Disclaimer: I do not own Garage Kids, Code Lyoko, or X-Men.

Garage Kids

by Zeakari

It was a beautiful day, the air fresh from a rain that had happened the night before. Busses drove around the city, picking up and dropping off people. A small boy, standing next to a roll-on suitcase and holding a suspiciously wriggling backpack, waited for a group of people to disembark from one of the busses. A man faltered in his steps as he walked out, eyeing him and his living backpack, but the boy merely smiled back innocently. The boy seemed to have a fetish for the color purple considering his outfit consisted of mostly said color, even some of his blonde hair dyed purple.

After the bus was emptied of those who wanted to leave, he climbed up on the vehicle, placing a coin into the slot and taking a seat near the back. He tugged his large suitcase into the area between the seats and set his bag down, opening it up to free a small gray dog. It yapped joyfully at being freed from the bag, and he quickly shushed it.

"Quiet, Kiwi," he said in a hushed voice, wrapping his hand around its muzzle. "You don't want me in trouble, do you?" The small dog wriggled out of his grasp and quickly settled down next to him, exhausted from the long trip they had gone through. "Good boy," its master patted it on the head. "I'm glad mom doesn't know they don't allow dogs. She would've never let me take you."

The dog didn't answer back, though if it would have, the boy would've been very worried about his mental health. He was already strange enough without voices in his head Considering his strangeness, his name suited him well. Odd. Odd Della Robbia. He let out a soft sigh and leaned back on his seat. Now that he had no one really to talk to (Kiwi had fallen asleep) he began to reflect.

Odd had changed schools, which was his parent's decision, and was currently headed to his new school. It was quite a ways away from his home, but his parents had heard of the school's reputation. When he had heard about the school he had a bit of a hard time holding back a rather rude and immature comment about it. At first he didn't really want to go. He would've rather stayed at his old school with his friends and family. Now that he moved to a new school, he'd have to make new friends. It was hard enough making friends at his old school. At least they had known him for most of their lives so they were used to his eccentric ways.

He expected a rather boring stay at his new school, at least after settling into it.

"Cute puppy," he jumped when he heard a voice from above him. He looked up and saw a pair of black eyes staring down at him, a friendly smile plastered on their face. "Not supposed to have them on the busses, y'know."

At this, Odd's eyes narrowed. "If you tell, I'll-"

Before he could finish, the girl threw her head back, almost throwing her cap off her head, and let out a loud laugh. "What kind of person do you think I am?" she asked after she calmed down. "I could never get such a cute widdle doggykins kicked off a bus." Her fingers wiggled and twitched when she temporarily reverted to baby-talk. "What's his name?"

"Uh… Kiwi," he responded, relieved that he wouldn't have to find a different way of transportation. "I'm Odd."

"Nice to meet you, Odd," she smiled warmly and held out a hand for him to shake. "My name is Samantha. Haven't seen anyone as purple as you around. Are you new here?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I'm heading for Kadic Academy. Do you go there?"

Her smile seemed to fade a little and she shook her head. "No. Too expensive. It'd be nice, though." She reached down and started to pet Kiwi, who didn't protest at this attention. "I hear it's real good, so you don't have anything to worry about."

"Who says I was worried?"

She giggled. "Nobody." She looked up as the bus started to slow. "This is my stop." She gave Kiwi one last affectionate pat on the head. She stood, slinging her backpack onto her shoulder when the bus finally stopped and slid out of her seat. "Bye, Odd. Bye, Kiwi," she waved at him as she departed the bus.

Odd looked out the window and saw she was still waving. He waved back, a slightly confused smile on his face. She disappeared in a crowd of people and Odd relaxed in his seat.

"Nothing to worry about, huh?" he mused, feeling more relaxed than h w as before. "With people like that around here, maybe it won't be so bad."

He stared out the window as the bus started moving once more, taking in the sights. Like Kiwi, he was quite tired from the trip they had gone through to get there and soon found himself drifting off to sleep.

Odd snorted and sat up quickly at the sound of his dog's insistent barking. He glanced around, a little slow at remembering where he was due to just waking up. When he remembered he was on a city bus, he quickly looked out the window. His eyes widened and he grinned when he saw they were nearing the school.

"Good boy!" he exclaimed, for the moment thinking his dog was the smartest in the world, and gave Kiwi a belly rub. He stood up as the bus began to slow down and he and his pet climbed off of the large vehicle. Unbeknownst to him, the bus driver behind him shook his head in frustration at the fact that he let a dog in the bus.

Odd looked out at his new school as the bus drove away. It was a lot bigger than he had imagined. Other students walked around campus, chatting to each other and going about their lives. He dropped his backpack on the ground and began to dig through it, looking for the sheet of paper he had been given that would tell him his room number.

"Okay," he muttered as he found it. He glanced at it and looked up at the buildings, raising an eyebrow. "Now… which one is the dorm building?"

Two boys sat together in one of the dorm rooms, chatting about the things concerned to them. One of them was a blonde boy with glasses. He sat at the desk in the room, his laptop sitting at it as he surfed the web. Sitting on his bed was a brown-haired boy dressed in green. It was Sunday, so they didn't have to worry about classes until the next day.

They stopped suddenly in their conversation when the door opened unexpectedly.

"Stop it, Kiwi!" the boy exclaimed at his wiggling backpack. "I'll let you out in a-" He stopped at the sight of the two boys. "Oh… hi," he said looking down at a slip of paper. "This is room 207, right?" He looked a bit confused when they nodded. "Are you both my roommates?"

"Oh, you're new around here?" the fair-haired boy asked, spinning in his chair to face him better.

"Yeah," Odd nodded. "I just got here."

"Okay. I'm not your roommate, but if you're staying in this room, then he is," he pointed to the green-clad boy.

"Alrighty then," he dragged his suitcase in all the way and shut the door behind himself. "My name's Odd, and this is…" he dumped his strangely wiggling backpack on the vacant bed and pulled out a little gray dog. "Kiwi!" The dog sniffed frantically around for a moment before flopping down on the bed, exhausted.

