Chapter 4

Tick! Tock! Tick! Tock!

Sora stared blankly at the clock wishing for the clock to skip ahead the 10 minutes more they had of history. He kind of wished he could die from boredom then he wouldn't be able to hear his teacher's voice drone on about the battle of Dunkirk.

All four of them were stuck in Mr Fumet's history class with the twin siblings seated next to each other on the second row with Cherry and Erin just behind them.

His twin sister Kairi was paying close attention writing notes neatly in her notebook with a lot of detail. He didn't pay it much mind, History was her speciality, give her any topic from the past and she can recite it from memory in perfect detail. Cherry was similarly writing similar notes not as good as Kairi's but detailed enough and Erin just looked plain confused at all the information she received.

"Well, that concludes our lesson for today. Now, Class due to a special assembly happening today you get to start break a little early still with a normal time of 20 minutes" the teacher said snapping his book shut and setting it on the table.

"Woohoo!" Sora and Erin cheered loudly throwing their hands up and standing.

"I'm glad you're so enthusiastic, I hope you've taken enough notes today because next lesson I'm going to give you a test on this" he smirked when their moods deflated and simultaneously groans from around the class echoed.

The bell rang and everyone packed up their stuff as quick as they could while the teacher left the room for his own short break.

"Do you want my notes later on Sora?" Kairi questioned waving her notes in his face knowing that he took none earlier.

"Yeah, later." He replied picking up his bag and walking out to head to the courtyard with all the girls hanging close behind him.

"Wait a moment I need speak with you about your test results Erin Hughes and Sora Shimizu!" Mr Fumet called out before they left with the others.

"Oh curses!" Erin hissed, he had mentioned wanting to see them at the beginning of the lesson when he gave everyone their tests from weeks ago back except hers and Sora's.

"We'll see you two later in the courtyard" Kairi sang pushing Cherry forward to leave the classroom so they could meet up with the two later on.

"Yes sir?" Erin smiled as she and Sora trudged up to his desk which he leaned against holding papers in his hands. Sora didn't even bother trying hide his guilt as both he and Erin knew what they were in trouble for; there wasn't any point in putting on a fake smile.

"I have in my hand the test papers that that you two took with the rest of the class a few weeks ago. Would you care to guess what grade you got?" Mr Fumet asked with a serious look.

"Ummm… pass?" Erin guessed hopefully.

"Wrong! You both got a U grade" he announced throwing them down on the desk making both friend flinch at the sharpness of his voice.

"Did you even study? Your friends' Kairi and Cherry both got really high marks; you could've asked them for help in studying, especially you Sora. Since you are living in a room with your sister" he scolded them both sternly, making them both hang their heads in shame needing to look meek for their teacher.

"Now, this mark would normally be sent off to your parents. But I am going to give you two a second chance." The two simultaneously looked up with wide eyes slightly grateful since their parents would be furious if they got bad grades.

"On Saturday after the morning classes there will be a retest of the things we studied before and to make sure you revise for this every lunchtime from this lunch and each day after school for 2 hours you will come up to the library with me so I can supervise your studying" Mr Fumet told them.

"We can't this lunch! We're helping move the cakes for the cake sale today. We promised" Sora protested.

"It's for a good cause" Erin reminded.

Mr Fumet gave it some thought.

"Ok, get it done as quickly as possible and then go over to the library. I shall have a chat with the organiser so I can find out how long you are supposed to take and I'll make sure you stick with it!" he said firmly eyes shining indicating that he would not be fooled into letting them get away scot free.

"Thank you sir" they chorused before heading off.

Courtyard:

Kairi and Cherry waited under the pillars of the building for Erin and Sora to come out from the classroom.

"There you are; how was it?" Kairi grinned spotting her friend and brother coming back.

"We have to do a retake on Saturday" Sora moaned.

"Also all of our lunch times and two hours a day after school are going to be taken up by Mr Fumet who is going to make sure we study." She added gloomily

"Well, that's what you get for spending all your time playing video games during nearly all your free time" Cherry told them smartly heading out into the courtyard. The rest followed her with the two guilty friends following reluctantly in shame.

"In my defence, I was practising my gymnastics a lot" Erin pointed out not wanting to be put down by shame.

"Yes, but there was still plenty of time for you to study; I could've helped you if you were that stuck" Cherry pointed out.

The group made their way to the usual meeting place near the memorial.

"This is just perfect! All my free time is going to be taken up" Sora grumbled moodily.

"We know you just want to see Emerald" Kairi grinned and giggled with her girlfriends. Sora's head drooped with a cloud of depression hanging over him.

"I REALLY need some male friends!" he groaned as they neared the bench they normally hung out at.

"Are we not good enough?" a friendly voice chimed from behind him as he sat down on the bench.

"It is a bit strange for a guy to only have friends that are girls. Well, only if you exclude Odd." He sighed before his eyes opened in shock and looked to the side to see Emerald right in his face smiling happily.

"Can't you just say hello like a normal person?" Sora cried cheeks turning red making Emerald giggle before she leaned back up to standing behind the bench and walked around to sit next to him.

"Sorry, sorry. But you know that the normal way is boring!" she pouted cutely making Sora turn away.

"How was History anyway?" Emerald asked the three girls.

"Alright, these two didn't take enough notes though in class and they have to retake our last test" Cherry replied pointing at Sora and Erin who were sat next to each other on the bench while Emerald was on Sora's left.

"History isn't my strong point" Erin argued fruitlessly.

"It didn't help that you were doodling the whole time and weren't listening to a word the teacher said." Cherry told her smartly.

"I can't help it, History is too boring! I'm never going to get a job where I need to know what happened in World War 2" she exclaimed annoyed turning her head away.

"While that may be true unless you become a historian, it's still essential to learn history so as to understand why we have the laws and traditions in our respective cultures." Emerald said wisely.

"True, but teaching me history is like trying to stop Kairi from teasing me all the time. It's never going to happen" Sora told her flatly.

"I think that's about the only thing you've got right today" Kairi grinned leaning over the bench to beam at her brother who turned his head to glare at her.

"Just shut up" Sora growled and Kairi put up her hands in mock surrender.

"Ooooh, scary! I'm only joking don't worry" she laughed to pacify him.

"Have you seen that couple before?" Cherry inquired cutting into the twin's quarrel. The whole group turned their heads to see a middle aged couple dressed quite smartly standing in front of the memorial statue. They both were clearly of Japanese descent like Sora and Kairi but more traditional unlike the twins who were of mixed race which explained Sora's blonde hair and the twin's lighter eyes. These two had the more common black hair and dark brown like Kairi's with dark brown eyes.

The woman had her hair pulled into a low French bun keeping a very formal appearance. Her partner whom the group could only assume that he was either her lover or more likely, considering they're 40-odd years of age, husband. Her husband had short dark brown hair.

The woman wore a Navy blue business suit with a matching knee length pencil skirt and black high heels. Underneath she wore a white blouse shirt with the collar open. She carried a bouquet with 6 different flowers arranged in a gentle way. The flowers contained Blue Sage, Elderflowers, Satin flowers, Flowering Thyme, Violets and White Orchids. This was a rather odd mixture.

"I have never seen Sage, Thyme or Elderflower in a Bouquet before. Even less than I've seen anyone give it to a memorial statue." Emerald commented staring at the couple from her seat.

"It's because of the flower meanings of those plants. In the Victorian century, there was a whole language created using flowers. The common red rose that we all know means 'love', so it's romantic if you present to your partner. However there are other meanings that you could give with different flowers, for example to show 'gratitude' you could give someone, a friend or otherwise, a Camellia which means exactly that." Kairi looked at all her friends who were gaping like she had grown a second head.

"Hello! Group historian pretty much" Kairi exclaimed gesturing wildly to herself.

"Well, what about those flowers? What do they mean?" Sora asked his sister intrigued by her knowledge.

"I said I was a historian, not a floral linguist" she deadpanned looking flatly at her twin brother.

