The Return to Lyoko
Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone.
-Chapter 6: Shopping, Dropping and Rolling-
The next morning, seven teens woke up to the growling of their stomachs. Odd tiredly walked down to the kitchen and opened the door. To his surprise -and immense despair- he found only dust.
"Guys! Emergency! We don't have any food!" Odd yelled quite loudly.
His friends walked into the kitchen and took a minute for his words to sink in.
"Jeremy, what are we going to do for breakfast and lunch and dinner?" Aelita asked sweetly.
"I can go buy some groceries. Problem is, I don't have any money..." Alana admitted.
"I'll go with you! My parents gave me some money." Odd suggested.
"Do you have enough for breakfast?" William asked.
Odd laughed. "My parents gave me a thousand dollars for the semester alone. They give me and my sisters each a thousand."
Multiple jaws dropped in shock.
Alana broke the silence. "I guess we don't have to worry about eating for a little bit."
Odd then added, "They'll give me more if I ask for it."
"Okay Odd, let's go get some food."
In a few minutes, Odd and Alana were showered and dressed and out the door.
"In the meantime, I can show you guys the basics of the supercomputer!" Jeremy suggested with excitement.
The others agreed reluctantly.
"Okay, may I see each of your laptops?" Jeremy asked.
Everyone brought out theirs, including Odd's and Alana's.
Jeremy quickly went on each of them and typed some sort of code into it.
After he was through, he announced, "Now all of our laptops are able to monitor Lyoko. Just go to the program and you'll see a map of all activity on Lyoko. I only installed the basic program so you can't virtualize anyone but you can communicate with anyone on Lyoko. I'm going to show all of you some codes that you just have to enter into this box right here to be able to assist in virtualizing vehicles or weapons or etc. Another code will allow you to virtualize or devirtualize someone.
"I altered the code for the 'return to the past' so that only I know it. Since XANA is getting stronger, we will only use it if and only if it is necessary." Ulrich hung his head in shame and Yumi grabbed his hand as if to say, 'It's all right.'
"I will teach it to Alana and Aelita for in case something happens to me. They are the ones who I will give the most lessons to. Each of you will get information on this but I will teach Alana and Aelita the most, is that okay?"
"No problem, Jeremy."
"Fine with me."
William nodded and Aelita smiled.
"Odd, we don't need 20 packets of bacon..."
After Jeremy went off with Aelita to the garden, Yumi and Ulrich went to Yumi's room.
"I like what you've done with the place." He commented as he saw a poster for the Subdigitals. They sat on the bed together and began to talk.
"This year is already starting off to be pretty weird, wouldn't ya say?" Yumi asked, holding his hand.
He stared at their laced fingers and responded. "Yeah, but pretty amazing. I've missed Lyoko. And I've missed bonding with you guys over experiences no one else will ever have."
"And you've missed the swords and the overbike."
They laughed.
He started again. "I've missed some of the things that happened. I missed the feeling of relief after holding your hand right as you're about to fall. It's like..."
"Magic?" She whispered.
"Yeah. Remember that Hercules movie? Meg's soul is swimming in Hades's lake and he jumps in. She saved him so he saves her. Grabbing your hand right as you're about to fall is like catching Meg right when the fates are about to cut your string."
"People do crazy things when they're in love." Yumi whispered so quietly that he thought he heard wrong. But when he realized...
His lips closed over hers and she was pushed onto her back with the force of his kiss. She moaned into his mouth and gripped his shoulders tightly.
Whatever had changed in Ulrich was apparently for the best.
-the night before-
"Hey, Ulrich, you awake?" Odd whispered into the dark room.
"No, because this is Jeremy." Came a very disgruntled voice.
"Sorry, Einstein."
"Odd, I'm in the next room over." came Ulrich through a door.
"Hey Ulrich, what's up?"
"I'm waking up, if that's what you're asking."
"Oh that's cool. Hey I was wanting some advice." Odd asks nervously.
