Chapter 24: Halloween

To answer everyone's suspicions, yes, I am planning something big for the Halloween arc. I don't know when I'll get around to it, though.

Also, I sincerely apologize if you get an email saying that a new chapter was up when in fact there wasn't. Every time I tried to upload this chapter, for some reason, it wouldn't show up, even after the time limit. I don't really know what's going on, but it has happened before, at least to me, so I hope this problem is only temporary.

Anyway, please enjoy your crappy fanfic.

About two weeks later

Stacey should have been in her warm bed at Kadic. Instead, she was at the factory at one in the morning, shivering in her light black jacket and jeans. She held a small package, but she didn't dare open it in her room. There was always the chance of some teacher (Jim) doing a surprise inspection in the middle of the school day.

The elevator whirred with noise, shattering the silence of the cool October night. The doors slid open to reveal the supercomputer room, completely empty for the first time in ages. Stacey knew that Aelita had threatened Jeremy and Devlin to take a night off from the programming or else. Stacey didn't know what 'else' was, but from the way she had seen the boys balk, it couldn't have been good. She was thankful for that, and for the fact that Aelita had been yelling in the supposedly empty dorm so that she could overhear in the first place.

Stacey sat down in the cushy chair, facing away from the active super computer. She didn't want to sit on the cold, hard floor of the room. She balanced the package in her lap and, taking out some scissors from her pocket, began to open it.

After the white coats had contacted her, they had asked her about the Lyoko Warriors and what they were planning. She told the truth: she didn't really know any of them personally except for Devlin and Carter, and that they were creating upgrades for all of them, and that they were trying to create a way to get through the Internet. Stacey had withheld information about the mole in their organization; she didn't know why, to be honest. Besides, the scientists knew that Jeremy was a genius. They wouldn't put two and two together.

Then they had asked her if there was anything special going on at the academy. Stacey had told them about the Halloween dance, and that it was from seven pm to nine pm, with Aelita as the deejay. The white coats told her that they had something for her to do and that she absolutely must do it at the dance. She had to put it in the deejay booth before the dance started, and that she had to turn it on at exactly eight forty-five. Stacey didn't know what the machine was or what it would do, but if the white coats trusted her…

The package fully opened, Stacey pawed through the Styrofoam pellets and found the machine. It wasn't very big, around the size of her palm. It looked like a silver bug, with the antennas and all. It had red unlit eyes, and it didn't look that menacing. The transmitter was the same size, but it was black with two buttons. Finally, there was a note at the bottom of the package. It was handwritten and said this:

The left button is the one you must press at eight forty-five. It will turn the sound distorter on and send an air borne signal to the three of you. But you, Stacey dear, must not listen to it. Ear plugs will be sufficient in blocking out the noise. The distorter must be on for thirty seconds or the signal won't work. The right button will shut it off.

After the dance, you must take out the distorter and discard it and the transmitter in the Seine River. Then you must join the children in the factory to 'save' the other two. You must convince them that you are on their side. If possible, get devirtualized early.

Do not let us down.

Vivian

So that was what she supposed to do. It still didn't explain what the hell they were planning, but maybe that was a good thing; if Stacey knew too much, she could accidentally let something slip, maybe not with words, but in her facial expressions.

Stacey put all three items back in the box and collected any trash that had fallen to the floor. After she was done, she walked back into the elevator and went up to the first floor. She didn't have much time to prepare for the mission. Halloween was tomorrow. She needed to put the finishing touches on her costume so no one would recognize her, and she needed to find a way to get into the auditorium early.

She was not going to sleep anytime soon.

Halloween (Finally! Jeez!)

It was after school, and I was putting on the final touches of my costume. Aelita was doing the same, or more like, she was spreading out her costume on her bed: a wide red tulle skirt, a pink strapless corset, brown high-heeled boots, a gold pocket watch that was supposed to cling at the waist, and pink steam punk goggles. She also had a brown leather jacket with a clockwork design on it in case it got chilly later.

"You really went all out for Halloween," I remarked as I examined her awesome costume. Aelita picked up her goggles. "I know, right? I think I'll wear the goggles a lot." "I thought you would," I smiled. What could I say? They really did look cool.

Aelita looked at my costume. "Not bad for someone who didn't know how to sew until a few weeks ago," Aelita smirked at me. I blushed; there had been a lot of mistakes when I first started out, but now everything was perfect-in my eyes at least.

Aelita checked the time on her phone. "The dance is starting soon. Need any more help with homework?" "Nah, I'm done. But I should probably get Odd to do his. Knowing him, he's putting it off." I rolled my eyes. Aelita giggled at my expression.

"Okay. But remember not to take too long."

"Shut up and go to the auditorium." We both left and took the stairs down, but I stopped at Odd and Ulrich's floor while Aelita continued her descent downward. I walked to their door and knocked.

