Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners, particularly the characters taken from the animated series, Code Lyoko. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Aelita took Jeremie by the hand and led him to the elevator. The car was still at the factory floor level, so the door opened right up. Some people tried to get in with the couple, but some bouncers politely but firmly told them to back off.
When the door closed, Jeremie said, "whew! I'm glad you rescued me, Aelita. You know, I think that guy was actually hitting on me!"
"He did the same to me," Aelita replied, "one of the Queen's assistants told me that Captain Harkness had 'a rather liberal view on relationships.'"
"It must be really liberal, then," Jeremie agreed, "he was really giving me the creeps."
The elevator stopped at the console room and the couple got off. As soon as the door closed, the image of Franz Hopper appeared on the console display.
"Congratulations, honey," he said, "you were wonderful!"
"You saw?" Aelita asked.
"And heard," Franz added, "I was able to instantiate a polymorphic clone, and it tapped into the sound system. You're very good."
"Only because you taught me, daddy," Aelita said, "now, if you will excuse me, I need to change."
As she walked over to the folding partition and disappeared behind it, Franz told Jeremie, "you know the routine, sit and concentrate on the screen."
Sissi had to admit, when he wasn't being a jerk, Odd Della Robbia wasn't that bad a person. They danced together for the first couple of songs, then they drifted apart for a while. Sissi didn't think that was unusual; she would have probably done it herself if he hadn't beat her to it. But after the music ended, he appeared again, this time with two drinks. He handed her one.
"I figured you'd probably need this by now," he said.
"Thanks," she replied, "I'm kinda surprised you did this."
"I try to show a girl a good time," Odd said, "besides, this is for Aelita."
"And Kiwi," Sissi said.
"And myself," Odd said, "if I really didn't want to do this, I would have found a way around it, Sissi. Truth be told, I've always kinda wondered about you."
"Why? Because you see I'm a much more interesting person than you thought?"
"Yeah, you could say that. You know, we have talked before."
"Of course we have! I'd say something to Ulrich and you would insult me!"
"No, I don't mean that," Odd said, "you remember a while back, you had an online friend you were supposed to meet?"
"Yeah, how do you know about that?"
"It was me."
"No way!" Sissi exclaimed, "that boy was way too sensitive to be a boor like you!"
"And you weren't the stuck up prig we all know and loathe," Odd retorted, "you know, if you let that side out a little more, and stopped trying to grab Ulrich all the time, you wouldn't be all that bad a person."
"And maybe if you engaged your brain before you opened your mouth, you wouldn't be the idiot that you are," Sissi shot back.
"Yeah, that's what everyone tells me," Odd agreed, "look, it's about time for Aelita to perform; so, do you want to go down to the Paradise, or stay here and listen to the SubDigitals set?"
"Let's go hear Aelita," Sissi said, taking Odd's hand, "we can hear her do a couple of mixes, then come back up if we want to."
It only seemed like a few minutes before Aelita stepped out from behind the partition.
"Well, what do you think?" she asked Jeremie and her father. Jeremie turned to look as Franz got a perturbed look on his face.
Aelita had replaced the burgundy tank top with the Einstein tee-shirt she wore last evening when she asked Jeremie out. To draw some attention away from her maturing assets, she had thrown on a pink and red vest. The skirt was replaced with a pink micro mini skirt.
"Aelita, that may be a little too much," Franz said, understating his true opinion.
"Don't worry daddy, I'll be above the crowd on the walkway around the room," Aelita assured him, "security won't let anyone up there but me and the gang unless I approve. The only other way there is via the access from the console room. So, Jeremie, what do you think?"
"I think my nose is going to bleed," he said.
The teens lounged for around fifteen minutes; Aelita sipping on a bottle of water she had gotten before coming down, Jeremie on a soda. At one point, Franz brought up an image.
"Jeremie, what do you think about this?" he asked.
Jeremie looked at the picture, which showed three men in the assembly room. One was working at some laboratory equipment while the other two looked on. You could tell that every now and then one of the observers asked a question, because the man working at the equipment would stop, look their way and say something. As Jeremie examined the feed, Aelita got up and came over to look.
"I don't know," was the genius reply, "is this real time?"
"No, it was from a few minutes ago," Franz replied, "I've been monitoring the security feeds all through the factory since you rewired them. I've been curious what our tenant was up to. Now I have a little better idea."
"So, they're mixing some kind of chemicals?" Aelita asked.
"It could be anything," Franz replied, "Jeremie, if you start seeing a drop in available storage, it's because I'm watching these people. If it becomes an issue, let me know and I'll stop."
"I don't think it will be an issue for a while," Jeremie said, "besides, we can always compress the images to pick up room."
Just then a voice came down from the access way to the outer room.