"You're not supposed to bring pets…" the blonde boy pointed out.

"Please don't tell!" the purple-clad boy begged. "I couldn't leave him at home all by himself! We need each other." As if to prove his point, Kiwi whimpered pathetically. Of course, the dog was actually complaining about their noise, but they didn't know that.

"As long as he doesn't shed all over my bed," the brown-haired boy said.

His friend nodded at him, silently saying he wouldn't tell either. He turned to the new boy and smiled. "Well, my name's Jeremie. Your new roommate is Ulrich." The boy nodded at the mention of his name. Jeremie frowned down at the dog, sleeping blissfully. "You know…" he mused out loud. "Your dog looks kinda… well, ugly."

"Don't say that," Odd complained. He looked down at his sleeping dog and a sly grin crossed his lips. "He doesn't like being insulted. He could viciously attack at any moment!" he snatched up the dog and thrust it toward the boy, causing it to bark angrily in protest.

"W-Wha!?" Jeremie jumped backwards, shouting when he lost his balance on the chair and fell on the floor.

"Just kidding!" Odd grinned like the Cheshire cat. He was a bit surprised to when poker-faced Ulrich burst out laughing at his friend's expense. He laughed along with him. Jeremie gave them an irritated look for a moment before he cracked a smile and laughed too.

"So you want us to show you around, Odd?" Jeremie asked after the three of them had calmed down and he had climbed back onto his chair.

The boy's eyes lit up at the mention of this. It was difficult finding his way around, and any help sounded great. "Sure," he stood up, holding Kiwi.

"Ah, you might want to leave him in here," Jeremie warned him. "If any of the teachers catch you with it, you'll be in big trouble."

Odd shrugged and set the dog down. If he had to sacrifice carrying him everywhere just to keep him with him in the long run, then he'd gladly do it. "Alright, let's go."

With that, the three boys left the room, leaving Kiwi to finally be able to sleep in peace.

"So where are you from?" Jeremie asked as they walked along the halls, toward a stairway. Odd answered his question and Jeremie raised an eyebrow. "That's quite a ways away. Why go all that way to come here?"

The purple-clad boy shrugged. "It was my parents' idea to send me here."

When they reached to doors outside, Ulrich decided to go his separate way, leaving the two boys. He muttered something about training as he turned away from the others, making his words hard to understand. Jeremie smiled knowingly and shook his head.

"What?" Odd asked.

Jeremie shook his head. "Nothing."

"No, seriously, what?"

"This place is kinda neat," Odd commented as his tour of Kadic's school came to and end. "I think I'll actually like it here." He smiled as he and Jeremie walked along stone pillars. He glanced over at Jeremie and raised an eyebrow when he saw how slouched over he was walking. He was surprised he didn't notice it before. "What are you, a hunchback?"

"Huh?" Jeremie gave him a confused look.

"Stand upright! You look like you're about to fall over." As Odd spoke, Jeremie looked down at the ground, a surprised look on his face. "That's not good for your back, y'know."

Hesitantly, the boy straightened his back, feeling silly.

"There we go!" Odd grinned, slapping him in the back and catching him off-guard. "That must be a lot better!"

"This is how I've always walked," Jeremie said, slouching down into his comfortable position again. This time, though, he held himself up just a bit higher than he did moments ago.

Odd gave him a look before folding his arms behind his head. "You're still gonna kill your back doing that."

"Why don't we go sit down?" the fair-haired boy said, changing the subject. "We can watch Ulrich and Yumi train."

"Who?"

"Yumi!" Ulrich shouted as he dodged a fairly dangerous roundhouse kick, compliments of a Japanese girl dressed entirely in black. "Jeez, you could- HEY!" he dodged another dangerous kick.

"Stay alert, Ulrich!" the girl exclaimed as she twirled, performing a spin kick.

Ulrich ducked underneath it, throwing up his arm near her thigh to stop it. She was caught off-guard, needing to regain her balance. It only lasted a second, but that was all the boy needed to drop closer to the ground, spinning as he stuck his leg out. It connected with her other leg, causing her to fall.

Ulrich stood up and grinned down at her, holding out his hand. "I win round twelve."

"Sooo… what is that your fourth win?" the girl laughed.

Ulrich smirked. "Oh be quiet."

"Wanna go for thirteen?" Yumi suggested, grabbing his hand and pulling herself up with his help.

"Sure."

With that, they began to exchange blows once more. Nearby, sitting at a park bench, two blonde boys watched, one sitting on the bench seat, the other on the backrest. The spiky-haired one had his mouth opened slightly and his eyes wide as he watched the two children spar.

"How can they keep going on like that?" he asked the boy sitting next to him on the bench itself.

Jeremie shrugged. "They've been training every day for the past few years, now. They stay in really good shape doing this I guess."

Ulrich arched his back as he dodged a fierce punch. He reared back his arm as he quickly straightened again, swinging his arm forward with great force. His eyes widened as Yumi swiftly moved to the side, grabbing onto his arm. She used his energy against him, throwing him over her back. Instinctively, Ulrich lashed out with one of his arms in mid-air, yanking as hard as he could at whatever he grabbed a hold of. Unfortunately for Yumi, that was her leg, and she ended up stumbling down.

He had the wind knocked out of him as he hit the ground. He didn't get a chance to even try to gasp for breath again, when Yumi landed right on top of him, further cutting off his supply of life giving air.

"Y-Yumi," the boy wheezed.

"Oh- Ulrich! I'm sorry!" the girl struggled to get up, her body a bit shaky from the impact. She managed to get into a crouched position as she watched Ulrich to be sure he was alright. Quickly enough, he managed to start breathing properly again. He looked up at her and blinked, a blank look on his face. Yumi stared back at him for a moment with a slightly confused expression on her face, before she realized the awkward position they were in. She was crouched right above him as he lay down on the ground. She felt her cheeks turning red before she quickly placed her foot on the ground and pushed herself up. He sat up and got up himself. They both felt too awkward at the moment to help each other up, since they'd have to grab each other's hand in order to do so.

