Beta Read by Wanderingsage7 and Dewey10
Sissi appreciated the lack of urgency during her next trip to the Factory. The fact that she would not be faced with her father becoming what was essentially a Sith Lord thanks to XANA's possession took a load off of her.
After classes, all six Lyoko Warriors headed down to the Factory for Sissi's trial run on Lyoko. It was agreed that to ensure nothing unusual happened, they would practice within the Mountain Sector and not head for Sector Five yet, the most dangerous sector. While Sissi was used to whining when she didn't get what she wanted, she had no objections to staying away from there for the time being.
To ensure the Scyphozoa would not steal Aelita's memory, the practice would take place near a Waytower. The moment that XANA's monsters emerged to dispatch Aelita's bodyguards, she would go into the Tower to return to Earth while the others dealt with them.
The moment that the elevator took Odd, Ulrich, and Sissi down to the Scanner Room, a wave of nostalgia overtook the trio.
"Hey Sissi, I never mentioned how we ended up finding the Factory together, did I?" Odd asked.
"You never did, no." Then she caught onto something else he said. "Wait, you're saying we found it together?"
"Yep! Ulrich went into my room and took Kiwi as a 'guinea pig' to test out the Scanners. I woke up and caught him, then I ran into you and we both chased Ulrich into the Factory. I went into one of the Scanners to take Kiwi out, just as Jeremie began the scan and accidentally sent me to Lyoko. You and I thought I was about to be mummified when the door closed on me.
That certainly does sound like me. Sissi concluded.
"Let me guess, I was too scared to go in?"
"Yep." Ulrich confirmed. "Though that was kinda my fault. I straight up told you that we'd be going into a virtual world where weird monsters want to massacre us. I did try goading you into it by calling you a chicken and saying you missed out on a date."
Then the three Scanner doors opened up.
"And without further ado..."
Odd and Ulrich flanked the scanner in front of Sissi and beckoned her forwards.
"Your carriage, Cinderella."
Well, this isn't exactly what I wanted Ulrich's attention to be like, but it's better than nothing I suppose...
Sissi stepped forward and stared at the machine, hesitating.
"If it helps." Jeremie's voice echoed on the speakers above the room. "Going to Lyoko ensures that you can't be possessed by XANA again."
"Wait." Sissi spun around. "Did you just say 'again'?"
"Oh, oops." Jeremie muttered.
"Gotta work on that silver tongue of yours, Einstein." Odd quipped.
"I'll explain." Ulrich volunteered. "You know XANA can possess people, right?"
When Sissi nodded, he continued. "Well, the very first person he possessed was you."
"WHAT?!" Sissi's eyes went so wide that Odd wondered if they would pop out of her eye sockets. "D-does that mean he can possess anyone?"
"Anyone who doesn't go into Lyoko, yeah." Ulrich elaborated. "We found that out when Jeremie was possessed by XANA after he failed to possess me and Odd. Everyone who goes to Lyoko is immune to XANA's possession, and we got Jeremie immune by sending him in there too. Possession when a big scary ghost comes out of electrical sockets, comes up to you, and-"
"Say no more!" Sissi marched into the scanner without further hesitation. "Send me in, quick! I'd rather be mummified than have a big scary ghost take me over!"
Heh. Ulrich mused. And I didn't even get to tell her about XANA possessing Aelita.
"You got it. Ulrich and Odd, head on in and I'll transfer all three of you. Then, Aelita."
Odd and Ulrich gave Sissi thumbs ups before all the Scanner doors closed. Sissi shut her eyes, hoping it would help her get used to the process.
"I'm starting up the procedure. Transfer Ulrich. Transfer Odd. Transfer Sissi."
Sissi felt the rays and lights of the Scanner envelop her, just like last time.
"Scanner Ulrich. Scanner Odd. Scanner Sissi."
Already, I feel too old for this. Sissi mused.
"Virtualization!"
A few moments later, the trio found themselves slightly above a green platform and each fell down. Ulrich landed on his feet, Odd landed on all fours, while Sissi fell face-first to the ground.
"Gotta work on that landing, Sissi." Odd teased. "Think like Spider-Man!"
"Shut up..." Sissi moaned before picking herself up off the ground and revealing her full Lyoko form to her new friends.
"Huh…" Ulrich tilted his head, as if confused.
"What is it?" Sissi asked, a hand on her hips. "Has my virtual beauty left you speechless?"
Odd just laughed at her, causing Sissi to become confused.
"You may want to look at yourself."
Sissi looked down, eyes widened upon seeing that her white boots and cheerleading outfit were all gone. Her boots, shirt, and a waist were all bright green with a heart symbol on her waist.
"Surprised?" Jeremie's voice rang out.
"Is this a joke?!" Sissi demanded. "Okay, I like the color green, but what happened to my outfit when I first came in?!"
"When Aelita virtualized your Avatar, she was in a hurry and made some critical mistakes." Jeremie explained. "When I examined it for myself and did test runs, there were bugs with the materialization and rematerialization programs. It was minor at first, but according to calculations, your old Avatar would have been physically vulnerable as time went on. It would have gotten worse and eventually caused some serious problems."
"So you redesigned me?" Sissi questioned.
"That's right." Jeremie confirmed. "I know it's a downgrade graphically, but I didn't have a choice. Maybe one day you'll get our old outfit back, but forgive me if I'm not the type of person who cares much about fashion."
Sissi was very much the type of person who cared about fashion, but the more she looked at herself, the more she started to like it. She felt that the heart fit well with her overall design, and it also reminded her of another outfit she had stored in her dorm. Though, that outfit was too embarrassing to wear at Kadic Academy.
I would be the laughing stock in the Kadic Paper if I ever wore that.
Nonetheless, she was content enough that Odd and Ulrich wouldn't make too big of a fuse out of it.
"You look like some kind of green knight." Odd mused. "Actually, maybe more like a green magician who uses nature magic. Or…"
While Odd were chatting away, Sissi turned her attention to the area around them, spotting countless trees and a clear blue sky. She was practically enthralled by the view of the virtual world.
"It looks so...so..."
"Beautiful?" Ulrich offered.
Sissi smiled and turned to examine him and Odd. "So, you're basically a big purple cat-boy." Sissi summarized Odd's case, before turning to examine Ulrich.
Unlike Odd, Sissi soaked up every detail she could. Ulrich's samurai outfit, his katana, the yellow headband on his forehead, the hairstyle. Next his yellow outfit and the symbol imprinted on his chest.
"You'd like to keep staring at me. Wouldn't you?" He smirked. "Too bad."
Then he vanished in a yellow blur.
"W-What?!" Sissi took a step back and promptly collided with none other than Ulrich.
"H-How did you just-"
Ulrich smiled and once again vanished in a yellow blur. Odd just chuckled in amusement as Sissi kept spinning her head around trying to follow her crush's movements.
"What are you, the Flash?!"
Finally, Ulrich stopped in front of Sissi. "Every Lyoko Avatar has a special power or two. One of mine is a super sprint, with which I can move way faster than anyone else."
