Hunter Moebius and I don't own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do own our own OC's.
One good night's sleep later, the twelve of us woke refreshed, and ready to begin our cross-country road trip. A hearty breakfast soon followed, and we immediately jumped into packing what things we had brought with us, particularly my belated birthday presents, the laptop we bought Jeremie, to hold him over until we got back to France, and of course, the new outfits Sister helped us all pick out. This took us about forty-five minutes, and before long, we were loading everything we had packed into the van, aided by Jeb, Ari, and Georgina, with Dr. Martinez and Ella there to see us all off.
"And if you ever need anything, like to chat or something, I've had Jeb write down my number on a piece of paper," Dr. Martinez smiled.
"Thanks again, Dr. Martinez. You helped us a lot," I grinned in return, trying as hard as I could to keep my emotions in check. Even if it would be a while before I saw her again, I didn't want to start sobbing all over her shoulder, or shirt.
She gently wrapped her arms around me. "It's no problem. We'll try to visit you in France when we can."
"We would love that very much," Yumi beamed.
"She's right," Aelita agreed, with a nearly identical grin on her face. "Anytime you like. It'll be great to see you. But no rush."
"I hope you have safe travels, as well," Max's mother said.
Even though she had meant well, all her words brought to my mind's eye was the vision I had of Jeremie falling out the van's side door. "And I hope that my vision doesn't come to fruition."
"And I'm sure it won't, Cassidy," my former first roommate smiled reassuringly.
"I sure hope not, either," Jeremie lamented, not sharing his pink-haired girlfriend's enthusiasm. "I'd rather not find out the hard way, that my wings haven't finished growing enough to support me."
"And I don't want you going splat," I squealed, my nerves starting to creep up on me.
As usual, mi novio donned his usual carefree, laid back persona. "Oh, relax, you two. We're not even on the road yet."
"I know, Ninja-Cat-Boy, but it could still happen," I blinked, feeling as stressed as a person too afraid to reconnect with an estranged friend.
Of course, as William walked by, carrying his suitcase toward the back of the van, I couldn't help but think that he was as optimistic about my vision not coming true as Odd was.
"Yeah, and Rarity might open a shop in Manehattan," he quipped as he loaded on the additional baggage.
"She's got her sights on Canterlot for the moment, William," I pointed out. "We have a small idea about what goes on in that town, thanks to Applejack being there when she was younger."
William stopped near me, as I finished my sentence. "See? That just proves my point. Since she's just sticking to Canterlot, you're worrying too much, Cass."
"But a lot of my visions came true in the past, and you know that," I pointed out.
"Yeah, but not in sequence." Mi ex novio shrugged, seeming to forget that he needed to grab more suitcases to load into the back of the van. "You're going to be wrong one of these times.
"Like I was wrong about this?" I pointed to the pink hair strand that Sister dutifully braided before breakfast.
Seeing the possibility of my conversation with William getting a bit heated, Yumi quickly stepped in. "William, don't you think you should be helping Jeb, Ari, and Georgina load the suitcases into the back of the van?"
I nodded. "Yes, please, Ex-y…"
William brought his hands up by his head, a bit surprised.
"Okay, okay, I'm going… I'm not deaf!" he complained, walking away from Yumi and me, and heading back into Dr. Martinez's house.
"You okay, Cassidy?" she whispered as soon as he was out of earshot.
"He doesn't understand sometimes…" I muttered. "Most of my visions ended up coming true, with or without me. And a couple of them happened when I was under XANA's control."
She put her arm around my back and gave me a soft, gentle, and soothing back rub. "Maybe he knows better than you think. He's been under XANA's control, too, and he's probably trying to be optimistic. Especially since he's still stinging from the things XANA made him do to you."
"Yeah, but some of the optimism left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth," I sighed, relaxing with her touch.
She nodded understandingly. "Yeah… you're right. But I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just think of all the wonderful things we'll get to do, once we get going. Maryland is all the way at the other end of the United States, don't forget."
"That's true. I mean there's a lot of good places, but my stomach still feels unsettled with the vision I had of Jeremie. I would hate to attend his funeral if we can't prevent it," I grimaced. "And I can't forget about it, it's still going to happen somewhere."
"Maybe it'll only happen on a straight strip of road," my geisha friend tried to be reassuring, as more and more suitcases were carried out. "Or when we're driving on the part of a highway that's surrounded by grass. It doesn't have to happen on a part where the road's raised up."
"I really hope that would be the case, but before Jeremie smacked me, I remember you were about to do something, but I can't recall what it was."
Yumi remembered that that point was exactly where I said my vision cut off, thanks to Jeremie's slap. She, too, was curious about what she had done but hoped she would find out before the moment occurred… if it did.
"Maybe I was… trying to reach out and grab Jeremie's arm, before the wind pulled him away?" she guessed, thinking it might help jumpstart my memory.
I squeezed my eyes shut. "It was already too late for that. He went over the guardrail."
Yumi grimaced, letting out a slight squeak of fear, at that. However, before she could add anything else, Jeremie happened to walk over, checking out the Supercomputer on his new laptop, before looking over at me and gaining a reassuring smile.
"Listen, Cassidy," he began, sounding somewhat sure of himself. "Maybe you really shouldn't worry about it, huh? Your mind might be projecting images of ourselves onto something else… such as an old, forgotten memory, or something."
"My mind doesn't project images, Jeremie. They feel vibrant and real to me, remember?" I asked. "Remember when I had those nightmares about Aelita being at the hospital because of the uranium battery being almost dead? Those felt so real."
Einstein's reassuring expression slowly turned to one of worry. "Yeah… m-maybe you're right… And that's something I'd really rather forget about… but it… didn't give an exact time, or even an exact place, something we could identify just by nearby landmarks, did it?"
"It was afternoon, after lunch, because I didn't hear anything about Odd belly-aching about no food. But as for an exact place… I don't know, but it was really high up with rocky outcroppings," I blinked.
"Well…" Jeremie began, extending his arms outward, parallel to his sides in uncertainty, "that could be anywhere within the State of California. Maybe we should avoid going into Los Angeles, or San Francisco, or Sacramento…"
"It could be anywhere," Yumi jumped in. "What if it's not in California? What if it's in Nevada or Wyoming? The point is, we shouldn't be afraid to travel, because of that. If anything, we should probably make sure Jeremie doesn't sit close enough to the side door. That way, if it does suddenly get thrown open while we're driving, Jeremie won't get pulled out."
"I hope that works, Yumi," I whimpered.
"It's probably the only choice we have," Jeremie agreed, his worried face slowly disappearing. "Maybe we should check the seatbelts in the van, just in case?"
"They work, Jeremie," Georgina reassured, doing more checks under the van's hood.
Hoping to relax me further, Yumi walked behind me and began to slowly, softly, and soothingly rub my back with both hands. "And for all we know, it might not even happen this week. We really shouldn't worry about it, Cassidy. Otherwise, we're going to miss out on all the fun things we all want to do."
