Upclose with the Dragon Queen

"Think of it like a puzzle piece," Sissi said, tightening something behind the computer interface, "Each piece helps you find the answer. For starters, If you need time but you don't need the starting velocity, then you just use the formula without starting velocity. Okay, try it now." She told Jeremie. The blonde typed in several buttons, but the screen came up red. Sissi grumbled under her teeth and went back to fiddling with the cables.

"What about Force?" Yumi asked.

"Well, force is the product of the acceleration or-"

"In non-Jeremie terms," Odd interrupted. Jeremie huffed quietly and turned back to the computer screen. "Sorry, Einstein, but your simple physics explanations aren't exactly... simple," He smiled.

"Well, think of it like this," Sissi started, "You have to break things down to smaller parts. Force has two parts. Mass: How heavy it is, and acceleration: how fast the speed changes. So the heavier something is, the more likely it's going to have a bigger force unless it decelerates or goes slower. Think of the monsters on Lyoko. The reason why their lasers would still hurt in real life is that the laser is small but it's going at an incredible acceleration."

"Oh! That makes more sense," Odd said.

"Of course, it would to you," Jeremie muttered.

"Don't be like that Jeremie," Aelita whispered back. Sissi gave one final grunt and turned a cable back into place.

"Okay, try it now." Jeremie typed again, but it wouldn't work. "Okay, why is this thing being such a... OHH! I'm such an idiot! Hang on!" Sissi said.

"Uh, excuse me? Can we not have an idiot teaching us?" Odd snickered. Sissi sighed, leaning her back against the holo-map and glaring at Odd.

"Odd, I have a very heavy metal wrench in my hand. Now I know you just figured out force, but maybe you can tell me how much force would hit you if I threw this at you," She grunted. Odd clamped up his mouth and refocused his eyes on his homework.

"That's something I never understood. Why is it that you seem to teach us fine, but Jeremie and Aelita have a hard time explaining this stuff? Aren't both of you smart?" Yumi asked.

"I wouldn't say exactly the same smart, but-"

"Jeremie," Aelita said with a warning tone.

Sissi laughed a little, "Actually, it has more to do with a different kind of intelligence: Emotional Intelligence, or EQ. It's responsible for helping you manage your emotions and social cues. While my learning ability has increased, my EQ has always been high, even before the Incident. The reason why Jeremie and Aelita have lower EQs is that Jeremie doesn't get out much and Aelita has been in Lyoko her whole life. So, it takes a little longer for them to explain things in non-scientific jargon. They're more... logic and head smart than social and emotional smart." The others looked at her flabbergasted. "There was a pamphlet about EQ in the hospital library."

"Wait, they have libraries in the hospital?" Odd asked.

"I had a LOT of time," Sissi emphasized. "Of course, Jeremie could get better at his EQ if he just learns to just slow down a bit."

"Hmm, I'll try," Jeremie grumbled.

Tightening the device into another port, Sissi finally screwed it into its place. "Okay, try it now." Jeremie typed away and the screen finally beeped green. "HA! It worked. I don't know why he would make such a difficult port."

"Who? Franz Hopper?" Aelita asked.

"Yes. For a genius, he didn't make things simple enough for people to help him," Sissi griped as she walked over to the computer screen. "How's it going?"

"It's great! The supercomputer is communicating with the device like a second hand," Jeremie said happily.

"What are you guys doing?" Yumi asked as the rest of them walked over to Jeremie.

"We're... ah... how do I explain it," Jeremie mumbled.

Sissi laughed, "Don't get cold feet, Jer. Just take your time and don't overthink it."

"Okay. Well, simply put, we're making a way to detect if there's anything wrong with the supercomputer from Sissi's Watch."

"WHAT?!" They exclaimed.

"Sissi's device will help us detect if there are any hardware problems with the Supercomputer. That way if XANA tries to sabotage it, we can fix it quicker," Aelita said.

"But why would XANA attack himself?" Odd asked.

"He would just have to hurt the scanners, which is why we made the device. This way, we can make sure he doesn't do any damage," Sissi explained.

"And you can get it all from your watch? How?" Yumi asked.

"Well, the radio signal that we... uh... It works like a radio. And if anything goes wrong with the device itself, we will know," Jeremie said. He looked at Sissi and she nodded with a smile.

