I honestly thought I'd get this thing done in a month. Instead, it ended up being three. Then again, real-life stuff's been happening, so...honestly three months is way better than the three year hiatus I had before.

Welcome back everyone! We're finally moving on with this thing! I'd try to come up with something witty, but I don't have the energy for it right now.

So instead, I advise you all to strap in and enjoy the conclusion of this little arc! Many thanks to Donjusticia and Shookethespeare for reviewing over this chapter for me!

Once again, I don't own Code Lyoko. Wish I did, but I don't.


Garage Kids

File 6.4: Observing an Uncertainty

Jeremie didn't know how long he had held his breath for. A minute? Two? More?

Regardless, all he could see on his monitor was Odd fighting for his life solo. It was more than a little nerve-wracking, not just because this was now the Cheshire Cat's first solo fight, but because of how desperate this entire situation was and how chaotic it had become. Jeremie watched as Odd managed to destroy the final Tardigrade, leaving behind only the Ghosts…only for that final large Ghost to attack in a manner that caused the computer genius to leap from his seat.

He didn't remember what he yelled, besides Odd's name.

At that moment, Jeremie was about ready to give up as the transfer student seemed to be mutilated, only for a miraculous shift to occur. He saw Odd grab onto that Ghost, hanging on for dear life, blasting it whenever he could. Immediately, Jeremie jumped back into his chair, preparing the rematerialization program.

The computer genius grit his teeth as that final Specter was destroyed. Odd was in mid-air now, with only one final chance to attack. If this failed, it was all over.

So, he watched as Odd unloaded every Laser Arrow he had, not bothering to aim. The Ghosts' proximity to each other then, proved to be their downfall.

Some of the arrows missed and exploded in mid-air. Unlike the Specter attacks, they didn't seem capable of damaging the Towers, and thus the real-world. A small detail to jot down.

But most of the projectiles hit their mark. Jeremie watched as Ghost after Ghost vanished from the screen, until he could see no more.

And with him not being able to see any more, there was no time to waste. Odd was already falling, and from that height, Jeremie knew the cat-boy would not be able to land on all fours and declare himself okay. The system wasn't giving the computer genius any emergency warnings the way it had for Yumi, but it could tell him that Odd's status was critical.

With the process ready, Jeremie input the return procedure, and saw Odd's body vanish from Xanadu, the scanners above opening with a low hiss as the transfer student was returned to the real world.

"Okay…okay, that's everyone back, now to see if the Tower truly is deactivated or not." Jeremie said to himself, immediately inputting the coding for a rudimentary scan. "Because that'll be a fine mess to be in if it isn't."


Ulrich's head was pounding as he heard the whispering first. It was faint, but he could make it out.

Obey the Will of the World…

Obey the Will of the World.

OBEY THE WILL OF THE WORLD!

At least Xanadu was predictable in its commands. Maybe that could be his last thought before he was taken by them. At least as a statue, he could tune out the old man. That was a positive. A small positive, but a positive nonetheless.

The voice was growing louder, and his vision darkened further; he could barely make out anything now. This was it. It was over.

OBEY THE WILL OF THE WORLD! OBEY THE WILL OF THE WORLD! OBey thE wiLL Of tHe world…

Obey-Obey, the world…

Obey…

And just like that, Ulrich's ears stopped ringing with the terrible command. His limbs began to feel lighter, and his vision cleared up completely with a simple blink. The samurai unconsciously stepped forward, and just like, the rock that had nearly taken over his body crumbled into inert ash.

HISS! HISS! HISS!

Ulrich's attention then snapped forward to the massive basilisk, its body twisting and coiling in pain, while high-pitched hissing and wailing emanated from its maw. He didn't need to strain his ears to tell that the monster was in pain. Just like what had happened with Milly's teddy bear, the smoke creature's body was now flickering in and out of focus, coated with increasing amounts of static as it strained to hold onto its form.

Letting out a final hiss, the monster looked down at Ulrich, and opened its mouth as if it was going to attack again…but in the end let out a final unholy agonized screeching noise that forced Ulrich to cover his ears.

His eyes however, remained open to watch the smoke monster dissipate into the air, its screams becoming weaker as it crumbled away into nothingness.

For a moment, all was silent. Ulrich slid to his knees, breathing in and out.

The monster was gone. They'd won.

"Teddy disintegrated after you guys stopped the first attack. Who's to say the same won't happen to me?"

Ulrich shot up straight, back to his feet as he remembered Sebastian's fear, a fear that was now taking shape in Ulrich's mind, taunting him like some perverse stage magician to see what would happen next. All around him were the statue forms of everyone who had been taken by the monster. Their eyes were now inert, with no further glowing. The samurai held his breath. Were they dead? Were they going to die? What was going to happen?

Across the sewer canal was Sebastian, his body standing up straight. For a moment, Ulrich thought the Street Kid was looking at the water as if he wanted to drown himself in it.

SPLASH!

SPLASH!

SPLAT!

Everyone around Ulrich collapsed, either fainting on the sidewalk or falling into the canal, making quite a few splashes as they did so. Some people immediately broke out of whatever stupor they'd been forced in, spitting out the filthy water, while others remained floating or just laid down on the sidewalk as the layers of ash vanished from their bodies.

And not once did Ulrich hear the heavy noise of rock being smashed to pieces. It seemed that the only casualty of this attack was its perpetrator alone.

"BLECH! UGH!" Sebastian spat in disgust, his head bursting out of the sewage canal he'd fallen into. "Wh-what? Shut up! BLECH!"

"And we're out of here." Ulrich breathed in relief.

The samurai didn't waste a second more, diving into the canal and grabbing the flailing Sebastian, before dragging both himself and Sebastian out of the water, hoisting the still spluttering Street Kid onto his back, and speeding out of the sewage canals with Super-sprint, refusing to look back and not wanting to give the cultists or any other crazy person the basilisk had 'recruited' a chance to catch them. Granted, his path was littered with fallen crazy people, but now that they were either unconscious or stunned awake from falling into the sewers, they took no notice of Ulrich and were no obstacle as he retraced his steps to the emergency exit he'd originally planned to take, stormed up the stairs, and ran for several blocks, or rather, what counted for several blocks in the haphazard cult zone, until finding what looked like a decent hiding place.

Said hiding place was a torn-down amusement park with several train tracks haphazardly lined throughout, as if there had been an attempt by the city to either build a railyard over the amusement park, or build an amusement park over the railyard. Regardless, the place was isolated, and yet in an open enough space for a cleaner getaway now that they were safely away from any danger.

"BLLAARRRGGH!" Sebastian vomited.

Of course, now that they were out of danger, Ulrich could safely say he was cleaner than Sebastian.

"Don't get anything on your shoes, you don't want to know if you swallowed anything weird."

"Uggghh…this, this was stress vomit, thank god." the Street Kid clarified, heaving out a final gasp before falling onto a patch of wild crabgrass. He then looked at Ulrich, who had decided to sit down on a concrete halt next to the tracks. "So…am I in some kind of upper-level illusion where I'm hallucinating that I was freed or something?"

That made Ulrich raise an eyebrow. "How much do you remember?"

"Just the whole, 'Obey the Will of the World' chant." Sebastian grumbled, putting as much of a demonic emphasis on the mantra of Xanadu as he could. "Also doesn't answer my question, am I-"

BLAM!

Sebastian tumbled onto the grass, his cheek sporting quite the mark from the impact of Ulrich's quick punch.

The martial artist looked down. "Does that answer your question?"

Sebastian fought back tears of pain as he stumbled back onto his feet. "Y-yeah. Okay, yeah, that's convincing enough." He at least managed a grouchy grimace. "Still hurt, Stern!"

"What, did you want me to pat you on the back or something? You reek."

"Like you don't!"

"Tch." Ulrich sighed, crashing onto the ground, glad to have the stress of the attack leaving him. "You weren't running around for your life. Give yourself a pat on the back, you were creepy as a statue."

Sebastian's face twisted in horror. "Oh god, nooo! I've been defiled! I'm unclean! UNCLEAN!"

"And now I know you're alright." Ulrich chuckled. "They did it. Yumi and Odd pulled it off. Besides, we ended up taking a dip in the sewers. No duh we smell like literal crap."

"Which explains the compulsion to gag beyond motion sickness." Sebastian groaned. "At least the only trauma this left on me was having that horrible chant in my head on loop. That's gonna make sleep difficult tonight. And you?"

At that, Ulrich just grunted. "Let's just find ourselves a hose to wash off then call Jeremie."

Sebastian let out a small smile at that. Ulrich's response was a scowl. Now that there was no more immediate threat, the samurai was content to return to being taciturn.

Then Sebastian blinked.

"We uh, do still have our phones, right?"

The two boys immediately checked their pockets. To their solace, both of their phones were intact, working, but still wet.

"Did you find any places to shower around here?" Ulrich asked.

Sebastian gave his companion a look. "If you think I want to be touched by any more of this place's water, you're out of your mind, Stern. I'm calling my uncle, weaving up a lie, and you and I are getting a shower that won't have any kind of weird mind-eating parasite thing in it. End of story."

That honestly didn't seem too bad to Ulrich. Yumi probably wouldn't be too pleased to see him covered in sewage anyways. And he did NOT have it in him to hear Odd freak out.

They would be okay now.


"I don't believe it…" Jeremie muttered at the scene before him.

It had not taken the computer genius long to have written up a rudimentary replacement scanning program. He could accurately tell that the Tower had been deactivated, so that meant the Specters were no longer a threat for now. He'd have to go over it with a fine-toothed comb later though, and figure out how the original program had been hacked and deleted in the first place before inputting a new version.

But before he could even do that, there was the issue of the scene before him.

Specifically, the matter of Yumi and Odd's unconscious, wounded bodies sprawled out of the scanners, both of them looking more dead than alive.

To Jeremie's left was Odd, who had managed to fall onto his back, albeit his body's pose was still twisted. His face was abnormally pale, desperately and quietly gasping for air, undoubtedly due to the high-altitude fight that had finished the battle off, not to mention having to force his body past its physical limits. Occasionally, the catboy would spasm, clearly a side-effect of the electrocution attacks he'd taken earlier, and blood leaked from his mouth and trailed onto his shirt, which showed several faint bloodstains in the chest area that looked an awful lot like bite marks.

Yet, while Odd was in bad shape, Yumi's status was far worse.

The girl lay on her side, clearly suffering the same side-effects from the Tardigrade's plasma attack as Odd, not to mention showing some bruising from when the Krakens had struck at her, but these were just accessories to far more grievous wounds.

Wounds that the supercomputer essentially said were self-inflicted. Yumi's face was covered in blood, with significantly more of the red liquid pouring out of her mouth compared to Odd, which was also joined by heavy nose-bleeding. Her forehead and face were covered in deep, bloody scratches from her own fingernails, which had dug deeply enough into her to be more akin to gashes, including a cut on her cheek that seemed cross-shaped. Her head was abnormally swollen, and her breathing far more uneven than Odd's as she struggled for oxygen.

As Yumi's body continued to convulse, her limbs still seemed to move in ways that seemed unnatural, yet did not seem broken. Her blood-soaked fingers twitched, as if even now she wanted to keep moving forward and continue the attack, despite the horrid condition she was in, and the fact that the battle was over.

Well, now that the battle was over, the healing had to begin.

If only Jeremie had the strength to initiate that healing.

He wasn't blind to his lack of physical prowess, and though the idea of virtualizing himself for a desperate strength boost came to mind only briefly, he had at the same time a hunch that whatever physical boosts Xanadu might give him would be insignificant. Even in the digital world, Jeremie did not see himself as a fighter.

So…that left the question of what he could do for the moment.

Carefully, Jeremie bent down to pick up Odd, as he was the only one close to the computer genius' height, but even with someone as scrawny as Odd Della Robbia, Jeremie found himself struggling. Then he looked down at the stairs leading down from the scanners to the lobby where the couch and rug were.

At that, Jeremie collapsed, his strength exhausted just from that little exertion. Even if he mustered the strength to pull up Odd, there was no way he could safely carry him all the way down. He needed help, ASAP.

"I just hope they survived…"

He dialed Ulrich's number, and held his breath.

"That you, Jeremie?" Ulrich's voice asked.

"Yes." Jeremie breathed. "They did it. Yumi and Odd pulled it off. Are you and Sebastian okay?"

A quiet 'click' indicating a switch to speakerphone had already answered the question. "We're okay, and no cultists are on our tail. I've almost gotten us out of the Cult Zone, then over to Sebastian's place to wash up. We uh, ended up in the sewers. Cult Zone sewers."

"A thing I hope I never have to deal with again." Sebastian's voice muttered.

Jeremie chewed the inside of his cheek. Neither the Samurai nor Street Kid were going to like the next update, for differing reasons of course, but this was an emergency.

"You'll have to postpone that, or find a closer place to sterilize yourselves. We don't have any time to waste. Yumi and Odd did pull off beating the Specters, but they're beat up pretty badly…"

Jeremie paused for a moment, debating on whether or not to input this particular piece of input, but this was an emergency.

"Especially Yumi."

Silence.

"...Why did you have to bring THAT up, Belpois, WHY?!" Sebastian groaned. "This had better actually be bad, or I swear, I'll-"

"It is!" the computer genius expounded in a tone to get the two boys on the other end to cooperate. "Something major happened to Yumi in Xanadu, something we need to talk about now! Both her and Odd are unconscious, and I need help getting both of them on even ground, now!"

"Then we're not arguing anymore. We're on our way." Ulrich said.

A 'click' on the other end, indicating a hang-up.

Jeremie didn't bother calling back, instead he stormed down the stairs over to the lobby, near the fridge, where a first-aid kit was located. It had been Yumi herself who had suggested it back in those early days, though regrettably, Jeremie had only trained himself to do basic treatment with it. He did not like being outside of his element right now, but this was not the time to complain. Anything like that could mean a potentially fatal minute for his friends.

He rushed back up the steps, arms full of whatever supplies they had, his phone on the side to provide additional guidance, and set to work on rudimentary treatment.


"We're leaving, now!" Stern commanded. "No 'ifs', 'ands', or 'buts', from you!"

"I'm not telling you to not do that, Stern!" Sebastian protested, fumbling with his phone. "We're back in familiar territory now, just let me confirm our maps are good! The only problem is disinfecting ourselves! I didn't pack any baby wipes in my pack! We can't risk giving Ishiyama and Della Robbia sepsis!"

"ARGH!" Stern groaned, looking like he wanted to pull out his hair. "Just what happened over there?"

To be perfectly honest, Sebastian didn't know. He was still nursing a minor headache from being captured by the giant snake monster, whose hive-mind apparently did not come with updates to what it was like on the 'Other Side' or whatever other miscellaneous word he might have been able to catch outside of the constant droning/yelling of the 'Will of the World' while in the void. On the one hand, the Street Kid still had his personal theory of a terrible side-effect of virtualization, the real thing staying his hand from taking the plunge, but it could've easily been something else.

Of course, Sebastian was still leaning on his private theory, though he hoped it was wrong.

Either case, he wasn't too surprised that his hopes for a thorough clean-up were dashed, but hearing about such a critical situation honestly had the Street Kid in two minds. A good shower to wash off the bacteria and muck would help, but with the virtual fighters in such critical condition, speed was paramount, even with Stern's own ability taken into account.

