Aelita
She had never heard a doctor give such a confused and frustrated sigh. "Do I have a disease or something?" Sissi asked.
"No, no. It's just that... your bones have healed, your muscles, connective tissues, all of them are healed," The doctor replied.
"But?"
"Your leg isn't healing. The bone structure is fine but... it looks like the healing process has just completely stopped in that area."
"So I can't walk on it."
"You can, but it's going to periodically hurt. I've never seen this before. All of your cells seem fine and there isn't any trace of autoimmune disease. It's like the bone is... waiting to heal."
"What should I do?"
"I would be careful. The exercise you're doing seemed to help, although, I did notice that several of your nutrition markers are lower than average."
"Meaning?"
"You haven't been eating right."
"Oh," Sissi grinned nervously.
"Get some food in you, Sissi. The malnutrition might be a reason for your arrested healing." Sissi nodded.
The bell rang, and the team walked into class. "So they don't know what's wrong?" Odd asked.
"They don't even know if anything is wrong," Sissi answered, "It's like my leg just stopped healing, and both legs were hurting at the start."
"And they don't think it's a disease?" Jeremie asked.
"No," Sissi sighed as she sat next to Odd; Jeremie and Aelita were in front.
"Don't worry about it, Your Majesty. I'm sure it's not that bad," Odd said.
"But on the bright side, you'll be able to keep the cane with you and your dad won't think twice about it," Ulrich said.
"Ulrich thinking about the bright side? Now that's something new," Sissi smirked then sighed. "But he's still going to worry. I practically had to beg him to let me do Judo lessons with my uncle. He'll probably think that that's the reason it's not healing."
"Alright, class settle down!" called the history professor. The class began. The scratching of pencil to paper and the professor's droning voice bored Sissi until she noticed Aelita drowsing off to sleep. "Aelita Stone!" The history professor woke her up and all the students laughed at her. Sissi quietly stared at the sleepy pink-haired girl. It wasn't like Aelita to fall asleep, not like that.
Later on, the group huddled around a school bench. "So you took a nap in class, I do it all the time," Odd reassured Aelita.
"A little too often," Yumi tittered.
"What's wrong, Aelita? Did you and Einstein stay up all night?" Sissi smirked.
"No, it's just... I was sleepy, that's all," Aelita sighed.
"You didn't really miss much. The lesson was so boring I might actually mess up the next test."
"You failing? I didn't know royalty could do that," Odd teased. "I thought the very ground your feet touch would be enlightened."
Standing, Sissi placed her hands on her hips with a long smile on her face, "It's better than the ground your feet touch, Odd."
"Wait, what's that supposed to mean? What about my feet?"
Sissi looked at the others. "You haven't told him?"
Ulrich shrugged, "We were trying to find a more... delicate way to tell him. Well, Odd," He snapped his fingers, closing his eyes in thought, "to put it tactfully, your feet smell like... uh.."
"Like a pile of fresh manure we just can't seem to get away from," Jeremie finished.
"That's it!"
"Oh come on, you guys are out of your mind," Odd remarked. "Look, there's Heidi. We went out before. I'll ask her. Hey, Heidi, is it true that my feet smell a little-"
"A little?" said Heidi, backing away. "Just make sure that your sneakers don't come within fifty feet of me!" Odd sulked as every else bent over laughing.
"This is a disaster. No girl is gonna want to go out with a... a..."
"A walking pool of toxic waste?" Jeremie finished for Odd.
"Ha ha ha haha! Ohh I'm sorry, Odd, but when you're not being court jester, Jeremie makes a great second," Sissi chuckled, wiping a tear.
"Wait, do you think that Sam knows?!" Odd asked.
Sissi shrugged, "If she doesn't, some goodly angel is holding her nostrils for her."
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Ulrich laughed.
"Some friend you are, Ulrich. You could have said something, you know. Given me a little hint at least," Odd grumbled.
"It's hard to talk when you're holding your nose, good buddy," Ulrich sniggered.
Odd frowned, "I thought you were trying to be funny."
"Don't worry Odd," Said Yumi, "Modern medicine must have found some kind of cure for it."
"Well," Jeremie said after a moment's thought, "There's... amputation, for example." Everyone laughed as they went into the mess hall, except Odd.
"Start without me," He said. He darted back toward the school. Going into the mess hall, Sissi sighed and stretched her arms as she sat at the head of their lunch table.