Just then, the trio heard a noise and looked up to see Aelita being virtualized onto Lyoko. She fell on her feet between Ulrich and Sissi.
"Welcome back, Sissi." She greeted her. "Enjoying yourself?"
When Sissi gave her a thumbs up, Aelita pointed to the south. "There's a Waytower over there. We'll head there and wait for XANA's monsters to come after me."
"Looks like there won't be any waiting." Jeremie announced. "Squadron of four Hornets, approaching from the north!"
Wait, Hornets? What?
Ulrich wasted no time taking command. "I'll get Aelita to the Tower. You and Odd watch our backs and hold them off!"
"Yes, Sir!" Odd shouted and made a salute; Sissi glanced at him and replicated it as best as she could.
A few seconds later, she saw what looked like 4 giant green potatoes with wings in the skies above them. As they flew closer, Sissi noticed that they more resembled mosquitos or wasps.
"How do we fight those things, Odd?" She hurriedly questioned.
"Like this!" Odd proceeded to cock his arm and a small projectile came out of it. "Laser Arrow!"
The Laser Arrow hit one of the four hornets dead on, destroying it.
"Woah!" Sissi shouted. "So that's why Jeremie called you a long-range fighter!"
"Yep! Now take out your spear and try to hurl it at them."
Sissi unsheathed her spear and reared her arm back, trying to get a good aim on her enemies. The three remaining hornets gathered in formation for an attack run, firing lasers from their tails as they flew forwards.
Sissi threw her spear, which flew over the head of the hornet she aimed for, missing entirely. The three monsters responded with a hail of lasers, the sheer amount of which proved too much for the two to dodge.
Sissi took a hit in her left leg, crying out as she fell to one knee. Odd, meanwhile, took a laser to the gut and fell flat on his back.
Huh. That actually doesn't feel too bad. Sissi mused as she looked at her glitching leg, which soon turned back to normal.
"Sissi!" Jeremie's voice sounded out again. "Try detonating your green pom-pom directly in front of both of you."
"Huh?!" Odd shouted. "Did you suddenly develop an unhealthy obsession with explosives, Einstein?"
"No, I think he has a point." Sissi raised her pom-pom "I threw it at the Squid Thing last time I was here, and it didn't harm it."
"So what does it do then? Explode into confetti?"
"Time to find out!" Sissi smashed the pom-pom onto the ground, which let out a green explosion and caused the two Lyoko Avatars to glow green.
"Well, this is interesting! Looks like we're one with nature now!" Odd joked before the green glow wore off.
"Your life points are regenerating!" Jeremie explained. "It looks like her green pom-pom is actually some kind of healing grenade that heals up to 50 life points!"
"Me, a healer?" Sissi questioned, her voice laced with skepticism. "Didn't see that one com-"
"Watch out!"
The three hornets swooped back down, interrupting her comments as they opened fire once more.
Heeding Odd's warning in time, Sissi pulled out her orange pom-pom and hurled it into the path of the incoming monsters. This time, she did not miss. The explosion engulfed the hornet on the left, while the other two were sent spiraling off course.
"Great job, Ms. Boom-Boom!"
At that moment, Ulrich came Super Sprinting back to his two friends.
"Aelita's safe at the tower." He reported. "Heard we got ourselves a healer on our side."
"Was a healer." Sissi pointed to the empty spots where her pom-poms and spear used to be. "But now I have no weapon."
"I have a theory." Yumi's voice rang out this time. "Whenever I launch my own weapons, I raise my hand and concentrate to bring them back. Try doing that with your spear."
"Hey Spear!" Sissi cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted. "Come on back!"
Odd and Ulrich couldn't hold back the laughter building up in their throats. In the lab, Yumi rolled her eyes.
"Not like that." She chastised. "Concentrate with your mind, I mean."
Sissi closed her eyes, trying to concentrate solely on summoning her spear.
"She's not glowing like Yumi is." Ulrich observed. "Gotta be something we're missing here. I doubt she has to go and retrieve her spear every time she tosses it."
"Maybe a finger snap would help?" Jeremie suggested, before his voice became alarmed. "The hornets are coming back!"
Ulrich unsheathed his katana, ready to block incoming fire. Sissi, meanwhile, stopped concentrating and decided to take up Jeremie's 's idea. She snapped her fingers.
And the spear, emitting an orange blow that vanished upon contact, immediately came rushing back to the palm of her hand.
Sissi staggered a step back, surprised. "Wow! This spear has everything!"
Upon attempting to throw it however, she found the two hornets became more strategic, flying between trees for cover. The next time Sissi threw her spear, it hit a tree, forcing her to snap it back to her.
"They're fast!" Sissi observed. "It's gonna take forever to hit them!"
"Hey Einstein, send us the Overboard!"
"The what?" Sissi questioned.
"Sending it now!" The young genius shouted. A few seconds later, a large purple board of sorts materialized before the three Lyoko Warriors.
Sissi stared down upon it, realizing "You have vehicles here too?!"
"Not always." Jeremie explained. "It was only after I brought Aelita to Earth that I managed to construct three vehicles for you get around faster with. This is the Overboard, Odd's vehicle. I'll show you the other two another time."
"Only room for two on this one." Odd jumped on the Overboard and motioned at Sissi to come onboard, which she nervously did.
"Uh...are there no handles or bars for us to hold onto? How do I not fall off this thing?"
"The only handles here are yours truly!" Odd announced, before shifting the Overboard into gear and going soaring into the skies. Sissi screamed, clinging to Odd like an anchor as they passed by tree after tree.
I really need to stick with Ulrich when I'm on Lyoko...
At one point, Odd tilted the Overboard to the side, nearly hitting a tree, much to Sissi's terror.
"You did that on purpose!" Sissi accused, before laser fire between Odd and the hornets renewed itself.
"A genius never tells his secrets!" Odd declared, before he and Sissi noticed something strange happening with the hornets.
[Execute Operation: Displacement]
The two hornets glanced at each other, as if something only they heard had stirred them in action. The two collided into each other, joining their tails together as a red aura surrounded them.
"What are they doing?" Sissi questioned.
"Maybe they're about to merge and form a Super Hornet?" Odd suggested.
Instead, the hornets fired a laser combined with power from both their tails. It was a direct hit on the Overboard, but instead of destroying it, the vehicle and its two occupants became covered with a red aura.
"What the-" Sissi looked around herself in surprise. "What's happening?!"
For once, Odd had no answer to her question. The hornets, meanwhile, separated and turned away from the Overboard, abandoning the battle.
Watching the battle from the ground below, Ulrich pointed to the retreating monsters and yelled "XANA's given up!"
"Yeah, that's what worries me." Jeremie said as he examined the ID cards of Odd and Sissi, seeking answers.
Odd landed the Overboard back on the ground, looking at himself and Sissi. "Well, looks like XANA's made us into Christmas trees!"
"Or worse." Sissi gulped. "Are we going to explode or something?!"
"I have no idea." Jeremie replied. "There seems to be no signs of an alteration. Maybe it's a process that takes time."
"In that case, get us out of here!" Sissi pleaded.
"I'm on it. I've already sent Aelita back so she'll be there to check you out. Materialization!"