"Five minutes," Sophie's voice called out, "you two break it up now. It wouldn't do to have our star all mussed up when she performs."
"We've got to go, daddy," Aelita said, "will you tap in for my performance?"
"Of course, sweetheart; knock 'em dead."
With that, Franz's image disappeared from the display and went dark. Aelita walked over to the ladder leading up to the access and started to climb.
"Coming, Jeremie?" she called back.
"I'll be up when you've gone up," he replied, "somehow, I've got the feeling that shirt isn't the only thing you're wearing from last night night."
She turned her head and gave the boy a predatory grin. "The only way you'll ever find out is if you're right behind me," she said.
Jeremie sighed, got up and went over to the ladder. Just as he started up, Aelita resumed her climb. And sure enough, she looked to be wearing the same kind of underwear she was wearing last night.
"Aelita, what has gotten into you," he asked as he finally joined her at the access.
"I don't know," she replied, "maybe it's the rock 'n roll DJ persona taking over. Or maybe I like making you blush."
She then reached out, grabbed him by the front of his shirt and drew him close, their faces millimeters apart. "Or maybe I'm trying to tell you something. It'll be fun watching you figure out which it really is."
Yumi and Ulrich stayed together during the session on the main factory floor. When Aelita and Jeremie left for the console room, the pair drifted towards The Pink Paradise, Aelita's venue.
"So, are you going to make Johnny the happiest boy on earth?" Ulrich asked.
"Are you going to make Sissi's day?" she retorted.
"I don't know," the brown haired boy said. He then looked around and spotted something that interested him. "But, maybe I'll make someone else's day," he cryptically said before walking off.
Ulrich waded through the crowd to his destination. Milly Solovieff was standing next to her friend Tamiya. He tapped the girl on the shoulder and asked, "could I speak to you a moment, Milly?"
"Sure!" the girl replied. Ulrich guided her a few steps away and spoke to her in low tones. Once, Milly said, "no!" but Ulrich said something else that made the girl relent. Finally, she said, "okay, but you owe me at least one dance before the night's out."
"Fine, as long as it's not the last one," Ulrich said, "I've got that reserved.
He then asked Tamiya, "are you taking pictures for the paper?"
"Yeah," was her reply.
"Well, keep an eye on Milly," Ulrich said, "I may want a copy of those pictures after tonight."
With that, Ulrich walked off leaving one very confused seventh grader in his wake.
After Aelita let Jeremie go, she turned and went to the other end of the short corridor. She waived at Sophie, who was standing next to the mixing board. At that signal, Sophie announced, "and here she is, Aelita!"
With that and the applause of the crowd, Aelita stepped out. She smiled and waived to the crowd, then made her way over to the mixing board. Sophie receded into the dark as the spotlight fell on the pink haired DJ. Aelita put on her headphones, waited a second, then started her playing.
Jeremie followed her to the walkway around the venue, then slid down and sat to watch the performance. When they had decided that this floorspace was to be used for Aelita's performances, one of the first things Jeremie and the others did was set up black curtains at both ends of the access way to the console room. That way, light from the console room wouldn't leak into the Paradise, tipping people off that there was something back there, and it allowed someone to slip unnoticed into the console room while the music was playing. Jeremie had drawn the curtains at the console room end shut, and when he had sat down, drew those curtains open a little so he could see Aelita perform.
And for the second time tonight, Aelita Stones worked her magic on the crowd. Here, she wasn't constrained by the needs of the SubDigitals; her only constraint was the mood and flow of the crowd. She weaved music about and around, drawing the dancers to a state of almost frenzied excitement, then easing them back down. For a while, she kept the tempo at a slow pace, then, she gradually built it up.
In the crowd, Johnny was moping at the edge, wishing he had the courage to at least ask Yumi for a dance, when a hand reached out and grabbed him. Startled, he looked at the person grabbing him and saw his crush, Yumi Ishiyama, pulling him out on the dance floor.
"C'mon, Johnny," she said, "you don't want to spend all night sitting on the sidelines, do you?"
Thinking he had died and gone to heaven, Johnny followed her into the crowd. They found a spot and Yumi started to dance to the beat. Johnny tried following along, but couldn't quite catch the rhythm. He very nearly knocked Yumi over a couple of times, and after the second time, she stopped him and helped him dance a little better. With coaching from her, the sixth grader was able to actually enjoy his dream moment.
While Johnny was getting schooled in the ways of dancing, Hiroki Ishiyama was getting a similar lesson, but from Milly Solovieff. Milly asked Hiroki, rather than just dragging him out, and giggled a little when Hiroki stammered out a yes. She took him and danced with him, remembering an earlier dance when a crush of hers, Ulrich Stern, had done the same for her.
