EDIT: The original author's note no longer exists due to a rather hasty edit on my part concerning the background exposition in the first part of this chapter, and the fact that the document holding said author's note is no more. It was merely me being bashful over how it took three months to get this chapter out, and introduces the chapter and what to expect here and in the next two Files (Continuing the flashback two-parter and informing when the viewpoint would return to Odd, which would be in File 4). This also resulted in yet more hasty edits to bring the chapter back up to its former published quality.
Thanks go to Corrinetheanime for Beta-Reading the original draft. As such, disclaimer is on the first page.
Garage Kids
File 2 – The Children Who Present Cinema
Kadic Academy is a private school located in the suburb of Boulogne Billancourt. First built in 1905, the school has operated for many years. Before 1994, the campus, as did many buildings throughout Paris, held the common gothic and Art deco influence that had stood the test of time, showing off all sorts of work and effort throughout history that would make the mouths of both architects and artists foam with awe.
However, in 1994, reports had gotten out of a radiation leak that had originated in Boulogne Billancourt, apparently having come from a government attempt to experiment on new varieties of nuclear energy. A mass evacuation of Paris and its suburbs was called in, and many citizens feared that they now had their own version of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. The disaster zone spread over the course of a week, causing many civilians to panic and riot, with no one believing the government's claims that the disaster would pass.
But at the end of the week, it was in fact determined that a crisis had been averted, and the government reported that the threat of the accident had been neutralized. Even better, it was determined by experts that the area would be safe to live in again, though it would require extensive reconstruction.
Civilians began moving back in after a year of waiting for the work to finish, during and after which many rumors surrounded the events that had occurred. Many people had their suspicions about the accident, and to this day, all sorts of rumors and theories of what really happened crop up on the internet, but as with all conspiracy theories, inconsistencies and rebuttals are common, and are ultimately topics to be covered on another day.
As for the areas that had been adversely affected by the mysterious leak, a massive influx of construction work had to be dealt with as the time came to rebuild a devastated infrastructure. Several Japanese construction companies came in to help out the workload. While efforts by councilmen and historians managed to ensure that several buildings would be restored to their former glory, just as many had to be torn down and rebuilt into a style that clashed badly with France's normal architectural style as the Japanese companies utilized techniques of durability native to their home country, but tried to replicate the European aesthetic, to a degree.
Other companies, some of a dubious reputation, such as the computer company Deckard Inc., assisted with the rebuilding of the infrastructure by using the disaster as an opportunity to upgrade the computer networks that ran through the country. This was just one out of many developments that fueled speculation about what would be known as the "Billancourt Panic". Regardless, after a period of two years, Paris was rebuilt, but the city had changed.
The atmosphere of the city had darkened significantly, with a larger number of delinquents and hoodlums being but one of many domestic troubles for the police to deal with. And it seemed contagious to boot, all over the world people noticed that a certain kind of atmosphere had descended upon them, and those who had a keen eye for details noticed that Paris, the city of lights, was now the center of a gloom that seemed to grip the world.
Of course, since life went on as normal, just with a few changes in the world's communication networks and corporations, along with new trends that seem to pop up every few years or so as has always been the historical case, most people failed to notice or care and went on with their daily routines.
This included France, and after a few years of adjustment, life for most people went back to normal in the country. For something of a given measure…
Back to Kadic, the school was one of the facilities that had been radically altered by the foreign companies. Most of the original buildings were demolished, and their exteriors changed to resemble that of a plain Japanese junior high school. Before their work could finish, domestic companies managed to step in before the campus' interiors were completely changed over to some dull, generic, and stale environment.
Of Kadic's buildings, one of the few that had not been totally demolished had been the lunchrooms, whose exteriors only received a repaint, and ended up being one of the few recognizable structures for returning faculty and students.
It was in these lunchrooms, on a Saturday afternoon, that Jeremie Belpois was sitting down. He had just finished his meal, and was currently typing up a rudimentary program for one of his robots.
Jeremie was exactly the sort of person that you would consider to be a nerd. Wearing glasses, a plain blue shirt, and capri pants, he was completely focused in his studies and was obsessed with technology. Other than that, to most people on campus, he wasn't exactly the type to try and stand out.
The person who had pulled up a seat across from him, finishing up his own lunch, was another story, though not of the 'complete opposite' type.
This person, a boy in Jeremie's grade, was Ulrich Stern. Wearing a dark yellow-green shirt over a light yellow-green vest, followed by a pair of cargo pants, he was quiet, reserved, and a tad stoic. Unlike Jeremie, studying did not come easy to him, but speaking from personal experience, when a parent puts so much stress on their child to study, you tend to not be able to focus on those studies. As such, Ulrich was more focused on martial arts, which he seemed to have quite a knack for.
Jeremie finished the program he was typing up, and closed his laptop. Stretching his arms, he felt someone tap him on the shoulder.
"Yo, Belpois." A boy said.
Jeremie turned around, and Ulrich turned his attention to the boy standing at their table.
"Hey Sebastian." Jeremie replied.
Sebastian was tall, lanky, and tan-skinned. He was bald for the most part, aside from a flat patch of dark-brown hair on the top of his head. He wore a plain white t-shirt, over a dark-green undershirt, along with a pair of plain-black shorts and a pair of black-and-blue sneakers. At Kadic, he had the reputation for being the 'street kid' due to how he tended to wander the town alleyways in his free-time, and tended to call people by their last names rather than their firsts, even if he knew them well.
"You said that you'd be using that robot of yours to help fix the film projector today. I have to ask though, why? Couldn't you just fix it with your bare hands? You've done it before." he asked.
Jeremie pushed his glasses into place.
"Well, I've been wanting to test out my miniature robots for a while now. You do know that in less than six weeks, we've got that robotics competition coming up. I want to win that competition, so I figure I might as well test my robot's grappling capabilities by fixing up the movie projector with one of them." He replied.
Sebastian narrowed his eyes, "you'd better not damage my film reels. Those things are my babies, and I don't want your babies hurting my babies, you got that?"
"As a man of engineering, I swear I will not damage your film reels, if the robot won't work, I'll fix up the projector by hand like I always do." Jeremie replied, raising his hand.
He then snapped his fingers, remembering something.
"Speaking of which, you know of any places that I could use for parts?" Jeremie asked, "I've been thinking about scavenging extra parts around town. I've heard rumors of plenty of spots that are a tech guy's dream."
Sebastian put his hand to his chin, deep in thought.
"Well, you could try one of the junkyards. There's loads of stuff there. I've heard about people who scavenge around in those places. I once saw some freckly guy in a green sweater haul out a bunch of stuff." He mused
"What kind of stuff?" Jeremie asked, hungry for information.
"Didn't pay close enough attention to it, but I'm sure that there's some robot parts. Those 'rumors' about all of the computer and robot junk are true. A lot of people have some secret high-tech parts being traded and sold around here and there. It's a little creepy with some of that stuff…" Sebastian replied.
"Speaking of those rumors, what about…the old factory?" Jeremie asked after a pause.