Sebastian had given himself plenty of practice with street-based medical recovery (and privately admitted to keeping a personal physical encyclopedia in his room), but even he admitted to himself that what they really needed was a hospital visit, damn the consequences. This would've happened regardless of who else was let in on the Warriors' secret or not. The Street Kid's backpack was thankfully waterproof and so did not risk having any sewage leakage, but that hardly made its contents a substitute for proper medical equipment.

Yet the horrible risk of the situation getting out of control and treatment only being either a temporary reprieve or just flat-out not-existing rang in his head regardless.

"Stern, first chance you get, get out of the hero business until you're twenty-two." He couldn't help but remark.

Ulrich Stern did not reply, so Sebastian also decided to remain silent with his thoughts. He decided to focus on guiding the samurai, whilst also praying that there was a convenient hand-washing station in the Factory.

Oh lord, it was going to be his first time there. The Street Kid steeled himself to remain strong. Stern and co. had to go there at least twice a week, this was no time to be superstitious.

So after a journey wherein buildings, alleys, and streets, all of which were properly planned out and designed, sped by the duo, they came to the Factory itself. Sebastian had only seen it before in passing, never knowing that the answer to the center of the city's twisted urban legends was right in front of him beyond a bad gut feeling. Now that he was up close and personal, the Street Kid gulped as he gazed at the building.

Stern, of course, showed no reaction, speeding up to the door, letting Sebastian off, and prying the door open himself.

"Jeremie, we're here!" he called.

"At last!" the computer genius replied. "Help me bring them both down! Be careful with Yumi when you take her, Ulrich! Sebastian, you take Odd!"

"Just a moment, Belpois!" Sebastian yelled, knowing that the noise would be needed to distract Stern, who had already made it halfway up the stairs of some metal structure in the back of the room. "First things first, you got any disinfectant wipes here? I'm not touching any patients with dirty sewer hands, and the same goes for you, Stern! Do you want Ishiyama to get sepsis, or does this fancy supercomputer have some kind of anti-bacteria failsafe?"

Belpois put a hand to his chin. Normally Sebastian wouldn't have been surprised, but it WAS a legitimate thought, so he wasn't going to begrudge the computer genius for it. "That…is another thing to review, I suppose. Worth pointing out that neither Ulrich or Yumi got sick these past two months…"

Sebastian rolled his eyes, entered the Factory, and walked up to Belpois, placing his backpack on the ground and opening it. "Belpois, you're the only one of us who is relatively clean. My pack's waterproof, so everything in here should be dry and safe to use. Take out all of the medical supplies that you can. Also, again, please tell me you have disinfectant wipes on you."

"I…think we do, actually!" the computer genius said with a snap of his fingers. "I think Yumi made sure we had those, along with the first aid kit and some other medical supplies."

"Just hurry up and get it already!" Stern demanded, storming down the stairs of the metal structure at the back.

So the computer genius did. There was indeed a package of disinfectant wipes and both the Street Kid and samurai wasted no time in using them. As they cleaned their hands and forearms, Sebastian inquired about Ishiyama and Della Robbia's conditions, though part of him wished that he didn't as Belpois read off their injuries as best as he could describe. Della Robbia seemed the easiest to treat, but Ishiyama's condition was an entirely different matter.

"Alright, Stern, grab Ishiyama, but be gentle with her on the way down." Sebastian instructed. He then looked at Belpois. "Is there anything that's actually sterile in this place? I don't trust either Ishiyama or Della Robbia to be put down on some dirty, scratchy couch or rug unless you've got a good load of clean blankets."

"We should have those, actually." Belpois said. "The blankets, I mean. We got them after an early mission that sent both Ulrich and Yumi swimming for a bit."

"Let me guess, it was Ishiyama who suggested it?"

Belpois nodded, while Stern's gaze kept at what was above.

"I swear, Belpois, how you even got to this point without losing a limb or two is a damn miracle in itself." Sebastian groaned with a shake of his head. "You grab those blankets and set them down in the cleanest place you can find here. I'm not having Ishiyama or Della Robbia be treated in the place where it's easiest to track mud, and I don't want to hear any haggling, kapeesh?"

"No, no, there's a room on the northeastern end of the factory that's relatively open and clean. I'm keeping my robot parts there for now, but there should be enough room for Yumi and Odd to lay down. Only I've been there though, so you'll have to follow me there."

Sebastian gave Stern a look. "Belpois' the only one who explored this place? I'm starting to think we had a better chance back in the cult zone."

"Just grab Odd, okay?" Stern growled. "I don't want to waste anymore time."

"Better to be safe than sorry, Ulrich, you know that." Belpois put in.

Sebastian didn't know if there were any actual psychic side-effects from being possessed by a snake monster and/or being in an abandoned creepy factory, but he was pretty sure that he and Stern were in silent agreement that Belpois had no room to talk right now. If it wasn't for their injured friends, Sebastian was pretty certain everyone would've given the computer genius an earful, especially after today's horrible mission.

But Stern was right that they had no more time to waste, and so both boys ran up the stairs, getting their first looks at their fallen friends. Looking at the two, Sebastian instinctively knew Yumi was in worse shape than Odd, who honestly just needed his wounds properly bandaged and maybe some oxygen relief plus hydration. Even so, Sebastian picked up the transfer student, holding him in his arms so as to avoid contact with the Street Kid's dirtied shirt. Ulrich picked up Yumi much in the same way for the same reasons.

Sebastian was glad that Della Robbia was not awake right now, and that Arendse was not present. Privately, he dreaded the inevitable day that those two struck up a closer friendship, because this would be the exact thing he could feel both of them ribbing him on.

At least if he was thinking that right now, it meant that one of their number wasn't critical.

Both Sebastian and Ulrich carefully walked down the stairs, making sure not to drop their friends. Once back on level ground and away from the scanners that gave the Street Kid the heebie-jeebies, the duo silently followed Belpois into the metallic labyrinth that made up the factory complex. Sebastian did not pay his surroundings beyond avoiding any stray wires, beams, or boxes, if only to ensure he wouldn't get lost. He did consider asking if Belpois had another spot to store his robots, but considering the events of the day, he doubted there would be any such need to remind the computer genius, who was probably considering it right now.

They reached the northeastern room without difficulty. Indeed, even with the equipment strewn everywhere, the room still had enough space to put Yumi and Della Robbia down without trouble. It also seemed much cleaner, free of dust and any muck/grime, which Sebastian chalked down to Belpois' care.

The blankets were set near the entrance of the room, and both patients were gently lowered down for treatment. Sebastian and Ulrich gave themselves another quick disinfection wipe while Jeremie set down all of the medical supplies they had.

Della Robbia was first. Sebastian ordered Jeremie to remove the transfer student's shirt so that they could get a good look at his wounds. Indeed, Odd's chest was covered in two huge crisscrossing bite marks, his stomach was bruised, and his hands up to his elbows seemed to be covered in burn injuries, which Belpois explained was likely from a plasma blast Odd had been forced to tank while fighting one of the new monsters.

"Great…" Sebastian groaned. "If this place has electricity, please tell me it has running water. We need that stuff ASAP."

"Um, well…" Belpois coughed. "We at least have ice packs."

"Those will do." Sebastian sighed. "Belpois, bandage up Della Robbia's bite marks, they don't seem that deep thankfully, but still a good idea to seal them up. Don't wrap them too tightly either if what you said about him fighting in the air near the end is true. We don't want him suffocating after all."

"What about Yumi?" Ulrich asked, his stoicness completely gone, replaced by a face of pure distress.

Sebastian breathed. Here was the critical issue. "Save most of the ice packs for Ishiyama. Cool her head down, reduce the swelling as much as you can. Unlike Della Robbia, her injuries are definitely more internal than external. Still, make sure you bandage up her face from those gashes. Good news is that Belpois at least was able to clear most of the blood on her face before we got here, and it doesn't look like there's any new bleeding, thank god. The rest…well, for now, let's do what we immediately can before then."

So they did exactly that. Whatever they could. Jeremie dressed and treated Della Robbia's injuries while Ulrich set to work on making Yumi as comfortable as possible. Sebastian kept his attention divided between both patients, giving guidance for their treatments whenever he could. His main attention admittedly was on Yumi, but the severity of the damage she had taken more than justified it, though he kept Della Robbia's burn marks in mind for later, as poor treatment could cause complications later down the line, superpowers or no superpowers.

"Ultimately, we won't know until Della Robbia wakes up." Sebastian sighed when Jeremie had finished bandaging the transfer student's chest. "I'll see what I can get him before he wakes up, but for now, keep his arms cooled and flat. I think he's stable for now."

Indeed, Odd's breathing had long since evened out. He was injured and tired, but his chest rose at a steady rhythm and color had returned to his face. That was a relief.

That now meant the three could focus their attention on Yumi.

"Y'know, now that I think about it, I wouldn't mind Della Robbia being awake." Sebastian noted. "He actually saw what happened over there up close and in person. He might be able to tell us something."

"Well, he isn't, so he can't." Ulrich snapped, glaring at Jeremie. "You said Yumi was injured by overexerting her powers, so explain why that means she's lying down mangled and in a pile of her own blood!?"

Belpois sighed. Not a cough nor a stutter, not even a glint of curiosity (Or maybe that was just hidden by the afternoon sun filtering through the windows, once again obscuring the computer genius' eyes).

"I…can't give a very accurate answer right now. What I told you is exactly what I saw. Yumi's powers went out of control, which the supercomputer registered as the stability of her avatar being compromised. I tried telling her to stop, but she refused and kept on rampaging. There's apparently some kind of automatic override procedure, but the supercomputer then said it wasn't found, and so she just kept on attacking…kept on self-destructing. It took her getting hit with a plasma blast before I was even able to bring Yumi back in the first place."

Taking a look at Yumi, her status had improved, yes, but she still looked like she was in the danger zone to Sebastian. Her face was covered in bandages, her skin was still paler than usual, and though the swelling of her head no longer seemed hazardous, some new blood was leaking from her nose and her breathing, though steadier, was far too uneven for Sebastian's liking. Her arms and legs were also trembling, and Sebastian did not like how it seemed that her fingernails were longer and sharper than usual.

"Stern, put Ishiyama on her side and tilt her head back. We can at least try to fix her breathing for now, but if that doesn't work…well…"

Jeremie's eyes narrowed. Sebastian could make that out at least. "We can't call on the authorities, you know this."

"We've gotta make some kind of story up if Ishiyama takes a turn for the worse." Sebastian said as calmly as he could, shoving every bit of fear of Belpois' strange side into the stomach. "She needs proper medical attention, especially with her condition. We might be able to pass off and hide Della Robbia's injuries, but not Ishiyama's. You yourself just said that even the demon computer can't process what she did to herself."

"All the more reason we can't put her into the hospital!" Jeremie stressed, his voice raising. "Who knows what might happen there?!"

"What WILL happen is that Yumi will die here for certain if we don't get her help." Sebastian retorted as evenly as he could. "We don't have the medical supplies or capabilities, Belpois, and you know this. We don't have clean running water, properly sterilized hospital beds, IV solutions, anything that would ease her condition."

Then he looked at Ulrich. "And your thoughts, Stern?"

"I'm not letting Yumi die, Jeremie, and that's final. If she needs a hospital, we get her to one, ASAP."

"And I think Della Robbia would say the same thing if he were conscious." Sebastian nodded. "Three against one, Belpois."

Belpois chewed the inside of his mouth, clearly aching to argue. His hesitation sent a wave of revulsion through Sebastian. All weekend the computer genius had shown more concern for the dark secrets that lay in town than for his friends and comrades. It went without saying that the boy-genius was far more attuned to machines than he was to humans; his ability to ignore the plight of those around him was a perfect example of that, but today's display of callousness was on a whole new level.

Not only did he not seem to care that Yumi was on the verge of snapping after the Dunbar Clan affair, but he had also pushed Odd beyond his limits to encourage more traumatic visions. His focus (or rather, obsession) was to further his investigation of the demonic virtual world that housed an equally demonic artificial intelligence, a want that Sebastian knew to be self-serving. With the right information, they could destroy the damned thing, get their lives back! But with every morsel of knowledge, especially what they had plundered from the cults over the weekend, Belpois seemed less and less inclined to shut down the supercomputer and more interested in simply disposing of the threats to his research.

Well, none of that. Belpois needed a hard smack-on-the-head right now, otherwise he was going to screw up in the future, big-time. If he complained, well tough-shits. Sebastian clearly had Stern in his corner, and the two of them could easily physically overpower Jeremie over his concerns, then work out a feasible plan to get treatment to Yumi while also maintaining their cover and keeping whatever government conspiracy was out there at bay. It'd at least take the computer genius down a peg or two and give him a hard dose of reality.

"Ughhh…"

"Yumi?" Ulrich breathed.

Sebastian turned, and saw that Ishiyama was stirring. That was surprising, and for a moment, the Street Kid didn't know if that was good or bad.

He managed to settle on 'bad' as he caught a flash of red before all four boys were blasted across the room.


Ozberk struggled to his feet, climbing out of the disgusting sewer he had fallen into. How and why he had ended up in one was a mystery. All he could recall was a heavy amount of dust somehow pouring into the room, then darkness, along with a single phrase.

Obey the Will of the World.

Sadly, he did not recall anytime he had heard of this particular mantra before, which only added to the surreality of how a simple Khara-Khoto Talk had now turned into someone's sewer gunge fantasy.

(Sometimes Oz wished Lyle wasn't his most lucrative and most convenient business partner. The man had some truly disgusting fantasies.)

As the leader of the Givers of Kumul wrung the sewer water out of his clothes and shook his mid-length auburn hair as dry as possible, he saw that perhaps-not-coincidentally, the other three cult leaders who had physically attended the meeting were crawling out of the sewer canal as well, spitting out dirty water and ash. It was good that they were, as the increasing chatter echoing in the tunnels showed that their respective followers and subordinates were getting restless and were as surprised as anyone else.

"Where are we?!"

"I'm covered in filth! FILTH!"

"What drugs did I take?! Or did someone pump them into the hallway?"

"Eh, I've had trysts in worse places."

Oz knew fully well about how volatile relationships between the organizations of the criminal areas of Boulogne Billancourt could be. To be frank, it was a miracle the cults themselves had not gone to war, even with the Khara-Khoto Talk. No matter how they'd gotten into this situation, regaining control was critical.

"If you're all okay, we have a problem." he motioned.

Cameron was first out of the water, shaking off his hood to reveal his short dirty blonde hair and beard. Oz slunk back as the leader of the Messengers of Shamballa called to his followers, telling them to get organized. Alex then followed, letting down his hood to reveal his long, white hair. Despite the messy appearance he had from the dunk in the sewers, he was quick to take command and joined with Cameron in trying to organize everyone.

"Calm down, everyone, let's just get out of the sewers!" Cameron called.

"Single-file line!" Alex put in.

"Do as they say, everyone! We just need order here!" Lyle chimed in.

But their underlings clearly were not having it. Not that Oz could blame them. If he suddenly found himself in the middle of a disgusting sewer, he would have questions of his own, no matter who his leader was.

