Wow, the last chapter was kinda short, eh? Well, we're getting closer to the explosive eeeeeeennnnnnndddddd...

Chapter 11-The Dusk Passes Too Quickly

Aelita curled up in the dark colored sheets of her bed in Yumi's room. "I'm so worried. It's been three days since that day in Carthage with Helo," she mumbled. "Why did he chase us away?"

Yumi sat at the desk, staring at the computer screen with a flustered look, like the expression she had back on Lyoko. She was listlessly sipping herbal tea and eating chocolate covered bread, her usual midday snack. Aelita had some of her own, though it sat untouched on the table in the center of the room.

"I don't have a clue," she replied. "Jeremie's going to figure it out though."

"It's been days..." Aelita shivered, even in the eighty degree stillness of the hot summer day. Yumi was padding around the house barefoot, wearing a dark green T-shirt with a dog's face on it and black shorts. Hiroki and Mrs. Ishiyama had also donned summer clothes... even serious Mr. Ishiyama who had always worn suits was wearing at least a T-shirt all the time.

"Everything will be OK," Yumi told her. She shut down the computer and crouched beside Aelita, then gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder. "Hey, how about we take a ride down the street? I heard a kid on Hudson Avenue unscrewed the cap on the fire hydrant. He did that last year and all the kids in the neighborhood were playing in the spray. It was so fun! You would love it!"

She grinned. Aelita smiled and flipped the sheets back. "All right! I have never done that!"

They went down the stairs, Yumi droning off to Mrs. Ishiyama and, since he was listening, Hiroki where they were going as they pulled on their shoes: Yumi's black flip-flops and Aelita's pink sandals. Yumi was now wearing jean shorts over a black one-piece swimsuit, Aelita wore a pink T-shirt over her own hot pink swimsuit.

Yumi grabbed her skateboard and held the gate open for Aelita and her scooter. They went speedily down the sidewalk, turning at the Elm St. (Yumi's street) and 21st St. corner, then onto Hudson Avenue. Aelita could see a wide, glistening white streak on the black pavement's horizon.

"What's that?" she asked.

"You'll see!" Yumi said. Her voice was shaking with excitement.

They rode further down and saw a yellow and green fire hydrant, gushing out a waterfall-like ribbon of water. It was everywhere! The street was soaked with it, numerous kids were screaming and running all over, their hair dark and sticking to their heads with water. Their clothes and swimsuits were dark with it, too. Their skateboards, bikes, scooters and such were all lined up a ways down the street, a safe distance from the water. The SuperSonics blasted somewhere not far away and some kids sat in front of the bikes, drying off and eating ice cream from the nickel store down the street.

"Hey, Dani!" Yumi yelled to a redheaded kid by the bikes, eating a cherry sno-cone with the air of a king.

"'Sup, Yumi?" he nodded. "Who's pinkie?"

"This is Aelita," Yumi said as the pulled up to a 'parking spot' behind him. "She started school with me and the guys a while ago."

"Oh, cool. 'Sup, Aelita?" He held out a fist toward her.

Aelita looked at Yumi nervously with the 'I don't know what he means,' look.

Yumi walked up to him and made a fist too. With her she hit his fist on the bottom, then top, then elbowed back then clashed fists with him. "'Sup?"

He looked a little confused it was Yumi instead of Aelita. But the other girl quickly followed the infamiliar gesture and did the same. "'Sup?" she finalized nodding her head like they had.

"K, lemme tell ya where's what. There..." he pointed to the fire hydrant turned Niagra Falls, "...is the public 'sprinkler', kindly provided by me. Then there's sno-cones and ice cream at the nickel store down there. Got it?"

"Yeah."

"Cool. Enjoy." He walked off to a group of guys hanging out at bikes further down.

"Ready?" asked Yumi. "I like to start by running full speed at it, as close to it as possible. Then we get jetted back! When I count to three, go, OK?"

