Redo-18
A few days later, Odd told Ulrich what happened on that walk home. He couldn't help but laugh at his friend's suffering. "I told you not to do it," Ulrich smirked.
"Shut it won't you," said Odd, giving a sour face. As they talked, Jeremie, Aelita, and Sissi were analyzing data on the supercomputer. Odd glanced at Sissi who glared back, shaking her head.
"Looks like you're going to be in the hot seat for a while," Ulrich whispered.
"Anyway, the data you guys got from Sector 5 tonight will be a big help with Aelita's virus. I'm so close to making the anti-virus," Jeremie said.
"We got more data than we ever got before. That's new," Aelita smiled.
"And suspicious," Sissi muttered, "I don't like it. Is there any way to 'trap' the data? Just so that it won't interact with any of the supercomputer's programs?"
Jeremie rose his eyebrow and leaned on the armrest nearest to Sissi. He pushed his glasses up and focused on her, saying, "What're you worried about?"
"It's just... when was the last time you guys tried to get something and XANA didn't try his absolute hardest?"
"Maybe we got lucky," Odd proposed. Beady dark eyes glowered into the blonde fry's frame. Odd gave a nervous chuckle and cowered away from Sissi's glare.
Sissi huffed, "Still, I don't like it."
"If anything happens, the S-Watch should notify us," Jeremie said. He looked at the watch. 8:30 pm. "Oh shoot! We better get going. I didn't know it was so late."
"We really need an alarm clock in this place," Sissi mumbled, rubbing her eyes. The team walked to the elevator while Jeremie sat back in his chair for a moment. "Jer, are you coming?"
"Give me a moment. Let's see if I can't jimmy-rig something." He typed away on the keyboard, hastily scraping together something that might work. He hoped. "There, that should do it. Okay, I'm coming."
"What did you do?" Aelita asked.
"Since Sissi's device can't detect any program errors, I think I figured out how to get access to the port. And, uploading the same program that we use to detect the hardware of the supercomputer, I-"
"Jeremie, slow down and simplify," Sissi grumbled.
"Uh... I figured out how to make your device detect software and hardware problems," Jeremie replied.
"Really! That quickly?" Yumi asked.
"It's not perfect and I don't know if it works, but it's better than nothing."
"Well, we'll know when the S-watch says there's a problem," Sissi said.
"Sissi, why did you call it the S-Watch? Does it stand for Sissi's watch?" Yumi quipped.
"Uh... no, but that's a great idea. Shoulda gone with that. It stands for Supercomputer-Watch... Sissi watch, not bad," A wide smile crept across Sissi's face. Everyone else laughed.
The next day, a Thursday, Sissi woke up to a knock at the door. Getting dress, she opened it to see Odd. He had a broad shaky grin and waved his hand awkwardly. Sissi crossed her arms and sighed, "What do you want, dog brain?"
"I want to um say I'm sorry... for what I said. I didn't mean to make you upset. I just-"
"Wait, wait, wait! You thought I was seriously upset?" Sissi asked. Odd slowly nodded. "Ha, Ha, Ha! Odd, I was just kidding. I thought you guys play around like that all the time."
"Not really. At least Yumi and Ulrich don't."
"Am I Ulrich or Yumi?"
"No, but... with your temper, you might as well be," Odd mumbled out a chuckle. Sissi smiled warmly and walked out of the room with her cane. "Sooooooo, any new projects you're working on?"
Sissi smirked and rose her eyebrow. "Asking for a friend?"
"Well, I was just wondering if you could make something that gave us some real live weapons like your cane. You know, if XANA ever materializes his goons again," Odd explained.
"Uhh... I don't know. It would need to be disguised. People don't ask about my cane because of the bus accident. You guys haven't been in a wreck so having a cane around you doesn't make sense." Sissi thought silently for a moment."I'll think of something."
"Great! OH! And I couldn't help but notice that you're treating Ulrich differently. What's up with that?" Odd asked. Sissi stopped and looked at him with silent weight. "You know, just wondering," Odd smiled widely.
"Hmm." Sissi grabbed a piece of paper, scribbled down some words, and gave it to Odd. "Give this to Yumi in front of Ulrich, and you'll find your answer. Come on, let's get to class."
After class, Odd spoke with Ulrich and Yumi by the vending machines. Yumi looked at the piece of paper and rolled her eyes, smirking, "It means Ulrich shouldn't be nosy."