"Well, White Orchid's mean that you miss the person you're giving or gesturing to in this case. I also believe that Violet's mean… I think it's 'Loyalty'. Not too sure about the herb flowers." Cherry pondered unsure.

"Blue sage means 'Wisdom', Elderflower is 'Compassion', Satin flower represents 'Sincerity' and Thyme flowers stand for 'Bravery'" Erin spoke factually and her friends turned their heads to the red-headed girl who blushed under their gazes.

"W-what?" she said scowling embarrassingly at the faces staring at her.

"How do you know all that?" Emerald asked curiously.

"My mum's a florist, so she goes on about these things" Erin muttered turning her attention back to the couple at hand.

"They actually remind me of Hiroki, you know that DJ who played for our Halloween party last month?" Kairi added noticing the similarities.

The man also formally wore a dark brown suit with dark grey dress trousers and finally he wore a green tie around his neck. He stood faithfully beside his wife as she placed the flowers in front of the memorial.

Cherry snapped her fingers in realisation.

"They must be Hiroki's parents Mr and Mrs Ishiyama. They're probably here for the charity that's hosting our assembly today; they did mention to us that their most dedicated supporters would be coming today." She told the group.

Just then the 5 minute warning bell went off telling everyone that they had 4 minutes left until they had to go in to the hall to see the assembly. The group jumped at the ear piercing bell, Mr and Mrs Ishiyama similarly jumped as well hearing the bell, disrupting their thoughts. The couple then smiled reassuringly at each other before heading inside to prepare the last touches for the assembly before all the children came in.

"I guess we'd all better head over to queue outside the door" Sora sighed standing up; Emerald gave a hum of agreement following him.

"You lot tell me what happened in the assembly later ok?" Cherry told them cheerfully as they walked towards the doors that lead inside.

"You're not coming to assembly?" Emerald questioned her best friend.

"No, I've found something really interesting on the supercomputer and want to check it out more" Cherry replied with a lot of enthusiasm.

"In other words she's excited to see Odd again" Erin piped in good humour and they all giggled.

"Stop that already" she huffed annoyed cheeks turning red like her name.

Sora even joined in on the teasing clasping his hands together dramatically gathering more laughs from his friends "I'll bet she dreams about him too. 'Oh, Odd I fantasise about you. I can't wait until you're real so I can-!"

"SORA!" Cherry screeched her blush having spread to cover her whole face making her friends laugh loudly at her reaction.

"Yeah, laugh it up people…" she said sarcastically as her friends continued laughing at her.

"There's another relationship in this group that's even more glaringly obvious than my made-up one with Odd. And they're standing right in front of me between you two" Cherry indicated to Kairi and Erin making the two girls look to the side to look at Sora and Emerald who just blinked several times confused at the attention on them. Realising the implication small blushes adorned their cheeks.

"I rest my case" Cherry said smugly having proved her point before going inside to head to her room.

"She is right, Sora obviously fancies Emerald" Kairi grinned smugly heading inside walking beside her fiery haired friend.

"I do NOT!" Sora insisted vehemently rushing in after his twin sister

"I know right" Erin grinned back chortling happily.

Emerald stood outside still not sure how to react to the obvious accusation, her blush spread even further when she thought about how she actually felt for Sora. She actually did like him more than a friend, even though she had a slightly flirtatious and bubbly personality in general, it was more of a mask she puts on for people because she's actually really afraid of getting hurt, that someone will get close to her and then stomp all over her feelings.

In all honesty she felt her heart crumble a little at Sora's denial of feelings, which is why she hasn't told him the truth yet. She still wants to be with him, even if it's just as a friend.

"Em, are you coming?" Erin called peeking through the door snapping Emerald out of her thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm coming" she said and walked through the door that Erin held open for her.

Cherry's room:

Cherry entered her room closing the door, locking it, and set her bag on her bed. She then held her arms out to yawn while stretching her limbs; after which she went to her desk and sat down switching on her computer and connecting with her favourite virtual being.

"Hey there Odd" she smiled happy she had a whole hour and a bit to spend with him because of the assembly.

"Hey Cher, how's your day been so far?" Odd greeted his cheeky cat face appearing on the screen.

"So-so, we had double history this morning where we got our results from our test last lesson." Cherry she told him opening up a file with Code: Earth intent on fixing it while she chatted to Odd as well.

"Ooooh, how did you do?" Odd inquired interested.

"Pretty good 82% isn't bad, I got an A 'cause of it" she giggled happily.

"Wow, that's amazing. You're so smart!" Odd praised cheerfully.

"Not really, Kairi almost got perfect marks. She only got a few marks away from a perfect score 'cause she accidently got some facts mixed up but she still got an A*. Sora and Erin have to do a retake on Saturday because they did badly."

"I'm guessing that they're not too happy about that huh?" Odd laughed good-naturedly.

"No, in fact they're being forced to study every lunch time and for 2 hours after school" Cherry gave a sad smile with a small laugh.

"Won't that affect them being able to come to Lyoko if XANA attacks?" Odd questioned worriedly.

"Don't worry; it's only until Saturday which is 4 days away. And it shouldn't be that hard to get them out of studying if we really need them." Cherry assured fixing Code: Earth, until she noticed something odd about it.

"Bizarre" she mused tapping more keys to discover what the mysterious feature was.

"What's up?" Odd asked wondering why she suddenly went all quiet.

"Well, the materialisation program we found is definitely the key to getting you to Earth. I've got to the stage where I'm trying to adjust the program to your avatar but it seems to be centred on another avatar code, which is the core of the program." She explained typing rapidly away.

"So, you need to change the core data of the central code to match my avatar data. How long do you suppose it'll take to adjust to me?" he asked her curiously.

"It shouldn't take too long I have all the data I need from you, then we get do a test run to see if it would work on you" she assured smiling.

"So if it works on the test run, then we can run it?" Odd jumped up and down in excitement.

"Yes, if no problems occur then your materialisation will be possible" Cherry chirped.

"Oh, I can't wait. It's so boring here on Lyoko the only thing I actually look forward to is our time together" he pouted rather cutely in fact making Cherry blush a little.

"I look forward to it too; I never stop thinking about our interactions. And we have SO much to show you when you get here" she spread her arms wide to show how big she was talking.

"I don't mind how much you show me so long as I can spend it with my friends" Odd smiled brightly and tilted his head to the side slightly.

"That's so cute…" she whispered to herself.

"What did you say?" Odd asked leaning forward to urge her to repeat what she said louder.

"T-that's um-!" she stumbled over her words getting flustered as she tried to make up words to replace what she actually said.

"Hahaha! Never mind Cher, it doesn't matter. Other than Code: Earth, didn't you mention another program you found on the supercomputer? Something that would help us all get around on Lyoko faster" Odd laughed cheerily finding amusement how she got embarrassed so easily, it probably was why she was named Cherry.

"Oh, you mean the vehicles? Yeah, I've looked into them and they were all designed with the purpose of getting virtualised avatars around on Lyoko faster." She said seriously opening the file.

"Guess what? There's one in here that was designed for you" an image of a purple board appeared on the screen with the title 'Overboard'.

"Really? Cool!" Odd cheered pumping his pawed fist in the air.

"There are also two other vehicle files here called the 'Overbike' and 'Overwing' which won't let me change anything from them. It appears as if they were made only for their respective riders and the riders have to be on Lyoko like you are to be changed."

"That's so weird though, where have these owners gone to?" Odd wondered putting a claw on his chin in thought.

"I know Odd; it doesn't actually mention who these vehicles belong to." She agreed confusion evident in her voice. "But you know probably someone made the supercomputer and intended to use it for some purpose using all these programs we've found, however XANA happened which forced them to lock everything and disappear leaving you behind" She rationalised logically.

"Where did XANA come from though? All I remember about him is that I used to fight him, along with 3 other people…" Odd trailed off remembering the images that he saw in his mind of fighting XANA, his only real memory.

Cherry hesitated seeing a sad look cross his face but knew he would prefer the truth to false hope.

"I don't know… probably XANA managed to delete them somehow" she told him honestly.

