XANA's Kiss

A few days later, Sissi strolled outside and saw Jeremie, Ulrich, and Yumi. "Hey, guys. Have you seen Odd?"

"No, not today. He's been acting kinda weird lately," Jeremie said.

"Odd weird or normal weird?" Yumi asked.

"Normal weird," Jeremie said.

"Yeah," Sissi muttered. "I think I'm the reason for that. I told him I knew about Sam."

"Huh? That shouldn't bother him," Yumi said. Sissi shrugged, but some kind of feeling wouldn't let go of her. It wasn't XANA. It was something else. Then her stomach growled.

"Let's just go to breakfast and worry about him later," She sighed. Jeremie and Ulrich followed her while Yumi walked to class. As Jeremie, Ulrich, and Sissi walked to the hall, they saw a familiar dark-skinned girl with short black hair and a streak. "Hey, isn't that Sam?"

"Yeah, what is she doing with-" Before Jeremie could finish, Sam kissed a random boy near the cafeteria door. The boy spluttered and stammered as Sam ran away. Ulrich and Jeremie dropped their jaws. Their eyes couldn't be wider. Then a low growling grumbled beside them, and they looked. Her hand clutched her cane till it nearly bled red. Her teeth gritted together and her eyes narrowed to furious slits. Sissi stormed off, leaving Ulrich and Jeremie to catch up with her. "What's wrong?"

"That little... She's playing Odd. That darn," She muttered the word she was trying to say. "I'm finding Odd." She stormed off, leaving Ulrich and Jeremie behind.

Later on, Jeremie and Aelita came out from class when a blond girl came stomping toward them. She shouted, "You have some nerve, Jeremie, kissing me at the cafeteria in front of Odd!"

"What?! What are you talking about? I never kissed you," Jeremie exclaimed. The blond girl huffed away. Aelita started walking away from Jeremie. "Aelita, Aelita wait!" It was too late. The sobbing pink-haired girl ran off to the cafe. "What is going on around here?"

Things got worse as the day went on. William saw Yumi kissing another boy and told Ulrich; Sissi told Odd about Sam; and after William told Ulrich about Yumi at the cafeteria, Odd, Aelita, and Ulrich left Yumi, Jeremie, and Sissi standing right outside the mess hall, speechless.

"What the heck is happening?" Jeremie shouted as they walked down the outside hallway.

"I don't know, but I have a bad feeling about it," Sissi mumbled.

"You think it's XANA? But he didn't possess us," Yumi said.

"He might not need to," She replied. Silence blanketed them until Sissi chuckled a bit.

"What?"-"I just find it funny," Sissi said to Yumi, "that William and Ulrich dislike each other enough to fight over you but respect each other enough to tell the other when you kiss someone else." Sissi sniggered, "I don't know if that's chivalry or combined idiocy." Jeremie covered his laugh.

"I didn't kiss anyone!" Yumi shouted.

"Much to your dislike," Sissi grinned. The air rudely hissed between the silent beasts, lightly playing with their black hair. Glare met cheeky glint: growling tiger mocked by devilish dragon.

"Guys!" Jeremie exclaimed after the long silence. "Could we get back to the issue about being framed?"

"Yes, but by who?" Sissi murmured. Just then, they saw Ulrich walking towards them. "Huh, maybe he's here to apologize to you." The school stud walked past Yumi and strolled right to Sissi. Before anyone could think, Ulrich kissed Sissi. Things dropped. No one could figure out what was happening. Jeremie darted his eyes between a jaw-dropped Yumi and a wide-eyed Sissi.

Then it happened.

Sissi pressed her cane's secret button and intended to shock Ulrich off of her. Instead, "Ulrich" buzzed into a black phantom, growling at the top of his lungs. "XANA!" Sissi jumped back and aimed her cane, but the phantom disappeared into a nearby electrical socket. "HAHA! Now it makes sense! Yumi, come with me. Jeremie, get in touch with the others! If they don't listen to you, tell them Sissi will beat some sense into them. GO!" Sissi shouted as she ran with Yumi.

"What's going on?" Yumi asked.

"XANA is using a kind of 'ghost' that can take the shape of anyone. A polymorphic specter."

"A what?"

"It means that he can shapeshift. We can talk later! Right now, we need to get to the factory!" Sissi shouted as the dirt kicked up under their feet.

Gasping, Jeremie ran to the others' classroom while class was dismissed. "Odd, Ulrich, Aelita, XANA's attacking, and I know what's going on with everyone thinking I kissed that girl."

"Oh, so the accused finally confesses?" Odd grumbled.

"This better be good, Jeremie," Ulrich crossed his arms.

"It's XANA. He's been masquerading as us and causing all the chaos. He's using a kind of shapeshifting ghost that's impersonating us. A polymorphic specter."

"And how would you know? How do we know that you're not the shapeshifter?" Odd proposed.

"Odd, this is serious," Jeremie remarked.

"I'm being serious. If XANA is doing this, we have to know that you're really you." All eyes focused on the blonde. Jeremie's eyes shifted around until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"It's alright, Odd. This is the real Jeremie. I can vouch for him," Sissi said.