"OK!"

"One... two... three!"

10101011001010110101010101010101011010101

Later that day, as the sun was going down, Yumi and Aelita rode side by side back to the Ishiyama house, sopping wet and lapping at chocolate ice cream cones.

"That was great!" exclaimed Aelita.

"I know!" Yumi said. "Isn't Dani the best?"

They continued riding, down the middle of the empty, silent road. The sound of the wheels on the asphalt never sounded better and the long shadows being cast from the burning golden sun were a fantastic sight.

"Do you think he'd do that again?"

"Maybe."

The arrived at the gate and opened the creaky contraption and went inside the house. Mrs. Ishiyama came from the kitchen. She squealed when she saw them come in.

"Gracious, girls! I should think you would have dried off more by now!"

She scuttled away to the linen closet, then came back with fluffy pink towels. They dried themselves going upstairs to Yumi's room. They stepped inside and Yumi looked at her computer. An IM had just popped on there.

2SMART4U: TRYING TO FIND OUT WAT HELO IS DOIN. COME 2 FACTORY 2MORROW. ATTENDANCE MAJORLY IMPORTANT!

LYOKOGEISHAGIRL: K. WILL DO

Yumi turned and looked at Aelita. "Looks like we've been hired to help the genius out again," she said.

101010101001010110101010010110010010

In the factory Jeremie was asking Helo questions on the factory computer's screen, Aelita translating.

"OK, Helo," he said, in an annoyed tone. Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi looked over their shoulders.

"What is going on?"

"Lyoko is not safe," Aelita replied for Helo.

"WHY!" Jeremie yelled. "For the thousandth time!"

"Aelita must not come here. She must stay where it's safe. Lyoko cannot be accessed."

"Agggggggghhhhhh!" Jeremie screamed. He banged his head on the keyboard. "Oww..." he mumbled, just barely audible so everyone would think he was too frustrated to care about pain.

The others followed pursuit and groaned.

"If you won't give me answers, you useless squid, I'll find them myself!" Jeremie started a SuperScan on the towers. "Huh?"

Everyone got closer to the screen. "The towers..." Jeremie mumbled. "What's wrong with them?" Aelita asked.

"They're possessed by a program deep within unaccessable mega-programs."

"Translation, Einstein!" Odd grumbled.

"They're being controlled by something! Something that's not familiar to me."

"Is it White Noise Day?" Aelita looked at him. Everyone else followed her gaze.

"Maybe. It's most likely."

"Let me go to Lyoko!" Aelita told him. "I need to find out what's going on there!"

"No way!" yelled Jeremie. "There can be no going to Lyoko until I find out more about these towers. This may be what's causing the insecurity of Lyoko! I must make sure Helo is right before doing anything risky like that."

Aelita screamed with frustration. "Aelita... don't overload!" Yumi cautioned.

"Too late to say that!" she shrieked and with that, stormed into the elevator.

"Aelita, don't go!" Yumi yelled. She ran to the elevator, too, but the doors closed in her face. "Urgh..." She slapped a hand to her face, groaned, and then sighed and turned to the others. "If we don't get rid of this banana chucking White Noise Day..."

Aelita, who was now outside, stared at the dusky June sky. The gold-orange and faded pink shown beautifully over gauzy ribbons of clouds gathered on the horizon.

"The dusk passes too quickly," she muttered. "The bronze rays never looked more like coal and the comfort of summer never felt so much like the cold of winter."

She walked sadly over to the manhole on the bridge and had a grief filled walk back to the Ishiyama home.

Yes, I realize now I have typos in my stories a lot. (Boo hoo...) One of the fallacies behind my great writing is that one of my mottos on the subject is: Who cares about an outline, rough copy, and proofreading? Well, I might wanna reconsider on that...

Next Chapter-Tension is building in the group, especially in Aelita. The frustration and anxiety is getting to them. Chapter 12-The Month of Rain