Sighing, Oz stepped forward, ready to join his fellow leaders and discuss the problem, when a low, mocking laughter filled the tunnel.

"Fools, fools; the whole lot of you. You didn't hear it?"

The Givers of Kumul's leader turned his head, and saw a blue-white haired man in a dark cloak, his arms covered in animal tracing tattoos, crawling out of the water, cackling madly. Oz's eyes narrowed. He had not expected to see this person today and was not happy that he seemed a part of this.

This man had moved to France from Japan after hearing about the Destroyers of Karakorum, but by the time he had come, Cody had already moved their operations to America, settling the organization's headquarters in New York specifically before immediately expanding the Destroyers into Japan, Russia, and Brazil, leaving only a firm, but distant communication branch in Boulogne Billancourt instead of a proper headquarters, one used for relaying supply lines rather than anything major. The move to France and his subsequent addiction to the drugs Boulogne Billancourt readily offered quickly dried up the fool's finances and sanity, leaving only a hobo infamous for just how plastered and high he could get. It was only through an exceptional skill at gambling that the vagrant hadn't starved to death.

Already, Oz found himself holding his arm out to block Lyle and Alex, neither of whom were very fond of the madman and considered him a condescending, money-sucking pest who ducked out of payments and got away with it far too often.

For now, Oz decided to let the insane person rant.

"Hear what, exactly, Yuu Hashimoto?" Oz asked, deliberately keeping his tone light and unconcerned.

"The voice!" Yuu thundered, planting his feet firmly on the sidewalk, his face turned to face the other cultists in twisted glee. "The voice! The voice! The one that commanded us! The voice of God!"

Under normal circumstances, Oz would just roll his eyes at the nonsense Yuu spouted, as it was nonsense he and Lyle were very familiar with in their dealings with this particular psycho.

But today wasn't exactly 'normal', was it? At least as normal as things could get in this city.

"What would the voice of God be then, Hashimoto?" Oz asked cautiously.

Yuu sneered. "Oh, Oz, you truly are ignorant, but that's to be expected from your pathetic group's desire for money, and the pittances they give to the masses. Of course you would not get it."

"I get that you're crazier than usual, you loveless bastard!" Lyle snapped. "What are you even doing here anyways? Get the hell out of here, or I swear I'll-"

"Love?!" the rejected Destroyer cackled. "Oh, Lyle, such a small world you live in! You don't get it! None of you do! For a brief moment, we were awakened to our true purpose, to obey the Will of the World! And if you want love, I'm sure it has plenty to give once you submit to it!"

"That is NOT our true purpose!" Alex roared in anger. "My mentor never wanted us to obey anything like that! We were to use the great potential of this city to change the world for humanity! He charged me to do so!"

Oz grimaced at this. He had been there, of course, when Alex, under the instructions of his enigmatic mentor whom only he had met, had founded the Successors of Khanbaliq. But a year after that mentor vanished, different opinions had started to form and gain traction, and it was not long until the organization had splintered into the groups of the modern day.

"And you failed on every level!" Yuu laughed mockingly. "Your great cult split into six, and now you're reduced to crawling out of sewer slime, still as ignorant as ever! I can already feel it! When the Will of the World chooses to act once more, you will be worth as much as a speck of dust to it!"

"We chose to split due to conflicting beliefs." Cameron put in, causing Oz to turn his head as the leader of the Messengers of Shamballa stepped forward. "Simply rebuilding machines without a goal in mind as Alex was trying to do was a pathway to madness. I founded the Messengers to create a proper purpose, as did Oz and Rebecca for their groups. I have no quarrel with them nor Lyle because their efforts, in the end, lead to the road to peace." He paused briefly, before glibly adding, "Cody of course, is the exception because he's out of his mind."

"And the only one truly on the path to enlightenment!" Yuu screamed, his voice reverberating through the sewers. "We were born only to die, can't you understand?! The Will of the World has determined that this world must end! I felt it while we were one with it! Humanity's salvation shall only be found through the judgment of the Will of the World! The end is coming at long last! This wretched reality will finally be destroyed!"

Oz breathed out a sigh to calm himself. Whatever it was that had happened, it had destroyed what little sense of reason Yuu still had. Looking back, he could see that their followers were restless and unnerved, even moreso than before, thanks to the madman's words. Oz only had a recollection vague enough that he was now struggling to properly remember what had happened while they were out, but he had no idea how much the effect varied from person to person. The situation needed to be salvaged, quickly, and the cult leader already figured out how to do it.

At least with this plan, he could finally get some use out of Yuu instead of dealing with this disgusting leech ducking out of his payment every month.

"Well then, if the world is nearing its end, then allow us to finally end your reason to be here." the leader of the Givers announced before turning around to face the masses.

"Any of you who wish for a quick reward after the uh…anomaly of today, I invite you to a little game. Kill Yuu Hashimoto over here, and the winner receives a boon from the Givers free of charge."

"Seconded." Lyle and Alex growled in unison.

Cameron only shrugged and stepped to the side.

Some of their acolytes looked at each other, and then at Yuu, whose black eyes stared at them fiercely. These individuals immediately walked or swam away into the tunnels, clearly not wanting to take the chance to deal with the madman.

But others stepped forward, removing their robes to reveal men and women alike whose arms were either bursting with muscles forged by the nanotech solutions Oz had sold off to clientele of all criminal origins, or replaced by metal prosthetics that were not only water-proof, but very flexible in a fight. It was times like these that made Oz proud of what their organizations had accomplished when it came to black market dealings, and the impact they'd had as a whole.

He was even prouder as these people with their implants and injections rushed forward to attack Yuu, who roared as he threw off his own robes and met their charge head-on.

But in all honesty, the fight didn't particularly interest Oz, though he still kept an eye on the brawl. His main concern was getting a handle on the situation. So he and his associates quickly gathered together to discuss what had happened, ignoring the ranting, raving, and sounds of violence only a few meters away from them.

"What do you all remember?" Oz asked.

"Only the phrase Hashimoto raved on about." Alex grimaced. "The 'Will of the World'. I remember darkness, and the command to obey it, but that's all."

"Is it?" Cameron asked, his tone suspicious. "Your mentor never spoke of it or wrote it down?"

Alex growled at this, but breathed to compose himself. "My mentor spoke of creating a 'World Without Danger', and never once did the topic of a 'Will of the World' ever come up in conversation with us, nor did I find the phrase in any of the text files he left behind after he…vanished."

"Eh, sounds trustworthy enough to me." Lyle shrugged. "Matches up with what I felt."

Cameron only nodded in the affirmative after a few moments of concerned silence.

Oz chewed the inside of his mouth. True, he'd gone through several prototype designs that he'd 'appropriated' from the Successors after striking out on his own, and indeed, the phrase was never seen in any codenames, design notes, anything. Then again, there WAS one avenue where they might find it, an avenue they all knew was blocked off, even to Alex, who would certainly not have sought it out if he'd already been given the answer.

"What about the Compass?" He asked.

Alex turned to Oz, eyes immediately sparking with intrigue. It didn't surprise Oz in the slightest. Alex was obsessed with decoding the Compass and learning of the programs within. Granted, that obsession was part of the reason why they'd all split ways in the first place.

"You want to try deciphering it?"

"I don't." Cameron put in. "If we haven't managed now, what makes you think today will result in us miraculously doing so?"

"Yes, I'll admit I don't think aiming for an impossible solution IS the solution." Lyle yawned. "Honestly, I say we let our subordinates kill Hashimoto over there, call a truce, and then wash up. We can discuss this in the next Khara-Khoto Talk."

"Agreed." Cameron nodded.

Alex's face twisted into some mix of despair and anger. Even now, he didn't seem willing to give up. Oz likewise, did not want to drop it so easily, but he had to admit Cameron and Lyle had a point. Would they actually find results? There was the chance after the strange attack, but the probability wasn't exactly in their favor. And it wouldn't do them any good to let tensions rise after this strange event. If two of them were willing to just call it a day, Oz found no reason not to agree and wait things out.

Plus, he really wanted a shower.

"AH-HAHAHAHA!"

The four turned to see the broken form of Yuu Hashimoto, held over by one of Cameron's enforcers, a rather burly woman covered in thorn tattoos who glared daggers at the madman's back. His face was covered in wounds, and despite his own enhancements, the reject of the Destroyers of Karakorum had clearly been overwhelmed, his fingers broken, blood leaking from his arms, and his legs limp and inert, his back bent in a way that told Oz it was broken.

"Kill me if you will!" he cackled. "I welcome death at this point! We are not worthy of the Will of the World! Only oblivion awaits us! We are but pawns on the chessboard, easily discarded trash! What a wonderful way to confirm the weight of our existences! I see it all now! We will dissolve into the darkness and be forgotten as ash! A poetic and beautiful fate! DO IT! DO IT! ALL FOR THE WILL OF THE WORLD! ALL FOR THE WILL OF THE WORLD! ALL FOR THE-"

His rant ended when the woman grabbed him by the throat and slammed his body into the water face-first. Bubbles of escaping air erupted from the sewer canal, clearly Yuu's dying gasps, before a loud 'CRACK' noise echoed throughout the tunnels.

The woman pulled up the corpse, which despite everything, was still smiling a crooked, rictus grin. She grunted in disgust, then tossed it into the water.

"Good work, to you all." Oz clapped. "As an acknowledgement of your uh, alliance, all of you shall be receiving a boon. Simply send your request, and we will fulfill it. Though for purposes of business, the costs shall instead be divided amongst all of you. No need to worry, you'll still receive a good bargain."

There was a collective groaning at this, but no-one made any violent motions to attack. They instead turned back to the center pool and split into the tunnels where each of their respective cults were.

Oz turned to face his fellow cult leaders. "Well, at this point, I'll be throwing my hat in with Cameron and Lyle. I'd rather we solve this issue when we have more energy. For now, I just recommend we keep a…closer eye on things. No-one is bound to share information until our next Khara-Khoto Talk. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Cameron nodded.

"Yup, yup, yup." Lyle said.

"...Fine." Alex grumbled, though he clearly wasn't happy about dropping a quick avenue to the Compass.

But for Oz, right now, he was just done with today, and was content to clean up and go home. He had a shift at the airport tonight and needed his focus, nor could he afford for his identity to be discovered. Anyways, as strange as the afternoon had been, the sudden boon in eliminating an annoying factor made up for it.

So all in all, it had been a productive Sunday.


Sunday had been horrible. In every sense of the word.

Then again, it wasn't just Sunday that had been horrible, it had been the entire weekend. At first, Yumi thought it would be fairly normal helping Milly and Tamiya with a project of theirs, even with Sebastian poking his nose around. Then she met perhaps the weirdest and most disgusting human being on the planet and everything had gone downhill from there. Threatened with brainwashing that ran so deep in this town that it was considered normal to kidnap the innocent and subject them to it, and then being forced to see the source of it all and not be able to do anything to stop it.

Oh no, instead of going to the hideaway of those corrupt people to destroy every last one of them, Yumi instead had to just keep them placated so that a computer 'genius' could satisfy his curiosity, not caring about what lines he had to cross to do so. Stressing out someone who clearly did not enjoy the visions he was plagued with, dragging another into a dangerous situation where he was most vulnerable, and finally putting the boy who she found herself truly connecting with in danger through his own desire to protect her.

And the entire time, despite holding an incredible power, she had not been able to use it.

It was there that she could thank Xanadu for giving her something to kill when she was in that world again. Something to destroy that no-one would fault her for.

She recalled the entire fight, up until a point where everything had gone dark. She and Odd were fighting the Krakens, cornered, and then…then what had happened?

Had they won? Lost?

…Lost her Ulrich?

No.

No.

No.

NO!

"RAAAGGGGHHHHH!" Yumi yelled, summoning all of her strength.

Her telekinetic aura surged from her body. Everything was blurry right now, so she decided not to aim. There was no point. She had to crush everything in her path right now. She felt four bodies as the aura extended. So there were four targets to kill.

She tried to focus her eyesight as she heard them slam against something metallic or stone-like. Whatever, she decided it was a wall. She found, however, that all she could see was red. But she was getting her bearings back, and she realized she was sitting down?

Why? Why on earth would she be sitting?

Unless she had been defeated or knocked out?

A sharp pain snaked through her limbs, and she cried in pain. But this was a pain she could handle. Yumi screamed, struggling onto her feet, fighting against shock after shock of pain, as if her body wanted to tear itself apart.

She could taste blood in her mouth. Was that from an earlier wound? Whatever, at least now she had a better stance to handle herself. The bodies her aura was keeping in place seemed to be slipping. That meant they could break free. So she tightened her grip, even as her hands seemed to burn as she forced them into a claw shape. It helped with focusing, because now she could confirm that yes, there were only four bodies, all of them struggling and screaming to escape.

Screaming? Since when could Xanadu's monsters scream like that? The screams sounded human, despite how two of them sounded horribly high-pitched.

…If the voices came from humans, did that mean these were the zombies?

That thought filled Yumi with what felt like liquid nitrogen. No. No. No. They were here? Did that mean they'd taken Ulrich? No. No. No. They'd failed, failed, FAILED. Ulrich was gone. Everyone else had likely followed too. Milly, Tamiya, Sebastian, Amare, those skater girls from Hellison…all of them gone, because of her weakness. Once again, she'd failed to protect those close to her.

Failed.

You failed.

You were weak.

But you can be 01010…

"EEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Yumi wailed, letting out all of her rage as it seemed to writhe within her body like carnivorous worms seeking flesh. So she would let out those worms, and let them feed on the fresh meat before her. Her aura writhed at that thought, and already she could feel it biting into the bodies of the enemy.

Her face was wet and warm. She knew it was her blood. But she could go all out here.

"DIE!" she screamed. "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!"

"YUMI! STOP! IT'S US!"

Ulrich? Was that his voice? Or was Xanadu mocking her by using his voice to speak?

"FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, ISHIYAMA! STOP!"

Well, Sebastian's way of talking was a constant. Still didn't disprove anything.

"G-AAAH! WH-WHAT'S HAPPENING? WAIT, OH N-NO! NOT AGAIN! YUMI, SNAP OUT OF IT!"

What had happened again? Had Odd been pulled out, only to be enslaved, or had the Specters learned to mimic voices?

"P-PLEASE STOP THIS, YUMI!"

Well, it wasn't hard to enforce her grip as she remembered the callousness of the person who owned that voice.

But she found herself having paused with each voice. Why was that?

KILL! KILL! KILL!

Yes, she should kill whoever it was-

Then a horrible pain shot through her head, as if it was going to tear itself apart. In an instant, all of the power Yumi felt that she had vanished. Her grip slackened, and she collapsed onto the…the floor? At least, she thought that it was the floor, despite how red it was, with her…her blood?

Wait, this wasn't grass or rock, or even dirt. This was metal.

It was then that her vision cleared. She was in an unfamiliar room, with light streaming in through several large windows at the top that she could just make out from her angle as she lay on the ground, feeling blood pool and trickle out of her mouth. She wanted to move to spit it out, but found that she was stuck on the floor, her arms feeling like anchors tied to a slab of concrete.