On the nearby bench, Jeremie, and even Odd, who now got it, grinned knowingly, the latter also snickering slightly. Jeremie stood up and approached the two children, Odd following. "Why don't we go have lunch?" he suggested when he was closer to them. "You guys look like you need a break."

"Lunch?" Odd's eyes glinted. "That sounds great! I haven't eaten for several hours."

"And who are you?" Yumi asked, giving him a friendly look, but raising an eyebrow.

"This is Odd," Ulrich said. "The new roommate I mentioned."

She gave him a friendly smile. "Nice to meet you, Odd. I'm Yumi Ishiyama. Make fun of my last name and I'll hurt you."

Odd quickly shut his mouth, biting back the comment he was about to make. After what he saw the girl do to Ulrich, he didn't want to take any chances at all. "Let's go, then. I'm hungry!"

Three children stared with wide, unbelieving eyes at something that was quite amazing. Scrawny little Odd was chowing down on the lunch food as if it were not only his last meal, but his first in days, gobbling up more than what they thought was possible.

"Jeez, Odd, do your parents feed you?" Ulrich asked as the boy took big gulps from a soda.

He coughed and sputtered, some of the liquid coming out of his nose. After a moment of frantic coughing and Yumi slapping him on the back, he finally calmed down enough to speak.

"Of course they do!" he said, looking slightly insulted. "Why?"

"If you haven't noticed," Jeremie started, wiping his glasses off of some soda that had splashed onto it, "you're eating at least twice as much as all of our food put together. I'm surprised you haven't thrown up yet." He gave him a very confused look. "The human stomach can only hold so much. Where are you putting it all??"

"I have a portal in my stomach," the boy said, wiggling his fingers with one hand and patting his belly with the other. "It leads to an alternate universe that nobody knows about." He snickered, not noticing as the three of them glanced at each other. "Oh, but don't tell anyone." He laughed and shoved another forkful of mashed potatoes in his mouth. "It's a secret."

"Kinda dumb how this school has a curfew," Odd complained as he unpacked, Ulrich helping him.

"I guess they wanna make sure we get to sleep so we're not falling asleep in class," the brown-haired boy said. He pulled out a shirt and raised an eyebrow. "Why is a picture of your dog on this shirt?"

"There's my pajama!" Odd exclaimed as he yanked it away from the boy. "I couldn't find it earlier. Thought I lost it."

Ulrich shook his head and continued to help him unpack, tossing clothes into a previously emptied drawer. They chatted as they did this, learning about each other. It was a little while after they finished unpacking, both of them dressing in their pajamas, when Odd decided to comment on something.

"Hey, Ulrich," he said, rubbing Kiwi's belly with one hand while sitting on the bed across from his new roommate's. "Do you ever get those gut feelings where you know something's… well, strange?"

"No, not really." He shook his head. "Why?"

Odd shrugged. "I get those sometimes, and ever since I got here… it's as if there's something wrong."

Ulrich raised an eyebrow, curious. "How so?"

The boy shrugged again. He lay back on his new bed, placing his hands behind his head. "I don't know. It's just been bugging me all day." He rolled over, pulling Kiwi close to his arm so he could pet him without twisting around. "Aw, it's probably just cuz of moving here. Never mind."

Ulrich stared down at his hands, wondering. A moment later he practically jumped out of his skin when he heard a loud noise. He turned and saw that Odd had fallen asleep and was snoring obnoxiously.

"Oh, god, I hope he doesn't do that every night," Ulrich muttered before turning the light off and lying down.

The next morning he decided to buy earplugs as soon as possible.

Over the next few weeks, Odd quickly became a close friend of Ulrich, Yumi, and Jeremie. This filled the boy with relief that he wouldn't have to try as hard as he thought to make friends. This was very fortunate too since most of the rest of the student body couldn't seem to take his loud, obnoxious, eccentricity. They mostly just gave him strange looks and backed away, but he was becoming a normal part of the student body. Of course, he was anything but normal, but that's not the point.

The gut feeling that something was off about Kadic still stuck to him, though. It was really just a small little nagging in the back of his mind, but it was enough to annoy him sometimes. Like when he was sleeping or supposed to be studying. It didn't help that occasionally his friends would disappear without a word during lunch or after school. They would even be missing during classes sometimes and seemed to need to go to the infirmary more often then most of the other students (not that he knew this for sure with Yumi since she wasn't in their grade and thus not in his classes, but he was pretty sure she went with them). He would ask them about it, but they would merely shrug it off or make some strange excuse.

He felt a little left out, curious about what they were up to and not let in on it.

Besides that, everything was fine. His friends were great, and the teachers were… well… irritated with the way he would sometimes sleep in class.

Yumi, Ulrich, and Jeremie sat around a table in the cafeteria eating their food. Odd was in the infirmary due to a mishap at the ending of gym class with him ending up badly twisting his ankle. The three of them idly chatted while they waited for their friend to show up.

"Hey… I'm kinda curious," Ulrich said thoughtfully. "What do you guys think of Odd?"

"What do we think of him?" Jeremie repeated. "Well, I think he's obnoxious and loudmouthed, but he's a good guy. Why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering if it would be a good idea if he joined our group."

Yumi gave him a look. "What do you mean? He's already in our group. Why do you think he hangs out with us all the time?"

"That's not what I meant," Ulrich said, shaking his head. "I meant our group; the one that saves the world all the-"

"Shush, Ulrich," Jeremie hissed. They tuned and saw small a group of classmates which they weren't on friendly terms with walk closely by. They looked back at them, staring in a not-too-friendly way. Sissi, the only girl and leader of the group, gave Ulrich a wink before walking away and sitting at a table a ways away from them. The tension lifted and the three of them sighed softly. Yumi turned to Ulrich, a look of frustration on her face.

"Why?" she asked in a hushed voice. "Why should we let him in? Are you saying we should just let any other kid we make friends with help us?"

"No, that's not what I'm saying," the boy replied. "I think he'd make a good addition. I've been sparring with him. He's not very good at martial arts, but he's got a good style of his own that might be helpful. It's been getting more and more difficult to hold those things back and we could really use the help sooner or later."

