Clementine sat in her afternoon science class next to Ulrich, listening to a lecture by a guest speaker and bored out of her mind. Dr. DeLaker was his name? Eh, she couldn't remember. She had her head resting on her hand and her eyes continuously fluttered shut. The warm sunlight shining down on her did not help ease her drowsiness.
"... this plant is one of the most powerful in the world. As chief engineer I'm particularly concerned with safety and to guarantee this safety, security measures have been applied at every level of production … " The speaker droned on, pointing at an image of a nuclear plant on the board with a pointer. Clementine would've normally listened-she really would have!-but she had been up the night before finishing a large pile of homework from her classes thanks to the returns to the past that were like undo buttons. Now here she was, sleep deprived and totally bored. She suppressed another yawn as she continued to listen.
"We call this combination of safety measures: In-Depth Defense." He turned towards the front of the class. "I'll be glad to answer any questions," he said, finally concluding his presentation.
Jeremie was the first to raise his hand. "Uh, sir?" Ms. Hertz nodded at him. "Yes, go on, Jeremie."
The blonde genius stood up and addressed the scientist, "I'd like to know if an atomic process exists for fusing virtual particles and materializing them in the real world." At this Clementine raised her eyebrows. From what she could decipher from the scientific jargon, he was secretly asking about a way to bring Aelita from Lyoko to the real world. Nice going, Mister J she smirked.
The scientist, on the other hand, didn't look impressed and pushed up his glasses. "Son, that is in the realm of science fiction, sorry," he responded. An awkward silence filled the air.
"Jeremie is an excellent student, but he's a bit of a dreamer," Ms. Hertz apologized, gently pushing down the blonde genius as she passed by him. Mocking laughter filled the air, most notably Herve's, which was a nasally chortle.
Odd and Clementine turned to stare down Herve and Sissi, who was also giggling mockingly. Clementine held up a clenched fist for good measure. Even though they glared at the two, their laughter had stopped. Not long after, the projector casting the blueprint of the powerplant fizzed out.
Ms. Hertz stared at the machine in surprise. "Well, now, what's happened here?" she wondered aloud and began to fiddle with the machine. "Oh certainly nothing, just a blown fuse, that's all," she reassured everyone after a moment. Odd, Jeremie, Ulrich and Clementine glanced at each other, a questioning look being shared between them.
"I'm saying that maybe XANA is behind this," Jeremie insisted as the four of them exited the science building.
"Don't get so excited, Jeremie, it was just a short-circuit," Odd shrugged, having already dismissing the incident as nothing more than a freak accident.
Yumi raised an eyebrow in interest. "Oh? What happened in science?" she asked.
Clementine waved her hand in nonchalance. "Jeremie here thinks that XANA caused a blown fuse," she replied as she stretched upwards.
Jeremie turned his head towards her. "I'm telling you, it really could've been-"
"Odd?" A baritone voice interrupted. The quintet quickly turned their attention towards the direction of the voice. It was Principal Delmas. "I've thought it over; you can form your group the, uh, Foxtrot Fanatics?"
"Yes!" Odd whooped. This was good news for him.
"It's the, uh, Pop Rock Progressives, sir," Yumi corrected gently. Clementine nodded. "It's gonna be super big!" she added.
"But it must be open to anyone who wishes to play," Principal Delmas added. "Is that clear?"
Nods and murmurs of agreement arose from the group. "No problemo, sir!" promised Odd. Satisfied, the principal walked away. As soon as he was out of sight, Odd slid to his knees and continued to cheer, "Yeah, let's hear it for the God of Rock 'n' Roll!"
Clementine put her hands on her hips. "Sure, whatever." The others just dismissed his proclamation.
"Hey, c'mon," Odd said as he rose from the ground, "If we step on it, we can photocopy the leaflets before lunch, Jeremie."
The blonde genius shook his head and waved his arms in front of him. "No way, I'm not into rock. Besides, I wanna check on that outage," he replied and walked away, presumably to his dorm, where one of his computers with access to Lyoko was stored. Clementine waved at her friend as he walked away. "See ya later, Jeremie! We'll be at lunch!"
When Odd, Ulrich, Yumi and Clementine arrived at lunch, a meal of cheesy brussel sprouts, a salad, two clementines ("The fruit kind, thank you very much, Odd."), and cheese and butter spreads awaited them.
"Ew, yuck!" Ulrich gagged, pushing away his tray. He covered his nose so as not to smell the smelly lunch. Clementine, despite not liking the meal either, ate hers anyway. "And they say that French cuisine is the best in the world," she mused, scooping up another brussel sprout into her mouth. She looked around the cafeteria as Odd passed out fliers for their group.
