Chapter 10
"Man, Mr. Fumet was harsh today." Ulrich said as the five headed over to the drink machines.
"Even with your speech and he still gave you detention!" Odd exclaimed.
"What speech?" Yumi asked as she walked over to them.
"April and Odd got in trouble in History class." Jérémie explained as he went inside the machine building and looked at the choices for drinks. He put in his euro and pressed the button for cocoa as he said, "He was going to let April go with just a warning and April tried to explain that it was her fault."
"And so he gave us both one hour detentions." Odd finished.
"At least it is not like my last time I got in trouble." April said. "I ended up with DLS."
"With what?" Aélita asked. Jérémie turned around and stood next to her, getting her attention for a moment.
"DLS, uh, In School Suspension." April explained, translating it. "It is when you are stuck in school still, just away from everyone. And the whole day in silence."
"What did you do?" Yumi asked.
"I cheated on a Bible test." April said, shrugging. "I guess one of the worst things you could cheat on, but for about six years I had it good."
"Until then." Odd said.
"Is this detention going to be on your records?" Jérémie asked, sipping at his drink.
"Yes." April said, "But I probably could tell my principal that I wanted to see all aspects of a French school."
"Your principal would buy that?" Ulrich asked, surprised.
"No, but we are friends, so she would believe it." April said. "I am that type of person who, if I wanted to, would get in trouble on purpose. When is next class?"
"Any time now." Yumi said.
As if on cue, the bell rang, telling them to get moving.
-.-.-.-
"I said it at breakfast, and I am saying it again." April said after taking a bite of her lunch crepe. "You French people have it made with the food."
"And I thought Odd was crazy with his food." Ulrich said.
"Oh, Jérémie, I need your help with my pillow." April said, looking up from her food to the blond haired boy across the table.
"Your pillow?" Jérémie asked, looking at her above his glasses.
"Oh, uh, my computer." April corrected. "Those two words have always confused me. But I think the converter is not working properly. My computer keeps blipping as if it has too much power feeding into it."
"Right, America's still has 110 volts." Aélita said.
"I can look at it after lunch." Jérémie said.
"How long is your lunch break?"
"Two hours." Odd said, his mouth full.
"You are lucky. Back home, we only have fifteen to thirty minutes." April said. "Some people barely make it through the lunch line to get their food."
"Fifteen minutes!?" Ulrich exclaimed.
"Ya, but we also get out at 2:15." April explained.
"Win some, loose some." Odd said, smiling.
-.-.-.-
"I see what you mean about your computer blipping all the time." Jérémie said as he looked at the screen on April's laptop.
"I really think it is just the converter." April said.
The front door opened with Maggie's voice getting their attention. "Yes, I've been working at tracking them all down. Fumet works here at Kadic. Apparently, right after the project was done with, a few went to work as teachers here."
"Are you sure no one's here?" a male voice asked, walking into the apartment.
"No, April's with her friends." Maggie said.
April looked around and saw the sliding door to a closet. She knelt down to Jérémie and motioned with her hands that they should go inside the closet before they were noticed.
Jérémie nodded his head, understanding. He shut the computer and followed April inside the closet. The door closed just in time to hear the man's voice getting close as he checked the room.
"Have you heard any word about Franz Hopper?" he asked as he looked into April's room.
"No. No one has found any information on where he's hiding." Maggie admitted. "But I think I might have the location of his granddaughter. Her name is Aélita."
"His granddaughter?" the man asked, the two sounding like they were in the living room and on the sofa now.
"She's about the right age with him being in his 60's now." Maggie admitted.
"But you're forgetting that his wife was only in her 20's when she married Franz and had her first child at 28." the man said. "That was in, what, 1982?"
"That would make her child 25, 26." Maggie said, reconsidering her first concussion. "If Aélita was the granddaughter of Franz, that means his daughter would've had her when she was 16."
"It happens." the man said.
"That would make sense. Aélita's an orphan according to what she told me."
RING RING RING
April looked at Jérémie with shock on her face. Jérémie pulled out his cell and saw that it was Ulrich calling.
April took it out of his hand and opened the door a crack. She slid the phone out and shut the door in time for the man to walk in, gun in hand.
"It's just her cell phone." Maggie said, walking in behind him. "You've always been too paranoid."
The man walked over to the cell on the floor that laid next to the laptop. "What teenager would leave their cell phone in their room?" he asked, picking up the cell and standing up. He looked towards the closet the two were hiding in and reached towards it to open it.
