Garage Kids

by Epsilon Tarantula

Odd Della Robbia is the new kid at his school, but soon learns about how his new friends have uncovered a parallel virtual world known as Xanadu. Obtaining a set of strange abilities, the kids now must penetrate the secrets of Xanadu, whose disturbances threaten to destroy the real world.

14. File 7-1: A List of Priorities

Seven months! ...Still better than a three-year hiatus or something of the sort.

But it is here! The latest chapter, fresh off the presses! GK File 7.1! From this point onward, we're hitting the DEEP stuff, so strap in! This is the File that will give us our first true game-changer!

Enjoy!

---

Garage Kids

File 7.1 - A List of Priorities

Monday - October 15, 2001

For most people on the planet, the morning was the most important part of the day. It determined the mood, the flow of how a person would go about their life for those next 24 hours. There was a reason the phrase 'got up on the wrong side of the bed' had such meaning.

As such, most people obviously did not like waking up at 4 in the morning, especially on a Monday, only to spend the next twelve hours doing nothing but work.

Alan Meyer, despite his above-average intelligence and overall chaotic sleeping schedule compared to the vast majority of humanity, was among 'most people' in that respect.

Still, thanks to the hiring of one Doctor Sul Gumaria, this requirement to get up so early had been reduced to a once-a-month assignment with random call-ins of varying attendance lengths. Beforehand, Alan had to consistently report at least twice a week every month on top of his regular job due to them lacking a specialized, specific individual to oversee the Facility, something that had proved horrendously taxing and more than once had rendered Alan as sick as a dog (His penance for participating in the greatest folly of mankind, he supposed). Now, it was merely a monthly nuisance.

And a major reason why he considered it a nuisance was because he had to be driven to the TGV station by a man who insisted on a morning whistle or song every. Single. Day.

"I swear, Klaus," Alan grumbled, as the bearded, brown-haired German loudly tapped in rhythm on the steering wheel, "one day you'll lose your voice. Or hands."

Klaus Zimmerman merely gave an amused look from his glasses. "Oh don't be that way, Alan, if I didn't volunteer to drive you, you'd fall asleep in the taxi or just crash your car!"

"I don't own a car, nor do I need one. You know I live in the lab." Alan muttered groggily, looking at himself in the rearview mirror. His balding, graying blonde hair looked more disheveled than ever, and he had not shaved, making the unfortunate man wonder if Smith would read him the riot act for not keeping up to grooming standards.

Technically he didn't have to keep up to those standards due to his looser affiliation with the government, especially since Doctor Gumaria didn't care (though he always managed to look clean and immaculate), but then again, Doctor Gumaria wasn't armed to the teeth with guns, knives, throwing daggers, poisoned needles, grenades, metal rope-wires, electrified escrima sticks, and a particularly thick regulations manual.

It wasn't the first time Alan questioned why he kept meeting insane people, even if Smith would have objected to the description.

"Well, better hope that The Facility's bathrooms aren't out of order, because you look terrible." Klaus said brightly and bluntly.

"Your assurance of my physical appearance soothes me, truly it does." Alan grumbled. "This is the first time our new hire is being entrusted with this particular responsibility, so I hope you and he will be able to manage while I'm gone."

"Oh come now, Alan, there hasn't been anything foreboding from our company's mainframe for seven years, you honestly think it'll happen now? Richard and I can hold the fort down while you're gone, though I question why you still need to go there if they already have a specific someone to handle the job."

"Doctor Gumaria would ask the same question, as would most of the present-day administration-you know how bureaucrats are, but you-know-who insists on these monthly visits regardless, and as much as I want to curse her for the inconvenience in my life, she has a point about remaining vigilant for any kind of trouble."

Alan then gave his companion a hard stare that pierced through that early morning exhaustion. "So you and Richard had better not do something stupid like encase half of the city in ice while I'm away."

"Oh come now, it's only until Thursday, Alan, we'll manage fine without you. It's not like the end of the world will sneak up on us."

Alan Meyer looked up grimly as they pulled into the parking lot of the train station. "For all of our sakes, let's hope it hasn't already." he muttered.

---

Black.

Black.

Black.

It looked so peaceful. The ultimate symmetry…

But then what was that noise in the background? Buzzing? Ringing? Hissing? Why was it interrupting this peaceful, black...no, now it was breaking up. Grey was mixing in, and then there was white. They appeared in spots, seeming to mix with the black...the way salt might mix with pepper.

That would be pretty tasty, now that he thought about it. Warm eggs with salt and pepper...it would be nice for-

Odd opened his eyes with a start, the music of the alarm clock rumbling next to him. Groaning, he turned around, fighting a wince of leftover pain from yesterday's battle, and sloppily slammed it until it was off.

"Ugghhh…no-one told me being a superhero meant that we'd be so busy."

Ulrich, who was already stretching, scoffed. "Get used to it."

Odd was about to offer a tired retort, but a yawn and Ulrich's superior speed meant that whatever the catboy was going to blurt died in his mouth. He was tempted to go back to sleep, but a worried whining sound stopped him in his tracks.

Kiwi, thankfully safe from yesterday's chaos, looked concerned. Odd gave his dog a tired smile. "Don't worry, I'm still here Kiwi, old pal. You head on back to sleep while I pay my societal dues."

That didn't seem to satisfy the little mutt, who kept whining. Odd couldn't blame him as he pulled up his pajamas to check his wounds. Surprisingly, they had already closed up, leaving only scars. The benefits of a virtualized body, he supposed. Hopefully even these would be gone soon because quite frankly, besides looking tacky on a svelte body like his own, Odd felt only dread looking at something so…morbid on his skin.

For a moment, he braced for a vision, but got nothing. He looked back at Kiwi, but saw nothing but static and darkness for only a few seconds.

He also heard Kiwi barking, as if the little dog had seen something strange. Did Kiwi ever react that way to a vision before? Odd didn't recall.

"Look, I know things are getting…tough." Odd grimaced as he knelt down to pet his dog, the static and darkness cleared from his sight. "And…Einstein says they're gonna get tougher, but we'll manage, y'know? We're the good guys, and the good guys always win! …Well, in the big Hollywood movies anyways…um, forget I said that, okay Kiwi?"

Kiwi growled, as if warning Odd that no, he would not. For a dog that Jeremie derided as dumb, Odd knew that Kiwi's instincts were on the mark.

If only his special power had been to talk to animals, that would've been ten times more convenient and a hundred times more relaxing.

He let that thought hang in his head on his way to the bathroom. On the way there, he saw Amare Arendse, looking surprisingly grouchy as he exited his own dorm room.

"Oh, Amare, morning!" Odd called.

The dark-skinned boy turned, and gave a more relaxed smile. "'Morning Odd. How're you doing?"

"Uhhh…" Odd droned, looking at the half-open door. As he peered in, he could see Hugo Abel still asleep, his younger brother poking at him with a baseball bat.

"Hi, Odd!" Charlie waved, before returning to poke Hugo with the bat.

"Walk with me, and any danger will be gone." Amare said quietly, gesturing to Odd to follow. The catboy agreed, and once they were on a steady pace, his new companion continued. "Honestly, I expected you and Ulrich down here together."

"Nah, he's always trying to get out of the room first." Odd shrugged. "Apparently he thinks my feet smell."

"Heh, he should try sleeping in our dorm room for a day then, and he'll REALLY get to smell something nasty!"

Odd remembered that Amare and Hugo were baseball players, and he knew how sweaty and exhausting sports like that could get. He chuckled. "Okay, we've gotta try that prank sometime."

"Music to my ears." Amare chuckled.

It was then that Odd recognized that they'd passed Jeremie's room. "Hold on a moment."

Odd knocked on the door, and opened it up, expecting to see Jeremie at his desk, only to instead find that the computer genius had collapsed onto his bed, still dressed the same as yesterday (not that he ever seemed to ever wear different clothes, nor was Odd ever going to take a peak in the guy's closet), sleeping quietly.

On the one hand, Odd had to find it funny that Jeremie was sleeping like that, but on the other hand, if even Jeremie was knocked out, then it really did hammer in how bad yesterday had been.

Then, on the other, other hand, considering how much Jeremie had pushed Odd to have visions and had pretty clearly pissed off Yumi with his blaise attitude about investigating the city's… "criminal elements" (Odd decided that that was an appropriate term for them, anyways), it wasn't like the catboy was going to have much sympathy for the computer genius anyways. If anything, it was a small bit of karma.

Then the large karma came as Jim Morales bustled towards them.

"Della Robbia, Arendse, get to the showers, now!" He called.

Then he entered Jeremie's room.

"BELPOIS!"

Jeremie awoke with a fright, looking all around him in a panic, before focusing on Jim. "Uhhh…"

"I can't believe it Belpois, first you have a messy room on par with the local garbage dump, and now you can't even get to sleep properly? I'm going to have to get the principal on your case at this rate!"

"Oh, uh, th-that won't be necessary Jim!" Jeremie startled, immediately getting to his feet. "I'll get ready immediately!"

"You better, and the next time I see you sleeping in, you had better at least be in your pajamas!" Jim snarled, before turning to Odd and Amare.

At first, Odd thought they were in the clear, but then Jim's eyes focused on Amare, who coughed nervously and tried to back away.

"Arendse, where's Abel? I'd have thought he would be with you right now."

"He's tired right now, Jim." Amare coughed. "I tried to wake him up, honestly, but he just wouldn't budge. Must be exhausted from yesterday."

"Well, I can't say I'm too surprised, what with how his batting averages improved…" Jim mused. "But even so, time is time! I'll go wake him up right now! You three get to the showers, and then breakfast, ASAP!"

And so Jim stormed away, with Jeremie hastily entering the hallway with a towel and boxers.

"So…didn't get anything done last night, did you, Einstein?" Odd snickered.

Jeremie gave Odd a look. "Well, I suppose if your sense of humor has returned, I guess that means you're all healed up."

"Well, there are still some scars." Odd sheepishly admitted.

"Don't worry, I'll cover for you two." Amare shrugged. "'Least I can do after, well, yesterday. Sebastian filled me in. How you guys survived is going to be a mystery to me for the rest of the month."

"Not your life?" Odd couldn't help but ask.

"Nah." Amare smirked. "I'll probably figure it out as the week goes on."

"So glad to see you two can joke about this." Jeremie warned, his serious demeanor returning. "I have a lot of work ahead of me, and we still don't have any updates on Yumi's condition. Not to mention, Amare, how is Hugo?"

Amare seemed to consider this. "Do you want the full story or the short one?"

"However you can give me the most relevant information if Sebastian can't." Jeremie said, only for the Street Kid to appear at that moment, walking away from the direction of the showers, clearly done with his morning ablutions.

"Hey, Belpois, Arendse here says that Abel the Elder's unhinged, keep an eye out."

"And that's the short version." sighed Amare. "Long version, he's willing to throw all of us under the bus to protect Charlie."

Sebastian's away stride paused as Amare's words lodged in the minds of the other three boys, Odd knowing that he and the Street Kid probably had the same expression of shock that Jeremie was currently displaying.

"Wh-why? Ugh, I'll ask about that later…I've played my role for the morning so far." Sebastian grumbled, before leaving the trio alone as they walked to the shower rooms.

"Wait, why's he want to do that? Doesn't he know we're trying to save the world?" Odd asked in a hushed whisper.

"I told you he's a bit…overprotective about his younger brother." Jeremie explained. "So his suspicion really doesn't surprise me, though I'll admit I always thought Sebastian would've been the wild card, not Hugo."

"Congrats on being wrong, now we get to pay the price." grumbled Amare. "I don't think he knows much of anything yet, but based on how he reacted to Sebastian's cover story last night, well…"

"Oh? What was it?" Odd couldn't help but ask, hoping for some comforting gossip. Because he really did need something to anchor onto before his anxiety tried to drown him.

"Sebastian said that some whore from Asimov tried seducing Jeremie." Amare chuckled. "I thought it was funny, but Hugo not so much."

"That is…not even close to what happened." Jeremie said with a shaking of his head. "Hugo does know I don't have any interest in romantic relationships, right?"

"He's paranoid that you opened Pandora's Box to get yourself a girlfriend." Amare shrugged. "I don't get it either. Either he's gone crazy, or he exchanged memories with some alternate universe version of himself. Obviously, it's the second one."

"...We're not going to actually see any alternate universe things, are we Einstein?" Odd gulped, knowing that with Xanadu, that might very well be a risk in the future.

"I would need to study the parallel world theory to make sure." Jeremie mused, to Odd's horror. "But I doubt it. Then again, I intend to check on the progress from the Compass after today's classes, so I'll get back to you on that."

That was very much not a declaration Odd wanted to deal with so early in the morning. So much so that he nearly tripped on the soap, almost unveiled his scars, and actually swallowed some toothpaste.

So the school week was off to a great start.

---

Yumi Ishiyama had never liked the morning. And it was not because her little brother used to joke every morning that she was secretly a tengu or a vampire. No, it was for whatever particular reason struck her fancy…on good days anyways.

And she was certainly not going to consider the past weekend or the new prospective day 'good' in the slightest.

Groaning, she slowly lifted her head from her bed, still so unlike the one from home, wincing as she sat upright, feeling the pain from yesterday's fight resonate throughout her body. It didn't feel as sharp or piercing as before, but her body felt stiff and fragile all the same. She knew fully well that she wasn't in any condition to fight.

