Yohko's Note to the General Public:
Ra. I don't really have much to say for once, except to state the fact
that I don't own Code Lyoko. There. Happy? Whether you are or not, I'm
going to stop talking now because I'm out of things to rant
about...muttering gawd, what is this world coming to?
XD ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -----------------
sos-lyoko / chapter 1 / newasiantransfer.jpg
Od blinked himself awake, his vision going from a blur to 20X20 as time slowly progressed. He sat up slowly and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and then cracked his stiff back and neck. He smiled. "Ah, that's better."
He got no response from Ulrich, who was still fast asleep in the bed across the room. Still somewhat groggy from sleep, Od clambered out of bed and over to the chest of drawers. He took his night shirt off but left his boxers on, certain they could last him atleast another day, and shoved a tight-fitting long-sleeved shirt over his unruly hair. He scratched at his stomach, pulling on a pair of black pants. He yawned openly.
Od walked into the bathroom and began to gel his hair. Suddenly his cell reverberated, clattering all about the counter He had set it on the night before. "Jeez. Makes more noise than if it would just ring," Od said to himself, walking to where it sat and glancing at the caller ID. It was Yumi.
He pressed the answer button. "Hey."
"Od, you'd better get down here. They're calling you over the loud- speaker." Yumi sounded very bored, but not the least bit tired.
"This early?"
Over the phone, Od could hear a stifled groan of exasperation. "Od it's been noon for, like, three hours now. How late were you up last night?"
Od, shocked as he was that he had slept this late, chortled. He and Ulrich had been up playing BS until four. It was the longest they had ever lasted.
"Uh...Let's just say it was kinda late."
There was a pause on Yumi end of the phone as she listened to something. In a muffled, unattainable voice, he could hear the principal over the crackling loudspeaker. He sighed. "I'll be down in a minute. And Ulrich's still sleeping so you can come wake 'im up yerself I guess." He hung up before Yumi could respond and slipped his tennis shoes on as he went out the door, closing it quickly and quietly behind himself as he went.
-----
Yumi and Jeremy were sitting together, arms folded, when Od stumbled up. "Hey." They both turned around. "Finally," said Yumi, closing her eyes in mock disgust but a smile tugging playfully at her lips. "Took you long enough."
Od sighed, but smiled as well. "So what did he want you for?" Jeremy said casually.
"Oh! Mail came," Od said offering a letter in his hand. Yumi snatched it and glimpsed at the sender. "Lavada?"
"Oh! Heh! Wondered when she'd write next!" Jeremy and Yumi gave him weird looks. "Pen pal," Od said, shrugging. "She's a girl from back home and mails me every once in a while to let me know what's goin on."
Yumi ripped the top open and unfolded the letter, which was written in lopsided but neat and small print. Brushing her black bangs out of her eyes and behind her ear, Yumi read it out loud.
"Od—
Well, what can I say? Nothing really...since there doesn't really happen to be anything of interest going on at the moment. I could tell you about my life but that would get dull extremely quickly. I really have nothing to say. Oh well. I will once I get to your school. But then we'll probably have to talk about it instead. Heh. Imagine that.
See you when I get there! Lava"
"Whoa! What?!" Od was shell-shocked, wide-eyed, and trying to read over Yumi's shoulder.
"Be quiet. She's not done yet." Yumi continued to read.
"PS: Shocked are we? Yep, that's right. Mom and Dad decided to transfer me to your school. Something about "academics" and "learning opportunities". Pf. Whatever. I agreed to it cuz I knew I'd have someone to hang out with and show me around. I can't wait to meet your friends...but just incase I've convinced some of mine to come with. You remember Sam and Tequila?
PPS: I feel like such a geek, bringing my friends along and stuff. Oh well, I probably am."
Od just stood there. "uh...Wow. Wow. That's...sudden." He said it slowly. It was obvious that he was still stunned at the letter's contents.
"No kidding," Yumi said, mildly surprised as well. "We're going to have some noobs on campus then."
Od scratched the back of his head and cracked a small smile. "You'll like her I think. And if she really wasn't kidding about her friends transferring too...well, let's just say things are finally going to get exciting around here!"
Jeremy smiled to, but it was with suspicion. Od was right. There hadn't been any Xana activity for several months. At first, Jeremy had been relieved and spent endless hours perfecting his materialization program. He had it almost perfect now, but only the way he had perfected the virtualization program. It was only a temporary thing to be virtual. And that was the way with the materialization process as well. It was like a game. If Aelita lost all of her life points in the material world she would return to the virtual one. And the lack of Xana appearances made him unsure of things around him. Anything could be a trap to lure them in. For a while he had thought Xana was gone...but no. He had realized that he knew better than that. The menace was still out there. It just hadn't made its move yet.
"We better prepare then," Ulrich said, walking up behind Od. "Yo! Wondered if you'd get out of bed this morning!" Od said with an impish grin.
Ulrich beamed and swatted his friend playfully on the arm. "Shoulda woken me up Od."
"Maybe. Or maybe you shoulda just woken up on yer own," Od said with a good- natured smirk, nudging him in the ribs.
"Speaking of which," Yumi said with a chuckle, "I say get down to the cafeteria and get you two some food. You've gotta be starving."
Od's stomach gurgled right on cue. "Heh heh."
As the four friends walked, laughing and joking to the cafeteria, Od stuffed the letter into his pocket, unaware of a small black shadow dripping lightly from one of the school's outdoor lights and slithering through a crack in the pavement.
--2 weeks later--
Od fanned himself with a piece of paper he had found on the ground as more and more students crowded into the auditorium. It was the middle of July and it was pretty hot already, and with all these people in this small a space it was getting hotter by the second. Jeremy, hands folded behind his head, had closed his eyes. It was impossible to tell if he was asleep or not. Yumi was starring blankly into space and Ulrich crossed his arms and said nothing despite the endless stream of chatter floating around them.
As the principal walked slowly up on to the stage and gestured for silence it ensued and the room went very, very quiet. He cleared his throat.
