Jeremy felt extremely happy when he woke up in the morning. He hummed while checking Lyoko, whistled while sorting his clothes, and the bounce in his steps made it seem obvious to others that he was giddy while walking to the shower stalls.
Quite honestly, he felt like nothing could go wrong.
After jumping into the stall, showered, and got ready for the morning, he made his way to the dining hall, where breakfast was being served. The others were already there, Aelita, Yumi, and Ulrich were at the table, while Odd was at the line, asking for extra food, most likely.
"Hello, everyone." Jeremy said pleasantly while taking his own seat at the table. The girls giggled to each other while Ulrich shook his head.
"Well rested?" He asked.
Jeremy chuckled with the rest of them, "What you think, genius?" He joked.
They all laughed together, just as Odd made his way to the table, his tray heaping with buttered croissants and hot chocolate.
"I know this must look funny to you guys," He said. "But you should know it's perfectly justified."
"I said desert, not breakfast, Odd." Jeremy said, much to the amusement of the others. Odd pouted.
"But, you can't, Jeremy." He whined.
Reaching for the tray, Jeremy took one croissant and split it in half. "There. You can have the rest."
Odd gasped dramatically as Jeremy took a bite of croissant. "You're an angel, Jeremy."
"Yeah, of fatigue." Yumi said.
Jeremy laughed, but began coughing, having inhaled a piece of his croissant. After clearing his throat, Jeremy shook his head at the rest of the group. "Let's just make sure we make to class on time today."
X.A.N.A searched for a weak point inside the school's systems. Granted, the entire building was littered was faulty wires and cracks for him to sneak through, but today he wanted to be precise. He wanted a prominent flaw that could undermine the school's structure, a Jenga piece that could topple down the entire formation.
Sifting through the buildings blueprints, X.A.N.A found a juicy little piece of information that suited his desires. All he needed was a precise plan of action. After thinking over the matter for a few minutes, he made his way to the closest circuit plugs in the area, pouring into the dank basement of the school.
He looked around for the specific flaw, twisting around boxes and shuffling across the floor. By all the dust settled on most the room's contents, X.A.N.A would say that no one had been in the basement for a long time.
Finally, he came across the flaw that he needed. A crack in the wall.
No. The fissure was enormous, starting as a gash in the concrete and ending barely a hairline crack. How this particular spot escaped unnoticed by the staff was unprecedented. Surely someone must've noticed. Judging by the crack, and the shale around it, it had to be more than seven years old, long before Jeremy had woken up Lyoko.
X.A.N.A scowled from the depths of the school. Humanity was distasteful to his eyes. He wanted it destroyed. And he would.
He just had something to take care of first.
Jeremy was the first to enter his physics class, feeling a bit uneasy as he did so. Was it the difficulty of the test? No he could pass that easily.
The teacher? Kindly and soft spoken.
It just struck Jeremy very odd that the room felt strange to him. Almost lopsided. He also found it strange that the rest of the class never seemed to notice, maybe they were just borderline bored with school.
After finishing his test (first as always), Jeremy sat in his chair facing the window, watching the trees sway in the park. If he felt like it, he could imagine seeing the manhole cover in the park forest, leading all the way to the abandoned factory.
"Jeremy?"
The physics teacher set some papers by her desk. "Can you stay by after class, I need some help sorting things out."
Jeremy nodded in silence, staring back out the window.
After setting up the appropriate items needed from the basement, X.A.N.A floated by the wall in distaste.
The things he had to do to procure the items he needed. No possessing. No mind control. It was all his own effort.
Yes he could have control a weak unprotected human, like that gym teacher per se, but such actions would have alarmed the boy's computer, and he didn't want to do that just yet.
He floated around the room again after skulking, looking for more important heavier items. He would have to get them soon, if he wanted to be on time.
The bell rang, signaling the end of the day.
Jeremy watched the other students pack their belongings and head to wherever they pleased. Packing his own bag and setting it by his desk, he walked to the teacher's desk, where she went under her desk and pulled out a box. She hefted it onto the desk with a bit of struggle, and pushed a strand of hair over her ear.
"Can you help me sort these out?" She asked.
Jeremy checked his watch, and looked back at the teacher, who had pulled out a stack of papers. She set different piles by each other, four different stacks side by side.
After setting the box down on the floor, she pulled out two staplers from her desk drawer, handing one to Jeremy. It was small and green, while hers was was blue.
She took one sheet from each pile, stapling them together. She looked at Jeremy, "These are next week's worksheets. Just take a page each starting here," She pointed to the first stack facing Jeremy. "We should have enough for the entire class and a few extras in case someone loses them."
Jeremy nodded slowly, then began pulling sheets from the stacks. After stapling the first packet together, he stopped. "Wouldn't it be best if one of us stacked, and on of us stapled? We'd be done faster."
The teacher blinked. "I didn't... think of that." She surveyed the stack of papers and pursed her lips. "Would you like to arrange the papers?"
Jeremy shrugged. "Sure."
X.A.N.A pushed the last heavy weighted object onto a shelf above the highest cabinet he could find. Just forming the hands to push them into place, tired X.A.N.A.
He had traveled through the basement for to long without a body to inhabit. Pushing across the basement with better ease (as he had almost used the entire basement for his own devising), he pushed the first object without much force, allowing gravity to take it's course.
Things broke, glass shattered. Items tumbled across each other with a domino effect, crashing into the object behind it. The sound of impact got deeper and deeper as the much heavier items were hit by their counterparts.
The highest shelf hit with a crashing boom, sending it to the cracked wall and shuttered the structure. The shelved object slid out of each shelf, hitting the wall with force. Rubble and debris flew around the room, shale dropped from the cracks.
After it settled, X.A.N.A peered at the crack wall. The gash was bigger, horrible. Daylight seeped through small holes through the gash, but not enough to illuminate the entire basement.
If he couldn't bring the attention of the boy, then the noise certainly would, but still, X.A.N.A wasn't the one to back down from a plan.
He manifested the concrete wall, settling around the gash and the area around it. He broke it down slowly, oxidizing the dried concrete to brittle the wall. The gash cracked open, larger and larger until the entire room began to shudder.
Dust and dislodged rocks fell from the basement ceiling. Removing himself from the wall, X.A.N.A fled from his crime, pouring himself into the nearest electrical circiut he could find, pausing when he heard a barely audible bleeping from above as the the wall began to cave in on itself.
Jeremy's laptop.
After forming as many packets as he could, Jeremy rubbed his tired hands against his cords, and cracked his knuckles.
His teacher had suddenly put her stapler down and removed herself from the classroom, quietly speaking about a bathroom break. She also told Jeremy that he could leave once he was done, which he was.
Grabbing his bag from the side of his desk, Jeremy pulled the strap over his shoulder and began walking out of the class. Just as his foot hit the line in between the doorway, the classroom began to shake.
Just as soon as his laptop began to alarm.
Sitting by the closest desk, Jeremy pulled out his laptop and judged that X.A.N.A's monster's were somewhere around the desert sector, protecting the tower. He placed his laptop back in his bag, taking his phone out of his pockets.
"Now he shows up."
Jeremy walked towards the door, typing in Aelita's number.
He had just walked out of it when the entire floor gave way from under his feet.
Cliffie. Hhmm, my bad.
Anyway, what's to become of Jeremy? What's X.A.N.A up to?
I don't know...
Sorry, yeah I do know, but you'll find out later.
Bye, and thanks for reading!