A/N: This story will not be updating as often, but it is by no means dead. I need help coming up with Otritza's Lyoko form and powers, as well as Myst's Lyoko form and powers. And now, back to the fic.

Chapter 10: To Catch an Assassin

:Sissi:

I'm a member of the Defenders, I never knew that was what they called themselves. Aelita's got my phone number if she needs it. I just hope that my assassin attacks like he said he would. The four boarders in our group return to the dormitories just in time for curfew. I went to my dad with the information that someone wants to kill me, he's stepped up security in the dorms. Jim, the PE teacher and head of security here at Kadic, has assigned double the number of guards to the halls of the dormitories for the night. I'd feel safer if he'd let me bunk with Odd and Yumi like I asked him to.

I lie awake in my room, not the least bit tired, I must still be buzzing from Lyoko or something. The place is like a drug, I can't wait to go back. Maybe it changed my physiology more than I thought, cause normally by this time I'd be at least feeling fatigue. I wonder if the others ever lie awake at night and think about stuff like this. I haven't lived a very gratifying life. I don't really want to die tomorrow, but that's when the assassin will be attacking and unless I can use my Danger Sense to dodge his attacks I'm a dead girl.

I saw Janice with Herb and Nicholas today, the two of them went to her after they learned I was going to be killed. Gee, what kinda friends are they. Jeremie said he was going to work on a project at the KLC, I know he got away without a problem.

I hear a tapping on my window, looks like the girls came over to stay with me after all. I open the window and Odd climbs in, dressed in her usual outfit with her claws out from climbing on the walls outside. Yumi floats in using her Telekinesis and sits on my bed. The three of us had decided that we'd sleep in whatever room I was told to stay in.

I close the window behind Yumi and sit down underneath the sill. I'd have remained standing but the slowdown occurred as I was shutting the window. I look to the other two girls in the room.

"I just experienced a slowdown as I was shutting the window, the assassin is out there and he's watching my room."

Yumi grins and closes her eyes. She's going to do something about our little problem. I hear a loud scream come from outside followed by a couple of gunshots. I think X has been taken care of. I look at Yumi questioningly.

'What did you do?'

Yumi only smiles serenely at me.

'I telepathically startled him, the scream was him falling out of a tree and the shots were from him trying to shoot at whoever spoke to him. He's not on the school grounds anymore though. He ran after he fired those two shots.'

I nod, smirking slightly at the mental image of a trained assassin falling out of a tree. I go into my closet and come back out with two extra pillows and a couple extra blankets for the girls staying with me tonight. I decide to sleep on the floor with Odd. After all, Yumi told me she just meditates at night instead of sleeping. I curl up with Kitty and the two of us fall asleep shortly afterward.

:Yumi:

I open my eyes after I hear Kitty's soft snoring. The two of them look so cute snuggled up like that. I find it kinda hard to disturb them. I open my mind up and look around the school, feeling all the sleeping presences around me. I watch a couple dreams here and there around the dorm. Hmm, who'd have thought Milly was a lesbian, oh well. Tamiya better be careful around her. I continue looking through the dreams of the girls on the floor, as well as watching the locations of the guards. Drake and Marco are plotting something to mess with us tomorrow, I might as well screw with them.

I open a direct link to Marco's mind and strike up a conversation with him.

'Won't work, Yumi knows about it already.'

'Where did that come from?'

'The room above you, I can hear you loud and clear.'

'I didn't know we had a telepath in school.'

'There's only one psion in the whole school, me.'

'What do you know about Ulrich and his friends.'

'I'm one of them. I'm not going to tell you which one though.'

'You've got to be Sissi, cause her room's directly above mine.'

'Sissi's having a sleep over, there's three girls in the room above you.'

'Since when does Sissi hang out with Ulrich and friends.'

'Since she brought the death threats to our attention.'

'And you believed her? You guys are so gullible.'

'They are real. We saw the contract killer come by our hideout. Jeremie heard him say his boss wouldn't like the delay when he couldn't find Sissi at our hideout.'

'Why the hell are you talking to me though?'

'Cause you're the only student awake in the whole dorm.'

'Drake's awake isn't he?'

'Actually you've been talking to a sleeping guy for the past hour and a half. By the way, you won't remember this conversation in the morning, nighty night.'

I use my Hypnosis Omega power to make him conk out. I go back to surfing dreams for the rest of the night. Hmm, Kitty's dreaming of Sniper again, I wonder when she'll work up the courage to ask him out. Oh, there's another interesting one, Sissi's dreaming of a male Odd, that's a new one.

:Sissi:

I wake up wrapped in Kitty's warm embrace. I don't really want to move, it feels so nice, and her purring is so soothing. Almost makes me forget that there is an assassin after me, oh well. I gotta get up and take a shower. I hope Kitty doesn't mind.

I get up carefully, making sure not to wake Kitty. Yumi's not in the room, I guess she went to take her shower already. As I gather my clothes Yumi's voice breaks into my thoughts.

'I saw your dream last night, a male Odd, I wonder how she'd react to that. She does have a twin brother you know.'

'I didn't know she had a twin brother. But, I don't remember a dream like that last night, in fact, I rarely do remember my dreams...only my nightmares.'

'That's gotta stink. You better hurry down here if you want to avoid the morning rush.'

I quickly race down the stairs to the girls shower room and get into the shower stall next to the one Yumi's in. My power has yet to hit on anything so far this morning. The two of us enjoy a companionable silence while we shower and get ready. Odd comes runs in to take her shower as the first person in the morning rush, just in time to see the two of us getting ready to take off for breakfast. She catches up to us after we reach the cafeteria. The three of us sit down as Ulrich pops in to join us, he obviously hadn't eaten yet...I wonder why...oh well. That's for him and Yumi to know and me to find out.