In the Scanner room, Aelita held a quarter in the palm of her hand. Among many other things, economics was something that Aelita had no clue on. The words 'buy' and 'money' were completely alien to her, and Jeremie regretted that he had not lectured Aelita a bit more about the real world before completing his Code: Earth Program.
Aelita tilted her head at the quarter in her hand and remembered a previous conversation she had with Ulrich about "coin tosses". He explained how someone would flip a coin into the air and that two people would bet on which side the coin would land on. After a couple of games with Ulrich, she found the activity quite fun.
Aelita proceeded to flip the coin in the air and patch it on her palm, before turning to the scanners, waiting to see who would come out first. She knew that Jeremie would prioritize Odd and Sissi, so she bet on them.
"Heads, it's Odd first. Tails, it's Sissi. I pick Tails."
She rather enjoyed these kinds of no-stake bets, even if nobody else was around. Her answer was received when the Scanner to her right opened up, revealing none other than Sissi.
Sissi stepped out of the scanner, looking down at her feminine hands as Aelita muttered "Well, tails. Looks like I win." before turning to the subject at hand.
"You okay there, Sissi? All in one piece?"
"In one piece, yeah..." Sissi muttered with a very different and yet very familiar voice. In fact, Sissi's voice had a strong resemblance to Odd's. "But not in my pieces."
Aelita was about to question the meaning of that when Odd and Ulrich stepped out of the scanners. Odd pointed at Sissi and asked, "What am I doing over there?"
Ulrich and Aelita noticed Odd's voice had a condition similar to Sissi's, different and yet very familiar. In fact, it sounded a whole lot like Sissi's voice.
They then gasped in realization. Sissi pointed at Odd.
"Uh...what are my two great legs, swell torso, limber arms, and good-looking head doing over there?"
Oh, no... Were the thoughts of everyone present.
"Any problems down there?" Jeremie's voice asked over the speakers.
"Uh..." Ulrich stammered.
"I think Odd and Sissi have somehow swapped bodies." Aelita came out with it.
"WHAT?!"
Up in the lab, all five other Lyoko Warriors gathered around Jeremie's chair. On the monitor was a window that was currently analyzing the logs. Sissi and Odd's avatars were being scanned, only for two giant red Xs to appear overtop both—signaling that something was wrong.
"Looks like whatever XANA did with those hornets, he planted a little bug in your materialization programs." Jeremie surmised.
"Little?!" An incredulous Sissi shouted in Odd's body. "You call this little?!"
"If it's of any comfort," Yumi offered, "XANA's done worse than this. Remember when he removed my ability to return from Lyoko at all?"
"True that." Odd pointed out in Sissi's body. "What if we went back to Lyoko and devirtualized all over again? Maybe everything will go back to normal."
"And what if the program messes up again? And this time you don't have any bodies at all?" Jeremie asked.
"Uh, okay. Bad idea." Odd conceded.
"Uh, so, what do we do?" Ulrich asked. "As much hilarious potential as this has, they clearly can't stay that way."
"Your definition of hilarious leaves a lot to be desired!" Sissi seethed.
"I've gotta fix this program. Aelita, if she can, will stay here to help me out." Aelita nodded in acquittance.
"How long will it take you?" Odd asked. "A couple hours?"
"Not even close. If I work through the night, it might be ready by tomorrow morning."
"What?!" Sissi shouted. "You mean I have to sleep in a guy's body?! Not even in my own dorm, but in-"
Her ranting stopped upon realization, and she turned towards Ulrich. His eyes widened as a similar realization washed over him.
Sissi was going to stay at his dorm. Alone.
With Ulrich.
Yumi struggled to hide back the scarlet that was blushing on her face.
"Okay..." Ulrich sighed. "Well, I guess we have our first date after all."
This is most definitely not what I had in mind... Sissi thought as, unlike Yumi, she utterly failed to hide her blushing.
"And keep in mind that both me and Aelita aren't getting any sleep at all because of this!" Jeremie added, clearly expecting some gratitude.
"Just hurry." Sissi pleaded in a softer voice. "I would rather jump into the Digital Sea than spend more time in a guy's body, especially this scrawny one."
"Now, wait a minute!" Odd rushed to the defense of his body. "First, I'm svelte! Not scrawny! And second, I have a dynamite body! Better than yours!"
Then he ran a hand down the back of Sissi's pink shirt, trying to scratch at something behind it.
"For example, something's itching in my back. It's, uh, I think it's the strap to your..." He realized what it was, looking at Sissi as he ceased all movement and embarrassment washed over him.
Yumi sighed slowly and put a hand on her forehead, followed closely by Aelita, who was very much aware of the definition of bras.
"Don't you dare take it off, you hear?!" Sissi demanded. "Or Yumi and I will make you regret it!"
The Japanese girl leveled a glare at Odd to let him know that she would go along with this.
"Okay, sorry!" He raised Sissi's hands up in surrender. "But rest assured, I may be many things, but I ain't no creep!"
"Look, there's no need to worry." Aelita sought to assure them. "I'll be working with Jeremie and we'll have this solved by tomorrow morning."
"I sure hope so." Odd said, to which Sissi replied, "Understatement of the millennium right there."
Ulrich, Odd, Yumi and Sissi went their separate ways as they went back to Kadic, agreeing to resume their daily routines as if nothing had occurred, while Aelita and Jeremie stayed behind at the factory to work on their program. It was fortunate that all of them lived at Kadic and had no families to fool. Mr. Delmas was a non-issue, as he was the school principal and Sissi slept in her own dorm.
Nothing was out of place in Odd's routine, aside from the fact that he had recently broken up with his previous date Claire over his desire to date another girl named Magali. Dating two girls at once was something off-limits to him, and as much of a jokester as Odd was, he wasn't stupid or heartless enough to cheat.
Ulrich sat alone outside of the cafeteria and flipped a coin, when he heard the words that he dreaded the most.
"Hey!" Odd, in Sissi's body, declared as he popped out of seemingly nowhere. "I've got a great idea!"
"Uh huh..." Ulrich blankly stared. "Those five words coming from you are like a death sentence."
"You've been too shy to ask Yumi out, and even more so since Sissi joined us, right? Well, now you can practice saying 'no' to Sissi on me!"
Ulrich groaned. "Odd, that's not a great idea. It's a stupid one, and anyway, I'm not that crazy about Yumi or that worried about Sissi."
Well, that's a lie if I've ever said one. Ulrich privately mused.
"Yeah, right, tell me about it." An unconvinced Odd smiled at him. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for you to give it a shot without breaking poor Sissi's heart to pieces."
"I don't think you realize how much I do not want to have this conversation." It was hard enough to settle his feelings for Sissi and Yumi as it was, but talking to her body when it was inhabited by his best friend? Morally dubious was the most generous depiction of the encounter that he could think of.
"And besides, I can give you some pointers."
Ulrich narrowly resisted the urge to burst out laughing.
"Pointers? You?"
"C'mon!" Odd challenged. "Tell me to Sissi's face that you love Yumi and not her, I'm waiting!"