I nodded, feeling a shiver come on. "Oh, my…"
That was when Aelita happened to walk past. Noticing the look on my face, she immediately walked over, adopting a look of concern as she placed a reassuring hand on my right shoulder. "Are you okay, Cassidy?"
"I feel shivers coming on. I still don't know why I shake before I-I have a-a vision." I immediately hugged my sides, hoping to stop the shivering, even though I looked awfully silly, holding back such shaking on a warm, sunny day.
And it wasn't long before Jeb noticed, as well.
"Hey, are you cold, Cassidy?" he asked in a concerned tone as he walked up.
"N-no… I just d-don't know why I s-shake/shiver b-before having a vision…" I told him. "N-never had it happen before…"
"I wonder if your body has gotten used to not having them for a while," Jeb took a guess, "so now that they've come back, it doesn't know how to handle the energy? You said they had suddenly disappeared after the monster and your coma, right?"
I nodded, still scared of having a vision that detailed another one of my friends meeting their doom. "It's s-still—"
Jeb nodded, understandingly. "How long do you think it will take before your vision starts?"
"I d-don't k-know… Don't w-want t-to see it…"
Max and Ari's father placed his hand on my shoulder, as Yumi was still giving my back a slow, soothing rub. "Maybe we should just wait and see. It might not be as bad as you think. It might show you the rest of the vision you had earlier, or it might be something else entirely. Either way, I think you should relax."
I closed my eyes, focusing on Yumi's slow, soft rubs between my wings, and lowering my defenses against my psychic powers. Slowly, the shivering began to cease, before stopping altogether. And at that moment, my eyes shot open, now a pure, milky white.
Thankfully, this vision wasn't as bad as I had imagined it to be. Within my mind, I could see Odd slowly trying to figure out how to use his new wings effectively. He would fly in all different directions, catching himself before hitting the ground, and even climbing trees to get a decent height to jump from. It looked incredibly amateurish, at least at first. I couldn't help but chuckle at the behavior mi novio was exhibiting. He was acting as he did when Jeremie programmed the vehicles on Lyoko.
And this time, when the vision stopped, it wasn't thanks to a whack from one of my friends; the vision ended on its own, as my pupils returned to normal, and the grin was still etched onto my face.
"See? It wasn't too bad," Jeb smiled.
Aelita's face soon bore a similar grin, as she gazed at me in anticipation. "Well, tell us; how did it go?"
"Odd was learning how to fly," I giggled.
And of course, I just happened to mention that, just as the boy in question came walking up with his puppy in his arms.
"Learning how to fly?" he repeated, as a grin slowly grew on the bottom part of his face. "Coo-ool! How far did I get?"
"Pretty far, but of course you had been a beginner at first," I smiled.
Aelita couldn't help but giggle. "Hopefully you didn't run into too many trees, Odd."
"Are you kidding?" Odd grinned proudly at his 'Canadian cousin.' "The way I fly, Princess, nothing gets in my way!"
I giggled.
Jeremie closed his laptop, before placing it under his arm as he looked at Odd. "And this is why you'll never be a good delivery boy, Odd. They'd be calling you 'Odd of France.'"
Then he turned to look at me. "At least you got a good vision, though. But I really would've liked to know what happened to me, after I fall out of the side door."
"I'm sorry, Jeremie," I muttered, feeling like a failure for not giving him exactly what he wanted. It wasn't like I could control my visions like the weather, or anything.
His expression quickly turned to worry, realizing he hadn't exactly used the best choice of words. "I-I-I didn't mean it like that, Cassidy… I'm glad you had a good vision. After that scary one you had yesterday, you were long overdue. I was just hoping I could know whether I die, or not."
"She understands, Jeremie," Aelita turned her attention to him. "But Cassidy doesn't always have control of her visions. Sometimes they're really just random."
"It's like a shuffle option on an iPod after you manually activate it, Einstein," I blinked, still feeling guilty.
He donned a sheepish grin, sounding apologetic. "T-that's okay… hopefully, that one comes up soon."
"Well, I'm glad that she saw me flying," Odd smiled.
"Oh, no!" The next one out of the house was Hunter, carrying a suitcase in each hand, with a worried look on his face. "Not you, too! We can't lose two of you, now!"
"What do you mean?" I asked, a bit confused.
"Um… Odd just said that you saw him 'flying,'" Hunter tried to explain, slowly starting to look distraught, before I cut him off.
"With his wings, silly," I giggled.
He took a deep breath like a load had been taken off his shoulders. "Ohhhh…! Flying that way… that's a relief… I'd hate the thought of losing a friend."
"We're not going to lose Odd the Great, the Brave, the Magnificent," mi novio chuckled.
Hunter found himself chuckling a bit, as well. "Thank goodness. But at least we'll know if our wings have matured enough so that we can fly."
"He'll probably try it at one of our stops," Yumi took a guess, a slightly sly grin on her face. "I'll bet William will want to try flying, too."
"Are you kidding?" Sounding excited, William came out of Dr. Martinez's house, buried under a pile of suitcases; it seemed incredible he could carry them all. "Odd's not gonna be the only one to try out his wings. I'll probably fly even higher than he will."
"I'm not sure about testing mine." I raised a finger.
"Me, either," Aelita agreed with a nod. "Maybe after they've grown for a bit longer."
"I sure hope mine grow fast enough," Jeremie lamented.
Of course, he couldn't let me forget about that vision, could he?! I knew he felt terrible about it; I felt even worse, because I could have figured out what Yumi was about to do, but someone hit me!
As I started to bow my head forward, feeling even more ashamed of the whole thing than Jeremie, Georgina walked over to me and put her arms around me.
"Don't worry about him," she soothed, pulling me into a warm, comforting embrace. "I can understand he's worried, but don't let it bother you. Maybe it won't happen for a few days. It's best not to think about it."
"R-right…" I nodded into her shoulder. "It's a bit scary at times."
"I don't have any personal experience, but I can try to understand," Georgina added.
I blinked. "I really don't want Jeremie to die. He's fourteen years old, and he has his whole life ahead of him."
"We don't want him to die, either," Yumi agreed, placing her hand upon my shoulder. "You said that I was about to do something after he shot out of the van? Maybe I'll figure out what that was when the time comes?"
"Maybe," I nodded.
"Do we have any chains or anything like that?" Patrick tried to theorize how Yumi might save Jeremie. "Maybe you decide to throw a really long chain out the side door, for Jeremie to grab onto."
"Like a female Ghost Rider?" I scoffed. "As if."
"Marvel Comics jokes aside, I don't think they have a chain that long," Kaitlyn brought him down to Earth. "Besides, why on Earth would Jeb, Ari, and Georgina carry that with them, anyway?"
However, Sister started to think the conversation had gone on far enough. "Why don't we think about something else? My poor sister's too overburdened with this. We should think about all the fun we're gonna have, at each one of the stops we're gonna make!"
"Yeah!" Odd and Kiwi agreed.
"You're right, Sissi," Yumi thirded the motion, gaining a grin of her own. "Where is our first stop, anyway?"
