A/N:
***Rockstar by Post Malone (Clean Version)
Aelita is still in bed when the sun reaches high noon. She stirs but does not get up, even though she is wide-awake. The day is almost over and she has missed her three classes for the day. The gang is most likely in the cafeteria, probably talking about last night's meeting, probably not. There's no way for her to be absolutely sure since she isn't there with them, and there's a chance that Sissi is in earshot, preventing any real discussions from taking place.
She rolls onto her side, trying her best to ignore the massive headache that stubbornly has persisted throughout the morning. Despite the pain being so bad that she can feel her pulse in her head, she reaches beneath her pillow to retrieve her cell phone. Five text messages. One from Sissi asking where she is, one from Yumi asking the same thing, a follow-up from Sissi saying "the rec room is sooo live right now," a single question mark from Odd, and a text from her ex-boyfriend. Aelita makes a face as she reads the message from Jeremie: "At some point today, can you head down to the factory?"
Seeing Jeremie again is the very last thing on Aelita's mind at the moment. Regardless, she slowly climbs out of bed and takes off her oversized pajama shirt. Reluctantly, she puts on sweatpants, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt; it's likely to be freezing cold in the Factory, because that is the ideal atmosphere for the Supercomputer in order to prevent overheating and subsequent short-circuiting.
She heads down the stairs and out the front door of the house, careful to remain as quiet and as undetected as possible. The Kadic middle schoolers like to venture out into the forest to see the legendary "Haunted Hermitage" for themselves. The two most popular times of day to explore the property are late afternoon—after classes are done for the day—and in the evening after dinnertime.
Aelita walks around the side of the building to the heavy door that is the secret entrance to the sewer tunnel. The door slams shut behind her, likely exciting any children observing the building from afar. If she didn't have a massive headache, she probably would have run through the tunnel, but she leisurely strolls through since she is in no particular rush.
When she finally reaches the sewer itself, she opts against using her scooter to get to the other side; she figures she would rather not make her head spin anymore than it already is.
Down in the Lab, the tension in the air is almost tangible. Aelita can feel it as soon as she walks out of the elevator toward Jeremie, who is hunched over in the chair. He is furiously typing away at the keyboard. He is so focused, eyes glued to the four monitors in front of him, that he doesn't hear Aelita's entrance.
She stands besides him and examines the screens. On one screen are the results from the Superscan, and the next screen displays the Localization results.
"There are 61 Replikas now?" she asks, purposely forgoing the formalities of greeting him.
"XANA was able to create ten more during these past five years."
"Were you able to find out where exactly he is?"
"No. But, it's safe to assume that he is in one of the Supercomputers that hosts Replikas, which narrows the location down to 1 of 61 places."
Aelita shrugs. "It's better than having him roam around the network wherever he pleases."
Jeremie nods in agreement. "That's true." He points to the Holomap. "This is Sector Five, and these," he points at a third monitor, "are all the locations within the sector containing data crucial to the Recalcitrance Code."
"How many are there?"
"Twelve."
"So, we have to go to all twelve locations to find the code?"
"No. I think I can manage to pull the data myself without needing to send any of you to Sector Five."
"Okay. So, what's the plan, then?"
"I'm going to start pulling the data from the twelve locations. I'll need your help to do so."
"What can I do?"
"I need you to help rebuild and reprogram the Skidbladnir."
"Reprogram? Why?"
"Because the Skid is the only vehicle that can withstand the heat of the Digital Sea. It's the only way to get to the Replikas."
"I'm well aware of that. I'm not stupid, Jeremie." Aelita rolls her eyes. "But alright. I'll get started on that."
"Thank you." Jeremie gets up from the chair and allows Aelita to take his place.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to the library to get some books on encryption."
"You're not going to stay here and work on the code?"
"I can't. I need more research to crack the Recalcitrance Code, and I can't research if I'm sitting here. I'll be back in a few hours."
"Whatever. I guess."
Jeremie walks over to the elevator and presses the button. As the doors open, he turns around and says, "Oh, and Aelita?"
"What?"
"I'm really glad we're a team again."
Aelita hesitates before responding. "Yeah."
William fiddles with the neon yellow armband wrapped around his left upper arm. He never has liked the feeling of the captain's armband constricting his biceps, but there is no reason to complain about it.
It's the pregame portion of Kadic Academy's first scrimmage of the soccer season. The opponent is already on-site and warming up their players. That's one of the perks of being the home team—you have as much time as you need to change from street clothes to team kits, warm-up, pep talk, and everything in between.
***Another thing is the benefit of being able to choose the warm-up music playlist, which tends to be the same playlist used in practices for the sake of continuity. As captain of the team, the privilege of picking what songs are on the playlist goes to William, and he doesn't disappoint. American rap is his favorite genre, and he especially loves the songs that are bass-heavy. Hearing the music through the high-end field loudspeakers gets his team really pumped. Of course, he has to find clean versions—or better yet, instrumental versions when clean versions don't exist—and even then he still has to get the list approved by the athletic manager.
William is sitting on the ground behind the bench stretching his back by touching the tips of his bright orange cleats. He absentmindedly listens to the conversations of his teammates around him.
"This is the team that fouls like crazy, right?"
"Shit, I left my water bottle in the locker room!"
"This is the team with that wannabe Pelletier, right?"
"Man, I can't wait to play him in a regular match and not a scrim. We're gonna beat his ass."
That catches William's attention, and he scoots around on his butt to face the direction of the voice. "Is that so, Roux? Pelletier is here?"
Bastien Roux, William's roommate, nods and points him out across the field; there he is reclining on the bench with his legs open in a wide v.
William refrains from making a face of disgust. "So it's true then… he transferred back to Monod Academy."
"Transferred? Oh, hell no. He was expelled from his last school, mate." Jean-Baptiste Pujol pipes up.
"Expelled? What the hell for?" William resists the urge to let his lips curl into a smirk at the misfortune of his athletic rival.
"Nobody is saying," Tristan Brossard joins in the conversation. "Everybody on both sides is keeping mum about it. It's all very hush-hush." He pauses. "Weird, isn't it? I wonder what he did… wait—didn't you used to go to Monod?"
"ALL RIGHT! BRING IT IN!" The coach yells for all of his players to gather before him.
It was an interesting occurrence when, after Jim Morales stepped down from the position of collegiate coach in order to return to the secondary level, Anton Dragonov was hired to fill the position. Kadic Academy's mascot is a dragon, and now the collegiate coach of the school's pride and joy has a last name with "dragon" in it.
Dragonov speaks, in his trademark fast-paced Russian accent. "This is the first scrim of the year, so what we do here tonight may very well set the tone for the rest of the year. We have to give it our all from the very beginning, and we have to run the plays, guys. Got it?"
There is a general murmur of agreement amongst the players.
"All right, Dragons on three." William prompts everyone, "One, two, three—"
"DRAGONS!"
And the whistle blows to signal the start of the game.