11-5: New Body
Delays, delays, always delays, and yet chapter five has arrived! Enjoy and don't forget to leave a review. Also, the whole outline is not set in stone yet, so feel free to offer any ideas that might contribute. You may get a chappie dedicated to you.
(((-5-)))
Janika tried to speak but only made a queer buzzing sound.
She hadn't materialized as herself, which might be considered a good thing since there were about six Hornets flying abstractedly around the elevator's bolted door. The…er…Hornet-girl knew she couldn't defeat all of them there without getting herself killed as well. She would have to let them get away and destroy them one by one.
The lift finally arrived and four of X.A.N.A.'s monsters managed to hover inside without crashing into each other. The rest would have to wait. Janika decided to wait for her other "comrades" to go first and observe them before acting like one. It was easy to hover with five pairs of wings, but Janika wondered what she would do if she wanted to land. She didn't have legs, after all.
The elevator returned after a minute or so and they crowded in. The two Hornets flew out of the factory, heading in different directions. Janika followed one and waited until she was a reasonable distance from the other before firing unexpectedly on her "comrade" who was so shocked that it didn't even dodge as she dove down from above, using a sort of sixth sense to attack. She couldn't fire quickly, though.
Exploding pieces of shrapnel rained down on the water surrounding the factory and Janika made a few victory loops in the air, finding that wings were actually quite pleasant commodities. But when she finally remembered the other five Hornets, the transformed girl realized she had no idea which way they had all flown.
Oh well. She'd better start somewhere.
(V)
Sissy felt the Flame sleeping and stepped carefully out into the hall. It was luckily Sunday, so there was no school to distract him. He would have no choice but to listen and explain, if he was truly one of the conspirators.
She climbed up the stairwell to the boys' floor and peeked out into it. A few of her male classmates meandered around in a semi-asleep state, mostly aiming for the showers. Ulrich and Odd were there too, looking little more than a ghost of his former self, but for some reason also happy.
Their conversation was short and punctuated by frequent growls from the short kid's stomach. Odd looked a bit sheepish and bid his friend farewell, announcing that he had a date with about a dozen slices of buttered toast and twenty poached eggs, plus a list of other foods that practically grossed the principal's daughter out.
He came toward the door while Ulrich followed the other boys into the showers. Sissy looked for a place to conceal herself but there was nothing to hide behind! Boldly she stood her ground.
The door opened and Odd began down the stairs, too intent on his breakfast to notice her. Sissy's hand staked out and seized him by the back of his shirt, yanking him back. "Don't even think about sneaking off!" she warned.
"Sissy, what do you want? I'm starving to death here!"
"You're always starving, Pipsqueak."
"But this time I'm telling the truth! All I've had to eat for the last four days was a package of salty chips and cookies Ulrich gave me last night."
"Boo-hoo. I don't really care about that. I have a very personal matter that's your fault."
"Hey! Don't blame me for what you see in the mirror."
The girl in pink felt her eye twitch and she tried to ignore the jab. "I'm serious, Odd. Something's been happening to me lately that could only be something a person like you would have the ability to understand…" She dropped her voice so low that he could barely hear. "I have super-powers."
For once Odd stared at her gravely and she released her grip on his shirt. "Sissy…now I do understand. It makes so much sense…it never crossed my mind before, but now I see it! Nobody could have a face like yours unless it was some kind of super-defense. You could stop a rhino in its tracks just by glaring at it!"
Her fist flew toward his face but he dodged and ran downstairs laughing his head off. Sissy screamed several things at him that are too impolite to repeat. They did involve thorny vines, some twisted pieces of iron, and a vat of crude oil doing something very unlikely to him, though.
She hoped he wouldn't tell the whole school what she'd just said. Why did she even bother to hope? It was guaranteed to be on the front page tomorrow. But this meant he wasn't the one. Who else could possibly know anything about crazy stuff like this? Super powers and insanity weren't really her forte.
Wait, she had it! There was one other person who would know all about this kind of thing!
(V)
Yumi looked through her books, finally able to concentrate without falling into deep wells of memories and thoughts that had a tendency to swallow her time over the past few days. She was all too sure that Jeremy and Aelita would find some way to rescue their friend from Lyoko.
Physics wasn't her favorite subject, but it was impossible to skip. She was just getting into the terminology when a shadow fell across her paper from the window. Only her instincts saved her life as Yumi twisted into a forward roll that brought her behind the meager cover of her bed.
