Chapter 1

New Start, New School

Akioneko Stern took a running start toward the spring board. She was going to do it, going to get on the team and get a scholarship to Kadic Academy, one of the most prestigious schools in the country. She jumped and summersaulted through the air before landing upside down on her hands on the pommel horse. After staying in that position for a few seconds she moved her legs down toward one side of the horse and swung them around moving her position to swing her legs around her body and under where her arms were before pushing off, flipping in the air and landing lightly on her feet at the edge of her mat.

She moved immediately into her floor routine, starting off with several cartwheels, into front handsprings,…"remember just reverse a few steps," she muttered to herself as she stopped in a hand stand and moved into back hand springs, "now forward…" she said moving into summersaults going head over heels across the mat, and ending by jumping up and then performing an Arabian dive roll.

She stood there panting, the routine finally done with the pommel horse and the floor routine. She looked up like her gymnastics teacher had taught her. Her teacher nodded as they waited to find out what the athletic director who was also the gymnastics coach at her new school thought. He nodded and wrote something down, "Thank you Miss Stern…and welcome to the team."

Meanwhile in Leon…

"No."

"Champagne you're going and that's final," A man with blond hair and glasses dressed in a turtle neck sitting in front of a computer told a girl with long light pink hair with black lowlights and glasses. The room was a simple office with only the computer showing that it didn't belong to someone who just did work from home. The computer had six screens and any number of them could be in use at any given time.

"But all my friends are here! And I don't want to go to some old boarding school," She stated crossing her arms and pouting.

"And you're getting rid of the black in your hair before you go, it looks trashy," he said as he continued to type away.

Champagne crossed her arms and stormed away, "Why should I have to go to some stupid boarding school…it's unfair! All my friends get to stay here while I go to some snob school…heck I'd rather do online home school then go to some place like Kadic." She glanced in the kitchen where her mother was cooking, "Mom I'm going out for a while."

"Wait, Champagne-" her mother ran out into the hall to find the front door already closed.

"Gone again?" Champagne's father asked his wife.

"Yes. Do you really think it's the best decision to send her to Kadic Jeremy? It'd be the first time she'd be away from home."

"I don't like that crowd she hangs out with. Kadic will be a good change for her, and besides it's not a bad place. If I hadn't gone there I wouldn't have been able to free you now wouldn't I?"

"No you wouldn't have been able too," She said with a smile, "It's too bad though…"

Jeremy placed a hand on her shoulder, "Both of them are in a better place now. I'm sure your father was finally ready for some peace, and Odd well…He knew what the dangers were," Jeremy said as tears came to his eyes.

"It still seems like it was only yesterday that he'd be asking for your deserts and calling you Einstein," Aelita mentioned.

"Or calling you princess when you guys were on Lyoko," Jeremy agreed.

"Or teasing Ulrich and Yumi about their not relationship," Aelita stated with a laugh before suddenly stopping. Both she and Jeremy had troubled looks on their faces. "I still can't believe that they blamed you for his disappearance. You did all you could."

Jeremy nodded, "Doesn't matter, they are gone from our lives now. Teaching at a martial arts school in (province)."

In an alley in the middle of town…

Several people were hanging out in an alley way between two office buildings listening to heavy metal music coming from a stereo sitting up against one of the building. They were dressed in dark clothes, and seemed to be having an argument.

"Would you guys cut that racquet out do you want to have the cops called on us again?" Asked Champagne as she stood at the entrance of the alley. A heavy set guy with a black wife beater reached over and turned off the stereo as she walked into the alley.

A boy with black hair and long white bangs that covered one side of his face looked up, "Champagne, baby," He opened his arms and she walked into them before turning to the rest of the group his arms around her. "We figured out the best bust in the series of busts. Perfect for your last bust with us before your father sends you to that prep school."

"Pass me a cig will you," she asked one of the girls, an older girl with stick straight black hair.

The girl held out a box, "All yours sugar-grape," as Champagne took one and lit it and put it in her mouth.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," She let out a puff of smoke, "Now what was the great bust idea Jacque?"

"We're gonna break into Bel Pois Enterprises and steal some of those new phones they're makin'," he responded pulling her closer, "The heist of the century, and made even easier considering you have access."