"Did you think about him, though?" Yumi asked, shaking her head. "What if he doesn't want to help? What if he tells everyone? I know he's a good friend, but you never know how he'd react to something like this."

"Also, take his life into consideration," Jeremie said. "Do we really want to throw his normal life into chaos like that? Do you remember how we felt when we realized we couldn't live normal lives until this thing was destroyed? And how long ago was that? How much longer will this take? Do you really want to do that to him?"

Ulrich looked down at his food and poked at it. "I didn't think of it that way."

Yumi's features softened. "It's okay. I sometimes think the same thing." She reached out to him and placed her hand on his. "We'll get through this ourselves, though, you'll see."

Ulrich's eyes widened slightly at the contact and he looked up at Yumi. A soft blush started to spread on both of their faces while off to the side, Jeremie felt a little awkward.

"Hey, guys. Didja miss me?" Odd grinned as he hobbled over to their table and sat down, interrupting the moment Ulrich and Yumi just had.

Jeremie grinned. "Like crazy."

"Awww, you're so nice to me, Einstein." The boy gushed before promptly attempting to stuff as much salad into his mouth as possible.

"Einstein?"

"So what did the nurse say?" Ulrich asked, backing up a little to avoid getting hit with projectile food.

"She said I should try to stay off of my feet as much as possible today and avoid gym for the next few days." The blonde informed them. "Lucky me, huh? Yay!"

Yumi laughed softly at the boy's optimism. She looked around the cafeteria, having not much else to do now that she had finished her meal and the boys were having a conversation that she had no real interest in. She raised an eyebrow when she saw Sissi turned in her direction, looking at her. They glared at each other, each daring the other to back down. Yumi blinked and her eyes widened in surprise when she saw something hover up behind the girl. It was a black, snakelike creature that looked as if it were made of smoke. Sissi smirked victoriously, unaware of the danger she was in, and turned back to her lunch, the creature disappearing as soon as her head turned.

"Hey, Jer," she turned quickly to the boy. "There's this math problem that I just can't figure out. "Come on, you can help me out with it."

Without giving him time to answer, she pulled him up by the arm and started to quickly walk out of the room, Ulrich and Odd staring after them.

"Yumi, what are you doing?" Jeremie asked after they had stepped outside. "You didn't even let me-"

"There's trouble in Xanadu again," Yumi quickly told him.

Jeremie's eyes flitted with realization. "Let's go, then."

Meanwhile, back at the cafeteria, Odd was very confused about their friend's sudden disappearance while Ulrich himself knew where they were going. He waited a few moments so it wouldn't seem too suspicious before he stood and dumped his tray.

"Actually, I need to check on something in the library before classes start," he said, starting to walk away.

"Hey, wait up!" Odd called after him, getting up to dump out his own tray, though a lot slower due to his injury. "I can go with you."

"No, I can do it myself," Ulrich called back and left the cafeteria, breaking into a sprint as soon as he was outside.

Odd stared at the doors as they swung shut. By the time he would've been able to make it to the doors, his friend would've probably been nowhere in sight. He let out a frustrated sigh and sat down, shoving the rest of his food in his mouth angrily. He had lost count on how many times something like this had happened. The three of them would run off and disappear, leaving him sitting there by himself. He had hoped it wasn't something that would happen all the time, but it seemed that it would, and it was getting irritating.

He had confronted Jeremie on this, thinking it would be easy to get him to talk considering how he was, but he really got nothing out of that. He had tried Ulrich and Yumi too, but they were just as tight-lipped about it as the computer geek was.

He angrily jabbed at a meatball, thoroughly destroying it before picking up what was left and eating it. He stood and dumped his tray, heading for his room since there was plenty of time left before classes started up again.

One day, before classes, the four of them were chatting on the roof of the school building. That day they were the only ones up there. Of course, the reason why wasn't exactly a good one. School was supposed to start in less than five minutes, leaving them barely enough time to head to their classes. Jeremie, though, kept on telling them to wait as he sat on the railing, working on his laptop. Next to him, Ulrich leaned against the rail he sat on, trying to see what was so important.

"Come on, Jeremie!" Yumi complained, standing near the door. She was about ready to leave without them. "We're gonna be late!"

"Hang on, hang on, hang on…" he said quickly as he typed as fast as possible, leaning closer and closer to the computer screen. Ulrich sighed and stood up, tired of waiting and heading for the door. "There's something-" he stopped suddenly, his eyes widening.

Unexpectedly, he let out a shout, recoiling and tossing the computer away from himself in surprise. The moment it hit the ground, black, snake-like things shot up from out of the screen, swirling around the children. As they came close, it almost felt as if they were sucking out all the warmth from them. Within seconds, the creatures took off into the sky heading toward the rest of the city.

"W-What are those!?" Odd exclaimed as he stared up in shock at them.

"Jeremie!" he heard Yumi gasp.

He turned and his eyes widened as he saw the boy. It seemed to happen in slow motion, as his eyes were wide with fear. Jumping back from the computer had thrown off his balance, and now he was falling backward. His hands made vain attempts to grab at something, but there was nothing there. He could see Yumi carelessly drop her backpack and run toward him as fast as she possibly could. He could tell it was too late already, though. By the time Yumi was even halfway to the railing, Jeremie was no longer there, his screams echoing through the air.

Yumi reached the edge and practically threw herself forward, leaning dangerously over the edge as she clutched tightly at the rails. "NO!" she shrieked. Something was strange, though. When she had said that word her voice seemed to boom, echoing louder than it should have.

The screaming suddenly stopped, leaving a sick feeling in the pit of Odd's stomach. "Oh, no," he murmured, trying to hold back panic.

His eyes went very wide when suddenly Jeremie floated up to where they were. The boy looked quite shaken, but he was otherwise okay.

"W-What…" Odd stammered, barely able to comprehend what had just happened. "What's going on?"

Yumi stiffened a little, realizing it was too late. She turned to him and gave him a very serious look. "Can you keep a secret?"

