Author's Note: WooT!!!!!!!!!! Well, I am finally back. I had absolutely nil time to write for the longest time, so forgive me. However, I am back now and hopefully I will have time to once again update on a regular basis. (Don't kill me for taking so long, everyone!) Son of Xana, long time no see! It's great to have you back to my stories, as your comments are priceless. NC Ace, thanks for reviewing and maybe you should get on earlier? That's my advice. Dreamcaster555, my buddy, my pal. I talk to you too much to say anything to you here. I apologize for messing up with Leafwood's status, Palantiri. To her, I send my most humble apologies. Unknownyumi, your wishes come true in this chapter and anyone else who was just dying to have the original characters come back. J-lyoko, I still did take forever to update. I'm sorry, but now you can read it! So stop reading this thing and get onto the story! It's better than this, so go and knock yourself out!
The next level, they figured out, was locked away from them. Without the code, they couldn't access it. So they went on to the next level down. The door slid open this time as the elevator decelerated to a stop.
The room that came to view was again slightly circular though it was very different from the previous room. When an eerie white light lighted the previous room, this room had a yellowish warm tingle to it. But the objects in this room were just as perplexing.
Four pod-like structures stood before them. They were not very big and they were colored the same yellowish warm color as the floor and the walls around the room. The doors were shut at the moment, the seams evident in where they opened and closed. As Cynthia led the way out, the group began to notice all the thick cords that seemed to be attached to the back of the four pods. The cords were in various colors and they wound around and around each other like thick tangled snakes. They were barely visible though. The pods almost blocked them from view.
"And what are these?" Lori asked, this time directing the question directly at Cynthia, who seemed to know everything at the moment.
But Cynthia even shook her head. "I'm not quite sure. They look like pods, that's evident. But I don't know what they are for. And I don't think we can find out without visiting the second floor which was barred from access."
Ian walked up to one of the pods and ran a tentative finger over the closed door. "This is so coo…ah!" He gave a slight start when the door suddenly slid open, revealing a hollow honey colored area inside. Everyone else crowded around him and peered into the small little space. No one had any words to say.
A few minutes later, there was a unanimous decision to head back to the school. As Cynthia exited the elevator on ground level, she wondered if this group of people with very different personalities could join together to be her friends. Well, no matter what, I've dragged them into my secret, or rather Angela did.
They'll have to stick together no matter what they think of each other.
And that was just fine to Cynthia.
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A twenty-four-year-old "girl" padded down the hall of her apartment. It was one of the nicer ones with the hardwood floors that made sliding around on them in your socks just that much easier. A brief memory flashed past in her head of her two best guys friends at the age of thirteen doing just that at school in the school hallways. Her other best guy friend had been the referee.
Good times, good times. She seated herself gracefully in front of her laptop. She didn't have enough money for a nice computer yet, but she was saving up. Brushing her still short black hair behind her ears, she went online to check her email.
As the page loaded, her kitten sidled up to her bare feet and rubbed lovely against her shins. The girl giggled and moved her foot. Her kitten followed, rubbing again against her skin. It meowed cutely and made the girl smile. Her new kitten had been her most recent investment, and her argument for getting was she needed company. It was the closest to company she could think off.
As the ticklish feel of fur on skin continued on her shin, she finally reached down and picked the kitten up. It's hazel eyes looked bewildered as it was lifted up off the floor. The girl placed the kitten in her lap and played with its ears. The kitten immediately wanted off.
"Oddball," cooed the black haired girl. She placed her head lightly on top of her kitten's, the golden-orange fur mixing with her raven black hair. Her kitten meowed softly in protest. The girl lifted her head again to see the page finally completely loaded.
"Three new messages. Who could that be from, Odd?" As she clicked on the link, she looked down at her kitten again. It was staring up at her hair avidly, trying to catch it when it stopped moving, reaching up a small paw to swat at it. The girl bundled the kitten into her hands and placed it back on the floor where it sidled away to the open window and looked outside.
The girl smiled at the sight of that. Odd. It was a nickname for her kitten she used often. When she had gone to the pound, she knew the moment she stepped in that she couldn't possibly get a dog. What would her one time best friend, the cat-boy say? So she settled for a slightly blonde kitten with patches of irregular black fur, that if put in the sunlight at the right angle, would look slightly like a dark purple.
She turned her attention back to her computer with the new completely loaded web page. This time, she nearly fell out of her chair.
Three messages.
One from Odd.
One from Jeremie.
