The New Genius

The room filled with quick glances worded the same silent question. Did the man say that right? Looming silence bounced on the room of the group's genius. He finally spoke up after the long pause. "Just to be clear, sir, you said Sissi wanted all of us to see her? Even Yumi?"

"Yes, Jeremie, she was very clear about that." Painted confusion on their faces rose the principal's eyebrow. "Is there a problem with that?"

"N-no, no, sir," Yumi smiled, "We'll try and visit her today after classes." Mr. Delmas nodded and exited.

"That's more suspicious than Odd keeping a girlfriend."

"Hey! I'll have you know that I can get-"

"Can it, you two," Jeremie told the boys. "Why don't you guys just go? I'm sure she's not gonna rope in Ulrich with Yumi there."

"What about you?" Yumi asked.

"I have Aelita's materialization program to work on. I can't just leave."

"Don't be like that, Jeremie," Said a computerized voice. "I'll be fine. It sounds like this friend of yours needs to see all of you."

His eyes narrowed nearly into slits. Jeremie frowned hard at Aelita, saying, "She's not a friend of ours. Well, not a friend of Ulrich's anyway."

"I can see it now, 'Oh Ulrich dear! it's sooooo good to see you.' In fact, I'll eat my shoe if she says something different," Odd announced. While the genius rolled his eyes and Aelita giggled, Yumi stretched her dull aches and sprang from Jeremie's bed. "Well, we should get to class. We have a little dragon queen to visit," Odd said. A droning 'yay' slid out of their mouths.

"We'll see you later, Aelita," Jeremie waved, closing the door behind him.

With classes over and the day done, the team strolled to the nearby hospital. Upon entering the lobby, nurses and doctors rushed monitors, defibrillators, and other medical electronics between rooms. A spirit floated around the place. A slight song hummed from one nurse to the next, and the shouting laughter of doctors passed by. Jeremie looked at Yumi, who only shrugged at the sight. "Excuse me, we're looking for Elisabeth Delmas. We're her... friends."

"Oh, the Mechanist? Of course, she's down the hall to the right," the receptionist replied to Jeremie.

"'The Mechanist'?" Odd whispered to Ulrich. Wandering down the hall and finding the room, they opened the door and saw Sissi standing in her pale turquoise hospital gown. She had nurse scrubs underneath and a cane in her left hand as she hammered and drilled a stereo system. A doctor watched over her, pressing a finger to his lips. Finally shutting the casing, Sissi looked at the doctor with a broad smile.

"There you go. Now it should work." The tall doctor turned the knob and classical music floated out of the stereo system.

"That's amazing, Ms. Delmas. This stereo hasn't worked since I've been here."

"Might as well help. Nothing much to do here," Sissi shrugged. She limped to the bedside and turned towards the door. "Oh, you guys are here!" She bolted up but wobbled and nearly fell before the doctor caught her.

"Please, Sissi, remember that your legs are still weak." Sissi nodded as the doctor left.

"It's great to see you guys, all of you."

"It is?"

"Do you want your shoe fried or boiled?" Ulrich murmured to Odd.

"Sissi, what are you doing with the equipment?" Jeremie asked.

"Fixing it. I was bored, and after reading some books about electronics, I started tinkering with some of the tech-stuff and presto, I'm fixing up hospital equipment." Sissi flipped her hair back and rolled her eyes while crossing her arms, huffing, "Of course the nurses didn't trust me much. 'This is eXpEnSiVe HoSpItAl PrOpErTy'. Like I didn't know that. But they finally trusted me. Other than that, it's been okay. The bed could be softer." She rubbed her back.

"And… how are you doing?" Yumi asked.

"Good, the accident just left my legs weak. I'll be out by next week." Sissi reached underneath her bed and pulled out a book. "But in my free time, I've been doing homework."

"You're doing math homework? Sissi, are you sure you didn't get a concussion?" Yumi humored.

