Yays! I'll keep my promise and have this chap up before school! Even though I'm cutting it kind of close...Oh WELL! So, I will take this time to thank all of you that have read and/or reviewed this fiction. It means a lot to me that people take time out of their day to read an amateur's works. Thankies!

So on with the fic!

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Anna jerked her head up as she found herself standing in front of the door to a classroom, a quick look at the clock hanging from the ceiling down the hall told her that this was her first period. 'Wh- what?' she thought frantically, looking into the room, and noticing the words 'NEW STUDENT' written on the chalk board as children ran about the room, goofing off.

The bell rang, and the she could hear something akin to 'SHUT THE HELL UP YOU BRATS!' and then the room got quiet. 'Huh? But, this happened already!' The teacher said something else, walked over, and opened the door. "Come on in dear." She said in a much different voice than before. "Go ahead and introduce yourself to the class."

She looked about the room, spotting Odd and his three matchmaker friends, talking quietly between themselves before looking at her and paying attention. "Um.." She said quietly, looking at the strange children who had been in that factory. 'Hey, wait, maybe that was all a dream!' She thought, suddenly struck with an idea. 'I mean, what are the chances of a guy being named Odd? And a factory with strange kids in it? Ha! I MUST have been dreaming!'

Smiling at the students, she introduced herself. "Hello, I'm Anna Kantii, and I'm from America, it's very nice to meet you all!" She looked over at the teacher to be told where to sit, and once again found her staring at Odd. "You can sit next to...Urg. Odd." The woman said, and though Anna was still shocked, she sat by him, not waiting for him to raise his hand. Mystified, and becoming doubtful in her explanations for the strange turn of events, she waited till break for a chance to talk to Odd.

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At break, Odd didn't bother with the kids asking to copy his homework, and simply declined like Jeremy. She, along with quite a few people in the class looked at Odd with surprise on their faces. After that, he turned around to face her. "Hi, I'm Odd! We met yesterday!" He smiled at her, and she looked suspiciously at him. "Didn't I see you guys before that flash of light?"

Odd, Jeremy, and Ulrich stared in surprise at her. "Wha-What?" Odd said, a nervous twitch in his face and voice. "We only met yesterday, I b-bumped into you!" The others nodded, but Anna continued. "Your voice was coming out of nowhere." She said, pointing at Odd, "And you were sitting in a computer, though I can't figure out how." She pointed at Ulrich. "And you and another girl were talking about hooking me up with Odd!" She said, pointing furiously at Jeremy with one hand while the other balled itself into a fist. Odd also glared at his friends, "Is that SO, Jeremy?" He said while Jeremy recoiled in fear from the combined efforts of Odd and Anna.

Then Anna looked around, confused. "Hey, isn't there supposed to be an earthquake right about now?" The others shook their heads. "Um, that is...we...fixed...it?" Odd ended his sentence, stumbling over a way to explain how it worked. Jeremy shook his head and smiled at Anna before glancing at the others, where it seemed an unheard agreement was made. "Look, there's no way we can explain it here, but after school, how about you meet us at the bench by the soccer field?" Anna nodded and the others smiled, "We'll explain everything there." And the agreement was sealed.

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In her dorm after dinner, Anna went over everything she had learned. It was strange that she was the only person who had remembered anything after a XANA attack, and the others had thought that this might mean that she was meant to be part of the team.

/Flashback/

At the bench, the others were gathered around. Anna noticed the black haired girl, Yumi that she had followed into the factory. They all sat down, and after a loud debate and a short scuffle, Jeremy told her all about it.

After absorbing all of the information and a large smoothie that Odd had conjured seemingly out of nowhere, she asked them about the details and pulled out a sketchbook, quickly drawing sketches of them each. One by one, they described themselves and their specialties, with Anna writing down every detail, and adjusting her drawings to their descriptions till she had a complete analysis on each of them.

Odd leaned over her shoulder, looking at the pages in front of them. He noted humorously, the margin notes on Yumi's and Jeremy's said things like, 'Pervert' and, 'Sicko'. Along Ulrich's margin was, 'Scary' and the lyrics to the matchmaker song from Fiddler on the Roof. Odd got to his, but Anna quickly gathered all the papers up before he could see them. "Odd, don't be so nosey about other people's work!" she snapped slightly as she stuffed the papers out of sight. "But, I wanted to see what you wrote about me!" He cried indignantly, putting on a false puppy dog look, crouching down and bringing his hands up into the begging position.

The others watched this carefully, noticing the slight redness around Anna's cheeks; though unbeknownst to their strange, strange minds it was from embarrassment, not 'cause she liked Odd.

The children had gotten into a rousing game of Tackle Odd, when Anna's cell phone rang. "Just a sec' guys, I think it's from my mom." Turning around and walking a few yards away, she pressed the button and put it up to her ear.

"Hello, this is Anna." She wasn't at all shocked to hear her mother's voice at the other end, but what came next sent her world for a spin. "Anna! You won't believe this strange, totally coincidental event!" Anna raised her eyebrow slightly. "It just so happens that we've narrowed proge- I mean Odd's location down to the general part of France that you're in! Totally coincidental, I swear!" (Yes, a plot device, I just couldn't flounder on before getting to the point like shows such as YuGiOh -damn filler episodes- and DBZ -and DB, and DBGT-)

Anna's other eyebrow raised itself, even though her mind was completely elsewhere. What were the chances that a boy, whose name was Odd, looked quite similar to her old friend, and had a virtual manifestation that was identical to the transformation Her Odd went through when going to battle mode, WASN'T the person they were looking for? "Um...Wow Mom!" She said in her best, 'I'm not hiding anything from you, I swear I know nothing, NOTHING I TELL YOU!' voice. "Erm...Well, I'll tell you if I see him!"