Jeremie jumped, "Sissi, what are you doing here? I thought you went to the factory?"

"I decided it was best to get the prototype. If we have a polymorphic specter on the loose, then we better use all our weapons," she replied. Jeremie slowly nodded as Sissi led the way. Blinking several times, Jeremie turned to the other blonde. Odd's eyes, still narrowed, looked at Jeremie. A strange agreement went on in their eyes as they looked at each other.

Jeremie often wonders if the peculiar feeling that Sissi gets when XANA's near can be learned. Maybe it could, or maybe it was just paranoia. In either case, Odd and Jeremie nodded. Taking off his backpack, Odd threw it at the back of Sissi's head.

It phased right through. "Grrrrr," the specter of Sissi growled.

"Run for it!" Ulrich shouted.

"You guys go ahead! I'll keep our fake Majesty busy," Odd said. As the others ran for the factory, Odd ran the opposite direction. "Hey, XANA, you want Sissi's prototype, come and get it!" The specter ran with several afterimages of it trailing behind. As the others were running to the manhole, Jeremie got a phone call.

"Hello?"

"Jeremie, we're at the factory. Where are you? Don't tell me the others are still mad at you," Sissi said.

"No, we just had a run-in with XANA's specter. He was disguised as you, and he was after your prototype. Odd's keeping it busy."

"What!? Is he insane! Wait, what am I thinking, this is Odd," Sissi muttered to herself. Suddenly she smirked at Yumi. "Hehe, I have an idea. Get to the factory as fast as you can, okay?" She hung up the phone. Yumi crossed her arms and leaned on her left foot, peering at the Dragon Queen. "We're going to play a little trick with XANA."

"What happens if he gets his hands on the prototype?" Yumi asked.

"Nothing really. I repaired it, but I wouldn't be starting from scratch. He's after my room. If he can trash my room, then it will be a setback."

"And we can't use the return to the past without making him stronger. I see. So what's your plan?" Before Sissi could answer, her phone rang.

"Odd?"

"Sissi, where's that prototype you had?"

"Odd, listen, don't lead XANA's specter to my room. Try your best to lose it at the Hermitage and then head for the factory."

"What?! But wouldn't that be-"

"Just trust me!" Sissi hung up the phone when the others filed out of the elevator. "Okay, now that we're all here, let's get going."

Odd ran at full speed through the forest. The spector was only a few feet from him. Odd's lungs greedily snatched the air, but the athelete was losing oxygen. Branches and trees blocked his view, but he knew where he was going. He hoped he knew. He had to know. Finally, the rickety house came into sight, but the imposter Sissi ran right after him. Odd came to a stop and faced the specter. "Okay, XANA, you're cornered."

"Hmm?" it grunted.

"Sissi has a bad leg, so she can't beat me up too badly," Odd smirked, readying himself. The specter smirked, morphing into a replica of Odd. "Oh well. That's different." The specter slowly stepped forward as Odd slowly backed up.

Then Odd got a phone call. "Uh, Jeremie, this is a little bad timing."

"I know. The others are heading towards the tower as we speak," Jeremie said. "I'm just here to tell you Sissi's plan." He told it to him.

"What?! That's crazy?!"

"I guess she learned from you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Odd got cut off as the specter of him forced the door open. "Okay, I think I got the plan. Alright, copycat, let's tango."

Jeremie quickly typed at the computer as Odd finally came down the elevator.

"Good, you're here. Yumi went off to find you," Jeremie said. As Odd got closer, Yumi sprung from behind Jeremie's chair and shot the specter down with Sissi's cane. It buzzed uselessly on the floor, struggling to form.

"Found him," Yumi smirked.

"Haha, the plan worked, Sissi," Jeremie said over the intercom.

"Of course it did," Sissi smugly smiled as they ran down the desert sector. A horde of hornets vanished under her Punch Rings. "Come on, Aelita. We're almost there!" Aelita ran out of her cover when a stray hornet zoomed in. "Duck, Aelita," Sissi threw a Punch Ring. The elf ducked, and the ring flew over her head and destroyed the hornet. Aelita kept running toward the tower until she finally got in and deactivated the tower. The buzzing specter vanished into oblivion just as Odd panted down the elevator.

"Hehe, did you guys miss me?"

"Yeah, but your double kept us company," Yumi said.

Later on, the group made it to the school grounds. "How did you know it wouldn't be Odd, Sissi?" Jeremie asked.

"Well, and I'm not trying to be mean Odd, I knew that he couldn't do it alone, so it was highly unlikely that Yumi would have tased the real Odd. That and the shock doesn't harm humans. But with XANA and his possessed people, it's a different story."

"So you were going to tase anyone who came down the elevator?" Odd asked incredulously. Sissi shrugged with a flimsy grin. "Well, I guess everything turned out okay." Just then, they saw Jim running away from the school nurse.

"I think you have a little fever, Jim."

"I told you I don't have a fever!" Jim shouted, running at top speed.

"Okay, maybe not everything," Sissi said. They all laughed.

Continued...