I finally have an update! Anyway when a wrote this chapter it was getting very long so I split it into three parts, a beginning (this), a middle, and an end, which I'm still writing.
Chapter 10: Secret is Discovered
Study Hall was, as always, in the library, and several people were studying. Those that weren't were writing notes or talking quietly, or playing a game involving hitting a ball of paper over a small pile of books to another person.
Danny and Odd were doing just that.
"Get ready Danny, 'cause here it comes," Odd tossed the wad of paper into the air, and hit it over the books. Danny hit it back, then Odd, then Danny again, et cetera as both tried to make the other miss the paper ball. The others, besides Ulrich and Yumi, were watching the match. Tucker leaned closer to Jeremy.
"Wanna bet on who wins? My money says Danny."
Jeremy couldn't help but smirk at the offer. "Okay, your own."
The game continued for another few seconds. Finally, Odd hit the paper wad hard and it hit Danny in the head before landing on the table. Tucker and Jeremy's facial features changed to irritation and satisfaction respectively.
"And the champion still reigns!" Odd announced with a huge smile on his face. Danny sighed, and moved one of his hands under their table. A small ecto-beam came out of his finger and hit Odd's leg.
"Ow!" Odd jumped as the beam made a hole in his pants and slightly burned his skin. Danny smiled at Odd's glare.
"Real smooth Danny," Sam said sarcastically as Aelita tried to keep herself from laughing. The pink haired girl calmed herself down as she saw a certain brown haired boy come into the library and hand a note to the librarian.
"Look, there's Ulrich," she said. The boy had had a last minute soccer practice scheduled so he had missed their math class and the first ten minutes of the study period. Odd had considered his soccer playing friend lucky, but their long painful homework assignment was saying something different.
"Hey, how was practice?" Tucker asked.
Ulrich let out a tired groan. "Exhausting," he answered. "Jim must've been in a bad mood or he's getting tense about Thursday's game." The young man sat down beside Odd before continuing. "He had us do so many drills I'm surprised I can still stand. My legs feel like jelly."
"He must want to make sure you win the match," Danny said.
"Yeah, but if you lose you can always blame Jim for overworking you," Odd suggested.
Ulrich laughed a little at the comment. "You know Odd, I might just say that. Hey Jeremy, what are you working on?"
"Oh the usual: upgrading the vehicles, boosting the materialization program, finding Aelita's anti-virus," he listed off a few things. "So far I'm not having much luck with the last one." Jeremy saved what he was working on and closed the laptop. "I'm going to need more information from sector five if I want to continue working on it."
"Why don't we go now?" Sam asked. "It's not like we have anything else to do."
"Good idea," Aelita agreed.
"Wait," Ulrich said, "Where's Yumi?"
Just about everyone fell silent at the question. Ulrich raised an eyebrow at the silence and asked the question again. "Well, where's Yumi?"
"Uh… not at this table,"
"Yeah Odd I can see that," Ulrich was getting annoyed. "That doesn't answer my question."
Odd laughed nervously. "Er… you're better off not knowing."
"Yeah," Tucker chimed in. "You'd probably explode if you found out she was sitting with William."
Although Ulrich didn't explode, he looked like he wanted to strangle a certain someone. "What!" The librarian had to 'shush' them because Ulrich yelled too loud. Danny had noticed the tension that was building.
"Uh, how about I get Yumi and you guys take Ulrich out of here before he leaps out in violent rage?" the ghost boy went off to get Yumi before anyone could argue.
Yumi and William were on the other side of the library. Danny couldn't tell what was going on, but guessed they were talking. As he got closer, Yumi noticed him.
"Oh, hey Danny," she greeted. "What's up?"
"Besides Ulrich losing his mind, not much," the ghost boy then changed the subject. "Can you come with me for a few minutes? It's really important."
Yumi looked slightly confused, but nodded. "I'll be right back," she told William.
In another corner of the room, Sissi and Valerie were watching the scene, and Danny and Yumi go off.
"Oh, I can't take it anymore," Sissi complained. "Where in the world do my Ulrich and his little friends go all the time?"
"I don't know," Valerie answered. "They've been doing this even before Fenton and other geeks arrived here right?"
"Of course!" the bratty girl practically shrieked. "And that's what ticks me off. How is it that I, even though I've been trying to be nice to them all semester, don't get to join their group where three newcomers do?"
"Diversity maybe?" Valerie joked, but Sissi wasn't done ranting. In fact, she decided to take action.