"It's too dangerous," mentioned the heavy set guy sitting standing by the boom box, "their security system is to tight, we'd need a power outage to get in, and even those are too dangerous for our little technomancer to plan."

"Not if you have the key card," Jacque told the boy, "Besides, who is gonna expect that little Champagne would steal from her father, especially since she already phone already."

"I actually don't. All the prototypes are still in the lab for testing purposes. It's the first phone that my father is planning on releasing without letting me try it out first. And I can easily get a key card," Champagne grinned. "Let's plan for tonight."

In a home in the country side…

"Dad do I really have to," a boy with dark hair groaned as he sat down to dinner.

"It's either that or go to public school and continuing to share a room with your three sisters," his dad said, digging into his plate of beef bourguignon, "Lovely dinner tonight honey," He said complimenting his wife.

"Couldn't I go to some other boarding school?" the boy asked.

"No, I get a discount for being a teacher there."

The boy groaned.

Meanwhile…

Dinner was a quiet affair at the Stern household. Akioneko had gotten into another fight with her parents over her choice of schools. They had told her that she could go to any school she could get an athletic scholarship too, but neither guessed which school she'd pick.

"You're not going to go back on your promise are you?" Akioneko asked with ice in her voice. Her father sighed and glanced at her mother.

"There are plenty of other schools out there besides Kadic. Plenty which have offered you scholarships because of your achievments in tournaments-"

"Yeah well maybe I'd rather spend my time on gymnastics and Kadic offered me a gymnastics scholarship."

"Gymnastics are stupid," Akioneko's brother stated in a loud voice.

"Oberen say that again and I'll kick your-"

"Akioneko," Their mother said sternly, "that's enough."

"But he was dissing gymnastics!"

"Both of you knock it off," their father growled, "Akioneko you can go to Kadic, but you must maintain a 3.5 gpa."

"Piece of cake," Akioneko said nodding.

"And get at least 10th place at the province competition," he finished.

"What?! But province is hard to get in," Akioneko exclaimed.

"You've gotten there before for martial arts, and if you are going to a school because they offer you a different scholarship you should be just as good if not better," her father stated.

"But-but…Mom! This isn't fair!" Akioneko tried to appeal to her mom.

"Think of it as a challenge Akioneko, unless you'd rather switch schools."

"No…" Akioneko continued to eat her dinner, frustrated with both of her parents.

That night in Leon…

A group of teenagers were hanging out in an alley way, talking in hushed voices and all of them wearing black with hoods up.

"You got the key card sugar-grape?" One of them asked a smaller girl.

"Easy to get," she said holding up a white and silver card with a symbol that looked like an eye with three bottom lashes and one top one, "They are such sound sleepers and my dad just leaves it out on his bedside table."

"Champagne you come through for us again," another girl stated taking the card from her and admiring it, "Now let's get us some new phones!"

Champagne smiled, "I'll also set your numbers to them and deactivate their tracers. Then no one will know you took them."

The girl handed her back the card which she stuffed into her pocket before they started to walk down the street. There were a few simple things to do if you wanted to cause a heist and they hadn't been caught yet. The cameras were always disabled or looped when they broke into places, alarms turned off etc. Champagne's knowledge was a true asset to this group of never-do-wells and for once she felt listened too. Like she belonged. Sure they were all half a year older than her but she was an asset to their team.

It also helped that the police thought that the break-ins were being done by someone who was older because of the nature of the evidence being hidden. No finger prints were left, security cameras tricked, stuff that was stolen not showing up again. They believed the robber or group of robbers to be in their late 20s early 30s. They wouldn't suspect a group of teenagers.

Bel Pois enterprises was in the center of town. A shiny blue building, it housed the developmental lab and head offices for the company. The teens knew that they would seem suspicious coming in through the front door, so they made their way along the fence line using the cover of darkness. The security house was empty tonight as no one had clearance to go in and the guards office could only be unlocked by a key card but only if you had clearance at that time. Only two people had master key cards to override the system. Jeremy and Aelita Bel Pois.