Jeremie fades in next to the door, getting into the line and going through it very quickly, then joining us at the breakfast table. We've got class today, even though it's Sunday, Ulrich doesn't seem to care about it though, I guess he'd rather hang out with us than be at home.

Actually the classes we have today are more of a religious sort. Christian History, Theology, and also the school's chapel will be open. Kadic Academy is by no means a Christian school, but they offer all sorts of religious classes on Sunday. Yumi and Odd are in my Christian History class, Jeremie's in my Theology class and Ulrich spends most of his Sundays in the school chapel, I don't know why though. Yumi, Odd, and I are taking Christian History for a history credit. The main book we use for the class is the Bible though. The five of us are going to meet in the chapel to talk after Jeremie and I finish in our Theology class. The two of us are in that class because we thought it would be interesting.

On my way to Christian History I felt a brief slowdown, it lasted for half a second, I saw the Drake step around a corner and I dodged to the left so I didn't run into him. He must not have noticed me, cause he kept on walking. I chose to ignore him for now, I'd tell Jeremie about it later. For now I had to get to Christian History. I arrived in class, no slowdowns happened during class but Yumi and I had an interesting telepathic conversation, I never knew Milly was a lesbian, that kind of info makes me rethink my whole perspective on the little girl. Perhaps that's why she seems so affectionate towards her partner. Oh well, the world's full of surprises.

During class Yumi had some fun with the teacher, Mr. Crail, she interrupted him twice, answering his questions before he asked them. After class Kitty, Ninja and I walked over to the chapel where we met up with Ulrich and Jeremie, who spent a good part of their Sunday morning there, talking about stuff and coming up with strategies for Lyoko, as well as concepting Lyoko the game. At noon we all went back to the cafeteria for lunch, during lunch I had another slowdown near Drake, right before he could plow into me in the lunch line. After sitting down at the table I decide to tell Jeremie about the slowdowns near Drake.

"Sniper, I've been having some strange spikes in my Danger Sense power, and always near Drake."

Jeremie looks up from his laptop and sighs.

"Not surprising. I'm sure that if your power hadn't gone off you would have been hurt. Drake used to hurt me quite often when he ran into me in the halls."

I nod. Still it's unnerving to have someone out to kill me and have someone like Drake capable of messing with my power. After we finish eating Kitty, Ninja and Samurai all head out to the KLC to get in some training while Sniper and I go to our Theology class. On the way to class I feel a major slowdown and it's source is a knife coming at me from behind. I spin around and catch the knife by the blade with two fingers. I see the Janice standing there with a stunned look on her face as I hold the knife in my hand. Jeremie and I enter the classroom and I place the knife on the teacher's desk before I take my seat next to Jeremie.

The teacher comes into the classroom and sees me sitting next to Jeremie. She looks at me confusedly, probably wondering why I'm sitting beside Jeremie, after all I used to hate him before last Friday. After last Friday though, I guess my feelings have changed, cause he's now one of my closest friends. She looks down and sees the knife on her desk. Her eyes open wide and she looks up, just before she asks I answer in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I put it there. Someone threw it at me on my way here. I caught it and decided to turn it in."

The teacher just flicks her eyes to me and then plops down in her chair, staring up at the ceiling. I guess she's praying. She swiftly moves the knife into her desk drawer and closes it. She then stands up and goes about teaching the class. Jeremie only looks like he's halfway paying attention while I look out the window, half expecting to experience another spike in my abilities. I watch as this little red dot filters through the window and lands on the teacher's head. I look at Jeremie and whisper into his ear. He disappears from his chair, the teacher and the other students don't even notice that he's gone.

I start to feel a spike in my abilities as the dot moves from the teacher to me. Jeremie notices the movement and quickly exits the room to get a security guard to check the bushes outside, too bad I can now see him as he slips out of the door, I suppose my power lets me do that when it's active, oh well. I slide down in my chair quickly, slipping under my desk to avoid getting shot in the head. The window I was sitting next to shatters and a bullet implants itself into the far wall, miraculously missing everyone else in the room. The teacher calls down to security to alert them to a sniper attack on the her classroom. I sigh and stand up, the slowdown is gone. I look over my shoulder at Janice, who was only here because I was. She doesn't look shaken up at all. In fact she looks surprised that I was still alive. I only turn to her and smirk, mouthing one word to her, "Fool".

Jeremie reappears beside me and whispers to her.

"X has been captured. His real name was Xavier Crow, Janice's older brother who ran away. He was found with a rifle in his hands, unconscious. By who, noone knows."

I turn back to Jeremie and plant a light kiss on his cheek, making the boy flush. I then turn back to the front of the classroom and leans back, smiling serenely. Jeremie leans over to me again whispering in my ear.

"You know I've kissed you on the lips before, I was dared to do so by Ulrich."

I nod and don't look the least bit surprised by that little revelation. I just smiles that the attempts on my life were foiled. I inwardly wants to tell Ulrich off for that. Jeremie is Odd's target. I currently doesn't have one...but Elazul would be a nice guy for me. Too bad he's too old for me, or so the others say. I shrug inwardly, I'll get some guy, I'm in no hurry. Although Odd's twin brother sounds like an interesting choice to take as my boyfriend. I suppose I need to learn about him first though.

Class flies by, the sniper attack not really mattering that much to the class proceedings. After class ends Jeremie and I take off for the park, Jeremie fades out at the beginning of the woods and I jump up and grab hold of a low tree branch, racing along through the trees, letting my power guide my landings so I don't get hurt. I drop down next to the manhole as Jeremie fades in. The two of us lift the manhole cover and climb down into the sewer. I put the cover back in place and continue climbing downward. Sniper and I get on our skateboards and take off for the Kadic Lyoko Complex to join up with the others for a training session.

