Gwen got out of class to meet Yumi under the arches at the end of the day. "Would you like to come over to my house Gwen?" Yumi asked hopefully. "Since I doubt XANA will activate a tower twice in one day."
"I wouldn't mind."
"I'll warn you though, my dad's a bit picky about my friends." Yumi warned.
They walked towards Yumi's house. It only took about ten minutes to get from Cadoc to Yumi's parents. "Mom, dad, Hiroki! Tadaima!"
"Welcome home Yumi." Yumi's mother said in Japanese. She was sitting at a laptop. "Who's your friend?"
Gwen shyly, slowly interjected in Japanese. "My name is Gwen, Gwen Hopper. My mother's a teacher at Cadoc Academy." Gwen said with a polite bow. "Konbanwa Ishiyama-san." A warm, charming smile suffused her face.
"Aaaaah, Japanese too? Your hair's rather pink for a Nihon-jin." Asked Yumi's mother in Japanese.
Gwen replied, slowly and carefully in Japanese as she had to think about her words and the grammer before speaking. "My father is Sansei, he taught me how to speak it. But he lives off campus."
Yumi's mother made an 'o' "Welcome to our home Gwen. Yumi, is there anything going on after school today? Ulrich called earlier and asked that you get your things and be ready for the party."
"The anime club is having a social tonight. And we wanted to get together before that." Yumi replied. "I was going to dredge up some old costumes for the party. I know I have some old cosplay upstairs somewhere."
"Go ahead then. I take it your friends will be there?" Yumi's mother asked.
"Yes, they will." Yumi replied as Yumi's mother followed them upstairs to the attic.
Gwen looked about her as they walked. The house was decorated as a traditional Japanese home, simple but beautiful.
The attic, however, was an ordinary universal attic. Yumi dug through the boxes up there. "Here… see what you can dig out of these. I know there's some Teen Titans in there, and some Gundam Wing too."
Gwen dug through the box until she found… "ACK! Miroku!" She held up the full sized costume of Miroku. "This would be fun. Do you have anything to bind back my breasts with? I'm a little topheavy."
"Elastic bandages maybe?" Suggested Yumi.
Yumi's mother peered at the costume. "I think I have a corset somewhere that you could borrow. But corsets make it hard to breathe."
"It's worth a shot, and thank you." Gwen sighed.
"How 'bout Ranma? If you're a Takahashi fan." Suggested Yumi.
"You can be Ranma. I'd rather be Miroku." Replied Gwen. "I like Inu-Yasha more than I like Ranma."
"Okay, I'll be…" Yumi dug through the costumes. "oooh! I'd forgotten that I had this." She held up ared schooluniform. "It's not necessarily anime… but it's the same color as Sailor Mars'."
"Cool, go for it." Gwen turned to Yumi's mother, who had come back with an appropriately sized corset.
"Try this on, there's a screen over there." Yumi's mother pointed.
Sure enough, the corset bound down Gwen's chest enough so that she looked sufficiently like a boy. A black haired wig and over her short hair she looked almost exactly like the monk.
"Well, that looks good enough." Yumi's mother dusted off her hands. "There's a staff over there." Gwen walked over to grab it. "There. You're set. And Yumi you look beautiful in that sailor uniform. Who are you supposed to be?"
"Sailor Mars." Replied Yumi as she executed a graceful pirouette. The red skirt billowed slightly. "Whoops, I'm not used to wearing a skirt." Yumi stepped into red slippers and pulled out a tiara from the pile. "My hair's not long enough though." She said with a sigh. "And we don't have any wigs that long."
"Leave it, it's a nice touch." Gwen's body canted slightly to the side as she peered curiously at the costume.
"Should I put on some makeup mom?" Yumi asked, regarding herself in the mirror.
"Makeup doesn't become you dear." Yumi's mother replied. "Just go as yourself."
Gwen finished dressing behind a screen that Yumi had used earlier. "Okay, I'm done." She picked up Miroku's staff and executed a few practice moves with it. "Cool."
Yumi regarded Gwen for a moment. She really wasn't as topheavy as she thought she was. And Gwen was boyish enough so that the corset covered any trace of feminity. "Good job."
Yumi's mother had since left the two girls to their own devices. "Alright, let's head out to the party okay?"
They met very few people on the streets. Until they ran into Samantha. "Hel-lo hunkalicious." Samantha gawked at Gwen. "Yumi? Did you finally dump Ulrich and pick somebody who's actually /interested/ in you?"
Yumi growled.
"I'm a /girl/ stupid. The only reason why I'm dressed as a guy is for a cosplay party tonight at Cadoc Academy!"
"Oh? Cool, I'm going there to meet Odd." Samantha replied. "I'm Samantha, you can call me Sam for short. Man, for a moment there I thought you really were a guy!" Sam shook her head. "I need to get my eyes checked." She said as she rubbed at them. "See you at the party."
"What are you gonna be?" Asked Gwen, walking backwards as she called to Samantha.
Samantha grinned. "I'll give you a hint, she's evil and she has really scary eyebrows!"
Gwen cackled.
Other than that one encounter, they made it back to Cadoc academy without incident. Gwen, unfortunately, seemed to make a very great guy, because almost nobody recognized her. Ulrich even got his jealous look when he saw them together. "Wait a minute, who is this guy?"
Gwen pulled off her wig and winked.
"Wow Gwen we didn't even recognize you." Aelita commented, cocking her head to the side slightly.