Sebastian's eyes widened.
"Dude, please don't tell me you've been on one of those conspiracy sites." He said.
"I just found it after some searching on the internet. It's one of those rumors surrounding the Billancourt Panic. That accident from seven years ago. One theory on the site that actually seems to make sense is the fact that ever since then, there's been loads of advances in information technology. That, coupled with all of the street activities I've heard about…it just made me curious." Jeremie replied.
Sebastian grimaced. Being familiar with the town alleyways, he knew very well that the activities that people claimed to be rumors were true. He'd seen a lot of seedy looking people deal with stuff that looked like it came out of the Matrix, and made it a point to stay away from them.
But the old factory on the Ile Seguin? That place, while it looked fairly harmless, something about it sent shivers up Sebastian's spine. He'd been there a few times, but never tried to find a way in. He couldn't put his finger on what exactly scared him about the place, but then again, Sebastian wouldn't deny being superstitious either. He remembered that as a kid, he tended to believe the ghost stories that he'd heard a lot, a tendency that he hadn't quite shaken off yet, so that may have been the reason why the Renault factory creeped him out.
Sebastian looked at Jeremie.
"Dude, if you want me to give you a tour of the places you'll want to go to, I'll do it, but there's something off about that place. I don't know why, but it gives me the creeps. If you want to go there, I won't stop you, but go to the junkyards first, and if you don't find anything you want there, then feel free to take your chances with the creepy abandoned factory." He said.
Ulrich then spoke up for the first time, "it doesn't look that creepy to me."
"If you've been where I've been Stern, and heard some of the ghost stories that the hobos bring up, then that place would start looking a little creepy. I can't tell what it is though…maybe I'm just being paranoid." Sebastian replied, his voice trailing away.
"Either case, today, I'll be moving my robot parts into the underpass. My room's getting cluttered really bad, and Jim's been wanting me to clean it up. I'll work on the robot I'll be using on the film projector, and if everything turns out alright, we'll be able to watch a nice flick tonight." Jeremie said.
"Speaking of 'nice flicks', I've got a short film and a longer one lined up for tonight." Sebastian replied.
"Reasons?" Jeremie asked.
"If you looked up at the sky instead of your computer screen Belpois, you'd see that we might be due for some rain tonight. I've got the short film so we can some entertainment tonight if the repairs take too long and we get hit with rain. On the other hand, if we get caught in it, then the longer film will make sure we all don't die of boredom." Sebastian answered.
"Ah. So, who's coming to tonight's gathering?" Jeremie asked.
"The usual. Milly, Tamiya, Amare, Hugo, and Charlie. Though we do have a new contender tonight." Sebastian answered, looking at Ulrich.
"You do know I've been to the previous movie nights right?" Ulrich asked, suspicious of the sly look on Sebastian's face.
"I didn't mean you Stern, I meant Ishiyama. You know, the Japanese goth chick you're into?" Sebastian replied.
If Ulrich had been drinking anything, he would have had an enormous spit-take. For now, all he could do was widen his eyes and balk.
"Wh-what, no, no, I mean…what do you mean I'm into her…I mean…uh…" he muttered.
"Dude, it's so obvious you're into her." A new voice said.
Ulrich turned his head to see two new people arrive to the table.
One, who was also the boy who had stated that Ulrich had a crush, was a dark-skinned boy with a crew-cut of black hair. He wore a blue jacket over a white undershirt and a pair of blue sweatpants. Next to him was a slightly shorter lighter-skinned lad with a navy blue cap who wore a red sweatshirt and tan trousers.
"Amare, I am not into Yumi!" Ulrich hissed.
"Suure you aren't." Amare replied sarcastically.
"I'm not!" Ulrich insisted, failing to convince everyone who had gathered around.
"Dude, we've all seen how you act around her." The other boy, who was named Hugo, said.
"I don't act all that different!" Ulrich replied, gritting his teeth.
"You're on the defensive right now, denying it like some nervous wreck, instead of replying with a stoic 'no'." Hugo countered.
"Plus, I remember that when Jim starting holding that Pencrack Silt class-!"Amare began.
"Pencak Silat!" Ulrich corrected, becoming very annoyed with the current situation.
"Whatever, you apparently got your ass kicked by Ishiyama. You acted like some whiny grouch, and no one knew why Mr. Quiet became Mr. Snappy-priss until someone chanced to ask Ishiyama about what happened. We all put two and two together after that." Amare finished.
"Just drop it okay?" Ulrich growled, picking up his tray and leaving the table to sit somewhere else.
"Incredible, he goes from amiable and silent to nervous and crabby whenever the topic of his crush comes up." Amare commented after Ulrich left and was out of earshot.
"It's the power of love. It's unpredictable and annoying. He'd better make a move on Ishiyama soon. I've seen that flirt Dunbar from Asimov Institution in action before. If he enters the picture at any point, I can just sense the disaster that'll occur." Sebastian muttered.
"Ah, love triangles, one of the great perks of romance." Hugo chuckled.
"You mean the most annoying thing to read or watch. It really drains out the plot if the story isn't set up as a romance novel or film, it takes up too much screen time!" Sebastian growled, "I mean, seriously, way too many stories fall into that trap whenever they bring in the romance, it's so annoying!"
"So, I'm going to guess what got ruled out for today's screening." Jeremie chuckled along with Amare and Hugo.
"Don't laugh you three, it's a plague upon the world's media! It's the reason why Solovieff and Diop are not going to be seeing any romance films until Stern works out his feelings with Ishiyama." Sebastian said.
"Wait, what?" Hugo asked, his eyebrow raised in curiosity.
"The reason Ishiyama's coming to tonight's film screening is because Solovieff managed to convince her to drop by. I know because Solovieff dragged Ishiyama over to me and told me about her joining our little renegade film club. After talking with Ishiyama about it, I made sure to tell Solovieff that until Stern and Ishiyama either tie the knot or lose interest in each other, that no romance films will be shown, and that no snide comments are to made on the films that might have some romance in them." Sebastian explained.
"Well, that's pretty thorough." Amare commented.
"When it comes to film and writing, I'm like Belpois over here with his computer coding, no specifics left out, everything needs to be explained in full detail." Sebastian replied.
"And typed out too." Jeremie put in, having opened up his laptop to do a review of some of the lines of code he had typed up while everyone else was talking.
"Either case, are any you guys up for helping me move all of my robot parts out of my dorm room today?" he asked.
Hugo and Amare shook their heads.
"We've got baseball practice on our hands." Amare said.
"I've still got some pictures to deal with in photography. Plus, I need to double check the film reels and make sure they're ready. Sorry Belpois, my schedule's full. However, I can tell you that the film projector is still in the underpass, ready for fixing." Sebastian said.
"Or breaking in case your little bots make things worse." He muttered under his breath.
Jeremie looked over to a corner at the other end of the lunchroom, where Ulrich had taken his new seat.
"Guess that leaves one option." He sighed.
"Good luck." Sebastian grunted, leaving the table.