Sniper and I drop down to the floor of the factory section, walking into the Lounge to see if Kitty, Ninja and Samurai are in there. AelitaR greets us and tells us to head down to the Scanner room, Elazul wants to talk to us in Lyoko, the others are already inside Lyoko. Sniper and I take the elevator down and I enter the scanner first to get scanned into Lyoko. I hear the five words that have become oh-so-familiar.

"Transfer, Sissi; Scanner, Sissi; Virtualization"

A few seconds later I land on my feet in the Kadic Forest Region, and a second later Jeremie drops in beside me. Looking around I see Elazul, Ulrich, Odd and Yumi all sitting there talking. Elazul hears me land.

"Finally the two of you show up. I've come bearing bad news. Otritza and Myst cannot get onto Lyoko yet. The profile command doesn't work on them and their old profiles don't work for them. I hope we can get this problem solved before they are needed here again. We need access to the Kadic Core Region, do you have any way of opening it up?"

Jeremie answers Elazul's question.

"No, I'm afraid that I don't know how to access it. Do you Aelita?"

AelitaV shakes her head.

"I wish I did...but the only one who would know the password to access it would be XANA himself, seeing as he made the Core Regions."

Elazul thinks for a while, then he sighs.

"Maggie's gotta call me back, try to find a way to access the Kadic Core Region, I'll keep in touch."

Elazul fades out, being recalled by the Lyoko System Transfer Program. I lean back against a nearby tree that is rooted to the pathway we are standing on. Odd walks over to me and leans against the tree beside me. I reach up and absentmindedly scratch her behind her kitty ears, she must have given me consent because she just purrs instead of tearing my arm off like she said she does to those without permission. I wonder how she can feel it in here though, cause as far as I know, I only have three senses, danger, sight and hearing. Danger comes from my Lyoko power, that's all I know.

I notice a slight slowdown and move to push Odd out of the way, going with her, just in time for a huge blast to cut through the tree from behind it and miss us. I land on top of Odd, hands above her shoulders and she grins up at me. I launch from atop her and take off to the side, watching as the creature that fired the shot at us locks onto me. I yell out my only question.

"What is that thing?"

:Ulrich:

I look at the thing that Sissi's distracting, it doesn't look like a Megatank, but if fired a Megatank shot. I suppose we could call it a Panzer, it looks a lot like a tank from Earth, except it doesn't have a turret. I can't see the XANA symbol anywhere on it right now. I suppose there's only one way to do this. I run towards the Panzer.

"Triangulate!"

I dash around it in a triangle, leaving two of my clones behind as well as a field of yellow energy to keep the Panzer from moving. It looks from one of me to another, but it's not focusing on the 'real' me. I watch it as it prepares to fire, looks like it's eye's in the front and only appears as it's about to shoot. It shatters one of my clones and I dash up and slide around to the front, slamming where it's eye was in my clone's vision with my sword. I quickly run back after not being able to pull my sword from the eye. The creature spins in place for a while then explodes. I dash up to it's remains and find my sword. I put my sword away and return to my team.

"I'd call it a Panzer, it looked like it was a tank from Earth, but without the turret. The eye appears when it fires, you have about six seconds to hit it in they eye."

:Sissi:

I nod to what Ulrich said, the name fits. I feel another slowdown, this time from a laser. I quickly turn around and position my right glove in the path of the beam with my left glove beneath it, deflecting the shot into my other hand then back at the creature, nailing it in the eye.

"I'd call the thing I just killed a Roachster, it looked like a more aerodynamic Kankrelet. I wonder what brought about the change in XANA's creatures."

Yumi speaks up sounding slightly confused.

"He hasn't been activating any towers lately, it's strange, perhaps he was spending his time creating new monster types. Maybe he's got something better than the Scyphozoa now."

Right after she says that a pack of twenty Roachsters appear, they open fire on Yumi, my power kicks in and I move in front of Yumi and appear to spin my spear, perfectly deflecting each shot back at the one who fired it. AelitaR's voice echoes down from above.

"Activated tower in the Forest Region, Yumi WHY did you talk about the Scyphozoa in Lyoko?"

"Momentary lapse in judgement. I forgot that he gets angry when we mention it. Come on, let's go deactivate this tower. Get your game on people."

I watch as everyone else starts to follow the pulsations emanating from the ground. I watch them for a second then take off after the rest of the group, catching up to them easily then falling into formation with Kitty. The six of us dash toward the tower, several Wasp-like creatures fly down from nowhere and attack us with lasers, I notice that they look like slim downed and aerodynamic Hornets without the poison sprayer, I can only assume they are upgraded versions of the Hornet. I whip out my spear and stop, the Waspsters all take aim at me and my power kicks in again. I whip my spear in a complex pattern of circles so fast that not even Ulrich with his Supersprint activated could follow it. I stop moving my spear as the slowdown ends. I smirk as all of the Waspsters explode spectacularly.

The group reaches the tower as I catch up. The tower's got three Panzers, upwards of fifty Roachsters, and upwards of twenty Waspsters guarding it. I look to Jeremie.

"You take the Panzers, I can take everything else, I'm not tired yet."

Jeremie nods and fades, heading back a ways to a decent vantage point. I smirk and dash forward, spinning my spear in front of me. The Panzers reveal their eyes to begin charging for their shots but three loud bangs echo out over Lyoko and all three of them explode. My danger sense power goes into overdrive, the colors invert in my vision, taking advantage of the super slowdown I take off and begin hacking through them before they can even fire. Later I learn that I was moving so fast nobody else could see me until I came to stop next to the tower.