Ulrich snarled, "I thought you said you would be subtle Odd."
"I did! I didn't think she would pick up on it."
"What are you two talking about? What does this have to do with Sissi?" Yumi asked. The two boys looked at each other and scanned the area for any listening ears.
"Okay, have you noticed that Sissi has been a little cold to me lately?" Ulrich asked.
"Like what?" Yumi questioned.
"Oh, nothing really. Like not letting Ulrich help her or giving a cold shoulder. Or not even mentioning Ulrich at all. Like he doesn't exist," Odd said.
"You think she's giving you the cold shoulder for a reason?" Yumi asked Ulrich.
"I intend to find out."
"I think he's just being a worrywart. Sissi is waaay over him. It's like she's playing hard to get," Odd smiled. Then Yumi's eyes lit up when she remembered what Sissi said to her. "What's the matter, Yumi?"
"Uh... nothing. I just remembered something... funny." Yumi struggled to hide her laugh. Pretty soon, the three geniuses raced over to them. "What's the matter?" Yumi asked.
"Good news or bad news?" Sissi asked.
"Hold on." Odd pulled out a quarter, flipped it, and caught it. "Call it."
"Heads."
"It's tails. Sorry, Ulrich. We'll hear the good news first," Odd said.
"The good news is that Sissi's device works," Aelita said.
Yumi wrinkled her eyebrows together. "Wait, how do you know that it worked?" she asked.
"That's... the bad news," Sissi sighed, "The S-watch went off. We don't know what's wrong, but we're going to look into it now."
"Sissi, we have science class with Mrs. Hertz. You know we can't get out of that," Jeremie said.
"I'll go then. I think I can figure out what's the problem. If anyone asks, tell them I was on a call with my doctor," Sissi replied.
"Will they believe it?"
"My doc is real cool. Trust me, he'll cover for me," Sissi winked at Jeremie.
"Okay, stay safe, Sissi. Call us if there's anything wrong," Yumi said.
"Will do." She ran off to the factory.
"We should get going to class. Mrs. Hertz is waiting for us," Jeremie sighed. The others left, but Ulrich caught Yumi's arm.
"Yumi, could you do me a huge favor?" He asked.
Yumi narrowed her eyes. "Does it have to do with Sissi?"
"Uh... well-"
"Ulrich, I'm sure it's nothing. Sissi's still getting used to us. You can't expect her to be normal now," Yumi said.
"Hehe, I don't think I'll ever know what's normal anymore," he joked. Yumi smiled but still held her arms crossed as she said,
"You want me to find out what's wrong with her?"
"If it's not... too much."
"I'll see what I can do. It's not like I have parent problems or anything," Yumi sighed. Ulrich rested his hand on her shoulder and offered a small smile. Yumi briefly smiled back as the bell rang and they ran to class.
Meanwhile, Sissi finally made it to the factory, sliding down the rope to the elevator. "Ahh! Geez, I thought my legs would've been stronger by now," She grimaced. Walking slowly to the elevator, she pressed the button and rode it down to the reactor room. A spine-shivering chill came over her when she saw the metal monster. Bad memories. "Okay, XANA. What have you broken?" She went around, checking on the manual components. "Okay, everything seems like it's in order. Hmm, maybe the device is on the frits. Maybe the scanners?" She went up the stairs to the scanner room. They all looked intact. "Hmm, I wonder if Jeremie's shortcut for the programs messed up the device's data readings." Sissi walked up to the computer interface and started typing away at the computer screen.
So far, there was nothing that she could find until the Back in Time program suddenly popped up. "Huh, I didn't do that. Wait, what's going on? Why is it starting up?!" Sissi quickly typed around trying to find some way to stop it, but it was too late.
The next day, (rather the same day, Thursday), Sissi jumped out of bed and grabbed her cane. She opened the door to see Odd outside. Both of them were confused. "We have to get to Jeremie," She said hastily.
"It just started up by itself? That's impossible!" Jeremie exclaimed.
"I was doing a systems check. Everything was good until the program just popped up," Sissi explained.
"Are you sure that you didn't accidentally push something?" Yumi asked.
"I'm sure," The Dragon Queen lightly growled under her breath. "The good thing is that Jeremie's shortcut managed to detect software problems. Let's go to the factory now."
"What about science class?" Jeremie asked.
Sissi rolled her eyes, "Jeremie, if the Back to the Past program is messed up, we'll be having the same science class forever!"