"What time did Boss want us back to the office?" Maggie asked, stopping his hand an inch away from the handle.
"Oh no." the man said, looking at the clock on April's desk, sliding his gun back in the holster on his right hand side hip. "In five minutes. We've gotta get going!" he put the phone back where it was, precisely, and stood up.
"Come on, I'll drive." Maggie said as keys flew through the air.
The two in the closet waited while the door shut and made sure no one was coming back.
"Well, at least I know Franz Hopper was a real person." April said as she slid open the door and they walked out.
"How do you know about Franz?" Jérémie asked as he reached down and picked up his phone.
"You would not believe me if I told you." April said. "And I promised I would not tell."
"Doesn't that sound familiar?" Jérémie asked himself as he pushed a button on his cell and listened to his missed call.
April walked out of her room and headed towards the kitchen, only to have her eyes get distracted by what she saw in Maggie's room. "Hey Jérémie, come and see this!" April called.
Jérémie came out of April's room and stopped behind her, staring at what they saw in Maggie's room.
April pushed opened the door more and walked in, avoiding the papers on the floor. She walked over to the desk and saw a photo.
"It is a hit list." April said, surprised. "Ok. Hit photo."
It was a black and white photo of all the men who worked on Project: Cartilage. A few of the heads had X's through them as if to say they were already dead. Franz's head was circled with a question mark next to it. Another head was circled. Next to the circle was written, "Next; Fumet"
"Who would want to kill Mr. Fumet?" April asked.
"The FBI." Jérémie said as he looked at the photo closer. "They're after everyone who was in Project: Cartilage."
"Project: Cartilage?" April asked. "The only Cartilage I know was Hannibal, and he was destroyed by Scipio."
"Project: Cartilage was a military project but was for-goed in 1994." Jérémie said.
"And now they want all memory of it erased." April guessed. "Who would have guessed Odd's Aunt was in on it."
"I know Odd wouldn't." Jérémie said. "Come on, I've got to tell them."
"Hold on." April said, running out of the room. She came back a moment latter with a camera and took a photo of the photo. "I want to check some of the files while she is not here."
"What? You afraid you have one in here?" Jérémie asked, watching her knell down on the floor and pick up some of the files.
"Who knows." April said. "Here is one on you, or at least someone named Jérémie Belpois." she handed it up to him before looking through some more.
Jérémie opened the file and saw that for certain it was his file. It had a photo of him that was paper clipped to the first page.
"They have a file on me, too." April said, opening a file. She took photos so she could read it latter and closed it to look at others. "Here is one on your friend, Ulrich, and one on Odd and Yumi. And here are a few of my friends."
"What is Xanadu?" Jérémie asked, looking at another folder.
"Huh?" April asked, looking up and seeing he had her folder. She quickly reached up and shut the folder, smiling as she said, "Uh, it is a wonderful world full of a paradise, do you not read stories?"
"Yes, I've read. I was asking about this virtual Xanadu in your file." Jérémie said, looking at her in the eyes.
April picked up the file at her feet and opened it, seeing the word Lyoko. She looked up and said, "Well, since you know about Lyoko, you should have heard about Xanadu. Franz Hopper's original mess-up of a virtual world."
"Well now I know where Xana got his name." Jérémie said.
"Oh do not get me started on Xana. That virus wants all of my friends deader than dead." April said. "Ever since that tornado that went through my town, it set off the supercomputer in my friend's father's old factory. Apparently the FBI had called Franz Hopper's ideas over and used them to create Xanadu before he had started to work on your Lyoko."
RING!
"Zut!" Jérémie said, turning towards the alarm clock by Maggie's bed. "We're going to be late for Science."
"Do not worry." April said as she laid down the files back to where she remembered them being before. "There. And no one will realize the difference."
"Let's go." Jérémie said as the two headed out the door of Maggie's room. Jérémie grabbed the two bags from the hallway closet and threw April's to her before the two ran out of the room.
-.-.-.-
Jérémie and April made it to Ms. Hertz's class just as the bell rang for class to begin. Jérémie sat down next to Ulrich as April sat next to Aélita.
Ulrich leaned over to Jérémie and whispered, "Where were you? Odd wanted to get started on his movie and we needed April and you."
"We found something a little more important that Odd's movie." Jérémie said, looking forward as Ms. Hertz started to talk about cells of different plants and what was inside them. "Odd's aunt, Maggie, she's working with the FBI. We'll tell you all latter all the details, but apparently, Franz had created a prototype of Lyoko called Xanadu and it's in New Mexico."