The colors in my vision revert and I spin and collapse against the tower with a smirk on my face, breathing heavily as all the monsters explode.

"That was tiring, effective, but tiring. I never thought I'd be an adrenaline junkie, I can't wait to do that again. A high like no other."

I cough roughly as the others nod and pick me up, carrying me through the tower's wall. The towers must heal us...because my body can move again. I watch as Aelita floats up to the upper level and she deactivates the tower. I watch as a bright white light comes from the base of the tower and engulfs us. I suppose this is my first return to the past trip...from what I heard about it, we'll be starting this day over.

:Sissi, Post RTP trip:

I wake up in a cold sweat, that was one hell of a...wait a second...that was REAL! Lyoko, the Scyphozoa, all of it was real. Odd and Yumi wake up at the same time I do. Odd makes the first remark.

"Lyoko's a rush but the return trip bites ass, I can't wait to get back in there and fight more of those new monsters. Speaking of monsters, Sissi, you were unbelievable. How did you move that fast?"

I blink and look at Odd.

"Huh? I experienced an inversion of the colors around me and everything froze for a time, right after the Panzer's exploded, and then I ran to each target and sliced them with the head of my spear. It was an amazing experience, killing all those monsters before they knew what hit them, my power ROCKS!"

I shout the last part in my excitement, most likely waking half the dorm. Two of the security guards walk up to my dorm and knock on the door.

"Everything alright in there?"

"I'm fine, just had a nightmare, you can relax."

I listen as the guards walk away, as their footsteps fade I look at Yumi.

"What time is it?"

Yumi looks at her watch and grins.

"4:30 AM, Sunday, the day of your assassination attempts."

We went back in time, we really went back in time, wow. This is amazing. I hear Yumi's voice break into my thoughts.

'Yeah, it is amazing. But it loses its novelty after the sixth time. We don't always start them either. Otritzi's team does them more than we do. But then again Otritzi's team has access to more sectors than we do.'

I nod, Odd wraps her arms around me again and starts to purr. I appease her by scratching her ears again. Then I ask her something.

"We did this in Lyoko, but how did you feel me scratching your ears?"

"In Lyoko we have sensors that indicate pressure, with how you scratch my ears it fells good, even in Lyoko. But the limited senses I have in Lyoko don't do justice to the ecstacy I feel when you scratch my ears here on Earth, you've got to teach Jeremie how to do that."

I chuckle at that.

"You should maybe find out how his ear rubs feel before you ask me to give him lessons."

:Odd:

I sigh at that, I'm afraid to find out how his ear rubs will feel. I glare at Yumi, who's looking rather smug.

'Stay out of my head when you don't have permission, Yumi.'

'I wasn't in your head til you projected my name, you're blushing.'

I sigh again and go to the window. Sissi pulls me down on top of her.

"The sniper is still out there. I had a slowdown when you stood up to go out the window."

"Damn, I forgot. Alright, we wait for 5:00 before we all head down and take our showers. To beat the morning rush. I really hate waking up in a cold sweat like that."

The three of us sit there, I lean on Lancer's shoulder and Ninja sits on the bed and amuses herself with watching the dreams of the other students.

"Girls, did you know Janice has a voodoo doll of Lancer that she sleeps with?"

"Hmm...she doesn't know what she's messing with. I'd like to take her on in a one-on-one fight. I bet I would win too."

"Yep, you would, Lancer. Your Danger Sense would allow you to dodge or block every punch, they'd be coming so much slower than those lasers you block in Lyoko."

Yumi pauses for a bit to think.

"Girls, would you like to take the guys shopping after we take care of Xavier?"

"Sounds good, but how are we going to get them to come with us?"

"Lancer and I can get Ulrich. We'll leave Sniper to you, Kitty."

I nod, then grin something reminiscent of a cat. Dawn comes and Yumi startles Xavier Crow long enough for us to leave our room and head down to take our showers. The three of us hanging out together unnerves the rest of the girls for some reason. I suppose it's just because of Sissi's old reputation. She's actually quite nice when her life, or the lives of the other students are on the line. The only person she wouldn't want to protect would be Janice, but that's for a reason, would you save the life of someone who wanted you dead?

The three of us step out of the showers and get dressed. Lancer, Ninja and I all head to our first class. Lancer told us all where the bullet meant for her had come from, now we are going to make that fool pay for messing with a Defender. Sissi's usual clothes have changed since last Friday, as have her interests in boys. She no longer cares if they are popular, only trustworthy.

Lyoko is such a heavy burden, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't help you carry it. I finally figured out why we were given these powers. These powers help us carry the weight of the world on a daily basis. Our eyes have been opened to Lyoko...occasionally I have a vision or two in the real world, but nothing too life changing, considering there's little danger in this world when XANA's not attacking us. Although I did tell the group when we were deciding to let Sissi in that I had seen her in one of my Lyoko visions. I had foreseen her character...I didn't tell them about her ability or weapons though. I have to say that seeing the future sucks, I want to find a way to turn it off outside of Lyoko. Lancer dodges Drake, and trips him this time, forcing the three of us to run to class so that he would get in trouble if he tried to attack us.

The three of us sit in our Christian History class and relax as the bell rings, listening to everything Mr. Crail has to say, even interrupting him a couple times, but this time it's all three of us in unison, making him quite flustered. I smirk down to him, I wasn't even doing that well in Christian History and I was still mocking him. There's several religious history classes given here, one for Islam, one for Judaism, one for Christianity, and several other of the bigger religions.

Dorm security was hiked up from one dorm watchman to a team of them after the first documented case of bullying that happened three years ago, the very year that we got several students from a public school that was known for bullying. Drake and Marco among them. Now, those two weren't the first bullies on campus, no we had some before them...but the cases went undocumented. They weren't even the first documented case.

