The five set off and made their way deeper into the city, led by Odd. They finally arrived at their destination: Paco's Discotheque. It appeared as though in his retirement; Jim had further embraced his alter-ego of days past. As they arrived fairly early in the day, the nightclub wasn't open to the public at the moment. They found their old gym teacher behind the bar, cleaning shot glasses.
"Well, well. If it isn't my favorite students. Now there are some faces I'd never forget, especially you, Della Robbia… woof." Jim didn't even look up at them, he continued cleaning glasses.
Odd wasn't amused. "Yeah, you're one to talk, I suppose that's why Yolanda and Mrs. Hertz wanted nothing to do with you."
Jim shrugged and raised his head slightly with indignation. "I'd rather not talk about it." He continued his cleaning.
Yumi was getting a little impatient. "Listen Jim, we're under the impression that Jeremy Belpois gave you something?"
"Ah, Belpois. I thought someone was missing. He was my favorite student…well, after you of course, Stern, and Dunbar, and Della Robbia, Stones, and Itchy… Ishima.. Ishuma… Ishiyouknowwhatyournameis, you were a good kid too, and then there was this one kid in a wheelchair…" Jim was now putting the clean glasses away.
"So, was there ANYONE who you preferred Jeremy to?" Odd inquired.
Jim thought for a moment. "Well of course, there was that Pichon kid, I hated that little wimp. I always gave Belpois a D- to show him that he could always be worse, he could have been Pichon… You all know what happened to him, right?"
They all blankly stared at Jim.
"What happened to him?" Aelita finally asked.
Jim leaned onto the bar, resting on his elbow. "He's in the National Assembly now! Nobody's quite sure how it happened either. That's not even getting into the bizarre series of events that landed his little buddy Poliakoff in Iceland, reunited with that Heringsdötir girl who visited Kadic for like half a day."
Odd was livid. "That creep Nicholas bagged Brynja? That's so not fair, *I* was the one she went out with! It should have been me!"
"I thought you didn't like her." Ulrich asked.
"It's the principal of the thing!" Odd fired back, slamming his hand on the bar. "If anything, I should be the one dating Brynja; and Nicholas should be an exhibit at the local zoo!"
Yumi pinched her forehead. "Look, this is getting out of hand, do you have Jeremy's key or not?"
"Hmm, you mean this?" Jim pulled a keyring out from his pocket and detached a strange fob with an all-too-familiar logo on it. "Damnedest thing. I haven't seen Belpois since you all graduated and he shows up here out of the blue a few months ago and hands me this; told me to always keep it on my person."
Aelita grabbed it and examined it. The Eye of XANA, this was the right key alright. "Did he say why you should take it, or who might come looking for it?" She asked.
"Nope. But if I were to guess, he's in some sort of trouble and you five are going to help him." Jim answered.
"That's right!" An idea dawned on Aelita. "Say, Jim, we could be running into some dangerous situations and we could probably use your help. You were a commando, among other things, would you help us save Jeremy?" Aelita then went an explained the situation to Jim, revealing much about their adventures in their youth at Kadic Academy, which had been unknown to Jim up to this point. She told how Jeremy was searching for parts for a robot project he was working on in the old factory. How he turned on the supercomputer and discovered Aelita, instantly lovestruck, he pledged to bring her to reality. She told how they all fought against constant attacks by XANA to buy enough time so Jeremy could complete the materialization process and then later his attempts at an antivirus, and finally an Anti-XANA multiagent. She told of how William was kidnapped and possessed by XANA and how they all worked hard to bring him back. She told of how she discovered she was actually not an AI program, as they all first thought, but the daughter of renegade scientist fighting to destroy a secret government program he helped create, and how he eventually gave his life to save the world from his creations. She even told how her mother had been kidnapped by government agents and how her stepfather continues the work her father once tried so hard to stop, and that Jeremy was probably taken for similar reasons.
Jim took a moment to soak it all in. "That's a hell of a story, kids. To think that all that went down completely under my nose. Incredible. You know, you should have let me in on it back then, I could have helped!"
"Really?" William asked
"Probably not. Depends on the day, but probably not. More than likely, I would have just told Mr. Delmas what you were plotting and called it a day." Jim shrugged.
"Well…will you help us now?" Ulrich asked
Jim thought for a moment. "Nah."
"Why not?" Aelita pleaded
"I just don't…want to. You kids will be fine without me, it'll be character building!"
Aelita sighed and rolled her eyes. "Thanks Jim, as always you're a great help."
Jim smiled, as though he missed the sarcasm. "Don't mention it, little lady. I'm sure you'll find your boyfriend…"
"Husband." Aelita interrupted.
"Even better! Now if you don't mind, I'm late for a thing." Jim gestured that they should leave, so they did. Jim followed them out, locked the doors to the club behind him and went on his way.
Aelita, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, and William all stood outside the club, discussing their next move.
"Does this mean that we really need to restart the supercomputer? Isn't that really dangerous? What if a fragment of XANA is still lurking there?" Yumi asked with great concern.
Aelita looked at the fob that she got from Jim. She rubbed her thumb against the XANA insignia. "Jeremy said there was information we will need stored on it." She looked at Yumi, who looked uncomfortable. She tried to ease her fears. "I'm sure that the Sectors have all atrophied away by this point. It took only a year the last time to corrupt the Ice and Forest sectors beyond usability, I think XANA has been long since evicted."
EXCERPT FROM THE DIARY OF ODD DELLA ROBBIA
DATED FIVE YEARS AFTER THE DEATH OF FRANZ HOPPER
From out of the blue, Einstein called Ulrich today. He said that he needed to talk to him about something important, and to bring me along. He hasn't seemed to be interested in hanging out with us these days. We never see him unless he's attending something with Aelita. Senior year we didn't even see him that much outside of classes, I think…prom and a few of Sissi's parties, even then though, he wouldn't have been there if Aelita hadn't dragged him. Aelita's always been cool, but Einstein's well…Einstein.
So, we went to Belpois' apartment, which is way nicer than Ulrich and Yumi's, but their TV isn't as big, so I guess I'm not too jealous. How the hell is he able to afford a place like this? What does he do, exactly?
So we finally get to talk to him, after saying hello to Aelita and the typical exchange of small talk that normal people do, something lost on Einstein, because the first thing he says to us is he needs something. No "hey guys, how you been, sorry I've been an antisocial recluse douchebag" just straight to business. He told us about something or other about Aelita's dad and his top-secret project and how he needed someone to break into some government facility and probably die. You know, I've always had the distinct impression that if any of us had kicked the bucket back in the day against XANA, the main concern of his would be "well, who will protect Aelita now?"
Anyway, we told him that we're retired from the whole "saving the world" business, and that he should find someone a little more suicidal to help him with his crusade. I could feel Ulrich almost relented but thought better about it.
Besides, if I'm out being a superhero again, who'd watch the new episodes of all my favorite programs. Plus, that'd really screw with my night life. Speaking of which, last night Sam did this thing with her…