"Ehem...I am pleased to announce that we have six new transfer students to our school. Now please put your hands together and give these girls a warm welcome!" The principal lead the applause as six girls filed on stage. The first one looked Korean, with beautiful eyes and a 5'3" stature, dressed in baggy cargo pants and a black sweatshirt and shiny black ponytail. The second was probably around 5'5" and had gorgeous red hair that sparkled in the lighting. The third one was maybe 4' and had long brown hair. The fourth had hair like Yumi and was probably just as tall, dressed in pink shorts and a yellow t-shirt, a plastic skirt and long pink gloves held on with black Velcro. The fifth had tan skin, black hair in a ponytail, and was dressed completely in black. The sixth, and last, one was wearing a large soccer jersey and had blonde hair with black highlights.
"This is Samantha" he gestured to the first, who grimaced, "Yi" he gestured to the fifth who stood and smiled meekly, "Kiara" he gestured to the shortest one who blinked and did nothing, "Temari" he gestured to the one in plastic who dropped her head to stare at the floor, "Starr" he gestured to the sixth who grinned, "and Lavada" he gestured to the girl with red hair who spotted Od and waved vigorously. "I want you to be very considerate of the fact that they are new here and respect the fact that they will need someone to show them to their classes and such. I do not want to hear about anyone being mean to them. In fact I would like someone to volunteer to be a friend and help them out." A few, timid hands rose above the sea of bobbing heads. "Alright. Od, Sissi, Yumi, I want you to take two girls each and show them around. Thank you. That is all." He waved himself off the stage, and the girls filed off of it, grabbing lumpy backpacks out of a shadowy corner as they went.
Lavada took the lead and walked straight up to Od, Samantha right at her side, and the rest of the girls tailing closely. Although they all looked mismatched in comparison to one another, they flowed charmingly as a group, as coordinated as a pack of wolves and as gracefully as water. Od stepped away from the crowd and trotted against the tide of leaving students to meet them, Yumi, Ulrich and Jeremy trailing behind him.
"Hey Lava! Wondered if that was what the ceremony was about." Od gave Lavada a grin.
A toothy smile sprung onto Lavada's face as well and she blushed. "Embarrassing though. Hot too." She fanned herself with one hand as she said this.
"Yeah. Kind of pointless. I mean, how do they think we figured out where everything at our old school was?" Samantha complained irritably.
"Walked around and got frickin lost, that's how," Starr said, and a wave of snickering drifted throughout the six girls.
The ten children walked out of the auditorium and into the refreshingly cool night air. Kiara gasped. "I CAN BREATHE!" she shouted, and Lavada laughed. It might've been a cackle if it hadn't been so tinkly, like the jingling of a little glass bell in the back of her throat, and it was wide and open. It echoed prettily through the campus, and shook her body slightly. Samantha nodded a Kiara's comment. "Breathing is always such a convenient thing to be able to do." "Yeah," Lavada said, still laughing. "Cuz ya know, it's not as if we actually need to do it, or something."
As they walked to the dorm rooms the guys split off and went one way, and the girls were left to talk together. They spoke of endless topics varying from what their favorite colors were (everyone excepting Kiara said black; she said blue) to what everyone liked to be called (Samantha "Sam", Temari "Tequila", and Lavada "Lava") to what their home situation was (Lava lived with her mother, Sam with a mother and stepfather, Starr, Kiara, Yi, and Temari with both parents).
They had finally reached the corridor where their rooms were when a small scratching and sneezing noise could be heard for the inside of Lava's backpack. Sam swore inaudibly, and Lava bit the corner of her bottom lip. Yumi hesitated. "Would you...mind me asking what that was?"
Sam, eyes glinting maliciously, gave her a look that said all too clearly that she definitely DID mind. "Nothing," Kiara said a little too loudly. "That was nothing. Absolutely nothing. I really think you've gone insane if you've started hearing things, and you know they have doctors for that kind of thing, so, uh, why don't we go over there and, uh, call one while the others get, uh, all fixated and stuff? Hehe?" She grabbed Yumi's arm and started to tug the girl away from the spot. Yumi was surprised at what a powerful grip the girl had but stood still, digging her heels into the carpeting, able to stay in relatively the same place because of Kiara's small stature and light weight. "How 'bout not? How 'bout you just tell me what it is?"
Sam gave Lava a glare that could've felled Big Foot. "I tried," the Lavada said quietly. She turned to Kiara, who looked away but nodded. The six girls hurried Yumi into the dorm room, shutting and locking the door behind them.
"Yumi," Lava said when they were all seated on the floor, "the things in my backpack are very special to us all. If you scream, if you tell ANYONE—"
Sam interrupted and got straight to the heart of the matter. "Ruin our cover and we'll be forced to kill you."
"Yeah. What she said," Kiara echoed in mild disgust. The rest nodded in agreement.
Slowly Lava unzipped the faded gray pack revealing what seemed to be a navy blue duffle bag with mesh sides. From inside Yumi could hear a jumble of scrabbling about and small sneezes. Lava unzipped the large black zipper and lifted out the bag's contents with careful, caressing hands.
"Oh boy," Yumi said softly.
In Lava's hands, both scrambling up her arms towards the protective curtain of her hair, were two hooded rats.
-----
Jeremy typed with wild precision on his keyboard scanning the internet for information on Lavada Maurino and her friends. He didn't know quite what to think, but something about these people just set him off. They were just too close, too friendly, too patient, too different to be so low-key.
Jeremy, I'm sure you're over-reacting. From what you've told me they're just normal girls, Aelita said soothingly. No towers have been activated in months. You and I both know that. There is no possible way that they could have anything to do with Xana. His mood disturbed her. It wasn't normal for him to jump to conclusions like this, but then again, without any recent Xana activity, Jeremy had been far from acting normal.
"Yeah. C'mon Jeremy, get it together. THEY'RE JUST TRANSFER STUDENTS." Ulrich tried once again to lay it out for his friend. When he got no response, he sighed and leaned his head against the wall. It was useless. Once Jeremy thought he was on to something he was on to it, whether the rest of the world approved or not.
"I just don't think so," Jeremy sighed finally, and his typing stopped. He scanned the page he had arrived on and ground his teeth together, attacking the keyboard once more. "They just don't seem normal."
Okay Jeremy. It's getting late though. You may want to think about going to bed soon. Aelita looked over the boy genius' shoulder at Ulrich. You too, she said to him gently, just seeing as you aren't really doing anything and you were up rather late last night.
