Unleashing Valor
By: Tellemicus Sundance
Hel-lo!
The old computers of Kadic had been piling up in a nameless storage room for some time. No one had every really found the time to empty it out for the past ten years. There were examples of some of the first computers ever made still locked away in that room. Many people didn't even know what was behind the door.
Save for three…
"How are we going to get all of this to the factory?" Odd asked in a whining voice. The pile was surprisingly large and comprised of mostly hard-drives from the newer computers. As well as other salvaged parts like wiring and numerous others.
"As quickly as we can," Ulrich growled as he began to stuff the supplies into a crate.
One glance at his friend was enough to tell him that Ulrich wasn't in the mood for jokes. There was a deadly seriousness coming from him. He knew that Odd, though not as injured as he was, would probably be unwilling to do more than his share to make up for his handicap. The fact that he was injured in the first place didn't help his mood much either.
"You know," Odd said as he started to help. "Jim is gonna flip if he catches us."
"Aelita?" Mrs. Hertz called from the front of the class. "Have you seen Ulrich, Odd, or Jeremy today?"
She had to fight the urge to stand up when she heard her name called. Swallowing a small lump in her throat, she put on what she hoped was a face of confusion. To a degree, it was genuine.
"No, ma'am," she said politely. "I haven't seen them all day."
Mrs. Hertz looked at her skeptically for a moment. It seemed to Aelita that she was trying to determine if she knew more than she was telling. For the answer that she'd given, Aelita had been very truthful. Still, she had to fight to control her rising nervousness while under her teacher's gaze.
After a moment, Mrs. Hertz nodded. Then she told the class to open their books. Aelita, for her part, was relieved and let out a small sigh. But it didn't go unnoticed by a pair of suspicious dark eyes.
"Spill it, Mrs. Einstein," Sissi snarled as she walked up Aelita who was sitting by herself at the table. "Where is my dear and his friends?"
"I don't know, Sissi," Aelita said, not looking up. She tried to concentrate on eating her grilled cheese sandwich. No matter how long she lived on Earth, she didn't think that she'd ever get used to all the senses.
"You can't pull the wool over my eyes like Mrs. Hertz," Sissi growled. "Tell me where he is or, so help me, I'll have to resort to drastic measures."
"Like what?" Aelita asked, half interested and half challenging.
Sissi only furrowed her brows in obvious displeasure. She couldn't really do anything without at least a bit of proof. A fact that both the girls knew too well.
"When I find my Ulrich," she began with a wicked sneer. "I'll make sure he never has to associate with a manipulative witch like you." She walked away with her head held high.
Just as she was out of hearing range, Aelita's cell phone rang. Glancing at the caller ID, she smiled appreciatively.
Jeremy.
"Jeremy?"
A smile lit up his face instantly. "Oh, Aelita! You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice!"
"Thanks," he could her the small smile in her voice. "Where are you guys? How's it going?"
Looking at the chaotic scene of the useless hard-drives and other bits of ruined metal and various tools that lay scattered on the floor around him, he could only sigh. "Not too well. I've only had time to pick out what's destroyed and what's probably not going to be serviceable. It isn't looking too good right now."
"I hope you guys can fix it soon," Aelita said wistfully. "I don't think I can stand another day of this."
"Don't worry," he said reassuringly as the sound of the elevator descending reached him. "Tomorrow it's Odd's turn."
The elevator doors opened to reveal Ulrich and Odd standing amongst a large pile of boxes and crates. Odd was carrying a bag filled with what looked to be food. Using his good arm and his body together, Ulrich was supporting a box that was clearly heavy.
"Who you talking to?" Odd called as they stepped off.
"Aelita," Jeremy said as he tried to return to his previous conversation. "It looks like Ulrich and Odd just arrived with a few essentials."
Putting his bag down next to Jeremy, Odd pulled out a bag of chips and a six-pack of soda. "Yeah, the bare essentials!" he said loud enough for Aelita to hear.
"Quiet, Odd," Jeremy said as he stood up and tried to move away from his obnoxious friend. "Listen, Aelita. The reason why I'm calling now is have you seen Yumi by any chance?"
"Yumi?"
"Yeah, have you seen her in the halls or at all today?"
Odd pulled the cell phone from his ear just far enough for both of them to hear her answer. "No. Why? I-Is she missing?"
Grunting from carrying the box into the room, Ulrich paused as he passed them. "You know," he said accusingly. "There's still a little bit more stuff to help with Odd!"
"HEY!" Odd cried as though the accusation had hurt his feelings. "I'm helping Jeremy—Gimme the phone."
Grabbing the phone, Odd tried to pulled to pull it from his blonde friend's grasp. But Jeremy yanked it back and shoved Odd away from him. Stumbling on a discarded hard-drive, Odd fell to the floor with a yelp.
"So you haven't seen her at all then, huh?" Jeremy asked, trying to pretend that this scene wasn't happening.
Ulrich, who was still standing in the same spot, instantly interrupted whatever Aelita's answer had been. "Yeah, well if she does, tell her: THANKS for WASTING MY TIME! Because instead of going out to look for more hard-drives and spare parts like I SHOULD—I gotta go out and look for HER INSTEAD!"
He emphasized the last word by slamming the box he carried onto the ground. Jeremy had never seen Ulrich quite this mad before. So he failed to realize the danger until the box landed top of his foot. Moaning loudly in pain, he leaned down to cradle his injured limb.
"What was that?" Aelita asked, having heard Ulrich's rant and the following crash.
Limping toward an empty section of floor to sit down on while Ulrich, still fuming, returned to retrieve another box, he answered, "Ulrich says 'hi.'"
Jeremy hadn't gone two feet before Odd was once again on his heels grabbing for the phone. "Gimme!" he chanted. "Gimmegimmegimme!"
"I'm not sure how long this'll take," Jeremy said as he tried to talk over Odd. Aelita, he guessed, could barely hear him over Odd. "But I'll call you after school to let you know—" Finally succumbing to Odd's rant, Jeremy turned to the phone over toward him but not releasing it. "ALL RIGHT! All right! Here!"
"Aelita," Odd called out. "It's Odd! I'd just like to say: HEL-LO!" He then proceeded to make obnoxious kisses into the speaker. If he'd planned to say anything else, it wasn't meant to be.
"WOULD YOU GIVE ME THAT!" Jeremy bellowed as he tried to yank the phone away. Odd, of course, wasn't ready to relinquish it yet and tried to pull it back.
Unknown to either boy at the time, but on the other end of the line Aelita was having a very hard time to keep from laughing out loud in the cafeteria at the antics of her friends.
(A/N) Consider yourselves lucky that I was able to squeeze in these three chapters before leaving today.
I hope you really liked this chapter in particular. I had an extremely hard time writing this. Not because it difficult (far from it!), but because I had to constantly stop and have a laughing fit! This chapter is probably my most favorite so far! I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!