Amare and Hugo waved good-bye and followed suit. As for Jeremie, he closed his laptop, tucked it under his right shoulder, and walked over to Ulrich's new location.
"So, you up for moving a lot of boxes filled with metal and wires?" Jeremie asked.
"Buzz off." Ulrich grunted.
Jeremie rolled his eyes, "I'm not planning on grilling you about Yumi, Ulrich. Whatever happens, happens." He said.
Ulrich looked up, glaring at Jeremie.
"Look, I'm just asking for a small favor, I need to get my robots out of the dorms before Jim brings down his hammer, and since it's Saturday and we have no classes for the afternoon, we should have time." Jeremie said, not flinching from Ulrich's attempt at a death glare.
Ulrich growled, but since he had nothing better to do for the rest of the day, he might as well kill some time. In any case, Jeremie wasn't exactly the kind of guy who would rib on someone incessantly. If his tech projects ever came up, he'd focus on those, and not any kind of what Sebastian called soap opera drama.
"Fine." Ulrich mumbled, going back to his lunch.
"All right, I'll be in my dorm room cleaning stuff up, see you soon." Jeremie said, turning to leave the cafeteria.
After walking across the courtyard and entering the dormitories building, Jeremie reached what Jim had questioned to be a garbage dump, even though Jeremie called it his room.
The bed was not very well made, if at all, and boxes of circuit boards, small rubber tires, wires, and all kinds of components were stacked haphazardly around the room. Books, instruction manuals, and computer magazines lay across the floor, and the clothing drawers were filled with unfolded shirts, socks, and underwear. A small blue equipment cart that Jeremie had used on occasion stood next to his bed, which he planned to use to transport some of his boxes. The only place that had some organization was Jeremie's computer desk, and even that had CD-ROM cases strewn in a disorganized manner, along with empty soda cans and chip bags. The rolling chair that he sat down on even had his bed pillow on it!
Jim had been completely perplexed about how a model student like Jeremie could have such a messy room, and ordered him to have it in order by the end of Saturday afternoon so that it could be checked for approval on Sunday. Since the deadline afternoon was today, Jeremie was on a fairly tight schedule.
"Well, this is going to be fun…" Jeremie groaned quietly, analyzing the situation.
Cleaning up the actual trash would be simple, as that would just require Jeremie picking up the litter of cans, small bags, and crumpled papers filled with incorrect calculations, put it into an empty box, and then dump that into a trash can. Folding his clothes and making his bed, likewise, would not be difficult either.
What would actually pose something of a challenge would be organizing his equipment. Jeremie had not organized his resources properly, given how much tech he had acquired. He needed to make sure that his computer disks were in the correct cases to start with, since he didn't want to upload an incorrect program, nor have to start all over with writing a new one.
As for the boxes of robot parts and computer equipment, that would prove to be the real challenge. He had more than the equipment cart could carry, and there were wires, LEDs, and batteries scattered on the floor, just to name a few parts. Not only that, but Jeremie didn't know if he'd mixed up the parts for his robots or his computer in the boxes.
Deciding to take on each problem one at a time, Jeremie quickly got to work to tidy up his room, and by the time Ulrich had arrived, Jeremie was now left with only the computer equipment to organize. Currently, his head was underneath his deck, picking up an empty CD-ROM case.
"How much of this stuff do you have?" Ulrich asked, having come into Jeremie's room silently.
Jeremie tried to look upwards, only to bump his head on the desk.
"Ow!" he cried, getting out from under the desk and looking at Ulrich with slight annoyance.
"Always have to come in silently don't you?" Jeremie muttered, rubbing his head.
Ulrich shrugged quietly in response.
"Alright," Jeremie began, after feeling his skull over, "I've cleaned up the trash –! "
"You mean this stuff isn't trash?" Ulrich asked, picking up an adapter card.
"No! It's my computer equipment, along with all the parts for my robots. This is the stuff we need to move out of here before Jim pays my room a visit tomorrow." Jeremie replied, before realizing something.
"I am wondering why he's waiting until Sunday to check it though, he's more punctual with his dorm inspections than this." He commented.
"I know why," Ulrich said, "it's the reason I don't have Pencak Silat practice this evening. Apparently, Jim's T.V. exploded last night, and he's looking into seeing a repairman for his room."
"His television exploded? And then damaged his room? How does that work?" Jeremie asked.
"I don't know. I ran into Jim earlier today, and the guy just said, 'No Pencak Silat practice today Stern! My room exploded, and I've been having a hell of a time getting a repairman!', before he walked away muttering about all of the repairmen being busy or something." Ulrich answered, making a bad impression of Jim's voice when giving the gym teacher's explanation.
"I somehow doubt that Jim's room exploded…" Jeremie deadpanned.
"I took a look there, it makes your room look like the Taj Mahal," Ulrich said, "for once he wasn't exaggerating or saying that he didn't want to talk about it."
Jeremie raised an eyebrow, then took another look around his own room.
"Well then, guess that makes me lucky on that front. Give me a moment to look through the boxes." Jeremie said, kneeling down to check the contents of the boxes.
"Why? Can't we just stuff them in the cart over there?" Ulrich asked.
"Yes and no. I'd like to have more time to organize all of this, but for now, I need to make sure that I get most of the parts of my robots out of the room. My computer equipment, I want to keep in here for now. Plus, if we're going to be moving parts down to our little hideout, we'd have to make a lot of time-consuming trips, and if Sebastian was right about the weather, we're only going to be able to make two trips at most, and then build the robot I want to have fix up the film projector." Jeremie answered.
"Or you could just fix it up by hand. That sounds easier." Ulrich commented.
"Easier? Maybe, but for science, I'll have to go the complicated route!" Jeremie exclaimed, looking at a box filled with motherboards.
Ulrich rolled his eyes, and waited for Jeremie to finish his inventory. After about ten minutes of quick searching and organized, Jeremie stood up, and pushed his glasses into place.
"Okay, I'm going to take this empty box over here," Jeremie began, holding up an empty white container, "and put all of the broken junk on the floor into it. While I do that, put as many of the boxes next to my dresser into the cart. Watch out for small objects!"
"You do realize I'm wearing shoes right?" Ulrich asked.
"Oh yeah, I forgot…Either way, let's get to it!" Jeremie said in a manner bit too eager for Ulrich's tastes, given that they were just cleaning up a dorm room.
Ulrich walked over a few scattered wires, and immediately began moving the boxes onto the cart. Once enough boxes that could safely transported were put onto it, Jeremie looked over the situation as it was. He had finished up picking up the miscellaneous objects, and now looked at the remaining boxes. The situation, after some organizing, was better than he thought. The equipment cart held a little less than half of the boxes, meaning that they could in fact be done with the clean-up in two or three trips, if Ulrich carried one or two more boxes on the way.
"Okay, now, I need you to pick up…Let's say, that box over there." Jeremie said, directing Ulrich to a box filled with metal scraps.
Ulrich grunted as he lifted the box.
Jeremie took one last look around the room.
"Alright, let's go." He said, taking the cart handle and pulling the cart with him.