Well, class is over and the three of us are headed to the chapel to plan out how to stop Xavier from shooting at Lancer, not that he'd be able to hit her when she can dodge bullets, and to get the guys to join us on a shopping trip after Lancer and Sniper's Theology class.

:Jeremie:

I watch as the girls enter the room. Odd looks at me with a very cat-like gleam in her eyes. I shudder. I notice that Lancer and Yumi both look at Samurai with mischievous glints as well. I notice he tries to hide behind me. Odd walks up to me and takes my hand, pulling me with her to the side. I can only guess what the other two are doing to Ulrich as she pulls me into one of the rooms. Odd wraps her arms around me and purrs, not good.

"The girls and I want to drag you and Ulrich along on a shopping trip so we can get Lancer a new wardrobe, cause we can't stand her normal outfits. Would you be willing to come with us?"

Any guy in their right mind wouldn't say no to a girl like Odd...regardless how much he hates the idea. With her wrapped around me like this I don't really want to piss her off, she could slice me apart with her claws before I could even hope to escape. I nod, quite afraid for my health. She quickly turns her head to one side and kisses my cheek, it feels nice, the danger of the situation suddenly passes and Odd's embrace feels nice. I reach my hand up and she flinches her eyes closed before purring again as I start to scratch the area marked by her purple splotch, right between her kitty ears. I guess she likes it.

"Lancer was right, you are good at this. Have you ever had a cat before Jeremie?"

I chuckle at her question.

"Yeah, when I was five my parents got me a female kitten, a year and a half later that cat had kittens and we gave all but two of them away, two females, all three of those cats loved to rub on me and often purred when I would pick them up."

Odd nods on my shoulder, then releases me and lets me turn around, only to see her down in a kneeling position, I brace myself for what's coming. She pounces on me and if she had a tail it would be twitching in amusement right now. I catch her and don't fall over, remarkable when you consider she's heavier than I am, although you wouldn't be able to tell, her body is almost all muscle, regardless how much she eats. Her purring increases in volume she leans on my shoulder while wrapping her arms around me again.

:Ulrich:

I knew I was in trouble the moment the girls came in. They both had the most evil of gleams in their eyes, I never stood a chance. The girls both dragged me into one of the nearby side rooms, a different one than Kitty had taken Sniper through. I look from one to the other, wondering what torture they had in store for me. I pale slightly as they both get the most evil of grins and rub their hands together. I feel sorry for Sniper, having to put up with something like this from Kitty. Oh how I wish they would just come out and say what they want. They both start talking at the same time and I quiver a little as their voices sound almost the same.

"You know, we were planning on going to the mall after Theology. And we would like you to come with us. Odd and Jeremie will be there as well."

I immediately realize what danger I'm in if I turn them down. I wouldn't be able to hit Lancer even if I wanted to, she's too fast and Yumi can disable me with her Telekinesis. My Supersprint power wouldn't do me any good cause Yumi's reading my mind, I can tell. I sigh and accept their terms, complete and total surrender of my evening to be with them at the mall, I just hope my parents don't find out or I'm dead meat, I'm not supposed to be out past five thirty in the evening on weekends. Yumi's telepathic voice breaks into my thoughts.

'Why is that?'

'Cause my parents are sadistic, that's why.'

'Really? Have they been hurting you lately?'

'Yeah, just last night when I came home from our Lyoko training session. I took off without telling them where I would be so I didn't have to do my huge amounts of chores in the usual insanely short amounts of time.'

Yumi and Lancer nod, again I have a feeling of dread wash over me. I know they are plotting something. Yumi walks forward and Sissi leaves the room. I begin to feel relieved, the danger's passed, I can relax. Yumi walks forward and wraps her arms around me in what would normally be a comforting manner, if it weren't for the bruises on my body.

'Tomorrow Sissi's going to see that you are moved to the dorms, and she'll try to get you as Jeremie's room mate. Odd, Jeremie and I are going to take you home and I'll screw with their minds. Jeremie's going to use his power to watch and see if they try to hurt you tonight. Odd and Lancer are going to be here covering for us. I was wondering why you had been flinching as when I hugged you lately.'

'It wasn't as bad for about a week after I got my Supersprint and Triplicate powers, cause they wouldn't watch me do the chores and I could use my powers to take care of the chores before they came to check on me. They were never pleased to see that I had completed the chores set before me. After that week, they began watching me to see how I did it, I haven't been able to use my powers at home since. By the way, you're hurting me right now.'

I feel Yumi nod and release me, the two of us walk out to meet up with the rest of the group. Sniper and Lancer both walk off to their Theology class and Yumi, Kitty, and I all head for where they apprehended the sniper last time. We knew he was going to take his shot in about twenty minutes.

I Supersprint from the chapel to the tree that our target is hiding in while pulling on a pair of black leather gloves. Odd dashes over and extends her claws, then bounds up a nearby tree and hides on the branch above our target, as well as hiding her claws and putting on her black gloves. Yumi uses her PSI Flash technique to stun the sniper before Odd drops down and takes the rifle from him, dropping it to me. I quickly empty the magazine from the rifle and clear the chamber, catching the bullet and pocketing the magazine before tossing it back up to Kitty, who points the rifle squarely in between his eyes before he recovers from the PSI Flash. Kitty smirks as he realizes he no longer has his gun. Kitty pushes the barrel of the gun against his head and forces him back against the trunk of the tree.

:Xavier:

A bright flash blinds me for a few seconds. I blink and try to clear my vision without changing my aim. When I finally am able to see without spots in my eyes I see a girl standing over me with my rifle in her gloved hands. She shoves my head against the trunk of the tree, pinning me rather solidly.

