"Sorry I'm late, they were working under me sir. There was some intel I required but it seemed they wouldn't let me obtain it. So I had no other choice but to get outside help." Naomi lied.
Nova looked calm, but, on the inside, he felt ready to fire her at the first given chance.
"I see, well then, now that's done and over with. I'll make sure they are given merits for their hard work." Mr. Delmas added.
Naomi bowed to Mr. Delmas before leaving to follow Nova out of the office.
"You do realize that you just committed a major offense against the Sumeragi right?" Nova interrogated.
"That was the idea." Naomi smirked.
"Regardless, the Sumeragi won't be letting you go anytime soon." Nova informed.
"Well there goes my hopes and dreams." Naomi pouted.
The Lyoko warriors were so glad to be dismissed. However, Franz and Aelita were stuck in there trying to explain what happened in the past decade. In her current situation, Naomi was rather jealous.
"So, what am I going to be doing now? There was some data that needed decrypting right?" Naomi rambled.
"I actually noticed recently that you've been doing some digging of your own. On the Muse Project to be exact. Why is that?" Nova pondered.
And that's when Naomi knew she hit a snag in her plans. She suspected Nova would find out eventually. Although, she didn't have a plan in place for when he did uncover her half baked scheme. No ideas reached her mind. Suddenly, it hit her.
"I just wanted to see if it was still a work in progress. That and if there was even the slightest possibility of it boosting the power of my Muse Septima. Even if it was just by a little." Naomi droned.
Nova nodded with an understanding and possibly fake smile.
"Someone told me in the office that you were fond of the girl with the pink hair. I think Aelita was her name." Nova remembered.
Naomi growled.
'All of a sudden I've got this bad gut feeling like he's gonna do something bad with her. Or use her as leverage over me like typical villains do. There's also holding her for ransom. Not to mention turning her to the dark side too. Knowing Nova, that's what he'd do.' Naomi thought.
Naomi shook her head to rid herself of the worry.
"What does any of this have to do with Aelita?" Naomi fumed.
"I was just wondering why she was so important to you." Nova replied.
"Because I need someone normal to talk to." Naomi seethed.
Nova laughed slightly. Naomi felt mad, scared and a little sick to her stomach of course.
"She seemed very nice." Nova noticed.
'Yeah, she's also someone you need to keep your influental mitts off.' Naomi mentally ranted.
It was hard to tell who felt worse that moment, Naomi or her boss. The Lyoko group felt awful too. Asimov was busy trying to assure everyone else as well as himself that everything would be alright.
"This isn't my fault. She was the one who decided to make the mission late then take it before the new date." Asimov ranted.
"Well it was an' ya can't deny it. If you would've went ta Sumeragi yerself then none a this happened!" Zeno huffed.
Asimov felt a painful tinge of guilt.
"You could've told her not to go. She knows she's gotta listen to ya if she wats ta keep her job." Zeno remarked.
"Maybe you could text her and tell Naomi that if she doesn't come back to work within the month, then she'll lose the chance to ever be accepted back into the team." Moniqa suggested.
So, Asimov had Zeno text Naomi the message. She couldn't view it though since she was in trouble with Nova.
"It seems sending you to S-FIT wasn't enough. Maybe shipping you to the Stratacombs will be an improvement." Nova theorized.
Naomi grit her teeth and did her best not to scream. She bit her lower lip until it started to bleed. A drop fell from her lip and turned into a miniscule puddle on the floor.
'If I was still alive I'm pretty sure this anxiety would've killed me by now.' Naomi supposed.
With her head bent down, she nodded solemnly.
"Although, I recall the last time you were experimented on there you escaped and started a rebellion at the same time. It's been decided then, you'll be sent to the front lines of the Adept Hunters Unit with Carrera and Zonda along with the rest of the squadron." Nova informed.
Naomi thought her life couldn't get any worse, until it proved her wrong that very same day.
It would've been better to demote me to janitorial work.' Naomi scowled.
She was ready to throw in the towel and high tail it out of there back to QUILL right that second. But, there was an opportunity hidden. She could hunt down other Adepts while transformed and attack Carrera and Zonda. And if prompted to explain she would just say it was a side effect of transforming.
'Although, Nova already knows what I'm up to already so he'd most likely rat me out.' Naomi theorized.
She decided to ponder her escape plan later. In the meantime, all she could think to do was survive. The Lyoko team was convening with Xana on his new monster designs.
"So, that's what you want to unleas in S-FIT to scour the floors and look for her?" Odd questioned.
They were looking at the two new mech specs Xana had proposed. One looked like a Krab with a mix of the Scyphozoa. The second was a more realistic version of the Tarantula. The Krab had a regular amount of legs but its top was much more rounded, similar to a mound on its head.