The four children ran through the forest as fast as they could, not caring that they were missing their first period. Odd had many questions running through his mind. How did Jeremie float like that? Did Yumi use magic? What came out of the computer? Where were they going? Will this explain why they disappeared all the time?

Eventually, the forest melted away into a clearing for a lake. There wasn't just a lake, though. In the middle of it, like an island, was an old factory. They quickly crossed a large bridge, leading to the old building. Odd stopped and leaned on his knees, panting heavily as they reached the building's large, closed doors. The other three, even the definite non-athlete Jeremie, didn't seem as tired as him, as if they had been doing this for a long time. Jeremie and Ulrich gripped onto a handle for each door and pulled.

The doors whined in protest as they were pulled apart, revealing the inside. Odd slowly stood upright as the others stepped quickly inside. He walked in a bit more slowly, his eyes constantly moving around as he observed his surroundings. The first thing that struck him was all of the high-tech machinery. The inside of the building was practically made of the stuff. He looked up and saw windows high up close to the top. It was enormous inside, the ceiling towering high above them.

He spun slowly around as he stared up at the place, his mouth wide open. He was sure he looked like an idiot, but he didn't care. Up a long flight of steps, there was a platform with three open machines shaped like pillars. Ulrich was already halfway up the steps by the time he was even halfway to where Yumi and Jeremie were.

"I'm going!" Ulrich shouted down to them, his voice echoing throughout the large building.

Jeremie sat at a chair with wheels. He typed at several different computers, rolling from one to the next. Finally he stopped at one, just as Yumi stepped up to him. "Ready, Ulrich?" he called up.

"Ready," Ulrich responded from above.

Jeremie typed a few more commands, this time staying at only one computer. Odd looked up and saw that the machine Ulrich stood in closed. Jeremie typed one more command, and the machine whirred loudly, a bright light coming from inside. The light faded away and the machine opened. It was empty now.

"Yumi!" Odd called, approaching the girl. "What's going on!? Where's Ulrich??"

"In Xanadu, a digital world," she told him.

She pointed to the computer and Odd saw she was right. Ulrich could be seen in the screen, but he wasn't wearing what he had been wearing moments ago. Now, he was clad in a samurai outfit, complete with a sword at his hip. He was in a forest near a small stream. Strange plants grew around him, including very large, black roots curling around. The roots didn't look like plants, though… they looked mechanical.

"We don't know who made it, or how it can exist at all," Jeremie said.

Yumi nodded. "There's something dangerous inside." She glanced at the computer screen and gasped. "Ulrich! Watch out!"

In Xanadu, Ulrich quickly turned around. Behind him, a large black creature with no solid shape loomed over him. He quickly leapt backward as it made an attempt to engulf him within itself. He turned and began to run as fast as he could, glancing back a few times. He could see that there were more of them now, and they were all flying after him as fast as they could. He concentrated and a blue light began to trail him as he increased his speed to faster than any human should be able to run. He could hear the others speaking.

"Why are you going there if it's so dangerous?" Odd asked.

"Because our world is in danger," the girl said solemnly. "Whatever happens there, ha-"

Suddenly, the whole place shook, almost knocking the two of them off their feet. On the screen, they could see that one of the mists had just slammed into a large, tower-like structure within the digital world.

"… happens here," Yumi finished her sentence.

"Ulrich," Jeremie said. "Your saber is charged."

It was then that Odd noticed another window showing a full load bar on the screen.

In Xanadu, the boy placed his hand on the blade's handle, not taking his eyes off the creature flying toward him. He could feel the energy pulsing within the katana as he pulled it out and held it at ready. It glowed brilliantly with the energy within, the numbers creating it moving much faster than normal. Suddenly, he was surrounded by darkness. He let out an angry shout and released the energy, slicing through the thick, black fog surrounding him. He heard a low moan and he was able to see again. The creature dissipated around him, leaving nothing.

The boy grinned and glared up at the next creature flying toward him. Before he could attack it, though, it made a quick turn and flew off in another direction. Ulrich frowned and began running along the mechanical root he had been standing on. He leapt to the side, the blue light trailing behind him as he landed on another root. He maneuvered through the black, mechanical roots, pursuing the retreating creature. Finally, he ran out of roots and gave chase while running on the ground. He held his sword back as he started to come closer and closer to the creature.

When he had just barely come close enough to attack, though, they reached a mountain, causing him to slow a bit. Since the creature was flying rather than running, it wasn't slowed one bit, getting ahead of him now. The boy cursed slightly and began to push himself, pumping his legs to catch up to the troublesome monster. With one final push, he made it to the top. The creature was far ahead of him, and he knew he'd have a hard time catching up again. He breathed deeply, catching his breath as he watched it fly away through the sky.

His eyes widened when he saw where it was going. Surrounding one of the massive tower-like structures was a huge group of mists, swarming around. He had never seen anything like this before. Usually they stayed in small groups, no more than five together at a time. But this… there was a whole horde of them. The minute the lone mist came close to the others, the rest stopped circling the tower and started to head straight toward him. He quickly spun around and began to run as fast as he could.

"Ulrich," he heard Jeremie's voice say. "It's too dangerous. I'm bringing you back, okay?"

On Earth, Yumi stopped the boy from typing in the commands. "No. If we don't do anything now, it won't do us any good." She turned to the spiky-haired boy. "We're going, Odd."

"W-What?" his eyes went wide.

"Come on," the girl tugged him by the arm, leading him up the long steps. When they reached the top, she pushed him into one of the open machines, climbing into one herself. "We're ready, Jeremie," she called to the boy below.

"Right!" he could hear his muffled response.

Odd glanced around in his scanner, before hearing the sound of it shutting behind him. He quickly turned around and grabbed onto the door, feeling panic rise in his chest. He was never very comfortable at all in enclosed spaces. Suddenly, it got very bright within the machine, forcing him to shut his eyes tight. A gust of wind blew up from underneath him and he could feel his whole body begin to tingle, before he felt himself go completely numb.

For a split second, there was nothing. No feeling, no sight, not even a true consciousness. For a split second, he floated freely within oblivion. He didn't even wonder if he were dead. For that small moment of time, he became nothing.

