Chapter 7: Rat Pack

Author's Note Part 1: Whoa. Hey guys, sorry about how long it took for this chapter to come out. I've been trying to focus on my New Year's resolution, but as you can see, it's getting a little difficult to continue. But, I'm trying to work through it, and I'm determined to continue to update my older stories as much as I can! But, I make no promises since my ADD brain randomly decides what stories it wants me to work on, which can switch while I'm in the middle of updating a chapter for any of my stories.

But, I think that's enough of my ramblings, and you guys probably just want to get on with reading the update. So, here's the last updated chapter!

3rd Person POV:

Currently, the Lyoko group is sitting in the library for their study period. Jeremie was talking on his laptop with Aelita in a hushed voice so no one else could hear him, while John and Yumi looked on at Ulrich and Odd as they played an improvised version of table tennis, Aka Ping-Pong, with a crumpled up piece of paper, which they hit back and forth over a line of books. Ulrich manages to score another point, and John marks it in his computer. "Alright you guys. The score is Ulrich twenty-three, Odd twenty-two. Match point… Again." He announces. Odd nods as he picks up the crumpled up piece of paper, and gets ready to serve. When match point was announced, Jeremie looks up from his computer to see if this time Ulrich would win as opposed to the other two times this had happened. The two players begin to bat the paper ball back and forth.

Finally, Ulrich hits it hard enough that it seems like he'll get the point. However, Odd manages to get to it in time and hits it back. Just as it bounces off and seems like they're gonna have to go another round, Ulrich leans back in his chair, using his foot to catch the edge of the table and keep from falling to the ground, and hits the ball back. Getting the final point needed to finally win the game. "Game set and match." Yumi announces in favor of Ulrich. The brunette teen raises his hands in victory as Odd slouches a bit, and John marks the win down in his computer. Putting the tally of wins up to Ulrich: twelve, Odd: ten. John looks up from his computer just in time to see Ulrich loose his footing on the table and goes crashing to the ground. As the brunette teen pushes himself off the ground, Jim walks over to him with a scowl clear on his face.

"Ulrich! Is that what you call studying?" The gym teacher asks, the brunette giving a nervous grin in response. "In case you haven't noticed, this is not the school yard. You are here to work understand? And work means silence!" He continues as Ulrich sets the chair upright again and sits down, the two raven haired teens of the group trying to hide their laughter behind their hands at his misfortune. "And no more games from now on." He announces, glaring at Odd and Ulrich specifically. Just then, the door opens to show the principal walking in. John notices this, but apparently Jim doesn't. Because he suddenly whirls around before John can stop him, and assigns two hours of detention to him as he grabs his ear. Only to apologize as soon as he notices who he's talking to. Everyone in the Lyoko group stifles laughter at the scene, before going back to what they were doing. Well, Jeremie starts reading instead of talking on his laptop, while Odd and Ulrich start studying instead of playing their makeshift Ping-Pong game. While this happens, John and Yumi use the former's laptop, seeing as the duo had already finished their work.

After Jim lets go of the principal's ear, Delmas walks over next to Jeremie and turns to face him. "Um, Jeremie. Can you come to my office now, it's very important." He asks. Jeremie looks up at him questioningly, but nods and follows him out of the room after packing up his things. The group shares a glance as the two leave the library and Jim walks back to the desk he was sitting at before.

"Why do you think the principal wants to see Jeremie?" Yumi asks the group, getting shrugs in response.

"I don't know. Do you think he found about you-know-what?" Odd whispers to them, referencing Lyoko subtly in case of any ears listening in one their conversation. Only for John to shake his head.

"No. If it was that, no doubt he'd come storming in here and demand to see Jeremie in his office. Remember the other time he found out about it?" John asks, referring to when the group had first started it up, only for Sissi to go all Benedict Arnold on them and show her father, as well as Jim, the super-computer. When they'd found out, their first reaction was to immediately inform the authorities about it. The group thinks about this for a minute, before they all nod in agreement. Instead of simply asking for Jeremie, no doubt Delmas would have walked right in here and told him to go to his office.

