September 8, 2024, 12:02 pm

Kadic

At the lunch tables sat the usual set of unknown heroes. Talking and bantering with each other. Minus the pink haired boy, he seems to inhale his food at an absurd rate before leaving the table in minutes. Without a single word from their friends, Stuart, Alex, and Violet, all gave each other a look towards each other before knowing Martin was out of ear shot.

"OK, what the hell happened the other day? I know you two were able to get to the factory, but I got stuck in detention." Alex asked with bits of annoyance seeping through.

"I don't know, I was knocked out after getting Devirtualized." Violet chimed in with signs of frustration hitting her caked up face. Then she turns her attention towards Stuart, "Suppose you don't have any idea either of what happened either."

"I don't know what to make of it, it felt like a dream, I never brought it up before, but I swear someone else was in the factory with us. I didn't get a good look, but it was an adult." Stuart looked away and bit ashamed for not bringing this up earlier. Both Alex and Violet gave him a questioning look.

"Well do you have any idea of what the adult even looked like? Sounded like? Projected to be like?" Alex asked, mostly trying to probe some kind of answer from Stuart.

"It was a man, he said he was once something we were." Stuart said, which gave Alex and Violet nothing to go off of. Clearly, they realized it was a past Lyoko warrior. Until Alex had an idea pop into his head before Stuart continued with also a spark of his memory rushing back. "He also has said that he was the coolest cat I'd know, whatever that may mean."

Alex then slapped the table and standing up exclaiming," ODD DELLA 'FREAKIN'ROBBIA!" The whole cafeteria turned towards the group who ended up being always the noisiest during any meal time. Most murmured about Alex just boasting about he almost winning the tournament the other day. It was something that had not shut up about since the day the tournament had taken place.

It was rumored that Odd made some sort of deal with the Headmistress to let Alex go to the tournament. Something about rekindling some sort of past crush she had when she was a student. Though most people thought he bribed her with free tickets to the next tournament he participates in. It is truly a mystery as to why Odd knew or cared of a kid being in detention. But of course, it was just a rumor.

Alex had lowered his voice before waiting for the attention towards them dissipated. "Dude, Odd knew I was in detention and did everything he could to get me to join the tournament. I didn't think much of it at the time. But maybe he found that I was a lyoko warrior like he was, and he wanted to do something good."

"Or you're geeking out so much that you've gotten delusional enough to think your favorite celebrity is a lyoko warrior." Violet brought up trying to stomp on Alex's theory. Alex didn't appreciate it enough.

"Fine, then after class why don't we go to where he is doing a photoshoot nearby to ask him directly if he was a lyoko warrior?" Alex said smugly.

"Do you realize how dumb of an idea that is? We are trying to not let the secret out, and you want to tell a freaking celebrity that will use the stories of some kid to garner some sort of clout?" Stuart added in after being silent for a few minutes. Stuart did have a point, but they needed answers.

"You've ever heard of a thing called a return to the past?" Alex turned smugly again towards Stuart thinking he had won the argument. Violet had to burst his bubble.

"Do you know how to do the return to the past then?" Violet then smugly asked Alex who now was wracking his brain if he knew or knew anybody who could.

"We could ask Liam, he might do it." Alex said as if trying to actually come up with a solution.

"He wouldn't agree to this, you know that right?" Stuart included.

"He'd be forced to if a celebrity knew about Lyoko's existence." Alex said now about to be smug again.

"What about Martin, we should bring him into our plan." Stuart interjected.

"He's sulking, he won't want to do anything anyways." Violet introduced to the group. In fact, she was right, for the past days ever since the last time XANA attacked, Martin stays in his room, barely leaves unless it's for food or to keep his attendance up. Every time the group is around him, they try to include him in conversations; but he just doesn't even make an attempt. He stays silent and to himself. It's like a ghost living in a shell. The group barely recognizes their pink haired friend.