"I'm gonna follow them; if they can share their secret with those three, they can share it with me." Sissi stood up. "You coming with me or not?"
Valerie had also been wondering what Danny and his friends were always doing. In truth she had hoped they could get to know each other more on this trip, but their disappearances between classes was keeping this from happening. "All right."
"Good, now follow me."
The two girls snuck out of the library, but instead of going to the forest they went up to the dorm rooms. Sissi entered Odd and Ulrich's room and opened the bottom drawer.
"If we're going to find Danny and Ulrich, we'll need to use their mascot."
-
Jeremy typed in the password "Scipio" into the computer, which brought up the transport orb, bringing the virtualized gang to sector five.
"Ugh, I hate that trip," Odd complained, holding his stomach.
"Get ready guys, the door's about to open," Jeremy said over his head set. Sure enough, the room stopped spinning and one of the walls opened up. The group of five ran through the entrance and down the stairs.
"You have three minutes to find the key and stop the countdown," Jeremy told them.
"And remember Danny, you can't fly in the central core," Sam added. The group reached the center. It was shaped like a large empty room and the key was on the other side of the room.
"It's too easy," Yumi pointed out.
"Go slowly, and be ready for anything," Ulrich said. "Aelita, Yumi, stay here."
The girls followed Ulrich's command, and he, Danny, and Odd began to cross the floor. As they began to cross a noise was heard from above. Danny looked up and the ceiling. "Who, guys watch out!"
Odd and Ulrich looked up also, and then quickly jumped away as a part of the ceiling almost crushed them.
"That was close," Odd commented. The three boys ran across the flat terrain, trying to dodge the pillars that kept falling, and attempting to crush them. "Danny watch out!" The feline Lyoko warrior pushed Danny away from a falling pillar only to get crushed instead.
On the outside world Jeremy, Sam and Tucker couldn't help but wince.
"Ooh, that has to hurt," Sam said.
-
"Sissi, are you sure following that dog is going to lead us to Danny and the others?" Valerie asked. So far the "mascot", better known as Odd's dog Kiwi, led them to a manhole in the woods near the school. "'Cause the only place he's leading us to are the sewers."
Sissi knelt down and removed the man hole, and she began to climb down the ladder. "Grab Kiwi and follow me."
Valerie rolled her eyes. "I can't believe I'm doing this…"
-
Danny and Ulrich continued across the path. "We're almost there," Ulrich said. A pillar fell in front of them, catching both boys by surprise. Danny ran to the right and Ulrich to the left. The samurai warrior stopped short as another pillar fell in front of him, then behind him.
"Ulrich get out of there, it's a trap!" Jeremy shouted. Ulrich saw an opening and ran for it, but the pillar dropped down before he could escape. He looked up at the ceiling, "oh great," and got flattened by a pillar.
Ulrich could still feel the pain in his body after being devirtualized. "Ugh, that hurts."
"Feels like being run over by a steam roller doesn't it?" Odd was lying on his stomach, sprawled out on the floor. "This floor feels so good right now."
"Danny, you only have ten seconds left," Jeremy said.
"Don't worry, I've got it," the ghost boy jumped away from another pillar and sprinted for the key. He touched it, stopping the clock and the pillars slowly rose back into the ceiling. Jeremy gave a sigh of relief.
"Cutting it close weren't you Danny?"
"How about you try doing this Tucker and then we'll talk about cutting it close." Danny would have glared at his friend if he could see him. Yumi and Aelita ran up to Danny.
"Good job," the geisha said.
"Thanks," Danny saw the door open. "Come on."
"Try to make it quick," Danny said, looking up at the walls. So far they weren't doing anything, but who knows how long that will last.
-
"Err… do you have any idea where we're going?" Valerie shouted angrily. Her voice echoed in the large maze that was under the city.
"Of course not, that's why I brought Kiwi with us."
Valerie slapped herself. "Why am I doing this?" she muttered to herself.
-
As Aelita searched through XANA's information, Yumi and Danny watched the walls. Yumi saw the Mantas begin to form. "Get ready Danny."
The Mantas hatched and they swam over. Yumi had her two fans out and threw one of them at the Mantas. It missed when the Mantas swam in different directions. One of the Mantas fired its laser at Yumi, hitting her.
"Ghost shield!" Danny called up a green square shield to block another laser. He dropped the shield to fire his ghost ray at a Manta. The ray made contact with the giant Eye of XANA, destroying it. "That's one."