"Yumi!" Ulrich's voice rang as he sped towards her.

"U-Ulrich?" Yumi dared to whisper, ignoring the disgusting stench that wafted through her nose.

"I'm here, Yumi, I'm here…"

A strong hand gripped her shoulder, sending another shockwave of pain rippling through Yumi's body. She wanted to think she was strong enough to resist, but as she was lifted from the ground…

"ARGH!"

She found herself cursing and swearing in Japanese, thankful that no-one else in the room knew what she was saying as pain coursed through her.

"Belpois, get the ice packs, fast!" Sebastian's voice called. "Della Robbia, if you're awake now, grab whatever soft pillows you've got in this place! Stern, keep holding Ishiyama on her side!"

"W-wait, what?"

"Just do it!"

Yumi gritted her teeth as Ulrich gently adjusted her position to face him. It still hurt like hell, but she breathed in as deeply as she could…

And found herself coughing up more blood.

"Damn it," Ulrich hissed. "Sebastian, she's coughing up blood! What do we do?"

"Call an actual doctor!" The Street Kid snapped as he ran up to them. "Or get her some water! At least get the ice for her, Belpois!"

"I have it!" Jeremie said, running up to her and joining them. Odd was not there, apparently he was doing whatever errand Sebastian had sent him on.

It was then that a wonderful, wonderful thought came to Yumi's mind, one that for a moment, seemed to erase the pain.

"You're alive." She smiled. "You're all alive."

She heard Jeremie shuffle nervously as he placed an ice pack atop her head. It was cold, and she shivered, but the cooling relief seemed to help the pounding headache she was developing.

"Do you not remember what happened in Xanadu?" the computer genius asked.

"W-we were…" Yumi's voice trailed off as she tried to recall what had happened.

It only took a second before those memories came rushing back. What had previously been hidden in some bloody mist was now clearing up. They had been cornered in Xanadu, Yumi refusing to leave as the Krakens threatened to overwhelm them. There had been a voice in the back of her head, urging her to not hold back, and she had heeded its advice, and now…

"So, we won then?"

There was no reply, only the desperate gasping of Odd as he seemed to run back to the room. "Okay, if I didn't have Future Flash, I think I'd have been lost back there, oh, right, here are the pillows!"

"Get the blankets too, and set them and those pillows underneath Ishiyama." Sebastian ordered, before he kneeled down to face her, his face grimmer than usual. "Try to endure this as best as you can, Ishiyama."

Yumi would've replied, but two things stopped her. One, the awful stench from Ulrich seemed to double now that Sebastian was here, and second, the pain from before shot back up as Odd hurriedly came over, his chest bare and heaving, that was, until Yumi noticed the bandages he was covered in.

"What happened to you?" Yumi managed to grit as Ulrich positioned her over the makeshift bed, before gently settling her down. She was very grateful for that as the pain began to fade.

"I should be asking you that!" Odd burst out. "You're a total mess!"

"And note that he's the one who got to see what it was like inside the mouth of a Ghost." Jeremie put in.

"Hey, it didn't eat me headfirst!"

"Hooray, the rest of us know the name of the thing that tried eating Della Robbia." Sebastian snarked. "Let's focus on the person who DOESN'T have the strength to make a witty remark, gentleman."

"W-wait, eating?" Yumi asked, alarmed. "What happened to you, Odd? A-and you two? Ulrich, Sebastian, d-did we win?"

Silence fell on the boys, who instead immediately got to work fussing around Yumi, or at least, everyone except Odd, who seemed a bit lost.

"Hey, are you going to answer me, or not?" She managed to growl.

A sigh came. It was from Jeremie. "Yes, we did. You and Odd did manage to destroy all of the monsters in Xanadu, and the attack's over. The reason Ulrich and Sebastian smell bad is because they ended up in a sewer before it ended."

"Then what's the problem?"

Sebastian's mouth slammed onto the ground in shock. "The problem?! Ishiyama, look at yourself, you're covered in your own blood and we're trying to make sure you don't have a heart attack, an aneurysm, or end up melting into strawberry jam!"

Yumi honestly didn't need a reminder that her health wasn't all that great right now. She could feel it all over her body, a million needles made of fire were piercing her right now, and it was agony.

"Do…do you really not remember anything?" Odd squeaked.

Yumi saw Ulrich's head whip towards the transfer student. "Tell Yumi everything that happened. Now."

Jeremie cleared his throat.

"We can have the scientific analysis later, Belpois." Sebastian cut in. "Give someone else a chance to tell a story today."

Odd didn't waste a minute to jump in. What he told everyone matched up exactly with what Yumi had experienced, just colored a bit with the catboy's opinion, which she didn't really mind. Every skirmish they'd had with the Specters, every little detail that had been noticed, which surprised the girl since she never thought that she and Odd would think the same thing about something. The only thing he didn't share was her first fight with the Tardigrades, which made sense as he hadn't been there. No-one interrupted him to get her side there however, so he quickly got back to when their narratives would've lined up.

Then he came to the topic of the Krakens, but after babbling about how they'd been pushed back, his voice began to drift away.

Yumi then felt everyone's eyes fall on her.

"What?"

"You really don't remember what happened to you?" Odd asked.

"I second that." Jeremie agreed. "What happened in Xanadu was…very disturbing."

"And we can see the results, too." Sebastian put in grimly.

Yumi felt Ulrich's hand brush up against her face, moving aside some strands of loose hair. He didn't say anything, but his face was filled with concern.

She tried to remember, but now, all Yumi could recall was the color red. That was it. And screaming. A lot of screaming. And a certain emotion as well.

"...No…no I can't remember. Except for one thing. Anger."

Silence again.

"Only that?" Jeremie asked.

Yumi grunted in the affirmative.

"Della Robbia, we already got the cliffnotes from Belpois, but just to be safe, could you tell the class what happened, exactly?"

She heard Odd take a deep breath. "Yumi, well, kinda, sorta, totally went berserk."

Berserk? How? Why? That was essentially attacking with no strategy, something Yumi knew would get her and everyone else killed. They wouldn't have survived today without a plan.

Apparently her silence was concerning, because then Jeremie coughed when it seemed Odd wasn't able to describe what had happened to her besides using that word.

"Yumi, by 'berserk', Odd's description is 100 percent accurate. I'll tell you what I told Ulrich and Sebastian. You went out of control, and so did your powers. You displayed the most powerful usage I've ever seen from your telekinesis, and you certainly used it as such. I caught everything on the monitor. Trees uprooted, high-speed winds, and monsters being literally torn apart without needing a weapon. All well and good usually-"

"In what universe is going berserk a good thing?!" Sebastian cut in incredulously.

But Jeremie continued. "But as you did all of that, the supercomputer sent in a warning. Your Avatar's stability, for whatever that means in regards to how the system works, was compromised. I couldn't rematerialize you, and based on the warnings I received, your powers shouldn't be acting like that. As for stability, well…just take one look at yourself, and you'll see what all of that did to your body."

Yumi felt herself turn cold. All of this…that was on her? Why didn't she remember?

"In the end, a lucky shot from a Tardigrade sniper of all things knocked you out long enough that I could bring you back in. I called in Ulrich and Sebastian to treat you and Odd, because he was pretty banged up himself finishing off the rest of the monsters. Then while we were doing so-"

"We were thinking about taking you to the hospital, until you suddenly woke up, eyes glowing like a psycho demon, before you slammed us into the wall over there with a telekinetic shove." Sebastian interrupted once more with a jab of his thumb. "Only plus side is that the initial psychic wave blew away most of Belpois' junk. Oh, and it woke Della Robbia up too."

Yumi, horrified, looked at Ulrich, whose face remained stoic despite what had been explained. She turned her head at Sebastian, who was sporting several bruises. Groaning in pain, she managed to turn over, and saw that the same could be said of Jeremie, whose face had returned to being indiscernible, but it was hard to miss the two thin streams of blood dripping down the right side of his face. Odd's bandages also seemed red in some areas, and his face looked worn, with his eyes sporting dark circles of exhaustion.

"I…I attacked you guys?"

Wait, when she'd woken up, she'd seen red. Sensed bodies. Four bodies that had been screaming at her to stop.

It came crashing down. She was the one who had attacked them. The people she'd sworn to fight with and protect.

"A-are you guys alright?" She hated how pathetic and weak her question was.

"We're still here talking and breathing, aren't we?" Ulrich managed with a grim smile.

"Honestly, I'm surprised at how durable I've become." Odd noted approvingly.

"I'm probably going to age faster than Arendse will, but…I'm not hysterical, so that's a plus."

Jeremie gave no answer, his right hand caressing his bloodied cheek in thought. But that was as much of an affirmative from the computer genius as she could get.

Still, she'd hurt them. When she'd been the one who had wanted to sacrifice herself earlier to keep them safe. The words began ringing in her head again, and far more accusatory than before.

Failure.

Failure

Failure

FAILURE

FAILURE

FAILURE!


Odd Della Robbia wanted nothing more than to sleep right now, but events were conspiring to make sure that that wouldn't happen until bedtime, if he was lucky to get to that point. He was surprised to have been literally slammed awake; that was a sensation he'd never experienced, even back home.

But if there was ever a place to have such a sensation, Boulogne Billancourt was the place. He was also surprised that this time he didn't have any catastrophic glitching visions, or even a regular vision.

Then again, Yumi's outburst hadn't lasted too long, and he found himself…surprisingly on track after the grueling virtual world combat as everyone scrambled to help the girl recover.

At least physically. Looking down at her now, Yumi looked ready to shut down, a total 180 from how she'd viciously attacked the monsters in Xanadu, and them just a few minutes ago.

For a moment, Odd's vision went dark, just as it had several times earlier. It took every ounce of self-control for him not to scream before the sight of the group filled his eyes again.

Odd stole a glimpse at Jeremie, praying that he hadn't seen anything strange.

Thankfully, it seemed that the computer genius had not noticed as he cleared his throat. "So, moving forward."

"We get Ishiyama and Della Robbia over to a hospital, stat." Sebastian growled, pointing at Odd. "Della Robbia over there looks like he got some of his wounds reopened, and again, Ishiyama looks like she'll melt into raspberry jam any minute now."

Odd noticed that Sebastian hadn't recapped why that was, but his attention was more on the other topic the Street Kid had brought up.

"Wait, hospital? Really?"

"If it gets Yumi fixed up, then yes." Ulrich said.

Odd gave the samurai a look for being excluded, but Ulrich's face was deadpan. He didn't speak anything more, but Odd at least did get the gist and so didn't really feel hurt or offended. As injured as he was, the catboy found that now that he'd had time to breathe and get bandaged up, he honestly didn't feel too bad. Oh sure, his arms still tingled and his chest hurt thanks to being chewed on by a Ghost, not to mention the aches from being thrown by the Krakens, but he was at least able to stand and walk on his own two feet.

Yumi meanwhile, looked like she was in agony just from shifting her position on the makeshift bed they'd made.

It was also just a tad disturbing that the girl seemed paler than usual and had turned completely silent, seeming to tune out the conversation. Odd had only known Yumi for about a week, but the girl did not seem like the type who would let others speak for her in any situation.

"My answer is still the same as before." Jeremie said firmly.

"ARE YOU NUTS?!" Sebastian yelled, storming onto his feet. "Belpois, look at Ishiyama! Della Robbia! Smell me and Stern if you have to! This whole gig's about as sustainable as a house of cards in a tornado!"

"We can still fight!" Jeremie protested, but Sebastian looked like he was having none of that. Honestly, as Odd thought it over, as much of a jerk the Street Kid could be, he did have his priorities straight.

Then Jeremie's words about a previous answer clicked in the catboy's head.

"Hey, wait a minute, you don't want us to get healed up?! The hell's wrong with you, Einstein?!"

"I'm not saying that at all!" Jeremie cried, walking backwards, only for Odd, Sebastian, and Ulrich to all glare at him in unison. Seeing this, the computer genius coughed and waved his hands. "Just let me explain-"

"Explain what?" Sebastian snapped, slamming his hand against his face. "I checked the medical supplies, and we've got enough for like, maybe three or four more treatments at most, but then there's the issue of getting more! And don't just say 'oh, we'll get more', that costs MONEY! Y'know, the thing that we had to spend all day today?"

Odd felt his throat constrict. He barely had any cash on him, and while he was due for his allowance from home (if Louise bothered sending it, of course), it probably wouldn't be enough for the medical expenses Sebastian was ranting about.

And the Street Kid still had plenty more to say on that topic. "If you want to keep this up at hospital level, Belpois, you'll need equipment, knowledge of how to USE that equipment, the money to get it, etc, etc.! Which, BTW, even in our unfair city, kids can't get! The stuff Burrell deals with is LITERAL kid's stuff! And stuff that, some dumb overgrown basement dweller might want, but still!" He took a breath, then moved on. "But the equipment you want? Need? Just imagine what we had to go through to get that program you wanted so much, except instead of cult insanity, we get to deal with back-alley doctors and drug dealers, who might ALSO have connections with the cults, so technically we don't even escape that! So tell me what's the big problem with just going to the hospital, besides the whole 'Secret coming out'?!"

Every word he was saying made a lot of sense of Odd, and a quick glance at Ulrich and Yumi showed that the Japanese girl had stirred when Sebastian mentioned the cults. Dealing with them again when Odd just wanted to be done with them sounded like agony, especially if that just gave Xanadu more 'creative' ideas on how to attack them.

Suffice to say, if Jeremie dared to have a justification for 01010ng 0101 010 after 10est10day, Odd swore 1010 he 10101-

Quickly, Odd shut his eyes. Orange had quickly flickered to static-and-black again, and this was no time for his own type of meltdown.

"The secret breaking loose IS the problem!" Jeremie stressed, for once seeming to ignore the prospect of learning of developments in the future. "It's the exact reason why we needed to hide this in the first place! You've brought it up before! It's why Hugo's a problem! Answer me this, Sebastian, if the secret breaks out, what do you think will happen?"

Sebastian gritted his teeth. "Look, I get the risk, so-"

"No, you clearly don't." Jeremie said, his voice becoming composed again, and in that moment, Odd felt himself take a step back as something seemed to come over the computer genius. Something that made Odd's hair stand up on end and sent chills down his spine. "If the secret gets out, then that means the cults and criminals we've had to deal with will immediately come after us. And of course if they do, then so will the government. You've said it yourself, haven't you? That they were probably responsible for Xanadu? Do you honestly think they're going to be benevolent when dealing with us? I doubt it very much. Any possible 'treatment' we could get might either not have time to be implemented, or would be immediately overridden in any scenario where our newfound enemies figure out what's going on. Think of the long-term consequences, if you would."

Odd would've loved to protest. He really would've. He had SO many words just building up from everything Jeremie had put him through today…

But he found that he couldn't say any of them. And it certainly wasn't comforting that he was unable to.

What the computer genius said made sense. Terrible, horrifying logical sense. And as he turned to face Odd, the catboy saw the gun pulled out by the sneering thin-faced man in black, and just a second later, the muzzle flashed and plunged Odd's world into darkness, before he shook his head wildly enough, strange noises passing from his throat, all of which were enough to get everyone staring at him.

"Seems that whatever future that would bring us has been assured." Jeremie noted in an even drone that carried just a hint of smug satisfaction.