"You're right, but you're also wrong." Alex said point blank, no smugness found. "If we do this, we need to include him." Alex began to get up from his seat to dump the tray of scraps into the garbage and head for the door. Both Stuart and Violet got up and followed behind him, dumping their trays as well.

"What do you mean I am wrong? He won't want to leave his room, one time when I tried to even talk to him his face was glued to that dumb computer of his." Violet said grumpily.

"Even if he won't come, how could we as friends exclude him from the decision of going? It's not fair to him, regardless of how he is as of late." Alex pointed out, sounding a bit smug at times for the comedic effect.

"Fine, but if he doesn't open the door, don't say I didn't warn you." Violet said huffing that Alex is refusing to listen to her.

"Then we all agree to go to his dorm after class? I have him during last period, I'll meet up with you guys by the vending machine down in the courtyard." And after that Alex left to go to his classes. Without giving an audible answer, the group all unanimously agreed to meet at the vending machine after class to go over their plan of action.

September 8, 2024, 5:06 pm

Kadic

Violet was there first, grabbing a soda from the machine. As she cracked the can open, she saw Stuart making his way towards her.

"Still waiting on Alex?" Stuart asked her, in case Alex got there before the two of them but had to run a quick errand.

"Nope, he has to come from the science building." Violet said after taking a sip from her soda. It was her favorite flavor, root beer. She enjoyed her couple of sips while Stuart stood there looking around for their other friend. Stuart gave a quick look towards Violet, giving a weird look before looking away. "What was that?"

"You're really enjoying that aren't you?" Stuart said sarcastically.

"So, what about it? Am I not allowed to enjoy root beer?" Violet said with a bit of venom.

"No, didn't say you couldn't do that. Just making a statement. Careful before you get drunk." Stuart said with more sarcasm.

"There isn't even real alcohol in root beer you dolt!" Violet yelled at Stuart who seemed to just be laughing at the situation. Violet then looked like she was about to attack Stuart, who didn't seem to take her seriously, then Alex strolled up to the scene.

"What's all the hub-bub about?" Alex asked with Violet looking like she's about to send a fast ball at Stuart with the empty can of soda in her hand. Once she realized Alex was there, she reoriented her trajectory to a nearby trash can to chuck the soda can into.

"You should keep an eye on her, she's a real alcoholic." Stuart said before bursting into laughter. This then riled up Violet who began to get ready to attack Stuart.

"Why you little! It's just root beer!" Violet screamed while moving towards a vibrating Stuart. Right before she got to Stuart, Alex put a hand on her shoulder to stop her from proceeding an attack on Stuart. This made Violet stop before moving back to her original spot close to the vending machine.

"Listen, we are all here to do the same thing, can we stop teasing each other and get serious. Yes, we need to invite Martin into our plan, even if he says no. But we need answers of what's going on to better prepare ourselves." Alex said in a restrained manor. He on the inside was getting annoyed that he had to become the voice of reason. If he needed to be he absolutely could, but he'd avoid that because it gets boring and tedious. But since Martin isn't there to be their rock in reality, he had to be the stand-in.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself." Said the chuckling Stuart who is still trying to pull himself together.

"Let's just get this done and over with." Said Violet with a bit of venom still in her voice. With that, the group started heading towards the dorms.

September 8, 2024, 5:13 pm

Dorms

Martin was sitting at his desk working on something. A new program that he's cooking up to kill XANA. Since his father couldn't do it right the first time, he is going to be the final nail in the coffin on this virus. Maybe once he proves he doesn't need to keep being babied by his dad, maybe his dad might finally treat him as an adult. Of course, being 13 years old, his father still thinks he is a child.

Hammering at tests and simulations with it failing time and time again. He hears a knock at his door. But Martin ignores it, it's probably those so-called friends of his trying to cheer him up again.

