Chapter #3:
As the group sat around in his dorm room, Jaden was somewhat surprised that Aelita was taking their previous encounter on Lyoko so hard. Although losing his sister was tough, Jaden felt
certain that they could rescue her. Gazing in her direction, Jaden couldn't help but feel sorry for her as she gloomily sat on a corner of his bed while Odd's beloved dog Kiwi lay in her lap.
"Would someone please say something funny before I have a heart attack?" Odd whined, breaking the silence.
"I don't feel like joking, Odd." Aelita retorted. "Besides, I can't believe I let it happen when I had a chance to stop it." she continued while sadly casting her gaze at the floor.
"Don't let it get you down, Aelita. There was nothing anyone could have done." Jaden spoke up comfortingly.
"Thanks."
"Hey, no problem." Jaden replied cheerfully. "So, what do we do now?" he asked after a pause.
"Well, first thing tomorrow I'll head to the factory and debug the Virtual Form Sequence program. Then we'll just have to wait to see what Xana's got in store for us next." Jeremie replied.
"Great! Whatever you plan on doing count me in." Jaden said.
"Well, I'd better head home. See you later." Yumi remarked as she headed for the door.
"Speaking of which, we'd better get going also." Ulrich spoke up. Jaden bid everyone farewell as the others filed out of the room before settling in for the night.
As he sat in study hall, Jaden silently went over the previous day's events in his mind trying to determine if anything could have gone differently. Despite what he'd told Aelita the previous night, Jaden wasn't so sure that things couldn't have been different. He was certain however, that there was a way to save his sister. Lost in thought, Jaden didn't notice the approaching footsteps until a shadow fell over him. Looking up, he was somewhat surprised to see the principal standing over him.
"Hello Jaden, Would you come to my office now? I'd like to talk to you. It's very important." the elderly man asked. Jaden cast a quick glance at Odd and Ulrich before nodding in agreement.
As he stepped out of the building, the others quickly got to their feet. The group exchanged worried glances with one another as Jaden walked by without speaking.
"So, what happened?" Aelita asked.
"Oh, you know the principle, he droned on and on. Something about a photo." Jaden replied.
"Is that all? We were worried it had something to do with your sister's disappearance." Odd said.
"It's worse than you think, Odd." Jaden replied. "Due to some error, they lost the original photo's that came with our transfer papers.
Now they want Rinoa and I to have a reshoot later this afternoon and with her gone I have no idea what to do."
"That is serious." Jeremie commented.
"Not to worry, I think I've got an idea." Ulrich spoke up cheerfully.
"I'm listening."
"So, tell me again why we're standing in front of Sissi's dorm room?" Odd asked.
"All part of the plan." Ulrich replied.
"I hope this works." Jaden commented.
Just as Ulrich raised his hand to knock, the door opened. Standing in the doorway, Sissi crossed her arms in the usual fashion and eyed him like a predator that was about to make a kill.
"Can I help you?"
"Ah, just the person I wanted to see." Ulrich replied. "See, I have a favor to ask you."
"Go on I'm listening."
Ulrich whispered in her ear. "Why should I help you?" Sissi asked as he stepped back.
"C'mon Sissi, it's really important." Ulrich replied.
"Alright, if I agree you'll have to go out with me."
"Ok, I'll date you for a month." Ulrich answered.
"Two months minimum or no deal."
"One month and uh, a down payment."
"What kind of… down payment?" Sissi asked.
Jaden and Odd advert their gaze as Ulrich gave Sissi a passionate kiss.
"If it helps, I'll fill in as a date for a month." Jaden added as he looked up.
"That's debatable, but I'll help you." Sissi replied.
"Great!" the boys chorus in unison.
As they sat waiting for Sissi, the boys cast bored looks at one another.
"Who ever thought it would take an hour and a half to try on a wig and a dress?" Jaden grumbled impatiently.
"Hey, Ulrich this kinda reminds me of a similar situation with Yumi." Odd spoke up cheerfully.
"Don't remind me." Ulrich replied.
The door suddenly opened and Sissi stepped out. "Well, what do you think?"