Ulrich smiled calmly. "I could pretend to be insulted that you of all people just told me to go to bed, but I won't. You're right Aelita. I'm going back to the room and going to sleep." He rested his palm on Jeremy's tense shoulder. "Relax Jeremy. I'm not going to tell you it's a crackpot theory cuz I'm getting weird vibes from them too, but don't let it keep you up." He left, the incessant chatter of angry keyboard keys echoing in his mind until he fell into a deep and restless sleep, followed by troubled dreams of Lavada being swallowed up by a huge black mist, and of Jeremy being swallowed up with her.
--A couple days later--
Lavada gave a wide yawn, and Od watched as her tongue curled like that of a fox. She rubbed her temples, and Od could tell that she was spacing on the teacher's lecture. 'Then again' he thought to himself 'so am I'. He sighed, turning his thoughts to Jeremy who had been pretending, for one reason or another, to be sick in order to stay in his dorm and search for something on the internet. 'He's going to get sick for real if he doesn't get to sleep.'
Suddenly he felt something brush his pant leg, and looked down to find Kiara's hand shoving a small, painstakingly folded piece of binder paper at him, still looking straight at the teacher in order to avoid drawing attention to herself. Carefully, Od moved to rest his head on his arms and snatched the paper as inconspicuously as possible. He unfolded it quickly and quietly. Lava and her friends had obviously been busy for a while. It looked a little like this:
"FIYAH: Booooooooooored... drools THUNDAH: I hate school DEPRESSIO: Yes, school is hell. MIDJIT: More than hell! Lord save us! weeps THUNDAH: This jackass is making me rech DEPRESSIO: Blarg! MIDJIT: ...I would rather be falling off a bridge... FIYAH: massages temple I don't know how much more of this I can take...and I miss Starr!!! THUNDAH: Then pass it to her idiot FIYAH: Hi Starr!!! STAR: Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. I thought you'd forgotten me. DEPRESSIO: Never! FIYAH: I'm gunna ditch. THUNDAH: I'm in. FIYAH: Pass it to Od. Please and thankyou. You in Od?"
Od scribbled back.
"OdBALL: How?"
Kiara smacked her forehead, scribbled something and threw it back at him.
"MIDJIT: Fire alarm dumbass!"
Od raised an eyebrow.
Suddenly Tequila raised her hand. The teacher stopped. "Yes Temari?" Tequila's eyes sunk to the floor as they always did when she was talking to anyone but her friends. "May I...please go to the bathroom sir?"
The teacher sighed. "Make it fast please."
Tequila practically ran from the room.
Suddenly the building was screaming with the high pitched screeches of the fire alarm. The class panicked and the teacher paled. Finally he grouped everyone into a straight line and hurried them out the door. From the corner of his eye, Od saw Tequila sneak back into the classroom just as they left it. She hurried to her friends all of whom split off from the room. Od followed their lead and followed them on to the grounds, hurrying deep into the suburban area surrounding the boarding school. Finally, they stopped in a clump of trees.
"Was that too much?" Tequila turned to him.
"Damn. Back home Mr. Acton woulda nailed us no problem if we pulled such a weak stunt." Sam looked astounded that it had worked.
"It was enough to get us out." Lava rubbed her ears which were still ringing with the sound of the fire alarm.
"Yeah, but now what're we gunna do?" Kiara looked up at her friend with a skeptical grimace on her face.
But Starr simply smiled. "How bout watching DVDs on my laptop fer the rest of the day?"
They all cheered and began naming off what they wanted to watch. "Pirates of the Carribean!" "No way...too much Orlando Bloom!" "YuYuHakusho, First Season!" "Uh-uh, I've seen that one already!" "Finding Nemo!" "Too kiddy!" "Spirited Away!" "Millenium Actress!" "Jungle Emperor Leo!" "Castle in the Sky!" "The Last Samurai!" "ooh...that one's rated R...goody goody!" "Rurouni Kenshin!" "yeah, Rurouni Kenshin!"
"I'll take that as a yes."
-----
"Guys, I...I don't see Od. Or Lava and them now that I'm looking around!" Yumi exclaimed, startled. The three had met up outside during the fire drill.
Ulrich turned and looked around and saw that she was right. Both Od and Lava and her friends were gone. They had apparently vanished during the fire drill, which a teacher was currently complaining had been "unscheduled".
Yumi voiced his suspicions. "I bet you almost anything Tequila's bathroom break had something to do with this."
Ulrich nodded. "Yeah. I'll call Od."
Jeremy nodded and watched as the numbers were dialed.
-----
"He is SO hot."
Lava was staring at the screen, ga-ga-eyed, as Johnny Depp swan-dived into the Caribbean. "That makes it six times you've said that," Sam grumbled. "Say it one more time and we're watching Rurouni Kenshin."
All seven of them were crowded about the lap top's plasma screen watching a movie they had all seen several times before. In between the times She was swearing about how hot and sexy Johnny Depp was, Lavada was sketching him, as well as saying every line with the characters as THEY said them.
Suddenly, right in the middle of the sword fight in the blacksmith's shop, Od's cell began it's annoyingly loud ring.
Chaos broke out amonst everyone in the room. "Errgh!" "Turn that off!" "Pick it up Od!" "Hurry, third ring!" "Who the hell is it?!" "QUIET!"
This last one – an order by Sam – hushed the room. Od pressed the answer button and put the phone to his ear.
"Hello? Oh, Ulrich. Yeah I'm fine. I'm....no. No. Uh...well yeah...Ulrich! U...Ulrich! Hey! Listen to me! Ulrich! Ugh...fine. Yeah. Make something up. Tell em...yeah. No. You're okay? Good. Jeremy and Yumi too, right? Yeah. Okay. Fine. Yeah. Okay. Bye."
"Well?" Sam looked pissed.
"Aw, nothing. Just Ulrich calling to see where I am."
"And you didn't TELL im..."
"Well, no...I mean, not exactly..."
"But you DID tell him you were with us."
"Well, yeah."
"Idiot! Now they can find us! Ugh!"
"Sam, calm down." Lava put a hand on Sam's arm, who jerked it away. "They won't tell, don't worry. We can trust Yumi and Ulrich to make something up."
"Oh yeah? What about the blond shrimp?"
Od stepped in. "You mean Jeremy? Oh, he won't tell. It's usually us coverin his butt like this. No need to worry. You can trust him too."