'I don't need to be cheered up, you guys don't know or understand what I am going through. Just leave me alone so I can prove that I am better than my dad. I need to do this, I need XANA gone.' It is all Martin thought in response to the knocking. He continued typing away at the code in front of him. For once he thought he doesn't need his friends right now, all that matters is the screen in front of him and nothing else. He needed to win.

"Martin, we know you're in there! You don't need to respond if you don't want to. But we are going to talk to Odd to see if he knows anything about lyoko. Maybe he might be able to answer some of our questions that Liam refuses to answer." Alex said muffled through the door. After waiting for a few seconds Martin decided he didn't want to answer. If he had more time to work on this program instead of getting dumb questions answered. Questions he felt he knew the answer already, but more with anger. His dad was entirely to blame for his anger, or at least that's what Martin felt.

With no answer Alex wanted to try one more time. "Please let us know you're even in there. We would like to get an answer." Without an audible hint, Martin grabbed his phone to send a simple text to Alex. "Go Away." Martin put his phone back down and continued working on the screen in front of him.

"Alright, thank you for at least responding. We will just go without you then. Goodbye." Then Alex left the door with Violet and Stuart behind him. Alex gave out a simple sigh of frustration. "Guess you were right, but he still technically responded." He said directly towards Violet.

Violet gave a bit of a smug look, "I am never wrong. But I still feel kind of bad for him. Whatever he's wallowing in, its eating him up." Violet gave a look of concern to herself, just more as a realization to herself.

"Well, we know whatever that could be, we may get our answers soon. Follow me I know Odd is at a local skate park nearby." Alex said as he started to guide his friends to said skate park.

September 8, 2024, 5:49 pm

Skate Park

As Alex and the others strolled up to a huge filming crew inside of the park with signs on the entrance about restricting the area as its being used to film. There were skate boarders all around the fences trying to catch glimpses of the celebrity doing tricks and stunts. Once at the fences Alex started to get distracted by watching Odd, his hero right in front of him again.

"That's him. I was dazed and everything was blurry, but that was definitely the guy at the factory before I passed out." Stuart said confidentially. This made Alex's heart start pounding, he has a personal link towards his hero. Then he was able to get out of his head as he saw that Odd was walking towards a trailer. Odd took off his helmet that had the color purple and cat ears on top.

Alex was about to alert the group before Violet beat him to the punch. "Guy's look! Odd is headed to his trailer! Let's get going." The group quickly ran around the sides and made a mad dash towards Odd and his trailer screaming at the top of their lungs.

"Odd! Odd! We need to talk to you!" Said Alex waving his hands trying to get Odds attention. He was successful, but he also was successful in getting Odd's bodyguard's attention as well. The big bulky man quickly made his way in front of Odd to protect him from these crazed fans.

With his hands up he yelled, "This area is off limits! Leave before I forcibly kick you out!"

"No, it's cool, I know these kids. The blue haired kid was in the competition at the school I held the other day. He's got skill and I told him to find me around this time." Odd lied to the bodyguard.

"You never said you allowed visitors." The bodyguard gave Odd a side eye questioning him.

"Must've slipped my mind." Odd said with a huge toothy grin. "Hey Alex! You and your friends can come on into my trailer, don't mind the mess I didn't have time to clean up. Odd said to the group as he invited them into his trailer, which was not as dirty as he claimed. Mostly just dirty laundry from different types of outfit he most likely had to change in and out of for the photo shoot for different clothing brands. As Stuart was the last one to enter the trailer he closed the door behind them.

"Alright so obviously you guy's aren't here about skateboarding." Odd said when he dropped his more cheerful tone, he grew a bit more serious as he had a feeling what brought them there.

"I kind of am!" Alex said before Violet elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow! Sorry. No, we know you used to be a warrior." Which didn't get a reaction from Odd, it seemed he was expecting this. After the return to the past, he got a call from Jeremy to prepare him that he may get questioned from Martin. As Martin does seem to avoid his dad often that Jeremy has noticed. But Odd never thought it would be the others that would seek him out first.