"Why does everyone say that?! Yeah, yeah, I already got the 'Wow that car wreck did wonders for your brain' speech from the nurses, and my mom… and my dad."

"Well it's highly unlikely that you received any intellectual stimulus from that crash, but it's possible that your neurological plasticity was boosted by it."

"English Einstein?"

"Your brain has the ability to repair itself if it's hurt. Jeremie's suggesting that the crash gave me new brain cells so I'm smarter," Sissi explained to Odd.

"Wow! You understood Jeremie talk?" Ulrich said.

"I've had a lot of free-time, guys," Sissi said with dramatic trauma and a shiver. Everyone laughed. "Anyways, I was actually hoping Jeremie could help me with physics."

"So, you just wanted to see Jeremie?" Yumi questioned. When Sissi nodded, Ulrich and Yumi side-glanced each other as Jeremie sat next to the bed. "Well, we should get going."

"Don't you want to go back with Jeremie?".

"Don't sweat it, Sissi. If anything happens, he has his phone, his glasses, and his Brainiac mind."

"Ha, ha, Odd," Jeremie muttered. Sissi rested her hand on his shoulder.

"Jeremie, if you have some work to do, I'll be fine on my own."

"It's alright. I can spare some time. Why don't you guys get back to school? It doesn't seem like we'll have any trouble for now. Just be on your guard," He said gravely. The three nodded as they departed.

"Huh, what did you mean by that?" Sissi asked him.

"Oh, don't worry about it. Now, let's get on to the lesson."

It was the next sunny day when the others saw the blond genius. By the vending machine, Jeremie ran over to them with a broad smile. "Guys, you won't believe what happened yesterday!"

"Let me guess, you kissed Sissi?" Odd chirped. Jeremie's eyes bugged out, and he nearly dropped his computer case. His glasses flew out of place as his head jerked back. Coughing, he corrected the fragile frames.

"NO! Why on Earth would you say that?"

"You never know. The way things have been lately, I have to prepare for everything."

"Anyway, what were you saying, Jeremie?" Ulrich asked.

"Sissi is brilliant! I thought she would be as brainless as Kiwi, but she actually taught me things I never thought of!"

"My Kiwi is not brainless!"

"Anyways, she took my computer and made it ten times faster! Ha! I mean, it's not as powerful as the supercomputer, but it's a lot better than it used to be."

"Wow, never thought that Sissi would help you. Kiwi talking is more likely to happen," Yumi gestured.

"I know, but I tell you, it's incredible. There were times she was a little rude, but other than that, she was amazing!"

"Why are you so excited about it?" Ulrich asked. Jeremie paused as he leaned against the wall of the vending machine. He looked down at the ground before shrugging his shoulders.

"I don't know… I guess other than Herb and Aelita, I finally found someone as… intelligent as me."

"Are you calling us idiots?"

"No, no! That's not what-"

"Relax, Jeremie," Ulrich powerfully slapped the blonde's back, "Odd's only kidding. It's good to see Sissi isn't as mean now."

"Of course, maybe it's just a disguise," Yumi cautioned, "Don't forget, Sissi is still Sissi, no matter what. Maybe she's trying to get to Ulrich through Jeremie. Or maybe she's trying to learn about our little secret with Lyoko."

Jeremie nodded as the school bell rang. "Well, she's coming back next week. I'll be careful around her. For now, just worry about XANA and I'll worry about Aelita's materialization.

"Right," The others broke for class.

Back at the hospital, a small headset sat on Sissi's head. "Well, the bug works. Hopefully, the circuitry is waterproof." She sighed as she rested her head back on the pillow. "I have to know what XANA, Lyoko, and Aelita's… thing is. It's my only way of figuring out what happened in the factory. But this XANA thing sounds dangerous. I just have to be careful." She pulled out her own laptop and typed at a furious pace. The screen popped up a live connection between Jeremie's laptop and her own. Then, a green check flashed on her screen. "Good, secure connection. I'll have to heavily encrypt it. Now, let's see if I can't crack Jeremie's codes."

Continued.