It was then of all times that the door was slammed inward, revealing Jim. All six transfer students swore in unison. Od went ashen-faced.
As they all stood stunned, and Jim laughed out in triumph, no one realized as a sinister shadow slithered over Tequila's black sheets and into the rear stitching of small teddy bear laying on the cushiony white pillow. Except that is for a pink-haired young woman who whipped around within the confines of her home, Lyoko, eye's full of terror.
"No...it can't be..." Aelita stumbled forward. "Not Xana...how can this be?"
-----
Lava pressed her forehead into the cool plaster of the white-washed walls. How could she have let this happen? She head-butted the wall again, the numbly felt pain of her headache intensifying.
"Stop it Lava. Yer going tuh hurt yerself."
Lava, slowly turned to look at Sam who looked back at her with blank eyes. "It's not yer fault you now," she added comfortingly. "Well...not really..."
"You're not helping Sam."
Sam let out a deep sigh and looked away. "Yeah. I noticed that myself actually."
Jim had brought the six of them here and hour earlier, where they had received a twenty-minute lecture on skipping school from the principal. But they had gotten off easy because they were new. Od had not been so lucky. He had been expelled, and given fifteen minutes to gather his things. Tequila and Kiara had wandered off somewhere, Yi had gone back to the dorm room, and Starr had disappeared. All were too ashamed of their own mistakes and fortunate well-being to show their faces.
A small rumble made the two friends look up.
"Did you just feel that?"
"Yeah...what do you think it was?"
Another rumble. Larger, louder. Sam's chair rattled and she stood up. "It couldn't be an earthquake..."
Suddenly, a huge ripping and splintering of wood was heard from above the two and they were showered with powdery bits of ceiling as it was torn off by...a gigantic teddy bear.
Lavada screamed, and Sam gasped. A huge paw dropped from the sky. Sam grabbed Lavada's arm. "RUN!" she hollered.
And they did.
-----
Jeremy plopped down into his computer chair, exhausted from school and full of regret. He hadn't meant to get Od in trouble by telling...but a small thing made him smile. He had already tarnished their record! If they tried to pull another stunt like that, he could easily send Lavada and her "bad- ass" buds packing!
Aelita's concerned face immeadiately 'bwink'ed onto his screen as a popup. Jeremy! she gasped.
Jeremy knew this must be serious. "What is it Aelita?"
It's Xana! she exclaimed. He's activated a tower!
"I knew it! I knew those punks had something to do with Xana! Now—"
But Jeremy never finished his sentence for just then, a huge paw swiped through the roof and crashed into his computer, crushing it to bits and pieces.
He let out a yell of rage and then found himself. Panicked, he dashed from the room, through the newly made hole in the wall. "I've gotta get to the factory!" he shouted to himself. He hid behind a tree and speed dialed Yumi. "Yumi! It's Xana!"
"We know!" came the reply. "Get to the factory! We'll be there in a minute!"
But the jumbo-sized Xana Teddy wasn't at all stupid. As Jeremy ran off to get the Lyoko virtualization program booted-up he could feel the cold, beady, plastic eyes fix on the back of his skull, and fell hard as Xana's puppet dropped to all fours and began barreling after him. He picked himself up and sprinted as hard as he could, taking a short cut through town, trying to lose the Teddy. But Xana could not be shaken so easily. It narrowly avoided building as it dashed after its human prey.
But suddenly a well-aimed broom was hurled directly into the Teddy's forehead. With a gigantic flash and a pitiful booming roar, the stuffed giant fell to the asphalted ground. Yumi stepped back and admired her handywork before turning to Jeremy. "Hurry! Let's go!"
A shadow escaped the hurriedly shrinking teddy and slid beneath the door of the nearest store: KB Toys. A nearby shelf of chia pets suddenly lit up, eyes glowing a malicious red. The leader, a disgusting mustard yellow, chirped and they were soon all filing neatly down the isle and piling up against the locked door. With a sudden splintering noise, the lock was broken and the door crashed into the street. An army of chia pets filed out, thousands of them coming every seconds, following Jeremy and Yumi's path with amazingly organized procision.
-----
Lava and Sam ran to the only place they knew: the dorm room. As they opened the door they were grabbed by Tequila and Kiara and hushed. "Be quiet!" they both said at once.
"We're trying to figure out what that thing is," Yi said softly, typing quickly on her own laptop, which was hooked up to the internet. She was sitting in the corner, leaned up against the wall. "I'm trying to hack into it to see..."
"You don't think it might have come from..." Sam started.
"Of course it did. Where else but Lyoko? I think that might be this virus I've picked up on, most commonly referred to as Xana."
"So what do we do without scanners? We can't help without them," Lava said worriedly.
"Don't you see? That's the point! THEY have scanners!" Kiara couldn't restrain herself any longer.
"No..." Lava was stunned.
"Yes! If we can upload OUR data onto their server we can use those scanners!" Yi looked more excited than she had in days.
"So is there any way to upload it WITHOUT them knowing?" Sam said, her face darkening.
"Unfortunately, no. Jeremy's a bigger computer geek than I first thought. Not as good at hacking as I am, but most certainly capable of tracking illegally uploaded data." Yi's face fell.
"So it has to be voluntary." Tequila frowned.
Lavada said nothing, but got up from the bed and went over to the drawer where she was keeping her rat, Livi. She opened it and let the kind-hearted critter clamber gracefully up her bare arm, leaving small scratches. She ignored the pain and let the rat wriggle into her red hair. When she turned to her friends they could see that she was crying.
"We're the AZN Sistahs. We'll find a way."
"Lava...!" Sam was upset to see her friend break down like this, and wished painfully that Lava wasn't so overly sensitive.
"Look, that blond bastard ratted us out. And because of him, Od is getting sent home. It's not our fault...it's his! I just want to get him back for that!" Lava was sobbing, but still not completely choked up. Livi poked her little pink nose out of Lava's hair, and watched another tear streak down her face. She pressed her nose to Lava's cheek and licked up the salty tears up, comfortingly.
Kiara nodded, smiling slightly. "Yeah. Let's take em down."
XD ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -----------------
And there you are. Somewhat long for me, but whatever. I was going to make it long, but I figured "what the hell, I'll just leave them hanging and get it up there dammit." Hope you liked! Review Review Review!!!