"I was yes, I don't intend to come with every time you know who attacks. But if it's an emergency I did purposefully try and keep most of my work local here." Odd explained as he cracked open an energy drink. He started chugging it for a second before moving it away from his mouth.

"We appreciate that, but that's not exactly why we are here, Martin has been alone and to himself ever since the last attack. What happened on Lyoko?" Violet asked.

"He didn't tell you?" Odd looked confused? "Of course he didn't he's keeping to himself, He's a lot like Jeremy." Odd sighed before he realized he accidentally gave away a piece of information he shouldn't have gave out. His eyes almost exploded out of his head with how wide his eyes went. "You weren't supposed to know that! Crap!" Odd face palmed at himself.

"Who's Jeremy?" Asked Alex. Though of course Stuart knew the answer already, when the answer hit him in the face his eyes grew big as he turned to Alex.

"Martin's Dad!" Stuart answered for Odd. This made Alex and Violet turn to Stuart with the same expression. Alex's jaw dropped at the revelation. Odd in response, just sat on the couch near the fridge.

"No freaking way, you're lying!" Violet said, the whole group knew as Martin had explained to them before about how much he hated his dad. Martin explained to Violet and Alex why he had been in detention, accidentally slipping his excuse and why the headmistress didn't buy it. Then Alex and Violet pressed him on more answers and the hate and venom they haven't heard from Martin before came spewing out of his mouth.

"Unfortunately, he isn't. When I was on lyoko with him he found out his dad was part of our group of defeating you know who. Jeremy created the program to erase XANA from every known computer in the world. I don't exactly understand what he did, but it seemed he missed a few and XANA brought himself back when Martin turned the computer back on." Odd said mostly as he was recounting the events to himself. It's more akin to Pandora's Box being opened back up.

"So, he's been sulking because he had to talk to his dad? I knew he hated him, but this much! That's not normal." Violet said questioning whether or not the reaction Martin has taken is justified.

"If he's anything like my Einstein. He's probably in his dorm programing something for the Super Computer. At least that's what Jeremy used to do." Odd said trying to give some sort of answer, of course he didn't know Martin personally enough, but he saw a lot of his friends in the kid.

"That would explain why he was so focused on his computer, what could he be potentially doing?" Stuart asked, Alex was about to give him the answer as it hit him with a ton of bricks.

"It's a challenge to him, it's something he is going to prove to his Dad that he's not a kid anymore. He might be creating a program to just wipe out the entire super computer and whatever else XANA has his clutches on. But that is just a theory." Alex said as if he was reading off a plot synopsis.

"If that's true I need to warn Jeremy. He's already been working in the background to program a new way to finish XANA for good this time." Odd said pulling his phone out and dialing his friend's number.

Alex, Stuart, and Violet all felt buzzing in their pockets at the same time, each of them pulled their phones out and saw a one word text from Martin, "XANA".

A/N I apologize for missing last week's upload, I got busy and wasn't able to finish this chapter on time. I can't promise this won't happen again but I hope it doesn't become a reoccurring thing. Another thing, I want to apologize as this chapter doesn't have any action, mostly just dialogue.

This is going to be the part most of you may want to skip as it's just me talking out into the void a bit. If you want to keep reading and hear my thoughts about how I want to keep going with this series, please stay tuned.

So primarily first things first. I think I want this at least first part of the story to end in a couple chapters potentially. But I want to keep it open in case I do come back to this series and revisit the characters. I want some sort of all around wrap up in case I don't, but open enough to come back.

Second, I mentioned a couple chapters back on a short story, it still has a long ways to go but I may try short stories first before just jumping head long into a series. To see if there's any interest. Mostly that and so I don't keep forcing myself to stick to a schedule. As I am very incompetent on keeping a schedule.

This is the part where you can come back if you skipped! As always thank you all for reading this chapter and Get Ready to Virtualize!