"Fair point, we have to figure out what's wrong, quick," Jeremie said.
While the others ran off, Yumi held Sissi back. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"That's what I wanted to ask you. You and Ulrich... are you two alright?" Yumi crossed her arms. Sissi placed her hands on her hips and lowered her eyebrows.
"I wouldn't expect you to be asking for him."
"Besides that, it has been bothering me why you treat him so distantly," Yumi said. Sissi looked to her left, not staring at anything important. "Is it because of the way he treated you before you joined the group?"
"Maybe. To be honest, I haven't really noticed it," Sissi confessed. They were silent for a moment. She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I guess the charm I saw back then is different now that I'm on the inside?"
"Inside?"
"Inside the group, you know? I kind of noticed it when Ulrich sat by me when Aelita came here. I just felt... nothing. I don't know," Sissi said, a little frustrated she couldn't get her words out. "It's not intentional. I'll try and be better to him."
"I think it's a little deserved," Yumi said. Sissi rose her eyebrow. "He was mean to you."
"Yeah, but Ulrich's anger has nothing on you, tiger," Sissi smirked. The girls shared a giggle.
"But does it have anything to do with what you said about him? That if he couldn't confess to me, he wasn't worth your time?"
Sissi shook her head, "No, I think it was the first one. I don't know. With XANA and everything, I'm not really thinking about boys that much. Come on, let's catch up with the others."
"I don't believe it! XANA has taken control of going back in time!" Jeremie exclaimed.
"What is he going to use it for?" Aelita asked.
"We can worry about that later. Right now, launch a scan for any activated towers. Then we'll try and stop the travels back," Sissi said. Ulrich walked over to Yumi behind the geniuses.
"So did she tell you?"
"Yeah," Yumi replied, humorously quiet.
"And?"
"She said she didn't notice."
"WHAT!" Ulrich shouted. Everyone in the quiet room looked at him. "Uh... sorry, uh... Yumi was just... telling me something about Japan." He nervously smiled while Yumi snorted a laugh.
"Okay, I've located the tower. It's in the mountain sector. Now I just have to figure out how to stop the traveling back in time," Jeremie grumbled, typing furiously. "Come on, come on!" Sissi looked to her left and did a double-take when she saw Odd reading near the holo map.
"Odd, are you... studying?"
"Yeah, so?" Odd said almost pompously. Sissi shook her head slightly as if to wake herself up.
"Drat! I nearly got it too. But it's starting up again! Get ready!" Jeremie shouted.
Sissi jumped out of bed, threw her clothes on, and raced out with Odd running behind her. "Come on, we gotta get Einstein and get to the factory!"
"Right behind you, my lady," Odd answered. As they charged to the doorway, they screeched to a halt. Someone stood in their way. "Emily? What are you doing here?"
"Where's Jeremie?" she asked.
"Oh he's-"
"Wait a minute, she wasn't here last time. Why is she here now?" Sissi whispered to Odd.
"Where's Jeremie!" Emily said more forcefully. Sissi looked at Emily's eyes and saw a familiar logo.
"XANA! He's possessed Emily!" She shouted. Emily charged towards Sissi. Odd rolled out of the way while Sissi whacked the possessed girl back with her cane. Emily tumbled to the ground. "Get Jeremie and head to the factory! Tell the others what's happening, go!" While Odd darted out, Emily got back up, facing Sissi, and snarled loudly. "Okay, Emily. I know you're upset about me hitting you but-"
"RAAH!" growled Emily as she knocked Sissi back through the doors. The mechanist crashed against the metal stair railing, cracking her stiff back.
"Uraahhh, yeah, I think we're even. Ahh, at least I don't have to stretch my back today. Ahh," Sissi muttered and gradually got back up. Emily slowly marched forward as Sissi bolted down the stairs, across the schoolyard, and into the forest. The possessed girl was hot on her trail. Sissi scrambled for her phone and called Odd. "Odd? Odd! Are you there?"
"Sissi? How are things going with Emily?"
"What do you think?! She's chasing me with the intent of murder! I'm going to try and stall her in the forest. Get to the tower, now!" She cried out as she hung up.
"You heard the queen. Let's get moving!" Odd shouted.
"Okay, get to the factory. Hurry!" Jeremie said. Sissi finally stopped in her tracks and turned around to face her opponent. Emily growled as the logo in her eyes buzzed.
