By Nyassa Kaiba
Note: Smith's Forge isn't a particular MUSH, as far as I know. I needed a name because you're not supposed to mention the actual name of any MUSH in a fanfic.
Aelita sighed, extricating herself from Gwen had been almost too easy. But when Sissy had peered in that morning, and found Gwen absorbed in a computer program called a Mush that involved an odd black screen, Aelita took that opportunity to slip out the door without Sissy even paying attention to her.
Aelita, having no idea what Sissy was talking about had slipped out soundlessly.
The others weren't there yet. "Jeremy, do you know about a computer program called a MUSH?" Aelita asked, still puzzled.
"Yeah, it's a type of game." Jeremy shrugged. "Played with text, why?"
"Sissy's on one. She and Gwen were talking about one called… Smith's Forge?"
"Oh yeah, Odd's on that. But with all the effort I put into fighting XANA I don't exactly have time." Jeremy replied.
"What's this I hear about Aelita's family?" Asked Yumi as she and Ulrich came from one direction.
"What's this I hear about Smith's Forge MUSH?" Asked Odd as came from the other.
"Sissy's on it." Jeremy replied. "Aelita's never seen a MUSH. Show her later though. We have news. The new teacher? Her name is Himiko Hopper." Jeremy said with triumph. "And she bears a strong resemblance to Aelita too! She's also got two kids who moved in last night, Gwen and Mikael."
"No way… ?" Odd made a face. "I've RP'd with her, I'm on Smith's forge"
Ulrich rolled his eyes.
"On topic Odd." Ulrich pointed out.
"Oops right." Odd sighs.
"So we might finally have found Aelita's family? That's great. What's Gwen like Aelita?" Yumi asks curiously.
"I think she's what you'd call a bookworm. She has three boxes full of books on her shelf. Um… she's on Smith's Forge MUSH…"
"Along with half of Cadoc Academy." Yumi commented, rolling her eyes. "William's on, Millie's on, Herb is on. It's like a fad or something."
"I didn't realize it was that popular?"
"I didn't realize so many people were on it!" Odd replied.
"Let's see… she's got models of XANA's monsters on her shelves. She likes to blast her stereo a lot. She listens to mostly American music, so my guess is she's American."
"Good guess." Jeremy replied. "Her accent, and Mikael's are both American, New England to be precise. They also don't speak much French."
"First he's a computer expert, then he's a linguist?" Odd asked, rolling his eyes. "And what about their father? You notice they haven't mentioned Gwen's father at all?"
"I assume he's living elsewhere." Jeremy replied. "So, I've finished unencrypting the data we got from our last trip to sector five. And I have an idea on how to deep fry the scithozoa. It won't guarantee that XANA doesn't make another one, but it will take care of the one he's currently using."
"Oh?" The others gathered around as Jeremy opened his laptop.
The scanning program went off. "Ack! A tower this early?" Jeremy demanded.
Suddenly screaming was heard. "A jelly fish!" Somebody screamed.
"Speak of the devil." Odd groaned.
"Well he's been able to materialize crabs, why can't he materialize the scithozoa too?" Yumi asked. "Aelita, you'd better hide. We'll take care of this…"
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! PHOENIX STRIKE!" With a fencing foil in hand Gwen lunged at the scithozoa, carefully ducking around each tentacle.
A couple of tarantulas had come into the courtyard in the meantime, but they couldn't fire or they'd hit the scithozoa instead of Gwen. "Heyla big boys, you chicken? Bwak Bwak!" Gwen replies.
That was when Himiko came in. "Oh no!" She cried. "Gwen! Get back!"
Gwen backs up, slowly, and this was all that the Tarantula's needed to fire on Gwen. Gwen rolled to one side, then to the other, slowly backing up the whole way. She passed a Trashcan in her retreat. "A shield…" She breathed. Then she scooped up the metal lid.
Three shots aimed at her. Gwen blocked shot one, then shot two, then shot three. The first reflected shot hit the tarantula on the right in the chest, the second one knocked some tentacles off the scithozoa, and the third hit the wall of the soda machine booth and sparked before leaving a singed mark.
The Principal showed up just in time to see the retreat of the scithozoa and the two tarantulas. "Ha! I dare you to come back here and /fight/" Gwen shouted. "Hoooo deeeee hoooooooooooooooooo!" She shouted a warcry and shook the trashcan lid at the invaders.
"Principal, I think you should go inside. Evacuate the courtyard. Now where did Gwen go?"
Gwen was tromping through the woods with her 'sword' and 'shield' when the Lyoko crew caught up with her. "It's dangerous Gwen!" Aelita cried, trying to tug Gwen back to the school.
"Shove it." Gwen snapped. "That thing with Lyoko, it wasn't just a fairy tale was it?"
Yumi sighed, then reluctantly said. "No, it isn't. But you don't have the power too…"
"Then that would make you one of the Elf Queen's knights?"
Yumi hesitated. "Um…" Then she said hesitantly. "I suppose so."
"I'm going to take that thing down." Gwen said with a low growl. "It's gotta go."
"Good luck." Jeremy said sarcastically. "It's called a Scithozoa, and we haven't been able to destroy it yet."