"I think we were gonna stop somewhere in New Mexico," Hunter replied, walking back toward Aelita, Jeremie, Odd, William, Yumi, Patrick, Kaitlyn, and I, after putting another suitcase into the back of the van. "I want to say someplace like 'Las Cruces,' but I don't remember, exactly."
"I think Las Cruces is what we said," Kaitlyn smiled.
"That's exactly where we said we were headed first," Jeb filled in the remaining blanks. "And I think you might be happy to know that there's a good nearby hotel that has a spa, as well."
"Perfect!" Sister's face lit up at that mention. "What sort of budget will we have?"
"Don't you worry about that," Jeb remarked with a smile for Sister. "All you have to worry about is getting pampered. After everything you twelve have been through, you deserve it. Steam baths, massages, body scrubs, wraps…they even have full-body shampoos. So indulge!"
"Thanks, Jeb. I'm sure my dear sister can use some of the treatments they have," Sister smiled, looking in my direction.
"And before any of you head out to the spa section," Georgina added, a warm grin permeating her face, "I'll make sure to give each and every one of you a soothing, slow, soft, and thorough full-body wipe, as well as a soothing, quiet, and invigorating body rub, when you get back, if you like. The massages and baths will both be taken care of, depending on what you choose."
"That would be great," I nodded.
Nearby, Hunter was finally starting to get wise to the fact that nearly all of us could read his thoughts, and he theirs, so instead he chose to lean up against the side of the van, folding his arms with a neutral look on his face as he gazed at the ground. Even if he wasn't thinking anything, I could tell he would probably be the only one who didn't like the idea, or would even sit the whole thing out. That kind of bugged me, in a way; spa trips were supposed to be fun. Get massaged, get a body scrub… and with Georgina giving all of us a soothing full-body wipe beforehand, and full-body rub afterward, I'd be almost surprised if he did end up saying 'no' once we got there. But I'll bet he heard the words "full-body shampoo" and immediately wanted nothing to do with it. It was a bath, after all, so I understood, even if I didn't like it. But would Sister let him get away with that?
"So, has everything been packed away?" Dr. Martinez asked.
"Almost!"
We heard a voice coming from the house, moments before Sam immediately ran up, carrying a suitcase of her own, which she soon brought over to the van, and placed it into the back end, closing the doors soon after. "Almost forgot my stuff!"
"Aelita, did you get Mister Pück?" I asked her, worried.
"Of course!" She answered with an air of reassurance, as she withdrew the elf doll from a pocket on her dress. "I thought I would keep him in the front of the van, with us."
"Excellent," I smiled.
"Then it looks like that's everything?" Jeb took one more look through Dr. Martinez's door, into her house, as if trying to remember if there was anything left to grab. "...seems to be. Alright, then! Load in, everyone!"
I walked in first, finding a seat and buckling up. Aelita and Yumi climbed in next, both finding places that bookended me, and buckling themselves in, just as Ulrich and Odd jumped in, Ulrich sitting next to Yumi, and Odd one seat away from Aelita and across from me. Jeremie soon entered and took the empty seat Odd passed up.
Next was William. He found the seat next to Odd and began to buckle his seatbelt, just as Patrick and Kaitlyn climbed in, sitting in adjacent seats. Sam followed soon after, sitting next to Patrick, Hunter entered after Sam, finding a seat next to her, and then came Sister, who snagged the seat next to Hunter. Finally, Kiwi jumped in, before walking over to Odd, and jumping up into his master's lap, mi novio welcoming him with open arms.
"I am so excited to go back to Kadic," I smiled.
"Me, too!" Jeremie agreed with a similar grin. "It'll be great to see everyone again. Even the factory."
"I miss seeing Jim," Kaitlyn said.
"Me, too," I nodded.
"I can't wait to get back to our dorm!" Odd added with a big grin. "I loved that old place. A real home for true heroes!"
"We only had Lyoko HQ for a month, Odd," Ulrich corrected. "It's not exactly old."
"What kind of a place is that, anyway?" Sam looked over at Odd, an excited, curious grin on her face.
"It's a big dorm room with plenty of beds," I tried to describe it.
"There's a bed for every single one of us, except you, William, and Hunter," Jeremie jumped in, adding to my description. "It also holds my computer, Sissi's make-up kits and computer, and it has a walk-in closet, where every single one of our outfits is stored."
"And it was one of the most pleasantly surprising parts of our lives," I giggled.
Sister soon found my grin to be contagious, partly from her own excitement for what she was about to say. "And soon, it's gonna have this amazing bathing room, with this nice, big, spacious whirlpool bath, and someone who will be there to wipe, rub, massage, and wash any of us, any time we want! They'll even dry us, too!"
"And I'm sure that'll really come in handy," Jeremie commented, sounding almost as if he thought it would be somewhat enjoyable, yet wasn't sure how practical it would be.
"And I can't wait to see Milly and Tamiya again," I beamed. "The last time I talked to one of them, it was in the shower."
"I bet they'll be very happy to see you again," Aelita agreed, smiling warmly. "And so will the teachers, as well."
"Don't forget about Camille, Cat Girl. I talked to her just last night, and she wants to cuddle you from hearing about that time in the chopper," Odd pointed out.
"I would love to see her again. She is so sweet," I sighed contentedly.
"Ohh, that would be so beautiful!" Sister commented, grinning warmly toward me. "After how that happened, you deserve something warm like that."
"She really helped me that month ago. Camille even stayed after most of the autographs were taken," I remembered.
"She was a real friend!" Mi novio sported a grin that nearly spanned his entire head. "And you thought you didn't have very many 'fans'!"
"It seemed that way at first, then Naomi and so many others came over. I was really but pleasantly shocked to even have that many," I giggled.
Yumi chuckled a bit, as well. "After the part you've played in our battle against XANA, it wouldn't be fair if you didn't have nearly as many fans as the rest of us."
"That was the best thing you guys did for me."
"I was amazed I had as many fans as I did," Jeremie commented with a slight chuckle, as he pushed his glasses up past the bridge of his nose. "I thought for sure nobody would be fond of the guy who sits in the background the whole time, and calls the shots. But if I had fans, why wouldn't we make sure you had fans as well, Cassidy?"
"Good point, but you really did me some good. I was getting quite saddened for a while."
"We couldn't let that happen to you," Aelita reassured me, giving me one of her trademark warm, reassuring smiles. "Everyone else was having fun, and enjoying themselves. And while not all of us could be nearly as happy as Odd, there was no way we were going to let you be down on yourself."
"Luckily, everyone had soon gotten away from the 'Cassidy is a weirdo' club," I smiled. "I really was scared that they would stay there forever."
"Why would they?" William offered a poignant question. "Since everyone saw the monster, you'd think they'd be crawling in droves to get your autograph, Cass. You weren't playing a background role; you were one of the stars. Even when I was under XANA's control, you were really tearing up the place. They'd have to be insane to still think of you as a weirdo after all that."
"Bastien had to answer to Sissi and me after he said 'no' the first time," Ulrich agreed.
"Bastien was a bully," I admitted.
