"These new vechicles are great! You've out done yourself, general!" Alexei execlrated the speed on his bike. The sleak metallic dual wheeled motorcycle was a modifed verison from the cyberpunk video game. It was one of three vechiles Cam created during Xana's inactively.
"Careful Alexei, it's only a prototype." Satasided the vechiles were stable enough for use, Cam checked on the girls. "How's the cyberjet?"
Kya caught up to the guys on her own vehcile. Modeled after a waterjet, the overall desgin was oval shape. Open on all sides, the front held a panel with a rectangle handle. The bottom allowed it to hover and skim over different surfaces. It's color, a metallic grey, reflected Kya's personal love of dark colors. "Flies like a dream."
Emi clung closer to Kya's waist as they movered around pillers of rocks in the derstor sector. "We'll arrive at towers much faster now. Any other surpises for us?"
Cam worked on a third vechile, a modifled hoverboard, from the data supplied from the other vechiles. It required more work, since it had the best freedom of movement while also being the fastest. "You'll find out"
A second bike sped pass the girls. An exepctize replica of Alexei's bike, this one was dark blue instead of black. "Race to the tower?" Lynn challenge Alexei.
Alexei answered with a smirk, as he drifted ahead of Lynn. Steering the bike right, Alexei road up a steep incline. Reviving the throttle, the bike sped off the incline's edge. A true daredevil, Alexei shifted his weight to flip the bike mid-air.
Lynn pulled back, allowing Alexei to land with a thump in front of him. "Stop showing off." The white how of a deactiaveted tower came into view. Getting closer to the otwer, Lynn suddenly stopped. He shouted a warning to Alexei, the tower was being guarded.
Alexei turned to tuntel Lynn, when he lost control of the bike. Seurouing to aviod crashing, he couldn't aviod the next laser. On the second hit, the bike insteadly devitarlized. "Cam, what is that thing?" Alexei moved to grab his sai, when another round of lasers assultd him. Seconds later, blue-white pixels drifted from Alexei's body as he faded away.
Kya circled behind the creature to lanuch herself off her vechile. "Freeze!" Before her hand connected, the creature rasied a long leg and swatted Kya to the side like a fly.
"Careful guys. It has a powerful laser." Cam searched the monster database he created for info on the new monster. "Emi, get to the tower."
A long torso supported on four legs, the creature's head was long and oval. Two back legs bent down, freeing the front ones for attack. Rapid laser fire hit the cyberjet, devitlazing it. Emi feel to the ground. Unable to defend herself, two more lasers came at her. Kya threw herself in the way, protecting Emi. Two more lasers later, she was devilized.
Emi continued to the tower, leaving Lynn to face the creature. Reviving the throttle, Lynn sped forward. "Does this thing have any weakness?" Lynn was on the defensive, weaving around to dodge lasers. Foused solely on the new monster, he failed to notice a second one approach. The two monsters made quick work of Lynn, devilzing him in sesconds.
They turned to follow Emi, but she'd made it inside the tower.
"Xana's been busy." Cam looked over the newly collected data. Not much had been gathered, only it's laser damage. "I'll finish completion of the vechiles."
"What are we going to call these things?' Lynn asked.
Alexei eargly waved his hand, "How about Crawlers? Or Oval Face?"
Everyone ignored him.
"This new monster means Xana will attack soon." Emi headed for the elevator. "I'll head back to Lyoko."
"Wrong." Kya blocked the path to the elevator. "Who wants to tell her?" She looked pass Emi to the guys.
Emi raised an eyebrow, wondering what her friends were up to. The last time they suprised her, she borrowed Kya's body for twenty-four hours. The event nearly ended with them being trapped in each others bodies. On the bright side, they did get the final key.
"You don't have to return to Lyoko." Alexei explained poorly.
Lynn playfully shoved Alexei, "What captain bonehead means, is that we've enrolled you at school." He gently patted Emi's head. "Your going to be living here full time. You'll finally know the painful headaches we get anytime Alexei opens his mouth."
"Hey!" Alexei sulked for all of three seconds, before his trademark grin reappeared. "It'll be safer for you here away, since Xana will probably come after you."
Emi jumped into Lynn's arms. "Thank you!" Her exeictment quickly faded at the her next thought. "What about the towers? We'll have no way of knowing of an attack if I'm here."