"Not bad, Einstein. Just be aware of who you're talking to when you talk," Sissi replied. "While it doesn't give us what exactly is wrong, it's the fastest way to fix any problem," Sissi sighed. "But we can't detect any software problems yet. XANA could get his hands on some important stuff."

Odd yawned, "For now, we'll worry about that later. I still want to enjoy the rest of my Sunday."

"You mean your laze-off day?" Yumi smirked.

"You know me too well," Odd smiled.

"Dork," Sissi grumbled as they walked over to the elevator. She watched Jeremie messing with the watch she made. It was the same big face watch with dull green lighting. She made some improvements with small wiring, but it was still a robust design. "The S-Watch should be able to pick up the same frequency that the supercomputer runs on. If you're relatively near your laptop, like always, you should be able to pick it up." That seemed to ease Jeremie. When they got to the sewers, everyone crawled down except Sissi.

"Aren't you coming?" Odd asked.

"I'll stick with running to the factory without using the sewers. I still can't get over the disgusting smell," Sissi grumbled. Odd smirked widely as he got out of the manhole. "What are you doing?"

"I'm coming with you. It's not safe to leave you alone, you know."

"I can take care of myself," Sissi griped.

"I know, I'm here to protect the other guy," Odd smirked. Sissi rolled her eyes but she had a small smile on her face. "We'll meet up with you guys at school."

"Okay." With that, the manhole cover was shut, and Sissi and Odd walked back to school through the forest.

"Nice day, isn't it?" Odd said.

"Is this going to be one of those weird small talks?" Sissi asked.

"No, not unless you want it to be," Odd smiled. "I have to say though. I'm glad that you decided to change so much. You've been very helpful lately."

"Thanks."

"But I have to ask, why? You don't really have a reason to be nice to us, especially, Aelita," Odd smiled. Sissi stood in her tracks and looked deeply at the ground. A frown bent her face as she sighed like the world's weight was slung around her shoulders. Odd nervously rubbed his head. "Sissi, I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay. It's just...when I was in the hospital... going through these events again... I guess I just realized that I didn't... want to fake it anymore," Sissi sighed. "And when I realize who and what Aelita was... stuff just... I couldn't believe that I was that bad. That's why I started being kind to you guys. Figuring out who she was made me realize how horrible I was to others and to you." She suddenly shook her head. "I just had a lot of issues. I just wish I had never done those things."

"Well, don't," Odd firmly said. Sissi looked at the blonde comedian with shock. "If you didn't do those things, you wouldn't have learned. Do you know what the biggest good thing about the Return to the Past is? Getting a second chance. What you did is LITERALLY in the past and it never happened." Odd smiled widely, "You don't have to worry about trying to prove yourself."

Sissi looked at Odd with an expressionless face, but her eyes were wide open. Suddenly, a tear dropped out of her eye. She covered her face, quickly wiped it away, and turned back to face Odd. A smile spread onto her lips. "Thank you, Odd."

"My pleasure, O Dragon Queen," Odd smiled and then started laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"I just thought that before all of this you joined us for a different reason. I thought you joined us because you wanted to date me. Haha, isn't that... fun...ny?" Odd stopped as he saw Sissi's face. Her eyebrows furrowed together and made a bridge. Her eyes widened and burrowed into Odd's heart. The blonde watched her hands very carefully; her talons could have scraped out his soul. Her teeth visibly gritted together as she popped her knuckles. "Isn't it... funny?"

"Hilarious," Sissi snarled.

A few moments later, the rest of the gang were at the school when Sissi marched out of the woods with a fiery fume of rage. Yumi could have sworn smoke came from her nostrils as the mechanist stood right in front of them with her arms crossed tightly together.

Then Odd came stumbling out with a bunch of bruises on his face. "What happened?" Yumi asked.

"He slipped and hit my hand," Sissi growled.

"That's a lot of bruises," Ulrich said.

"He slipped a lot of times," Sissi said. "I'm going to my room. ALONE!" She stomped to the dormitory, still fuming. No one followed her.

"What did you do?" Ulrich said to Odd, knowing he was the guilty party.

"Oh, nothing. Let's just say that our Dragon Queen really does have claws," Odd chuckled tiredly as he collapsed to the ground. "Medic," Odd groaned. Everyone just laughed.

Continued...