But now Champagne held one of those master cards in her hand, and sneaking out from behind a bush swiped the card. There was a line of musical beeps and the door unlocked. She opened the door slightly and snuck in keeping it barely open.

She closed the door slightly and waited a few minutes before opening it up and letting one of the group in. They always did it like this when there was a place to hide. No one ever saw them entering, and no one ever saw them leaving this way. After everyone was in Champagne closed the door and reswiped the card typing in the code scpio, her fathers over all security word. With a few magical beeps and a confirmation Champagne knew that she had reset the security settings. Now all she had to do was use her computer to set the cameras on loop-retroactively and get rid of the footage of her and her friends.

It was a simple task for champagne although she had to break into her father's security system but since she knew the overall security code she was able to bypass most of the fire walls. It took ten minutes before she looked up from her laptop. "We're all set, all cameras on loop and all evidence of us is erased from all computer systems and the back up on the internet."

"Nicely done sugar-grape, how would we ever survive without you?" One of the older girls, the one who had given her the cigarette earlier asked jokingly.

"Well you wouldn't be able to pull the heist of the century now would we cocoa bean?" Champagne said standing up, "Now let's go get those phones."

With the cameras on loop crossing the court yard to the building was a cinch. There were plenty of places to hide and the door responded to the key card just like the previous one did. Now they had to stop after they got in so Champagne could wipe the computers for the information that the master key card had been used there after re-locking it but no one minded. It was one of the reasons they were never caught. They and all evidence except what they took was invisible.

They walked down the halls of the building, using the key card to open doors to top secret labs trying to find where the phones were stored. Champagne would do another wipe of the system once they found the phones but right now knowing which doors they had already opened was in their best interest.

They finally found the phones in the lab LO-1, one of the most top secret labs in the building. Computers lined the walls, all turned off now though and in the middle of the room thirty cell phone prototypes were sitting on a table with a bullet proof glass case around it and a security console.

Champagne walked up and swiped the master card and heard a click as the glass started to lift up allowing them access to the cell phones.

Elsewhere…

Jeremy and Aelita woke up to a loud beeping coming from Jeremy's desktop computer, "What on earth?" Jeremy asked aloud as he put his glasses on. The Screen said security alert, break in attempt, but the camera footage it was showing showed that the cellphones were safely behind the bullet proof glass. Jeremy frowned. As he walked over to his computer, it was probably just a bug he decided he did just upgrade the security system after all.

Just then his cell phone went off as he tried to sort out the bug on his home computer. "Hello?...Yes I just got the message from my silent alarm officer, nothing is showing up on my security camera though it's probably just a…this has happened before?"

Jeremy did a quick search and found that there were unlocked doors in the building, but not outside. "Yeah doing some more work on it now it looks like you may be right that burglar you're after has gotten in. I'll be right over their officer you'll need me to get you into the building to catch him," Jeremy said turning to grab the card from the bedside table only to find that it was missing.

15 minutes later…

Using Aelita's card Jeremy got him and several police units into the guard house on the at the labs premises. The first order of business was giving the police cars clearance to as to block the entrances and the exits of the laboratory. Next Jeremy logged onto the security's computers in order to disable the looping in the cameras around the property. It took him 10 minutes to get past the security settings placed on the loops but he was soon able to get the cameras running in real time again.

There in the lab LO-1 were a group of people dressed in black systematically removing the cell phones. Two cut the chains that kept them connected to the table, two more were separating the rest of the chain. One of them connected them to a laptop did some programing, at least that's what Jeremy guessed it was and then handed them off to one of the members in the group or set it in a bag at their feet.

Jeremy pressed a couple of buttons and turned on audio feed from the cameras. "-work faster Champagne? We're getting a backlog over here."

'Champagne?' Jeremy wondered just as his little girl's voice cam over the computer speaker.

"It's not easy to get past the security system and disable, reprogram and then re-enable the GPS system guys. Especially since the system is programed by my father. Sure I know how to break it but there is no override code and the programing itself takes a while to correct."

"I was afraid of this…" Jeremy said before turning to the police officers, "Deal with the others as you will, I'm only going to charge them with trespassing. Champagne is my daughter and I will deal with her myself."