"There you are, Sissi!" Ulrich and Odd looked up to see none other than Herb Pichon walking up to them, his eyes firmly on Sissi's body.
"I still can't believe you just abandoned us yesterday." The nerd in green seethed. "We've been loyal to you for you know how long, and you threw both me and Nicholas away? For that string bean?"
Herb knew that was a lie, for Ulrich was far more physically fit than a string bean.
"Sissi" saw fit to retort his question, saying "Well, at least my sweet Ulrich doesn't have the mind of a vegetable."
Herb's eyes widened in incredulity. "What, you're calling me stupid now?! Are you having brain damage or something?"
"Sissi" proceeded to press her attack. "Give it a rest, Herb. You and I were never made for each other. Me and Ulrich, though..."
"Sissi" leaned her head into Ulrich's neck and held him close, much to the horror of the brunette.
"We were made for each other. Oh, Ulrich, my beloved! It's time to forget about Yumi, we're a match made in heaven!"
Herb didn't notice his reaction, however. He tried stammering a response a few times, then turned and left without another word.
Ulrich was about to shove his roommate off of him when they heard the click of a camera and noticed a flash of light. They turned to the window behind them, where Tamiya, the camera girl for the Kadic News Crew, was inside the cafeteria, aiming her camera down at them.
And she was smiling as if she had just snapped a photo of something rare, "Score! I think I just got the scoop of the year! With a front row seat, too!" She then hurried away from the window, likely to find the news anchor, her partner Milly.
"What!?" Ulrich exclaimed in horror as his thoughts plunged into despair.
You've gotta be kidding me...
"Her" hands still on Ulrich's shoulder, Odd commented "Hey, now I see why Sissi's so crazy about you."
"Do that one more time..." Ulrich coldly threatened. "And you're dead."
He then walked away, heading towards the dorms.
"You try to do a friend a favor, and that's the thanks you get..." Odd lamented.
"This has got to be the worst day of my life!"
"So you've said, about 20 times now."
Sissi's complaint was swiftly addressed by Yumi as the two girls, or one and a half girls so to speak, walked down one of Kadic's many hallways.
"And he calls this a dynamite body? Ugh, more like a slime body!" She sighs. "There has to be something I can do to take my mind off this."
"How was boxing with him yesterday?" Yumi asked as an attempt.
At that, Sissi's complaints paused. For every time Odd verbally roasted her, she imagined her revenge. Leg sweeping him yesterday felt quite therapeutic.
"Honestly, it was really fun. Way more than I thought. Do you and Ulrich do something like that often?"
"Every now and then." She admitted. "It's fun to have someone who can give me a challenge. I've practiced Pencak Silat for a year now; Ulrich is about the same."
"Did you two ever hurt each other?"
"Not often. I actually kicked him in the face twice, and both times he kinda just shrugged it off."
"How do you just shrug off a kick to the face?" Sissi inquired. "Shrugging off Odd's fists yesterday was hard enough."
When word got out that Sissi brawled with Odd, it was treated with amusement by the other Lyoko Warriors. Ulrich had even remarked that he would have paid to see Sissi knock the braggart to the ground if he had the chance.
Yumi just shrugged. "Beats me. I certainly wouldn't shake it off. Now, there are things he definitely can't shrug off. Like possessed people attacking him."
"Yumi, I've been wondering, what did I do when I got possessed?"
I need to know if I hurt Ulrich or any one of you. She silently pleaded, though Yumi had no trouble understanding why she asked.
"Ulrich said you two dueled with water pipes or something, but we deactivated the Tower possessing you before you could hurt him."
Now that was a relief, something Sissi so desperately wanted today.
"Thanks for telling me that. About Ulrich..."
"I know, you're going to have to sleep in his dorm. Luckily, it's not the same bed. There's one for him and Odd."
Sissi sighed in relief. "You're taking this better than I thought you would."
"If it was Odd inside my body, I definitely wouldn't take it well." Yumi assured her. "But I also get the sense that this isn't how you want to be with him at all."
"I would rather eat a razor blade than sleep with him in this bod-"
Oh, wait.
Yumi and Sissi shared a moment of awkward silence.
"...Sorry."
"How about you and Ulrich get set up at the dorm tonight?" Yumi suggested. "That way we can avoid any trouble until Jeremie and Aelita are done by tomorrow."
"You'll find no objections from me."
"But two more things. First, avoid the girls bathroom until we've switched you and Odd back."
Sissi was about to ask why, when the life-altering reality of the situation popped up and made her agree.
"And the second thing?"
"Second, you're gonna want to find Ulrich before you go into his and Odd's room."
"Why's that?"
Ah, that's why.
That night, Sissi found herself face-to-face with a barking and growling dog with Ulrich beside her. Odd's dog was an open secret among the students, despite rules prohibiting the presence of animals within Kadic Academy. It was a good thing she didn't come in unprepared, because Kiwi clearly sensed something was off with its master's body.
"Hey, Kiwi. C'mon. I know that's not Odd. It's a friend of ours. Nice doggy. Play nice now."
Ulrich's pleas eventually had Kiwi stop barking, allowing Sissi and Ulrich to go to their beds.
"Well, this is certainly not how I thought we'd spend a night together." Sissi commented.
"Well, you've always wanted to start dating me." Ulrich joked, before letting out a sigh.
"You really have no idea whether you love me or Yumi, do you?" She inquired.
"Sissi, please don't talk about that." The brunette groaned. "I can't make a decision. I'm sorry, but I just can't. I know eventually I have to, but not now."
Whenever Sissi started dreading Ulrich's inevitable romantic decision, she forced herself to think about it from Ulrich's perspective. The boy was being torn by the two closest women in his life. It was no wonder he couldn't come to a decision.
"Right. I understand. It's just..."
Then Sissi took a look at her left hand and her eyes widened in concern before gasping sharply.
Her hand was disappearing.
"Uh...U-Ulrich?"
Ulrich stood up out of bed as he noticed Sissi's glitching hand.
"What's happening to your hand?"
"I was hoping you had an answer." Sissi said, before the glitching abruptly halted.
"Should we tell Jeremie?"
"Tomorrow." Ulrich suggested. "He and Aelita are going to be busy all night, let's let them work while we take a rest."
"Oh, I suppose you're right." She sighed, trying to swallow down her terror as she went to take Odd's shoes off her new body.
"Watch yourself." Ulrich suddenly warned.
"What?" Sissi asked, just as she took off Odd's shoe. "Oh! Ugh! Gross!"
Sissi fell back, the stench of Odd's feet being so potent that it caused her to pass out on the spot.
Ulrich chuckled, before grabbing some nose plugs and putting them on. "Heh, I warned you. It's more powerful than a Laser Arrow."
Sissi felt sweat on her forehead when she woke up the next morning, but when thought about the feeling more, it was more like something bigger was sliding down her face. Then she opened her eyes and saw Kiwi licking his master's forehead.
"Oh, please, Kiwi..." Sissi never had any real experience with dogs until today. She had seen plenty of them in films and television, but Sissi never wanted the responsibility of raising a pet herself, especially if said pet was going to do this to her. She raised up her hands to gently push him away.