"Hey, I was just wondering Sissi. Is Odd's uh... dating life a problem to you?" Yumi asked. Sissi narrowed her eyes. "I mean, you're new to the group. You said... that things were different on the outside than on the inside! Since you're around... I mean, using Odd a lot in your experiments, I... just didn't want some random girl to attack you for no reason," Yumi crashed and bumbled out. Sissi's feelings were still supposed to be a secret.
"I appreciate your attempt at secrecy," Sissi muttered.
"What are you guys talking about?" Ulrich asked.
"Nothing!" Yumi and Sissi said.
"Anyway," the Mechanist continued, "It doesn't really bother me. I have no reason to be... ya know, like grass."
"I mean, he's around a lot of girls," Yumi said.
"He's dating. What do you expect?" Yumi blinked several times. "Odd can't figure out what he likes in girls if he doesn't date them. Besides," Sissi smirked, "we know he has favorites."
"That's true," Yumi smirked back, "But why can't he just be friends with them?"
"He loves the rush. Don't we all? Besides," Sissi smirked as she took a grape and popped it into her mouth, "some people know a lot about being friends. Right, Yumi?" The Japanese girl grumbled quietly.
"Wow, they put a lot of spice in this soup," Jeremie gasped and waved his tongue, "I need some water. Would you like some water, Yumi?"
"Shut up, Jeremie," Yumi growled out. The two geniuses laughed, but Jeremie noticed that Aelita was quietly looking out the window.
"Aelita, are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah I was just daydreaming," Aelita mumbled. Before Jeremie could ask, Odd came back to the table.
"Welp! My foot problem is cured!"
"Oh yeah, I don't see any bionic foot," Ulrich said. "What did you do?"
"You'll see tonight. It's a surprise," Odd replied.
"Well, I'd love to kick it around with your foot problem, but I got math. See ya," Yumi departed. As she left, Odd moved next to Ulrich and stuffed down a bowl of soup when Aelita finally spoke up.
"Jeremie, do you... do you think my father's still alive?"
"What?"
"Franz Hopper, do you think there's some way he could be rematerialized?"
"No... I mean, there's no way to."
"But he managed to survive when XANA captured him the first time. Why not again?" Aelita argued.
Jeremie sighed, "Your father sacrificed himself for you Aelita, and he used whatever strength he had left in him to bring you and Lyoko back to life."
"I know, but I thought that maybe there might be hope. Maybe you could find away."
"Impossible! I checked every inch of Lyoko, and there isn't the slightest sign of him," Jeremie finished. Everyone stopped eating. Sissi darted glances at Ulrich and Odd with a worried look. "Aelita, I've been working really hard to get onto the Web so we can defeat XANA. And you should think the way I do." He gently grabbed her hand. "I-I-I mean, think about the future."
Glaring at him, Aelita snatched her hand away. "And just forget my past, huh?" She shouted, "You think it's easy? You didn't spend ten years of your life as some kind of computer software!" She shot up, stuffed her hands in her pockets, and stormed out. "I wish I never recover my memory," She muttered. The door swung open and slowly screeched back. Ulrich and Odd looked at Jeremie who only shrugged.
Smack!
"Ow! What was that fo-"
"Oh shut up!" Sissi barked. "You could have said that a lot better and you know it. You're asking her to forget who she is and just move on. She hasn't seen her father in ten years, Jeremie. What the heck did you think she would say?" She shot up and scowled down at him. "You know, for someone so smart, you do the dumbest things sometimes." Jeremie's head sadly dipped while Sissi marched out. She barely heard someone behind her. "What do you want?"
"Where are you going?" Odd asked.
"To find Aelita. What else?"
"I'm coming with you."
"You know where she went?"
"Where would you go when you've been hurt?"
Sissi was silent for a moment. "Home."
Aelita balled herself on her bed at the Hermitage. Her tears wetted the ripped sheets. She sniffled loudly as memories tumbled one after the other. "We knew you would be here," Odd said. Aelita gasped and wiped her eyes. "You know, our good buddy Einstein maybe a computer-wiz, but diplomatically he's kind of a..."
"A total lame-o!"
"But he really likes you, you know that."
Aelita sighed as Sissi sat by her side. "And I really like him too. I just wish he would understand my father is all I have left of my past life," she said.