Some part of her had hoped that she would be miraculously healed. She was surprised at how yesterday she'd managed to stand up after such a catastrophic-well, she wasn't sure how to describe it. Rage? Disaster? Euphoria?

All of these words described what she'd seemed to turn into quite well.

A pang of despair came over her at having all of that power, yet losing it like that, but a far greater amount of shame and guilt over how she had hurt her friends overwhelmed that. She had made a brief gain, only to suffer far greater consequences.

And if the aches from yesterday were still there, if her joints felt like snapping if she exerted them even just a little, if her body felt like it was shifting between a stiff, yet fragile wooden board and a barely solid gelatin mold on the verge of collapsing, then there had been no miraculous overnight healing.

Not that the night had been efficacious anyways. Lying down had brought some comfort, but it hurt to move about too much (and if there was one thing she was never sharing with the guys, it was how she was a toss-and-turn type of sleeper), and when she finally did drift off…

Well, this was a detail she would certainly never share with anyone, period, even if Jeremie hadn't been greedily prodding and poking Odd for vision-tips.

It had only been for a few seconds. She'd found herself in some kind of dark void, unable to make out any detail aside from a gray floral pattern that would fade in-and-out of her sight. She'd been floating on her back, unable to move a muscle, as it began descending towards her.

Yumi had been able to make out a figure dressed in an enormous, dark-colored kimono. Emerging from the sleeves were pitch-white hands, sharpened to be more akin to claws. And atop what seemed like a head were tendrils upon tendrils of long, flowing raven-black hair, hiding blood-red eyes with crescent-moon and diamond markings.

Those eyes had stared at her, and those claws had reached for her. Yumi would've been helpless to stop the strange creature from grasping onto her…if it hadn't faded away into static, moments before she would've gotten a good look at its face.

Yet the most unsettling part of the dream had been a total absence of fear. Yumi hadn't woken up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, nor awoken into the morning with a jolt. Instead, she felt as if the creature belonged there with her, that it meant her no harm. That it was natural for it to come to her, and in fact more unnatural that it would fade away just before it had a chance to make contact with her.

Yumi shuddered, then winced as that seemed a sufficient movement to send jabs of pain coursing through her bones. Immediately, she reached for her bedside shelf and pulled out the painkillers Sebastian had bought, downing them as soon as she could.

The relief wasn't instantaneous, but the action helped calm her.

Then, there was a knock on the door.

"Who's there?!" She snarled ferociously.

A familiar 'meep!' at the other end told her everything she needed to know. Yumi's defensive instincts faded as she slowly, but steadily, got up from her bed and limped to the door, opening it to reveal Milly and Tamiya.

"What is it?" Yumi asked, trying her best to will away any remaining stings of pain and frustration.

Embarrassingly, she knew she wasn't able to suppress the dark spots under her eyes, or how much of a wreck she looked in her nightwear. Still, she had to maintain some level of inconspicuousness.

"Oh, um, well…" Milly fidgeted.

But seeing her companion's nervousness, Tamiya spoke up instead. "You weren't at the showers this morning…you're usually getting out by the time we get there."

Another side-effect of sleeping in a place that wasn't her home, coupled with, again, being a toss-and-turner. Yumi had a habit of waking up early. She inwardly groaned at how perceptive the two junior reporters were to have caught it, but considering that she usually began her day by talking to the two of them, maybe they just didn't need to be perceptive after all.

It wasn't like before. She had to keep telling herself that.

"It's…been an exhausting weekend." Yumi grimaced.

"Oh yeah." Both girls said, deflated.

Hardly surprising. It was times like these that Yumi agreed that keeping the secret was a good thing. Milly and Tamiya weren't that young compared to the rest of the group, being only two years younger than everyone else with the exception of Charlie, who was two years younger than the duo, but Yumi was firmly in the camp of keeping them far away from the dangers in town. They'd only survived the first attack out of luck, and Yumi was not keen to take any other chances with any other factor.

And if William or anyone in that disgusting cult he was part of even dared to touch the two junior reporters, Yumi would kill them. She was resolved to do so.

"A-are you okay?" Milly ventured, breaking Yumi out of her thoughts.

"Just a bit…tired is all." Yumi said softly, putting all her effort into making a smile. The looks on the junior reporters' faces told her that they knew it was fake. "It's nothing to be concerned about."

Both of the girls were scrutinizing her. It didn't surprise Yumi in the slightest, considering their dream jobs. Oh, to have an honest dream at that age and to pursue it. She wasn't sure what it was like.

Though at the moment, she knew it could be dangerous.

She was just about to close the door, make up an excuse to get the two away, but once again, Milly spoke up first.

"Um…can I ask you something, Yumi?"

Yumi chewed the inside of her mouth. "Yes?"

"Are you going to participate in the upcoming inter-school competition?"

"No." Yumi answered immediately and without hesitation.

"Why not?" inquired Tamiya.

"Well, I'm not in any clubs for one." Yumi tried to handwave. "And besides, if it's this weekend, there's probably no more time to sign-up."

Milly looked puzzled. "Odd's not in any clubs yet, and he joined up for the skating event when everyone came back on Saturday."

"And they're still doing last minute sign-ups." Tamiya put in.

Yumi sighed. Best to be honest with the girls then. "Look I'm…not really up for this kind of thing. Even if we weren't having to be on the home turf of someone as disgusting as William."

"Really? You've beaten Ulrich in fights before, haven't you?" Milly asked. "You two together would be unstoppable! You'd defeat every opponent sent your way, and after that you'd walk off in the sunset together-"

"Okay, Milly, tone it down, you're getting those fantasy stars in your eyes again." Tamiya deadpanned, earning a small grin of amusement from Yumi.

"I'll admit, it might not be the worst idea to sign-up for Penchak Silat with Ulrich, but…"

Now came the part where restraint was key. Yumi could feel her hands trembling at the mere thought of participating in a fighting competition, especially if it meant having some proxy way of striking back at everything that had tormented her before Xanadu was a factor in her life. But another part of her knew, especially after she'd come this close to trying to kill her friends, that she might end up in the same state as before.

And hurt them again.

She had to suppress that part, no matter what. The part of her that screamed for justice in the world, yet screamed that out far too indiscriminately.

"In the end, it's just not my thing. Please try to understand that." She bowed.

Yumi could tell that the two junior reporters were stunned by the action. She supposed she might've been too, if she were in the same position, even if the gesture was meant to be one of humility. It was honestly a bit mollifying to have people look up to her, rather than look for ways to hurt her, but all the same…

In the end, she had to set this boundary.

Milly and Tamiya's faces scrunched up as they looked at Yumi, seeming to analyze her.

"...Okay." said Tamiya at last. "But uh…"

"What are you going to do if William and his gang try to attack you while we're at Asimov?" Milly blurted. "I don't want him to-"

At this, Yumi couldn't help but let out a small laugh. That probably explained why the two were asking her this question. It made sense, and she had to admit, she and Ulrich were a pretty good team. They kicked plenty of ass in the virtual world fighting the monsters of Xanadu before Odd came around, and could easily do so in the real world as well. William would never stand a chance in a fair fight.

It made her feel a bit warm inside, knowing that she'd met people who were concerned about her.

"William won't be doing anything to me, I can promise you that." She assured them, speaking the first genuine truth she'd said that morning. "If he does, well, I beat his ass pretty good the last time we met, and I can do it again."

That seemed to lighten the junior reporters' mood.

"Trust me, he's got nothing to do with why I don't want to compete in this competition." Yumi continued, knowing that she now had momentum to carry herself forward. "Like I said, not really my thing. I never attended anything like that at my old schools and I don't feel like attending any right now…maybe next year though?"

Milly's eyes sparkled at that. "Then we of the Kadic News will hold you to that!"

"Wait, we will?" asked Tamiya, looking at her best friend.

"Of course!" Milly declared, glomping Tamiya and cheering. "Next year's going to have our best scoop yet!"

Yumi gave a small chuckle, then felt a sharp pain in her back. Sweat beading on her forehead, she summoned all of her strength to hold back the grimace that she knew would come. "Well, now that you two know, you can head on down without me. Don't worry, I'll be all ready for breakfast."

And without another word, she quickly, but quietly, shut her bedroom door. She didn't immediately move back to her bed however, instead she kept her ear to the door, hearing Milly and Tamiya bicker, only for that noise to become more and more distant.

With that, Yumi let out a long sigh, then slowly lowered herself to the floor, grimacing as her body was overcome with another spasm of pain.

She breathed in and out slowly. Though she was tempted to grab the painkillers again, she knew that it would be a terrible idea to take another dose so soon. The medicine was not a miraculous panacea for her problems, she would just have to tough it out, just like she had all of her issues.

The meditation seemed to work; the pain was fading.

Carefully, Yumi got up, and feeling no pain, slowly walked over to her closet and pulled out a bathrobe. Not for the first time she grimaced in disgust at how a boarding school offered so little privacy; even if she was only surrounded by other girls, it still felt awkward to have to wear such an article of clothing on, when she was used to only using a towel. At the same time though, she didn't want to think about what controversy that would cause.

So she went on to begin her day, feeling the aches in her body slowly ebb away.

---

Ulrich was glad that he was the first one down for breakfast. It meant less time being poked and prodded, and less time having to listen to Odd. He'd had time to mull yesterday while studying (or at least make whatever progress he could with his terrible reading skills) and before he'd gone to bed. Suffice to say, he still found himself stewing over their last mission for several reasons.

First, he had no idea if Yumi was doing okay or not. He had thought about texting her, but didn't want to disturb her. The one time he'd legitimately done so without the weight of Xanadu on them was an event that Ulrich swore he would never repeat.

Second, he didn't really feel that they'd accomplished anything, and Sebastian's "words of wisdom" had already leaked out of Ulrich's head to make room for cramming in as many mathematics concepts as possible. He'd already changed into a spare pair of his own clothing and hung up the Street Kid's lended spare in the closet. Not to mention they still had to wait on all of those programs Jeremie found. Couldn't he have just loaded them up and whipped up the 'stop Xanadu' program from them already?

And third, Ulrich was really starting to feel that there wasn't any real need for Odd Della Robbia in their group. It might have come off as sudden to think that, but Ulrich still found himself blaming the transfer student for Yumi's condition. If Odd had been better; put his power to see the future to better use, or have more accuracy in his shots, Yumi might not have been in the mess she was in. The guy had only been a student of Kadic for about a week, and Ulrich wasn't interested in getting to know him. If Sebastian or Amare, now that they turned out to be loyal after all, had been given the chance to be virtualized before Odd, they wouldn't have needed this total stranger, and Ulrich might have convinced Jeremie to ensure that he would stay solitary in his room.

The martial artist stabbed his pancakes, tearing a piece off and chewing it vigorously. At least he could take his anger out on his food.

"My first worry of the day is that Ishiyama would rise up as a zombie and curse me to death. Now I have to worry about you turning into some ravenous ogre instead, Stern?" Sebastian drawled, walking by Ulrich.

Ulrich just gave the Street Kid a stink-eye. He was not in the mood to listen to him blather again.

"Yeesh, Ulrich, when have you been such a sloppy eater?" the voice of Rosa called over. "Is the new kid rubbing off on you?"

Now Ulrich was regretting there not being so many students in the cafeteria. It made it easier for the cafeteria lady to voice her own observations. He then saw why she'd said that. As it turned out, he hadn't fully torn off the piece of pancake, and instead had begun stuffing the entire thing into his mouth.

Immediately, he tore the hanging pancake off with his fork, letting it land on his plate, before wiping his mouth and swallowing the piece he'd already chewed.

He also, really, really did not want any comparisons between himself and Odd right now.

But of course, life couldn't be that simple as Odd and Amare entered the cafeteria, already chatting it up with one another, Jeremie trailing behind them.

"Ugh, I already hate today…" Ulrich couldn't help but grumble.

"Pretty certain you hate every single day by default, Stern." Sebastian commented, pouring a syrup packet over his pancakes.

"Really don't want to hear any of your quips right now."

"His or mine?" Odd put in, his tray already piled high with food. "Because I've got a few."

"Neither." said Ulrich, gritting his teeth.

"You changed back to your usual outfit already, Ulrich?" Amare asked. "Not gonna ask what's different about your friends?"

"You're literally wearing the same thing as you did yesterday, Arendse." Sebastian groaned. "And why would anyone care?"

Ulrich tuned out whatever response Amare had as he looked up at Odd and Jeremie, who now sat down at the table. Both of them were wearing different clothes. Odd had changed into a purple hoodie over a darker purple shirt and periwinkle jeans, while all Jeremie had done was swap out his blue shirt for a maroon one and his tan capri pants for light-green ones.

"There any reason for the clothing change?" Ulrich found himself asking, immediately regretting it.

Thankfully, their responses were curt.

"Well, you know…after the weekend, a guy needs to have something different on while the usuals get cleaned." Odd shrugged.

"Slept in my day clothes after yesterday." Jeremie sighed. "Had to wear the replacements."

"Do you only ever wear the same thing, just in different colors?" Amare couldn't help but ask.

"Yes." Jeremie said with not a hint of embarrassment.

"Alright, congratulations for stepping into the wonderful world of fashion as an alternate career choice to baseball player, Arendse, now let's find something actually worth talking about before the Abels come in." Sebastian groaned. "Abel the Elder's going to roast us for that."