"There's always a first time for everythi…"
"LOOK OUT!" Aelita cried as the scithozoa snatched up Gwen. "OH!" Aelita ran over and tried to yank the thing away, but one of the tarantulas blocked the way with a long, spindly cannon. "Don't! Don't do it! It's me you want! Leave her alo…"
Gwen began to glow, then just like that the Scithozoa let Gwen down. It pulled back and the tarantula pushed it's way past the kids and crouched down over Gwen. "Why is it protecting her?" Asked Odd curiously as he tugged at the Tarantula's arm, trying to peer past it and see what shape Gwen was in.
The tarantula pulled a bead on Odd and growled.
"Okay, okay fine, she's yours I won't interfere." Odd said as he pulled back.
Gwen groaned, slowly sitting up. "Whatever freaking idiot did that is going to die an early death."
The tarantula comically peered between his legs at Gwen.
Gwen growled. "XANA."
The tarantula happily clapped its cannons together.
Gwen growled, rolling out from under the tarantula. She came up and growled at it and the scithozoa. "Omae o korosu." She growled again, taking up the foil and falling into a fencing crouch.
The tarantula laughed.
"Are you making fun of me?" She demands.
The monster shook his head and grunted, growled, murmured something.
"I am nobody's little sister idiot, least of all yours."
An amused rumble issued forth, the scithozoa creeled to add something.
"Term of address be darned." Gwen replied to the rumble. "Wait a minute… how come I can understand you?"
The tarantula made chuff, chuff, chuff noise that sounded suspiciously like laughter.
"Oh you can bet I'll see." Gwen growled at it. "Is there any way to figure out why I can hear them?"
"Hear them?" Jeremy froze.
"You mean you can understand what XANA's monsters are saying?" Yumi asked curiously.
"You mean they actually have a brain?" Demanded Odd with a laugh.
The tarantula growled and disappeared, so did the scithozoa.
"Okay, we're taking you to the factory." Jeremy sighed. "I'll bet the scithozoa planted something in you Gwen to make you able to hear the monsters."
"What? That made zero sense to me."
"The scithozoa was created to be able to steal things from people, usually memories, but they've stolen DNA sequences too. It's entirely possible that it planted something in you. A quick trip to the factory and through the scanners there will hopefully tell me what it did." Jeremy replied. "We have a couple hours before school starts. Up for it?"
"Sure…"
"Great! Follow me!" Jeremy led Gwen to the sewers. "Normally we take our skateboards through the tunnels." He explained as he and Ulrich pulled back the grate to the sewers. "But since you don't have one it looks like we're stuck walking."
It took half an hour to get to the factory. By this point the scithozoa was probably long gone. But Jeremie checked the scanners and super calculator room before he went to work. "Okay Gwen, just step in the scanner and I'll check you out."
To Gwen this seemed harmless enough. The scanner closed and Gwen found herself enveloped in bright golden light.
Jeremie's voice cried out, "What? But that's impossible! I didn't do it!"
"What's wrong?" Ulrich's voice came over the scanners.
"XANA must have planted it, there's no other explanation!"
"What is?"
"You know how I have a stat card for each of you on the supercomputer? Well there's one for Gwen here! Almost as if XANA planted it!"
Gwen floated in the oblivion of that golden scanner, listening to the conversation. "Okay now, scanning Gwen."
A tingling sensation ran up Gwen's body, from the tips of her toes to the roots of her hair and the tips of her fingers as she was scanned. Then just as quickly the scanner stopped scanning, and Gwen was once again in that golden oblivion.
"Okay this is even more bizarre! Gwen's DNA is highly irregular. But there's two codons I can identify. One of them comes from the monsters! And approximately 25 percent of her DNA comes from XANA himself!"
"WHAT?" The others shrieked.
"I'M INNOCENT I TELL YOU!" Gwen cried.
"I never said you weren't." Jeremie replied. "But this is bizarre! It's manipulated DNA before, I'm willing to bet that the scithozoa somehow manipulated Gwen's DNA. She's part human, part monster. And that's not all, if she goes to Lyoko, she'll show up to the scanners as a monster!" Jeremie groaned. "This is dangerous. We need to find a way to keep the scithozoa out of the real world, or it could come after Aelita at any time! I have an idea! But I can't do that, decrypt Hopper's notes, and find the antivirus at the same time!"
"Relax Einstein, we'll find out how it got here."
Gwen sighed. "The Tarantula addressed the scithozoa as "sister"." She replied. "It also said that I reeked of Lyoko."
"So the XANA DNA must have been there before hand. And Gwen just wasn't aware of it." Ulrich reasoned.
"It's a series of codons. I can try to figure out what they're supposed to do, but… I mean… I'm good at science but not that good! And this is a total unknown!" Jeremie pounded on the keyboard.
"Gwen I think that's enough for today." Aelita said gently.
"And I think my mother has some answering to do." Gwen replied as the scanner released her.
"Yes, I think Himiko Hopper has some answers to give." Yumi said grimly as they met in the supercalculator room. "Jeremie, what's wrong?"
"This is bizarre! But… I don't know why I didn't realize it before!"
"Jeremie what are you talking about?" Aelita asked, eyes round.
"XANA and Franz Hopper are the same person!" Jeremie cried.