When the period finishes a few minutes later, the group members pack up their things, and leave the library. They walk over to the main office building, and stand outside the doors, waiting for Jeremie to come out. Not three minutes later, the blond teen in question comes walking out. "Jeremie?" Odd asks him. Not getting an answer from the teen as he continues walking away from the building. The group shares glances at his behavior, before turning and looking after him. A few seconds later, they pick up their things, and follow him. Yumi and John are the first ones to reach him.

"What's going on?" Yumi asks Jeremie.

"Yeah man. You look like someone died… That's not it. Right?" John asks him nervously. Jeremie shakes his head at John's question.

"No. But, the principal went on and on. He told me that the school phycologist has been "observing me" for a while now, and he thinks that I'm an overly gifted student." He tells them, causing John's eyes to go wide.

"Is that all" Odd asks. "We thought it might have been something worse. Like, the principal finding out about the lab or something." He tells the other blond teen. John just shakes his head at Odd's response.

"No Odd, this is worse than you might think." John tells him, getting the purple-clad teen's attention. "If they think that Jeremie is really smart, then it's highly likely that they think Jeremie's too smart for this school, and if so, then they'll probably send him to a more gifted one." He tells them. This gets gasps from the others.

"So, are you telling me they'd send Jeremie to a school for, like, future Einstein's?" He asks the raven haired teen. Getting a nod in response.

"That is serious. If you aren't here Jeremie, then we won't be able to go to Lyoko again. And Xana will be able to do what he wants." Yumi says, causing Jeremie to shake his head.

"It's not just that guys. I don't want to leave here because of you. We're friends." Jeremie tells them. Odd seems to think for a second, before walking over to Jeremie.

"Hold on, cool it. They can't force you to change schools. Can they?" Odd asks him. Jeremie shakes his head once again. But not in a way that answers Odd's question, making John fear what Jeremie might actually say. And his fear is proven correct when Jeremie starts to talk again.

"It's not all that easy." Jeremie replies. "The phycologist said he couldn't wait to talk to my parents. He told me that at a big school like the one they're gonna send me to, I'll be entitled to a big scholarship. My folks aren't gonna give up a great chance like that." Jeremie tells them dejectedly, before walking forwards so that he's in front of the group a bit. The rest of said group shares slightly downcast glances at this new information, before they reach the building filled with classes that they'll be taking.

As the bell rings to signify the end of the school day, the Lyoko group meets up outside the primary gym. "What's the big problem? You mess up on the test, and he'll think you're a total moron. Nobody'll ever know. And you'll be home free." Odd suggests.

"Sure, I've thought of that. Only there's a problem, because tests like that are filled with all kinds of trick questions. And if you really want to mess up and make mistakes, you have to be very clever." Jeremie responds. At this, Yumi smiles.

"But that's great since you're the cleverest kid around." She tells him. John gives his own smile and gives a thumbs up to Jeremie in agreement with Yumi.

"Well okay. I'll do my best to flunk." He tells them. But John shakes his head.

"No. Don't flunk it." He tells Jeremie, making the others look at him in surprise and confusion. "If you do, it's likely that they'll think something is up. So make sure you get just over half of them wrong. Not all of them. We don't want them to realize you're faking, and make you re-take a different test." He tells the blond haired boy.

"Alright. But I can't promise anything." Jeremie tells them as he walks away towards the library, where the test is going to take place.

"I'll see you guys later. Keep me posted okay?" Yumi asks them as she pushes herself off the wall she was leaning against, and starts towards the gate so that she can head home.

"Sure. No problem Yumi." John replies. She nods to them, before walking off and waving over her shoulder. John turns to the two boys of the Lyoko group that are left. "Let's head off to the cafeteria. It's getting pretty close to dinner time, and I have a feeling that Odd is going to need and extra tray or two for how nervous he is about this. I know I'm nervous." He tells them, getting two nods in agreement, before the trio heads off to eat. As they sit down at "their" table, other students begin trickling in slowly. Finally, when the John and Ulrich are on their second tray's, while Odd is on his fourth, it happens. All the lights go out in the cafeteria, including the ones in the kitchen, and from where John's sitting, it would appear that the ones in the school building went out as well.