"I know it's hard, Aelita. I wish we could help," Sissi said. A silent second passed. Aelita suddenly jumped off the bed. Her eyes peered out the window and her fists clenched tight.
"Guys," She spoke in an unshakable tone, "I want to go to Sector Five. I want to see if there's any information on my father."
"Well, you know, Jeremie's not really happy about that idea," Odd sighed while Sissi scoffed.
"So? We don't need him, do we?" Eyes went wide. Odd and Sissi looked at each other, then at Aelita.
"W-We?" Odd stuttered.
"Just you, me, and Sissi. Okay?" Aelita smiled charmingly.
"Ummm... oof," Odd mumbled. Sissi gritted her teeth and played with a strand of her hair.
"Alright, let's go," Aelita promptly walked out. Odd and Sissi silently stared at each other and followed.
"I'm not sure if it's a good thing that she's fully human now," Sissi whispered to Odd. The blonde couldn't figure out how to respond.
Odd, Aelita, and Sissi strolled into the computer lab, and the pink-haired girl quickly strung up some programs. "Okay, I'll stay here and-"
"No," Aelita interrupted Sissi. "It's better if all of us are there on Lyoko. If one of you gets hurt, I need someone else to guard me."
Sissi rose her eyebrow, "So we're just your bodyguards now, Princess?" The Mechanist crossed her arms. "How are we supposed to get into Sector Five without someone at the controls?"
"I've made an automatic timer for the virtualization process and entry into Sector Five. Once we're in the Desert Sector, we'll have one minute to get to the transporter," Aelita said.
"Wow, you can do all that?" Odd asked.
"Sure. Piece of cake." She strolled off, leaving Odd and Sissi staring at each other again.
"Can you do that, Sissi?"
"Shut up, Odd," Sissi grumbled under her breath. Soon they were on Lyoko, swooped into the orb, and immediately landed on the spinning entry access of Sector Five. Sissi narrowed her eyes. "Hmm."
"You feel it too?" Odd asked.
"What?" Aelita asked.
"Something's off," Odd said. "Sissi's X-sense-"
"X-sense?" Sissi raised her eyebrow, "That's a dumb name for it."
"Anyway, your XANA sense comes in handy when we're fighting him. And I think I'm picking up that sense."
Sissi smirked, "More like you're becoming paranoid like me."
"Oh, I couldn't do that, Milady. No one can be as paranoid as you," Odd teased. Rolling her eyes, Sissi and the two charged down the splitting hallway and into the blocky blue corridor. They found the key on the opposite wall. "There it is... it's almost too easy."
Raaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!
"You just had to say something," the Viking grumbled. They held their backs together as Creepers crawled in from every side.
"Energy field!/ Laser arrow!/ Punch Ring!" They shouted. Aelita blasted one monster behind her. Odd shot down a Creeper on the high wall. Sissi launched two golden rings that blasted through the Creepers in front of her. The other Creepers slithered back. They... 'glanced' at each other and scrambled around to find better ground.
"That's weird. You would think they're surprised to see us," Aelita said.
"Sorry, we're not interrupting are we?" Odd said, firing another arrow. "Sissi, get the key. We'll cover you." Sissi darted to the wall. Stomping the ground, she lept up and slapped the key, unlocking the opening. She stuck the landing as Odd blasted the last Creeper.
"Come on, we have to get going. XANA could be attacking the real world right now," Sissi said.
"That's probably the reason why we feel something's wrong," Odd replied.
"I don't think so." Finally, they reached the edge of the inner dome.
But then.
"Aelita! Odd! Sissi! I know you're there!" said a familiar voice. Aelita balled her fist. "For your information, while you're out there having a ball, XANA is attacking. Ulrich and Yumi are already at the spot," Jeremie said.
"What now, Aelita?" Odd asked.
"We're still by your side here," Sissi said.
The elf sighed, "Let's just go." The elevator ran up to them and picked them up.
"The activated tower is in the Mountain Sector. I'll program vehicles and you'll leave through the exit. Now get going!" Jeremie ordered.
Sissi narrowed her eyes. "And what is the attack, specifically?"
"What does it matter?"
She furrowed her eyebrows. "Jeremie. I need to know."
"I don't know. There hasn't been anything yet."
"Oh no," Sissi gasped, racing toward the outer dome. Odd and Aelita exchanged looks and then chased after her.
Continued...