Ra. I don't really have much to say for once, except to state the fact
that I don't own Code Lyoko. There. Happy? Whether you are or not, I'm
going to stop talking now because I'm out of things to rant
about...muttering gawd, what is this world coming to?
XD ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -----------------
sos-lyoko / chapter 1 / newasiantransfer.jpg
Od blinked himself awake, his vision going from a blur to 20X20 as time slowly progressed. He sat up slowly and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and then cracked his stiff back and neck. He smiled. "Ah, that's better."
He got no response from Ulrich, who was still fast asleep in the bed across the room. Still somewhat groggy from sleep, Od clambered out of bed and over to the chest of drawers. He took his night shirt off but left his boxers on, certain they could last him atleast another day, and shoved a tight-fitting long-sleeved shirt over his unruly hair. He scratched at his stomach, pulling on a pair of black pants. He yawned openly.
Od walked into the bathroom and began to gel his hair. Suddenly his cell reverberated, clattering all about the counter He had set it on the night before. "Jeez. Makes more noise than if it would just ring," Od said to himself, walking to where it sat and glancing at the caller ID. It was Yumi.
He pressed the answer button. "Hey."
"Od, you'd better get down here. They're calling you over the loud- speaker." Yumi sounded very bored, but not the least bit tired.
"This early?"
Over the phone, Od could hear a stifled groan of exasperation. "Od it's been noon for, like, three hours now. How late were you up last night?"
Od, shocked as he was that he had slept this late, chortled. He and Ulrich had been up playing BS until four. It was the longest they had ever lasted.
"Uh...Let's just say it was kinda late."
There was a pause on Yumi end of the phone as she listened to something. In a muffled, unattainable voice, he could hear the principal over the crackling loudspeaker. He sighed. "I'll be down in a minute. And Ulrich's still sleeping so you can come wake 'im up yerself I guess." He hung up before Yumi could respond and slipped his tennis shoes on as he went out the door, closing it quickly and quietly behind himself as he went.
-----
Yumi and Jeremy were sitting together, arms folded, when Od stumbled up. "Hey." They both turned around. "Finally," said Yumi, closing her eyes in mock disgust but a smile tugging playfully at her lips. "Took you long enough."
Od sighed, but smiled as well. "So what did he want you for?" Jeremy said casually.
"Oh! Mail came," Od said offering a letter in his hand. Yumi snatched it and glimpsed at the sender. "Lavada?"
"Oh! Heh! Wondered when she'd write next!" Jeremy and Yumi gave him weird looks. "Pen pal," Od said, shrugging. "She's a girl from back home and mails me every once in a while to let me know what's goin on."
Yumi ripped the top open and unfolded the letter, which was written in lopsided but neat and small print. Brushing her black bangs out of her eyes and behind her ear, Yumi read it out loud.
"Od—
Well, what can I say? Nothing really...since there doesn't really happen to be anything of interest going on at the moment. I could tell you about my life but that would get dull extremely quickly. I really have nothing to say. Oh well. I will once I get to your school. But then we'll probably have to talk about it instead. Heh. Imagine that.
See you when I get there! Lava"
"Whoa! What?!" Od was shell-shocked, wide-eyed, and trying to read over Yumi's shoulder.
"Be quiet. She's not done yet." Yumi continued to read.
"PS: Shocked are we? Yep, that's right. Mom and Dad decided to transfer me to your school. Something about "academics" and "learning opportunities". Pf. Whatever. I agreed to it cuz I knew I'd have someone to hang out with and show me around. I can't wait to meet your friends...but just incase I've convinced some of mine to come with. You remember Sam and Tequila?
PPS: I feel like such a geek, bringing my friends along and stuff. Oh well, I probably am."
Od just stood there. "uh...Wow. Wow. That's...sudden." He said it slowly. It was obvious that he was still stunned at the letter's contents.
"No kidding," Yumi said, mildly surprised as well. "We're going to have some noobs on campus then."
Od scratched the back of his head and cracked a small smile. "You'll like her I think. And if she really wasn't kidding about her friends transferring too...well, let's just say things are finally going to get exciting around here!"
Jeremy smiled to, but it was with suspicion. Od was right. There hadn't been any Xana activity for several months. At first, Jeremy had been relieved and spent endless hours perfecting his materialization program. He had it almost perfect now, but only the way he had perfected the virtualization program. It was only a temporary thing to be virtual. And that was the way with the materialization process as well. It was like a game. If Aelita lost all of her life points in the material world she would return to the virtual one. And the lack of Xana appearances made him unsure of things around him. Anything could be a trap to lure them in. For a while he had thought Xana was gone...but no. He had realized that he knew better than that. The menace was still out there. It just hadn't made its move yet.
"We better prepare then," Ulrich said, walking up behind Od. "Yo! Wondered if you'd get out of bed this morning!" Od said with an impish grin.
Ulrich beamed and swatted his friend playfully on the arm. "Shoulda woken me up Od."
"Maybe. Or maybe you shoulda just woken up on yer own," Od said with a good- natured smirk, nudging him in the ribs.
"Speaking of which," Yumi said with a chuckle, "I say get down to the cafeteria and get you two some food. You've gotta be starving."
Od's stomach gurgled right on cue. "Heh heh."
As the four friends walked, laughing and joking to the cafeteria, Od stuffed the letter into his pocket, unaware of a small black shadow dripping lightly from one of the school's outdoor lights and slithering through a crack in the pavement.
--2 weeks later--
Od fanned himself with a piece of paper he had found on the ground as more and more students crowded into the auditorium. It was the middle of July and it was pretty hot already, and with all these people in this small a space it was getting hotter by the second. Jeremy, hands folded behind his head, had closed his eyes. It was impossible to tell if he was asleep or not. Yumi was starring blankly into space and Ulrich crossed his arms and said nothing despite the endless stream of chatter floating around them.
As the principal walked slowly up on to the stage and gestured for silence it ensued and the room went very, very quiet. He cleared his throat.