Ulrich followed behind, and the two began to navigate down the hallways. Eventually, the two boys exited the school premises and began their trek towards their secret hideaway. Said hideaway was within an old underpass located deep in the city, but thankfully had several entrances, one of which was not too far away from Kadic. Said entrance was located just a few turns away from the streets leading to Kadic, and it was here that Jeremie and Ulrich navigated their way through the dark passageways, lit up by the fluorescent lights that helped people navigate their way through the tunnels.
The two boys turned through several corners, walking through the maze-like corridors, through hallways that had not seen usage for quite some time, and after an additional turn, the two made it to the room they were looking for. Their little movie-room.
This area was square in shape, and fairy large. Not too roomy, but not suffocating. It was large enough to hold at least two dozen kids. The walls were covered in graffiti, though the ones at the front of the room, which was located to the left of the entrance that Jeremie and Ulrich had come through, were covered up by a large sheet, pinned up to serve as a projector screen. The room was littered with pillows and blankets, with the occasional plastic cup that had not been cleaned up from the previous visit. A few drawings, done on very large sheets of paper, were hung up in several places on the ceiling vents, along with a red curtain drape.
At the back of the room was the film projector. Sebastian had obtained it during the last months of the school year before any of the other kids had come to Kadic, and this is where he had kept it for several months. It was up to Jeremie right now, to fix it with the robot that he was about to build and test out.
Besides the film projector were several trash bags that needed to be taken out in the back left corner, while the right corner held a wooden cupboard stocked with supplies for whenever someone wanted a snack if needed.
Jeremie pulled the equipment card over to the film projector and started moving boxes of equipment to the floor. Ulrich put down the box he was carrying next to the cart and looked over the room.
"I really don't see how all of this is going to fit in here Jeremie. It's going to get cramped. Really cramped." Ulrich noted dryly.
"I know that. The boxes that we picked out earlier have the parts I need to test my robot design." Jeremie responded.
"That doesn't really answer my question." Ulrich deadpanned.
"We've got other rooms here you know. There's one I've had my eye on in our turf, not too far away. That's the room I've been talking to Sebastian about. It'll be the perfect place to build my later robots." Jeremie explained.
"And I'm the lucky guy who gets to move the rest of your stuff there?" Ulrich asked sarcastically.
"Hit the nail on the head." Jeremie smirked, looking over the film projector.
"Alright, where is this room?" Ulrich asked.
"I'll show you," Jeremie said, walking out of the film room.
Ulrich followed Jeremie down several more corridors, until they reached a room not too dissimilar from the film area. The obvious difference, besides the graffiti on the wall, was that the room was almost completely bare aside from a few cushions tucked away in a corner, as well as the fact that this room was a tad larger.
"I'm going to be honest. I'm not impressed." Ulrich said.
"It might not look like much for now, but trust me when I say that when I'm through with it, this place will be my personal laboratory!" Jeremie cackled gleefully.
"…You're a regular mad scientist." Ulrich said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
"Eh, I try. While I work on my robot and the film projector, I need you to transport the rest of my equipment here. You okay with that?" Jeremie asked.
"I guess." Ulrich said quietly, mulling over what was going to happen that night.
Jeremie shrugged and the two boys parted ways. It was quiet over the next few hours. Ulrich went back and forth between Jeremie's dorm room and the underpass several times as he moved Jeremie's equipment. At first, it went rather well, with no slip-ups or any troublesome encounters. But then, when Ulrich had the last load in the equipment cart, and was heading down the pathway towards Kadic's gates, he saw three individuals that he really did not want to see.
All three were girls, and were of special interest to Ulrich. Two of them he wanted to hit over the head with their own newspaper, and the third was someone that he felt…complicated towards, for lack of a better word.
One of the girls had red hair, the back of which had two pigtails held together by blue barrettes, and wore a pale pink coat over a long maroon shirt. She wore brown stockings and a pair of boots. In addition to this, she was also carrying a teddy bear. This girl was named Amelia, but everyone called her Milly.
The other girl, wearing an orange necklace, was dark-skinned, and wore her black hair in cornrows, as well as wearing a yellow shirt over a black t-shirt, along with baggy green pants that stopped halfway below her knee and a pair of white shoes. This girl was Tamiya, who, along with Milly, was a writer for the Kadic News.
However, it was the third girl, the tall, Japanese one with short black hair, wearing a black sweater that exposed her midriff, along with black pants and black boots that was of interest to him. Yumi Ishiyama, the girl that he admittedly had a crush on.
Ulrich had met Yumi shortly after the year had started up. He hadn't taken much notice of her at first, aside from a few glances that made him feel extremely nervous whenever he took her into detail. Then, when Jim had started holding Pencak Silat classes a few weeks after classes started, Ulrich was interested in learning a new kind of martial arts technique. Karate was nice, but there was something about Pencak Silat that intrigued him. He'd started practicing Pencak Silat for a while on his own, so he figured that having a teacher would be nice.
He'd reckoned without Yumi however, who had also shown up to the class, and was also the only other student there.
And he'd also not been able to reckon that she'd completely mop the floor with him.
That had been his first encounter with Yumi, and ever since then, Ulrich tried to keep his distance, except whenever it came to Pencak Silat classes. There, he had sparred with Yumi as her partner, and he had to admit, she was good. Really good. Incredibly skilled, not too bad on the eyes…
Ulrich then immediately shook his head, trying to stop himself from thinking anymore about Yumi. So what if he had something of an attraction to her? That didn't mean he was into her, after all, he never really spoke her outside of Pencak Silat class, and besides, what were the chances that Yumi felt anything towards him?
Ulrich's train of thought was interrupted when he heard Tamiya call up to him.
"Ulrich, wait up!" she called.
Ulrich tried to stay as calm as possible as he turned around. He'd walked past Yumi and the reporters, and now they were heading over to him, with Milly pulling Yumi on the arm, as if she was dragging the black-haired girl against her will.
Tamiya walked up to Ulrich, with Milly following behind, comically dragging Yumi over to them.
"Um, hey?" Ulrich said cautiously, trying to avert directly looking at Yumi.
The three girls looked at the cart.
"Why do you have a cart full of Jeremie's robot stuff?" Tamiya asked.
"He's having me move his junk over to the underpass while he goes all Frankenstein on Sebastian's movie projector." Ulrich answered, keeping his guard up.
"I still think it's stupid that Sebastian won't let us watch any romance movies." Tamiya pouted, gripping her teddy bear and Yumi's left hand more tightly.
"Uh, yeah…" Ulrich and Yumi muttered.
The two then realized that they had spoken at the same time and diverted their attention to the ground.
Milly quietly snickered to herself.
"Okay," Tamiya said, finding the sexual tension between Ulrich and Yumi hilarious, "we're actually showing Yumi where the underpass is. She hasn't really gotten around town much, so we're showing her all of the cool places here."
"I could just find them myself," Yumi said, closing her eyes and smiling awkwardly, "I could just buy a map, ask around, mark some places on the map…"
"But this way is more fun! Come on! Let's follow Ulrich!" Milly said, eyes lightening up.
