni jyu ichi, ni jyu ni, ni jyu san." After screaming a little with the others, Crystalic continued at 21 counting faster this time.
"What are you doing?" Ulrich looked over a bit worried for her.
She stopped and looked at him trying to hide her fear. "Counting in Japanese."
"Are you alright?" Aelita leaned back.
"No no… Not really. Truth be told…. I have a fear of vehicles." She said.
"So that's why you wanted to follow us on the Overdisk. You could have told us." Aelita comforted her.
"I'll be fine, as long as we don't try to drive off the Cortex again.." Crystalic gulped, starting to wonder if she'd be better off with Odd driving.
-Factory-
William walked fast to the elevator. He was mad again that the gang didn't mention any mission to him again, leaving him out. He pressed the button on the elevator and went down into the lab. Behind some nearby crates, Laura peeked out to make sure the coast was clear and walked up to the elevator controls. She felt it was strange that they would hide out in an abandoned factory but at the same time she was curious. Laura looked over the different buttons trying to determine which was the correct one.
-Lab-
The elevator doors opened, causing Jeremy to jump a little in his seat.
"Damn it William! Next time call first. You scare me every time!" Jeremy yelled at him.
"You too!" William yelled back. "When you send the others to Lyoko! You still don't trust me? Didn't I save the day last time?"
"Ok, I told you that we were gonna talk about it, but we are kinda in a bind right now." Jeremy waved over to the monitors.
William grew more frustrated. "Yeah, and next time it'll be something else!"
"We'll talk about it later." Jeremy tried to calm him down, only failing to do so.
"Whatever. I'm tired of being a stand in." William shrugged him off, no longer wanting to be there any longer. He returned to the elevator and walked hastily out of the factory.
Laura came out of hiding once more after William disappeared. Returning her attention to the buttons, she pulled the panel off revealing a hidden pass code system.
-Cortex-
"Something bothering you Aelita?" Yumi looked over to the other girl in the front seat.
"Just thinking about my father. What if it's really his fault that Xana is back?" She replied, still depressed.
" Your….fa..father is a good man." Crystalic attempted to talk somewhat sane. "The Cortex… is sim..similar to Ly….Lyoko's sector 5, but I can tell it wa…was programmed differently."
"So you think someone else developed the Cortex based off of Franz Hopper's work and brought back Xana?" Yumi asked.
" It's ve…very possible. Franz had many enemy's from his time working on Project Car….Carthage along with my parents."
"She's right. Your father can't be involved he's…" Yumi struggled to find a way to say it gently.
"Gone I know, for good. I know we'll find the truth soon." Aelita tried to reassure herself. The boys and Crystalic looked at each other not knowing what to say to Aelita.
"No not that soon. Truth be told I miscalculated our course. We're going to need to go around the core to access the entrance." Yumi turned the Megapod around as they reached the location of the core.
Not accounting for the way the terrain was shaped, one of the Megapod's wheels got stuck in a crack between two sections and flipped over. All five of them screamed in a panic before it stopped moving.
"Nothing's working! I think the wheel's stuck!" Yumi tried to jerk the Megapod out.
"See if I had been driving…" Odd started to say.
"Deep Freeze!" Crystalic used up 10 life points to freeze Odd's entire head before slamming him against the back of Aelita's seat and shattering it.
"OW!" He rubbed his head, sore from the pain.
"Thank you Crystalic! Now Odd shut your mouth!" Yumi shouted.
Ulrich held up his arm, slightly pointing at Yumi. "Never annoy her when she's driving."
"You too Ulrich!" Yumi yelled at him now, causing him to sit back in his seat quietly.
The Megapod started to shake, and lasers could be heard hitting the outer plating. "You have visitors!" Jeremy announced, breaking up the bickering going on inside the vehicle.
"You know what's missing in your Megapod, Einstein? A cannon!" Odd suggested.
Jeremy sighed. "Not a Megapod. It's called…." He realized he didn't have time to go through the drill of the entire name. "Oh forget it. Next time I'll put a stupid cannon in your Christmas stocking. For now, all of you, minus Yumi, will be fighting the old-fashioned way!" He hit a key on the keyboard and transferred them outside the Megapod.
"Thank you Jeremy!" Crystalic said, finally relived to be out of the Megapod.
"Time for some action!" Odd summoned his gloves and took off after a krabe.
Inside the Megapod, Yumi pressed buttons trying to find one that would get her out of this mess, only to cause the screens to disappear and leave her blind. "Oh now what did I do?"