"Ehem...I am pleased to announce that we have six new transfer students to our school. Now please put your hands together and give these girls a warm welcome!" The principal lead the applause as six girls filed on stage. The first one looked Korean, with beautiful eyes and a 5'3" stature, dressed in baggy cargo pants and a black sweatshirt and shiny black ponytail. The second was probably around 5'5" and had gorgeous red hair that sparkled in the lighting. The third one was maybe 4' and had long brown hair. The fourth had hair like Yumi and was probably just as tall, dressed in pink shorts and a yellow t-shirt, a plastic skirt and long pink gloves held on with black Velcro. The fifth had tan skin, black hair in a ponytail, and was dressed completely in black. The sixth, and last, one was wearing a large soccer jersey and had blonde hair with black highlights.
"This is Samantha" he gestured to the first, who grimaced, "Yi" he gestured to the fifth who stood and smiled meekly, "Kiara" he gestured to the shortest one who blinked and did nothing, "Temari" he gestured to the one in plastic who dropped her head to stare at the floor, "Starr" he gestured to the sixth who grinned, "and Lavada" he gestured to the girl with red hair who spotted Od and waved vigorously. "I want you to be very considerate of the fact that they are new here and respect the fact that they will need someone to show them to their classes and such. I do not want to hear about anyone being mean to them. In fact I would like someone to volunteer to be a friend and help them out." A few, timid hands rose above the sea of bobbing heads. "Alright. Od, Sissi, Yumi, I want you to take two girls each and show them around. Thank you. That is all." He waved himself off the stage, and the girls filed off of it, grabbing lumpy backpacks out of a shadowy corner as they went.
Lavada took the lead and walked straight up to Od, Samantha right at her side, and the rest of the girls tailing closely. Although they all looked mismatched in comparison to one another, they flowed charmingly as a group, as coordinated as a pack of wolves and as gracefully as water. Od stepped away from the crowd and trotted against the tide of leaving students to meet them, Yumi, Ulrich and Jeremy trailing behind him.
"Hey Lava! Wondered if that was what the ceremony was about." Od gave Lavada a grin.
A toothy smile sprung onto Lavada's face as well and she blushed. "Embarrassing though. Hot too." She fanned herself with one hand as she said this.
"Yeah. Kind of pointless. I mean, how do they think we figured out where everything at our old school was?" Samantha complained irritably.
"Walked around and got frickin lost, that's how," Starr said, and a wave of snickering drifted throughout the six girls.
The ten children walked out of the auditorium and into the refreshingly cool night air. Kiara gasped. "I CAN BREATHE!" she shouted, and Lavada laughed. It might've been a cackle if it hadn't been so tinkly, like the jingling of a little glass bell in the back of her throat, and it was wide and open. It echoed prettily through the campus, and shook her body slightly. Samantha nodded a Kiara's comment. "Breathing is always such a convenient thing to be able to do." "Yeah," Lavada said, still laughing. "Cuz ya know, it's not as if we actually need to do it, or something."
As they walked to the dorm rooms the guys split off and went one way, and the girls were left to talk together. They spoke of endless topics varying from what their favorite colors were (everyone excepting Kiara said black; she said blue) to what everyone liked to be called (Samantha "Sam", Temari "Tequila", and Lavada "Lava") to what their home situation was (Lava lived with her mother, Sam with a mother and stepfather, Starr, Kiara, Yi, and Temari with both parents).
They had finally reached the corridor where their rooms were when a small scratching and sneezing noise could be heard for the inside of Lava's backpack. Sam swore inaudibly, and Lava bit the corner of her bottom lip. Yumi hesitated. "Would you...mind me asking what that was?"
Sam, eyes glinting maliciously, gave her a look that said all too clearly that she definitely DID mind. "Nothing," Kiara said a little too loudly. "That was nothing. Absolutely nothing. I really think you've gone insane if you've started hearing things, and you know they have doctors for that kind of thing, so, uh, why don't we go over there and, uh, call one while the others get, uh, all fixated and stuff? Hehe?" She grabbed Yumi's arm and started to tug the girl away from the spot. Yumi was surprised at what a powerful grip the girl had but stood still, digging her heels into the carpeting, able to stay in relatively the same place because of Kiara's small stature and light weight. "How 'bout not? How 'bout you just tell me what it is?"
Sam gave Lava a glare that could've felled Big Foot. "I tried," the Lavada said quietly. She turned to Kiara, who looked away but nodded. The six girls hurried Yumi into the dorm room, shutting and locking the door behind them.
"Yumi," Lava said when they were all seated on the floor, "the things in my backpack are very special to us all. If you scream, if you tell ANYONE—"
Sam interrupted and got straight to the heart of the matter. "Ruin our cover and we'll be forced to kill you."
"Yeah. What she said," Kiara echoed in mild disgust. The rest nodded in agreement.
Slowly Lava unzipped the faded gray pack revealing what seemed to be a navy blue duffle bag with mesh sides. From inside Yumi could hear a jumble of scrabbling about and small sneezes. Lava unzipped the large black zipper and lifted out the bag's contents with careful, caressing hands.
"Oh boy," Yumi said softly.
In Lava's hands, both scrambling up her arms towards the protective curtain of her hair, were two hooded rats.
-----
Jeremy typed with wild precision on his keyboard scanning the internet for information on Lavada Maurino and her friends. He didn't know quite what to think, but something about these people just set him off. They were just too close, too friendly, too patient, too different to be so low-key.
Jeremy, I'm sure you're over-reacting. From what you've told me they're just normal girls, Aelita said soothingly. No towers have been activated in months. You and I both know that. There is no possible way that they could have anything to do with Xana. His mood disturbed her. It wasn't normal for him to jump to conclusions like this, but then again, without any recent Xana activity, Jeremy had been far from acting normal.
"Yeah. C'mon Jeremy, get it together. THEY'RE JUST TRANSFER STUDENTS." Ulrich tried once again to lay it out for his friend. When he got no response, he sighed and leaned his head against the wall. It was useless. Once Jeremy thought he was on to something he was on to it, whether the rest of the world approved or not.
"I just don't think so," Jeremy sighed finally, and his typing stopped. He scanned the page he had arrived on and ground his teeth together, attacking the keyboard once more. "They just don't seem normal."
Okay Jeremy. It's getting late though. You may want to think about going to bed soon. Aelita looked over the boy genius' shoulder at Ulrich. You too, she said to him gently, just seeing as you aren't really doing anything and you were up rather late last night.