The drone from that voice was honestly scarier and more infuriating than any burst of excitement from Jeremie. Odd shuddered as he turned away, feeling shame that he had shot Sebastian's argument in the foot.

He could hear the wheezing of anger from the Street Kid's throat, and the low breathing from Ulrich that sounded more like a growl. They clearly weren't happy about it.

"What I want-" Ulrich began, only to be cut off by the very subject of the debate.

"I don't get any say in this?" Yumi's voice asked bitterly.

Odd looked down at her, and he saw that Sebastian was doing the same. "Ishiyama, normally I'm all for people being strong and independent enough to have their say, but look at the state you're in! You'll be lucky to even attend classes remotely if we can come up with that kind of excuse!"

"I'll manage." She said.

"How?" Sebastian asked. "I didn't bring this up before, but considering how you just reacted to being moved, I'd wager your muscle fibers were torn apart by your powers, and we don't have a goddamn thing that can fix that! You need a professional doctor, unless you want me to go BACK to the criminal parts of town and ask them politely for some miracle cure that'll probably do something perverted to you! Which by the way, I ain't doing!"

"I'm not telling you to." Yumi replied, her voice still sounding hollow. "But Jeremie's right. We can't risk the chance of getting any more enemies. I just…need to rest."

"Yumi…" Ulrich started. Odd could see that the samurai did not like what the geisha was saying one bit.

"Just get me some painkillers or something like that." Yumi sighed. "I'll manage from there."

"That is not how analgesics work!" Sebastian protested. "Ishiyama, you need actual treatment! Surgery! Unless you can pull out some type of healing ability out of thin air, you're still one step away from melting into tomato paste!"

"Like I said, I'll manage." Yumi said, looking up at the three boys with the embers of…something smoldering in her otherwise empty eyes. "If nothing else will work, that's our only option."

From the way Sebastian's face looked, Odd could swear that he was going to rip out his hair if he had anything major on it.

"Fine." Ulrich said, though to Odd it sounded more like a blurt he couldn't take back. "We'll see what we can do. Just…be alive when we get back, okay?"

It was easy to tell that the samurai's voice was shaky and awkward, but Yumi managed a small smile. "I'm not going to die here."

Now Sebastian's face was one of dread and greater concern. He looked around, seeming to study the looks on everyone's faces. Odd didn't know what the look on his own face was, but whatever expression he had seemed to actually, strangely enough, satisfy Sebastian before the Street Kid shot a glare at Jeremie, who kept his own face stony.

"...Fine, but I'm going to put out again and again that I am against this, Ishiyama. C'mon Stern, we need to get cleaned up already. Della Robbia, keep an eye on Ishiyama and give us a call if she takes a turn for the worse. Do whatever you can to keep her stable, and do the same for yourself, I don't want to come back knowing that you've both completely bled out to death."

That caused Odd to look down at his chest in a panic as he felt around his torso. He still felt sore there, but there didn't seem to be any spread of the blood stains on the bandages wrapped around him. He then winced as the sudden flailing of his arms sent pain right through them.

"Y-yeah, gotcha." he said.

Sebastian nodded grimly, then turned to Jeremie, who had just been standing there, observing everyone. In Odd's humble opinion, it was another brick in his thoughts that the computer genius was just plain creepy.

"I'm warning you, Belpois." the Street Kid growled. "You better have a solution by the time we get back, and if you don't, I'm knocking you out and dragging Ishiyama to a hospital, government spooks or not."

Ulrich also glared at Jeremie. Clearly he didn't need any words to accentuate the point that if Yumi's condition got worse, then it would be Jeremie who Ulrich would take his wrath on.

"Of course." Jeremie said evenly.

Neither the Samurai nor the Street Kid seemed particularly satisfied with that answer, but then they turned to leave, Ulrich giving a lingering glance at Yumi, who seemed to have shut down again despite her proclamations. She stared at the wall in front of her blankly, and to be honest, it really creeped out Odd. For a moment he was tempted to ask Ulrich and Sebastian to take him with them, but already they were gone, leaving Odd to fend for himself.

Then a sigh from Jeremie. "Well, if I want to see about making this place a proper medical wing, I might as well relocate my robots."

"D-do you want some help?" Odd couldn't help but squeak, for some reason wanting any reason to get out of the room, even if it meant being near Jeremie.

But the computer genius shook his head. "No need for now. You just keep an eye on Yumi. Use some of those ice packs on yourself if you need to."

So while Jeremie picked up stray pieces of metal and machinery, that left Odd to sit himself down on the concrete floor with nothing else to do but think. Not the most exciting thing to do, but after his previous thoughts, he figured he might as well.

Then again, there wasn't much to really think about. They had succeeded in ending the attack, but had now come back wounded, Yumi moreso than Odd. For a moment, he was tempted to ask her why she went as berserk as she did. After all, he hadn't mentioned…and neither had Jeremie for that matter, that when Yumi had gone crazy, Odd too had experienced a meltdown of his powers, one where he was assaulted by glitched visions of barely anything or nothing.

He could've told Jeremie about those, and he had to suppress a gulp, expecting the question to land whenever, but the computer genius was more focused on cleaning up the room than asking questions.

But it wasn't until Jeremie had left, hopefully out of earshot, that Yumi shifted herself, turning around on her other side to face Odd.

He found himself scooting away by instinct. For a moment, Odd could swear that he was being faced by a corpse instead of a classmate and ally. And Yumi did look rather corpse-like, with her waxy skin, blood-covered, bandaged face, and the dark circles developing around her eyes, which seemed to have no light, and instead were replaced by a piercing, horrible darkness.

And if Odd was able to describe Yumi like that, then that definitely meant something was wrong and that he should call Ulrich pronto to be saved from her.

"You're afraid of me, aren't you?" Yumi asked.

"Wh-what?" Odd coughed. "N-no, no, I'm not scared of you at all!"

He laughed, but Yumi's empty expression did not change. Not even a look of deadpan disdain.

"I hurt you before this, didn't I? Earlier today with you and Sebastian…"

Odd waved that one off. "We were being dumbasses, okay? We probably needed a smack. Besides, if Sebastian stuck up for both of us after our whole, uh, 'adventure', I don't think he's holding anything against you. And even if he does, then Ulrich's there to punch him."

"...Ulrich…" Yumi breathed, and for a moment, Odd could see the girl blush. "I'm glad he's okay."

A lightbulb went off in Odd's head. Anything to get this creepy aura away from Yumi was a godsend. "So, you two've got it bad for each other." He smirked knowingly. "You want my honest opinion, go for it."

That seemed to do the trick, somewhat. At least that led to the look of deadpan disdain. "And how many relationships have you had?"

"Oh, plenty back home!" Odd said proudly. "And if I didn't have that uh…accident earlier this week, I'd have landed one for sure!"

"And then Sam would've killed you." she smirked. "Don't think I didn't catch you two together."

And Odd's bravado deflated. "Well, uh, she's, y'know…different."

"Yeah, I'll take advice from someone else, if you don't mind."

Odd shook the warmth in his face from the mentioning of Sam's name, and instead saw that some life was indeed returning to Yumi's. She didn't look lost or empty now, at least.

Then the emptiness came back in full. "I need to be able to fight again. I can't fail. Not again."

"Huh?" Odd gaped, confused. "Yumi, you didn't fail! I mean, yeah, what's happened right now sucks, but we won! If it hadn't been for you, we might've had to get out of dodge, and then get inducted by cult statue zombies!"

"And now I'm a liability." Yumi said bitterly. "I hurt everyone when I woke up, and now I've been reduced to a cripple endangering the mission."

"You're not…" Odd tried, but it was hard to deny Yumi's summation of her status.

"I am." She said. "I can feel it. I broke my body down into this. I don't even know if I'll recover in time for the next attack…"

"Well, we still have Ulrich! And me!"

Odd couldn't help but puff out his chest with that declaration, but it seemed Yumi was not impressed.

Desperate to try to reignite some life into her, the catboy tried babbling a suggestion, the very one that hung in the air for their other members. "Uh…maybe we could ask Sebastian or Amare to join in while you're recovering?"

"You know just as well as I do that we lost that chance the moment the Specters evolved. If you let them in, they'll die, won't they?"

"Alright, this is kind of fun!" Amare cheered, swinging his flail energetically.

Unfortunately, he failed to catch the spray of acid from behind, and screamed as it ate away at his body. No amount of Super-Strength was going to save him from that. He turned, trying to face the monster, only for the Kraken to take the opportunity to grab him, shock him, and then pull the screaming barbarian into its mouth, head-first.

Odd, Ulrich, and Sebastian stared, mouths agape in horror.

Then the acid came for Sebastian, and while Amare had been able to summon one last burst of power thanks to a sturdier constitution and ability, the assassin was a different story as he offered no resistance to the acidic slime besides his form desperately flicking in and out of existence, screaming as his body was eaten away, beyond any hope of recovery.

"So, how did they die in that vision of yours?" Yumi asked, her stern voice contrasting with the dead look on her face.

Odd closed his eyes, nervously chuckling. "Uh, well…You probably don't want the details."

That made it twice today Odd had cut off their alternate solutions. Yay. More evidence that he got the short-stick when it came to superpowers.

"That settles it. I have to get better. Now." Yumi gritted. "I can't fail again. Everyone's counting on me."

Odd wanted to protest, but he found that his throat wasn't working. He wanted to say something, anything, to reassure Yumi that she was not failing at anything, and that while she was an appreciated member of the team, Odd liked to think they all had an equal burden…or at least the ones who were out either fighting or getting the team real world help.

But he did not want another vision, not if it kept giving him answers that he didn't like.

So he kept his mouth shut, trying to shut down the chaotic myriad of thoughts that were running through his brain like a crazed Kiwi who now lay on the ground, motionless. Especially because when Jeremie inevitably came back up to fetch the next batch of robots, the only words Odd would have to say to him would be that Yumi wasn't dying.

Honestly, after the madness of the day, this was probably the best outcome to hope for.


"Pheewww…amazing what a shower can do for a guy." Sebastian sighed in contentment as he re-entered his bedroom, thankfully completely covered in a towel, for Ulrich's relief.

They had made their return to Cafe Millesime without much difficulty, using the more familiar sewer-route, that had been the easy part. The hard part came when they entered the cafe and made Mister Toup gag in disgust. Sebastian had sent Ulrich away while he used their cover story; that they'd had a small accident falling in the sewers, and thus while the other kids were at school, out of the danger zone, Sebastian and Ulrich had returned to wash up. Odd's dog had woken up, his nose clearly sensitive to the stench, and had barked fiercely at them. Only after Ulrich had showered and Sebastian gone into the bathroom did the mutt seem to calm down, though Ulrich swore he saw the dog glaring at them before jumping behind the bed.

Now, Ulrich hadn't been around for their cover story, taking the first shower, but Sebastian seemed satisfied with it when he'd come up, and there was no sign of his uncle Barack anywhere.

Ulrich would know, he'd kept his ears strained for the past fifteen minutes, listening for when/if the lumbering giant came up, but no sign. It wasn't much to do, true, but for Ulrich, he was grateful for some task to occupy his time, scared out of his mind that he would receive a call from Odd about Yumi having a downward spiral.

But though he'd kept his phone out, volume for the ringtone set as high as possible, there was no call.

So for a few seconds, Ulrich leaned back, sitting on Sebastian's bed, trying to relax just a little bit.

"Pro-tip Stern, if you want to relax, try actually lying down on the bed." the Street Kid remarked, opening up his closet to reveal a shirt and short pants exactly identical to the one he'd thrown into the laundry alongside Ulrich's clothes.

Ulrich groaned and looked back. Having been soaked from head to toe in sewage, his clothes had needed a complete wash. Right now he was wearing a spare pair of Sebastian's boxers, and was not keen to look as the Street Kid changed.

Then a dark green jacket was thrown onto Ulrich's head, causing him to growl. A set of matching jeans and a dark colored green shirt then followed suit.

"Spare clothing Burrel got that I snagged a while ago." Sebastian explained, fully re-dressed. "Didn't fit me, but I figured I could maybe sell it since he wasn't interested in it. Or something like that."

Ulrich snorted, but accepted the offer and started redressing himself.

For a moment, the room was quiet, but of course, Sebastian just had to open his mouth.

"So…let's talk about today, shall we?"

Ulrich held his breath. He very much did not want to talk about today. For all intents and purposes, he and Sebastian had failed. Oh sure, they'd kept the attack from Xanadu in check in the real world, but Ulrich's real, personal goal, saving Yumi, had been a total disaster, considering that she was now lying in a pool of her own blood caused by her powers going out of control.

The bed squeaked, and Sebastian lay down. Ulrich immediately scrambled to his feet.

"Okay, I ain't doing anything weird Stern." Sebastian protested. "This is my room after all, I can lie down in my own bed. I'd have pushed you off anyways."

Ulrich growled and folded his arms, before unfolding them to check his phone again. No new notifications.

"But let's get serious, things are-"

"I KNOW THAT!" Ulrich roared, his fist impacting the wall. His eyes were closed tight, but he could feel the cracks in the wall and pulled his hand out of the plaster.

"Sebastian?! What's going on up there?" called the voice of Barack Toup.

Sebastian was already at the door, yelling back, "Nothing serious, Uncle! Stern's just mad with his girlfriend!"

"Yumi is not my girlfriend!" Ulrich screamed, grabbing Sebastian by the shoulder and throwing him back onto the bed, causing Kiwi to bark. "Don't go making shit up, all right!?"

"And after the big heart-to-heart we had earlier today, too." The Street Kid managed to gargle, his voice shaky from the impact.

"It doesn't matter what we did earlier today!" Ulrich retorted, his voice overwhelming the sound of barking, failing to fight back tears in his eyes. "Yumi still got hurt, and in she's worse shape than we would've thought! We couldn't help her, Odd couldn't help her, and Jeremie flat-out doesn't seem to care!"

Then, his strength seemed to give out in his legs, and he crumpled onto the floor. "We're totally helpless, that's what we are."

The sound of footsteps made Ulrich look up, but it turned out Sebastian had picked up Kiwi and muzzled him with his bare hand, and now was just checking his door to make sure his uncle hadn't overheard. The Street Kid then looked down at Ulrich, a pitying look in his eye. Ulrich didn't know whether to turn away in shame or beat the look out of Sebastian's face.

In the end though, the Street Kid spoke up first, his voice melancholy. "Look, Stern, I know I viewed you guys as doing something suspicious and weird ever since the 'Teddy' incident, but after what I just saw today, you guys have my full backing, no strings attached."

"Hmph, and what's that 'backing' really worth?" Ulrich snorted.

"Whatever I can make it worth for you, really." Sebastian replied. "Supplies, a warm house to rest in, movies, whatever you guys need."

"I thought you said Yumi needed a doctor."

"She does." Sebastian scowled, "but if Della Robbia's vision was anything to go by, that'll just invite the government spooks to come down and sic their own doctor on her, and we really don't want that. Doesn't mean I like the idea of not taking her to one though."