When he arrived to Sissi's table, however, a hostile standoff began. Nicolas made the first move, extending his hand for a flier; however, Odd simply turned away from the posse.
Huh, odd of them to be asking for something that we're involved in. Oh well thought Clementine as she scooped up more food.
The five of them now stood next to the vending machines, waiting for Odd to choose a drink from one of the machines.
"Let's see now…" Odd muttered to himself, "Hot chocolate? No. Soup? No, the soup tastes like dishwater-"
"Why would they have soup as a beverage option? Is that allowed?" Clementine realized aloud, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. No response followed her question, just a shrug from Yumi and noise from Odd and Ulrich's arguing.
"Oh this miserable machine's on the blink again," grumbled Odd. Ulrich had chosen soup for him but hardly anything poured out into the cup. "Maybe it's another power failure," Jeremie offered as an explanation.
Yumi turned to him. "Are you worried?" He nodded in response. "Yeah, I am. I'll keep checking things out."
"If you need us, we'll be in the gym. We're gonna hold auditions for a drummer," Clementine reminded. She turned to her friends. "C'mon, guys, it's almost time."
But after two hours of auditions, no drummer was suitable enough for the band. The four of them were ready to give up when Jeremie burst into the room, out of breath and hunched over from running.
"This is XANA's doing, I'm almost sure of it!" He finally managed as he took a seat in front of them. Suddenly the mood dropped. "Yeah, go on," Yumi encouraged.
"The current's cutting out all around the school, and the pylon outside is way over the voltage limit! It could explode!" Jeremie wiped forehead from sweat as he explained frantically. Clementine glowered when he mentioned the evil virus.
"But why would XANA wanna do that?" wondered Ulrich.
Jeremie shook his head. "Your guess is as good as mine, Ulrich." Clementine put her index finger to her chin thoughtfully. Could it be…?
"Surprise~!" a nasty sing-song voice filled the air. The Lyoko warriors turned around and found Sissi and her two weasley lackeys at the door way. She took a chair and sat in it as they walked over in front of Clementine and her friends.
"It's obvious that my friends and I aren't very welcome, but my father did say that the band was open to everybody, right?" Sissi challenged to the group that she despised so. "Oh, but don't worry," she reassured, "I don't want to be in a group of deadbeat weirdos, but Nicolas just loves the drums." The self-proclaimed queen bee put her hand against the mousy ginger that stood next to her.
Odd scoffed at Sissi's offer. "The drummer, huh? What is he playing, his mom's pots and pans?" Clementine smirked darkly. "I'd like to see if he can actually play, knowing how much of a trickster and liar you are, Sissi," she added, venom practically dripping from her voice. Sissi, on the other hand, narrowed her eyes at Clementine.
Jeremie quickly stood up, his mind elsewear. "Okay guys, I'm off to the factory. Keep you posted!" He ran out of the gym.
Nicolas made his way to the stage and sat behind the drum kit. With his eyes closed, he tapped the drumsticks together and began to play. And play he did! The mesmerizing performance left Clementine surprised, her jaw dropped and her body slack.
Finally, Nicolas finished his performance by hitting the drumstick against the splash cymbal. "Yeah!" Herve and Sissi clapped for him as he exited the stage and right back at Sissi's side. "Looks like you found yourself a drummer," she said with a smirk and promptly left with her lackeys.
"Ooh, how I hate that she has the upper hand here," Clementine grumbled as she bit her thumb. "We can't accept him, he's one of her footmen." Odd was just as upset as her.
"Nicolas? The drummer in our band? I don't care how good he is, the answer is no. Besides, Sissi set this up just to give us a hard time," he complained.
"Maybe, for once, she was trying to help," Yumi reasoned. "And you gotta admit, Nicolas can really play the drums."
"Better than Naomi, that's for sure," Ulrich laughed, putting his hands over his head.
Odd whipped his head at his friend. "She's only a beginner! She just needs a little more time!" he defended. Naomi, a pretty girl that Odd had become smitten with almost immediately, had auditioned but failed miserably in the eyes of Clementine.
Ulrich simply smiled. "A couple years should do it."
This was the final straw for Odd. "Well, if that's how you feel, then listen up." The purple boy rose from his seat. "If you want Nicolas as your drummer, you better find yourself another guitarist!"
"And I say if you don't take him, you'd better find yourself a new singer," Yumi replied right back. Clementine could only roll her eyes at the split debate. She jabbed a thumb at herself and growled, "Count out your backup singer if this arguing is gonna keep on going!"