And then the same hand from last night disappeared again.
"Ulrich!"
The brunette sat up to see Sissi's now transparent hand. It stopped after a couple seconds, but that hardly eased their concerns.
"We better go see if Jeremie found the bug yet." He suggested.
Normally Sissi would say something like 'I could have thought of that!', but in this case her terror was too persistent to argue.
It wasn't long before the two "boys" left the room and met up with the others outside the Academy to explain the situation with her hand.
Oh, wow. Jeremie looks like a zombie. Sissi thought as she stared at his sleep deprived eyes.
"Strange. Well, the glitching should stop once both of you are back in your bodies. I found the error in the program and fixed it. We just need to restart it from Lyoko and whatever XANA thought he'd accomplish with this will fail. We'll head to the factory at lunch time."
"See?" Ulrich assured her, placing a hand on Sissi/Odd's shoulder. "Everything's going to be fine."
"Uh, no." Sissi stopped walking, her eyes widening in horror as she saw something up ahead. "It is very much not fine."
Odd was dressed in a brown top outfit with a skirt, wearing wide black boots and fingerless brown gloves. He also had a wide hat on.
He really put on my cowgirl outfit...
"Howdy y'all!" Odd announced in a poorly done Southern accent as the others stared at him, their mouths wide open.
"First of all, I do not sound like that!" A very furious Sissi shouted. "And second of all, what is with that outfit?!"
"Well..." Odd sheepishly said. "They're your clothes. Cool, huh?"
Sissi marched up to the idiot controlling her body and pointed a finger at "his" face. "You are so lucky that you're in my body right or I would beat you to a pulp!"
Sissi proceeded to poke "Odd's" chest to emphasize her words. "Go home, you hear?! And change back into my regular clothes before the entire school sees you!"
A flash of light interrupted the demand.
Sissi and Odd turned around to see Tamiya taking a pic of the scene.
Odd Della Robbia. You are so dumb that even "the stupidest of all stupidity" doesn't describe you accurately.
"Sissi Delmas." Milly claps at Taminya's idea for a headline. "Transformed by her love! We've got to use that!"
Wait, what?
"It'll double our circulation, for sure!" Taminya gleefully announces before the two girls run off. Yumi crosses her arms, tilting her head in curiosity.
"What are they talking about with this whole love thing?!" Sissi demanded.
"Uh, no time to explain. Don't wanna be late for math class, see ya!" Then Odd ran off as if he were Willie E. Coyote.
"A cowgirl?" Jeremie questioned.
Sissi's embarrassment caused Odd's cheeks to blush.
"I'd...rather not talk about it."
Ulrich held back his laughter from the callback to the expression their gym teacher made every day.
After that, the Lyoko Warriors (sans Yumi, who was in a different class) headed on down to Mrs. Hertz' science class and sat down before she entered the room.
"Take out your pens, please. Pop quiz on gravity."
Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!
Sissi looked over to see the significantly less educated man in her body shifting nervously at the thought of getting a pop quiz now.
He's going to flunk it so hard…
Sissi looked down at her hands, which then suddenly started to fade away again. Her eyes widening in alarm, Sissi turned to Aelita, Jeremie, Ulrich, who were all seated beside her, and reacted with similar concern to what was in front of them.
"I'll text Yumi." Jeremie whispered. "Then we'll out meet outside."
William Dunbar had seen some strange things in his time, but he was beginning to believe that one of the top three was in this very moment, right before he came to math class. Watching Sissi wear a cowgirl outfit and a comically oversized hat attracted stares from not just him, but from most of the other students too.
He knew the rumors that had been going around. Sissi's rivalry with Ulrich's friends and her crush with Ulrich herself were some of the biggest gossip in the academy, but everything was turning upside down. Never before had she sat down with them before and talked casually.
How does this affect Yumi? He wondered. And how is this affecting Ulrich?
A declaration from his math teacher interrupted the thought.
"Take out your pens, please. Pop quiz on linear functions."
William, seated next to Yumi, couldn't help but whisper a question. And it wasn't about the cowgirl outfit, though Yumi probably knew. But about something perhaps even more shocking.
"So, what's the business between Ulrich and Sissi about?" William wondered.
"The what?" Yumi cocked an eyebrow, but noticed her math teacher placed a paper in front of her. She turned away from William and looked at the questions until an alert came from her phone. When the teacher was out of sight, she picked it up.
"SOS: Something's happening to Sissi and Odd. Come outside, ASAP."
Yumi wanted answers about this 'business' William talked about, and it would likely impact her grades to miss this quiz, but it couldn't wait.
"Uh ma'am?" Yumi asked the teacher. "I have a sore throat, can I go to the infirmary?"
That might be one of the most poorly rushed excuses to flee a pop quiz I've ever seen. William thought.
"Yes, of course." The teacher replied.
Okay, seriously, where on Earth does the principal find these teachers?
As Yumi left the room, William was left to his thoughts and the pop quiz. It wasn't exactly rocket science to know that Ulrich Stern and his pack of friends had some kind of secret, but the moment Sissi started hanging out with them, she was starting to become as secretive as them.
One day, I'll get to the bottom of this. What are you up to, Yumi?
One thing was for sure: he would find out sooner than the adults in the room.
"And nobody noticed anything in class?"
"Nope. Everyone was concentrating on the math quiz...well, except for maybe William."
Yumi's debrief of math class drew the dismay of Ulrich. They knew that one day, William would likely become a problem. It was a stretch enough that they recruited Sissi and got her to keep quiet, but they did not want to go through the effort of getting a seventh Lyoko Warrior. Six was enough of a strain as it was.
After Sissi expressed dismay at Odd's supreme lack of confidence in their math quiz, and even further concern by Odd's tale of similar problems with his hands, Jeremie discussed the results of his and Aelita's tireless work as they walked through the forest.
"I think I figured out what XANA's trying to do. You two have materialized into bodies that aren't your own, so they aren't stable." He says as he opens the manhole cover.
"So why did he bother doing that?" Sissi questioned.
"Because XANA knows the instability will reach a breaking point. The breaking point being your atoms, which will split apart."
"I-I know this in history class!" Sissi gasped. "Are we going to explode like Hiroshima and Nagasaki?!"
Yumi twitched and turned away uncomfortably at this reminder of her culture's dark history.
"No, no. Not like that." He assured them. "But what will happen is that your bodies won't stop disappearing. When the process is complete, XANA will have gotten rid of two birds with one stone."
"Meaning?" Ulrich pressed, seeking a simpler answer.
"Meaning complete disintegration."
Sissi gasped in horror, holding Odd's hands up to his face.
"D-Disintegration?!"
Before Sissi's panic could escalate, she felt a pair of hands hold Odd's own. She looked up to see Ulrich staring at her.
"Hey, Sissi. We're not gonna let anything happen to you, or Odd. We're gonna get down to Lyoko and get you right back in your body."
A pause. Then, he added, "Do you trust me?"
Sissi realized the play. Instead of focusing on her fears, Ulrich was asking her to trust in her friends, more specifically him.
