1-8: Memory

(((-8-)))

"Janika's laptop is biting Yumi?" Odd laughed.

Ulrich glared at his friend. "Nothing X.A.N.A. does is funny!"

"I dunno. That teddy bear that tried to destroy the city was a bit—"

"Odd! I'm warning you! Now is not the time."

Aelita was almost directly above the Tower, but she fell back as a Krab exploded from the foliage right in front of her.

"Aelita!" both boys called together. They were too far away!

Instead of fleeing, the strawberry-haired girl's eyes grew fierce with rage. "No!" she screamed and lashed out with the shuriken in an unpracticed motion. The Krab stumbled as one leg was severed, then lost its footing and tumbled to the ground far below.

"Great job, Aelita, but how are you going to reach the Tower from up here?" Ulrich wondered as he and Odd caught up with her.

She winked. "Watch."

With a running leap, she cleared the tree branches and fell down toward the red-rimmed Tower's spire. Her body melted through the wall as she was about to crash into the earth, and she landed lightly on her feet, safely inside. Aelita proceeded to deactivate everything X.A.N.A. had done.

(V)

Yumi saw the snake freeze, its mouth open wide to take another bite out of her. She breathed a sigh of relief as the past enveloped the world...

The bell rang for Chemistry to let out. Jeremy, Odd and Ulrich filed out of the room and looked around the hall.

"Do you think she might have made a good ally?" the computer nerd wondered.

"We didn't know anything about her in the first place," Ulrich explained. "And besides, she did steal from you."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But still...it would have been nice to have someone else, even if she was just a hacker looking for some fun." He sighed resolutely. "Let's go find Yumi and I'll tell you guys about her snake-laptop."

"What did that weird X.A.N.A.-dude do to my computer?"

The boys spun around and saw Janika standing right behind them, her dark braid pulled over one shoulder.

"I overheard that girl say something about it, but she didn't exactly clarify what was going on."

Ulrich could only gape at her. "You remember?"

"Why would I forget? What was that flash of light, and how did we get back here at school?" She held up her hand as they all began to speak at once. "Wait, wait wait! Can we just start over? I'm Janika, and I really want to help you guys."

Okay, so how was it? All of you that read my story must provide feedback, and none of that "Oh it was good. See ya" stuff. I would also like to give credit to writer Frank Verderosa (for proving there is such a thing as good fanfiction) and my little sister (for always making me hide my fanfics so I never embarrassed myself by submitting the stupidest ones).