The mentioning of Odd's name sent a swelling of bitterness up Ulrich's throat. He had never understood why Jeremie had insisted on taking the chance of recruiting some random person instead of breaking the secret to someone they knew, and now he felt even angrier knowing that this random person had failed to help protect Yumi. Oh sure, he'd helped end the attack, but because of his weakness, Yumi had been forced to exert herself into that state in the first place.

But as Sebastian was preoccupied, Ulrich didn't find any time to verbalize that resentment to the Street Kid.

"So anyways, that leaves us at this crossroads. For now, ugh, we'll…leave the long-term to Belpois, because quite frankly, I don't have anything."

"Some help you are then." Ulrich snorted.

Sebastian kept on going. "So we'll have to deal with the short-term. We'll head back to the school, get all of the weekend homework, and bring it back to that Factory, on top of any food and medicine we can find, note to self, make a list on that, and then I'll run interference on Abel the Elder because you guys do NOT have time for his nonsense."

"That's it?" Ulrich growled. "That's all you could come up with?"

"And what plan do you have then?" Sebastian shot back, hand still firmly on Kiwi, though the dog didn't seem to resist now. "Throw me back on the floor and strangle me? Or just take Ishiyama out of Belpois' hands and to a hospital? Not a fan of that first option, but hey, still okay with the second one."

The martial artist could only scowl. Much as he tried, and he was trying, he could not come up with any idea to help Yumi that hadn't already been talked about.

Sebastian leaned back against the door. "Well, I'll admit I'm not keen to get back on the road, so instead, I'm going to tell you a story."

"We do NOT have time for stories." Ulrich snarled, memories of Jeremie's diversion returning to his head and stoking his anger.

"Oh, but trust me, this one's not designed to be some weird lore-dump. More of a personal experience, you know? I think it's worth listening to."

"Or that's just your ego talking."

Sebastian smirked. "Well, since you're not exactly jumping onto your feet, I think I have some time."

Ulrich glared at the Street Kid, but the wave of weakness from before still had an effect on him, so that was all he could do.

"It happened about a year ago I think," Sebastian mused. "Right before last year's Inter-school competition. Remember that? That's coming up next week. You also were the only Kadic victor in the sporting events"

"I already know what happened last year." Ulrich huffed.

Sebastian shrugged, then continued. "The competition was going to be held at Hellison, and yeah, yeah, I know you know that. But what you don't know is that I got approached by Wei to go out into town and find her some parts for her robot. I agreed, didn't think it would be that bad…and then come Sunday and I get blessed with her two idiotic companions and learn the wonders of a god-damn love triangle."

Ulrich remembered the red-and-black haired girl from yesterday, and yeah, she did have two male friends, but he hadn't seen, or cared, about their own quirks. Mainly because Wei was chaotic enough on her own to cover it.

"Yeah, pretty sure I'm not part of a 'love triangle' right now." he found himself saying.

"If you were, I'd take the opportunity to transfer out." Sebastian grumbled. "I'll admit that's a bit of an unfair summary on my part. No idea on any updates to that part of the drama, and I'm not interested in it. But, in the end, we didn't make a lick of progress. Wei and her 'friends' were arguing so much I flat-out left to get some peace and quiet. Then some other drama happened and I got dragged by Burak and Wilde to go find Wei and oooh boy. That was not fun. In the end, she didn't get jack-squat, we were out late, and thus Belpois won the robotics competition not even knowing he had competition. I mean, there was that weirdo from Asimov, but he got creamed, so, y'know, irrelevant."

Well, it was more pleasant than Jeremie's stories, but that was hardly a major bar to get over for Ulrich. It still seemed, well…

"Okay, and? What does this have to do with me?" Ulrich found himself asking.

"Well, I could say that sharing this has induced a cosmic effect and everyone I insulted in this story now has the urge to want to beat me up, so I need you to protect me from them, but it's more what I saw with Wei herself. Like I said, love-triangle drama's a bad summary, since I've gotten to know her and her companions a little bit better."

"You seem to know a lot of Hellison kids. Why not transfer over there?"

"Because then you guys lose your broker." Sebastian chuckled. "Also because my uncle thinks Kadic helps me make friends better. I've argued with him before about it, and lost every time. Anyways, the point is that you and Wei have a fair bit in common."

"Sebastian, I barely know this person." Ulrich groaned. "I literally only saw her yesterday, and the only thing I was thinking about was; 'great, this chick's robot thing is in my way and I can't get away from the lanky film nerd'."

Sebastian shrugged at this, finally letting go of Kiwi's mouth. "Well, I'm not trying to get you to talk with her anyways. My point is that Wei has a major short fuse, and it was at its worst during that little mission. Burak and Wilde's nonsense just helped inflame it. She's way too eager to prove herself, gets grouchy and brooding whenever she fails at something, lashes out too often, and from the rumors, pretty certain she's got daddy issues."

Well, two of those at least hit home for Ulrich. The rest, not so much, and he was keen to say so.

"So, what, is this some 'lesson' about keeping my temper in control? How is that supposed to help us now?"

Sebastian pointed to the cracked wall. "Words cannot describe how glad I am that my face was not there and that my bed didn't break. It ain't going to do you any good lashing out like this, Stern. Not saying you shouldn't feel like shit, but right now, all that's going to do is make things worse. You have to do what you can to help Ishiyama now, focus on what we can do now. We'll solve this one thing at a time. Put your energy into that, and if we do heal Ishiyama, you can cry in her arms as much as you want."

Ulrich's face went red. "Wh-what? I'm not going to cry next to Yumi!"

"Well I'm not saying you can't cry next to me, but I think Ishiyama would be more comforting for you." Sebastian remarked slyly.

"Uggghhh…" Ulrich groaned, letting out his breath. At least it felt like something was leaving his chest as he did so.

"Alright, you look ready, let's get on out of here." Sebastian said, standing back up straight. "We'll give Belpois the whole talk about Ishiyama when we get back to the Factory, kapeesh? Like I said, one thing at a time."

"...Fine." Ulrich huffed, getting to his feet. "We'll head down to the dorms and get our schoolwork first. I'll make sure to also grab my wallet and-"

"You didn't bring any money with you today?" Sebastian gaped.

"Didn't want to buy anything. Now I do."

Sebastian shook his head, yet he was smiling as he let Kiwi onto the floor. "Well then, there you go. One thing at a time, you get it Stern?"

Ulrich rolled his eyes. "Save me the lecture."

He didn't really feel ready. Not yet. There was still a lot on his mind. But for now he'd take his friend's advice.

For Yumi, he'd be willing to.


"Alright! 3:00 Break!" Jim's voice commanded the baseball team.

"Finally! Amare breathed. "A rest!"

Hugo cracked his neck. "About time too."

The boys scattered across the field, with Amare and Hugo walking over to the bleachers, where Charlie was sitting…well, snoring in the afternoon sun. At least that meant Hugo could talk with Amare in relative peace.

On their way, they picked up ice-cold water bottles (something that had been missing from last year's boot camp), and sat down, taking deep swigs of water. As they let out a gasp of relief, Hugo strained his eyes around the field, looking for any sign of Sebastian or anyone from Jeremie's group.

Yes, they were technically part of the same group, but in Hugo's eyes, the instant Jeremie, Ulrich, and Yumi all started vanishing, then dragged the new kid, Odd, into things, they were part of a different group altogether. At the very least, he'd made sure to sit far away from them during movie night, and was honestly wondering to advise Sebastian to not let them in on the next one.

"3:02…huh, I thought they'd be back by now…" Amare mused, looking at his sports watch. "You think something happened to them, Hugo?"

"If it has, let's hope it doesn't come after us." Hugo scowled. "That'll just prove something is going on."

"Yeah, I'll admit I've never understood that from you." Amare noted. "Why's your first instinct on something suspicious have to be so hostile? Have you ever thought about what those guys might be going through? What if they're being blackmailed by some drug dealer, or filmed by a deranged pervert? You know Asimov's chock-full of both."

"Because unlike you, I understand the value of family." Hugo snapped, looking at his sleeping little brother. Technically step-brother, but Hugo never considered that an important technicality, or even one at all.

This however, actually got Amare to scowl. "Hey, I get family, buster. I also get friendship, and right now, all I'm seeing is a dude going insane from literally nothing. Do you see anything weird going on?"

Hugo looked around, and saw Emily LeDuc and Matthias Burrel walking on the other side of the field, chatting to one another. He was tempted to count that, but knew that it truly wasn't weird.

"Also, sympathy, learn to have some." Amare continued. "What would you do if you saw Jeremie and the others all beaten and bloodied on the ground?"

"I'd say it served Jeremie right, if he's doing this to get a girlfriend." Hugo immediately answered.

"And let's say he wasn't, and I do say that because I am 100% certain that he doesn't have any romantic desires in his blood." Amare insisted. "What then?"

"If it was a danger to me and my little brother, I'd leave them there, plain and simple. Nothing to be done for them." Hugo answered honestly.

Amare gave Hugo a disapproving look. It almost seemed judgmental. "Either you're joking, and I know you can joke, or you just made me wonder how anyone could see you as a friend."

"As long as you aren't doing anything to hurt me or my family, you're a friend. If you are, screw off."

"Ugh, the things you learn when a guy's under pressure." Amare scoffed.

Hugo had known Amare to have a flippant attitude, and a bit too easygoing for his own good, but he also knew that in a crisis, the dude was decent to have around, and once he got his bearings, perceptive. Maybe not sharp enough to get the hang of things immediately, as Hugo prided himself on, but reliable when it came down to it.

He knew that Amare had shared his suspicions concerning the other kids, but unlike Hugo, who had come to the conclusion that it was dangerous and needed to be stopped, Amare seemed perfectly content with letting the danger persist. Why, Hugo simply couldn't understand, other than the idea of Amare being too trusting.

Very trusting in fact. Trustworthy enough to share in his continued apprehension.

Even though he was being a bit judgmental and defensive of that group…He didn't seem concerned for Sebastian, who Hugo was worrying about…or rather, Amare seemed concerned for Sebastian along with them. He had used a plural to refer to the group after all.

Then, Hugo chanced to look up, and Amare's face seemed…relieved. Quickly, Hugo's eyes darted back, and he saw Sebastian and Ulrich, the latter of whom was wearing a new jacket, running behind the buildings, both of them carrying something that Hugo couldn't make out.

The two were quickly out of sight, but it was enough for Hugo. Amare's attention seemed diverted, on them, so he didn't seem to notice any of Hugo's movements.

"You see something weird?" Hugo asked plainly.

"Nah, nothing at all." Amare stretched.

No, he had to have seen it. Hugo might've missed it without a chance glance, mind, but Amare was seated up higher than he was, and so would've had a much clearer view. He couldn't have missed that if he wanted to.

Hugo thought back on the usage of a plural. Then how Amare seemed calm from seeing both Sebastian AND Ulrich.

Amare seemed to trust Sebastian. Yet he also seemed to have some form of trust in the suspicious kids, based on his lack of willingness to apprehend them. It could've simply been a cross.

But then…why was Sebastian with Ulrich alone? The first thought was that Ulrich's real feelings were for Sebastian, but that was quickly stomped out by a mental image of Sebastian with fire in his eyes, furious at Hugo for having such disgusting thoughts. So that obviously wasn't it.

So, the two were working together, even though Sebastian had said he would only need to help Jeremie…obviously the computer genius could've just sent Sebastian and Ulrich alone, and Sebastian had the information, but then…why would Sebastian obey that kind of order?

Obey. Order.

Amare seeming at ease now.

"You okay dude?" the dark-skinned baseball player asked, face completely calm.

No, it couldn't be. He had to be jumping to conclusions.

But Hugo prided himself on being able to catch minute, personal details in a person's actions. He knew how people interacted, and how to play them off. It was how he had lived before coming to Kadic, how he'd protected his little brother and kept up with the unpredictable scamp. It was crazy, it had to be.

Yet the paranoid thought had struck him like an arrow, and everything began to line-up, making a disturbing amount of sense. So much so it was taking Hugo all of his restraint not to jump up and strangle his roommate.

THWEEET! THWEEEET! THWEEEEET!

"Alright, everyone, time for the next two hours! Let's hustle, move, move!" Jim called.

"We're coming!" Amare called, jumping down from the bleachers. Charlie was still snoring, as if the whistle had not disturbed him at all.

Hugo followed wordlessly. But the thought was strong in his head, and as he stepped up to plate, he found himself able to focus, far better than earlier once he thought that they had a man on the inside.

Because they didn't have a man on the inside and never did. Rather, the insiders were people whom he'd once trusted.

Leaving Hugo alone. But at least in doing so, he finally had a concrete enemy to attack. The time had come to take things into his own hands, and he decided that the next two hours would be an excellent way to prepare himself for what was to come.

He struck every ball that afternoon, much to Jim's delight.


Jeremie kept his ears strained, both for a call from his phone, or a panicked cry from Odd. But there were no echoing calls in the Factory, and no notification from his phone. It helped that whenever Jeremie had to come up and make another trip for parts, Odd merely gave a nervous wave and nod, while Yumi seemed…stable at least.

Honestly, Jeremie hated it just as much as the others that they couldn't take Yumi to a hospital, but that risk of discovery was just too great. Otherwise, he would've written up an excuse as soon as he could. He actually did consider hacking into their records, or perhaps using his newly acquired nanotech to alter the memories of the personnel so they wouldn't get reported, but he'd admittedly never tried to hack a hospital before, and he hadn't a chance to study the nanotechnology beyond using the brand name to figure out the basic functions.

If he couldn't come up with a satisfactory plan for Sebastian or Ulrich though, he would probably have to prepare for that first attempt. It probably wouldn't be too hard, but that risk of discovery was always nagging at the computer genius's head.

At the very least though, from each of Jeremie's trips, Yumi seemed stable, if a bit melancholic, so that meant he had time to digest everything that had happened today.

They'd successfully obtained the Compass, had not been detected by any of the Cults, and had stopped the attack from Xanadu. All of their objectives had been reached. The only difficulty was, again, Yumi and Odd's respective injuries. Odd would be easy to cover up, they'd gone over that well enough, but Yumi, not so much.

So…what did Jeremie Belpois have for a plan, anyways?

By now, he'd successfully moved all of his robotics equipment to a new room. Obviously not the reactor room, that would be beyond foolish, but rather to a lower level on the west side of the Factory concerning the main computer terminal that was on the way. Like the northeastern end, this part of the Factory, a large hallway, had been stripped down; whatever it had been meant for, it was clearly no longer capable of doing so, but as each of the gray rooms opened up to small cots just a bit larger than a dorm room at Kadic, the computer genius had to assume that he was standing in what had once been the living quarters of the scientists who had worked on the supercomputer before he did.

So that made it easy to organize his equipment. As this space was now superfluous anyways, it meant no-one would bother coming down here, and the presence of Jeremie's robots would encourage his companions from coming any closer. Then again, they seemed more inclined to keep far away, which he was grateful for.

Yumi's outburst thankfully had been more focused on them rather than the robot parts, so nothing was too damaged, other than some fragile diode lights. Likewise, Jeremie had stored the jars containing the nanotech solution in padded boxes, the jars themselves were made of plastic rather than glass, so nothing was broken or damaged.