A few minutes later, all the other students besides the trio of guys start to mess around. Some climb up onto the tables, some throw random trash around, and some just holler and yell out indescribable babble. Finally, Jim speaks up from the back of the room. "That's enough! Get back to your seats right now and quiet down! Go on, the lights will come on again soon! Now stop all your clowning around, understand?" He yells out. The only response he gets is people banging on tables at a slowly growing pace, slowly getting faster and louder until Ulrich and John hear a different noise that is.

"Everyone shut the hell up!" John yells out, holding his hands up and successfully gaining everyone's attention when Jim couldn't.

"Listen." Ulrich continues for him. The students and Jim do as he said, and hear what the other two boys heard. The sound of something scampering around in the ceiling.

"What the?" Jim asks no one in particular, before standing on one of the tables, and lifting one of the ceiling tiles, only to shout out and jump down off the table before landing on his back after he sees whatever it is. Though with all the racket, John suspects it to be…

"Rats!" Many people yell out in alarm as ceiling tiles fall down onto table and the ground due to the weight of all the rats, making all the students run away from them.

"We've got to get outta here!" Ulrich exclaims causing Odd and John to nod in agreement, before they use the tables to get to the doors, jumping from one to the other. The other students follow closely behind them, running along the floor with Jim and Rosa, the cook. Despite the situation, John can't help but find it ironic that they're cook is named Rosa, just like a certain cook in a book series about a certain Malachai. But he quickly shakes those thoughts away to re-focus on surviving the giant wave of rats. "Oh no!" Ulrich exclaims as he's the first to reach the door, followed by Odd, and finally John.

"Uh-oh." Odd says, seeing the giant crowd of rats right outside the door as if they were waiting for the group to leave so that they could tear into them.

"You've got to be shitting me! We're stuck!" John exclaims.

"Nice going Xana. The rats all waited until nighttime. And they waited until we were all in the cafeteria too." Odd says, before looking over his shoulder with John as the group of students comes crashing into them. Trying to back away from the advancing crowd of rats inside the cafeteria.

"Damn it! Did Xana possess every rat in the city?! Ulrich! Try and call Jeremie! I'll warn Yumi!" John exclaims, getting a nod from Ulrich in response, before the two of them take out their cellphones and dial their respective people. John only needs to wait until halfway through the second ring before Yumi picks up on the other end.

"Is that you John?" Yumi asks with happiness clear in her voice. Normally, John would feel the same way, and possibly actually attempt talking, since he'd gotten slightly better at talking to his crush. But, seeing as this is a Xana attack, he's serious enough to not worry about that kind of stuff right now.

"Yeah. Listen, we've got a problem. Xana might have decided to attack the school with a bunch of rats tonight." He tells her. The response he gets is expected.

"Huh? What?!" She yells out. He nods subconsciously even though he knows she can't see him.

"Yeah. We might need some help here. Think you can get out of the house and down to the school? Ulrich's trying to reach Jeremie now, but judging by his constant mumbling of "pick up" he's saying, I think it's safe to say that Jeremie's not answering.

"I'll be there soon." Yumi says through the phone, before cutting the call. John puts his phone away, before turning to Ulrich.

"Ugh, what's the matter? Why won't he answer?" Ulrich asks in annoyance.

"For all we know, his phone was confiscated by the proctor so that he could only focus on the test." John tells him, getting an annoyed grunt in response before Odd speaks up.

"The extinguishers Jim! Hurry up!" The blond teen yells out to the gym teacher currently frozen in panic.

"D-d-don't p-panic! J-j-just d-don't p-panic, okay!" He yells out as John walks over to the teacher as another kid runs past and grabs the extinguishers in question. John stops in front of the scared adult as the other student runs back and hands the extinguishers to Odd and Ulrich. Then, just before everyone leaves, John pulls back his hand, and…

~Smack!~

Every head turns in the direction of the loud sound to see that John had just slapped Jim across the face, breaking him out of his scared stupor, before the fifteen year old pulls Jim down by his red jacket to look him in the eyes. "You listen here Jim. There are a ton of kids here that need to get to safety, and you're the adult here. So, are you going to start acting like it and get these kids out of here? Or are you going to keep being a little scaredy-cat, and try to hide away?!" He yells out, shocking the students and Jim, before the teacher straightens up.