"Now then, Xavier. Why were you aiming this sniper rifle at one of the classrooms in that building?"

I start sweating when she asks that question. This particular girl has a strange gleam in her eyes, almost like she wants to kill me.

"I am being paid by my little sister to kill Elizabeth Delmas. My parents disowned me and cut me off from the family fortune. She said she'd pay me half a million francs if I put a bullet through Miss Delmas' head."

The girl smirks and calls down from our position.

"You guys heard him, right?"

"Yeah, we heard him."

At that point she pulls away from me and sits on the branch, letting the rifle rest on her shoulder as she hops back. I look down to see two kids, a boy and a girl. Looking at the girl in front of me again I recognize her from last night, she spent the night in my target's room. I'm through and so is my sister when Mom and Dad find out. I close my eyes and wait for the inevitable hit to my head.

:Odd:

I watch as he leans back against the tree and closes his eyes after looking down at my accomplices. I guess he wants me to hit him over the head, fat chance. Ulrich pulled out his phone and called the police, saying that he and two of his friends had averted a possible shooting at their school, Kadic Academy, and that they were in and around a tree near the Kadic Academy Chapel Building with the sniper being held up with his own gun. With my enhanced hearing I hear the person on the other side say that a pair of officers were on the way, as well as congratulating him on the capture.

I assume my position by lifting the rifle to my shoulder and hopping forward to pin him against the tree by the head again. I hear sirens approaching from the distance and he's looking at me, wide-eyed and reeking of fear as I begin to squeeze the trigger. I grin darkly at him and then notice a smell coming from his pants, he pissed himself in fright, how disgusting.

The officers arrive and head over towards where they can see my friends on the ground. I jump down from the tree and hand the rifle over to one of the officers.

"Here's his weapon, you'll find some of his DNA on the barrel, I stuck it to his forehead to keep him from moving."

Ulrich walks over and pulls the bullets from his pocket and hands them to the officer.

"I took these from the magazine after Odd knocked it out of the gunman's hands before throwing the rifle back up to her to make it easier for her to keep him from fighting."

Yumi walks forward and looks the officer in the eyes.

"After Odd apprehended him he told us that he was being employed by one Janice Crow, a student in the dorms here, to kill the principle's daughter, Elizabeth Delmas. If you want help getting him down from the tree we can have him down in a few seconds."

The officer shakes his head.

"You kids have done enough, thanks for bringing this guy in, he's wanted in connection to a couple other shootings, all by sniper. I'm sure this rifle has all the evidence we will need on it. Thanks again for stopping this maniac, although how a girl her size climbed that tree and knocked the gun out of his hands I will never know. You three will be subpoenaed to testify in court where you found him. As well as this contract killing you mentioned. Although how you got him to confess that his sister is involved...I'd like to know that sometime."

The three of us smile serenely and reply in unison.

"Of course, sir. We want to see this guy and his sister put behind bars."

As an after thought I add.

"As for how we got him to confess, let's just say Odd's a good actor, fighter, and climber."

The officer nods to us, with a confused look on his face. We head back to the chapel building to meet up with Sniper and Lancer to go shopping. After we meet up and head out to the front gate to use the town pass that Lancer got for our group for the rest of the afternoon and evening. I swear, sometimes this place is like a military school instead of a boarding school. We head into town and immediately board the bus for the mall, paying our fare and getting bus tokens for the return trip. The five of us go to the back of the bus sit down, talking amongst ourselves and checking our wallets and purses to make sure that we've got everything we'll need for this trip.

:Yumi:

Ulrich calls his parents to tell them that he would be spending the evening with his friends and not to worry, he'd be back around 20:00 hours. I heard several curses over the phone as well as his dad yelling that he had to be back by five, no excuses. I'm sure the others half the bus heard what his father yelled into the phone, and he didn't have it in speaker mode. Ulrich just shuts his phone off, he told his parents when he would be home and he didn't really care what they thought. Curfew at Kadic was 20:30 hours. The whole bus stared at us, excluding the driver, then most of them realized they were staring when I made a comment along the lines of take a picture, it'll last longer. Three fourths of the riders turned back to whatever they were doing, but the guy sitting behind us made another comment.

"I would but I forgot my camera. Who was that on the phone?"

Ulrich sighs and looks back, seeing a guy I could identify as a plain clothes officer because of his thoughts and how his mind was set up.

"My father, I'm sick of how he and my mother have been treating me over the past few years and I'm going to hang out with my friends today. Besides, I completed the stuff he's going to want me to do this morning after he left for work."

The guy nods and leans back.

"Tell me, how do they treat you?"

Ulrich looks to me and I sigh, picking up on his question and answering telepathically.

'He's a policeman, Officer James Gordon, Homicide, and an all around black-and-white officer.'

Ulrich nods and looks back at him.

"Like shit. No matter how fast I do the chores assigned to me they beat me up and I've got the bruises to prove it."

Ulrich carefully removes his green jacket revealing his thin, white, short sleeve shirt and impressive amounts of bruising on his arms and several of the bruises under his shirt, as well as a bloodstained area on the shoulder of his shirt. James is taken aback by the amount of damage done to the kid's body. He pulls out his cell phone and calls the station. I speak up briefly.

"I didn't know about it until today after chapel, none of us did. He attends Kadic Academy, that boarding school we were picked up near with us."

James nods and in a hushed voice talks over the phone. He then turns to us and opens his mouth to speak, I speak up before him though.

"We have already taken measures to get Ulrich moved into the dorms. The young lady beside me is the daughter of the principle at Kadic. She has told her father about Ulrich's home situation and he has agreed to let him have a dorm there under his guardianship."