"More like a complete numbskull!" Sister jumped in, folding her arms with a slight look of anger taking over her face. "Can you believe he had the nerve to pick on my poor sister? Who does he think he is?! He's just jealous that my sister's psychic!"
I looked at her, a smile blossoming on my face. "You're absolutely right."
"That's probably all it is," Kaitlyn agreed, with a nod. "Some jerks just can't handle it."
"No, they can't," Ulrich agreed.
"And it stops him from getting to know the kind of person you are, too," Patrick added, growing a smile of his own. "He's too busy thinking about your psychic powers; he doesn't see the rest of the puzzle."
"Besides, once we are back in France, I'm sure they'll be hailing us as the returning, conquering heroes," Odd declared, thrusting his fist toward the roof of the van.
"You said it, Odd, Master," Kiwi grinned. "But I wonder how they'll adapt to me talking."
"Ventriloquism, duh!" Sam giggled, resting her chin upon her hands.
"Even they aren't that thick," I shook my head. "I don't know how they will react to us having wings, in fact. Or my pink hair strand."
"We probably shouldn't worry about it." Yumi sent a calming, reassuring smile in my direction. "After they've heard about everything we've been through, they'll probably understand, if not better."
"I hope so, Yumi. I think after we get things straightened out with Dad, we should go to the factory to see what's going on with the DNA injected into me," I blinked.
"That'd probably be for the best," Jeremie admitted, turning his gaze on me. "It'll also allow us to figure out the extent of the damage the whitecoats caused to all of us. See if there are any other surprises, besides our wings and telepathy."
"I would be surprised there would be more." I brushed the braid behind my ear. "I still can't believe at times that we had an out-of-body experience together."
"I'm still not sure how to adequately explain that," Jeremie admitted, looking a bit uncertain. "My original idea was that the bond we all shared enabled us to communicate with each other… but then how would that explain how Sam and Hunter were able to communicate with us, too?"
"What if that had something to do with it," Aelita began, cooking up a theory of her own, "but what if the sedatives they used had some sort of ingredient? The ones they typically used weren't to knock you out for more than a half-hour, so what if whatever they put into it, to make it keep you out for longer, made that happen?"
"Well, the fact that it took Sam and I the longest to join you guys," Hunter jumped in, trying even harder to make sense of that part of our adventure, "had to say something. Everyone else in this van, aside from myself, Jeb, Ari, and Georgina, has been to school at Kadic with you guys, or come into contact with you in some way. I'm the only one that hasn't. Before the whitecoats and Erasers kidnapped me, I had only seen what you guys had done through the monster. I didn't even know any of you until that day. I wouldn't have even been in France if none of that had happened. So that could lead a bit of credibility to the 'bond' theory, even though I'm still trying to wrap my own brain around the whole thing."
"I'm just glad that we were there for each other as entities," I smiled.
"Well, why wouldn't we be?" Odd flung another rhetorical question at me.
"Yeah!" William agreed, a giddy smile overtaking the lower part of his face. "Because that was killer! I bet I can fly like that with my own wings, too!"
"When they are fully developed," Yumi cracked.
That made everyone in the van start laughing, as a look of surprise replaced mi ex novio's former excitement, almost as if it had caught him off-guard.
"Nice one, Yumi," Odd complimented between chortles.
"He's right," Aelita agreed, calming down. "That was a good call."
Yumi merely smiled, whether out of modesty, or silent agreement.
I sucked in a cooling and refreshing breath. "It was awesome, Yumi. I don't know what we'd do without you. Good thing I hinted to Ulrich that I wanted you in the team before you were a Lyoko Warrior."
Yumi's grin got bigger when she heard that. "That's because you already knew, didn't you?"
"Yes. Plus I didn't quote that one line when we were creating the Skid for nothing, but now I can modify it: Nosotros no es sólo seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez, o once de nosotros. Nosotros es todos los doce."
Yumi closed her eyes, nodding in agreement. "That's right. Sam and Hunter, you two will be Lyoko Warriors, too. When we get back to Kadic, we'll make sure the both of you get scanned, and we might even take you both to Lyoko."
"Think of it as a virtual grand tour of the place," Odd quipped with his trademark goofball grin.
Sam and Hunter both looked quite excited to hear that if their faces were any indication. They had already been through a crazy adventure with us, and even Hunter stuck to his guns. I think it was safe to say that we all felt that they had earned their place on our team. We'd really only know once they got to Lyoko, and found themselves face-to-face with a Krab or Tarantula, or even a MegaTank, but from the looks of things, it was certainly going to be interesting. Hopefully, neither of them, especially Sam, would be headstrong about it, like one of our own.
After a few seconds, Jeb climbed into the passenger seat behind Ari, as Georgina assumed the role of driver, once more. Stepping in, Max's and Ari's father turned his head to look back at the twelve of us. "Is everyone buckled in?"
I tightened the strap to my seatbelt. "Ready to go, Jeb. And again, thank you for rescuing us from that awful place."
"Oh, I can't take all the credit for that," Jeb replied modestly, while still grinning. "Max and her flock helped me bust you guys out, and Georgina made sure everyone was ready to go. It was a team effort, more than a single person."
"But we still appreciate everything all of you have done for us, all the same," Jeremie admitted, giving the man his own smile. "Without you, who knows what sorts of experiments they would have carried out on the twelve of us."
"And tests." I felt my internal structure shuddering. "I would hate to go through more mazes."
Jeb nodded solemnly. "I completely understand. Some of you were given easier tests than others, but I do wish I could have had some sort of oversight, and the ability to change some of them, especially some of yours, and one of Hunter's."
"Don't remind me… That was so scary," I gulped.
Hunter shivered as well, the effects of the return of a terrible memory. "You're telling me. But I'm sorry you had to see me like that. They were making so many different noises, and they were just so loud, and coming out of nowhere… I couldn't really find a way to stop and get my bearings. I even told them to halt the test several times, but they didn't. And I went into overload."
"But that's all in the past, now," Jeb gave the black-haired boy a reassuring smile, hoping to calm him. "We've got so much in front of us. Practically the entire United States is our backyard. If you and Cassidy have ever wanted to see more of your home country, while showing it to your new friends, you've never had a better opportunity."
"Yeah, especially since the last chance got torn up before I could even get it," I said, looking pointedly at William.
"Hey, how many times do I have to apologize to you for doing that?" Mi ex novio looked a bit upset at me for bringing that back up. "I broke up with you for a stupid reason, and I do stupid things when I'm angry, okay? I'm not happy with myself, either, in case you didn't know. But now we're gonna get another free trip so you can forget about the dumb stuff I once did, huh?"
"Sorry, Ex-y. It still is a bitter memory in my mind. And you know how it is with my brain. Once something bad happens, it holds it there," I sighed.
William cradled his head with his hands. "I hear you. It's a bitter memory for me, too, and we both have to live with it, probably."
"And being smuggled here is not what I had in mind when I wanted to show my friends the United States."
Sensing the mood in the van getting a bit tense, as Georgina turned the key in the ignition, Odd turned to look at me.