Odd and Sissi danced with each other for a while, then drifted off to other partners. Odd, for the most part, seemed satisfied to dance alone, but Sissi found several other boys to partner with, including, much to her surprise, Ulrich. During a fast song, Ulrich seemed to just appear next to Sissi, and they started dancing. He stayed with her for a couple of songs, the drifted off to dance with Milly Solovieff.
Another boy seemed to take an interest in the principal's daughter. He was tall and looked to be a junior or senior in high school. He had dark hair, with red accents. They danced a few times, then drifted apart, then back together again. Finally, he asked her if she was with someone, to which she replied yes, but not too closely. He then asked if he could buy her a drink, to which she agreed. They both left the Pink Paradise and returned to the main factory floor.
In the assembly room, Vladimir had been working at the final station for some time now. The music from the SubDigitals, playing on the main factory floor, seemed to dictate his pace. He would spend some time at one side of the plastic box, his hands stuck in the gloves in the side, turning various knobs and valves. Then, seemingly satisfied, he would move to one of the other sides, stick his hands in the gloves there, and fiddle more with the equipment inside. Finally, he came to the last side, where he took a bottle and held it under a small pipe. He turned a valve and a clear liquid began running from the pipe into the bottle. He waited until the liquid stopped flowing, then capped the bottle. He then took a sponge, soaked it in something, and wiped down the outside of the bottle. Then he capped the bottle, and took some tape and wrapped it around the lid and the neck of the bottle. Finally, he carefully set the bottle down, removed his hands from the gloves, and flicked a switch. Inside the box, a fan started whirring.
"So, what's the verdict?" Vittorio Santini asked.
"Equipment good," Vlad replied, "congratulations, you have first bottle of Bliss concentrate."
"What were you doing at the end," Giuseppe asked, "with the bottle, I mean."
"Oh, making sure no Bliss on outside of bottle," Vlad said, "at this concentration, skin contact will cause drug to work. I clean bottle off with acid."
"Acid?"
"Citric acid, lemon juice," Vlad said with a smile, "you can even drink it afterwards. Oh, vent system routes exhaust through a filter of citric acid. It very important juice in place before operation starts. If something happen to isolation box, douse area with lemon juice, orange juice, grapefruit juice, whatever."
"Why are you using lemon juice?" Vittorio asked.
"People get curious when you buy much hydrochloric acid," Vlad said, "same with sulphuric acid. Nobody asks questions when you buy lemon juice. Bliss break down at almost any level of acidity."
"Could that be a problem in people?"
"Maybe. But not so far. Once in body, Bliss uses nervous system, like neurotoxin. You start feeling tickle at entry point, and traveling up, Bliss is moving. When you start feeling like best blow job in world, Bliss is in brain. When all you think of is greatest orgasm ever, Bliss in full effect. Now..."
Vladimir went back over to the isolation box. He put on the gloves and took the bottle of Bliss and put it in a drawer in one side. He then went over and opened the drawer and pulled out the bottle.
"Here you go. Mix this with thousand liters water, neutral pH, and you got something more precious than gold or petrol."
Aelita looked at the clock she had mounted on her mixing board, and saw it was about time to call it a night. This was the part she was waiting all night for.
"Hi, everyone!" she said into a microphone set up by the board, "looking at my clock, I see it's about time to call it a night. So, this will be the last number of the evening, and it will be a slow song. So, grab that special person and dance along. Thank you all for coming, and I hope to see you here again!"
With that, she queued up the piece she had chosen for the Last Dance and left the board. She walked over to the access way to the console room and saw Jeremie still sitting there, smiling at her.
"All done?" he asked. To that, she simply shook her head no and reached down her hand to him. Taking the hint, he took her hand and stood up and let her lead him away.
The music was starting, and the couples on the dance floor started to sway to the beat. Aelita led Jeremie to the corner, where two of the platforms that surrounded the room met. She had workers expand this particular corner, extending it out and creating a small area where two people could dance. As they got there, a spot light snapped on, bathing the area, and the couple, in light. Jeremie shied back for a second, but Aelita just smiled and gently pulled him forward.
They reached the center and she took him in her arms. Jeremie quickly whispered in her ear, "'Lita, I can't dance," to which she replied, "then just hold me and sway; it'll be alright."
Jeremie did as he was told. He held Aelita in his arms and swayed with her, never once taking his eyes off of hers. As the music played, the rest of the world seemed to disappear, until there was nothing left but Aelita. As he swayed, he relaxed. As he relaxed, he held her closer. Finally, she was pressed as close to him as physics would allow, and he stopped his swaying. Aelita rested her head on his shoulder, while he rested his head on hers. And they just stood there, embracing each other, as the music died out.
Their moment together was finally broken by the applause and shouts of the crowd after the music died. Quickly, they separated, and Aelita turned to them and waived, just before she and Jeremie made their way back to the console room.