"I see…" Odd mused quietly, until he snapped out if it not wanting to be depressed all the time.

"Maybe you should make some vehicles for the others, then I wouldn't be the only one with a vehicle and everyone will be able to get around faster on Lyoko." Odd suggested brightly.

"That's a fantastic idea Odd, I'll write down some ideas right away" she dug into her bag for her notebook and pen. After she got her tools she began scribbling down possible models for her friends.

"Oh, yeah didn't you have a special assembly to attend today?" Odd remembered her mentioning it a few days ago just after they got the announcement that a charity was hosting a cake sale and holding an assembly at Kadic.

"Oh that? I didn't want to go, I have a lot of programming to finish so we can get you here as soon as possible." She looked up and smiled at him.

"What was it about anyway?" He pressed.

"We're having a cake sale this lunchtime to raise money for 'Missing Children EU', members of the public are going to be allowed to come in to buy cupcakes and donate money. All the profit made is going to be going towards the charity. The assembly is going to be a few representatives from the charity telling us what they do and what we are supporting."

"Is this common in all schools? I thought that the government was meant to help all the citizens in its country. Why are charities needed?" Odd asked innocently.

"The government can't always help everyone, and sometimes when they do make a law to help there are people who suffer from it and these charities are made to help those who get the backlash from the good things that come into place… apparently this school has supported 'Missing Children EU' for 15 years, since some of Kadic's students disappeared suddenly and they never found them nor found out what happened to them"

"How sad, their families must've been devastated" Odd said sadly.

"Yeah, definitely…" Cherry looked down at her lap memories of her own family flooding her mind; tears started to gather before she furiously blinked them away.

"Are you ok?" Odd asked her concerned.

"What? Yeah, of course I am" she smiled with energy but Odd was still a bit unsure.

"Well let's continue on with our research it's not going to do itself" she cheered before typing away on the computer.

Assembly:

All the students were chatting to each other whilst the teachers prepared to begin the assembly. Among the crowd of students set in the middle of the seated students were the four friends waiting along with the other students for the assembly to start.

"Do you think Cherry's made any progress with Odd?" Erin cheekily asked her friends.

"Considering she spends all her spare time working on both his materialisation program and chatting with him, I'd say quite a lot" Emerald giggled along with everyone else who joined her.

"How on earth haven't you made any progress with Em, Sora?" Kairi whispered to her brother grinning.

"Shut up" he grumbled blushing and looking away causing his sister to laugh at his denial.

The talking then slowly went silent when Mrs Durand stepped up onto the stage in her dress suit and stood looking over the students waiting patiently for them all to notice her and go quiet before speaking loudly and clearly.

"Now that I have your attention, I am pleased to introduce this 15th anniversary assembly Kadic Academy for 'Missing Children EU'." She spoke loudly and with conviction allowing her voice to be heard in the back of the hall as well.

"To those who are new to the school this year and aren't aware as to why the previous headmaster chose to continually support this charity as I do now in his footsteps. The reason this has become an annual event is because 15 years ago 5 students from Kadic Academy disappeared mysteriously from the school and no one has ever seen nor heard from them again… We joined this charity because we don't want anything like that to happen to any of you." Mrs Durand's words were strong and full of emotion.

"Mr and Mrs Ishiyama are the parents of one of the missing students; they have been representatives for 'Missing Children EU' ever since they lost Yumi their daughter along with her four friends. They will now explain the charity" Mrs Durand held out her hand and stepped to the side allowing Mr and Mrs Ishiyama onto the stage.

Mr Ishiyama stepped forward and made some space between him and his wife so they could both move freely.

"Good morning everyone, my name is Takeho Ishiyama and this is my wife Akiko" he gestured to her and she gave a slight smile with a wave.

The projector was turned on and a picture of a Japanese girl with short, black hair dressed entirely in black was smiling at the camera hugging a boy younger than her but resembled her very much.

"This girl in the picture is our daughter Yumi, with her younger brother Hiroki who I'm sure you all met last month when he was your DJ for your Halloween party last month." Mrs Ishiyama told her all pointing the people out. And for a lot of the new students and other ones who didn't really notice before the connection clicked.

"I never really asked before this year why Hiroki always was the DJ for us." Emerald admitted quietly looking down slight at her lap in remorse.

"15 years ago she disappeared along with her friends and none of us know what happened to them. There was no indicator that anything had gone wrong in her life at school, nor did she act any differently she just wasn't at home one morning. We tried everything to find her along with her friends but came up empty. We looked to this Charity and they gave us so much support, they encouraged people from the town to be on extra lookout. A few leads even turned up, and while they all turned out to be dead ends they have assured us that they will still help and are helping. We have become very familiar with the charity and thus are able to speak on their behalf." Mrs Ishiyama tapped next on the laptop and the 'Missing Children Europe' logo appeared on a PowerPoint and went through the slides as Mr Ishiyama talked.

"'Missing Children Europe' is a charity that was created to help Sexually exploited and missing children within Europe. Their goal is to enable the development of effective and holistic child protection systems to: prevent children from going missing, support missing children and their families, and

protect children from any risk of violence and abuse that may lead to or result from going missing. Every two minutes, a child is reported missing in the EU. The cause as well as the effect of the disappearance may include situations of violence and abuse, including sexual exploitation. Missing Children Europe's vision is that all children should be able to rely on an effective and holistic systems of child protection, where all measures are taken to empower and protect them from any situation of harm…" Mr Ishiyama spoke quite passionately about the charity letting them be aware of the dangers and what to do if they find that they're in a difficult situation at home.

"…Now we'll watch this video for 'Missing Children Europe' which highlights what will be allowed to happen if children disappearing is ignored and what to do to change that" Mr Ishiyama nodded and his wife clicked on the link displaying the video on YouTube.

Everyone listened intently as the couple all these sad stories about others families children and how they were helped by the charity.

An hour later:

"We'd like to thank you all for listening and hopefully you understand a little more about the cause you're supporting." Mr Ishiyama finished and everyone clapped as they left the stage to be replaced by Mrs Durand.

"Now Students, when you leave the hall. You are to immediately get your bags to go to your lessons for period 4. When lunchtime comes around the cakes will be set in here and as members of the public are coming into our school we expect you to behave responsibly and create a good impression both of yourselves and your school" she told them sternly before waving her arm dismissing them.

Outside the hall:

The gang picked up their bags that had been set outside before heading towards the dorms to get Cherry so she wouldn't miss her lessons.

"Oh yeah, my parents are also coming to the cake sale." Emerald said suddenly.

"That's nice of them"

"Yeah, they're also bringing a few of their friends to help get more people to come."

"Well, all of us have Food technology next. We're all going to be decorating the cupcakes that the previous class made in the first two periods." Sora interjected.

"Cool good luck with that, You'd all better hurry and collect Cherry. I have Maths next so I have to split here." Emerald waved going left towards the classrooms.

The other three waved back before heading up the stairs to collect their computer bound friend.

"Do you think XANA will make an attack soon? He's been quiet for a little while" Erin asked as they wandered into the dormitories.

"Possibly, it's not like that machine to keep us waiting for too long." Sora mulled putting a finger on his chin copying Erin's pose as they walked.

"Don't think too hard you two, you still need your brains to revise for your history retake as well as the next one we have the following week" Kairi teased skipping ahead.

The two groaned at that and sank their heads down stopping outside Cherry's door alongside Kairi who giggled at them.

Kairi knocked before opening the door and entering "Cherry! We're coming in"

"Hey guys!" Odd called from the screen waving as they entered.

"Oh, is it that time already?" Cherry gasped turning in her seat and grabbing her bag to follow them.

"Relax, we've got a few minutes to chat with Odd" Erin coolly assured her letting her sigh in relief before flopping onto her bed not realising how hard she had been concentrating now having a little headache.

"So how has Cherry been treating you Odd?" Sora queried cheekily smirk on his face as he leaned on the desk besides his sister doing the same action.

"We found out what was wrong in the core which is basically that another avatar's data was in the Code: Earth program. So since that was at the centre we had to extract the data move it to the RAM file and then-!"