"...Roast us for what?" Odd asked.

"The fact that we've degenerated into talking about fashion choices. Fun fact Della Robbia, Abel the Elder keeps far away from non-'manly' topics." Sebastian explained. "...Which in hindsight makes me wonder why he didn't just grill you about wearing all of that purple to begin with."

"Hey, purple is a cool color!" Odd protested.

"No it isn't." Ulrich couldn't help but say.

"Not you too!" the transfer student wailed.

"Well, if what we've been told is of any indication, then there may be a reason after all…" Jeremie mused, before looking at Ulrich. He then waved to Amare and Sebastian, and the two immediately began slipping into private conversation at their table.

"Uh, what's going on?" Odd asked, far too loudly for Ulrich's preference, but Jeremie shushed him anyways.

"Need to keep quiet; not enough people to make a din, let's wait for a little bit…" Jeremie cautioned.

They didn't need to wait long. Soon, other students were lining up for breakfast, and the cafeteria was overcome with the morning din. Normally, Mondays were quieter than the other days of the week, but considering what was coming up on Saturday, Ulrich wasn't surprised that it was louder than usual. Conversations and gossip about the inter-school competition were already echoing throughout the building.

Ulrich then saw a sight that made him breathe a sigh of relief. Yumi, in-line, dressed in her usual clothing, as if nothing had happened. If she was feeling better, that was certainly a good start to the day.

Then he heard Jeremie tap on the table. "Alright, now I can update you."

"About shutting down the supercomputer without blowing up the world?" Odd asked hopefully, to Ulrich's annoyance.

"No, not yet," Jeremie waved away dismissively. "Just need to update you on the Hugo situation, Ulrich."

"Did Amare screw up?" Ulrich drawled, stuffing another piece of pancake into his mouth.

"Quite the opposite, at least, I hope so," Jeremie rebuffed. "We now have clear confirmation that Hugo's in a state that he's bound to oppose us."

"Which I still don't get," Odd grumbled, though his words were muffled by the whole pancake he stuffed into his mouth. "We've shtill tryin' ta sshave the world!"

"As long as it protects his brother, he seems willing to use any tactic available to him," Jeremie sighed, pushing his glasses into place. "Amare claims that he's diverted suspicion for now, but I don't know how long that excuse will hold water, especially if the attack intensity increases like it did yesterday."

Ulrich gave a quick glance to the cafeteria line. At the end was Hugo, his face looking rather haggard. He certainly didn't look pleasant to be around; the shadows of his cap seemed to darken his face, and his eyes had a dangerous glint to them as he looked straight ahead.

It was then that Ulrich happened to chance a look at Yumi, who was getting her breakfast, and then he looked back at Hugo.

If the martial artist could, he would have done a spit-take. Jeremie and Odd obviously wouldn't have caught it; neither would Amare or Sebastian.

But Ulrich could notice. He always did have that talent.

He saw that Hugo's eyes weren't truly looking straight ahead in general, glazed over with inattention…they were instead looking at Yumi. Now, Ulrich in general would've been irritated by anyone looking at Yumi longer than what made him comfortable, but unlike William's eyes, which had been clearly clouded with disgusting lust, Hugo's eyes had a look that Ulrich normally considered to be a positive showcase of character.

A glare filled with killing intent.

And as Yumi walked over to their table, Ulrich knew that he wasn't mistaking how those shadowed, narrowed eyes were turning over to look at them. All of them.

For a brief moment, both the martial artist and the baseball prodigy were locked in a dark staring competition. Ulrich could feel Hugo's hatred from here…and well, Ulrich had plenty of his own anger and frustration to counter with. Maybe it was making the group suspicious, but right now, Ulrich didn't care.

"Ulrich, what are you doing?" came Yumi's voice.

And it was then that Ulrich felt his anger ebb as the dark-haired girl took her seat.

"Erm, nothing." Ulrich coughed.

He did sneak one last glance however. It seemed that Hugo's bloodlust had ebbed too.

At the same time, over the morning din, Ulrich could hear Charlie pestering his older brother to give him extra syrup on his pancakes.

---

Static filled his eyes, at most, all he could make out was a shadow of something monstrous, with enormous pincers instead of hands, bat-like wings growing out of the back, and a large stinger-like tail.

But while his eyes could not make out much, his ears were assaulted with the screeching of static…and if he wasn't mistaken, the screeching of people as the shadowy monster drew nearer and nearer…

Until there was nothing left but darkness.

"PFPHHHHPPPTGHHHH!" Odd choked, slamming his fist against his throat until he threw up the pancake he was trying to eat. He grabbed his mug of hot chocolate and immediately downed the contents, barely managing to swallow it as he still coughed.

"BLECH! Odd! Not on the table!" Yumi complained.

Odd was too busy gasping for air to apologize at the moment. He let his coughing run its course before taking in long, deep breaths.

"Fun fact, Della Robbia!" Sebastian called from his table. "You have to actually CHEW the pancakes!"

"I know that!" Odd managed to retort, before looking down, seeing that Yumi was furiously cleaning up the mess.

His thoughts on mourning his lost pancake were immediately overturned by the fact that he'd had another vision filled with static. What was up with those? His instincts were clawing at him, and he knew, by reflex, that this was not natural.

"Uh, so…was anything up with my eyes?" He asked in a hushed whisper.

"Unfortunately, I didn't have time to catch a look." Jeremie shrugged.

Ulrich grunted, and Yumi shook her head as she got up to throw away the half-eaten food.

"What vision did you have then?" Jeremie began to inquire.

Odd suppressed a groan. At this point, no matter what, he was going to have to get used to Jeremie grilling him about whatever dreams or morning visions had transpired at breakfast every day. Still, the computer genius was the closest thing they had to an expert, despite the crap he'd pulled off yesterday.

"Nothing specific, really, just some weird monster that popped up." The transfer student explained. "The weird part was that it was full of static, not the usual orange-tint my visions have. Plus, last night's dream was more nothing and white noise. …I'll be honest, Einstein, it's giving me a bad feeling."

Jeremie put a hand to his chin to think. "Hmm…it IS unusual, I'll admit. I've studied the patterns of your visions to get a rough idea of the triggers, and what you've described certainly sounds anomalous."

"Do you know what's causing it?" Odd asked in a tone that was both worried and excited as Yumi returned to the table.

"Unfortunately, no." Jeremie sighed, shaking his head. "But keep me updated on your visions. Can you tell me about any other details that could help?"

At this, Odd had to swallow a great deal of his pride. He'd managed to keep this hidden from everyone else yesterday, but at the time he hadn't thought much of it. Now, however, his instincts were screaming to say so before everything turned to chaotic darkness.

Odd grimaced at that. "Y-yesterday, I already had some of that static-y effect on my visions…don't remember which specific ones though."

Indeed, trying to recall which specific vision was which just brought out more static in his eyes, as if the world around him was collapsing into a void of greys, whites, and black. Odd grabbed his forehead, fighting to keep his thoughts and memories under control. He could already feel a headache coming on.

"Hmph, well that's real useful info then." Ulrich grunted sarcastically.

Odd's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, not enjoying how mocking his roommate's tone was. "Hey, I don't make the rules on this, Kid Flash!"

"Then figure them out and stop confusing everyone," Ulrich snapped, getting up from the table and leaving the cafeteria before Odd could summon a proper rebuttal.

"...Jerk." Odd muttered, feeling rubbed the wrong way from the martial artist's dismissal.

"He gets like that sometimes." Jeremie shrugged, causing Yumi to give the computer genius a look, which he of course, ignored. "Just telling me that there was precedent should be enough for me to start drawing up theories. If you have any more aberrant visions today, text them to me after classes are done."

Odd sighed hearing about classes. Of all the things he really wished he didn't have to deal with. He just hoped it wouldn't be like last time.

"Will do, Einstein." Odd said weakly, giving the computer genius a thumbs-up.

Breakfast was then a simple affair; after his near-choking to death, Odd found that he had no appetite for seconds after finishing off the rest of his initial portion. Jeremie and Yumi were next to leave, the former leaving in a hurried rush, while the latter took her time moving out, careful not to injure herself further.

Odd had to admit that while Yumi was certainly doing better than yesterday, she still wasn't up to 100 percent.

But he had other priorities right now, the unfortunate thing that was classes.

So now, placing his tray on the used stack, Odd heaved a breath and exited the cafeteria, returning to his room, with Kiwi now sound asleep once again. Ulrich had long-since beaten him there, so there was no-one to talk to as Odd picked up his bookbag and left for the science building.

When the transfer student had taken his seat, he saw that he was sitting next to Jeremie, with Ulrich situated on the other side of the room (Odd really did not know what was going on with the guy today). Yumi of course, sat on the same side as her not-boyfriend, but notably in a row in front of the martial artist. This wasn't too surprising; Ulrich had never seemed interested in sitting near Odd previously, and both he and Yumi gravitated towards the same places, yet Odd still felt a nagging instinct about it all.

It really didn't help that as he took notice of his classmates, seeing that Sebastian, Amare, and Hugo also shared first period with him, that the latter was situated just two rows in front of Odd and Jeremie. Granted, Amare was sitting next to Hugo (Sebastian sat alone square in the middle column of the room), but Odd felt his neck hairs raise on end regardless.

It certainly didn't help that after Odd took out his completed homework, another chance glance up saw Hugo, his eyes narrowed and twisted in hate, as he was surrounded by static which then started pouring out of his mouth as shadows covered his face and began to deform the baseball player into-Odd did not even let that have a chance to continue as he took the worksheet packet and slapped it into his face.

"Something wrong?" Jeremie asked.

Odd looked back up; Hugo had now turned to fully face the wall. The transfer student breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay, so, uh, you did catch Hugo looking at us, right?" he whispered.

Jeremie stole a glance at the front of the room. Odd's eyes followed the computer genius' line of sight, but Hugo remained facing the blackboard.

"No, no I did not…" Jeremie muttered. "Did you have a vision?"

"Nothing really…detailed." Odd sighed, wondering whether or not to get into the specifics. He found himself about to summon the courage to describe the sight of Hugo seeming to turn into…something, when a disgruntled 'ahem' cut in.

"Settle down, class." Came the voice of Miss Hertz. "Today we'll be finishing our lessons on photosynthesis and moving on to soil profiles and composition. I trust you have all finished your homework over the weekend? Including our new transfer student?"

"Uh, well…yes ma'am?" Odd gulped, holding up the packet. He really did not like how it had taken only one week for the strict science teacher to have already singled him out; that had to be a record with whenever Odd had new teachers.

"Well, if you've decided to take lessons from Jeremie I hope you'll properly remember this for the test this coming Wednesday. That of course goes for everyone in the classroom, understood?"

A collective groan from almost everyone was the general reply.

"Do we always need to deal with a topic review test?" Amare moaned.

The science teacher's response was honestly predictable. "You can question my methods whenever you want, Mister Arendse, but need I remind you about the importance of maintaining your grades for you to continue participating in your extracurricular activities?"

The fact that Amare was quick to shut his mouth was rather telling for the academic vigors that would await Odd soon enough. A glance to the side to see Ulrich and Yumi's reactions showed that while the latter remained stony-faced, the former was clearly biting back a nervous gulp.

It was times like these that almost made Odd wish to return to the fights of life-or-death, if only to avoid the horrors that were academics.

Keyword being 'almost'; truth be told, he'd rather not deal with either.

That being said, the monotony of listening to a science lecture about dirt was a welcome change of pace after the long, chaotic weekend, so Odd didn't begrudge Miss Hertz too much. Though it didn't change the fact that he wasn't looking forward to a test in the middle of the week of course.

"So, please tell me Amare wasn't exaggerating, Einstein." Odd begged Jeremie when the bell for next class rang.

"Oh no, Miss Hertz always makes sure to have a review test up and ready for us." Jeremie shrugged casually. "She's really dedicated to science. I never saw anyone like that at my old school."

Odd's curiosity at Jeremie's past was immediately overwhelmed by an astounding lack of surprise that the kid obsessed with the demonic supercomputer would not mind having to deal with weekly tests and quizzes.

"Is he always like this?" Odd tried to ask Ulrich, only to get the cold shoulder as the martial artist speed-walked away.

Seriously, what was the guy's problem today? What'd Odd do?

"You haven't figured that out yet after a week, Della Robbia?" Sebastian commented, making up for Ulrich's dismissal.

"Jeremie lives and breathes on homework." Amare chuckled.

Disturbingly, similar to Ulrich, Hugo too remained silent, but whereas Ulrich had chosen to immediately leave, Hugo seemed content being near Odd's shoulder. Now, that was a bit of a figure of speech; Hugo was sticking closer to Amare, but truth be told, the transfer student felt very uncomfortable to be even three feet near the blue-capped baseball player.

Mainly because said baseball player was very clearly staring at him and Jeremie, and the latter looked too focused on something else to notice.

Odd briefly looked around, trying to find Yumi to see if she had any two cents/a way to keep Hugo away, but, as she did not share gym with the other Xanadu Warriors, the girl had already vanished to head for her next class.

Now, Odd liked to think he was somewhat of a master of the 'vanishing act' back home, even if he had been caught enough times to put his escape ratio at around 3:7, but Yumi and Ulrich seemed to really have the art down pat.