Odd answered and gave me a quizzical look. ""You're here to tell me to do my homework, aren't you?" "Uh-huh," was my clever response. Odd shrugged. "I've already done most of it. But more importantly, I need your help to knock some sense into Ulrich." He ushered me into the room and closed the door. I saw Ulrich setting down his Alucard costume on his bed. He turned to me as I walked in.

"You do know Yumi is going to kill you when she finds out you accidentally-on-purpose paired up with her," I told him, sitting down on the bed close to a napping Kiwi.

"I'm aware of that, but it's too late already. Besides, this costume was really expensive. I couldn't just return it."

"Why not?"

"I got it overseas."

"You did?" Odd asked, surprised. "Yes, I did. Do you think Yumi will buy that?" Ulrich asked. Despite his hopeful expression, his voice was flat. "Not really," I said. "And I'm pretty sure you can still return it by mail." Odd just shook his head. "Knowing him, he just thought it was a pain in the ass to do." "Oh, shut up," Ulrich mumbled. Then he ignored us and went back to doing his homework.

With nothing better to do, I asked Odd, "Need any help with homework?"

"Do you understand Mrs. Hertz's assignment?"

"…This may take a while."

Stacey was alone in the auditorium, which was only half prepared for the dance. She knew she only had a few minutes before people would come in and finish up hanging the streamers and putting fake coffins and graveyards in there. Stacey was dressed as Hermione from Harry Potter, mainly because no one would recognize her in a brown wig. She even gave herself somewhat bushy eyebrows so she would look more like the first movie version of the genius witch.

Stacey walked silently and quickly to the deejay booth, which had yet not been decorated for the event. Taking a screwdriver which she had swiped from the work table earlier, she unscrewed a part of the side so she could easily stick in the distorter. She didn't screw the bolts all the way in; she would need to unscrew them quickly if it came to that. With that part of the mission done, Stacey walked back to the work table and replaced her large screwdriver for a much smaller one. It would be easier to hide at the dance.

Stacey's head suddenly snapped up. Thanks to the training the scientists gave her, she could hear something from far away easily. It sounded like footsteps. Someone laughed; it was probably just students coming in to finish setting up the auditorium. Cursing under her breath, she ran to the side door, only to find it locked. With the students coming in and with the clock ticking, Stacey had to literally kick open the door to escape. The lock was damaged, but that didn't matter. She was out the door just as the other students walked in.

Before the dance

Ulrich, Odd, and I were assembled in our costumes at our usual bench to wait for the gang, minus Aelita, to show up. Yumi would most likely be the last one, since she still had to walk to school. Odd was trying to help Ulrich come up with a semi-plausible cover story to tell Yumi when we saw Devlin. He was wearing a black kimono, with a semi-large, knife-shaped sword strapped to his back. He had gelled his red hair into spikes, and he scowled a bit as he walked.

"Ichigo!" I yelled out in astonishment. His face lost the fake scowl and he smiled. "I figured you would know. Bleach is the best anime ever!" He high-fived me when he got near. "Please tell me you know who he is," I begged Odd. There was no way he couldn't know.

"Yeah, he's Ichigo from Bleach," he joked. "I do know him, though. I read the manga." And that was when we heard Jeremy calling to us. He was wearing brown pleated pants, tan leather boots, a chocolate brown work shirt with red garters on the sleeves, a tan vest with a gold pocket watch chain peeping out of the pockets, and a brown derby hat on his head. He had a strange barrel-like gun strapped to his waist.

"Dude, you went steam punk too!" I exclaimed happily. Jeremy blushed, a grin spreading across his face. "Well, I overheard Aelita raving about it, so I decided to try it out too. And besides, it's a fascinating topic in science fiction."

"Isn't it more like an alternate universe and fantasy thing, though?"

"…yeah, I can see why you'd think that, Ulrich."

Devlin seemed to notice Ulrich for the first time and took in his costume. "You're going to die," was all he needed to say. "Why does everyone keep saying that?" Ulrich complained, pulling his hat low over his eyes. "Because it's true," Jeremy responded.

And because Ulrich's day couldn't get any worse, Yumi decided to come running up in Seras Victoria's blue Hellsing work outfit and an orange wig. She didn't have the bazooka, which was just as well; there was no way Jim was going to let a fake weapon that huge into the dance. She stopped running as she neared us, and stared at Ulrich. "You totally did this on purpose!" she accused him.

"No, I didn't! I've always been a fan of Hellsing, and I wanted to dress as Alucard. By the time you told us what your costume was, I had already ordered it," Ulrich quickly explained. "That's true," Odd piped up, flicking his purple tail from side to side. "And he couldn't return it because he bought it from overseas."

Yumi was still brick red. "This is so embarrassing," she complained pitifully. "On the plus side, I don't think Hellsing is really popular over here," Devlin quickly intervened. "It's not suitable for most of the kids in school, so I don't think they'll notice." Yumi seemed to cheer up at the thought. "Come on, guys, we should probably get in line," I concluded, getting up from the bench.