"Odd, Cherry understands you, we don't. In our language please!" Kairi reminded quickly before he could confuse them all.

"Long story short the program is in the process of being replaced with my data so it will work for me when we fix it." he explained full of smiles.

"That sounds cool. I can't wait until you can come live with us here" Erin squealed

"I'll bet Cherry will be even happier" Kairi teased turning around with a wide Cheshire like smile; her fellow friend and brother both followed her eyes gaze which landed on the girl who was taking the liberty to relax a few minutes on her bed after intensely concentrating on computer programs. Cherry sprung up into a sitting position fully awake as she felt the gazes on her.

"W-what are you all staring at?" she stammered nervously wondering why on earth they were staring at her.

"No reason" they sang turning their heads and redirected their line of sight. Cherry demanded that they tell her frantically hating not knowing something.

"In any case, shouldn't you all head to class now before you're late for your lesson?" Odd suggested quickly before it escalated.

"You're right we'd better head off or we'll be late." Sora confirmed checking his watch.

They all filed out of the room saying goodbye to Odd; so with Cherry being the last one to leave to log off and switch her computer off.

"I'll see you afterschool Odd." Cherry winked, getting a jolly wave in return from the cat boy.

"Have fun today, I'll try and warn you if XANA rears his ugly virus head"

They both shared a laugh before a final goodbye and she switched the monitor off. She yanked her bag along before shutting the door behind herself heading to class.

On Lyoko:

Odd lay back on the tower floor after swiping the interface screen away daydreaming of all of the possibilities he will be open to. Very soon he would be able to join Cherry on earth and achieve his dream of living a fantastic life with them all. He never knew when this became a dream of his, but one way or another it has crept up on him. His main motive is that he really wants to find out about his origins, why he was on the supercomputer. Who made him if he has a creator? Why was he made?

These questions and many more circulated in his head enough to make his head start to ache.

"I might as well see if XANA has been a naughty boy" Odd said finally getting up and jumping down to float onto the lower platform.

He calmly walked to the exit treating it like a relaxing stroll. He spread his arms out as he was slowly granted access to exit the tower.

Storage room:

The teacher's assistant came into the door and loaded half of the made cupcake into a trolley to cart into the next lesson.

An eerie familiar black smoke oozed out of the plug socket and grew in size spreading out over the trays of cupcakes. The black smoke covered the cupcakes seeping into the risen cakes leaving not a trace that it was ever there.

The lady returned and started loading the rest of the cupcakes onto the trolley before all the students got to the class.

Period 3:

The whole class had been put into groups of four and told to prepare the decorations by making the icing that they all wished to use; meanwhile the teacher went to get the cupcakes from the storage area.

"I know that we're just cake decorating but how are you all at baking or cooking in general?" Cherry asked suddenly mixing her icing in her bowl after adding blue food colouring. She had been put into a kitchen group with all of her friends which inwardly made her happy.

All off them stood inside a small kitchen unit mixing their respective bowls of icing for decorating their cupcakes for the sale.

"I guess I'm quite average" Erin said thoughtfully.

"What about you Sora?" Cherry interrogated the only boy in the group.

"I-I guess I'm pretty good… Everyone in my family does praise me whenever it's my turn to cook" he answered scratching his cheek with one finger nervously from the pressure.

"Well, what about Kairi? I'd expect her to be brill at cooking!" Erin giggled looking at Kairi with the rest only to find her diverting her eyes in embarrassment.

"Y-You can't!?" both Cherry and Erin exclaimed shocked making Kairi's face turn more red.

"Kairi's the kind of girl that can't even crack an egg properly!" Sora chuckled glad that there was something he could tease her in. Eventually the two others joined him as well laughing at the expense of their cooking-failure friend making her cheeks redder.

"S-shut up! It's not like you ever decided to man up and tell Emerald you love her!" she snapped back in retaliation.

"Kai, even if that was true. At least I can open a tin without spending 20 minutes stabbing the lid yelling expletives at it to open" Sora chortled louder at the memory and Kairi's two other friends began full out laughing. Kairi puffed her cheeks in agitation and looked away.

"Are you finished?" she grumbled annoyed.

"Yeah and so should our icings, let's show" Cherry tipped her mixing bowl outwards to show her lavender icing and the others showed theirs, Sora was light blue, Erin was red and Kairi's was mint green except the texture of her icing looked different.

"Kairi, your icing looks rather gooey…" Erin told her pointing out the obvious different of the three friends' normal looking icing which looked whereas Erin's looked far too thin and slimy.

"How can that be!?" she exclaimed staring into her bowl distraught.

Sora dipped his finger in it and made a face seeing most of the icing on his finger slither back into her bowl; reluctantly he tasted it instantly regretting it as he fought the urge to throw up.

"What did you put in it!?" Sora gargled through a glass of water.

Kairi puffed her cheeks out in annoyance "I did exactly what you all did, I mixed it for the same time you guys did whilst adding water gradually!" she held up her jug for emphasis except everyone including her suddenly noticed that her 'water' had bubbles in it. She tipped a little into her mouth and her face froze.

"It's lemonade" she sniffed depression washing over her as she slapping her head on the countertop next to her now-pointlessly made bowl of sloppy icing. Immediately her friends started cracking up while at the same time the teacher returned with the cupcakes which they were to decorate.

"Now everyone presumably you've all finished making your icing, it is now time to decorate the cupcakes. There is a plate for each student with 30 cupcakes for all of you to decorate. The sugar decorations are on this trolley over here now I wish for you all to help each other and to put your creativity to making stunning cupcakes." The teacher and her assistant began taking the cupcakes and putting 10 on each plate and handing them to the class of students.

"How could you fail making simple icing?" Erin asked incredulously.

"That's not the worst cooking accomplishment ever. Once she nearly destroyed half of the kitchen making toast!" Sora giggled at Kairi's expense.

"Wow! You're terrible at cooking…" Cherry muttered freezing at Kairi's glare.

"A-anyway, why don't you share my icing Kai? We can decorate both of our cakes" Cherry offered nervously and Kairi reluctantly nodded.

So they all got to work decorating their cakes.

On Lyoko Forest sector:

Odd was currently jumping from tree to tree gripping tightly with him paws pouncing like the feline avatar he was. He found out having gone out of the towers more in the past few months that thrills excited him immensely and he couldn't help but enjoy it. He never searched for activated towers in a boring way he tried as best as he could to make it interesting on his own; sometimes even doing crazy stunts like walking on his hands, or even walking along the edges of the platforms balancing like a cat to see how far he could walk without falling into the digital sea.

Cherry and the others were sometimes annoyed by this behaviour and chastised his dangerous behaviour. Well, they should try walking around Lyoko with no one to talk to but yourself for nearly 20 hours most weekdays. There's nothing especially interesting to do so around the sectors so he spends a lot of his free time making up silly games.

Odd landed on the side of the last tree before the path split into a fork. He felt a throb and horror struck him as he looked down; the red pulsations lead down the left path.

"Never stays quiet for long" he sighed leaping off and running along the pulsations down the left part sending Cherry a quick message that he hoped she would receive. So he hoped that the others finish their decorating and notice something soon.

Food technology class:

Thankfully for Kairi, cake decorating didn't require any culinary skills but imagination. They all mostly kept quiet while concentrating.

"XANA's been awfully quiet. It's times like this I'd expect him to rear his ugly head" Erin noted snatching a finished cupcake and taking a bite.

"Hold on I'll check if anything's happened. It's almost lunchtime anyway" Cherry looked at the clock to show the time to be 12:50.

"Erin you aren't supposed to eat them! They're for the cake sale" Sora scolded.

"Relax. I'll pay for it" she replied rolling her eyes and flicking a euro impressively into the charity bucket on her desk from over two tables.

Cherry placed her finished cupcakes on the trolley and then took off her apron hanging it on one of the apron hooks. She then went to her bag in the bag area and pulled out her laptop opening it and typed in commands to start a scan which would take a while until it would track.