She could hear it in her Mom's voice; she was about to do something drastic. 'Ooooooh crap.' Thought Anna, preparing for the storm. "Oh, don't worry honey!" Her mom practically squealed into the phone. "I'm going to come over and stay with you in France! That way, we can find him twice as fast!"

Anna glanced over at Odd, who was currently being sat upon by Jeremy and Ulrich, looking fairly put out. "Uh, that's...great Mom! I'll see you when you get here, bye!" And after an excited farewell from her mother, Anna started panicking. 'I don't think Odd even KNOW'S that he's ODD! He would have recognized ME at least!' She thought broodingly as she tucked her cell phone back into her bag and walked slowly back to her friends who were once again trying to catch Odd, who had climbed up a tree.

"Hey guys! Guess what?" She yelled, approaching the tree where Odd was taking refuge. "My mom's coming to visit me, so you guys get to meet her!" The façade of cheerfulness seemed to work, as no one had noticed her worries yet. "Cool! We've pretty much met everyone but Odd's parents, and seeing as how they live in America, we probably won't get to see 'em till the end of the year." Jeremy had started to rant again, so everybody sat down to listen. "Ulrich's parents visit every now and then to watch him play soccer, so we've met them, and Yumi lives with her parents, they live about two miles away." Anna thought for a second before asking. "What about your parents, Jeremy? Where are they?" "Oh Jeremy's parents travel a lot, so we only see pictures of them from e-mails" Odd said, waving his hand in circles as the others nodded.

"Well that explains all of you guys' parents, and I suppose I should talk about mine." Anna said as Odd gave her a 'no duh' look and promptly had his feet stepped on by three meddling friends. Ignoring the actions of her friends, she went on. "My parents worked as scientists for the American government, but when I was four, my dad died in an accident connected to a very important project..." (Role the memory please)

Flashback/memory

Anna watched excitedly from behind thick glass as a group of scientists including her father worked on what looked like a regular boy about her age. Behind her, her mother stood, excitement and worry running through her. This was to be the last finishing touch to what would be the biggest breakthrough in both unnatural human reproduction and warfare in the history of the world.

But to Anna, this was simply watching as her new big brother was being perfected. She had been told a few days ago that she would be in the presence of this boy for the next few years, and she couldn't wait. It was lonely being the only child in the whole place, but because she was needed for this, she was allowed to stay.

Down below them, the doctors had inserted something into the boy's brain, but while she thought this would hurt the boy, her mother assured her that he would be perfectly fine. They were placing a strange substance into the place where they had cut through the skull, and she watched, entranced, as the wound healed immediately and the hair grew back. The men in the room seemed to relax some, until the boy started moving. He got up, totally unaffected by any of the restraints placed on him, and as she watched, his ears transformed into those of a cats, and a purple tail with lavender stripes (the same as his ears) seemed to flow out of his back.

Anna was suddenly rushed out of the room, and the last thing she saw was her mother working frantically at a computer as flecks of dark red liquid spotted the glass window. Her mother had come out of the room an hour later, her eyes red as she led her daughter down the hall. "Mommy, isn't the other way faster? And why are you so sad?" The child looked up at the woman, wide eye curious. "Oh, it's just that...you father had to...go away, far away dear." "But he'll be back, right Mommy?"

There was a silence that the girl took for an 'I don't know', so she switched the subject. "Will I be able to se my new brother soon!?" And the woman broke into sobs. "Yes dear, at least HE wasn't for nothing..." And the two got into the car, and they went home.

End flashback/memory -1-

"Wow...Sorry." The group sat, subdued. Just then, the children heard the bell for dinner, and they walked off towards the dining hall.

/End the...um...overall flashback/

Anna curled up slightly in her bed, reliving her father's death had been harsh, and after she had learned just how he had died, she was surprised to find that she did not hate Odd in the least. She had walked up to him the day after her discovery, thinking about what had happened, wondering if he knew about it. He had simply asked if she wanted to play some games, had suggested tag, and look at her with those eyes, and she had thrown the notion out the window.

Now the girl curled up in her covers, worrying over the obstacles yet to come, like how she was going to keep Odd out of trouble when her mom arrived, or how she was going to see if, by some strange miracle (or curse), this Odd was not the war machine of the military and her old best friend that every nation in the world wanted to get their hands on. 'Please, if there is a god out there, just let everything turn out okay.' And the girl turned over, falling into a troubled sleep.

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1) Okay, I just want to point out that there is no way that Anna would explain all this to them, especially when one of those kids she's explaining it to is obviously the guy who killed her dad. She just gave a general overview of the story, but I know we all like to hear the juicy details, so I added in the extensive version just for you guys!

Okay, so that is the new chapter! I hope you all like it, 'cause I'm worn out! I had to go pick up my schedule today, and let me tell you, waiting through those lines and trying to find my way through the ninth grade center, along with all the construction wasn't fun at all!

Thanks for reading as always! Please review, because reviews make me feel motivated! One last note, I think that this was the longest chapter that I've ever done on this fic! Woot! Yeah! Yatta! Yaaahhhh I'm pooped out...

Tiredly yours,

Raifiel C. Smitheson