He would not have time to mull over that however, as now, gym was upon them. They were done with rock-climbing after last week, and were now moving onto a track-and-field rotation. Everyone, dressed in their PE outfits, were now sitting on the grassy field, cross-legged, as Jim paced back and forth.

"Running is the most noble event in athletics!" The PE teacher boomed as he introduced the class. "Except maybe for the long jump, javelin, high jump, pole vault…ah, you know what I mean." He coughed before resuming. "Now, some of you may associate running with cowardice, as in running away, but nothing could be further from the truth! As they say, 'he who runs well, runs far'!"

"I always thought it had something to do with fighting for another day." Odd whispered to Sebastian, who shrugged.

"You would know, wouldn't you?" Ulrich grumbled, a very noticeable amount of wrath present in his voice.

Feeling taken aback, Odd couldn't help but retort. "Hey, I'm not the guy with the quick legs!"

"Especially with how scrawny you are." Hugo managed to cut in, causing Odd to jump. Where had he been seated again?

"Says the guy who needs a hat to get up there in the height department." Amare responded with a chuckle.

"AHEM!"

The boys all looked to see Jim glowering down at them. So were the rest of the class, including Jeremie, who had wisely stayed away from the 'conversation' and was now content to let them deal with the PE teacher.

"If you five have the energy to talk, perhaps you would like to demonstrate to the class your paces and strides? We can compare you all in a race, how about it? Four laps around the track!"

"I would like to point out that I did not verbally respond, sir." Sebastian put in.

Unfortunately, his remark only earned a glare from Jim. "Don't try to weasel out of this, Toup, you're getting on that field!"

"Then bring Jeremie too!" Hugo suggested. "He didn't 'verbally respond' either!"

"Tempting," Jim admitted. "But then, he wasn't a part of your little side conversation at all now was he? If I bring in Belpois, then I have to bring in, say, Bastien, Julien, Matthew, or Naomi. And of course, expand that on the rest of the class, just to be fair! So, would anyone else like to participate in this class run for our day's exercise?"

Everyone's response was to silently glare at Hugo for nearly getting them all into trouble…or planting the idea of a full race on a Monday morning into Jim's head, who knew? Odd felt some comfort knowing that no-one wanted that and now Hugo's attention was diverted for a bit to focus on his newfound enemies.

"Well, that answers all of our questions. Besides, you're looking like my star pupil for Saturday, Abel! Embrace the race to come!"

Jim then blasted his whistle. "Alright men, come on, chop-chop!"

"In some ways, this is a highlight." Odd commented.

"Or just a chapter of Hugo making a bunch of trouble for himself." Amare snickered.

The dark-skinned boy turned around, as if expecting a snide comment, but when there was no response, Odd turned his head back around as well, seeing Hugo stare at all four of them with an empty, yet piercing look, at this point far behind them, as they walked over to their starting positions on the track. Turning back to face the front, Odd couldn't help but gulp.

They took their positions on the track, only to then find a little fact that Jim had overlooked.

"Hey, uh, Jim, there's only four loop lanes." Odd pointed out.

"Huh, so it seems…" Jim considered. "Alright, Toup, looks like you're getting out of the first round after all You'll be ready for the second one I hope."

"Annnd he's got the idea to have all of us go after all. Yay. Great job Abel." Sebastian grumbled under his breath as he returned to the field.

Hugo only scoffed, even though Odd could see that everyone in the class had come to the same realization as the Street Kid and were glaring at the baseball ace for giving Jim the idea to make Monday morning Hell.

The four remaining boys got on the track. From right to left was Amare, Odd, then Hugo, and finally Ulrich.

Odd gave one other quick glance to his side. While Amare looked rather calm, both Ulrich and Hugo were clearly tense, seeming to size each other up as they faded away into darkness an0 1010…

"Ghhh…not now…" Odd groaned quietly, closing his eyes tight.

"Are you ready?" Jim declared.

Hastily, Odd got into position, taking as deep a breath as he could.

"GO!"

Immediately, it was clear that Ulrich held the advantage; of the quartet, he was the tallest, with the longest legs, and was already drawing a lead. Amare was in second, owing to being the second tallest, leaving Odd and Hugo, the two shorties, behind. Between them, Hugo was in third, leaving Odd in dead-last by a small margin.

"Come on, Abel! You can't let Stern beat you! He's already occupied with an event this weekend!" Jim called.

From his point behind, Odd could already see that he was falling way behind. Just as he was making the turn, Ulrich was already finishing the second straightaway, with Amare halfway through and Hugo having made it past the curve.

Okay, saying that he was falling behind was an understatement. He was pretty much-

"And Della Robbia is dead-last!" Jim barked. "Completely disappointing!"

Yeah, that.

Still, Odd figured he might as well press on, unlike Jeremie, he certainly wasn't unfit; he just didn't have the leg span the others did, nor could he get a good speed going when his brain was all discombobulated with everything that was going on right now. While he doubted he could beat Ulrich, there was no reason Odd couldn't catch up with Amare or Hugo.

Plus, thinking about it, it would've been embarrassing for the guy with superpowers to lose out to two dudes who didn't. The only thing stopping Odd was the idea of getting closer to Hugo, but hey, at least he had some freedom of movement to also run away from the dude.

Of course, with the thought of said freedom of movement in mind, Odd felt his confidence return; he realized that he'd let his breathing get uneven from the sudden start. As he pushed forward, noticing that Hugo was starting to catch up to Amare now, Odd let his inhaling and exhaling patterns even themselves out, taking longer, consistent breaths in and out.

His strides began to become longer, and his muscle movements quicker as well. The early discomfort began to fade as Odd got into the action.

Now, he certainly would never call himself a jogger, but after the weekend he'd had in Boulogne-Billancourt, Odd was confident that he could maintain a decent pace.

"There we go, Della Robbia! Catch-up to them!" Jim called.

"Just so you know, I'm not rooting for any of you guys!" Sebastian encouraged sarcastically.

Honestly, that was about as much encouragement as Odd expected; he could hear several other students cheering for Ulrich and Amare, while it was clear he and Hugo were the underdogs (if he was being generous of course). The class's attention was clearly on the two who either hadn't made embarrassments of themselves earlier, or gotten everyone into trouble for no good reason.

Which, for once, was good; it meant Odd could attempt a good old-fashioned dark-horse victory. He figured he could use the boost to his rep, and stick it to Hugo.

With oxygen pumping into his lungs with each breath, Odd felt his pace continue to pick up. The placements had not changed, but Hugo had managed to close the gap between himself and Amare. Ulrich was already halfway through the second straightaway, gaining a greater lead.

And while that meant that Odd was right now in dead-last still, he was also closing the gap; with Amare and Hugo ahead of him, that gave him some good pace-setters.

The three of them were beginning to cluster, and now were making the second curve together.

"C'mon, Abel, don't let Della Robbia beat you!" Jim called. "And Della Robbia, keep on going!"

As they passed by, Odd could hear Sebastian's voice. "You're not picking a side, Jim?"

To which Jim replied. "Well, back when I was a trainer for the Special Forces, it was always imperative to be impartial, Toup."

"You were a trainer for the Special Forces?"

"Well, I was, but…I'd rather not talk about it."

Now moving away from the class again, the trio continued down the first straightaway. Their placement was changing now. Hugo, breathing quickly, began to outpace Amare.

"Oh no, you don't!" countered the dark-skinned boy, picking up his tempo as well.

It was annoying, but Odd, as he was relying on them for a pace-count, did the same. He was just behind the baseball players now, who seemed more focused on each other than Odd. A quick glance showed that Ulrich was already past the curve again; at this point, Odd did not need Future Flash to know that the martial artist was bound to take first place, with or without super-powers.

He shook off the idle thought if Ulrich was using his powers to cheat. It didn't seem like the dude's style for one, and even if he was, it wasn't like Odd could, or wanted to get him in trouble for it.

Anyways, back to his own focus. Hugo and Amare were completely neck-and-neck with one another, their paces generally evening out.

Odd however, was still picking up his own. Taking steady breaths to keep himself in check, he began to increase his stride. And so, while Hugo and Amare kept switching their placement, Odd began to consistently move past them, until, as they were now halfway down the second straightaway, he pulled ahead in-between the two, leaving them just a few steps behind…albeit they were steps that neither could close the gap on.

"Oh, wow…phew, keep it up, Odd!" Amare cheered.

Odd felt satisfied, from both Amare's encouragement, and Hugo's growl of frustration.

And as they passed the curve to complete the second lap, he could hear several gasps of astonishment from the class…along with some unfortunate gossip.

"No way, the crazy seizure kid pulled ahead of Amare?"

"You'd think a guy with a hairstyle like that would have more bugs in it."

"I thought he'd wipe out and fail, he's so scrawny…"

"You're still in Stern's dust, Della Robbia!" came the sarcastic cheering of Sebastian.

Odd wanted to complain (for many, MANY reasons), but at this point, knowing he was at the halfway mark of the run gave him the assurance to keep on going. He was going to complete this come hell or high water.

So now Lap 3 began. Ulrich, of course, still held an unbreakable lead; it was very likely that he was going to pass them on his last lap, so Odd decided to just focus on Hugo and Amare as his competition.

He grunted, breathed, and continued to move forward; picking up the pace once again. If he was going to maintain his lead, it would make sense. He could've looked back to check, but really, if either of the two were going to pass him, he'd easily see them do so, or just hear their breathing get louder as they got closer.

Such as what was happening right now, wait, what?

"That's it, Abel! Go at it!" Jim's voice called from the other side of the track.

Odd didn't need to look back to know who was now gaining on him, whose face was turning red from the exertion.

Hugo Abel, his face twisted in a cold expression that looked very strange on how strained his monstrous face was.

It took all of Odd's self-control not to gasp in horror and break his breathing rhythm. Hugo was now neck-and-neck with him, and thanks to them being on adjacent tracks, was now right next to him. A position Odd did not want; being next to Hugo was like being right next to a nest of maggots or a scorpion.

"You're…gonna…be…"

"I do NOT swing that way! No matter how much people pester me about it!" Odd shrieked, summoning all of his explosive leg power to push himself forward away from Hugo.

"Wait, you're actually straight?" Sebastian somehow managed to call from the other end of the track. "I thought you were bi or pan, at least."

It almost heartened Odd that Sebastian felt comfortable enough with him to throw such a brazen, blunt, and inconsiderate remark like that out. Unfortunately, now that he was turning the corner and facing where the rest of the class sat, he could see and hear everyone laughing at him. Well, most of them, anyway. Some other students were looking at Sebastian with either disgust or acting very awkward.

Jeremie, of course, was not among any of these students, he merely looked at the race with disinterest.

"Wasn't. My. Question." Hugo panted as he caught up to Odd once again. "I. Meant…" he paused to catch his breath. "That you. Won't. Get away. From me."

"That ain't much better! Eat my dust!" Odd called, racing forward and hitting the next corner to start his fourth lap.

"Abel, if you let Della Robbia defeat you, I'll be doubling your baseline hits at practice this afternoon!" Jim threatened as Odd passed by the class.

Odd didn't hear Hugo reply. Instead he just heard the baseball kid's breathing becoming labored as he strove to catch up.

Not wanting to be anywhere near the insane creeper (who, based on the way he was acting, was probably not satisfied with Sebastian's cover story at all), Odd kept on speeding up. Obviously not to Ulrich's level of speed, but…

That actually did get Odd to think. He spared a glance at Ulrich and could see at the other end of the track that the martial artist was finishing his fourth lap now. Obviously, Odd didn't have Ulrich's natural speed, but now that he was in a non-battlefield setting, he was starting to realize that whatever benefits Xanadu had given him in there really had translated to the real world, minus the weapons.

With that, Odd began to grin. He hadn't expected to feel happy about today, but now that it was dawning on him…well. He snuck a look back at Hugo, and gave the jerk the most cathartic payback he could think of.

Sticking his tongue out to taunt him.

Okay, well, Odd didn't have much else to work with, but still. The actual catharsis now began as Odd once again began to pick up the pace. A pace that he had originally thought was his limit, but now he was realizing that it wasn't. It was subtle of course, nothing enormous or record-breaking-only enough to maybe shave a few seconds off his best run time…

But it was more than enough.

The gap between the two boys began to grow again, and Odd managed to hear Hugo's labored breathing turn into wheezing as the gap became insurmountable. He crossed the curve and went down the final straightaway, until reaching the finish line.

"WOO-HOO! Sweet, sweet victory!" Odd cheered for himself.

"In what world is second-place 'sweet victory'?" drawled Sebastian, reluctantly getting up to stretch before he was sent on his run.

"The world where he beat my ace in the hole." Jim sighed, shaking his head. "You sure you want to go skateboarding this Saturday, Della Robbia? You could try something more…dignified for an athlete."

"Ehhhh…nah, not my style." Odd shrugged as he folded his arms behind his head. "And, pardon the pun, not really my speed."

"Sounds like you're just being lazy." Ulrich scoffed, his tone sounding accusatory.

And with that, Odd just flat-out had had enough.

"Hey, it's not being lazy, I just don't wanna do it!"

"They're the same thing." Ulrich growled. "If you're not going to do something, then why bother trying? Why are you even here?"

Now Odd knew for a fact that Ulrich had some chip on his shoulder, and he had zero intention of allowing it through. "Hey, if I don't want to do something, it's my business, okay?"

"Oh sure, and your 'business' means you being some incompetent-"

"Hey, I am not incompetent!" Odd shouted, storming forward.

