WOOO! I've been excited for this one as well. This is a two-parter, so to speak. Enjoy!

It takes place in the Garage Kids continuity. If you haven't seen Garage Kids, check it out, it's only like 3 minutes long.

Edit: It was Jeremie who fell off the roof, not Odd. I misremembered. Sorry!

Day 20: Garage Kids

"Okay… I just…have…to…"

Yumi closed her eyes, then pinched them tighter, rocking her head slightly and concentrating on her breaths. If she didn't keep her energy steady, and her focus completely uninterrupted, then she wouldn't be able to get herself to the place where she wanted to be. That or the exercise would go horribly wrong, and when she opened her eyes she'd see every gross distortion of reality she'd ever feared she'd cause by accident.

"It's not floating yet," she could hear Odd saying from somewhere in the darkness near her ear. "Not yet, not yet… okay, now it's wobbling a little bit, but it's not floating. I can see the left side lifting up - no, okay, it's back down -"

"Just let me know when it's in the air, Odd," Yumi said, letting a spare breath. She had to keep her concentration. She had to think, think, think… she was strong, she could push herself, she could bring her power to heights she'd never thought possible before…

She felt it even before it started happening. She opened one eye, just to see if she could, and she saw desk hovering an inch or two above the ground, hovering in midair, and then lifting higher and higher, with only the most minimum of effort. The papers and books on top were even staying put for the most part, though a few had slid off.

"Hey, uh, Yumi!" Odd said. "It's up! You did it!"

"I know, it's amazing!" She quickly shut her eyes again - if she broke her concentration for too long, she'd send the desk crashing back down. She redirected her thoughts, telling herself down, down, down. And now she could feel it falling, and hold onto that feeling and try to control it -

THUNK. The desk took the last inch to the floor pretty fast, but it was still in one piece when she opened her eyes, minus a few papers falling through the air.

"I did it," she said to herself. "Wow… that's… that's the biggest thing I've ever tried that on." She laughed to herself, then whooped. It was uncharacteristic, but she was proud.

"The biggest?" Odd jumped up off his bed, and examined the desk. "This isn't heavier than Jeremie, is it?"

"Well, no," Yumi said, picking up her water bottle and taking a long drink before she went on. "But that time on the roof was different. He was in trouble. I had adrenaline to help me out. This was the first time I've tried that on purpose."

"Well, still. That's… wow." Odd laughed to himself. "I can't believe we can do these things, now."

"What?" Yumi was so startled by Odd's words that the can fell - she hadn't even seen it suspended in midair.

"That's the power of Xanadu for you. It makes the impossible possible. I'm pretty much used to it, now." Yumi put the bottle down, and rested her hands on her knees. "So…how about you? How are you adjusting?"

"To the powers?" Odd slumped back against the wall, patting his lap. Kiwi lifted his head, staring at Odd from the opposite end of the bed, and then put it down again.

"Well, to everything," Yumi said.

"It's not as easy as you have it, that's for sure." Odd laughed. "I'm not sure I can ever control the visions."

"Have you had any more, lately?"

"Not today," Odd said. "But the other day, I was just walking along, and… and it was like I was suddenly somewhere else. Somewhere darker, like it was later in the day. I was sitting in a dark room, looking at a computer screen…"

"And what did it say?" Yumi said.

"I couldn't really understand it. It was the kind of computer junk maybe Jeremie could make half a lick of sense out of." Odd laughed. "I don't know if I could make it happen again. But that was really it."

"Do you think you should tell Jeremie?" Yumi said. "That sounds…well, if you couldn't make sense of it, then it might be something important."

"I did already," Odd said. "He said it's like my other visions. Too vague to make any sense out of. And Ulrich…well, Ulrich was Ulrich. He kinda grunted."

Yumi laughed. "Yeah. That's Ulrich for you."

Odd adjusted himself on the bed, and then grinned over at Yumi. "You know him pretty well, huh?"

"Shut up," Yumi said, blushing. "I've already discussed this with you. "We're not-"

"Hey, hey, watch the powers!" Odd said, smashing himself against the wall. Yumi started, and the water bottle that had been careening for Odd dropped to the floor with a thud. It burst open on contact, soaking the middle of the floor.

"Oh - oh no," Yumi said, her eyes wide. "That's - I'll clean that up-"

"Hey, don't worry about it," Odd said, laughing. "I've had worse things on that floor, and I've got the answer to my question, anyway."

Five hundred miles away, Aelita Schaeffer sat in a darkened room, typing at lightning speed on keys she could barely see.

She knew the task at her hands was impossible. The Internet was growing at an alarming rate, and the actions of the virus on the network would easily be masked behind a hundred thousand other commands. But if she could just isolate them, and find where they were coming from… well, that would make her job easier than it had ever been. Which was a lot to say, given it had always been impossible.

She stopped to take a swig of water, taking careful care not to let any drops get on her setup. She blinked several times, and slapped herself across the face. She couldn't sleep yet… but she still had to get some rest, sometime. She had a long day of travel ahead, and she'd never been able to sleep on planes. She only wished she could get some of this work done on the plane itself. Maybe then she wouldn't have to go to Paris at all. Maybe she'd have a better idea, then, of where the technology was, and where she could find it.

She got up from the desk, stretching her arms above her head, and headed across the hall to her apartment bathroom. She splashed water on her face, carefully wiping it away with a towel. It had done little to make her look less tired. She'd be twenty-two soon, but she looked so much older.

She'd probably be spending her birthday alone, working at the same mission she'd been on for the last five years.

But then, it might be at an end soon enough. Maybe Xanadu was exactly where she thought it was. Maybe her father's technology wasn't lost forever, and maybe she could take her revenge on its thief. And then, when her birthday came around, would she be able to do something for it? Go out on the town, perhaps? Have a few drinks, and live a normal life?

She didn't know. Chances were, she wouldn't.

She left the bathroom behind her, and walked back to the computer setup. She'd give herself one more half hour, but then she'd definitely have to sleep.

- Carth