Danni snuck into her room, and her roommate, Emily Dunbar, caught her in the act.
"Well, Danni, what's the excuse today?" Emily asked when she stepped into the room. Danni nervously twirled her hair.
"I was at a factory picking up parts for my robot," Danni squeaked.
"Has anyone ever told you you're a terrible liar?" Emily rolled her brown eyes. "A boy's involved, correct?"
Even is a boy is involved, I'm not telling you. Danni thought to herself. Every single time she had even a small relationship with a boy, somehow Emily found out who it was one way or another, and before Danni knew it, the boy dumped her for Emily.
But Danni couldn't blame her. Emily inherited her mother's trait for having boy's following her every move, charm, beauty, and charisma, and her father's loyalty and flirtatiousness.
"Em," Danni said. "You know what happens when I tell you about a boy I like."
"It's not my fault you're socially challenged," Emily replied.
"I know you're implying I'm a nerd," Danni snapped.
"Well, you are daughter of Nobel Prize Winner Jeremy Belpois and Math Magician Aelita Belpois, it's not too much of a surprise," Emily added.
"Good night!" Danni said
Danni yawned as she woke up the next morning. She walked to the showers, and a girl looked at her.
"Um… Can I help you?" Danni asked, and looked into the girl's eyes. Instead of a pupil, there was a target with one line on the top and three at the bottom. The girl growled, and Danni stepped away.
"Watch your back," she snarled. Danni stepped back, and the girl held up her hand as she looked around. The hall was empty, and purple electricity swirled her hand.
Danni wasn't a track star, or a sports fanatic. But when instincts told her run, she took off like a rocket. She ran into the boy's locker room, and shut her eyes from the boys who were changing and pushed the drawer out of the way.
"Danni!" a boy with a brown crew cut blushed. "What are you doing?"
"Kinji, if I tell you, you'd think I lost it," Danni replied.
"Well, you're in the boy's locker room, so you must be very insane by now," he replied, slipping on his camo t-shirt.
"Just help me push this," Danni said. "Where's Todd?"
"Visiting his parents for the weekend," Kinji said pushing the drawer, and the girl walked in.
"Ek!" Danni screamed. Kinji turned around.
"You're afraid of her?" he laughed. The girl held out her hand and launched purple electricity at the two.
"Okay! I'm terrified," Kinji pushed the drawer out of the way, and a red door was there, with some rust and peeled off paint, but still there.
"What the heck is this doing here?" Kinji asked.
"Stern, no time for questions!" Danni shouted as the two ran through. At the beginning of the pipes to the factory, there were skateboards and scooters.
"What are these doing here?" Danni wondered aloud.
"We'll figure out later. Let's get out of here before she catches us," Kinji replied, grabbing a skateboard, and Danni grabbed the one next to it. The sound of falling metal sounded behind them, hinting that they should get out.
Danni plugged in the code to the supercomputer room.
"What are we doing here?" Kinji asked.
"I recognize the symbol in the girl's eyes. It was similar to something in here, I just don't remember." Danni said, and Aelita's first mix blasted from her phone.
"Old school?" Kinji asked.
"It's my mom's old mix. Too bad you can't have Pencak Siliat as a ring tone," Danni said.
"Ha ha, very funny," Kinji blushed a bright scarlet. He never crushed so hard on a girl before, since he laid eyes on her the year before when she drew the Nitrogen cycle on the board.
He wasn't a genius, more of a sports fanatic. It wasn't the fact that she was drawing a cycle that made Cupid's Arrow strike; it was her golden hair flowing down her shoulders with bubble-gum pink tips, the forest green eyes, her silky pale skin, and something about her just made his heart beat faster than the speed of light.
The something was the kindness and warmth she inherited from her mother. Kinji always loved the way she showed her genius without showing off, always being natural, and to him, she was like a house made of carrots to a rabbit.
Kinji flinched as he heard Danni talking on the phone.
"Todd? Yeah, me and Kinji are on trip… you came back early?" she glanced at Kinji, who shrugged. "Wait; hold up… a girl is attacking you and Emily? A girl who shoots purple electricity from her hand…. Okay, just please, don't call the police just yet. We'll be there soon."
"What are we going to do!?" Danni exclaimed. "Why is this thing attacking us?"
"Thing?" Kinji raised an eyebrow.
"I saw her eyes, Kinji. They weren't natural; it was like she was possessed by some supernatural being," Danni said as the door opened.
"We have to save Todd and Emily," Kinji said as Danni sat in the big chair. He was too busy planning to save his friends to notice the sci-fi movie in front of him.
"How? We don't even know what we're up against," Danni said.
"I do. You're against a multi-agent system called XANA," a boy's voice rang from the supercomputer.
"Devin!" Danni smiled, and she turned to the computer screen.
"Devin?" Kinji looked at the screen. A boy with shaggy salt-and-pepper hair, deep brown eyes, and tan skin was smiling at Danni.
"Kinji, this is Devin. He's an artificial intelligence I found in the supercomputer," Danni said. "Devin, this is my friend, Kinji."
"Nice to meet you Kinji," Devin smiled. Kinji glanced at the two, and sure enough, they seemed to have it in for each other.
"What are we going to do about Todd and Emily?" Danni interrupted Kinji's thoughts of jealousy.
"I'll go down and save them," Kinji said, "and you and Devin figure out how to stop this XANA's attack on us."
"Why does he want to kill us though? We didn't do anything to him, or at least you didn't." Danni said. "There has to be a reason."
"Whatever it is, we have to stop it. I'll bring them back here, hopefully." Kinji walked to the elevator.
"Kinji!" Danni said, and he turned. "Bring them back alive, okay?"
He left without a word.