DETAILS CHANGED IN LIGHT OF SEASON 3!!!

I love you all! (hugs everyone and recieves a few slaps; cringes, backs off) Ahem, anyway, here it is...

SamandMax0569 - We all have a halo and horns. It's what makes us human.

purplelover - Is this soon enough?

katfish xX - Let's all go skip in the flowers! YAY! (the men in the white coats from the Asylum for Mental Cartoon Lovers find me) Eek! (Tinklebell poofs them away) Phew...

killerpurplekitten - (grabs her with a look of paranoia) WHO IS YOUR SOURCE, SPY?

Slinkman (from Camp Lazlo): (hits me with the Full Moon frying pan) Sorry, that was for your own good.

Er, thanks.

IAmTheBos - So... I'm not fired?

Mewberries - Now, what makes you say that? (twitch)

Yumi52IshiyamaQ - (catches pizza and starts eating it contentedly)

Kitty - Why, yes I do. One, it gives you all plenty of time to review, two, it helps remind me how much you guys love the story, three, it keeps the story from ending too soon, and last, but definately not least... D I love torturing you. (gets hit by flying vegitables from all of you, and then the Ware-Rabbit comes in and eats me, so the chapter automatically starts without me)

My Cousin, Ricky

Chapter 9: I don't want to forget - Part 2

The next thing Ulrich knew, he was sitting in math class. A quick look at the calendar revealed that the return trip had dumped them a few days back. As the teacher went on with her lecture, he turned to Jeremie and whispered, "So, why did you set the coordinates back to here?"

"I'm doing you a favor, Ulrich," he whispered in response. "If I never tried going to Lyoko, then there's no deal between you and Sissi."

"Oh," he said, pausing to take this in. "Well, um, thanks, I guess..."

"Ulrich! Repeat what I just said!" Unfortunately for him, the teacher noticed that he wasn't listening.

Because of this, Ulrich was completely taken aback. "I... uh..."

Her eyes turned to the boy next to him. "Odd? Go on, help him." To most of the class' utter amusement, Odd had been caught doing his usual classroom past time: sleeping.

The next day went as usual, minus the gang's trouble due to their extended absences and Ulrich's deal with Sissi. By the end of the day, Ricky's knock came at the door, right on cue.

"Who's there?" asked Ulrich. They'd planned to play most of the pre-return-trip encounter over again, to prevent any suspicion due to the fact that they've already met the kid.

"Orange!" said Ricky from outside.

"Orange who?" asked Odd.

"Orange ya' glad I came all the way from the U.S. to see you?"

Ulrich staged a rather impressive sigh and went to the door. "I almost forgot he was coming."

As soon as he opened the door, the grinning 7-year-old boy greeted, "Hello, Cousin!"

"Cousin?" asked a couple of voices behind Ulrich.

"Well, 'Cousin', I believe a few introductions are in order," said Odd, copying himself from the last time.

With that, Ulrich went into the explanation on who Ricky was and why he was there. There were a few things different in what exact words he said, but nothing really noticeable.

"But, I thought Mr. Delmas wasn't going to open a foreign exchange program with America until next year."

"Oh, I'm not going to Kadic, Jerry." Ricky immediately froze, having caught his slip of tongue only too late. "You are Jerry, right? Cousin told me about you guys."

Ulrich gave him a suspicious look. "Interesting that you have Jeremie's nickname down already. You usually wait until their real name is mentioned, with them in the room, beforehand."

The little boy glanced around, a little nervous. "Oh, I, uh, met Jerry in a dream. Yeah, that's it."

Jeremie was also getting a little suspicious. "You sure that's it?" he asked. "You didn't do anything you weren't supposed to, right?"

"I said I wouldn't mess with anything!" he blurted out. Clasping a hand over his mouth, he realized he'd definitely said too much, now.

Jeremie turned to the older cousin and said, "Ulrich, I think your genius cousin knows a little too much."

"What are you talking about? I don't even know what a X.A.N.A. is, and--aw, dip it in tarter sauce and call it the catch of the day!" the little boy groaned, stomping his foot on the ground. "Why do I even bother anymore?"