"Y-you're right Hopper. I-I've got to be the adult here." He agrees, getting a nod of approval from John. Then, Jim turns to the crowd of students. "Everybody outside! Delerobia! Stern! Use those extinguishers to keep those vermin at bay!" He shouts out, getting nods in response. Then, he turns to John. "And Hopper… Thank you." He says, getting another nod, before they head outside.

"Get back you ratas!" Rosa exclaims as she beats the rats away using a tray, making John wonder if it's a coincidence the this Rosa and the one from "Chronicles of Nick" have the same name or not. Meanwhile, Odd and Ulrich use the extinguishers to spray the ground and make the rats back away. The last one outside is Rosa, who uses a key from the kitchen to lock the doors behind them so that the rats will have a harder time getting out. The students continue to keep the rats at bay for a few minutes, before Odd speaks up.

"There are way too many of them." Odd he says as he continues to help Ulrich use the extinguishers to keep the rats away from the group of students. "We'll never be able to hold them back all night." He continues. Suddenly, a yell is heard from the direction of the dorms building.

"Help! Help! Over here!" Odd, Ulrich and John turn to look in the direction of the voice, and see that Sissi is standing outside waving her arms. Unfortunately, not only does it gain the attention of the trio, but the hoard of rats as well.

"Sissi?! What's she doing here anyways?" Ulrich asks.

"Well, we have to help her or she'll be eaten alive!" Odd exclaims. John nods in agreement, before the sound of a bell going off is heard on the opposite side of the field from Sissi. John turns in that direction, and sees Yumi riding towards them on her bike.

"Well, here's Yumi. Let's hope she can help." He says, before looking at Yumi, and pointing towards Sissi. Yumi follows his finger, and nods in understanding. As Odd and Ulrich continue to keep the rats away from the students, they watch with John as Yumi helps Sissi get over to the rest of the students in question.

"Welcome to the rat pack." Odd welcomes them. A few minutes later, after Yumi and Sissi have been given trays to defend in case some of the rats break through, the former gets a phone call.

"Hello, Jeremie." She says, before listening to the blond haired teen on the other end. "Yes, the rats have attacked." She answers, before listening to Jeremie once again. "Alright, we'll meet you there." She replies, before cutting the call, and turning towards John and Odd. "We have to find a safer place." She tells them.

"Where? Huh?" Ulrich asks. "The rats are all over." He continues, only for Jim to speak up.

"I know where. The only building with no access to the sewers is the science building." He says, before turning around to face them. "Now, let's go!" He declares, getting nods in response. Although, some of the other students are a bit reluctant since that means they're going to need to walk through the crowd of rats. Odd and Ulrich press forwards with the extinguishers, while everyone else follows close behind. Yumi and John stick to the back, swatting away any rats that try to attack from the rear with the food trays. Finally, the group makes it to the science building safely. Jim immediately moves to the front, and unlocks the door. The rest of the students rush in, while Ulrich stays outside to cover them. Unfortunately, the extinguisher runs out, and he's forced to dive back inside. When this happens, Odd and John slam the double doors shut behind him, as the brunette leans against the wall to catch his breath. Giving a thumbs up to them in thanks.

"Alright, let's go up to the roof. If the rats get in, we'll be safe up there." Yumi tells them, opening the doors to the stairs that lead to the roof. All the students follow closely behind, while Ulrich and John stay at the back to close the doors. That way, if the rats get in, it will take longer for them to reach the group. Finally, the group makes it to the top, and John closes the door behind them, walking over to join Yumi, Ulrich and Odd in looking down over the edge of the roof to the sea of rats below. Unfortunately, all the rats seem to work off a hive mind with Xana, and chew through a tree, making it fall down and crash through some of the windows of the first floor.

"Damn it." John mutters when he sees this.

"We have to go to the factory. Jeremie will meet us there. Well, as soon as he can that is." Yumi tells them, making Ulrich turn to look at her.