Just in case he would need them for a presentation, he pocketed one of the jars, exited the room he was storing them in, exited the hallway, and walked back up the stairs that lead to the winding pathway that returned him to the main terminal. Now he had an opportunity to review his data properly. Rolling into his chair, Jeremie looked to see if anything had changed from the initial set-up.

He was disappointed seeing that his rudimentary superscan program had already bugged up, making him wonder if he'd ever get it fixed. If there was more to Xanadu other than just the forested island, it would be very, very bad if they had to waste time searching Tower after Tower manually; they'd had enough trouble with just one island already.

"Okay, shelve that for now, let's look at what programs I have to work with." he muttered to himself.

Throughout his studies of the supercomputer, Jeremie had been able to grasp how programs were stored, loaded, and worked in the customized terminal. The Interface gave a view of Xanadu whenever a person was virtualized, showed off statistics concerning Avatars, and obviously the runtime of a program. From that interface, he would obviously be able to open up stored files.

Most of these stored files, which included the Encryptions, as well as the Professor's operations manual and message, were held in secure access. Unless the program was being implemented directly into Xanadu's workings, the Specters showed no way of influencing them, and he had yet to see them try to upload a virus into the supercomputer itself to achieve that goal.

The problem from there were those workings themselves. Drawing power from the supercomputer, learning how to use those programs, and learning how to manage the links between the supercomputer itself and the virtual world it sustained…all of these were things that still eluded Jeremie. To be perfectly honest, the superscan feature was his first foray, and that was mostly gained by using the already existing indication method of Tower infection, rather than it being a program of his own making coded from scratch.

As much as the others distrusted the man, Jeremie couldn't help but wish he did have the Professor to show him how to further access Xanadu. It would've been nice to have a proper mentor.

Of course, even back when he'd first gained an interest in computers, he was mostly self-taught. His father had enough rudimentary knowledge due to his work with Renault, the very company that had once owned the Factory (He made a mental note to actually ask his father about that, forgetting such an obvious vein of inquiry was so stupid), but it was more on mechanical engineering and graphics, and it hadn't been long before his father had admitted that his son had surpassed him. It was one of the two major reasons Jeremie had been sent off to boarding school in the first place.

But even if Jeremie's father had been able to be more involved in his son's education, it was in a field far removed from the quantum physics that this computer engaged in.

Sighing, Jeremie returned his attention to his prize for the day; the Compass. This was the program they'd been guided to obtain. Why the Professor had left it with crazy people, Jeremie was sure he did not want to know, but they'd been incompetent enough to have abandoned it, based on his recording of their last meeting.

Thus, it was all Jeremie's to use as he pleased, though he had to know how to use it first of all.

And that was best served by a rundown of everything he'd made leading up to this moment.

As he had told Odd and the others, he had created a customized GPS app that would decipher hidden locations, coded from an already-present program, a location scrambler, and an address encrypter. Programs such as these, of course, were publicly available nowadays, but had been designed specifically for the supercomputer, and likely dated back at least five years anyhow.

There was also the building schematic function, but it had been tailored specifically for that one headquarters, due to the Professor having the original blueprints. Jeremie made a mental note to upgrade it for the next time they might have to venture into town.

Both of these programs had been gained by using the encrypted pre-set. They'd also been the only ones. Cracking their algorithm had been easy, and now that the Compass was being loaded into that folder, safe from the cultists and Specters alike, Jeremie was starting to understand why.

"So that's it…" he murmured in dawning realization. "The Professor had this all organized, step-by-step."

In that regard, Jeremie could understand some of the suspicions everyone else had with the enigmatic man. Sebastian was paranoid by nature, while Ulrich and Yumi were both cynical enough, Yumi moreso now that Jeremie thought about it, to not want to extend their trust, and Odd clearly had some instinct that put him in their corner.

It seemed…all too convenient.

The Specters' evolutionary timetable that had enabled them to get a handle on Xanadu before greater challenges manifested as they did today, and the slow progress Jeremie had been making on uncovering those secrets. It had all been very orderly and organized. To everyone, that was clearly a sign of something being wrong.

Jeremie had already decided, however, to give the Professor the benefit of the doubt. The others would've jumped to the worst scenario, but Jeremie wanted to believe that they were being prepared for something.

Though, he decided not to share that particular theory. The computer genius was certain that Sebastian had been using his time with Ulrich to either calm the Samurai down…or work out a double-team plan to knock Jeremie out. Best not to risk it the way they were now, so he'd keep that thought to himself and write in his log later.

Anyways, everything was loaded up, and Jeremie was already absorbing himself of what was in the Compass exactly. Though he'd broken the encryption to open it up in the first place, every folder within was encrypted as well, every program locked up tight. Chewing the inside of his mouth, Jeremie uploaded his deciphering program to one of the programs, wondering if it would work. He was not surprised to see it fail. He checked the other programs in the 'Encryptions' folder, and decided to act on his theory of advancement.

The fact that the Compass had no files or programs from the Successors of Khanbaliq or their derivative groups was proof that they had failed to break through even the first encryption. Now that it was broken however, Jeremie immediately copied all of the programs in 'Encryptions' to 'The Compass'. He typed in commands, working in line after line of code, studying the correlation between the two sets, and modifying his deciphering program to match.

Finally, he pressed in a command, and leaned back in his chair to relax as the Supercomputer began to compile the program and run the encryption. Based on the loading time, he would receive his update first thing in the morning.

"Phew…finally done with that." he sighed.

"Does that mean you have a solution to the Ishiyama problem?" drawled the voice of Sebastian Toup.

Jeremie swiveled his chair around to face both the Street Kid and the Samurai, the duo's arms packed with bags and boxes of supplies that they set down on the carpet, before they strode up to the computer genius.

"Ahem, well…" Jeremie coughed, looking at the two, "I did think over what's happened today. First off, did you find Yumi any medicine, Sebastian?"

"Muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatory medicine, and pain relief." The Street Kid said, pulling out a plastic bag of pharmaceuticals. "Also some disinfectant, cotton swabs, anything to bolster the first-aid kit supplies at the very least. Thank Stern for it, Belpois, he pulled us out on the money thing. For all of your grades, Stern, you're good at saving money."

"There's just not a lot of things out there I want to buy." Ulrich responded, his eyes staying focused on Jeremie.

"Good, good." Jeremie clapped, trying to keep control over the situation. "Now that I can confirm that Yumi's stable, I can better discuss the hospital situation."

"Wait, you're actually considering it?" Sebastian gaped, while Ulrich's eyes widened with hope. "I thought whatever bad end vision Della Robbia had secured your plans."

"Odd's powers are…a point of study for me." Jeremie admitted. Very true. That was another angle he had to keep analyzing and tracking, especially with how Yumi's powers had gone out of control. "As are Yumi's, after today."

Sebastian spared a glance at Ulrich. "So is Stern the only person here with superpowers that don't come with complicated caveats? If so, congratulations, Stern, you've hit the jackpot on reliability."

"Shut up."

Jeremie coughed to get the conversation back on track, glad to see that he was making headway. "Anyways, I did consider avenues on the hospitalization need. There are two options: One, I hack into their records to try to hide any record or evidence of the Factory, or Two…" He paused for this one. "We utilize an alternate evidence erasing method."

And he produced a jar of the mind-altering nanotech, causing both the Street Kid and the Samurai to take a step backwards.

"Obviously I don't intend to use this the way William did, but I believe I can use this as a potent amnesiac, so if we really need to hide evidence as a last resort, this could be our main out."

Sebastian's mouth was agape with horror. "Just when I think you have a reasonable solution, you pull out the worst possible idea in the whole history of the worst possible ideas. Belpois, that stuff is DANGEROUS! I thought you were going to study a cure for it, not weaponize it! Do Option 1!"

"Do you really think Yumi would want you to use that?" Ulrich growled. "I sure as hell don't even want to see it right now!"

"It was merely a possibility." Jeremie explained calmly. "I'm not going to dismiss it for other emergencies down the line. And if worse does come to worse, I will have us return to the Cult Zone and try to obtain their medical technology if we have no choice."

"Are you really willing to take that risk?" Sebastian asked, "We were lucky enough to get out of there today!"

"If Xanadu hadn't attacked, we would have gotten out of there very easily." Jeremie retorted. "But as I said, last resort, I'm hoping we don't have to return there for a good long while. But if we do have to use the last resort option, I will use it, no arguments."

Seeing that both boys were looking at each other, their thought processes in conflict, Jeremie pressed on.

"But right now, I doubt we will. If we're in agreement, then yes, I will use the first option to cover our tracks and fabricate a false reason for Yumi's injuries. On that note, we probably should come up with one."

He then got up. "Sebastian, bring the medicine. Ulrich, if there's food in that pile, bring it with you."

"Bring the pizza then, Stern." Sebastian sighed.

So the three returned to the 'medical bay' as it now was. Odd was still there, but it was clear that he was no longer watching Yumi like a hawk. Instead…

"Wake. Up." Ulrich said with a stomp, causing Odd and his dog to jolt awake.

"Gah! S-sorry, sorry! Fell asleep! It's been a tiring day, okay!"

"Well, you can't blame him for that then, Stern." Sebastian chuckled, causing Ulrich to scowl.

Jeremie wasn't very pleased either, but Yumi's eyes were wide open and sharp, and there didn't seem to be any change to her condition; no abnormal swelling of her head, no additional bleeding. She'd even managed to shift her position, which was impressive if her muscle fibers had indeed been torn like Sebastian had suggested earlier.

"Don't blame him." Yumi sighed. "I told him it was okay to take a nap."

"Are you feeling better?" Ulrich asked as he approached the Geisha.

She turned to face him. "You changed your clothes…you look nice."

Jeremie didn't particularly care that Ulrich was blushing madly, while Sebastian and Odd were both snickering. He whistled to get everyone's attention. "Alright, alright. Now that we're all settled and relaxed, I want to go over our situation and plans."

Odd's eyes turned to the pizza box. "So, is it an everything, three-meat, or?"

"Plain cheese." Ulrich answered. "Get used to it."

Odd's face fell a bit, but when the box was opened, he immediately grabbed a slice and started chewing, tears in his eyes as he savored the food. "Ahh…never mind, best pizza I've tasted and, hey, wait, where's Kiwi?"

"We left him at the dorm." Sebastian answered. "Thought it would be safer for him, well, uh, y'know."

Well, that removed a potential distraction, though Jeremie did have half a mind to at least snap a picture of Kiwi with his phone to use as a reference for the robot. Still, Sebastian's catching of himself was concerning, especially considering Yumi.

"I understand." the Japanese girl said glumly.

"It doesn't matter." Ulrich insisted, picking up a slice of pizza and putting it on a paper plate. "C'mon, Yumi, eat."

"...You want a sick patient to eat something as greasy as that? No thank you." Yumi scowled.

"And once again, I come bearing something reasonable." Sebastian sighed as he pulled out an apple. "Stern, grab a knife and peel it for her. Della Robbia, you can have the other slice."

Odd looked about ready to say something, then chanced to look down, and his face turned more solemn as he accepted the food.

Jeremie decided at this point to let everyone get settled in, and so once Odd had managed to somehow scarf down three slices of pizza just like that, and Sebastian had Yumi on fruit and had instructed her on how to take the over-the-counter medicine, while Ulrich simply sat down cross-legged at the front, eyes glued on the sight of Yumi, he finally cleared his throat to get the planning session underway.

"Alright, we're burning daylight now, so it's time to finish this up." He said.

"How much do you want me to know?" Sebastian asked. "I'm gonna have to return to the dorms soon and keep Abel the Elder off our tracks and maybe update Arendse while I'm at it."

Jeremie tapped his chin in thought. "Stay long enough for our real-world strategy. Once we get to the matter of Xanadu itself, you can go. Make sure that Hugo's not there when you update Amare though, okay?"

"Understood." The Street Kid said with a salute.

"Alright, so, today's mission. It was-"

"A total disaster." Ulrich spat.

"No, no it wasn't." Jeremie replied calmly, pushing his glasses to his face. "We successfully retrieved The Compass, and I'm starting to decrypt it now. I should have some results in by tomorrow morning."

"As long as we didn't waste our time." Yumi sighed, slowly managing to sit up, supported by Ulrich, who had scooted over to her side.

"Well, I suppose that gets into our other main topic, how are you feeling?" Jeremie asked Yumi.

"Lousy, but better." she sighed. "It doesn't hurt as much. Not going to be in top shape for a while though, I can feel it."

"I can vouch for her not lying." Sebastian put in. "She's a lot better than she was a few hours ago, but my recommendation is to rest as much as possible and take the medicine when appropriate. At least that means if she needs to go to the doctor, it'll make the cover story easier."

"That does at least give us more time." Jeremie said. "At the very least, we all have the excuse of having gone somewhere into town and can work with that from there. Sebastian, I may want to collaborate with you on that tomorrow. Yumi, obviously we'll need your input there as well."

"Tracking." Yumi sighed, picking up an apple slice and ruefully munching it.

Jeremie was quite glad for Yumi's recovery from something so catastrophic, but he had a feeling in his gut the side-effects of today would be with her for quite some time. He really needed to study that, and would say so later on. But one thing at a time.

"The third thing, and Sebastian, I do recommend you inform Amare of this, is the evolution of the Specters." Jeremie finally said. "We're at a very critical juncture now that this is happening. Today, two new forms, that we've called Tardigrades and Krakens, with the basic forms from before being dubbed Ghosts, appeared, and I suspect they won't be the last ones. Xanadu is going to start throwing more and more powerful monsters at us, and we need to be able to counter them."

He then shot Sebastian a glance. "For now, we'll operate under the assumption that only experienced fighters can take them on."

"We should." Yumi cut in, sneaking a glance at Odd, who paled for a few seconds. "Whatever vision Odd had wasn't pretty for our two normies."

"How did we die?" Sebastian groaned. "Was it because Arendse was being an idiot? Which limb did he lose? Or did I lose one?"

"Uhhhh…can I not answer that, please?" Odd whimpered. "Really don't want to think about it."

"Vision accepted as a possible outcome." Jeremie nodded, keeping a note of that. He wasn't sure he was glad or upset about it, but that sealed the deal on recruiting any new fighters in the foreseeable future, or even the distant. "Sebastian, make sure to share that detail with Amare. Likewise that means I'm going to need to find a way to upgrade your means of fighting in Xanadu as soon as possible."

"Like how?" Odd asked. "Does it involve bigger guns? Because I could use one!"

"I unfortunately do not know. I don't have any references, or any guesses with which to work with, but it's certainly a project I'll have to deal with."

At this, Yumi seemed to perk up. Jeremie wasn't sure he was pleased or worried about that detail.

"Regardless, our troubles have only just begun. I don't think I need to explain any further about what that means."

He clearly didn't, as everyone had gone quiet. The only sound was Odd reaching forward to take another slice of pizza, which he ate much more glumly than the previous ones.

"Our fourth concern is the immediate future. Next Saturday is the inter-school competition, and obviously we have the weekend homework to do."

That elicited a groan from everyone present. Jeremie was hardly surprised. Right now, even he considered it a distraction from his real work. "We need to at least try to keep up with our schoolwork, soo, hmmm, now that I think about it…"

"Right now it's 4:32." Sebastian noted. "Dinner starts at 7:00. Way I see it, you've only got that amount of time to work with before Abel the Elder starts building his case file against you guys."