"I'd uh…" Ulrich stuttered, pulling his shirt collar nervously.
"Oh come on, what's the worst that could happen?" Tamiya asked, smirking cheekily.
Both Ulrich and Yumi looked at each other for a moment, before averting their eyes again and rubbing the back of their heads sheepishly.
"Well…" Yumi began, but she didn't get the chance to finish that thought, since before she could think of anything morbid, Ulrich took off.
"After him!" Milly commanded.
"You do realize that he's still in hearing range, right?" Tamiya asked.
Indeed, Ulrich was now just fast-walking and could still eavesdrop on the conversation behind him.
"Just ignore the press, ignore them, don't think about Yumi." Ulrich thought…
Only for an image of Yumi standing in front of him to pop up.
"Damn it!" Ulrich cursed internally, resisting the urge to blush.
Ulrich tried to not look behind as he made his way to the underpass. He was almost tempted to try to make an escape, but the presence of his cargo, coupled with the rather short distance to travel, would make that difficult. He also did not want to think about what would happen if Jeremie found out that his tech was missing or late. The bespectacled lad had an even temper, but his tendency to behave like a mad scientist put Ulrich on guard. Best not to become Jeremie's next science project.
All the way to Ulrich's destination, he could hear Milly's pestering towards Yumi, and he tried not to eavesdrop on it.
Yumi, in the meantime, tried to block out Milly's ramblings.
She'd come to the academy completely new. She had a good grasp of French, not even having an accent, but hadn't made many friends. It was natural, considering how often her family moved. It really was annoying that her dad's company didn't seem to figure out where to station him, but she really hoped that this would be the last time that she'd have to move. Yumi had hoped to remain a day student, but due to the current circumstances, she had to enroll into Kadic as a boarder. Thankfully, she found Kadic to have a much more welcoming atmosphere than some of the other schools she'd attended while living in France.
She'd gotten along decently enough with her classmates, no bullying from anyone, though, then again, she remembered how she dealt with such people, forcing them to either stay away from her or stick to verbally harassing her. Yumi shook those thoughts out of her head, no need to think back to those days.
She then remembered her own first encounters with Ulrich. He was actually one of the few people who'd given her a decent fight. He also seemed a bit similar to Yumi herself: Quiet, a tad withdrawn, rough on the outside…He would've made decent company, if not for the fact that he seemed to actively avoid her outside of sparring.
Yumi had a suspicion that Milly had planned this. The girl right next to her was always a tad fragile, and she seemed to actually look up to Yumi, seeing her as someone who was strong and confident. At the same time though, she and her friend Tamiya, were obsessed with getting powerful gossip, and Yumi had a sneaky suspicion that Milly's wanting to have Yumi more involved in the street activities that occurred in France were born out of a desire to have Yumi socialize more (Never a bad thing), and get herself a love story involving Yumi and Ulrich.
Yumi was tempted to roll her eyes at the thought, but she kept walking. She was interested in what was going on, it was better than sitting in a dorm room doing nothing once homework was completed and she was bored of practicing her fighting styles.
"Yumi, are you even paying attention?" Milly asked, snapping Yumi out of her thoughts.
"Yes Milly, I am." Yumi said, smiling half-heartedly at the younger girl.
"Well, we're here." Tamiya said.
Yumi looked up to see that they had entered the overpass, and the trio followed Ulrich though the corridors. However, when Ulrich made a right turn, Milly immediately spoke up again.
"Ulrich, that's not the way to the movie room!" she called out.
Ulrich, not turning around, called back, "Jeremie said that he wanted his stuff in a different area. You two know the way to the film room!"
"Grr…" Milly growled in annoyance, prompting Tamiya to pat her friend on the shoulder.
"So, where is this film room?" Yumi asked politely.
"Follow me." Tamiya said, leading Yumi and a pouting Milly over to the film room.
Jeremie was hard at work with his robot. He had built a base up for it, from which a robotic pincer-like arm extended outwards. Said arm was grasping at the upper magazine of the film projector, trying to shift it.
"What's he up to?" Yumi asked, pointing at Jeremie, who was absorbed in his work.
"I think he's trying to fix the projector, or something…" Tamiya muttered, not knowing what Jeremie was doing with the arm.
Jeremie narrowed his eyes, looking at the upper magazine. This was the problem that had occurred with the film projector, said part had jammed and needed to be repaired. This was a minor problem however, hence why Jeremie wanted to test his robot on repairing the part. Best to start simple and move your way up.
"Almost there…" he muttered, directing the robot with a few commands from his laptop.
The arm moved the upper magazine slightly, and then tried to turn it. The wheel started to move.
"IT WORKS!" Jeremie declared, raising his arms up in the air with triumph.
"What, the robot arm?" Yumi asked in a deadpan fashion, finally catching Jeremie's attention.
"Well, yes. And the film projector too. We can actually watch movies tonight!" Jeremie answered, moving to disassemble the arm for later usage.
"Except romance movies…" Milly muttered under her breath.
"Oh come on, I hate that gushy romance stuff. Way too much sparkly stuff if you ask me." Yumi said, patting Milly on the head.
"Well, regardless of what happens tonight, things should turn out pretty decent. Welcome to the club Yumi." Jeremie said, packing his robot into a box.
"Nice to feel welcome." Yumi answered honestly.
"Why do you need your stuff in here?" Tamiya asked, looking at the boxes of equipment Jeremie had laid out.
"My room's way too small to use for my robotics work, and I need a dedicated space. Speaking of which, I gotta find Ulrich, I'll need that equipment cart to get the rest of this stuff out of here." Jeremie answered.
"Well, Ulrich's in that room you said you wanted." Yumi said.
"Is he? All right then, might as well get him." Jeremie said, getting up and walking out of the room.
Jeremie walked down the hallways until he saw Ulrich in the impromptu lab, sitting down on the floor, face leaning on his right hand.
"Still sulking over all of this?" Jeremie asked, picking up the empty cart handle.
"Look, I'm, not really comfortable with tonight, you know? I mean, should I stay, should I not stay?" Ulrich rambled.
"Look, I'm no expert on love, but seriously dude, you're just going to be sitting next to her. Or not. Either case, I don't think Milly's attempt at playing matchmaker is going to work how she wants it to. Just go with the flow, and whatever happens, happens. What's the worst that could happen?" Jeremie asked.
"I can think of a few things that could happen." Ulrich muttered.
"Look, the worst I can see happening is that you and Yumi walk out of here tonight hating each other's guts like in some bad soap opera, or Sebastian, Hugo, and Charlie finally snap and try to destroy Milly's teddy bear." Jeremie replied.
"That thing? It's just a teddy bear." Ulrich commented, getting up.
"Well, it probably sends some creepy messages to people if you're eleven years old and try talking to a teddy bear." Jeremie said casually, as if he didn't think much of the matter. Which he didn't.