In the next second, everything came back to him once more as a bright light faded away. He took a gasping breath and stumbled to the hard, rocky ground. He stared down at his hands in surprise. Not only were one of his fingers on either hand missing, but it looked like a cartoon version of a cat's. He stood on his knees, looking himself over with wide eyes. He was dressed in a purple suit he didn't believe he had ever seen before, yet seemed so familiar. He felt a strange sensation behind himself and turned. His jaw almost fell off of his face when he saw he had a tail.

"You must be really weird, cuz your subconscious created that outfit for you," he heard Yumi comment next to him.

He quickly turned and was surprised to see the girl dressed in a beautiful red and black yukata. Her face was painted up like a geisha's and her hair was pulled up in a bun. He blushed a little, noticing how the girl's curves were more defined in the outfit.

"Let's go," she said, grabbing his arm and helping him to his feet. "We gotta help Ulrich."

They turned and could see the mountain Ulrich had stood on in the distance. Beyond the mountain, they could see the tower with some of the black creatures still swarming it. They began to run along the hard surface, high up above the land.

"Hey, Yumi," Odd asked as they ran. "Are we on top of-"

The rest of his question was forced back in his throat as there was suddenly nothing under his feet. He had been looking at the swarming tower and hadn't noticed as they were nearing the edge. Now they were free falling, the ground a long way below them and seeming to come up in slow motion, though it was slowly getting faster.

This is it.

He shut his eyes tight, unable to really scream or shout due to the wind hitting him so hard he could barely even breathe and his stomach feeling like it was in his throat. In a moment, though, he felt a sudden change. It was as if he was suddenly falling through a thick blanket. He opened his eyes very wide and saw their descent was considerably slowed. He glanced over at Yumi and saw that she was concentrating, just like she did when she stopped Jeremie's fall.

They gently touched down on the ground within a forest, landing on their feet. Well, Yumi stayed on her feet, while Odd's knees buckled from the shock and he fell to them.

"Come on," the girl said impatiently. "This is no time to relax."

"Y-Yumi…" the boy uttered, giving her a wide-eyed look. "This is…. This is…."

"Too much?" the girl groaned and put a hand to her head. "I knew we shouldn't have told you. I-"

She was cut off when the boy suddenly gripped her shoulders, his eyes still quite wide. "Not tell me!!" he exclaimed. "Are you nuts!? This is the best day of my life! I'm dressed up as a weird superhero I just remembered that I made up when I was five, I'm on a virtual world that shouldn't exist- THIS IS SO COOL!!"

Yumi stared at him and blinked as he caught his breath, having not taken a breath at all while speaking.

"If you're done, Ulrich still needs your help," Jeremie's voice said. "He's not too far away, to the west."

"Let's go then!" Odd exclaimed gleefully. He might as well have been jumping up and down, clapping his hands together in joy.

After a quick funny look at him from the girl, the two of them ran off through the strange forest, toward their comrade. The boy grinned widely as they ran, low rumblings heard above them as the black creatures loomed above the trees.

Despite how far they were running, he found he was not becoming fatigued like he should have. This world he found himself in did simulate sensations like touch, hearing, and sight, but it seemed that the ones which would hinder them from their mission were conveniently omitted.

Suddenly an oily blackness engulfed Odd, leaving him blind and confused. "Yumi!" he shouted, swiping uselessly at the fog. He could feel something start to drain away, but couldn't quite place what it was. There was a bright flash of light that left him temporarily blinded. When he could see again, the fog was gone and Yumi stood in front of him, holding two fans made of the same numerical code that Ulrich's sword was made of.

"Jeremie… does he have any weapons?" she asked, not bothering to see if he was all right. She already knew he was.

"Yeah, he should," they heard the boy's reply. "My screen show's it's in his hands. Do you see anything?"

Yumi shook her head, "No, not really. He has gloves on, though."

"I see that. Odd. Try concentrating on your gloves."

"My gloves?" Odd looked down at his hands, wondering how one would go about concentrating on them.

"Yeah. Just try imagining something coming out of them or something. Maybe his claws extend like that X-men guy?"

"Maybe- Woah!" Yumi let out a shout as she narrowly dodged a sudden blast of energy, also made of binary coding.

"What happened?" Jeremie exclaimed, having looked at one of the other screens for information.

"Sorry," Odd hastily apologized and quickly dropped his hands to his sides to be sure nothing else would hit her. "Um… I think I know how my weapon works now."

"We're gonna have to train you as soon as possible," Yumi muttered.

Before Odd could respond, a mist slammed into the ground between them, knocking them both off of their feet. Yumi, having been through situations like this before and knowing how to react, rotated her body in mid-air so that she landed swiftly on her hands, quickly pushing into the air once more and back onto her feet. Without thinking, she reached behind herself and removed her fans, throwing them at the creature, guiding them with telepathy for extra accuracy. The monster was torn by the blade-like weapons and disappeared into nothing just as the girl retrieved the fans from the air.

"You really need to react faster, Odd," she remarked, noting how he had shot no energy blasts. When there was no response, she furrowed her brows and looked around, surprised when he was nowhere to be seen. "Odd? Where are you?" Still no response. "Jeremie, can you locate Odd?"

"I'm trying," came the reply. "It's like he disappeared. His data is still in the computer, so he wasn't deleted or anything," he said quickly, noting how Yumi grew very worried for a second. "He's still on the computer, but it's like he's being hidden."

Yumi shook her head, thinking quickly. "I need to go help Ulrich. Keeping everyone safe is our priority. We'll look for Odd after we finish." With that, she started off in the direction she knew Ulrich to be.

"Right. I'll keep an eye out for him, though," the computer genius responded, typing up commands on his screen to help locate Odd.

"Ugh… that was majorly annoying," Odd muttered as she straightened himself. When the mist had blasted into him, he had ended up falling down an edge they hadn't seen before. Needless to say, he had tumbled own to the base of the almost cliff-like hill. Somehow he had managed not to break his neck, though that more than likely had something to do with the physics of Xanadu, but his ego took a good beating from this.