"So that means we'll have to focus on that." Jeremie sighed in defeat. "Right, Sebastian, you can head out now. We'll have to shelve our plans to talk about later tomorrow. For now, we have to clear this particular hurdle."

"Alright, I'm gone." Sebastian got up. "BTW, one of those bags is for the baseball duo, so don't panic if it's missing. Ciao."

And with that, he strode out of the Factory, leaving the Warriors alone.

"The schoolwork is in the other room." Ulrich sighed. "I'll go get it."

"You want me to come with you?" Jeremie asked.

"No, but I'm gonna have to, it looks like."

Jeremie decided it was best not to pry. Mainly because he was already racing with study strategies on how to get as much schoolwork done as possible in what little time they had.

The remaining hour and a half was spent in silence. There was no, to Jeremie's relief, any pointless chatter, though Yumi and Ulrich seemed to still be a bit nervous around each other. Personally, Jeremie was impressed with Yumi's determination. The way she was working, you could hardly tell at first that she was injured, though the shuddering of her body and the need to put down her pen to flex her hand every few minutes showed that she still was.

Odd, meanwhile, was completely subdued thanks to having something to eat, not showing any signs that he'd been hurt, though his shirt still had obvious bloodstains. He gave Jeremie a few nervous glances while they worked on math, but Jeremie made no attempt at conversation besides giving the transfer student tips, or, considering the time crunch, just flatout answers. After all, Jeremie could get that information later.

And it was with that decision that a bramble of dread began to grow in Jeremie's stomach as a startling realization hit him. That one thing after another was happening all at once before he could digest it in full.

Strings of mental code in his mind, each representing an avenue of research or problem sprawled before him in a chaotic kaleidoscope, and he was helpless to organize it. As he looked down at his homework, it was like the words and numbers in his textbook were twisting and undulating out like strings, disorganized and incapable of being set in order.

"Oi, Einstein!"

Jeremie blinked, then looked down. The words were back to normal.

"H-ello? Earth to Jeremie!" Odd called, waving his hand in front of Jeremie's face.

The computer genius turned to Odd. "Uh, yes? What is it?"

"This problem here, hello?" The transfer student drawled. "I still don't get this pythagorea-whatsit!"

"Uh, of course." Jeremie coughed.

He managed to catch Ulrich and Yumi glaring at him, though he paid it no mind. He could share his worries, but then again, it wasn't like they could help him with it, especially when he had no answers. Jeremie breathed in and out, as calmly as he could, reviewing subjects with everyone and trying to focus his mind on everyone's academics. It was a calming way to control his anxiety.

Yumi was unsurprisingly well-rounded in all of her subjects and generally needed no help, while Ulrich was struggling with all of his. What was strange was that verbally, he seemed to have a general understanding of the material, but putting it to paper or reviewing written work had him stumped, and the struggle was clearly frustrating the Samurai. Jeremie offered some pointers, but ultimately was shooed away by Yumi and thus returned his focus to Odd.

Now, Jeremie had already had one review session with Odd, and during that time, the transfer student had proven himself to be, if Jeremie dared to say it, a relative prodigy in those fields that the computer genius found either uninteresting or could not grasp for the life of him.

Foreign languages, French, literature, the arts, all of these either had less intrigue than a fly on the wall to Jeremie, or were something that he just could not get for the life of him. Italian was obviously something Odd would be fluent in as it was his native tongue, but his French was as good as any native speaker and he got English fairly well. And Jeremie had never had any appreciation for art to begin with, the only usage he saw for it was as a way to interpret Odd's dreams when the opportunity presented itself.

As such, Jeremie's only need to help Odd with those subjects was snapping his fingers and getting the transfer student's attention to force himself to finish writing the answers.

Mathematics, history, the sciences, now there Odd was clueless and needed Jeremie's help. He did provide some answers due to their timeframe, but tried to get Odd to understand the material. He made some headway whenever Odd had to read, and by the end of it all, Jeremie was certain that Odd had photosynthesis down.

He pulled out his phone. The time was 6:30.

"Let's get going." He ordered, standing up.

"So, should I leave my shirt here, orrr…"

"We found one of your spares." Ulrich muttered as he helped Yumi up to her feet. The black-haired girl winced as she shakily got up and took a few hesitant steps forward. "Easy there…"

Yumi grimaced, but eventually managed a staggering pace. She was clearly still in great pain, but at least she was mobile again. Even so, she stayed close to Ulrich's side, the martial artist keeping his full attention on her.

"Let's pack up." Jeremie clapped. "No time to spare."

There was some grumbling at this, but everyone generally obeyed. They put their homework away and returned to the main terminal room. Odd quickly exchanged his blood-covered shirt for a clean one, while Yumi notably did not have one.

"My shirt's dark enough to hide the bloodstains." She said when Jeremie questioned her. Ulrich for his part looked away. He was clearly willing to grab her school supplies from her dorm room, but it seemed he was hesitant to actually go through Yumi's closet.

Jeremie would've argued, but he did have to admit he'd never noticed a stain, so Yumi had a point.

They packed the rest of their belongings, taking some of the groceries that had been bought earlier while putting the rest away in the designated storage areas, and set out for Kadic. Set out for home.

In the end, the group made it to the cafeteria with five minutes to spare. Aside from several comments from Milly and Tamiya on Ulrich's new jacket (Along with several other girls staring at him in a way that had Yumi shoot them nasty glares to get them to turn away), everything there went by calmly as well. Odd guzzled down Rosa's cooking as if the pizza hadn't filled him up, while Sebastian and Amare flanked Hugo, who seemed even more sullen and cold than usual, and never once spoke up from their table.

But with dinner over, only now at bedtime did Jeremie feel exhaustion come over him. The chaotic kaleidoscope of code was returning. He knew that there was still so much work to do, he had to-to..

Yet he collapsed into his bed, not even bothering to change into his pajamas, letting the bliss of sleep take him over.


Amare stretched as he settled into bed, watching Charlie crawl under the covers of the top bunk while Hugo settled for the bottom. "Doesn't look like Sebastian found anything out, did he?"

Hugo, who was now only wearing a shower towel, preparing to clean himself up, gave Amare a look. It was strangely calm, yet cold. Amare didn't like that. "No, no he didn't…"

For a moment, Amare wondered if Hugo had worked something out, and he opened his mouth to speak, but then there was a knock at the door. Then, in came Sebastian Toup, dressed in his pajamas, already prepared for bed, while carrying a bag of groceries.

"Welp, I'm here, and with updates. And snacks."

"Muffins?" Amare perked up.

"No, you two need proper nutrients. Turkey breast, raisins, and celery sticks for both of you." Sebastian revealed, pulling out the horrifying health food for everyone to see, causing Charlie to shriek in horror.

Hugo's face twisted in disgust. Amare could hardly blame him. "Ew. You had better have good information to tell us then. Is Belpois dooming us all for a girl?"

"Nope, I can confirm that Belpois is 100% aromantic and ace. Some trashy delinquent chick with pink hair actually came up to him while we were getting him robot parts today, and he didn't react even at all to her. It was hilarious, and more than a little sad for her. Either she's got terrible taste in men, or Dunbar hired her to get revenge on Belpois for stealing his stuff."

"Okay, then is he working with something dangerous?" Hugo huffed. "Tell me, please, Sebastian."

At this, Amare couldn't help but pity the desperate tone in his friend's voice. The guy really did care for Charlie, who seemed to be watching the scene, but only because now Hugo had walked up to Sebastian, almost in a begging sort of posture, which of course would invite attention.

"If you consider building a robotic version of Della Robbia's dog to be dangerous, yes." Sebastian answered. "As it turns out, Belpois' been planning some personal expansion for his laboratory, hence why he's been dragging Stern and Ishiyama into his plans since both of them are freakishly strong when it comes to manual transportation labor. Della Robbia just got dragged into it as Stern's roommate, and likes it about as much as any of us would like having a cactus rubbed on our backs."

Hugo's face twisted into an expression that Amare, for the life of him, could not read. The blue-capped boy faltered over to his bed and sank down on it, pulling the covers over him and screaming into his pillow.

For a few moments, there was only the sound of Hugo flailing, until Charlie jumped down from the top bunk and bounced atop his older brother. "C'mon, Hugo, why's Jeremie keeping his robot puppy secret?"

"Because he's an insane genius and they like to do it, think of it as a game he's pulling." Sebastian chuckled.

"Ugh, enough!" Hugo snapped, sitting up. "C'mon, Charlie, let's get cleaned up."

"I don't wanna!" Charlie protested, then ran out of the room.

"CHARLIE!" Hugo called, running after his little brother and leaving the room.

So now it was just Amare and Sebastian again. The Street Kid quickly walked up to the door and closed it, then faced his fellow confidant.

"So, what actually happened?" Amare asked.

Sebastian exhaled deeply, looking up at the ceiling, his face looking weary, as if he hadn't slept for a month. "Don't scream the way Della Robbia does, okay?"

"I promise I won't." Amare waved off.

Indeed, he did not scream. But the explanation Sebastian gave quite frankly topped Teddy in every conceivable way, so Amare couldn't hide the look of horror that he knew was spreading all over his face. He'd known, of course, of Sebastian's experience in the urban jungle that was Boulogne Billancourt, and had learned to keep far away from the truly dangerous parts of town, but quite frankly, that all seemed trivial when he got into the details of the attack from Xanadu.

"Sooo…" Amare began, walking up to Sebastian and poking him. "You aren't secretly a sleeper agent who's going to smother me to death in my sleep or turn ME into a stone statue are you?"

"No!" Sebastian protested, slapping Amare away, breathing heavily. "No, I, I think I'm good. But if I do display any hardening or glowing eyes or talk about the Will of the World, please make sure to get rid of me."

Amare nodded, then raised his fist.

"Gah! No! That doesn't count!" Sebastian cried, throwing his hands up defensively.

"I kid, I kid." Amare smiled, before returning to his bed and crashing down. "But Jesus…you went through all of that and survived? Kudos."

"I'm just as surprised as you are." Sebastian said, rubbing his forehead. "But the real problem is what happened to Ishiyama. Stern and I talked about it some, but…your thoughts?"

"Take Milly's advice and bury her in as many plushies as we can find." Amare replied, before looking at his hands. "Still, they never tell you that you'll nearly melt yourself to death at hero school. If there ever was one, anyways."

"Yeah, so stop joking about it." Sebastian scowled. "Della Robbia apparently had a vision of you and me dying if we did go in there, so I'd rather not make that future a reality."

It had been partly a joke, though Amare had been considering it. Yet with all of the dangers shown off right now, the baseball player had to admit that the idea perhaps was not the best one he'd had. Didn't stop him from feeling sorry for Yumi though. He never really talked to her much, but she'd clearly had the worst day out of everyone, and that was an understatement.

"Then, let's hope Yumi has a speedy recovery." He said at last.

Sebastian nodded. "Belpois' at least succeeded in getting his little macguffin program from those cultists, so the day wasn't a wash. Still, with the freaky monsters evolving, and the attacks too…I'd suggest bracing yourself. Who knows what's going to happen later in the week?"

Amare didn't, but he'd give his support however he could. "Tell Jeremie I'm willing to help however I can. Even if it is keeping Hugo under control. He's…"

He thought back to how Hugo had reacted at practice. "Unhinged right now. Probably wouldn't hurt to keep a closer eye on him."

"I'll pass that off to Belpois in the morning then." Sebastian said, turning to leave. "The last thing we need right now is Abel the Elder playing Sherlock Holmes."

Amare gave a chuckle, and got up to prepare himself for his own shower. Once he was ready and walking down the hallway, he saw Hugo and Charlie on their way back. Charlie seemed cheerful as usual, but Hugo seemed dour, almost broken, if Amare looked at his face from a certain angle.

"Hey, uh, you okay-" he tried to ask, but Hugo simply quickened his pace.

Amare knew that he should've tried to follow, but given the late hour, he really didn't want to bring Jim down on him after dealing with the physical instructor all day. And maybe Hugo just needed some time to sleep on it all.

Still, Hugo's declaration rang heavily in Amare's ears. Was the boy really the type of person willing to abandon his friends at the slightest inconvenience? Over the past year, he'd found Hugo as a person he just naturally clicked with, someone who shared his casual attitude in life. The worst trait before this whole Xanadu mess that Hugo had displayed was a competitive drive that stayed strictly within baseball and never showed up in casual conversation.

This new Hugo…was he just Hugo stressed out and traumatized from a horrible event, or was this the true face of Hugo Abel all along? Amare felt that he personally would've devolved into a crying wreck if he hadn't had the sense that there were heroes out there preventing the dark disturbances, even more so when he found out that they were people he knew.

But it was an answer he realized he probably wouldn't be getting right now, and so the dark-skinned boy continued on his way to the shower room.

In future, Amare would find himself having a greater companionship with Odd Della Robbia, the two shared several traits and Amare honestly appreciated Odd's sense of humor when no-one else did. A guy who was able to joke like that when he was stuck in the worst position possible was someone that Amare could always respect.

But unlike Odd Della Robbia, Amare did not have any power to see into the future, and even if he did, there were some futures that just could not be stopped.

Especially because he had failed to notice that during Hugo's temper tantrum, the boy had left his phone just under the covers, having already turned on a voice recorder app to transcribe everything that had been discussed in his absence.

So when Amare returned from the showers, he thought that Hugo was just listening to music before he went to bed. The dude was a fan of the Subdigitals after all, and their music helped him sleep.

But Hugo was not listening to music. He was instead listening to the confirmation that held the information he wanted.

So while Amare would find a new friend in Odd…that night was when he lost a friend in Hugo. If they'd ever truly been friends in the first place.


Query: Geisha Avatar. Unable to register information. Processing information. Cannot process information.

Error. Error. Error.

Query: End calculation?

Ending calculation.

Review of 16/10/01 activity…

Avatars and Guide remained unharmed. Unknown program: The Compass. Obtained by Operator.

Query: Attempt to locate Compass?

Searching, Searching, Searching.

Unable to locate program. In inaccessible secured area. Cannot be retrieved.

Query: Analyze Avatar status?

Accepted.

Reviewing status.

Geisha Avatar heavily injured. Cannot process reason to activity near end of combat. Destruction of form dubbed 'Kraken' by Avatar-

Side-Query: Accept Avatar names as designation?

Accepted. Resuming analysis.

Cheshire Cat Avatar also injured. In good physical condition however. Will likely be able to try to counter next activity. Samurai Avatar unharmed completely, but was not a factor in combat and was nearly taken by 16/10/01 activity.

Guide was taken, but connection has been severed. Claims to still work with Avatars and Operator to keep activities secret.

Operator likely to create new programs.

Query: Begin keeping closer track of Avatar movements on Other Side?

Parsing. Parsing. Parsing.

Accepted.


Well, well, that was certainly a development wasn't it? I should like to think so. I honestly can't believe I've gotten this far. Finally done with this part of the story...because now...oooohhhh now...

Next chapter...we get into the good stuff.

What will File 7 hold? Wait and see to find out...

-Epsilon Tarantula-