"Here, Kiwi. Here, my little diggity dog. Come and get your dog biscuit."
Odd was crouched on the floor, holding a dog-shaped treat out to his pet. Kiwi was eyeing it suspiciously. His gaze kept going back to the pet carrier that lay just next to Odd.
The door opened and Ulrich stuck his head in.
"Odd, haven't you got him in yet. Everyone's waiting to take Kiwi to the -"
Odd silenced him with a hissing shush.
"Shhh! Don't say it! You know he hates going to… that place. If he hears you, he'll freak out."
Ulrich rolled his eyes and leant against the wall with his arms crossed. Odd continued to coax his dog with the biscuit.
Come on, Kiwi. It's liver-flavored; your favorite."
Ulrich grimaced as Odd actually licked the biscuit and put on a look of pleasure.
"Mmm, yum yum. If you don't want it Kiwi, I'll gladly eat it."
He held the biscuit over his open mouth, and Ulrich thought he was actually going to eat it! Fortunately Kiwi looked alarmed at the prospect of losing food, and scampered forward to snap up the treat.
Odd picked up his dog and scratched him behind the ears, as he happily chewed. He nodded towards the pet carrier, indicating that Ulrich should pick it up.
"Finally, now let's get him to the -" Ulrich caught the look in Odd's eye and sighed. "Fine, let's get him to the V-E-T."
Kiwi's ears instantly pricked up. With a yelp, he leapt out of Odd's arms, scurried past Ulrich's feet and out the door.
"Oh, man! I told you not to say it!" Odd grabbed the pet carrier and started to give chase down the hallway, with Ulrich following behind.
"Well, how was I supposed to know your dog could spell?!"
"I keep telling you how intelligent he is!"
"If he's so intelligent; why'd he eat your new art kit?!"
Odd saw Yumi, Aelita and Jeremie standing at the end of the hallway, with Kiwi heading straight towards them.
"Guys, heads up!"
Yumi was the first to react on seeing Kiwi. She went to grab him, but the speedy little dog dashed between her legs. Aelita crouched down to try and tackle Kiwi at his level, but he leapt up onto her shoulder and bounded towards Jeremie. The boy genius gave a yelp as Kiwi's paws found his face, and he wound up on the floor with his glasses askew and the dog disappearing down the stairs.
"After him!"
Odd led the others in full chase. Ulrich was bringing up the rear, thanking Heaven that it was a Sunday so there weren't many faculty members around.
Pretty soon, he and the others were out in the school yard searching high and low for Odd's pet.
"I don't see why we all have to take Kiwi to the vet. He's your dog." Ulrich aimed this question at Odd, as they searched around the vending machine.
"Where's your sense of comradery, Ulrich?" Odd replied. "Kiwi's a part of Team Lyoko, just like the rest of us."
"Oh really? Aside from yapping at a few of Xana's creations; what has he contributed to the team?"
"Well, if someone would let me take him to Lyoko," Odd looked over to where Jeremie was checking underneath a bench. "I bet he'd be a lot of help against William and all of Xana's monsters."
"I keep telling you, Odd." Jeremie straightened up to answer. "The scanners were designed to virtualize humans, not dogs. There's no telling what effect it might have on Kiwi."
"Yeah. He might wind up like that dog in 'The Fly II'. All mutated and gross." Ulrich put on a creepy voice and wiggled his fingers.
Odd seemed to pale at the thought, and then said accusingly,
"I notice that didn't stop you trying to use him as a guinea pig when you first found them!"
"There he is!"
The boys looked up and followed Yumi's pointed finger to see Kiwi shooting towards the Rec Room.
Inside, Sissi was sat in front of the TV with Hervé and Nicholas. They were watching her favorite soap opera.
"Hey, wait. I thought Brook was getting married to Clint." Nicholas scratched his head as he watched a couple kissing on the screen.
"No, no. They called off the wedding when Brook discovered that Clint was her long lost half-brother. Now she's going out with Jonathan, who's secretly the father of her best friend's baby. Try to keep up."
Sissi turned her attention back to the screen, but couldn't hear what was being said due to the shouting coming from outside. She irately looked to the half-open door.