He sat up, checking himself over quickly, finding nothing out of place. He looked back up the steep hill and was quite surprised he hadn't crashed into one of the many trees that happily littered the hillside. The very steep… and annoyingly tall hillside. He groaned and stood up, wobbling for a moment but quickly steadying. He was about to start his trek back up when a sound from behind had him whirling around. If he had been more experienced with this world and his weaponry, he would have held his wrists out to shoot as well, but seeing as he wasn't, he did no such thing.

He started when he saw a mist behind him, suddenly forgetting how his weapon worked. He gesticulated wildly at the creature, trying to get his weapon to work, but sadly it did not. He stopped suddenly when the creature spoke to him.

"Wait, please do not attack," it said a little slowly, sounding as if it were speaking these words for the first time. It's voice sounded a little warped and unsettling, as if even the voice itself was brand new.

Odd stared at the creature for a moment, stopping his frantic attempts to work his weapon. Without the panic telling him to attack, he could now see it didn't look quite like the other mist creatures that attacked them. It was a lot smaller, his size rather than towering over him, and seemed less dense. It also didn't have the inky, black color, instead having a more of a purplish hue. As he stared at it, he noticed that it was starting to form a humanoid shape. He grew very confused.

"Uh… why do you look like me?" he asked.

The creature seemed to hesitated or a moment, it's more solidified form wavering. "Does this not make you feel assured of my non-violent intentions?"

It took a moment for the boy to understand the creature's unusual wording, but when he understood, he shook his head. "Not really… uh… it's weird."

It hesitated once more before the form shifted again, this time looking vaguely like a girl and a lot less like him. "Is this more appropriate?" It asked in its slow way of speaking.

"Um… yeah…. What are you?" he asked.

Again it hesitated. The boy wondered if maybe it was slow. "I do not possess this information in its entirety," it said finally. "I am an artificial intelligence, A.I., and my programming is to protect."

"Really? Then how about you help us-" he was cut off when the creature continued to speak as if he hadn't said anything.

"I cannot fulfill my programming because I am incomplete and frequently attacked by you beings and the viruses."

"What?"

"I cannot fulfill my programming because I am incomplete and-"

He shook his head, not stop it from talking, but because he was getting tired of it's annoying speech. It was so monotonous and overly pronounced. He stopped when he noticed that the creature was shaking it's own head the same as he was. As soon as he stopped, so did it. He cocked his head to the side and it did the same.

"What are you doing?"

"I do not possess this information."

The boy groaned softly, but grew confused again when he remembered what it had said a moment ago. "We attack you? I don't remember seeing you before just now."

"The others…" it seemed to falter, not just in its words but even its form did so. "The others that are like you." He was surprised when it sounded less monotonous and its voice was less warped. "We both attack the viruses yet the others like you attack me as well. I do not understand the reasoning for this."

"Well, maybe that's cuz you looked like those other guys that keep attacking us," the boy said, shrugging. "If I could use my weapon better, I would've shot you too."

It hesitated for longer than normal this time, it's shape wavering a bit. "… You must go. Leave right now. If you do not …"

Odd didn't hear the rest of what the creature had to say. He felt suddenly light-headed and his surroundings faded away, leaving him feeling detached and numb. He couldn't even muster up enough will to feel confused or frightened, merely experiencing. He saw Jeremie on the floor off to the side. He wasn't moving. Ulrich was in front of him on the ground, struggling with something. He couldn't make out what it was, as if it were being hidden. From his point of view, it looked as if he were trying to help the boy. He couldn't see Yumi, but had the feeling that she was behind him. Things seemed to blur as his sight sluggishly moved around the unidentified area. Suddenly, there was a flash of stinging light.

At once, his reality snapped back into place and he was back in Xanadu.

"Odd! Odd! Get out of there! What's wrong with you!!" he could hear Jeremie's voice shouting at him, causing him to falter for a moment. Wasn't he bleeding? No, that wasn't real. That's right. That was just his imagination going crazy, as usual.

"Jeremie?" he called back. "What's going on?"

"What…? I should be asking you that! Just a second ago you were attacked by monsters, in case you didn't notice!"

"What?"

"Lucky for you, something scared them off. We need you with the others right now."

"Wait, no that wasn't a monster-"

"I know how to read the data, Odd, that was a monster. Hurry up, the others could really use your help. Head west."

"… Gotcha, Einstein," he responded before running in said direction. Part of the world's properties allowed him to know which direction was where without having to be told. "This computer world thing just keeps getting weirder and weirder, y'know?"

"You have no idea," Jeremie muttered. "Do you see a group of monsters ahead of you?"

"No I do- wait! Yeah! Woah, there's a lot of 'em!" Odd exclaimed. He couldn't see them a moment before due to a hill before him, but as soon as he came over it he could see a horde of the mist creatures. It wasn't as many as what Ulrich had seen, but there was still quite a number of them. As he watched, he could see some of them being destroyed as Yumi and Ulrich, yet to be seen, attacked them.

Odd ran into the mess of blackness, shooting at everything around him. He figured if he surrounded himself with them, he could shoot all he wanted and hit as many as possible. He was right for a moment before he heard a quite human shout.

"Odd! You idiot, watch where you're aiming!" Yumi's frustrated voice shouted at him.

"Heheh… sorry!" he called back. This time around he paid attention to where he shot his weapon.

It was strange. He knew he should have begun to feel tired or sore as he bounded around the creatures, dodging attacks, but he could feel no signs of fatigue. He didn't even need to breathe heavily, though he found himself doing so anyway because that was what he was used to.

"This is great!" he shouted to the other two. "We could really have some fun here! I could literally never get tired of this!"

"Just wait until you get back to earth," he heard Ulrich shout back to him before slashing into another creature. Their numbers were beginning to dwindle.

"What do you mean by that? Agh! Shoot!" Odd had just gotten hit by one of the creatures, but quickly silenced the smugness he imagined it was feeling by shooting it.

"You'll see soon enough."