Ulrich sighed. "If Sissi's idea was to cause trouble, then she's done a great job." A blatty brass sound interrupted the argument. It was Jim, who had suddenly appeared in the doorway with a trombone. "Would you guys be needing a slide trombone by any chance?" he asked cheerily. Clementine looked at her friends in confusion. "Ah, um…"
Unfazed by the lack of a reaction, the gym teacher continued to blare his trombone. After a few bars, he asked, "Well, what do you say?"
Odd, still confused but not wanting to completely crush Jim's hopes, finally responded, "Uh, Jim, the fact is, you see, we're a rock band, not a military brass band."
"I think it has more of a jazz kind of tone," Clementine murmured as a cell phone rang. It was Yumi's, and she picked it up. "Okay, be right there," she answered after listening to the caller. Yumi looked at Jim and said hurriedly, "We'll have to audition you another time." A XANA attack?!
Clementine scrambled for her belongings as Jim began to argue. "Oh no, you don't. You're not going anywhere unless you agree to take me as part of your group-!" But before he could finish his rant, his audience was gone.
Ulrich, Odd, Yumi and Clementine went down under a sewer in the little forest outside the school; there were multiple routes to the factory. Clementine climbed her way down as she heard Odd reassure Jeremie that they were on their way. Once at the bottom, Yumi tossed a skateboard to her, and the four of them skated their way through the dark and narrow sewer. The four of them finally reached the ladder that led to the bridge outside of the factory. They hoisted each other up and ran inside. In front of the entrance of the factory, Clementine swung from the ropes and landed in front of the elevator. Clementine pushed the button and down went the elevator.
When they reached the next floor, they found the supercomputer. It still amazed Clementine in its size and intricate design. In front of the computer, there was a large hologram of Lyoko in the shape of an orb.
Jeremie peeked from behind the computer and saw that his friends arrived. "At last," he sighed. When Clementine reached the supercomputer, there was a diagram of a machine and a scale that was slowly escalating.
"Here's what XANA is up to," Jeremie began to explain. "Once he's stored enough voltage in the pylon, he'll unleash it all."
"Unleash it where?" Odd asked.
"Guess. On the nuclear plant," Jeremie answered.
Clementine took a step back from the supercomputer. "You mean, the one that was being shown in science class? That's too much!" she gasped. "Creating a short-circuit and-" Clementine stopped abruptly and took a breath. "And what else Jeremie?"
"The pylon can take one million volts," he continued. "Once it's all accumulated, XANA can blow everything up."
"Nuclear sabotage? That's a little over our heads, wouldn't you say?" Yumi nervously asked.
"Yeah, what do you mean?" Ulrich asked her. Yumi turned to him. "Think about it! If we fail in Lyoko, the whole region will be wiped out! We've got to warn the authorities!" she explained.
"Are you crazy? There'll be an inquiry and we'll be questioned! We'll have to tell them everything!" Jeremie countered, clearly against the idea. "If they discover XANA, they'll pull all the plugs out and we'll lose Aelita!"
Yumi retorted back, "I know that, but we're talking about a nuclear disaster!"
There was silence as the argument came to a standstill. The tension between Yumi and Jeremie could be cut with a knife.
"Well, why don't we take it to a vote?" Clementine proposed. This caught everyone by surprise and they turned to her. She had her arms crossed and she was staring down at the floor intensely. "We're getting nowhere and we need to hurry up or else nothing will get done."
Jeremie turned away, eyes furrowed. "Okay, fine," he finally responded. "Who is for raising the alarm?"
Yumi immediately raised her hand. "For."
"Against," Jeremie said, putting his hand up. Odd also voted against.
Suddenly, Aelita popped up on the computer screen. Ulrich noticed her. "Sorry, Aelita, but I also think we can't take that bigger risk," he told her, "I vote for. Let's report it."
Jeremie turned to Clementine. "Well, Clem, you asked for this vote. What do you say?" he asked. The girl in question bit her thumb nail and started, "Well, I think-"
"Don't I have the right to vote?" Aelita asked. Clementine turned towards their A.I friend. "Yep, you do. You're pretty much in charge of Lyoko," she said, "What do you think, Aelita?"
After a moment of thought, she said, "I vote for." Everyone was shocked! "Huh? But why?" asked Jeremie.
"I don't want thousands of people to die just to save me," she explained. Clementine smiled. "In that case, I also vote for," she said. Yumi looked at both girls gratefully. "Thanks Aelita, Clem."
Yumi and Clementine ran from the factory and back towards the school. As they ran, electricity sparked like fireworks from a nearby pole. Feeling panic shoot through her heart, Clementine ran faster towards the school. "Wh-what are we gonna tell them?" she panted to Yumi as she ran.
"What we know," Yumi answered as she ran by her side, "C'mon… there's no time."
They continued to run until they finally reached the principal's door, stopping for a breath. Clementine could hear muffled voices from behind the door, and after a moment of listening closely, she realized that they were talking about the power plant.