"I hope Odd's not being too reckless" Cherry sighed bringing her laptop to their work station keeping it from the teacher's sight.

She remembered how antsy Odd is walking around Lyoko, but she shrugged inwardly smiling as she knew he could take care of himself.

"Ok class, it's only 5 minutes to lunchtime if you all want an early lunch you'd all better start pushing these cupcakes into the hall and finish the ones you're currently finishing.

Sora's group just finished their batch of cupcakes, except Erin who still hand another 9 to go. But she sluggishly moved her hand not understanding why she was feeling weaker.

"Guys, I don't feel so good" Erin moaned shaking Kairi's shoulder gently.

"What's up Erin?" Kairi turned concernedly towards her friend.

A rapid beeping sound emerged from Cherry's laptop and she snapped out of her thoughts to see it was showing a tower was active.

"Damn, we need to go! XANA's made a move" Cherry told them firmly.

"Ugh, I don't think I can go. I feel like the plague hit me" Erin grumbled swaying slightly on her feet and probably would've collapsed if not for Kairi holding her up.

"Maybe you have a cold?" Cherry suggested worried watching Erin cradle her head with a hand as a wave of dizziness hit her.

"Either way I really don't think she's in any condition to be fighting on Lyoko; we'll take her to the medical room and join you in the lab later Cher after you finish class." Kairi said briskly.

"Miss?" Sora called seeing this was the perfect excuse to leave class early.

"What is it Shimizu?" the teacher asked.

"Erin isn't feeling very well may Kairi and I take her to the medical room?" he requested politely.

The teacher looked over Erin and gave a thoughtful look seeing her paler than normal.

"You do look quite pale; you'd better visit Nurse Yolanda. You two accompany her and make sure she doesn't collapse on her way there." She ordered a concerned frown marring her face. The twins nodded and supported Erin towards the door with a weak protest from the girl herself but couldn't help it as they walked out into the corridor.

"Miss, shall I take the finished cakes to the hall ahead of everyone?" Cherry offered noticing how everyone was just cleaning up their areas.

"That's would be very helpful Cherry, I have an awful lot paperwork I need to finish today that would give me enough time to finish it." she smiled gratefully at one of her most attentive students.

Cherry smiled and started wheeling the cupcake trolley away as the teacher went back to the others students to instruct them on what to do next.

As soon as Cherry left the doorway she started rushing down the halls frantically next to everyone else who was also hurrying as much as they could.

"Sora, do you think you can take these down to the hall instead? I'll go on ahead to the factory and locate the tower's location specifically while contacting Emerald. You and Kairi come when you're done. Just focus on getting better Erin." Cherry assured the sickly girl.

Erin gave a weary thumbs up whilst leaning onto Kairi. "Don't worry, just deactivate the tower." She said weakly.

"We'll be there Cher, now go" Sora assured taking the handles of the trolley off her.

Cherry nodded and started running through the corridors and out the door whilst the others did the same.

Lyoko:

Odd hissed in annoyance at seeing Bloks and a Scyphozoa standing at the entrance to the tower. He was hiding behind one of the big trees avoiding the Kankrelats on patrol duty from spotting him.

"Cherry, please get here soon" he begged the sky hoping the girl would hear him.

In the hall:

Sora hurriedly pushed the trolley into the barely filled hall with students helping to set up the cake sale.

"Hey Louis." The blonde Japanese greeted a boy with glasses that he recognised from class.

"Hi Sora, you want to help set up?"

"I have to be quick; I really got to go finish something." Sora spoke nervously to his classmate hurriedly setting out the cakes on the table with the boy.

"Ok, well… you know, next weekend me and some other guys have permission to hang out in town. We're planning to go to the arcade and that. You want to come?" Louis offered amiably offering a cupcake almost like a peace offering.

Sora barely even registered the invitation as he practically snatched the cupcake and stuffed it in his mouth chewing quickly.

"Thanks for the offer Louis, but I'm not sure if I'm free." He said hurriedly.

In the courtyard:

Cherry pressed speed dial for Emerald's number and pressed it to her ear as she heard the long ring play out until finally there was an answer.

"Cherry?"

"There's a XANA attack, you need to come to the factory now and Kairi is going to join you."

"Awww man, I really want to Cher. But I can't, I'm showing my parents and their friends around."

"Well, we don't know what kind of attack XANA has pulled so we should try and shut it down before we find out. Also Odd is in danger of being attacked by the Scyphozoa. Find a way to shake them off! We can just do a jump back in time." Cherry said urgently.

"Ok, I'll head over there as soon as possible." Emerald relented and ended the call.

Cherry got to the manhole cover and lifted it before climbing down the ladder.

Infirmary:

Yolanda helped to support Erin as she and Kairi helped to set her on the bed. Yolanda was a nice tall blonde lady who had no qualms with telling her age which was 39. Kairi was a little shocked by that as the woman looked more like she just turned around 30. She had blonde chin length hair in a bob cut and a side fringe with incandescent blue eyes. She wore a short blue skirt, a crimson pink shirt, brown heels, blue earrings, and a lab coat.

"There, now relax while I go get you some water." Yolanda assured Erin putting a gentle hand on her shoulder and then leaving to go to the toilet.

"You ok Erin?" Kairi asked.

"I'll be fine, you go on ahead. Odd needs you more than me. He's the one in danger of dying if the Scyphozoa gets him. Sorry I can't come, I have no idea what being ill would do to me on Lyoko, and it might mess up my avatar." Erin explained.

"It's ok, your health is more important. I'll fight for the two of us." Kairi winked winning a smile in return from Erin's sunken face.

Kairi charged out of the door passing Yolanda on the way.

"What's she in a hurry for?" she wondered walking into the room with a pill in one hand and a glass of water in the other.

"Kairi promised to go help the cake sale, so I told her she could go now." Erin lied tiredly blinking her mint green eyes.

"That's nice; I think it's good to always be helpful especially for this charity. I've been working here for a very long time, so I knew all the students who disappeared quite well. Oh, do you have a headache?" Yolanda realised that her patient had an ailment that seemed minor.

"Yeah, I have a bit of a migraine starting" she admitted feeling even worse by the minute. It was really strange because she was feeling absolutely fine that morning.

"Take this pill with your water, it'll reduce the pain and help you to sleep." The nurse told her.

Erin took the pill and water. She frowned at the small pill but gathered courage and chucked it down her throat before swinging the water to her lips and taking a few big gulps. Erin ripped the water away with a grimace and stuck her tongue out at the taste.

Yolanda started laughing a bit "Sorry, it's just that… you remind me of one of the boys who went missing a bit. He was so scrawny and whenever he caught a cold and needed medicine, he would always swallow it with that face"

"I hope that if he's still alive, the boy is ok." Erin smiled comfortingly at the slightly distraught nurse who obviously was quite fond of the boy.

"Thanks now get to sleep if you want to get better." Yolanda ordered playfully standing up as her patient almost instantly conked out.

Factory:

Cherry pushed the manhole cover up and to the side climbing out of the sewers and closed it back over the bridge manhole. She then got up and ran towards the factory entrance getting to the rope and swinging down it with no fear her long tied back auburn hair flying with her as she looped around to land in front of the lift.

She pressed the button to open the door and stepped inside pressing the button to go down. The lift flew down the shaft and stopped at the lab floor. Cherry watched quite impatiently as the double locked doors opened slowly blowing air against Cherry's face. She instantly rushed inside and sat down in the chair and tapped a few keys on the keyboard to switch it off from standby mode.

"Odd, are you there? Where are you?"

A voice spoke frantically from the computer. "Cherry! Thank goodness! Where have you been?"

"I'm sorry; we only just got your message in the middle of class. Where are you? I'm running a scan." She mentioned tapping in a few keys.

"I'm in the forest sector. The Scyphozoa is guarding the entrance to the cave where the tower is along with two Bloks. Several Kankrelats are patrolling the surrounding area forcing me to hide behind this tree barely a drop away from the digital sea."

Cherry hisses "Ok, well Kairi and the others should be here soon."