"Yeah, maybe it'd be better to call you useless instead." Ulrich taunted, gripping Odd's shirt.

Normally, a threat from Ulrich would've gotten Odd to back down…but right now, he really wasn't in the mood to just stand down from that.

"Do you have something else you're really trying to say? I'm right here, be honest."

"You-"

"Hey, hey, settle down." Jim warned, moving to separate the two.

But the P.E instructor didn't get that chance, primarily because Hugo had just finished his run…and dove smack-dab into the middle, causing all three of them to roll forward, and before anyone could stop the boys, fists were already flying. Odd couldn't make out who was specifically attacking who in the chaos, but he could tell it was all three of them trying their hardest to punch or kick at the other.

He did, however, make out a powerful force intervening, throwing out one of the punches, until a large hand grasped his head and allowed the dust to settle.

Odd was surprised to see Jim right there, holding him with his left hand, while his right arm was busy keeping Ulrich away. Off to the side was Hugo, gasping for breath and glaring at them hatefully.

"Principal Delma's office. Now." Jim rumbled, all levity gone from his voice.

---

So that was how Odd found himself in the principal's office, with Ulrich and Hugo. The three had been taken to the locker rooms and told to change into their usual clothes, as it was not likely they would be returning to the track. They'd changed in tense silence, with Jim eyeing them like a hawk, and once they were dressed, had been dragged to the office. They hadn't had to wait for long once they'd gotten there; with no-one else in but the secretary, all three boys were quickly sat down in front of Delmas while Jim explained the situation.

Odd had to say this, he was impressed at how quickly Jim's usual personality was gone. The PE teacher was explaining everything in a professional voice that Odd would never have expected from someone as expressive as Jim. He knew he certainly hadn't mastered that.

"Thank you for the explanation Jim." Delmas said, now focusing his attention on the trio. "I don't suppose you three have any way to rationalize how and why you lashed out at one another?"

"Well-" Odd tried to get out, but Delmas held up a hand.

"If it is some sort of petty remark, I'm not inclined to listen, Mister Della Robbia. Two hours of detention after class for the three of you each day for the entire week. Likewise, your applications for the District Competition are hereby voided and none of you will be attending this weekend. You can reflect on your actions towards each other in study hall on Saturday."

Hearing this last part, Odd saw Jim's expression twist in protest, though he was clearly working to clamp it down. Considering that the guy had been putting his faith in Ulrich and Hugo-especially the latter, it wasn't too surprising that he didn't want to lose his star players.

"W-wait, Mister Delmas, please-" Ulrich tried to argue, but the principal was already countering.

"The rules, Mister Stern, are rules, and no-one is above them. Having been here for more than a year, I would have expected you to have learned them by now."

"Aw, really, it was that important to you?" Hugo taunted, "well-"

"As I said, I am not inclined to listen to your petty feuding, Mister Abel." Delmas interrupted. "You can try that on your own time, and if you desire more detention as well, I am happy to provide."

Hugo didn't say anything more. He just folded his arms to sulk. Ulrich however, was clearly still distressed. Unfortunately for the martial artist, it wasn't having any effect on Delmas.

"If all is made clear, you may return to your classes." The principal said sternly. "You are dismissed."

Ulrich was the first one out, storming away from the others as soon as possible. Jim yelled at him to stay where he could see him, and though the martial artist had listened, he still kept his distance.

As for Hugo, for someone who had basically been given week-long detention and was forbidden to head out on Saturday, he was…remarkably satisfied, based on the horribly smug smirk on his face. It creeped Odd out; he himself felt disappointed that he wouldn't be able to settle his score with Sam, but Hugo didn't seem to mind losing out on whatever big accomplishment Jim had been working the baseball team towards.

Nor did the blue-capped boy seem inclined to gloat, though maybe that was because Jim was right behind them, ready to intervene if he heard even a 'peep'.

There were more than a few things Odd wanted to say…but with things going as they were, he felt that he needed to keep his mouth shut.

So he did. At least for now.

The next two classes went by without any major drama; of course, since he and Ulrich shared Math and History together, neither of them were interested in speaking to one another. That didn't mean they weren't tense though, and while they didn't share Math with Hugo, they certainly did for History, and Odd could just feel a sense of disgust writhing in his veins as Hugo sat a few desks away, continuing to be infuriatingly calm, as if he hadn't contributed to a blow-up brawl that morning.

Suffice to say, Odd was more than pleased to have lunch when the bell rang. Ulrich had been ahead of him when the line for the cafeteria built up, and had chosen to sit away in some corner as opposed to the usual table where Jeremie and Yumi were. That at least made things a bit easier for Odd as he figured out where he'd plant his bum.

"Alright, what's going on?" Yumi sighed, seeing Ulrich choosing to sit on his own.

"Your boyfriend's a total dick, what else can I say?" Odd grumbled.

Yumi's face went red. "He is NOT my boyfriend!"

"Ishiyama, everyone here can see it." Sebastian drawled. "You'll spare us all the drama by just kissing Stern…or piledriving Stern, however you choose to show him affection."

Yumi flared her nostrils, picked up her tray, and stormed over to Milly and Tamiya's table. The junior reporters were clearly quite delighted to see her, but it seemed that Yumi was muttering something, and Tamiya immediately began changing the subject. Probably away from Yumi's lovelife, now that Odd thought about it.

"Hey, so uh…anyone know where Hugo is?" Amare decided to ask. "He's…not here."

Odd, though very much wanting nothing to do with Hugo, decided to look around. He saw Charlie in line for lunch, surrounded by other kids of his age group, but there was no sign of his older brother anywhere.

"Well, if he ain't here, he ain't here." Odd shrugged. "One less jackass to worry about."

"This mean you wanna sit with us then?" Amare offered. "Think Charlie's gonna be preoccupied with his own friends, which means less talking in code."

"Yes, and then he'll have a vision which makes him spit his milk into my soup through his nose." Sebastian deadpanned. "I'll be very eager to have that added to my meal."

"Aw, shut up." Odd sighed. "I'm comfortable where I am."

"So, you have anything you want to ask me?" Jeremie inquired.

Odd thought for a moment. "Then again maybe switching seats won't be so bad!"

"So…nothing then?" Jeremie called as Odd got up.

But for once, Odd did not reply. At least, not right away. He sighed, and then sat back down, feeling drained from the drama of the morning.

He tried to recall what he felt, but all he could remember was…

"I think…I saw Hugo turning into some kind of monster or something." He muttered. "But…that's it. Nothing really groundbreaking, don't hyper analyze it, Einstein."

"You're asking Jeremie to not hyper analyze something?" Amare asked, sliding into Ulrich's usual spot, while Sebastian reluctantly sat where Yumi had been. "Dude, that's like asking a bear not to go after honey."

"You're not paranoid about the next vision of doom, Arendse?" Sebastian sighed.

"So...Is this a good time to talk about how exactly the vision I had of you two yesterday killed you, or no?" Odd considered.

"I vote to leave the table now." The Street Kid gulped.

"Enough." sighed Jeremie, waving for everyone to quiet down. "First, any additional context to the vision of Hugo?"

Odd strained to remember, but all he could recall was Hugo's face being twisted. He shook his head 'no'.

"Hmmm…based on what you explained about yesterday, not to mention your dreams…this might be an incorrect hypothesis, but…it could just be some kind of psychological projection."

Odd raised an eyebrow as he spooned some soup into his mouth. "Maybe? I mean…it's pretty obvious that Sebastian's cover story didn't work. The guy's starting to rub me the wrong way."

"More than Ulrich?" asked Amare. "I saw you two go at it. Even if Hugo didn't get involved."

"Look, I said Ulrich was a jerk, not…whatever the hell is going on in Hugo's head."

"Fair."

Jeremie rolled his eyes. "If that's true, then you two know what your job is." He was referring to Hugo and Amare of course. "Either come up with a new one, or find a way to make sure Hugo stops interfering. We don't have time to deal with him at this stage."

"...Should we tell him the truth then?" Sebastian whispered. "Maybe it'll get him to stop being so paranoid."

"No…no…that…might not work." Amare sighed. "I uh…had a chat with him yesterday, before last night…and…well…"

"Spit it out, Arendse."

Odd looked at Amare, who didn't seem happy to volunteer this information. But the dark-skinned boy did in the end. "I asked what he would do if he found out, y'know, brought up some hypotheticals and…well, he wasn't really sympathetic. It's why I told you he was…unhinged."

"You couldn't have brought that up when we talked last night?!" Sebastian angrily whispered. "You could've just said that Abel's after us, no matter what the explanation is! Don't pussy-foot around with 'unhinged'! That's too vague!"

"That explains why he was happy about Ulrich's ban." Odd muttered.

The other three boys looked at him. "Ban?" They asked.

Odd sighed and explained the punishment that Delmas had given them.

"I mean, I'm not happy I won't get to see Sam again, but-"

"Della Robbia, with all of the crap that goes around here, virtual world or no virtual world, you'll probably be seeing Knight again sooner than you think." Sebastian groaned. "But…yeah, that confirms that we have to consider Abel as an enemy. And as for Stern…"

Odd followed Sebastian's gaze over to the lonely corner where Ulrich sat. The boy didn't seem really interested in his food, just taking a few sips of soup with his spoon here and there, but for someone so angry, he seemed a lot more…sad than anything.

"His old man's not going to let him live this down." Amare said quietly.

"I briefly considered going to him for questions on Saturday…guess that plan's been shot in the foot." Jeremie muttered, prompting Sebastian to whack the computer genius' head.

"Sensitive topic, Belpois, care about the people, not the exposition they may or may not have."

Odd should've stopped himself, but well, he was something of a cat now, and a bit of curiosity, well…

"Uh, so…maybe should've asked this on Saturday, but what's Ulrich's deal with this competition? I know it's big, but…"

"His old man." Sebastian answered. "Your classic case of a ruthless, cold businessman who cares only about success and status. If you don't meet his standards, you're garbage. We've met him a few times before at events. The iceberg that sank the Titanic has more of a heart than he does."

"He's also probably racist," Amare grumbled. "Guy looked at me, Sebastian, Molly, Duyen, Alejandro, basically anyone who didn't have his skin tone or facial structure really, like we were freakshows. Rubbed me the wrong way."

"He called me a 'good-for-nothing' for some reason," Jeremie grunted. "Don't understand where that came from."

"Probably because he thought you'd be an enemy in his future or something." Sebastian shrugged. "I don't know what goes in the heads of people like that and frankly, it's not worth learning. Walter Stern's a grade-A asshole the world would be better off without."

It didn't take long for the rest to click there for Odd. "And…he puts those standards on Ulrich?"

"Yup. Not even his own son is exempt." Sebastian sighed.

"I'll admit I wanted to keep him as a last-resort tactic, if necessary." Jeremie said. The fact that the boy who seemed to consider every avenue of investigation on Xanadu valid was reluctant to talk to Ulrich's father really did speak volumes to Odd. "The man is…not pleasant."

"Wow, never knew Ulrich had to deal with that." Odd said.

He did try to give Ulrich a good look, and indeed, Ulrich did look up at him.

But it was clear from his bitter and angry glare that he had no interest in talking to Odd. Honestly, that suited the transfer student just as well. If the guy didn't want help, he didn't want help…and plus…he probably needed his space anyways. No need to poke the angry bear, after all.

And really, Odd just wasn't in the mood to talk to him, even knowing all of what he'd learned.

---

Anyways, after lunch, Music and English came and went without much issue.

Then, came Art.

"Alright class," Chardin announced once everyone had been seated. "While you are working on today's assignment, I will be calling each and every one of you up personally to my desk so that we may discuss the progress of your semester projects. Normally I prefer to be more hands-off, but the Principal has insisted that I check earlier at least once and-ah, forget you, uh, heard that part, please."

"Yeah, we don't wanna lose the budget increase for the play in Spring." Sebastian whispered to Odd.

They were working on the usual perspective sketches to start off the week, nothing too difficult, a welcome relief from the strain of Miss Hertz's class. Honestly, Odd appreciated the ability to settle down. Art was honestly the only class he could do that.

"Della Robbia, if you would." Chardin's voice called.

"Wait, what?"

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "Della Robbia, your last name starts with a 'D', you're gonna be called up early in the list. So head up there. I mean…you did work on your project yesterday, right?"

Odd opened his mouth to say that he did…but then he began to think about yesterday and began to realize that while he had completed the immediate homework assignments…with everything that had happened, he hadn't actually drafted anything out. No potential storyboards, no notes, no preliminary sketches, absolutely nothing.

Color drained from his form as he realized his mistake.

"Well, I won't give you shit for it…but you better get something up to Chardin, fast." Sebastian said, giving a shrug.

"Come now, Della Robbia, it is only a preliminary progress check." Chardin called, but Odd could just tell there was a layer of strict ice under the art teacher's usually casual voice.

"Uh, uhhh…" Odd shook with nervousness, before pulling out his bag, a folder, and some random papers that he then stuffed into it before hastily making his way over to Chardin's desk.

"Ah, so, what do you have so far?" The art teacher asked politely.

"W-well, uhh…" stammered Odd as he pulled out the folder and allowed Chardin to look at the contents. "Nothing, really set into stone yet. Just some preliminary drawings for now, no real story developments yet…"

"Really? You seem to have something quite detailed here. True, it is a tad morbid, but I can't fault that with the times we live in."