"So Cat Girl," he asked, with a grin on his face, "what do you wanna do, when we get to Las Cruces?"
"Hm… I know I would love a scrub," I giggled slightly. "That would be nice."
Yumi found my giggles contagious, as a smile graced her features. "I could go for a massage… maybe even a body shampoo, as well. It sounds almost like a Japanese bath."
"Plus, dear sister, it looks as though you have broken out a bit on your face. Maybe a nice facial might help," Sister calmly suggested, hoping to not freak me out by gently explaining her findings.
"Yeah, plus all this stress over being kidnapped… It can't be good for my complexion or my health," I sighed. "But thank you, Sister. Besides, we had bigger fish to fry than mi cara."
Georgina pulled the van out of Dr. Martinez's driveway, as Ulrich looked over at Yumi, Sister, Odd and I. "I could go for a steam bath, and then a massage."
"Is it pet-friendly, Jeb?" Kiwi asked.
"As far as I know," Jeb answered, looking a bit unsure, "but I might have to double-check."
Suddenly, my eyes briefly clouded, showing the sign to the hotel. My first spark-flash in ages… Wow... "Yes, Kiwi! They do allow pets."
Jeb chuckled, amazed at my ability. "Well, I'll be. There's your answer, Kiwi."
Kiwi giggled. "Well, she had helped me before."
"Yes, I have," I grinned.
"That's right!" Odd wrapped his arms around me, excitedly pulling me into a warm hug. "It's Cat Girl the Amazing Psychic, to the rescue once again!"
"Better than being a dangerous one, that's for sure," Ulrich smiled. "Two visions in a row without an earthquake on either of them."
My eyes widened, but my grin did not waver. "Odd, what you said in the School…you were right!"
He grinned with his eyes closed. "You see? What did I tell you! Did I get it right, or did I get it right!"
"Yes, you did, Odd," Jeremie smiled. "I don't even know how you could have guessed that or if it even was a guess, after all..."
"Well, my first one was followed up by an earthquake that I felt after I came out of my first vision in ages," I giggled. "I think that it's valid."
"Yeah, and it really had all of us going, too," Samurai admitted, remembering that day quite vividly. "But at least now you can enjoy a good spa trip, with the rest of us. Maybe try a body shampoo, and see if they're soft like Georgina?"
"Yeah. Something most belated since Sister was going to pay for another one for all of us after a week of being back in Kadic's classes," I smiled, reveling.
"Ooh!" Sister quietly squealed, grinning. "Even though we're probably gonna get pampered more in this month than we ever have, I can still get another trip for all of us, even after we get back to Kadic, and Daddy puts in the whirlpool bath, and hires someone."
"Yeah, I would love that, maybe Mr. Hayden will be there," I excitedly said.
Suddenly, nearly everyone just stared at me, blankly, as though they couldn't understand why I would make such a request. Especially after the whole debacle with the Cosmos: Future & Formula magazine cover.
"What? He's a good limo driver," I defended.
Yumi raised an eyebrow. "After that deal with the magazine, we're just worried there might be something else in his limo that might make you uncomfortable, Cassidy."
"That magazine was the only thing, Yumi, that made me distressed," I blinked.
She started to look a slight bit relieved, as she offered another question. "And what if he has something else with him, that'll make you squirm?"
"Then we'll hide it from her immediately before she even gets her hands on it," Odd answered for me. "Besides, we are her friends."
"And you are mi novio, Odd," I giggled.
He gave me one of his Cheshire Cat-style grins, complete with closed eyes, while Sister giggled nearby and added, "And I'm your dear sister!"
"Yes, you are. And I am so glad you became mi hermana," I smiled, "Sister."
Her giggle gave way to a big grin, as well. "And you're the best sister I've ever had, Cassidy!"
"You, too, Sister. I'm glad you changed for the better." Tears of joy welled in my eyes, threatening to spill out. However, I reached into my pocket and fished out one of the handkerchiefs de la madre de mi novio, wiping my eyes with it.
Odd quickly noticed this, as well. "Hey, you've still got the handkerchief my mom gave you at the hospital!"
"She told me to keep it, Odd, as she has a lot of them at home," I giggled. "She is so sweet."
He nodded in agreement, a warm smile gracing his features. "Yeah… she is. And I love her a lot! Even my sisters, who changed just as much as Sissi did, thanks to the monster!"
"I was surprised to see that your sisters came to the hospital, too."
"Me, too!" Odd looked pleasantly surprised. "Before the monster, they never cared about me!"
"And I was worried about their opinion of me."
"You always worry about that! Didn't you see? If you hadn't been on that bed, they would've given you a group snuggle! They were all worried about you, too!"
"I guess I get too worried at times," I blushed.
"Don't worry," Aelita reassured me, wrapping her arm around my back as she gave me a reassuring smile. "We all do it."
"You always thought about your father after that day I'd rather not talk about, but I loved it," I giggled.
"Thanks," she replied as her smile increased. "I barely knew anything about him then, but after I had learned I was human, and when I found he was still alive on Lyoko, all I could think about was bringing him home to Earth with me."
"And I am glad that I seemed to have found the way to reunite him with you, with some interest."
Her eyes widened as her excitement increased, starting to leak into her voice soon after. "You're right! I didn't think I would ever see my mother again, and neither Daddy nor I know how we'll ever be able to thank you for bringing us all together, again!"
"I guess that monster did us some good, even if I won't be able to understand it," I blinked, smile unwavering.
"I doubt any of us will," Jeb commented, looking back at me.
"And I don't even want to know what would have happened if I hadn't unleashed that monster, either, Jeb." I shook my head, grimacing.
Odd quickly tried to change the subject, fearing something terrible coming down the pipeline. "L-let's not think about that, okay? XANA's gone...uh, weakened, of course, we got Aelita's mom and dad back, you're still with us, Cat Girl… I'd say we did a pretty good job."
"A good job?!" Kaitlyn was surprised by Odd's sudden show of modesty, as it was quite unlike him. "Where's the 'we did a phenomenal job, thanks in no small part to Odd the Magnificent, and the equally excellent Cat Girl,' Mister Braggart?"
"I am not a braggart!" Mi novio interjected. "That being said, Odd the Magnificent did play a huge part in the weakening of XANA, and subsequent rescue of both Mr. and Mrs. Schaeffer, with the equally impressive help of his glorious sidekick, Cat Girl the Magnificent-in-training!"
A grin sliced through my wincing, slowly bringing in some gut-busting chuckles. "Odd…"
"He's normal," Jeremie announced, chortles erupting from his mouth like an active volcano.
"You had to guess?" Even Yumi laughed at that.
"Hey, he sounded weird, okay?!" Kaitlyn threw her arms into the air.
"Odd, being weird? That'll be the day," Ulrich chuckled.
"But hey, guys, without him, who would have saved Aelita and Cassidy from the Digital Sea when he realized his mistake about Brynja?" Sam asked.
"If he hadn't brought Brynja to the factory in the first place," Jeremie retorted, raising an eyebrow as he turned to look at Sam, "he wouldn't have had to save Aelita and Cassidy from almost falling into the Digital Sea."