Just then the lift door opened slowly diverting Cherry's attention from the computer screen that showed the general positions of the monsters and where Odd was. It cracked open to reveal a panting Kairi leaning against the wall.

"Where is the tower?" she asked first catching her breath.

"It's in the forest sector. Go to the scanner room and I'll virtualise you near to Odd's position." The auburn haired girl started madly typing again and Kairi nodded pressing the lift button again to start going down.

Scanner room:

Kairi stepped out of the lift and went over to one of the open scanners.

"Transfer Kairi"

A blast of air blew from below her blowing her hair up and she relaxed as she allowed the process to continue and finish like many times before.

"Scanner Kairi"

A ring moved up and down around Kairi's whole body recognising her data.

"Virtualisation"

A blinding white light filled the scanner tube and Kairi felt her body start to disappear into nothing.

Lyoko forest sector:

Kairi's native princess avatar constructed in the air and hovered for a moment before dropping her onto the ground where she caught herself.

"Ok Miss Einstein, where to from here?" She questioned the genius.

"Go north 38 degrees, there are Kankrelats patrolling the area and Odd is perilously close to getting discovered."

Kairi started turned and ran down the path that Cherry told her to go down.

"So when are the others getting here?" Kairi asked whilst running.

"Don't worry, they'll be here. I'll give them a ring now. Sora should most certainly be on the way."

"Let's hope that he doesn't get caught by Mr Fumet. He and Erin had to go to the Library for a study session today." Kairi grinned amused as she rushed towards her destination.

With Cherry:

The door for the lift opened showing Kairi's twin brother lightly holding his head.

"What's the situation? I just barely managed to slip past Mr Fumet who was looking for me and Erin." He groaned.

"Kairi's on Lyoko; she's on her way at the moment to Odd's location… Are you ok?" Cherry asked concerned as she saw him grow pale and lean against the wall of the lift.

"I'm sure I'll be fine once I'm on Lyoko" he assured her smiling.

She hesitated before starting the virtualisation file "Ok, go down to the scanner room and I'll send you nearer to Kairi's location.

"Roger that!" the button was pressed and the lift travelled downwards.

In the lift Sora leaned back heavily against the wall breathing hard. He was certain that his temperature raised no doubt due to running and sickness. He knew that he probably had what Erin had and probably shouldn't go to Lyoko. But he didn't want to leave his sister hanging and defending Odd all by herself, not to mention Odd was his friend as well. He wouldn't let XANA have his way.

The opening of the door was agonisingly slow compared to how fast Sora wanted to get into the scanner. As soon as the door opened he rushed to the nearest open scanner and jumped inside.

"Transfer Sora, Scanner."

The ring went up and down his body and he tried his best not to slump over.

"Virtualisation."

Cherry:

A big red exclamation mark appeared on Cherry's monitor beeping madly. Her eyes widened considerably as she tapped a few keys to draw up a tab with a 3d rendition of Sora's avatar which was flashing red.

"This isn't good. Sora! Are you there? Sora!" she cried as his avatar hadn't yet appeared on the screen.

Forest sector:

Sora virtualised in the air hovering for a moment before dropping to the ground which he forgot about but avoided crashing by landing into a roll and standing up only to stumble.

"Sora! Sora are you ok? There seemed to be an error reading during virtualisation." Cherry called from above.

"Yeah, I'm just a bit dizzy. But I haven't got time to linger over that. Doesn't Odd need help?" he pressed.

"Well, yeah but…" Cherry hesitated.

"Then we have no time to lose!" Sora adamantly told her.

The voice of the girl relented "Fine… Go ahead on the path and you should run into them." He ordered.

He nodded obeying her as he darted forward to sprint in the direction of his friend.

At the computer:

Cherry frowned at seeing the red exclamation mark still on Sora's avatar card. Her eyes darted to the screen that showed him running closer to where Odd and Kairi were hiding.

"Why did only Sora have a problem while virtualising? Unless… Erin and the… cupcakes…" Cherry mused eyes slowly widening as she recalled Erin becoming ill after eating a little bit of the cupcakes.

"Sora did you eat any cupcakes today at all!?" she asked urgently.

"I don't think so… why? Oh wait I did! When I was with Louis!" he answered breathless from obviously running in Lyoko.

"I might have an idea what's wrong, but it means Odd and you guys have to hurry." She told him speeding her fingers on the keyboard.

In the school hall:

Emerald bit her lip anxiously as she entered the hall with her Spanish parents and friends chattering away behind her. She needed to get over to Cherry and the others, but her parents were very strict with this sort of thing and heavily disliked it when she left them and their friends without socialising for a while.

"Well, this is the last part. This is the school hall where we host most assemblies and other events. And currently we're having the cake sale." Emerald introduced with practised fake cheeriness.

"Oh I am very interested in hearing about the charity." One of the female friends said.

Emerald smiled seeing the perfect opportunity to split and began walking into the already packed hall to head over to the other end. "Right over there Mr and Mrs Ishiyama are there to give out leaflets and answer any questions about the charity."

The group of Spaniards followed the married couple's only child to the information board.

Akiko Ishiyama smiled at seeing them all approach "hello, have you any questions about the charity you wish to know?" she asked kindly.

Mr Cortes smiled and asked his questions along with wife and friends as they all nibbled on the cupcakes put out with them whilst giving some donations in the pot.

Emerald rocked back and forth on her heels as she waited for some time to slip out from under their gazes.

"Ummm, mum I need to head to the toilet." Emerald told her after some time.

"Ok dear, I'll see you soon" she smiled but as Emerald went to leave she suddenly wobbled a little making Emerald dart out towards her quickly and steady her before she fainted.

"Are you ok mum!?"

Mrs Cortes put a hand to her head "Yeah, I'm fi-!" she was cut off by a scream from across the room along with a string of thumps hitting around the room and everyone went into full panic mode.

"She can't breathe properly!"

"His heart is slowing down!"

"What's happening? Is anyone calling the hospital!?" Takeshi demanded worried holding his wife to keep them away from the panicking people.

"They're collapsing one after the other…" Emerald muttered "They were all eating cupcakes! Erin's in danger as well as everyone!" she gasped aloud not caring that her parents were near. Leaving her mother with her father who supported, she ran out of the hall rushing in the direction of the infirmary whilst whipping out her phone.

At the monitor room:

Cherry finished her scan on Sora's avatar and was about to ring Emerald when her phone number appeared on the screen calling.

"Em? Erin's in danger!" she cried into the microphone.

"I know! The hospital has been called and an ambulance has just arrived for her… Cher, she went into cardiac arrest and they JUST managed to get her heart pumping again! Several people also collapsed including my parents" Emerald sobbed through the phone.

"It's XANA's doing, he's poisoned the cupcakes. And Sora had one as well, so it's affecting his avatar on Lyoko. He can fight like normal but he's weakened, and it seems that if he loses all his life points… he… won't be here…" Cherry trailed off only just catching the horrified gasp of her best friend.

"Look! I know you're scared and a lot is at stake, but you have to stay with Erin to make sure that XANA doesn't try anything else to either hijack the ambulance Erin is in or worse… go after her himself with that spectre stuff!"

"Doesn't XANA want Odd? Why is he trying to kill everyone?" Emerald demanded.

"I don't know, but we don't have time to find out! Kairi will get Odd to the tower"

"Ok… I trust you guys." Emerald said before disconnecting.

On Lyoko with Odd:

Odd hid behind a tree as Kairi held off the Kankrelot's from getting close to him as she had already dealt with the Bloks. His eyes darted around trying to find a way past the Scyphozoa. Sora was on his way but the entrance to the tree area where the tower was had the Scyphozoa guarding it.

"Odd!"

The cat boy turned to see that their ninja warrior having appeared and reached him. "What took so long?" Odd smiled wryly.

Sora stopped and bent over to breathe harshly. "Sorry, I was virtualised further than I would've liked. How's Kairi doing?"