"Sounds great, but how do we get there? Huh?" He asks. As he asks this, Odd walks around the roof, trying to find something that would help them. He ends up finding a fire hose, and calls the others over to it. They toss it down so that it's an improvised rope, and Yumi, and Odd are the first ones down. Ulrich looks over the edge, and sways a little. John puts a hand on his shoulder, making the brunette turn to face the raven haired teen.

"Ulrich. We might need someone to stay here and make sure these guys are alright. Do you think you can do that?" John asks him. Ulrich nods in response, silently glad that John wasn't outright saying that his fear of heights was the reason for this. John nods back, before grabbing the hose just before he hears another voice call out.

"Wait, come back! What are you doing?!" John turns around to find Jim looking at him.

"Don't worry Jim. We need help here, so we're gonna go get it." He tells the gym teacher, before sliding down the rope towards the other two.

"Woah! Hey, come back here! Come back here you hear?!" Jim shouts down at him just before he reaches the ground. When he does, he turns towards the other two.

"Let's go." He tells them, getting nods in response. As they run towards the entrance to the sewers in the forest, Yumi and Odd turn towards John.

"Why isn't Ulrich coming?" Odd asks, making John turn to face him.

"Someone needs to stay behind with the students to make sure they're fine." He replies, turning to face Yumi as well. He gets nods of understanding in response, just before they reach the manhole cover. When John removes it, a swarm of rats was what greeted the trio. John quickly drops the manhole cover back in place, before turning towards Yumi for advice.

"We've got no other choice. We'll have to go through the city." She tells them. The other two nod at her, before they leave the forest and head towards the Iron Gate entrance to the academy. They quickly leave, running through the city towards the factory. Unfortunately, they don't arrive to a welcomed sight. The entire bridge was covered in rats, blocking their entrance.

"Wow. Xana sure did think of everything." Odd comments. John smirks slightly.

"Not everything. Come on!" He exclaims, running off to the side and vaulting a railing before sliding down the small ramp that lead to the walkway next to the lake. Odd and Yumi look over said rail, and see John standing next to an inflated raft.

"Care for a ride?" He asks them. They share a glance, before vaulting over the railing, and getting into the raft. John gets in after them, and begins rowing with Odd.

"Why do you have a raft?" Odd asks while they row. John looks at him with a raised eyebrow.

"I have gas masks, a crossbow, and a multitude of other things for the coming zombie apocalypse, and you ask me why I have a raft?" John asks him, getting stifled laughter from Yumi, and causing Odd to visibly sag. Until he notices something behind them.

"Um, not to worry you, but look out!" He exclaims, pointing towards the swarm of rats swimming towards them. John puts more power behind his rows with Odd following his example, making it so that the group arrives on the island the factory is on a few seconds later. The group quickly jumps off the raft, not bothering to tie it up, and runs toward the entrance at the back that leads to the boiler room.

"Come one, come on!" John exclaims, waving the other two to enter. They do so, and he's the last in, slamming the doors shut just before the rats are able to enter. The trio shares a breath of relief, before they go running through the factory, and sneak towards the elevator. Trying to make sure they don't gain the attention of any rats that may have been left behind on the bridge. They successfully make it, and use the elevator to reach the computer room. Yumi leaves the duo, and the two boys continue down into the scanner room. They enter the scanners, and Yumi begins the virtualization process. The familiar feeling of being stretched hits them, before everything goes black.

Suddenly, the blackness is replaced by the terrain of the desert sector. Odd lands in a crouch while John rolls with the landing and brings out his sniper. Ready for a Xana-fied welcome party. Luckily, there's no such party, and he slings the sniper across his back again. "Alright, you did it Yumi." Odd says.

"Do you see Aelita?" Yumi's voice echoes across the land, and Odd and John look around for any sign of the pinkette.

"Nope. But she should be around here somewhere." John replies, only for Yumi to speak up again.

"Oh no. I didn't enter the right coordinates! I virtualized you too far away from Aelita!" She exclaims. John shrugs as Odd responds to her exclamation.