Ulrich smiled calmly. "I could pretend to be insulted that you of all people just told me to go to bed, but I won't. You're right Aelita. I'm going back to the room and going to sleep." He rested his palm on Jeremy's tense shoulder. "Relax Jeremy. I'm not going to tell you it's a crackpot theory cuz I'm getting weird vibes from them too, but don't let it keep you up." He left, the incessant chatter of angry keyboard keys echoing in his mind until he fell into a deep and restless sleep, followed by troubled dreams of Lavada being swallowed up by a huge black mist, and of Jeremy being swallowed up with her.
--A couple days later--
Lavada gave a wide yawn, and Od watched as her tongue curled like that of a fox. She rubbed her temples, and Od could tell that she was spacing on the teacher's lecture. 'Then again' he thought to himself 'so am I'. He sighed, turning his thoughts to Jeremy who had been pretending, for one reason or another, to be sick in order to stay in his dorm and search for something on the internet. 'He's going to get sick for real if he doesn't get to sleep.'
Suddenly he felt something brush his pant leg, and looked down to find Kiara's hand shoving a small, painstakingly folded piece of binder paper at him, still looking straight at the teacher in order to avoid drawing attention to herself. Carefully, Od moved to rest his head on his arms and snatched the paper as inconspicuously as possible. He unfolded it quickly and quietly. Lava and her friends had obviously been busy for a while. It looked a little like this:
"FIYAH: Booooooooooored... drools THUNDAH: I hate school DEPRESSIO: Yes, school is hell. MIDJIT: More than hell! Lord save us! weeps THUNDAH: This jackass is making me rech DEPRESSIO: Blarg! MIDJIT: ...I would rather be falling off a bridge... FIYAH: massages temple I don't know how much more of this I can take...and I miss Starr!!! THUNDAH: Then pass it to her idiot FIYAH: Hi Starr!!! STAR: Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. I thought you'd forgotten me. DEPRESSIO: Never! FIYAH: I'm gunna ditch. THUNDAH: I'm in. FIYAH: Pass it to Od. Please and thankyou. You in Od?"
Od scribbled back.
"OdBALL: How?"
Kiara smacked her forehead, scribbled something and threw it back at him.
"MIDJIT: Fire alarm dumbass!"
Od raised an eyebrow.
Suddenly Tequila raised her hand. The teacher stopped. "Yes Temari?" Tequila's eyes sunk to the floor as they always did when she was talking to anyone but her friends. "May I...please go to the bathroom sir?"
The teacher sighed. "Make it fast please."
Tequila practically ran from the room.
Suddenly the building was screaming with the high pitched screeches of the fire alarm. The class panicked and the teacher paled. Finally he grouped everyone into a straight line and hurried them out the door. From the corner of his eye, Od saw Tequila sneak back into the classroom just as they left it. She hurried to her friends all of whom split off from the room. Od followed their lead and followed them on to the grounds, hurrying deep into the suburban area surrounding the boarding school. Finally, they stopped in a clump of trees.
"Was that too much?" Tequila turned to him.
"Damn. Back home Mr. Acton woulda nailed us no problem if we pulled such a weak stunt." Sam looked astounded that it had worked.
"It was enough to get us out." Lava rubbed her ears which were still ringing with the sound of the fire alarm.
"Yeah, but now what're we gunna do?" Kiara looked up at her friend with a skeptical grimace on her face.
But Starr simply smiled. "How bout watching DVDs on my laptop fer the rest of the day?"
They all cheered and began naming off what they wanted to watch. "Pirates of the Carribean!" "No way...too much Orlando Bloom!" "YuYuHakusho, First Season!" "Uh-uh, I've seen that one already!" "Finding Nemo!" "Too kiddy!" "Spirited Away!" "Millenium Actress!" "Jungle Emperor Leo!" "Castle in the Sky!" "The Last Samurai!" "ooh...that one's rated R...goody goody!" "Rurouni Kenshin!" "yeah, Rurouni Kenshin!"
"I'll take that as a yes."
-----
"Guys, I...I don't see Od. Or Lava and them now that I'm looking around!" Yumi exclaimed, startled. The three had met up outside during the fire drill.
Ulrich turned and looked around and saw that she was right. Both Od and Lava and her friends were gone. They had apparently vanished during the fire drill, which a teacher was currently complaining had been "unscheduled".
Yumi voiced his suspicions. "I bet you almost anything Tequila's bathroom break had something to do with this."
Ulrich nodded. "Yeah. I'll call Od."
Jeremy nodded and watched as the numbers were dialed.
-----
"He is SO hot."
Lava was staring at the screen, ga-ga-eyed, as Johnny Depp swan-dived into the Caribbean. "That makes it six times you've said that," Sam grumbled. "Say it one more time and we're watching Rurouni Kenshin."
All seven of them were crowded about the lap top's plasma screen watching a movie they had all seen several times before. In between the times She was swearing about how hot and sexy Johnny Depp was, Lavada was sketching him, as well as saying every line with the characters as THEY said them.
Suddenly, right in the middle of the sword fight in the blacksmith's shop, Od's cell began it's annoyingly loud ring.
Chaos broke out amonst everyone in the room. "Errgh!" "Turn that off!" "Pick it up Od!" "Hurry, third ring!" "Who the hell is it?!" "QUIET!"
This last one – an order by Sam – hushed the room. Od pressed the answer button and put the phone to his ear.
"Hello? Oh, Ulrich. Yeah I'm fine. I'm....no. No. Uh...well yeah...Ulrich! U...Ulrich! Hey! Listen to me! Ulrich! Ugh...fine. Yeah. Make something up. Tell em...yeah. No. You're okay? Good. Jeremy and Yumi too, right? Yeah. Okay. Fine. Yeah. Okay. Bye."
"Well?" Sam looked pissed.
"Aw, nothing. Just Ulrich calling to see where I am."
"And you didn't TELL im..."
"Well, no...I mean, not exactly..."
"But you DID tell him you were with us."
"Well, yeah."
"Idiot! Now they can find us! Ugh!"
"Sam, calm down." Lava put a hand on Sam's arm, who jerked it away. "They won't tell, don't worry. We can trust Yumi and Ulrich to make something up."
"Oh yeah? What about the blond shrimp?"
Od stepped in. "You mean Jeremy? Oh, he won't tell. It's usually us coverin his butt like this. No need to worry. You can trust him too."