Yumi jumped backwards and threw her other fan. This one cut through the Manta and destroyed it. "There goes another one." Yumi blocked a laser from the third Manta with the fan she held, but got hit but another and devirtualized.
"Okay Aelita, that's enough," Jeremy said. "Let me take control so I can send you the Overboard."
Aelita sent one last piece of data and got off the control panel. Danny fired another ghost ray at the Manta, missing entirely and leaving himself open for a counter attack.
The Overboard appeared and Aelita jumped on it. "Danny, let's go."
Danny fired a final ghost ray at the Manta, damaging it, and hopped on the board. Aelita drove it out of Carthage, into the desert.
Once Danny and Aelita were materialized they met the others upstairs.
"So, did we get anything good?" Aelita asked.
"Well…" Jeremy was interrupted by Danny tripping over Odd's body, who had assumed the same position he had taken in the scanner room.
"Ow! Odd, why are you on the floor?"
"Because it feels so good."
-
"This is it?' Sissi didn't quite expect an abandoned factory.
"Must be their hangout, but it's bigger than any hangout teens usually use," Valerie said. The two girls climbed down the ropes, Valerie carrying Odd's dog, and stopped at the elevator. They entered and Valerie examined the panel.
"Think it still works?" she pressed a button and the door closed. "I guess it does."
-
Besides Odd, who was still on the floor, everyone was gathered around Jeremy and the super computer.
"This data is rather unusual," Jeremy said. The Einstein looked over the data again, magnifying a specific piece of information. "This last piece you sent me Aelita is the most peculiar."
"You do have a point," the young girl said. Living in Lyoko all her lift, Aelita had seen several kinds of data and coding, but never what they had now.
"Will this help you find Aelita's anti-virus?" Sam asked. Jeremy shrugged.
"I don't know."
"Well what do we have here?" the group hadn't even noticed anyone come in.
"Sissi?" Ulrich jumped in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"How did you get here?" Danny asked pointedly.
"We got a little help," Sissi looked at Kiwi, who was sniffing Odd's head. "Now it's time we got to business."
While she wasn't looking Tucker whispered to Jeremy, "An RTTP would be really helpful right now."
"I've been trying to use the return to the past, but it won't work."
"What? What do you mean it won't work?" Tucker's loud exclamation caught Sissi, Ulrich, Danny, and Valerie's attention.
"Something's keeping me from using the return to the past."
"That's… not… good," Danny said. Ulrich sighed and looked back at Sissi.
"You better not tell anyone."
"Oh don't worry, I won't…" Ulrich looked at her suspiciously; something wasn't right. Sissi wouldn't do anything willingly unless it benefited herself. "…If you do two things for me, I won't say anything."
Ulrich was right, and wasn't going to take it. No way, forget it."
"Ulrich we don't have a choice," Jeremy said. Ulrich looked at him, then at Danny. He nodded; they both knew they only to follow Sissi's demands temporarily.
"Okay, what do you want?"
Sissi had an evil smile on her face. "Okay here it is. One; you have to tell me everything that you've been doing up until now."
"Okay, that sounds fair," Sam said before whispering to Jeremy, "Please hurry up and fix the return to the past."
"Second," Sissi started, her evil smile became eviler, "Ulrich has to be my boyfriend."
"What!" Yumi had punched the wall out of anger. "Forget it Sissi, the deal's off, right Ulrich?"
"Fine then," Sissi turned to leave, "I'll just tell daddy about this place and-"
"Wait!" Ulrich's plea stopped Sissi in her tracks. The principal's daughter looked at him like she was his master. "I'll do it. I'll…" Ulrich took a deep breath and swallowed, "… be your boyfriend."
-
Everyone left the factory with uneasy tension around them. This uncomfortable anxiety was radiating mostly from Ulrich and Yumi.
"You all right Yumi?" Sam asked, though she already knew the answer.
"Yeah, I'm fine!" Yumi snapped back. "Just fine!" She crossed her arms and gave a side glare to Ulrich.
"Come on Yumi, don't be like that," Aelita said. "You know Ulrich doesn't have a choice."
"Yeah…" Yumi watched Ulrich, Sissi, and Valerie go off.
Jeremy sighed. "I'm going to see if I can figure out why the return to the past didn't work."
"I'll help you out," Tucker said. "The sooner we fix this problem the better. We don't need TWO love triangles around here."
"What are you talking about Tucker?" Danny asked.
"You know… you Sam and Val?"
"…Not really."
"Come on Danny; don't tell me you're that clueless."
End Chapter 10 (to be continued)