"That's okay. We could use a little exercise to get warmed up." The blond haired teen tells her, before the duo goes running off in the direction Yumi tells them.

"Oh sure. What? The run over to the factory not enough for you Odd?" John asks him as they continue to run.

"Eh, I feel like it could have been longer." He replies. John just chuckles at this, before he notices a dust cloud in the distance. He skids to a stop, followed closely by Odd. Yumi notices they've stopped, and speaks up.

"Do you see Aelita now?" She asks. The duo focuses on the cloud, and sees Aelita just in front of it.

"Yeah, we see her!" Odd exclaims, only for two more shapes to be seen in the cloud.

"Yeah, though the unfortunate part is that she's brought some friends." John says, unslinging his sniper rifle from his back, and aiming it at the approaching Krabs chasing Aelita. She manages to speed up, and reach the duo before the Krabs can get to her.

"Welcome to the party princess." John greets, kneeling down on one knee and aiming at Xana's approaching monsters through the largest lens on his sniper.

"That was close. I only just managed to get away." She tells them.

"Well don't worry too much about it. You're knights in shining armor are here to help." Odd tells her with a thumbs up. John just scoffs at this and rolls his eyes.

"She's a princess, and we're knights. Right. You know… That brings up something I've been wondering actually. Why is it that Aelita has the nickname "princess", but none of us have any?" he asks, still aiming at the Krabs. Which stop a good deal away from them for some reason.

"Now's not really the time for that John." Yumi tells him. He just shrugs.

"Alright. Just wondering is all." He replies. Then, he watches as the Krabs use their legs to dig into the ground. Almost as if they were expecting an earthquake or something. John wonders why, and his question is answered within the next few seconds as the land starts to tilt. "Oh shit." John mumbles, before using one of his shots to burn a hole in the ground, and then sticks the barrel of his sniper into said hole. As Odd tries to use his claws to dig into the ground, Aelita hangs onto John's legs to keep from falling.

"John? Odd? What's happening?" Yumi asks them.

"My guess? Xana-Ahhhhhhhhh!" John replies, yelling at the end as a shot from one of the Krabs makes him recoil. Still hanging tightly to the sniper and causing it to be pulled out of the hole with him. This happens at the same time Odd is hit by a laser from the other Krab, and makes the trio begin falling. While this happens, Aelita focuses, and creates a ledge for them to land on. They all feel pain when they do, but they're distracted from it when lasers from the two Krabs start raining down on them. Then, the two begin to only focus on Aelita, and John immediately jumps in front of her. Taking the full brunt of the attack, and only thinking about her safety. A few seconds later, Odd manages to push himself to his feet, and push the two of them towards the wall-that-used-to-be-ground, following quickly behind them.

John thinks about it for a minute, before turning towards the other two. "Odd. Make sure to cover Aelita. She's lost too many lifepoints, and it's highly likely that I don't have that many either." He tells them, before turning around and jumping onto one of the other ledges that Aelita had created while they were falling. He continues to jump from one to another, making sure to get a good hold on one rock before transitioning to another. Finally, he gets to a ledge large enough that he can stand on it. Unfortunately, one of the two Krabs notices him, and turns to shoot at him. Fortunately, he's able to use his sniper to "Short-circuit" the shots coming at him, while one manages to hit the Krab on the Lyoko symbol. The Krab seems to go into a seizure for a moment due to this, before blowing up and scattering red binary code.

The explosion gains the attention of the other Krab, and it turns around to face John. Then, it starts walking towards him along the wall while shooting it's lasers. A couple manage to hit him, and Odd speaks up from where he and Aelita are standing. "Get out of there John!" He cries out. John turns, and jumps onto another rock. As he tries to make his way to a safer place, one of the lasers shoots out the rock that he was holding onto at the time. For John, time seems to slow down. His brain stops working as he takes into account the only thing beneath him… is the digital sea. He can hear his name being shouted, but he doesn't respond.

Yumi… I'm sor- his thoughts are cut off as he's struck by another laser blast. De-virtualizing him.