James looks at me strangely, his mind saying something like how did you know I was going to ask that. I turn around and face the front of the bus as Ulrich puts his jacket on again and says one final thing to Officer James Gordon.

"Don't bust them 'til I get my stuff tonight, Officer. My name is Ulrich Stern and my parents are Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Stern."

I sense his jaw drop when Ulrich calls him by his title. His thoughts are jumbled in his surprise but here's his clearest thoughts.

'How the hell did he know I'm an officer and why did he look at the girl beside him before he answered my second question. Why did that girl answer my third question before I even had a chance to ask it and why did he ask me not to bust his parents until tonight like he knew I was planning on doing it when I got off the bus.'

We all face the front and Officer James Gordon gets out a notepad and writes down some information then leans forward and taps me on the shoulder.

"Would you and your friends be willing to testify against Mr. Ulrich Stern's parents?"

I look over my shoulder and smile to him.

"Sure, we'd love to. We are going to buy a camcorder on this trip to catch them in the act tonight when we drop him off."

He looks at me in surprise.

'Damn, these kids are slick.'

"Alright, sounds like a plan. I'll be sure to stop by your school tomorrow to pick up the tape. As well as send a team from the SVU to pick up Mr. Stern's parents. Tell me, how long did it take you five to plan this out?"

Ulrich looks over his shoulder.

"Took us exactly four minutes and twenty seconds. Don't turn the cameragirl in at the school though, one of them will be spending the night staking out my family for the footage."

Officer Gordon smirks.

"You haven't told me which one of you will be staying behind to get the footage so I can't really turn you in."

"True. Just stop by room 215 around 17:00 hours tomorrow for the tape, the girl with the purple and blonde hair should be waiting for you."

He nods and leans back, very amused by the five of us.

'These kids look out for one another, I wish I had friends like them when I was in school. They're so supportive of one another. I'd really hate to cross a gang of criminals like this gang of kids.'

I smirk and tell the rest of the group, through telepathy, about what the officer behind Ulrich and I thought of our plan and us.

'He'd be afraid of us if we turned criminal, but then again if we didn't show restraint in using our powers everyone would be afraid of us.'

Odd's thoughts are loudest in response to that.

'Yeah, I can say that I would be afraid of us too, but then again I know our powers and he doesn't.'

All five of us grin as the bus pulls up to the mall and we get off, followed closely by Officer Gordon. We head into the building and head into the electronics store and buy a camera using a card linked to the KLC account. AelitaR had manufactured our debit cards and set it up, as well as changed the account to be in her name with the five of us having access to it as well as herself. Each card had it's own PIN, I paid for the camcorder and led Ulrich, Jeremie and Odd to the clothing store. Sissi and I went in first and then we started picking out stuff that would look good on Sissi in the eyes of the Defenders. We picked out a lot of darker clothes than what she used to wear.

Jeremie picked out a blood red tank top and a pair of black jeans. I picked out a black sweater top and a pair of blue jeans. Odd grabbed a purple T-shirt with some writing on it I didn't get a good look at and a pair of black jeans. Ulrich picked out a white shirt, a black leather jacket, and a pair of black jeans. Sissi picked out a couple of outfits for herself, but they were much different than the ones she used to wear, she also grabbed a pair of black leather gloves, just like the rest of us had. It's a part of being in our gang, our symbol if you will. There's also the bandanas and bracelets that Jeremie and AelitaR have been designing, but those won't be delivered for another two months, each of us will be getting four of them and they will be delivered to Jeremie's dorm room.

Trying on the outfits we found that all of our choices in color fit her new personality as Lancer. She even liked how they looked. Reading the shirt Odd picked for her brought a smile to her face, it said 'Cat Lady'. We all got a chuckle out of that when she wore it out of the dressing room. Going back to the racks we picked out several of each type of outfit before we went up to the front to pay for them. Sissi paid for them with her KLC card, not like we need to worry about it running out of funds, the account was above ten billion francs when Aelita last checked, which was over a decade ago when she was looking through the files of the super computer and stumbled on the funding of the Lyoko Project. The account for the KLC was over ten billion francs by itself, each individual complex had it's own account, most of them were in the billions.

:Jeremie:

As we headed out we stopped at a jewelry shop and each bought a pendant, the pendants were all the same, a small yin-yang charm on a gold chain. The charm had a real meaning to us, we were all leading double lives, a normal life and a darker life defending Lyoko. I check the time, 18:00 hours, just enough time to stop and grab a bite to eat before we return to school. The five of us all stop at the food court and split up to get our food. After getting our food we sat down at the same table and began talking about the one thing we had an interest in, Lyoko. Ulrich starts off the conversation on Lyoko the game.

"How's the game coming along?"

"Pretty well, Otritza and the Keepers have been supplying ideas for it. We're almost ready to have an alpha test of the game. How would you guys like to do that?"

"Sounds cool. I can't wait 'til we get it ready. But here's the big question, what happens once we get the game out there and it becomes a big hit?"

"We live off the profits and keep producing the game, hell we might as well let XANA know about it, after all he's the one who gave us the idea."

That particular comment causes all of them to crack up. I think realistically on it, XANA might laugh at it and find it nice for a good laugh, but how do we tell him about it? He's an AI that lives in Lyoko and as far as the Keepers know he doesn't talk to anyone. The conversation then takes a slightly darker turn.

"Speaking of XANA, what does he usually try to do when he attacks?"

"Kill people, normally anyway. Often times he just wants to get rid of us, the Defenders. But occasionally he sends his attacks after civilians, just to give us reason to shut his attacks off and activate the Return To Past program. Or as we like to call it the Return Trip Protocol."