Ulrich just grunted, and walked out of the room in thought. He honestly didn't know what to do about Yumi. Jeremie did spell out the worst possible outcomes, though like Jeremie, Ulrich was indifferent to the teddy bear and thought that Sebastian and Hugo were panicking way too much about the thing., It was a bit more understandable with Charlie, being that he was two years younger than Milly, but still.
Ulrich then realized that he was mentally stalling for time, and took a deep breath. Might as well try to find a way to make the night less awkward.
Ulrich walked over to the film room, where Milly was showing Yumi its features.
"…And that's the snack cabinet!" she finished.
"That's nice Milly." Yumi said, even though she got the gist of the room. She did genuinely like how cozy it was however.
Tamiya noticed Ulrich walking into the room, and tugged on Yumi's shirt.
"Hmm?" Yumi asked before setting her eyes on Ulrich.
It was now or never in Ulrich's eyes. He wasn't good at this love confession thing (And plus he hadn't known Yumi that long to being with, so that would've been weird), but he did know what he and she seemed to find common ground on to break the ice with.
"You uh, wanna find another room here and spar in? The win record's still in your favor…" Ulrich asked quietly.
Milly was about to open her mouth to squee, only for Tamiya to cover it with her hand.
Yumi was surprised, and then she smirked playfully.
"All right, it's a deal." She replied.
Ulrich nodded and the two left the room, passing by Jeremie pulling the equipment cart.
Jeremie looked at Milly and Tamiya, and then behind him.
"So, Ulrich actually made a move. I honestly thought that he would just leave and sulk." He said once Ulrich and Yumi were out of earshot.
"You wanna put some cash on how long it'll take before they put themselves in a relationship?" Tamiya, asked, pulling out a notebook and flipping to a few pages.
Jeremie shrugged his shoulders.
"I say, five euros in two months." He said.
"That's…really cheap of you." Tamiya deadpanned.
"I gain nothing, I lose nothing." Jeremie said nonchalantly.
Ulrich and Yumi came to another empty room. This one had some mats put into it, courtesy of Ulrich himself. If the gym was ever unavailable, he might as well have a backup work-out area. He'd even managed to find an old punching bag to use for it and had a small trunk containing some towels in a corner. Unlike the room that Jeremie had called dibs on, the room Ulrich used was rather out of the way, even compared to the other rooms in the underpass. No one seemed to mind or question that Ulrich had claimed this spot for himself.
Yumi looked around the room.
"Nice place you've got here." She commented, somewhat impressed.
"Thanks." Ulrich said, taking a deep breath and getting into a fighting stance.
"You ready?" he asked.
Yumi smirked. "Heh, oh yeah."
Yumi also got into a fighting stance, mirroring Ulrich's pose. Then she realized something.
"Oh wait, we forgot to bow." She said.
Ulrich's eyes widened, and he coughed nervously as both he and Yumi bowed to one another. Then they slipped right back into their fighting stances, both circling each other, waiting for the other to strike.
Ulrich made the first move, jumping right at Yumi, forcing her to sidestep the assault as Ulrich jabbed at her with his left hand, before swinging down his right. Yumi jumped out of the way, and then jumped downwards before she swung her leg trying to trip Ulrich onto the ground. Ulrich couldn't avoid the attack and fell onto the padded ground.
"Heh." Yumi grinned, standing up.
Ulrich smirked, before quickly jumping back onto his feet and swing his arms into a flurry, forcing Yumi to dodge them. Yumi threw out her palm, only for Ulrich to dodge that attack and swing his leg in a roundhouse kick against Yumi. Yumi jumped out of the way, only for Ulrich to jump in front of her and swing his other leg around. Yumi caught Ulrich's attack and started to push the boy back towards the wall.
However, as she did so, Ulrich grabbed onto Yumi's shoulders and flipped her around. The two rolled through the air and landed onto the ground, with Ulrich on top of Yumi, pinning the black-haired girl onto the ground. Once he did so however, the faces of the two came rather close to one another, much to close for either one's comfort.
Ulrich quickly got off of Yumi and the girl got up from the ground, both of them panting from the warm-up.
"Let's uh, call that one a tie." Yumi said, her hands on her knees.
"Y-yeah." Ulrich said.
"So, what's the exact score?" Yumi asked.
"Um, still in your favor. By about, 3 matches I think?" Ulrich ventured.
"I thought it was 7 matches." Yumi said.
"Eh, well. Even so…" Ulrich replied, at a loss for words.
"So, what else happens around here?" Yumi asked.
"Oh, uh, plenty of stuff. I mean, whenever the gym's occupied, I come down here to practice. I-if you want, you could join me…" Ulrich answered, still nervous.
"I think I'd like that. What say that we start keeping more of our sparring records?" Yumi asked.
"Starting now?" Ulrich asked.
"Starting now." Yumi said, a mischievous glint in her eyes as she quickly tripped Ulrich down with the same move the brown-haired boy had fallen victim to before.
"Which means, Yumi 1, Ulrich 0." She smirked.
"Guess I'll have to even that score then." Ulrich said, a smirk of his own on his face.
The two then spent the time sparring with one another, learning more about each other's movements. They took breaks in between, with Ulrich walking over to the trunk to get the two some towels while they rested.
The two were at for quite some time until the sun started to go down. Of course, it was hard to tell, since the overcast over the city was starting to grow. People started heading for home, trying to avoid the torrential downpour that was about to hit the city later that night. The threat of rain didn't stop those people who traveled the city alleyways however, as they searched for dry roofs.
The children who were watching movies in their little underpass cinema of course, weren't planning on letting the rain stop them.
They ran down to the underpass. Amare, Hugo, and Charlie were first, the younger boy tagging along with his older brother Hugo.
Sebastian followed, running so as to make sure that he and his precious film reels weren't going to get wet if the rain started coming down early. To be completely on the safe side, he had an umbrella with him.
Meanwhile, Ulrich and Yumi exited the sparring room, and walked down towards the film room. They talked on their way there.
"So, have you been practicing Pencak Silat long?" Ulrich asked, referring to Yumi's martial arts skills.
"Yeah, since I was young. My parents think it's weird though." Yumi replied.
"I think it's cool. I always feel at ease whenever I'm doing it." Ulrich complimented.
"Same here." Yumi said as the two walked into the film room.
Everyone else was already there. Jeremie, Milly, Tamiya, Amare, Hugo, Charlie, and Sebastian were there. Milly and Tamiya were sitting down near the front of the screen, Milly holding her teddy bear, while Amare and Hugo rose an eyebrow at seeing Ulrich casually walk and chat with Yumi. Charlie was just sitting down patiently, waiting for a movie. Sebastian was looking over the film projector with a critical expression in his eyes until Jeremie slipped in a blank testing film reel to prove that the robot had worked.
"You see Sebastian? It worked. My robot was a success." Jeremie said proudly.
"Congratulations Belpois." Sebastian said, nodding his head with relief that Jeremie hadn't screwed up.
Sebastian then turned around to see Ulrich and Yumi sitting down next to each other.
"So Stern actually has a spine. I thought for sure he'd sulk out of here." Sebastian muttered.