The scanner doors open up to show John at the same time the elevator doors are opening. When they do so, Yumi is shown standing there, and when she notices John, she immediately rushes in and wraps him into a hug. John's shocked at first, but slowly returns it. When they break apart, they're both blushing up to their ears. "~Ehem~, uh… A-Aelita probably needs you right now." John tells her.

"Y-yeah." Yumi replies, before entering the scanner after John exits it. He gives her a small smile and wave, just before the doors close. After composing himself, John walks over to the elevator and rides it up to the computer room. By the time he reaches the top, Yumi has saved Aelita just after Odd was de-virtualized. The pinkette enters the tower, and shuts it down. Thus stopping the rat attack on the students back at the academy. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief, before Jeremie states "Return to the past now." Everything goes white for the group, before turning black.

For John, after waking up once again, the next few hours pass much like they do after the other Xana attacks. He wakes up to the sound of his alarm, gets ready for the day, goes through his classes for the day, and then ends up meeting the group at the study session. When this happens, they decide not to do the impromptu game of Ping-Pong, and talk about the test that Jeremie will be taking that night instead. "So Jeremie, did you find out a way to stay here at Kadic?" Yumi asks him.

"Well, now that I know all the questions, I shouldn't have that much trouble giving the wrong answers for most of them." He responds.

"Are you sure that's gonna work?" Ulrich asks him.

"Yes. But if it doesn't, I've got another full proof way of failing." He tells them as he crosses his hands behind his head and leans back. John smirks at this.

"You're gonna ask Odd for the answers. Aren't you?" He asks with a knowing smirk.

"Yup." Jeremie replies, getting laughs from the others. Odd looks at them with mock hurt.

"Yeah, yeah. Go ahead and laugh it up. But who knows? You might be in for a big surprise." Odd tells them, only for Jim to get angry and tell them to be quiet. John just smirks and hides his laughing. All those times he'd done so in classes and in libraries before this was making it easier for him than for the others. Shown by the fact that Jim skipped over him when he started glaring at the others for laughing.

Well, I guess that's one good thing this Xana attack did. John thinks to himself with a smirk. It made it so that Jeremie's gonna be able to stay here no matter what.

Author's Note Part 2: Alright, here's the newest chapter in this Fanfiction! Sorry it took a while for those of you interested, but I started getting ideas for other stories, and started switching between this one and the other ones almost every hour. But anyways, yeah, A few things were changed in this episode. Why? Because John was involved. If you ever question why something is changed in the plot, the simple answer is "Because John is there". That, or because I find it incredibly stupid what they do. (Ex: Jeremie tells the others he's going to the factory in front of Sissi during one of the earlier episodes.)

So as some of you may have noticed, I skipped quite a few episodes to get to this one. Why? For advancement of the plot. Those episodes will be coming later on, some much later, but this is because I got ideas while watching them, and said ideas will help the plot line move along in a way I want it to when they happen.

Anyways, thanks for those of you that stuck around this long to read this, and see you all next time!

(Updated April 5th, 2015:

Holy shit Batman! I am so sorry that it took so long for this to get out. See, like my AN above from the first time that I wrote this, it's true that I ended up coming up with all new stories to write, but at the same time, I've been working on my New Year's Resolution of working on my past stories. So, mix those two together, and it turns out that it's difficult to work on all my stories that are out right now.

Alright, so I actually got a few reviews for my last updated chapter, so here are the replies to said reviews.

PhantomDragon99:

Good to know, and I hope that it was good to read as well!

Anime PJ:

Well, nice to see that you agree with my reasoning. As for the awkwardness, I'm working on that, since when I first started to write this out, that's how I would react in real life. However, I've started to write stories where my character is less nervous, so I'm going to try to slowly make John act that way, since I've gotten worse at writing it the way that it is now.

Michael *Guest*:

Good to see you liked that chapter! As for all his stuff for the zombie apocalypse, and the episode where Xana does that… I have plans… Many, many plans… (Insert evil laughter here)

ShadowAngel *Guest*:

Nice to see that you like the story, and I hope to keep you entertained!

Anyways, I think that's about it for this update. So, look forwards to the next one, since I'm hoping to get it out soon! Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this, and I hope to see you all next time!)