Odd looked back around the bark of wood they were standing up "She's holding off the other monsters well enough. But the Scyphozoa hasn't budged an inch from there"

"If only we could distract him somehow…" Sora mused.

Odd tapped his claw on his chin drowning out the sounds of lasers swirling around Kairi and hitting the bark they were hiding from occasionally. "Wait! What about your powers!?" he exclaimed drawing Sora's exhausted attention.

Kairi's point of view:

Kairi grunted as she stabbed another one with her Tepoz, this stream of Kankrelot monsters seemed endless and she couldn't protect Odd forever. She glanced back to where Odd was hiding only to see the cat boy in question just RUN out from behind to try and run around the Scyphozoa.

"Odd! What are you doing you idiot!? This is no time for one of your stupid stunts!" she shouted and suddenly found a laser hit her arm decreasing her life points. She hissed as a whole new army of the little pests gathered. With one low fast swings she did an air cut with her Tepoz wiping out the front row up to the middle.

From the corner of her eyes she could see that Odd had been pressured by the few Kankrelots she couldn't get into running closer to the Scyphozoa, the jellyfish-like monster who moved away from the entrance to get to him.

"Odd get away!" she cried.

However it was too late as Odd turned to see the Scyphozoa hovering over him intimidatingly. He took several scared steps back before the tentacles wrapped around him to paralyse the boy and then place two on his temples and another on his forehead and started to drain him.

Kairi instantly became more urgent and unleashed her earth energy attack by stabbing her Tepoz into the ground and causing energy blasts to destroy the mini-army of ants. She panted slightly at this since she could only use this ability a few times per session without it affecting her life points.

Just as she was about go to free Odd from the jellyfish suddenly it cried in distress as the boy it was holding shifted into a cheeky looking Sora who then faded away. Then the two boys leapt out of the hiding place, charging at the stunned Scyphozoa aiming their respective weapons at the tentacles. Odd with his claws and Sora his Qasalan bladed staff.

Kairi didn't think that the Scyphozoa expected Odd to be on the attack as well, which is why the cat's claws cut off two tentacles from the jelly fish while Sora cut the rest.

Seeing that its scheme had been thwarted, the Scyphozoa reluctantly retreated down to the digital sea.

Odd and Sora were standing there with triumphant grins on their faces before high fiving each other. "Yeah!"

Kairi however was not amused. She stomped over and smacked Odd's shoulder.

"Ow!" he shrieked grasping the injured area protectively before gulping at the furious girl's eyes.

"Don't EVER pull a stunt like that again! You can't devirtualise like us you idiot! If something went wrong and happened to you, you'd be lost forever!" She screamed at the boy turning more sheepish by the minute.

"I'm sorry… I just wanted to help you guys" he mumbled apologetically.

Kairi sighed aggravated but before she could respond, Sora collapsed to the ground in front of her "Sora!" she dashed to go be by her brother's side.

"Odd! That idea drained most of Sora's life points! And he's still losing them. You need to get to the tower now!" Cherry urged from above.

"I didn't know!" Odd gasped horrified, he wouldn't have suggested it if he knew. Sora was on board with the idea and didn't let on any signs he was feeling weak.

Kairi looked at him from cradling her brother's form "That doesn't matter now Odd, go and deactivate the tower so we can perform a return to the past." She ordered sternly.

Despite his shock Odd forced himself to stiffly nod and run over to the entrance of the massive tree trunk concealing the tower from common view.

Inside the tree trunk:

Odd wandered inside and his eyes widened at the sight. Three towers all with red activated auras around the top stood in place.

"Uh, Cherry. There's 3 activated towers!"

"But there's only 1 on my screen." Came the panicked voice no doubt rapidly tapping into the keyboard to make sure she hadn't gone mad.

"They must be copies done by XANA to confuse us" Odd concluded trying to find differences between them but found them all identical to the exact detail. "What happens if I enter a fake one?"

"Well, you have to try all of them then until you find- There are hornets in there! Hide!"

Odd whipped his head around to try and find them when suddenly two laser strikes hit the floor beside him as the hornets came out from behind the towers and started attacking him out in the open. He ran to hide behind one of the trees within the giant tree bark.

"Oh great! Why are they in here? Kairi and Sora can't come in here either…"

"They must be stalling time for the Scyphozoa to recover its tentacles."

Odd bit his lip unsure what to do.

Cherry:

The smart auburn girl watched the screen anxiously as she witnessed the Hornets roam around the map on her screen. Just then she got a call from Emerald on the computer which she instantly answered.

"What's wrong Em?"

Emerald:

Emerald was in the ambulance with Erin as paramedics worked tirelessly on her to keep her heart beeping which had flat lined again. She had called Cherry with her phone aware that the paramedics were too busy stabilising her friend

"Cherry! Is Odd near the tower yet?" she asked frantically.

"He's close! I promise! XANA has played a trick and copied the tower so we can't tell which is the real one, in addition Sora is close to losing all his life points and Kairi is staying to protect him from any monsters that appear… Erin's power would've been really helpful at a time like this… I hate that I feel useless and I'm scared that we'll be too late!"

"Cherry, I know it's tough and I'm terrified too! Erin's had to have her heart restarted right in front of me TWO TIMES! But we have to have faith in Odd, he has to choose one of the towers or neither Erin nor Sora will make it."

There was a pause on the line as Emerald heard her friend sigh over her own pounding heartbeat. "Ok, stay with Erin and make sure nothing else gets her! We don't know if XANA will attack further."

"Got it!" and Emerald disconnected with that.

On Lyoko:

"Cherry, what do we do?" Odd asked.

Cherry hesitated "You've got to carefully try and get into one of the towers without them noticing." She told him.

"Cherry! There's around seven at least and I don't have a weapon like the others excluding my claws, but even then I need to be close and it isn't possible with them buzzing all around me!" Odd snapped at her. "Not to mention by the time I do manage to avoid them, the Scyphozoa will probably have recovered by then."

"Well, we have no other plan. We can't just wait for Sora and Erin to die! And we can't risk your memories being given to the Scyphozoa."

Odd then blinked as an idea struck him "Cherry, he needs my memory right?"

"Yeees, what are you plotting here?" she questioned suspiciously.

"Then that means I can do this freely" He walked out from his hiding place right out into the open with his paws spread out.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? YOU IDIOT ODD! YOU'LL BE DELETED PERMENANTLY!" Cherry screeched fear taking over her voice.

Odd continued walking towards the middle of the three towers smirking as they fired their lasers at the area widely around him to try and intimidate him, but seemed to back off once he got closer.

"ODD I'M SERIOUS! DON'T PROVOKE THEM OR RISK THEM HITTING YOU!"

Odd looked around him happily as they started to retreat as he got in the middle and they realised it'd be harder to miss him purposefully. "They can't Cher, they need me to be alive. I can now choose a tower." He told her cheerily.

"I swear you'll be the death of me…" he heard her mutter from above. "I can't tell from here, pick one of the towers quickly, Sora is down on his last 5 life points and Erin is very close to having 3 heart attacks, it won't take much more and I'm sure other people at the school are in danger as well"

Odd took a calming breath despite his fear to lose his friends and closed his eyes to decide on the tower that he needed to enter. It was only a few seconds that he had his eyes shut with the annoyed buzzing of the hornets around obviously scowling at him… he then felt a pull. He opened his eyes and looked at the tower straight in front of him that was giving off this pull.

"Ok, here goes." He breathed walking forward and spreading his arms to enter the tower as it accepts him.

Inside the tower:

Odd went calmly towards the centre, letting the quiet beeps, which went off as the rings lit up when he stepped on each one, settle him.

He then reached the centre ring and stopped. A light aura surrounded him and he leaned his head back as he was floated upwards.

Erin's ambulance:

Emerald was crying horrific tears that tumbled down her cheeks seeing the paramedics desperately try to revive her friend whose heart had stopped again for a few minutes now and the paramedics were losing hope.

"Oh, Odd please hurry!" she pleaded.