It was then of all times that the door was slammed inward, revealing Jim. All six transfer students swore in unison. Od went ashen-faced.
As they all stood stunned, and Jim laughed out in triumph, no one realized as a sinister shadow slithered over Tequila's black sheets and into the rear stitching of small teddy bear laying on the cushiony white pillow. Except that is for a pink-haired young woman who whipped around within the confines of her home, Lyoko, eye's full of terror.
"No...it can't be..." Aelita stumbled forward. "Not Xana...how can this be?"
-----
Lava pressed her forehead into the cool plaster of the white-washed walls. How could she have let this happen? She head-butted the wall again, the numbly felt pain of her headache intensifying.
"Stop it Lava. Yer going tuh hurt yerself."
Lava, slowly turned to look at Sam who looked back at her with blank eyes. "It's not yer fault you now," she added comfortingly. "Well...not really..."
"You're not helping Sam."
Sam let out a deep sigh and looked away. "Yeah. I noticed that myself actually."
Jim had brought the six of them here and hour earlier, where they had received a twenty-minute lecture on skipping school from the principal. But they had gotten off easy because they were new. Od had not been so lucky. He had been expelled, and given fifteen minutes to gather his things. Tequila and Kiara had wandered off somewhere, Yi had gone back to the dorm room, and Starr had disappeared. All were too ashamed of their own mistakes and fortunate well-being to show their faces.
A small rumble made the two friends look up.
"Did you just feel that?"
"Yeah...what do you think it was?"
Another rumble. Larger, louder. Sam's chair rattled and she stood up. "It couldn't be an earthquake..."
Suddenly, a huge ripping and splintering of wood was heard from above the two and they were showered with powdery bits of ceiling as it was torn off by...a gigantic teddy bear.
Lavada screamed, and Sam gasped. A huge paw dropped from the sky. Sam grabbed Lavada's arm. "RUN!" she hollered.
And they did.
-----
Jeremy plopped down into his computer chair, exhausted from school and full of regret. He hadn't meant to get Od in trouble by telling...but a small thing made him smile. He had already tarnished their record! If they tried to pull another stunt like that, he could easily send Lavada and her "bad- ass" buds packing!
Aelita's concerned face immeadiately 'bwink'ed onto his screen as a popup. Jeremy! she gasped.
Jeremy knew this must be serious. "What is it Aelita?"
It's Xana! she exclaimed. He's activated a tower!
"I knew it! I knew those punks had something to do with Xana! Now—"
But Jeremy never finished his sentence for just then, a huge paw swiped through the roof and crashed into his computer, crushing it to bits and pieces.
He let out a yell of rage and then found himself. Panicked, he dashed from the room, through the newly made hole in the wall. "I've gotta get to the factory!" he shouted to himself. He hid behind a tree and speed dialed Yumi. "Yumi! It's Xana!"
"We know!" came the reply. "Get to the factory! We'll be there in a minute!"
But the jumbo-sized Xana Teddy wasn't at all stupid. As Jeremy ran off to get the Lyoko virtualization program booted-up he could feel the cold, beady, plastic eyes fix on the back of his skull, and fell hard as Xana's puppet dropped to all fours and began barreling after him. He picked himself up and sprinted as hard as he could, taking a short cut through town, trying to lose the Teddy. But Xana could not be shaken so easily. It narrowly avoided building as it dashed after its human prey.
But suddenly a well-aimed broom was hurled directly into the Teddy's forehead. With a gigantic flash and a pitiful booming roar, the stuffed giant fell to the asphalted ground. Yumi stepped back and admired her handywork before turning to Jeremy. "Hurry! Let's go!"
A shadow escaped the hurriedly shrinking teddy and slid beneath the door of the nearest store: KB Toys. A nearby shelf of chia pets suddenly lit up, eyes glowing a malicious red. The leader, a disgusting mustard yellow, chirped and they were soon all filing neatly down the isle and piling up against the locked door. With a sudden splintering noise, the lock was broken and the door crashed into the street. An army of chia pets filed out, thousands of them coming every seconds, following Jeremy and Yumi's path with amazingly organized procision.
-----
Lava and Sam ran to the only place they knew: the dorm room. As they opened the door they were grabbed by Tequila and Kiara and hushed. "Be quiet!" they both said at once.
"We're trying to figure out what that thing is," Yi said softly, typing quickly on her own laptop, which was hooked up to the internet. She was sitting in the corner, leaned up against the wall. "I'm trying to hack into it to see..."
"You don't think it might have come from..." Sam started.
"Of course it did. Where else but Lyoko? I think that might be this virus I've picked up on, most commonly referred to as Xana."
"So what do we do without scanners? We can't help without them," Lava said worriedly.
"Don't you see? That's the point! THEY have scanners!" Kiara couldn't restrain herself any longer.
"No..." Lava was stunned.
"Yes! If we can upload OUR data onto their server we can use those scanners!" Yi looked more excited than she had in days.
"So is there any way to upload it WITHOUT them knowing?" Sam said, her face darkening.
"Unfortunately, no. Jeremy's a bigger computer geek than I first thought. Not as good at hacking as I am, but most certainly capable of tracking illegally uploaded data." Yi's face fell.
"So it has to be voluntary." Tequila frowned.
Lavada said nothing, but got up from the bed and went over to the drawer where she was keeping her rat, Livi. She opened it and let the kind-hearted critter clamber gracefully up her bare arm, leaving small scratches. She ignored the pain and let the rat wriggle into her red hair. When she turned to her friends they could see that she was crying.
"We're the AZN Sistahs. We'll find a way."
"Lava...!" Sam was upset to see her friend break down like this, and wished painfully that Lava wasn't so overly sensitive.
"Look, that blond bastard ratted us out. And because of him, Od is getting sent home. It's not our fault...it's his! I just want to get him back for that!" Lava was sobbing, but still not completely choked up. Livi poked her little pink nose out of Lava's hair, and watched another tear streak down her face. She pressed her nose to Lava's cheek and licked up the salty tears up, comfortingly.
Kiara nodded, smiling slightly. "Yeah. Let's take em down."
XD ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -----------------
And there you are. Somewhat long for me, but whatever. I was going to make it long, but I figured "what the hell, I'll just leave them hanging and get it up there dammit." Hope you liked! Review Review Review!!!