"What is all that noise?"
Kiwi came darting into the room and jumped onto her lap.
"Eeeek!" Sissi shrieked and held her clenched fists up by her chin.
Ulrich burst through the door and made a dive for the dog.
"Gotcha!"
Kiwi leapt out of Ulrich's reach, and the boy landed draped over Sissi's legs.
"Oh! Hello, Ulrich." Sissi smiled and her cheeks turned pink.
Ulrich scrambled upright, at the same time that Hervé stood up in anger. Odd came sprinting into the Rec Room, didn't slow down fast enough, and knocked Hervé over so that he took Ulrich's place on Sissi's lap.
"Eeeeek!"
Jeremie, Aelita and Yumi arrived and spread out around the room, hoping to pen Kiwi in. Sissi stood up and yelled at Nicholas and Hervé, who had his hand over a red mark on his cheek.
"Don't just sit there, you two! Get that beast out of the Rec Room! Have you forgotten that I'm supposed to be in charge of it?!"
The two boys hurried to obey and soon Kiwi was surrounded on all sides as he stubbornly crouched under the ping-pong table.
"Okay, here's how we're going to do this." Odd had seemingly taken charge of the operation. He held the pet carrier at the ready. "Ulrich and Yumi; you guys go in under the table and flush him out. I'll grab him. The rest of you, make sure he doesn't get out either side."
The others nodded, and Ulrich and Yumi dove under the table. But instead of running out the only available exit, Kiwi cocked his leg and let spray on Nicholas' face!
"Bleugh!"
The orange-haired boy reared back, wiping desperately at his mug. Kiwi took this opportunity to clamber up his shirt and jump off his shoulder. This flight of victory was short-lived however, when he was grabbed by the collar in midair.
Everyone looked up to see Sissi holding Kiwi at arm's length, and speaking with barely restrained anger.
"Get this thing out of here… NOW!"
Odd quickly took his dog and placed him in the pet carrier, locking it up securely.
"Thanks, Sissi." He said with a grin. "I owe you one."
He took one look at her twitching eyebrow and clenched teeth, and decided to take his leave. He and his friends dashed out the door followed by Sissi's screams,
"Della Robbia, when you finally decide to go back to your home planet; make sure to take that mutt with you!"
Ulrich, Yumi, Aelita and Jeremie were seated in the waiting room of the vet's building. Odd had already gone in with Kiwi. Ulrich was idly flicking through a magazine, trying not to look at the large python sitting in a cage on the chair beside him. The animal hadn't stopped staring at him since they'd come in.
"How can anyone want to keep one of those things as a pet?" He whispered to Yumi.
The girl looked at the snake. A label attached to one of the bars of the cage stated her name was Rosie. Yumi gave Ulrich a mischievous smile.
"I hear they make good guard-dogs. They'll eat any intruder."
Ulrich glanced at the python, which flicked her tongue out in a way that resembled licking her lips.
Aelita was looking at a beautiful red and blue parrot whose cage was being held by a middle-aged man.
"Hello, there." She said playfully to the bird.
"Hello." It whistled back.
"Ha ha, I love how they talk." She said to Jeremie. "Do they repeat every phrase they hear?"
"Just the ones they hear most of all." Jeremie replied. "It's actually a good way of telling what kind of home environment they live in."
The parrot then squawked out,
"I love you, Florence."
The two teens looked at the man, holding the parrot cage. He turned his head away bashfully. Aelita put her hand over her mouth to hide a giggle.
"Aww, I think that's sweet."
The parrot then spoke up again,
"Uh, oh. Get out, Florence. Uh, oh. Here comes the wife. Here comes the wife."
They looked in shock at the man again, who had his face completely turned away.
The door to the outside opened and the four Lyoko Warriors' eyes widened as they recognized the people entering.
Suzanne Hertz was being followed in by Jim Morales, who was holding a ginger cat in his arms.
"You know, Jim; you didn't have to come with me." Ms Hertz said as she approached the receptionist desk.