On Lyoko with Kairi:

Kairi glanced back worriedly at her brother laying down on the ground weak due to the horrific bug XANA had infected the cupcakes with, and on his literal last couple of life points. Yet, she still protected him from the Hornets that had come out to attack them because she believed that their cat Prince would save them all.

She slashed an energy beam up at a hornet.

In the tower:

Odd reached the platform and landed softly with the platform lighting up in recognition of a user entering. He stepped forward to get to the middle to see an interface screen appear.

"Cherry, in case I made a mistake… I'm sorry" Odd apologised putting his paw print on the screen.

ODD

"Don't worry, I believe in you Odd" she assuaged.

CODE

LYOKO

Odd looked around with his kitty tail whipping around with him as he saw the data screens around him remained in place. Both his tail and head dropped at a horrific realisation "I failed, I'm sorry Cherry…"

A single tear fell from his eye, but before the girl could comfort him in any way. He heard a familiar sound and snapped his head up to see the screens start to move to the bottom of the tower.

"No wait! It worked! I chose correctly!" Odd celebrated jumping back up.

The screens gathered into the little familiar burst of white energy that spread out widely.

In the lab:

Cherry smiled as she tapped in the necessary keys "Time for a trip into the past" and with that she pressed enter and a bright light emerged from the centre consuming her as well as the earth itself.

In the ambulance:

Emerald stood trembling at the sides when she saw a bright white light shining right through the window. She smiled in relief at the comforting light.

"About time." She whispered before the light engulfed them all and she knew nothing else.

At lunchtime:

Cherry, Kairi and Emerald all watched contently as the cake sale was obviously a success. All of them absently munching on their respective bought cupcakes.

"It's a shame that those two had revision for their history retake. These are good cakes." Emerald mumbled through chewing.

Kairi chuckled "I don't think either of them will be into cakes for a while." She added taking another bite.

"I wouldn't blame them… At least we've averted another XANA disaster… Despite Odd's idiotic idea" Cherry crushed the empty drinks can in her hand.

"I suppose, but you have to admit… it was true. We all know that XANA needs Odd alive to steal his memories for whatever reason. So despite how risky he was, it was a good move." Emerald pointed out.

The three girls looked over at the information desk where plenty of parents were going over and asking information about the charity with the Ishiyamas happily giving out the leaflets and answering all questions. Mrs Durand then went over after the last group of parents left.

Kairi gave a wry smile "At least we've got some more time to work on materialising Odd. Right Cher?" she winked at the auburn haired girl.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cherry snapped defensively with her cheeks flushing from embarrassment as her two friends started laughing at her expense.

With Mrs Durand and the Ishiyamas:

Mrs Durand smiled at the couple extraordinarily pleased "Thank you, Mr and Mrs Ishiyama for coming in again this year. I'm very grateful that you have helped me to continue what my father started with these charity events."

"It's no problem, after all we know how bad you had it after Yumi and her friends disappeared all those years ago." Takeho reassured the headmistress placing a hand on her shoulder sympathetically.

"I'm sure your father would be proud of you" Akiko added and Mrs Durand ducked her head down red colouring her cheeks.

"Yeah, although I wish we found them… I'm still glad we can help make sure other children don't go missing."

A bark then startled the headmistress making her look down sternly about to scold someone for bringing a pet in before seeing the familiar old hairless mutt.

"Hey, Kiwi…" she muttered bending down to pet him "Don't worry, I'm sure your old owner is thinking about you wherever he is."

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I've finished… I've actually finished this chapter.

*looks behind to see angry mob*

Uhhh, I can explain. EEEK!

*knife hits wall right next to ear*

I'm sorry! DON'T KILL ME! I honestly tried to get to this out as soon as possible, but I became SO busy!

*angry mob stops*

I know you've been waiting 2 and a half years technically since I last updated, and to those of you who have followed my story and still reviewed occasionally. Thank you. I truly appreciate it. And to those of you who thought I gave up! I don't know if any of you did or not, but I honestly said from the beginning of this story and on my profile I believe that once I start a story. I WILL see it through to the end. Same goes for this one, I have planned it out. The problem currently is that the next three chapters are going to be 'filler' chapters here, so they haven't been planned like the main story. So only a little plot happens within them. Like with Cherry finding Code: Earth in this one and the vehicles but nothing else.

I suppose the main purpose of these filler chapters is to flesh out my OCs even more, as I'll be honest. Even I didn't fully know them and now that I've had a short break for 3 years due to bloody LIFE, I feel I'm ready to explore them again.

As for this chapter, I tried to make it as original as possible. I don't recall an episode where XANA poisoned food… Yeah, admittedly you might feel that XANA didn't have an elaborate plot in this story and that he was just aiming to kill the others in a straightforward manner. Which is true! He would, because he is a malevolent virus and having less people opposing him would be better for him. But here's the thing, XANA isn't like those villains who just blurt out their whole plan to the heroes, so they find a hole in it and stop them. He's a quiet cold calculating machine… And one of the reasons his blunt approach failed this time is because he didn't know Sora could combine his powers together which is image projection and shapeshifting. It's also possible that there was more to his plan that none of us know about…

Speaking of which, if you'd like to know what the new Lyoko warriors powers are, please let me know in reviews and I will put them up next chapter of the ones I've shown you so far.

Ok, also about the charity in the chapter, it is a real life legitimate charity as i wanted to use a real one. So if you wish to check them out and find out what they do then check out their website as missingchildreneurope . e*u* (the stars and spaces are so you can put it in), i used some of their words to explain what their aim is in the chapter.

Ok, I know that last time I gave you a hint as to who the next old guest shall be. But this time, I think I'll keep you in suspense.

What!? You can't just do that you bitch!

I'm the authoress! I can do whatever I bloody well like!

*gets beaten up by mob*

P-Please re-re-review… I don't know w-when the next chapter will be out as I have other things on, not to men-ment-ion I need time to heal… I think my arm is broken…

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Edit: I dont usually include these edit add notes... but i got a guest review by the name of 'matt' saying that Mrs Hertz and that should be dead since this takes place 15 years after the original storyline... And i simply want to reply to this person because i cant in private messaging.

The review was and i quote 'Hey moron, Jim, Mrs. Hertz, and any other teachers you have in this story would be dead, since this takes place 15 yrs. after the series.'

Well matt, with the exception of Mrs Hertz perhaps (there's a possibility that she's was her 30s-40s and just got grey hair early as that is possible. grey doesnt automatically mean you're on your 60s), almost all of the teachers were at middle or at least middle age some even being young and in their 20s like Mrs Meyers and Yolande. I would say that it's still quite plausable that most of them would still be alive, i suppose you might argue that maybe they would've changed school. But see, we're going with the assumption that they like their job and get paid well (as it is a private school) so there would be no reason to change. And you might also argue that most should have retired, and you're right some have like Mr Delmas and you're all aware of who took over after him. And other unnamed teachers were replaced. I haven't even mentioned a lot of the teachers in the original so you dont know if i decided to include them all.

Now, if you just wanted to point out a mistake you thought i made in order to help me that would've been just fine. But the fact that you decided to insult me by starting with 'hey moron' just makes you look especially stupid, since your point made 0 sense since teachers dont die that young, no one else brought up this issue 3 chapters ago and i refuted your claim in the reasons above.

So, i will say research your facts before you spout nonsense on the internet. And even if my information is slightly wrong with the stuff i'm not making up... it's a bloody story! You're supposed to use your imagination!

The only thing i will say is that this first comment from a hater has given me a good idea that i may use in future chapters of this story. :D

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So to everyone else, yes i dont mind constructive criticism. I'm much better at taking it than when i was younger so as long as you're nice i dont mind... And i have to say this to all those who keep favouriting and following my first story 'Amnesia'. I'm honestly flattered people keep liking that considering its my personally most hated work, the bad charactisation i did is so glaringly obvious to me that i just want to cringe! I personally liked the later chapters rather than the earlier ones of that story... But hey, all authors have to have one personal story they've written that they hate and this just happened to be mine! But i wont take it down because i had to start from somewhere and it reminds me so thank you all for liking it still and me! :D