The three boys stared at her in astonishment. Sissi wore a light blue dress and brown wig, the effect of which made her look much like Rinoa.
"Wow! That's really close. Nice work, Sissi." Jaden replied.
"I'm definitely experiencing a real deja vu moment here." Odd murmured to Ulrich.
Ulrich merely nodded in reply.
"So, what's my agenda?"
"We'll need to meet in front of the cafeteria around one, ok?" Jaden responded.
"Sure. Well, see you later." Sissi turned and reentered the room, closing the door as she did so.
The boys meanwhile, begin walking toward the exit. "Ah, Ulrich and Sissi quite a romantic couple? Man, won't Yumi be the jealous one." Odd spoke up smugly after a pause.
"If you say a word to Yumi about the down payment, your dead!" Ulrich growled. Odd merely giggled in reply.
As he sat at the computer located inside the factory, Jeremie rapidly typed buttons on the keyboard as he finished debugging the Virtual Form Sequence program.
"Alright, now I just need to test it."
The young genius pressed the enter key on the keyboard and unleashed his latest masterpiece of coding into the computer. Letters and numbers traveled across the monitor's glass surface at lightning-quick speeds. After a few minutes, the stream of letters and numbers stopped and was replaced by a large green exclamation point that quickly disappeared.
"Outstanding! It worked!" Jeremie squealed. A moment later, an alarm beeped catching his attention. Glancing at the screen, Jeremie was horrified by what he saw.
"Oh, no a tower has been activated." he quickly began accessing communications.
As they sat waiting for Jaden in the courtyard, Ulrich's cell phone suddenly rang. Ulrich and Odd exchanged glances as he answered it. "Hello? Oh, it's you Jeremie."
"What are you doing right now?"
"We were just waiting for Jaden to finish his photo session. What's going on?"
"Xana's launched an attack! A tower's been activated!"
"I'm listening." Ulrich responded worriedly.
"I don't have any information for you at the moment but I'll keep looking. In the meantime, contact Jaden and Yumi and bring Aelita to the factory as soon as you can." Jeremie stated.
"We will." As he shut off the phone, Ulrich glanced over at Odd and saw that he'd pulled out his own phone. With a nod, both boys began dialing numbers on their respective phones.
Walking back to the dorms, Jaden was surprised when his cell phone suddenly rang. Sissi shot him a curious glance as he answered it. After a few minutes, Jaden hung up and turned to her.
"Listen, something really important has just come up, so I need to go."
"Don't worry, I'm more than capable of returning to my room by myself."
With a nod, Jaden began jogging toward the park. After a few steps he turned back to face her once more. "Oh, and thanks for your help, Sissi."
"No problem. Just don't forget to tell Ulrich that we have a date next Thursday."
"I'll pass the message along." Jaden replied as he pulled out a small piece of paper and a pencil from his pocket and began scribbling a note before continuing on his way.
Stepping away from the elevator, Jaden quickly made his way toward the computer where the others were already waiting.
"I'm glad to see you were able to get away from the crowd." Jeremie spoke up in greeting.
Looking around Jaden was surprised to see that Yumi was missing.
"Where's Yumi?"
"Don't worry, she should be here shortly." Ulrich replied.
"I've finished debugging the Virtual Form Sequence program, so you shouldn't have anymore problems." Jeremie spoke up.
"Great! Oh, I have a message for you, Ulrich." Jaden said.
He quickly pulled out the note and handed it to Ulrich. Ulrich nodded to himself as he quickly scanned the note before crumbling it up.
"Ulrich, that note didn't happen to come from an admirer, did it?" Odd asked smugly.
Ulrich stared blankly at him as the others looked on amused. Odd merely smirked in reply.
The sound of the elevator grabbed everyone's attention. Turning they saw Yumi emerge.
"Sorry I'm late, what's going on?"
"I'm still not sure what Xana's planning, so you guys need to head down to the scanner room." Jeremie replied.
"We're on our way." Yumi replied as she and the rest of the group headed for the elevator. As the elevator descended, Jeremie spoke up over the speaker.
"Watch yourselves, you're headed for the mountain region."