"Of course, I trust you, Ulrich."
"Then that's how you know you're going to be fine."
Sissi smiled, her confidence restored.
Few words were exchanged in between the time that it took the Lyoko Warriors to get from the sewers to the Factory. According to Jeremie, their plan was to send everyone (except the young genius himself) to the Ice Sector, where Aelita would enter a Waytower to reboot the program and restore Sissi and Odd back to their bodies.
And not a moment too soon.
Odd and Sissi materialized soon after Aelita and Ulrich, only after Jeremie hilariously struggled to get his words straight on who he's virtualizing. Sissi looked down at the massive paws of Odd's Lyoko Avatar. A certain fictional anti-hero came to mind.
"Let's hear it for Catwoman!" Sissi declared.
Meanwhile, Odd attempted to walk in Sissi's new green heels, but stumbled and tripped, earning the laughter of everyone present. He pointed accusingly at Ulrich.
"You try walking around in these things!"
Aelita pointed north, seeking to avoid any further humiliation of her friends. "There's the Tower!"
"You might want to hurry up." Jeremie suggested "XANA might want to send a welcoming committee."
No further encouragement was needed, all five Lyoko Warriors racing to the Tower as soon as Jeremie was finished speaking. Sissi took it upon herself to study Yumi's Lyoko form, though she had no idea what to make of it. The term "Geisha" was completely alien to her.
"Uh…wow! You look so…umm...what's the word for it...?"
"Unique?" Yumi finished for her. "We can talk about fashion later. Let's get your bodies swapped."
They reached the Tower without resistance, and Aelita went inside, leaving the others waiting.
Just then, Sissi's Lyoko Avatar became transparent again. Ulrich glanced at Sissi, worried, and then back at Odd's Avatar to see it also glitching.
"I hope Aelita makes it fast." Odd hopefully suggested. "This is turning into an emergency here!"
"Not as much of an emergency as what's approaching you now!" Jeremie warned. "Four Kankrelats coming in!"
Sissi, Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich turned to see XANA's cockroaches approaching them and opening fire. The former screamed, running away as she hid behind a small formation of Ice.
"Laser Arrow!" Odd shouted, only to realize that Sissi's Lyoko Avatar didn't have any Laser Arrows. "Oh yeah, I forgot..."
The Kankrelats directed their fire at Odd, prompting Ulrich to block the lasers with his saber and Yumi to throw her fans at his defense.
"Get to cover!" Ulrich shouted. "Remember, if you're devirtualized, it'll be game over for good!"
While Aelita performed a backflip as she ascended the Tower, Odd went into cover with Sissi, who was trembling.
"Hey, Sissi!" Odd encouraged. "Remember these are the weakest that XANA has to offer. All you have to do is launch my Laser Arrows!"
"And how do those things work?" She questioned.
"Well, you imagine you're firing. Then, you concentrate a little bit and bingo! It fires!"
Ulrich and Yumi destroyed a Kankrelat each as Sissi extended Odd's paw out and asked "Like this?", before firing a Laser Arrow towards Odd's head.
The cat boy barely ducked in time, shouting "Hey!"
"Oops!" Sissi rubbed her head nervously. "Sorry!"
Odd pointed a finger to Sissi's temple in response and picked up the orange pom-pom.
"Let me show you how it's really done!"
Odd tossed the orange pom-pom towards a Kankrelat. However, while backflipping away from a Kankrelat's laser, Yumi ended up placing herself in the blast radius. She gasps upon seeing the Pom-Pom headed straight for her.
"Oh no!" Yumi screamed.
The pom-pom went off, engulfing Yumi and the Kankrelat he targeted, causing her to scream as she got blown away and devirtualized.
"Oh...Oops."
Sissi felt like banging her head against the Ice.
I'm going to die right beside the biggest idiot in not just one, but two worlds.
In the Scanner Room, Yumi reemerged into the real world and fell the floor, exhausted and frustrated.
"Odd, you idiot!" Yumi shouted, banging her fist on the floor.
It wasn't long before Ulrich dispatched the rest of the monsters, however. Aside from the irritation of this entire situation, Sissi found herself amazed at seeing Ulrich in action. She had never been into samurais that much, but now she considered watching some samurai media to get more familiar with them.
Soon enough, Aelita came out of the Tower.
Please tell me that I'm finally about to get back to my body...
"Where's Yumi?" Aelita questioned, noticing the geisha's absence. "Did she get devirtualized?"
"Guilty as charged." Odd raised one of Sissi's hands. Aelita quickly surmised what happened and shook her head but resolved to remain focused.
"Hurry, we have to get to Sector Five!"
Fate really hates me today...
"Huh?" Ulrich asked. "Uh, you're gonna need a really good reason for us to bring Odd and Sissi to the most dangerous sector on Lyoko."
"I'll explain on the way. I'm bringing out your vehicles." Jeremie said as he materialized them.
"You want to take me to the most dangerous sector on Lyoko?!" Sissi practically shrieked, being so consumed by fear that she hardly paid attention to seeing the Overbike and the Overwing for the first time.
"We don't have a choice." Jeremie explained as Sissi took the Overwing, Odd and Ulrich took the Overbike, and Aelita got on the Overboard. "The program is being run by inhibitors, and we don't have time to cry and crack the millions of codes to find the inhibitors."
"Okay, serious question." Sissi interrupted. "How has that brain of yours not exploded by now?"
"I share the burden." Jeremie replied. "Anyways, Sector Five is dangerous because, unlike the other Sectors, XANA can rearrange the rooms at will, because it's his home."
"We're going to break into XANA's house?!"
"For I think the fifth or sixth time." Aelita added. "If it's any relief."
"XANA must be a really bad housekeeper then." Sissi quipped.
"Anyways, Sector Five has a computer interface which only Aelita can interact with." Jeremie lectured, "With it, she can reboot the materialization program so that the next time you and Odd are devirtualized, you'll be switched back to normal. That's why we have to go there."
"But-" Sissi tried to protest but Jeremie cut her off. "And remember, if we can't get your back into your own bodies quickly, it means disintegration!"
"And what's more." Ulrich added as he turned to Sissi. "Seeing how you handled those laser arrows, you might accidentally kill Odd before then."
"Maybe, but not before Odd blows us all up." Aelita added.
That joke relieved some of the tension, and Sissi found herself chuckling just a little. A few seconds later, the Lyoko Warriors reached a cliff.
"So, how do we get to Sector Five?" Sissi questioned.
"Jeremie is going to type in the code 'Scipio' to summon a transport orb. It will take us right there."
Sissi threw her arms up, incredulous at this entire situation. "First, I find myself inside of a guy's body, then I'm breaking into XANA's home, and now I'm going to get kidnapped by an orb?!"
"What's next? Going bowling?"
Just as Sissi said that, what looked like a massive black bowling ball rolled up to the group from behind, stopping a short distance away. Aelita turned and pointed out the monster's approach.
"A Megatank!" She cried.
A What?
"That mouth of yours, huh?" Ulrich quipped at Sissi before unsheathing his sword and charging at the monster.