One from Ulrich.
The subject line of each?
"Hey Yumi? Want to get in on some Xana action?"
After recovering from her initial shock, she scanned all three emails and sent the same words for each:
"Xana is so screwed tomorrow.
The gang is back to visit."
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A brown haired male got out of his black car and scanned the parking lot. He spotted a silver Toyota Echo just pulling in and smiled. He started toward it in a stately lope as the car came to a stop and a raven-haired girl got out of it and bent hurriedly to lock the doors. When she straightened, she spotted him and gave him an all-knowing grin.
"What do you know," she said once he came within talking distance. "My knight and shining armor in the flesh. I never thought I'd see you again."
He bowed mockingly. "My lady fair," he said while sweeping down low. Then he straightened up. "Ironically, I was thinking the same thing."
She let out a little audible puff of air. "That's not ironic, stupid head. Don't go tossing around terms you don't know how to use. You still are the dimwit that I went to school with."
He frowned. "Sorry. I didn't know you were still that huffy."
She smirked. "Let's hope Odd isn't still the dimwit I went to school with."
He smiled. "Unfortunately, your hopes will come crashing down. I'm afraid he's the same as always."
She sighed. "Oh great. Are you guys going to start making fun of each other and hitting each other like you did when you were thirteen?"
He shrugged. "What's there to make fun of? I don't have a crush on you anymore." He averted his eyes as he said it, acting as if the asphalt was the most wondrous thing in the world.
He's right. Yumi found herself staring at the ground as well. Why did I think otherwise? Stupid head. She found herself wishing that he still had a crush on her. That would have been fun. But who was she kidding? She was twenty-four and he was twenty-three. She hardly could imagine one of them have a "crush" on the other.
The awkward silence stretched longer and longer. "So, Ulrich, you were just kidding when you sent me the email about Xana, right?"
He looked up, relieved that the silence had been broken. "Well, yeah. I doubt that Xana has woken up after all these years just of his own accord."
Even so, Yumi still looked a bit relieved. "Yeah, I guess your right. But maybe later we should still go check it out."
Ulrich glanced around for any sign of the others. "I guess it wouldn't hurt. But I hardly doubt anything is up in that old warehouse. We saw Jeremie turn it off with our own eyes all those years ago. That warehouse has just been probably doing what its good for: collecting dust."
Yumi smiled brightly. Ulrich still isn't that good at cracking jokes. But Odd…
"Well, what do you know? Our favorite class clown has made an appearance."
Yumi looked up to the entrance of the parking lot and saw an old purple car turning in and parking in an empty spot nearby. Then, a tall lanky guy that Yumi knew all too well got out of the car and locked his car up. When he turned around, he spotted Yumi and Ulrich. "Hey! Long time no see, Yumi!"
Yumi smiled brighter. "Same to you!" she called back. She noticed the purple patch in Odd's seemingly vertical hair had faded slightly, but it was still there.
Odd walked toward them and stopped when he reached them. "I heard we're crashing Xana's party tonight?"
Ulrich smirked. "I bet you would love that, huh?"
Odd interlocked his fingers and stretchedthem out in front of him, making cracking sounds with his knuckles. "Well, we've kicked his ass before. No reason we can't do it again."
Yumi chuckled. "So where's Jeremie and Aelita?"
Ulrich turned and started toward the school with the rest of them in tow. "I heard from him that they would meet us in the school."
"Over achiever in getting here early, as always," Odd commented. The three of them laughed and continued on. Yumi felt an overwhelming sense of memories wash over her as she stepped through the school gates. Suddenly, she wanted Xana to activate a tower just for the excuse of running wild and free, killing monsters left and right in Lyoko.
"I heard that Jeremie has arranged for us to give a little speech about how great this school is and how successful we were when we were here," Ulrich said with a bit of an amusement in his voice.
Odd snickered. "Oh sure. Let's see. Well, we were constantly bugged by Jim, Xana, Sissy, and teachers. Oh, did I mention Sissy? Right. And we were bogged down by unnecessary homework, except for Jeremie, that is, who did all his homework and still had time to work on the materialization program for Aelita. And Xana, of course, can't forget him. Oh and gym class," here Odd shook his head as if he was reliving good memories, "running the mile and doing push-ups everyday for no reason…priceless."
"Well," Yumi said sarcastically, "aren't you the motivational speaker."
Odd cleared his throat and gave his best game-show-host smile. "It's what I do," he said in a voice that matched his smile.