"Let's go in," Clementine said to Yumi. The black-haired girl nodded and together they burst into the room.
Inside the principal's office was the principal himself, Ms. Hertz, and the guest scientist from Clementine's earlier class, Dr. DeLaker. "We're sorry to disturb you, but it's really important you've got to trust us," Yumi began to explain, "I know it's gonna sound crazy, sir, but please hear us out-"
"The nuclear plant is in danger of blowing up!" blurted Clementine. "We have to do something. If not, we could all die!" Despite voting for, she knew that nobody wouldn't believe them but it was still worth a shot. If they didn't make an effort, then they could all die and no one was sure if a return to the past could fix that.
Ms. Hertz and the scientist gave the two confused and annoyed looks, but the principal coughed and got their attention. "Girls, let the authorities take control of this," Principal Delmas said sternly. "Even though the city is in a blackout right now, Dr. DeLaker and his team are working on a solution right now. You are dismissed." There was no room for argument. Clementine looked at Yumi and both walked away from the office and eventually broke out in a run. Clementine flipped open her orange and black flip phone and dialed Jeremie's number.
"Jeremie, the principal and Dr. DeLaker didn't believe us," Clementine quickly explained to him. "I could practically tear my hair out. No one is doing anything!"
"We're going crazy here too, Clem," he answered back. "The pylon is eighty-five percent charged and we can't find the tower!"
Yumi took the phone from Clementine's hands and put it to her ear. "We'll find someone else that'll listen," she said and closed the flip phone shut. Clementine could see who she was talking about. Up ahead were what looked like firefighters clad in dark black uniforms in front of the electric poles that were spitting lightning.
They ran up to one of the firefighters. "Excuse us, sir?" Yumi asked frantically. "The nuclear plant is on the verge of a meltdown!"
The two men looked at each other in confusion and worry. "Can you repeat that?" one of the men asked.
"The voltage that's built up in this pylon is going to be used to blow up the nuclear power plant!" Yumi shouted. "There has to be something that you guys can do!"
"How can you just stand there? Do something, before it's too late!" Clementine cried out in impatience. She buried her hands in her head and grabbed thick clumps of hair. She really could scream in frustration.
The firefighters, on the other hand, still looked unperturbed by their desperation. "How do you know all that?" the man with a mustache and beard asked. Yumi and Clementine spared a glance at each other before launching into the story of Lyoko and XANA and the supercomputer.
"A supercomputer in a factory?" they asked, scratching their heads. "A virtual world?"
"I swear, you have to believe us," Yumi begged. Clementine could sense her losing faith to them entirely. They simply refused to take action. Well, I mean, who would? Lyoko really is in the realm of science fiction… but we could all die!
Clementine growled loudly and angrily. "If you guys won't listen, then-"
ZZZT-!
"Oh no!" The harsh crackling of the electricity stopped for a brief moment, but then began to travel along the power lines... and right in the direction of the power plant.
Too afraid of the end result, Clementine covered her eyes and waited… until a bright light engulfed her vision. She collapsed onto the ground in relief, a smile on her face. They made it…
"Okay, hit it. Three, four, and-"
Odd strummed his black electric guitar, Ulrich played the keyboard, Clementine shook the tambourine in her hand,… and Nicolas banged away on the drum kit. They had decided, in the end, to let Nicolas be the drummer for the Pop Rock Progressives. Clementine had to admit that he was, in fact, a very talented drummer.
"Mystery girl, from 'nother world~," sang Yumi into the microphone. "Got it happy and not a lot of stress." Clementine echoed the lyrics into the microphone that was raised onto a stand. She turned her head around and looked at her friends and spotted a trombone. Oh, and Jim was also in the band. He looked very happy blasting his trombone, like he didn't have a care in the world. Ah, well, trombone players will be trombone players, she thought to herself.
"Great, you guys, the energy is super nuclear," Jeremie praised through bites of popcorn. He was sitting next to Sissi and Herve, who were present to support their friend. "You're gonna make this town explode!"
"Not funny, Jeremie!" Clementine shouted into the microphone, breaking away from the song. The genius simply smiled and clapped for their performance.
A/N: Another chapter done, woot woot! Although it's not as long as the last one, I enjoy writing bits of plot that aren't in the actual episode. It's fun to diverge from the actual episode. I've also been thinking of making a fan episode for this season, but I'm not sure of what. I already have a vague idea, but it'll probably be towards the end of season one. Anyways, I know I said that there wouldn't be consistent updates, but if I happen to have a finished episode written, then the story will most likely be updated on Friday or on the weekends since I can push off my homework to the weekend. As I've stated before, thanks for reading, and please favorite and comment!