"Not true." All eyes turned to Cam. "During Xana's 'vaction', I've been working on many things. The vechiles and new hacking programs are one of them. The other is fixing the bugs Xana implatnted in the materlaztion program. Lastly, I upgraded the locator program to now locate activated towers."
"In other words," Alexei pounced on Lynn and Emi, nearly making them fall. "Welcome to earth!"
Emi's POV:
"You've come at a good time, Ms.?" Jim, a teacher at Kadic Academy, showed me to my room. The dorm was decorated in soft shades of light and dark purple. A single bed hugged one wall, while a warobed took up the one oppiste of it. Against the back wall rested a woode desk and chair. A simple room, but it was my room.
"_." Cam had put me as a distant relative of Kya's. Since her family's so big, no one would question it. "Emi _." Alexei came up with the fake last name, obiously.
"Well Ms. , I'll allow your friends to inform you of the rules." Jim glanced to Lynn and Alexei, before leaving. Once he was out of sight, Lynn and Alexei dove into the room.
Alexei hopped on the bed, "To bad Cam couldn't get you enrolled at Kanna Academy." He got off the bed to explore the rest of the room.
"I don't like it either, but Cam can't bypass the waiting list." When the others delievered the bad news I'd be attending Kadic without them, my exiectment died. Being on earth is still a dream come true, but I'll be away from the only people I truly know. "All we can do is hope to convice your mom or Mr. C to write me a letter of recommandition." Kanna Academy is a private school with a medium range tutition. Students transfer out during the school year sometimes, which opens a spot for a student on the waiting list. It's easier to get into Kanna during enrollment at the end of the schoolyear. Transfering in the middle of the year meant being placed on a wait-list. Currently, my name is at the very end. I will need a letter of remmonadition from a staff member and one student to bypass the wait-list.
Kya's written one for me, since we're 'cousins'. The next problem is getting a staff to write one. Kya's closish with the nurse, Mr. C, so she'll ask him. Tyia, Alexei's mom, is our only other hope. We could ask/bargin with Ally or Mara to get Mr. Hall to write the letter, but I'd rather not. I've heard enough stories to know how steep their bargining prices are. I don't want to put my friends through any unnesscary drama.
Lynn pulled me into a brotherly hug. "We'll get you into Kanna soon, I promise." He pulled back to look me in the eye. "On the bright side our schools are close enough to visit each other everyday."
"Cam's friend Jeremie has a friend that's starting today. You won't be the only new student." Alexei's attempt to make me feel better had the oppisite affect. I didn't want to be reminded that I am the new girl. Or one of two.
"Cam asked Jeremie to look after you. You'll meet him on the field trip." Lynn pulled me into another hug, seeming to know I needed it. He than took me by the hand and walked us to the courtyard. Eigth and ninth grade students were gathered together outside. Some eargly awaited the departure for the forest. Kanna Academy was also schedule to go to the same forest. Both schools sometimes did joint events togther, so it isn't unsual to see students from either school at the other's campus.
Cam and Kya were probably at Kanna waiting to leave as well. The two opted to stay behind, as to many people helping me move in might draw to much attention. The others have encouraged me not to worry to much and to make new friends. They've reasurred me that one of them will visit me each day after school. How that's going to work out with their busy schudles, I'd like to see. Since the game against Kadic, Kanna's soccer team has only won two other games. They lost their last one, which means their out of the running for the championships. Coach still has usual practice, but it's more relaxed to help the team hone their skills for next year. This means soon Lynn and Alexei might have a bit more free time. While Kya will have extra pratices of her own, since the nationals are a coming up. She still has regional compeitions to win in order to quialty for the nationals. Knowing her, she'll be praticing like she's already in the finals. Than there's Cam, who's been glued to his computer pretty much like usual.
"Attention students." A female teacher with glass and a lab coat clapped her hands to get the students' attention. "Students." Everyone continued to ingore her.
"Mrs. Hertz, asked for you attention!" Jim's booming voice shut everyone up. "There you go, Susan."
"Thanks, Jim." Mrs. Hertz turn to address the students. "We'll be leaving for the forest now. Another school, Kanna Academy, will also be there. You are not to go wondering off with any of them, even if they are your friends. Remember, this is still a class." A chours of groans spread through the students. "Also, each student needs a parter. From Kadic, not Kanna."