"Nonsense, Suzanne." Jim replied with what was presumably intended to be a charming smile. "When you told me little Edison here had an ear infection; I just had to come and make sure he was okay."
He petted Edison's head. The cat in turn hissed at him.
After checking in with the receptionist, the two teachers sat down with the other waiting pet-owners.
"Actually Suzanne, I used to be a vet myself." Said Jim.
"Really." Ms Hertz didn't sound interested in the least. She glanced over at four figures, who each had their faces concealed behind a magazine.
"Yes, I worked at a local zoo. There was this one time when an elephant was suffering from terrible constipation. Well, I just pulled on my rubber gloves and -"
Ms Hertz held up a hand.
"I'd rather you didn't talk about it, Jim."
Looking somewhat dejected, Jim stroked Edison again. The animal responded by sinking his claws into Jim's arm.
"Yeeoow!"
His elbow jerked out and knocked Rosie's cage. The python, who had still been staring at Ulrich, bared her fangs in response to this disturbance. Ulrich instinctively tried to back away from the snake, and knocked into Yumi. In a domino effect, all four of the hiding students were bumped from their chairs, and revealed to their teachers.
"What the -? Stones, Belpois, Ishiyama, Stern; what're you four doing off campus?" Jim demanded.
"I don't live on campus, Jim." Yumi reminded him.
"Oh, right. Well then, what're you three doing off campus?" Jim redirected his question to Ulrich, Jeremie and Aelita.
Before any of them could answer, Odd came out of the examination room carrying Kiwi.
"Good news, guys. Kiwi's gonna be just fi… er." He trailed off on seeing Jim and Ms Hertz.
Thinking fast, Yumi moved over to Odd and took Kiwi.
"Oh, that's wonderful! Thank you, Odd." She said with great enthusiasm. Looking towards the teachers, she added with an embarrassed look,
"My dog wasn't feeling well and, well I just hate being around doctors and vets places, so my friends came to offer their support."
"Like you with Ms Hertz." Aelita chipped in.
Jim glanced back at the science teacher, and thought maybe about letting them off this time. But suddenly, Edison started hissing and yowling at Kiwi. The dog responded with a series of high-pitched barks. The two animals then leapt from their keepers' arms and proceeded to chase each other around the waiting room.
Edison dashed under the chair holding Rosie's cage; knocking against one of the legs when he did so. Kiwi followed suit and the cage fell to the floor with the door breaking open.
The waiting room was then filled with an explosion of noise.
"Yeeeeek!"
"Jim, get off me!"
"Wow, Ms Hertz. I had no idea you were so strong."
Ssssssss…
"Yaaahh! Get it off! Get it off!"
"Don't struggle, Ulrich. It'll only hold on tighter."
"I love you, Florence."
Kiwi was happily biting on a squeaky rubber ball, while the other members of Team Lyoko were sat around Odd and Ulrich's room.
"Y'know Odd," Ulrich said from his bed where he was laying. "I have enough things trying to kill me, thanks to Xana. I didn't need a giant snake added to them!"
"Oh come on, Ulrich." Odd replied. "They got it off you easily enough. It was probably more scared than you were."
"I doubt it!"
"I can't believe we got a whole week's detention for sneaking off campus." Jeremie sat on Odd's bed, with his hands under his chin. "This is really going to slow down my Lyoko research."
"Maybe Ulrich could get Sissi to talk to her father for us." Aelita suggested. She then added with a grin. "You did make quite the impression in the Rec Room."
"You people aren't happy unless I'm suffering, are you?" Ulrich said dryly.
"Well, I'd rather have detention than sit through another one of Jim's lectures on 'Controlling Your Animal'." Said Yumi. She fixed Odd with a look. "Especially, considering he isn't my animal."
"Okay, okay." Odd held up his hands in surrender. "I get your point. Next time, I'll take Kiwi to the vet myself."
They all turned their heads at a particularly loud squeak. Kiwi was sitting up with his mouth open, and the ball could be seen at the back of his throat. He gave a deliberate gulp and the squeaky toy disappeared entirely.
Odd looked around at his friends.
"Seeing as you're all getting a detention anyway…"