No one commented on our costumes as we walked to the auditorium. A huge line was already growing, even though the dance didn't start for another ten minutes. "You were right," Jeremy told me as we got in line.

We had to wait in line for twenty minutes before we got in. A few kids had complimented Devlin's costume, recognizing the lovable orange haired antihero from Bleach. A lot of kids didn't recognize Jeremy's steam punk costume, which made me sad. Milly and Tamiya were taking videos of the kids in line, asking them the typical questions like "Who are you dressed as?" "Did you pair up with someone?" and etcetera.

When they finally came up to us, they took one look at Odd's costume and pronounced him, "Just a giant purple cat." "Hey! I am way more awesome than just that!" he protested. "Not the time, Odd," I told him sharply. Big mistake; the two budding reporters zeroed in on me and my Lyoko awesomeness.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Milly asked. "Odd and I are characters from a really awesome video game," I told not untruthfully. What? Lyoko did look like a video game.

"Which one?"

"One from America. I don't think it came to France yet," I lied. Milly was about to ask more about that, but then Tamiya saw Ulrich and Yumi. "What are you supposed to be?" she asked them. "I'm a totally badass vampire and she's my assistant," Ulrich answered before Yumi could say anything. She turned, ready to yell at him, but then Tamiya said, "You're not that scary." She looked bored. "Come on, let's go interview some other kids," Milly said. They ran to other random kids in line and left us alone.

Yumi lightly pushed Ulrich. "You're lucky that they didn't know who we were," she warned. She was smiling a bit though. "Yes, I am," he complied, pulling his hat over his eyes. Odd and I exchanged looks and then started laughing. Ulrich, relieved, joined us.

After twenty minutes, we were in the auditorium. The place had been transformed into a graveyard crypt, complete with crosses and grave yard markers. I even saw the skeleton from the science wing in one corner. Halloween music was thumping through the speakers; Aelita was already playing. She had created the most epic mix of Halloween music I had ever heard. Kids were already dancing in the middle of the auditorium.

We all went to the center of the dance floor. Yumi and Ulrich were trying to teach Jeremy and Devlin how to dance, but they were pretty hopeless. Odd and I, on the other hand, just went our way and danced our hearts out. I don't remember if we even took breaks. The two of us didn't slow dance very often because Aelita didn't put many of those in her mix. But it didn't matter; I was having an incredible time.

An hour and forty-four minutes into the dance

Stacey was in the back, far away from the students and in the shadows. She was still in her Hermione costume, and she was staring at the clock way too intently. She had told Paul and Jean that she couldn't come to the dance because of a bad grade. Sissi had been unable to come, since her grades had been so bad that her own father forbade her from going to the dance. There was no one here to bother her.

Stacey stuck in her ear plugs just as the clock struck eight forty-five. She got out the transmitter from her cloak pocket and pressed the left button. She counted to thirty, and then pressed the right button. She then removed her ear plugs and waited for the dance to be over.

Back with Carter

Aelita had been playing an upbeat song when I heard the strange undertones. It sounded dark and metal, the complete opposite of the happy pop song. I stopped dancing and held my head. Odd looked at me and also stopped dancing. "You okay?" he asked me, concern spreading over his face. "I…think I need some air," I said feebly, walking to the front door.

I could no longer hear the undertones, but my head was pounding, and I felt sick to my stomach. "Go back to the dance. I'll be fine," I said, trying to put up a strong front. It must have worked, because he slowly went back to join the others.

I walked out into the cool night air, breathing it in. I still felt sick. I heard the door bang open behind me, and turned to find Devlin, looking pale and with his spikes going flat. "You feel sick, too?" he asked me. I nodded. And just when he was next to me, he doubled over, his fake sword falling to the ground. He picked it up, and tried to use it as a staff. I tried to help him up, but then I also doubled over in pain. The two of us slumped to the ground, writhing in pain.

All I could think was the white coats have struck again. And then I blacked out.

That wasn't quite true. Carter didn't black out, exactly. But something else took her and Devlin over, erasing their free will.

The two of them quickly picked themselves up. Carter helped put the sword back on Devlin's back (it wasn't as big as the anime version of it, so Jim had allowed it into the dance), and the two of the set out to the manhole cover in the woods. Thanks to the training the scientists gave them, they were there in no time. Devlin opened it and went down first. Carter went down second, and closed the lid.

Once they were both in the sewers, they each took a skateboard and rode to the factory. The distorter had told them that they needed to do one thing, and they had no choice but to do it.

They had to destroy the heart of Lyoko.

If you want to see Jeremy's costume, look up Bryson Feldspar-Scientific Researcher. Also, I used Alucard's red work outfit for Ulrich, in case you didn't know what he looked like.

I don't know when I'll be able to update the next chapter; hopefully it'll be up sometime next week.