5-3: The Plan

I have an important announcement: Will Smith, Orlando Bloom, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Clint Eastwood have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with this fanfic. (Phew! I'm glad I got that off my chest!)

(((-3-)))

Jeremy stood backed up against the wall. "What happened to her?"

The woman looked down at him as she began to clean up the mess. "I've been a nurse for a long time, but these cases vary from person to person. Your friend seems to have an advanced condition of OCD: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder."

"Advanced! That's impossible! She was just fine last week."

Well, except for that little incident with X.A.N.A., of course. But that was on a need-to-know basis.

She focused all her attention on him as though he were the key to understanding Janika's behavior. "Did you ever notice her washing her hands or being nervous around other people?"

"Not until a few days ago. Like I said, last week she was a completely different person."

"Was there anything traumatic that might have triggered something like this between last week and this one?"

Jeremy opened his mouth to say no, but then he stopped. The nurse was waiting, so he had to say something! "A car hit her a few days ago—" How lame was that? "—but she wasn't hurt, so nobody really thought anything about it."

She looked skeptical, but nodded. "It's possible that was the cause. You should probably leave now. She'll be out for a couple hours and we'll take good care of her. If her condition doesn't improve we'll be sure to inform the school."

One of the guys in white came in carrying black straps and started fastening Janika securely to the bed. The boy took one last glance around the room before leaving. He went outside the hospital and sat down on a bench. Making sure no one was around, he opened his laptop.

"The problem is officially serious."

"What's the matter, Jeremy? Is Janika getting worse?"

He opened the file he had been working on before Janika had woken. "I would have to say yes, Aelita. I need to check for activated Towers. I should have done that in the first place but when you told me she fainted, it slipped my mind."

"You think X.A.N.A.'s behind it?" She looked relieved.

If it hadn't been caused by the virus then maybe it would have been a much worse situation than it was now. At least they knew there was a chance to fix it.

"I can't think of any other explanation. Ever since last Wednesday when she was under his control I've been trying figure out what she was trying to tell me. Now I think I have the answer."

(V)

Odd checked his watch and paced back and forth again. "Where is he?"

Yumi leaned against the bench. "Odd, it takes more than ten minutes to get from the hospital back to school."

He stopped pacing and began kicking up dust with the heel of his shoe. Suddenly Jeremy burst out of the shrubs behind the, breathing hard as though he had been sprinting, which he probably had.

"That was quick," the black-haired girl said at the same time that Odd yelled, "What took you so long!"

"Janika isn't getting any better and she won't as long as X.A.N.A. has a hold on her," he managed to gasp out. He paused to get his wind back. "Hey, where's Ulrich?"

Odd and Yumi glanced meaningfully at one another before looking at him seriously. "Sissy's interfering again. This time she threatened to tell her dad about that thing that happened a few weeks ago."

"What thing?"

"The thing," she repeated.

He still looked blank, so she pantomimed throwing something and breaking glass.

"Oh, that thing!" Jeremy looked around nervously. "For the hundredth time, it was an accident! Well, we can't do this without him. Are you absolutely sure he's—Ulrich!"

The brown-haired boy crept into the clearing. He grinned at the others. "I found out Sissy doesn't like spiders. Thanks for the fake tarantula, Yumi." She smirked. "What did I miss?"

Jeremy filled him in on Janika's condition.

"So it really is X.A.N.A.. Do we go to Lyoko?"

The blonde one ignored the question, focusing instead on his new discovery. "I figured out what the problem is with her: she's missing a Special Ability."

They stared at him, blinking silently. It didn't seem that serious.

"Without it, the data for her Lyoko-warrior is incomplete. She's a perfect target for X.A.N.A.. Once he discovered the holes in her system he could affect her directly, which is what's happening now. He's convinced Janika that germs will kill her probably using filters in her subconscious. Dreams, I mean."

"So we need to get to Lyoko?" Ulrich said again.

Again, Jeremy ignored his friend's query.

"That's not the only thing wrong with her. Do you remember when she first went to Lyoko? I hadn't programmed her DNA into the supercomputer's memory banks, so she shouldn't have been able to remember anything. She did, and that means there was another fluke with her self-made program. That will be harder to repair."

This time Odd spoke, "So are we going to shut down X.A.N.A.'s Tower?"

"We need to get her into a scanner at the factory so I can fix the problem, then we'll worry about the Tower. He's been influencing her without activating one for the past five days, so that means today he's launching an actual attack either at us or the city. We'd better keep our eyes open."

"Sorry for being skeptical, Jeremy," Ulrich voiced once more, "but how exactly are we supposed to get her out of the hospital? Personally, I don't think the nurses are going to let us wheel her out and if she's getting worse, it's unlikely she'll cooperate willingly."

"If we plan this thing just right we won't have any trouble with either of those things."

Yumi shook her head. "Jeremy, you're not thinking what I'm afraid you are, are you?"

He shot her a crooked smile.

"Kidnapping? Do you have any idea how much trouble we'd be in if we get caught?"

"Would you rather she died in the hospital? We can always go back in time to avoid all that, so what's the big deal?"

She stared at him for a moment before finally heaving a sigh and giving her assent. "What's your plan?"

He set down his backpack with the laptop and pulled out a notepad. "I spent some time inspecting her room. She's on the second floor with a window onto the roof right next to her. There should be a fire escape on the far side that we can use to get her down."

"Should be?!" Odd exclaimed.

"I saw the top of the ladder earlier. Anyway Odd, you can keep the nurses occupied while we go to work. She's tied to her bed so we'll need a knife, Yumi. We'll also have to swindle some things from the gym. Ulrich, that's you. I'll need something from Mrs. Hertz's room too..."

As my friend Dantheman kindly pointed out, Jeremy has a devious mind.