A narrow beam of red light came through the glass, shattering it and shredding the Japanese girl's homework into a mess of blackened papers. She ducked a second shot as the Hornet came closer, hovering outside her window with grim purpose. Luckily it was too big to fit into the opening.
"Yumi, what's all that racket? I heard something break," her mother's footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs.
"Mom, stay away! There's a—" she stopped, not sure what to say. Nothing she could think of would dissuade her from entering.
It was too late. The door squeaked as it swung open and Yumi screamed a warning at the same time that a laser flew toward the woman! It struck Yumi's mother, flinging her back into the hallway with a cry that wrenched her daughter's heart.
"Mom!" Heedless of the danger, she abandoned her cover and ran to the door.
Tseeew! Another shot flew past her face as she dragged her mother to safety. The injured Japanese woman sputtered and spasmed uncontrollably, and there was a wound in her shoulder near the carotid artery in her neck, blood beginning to soak her shirt. Hiroki pounded up the stairs and saw his mother on the floor.
"Mama!" he shrieked, running forward.
"Stay back!" Yumi screamed at her brother as he passed in front of the open doorway of her room. She heard the Hornet's laser fire and watched Hiroki dashing with agonizing slowness.
The laser struck the ceiling above the boy, a wild shot. There was angry buzzing and more sporadic shots, but they didn't enter her room. Was someone outside defending her?
"Stay here with Mom," she told her brother. "Keep pressure on her shoulder here. Do you understand?"
Hiroki looked more serious than she'd ever seen him before. "Yes."
Waiting long enough to make sure he could do it, the black-haired teenager rushed back through her door to see two Hornets battling outside. She couldn't tell any difference between them, so wasn't sure which one had shot her mother. But what really puzzled her was why X.A.N.A.'s creatures were fighting each other.
One of them took shelter beneath the branches of an oak tree and fired at the other in short, furtive bursts, but the second continued a periodic barrage that kept the first under cover. Yumi wasn't sure what was going on, but she had to do something.
"Hey you!" she yelled, standing openly in front of the broken window, waving her arms. She leaped out of sight immediately as one fired at her.
The first one, under the tree, flew out attacking the other wildly. Yumi heard an explosion and risked a glance outside—and stared straight into the face of a Hornet stationed there! She stumbled back, scrabbling for any weapon, but the robot didn't take advantage of her fear and confusion. Instead, it hovered there, buzzing.
I don't believe it! You can't even understand me. How am I supposed to communicate here? Janika grumped.
It wasn't making any menacing moves, so the girl decided to try speaking to it. "Are you going to hurt me?"
Of course not! What do you take me for? Oh yeah, a Hornet.
Yumi took the Hornet's slight back-and-forth motion to be a 'no'. "Why did you protect me?"
Oh, like I can really answer that one! Forget this. The other four robots are probably at Kadic by now and I'm busy trying to explain something to you with 'yes' and 'no' answers? See ya, Yumi.
It made more indecipherable buzzing before shooting off into the air. The Japanese girl looked down and realized the two battling Hornets had drawn the attention of her neighbors. Sirens blared in the distance, coming closer. Someone must have called them.
"Sweetheart!" her father cried as he arrived and rushed to his wife's side.
She would be fine once the paramedics showed up. Yumi rushed past her family down the stairs and out the back door, pulling out her phone as she ran. X.A.N.A. was on the offensive and she hadn't been warned, so either the others hadn't gotten around to it or were completely unaware.
Jeremy's phone rang once before he picked up. "What is it, Yumi?"
She slammed through the back gate and darted down the alley. "Where should I start? A couple of Hornets just showed up at my house and my mom was shot. One of them was acting strange. It—"
"You mean X.A.N.A.'s attacking?" the computer genius interrupted.
"What do you think it sounds like?"
"I'll talk to the guys, you call Aelita. I don't think she's quite ready to forgive me for my comment last night."
"Whatever! I'm sure he sent more than two. I'll try to meet up with you guys at Kadic in a little while. Be careful, Jeremy. These creatures are more agile than the Krabs or Roachsters."
"Will do. Thanks for the heads up. I hope Janika hasn't gotten into any trouble on Lyoko."
Yumi couldn't help laughing at that. "Are you kidding me? That girl is a magnet for trouble of one sort or another! But I'm sure she wouldn't try anything without contacting us."
Yeah, we all know better than to believe that. Now, if you were offered the following for Easter, which would you take: a rabid Easter bunny, rotten Easter eggs, or a package of gummie worms that turn out to be the real ones? (my choice would be the rabid rabbit b/c then I could tie him up in the yard to keep Jehovah Witnesses away)