Jeremie, Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd glanced at each other in mild worry. Ricky somehow remembered everything that should've been erased from his memory by the return trip. Jeremie had a strong hunch how. "Didn't mess with anything, huh?" he queried with an interrogating voice.

The small child--now feeling even smaller--could feel their stares burning through him. They were mad at him, and that hurt. He sat down, curled up in a ball, and stared at his feet. "OK, I admit it. While you were gone, I--sniff--I programmed myself into the Super Calculator." It was now apparent that he was starting to cry a little.

"But... why?" asked Odd, looking at his best friend's cousin with concern, when he saw he was crying.

"Because I don't want to forget," he softly cried. "I want to remember the great things my cousin does not only for me, but for the whole world. And, Cousin...?" He stared awkwardly up at him, and he nodded him on. "I... have a confession to make...sigh I'm the reason that counselor lady's been on your case?"

"What?" he asked softly.

He threw his hands up a bit. "I don't know... maybe, deep, deep down, I knew you had some big secret like Lyoko, and my exchange mommy and daddy overheard me talking about it, and they can get a little overprotective."

"Well, now that we have that figured out, that might help us in preventing Ulrich from being monitored by Miss Clark," said Jeremie, typing something into his laptop.

Ricky shrugged. "Can't I just not say anything that will make anyone suspicious of Cousin?"

Jeremie shook his head. "I'm sorry, Ricky, but you won't be remembering not to say anything."

The little boy shot up like a rocket. "What?"

"Next time X.A.N.A. attacks, I'm erasing your information from the Super Calculator, and then setting the return trip coordinates to the point I had them set last, so that we can finally erase your memory," he explained.

"B-bu-but..." he stammered. "PLEASE!" He begged, hands folded and down on his knees. "I DON'T WANT TO FORGET! AFTER ALL, HOW ELSE IS ULRICH GOING TO KEEP FROM BEING WATCHED BY THAT COUNSELOR LADY?"

"We'll think of something," said Jeremie, finishing up whatever he was doing on the computer.

"But--but..."

"But nothing," Jeremie scolded him. With that, he pressed the enter key on his computer. "Come on... come on..." he murmured, watching data flash across the screen. Moments later, the results of what he was doing came back negative. He groaned, "I'll never get this darn program to work!"

Ricky leaned over and looked at his laptop. "Hey, you working on that materialization program? Wow, cool!" He frowned and looked at the data. "But, are you sure it's enough to just de-fragment the inertial matrix? What if you tried..." With that, he leaned over further and began typing a long string of code in over the data. Leaning back, he said, "Try it, Jerry."

Jeremie stared curiously at Ricky, then at the laptop, and pressed the enter key. For a minute or so, the computer went over the data. "Nope, still comes up negative. No material--wait a minute!" He scanned over the results. "I don't believe it! I've never been this close before!" He stared at the younger genius before him in awe. "Ricky, what you've done is fantastic!"

Ricky grinned. "Two geniuses are better than one."

Jeremie cleared his throat, trying to look indifferent. "Ahem, um, I suppose he could stay as an honorary member of our group... as long as it's OK with Ulrich, of course." Ricky grinned hopefully up at his big cousin.

Ulrich thought for a moment. "Well... I don't know..."

Ricky stared up at him and said, "Cousin, whenever I was younger, someone very close to me told me that, for every monster out there, there's a force of good out there to protect me. Well, X.A.N.A. is a big, bad, virtual monster. And, you and your friends are the force of good protecting me from him."

Ulrich stared deep into the little boy's blue eyes. He could tell that he really felt strongly about this... what else could he do? "OK," he said, finally.

Those blue eyes lit up with joy, and the little boy they were attached to suddenly flung himself around Ulrich's waist in a big bear hug.

"And, best of all," he said with a grin, "while were keeping X.A.N.A. from taking over the world, Roki and I can be there to make sure you and your girlfriend really get together!"

Ulrich and Yumi exchanged startled glances. Oh, boy! This was going to be a looong exchange program.

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END...

Well, there it is... the end... I loved you all... and I hope you all loved this story... (starts getting all teary eyed)

625: Oh, great. Here come the waterworks. (all characters who ever appear in my chapter prologues and epologues open umbrellas)