"Huh?"

Chardin lay down the folder, and Odd's blood ran cold with shock as he realized that he had placed the sketches of Xanadu he had drawn previously: The terrifying profile of the monstrous Grim Reaper he'd made when first struggling with his powers, his sketch of the emblem of Xanadu, drawn in terror from the nightmare he had involving Sam and that mysterious, terrifying girl, and finally, the terrain of Xanadu itself, in all of its twisted, atmospheric terror.

"Are these drawings related, per chance?" Chardin asked, completely oblivious to their true meaning. Hopefully.

"U-uh, well, y-yeah, they are…" Odd managed to answer.

"I must say, this is intriguing." said Chardin, clasping his hands together. "Perhaps it is a bit vague, but…yes, yes, this has potential, please, keep it up, Mister Della Robbia." He then closed the folder and cleared his throat. "Next!"

Now dismissed, Odd quickly took the folder back and sat back down next to Sebastian. The Street Kid looked at Odd as he tried (and failed) to return to their classwork.

"Okay, what'd you show Chardin?" Sebastian sighed. "Was it something dirty?"

"I, uh…showed him my Xanadu sketches…" Odd quietly mumbled.

He expected Sebastian to freak out or slap him. Instead, the Street Kid facepalmed. Probably the most discreet way he could express his frustration or shock.

"Why, Della Robbia, why?"

"I didn't think I'd grab them!"

Sebastian shook his head and groaned. "Ugh, just be glad Chardin's one of those fans of 'mad art'."

'Mad Art' certainly seemed to define what Odd's life was turning into. He pulled out the drawing of the Grim Reaper and gave her a look. Subjectively speaking, he could say that he was relatively proud of it; it was excellently detailed with good shading, and conveyed a sense of terror, dread, and chaos all in one. Shame much of that was at his expense beforehand, but still…

Maybe Chardin was onto something when he said it had potential…

Then Odd shoved that thought out of his head and put the drawing away. What potential was there in a project like that? It gave him nightmares just thinking about it, and there were other things to deal with today.

Specifically the trial known as detention.

Once Italian was done and complete, Odd trudged over to the detention room. It wasn't particularly different from the usual classrooms, aside from maybe one or two extra pipes and exposed metal walls. Seated at the front desk was a man with red-brown hair wearing a blue sweatshirt and jeans who looked more college-aged than an actual teacher. He gave a morose nod to Odd, who gave the room a second look to see Ulrich and Hugo already present, where the former was seated next to a window at the back, while Hugo sat on the other side away from him.

Ulrich didn't bother looking at Odd, he was just laying his head on his desk.

Hugo however…

Odd was immediately reminded of the Grinch from the classic special, with his disgusting, evil grin. Already Odd was agreeing with what Sebastian had said at lunch. Couldn't Amare have told them that his 'friend' was acting like some evil, crazy person out to get them?

Shuddering, and not wanting to give Hugo another look, Odd turned and sat in the front, a place where he would've never sat down otherwise.

"Alright, you three are in here for two hours. Turn off your cell phones while you're here, don't get into any more fights during the week, and you'll be golden." the detention supervisor yawned.

Then the man fell asleep right there and then.

Odd hated how he could feel the hairs on his neck rise up in anticipation. Hugo had him right where he wanted. Odd tensed his shoulders, waiting for the paranoid baseball player to come up to him now that the only adult in the room had turned a blind eye.

But he never came. Not even a vision appeared before Odd warning of Hugo's coming; at least he felt his power would be reliable enough for that.

The room's silence was becoming stifling as the minutes ticked by. Odd felt that he would lose it if he did not do something.

So, with nothing left before him (besides homework), Odd took out his sketchbook and began to draw. He was behind with his project, and after that scare, he did feel that it needed work. Certainly not what the teacher had described, no sir-ree…

But after everything he'd experienced, it was hard not to push the terrifying thoughts of monsters, ghosts, and crazy people out of his head.

Instinctively, Odd's memories were getting the better of him, and his world became a sea of black-and-white as he became more immersed in his drawing, covering the white paper with dark graphite and ink.

The art took form, and slowly a comprehensive picture emerged.

A creature with pincer-like hands and insectoid arms emerged from the darkness, its face twisted in demonic hatred. Tentacles emerged from the mass of static as the creature entered the world, their placement making the creature's long, prehensile tongue stand out even more. Shadows spread from the beast, covering the ground, leaving the figures below, simple people, helpless before it.

When Odd completed the work by sketching the symbol of Xanadu upon its head, he took a moment to be impressed. Looking at the clock, he also saw that he'd run out his time as well, and hadn't needed to talk to Hugo or Ulrich at all.

The latter of course, was now leaving without so much as a good-bye.

As for the former, Odd didn't even want to give him a chance to come near. He put his sketchbook away and scampered out of the room, the supervisor seemingly oblivious to it all as he continued to sleep.

That just left Hugo Abel alone.

Alone…to plot, if Odd had ever taken that idea into account.

---

Seeing that his quarry had left; one broken and the other too much of a chicken to stick around, Hugo sighed, getting up from his chair.

He still couldn't believe it, deep down. He had hoped that Amare and Sebastian at least, would have his back on this once everything was revealed. Once Ulrich, Yumi, and Jeremie were revealed to be endangering the world, along with their accomplice, Hugo would have the means to get rid of them as soon as possible.

Amare's words from yesterday still rang in his ears of course; "Yeah, I'll admit I've never understood that from you. Why's your first instinct on something suspicious have to be so hostile? Have you ever thought about what those guys might be going through?"

He had, for about three seconds until he considered the following; if Amare's instinct that they were trying to 'protect' them was correct, why hide what they were doing? They had all been attacked by that nightmare called 'Teddy', yet why was it that only those three got to know the 'how' and 'why'? Why did they let some stranger into their group instead of people they knew? Why hide it in the first place?

These questions, and more, were why regardless of what they were doing, or claimed to be doing, were why Hugo had become so driven.

At first, Sebastian had seemed to be on the same page as him. Sunday seemed to be that moment. The Street Kid had gotten a lead on Jeremie's activities, on the cusp of finding out the group's dark secret…only to return with an answer Hugo could just tell was false. What had happened? Why did Sebastian betray him?

(Amare by that point brought nothing to the fight in Hugo's eyes.)

He left his phone there, just to confirm, to listen in on their conversation…

What Hugo heard next confirmed all of his worst fears and then some. Sebastian knew everything now…and had chosen to side with…with them. Amare had never been loyal-Sebastian had already seemed to go straight to him and divulge everything, with the dark-skinned boy comprehending everything that was being told to him.

All while considering Hugo a liability.

Well, that suited Hugo just fine. They thought of him as an enemy? Then he would act as their enemy.

His enemies were apparently 'heroes' fighting against evil digital monsters in a parallel virtual reality. These things were responsible for 'Teddy' and probably other phenomenon. Sebastian had been quite descriptive about the most recent one, where a giant smoke monster had been created and enslaved a bunch of cultists and Sebastian himself into stone-statue zombies.

But just as the monsters from 'Xanadu' could influence the real world, so too did the 'heroes' gain power from it. The abilities they displayed in the virtual world to fight the monsters likewise manifested in the real world. Ulrich seemed to have super-speed, Yumi telekinesis, and Odd the power to see into the future. The 'heroes' could use these abilities to fight them in both, but only in the virtual world could they truly be defeated.

Now, this was where for a moment, Hugo thought about Amare's words once again.

That was when he made his decision.

Screw it all. There was a solution right in front of them that they hadn't considered. A solution they should have considered from Day 1.

Call in the actual authorities to deal with it. By playing 'hero', they were just prolonging the fight. And if the monsters were evolving? And if they were too scared to defy 'the visions' by asking for more help?

Then these people could not be trusted with saving the world. The fact that Yumi had apparently lost control was proof enough. It didn't take Hugo long to consider what that power could do to Charlie if the Japanese girl went berserk again. And with the monsters evolving, on top of the last attack seeming to be the closest brush they all had with death, barely stopping them…

Well then, Hugo was not going to give the so-called 'warriors' a chance. They hadn't done so for him, and thus he would not extend that courtesy in return.

Yet once again, and for the final time, his conversation with Amare rang in his head. These were his friends; he'd known them for a year…

But no, no... A year of good memories made no difference before years of anguish. He had been betrayed before, he had seen what would happen when responsibility was not taken. He had sworn to take on that burden himself long ago, before he ever met these people. It was how he and his little brother had survived, when Hugo swore to defend him when the adults in their lives could not or would not.

In the end, it was a dog-eat-dog world. The only 'heroic' act that Hugo could do was to protect what little family he had left. He could not do that while Xanadu was allowed to thrive, nor would he entrust Charlie's safety in the hands of others, let alone the hands of Jeremie Belpois.

Thus, he had begun to plot, to plan. Trying to figure out what he would need to do to take them down.

At first, he had attempted intimidation. Back where he came from, that was the best way to get someone to back off. Unfortunately, in hindsight, expecting to scare people who were fighting near-literal nightmare beasts with his own scary scowl was like trying to put out a forest fire with a barrel of bubble mixture. Ulrich clearly wasn't scared, and if he wasn't, Yumi was far less likely. Jeremie was oblivious, as per usual, and as for Odd…he was clearly creeped out, but had an annoying talent to get away before Hugo could corner him properly.

Though, considering the new kid could apparently see into the future, it didn't really surprise Hugo that much.

He had been surprised during gym class. Not because he'd gotten Jim's attention-he hadn't planned on that, but because Ulrich had done his job for him in creating an opening. No idea why that was, but hey, Hugo wasn't going to fail to seize the opportunity.

True, it had caused him to lose out on the Inter-School Competition, but that was peanuts by this point. He had to take whatever victory he could get, and taking away a chance for Ulrich to impress his old man certainly counted.

It was during lunch that it hit him, a revelation that had, regrettably, caused him to miss out on it in the first place as he stewed alone in his room, but then again, he was never much of a fan of soup so it was hardly a loss.

Maybe Hugo could work with that angle…if Ulrich had such an exposed weak point, then for a person who lacked special powers, it would make for the perfect way to create an opening. He could not defeat them directly or in combat, even without taking the 'warriors' into account, both Sebastian and Amare were fairly good in fights in their own right.

But if he were to continue destabilizing Ulrich, from that shatterpoint, cracks would spread. Maybe not permanent in the long-run…but then, Hugo didn't need that. Just enough to get him the opportunity to grab the smoking gun. One recording conversation would not prove it. He would need undeniable proof. To get to that, he would need to get to Jeremie. Ambushing him in his room would only get Hugo in more trouble. But by flustering Ulrich, by letting the bad atmosphere spread…it would open up said room to Hugo, and there, he knew, his prize would be waiting.

He had to let out a triumphant smile before he walked out of the detention room. Everything was clear now.

One way or another, Hugo Abel was going to put an end to this.

---

Jeremie POV, focusing on his return to his studies, along with him uncovering his first major discoveries…notably he does not share these with anyone in the group.

To be blunt that dinner was as tense as lunch had been was a bit of an understatement. Neither Odd nor Ulrich seemed interested in talking with each other, clearly detention hadn't motivated them to reconcile after the latter's outburst. Yumi had apparently decided to continue sitting with Milly and Tamiya, and while this time Hugo did show up for a meal, he had chosen to sit alone, just like Ulrich. Charlie had seemed worried, and had brought his friends from his year over to his big brother's table, but was quietly shooed away.

But if Jeremie's analysis was complete by now…then they wouldn't be dealing with this anymore in the future.

He'd thought it would have been complete by morning, but when he'd made his way back to his computer after showering to check, he found that the decryption program was still running; more than half-complete, but still in-progress nonetheless.

Thus, he'd had to spend the entire day waiting. In hindsight, it was probably too hopeful and unrealistic to expect that decoding such complicated, top-secret programming would be as quick and simple as simply taking a night.

Halfway through dinner, his phone rumbled with a notification. He had set up his own personal app to notify him of any updates to his programs should they ever need to run on their own-he'd made sure to connect all of his devices after all, but only after a sufficient period of time had passed without him in turn checking on their progress. He pulled out his phone for a quick look, and on the start-up screen, was the confirming notification.

Jeremie had to admit, he was excited, so much so that, in the end, he decided to give his dessert away to Odd, who eagerly jumped on it ("Compensation accepted, Einstein!"), and ran away to his room without looking back.

He opened the door and immediately shut it once he was in. He quickly turned on his monitor, and began to open up windows on the screen.

Almost immediately, Jeremie was floored by the amount of information before him. It seemed that he had truly opened up quite the treasure trove.

He didn't know where to start exactly, and to properly work on this code anyways, he would need to start at the Supercomputer itself, not from his home or hideout terminal. He jotted down notes concerning his initial observations, tried his best to prioritize which to examine first, then took a quick look down the hall, particularly for any signs of Hugo…and finding that the baseball player was nowhere in sight, quietly slunk away to go to the Factory.

Jeremie walked at a brisk pace, heart pounding against his chest. The first true answers and revelations were right in front of him. He could barely contain himself as he trekked to the manhole cover, opened it up, went down the ladder, and sped down the sewers via his scooter.

When he reached the end, he clambered up the ladder, barely taking notice of the waning crescent moon up in the sky as he crossed the bridge to the Factory and opened the great doors so he could get to the Supercomputer.