"But Brynja also made my poor, burdened, dear sister do unrelated math problems out of jealousy, Jeremie, honey." Sister gestured toward me.
"That was the most hectic day my powers had ever been through." I shook my head.
"She really threw you for a loop that day," Jeb recalled, thinking of what he had seen through the monster. "It's a good thing Sissi got rid of her when she did. Who knows what would've happened to the entire school, if she had stayed any longer."
"She probably would've had the whole school confusing ink smudges with rutabagas," Patrick quipped, a bit of a smile growing on his face.
I cackled at that. "I must've had a wet thumb when I made that type of smudge."
A few of the others chuckled, just as Georgina turned onto a different road, something most of us could barely feel, as we weren't concentrating on where she was driving.
"I can't wait to get back home," Yumi smiled.
"You're telling us," Kaitlyn grinned.
"And I can't wait to ride that cruise liner!" Odd exclaimed, looking as excited as Yumi and Kaitlyn were. "That's the kind of return heroes like us deserve!"
"We're bound to get pampered enough times before we get there." Ulrich sent a slightly mischievous grin toward his original roommate. "I'm sure even Odd the Magnificent can go one day without a massage, full-body wipe, or bath."
"And I'm sure that my father is going to be glad to see us," Sister smiled.
"I just hope he doesn't make us clip our wings," I fretted. "Don't want to shear off the beauty of the feathers."
"Why would he do that?" Aelita interjected, raising an eyebrow. "He'll know what we went through, and why we have them. He seems like a patient man."
"True. I guess I'm a bit nervous about nothing as usual," I blinked.
"Relax, Cat Girl!" Odd grinned at me, reassuringly. "Sure, you worry over nothing a lot, but sometimes you get worried over something that you really should worry about."
"Yeah? Like what?" I asked, as though to quiz him.
"Remember when XANA made it really cold outside?" Odd recalled the first memory that came to his mind. "You spark-flashed Yumi getting buried under the tree that T.V. knocked over with his car, but you thought it was nothing."
"That was true, I shouldn't have been too dismissive about that one, despite it being Yumi under that tree," I said.
"Originally," Yumi reminded me, "it was going to be me under that tree, and that's what the first timeline showed, but when you pushed me out of the way, you changed that."
"I just couldn't let you be under there."
"Even if Einstein did launch a Return to the Past," Ulrich lamented as if he felt a slight twinge of guilt over what had nearly happened to me, "I still wish we could've gotten you out of there."
"Plus, I was dying…"
"That's why I'm glad I did launch a return trip just in time," Jeremie admitted, in such a way as to make Ulrich feel better about his and Yumi's failures. "None of us were ever in any real danger, that day."
"Yep. I'm happy to be alive, Jeremie, thanks to you," I giggled.
"You have always looked out for them, and us as well," Patrick added, giving his male cousin a warm smile. "You may have one of the most stressful jobs I know of, but you rarely let it get to you."
"I know he snapped once," I blinked, "and I got on him and yelled at him. Ugh… I think my bad week was kicking my mood."
At first, Ulrich's brows rose to his hairline. "What do you—?" Then they relaxed. "Oh… the neural helmet."
Jeremie shook his head as if he was trying to rid his mind of a terrible memory. "Don't worry; it was stupid, anyway. I found something in Franz's diary about using Returns to the Past to logarithmically increase my intelligence and thought I could use it to further my work on Aelita's anti-virus, but all it did was make me angry and irritable. Worse still, all my calculations were bugged up, anyway."
"And I ended up in a royal shouting match with you, Jeremie. I thought the one we had about Aelita would be our last argument, but—"
He looked over at me, with a reassuring smile. "Cassidy, you know as well as I do, that if I had not been under the influence of that helmet, that shouting match would never have happened."
"And besides, dear sister," Sister slid over by me, placing her hands upon my shoulders, instantly soothing away the guilt, "friends are going to fight. It's how those friends react after the fight, that shows what good friends they are."
"That's true, I guess I forgot about that," I giggled, feeling slightly giddy from the erasure of guilt.
Of course, everything Sister, Jeremie and I had just done, still caught Yumi off-guard.
"Hold on, wait a minute…" my geisha friend interjected. "You were feeling bad just a second ago, and now you're…?"
"Did you forget that she can heal now?" Aelita smiled.
She grinned, even though it looked slightly sheepish. "Yeah… it's just… I still haven't gotten used to it, yet. That's all."
"I guess there will be a lot of things that we won't be used to for a while," I shrugged.
Nearby, Hunter was rubbing his forehead. "This entire adventure has been one crazy thing after another, left and right. We've only had a few opportunities to just sit down, relax, and take it all in."
"Cool, huh?" Odd grinned at him.
He chuckled a bit. "It's one thing seeing it through the monster… another actually experiencing it for yourself… I'll get used to it. I know I will. It's actually been quite interesting."
"Yes, it is, Hunter," I giggled.
He then looked up, putting on his best "happy, yet determined" look. "But don't worry, I have no intention of backing out. I know you guys slowly got into it as well, so it's only a matter of time for me before everything becomes like second nature."
"That's for sure," Ulrich and Patrick agreed.
"You'll get it, Hunter." Yumi gave him a reassuring, comforting smile. "Don't worry. We're not gonna let you down."
"Plus I'd feel horrible if I let you down," I smiled.
Hunter's "happy, yet determined" look began to seem more and more genuine, especially after I told him that. Sometimes I could tell he felt like he was afraid the others would think badly of him if he couldn't keep up, or messed up, whether because of his own ability, or something else, but I knew he really wanted to help out and didn't want to seem like a third wheel.
"Plus we always have room for one more fighter against XANA, Hunter," Jeremie reassured.
He grinned even more at that. "Thanks! I would definitely love to help in the fight against XANA, both on the front lines, and with you, once I can show you some of the programs I've done in the past, Jeremie."
"I'm sure you can impress him, Hunter, good buddy," Odd chuckled.
"Odd's right," Jeremie agreed with a smile of his own. "I'll have a look when we get back to Kadic, and I'm sure you're worrying too much."
"You're probably right." He rubbed the back of his head. "I've seen how you program most of the others' weapons and vehicles, along with everything else, and I just really enjoyed seeing that, and wanted to do some of that for myself, as well. I'm sure I'll be a great help, both on and off Lyoko."
"You'll figure it out. I have faith in you," Aelita encouraged, a smile growing on her face.
I think we all felt the same warmth, excitement, and even a little bit of pride, just as Hunter did, at that moment.
"Thanks." He had a big smile on his face, now. "You're absolutely right."
Even Jeb found himself getting in on the action, as he looked back at the black-haired boy. "Yeah, don't worry about it. You've done well so far."
I nodded. Just like me, he had the tendency to worry too much. He knew we were all incredible friends; he just needed to trust in that, and we knew he would. Sometimes, even I needed to believe in it more, as well.
"They're right! You've already proven yourself, Hunter dear," Sister added her own blend of encouragement, as well.