"Isn't it always you that forces advice upon me?"
"Yeah and look where you ended up! In a relationship with the girl you love, because of me!"
"Some relationship... It seems like we're still just friends. We've only kissed once."
"Do you ever talk about...er...feelings?" Odd managed to spit the word out.
"Not really. Actually, never. Even me asking her out was an accident! What if she thinks I don't like her anymore?" Ulrich was now becoming distressed. Neither of them ever talked about their feelings.
"Just get her alone and say something romantic." Odd suggested with ease. "Now back to the important subject at hand, what do I do about Alana?"
"Whatdya mean?"
"I don't know how to ask her out... I think she still loves Riagan..."
"I wouldn't be surprised. But she seems to like you more than she should."
"What do you mean?"
"No one that smart should have a crush on you."
A thump came from the room.
"Thanks for the advice." Odd says.
"Thanks for the advice and the bruise."
-Back to the next day-
Aelita and Jeremy walked through the overgrown gardens of the Hermitage. Aelita sat down on a bench and Jeremy followed.
He could remember Aelita's voice from long ago.
"That's right. You're not the real Jeremy. Jeremy would never kiss me like that!" Aelita was so confident that he would never kiss her that she used that to distinguish him from a XANA shadow.
"Close your eyes." Jeremy whispered to Aelita.
Aelita did as she was told. Jeremy felt it would be easier this way.
Behaving very unJeremy-like, he threw caution to the wind and brought his lips to hers. He could feel her smile.
As they broke away, Aelita slid closer to Jeremy and he wrapped his arm around her.
And the two stayed like this for a while, thoughts only of each other.
"Is this all?" asked a surprised cashier out of habit as she looked upon 10 packets of bacon and 10 boxes of cereal along with various other food items.
"Yes, thank you." Alana answered politely.
The cashier bagged the items and Odd paid for them as Alana walked off with all of the bags in her arms.
As they exited the store, Alana managed to fit all the items it was safe to do so in her backpack. She hopped on her skateboard and distributed the remaining bags with Odd before racing off to the Hermitage.
A shout was heard throughout the house that had everyone rushing into a crazed frenzy.
"FOOD!" Odd shouted.
Odd threw about 30 slices of bacon and about 20 eggs into multiple pans on the stove. The toaster was being refilled over and over again. Jams and ketchup and butter were spread out on the dining room table. Two gallon jugs of milk were in the center of the table.
It was torn apart.
But that was expected.
A new rule:
Odd Della Robbia will always be last in line for food, as will Ulrich and William. This is for the sake of everyone else in the house.
The seven friends went to the living room after breakfast.
"We need to do some training." Jeremy mentioned, his work-a-holic attitude returning with intensity. He quickly grabbed his laptop and ran a routine check of Lyoko.
"Alana, you said that the worlds, like Lyoko and the Glen will be joined together?" Jeremy asked after remembering something.
Alana thought for a moment and shrugged. "It's possible." She allowed.
Jeremy typed furiously on his laptop and discovered a weakness at the edges of the Lyoko realm. It was as if it was a fraying cloth.
"It's more than possible." Jeremy reported. He typed more and more. "It's true. I'm entering a new world."
They all shifted to look into the screen.
They spotted a girl with silver armour and a bow. Arrows were strapped across her back and her hair was tied and wrapped around what -looked to be- a circlet of silver olive leaves. A gray, armoured horse stood by her. She walked to the edges of her realm and touched it softly. Then, she walked through it, not unlike Aelita shifting into the tower.
Jeremy threw on his mouthpiece.
"Hello?" He almost yelled into the speaker.
The girl waved at him. "Hello," she greeted. "My name is Gem! How are you? And who are you?" She asked, a slight Polish accent mingling through her words.
The group looked on in shock as a demon of pure electricity entered their world also. Whoever Gem was, she brought enemies.
AN2: Here we are, using an OC provided by Prosper Jade! Hope my portrayal was accurate! :D