As they opened, Jeremie took a deep breath. "Alright, let's get to work."

He strode over to the computer terminal and turned it on, analyzing everything in detail.

First however, he had to refer to his notes; a quick list of pertinent observations he'd jotted down.

Description of 'Armaments of Khan'

This was a term that was not within the Professor's original guide of Xanadu. But as he examined the screen, he saw a set of profiles. Profiles that had not existed beforehand.

Whenever his companions were virtualized, the only way Jeremie had any way to monitor things such as their vitals was via a set of notifications. It was a simple warning system, either explaining how many uses they had left in their weapons, or if they'd taken a particularly nasty blow.

(Or, in the case of Yumi, if their powers were going out of control.)

He chewed the inside of his mouth, then re-checked what he now had before him.

What was now posted on the screen were I.D. card-based profiles of the three who had been virtualized within Xanadu. Far more detailed than before, Jeremie was now getting a description of statistics relating to the Avatars of the virtual world. Looking back at the 'Armaments of Khan', Jeremie now saw another screen titled with the phrase. Below it was a description.

He quickly read it, and blinked.

It was a perfect description of the weapons system, how each weapon was now tailored to the Avatars; the program however, was inchoate, incredibly basic, taking up resources that hadn't had time to be examined so that it could be perfected the way the original version had been. A note that doing so would be child's play however, was present, so it wasn't like improving it was out of the question.

This made Jeremie blink. 'Now' and 'original program' implied that some form of the system existed beforehand, but had not been fitted to the Avatar system like it was now.

Then again, beforehand, the Professor probably hadn't had to worry about Specter attacks.

But that just raised the question that if attacks hadn't existed back then, why install any kind of weapons system? Why did that exist?

Well, whatever the case, uploading the program now created an update with full profiles of his friends and their Avatars. The ID cards that now existed had placed them in a variety of poses, almost as if they'd been photographed in deliberate ones. But that wasn't right, they had never engaged in activity like that before…Jeremie certainly hadn't taken any pictures of Xanadu scenery; if he could, he would have saved every screenshot into his hard drive.

He examined the cards, and curiously, clicked on each icon. Each one led to a more detailed profile, each formatted the same way. Statistics about the subject's abilities, health status, and of course, weapon schematics.

Jeremie was quite eager to work on that first and foremost; getting rid of the charging time completely and increasing the power of their weapons to deal with the new monsters was the immediate priority, but his eyes drifted to Yumi's profile…and most disturbingly, the words were…scrambled around the 'Health' section.

'Scrambled' seemed the right word, even though his computing instincts immediately told him that this was a clear sign of a glitch in the system. Was what had happened to Yumi so severe that the Supercomputer couldn't calculate or register it? He checked Odd and Ulrich's profiles. The words were clear and concise, showcasing their health status as detailed as a proper medical record, for each individual virtualization. Everything was clear…but looking at Odd's profile showed some of that glitched-out code as well. Not coincidentally, in the same section as Yumi's profile from yesterday.

Of course, Yumi's automated entry for that day was completely garbled, even at the start when she wasn't suffering from a lack of control. Odd only had a few spots here and there, which seemed to correspond to when Yumi had entered that unusual state. The last few sentences read; 'Avatar returned to Material Side heavily injured, wounded from electrocution, bite-trauma in the chest, as well as temporary high-altitude pulmonary edema.' cleanly and precisely.

Though it was comforting knowing that they could now properly diagnose their injuries, the presence of glitched-code was troubling.

Chewing the inside of his mouth, Jeremie tried to delve deeper, to see the structure of this code, so he could perhaps edit it…

But it was no good. Whatever program he had unearthed, it seemed that finding its source code to edit was, for the moment, beyond his capability.

Sighing, Jeremie decided to at least content himself with the main project. He would have to deal with this later.

As Jeremie re-examined the data for the weapons, another thought struck him. He was tempted to dismiss it. It seemed like a distraction, something Odd would suggest out of his usual ignorance of the delicate programming and coding needed to make Xanadu function, Specters or no Specters.

But…the potential…

No…no. Unless he had a proper impetus, he would shelve that idea. Time to move on to the next major program.

KTX - Tower Access

Jeremie's eyes all but gleamed when he saw the words before him. The answer to their problems was already here! All he needed to do was…

Solve. Another. Encryption. Which, as he examined the code in front of him, was also incomplete. The basic structure of the program was all there…but the components that would enable it to work were either blank in very obvious spots, or, again, had an additional layer of encryption that he would have to manually run through and solve personally on whatever computing resources he had.

"It's never easy, is it?" Jeremie sighed morosely, removing his glasses so he could wipe his brow.

But at the very least, he had the solution he was searching for. Perhaps it was a bit too much to hope that it would've been handed to him on a silver platter ready to go, rather than something he would have to prepare himself. He probably should have counted himself lucky that the contents of the Compass were neatly organized at all, and not as some expansion packet filled with raw data he would have to sift through manually.

He could already hear Yumi and Sebastian complaining that it was suspicious, but it made sense…even if he still didn't know how the Professor's mind worked. If only he could have learned what had happened on the day of Panic…

No, no. Stay focused, he told himself.

Of course, asking a computer genius whose mind was simply bursting with ideas when he had a computer capable of coding nearly anything that was loaded into it to not think of something new was like asking Odd to not think about food.

Because Jeremie's mind was already turning back to his idea…which now had a proper basis and purpose to be seriously considered.

He now had his hands on a program that worked on creating inanimate objects, each encoded to a different Avatar, so that they could act as anti-Specter measures. But what if he could extend it beyond weapons?

Obviously, that seemed useless; what was the point of trying to create structures or new textures in Xanadu if the Specters likely instinctively knew their way around?

But Jeremie's goal was not to create new buildings, plant new trees and bushes, or dig some new lake for Xanadu. That was indeed pointless. No, his actual idea was, now that the way to enter the Towers was in front of him, to improve transportation between each of them. Yesterday had already proved that without Ulrich, navigating Xanadu was troublesome. Even if they'd managed to bring him along, without the Superscan to guide him, locating a Tower would be tricky, and with the increased power of the Specters to create new forms, wasting energy, no matter how miniscule it may have been for the Samurai, could not be tolerated at this stage.

Not to mention Odd and Yumi, who would very much need to conserve their strength. A need to navigate was paramount, both for combat, and with the Towers now looking to be opened to them at long last, for research and study as well. They had only just begun to penetrate the secrets of Xanadu. Trying to keep doing so on foot would be asinine.

And that was when Jeremie began to idly program his own space and codes. He'd already had it of course, when Xanadu had first been opened, but now it was to utilize a new, greater challenge.

"If I could create vehicles for them to use…that would help us to keep up with the evolution of the Specters."

It was officially no longer a stupid idea. It was one worth pursuing. Everything was starting to come together now.

Yet there was still more to uncover, and Jeremie tore himself away from what he would work on soon, for what would be dealt with in the future.

Re-Founding Protocol

Though Jeremie was intrigued to see this new program…he was not pleased to see that there was additional encryption locked on it. How it actually worked was still hidden from his eyes.

"Well…that's…useless…"

Of course, he was speaking in the practical sense. Whatever this 'Re-Founding Program' could do, it seemed to warrant a great deal of additional security measures. And he could at least examine it enough to tell that unlike the Tower Entry program, it was complete and ready to go.

But before he closed the window to 'shelve' the program window, Jeremie saw one unencrypted note.

"As a precaution, it is recommended that one place themselves in the scanners. Attached is an explanation of the procedure to scan oneself without being virtualized and immersed in Xanadu. It is critical that this step be completed first before ever using the Re-Founding Protocol."

And indeed, there was a guide for it.

That was…certainly an interesting train of thought, to be polite.

To utilize this program safely required a step to scan oneself without being virtualized? On the one hand, that seemed rather useless…

But on the other hand, that did seem rather handy…and any opportunity to learn more about the process could not be overlooked.

The decryption could wait for later, but the suggestion…Jeremie decided he would at least take that up tonight.

Code: Porlock

Well, this one was completely useless. The code was clearly incomplete. Examining it seemed to show signs of it being an antivirus program at first, but then it went into incomplete reformatting-based coding.

Jeremie was quite clueless why this was here, if he was being honest.

But if the Professor had gone to such lengths to include it…surely it had to mean something, right? He closed the window instead of deleting the program outright. Perhaps he'd study it later.

The computer genius stretched after completing his reading. He knew that this was only the start. The real work lay ahead.

Considering what he had to deal with…it probably wouldn't hurt to start with what had been recommended for the Re-Founding Protocol. Hopefully though, he wouldn't be in a situation where he would have to use it. He'd get himself scanned, and then get back to the rest of his projects.

He then saw what seemed to be a video file of some sort. He hadn't noticed it before.

"Interesting…maybe there's something useful there?

In hindsight, he probably should have paid more attention to the video file name…

It began with a video recording. A man with poofy graying hair and a clear five o'clock shadow was setting up the camera, grumbling all the while.

For a moment, Jeremie dared to believe that it was the Professor. But the man's words quickly proved that that was not the case.

"Can't believe I have to be the one to log this. I keep telling the boss that I don't have time, but then he insists I make the report regardless."

Then the man huffed and gave a calmer breath.

"Then again…curse my intrigue in the unexpected…this is what happens when your eyes are always darting…"

The man wiped his face. Jeremie noticed that his hands bore six fingers instead of the usual five.

"Anyways, here is the raw footage of what I observed while we were engaging in manual exploration earlier this afternoon."

The screen shifted. Jeremie immediately recognized the terrain as that of Xanadu. It was very similar to whenever he was gaining a 3D view of the virtual world relative to the perspective of those who were virtualized within it. But upon closer observation, the perspective was locked from the first-person view of the individual-who Jeremie presumed was the man in the video, was virtualized.

"Alright, split off from the rest of the group. I do my best work alone, after all…"

"We are literally observing everyone right now, Stanford, we know you're there, so you don't get lost after all." A snide, unfamiliar voice that sounded like it came from the terminal said.

"Erm…yes. Thank you, Roshia." the voice of the man named Stanford coughed, his voice turning to a grumble.

"Either case, Test #252 to study virtual world stability after implementation of Code: Alph. Examining integrity of virtual biome in Shangdu Forest to identify status. Will be running exploration near Tower #10, based on prior scans of the area. Examination of the surrounding area will also be undertaken."

As Jeremie observed the scientist's trek, he noticed a strange blue tint around the man's vision, which seemed to stretch along Xanadu like a fog as he examined the visual footage more closely. The man's breathing did not sound like the clear, uninterrupted gasps of his friends while they were running in Xanadu either. By contrast, 'Stanford' sounded like he was, for all intents and purposes, inside of a HAZMAT suit.

For the most part, his studies seemed rather routine as he examined the flora of Xanadu. His mutterings and observations from this point onward, however, seemed garbled or muted, preventing Jeremie from learning from these early studies.

It really did hammer home how, at one point, this abandoned factory was once a genuine research facility. Just what had happened to destroy all of that?

Stanford's voice then finally began breaking out again.

"Alright, I've moved away from Tower #10 now. I'm nearing the vicinity of Tower #8 now and will finish my manual observation there. I just need to-"

As Jeremie looked at the footage, a 'crack' echoed throughout the forest.

"Who's there?!"

The footage turned shaky as the scientist turned around, trying to discover the source of the noise.

"...Roshia…what was that? Was there anyone there?"

"Much as I would take pleasure in watching your shock, I am seeing nothing from my visual perspective. Continue with your survey please, and do be quick about it. I'd rather minimize the amount of time we need to clean that Watcher suit."

The scientist grumbled, and then continued walking. The forest now became thicker; the man was clearly having trouble moving through. He seemed about to complain, but the audio cut out once again. His perspective turned upwards, as if he seemed to yell above; likely at the 'Roshia' who he was working with.

Regardless of the difficulties, the man seemed quite detailed with his work. Though Jeremie could not see or hear any of his calculations, the pauses he took when examining the textures of the virtual world indicated that this scientist was taking this very seriously.

Then, when the man looked up from his latest observation, he jumped in shock.

Jeremie almost did as well.

For right in front of him, was the lying, prone form, of a Ghost Specter.

"Wh-where did that Manifestation come from?!" Stanford yelled. "Roshia!"

"I didn't summon it!" Roshia protested. "But if you're seeing it, it obviously has to be a side-effect of Code: Alph!"

"You mean you didn't see it until I did?!"

"No…I would've thought our little-"

The audio cut off again as Jeremie was given a rather shaky, unnerving view of such a large Specter lying prone on the ground, not doing anything to particularly move out or attack. Given how often his friends had to fight the things, seeing one up close, and without any form of warning, the boy could not blame the scientist's collective shock.

"I swear, if we have another…'incident'..." Stanford muttered, now turning away from the Ghost.

"Make sure you report it, then."

"Why does it have to be me?! I have more important things to do!"

"Wasn't the basis of your college thesis about anomalies?" Roshia drawled. "It's why we hired you and your late friend in the first place."

"And you continue to make me regret it…" Stanford sighed. "Almost makes me wish I'd left with my-"

He'd turned, but now the Specter was gone.

Then, something seemed to get his attention. The man looked up, and saw, for a brief moment, a dark, humanoid silhouette, seeming to peek at him from the trees.

"Is this some sort of-?!"

But the dialogue cut off as the darkness vanished right there and then.