Sissi tossed her cane to the side. "Come and get it," She said. The possessed girl charged towards Sissi and swung her fists left and right, wildly flailing around. Sissi expertly dodged each one. "Ha! Wow, XANA you're not much of a fighter." Emily quickly kicked Sissi back into a tree. "DAh! Okay, never underestimate your opponent. Gotta remember that."
"Hehehehe," Emily laughed.
Meanwhile, Jeremie worked tirelessly at the codes to shut off the jump back in time. Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita ran towards the tower, but XANA's hornets wouldn't let up. Aelita ran for cover while Yumi flipped back and threw her fan. It missed the target, and the hornet flew around and shot her. "AAH!"
"Watch it, Yumi! You're down 40 life points. We can't afford to mess up!"
"I'm trying Jeremie," Yumi grunted, quickly dodging another laser. While Ulrich baited one of the hornets, Yumi got back up and threw her fan at the hornet, cutting it to pieces. "One more. How's the Jump back in time coming, Jeremie?"
"I'm almost certain I can... Wait! What if I," Jeremie quickly changed his tactics and typed in several codes. Suddenly, the program stopped. "HA! I did it! I really did it! I managed to stop the return back in time! Finish up those hornets!" Then he called Sissi. "Sissi, how are you doing?"
"I'm... a little... busy... right now..." Emily's hands, nearly wrapped around Sissi's neck, tried to strangle her to death. Sissi swiftly kicked the girl in the stomach, rolled out, and reached for her cane. Emily grabbed her foot. Sissi could just barely reach the cane, but the possessed girl prevented her. "Come on... just a little further." Suddenly, someone picked up her cane. "Odd!"
"Sorry to keep you waiting, your majesty. It's really hard to hear two screaming girls in the woods," Odd smiled, reaching for the cane and taking aim at Emily.
"NOOOOOOO!" The possessed girl screamed like a lost soul. Odd fired the electrical blue beam. Emily buzzed tremendously before coming to a peaceful stillness. The panting of Odd and Sissi's lungs penetrated the silence. Sissi reached for her phone and called Jeremie.
"Jeremie, did you guys deactivate the tower?"
"No, not yet. Why? Is Emily okay now?" A dull grumble from Emily's throat brought their attention back. They could still see the Lyoko logo in her eyes. Odd took another shot that left her motionless.
Sissi snatched the cane away from him. "Stop that! I don't know what this does on humans, Odd. You could seriously hurt her!" She looked carefully at Emily, who was laying on the side of her face. She could see her back rising and falling. "So she's still alive. That's good."
"But now we know that your cane can work on possessed people," Odd mentioned.
"Why aren't you on Lyoko?"
"I couldn't let you have all the fun. Besides, between you and princess, it's my job as a loyal Lyoko warrior to protect royalty," Odd proudly stated. Sissi rolled her eyes and suddenly heard the girl next to them start to groan. The two warriors readied themselves, but then Emily spoke clearly, rubbing her head.
"Wha, where am I?" Sissi looked at her eyes; the logo was gone. Odd instinctively helped Emily up. "What's happening?"
"You don't remember anything?" Odd asked.
"All I remember was talking with some girls about Sissi and then everything went black."
"Wait, you were talking about me?" Sissi butted in.
"Oh, uh uh I can't remember," Emily stuttered.
"Yes, you do! Tell me!" Sissi fussed.
"Uh, I think I'm fainting, Oooooh," Emily collapsed into Odd's arms.
"Faker! Tell me!" Sissi shouted, shaking her around by the shoulders.
"AHH Odd help! I'm fainting!" Emily yelped. Odd desperately covered his laughing.
"So Emily couldn't remember what happened?" Ulrich asked.
"Yeah, and what's more is that it looks like XANA was able to give her superstrength. But now that XANA knows about my electrical gun, I have to figure out a way to give you guys the same advantage," Sissi replied.
"Great! Now we're going to have real weapons in the real world," Odd enthusiastically punched his fist into the air.
Sissi rolled her eyes, "It's not that simple. I have to find a way to get the mechanics in my cane into something as small as the S-Watch."
"What's worse is that XANA gets stronger every time we go back in time. And now he can possess people. So we're going to have to be more careful," Aelita said.
"It's a good thing we were only half-late for our classes. Mrs. Hertz only gave us two hours of detention," Yumi sighed.
"That just means we have to be even more careful than ever before. The next time we fight XANA, the battle will be harder than ever before," Ulrich said. Everyone grimly agreed.
Continued...