He blinked, seeming almost surprised before he hid it behind the grin that still occupied his face. "Oh, cool! That's great!"
"Plus, you helped my dear sister when you could," she smiled warmly.
"Yeah, you're right." He nodded. "And I'm definitely glad I've been able to help you, Cassidy."
"I'm happy that you did, Hunter," I giggled.
A few seconds of silence had passed before Odd suddenly got an idea. Turning to the black-haired programmer, he asked with a grin, "Hey Hunter! So, what do you think you're gonna look like, on Lyoko?"
His gaze hit the roof of the van like he wasn't expecting that. "Ummm… you know, I've actually never thought of that… the Supercomputer gives you an avatar, based on your personality, and your subconscious desires, right?"
"Yep. How it switched Odd's and my own in the beginning is still a bit of a mystery," I blinked.
"I don't even understand how that happened," Jeremie lamented, and you could really hear the surprise in his voice. "You were telling us about how you knew Odd was going to be a purple cat, and when I virtualized you for the first time, Odd became a purple ninja, while you became the purple cat."
"I still remember Ulrich laughing his head off, then I followed suit after discovering that happened," I giggled.
Ulrich chuckled, remembering that day well. "That was great. After all that build-up, and then you were the cat…"
"But I did manage to swap the avatars back to your original prediction when I upgraded your equipment," Jeremie continued. "That way, it even agreed with the alternate timeline, where Odd was always a purple cat. Maybe that's the one you foretold, Cassidy?"
"I don't know, personally. I still had the cat upgrades, too. It was still a crazy time back then."
"Well, I couldn't just radically modify your appearance," the blond genius pointed out. "If you had to spend extra time, getting reacquainted with your weaponry, who knows what XANA might have done with my polymorphic clone."
"True. But I didn't mind being a cat, unlike somebody I know really well," I giggled.
Odd pretended to be angry. "Hey! I can be a really amazing cat! They don't call me 'Odd the Magnificent Ninja Cat Boy' for nothing! I've even saved you dozens of times, Cat Girl!"
"Definitely saved me so many times, Ninja-Cat-Boy." I reached for him and pulled his head to my lips, kissing his forehead.
He chuckled as his skin met my lips, and as I let him pull away, he glanced over at Jeremie. "You see, Einstein? That's how you do a forehead kiss!"
In reply, the blond genius immediately blushed. "Hey, I was overexcited, okay?! You had just given me an incredible loophole! I couldn't think straight!"
"Don't fight in the van, guys, okay?" Ari asked. "Georgina needs to concentrate."
Mi novio quickly adopted a sheepish grin, along with a slightly nervous giggle, which he aimed at the wolfish boy. "Sorry, Ari."
Jeremie lowered his voice, slightly, as the redness slowly faded from his cheeks. "Besides, we might have been stuck in the hospital for a longer period of time, if you hadn't given us that idea."
"Yeah, plus Cassidy had full control over her legs again," he pointed out.
"If it weren't for the nurses and my friends, I'd probably be wobbling all over the place and falling over, breaking my legs and extending my hospital stay," I noted.
"That was a wonderful hospital," Sister added, grinning happily. "Everyone there was so nice… aside from our little fight, that is."
"Yeah," Yumi agreed, smiling calmly. "They took really good care of us. They helped all of us to walk again, after being bedridden for a few weeks, and even after you woke up, Cassidy, they were always gentle."
"I was more impressed by the fight to keep me alive. They recorded the fight on a writable DVD, and I watched it sometimes before the kidnapping happened. I mean, Sister was furious!" I smiled excitedly. "Then Jeremie decided to go into the fray! I was totally ecstatic."
"You should've seen Yumi, Cat Girl!" Odd started to grin, just from thinking about it. "There were feet flying all over the place! One of the security guards was stopping Patrick and Kaitlyn, but then she flew in, and knocked him over! He didn't even see it coming!"
"I saw that. She was one of the strongest out there," I giggled. "I'd say Jeremie gave a good effort, even if it ended up, um—"
"It's okay, Cassidy." He looked at me, apologetically. "I know I'm not a very powerful fighter. There's a reason I sit at the Supercomputer, while the nine of you are on Lyoko."
"It's okay, Jeremie. It was sweet of you to rush out when you did. The placement you guys did was really impressive."
"You can thank Patrick for that," Ulrich admitted, gesturing to the boy in the black leather jacket. "He came up with the idea."
"For the placement for the fight?! I know that Patrick drew up the plans for the barricade, and everyone helped build it, but he did that?!" I asked, slightly unsure of what he meant by that.
"Uhh… uh…" He immediately started to backpedal, and I realized he probably hadn't understood my statement, the first time. "Actually, it was, uh… I think, uh… Jeremie helped us with that."
"Ah. I just thought it was interesting that Odd was closest to Aelita and me when he also had some fight training, then Jeremie was slightly in front of him," I smiled.
"He wanted to be there," Jeremie replied with a similar grin. "He wanted to see when you woke up, so he could tell everyone else."
"I wanted to be the first thing your pretty little eyes saw when they opened again!" Odd added with a big grin.
Suddenly, Aelita started to look a bit uncertain.
"But… before we all started fighting," she began, almost as if she was worried about what anyone, or even I, was going to say, "I was sure I could feel tiny little… twitches coming from your hand, Cassidy. At first, I thought it was my own hand, but then I felt a tightening sensation around it… and then your eyes moved, signaling for me to yell for Dr. Chantal."
"I guess I was becoming aware again. I just didn't realize it."
"Well, you were in a coma for three months, or so I heard," Jeb commented. "Your body was probably taking longer than usual to fully come out of that."
"Not to mention your motor functions took a month to return to normal as well," Jeremie added.
"That's right. I remember the party you threw me in celebration. For a while, I thought you got bored, Einstein," I giggled.
"We were just really glad to have you back." Jeremie smiled, and I could almost see a little blush tinting his cheeks. "We wanted to make you feel better about not being able to walk at first, so we celebrated those little milestones as you got better."
"It still was a good cake, I have to admit," I grinned.
"You're right," Patrick agreed, a similar smile overtaking the lower part of his face. "It reminded me of Angel Food Cake, my favorite."
"I love that flavor, too. So spongy and moist…" My mouth watered from remembering the last time I had it.
"I'm more of a Devil's Food kind of guy," Ulrich interjected. "Or anything with mint in it."
That did it. I gulped my saliva and shuddered at the thought. "Mint's okay for you, but I don't think it's appealing."
"Yeah, it's not bad." Kaitlyn was next to jump in. "But what about lemon?"
"Oh, c'mon!" Odd interjected, playfully waving his hand dismissively. "You've gotta have chocolate! If it weren't for the frosting, lemon cake would make you pucker your lips!"
"I don't like lemons at all. I tried it once, and I ended up putting the fruit slice in the toilet." I trembled more.
"How about red velvet?" Yumi asked, looking somewhat apologetic in my direction. "I think that's delicious."
"I love red velvet," I smiled again, giggling happily. "It's so good…"
She grinned, closing her eyes. "It is. My mother always makes a red velvet cake for my birthday. It's incredible."