"Aww, I was planning on partering with Emi." Alexei let out a sigh, as we followed the Kadic students to the forest.
"Don't worry, you can be my parter." Lynn teased.
"Aren't you gonna work with Kya?" Alexei asked, as we entered the forest.
Lynn's grin disppeared, "How can I, when she won't even talk to me." For a about a week and a half the best friend haven't been speaking to each other. Their both the same when around me and the others, but with each other, things are awrkard. According to Alexei, Kya's been slowly distancing herself from Lynn. Which is unusal for our no nonesense friend. "It's better that she works with Cam anyway."
"Yeah, she does like him." I blurted out by mistake. Shoot, Alexei and I were the only one's that knew about that. "Pretend you didn't hear that."
Lynn waved a hand dismissively. "I've known about her crush on Cam since the beginning. She's not very good at hidding it. She's also already ranted to me about Alexei knowing about it."
"Basically, everyone but Cam knows." I stated, not surpised. Cam can be a bit blind when it comes to things like this.
"Who's gonna be your partner, Emi?" Alexei redirected the conversation to our oringal topic. "Maybe one of Jeremie's friends? There are five of them. I'm sure one of them needs a partner."
Lynn shook his head, "Think again, look." He pointed to Cam's friend Jeremie and his friends. Jeremie stood beside a girl with pink hair, while Odd and Ulrich followed behind, Yumi and another male. "Now what? It's not like one of us can be her parter. We can't disobey rules on her first day."
"Oh Alexei!" A shiver went down my spine at the sweet voice. "I've been looking for you. Let's go." Mara looped her arm through Alexei's, dragging him towards other Kanna students. Waiting for them, were Ally and Avery. Those two must also be parterns.
"Now what?" I asked. Jeremie and his friends were my only hope of finding a partner. Now Lynn doesn't have one either. "How about we skip and hang out at the lab?"
"No can do, little lady." Lynn patted my head. "Skipping equals detention. Which is both boring and a waste of time." He placed his hands behind his head. "I'll walk you to your teacher. They should be able to help."
Funny timing that was, as Mrs. Hertz walked over with a girl. "Ms. , I see you don't have a partner." Of course wouldn't recongize Lynn, he doesn't go to Kadic. "Ms. Waverly will be your partner."
Waverly appeared to around Kya's age with orange hair in two buns with bangs. She wore headphones around her neck.
(Below is a picture of her hairstyle.)
(The red one below is her outfit, minus the hat and with headphones around her neck.)
"It's Wave, Mrs. H." Wave addressed the teacher.A bright smile on her face, she held a hand out. "Name's Wave, semi-new student at Kadic." She spoke in an energyic rush, that I only caught the last two words.
I placed my hand in hers, "I'm Emi, today's my first day."
"No need to be shy." She took a feirce grip on my hand, as she shook it vigorously. "Kadic's a chill place with awesome peoplez." Peoplez??? "Right, Jimbo." She called to Jim, who was speaking to another group.
"Huh? Oh, right. Yeah, chill or whatever." Jim mutter, caught off guard by Wave's question. "You know Waverly-"
"Wave." She corrected.
"Wave, you shouldn't call teachers out of their name. This tim-"
"Got it, Jimbo." Wave gave a two finger salute. "We'll be off now, Ms. H."
"Make sure you girls-" Mrs. Hertz began, but couldn't finish as Wave dragged/pulled me away.
"Don't worry Ms. H, I'll be the perfect partner for Emi." Wave's declaration did the opposisite of reassuring our teacher.
Alexei's POV:
"Have I been a bad friend? Is that why she's avioding me?" Lynn paced, as he ranted. For ten mintues, we've been in the same spot, doing nothing. "We're best friends, we tell each other everything. You know Kya's blunt with everyone, espically when they annoy her."
"Yup, she sure is." Listening to Lynn rant, is as execiting as math class. "Here's a crazy idea. Talk to her about it." Two weeks ago, Kya began distaning herself from Lynn. Lynn was the first to notice, since she still acted the same around and Cam. Neither one of us asked her why, figuring the two would work things out.