"Are you telling me there are another group of digital warriors?" Ulrich asked, a little too loudly.
"Stern!" Ms. Hertz said, stopping her lecture. "Maybe, if you like talking so much, you can explain to us the workings of the ER in a plant cell."
"Uh..." Ulrich tried to remember but couldn't.
"Or what about the only thing a plant cell has that an animal cell does not?"
"Chloroplast, I know that one." Ulrich said.
"Only because you should've learned it in the seventh year." Ms. Hertz said, putting her hands on her hips. "If I hear you talking when you shouldn't be, you'll be with Jim in detention for two hours this afternoon."
"Yes ma'am." Ulrich said.
-.-.-.-
"So what was so important that you had to miss recording?" Odd asked as they meet up with Yumi before the last class of the day.
"Your Aunt, Maggie, she is working with the FBI." April said, looking at Odd.
"What!?" Odd exclaimed.
"She's telling the truth." Jérémie said. He looked at April as she took out her camera from her cargo pants pocket. "She's got files on all of us, and April's Xanadu Warriors."
"Xanadu Warriors?" Yumi asked, putting her hands on her hips as April turned the camera so that they could see the photos of everything. Ulrich took the camera from April so that he could read the files.
"Xanadu was a proto-type to your Lyoko, I am guessing." April said. "I do not know what year Lyoko was created, but Xanadu was created in either 1984 or '89. The handwriting is not that good. I say it was '89."
"Were as Lyoko was created in '93." Aélita said as Ulrich passed her the camera. "But how do you know Xanadu was the proto-type of Lyoko?"
"Franz Hopper sent over his schematics to a man called Timothy Stern." April said. She looked over to Ulrich and said, "I am sure there is no relation. There are plenty of Sterns in my area."
"I wonder how many more virtual worlds are out there." Aélita said, passing Odd and Yumi the camera.
"Probably plenty, since Xana escaped Lyoko." Ulrich said.
"So Xana was created in Lyoko." April said. "We did not have so much of a problem with him until school ended last year. We have been fighting him all summer."
"And that was when he escaped." Yumi said, passing April her camera back. "At least we know why those two weeks were so dead, Xana-wise."
"To think, it is all my fault." Aélita said, looking down. She stepped backwards to lean against the pillar holding up the arcade.
"It isn't your fault, Aélita!" Jérémie exclaimed, moving over to her and putting his arm around her shoulders.
"Ya! Anyone would've thought that was your memories in that bubble." Ulrich said. "Even Franz did."
"Anyway, my friends and I were asking for trouble no matter if you had freed Xana or not." April admitted. "We were helping Antea get out of Xanadu, since any records of her being a digital creation of any sort were nonexistent, we worked on a way of bringing her back to earth."
"Antea!" Aélita asked, looking up at the brown haired American. "What does she look like? How old? Does she remember her past!?"
"Whoa! Uh, she has pink hair, just like you do, just longer, she is about 18, and no, she has no memory of her prier life." April said, trying to answer in order.
"18." Aélita echoed.
"Why? Do you know someone with that description and name?" April asked.
"My mother." Aélita said. "She disappeared when I was little. Franz would never tell me what really happened. She was about 30 when she disappeared."
"I am sorry." April said.
"But we need to watch out." Jérémie said, remembering something Maggie and the man were talking about. "They believe that Aélita is the granddaughter of Franz."
"The granddaughter!" Yumi exclaimed. "How old do they believe her mother was when she had her!?"
"16. That would explain why you told them you was an orphan." April explained.
"Yes. I know my father was well in age, but he is still my father." Aélita said.
RING
"I guess we better get going." Yumi said. "We'll talk after class."
"Ya, we have probably the easiest class for you next." Odd said as the group spit.
"Bye Yumi!" Ulrich called.
Yumi waved to them as she headed off to science.
"What is it?" April asked.
"English." Odd and Jérémie said together. Jérémie sounded like he hated the class, Odd the opposite.
"You do not like the class, Jérémie?" April asked, seeing his face full of displeasure.
"Not really." Jérémie admitted.
"He's not all that good with any language but French." Ulrich said.
"English is weird." April nodded. "Though, if you ever go there and have problems with the T-H sound, just put a D there and no one will know the differences."
"You kidding?" Ulrich asked.
"No. But it will not get you through class, not even in America."