"And who are you supposed to be?" Asked Gwen.
"The Elf Queen." Aelita replied, whirling around. Her dress was soft and white, made of some kind of simple, but flowing cotton material. A silver circlet rested lightly on her head and she wore delicate lace gloves. The marks that were normally on her face in Lyoko had been painted on in silver and body glitter had been smeared through her hair.
Jeremie was dressed up too. He wore the startrek uniform of a science officer. And Odd had put ear putty on him so that he looked like a Vulcan. Black pants and boots completed the outfit and made him just a few inches taller than he normally would be.
Ulrich was dressed up as Yoh from Shamen King. Odd even lent him the headphones. A plastic sword and translucent plastic ball served as Yoh's sword and Amidamaru's spirit ball.
Odd had combed his hair down and sprayed it red to become Kurama. He currently had a silk rose in his teeth and was doing ludicrous imitations of a fox. Odd even had Kurama's school uniform on.
William had joined them in the interim. He was dressed as Sasuke from Naruto, he even had his hair down! A pouch that would normally hold Kunai Knives actually held his cellphone. "Hey guys, look who's all dressed up!" Then he noticed Gwen aka Miroku. "Wow, hey, I'm William, what's your name?"
"I'm Gwen. Don't be fooled. I'm really a girl. But I couldn't resist stepping into a man's shoes tonight." Gwen said with a smile. "My mother's subbing for Miss Hertz."
"Oh that's right, she's gone."
"And she may be gone permanently." Sissy replied, coming forward. Sissy had also taken the cross dressing approach. She'd gotten her hands on a copy of the Digimon Emperor's costume, complete with tinted glasses. "I heard that she's taken a turn for the worse. Looks like Gwen may be staying a lot longer than she thought."
"SISSY!" Jeremie growled, getting to his feet. "What would you do if it were /you/ in the hospital?"
That shut Sissy up immediately. Pinking around her costume she growled and stormed away.
"Jeremie…" Aelita gulped. "I'm sure Mrs. Hertz will get better and be back in no time."
Jeremie shook his head. "The cancer's spread. At the very least she'll be retiring." Jeremie sighed. "My favorite teacher out of commission. And why? The why kinda makes you think doesn't it?"
"Everyone grows old sometime." Said Himiko as she joined them.
Himiko was dressed as Jadzia from Deep Space Nine, she'd even painted the spots on her face and neck. "I'm surprised rumors about the teacher's cancer spread so quickly. Yes, it's gotten worse. But Mrs. Hertz was even teaching me when I was a student here. I'm sure she'll be fine. NOW!" Himiko clapped her hands. "Sissy! You have a party to hold."
Sissy got to the crowd in front of the gym and called to them. "Right! Let's get this party started! Show your tickets to Mrs. Hopper at the door and you'll be admitted in."
The line straightened out and eventually the Lyoko crew got in. Jeremie got himself some pizza, some soda, and then he and Aelita took a seat on one of the mats. That was when Samantha, dressed as Dorothy Catalonia from Gundam Wing, finished setting up some simple DJ equipment and, armed with Odd's massive library of music started up some anime/J-pop/J-rock music.
"Yumi…" Gwen whispered. "Let's make everybody jealous, come dance with me!"
And so the two of them danced in the rapidly filling gym. Then Gwen heard it… /ssssseaarch for the boy… he isssssssss next… ssssssssearch for the queen… and dessssssstroy her/ Gwen gulped.
"What is it Gwen?" Yumi asked worriedly.
Gwen pulled back from Yumi's grip and looked around. Freezing cold seemed to envelop her, so cold that she half expected her breath to freeze on the icy wind that billowed around her. "I don't know… I heard monster speech, and then I got so cold…"
"XANA must be nearby!" Yumi cried.
That was when Jeremie's expression turned from bliss to annoyance as his screen flashed. He crooked a finger at the girls. "XANA's activated a tower."
"And that's not all, he's materialized monsters Jeremie. I heard them talking even if I couldn't see them!"
"Which means we can probably look forward too a wrecked scanner." Jeremie groaned.
"What were they saying?" Aelita asked.
"Search for the boy, he's next, and… and search for the queen and destroy her!"
Suddenly laser fire was heard over the music. Gwen groaned, and there was a scream. "MOM!" Mikael cried, rushing forward. "Get back you evil filthy…" Mikael was dressed as Marik from Yugioh, and he used the Millenium Rod model that he had to swipe the roachster who had fired the shot.
The students panicked and ran from the gym, leaving the group there. "Right, Yumi, Odd and Aelita, we'll head for the factory. Gwen and Ulrich, hold off the roachsters!" Jeremie cried as he dashed out.
They had been gone thirty seconds when the scithozoa also appeared. "Oh no." Gwen cried. "You're not getting my brother!" Gwen cried as she quickly put two and two together.
Too late, Mikael screamed as he struggled in the scithozoa's grip.
Gwen's mother groaned in pain before attempting to sit up.
"Mother please stay down." Gwen cried as more roachsters showed up on the scene. "Looks like this is getting to be quite the party."
Himiko lay back and closed her eyes. "Gwen… come here…" She said softly.
"Mother…" Gwen said, equally soft.
"I am… the elf queen… Lyoko, is yours by birthright. Hopper turned evil… he betrayed us and scattered the kingdom… all I could do was…"
And suddenly everything was enveloped in white light.