-Lab-
"You bugged up the program." Jeremy said, leaving Yumi to face palm herself. "Hold on I'll get you out of there. He tapped franticly on the keyboard but nothing worked. "Oh no everything is frozen!" He sighed when the elevator opened up again. "William, I already told you…" He turned and stopped mid sentence, seeing Laura from his class.
"Hello Jeremy." Laura said, astonished by everything she was seeing. She looked over to Jeremy's dumbstruck face and just smiled like it wasn't a big deal she was there.
-Cortex-
Aelita flew over a Krabe and destroyed it quickly with energy fields. She turned her view to the core and started to fly over that way.
"What are you doing?" Ulrich blocked a few lasers.
"I'll let you guys handle things out here. I have to go check something."
Ulrich was concerned about her hasty choice, and ended up getting knocked down by the Krabe he was fighting. As he stood up he heard the Cortex singing, and looked around knowing the platforms would be shifting now. Just as he anticipated, the two panels that held the Megapod's wheel stuck moved apart, sending Yumi and the Megapod falling down.
"Shit Yumi!" Ulrich yelled. Crystalic and Odd turned hearing him and ran over to the edge to see the vehicle landing on some panels sticking out. The three jumped down to get into a better defensive position.
Ulrich watched Aelita return and land beside him. "Oh you're back?"
"I see you can't manage without me." She tossed two energy fields, hitting another krabe on mark.
"Jeremy I need help!" In the process of the Megapod's landing, Yumi was laying against in inside wall of the Megapod.
"Sorry something head over heels just happened." Jeremy said.
Crystalic jumped on top of the Megapod and started to slash at it with her Eclipse Blades. "Whatever it is, get Yumi out now!"
"I'm trying, the supercomputer is all bugged up. You four will just have to defend her from the krabes in the meantime. If they manage to destroy the Megapod, Yumi will fall into the digital sea and be gone forever!" Jeremy said.
-lab-
"It's not really a video game, is it?" Laura asked, starting to realize this was something different that what she was told. "Your buddies are in there?
"More or less." Jeremy wasn't in the mood to try and explain in much detail, trying to fixed the Supercomputer.
"Is this a quantum computer?"
"Isn't it obvious!" He rudely responded, shoving the keyboard forward and jumping out of his seat. He ran over and took off a panel form the wall and started to mess with the cords and buttons inside. He reattached the panel and hurried back to the computer.
"Jeremy, I'm starting to feel a bit lonely in here." Yumi said, starting to worry.
"I'm trying to get you out Yumi!" Crystalic said.
"I don't have four arms!" Jeremy responded.
Laura perked up a little, getting an idea. "On the contrary, I think you do. Listen I don't understand what's going on, but your friend seems to be in danger. If you need a hand I'll do anything you need." Laura offered.
-Cortex-
"Jeremy things are heating up here!" Ulrich blocked more lasers while Aelita flew down to the Megapod, shielding Crystalic and it.
"Thanks Aelita." Crystalic thanked her, and continued to slash at it.
"Where did he go?" Aelita muttered.
Odd jumped and shoved a Krabe into the digital sea. "Maybe he's flirting with the other Miss Einstein!"
Aelita lost her concentration on the shield and ended up getting devirtualized.
"Odd that isn't helping!" Crystalic scolded him.
-Lab-
Aelita entered the lab after being devirtualized and heard Jeremy yelling out orders to Laura.
"Replace interface 4AA13 with 3B6."
"4AA13 got it!" Laura said, still looking at the panels not realizing Aelita was there.
"What are you doing here, Laura?" Aelita asked.
"She's giving me a hand. Now, drop the runner to position 2." Jeremy replied. "That should boost the coding units."
Aelita's expression turned into anger. "I'll take over!" Aelita told Laura.
"No time! Laura's on the case!" Jeremy said, which surprised the pinkette. "Now you need to shunt circuit 5221"
-Cortex-
Odd ran up the walls back to the ground level and shot laser arrows at a krabe. In the mean time Ulrich deflected a laser and destroyed one krabe, throwing a sword at another.
"So would you still like Yumi's place?" Ulrich asked him.
Odd looked around at the endless krabes coming, then down to Crystalic trying to fend off two more. "I take back what I said. That machine's a trap." He said before getting shot from behind and devirtualized.
"Shut the hell up and defend yourselves!" Crystalic barked the order. "Ice spike!" She formed a spike of ice and tossed it at a krabe above her. She then leaped at the second one and destroyed it with a few melee attacks.
"Hold on Yumi! I wont let you fall!" Ulrich leaped down onto the Megapod, only to get devirtualized right after from several krabes.