"Did you here a word I said?" Lynn appeared doubtful, considering I've been playing with Kytt (Kitt).
The kitten crawled into my arms to snuggle under my chin. "Yes, I heard almost everything. Point is you need to speak with her her, not me or Cam."
Lynn let out a deeated sigh. "I know but," He ran his hands through his hair. "It's differcult when she won't even be in my persention for more than two mintues."
"Well, nows your chance." I pointed in the direction Kya was walking. "Wait, who's that?" Beside Kya was another male, around our age, I've never seen before.
"Calex." Lynn said, as if that explained everything. "When did he get back?"
Kytt, appeared as confused as me. "Care to fill us in?"
Lynn got a sour look on his face, the kind he reserves solelt for Avery. "Let's get started on the project." He headed in the opposite direction, losing a perfect chance to speak to Kya.
Emi's POV:
"So, how do you like Kadic so far?" Wave looked up from her notepad where she'd been drawing.
"It's my first day, but so far it's been good." Wave's the first person outside of the Defenders I've spent time with. A few weeks ago, Cam befily introduced me to Jeremie and his friends. We didn't spend much time together, since we ran into them on our way to the mansion. I'm still curious as to why they were in the forest? We'll have to be extra careful when going to the access tunnel enterance in the forest.
"Your tryna get into Kanna." Her confident statement left no room for dential. "Relax, I saw your friends helping you move in this morning. Figured they were from Kanna when Mrs. Hertz stared at your one friend." She gave a slight smile. "I'm also trying to get in."
That peaked my curiousity. "Really? I thought we just transfered to Kadic. Why chance schools so soon?" There was something about Wave that made chatting with her easy. I wasn't nervous or scared. I haven't felt this at ease since meeting Alexei. Even than I didn't openly speak my thoughts, no matter how much he reasurred me.
Finished her sketch, Wave began walking. She knew the forest better than being, since she's been at Kadic slightly longer. "No reason really. My parents shipped me off to boarding school without notice Least they could do is let me pick my own school. I am the one whose going to be living here most of the year. What 'bout you? Parents ship you off?"
A slight ache went through my chest. A reminder that I had no family. On hoildays and breaks, the others would return home, while I'd be left at an empty school. Lynn and Kya always travel back to their hometown. Cam's parents and sister sometimes come to visit or he might flight out to see them. Even Alexei will travel to see his father if given the chance. All I'd have is Lyoko to return to. I guess that's like going home.
"I wanted to attend school with my cousin Kya." Not techncally a lie. I do want to go to the same school as everyone else. In addition to living on earth. "As you know, the waiting list for Kanna Academy is currently full. I didn't want to wait to get in, so I choice to attend Kadic Academy until I can get into Kanna."
Wave seemed to accept that answer. She changed the topic to daily life at Kadic. Nothing to different from what I'd seen at Kanna, the two times I've gone. There is some girl named Sissi to be wareily off. "She's the princpal's daughter and will try to use that against you. Personally, I'm not afarid of her." Wave hopped onto a fallen log. Arms outstrenched, she wobbled a bit as she crossed to the other side. "If anything, don't 'steal' her preious Ulrich dearling." She batted her eyes in an overdramatic fashion.
She continued the charde that mimicing the poor girl. "Oh Ulrich dear, why don't you forget about your nerd friends and come with me."
"That sounds a lot like Mara." Her antics had me doubled over with laugher. The way she acted, reminded recomzied a 'nicer, sweeter' Mara.
"How dare you insult me!?" She said in a high pitched voice. "I'm the prinpcal's daughter, daddy won't let you get away with that." She conituned for several more minutes, until we stopped to draw some more plants. The assignment's simple enough, but time consuming. Finding a varity of plants to draw and than write an essay on. Oh joy.
"Wave, are you sure this is the right way?" We'd wondered off the main path earlier on Wave's insistion. The trees were denser here with brushes blocking most of the walkway. Sunlight barely filter through the dense leaves and branches.
"Don't know." Wave ducked below a low hanging branch. She wandered further into the forest, happily exploring the unknown. "I saw some girl with pink hair headed this way, earlier."
"How do you know if she's a student or not?" As we made our way deeper, I took a mental note of the different plants. Wave's 'shortcut' isn't going to affect my grade. "I think we should turn back...Wave?"