In a second, the Bowling Ball opened up, revealing a horrible work of gums with an Eye of XANA symbol on it's center. Ulrich stabbed his katana into the symbol just as the monster fired a massive elliptical laser, instantly devirtualizing him.
"Ulrich!" Sissi cried, right before the transport orb came down and gulfed the four Lyoko Warriors.
Can this day get any weirder? Sissi thought right before the orb consumed her.
"I can't believe that I could possibly be so dumb." Ulrich chastised himself as he exited the Scanner Room and took the elevator back up into the lab.
Putting his hands in his pocket, he sighed. This day had been so weird not just for Sissi and Odd, but himself as well. He was trying not to let his time with Sissi in his roommate's body influence his emotional state too much, but it was failing.
He went up to Jeremie and Yumi, the latter flanking the young genius to his left.
"Well, this is turning out to be a fine mess, isn't it?" Ulrich muttered.
"All of this was just a warm-up." Jeremie said, "Now Sissi has to go into Sector Five, with just Aelita and Odd, in a different person's body, with barely any experience."
From there on in, Ulrich and Yumi would watch the proceeding events with great interest.
Sissi thought she was in heaven when she saw Sector Five for the first time. She stared around the blue walls, the XANA symbol on the ground beneath her feet, everything was enthralling her. The other sectors seemed pale in their visual demonstrations compared to this one.
"Wow...this place..."
"Don't get fooled." Aelita warned. "When we said this place is the most dangerous, we meant it. There are unique monsters that only exist in this sector, called Creepers."
"Creepers?" Sissi questioned.
"Remember when I said that you haven't met the 'Creep' on Lyoko, yet?" Odd reminded her.
Sissi gulped in anticipation, just as the wall in front of them slowly opened. A hallway in front of them opened up and spun, making it into platforms for them to jump around on.
"This is definitely different. Are...are you sure we have to go in there?"
"Only if you don't want to stay in a guy's body forever." Odd said, trying to goad her. It worked.
"No way!" And with that, the three Lyoko Warriors took the plunge. While running through the halls of Sector Five, Jermeie warned "Now you're entering a countdown sequence. You need to find the key and press it to open the way forward within a time limit. And watch out for the Scyphozoa!"
Right. As if things weren't bad enough already.
Right on cue, Sissi heard a growl while running. She looked up to see a creature with a lower body that was mechanical and snakelike. Its upper body had a brown hunched torso, two thin legs and a thick lip-like mouth. Its head had an Eye of XANA symbol imprinted on it.
"Ew!" Sissi shouted. "No wonder you call these things, creeps!"
Soon, they reached what appeared to be a dead-end with the Key situated above an abyss.
"How are we supposed to reach that?" Sissi questioned.
Just then, a Creeper came up from behind and roared at them. Seeing the monster up close caused Sissi to scream and back away. Out of panic she quickly aimed her wrist and actually fired a Laser Arrow, though it missed and hit the wall.
"Hey, I did it right this time!" Sissi exclaimed.
"Yeah, but you missed your target." Odd pointed out. "And it was 10 yards off a hallway."
"Shut up, you!" Sissi retorted. "I'm still new to this!"
Odd pulled out Sissi's spear and thrust it into the Creeper's head, causing it to explode.
"Woah!"
Odd and Aelita turned back to see their friend floating in the air, having stepped off the platform in her panic.
"H...How?!"
"It looks like XANA modified the gravity in the room. Try swimming to the key!"
Anything to get away from those things! Sissi thought as she took the opportunity to head towards the key; however, her momentum stalled and she found herself unable to reach it.
"Sissi!" Odd shouted. "I have an-" He was interrupted by another Creeper barging into the room, which he quickly stabbed and killed with Sissi's spear. "Idea!"
"I hate it when you say that!" She screamed back.
Odd turned Sissi's spear around and hurled it at Sissi's back; however, he aimed it so that only the blunt end would strike Sissi. With one second left on the timer, Sissi was propelled forward in time to touch the key. Back at the lab, Jeremie and the others let out a celebratory cry.
Sissi took the spear into her (or in this case, Odd's) hands, before using her feet to propel her off the walls and reach the other side of the room. Meanwhile, another Creeper emerged and began to fire at Sissi's body.
"I don't have a-" Odd started to complain about the lack of a weapon, just to go "Oh, screw it!"
Odd took a step forward and punched the Creeper in the face. To his surprise, the Creeper was sent flying a long distance out of the room as if it had been hit by a truck.
"Wow! Sissi, your Lyoko Avatar has super strength!" Aelita observed.
"That's good to know! Now get over here!"
Just as Odd was about to do that, another Creeper emerged in front of him and Aelita, roaring in their faces but a Laser Arrow is fired, scoring a direct hit in the face, destroying it. Odd and Aelita turned to see Sissi with her wrist out, smiling after finally having fired the arrows correctly and destroyed a monster.
"Well done Sissi!" Aelita praised.
"Not bad." Odd complimented.
Odd propelled himself and Aelita off the platform, just as the now irate Creeper he punched earlier returned and fired again.
"Go, Aelita!" Odd kicked Aelita across the room towards Sissi's position, allowing Aelita to exit the room while the Creeper continued firing at their friends. It scored a direct hit on Odd, knocking Sissi's body back.
Odd, seeing that he was unarmed and too far to punch it again, left Sissi to fight. Sissi made to throw her spear at the Creeper, but then her and Odd's bodies started glitching again.
"Oh, no! Not now!"
She readied another Laser Arrow, but her and Odd's bodies glitched out once more. Aelita used the elevator to reach the computer interface at the end of the Sector.
"Quick deactivate the inhibitors as quickly as you can and don't hang around for long! Things are about to get messy!" Jeremie warned.
Aelita typed as fast as she could on the interact, while both Odd and Sissi received direct laser hits from the Creeper.
"Is...is this it?" Sissi softly questioned. This appeared to be the end for them.
"No! Aelita comes through, she always does!" Odd exclaimed.
As their life points plummeted, Aelita typed as fast as was virtually possible. Her eyes were glued to the computer interface, the pings of the selected screens being all she heard. She focused like never before.
So much so that Aelita didn't hear the whirring noise nearby.
The most dangerous of XANA's monsters had been lying in wait inside Sector Five until there were no guardians to protect Aelita. From atop Sector Five, the Scyphozoa began to lower itself into position behind Aelita.
"Jeremie, it's done! You can take over again now!"
"Okay, I've got it!" The young genius confirmed. "I'll transfer it back to the Remineralization program!"
Aelita sighed in relief.
And that was when she heard it.
The Scyphozoa lowered itself directly behind Aelita, its tentacles squirming around as it readied to claim its prey.
There was nowhere for Aelita to run, except for the bottomless abyss behind her. She had no weapons. Nothing.
All she could do was scream.
"JEREMIE!"
Meanwhile, the Creeper kept shooting at Odd and Sissi until the former's body devirtualized.
"Sissi! NO!"
Then the Creeper fired one more shot at Odd, devirtualizing him as well. Jeremie was about to express his hope that the program worked when he noticed Aelita's situation.