"Well, he actually managed to start talking to Yumi, and that means we can actually relax." Jeremie said, sitting down with his arms crossed behind his head in said relaxation.
Milly then walked over to Sebastian.
"They're talking!" she said gleefully.
"Yup." Sebastian said calmly.
"So does that mean-?" Milly asked, only for Sebastian to hush her.
"Until those two are actually boyfriend and girlfriend, and until it's steady, you aren't going to see any romance films." Sebastian replied, an unchanging casual expression on his face as he walked up to the front of the room.
Milly pouted, hugging her teddy bear tightly as she went back to sit next to Tamiya.
Sebastian then made an announcement:
"Okay, everyone knows that there is a very high chance of rain tonight. As such, we are going to first watch a short five-minute film. Then we all need to leave. If it's not raining, we take no chances and then head back to the dorms. If it is raining, I have a backup film for us to watch while we wait out the storm."
Audible groans were heard from the younger kids.
"Just five minutes?" Charlie asked.
"Just five minutes. Roll it Belpois!" Sebastian answered, before having Jeremie start the film.
The subject matter of the film was action-oriented, featuring people engaging in enormous battles with one another. There didn't seem to be much of a plot to the film however. It just cut straight to the action, and that was it. Men and women flew across the screen, firing giant blasts of energy at each other or commanding enormous robots that shot lasers and missiles. It was basically put, all of the big action pieces squeezed together into five minutes.
Sebastian figured that if they were only going to get five minutes, they might as well count.
And as such, much to the protesting of Amare and Charlie, once the short film's time was up, the group left the film room and headed to the underpass's exit.
"I'm almost wishing for rain." Charlie muttered.
"I know, I mean, that film was awesome!" Amare said.
"Be careful what you wish for," Sebastian said, having caught their conversation, "you just might get it, and then regret it."
"Yeah, I'm not a fan of walking in the rain." Ulrich said.
"That's why I came prepared with an umbrella." Sebastian replied.
"You didn't happen to make an umbrella did you?" Yumi asked Jeremie.
"Didn't see any reason to make one." Jeremie answered.
"…You didn't think to make an umbrella despite the weather? Why?" Ulrich asked, disbelieving how Jeremie could easily build a robot capable of repairing film projectors, and yet neglect to make an umbrella despite the fact that Sebastian had outright given him the weather forecast.
"I didn't think it was important!" Jeremie replied indignantly.
Before the verbal jabs could continue, the group saw the exit to the underpass, and then saw a flash of lightning, before hearing the roar of thunder. Walking up to the exit, the children soon saw that it had begun to rain in a torrential downpour.
"Well, that's unfortunate." Sebastian said.
"Now we get to see that other movie!" Charlie cheered, only for Milly and Tamiya to glare at him.
"I could just leave you all here with my umbrella…" Sebastian began, causing everyone to glare at him in annoyance.
"But, that'd be pretty mean of me, so let's go." He said, chuckling.
And thus, the group returned to the film room to watch the backup feature. Yet while they did so, they were completely unaware of what was happening in town…
On one street, a woman was struggling to get home, the powerful winds threatening to tear away her umbrella. As she walked however, the streetlights began to flicker on and off, before their lamps shattered in an explosion of sparks, startling the woman, who let go of her umbrella, causing it to be blown away.
Down several blocks from there, a group of public school children had settled down to play video games for the night, but a few minutes after they had started up their system and began to play their video game, the console began to spark violently, the game began to slow down and glitch, before a strange image began to take up their television screen. The children then screamed in terror as the television burst into flames, and they ran out of the room they were in to warn their parents.
Several miles away from either of these two locations, a brown-haired delivery man was driving his truck down a lonely street, driving slowly due to the presence of the rain. As he braked to a halt in front of a red light at a T-section, he then noticed the light start to flicker between colors, and then, before he knew what was happening, his truck suddenly accelerated forward, crashing right into a concrete wall. The driver groaned as his airbag hit him.
Throughout the night, all sorts of strange phenomenon occurred in the city, as if haunted by something…
This all went unknown by the group in the underpass, who watched the movie without a hitch going by. Said film was a documentary, much to the disappointment of everyone who had enjoyed the action-based short. However, Sebastian then said that they could take their chances with the rain, shutting up the more verbal complainers.
When the film ended and the group checked out the weather, it seemed to be letting up, with the rain currently being at a drizzle.
"Okay, looks like we have a window to get out of here," Sebastian said, unfolding his umbrella, "let's move!"
Everyone nodded and ran back over to Kadic so that they didn't get too wet. As they neared the school, they ran on a sidewalk that was underneath a power line suspended on telephone poles. Said power line was starting to sway wildly as the winds started to pick up in intensity again. A spark of electricity emerged from the line, and seemed to follow the group like a hungry predator. It slowly became more and more intense, until it reached an insulator.
Milly and Tamiya were lagging behind the rest of the group, and just as they passed the insulator where the spark was, with a loud crackle of electricity the cable snapped. It flew about wildly, before diving towards the two girls like a snake striking its prey. The entire group heard what was happening, and turned around to see the horrific sight in action. Milly and Tamiya screamed as the sparking electric cable swiped at them, frozen in fear.
"Get down!" Ulrich cried out as he and Yumi made a mad dash for the two cub reporters.
Yumi and Ulrich pushed Milly and Tamiya on the ground, causing the electric hazard to miss its target. Yumi grabbed Tamiya's hand, and Ulrich grabbed Milly's. But in the shock and panic of it all, Milly had let go of her teddy bear. However, no one noticed or cared as the remaining cables of the power line came loose and seemed to come to life just as the first cable had.
"RUN!" Amare called out, and everyone obliged.
The children didn't dare look back until they all returned to the front gates of Kadic, panting and in shock from the horror that they had just witnessed.
"What was that?!" Sebastian asked, dumbstruck.
"I, I don't know…" Jeremie wheezed.
"C-calm down Charlie." Hugo comforted his little brother, who began crying loudly in fear.
"Th-thank you Yumi." Tamiya stuttered out.
"You're welcome Tamiya," Yumi said in relief, "how's Milly doing Ulrich?"
"She looks fine." Ulrich said.
"I am but, wh-where's my teddy bear?!" Milly cried out in panic, jumping around trying to find her stuffed toy.
"You must have dropped it." Ulrich said, putting a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm Milly down.
Unfortunately, Ulrich wasn't the best with comforting children who had nearly been killed by an electric cable monster. Granted, none of the children knew that the cables had come to life, but the fact remained that Ulrich was failing to console Milly.
"No! We have to go back for him!" Milly cried out.
"You do realize that those are live cables right?" Jeremie asked, "we'd be electrocuted if we went back there, especially with all of this water around. We're lucky that those cables didn't hit the puddles, or we'd have all been toast!"
"But-!" Milly began, but Sebastian cut her off.
"No buts, we need to sneak back into our dorms. Ishiyama, look after Milly and Tamiya, they know the route for sneaking into the girl's dorm undetected." Sebastian replied.
"Wait, there's a route to sneak into the girl's dorm?" Yumi asked indignantly.