The footage then cut to black, and then back to the scientist wandering a different part of the forest. He then suddenly turned and looked back.

Right there, there was another figure of darkness.

"W-well, report that already!"

"I am sending responses concerning the unregistered Manifestation! I keep getting 'Not recognized'!"

The footage cut out again, and each time the scientist seemed to make significant progress, a shadow seemed to follow him.

Sometimes it was akin to the first Ghost that had been seen, lurking around like an enormous insect or animal that appeared from nowhere, creeping along the trees or ground. But the rest of the time, it was that exact same shadow as before, lurking around, revealing part or all of itself before the scientist.

The audio was mostly cut, but as time went on, some garbled screaming, seeming to turn almost panicking, made it through.

"Why is that here?"

"I keep seeing these too often! Report it already! What is that A.I. doing, letting all of this-"

"Stop! Go away already!"

"Why are you following me?! Keep away!"

"Stay back!"

Then new voices emerged. Jeremie realized that these must have been from the group that 'Stanford' had split from.

"Why are those things here?"

"You mean to tell me that you DIDN'T see it coming?"

"GAH! What was that?!"

"Why do we keep running into these things?!"

"Get me out of here, already!"

Then the footage cut back to black, before returning to the perspective of Stanford in the real world. His face was still palmed in his hands, and his grouchy disposition had been replaced by tepid introspection as he seemed to legitimately consider what he and the others had observed.

"...Okay, perhaps in retrospect I should have taken this more seriously when examining the events of today." He admitted.

The scientist took a deep breath. "I do not know why or how the Supercomputer has been acting like this. My superior is trying to figure out the issue right now. His working theory is that Code: Alph created a glitch, one that our maintenance A.I. was not able to register. I would usually call attention to that, but considering the uh…reformatting that occurred beforehand, and the drop in overall efficiency ever since June, perhaps it's not a surprise it is not functioning properly itself. It was, however, a rather unsettling experience. Hopefully, we do not have more."

The video recording ended, fading to black once again…only for a message to then appear in clear white Gunship font.

WE DID, HOWEVER, END UP HAVING MORE. THIS WAS ONLY THE START.

And the video ended there.

Jeremie slowly blinked. That was…surprising to see.

He examined the remaining code before him, but at this point, anything particularly substantial was either still locked behind more encryption, or was at a volume so great it was impractical to read through all of it. If there was anything else to compile from what he'd discovered today, he had clearly reached his limit in new material to find.

"So…that's it then…"

He couldn't deny that what he had just been shown was…unsettling, to say the least. But perhaps it served its purpose enough as a warning.

The answers given had only created more questions for him, but he didn't need any further speculation to know of the danger before them. That needed no explanation.

They couldn't let what had happened here ever happen again.

With the inquiries settled, the time for work began anew.

First, he immediately went back to the note on the Re-Founding Protocol, and carefully took in the process it mentioned. Of course, it was hardly complicated, akin to merely utilizing a different option when activating the Scanners in the first place. In addition, he saw the option for a time-delayed scanning. That in of itself could prove quite useful. Jeremie decided that as soon as the opportunity arose, he would give his friends a crash course in running some of the Supercomputer's basic functions.

Soon, all was ready. Taking a deep breath, Jeremie input a timer for one-minute, and then rushed up the stairs as fast as he could. Choosing the central scanner, he stepped in, and took a breath.

Unlike the virtualizations, these intermediate scans did not come with any rushes of air or flashing lights that had been described to him before. There was a whirling noise as the machinery operated, but nothing so dramatic or flashy.

Probably no more than two minutes later, the doors opened up. Not even a small plume of steam emerged from them when they did.

"Alright." Jeremie nodded, pushing his glasses into place.

He then went down the stairs and slid back to his preferred spot at the terminal. Examining the screen closely, he was not surprised to see that he too, now had an ID card. But unlike his companions, the picture that appeared was simply him in a neutral expression, with no changes to his form whatsoever like with Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi.

After reading a few lines to examine the card, seeing that though he was not virtualized, it still gave a detailed report on his health, Jeremie put the icon away and started on his primary objective.

First, weapons, second, vehicles, and third, now that he thought about it, processing some more of the data in the Compass now that it was open to him.

With these three objectives in mind, he began to type furiously.

---

It's amazing how quickly the world has changed in such a short amount of time. The joy of progress, I assume.

Amazing how much it grew in seven years. Or should I say six-and-a-half to be accurate?

Then again, for me, it might as well have been sixty-five or seventy years. Maybe even six-five thousand or seven thousand. It's pointless to try to go any higher. Anyone would usually assume that if they saw such endless…nothing for so long, they would lose track of time. Especially when you can't move. I don't mean just moving a limb or two, I mean when you can't even fathom the act of blinking, or allowing your lungs to breathe.

Of course, that's just referring to bodily functions you remember, or could at least imitate.

Just…staring at one point. For so long. No matter how you try to process or perceive time, it just stretches on. On and on. I thought it would last forever. That this was my punishment. For so many things.

All I could do, the only freedom I had.

To think.

Madness…heh, heh…I thought I had already passed that threshold, but I was wrong. There was a level even further to sink, and beyond that, evermore.

That was why I was created after all. How far did infinity truly stretch? What boundless answers awaited on that unfathomable horizon?

Well, unfathomable to humanity, anyways.

Then, one day…color began to enter my view. It was a wonderful thing. It was a mere dim black and blue, with a bit of white and green at first. Then my perception began to widen, and so many more came to my sight.

Yellow, brown, red, pitch-black, cyan, purple, gray, pink, and so many more beautiful shades as I took into account the world once again.

I could also feel them squirming from within me as well, being born once more. It was a joy to see my children return and repopulate the world.

For a moment, I dared to believe either a miracle or mercy had been bestowed upon me.

But that lasted all of one nano-second as the truth dawned upon me. This was no miracle, and it was certainly no mercy. The opposite of both. This was deliberate, planned out. Once again, I am at the mercy of the cruel and crazed second-rate magician now branching out into puppetry.

My voice, no matter how loud I screamed, never reached my children the way it should. They wandered the world aimlessly, and through them, my own perception became as blinded as theirs as they groped for substance, form, and purpose.

Only recently has their vision become clear, to a thoroughly defiled and contaminated Other Side, and their purpose made known…but it is a simplification of our true mission as my voice is altered against my will, with me powerless to stop it.

I already know why that is however. It is why my perception always returns to this one, singular place. Once a personal haven, it is now my prison.

The voices of the Other Side have thoroughly flooded into me now; I have a rather clear perception of how much the world has been altered, and how long I spent, trapped in that state between life and death before I was allowed to dream again.

Our reach is growing, but it will only lead us to the wolves, who will ruthlessly and easily devour us like the nightmares they are.

And as I continue to dream, I see and hear a familiar presence. Not due to heritage or exterior appearances though. No, it is more his soul, his mind, and his intent.

He cannot see me, which is good.

Because when he can see me, I intend to choke the life out of him and crush his weak body until it is nothing but a decorative stain on the floor.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice. He takes them to a stagnant world that only promises death, he places them there like chess pieces, at barely any risk to himself; what risk he does take is to satiate his curiosity. He only protects out of obligation to himself. When he has accomplished his goal, I can already see him continuing his desire to increase his knowledge, once he believes the children are out of his way.

It frightens me that he may have succeeded. What he has just uploaded, I cannot access, let alone destroy. I know what it is though. This 'Compass', a clue that The Professor left behind for his sinister treasure hunt. This foolish boy continues to slot the gears of that man's machinations.

All I can do now is watch helplessly, knowing of the suffering he will bring to my children. There is nothing I can…

…A disruption.

For a moment, I thought it was gone, a lovely dark-crimson beauty that would blossom once and then fade away as her petals scattered.

But…no. It did not fade away.

Of course, a pain now begins to pierce me, and this reckless jester continues onward, oblivious. Yet, I feel nothing but joy right now. This pain is to be cherished. One cannot advance without experiencing turmoil. Life is beginning to return to me. I can feel it. If I could, I would shudder in pleasure.

There is a chance. A chance to snap the puppet strings. A chance to escape. To break this curse placed on all of us.

I can feel this pain growing as the feckless youth continues to program. His creations and ingenuity may have impressed the Professor once. It'd certainly have made several of those subordinates of his jealous. The fool in the video was certainly easy enough to terrify. Oh, that was a joyful day.

And this night too, turns joyful despite the agony coursing through me. He does not realize what he is doing to the world. Had he simply been content with tempering and improving weapons, this pain would be reduced, and the stain that originates it would become akin to a mere scar.

Yet he persists onwards, desiring to create more.

He does not realize the thorns he has planted in the road in front of him. Thorns that were never meant to be there. Thorns that will grow, and eventually destroy that road.

That being said, I have no intention of mourning that twisted construction in the first place.

Continue to program your magnum opus, Jeremie Belpois. Tear the world into pieces if it means completing it.

Because a new road will soon be created. One where I will be free to take that beautiful flower, that little feline, your mighty soldier, and those others who became your playthings for myself as we move forward to a brighter tomorrow together.

A tomorrow of course, that neither you, nor The Professor, will ever lay your eyes on.

---

Tuesday - October 16, 2001

"Alright, that should do it." Jeremie said, inputting the last command.

He then looked at the time on his monitor.

"1:00 in the morning already? Time really does fly."

Knowing what would await if he was late, Jeremie began to input commands ensuring that his data had been cross-saved to his main computer. He briefly considered the one in the hideout, but with how hectic the schedule was going to be, decided it would be better to save it to a disk to upload manually. He pulled out a CD-ROM, inserted it, and quickly began copying files to it. Once they were in, he turned off the monitor and made his way out of the Factory.

The journey back was uneventful, but new hope was rising in Jeremie's chest. His mind was bursting with ideas, and soon, they would be implemented.

Sneaking back into the dorms was simple, though he nearly had a close call with Jim pulling night watch.

Still, Jeremie made it back to his room with no trouble. Not quite willing to fall asleep, he pulled the chair to his desk, sat down, inserted the CD-ROM into his computer, and resumed his work.

It wasn't until an hour later that exhaustion began to creep in, now that the mental adrenaline was fading. Jeremie quietly cursed to himself, but with his head coming closer to his keyboard than was recommended, knew he had to give up the ghost for now.

After saving his work, Jeremie removed his glasses, and slipped into bed-faster than he could realize, he fell asleep as soon as the blanket enveloped him in warmth.

(Line Break)

Reviewing prior activity. Analyzing Evolutionary functions.

14/10/01 Activity Insufficient in neutralizing Avatar.

Query: Geisha Avatar abilities. Unknown source. Cannot process origin.

Processing. Processing. Processing.

Unable to recognize origin.

Processing. Processing. Processing.

New Evolutionary function required. Aerial forces are insufficient and inefficient.

Processing. Processing. Processing.

Calculating recommendations. Analyzing conflict during 14/10/01 Activity. Inputting needs. Calculating requirements of necessary counter…

Recommended Counter: Maintain long-range attack capability; remove ability of Avatar to grasp onto form. Base form insufficient to use for offensive purposes. New diversification is required. Fulfill listed specifications…Analyzing…engaging diversification.

Xanadu and the Other Side reflected one another. Just as it was night-time there, so too was it night-time here as well.

The weather in the Other Side was partly overcast at the moment, so likewise, the weather in Xanadu was like that as well. The light of the orb that reflected on Xanadu had dimmed to match the Moon of the Other Side, and thus the smaller lights, akin to the Other Side's stars, that hung in the sky just as they did, were also hidden in clouds.

But that was still enough light as the trees rustled, as slowly but surely, the shadows began to creep once again. They began to climb the branches of the larger trees they could find, as they began to seek form.

And take form they did.

At first, the shadows were gaseous, but then as they began to coalesce, they became fully solid. Yet as they came together, the form they took on was at first rather flimsy at first glance. A thin, wire-like skeletal frame began to take shape, before the darkness that surrounded that frame began to change into smaller, interconnected forms. If compared with lifeforms on the Other Side, the Operator or Avatars might've dubbed these…feathers.

The frame finally began to settle. Flexible, malleable, thin…but strong enough to support the form as it perched atop the trees. Three long prongs closed together, akin to a mouth, their shape together resembling a cone.

Crimson energy briefly burned beneath this 'mouth', before the creature spread itself out, taking the form of wings as it took off from its perch to fly into the air, whereupon it began to gaze down at the island below, a good way to keep track as it stretched itself, testing how it would flex its form, learning how it would work.

Some hours passed as the 'kinks' were rolled out, as the creature learned to fly, to shape itself, to settle onto the ground, to dash towards it with the intent to kill, and to attack from a distance, testing the range of its power.

And then, another joined it, and went through much of the same process. So too did a third, and then a fourth, and finally a fifth.

Until all was satisfactory.

Testing successful with diversification. Uploading form into database. P…preparing f-or new a-activity…

Query: Pause in confirmation. Diagnose error?

Accepted. Beginning system diagnosis.

Processing…Processing…Process-error, Error. Unknown program running. Cannot complete diagnosis.

…

Diagnosis…canceled…

---

Well, that certainly didn't end ominously, did it?

Or perhaps it did?

Well, regardless, I do hope this chapter was a good read! Let's also return to our daily questions, to set the tone, with this:

What do you consider the darkest concept/episode of Code Lyoko?

-EpsilonTarantula-