"Good job Romeo. That sure tells those krabes whose boss." Crystalic threw several more ice spikes before getting hit by a few lasers. She looked on the numbers on her visor. "20 life points huh? Better make this count then." She looked down to the Megapod. "Sorry Yumi looks like its over for us. Better start praying that Jeremy fixes the damn supercomputer."
"Crystalic!" Yumi shouted, worried for her.
"Deep freeze!" Crystalic used up another 10 life points to freeze on of the middle krabes. "Shatter!" The frozen krabe shattered, and the pieces of ice that broke off flew and took out several krabes near it. "Shit!" A krabe snuck up behind her, devitalizing her without much effort.
The remaining krabes fired several more laser at the Megapod, sending it falling off the small supports it had.
-lab-
"Hurry Laura!" Jeremy panicked.
Laura quickly finished moving the panels around. "Finished!"
Jeremy didn't hesitate when he saw the Megapod was falling into the digital sea now. He quickly devirtualized Yumi just before the Megapod hit the Digital Sea.
Downstairs in the scanner room, Ulrich, Odd, and Crystalic smiled when the scanner opened up and revealed Yumi safe and sound. After a brief hug, they headed the elevator to meet up with Jeremy.
Back in the lab, Jeremy leaned back in relief, while Laura smiled at an unamused Aelita.
-Lab a bit later-
"And you still managed to keep the secret until now?" Laura asked, after the gang finished explaining everything to her.
"You could say that some people are more curious than others." Jeremy referred to Laura.
"In any case, if I understand right, you saved my life. So thank you." Yumi smiled at Laura.
"Your welcome. I'm happy if I could help you pull off your mission."
Crystalic, who was lying down on the floor with her legs up against the wall and her back on the floor, tapped away on her laptop. She had her self positioned in the corner so that her bag covered up her other side so the boys wouldn't she anything while she was in one of her comfortable positions.
"Actually the mission was to get as much information from the Cortex, but all we really succeeded in doing was testing the Megapod."
"It was a total fiasco!" Aelita shouted at Laura in a pissed off mood. "I didn't even manage to get into the core. Think you can reprogram the Megapod quickly?"
"It's not as complicated as the skid, but I need to improve the system and install weapons." Jeremy said, folding his arms against his chest.
"Yeah and Yumi was almost lost today." Laura said, not realizing she shouldn't have spoken with the way Aelita was reacting. "Think a little about the others, Aelita."
Aelita started to say a comeback, only Ulrich interrupted her. "Right, let's decide what to do with Laura."
"It's true that she could really help me in the lab when Aelita is virtualized." Jeremy turned to Laura. "In short, either we integrate you into the team or press a button. We can go back and time and erase your memory."
"Everything?" Laura now hoped they let her in. If she really forgot all of this she would lose her chance to be a part of managing a quantum computer!
"Everything. You'll never know what you saw here. "
"We vote." Yumi suggested.
"I don't care as long as it doesn't end up like the William situation. And no I'm not talking about when he was Xanafied." Crystalic voiced her opinion.
Aelita didn't give the others the chance to say what they felt. She walked straight over to the Supercomputer and launched the Return to the Past.
-Math class-
The return trip sent them back into their respective classes earlier that morning.
"Sorry Aelita. I didn't mean to hurt you." Jeremy whispered to her, knowing she was upset. "It's just Yumi was in danger, and you were on the Cortex…"
"I know." Aelita sighed. "I'm just suspicious of her. I don't know why."
"Who can give me the velocity of the Earth's center of inertia?" Mrs. Meyers asked the class.
"You going to raise your hand?" Aelita asked Jeremy.
"I know the answer already." he said, seeing Laura's hand raised.
Aelita pushed him a little. "This isn't the time for fair play, get up there!"
He gave up and raised his hand and was called up.
"Well, look at that." Odd leaned up to Aelita. "That's not very moral. And here I took you for a nice person."
"I am. It's just that there can be only one Miss Einstein." She grinned at Odd, who returned it while a chuckle.
"Therefore, the answer is 29.7 kilometers per second." Jeremy finished the explanation of the answer.
-science class-
Crystalic threw open the door to the science room. "Excuse me!"
"Landers! Your 15 minutes late to class!" Ms. Hertz said.
"Sorry Sensei. The shower I was using this morning wasn't working properly so I had to wait for another available shower to finish bathing this morning. I ended up running late." Crystalic bowed and walked over to her seat.
"Alright but try not to be late again!" She turned back to the blackboard.