"Only we girls know it." Tamiya said, smiling in spite of the nasty near-shock that had happened.
"Either way, we need to get back to our rooms. It'll start raining again soon. Come on everyone." Sebastian said.
With that, the group split up, sneaking into the dorms quietly, making sure not to wake anyone up. They all made it into the dormitories before the next downpour began.
However, when Jeremie returned to his room, he was greeted with a nasty surprise.
"What the hell?" he mouthed quietly.
His room, which he had spent a good deal of the time organizing that afternoon, had returned to being a mess. The drawers were all open, and their contents strewn all over the room. Jeremie's bedsheets and pillow were on the floor, and the poster of Einstein that hung over his bed had been ripped off the wall, though it was still intact. A picture of Jeremie with his parents was now on the floor, though thankfully on a pile of shirts and was also still intact. Jeremie's computer deck however, was surprisingly untouched, aside from his rolling chair now lying on the side of the bed.
"How did this all happen?" Jeremie asked himself quietly, incredulous as to what happened.
"Ugh…" he groaned, "Jim's not going to like this when he comes by for dorm inspection."
"Excellent work Belpois! Except for the bed! Since I see you're still sleeping in it!" Jim said, commending Jeremie's now-clean room, "when I first saw this room, I thought it was a garbage dump, but now it actually looks like a room! Perfect for a model student to sleep in! After all, a good night's sleep can do anyone some good!"
"Y-yay…" Jeremie muttered, still extremely sleepy.
It was now morning. Jeremie had worked to clean up his room after it had somehow become messy again. It didn't take too long, but it hadn't been what Jeremie had been desiring to do after having a run-in with broken power cables. He hadn't gotten a very good sleep as a result, and he'd slept in, just as Jim had come in to do the inspection that he had promised.
"Now, I remember what happened to my room not too long ago! There I was, enjoying an excellent late-night opera, when all of a sudden, the power goes out, and my room is thrown into chaos! Next thing I know, my television is smashed to bits and debris is everywhere! Most people would give up if their room was thrown into a state, but not good old Jim! I got everything in order! Though the repair company couldn't spare anyone… But that does not change the basics!" Jim continued.
"Yes Jim…" Jeremie muttered, yawning.
"Either case Belpois, you have earned a day of rest! Spend your Sunday however you please! I myself plan to see into buying a new television, which reminds me of the time that I had to rush over to a radio station back when I was a forest ranger in Quebec." Jim said, going into a tangent about his earlier work.
"Why the rush?" Jeremie asked, slowly getting out of bed.
"Well, I'd, rather not talk about it. Good day!" Jim said, exiting Jeremie's room and slamming the door, causing the hastily propped-up Einstein poster to fall on top of Jeremie.
Jeremie just narrowed his eyes at this, groaned, and got ready to start the day. He put the poster back up on the wall, got dressed, brushed his teeth, and headed down to the cafeteria. Jeremie, due to being tired, didn't take notice of the continued presence of overcast once he got outside.
When he got in line, he looked at the menu in confusion, as it brought up lunch items instead of breakfast. When he got up to Rosa, the lady who served the meals, he asked why the lunch items were up, not knowing that he'd overslept.
Rosa's response could be expected:
"Because it's lunchtime Belpois!" she said, "some people actually know when to wake up to have breakfast for breakfast!"
Stifling a last yawn, Jeremie just nodded as he received his food. He walked over to his usual table, where Ulrich and Yumi were now sitting.
"You don't look so good." Yumi said, noticing Jeremie's drowsiness.
"Kept up last night by what happened?" Ulrich asked.
"That, and the fact that my room was a complete mess somehow when I got back, all of that hard work cleaning it up, gone in a flash!" Jeremie answered, drinking some water to wake himself up fully.
"You missed something big this morning." Yumi said.
"Something big?" Jeremie asked.
"Well…" Yumi said, thinking back to the morning…
Before Yumi had gone to breakfast, she decided to see how Milly and Tamiya were doing. After getting dressed and leaving her dorm room, she knocked gently on the joint dorm room Milly and Tamiya shared. After hearing a groggy 'come in', Yumi entered the room.
Not surprisingly, Tamiya moved rather slowly, and seemed a tad jittery from last night. Milly was still asleep.
"Hey Yumi." Tamiya said, stifling a yawn.
"Hey, I just wanted to check up on you two after well, last night." Yumi explained.
"Thanks. Milly was crying a lot last night, and, well, I had some nightmares about all of that. What was that?" Tamiya asked.
"It must have been a short circuit, or something. Power lines can break during storms." Yumi said.
"That must've been it, but it was so, scary…" Tamiya muttered.
Yumi smiled before putting a hand of comfort on Tamiya's shoulder. "There's a lot of scary things out there Tamiya. You just have to learn how to deal with them, and avoid them if you can." She said, offering some advice to the younger girl.
"Maybe we should tell that to Milly." Tamiya replied, pointing to her red-haired friend, who was now waking up.
But much to Yumi and Tamiya's surprise, Milly was holding her teddy bear! The very same one that had been left behind when the power lines had broken.
"Milly, do you have more than one teddy bear?" Yumi ventured as Milly's eyes flickered open.
"No, I…MY TEDDY BEAR!" She cried out in glee, hugging the stuffed animal tightly.
"Wait, didn't you drop it earlier?" Yumi asked warily.
"Maybe he came back?" Milly ventured, still hugging her teddy bear.
"Um…" Yumi and Milly said, looking at each other.
"Wait, her teddy bear returned to her? Just like that?" Jeremie asked, spooked as he looked over at where Milly and Tamiya were sitting, arguing about the reappearance of the teddy bear while Sebastian, Hugo, and Charlie looked at the toy in horror, creeped out by the teddy bear spontaneously returning to its owner.
"Yeah. Everyone who was there when that power line broke is spooked." Yumi said.
"Even Ulrich?" Jeremie asked, looking at the brunette.
"I'm not scared of a stuffed animal. Even if Milly talks to it like it was real." Ulrich said bluntly.
"Hmm…" Jeremie muttered as he thought over what had happened.
"As for the power line, they're working to fix it. Apparently they say it was an electrical discharge, nothing too serious." Yumi explained.
"I wonder what else happened last night?" Jeremie asked, his curiosity starting to be piqued.
Throughout the day, the news was talking about the storm. One such report that had popped up early in the morning, came out as:
"The recent storm seems to have caused a great deal of trouble. As we discussed earlier this morning, several traffic accidents have occurred all around town, and several power lines have been brought down. Besides this, there have been reports of interior fires, as well as damage to buildings from construction vehicles that seem to have been moved overnight. The police are still looking into these mysterious cases of vandalism…"
This chapter is a loose adaptation of the 50-second Les Enfants short that served as a precursor to Garage Kids, as such, several of the OCs seen in this chapter are in fact, adaptations of those characters within said short that did not make the transition to Code Lyoko.
In either case, Milly's teddy bear is acting strangely, and there are disturbances all over town. What is the root cause behind it? I think we already know.
-Epsilon Tarantula-