Odd looked indifferent. "Eh, red velvet cake isn't too bad… but there's not enough chocolate. Now, double chocolate… there's a good cake!"
The thought of that made my mouth water… no, it made my mouth gush. I was about to turn into a human waterfall, just from the idea of double chocolate cake.
"I think we're overstimulating her taste buds," Ulrich chuckled.
"Now she's probably going to want a double chocolate cake for dessert when we stop at our first hotel," Jeremie quipped with a slight chuckle of his own.
"Shouldn't we do something, cuz?" Kaitlyn asked.
"Maybe you're right…" Jeremie cupped his right hand around his lower jaw, before turning to look at me, his hand returning to its position at his side. "Hey Cassidy, Georgina wants to make a Devil's Food cake with mint frosting, just for Ulrich. She was wondering if you wanted some."
That shoved a cork into the waterworks, drying up the well. "Ugh… no! Ulrich can have it all to himself."
Jeremie grinned sheepishly at me. "Don't worry, Georgina's not going to do that. If anything, she'd probably make another white cake, since those are the ones you like."
"Yeah, that was a good flavor."
Just as I thought of the cake that we ate, the last thing we had done at Kadic before the whitecoats and Erasers abducted us, I happened to glance over at Aelita. She had her eyes closed and a slightly worried look on her face, and I could tell something was really bugging her, even if she was trying to hide it.
"Are you okay, Aelita?" I asked.
At this, her eyes popped open with a start, almost as if I had caught her off-guard. "Huh?"
Her eyes soon returned to normal size, as she calmed down. "I was just, uh… thinking about something. That's all."
"You seem worried about something, Princess," Odd noted. "Is something wrong?"
She glanced over at mi novio, finding it harder to hide her worry. "Um… I was starting to think about… Cassidy's vision… and if Georgina planned to pull onto a highway, between here and Las Cruces…"
Just when I thought we had tried to keep that out of my mind... now Aelita wasn't the only one who was worried about that. "I re-really don't w-want J-Jeremie to…"
Yumi was a bit more confident, as she glanced over at me with a calm, reassuring look on her face and a similar tone of voice. "Yes, but what if this isn't that highway? What if it doesn't happen, until we're halfway across the country if it even happens at all?"
Aelita tried to smile, as she glanced over at Yumi. "Maybe you're right… it could really be any highway we drive on. After all, the decorations you mentioned seemed like it was more in the desert areas, like somewhere in New Mexico, Cassidy?"
"It could be. I mean, my visions can be vague with a few tiny details, but the major ones are bright," I considered. "Heck, I remember that one time in the past where I had a vision of the Schyphozoa attacking for the last time. It didn't show me much at first, just Aelita running away and then trying to defend herself with her Energy Fields."
"That's right." Aelita blinked, remembering that day quite well. "Your vision also didn't tell you that you would be possessed as well and that we would fight against Ulrich in perfect lockstep."
"One of the jellyfish slapped my weapons away. Jeremie didn't exactly give me a Percy Jackson-style pen-sword where my weapons automatically come back from the dead," I giggled. "It would have helped me, too. When I saw that fight in the assembly, I was impressed. I think I was fighting Ulrich's clone. I am still ticked that XANA didn't give me my weapons back."
"Well, you seemed to do pretty well with one of my sabers," Ulrich added, folding his arms with a slight grin on his face. "Even if you were under XANA's control at the time."
"I did pretty well, didn't I, even though I tried to use a sword the time Jeremie found the key to materialization, only to get possessed by Aelita's father, who I had a vague idea at the time," I blinked.
"I still don't understand how he was able to do that." Jeremie was confused. "And why only you, and not his own daughter?"
"I know, right, Einstein? He possessed me three times, and I thought I heard his voice when Brynja came to town, and he later confirmed that it was his. The only theory I could come up with was that I was to be her guardian angel when I came to town, but I know that Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, Patrick, Kaitlyn, William, and even Sister share the role of bodyguard, just as well," I blinked.
"And he couldn't possibly have foreseen your arrival," Einstein argued. "He doesn't have any psychic abilities, let alone clairvoyance, like you."
"I wish I could tell you, Jeremie, but I do agree that he couldn't have seen me coming. I should have asked that in the hospital, too. I got a small fraction of my questions answered so far," I moaned.
"You'll still get your chance," Aelita smiled at me, reassuringly. "Once we're back in France, I'm sure you'll be able to ask him as many questions as you want."
"I'm glad that I will. If it weren't for the monster, I guess I wouldn't know what I do now," I smiled.
"We'd probably go back to our regular lives at Kadic," Ulrich suggested, about as clueless as I was, "at least until XANA reared his ugly head, again."
"He would have sent out the Kolossus at us again, and Yumi would have um… 'bowed down' to XANA, to defend…"
"Cassidy! You're doing the exact opposite of relaxing again," Kaitlyn scolded. "Take a deep breath."
I took a deep lungful of air, held it for a few seconds, and slowly released it longer than the inhale. "Sorry, Kaitlyn. I can't help but remember my past visions at times. Memory is like a steel trap with some stuff."
"Besides, I think you're over-exaggerating, Cat Girl," Odd jumped in, glancing over at me. "We weakened XANA, remember? He's nowhere near powerful enough to send the Kolossus after us; he probably couldn't even materialize a Kankrelat."
"I meant if I hadn't unleashed the monster almost half a year ago, Novio," I giggled.
"Either way, we would have weakened him, just like we did," William added, feeling quite confident.
Before I had the chance to rebuke him, I felt the van drive over a bump, distracting me momentarily as everyone else in the van shook slightly. It was then that I could feel the speed of the van, and my vision immediately flashed in front of my mind's eye. We were going faster, and my nerves immediately started to yell at me, 'we're on a highway! We're on a highway!'
I only hoped it wasn't that highway…
We drove over several more bumps, some shaking everyone slightly, while others had more of a noticeable feel. My eyes suddenly darted to the side door, almost as if I was expecting it to suddenly slide open, just like in my vision. Jeremie's hand was placed precariously on the handle, not as if he wanted to open it, but just as a place to rest it. This was already beginning to scare me even more; I hadn't even seen how he got thrown out, and now I was hoping against hope that he hadn't accidentally opened the door, himself…
One more bump. Then another. Each one seemed to be bigger than the last, the inside of the van seeming like it was going through a mini earthquake. Finally, Georgina inadvertently drove over one big bump…
The entire van shook…
AND THE SIDE DOOR FLEW OPEN!
Immediately, my nerves went into overdrive, nearly consuming my entire being in the process. In the time span of a few seconds, the twelve of us saw Jeremie somehow go flying out of his seat, with the next successive bump, and while in midair, the vacuum effect from the air outside the van, blowing past the opening, where the side door normally sat, pulled him outside like a gigantic hand. The twelve of us screamed his name in near-perfect unison.
He was gone… JEREMIE BELPOIS WAS GONE!
To tell you that to witness one of my visions coming true in real life is scary would be the understatement of the metaphysical half-decade!