Sissi nods at that one. She shift the subject back to Lyoko the game.

"What's the game's title going to be?"

"Lyoko: The Silent War."

"Makes sense to me to call it that. What kind of game will it be?"

"We were thinking of making it an MMO, hosted on a server or two that we could set up in the KLC. We could offer to have the school beta test the game and have it go from there. I think that with proper marketing we may even get it to go all over Europe. Global is another matter though, but we won't know how well it does outside of France until we find out how well it does here first."

Sissi nods and goes quiet, probably thinking about how she could get her father to see letting my friends and I hand out our game to the school for beta testing. Odd speaks up next.

"I wonder, would it be worth it to maybe sell the finished product here after we beta test it at school. Besides, where would a bunch of kids get their hands on a server?"

"I've already ordered the servers, they will be arriving at the KLC on Tuesday, AelitaR and I will be signing for them, we've even gotten the proper connections all set up to the net and everything. Aelita and I were working on it last night, I even slept at the KLC, hence the time the Return Trip Protocol took us to, I only slept about two hours this morning."

Odd seems satisfied by my answer and quiets down. Ulrich speaks up next though.

"Guys, it's almost time for us to return to the school and Sissi, don't forget to give your dad the papers that need to be signed by him."

Sissi nods as we all stand up and prepare to return home. Sissi, Odd and I take the bags containing her clothes and Yumi takes the camcorder. We all walk back to the bus stop.

:Yumi:

The bus arrives as we come to the bus stop. We've still got half an hour before we need to be back at the school to check in and still have our plan work. Ulrich and I sat together again, the two of us leaning against one another in an effort to comfort him. Ulrich and I have a mental conversation.

'Tonight ends your torment. I can't wait for it to happen either. I'm sorry about reading your mind without permission back at chapel.'

'You're forgiven. I just hope my parents get nice long sentences for beating me every day for the past nine years.'

'They've been beating you since you were five?'

'Yep, almost religiously too. Like they wouldn't survive if they didn't beat me at least once a day, each.'

I wrap my arm around him and kiss his forehead.

'Won't be happening anymore, we will make sure of that.'

'And for that I'm thankful, my love'

The bus pulls up to the school and we all get off, for some reason that trip seemed shorter than it did earlier, oh well. The five of us get off the bus and go up to the gate. The others check in while Ulrich and I head off to his house. The two of us walk up to the front of his house. I turn and walk down the alley beside his house and set myself up to where I can look into his living room unobstructed. I turn on the camcorder and teleport into the room. Using my Psionics I also make Ulrich's parents oblivious to myself and my shadow. I send the nod to Ulrich, indicating I'm in position with a telepathic message.

Ulrich opens the door, I focus the camera on Ulrich's parents, watching their head snap to the door as it opens. A few seconds later, after Ulrich walks into the room he goes past his parents, ignoring them at first, even though he knows they've seen him. He walks toward the staircase when his father shouts at him.

"Get you ass back here."

Ulrich sighs and turns around, walking back over to his parents, bracing himself for the coming assault.

"Why did you not come back at five like I ordered you to, be glad we even let you get that time on Sunday considering how you ran off on Saturday."

Ulrich sighs again, this time replying to him.

"I 'ran off' as you put it because my chores were already finished and you and Mom had left for work. I had the house spotless, you saw it. All the dishes were cleaned and there was nothing left to clean in the entire house."

"Don't talk back to me."

In the second it took Ulrich's father to say that he had crossed the room and punched Ulrich in the stomach hard enough to make him double over. A feat I have seen nobody else accomplish. Ulrich lays on the floor for a bit before coughing up a small amount of blood onto his sleeve. Ulrich forces himself to stand again, this time leaning on the banister and panting heavily. I feel his pain, excruciating, how can he stand this?

Ulrich smirks faintly at his father.

"Is that any way to treat your only son?"

Ulrich's father bristles at the comment and takes a step back as his wife crosses the room in seconds and plants her fist against Ulrich's shoulder. I feel the pain as his shoulder dislocates, ouch. Ulrich doesn't fall from his mother's blow, however his father soon follows up with a nasty strike to the back of the head, knocking Ulrich onto his knees. Ulrich stands again, my eyes are watering from the amount of pain he's had to endure so far, how does he stand it? Ulrich starts to limp toward his room, signaling me to teleport into there. I shut the camcorder off and teleport it to my dorm room before teleporting into Ulrich's room. Ulrich opens the door and collapses into his room. His parents look like they are going to continue the beatings, right up until they reach the threshold of Ulrich's room. Something stops them from passing over the threshold. The two of them walk off, pissed that they couldn't express their feelings toward Ulrich because of the nature of his room and the charms placed on the doorway. I look at one of the charms, smiling slightly to myself.

'Let No Evil pass through this gate.' It obviously works too. I gather Ulrich's things and prepare to teleport us both and most of Ulrich's stuff to Jeremie's dorm. After I teleport myself and Ulrich to Jeremie's room I quietly and quickly head upstairs to get at least an hour of sleep. Odd is standing beside the door twirling the tape between her fingers.

'Ulrich's parents are going to pay for hurting our friend. The trial's only the beginning.'

'I agree, after the trial I'll send them both to the brink of insanity and push them in.'

'Good girl, now rest up. XANA's not going to stay asleep for long. We pissed him off something fierce today.'

And with that thought the two of us change into our night clothes and hit the hay. Tomorrow's gonna be a very fun day.

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, got a new game and got pulled back into an old one. Hope the extra long chap makes up for it. 22 pages in WordPerfect 10, on 12 point type.
Also, I'd like to ask that you guys give me ideas for Otritza and Myst's new Lyoko forms.