Of course, this was XANA's plan. He was waiting to send that thing in until she was alone.
"Type in Scipio, HURR-"
Aelita's frantic pleas were cut off by tentacles that wrapped around her waist and head, ready to drain her memory.
"NO! I won't let you do this, XANA!"
Jeremie quickly typed in the code and summoned the transport orb. He had never used it in this area before, but he had no choice. Aelita couldn't enter a vehicle while in the Scyphozoa's grasp, so he had to use something to rip her out of that thing's grasp
This gamble paid off when the orb came onto Jeremie's screen after typing in "Scipio". As the massive transport got in the way, the monster was forced to withdraw its tentacles and screeched in defeat as Aelita was snatched away to safety.
As much as Jeremie wanted to sigh in relief, he had to wait until he knew the program worked for Odd and Sissi.
"I sure hope the tweak on the materialization program worked." Said Jeremie.
"I'm going to the scanner room." Said Ulrich, walking to the elevator.
"Me too." Yumi followed after him.
Odd and Sissi fell out of their Scanners, eyes closed. Ulrich went up to Odd, while Yumi approached Sissi.
Ulrich shook Odd's arm, asking "Odd? Is that-Is that you? Actually, you?"
Suddenly, Odd opened his eyes. "Of course it is." He replied, his voice laced with the usual insolence. "What's the matter with you? Don't you recognize your own buddies?"
"Dork." Ulrich scoffed.
Yumi had dropped down in front of Sissi, giving her arm a shake. "Sissi. Sissi, are you okay?"
Sissi opened her eyes slowly and gasped, surprising Yumi by grabbing her shoulders out of nowhere.
"Did it work! Please tell me our bodies have switched back! Please!" Sissi begged.
Yumi couldn't help but laugh. "I think the results speak for themselves."
Sissi looked at her hands, felt her body and face, and then let out a cheer to the Heavens.
"We did it, Jeremie!" Yumi announced. "They're back in their bodies!"
Jeremie let out one of the biggest sighs of relief in his whole life.
Aelita was back to flipping her coin at Kadic Academy, relieved to have this opportunity to relax with her friends after having one of the most hectic days in the war against XANA. She was by the vending machines with Jeremie and Ulrich, waiting for the other three to arrive.
"Heads: Yumi shows up first. Tails: Odd does." She left Sissi out of the bet as there was no room for her.
Jeremie smiled, "Tails, it is." He nodded his head at a certain blonde Italian who showed up at that moment. Odd caught Aelita's coin as the pink-haired girl flipped it into the air again, to the latter's surprise and slight annoyance.
"It seems I had nothing to worry about," Odd said. "Sissi wasn't too mad at me. Not about the insult to Herb, her cowgirl outfit, the quiz or any of the other stuff."
"She was probably in a generous mood," Aelita proposed, "because she wants to put this whole body-switching fiasco behind her. I don't blame her."
Odd slipped the coin he stole from Aelita into the vending machine and pressed the button for a cup of hot chocolate. "Even Yumi wasn't too mad about me blowing her to smithereens on Lyoko. For Sissi's sake, let's hope she doesn't make a similar mistake."
"You know, they are really cool. Both of them." Odd continued. "Really nice and forgiving. I think if you went out with either of them, you'd have a great time, Ulrich."
Ulrich crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, saying "I'll make a decision on that when I make a decision."
Then he remembered an important detail. "Oh, you didn't tell Yumi or Sissi about what happened between us, right?"
"No way!" Odd immediately denied. "Earning the wrath of two women would be a death sentence! I plan on staying alive, good buddy!"
"Why?" Aelita mused. "What did happen between you two?"
"Oh, nothing." Odd and Ulrich sheepishly replied.
At that moment, however, the four Lyoko Warriors noticed Yumi walking up to them with the school paper in hand. Sissi was standing beside her, her eyes fixed upon the paper. Yumi and Sissi's eyes, in that particular moment, were in sync as they saw a very disturbing photo and a deliberately provocative headline.
"Ulrich Stern forgets all about Yumi Ishiyama! Sissi Delmas at long last claims her beloved!"
"Uh, oh." Odd muttered.
Yumi and Sissi finally glanced up from the paper, transfixing Odd with their menacing stares.
"Odd..." Sissi warned, slowly and softly. This was the tone of voice that she used when she nagged her way into a conversation, but there was something fierce about it this time. She loved Ulrich, true, but this was most certainly not how she wanted to start dating him.
"I don't like this..."
"Odd..." Yumi warned next, equally slowly and softly but possibly more dangerous than Sissi, something the gang is used to hearing and something Odd should've probably seen coming.
"U-Ulrich!" Odd cried. "Help me!"
"I warned you." Ulrich mercilessly shrugged. "Sorry I can't give you any pointers good buddy."
Jeremie and Aelita stepped to the side, smartly avoiding being on the receiving end of the wrath of both Yumi and Sissi. Odd watched in horror as the two girls approached him, their faces contorted with unified rage.
"OOOOODDDDD!" Yumi and Sissi screamed their loudest and all Odd could do was yelp in fear. Whether he was beaten to a pulp or he managed to run for his life with the two furious women chasing him around campus is lost forever to history.
[ERROR: Operation: Displacement has failed]
[Analysis: All objectives failed, new data gathered. No altercations to primary objective needed.]
[New Threat Status: Sissi Delmas' threat level continues to rise. This cannot continue.]
[Potential Threat Status: Interference of _REDACTED_ is a necessary but low risk.]
[New Data: Human bonds are what keep the Lyoko Warriors fighting. Emotions strengthen them.]
[Conclusion: The Lyoko Warriors can be divided and conquered by using their emotions and bonds against them.]
[New Operation Initiated: Preparing altercations for specter. Inserting illogical elements.]
A/N: A Fine Mess was definitely one of my favorite episodes because of how Odd and Yumi couldn't go five seconds without embarrassing each other in the other's body, but since this is a Sissi fanfic, I had to transfer the experience around so Odd swapped with Sissi instead. That's not to say Yumi didn't get her own suffering from Odd's silly antics, of course!
About the changes I made, I took Temporary Insanity's plot starter and put it here to make the body swap an actual XANA plot. In canon, it's a bug in the Rematerialization program, but here it's a very much intentional act by XANA in an attempt to quickly take out the newbie and take another Warrior with her. Odd's casual confession about dating two girls at once was a bit "yikes". You're a ladies man dude, not a cheater or a creep.
And Sissi's outfit change, I showed Dewey10 (also a Lyoko fan) the story and he pointed out that Sissi's initial outfit looked more like a season 4 outfit. We decided it was best to change it up to a more season 2 or 3 outfit with an-universe excuse that Aelita rushed the process. For fans of her og design, don't worry, it'll be back when/if this fic ever gets to adapting season 4.
As for the Scyphozoa's appearance here, I changed it up because I thought it would make sense for it to wait to strike once Aelita was alone, not when two bodyguards were still in the room with her. XANA would've won right there had Jeremie not been able to bring up the transport orb.
Next up: The emotional bonds of the Lyoko Warriors are put to the test against XANA's newest weapon.