It wasn't too much longer later when all of the creatures had been defeated. Some of them had slammed themselves into the large tower they were near, causing trouble for Jeremie, but now everything was all right.

"You sure we got them all, Jeremie?" Yumi asked, looking up at the sky.

"Yes, the computer detects no more activity from the monsters," the boy replied, sounding relieved. "You guys did a great job. You too, Odd. You wouldn't mind helping us from now on, would you?"

"Ya kidding?" was the boy's reply. "This was so much fun! I'd have to hurt you if you said I couldn't come here anymore."

They laughed at this. It was nice to have a person who could put humor into their situation. Maybe the new addition wasn't as bad of an idea as they had originally thought.

"Right. Why don't you guys start heading back, okay?" Jeremie said, typing on his keyboard. "I'll warm up the scanners."

"Yeah… how do we get back?" Odd asked, looking around. "I don't see any doors with nice exit signs above them."

Yumi chuckled and shook her head. "Just follow us, okay?"

With that, the three of them made their way to the nearby tower. Odd craned his head back as they got closer, it rising to the sky an annoyingly high distance. "Jeez, these are big," he muttered to himself. He looked back at the other two in front of him and almost jumped back when he saw Ulrich pass right through the wall. Yumi turned to him and gestured for him to follow.

"Just walk right up to it. Don't worry about bumping your nose, you'll pass right through."

"Is… Is this why they kept hitting these?" Odd asked and the girl nodded.

"Yup. They get into our world by passing through these. As long as we're here to stop them, they can't do too much damage, though." Again, she gestured for him to go ahead of her.

He walked up to the structure, hesitating a moment before holding his hands out in front of him. He was surprised when he found she was right. His hands passed right through, feeling nothing. He closed his eyes, took a breath, and walked the rest of the way through. Yumi was right behind him.

Again, Odd felt that strange nothingness. Again, he did not exist for a moment. Just as fast as before, the feeling was gone and he was returned to his body. This time, though, he felt sore all over. As soon as the scanner opened, he leaned heavily against the doorway, his eyes wide as he breathed heavily.

"I… I feel so… tired," he spoke between gulps of air, trying to keep himself upright.

"Told you," Yumi said as she stepped out of her own scanner. She looked a little tired, but not nearly as bad as he was. She was used to it. "You shouldn't exert yourself to much on Xanadu, cuz you'll regret it as soon as you get back to earth."

"N-no kidding," he responded sarcastically, stepping shakily out of the machine. He stumbled and, to his dismay, fell to the floor. He tried to get back up, but his body felt like lead. Yumi and Ulrich knelt down next to him.

"You okay?" Ulrich asked, sounding worried. "We get tired, but not that tired. We weren't even this tired when we first started."

"Oh, that makes me feel better," Odd frowned.

He protested when the two of them helped him to his feet, but they ignored him. He couldn't really do much about it anyway. Why was he so tired? He had never felt such fatigue like this before. He knew that if he did what he did on earth instead, he wouldn't be this tired.

"Good job, guys," Jeremie called up to them as they descended the stairs. "It looks like they won't be attacking for a while. You dealt quite a blow to their numbers today. It almost seemed too easy though…. Hey, what's wrong with him?" They had just entered his line of sight, allowing him to see Ulrich and Yumi helping Odd to walk. "I know you guys were tired the first time, but it wasn't like that."

"Maybe he used up more energy than we did. It sounds like something he'd do," Yumi said. They dropped Odd gently onto the couch that sat nearby the computers. "You just rest up, it should go away in a bit." Her brow furrowed with worry when she saw the boy shake his head. It looked like his breathing was becoming more labored. "Jeremie, something's wrong…"

"What is it?" the boy stood and approached them.

"I don't know, it looks like he's not getting better…"

Jeremie stepped up to the boy and kneeled down next to him to get a better look. He checked his pulse and was surprised at how fast it was going. "Jeez, his heart's-"

He didn't get past those words for at that moment Odd's hand shot up and wrapped around his throat. Before any of the others could react, Jeremie was flung hard against the wall, letting out a brief shout before becoming still.

"Jeremie! Odd!!" Yumi shouted, for a second being unable to register what had happened. Almost as soon as those words left her lips, though, she saw the boy attack Ulrich. There was something wrong with the way he moved, which caused her to hesitate. He seemed to lurch forward in a clumsy way that the boy did not normally have. It looked a lot like he was moving like a doll supported by strings.

"Odd! Stop! What are you doing!?" Ulrich exclaimed as he started to struggle with him. They spun and bumped into the computers, knocking a monitor down and snapping a few large cords.

Odd was confused. What was going on? Things seemed to be happening in slow motion for him. He was now in front of Ulrich, who was struggling with something… himself? Why would he be attacking Ulrich? Off to the side, Jeremie lay on the ground, unmoving. It was just like his vision earlier. He had seen the future, and here it was before him. Happening once more, but this time for real. Wasn't Yumi behind him? He struggled to turn his head like he had in his vision, but there was something preventing him from doing so. He forced his detached mind to focus, fighting against whatever had a hold of him. He managed to turn his head and look back at Yumi. What was supposed to happen?

He remembered seeing a flash of light. No… it wasn't just a flash of light. It was a stinging light. Why would light sting? Part of his vision could see the electrical cords they had exposed seconds before. It was crazy. It was stupid-crazy. But he had to tell Yumi.

"Yuumiillectricteeee!!" his mouth wouldn't obey his mental commands for some reason, but he hoped he got his message through.

He lost control of his body to the thing inside of him and was once more pushed to the back of his own mind, forced to watch himself fight his best friend. He now had his fingers wrapped tightly around the boy's neck and was squeezing painfully tight. Ulrich clawed at his hands, but he couldn't feel it. The light started to drain from the boy's eyes and his struggles started to weaken. This was it. It was over.

He was a murderer.

Suddenly, pain shot up through his spine as a bright flash of light had him temporarily blinded. He contorted in pain as the electricity shot through him, every muscle tightening.

Then there was nothing.

Odd slowly became aware of a bumpy, rocking sensation. It took him a few moments to realize he was being carried. But who was carrying him? He creaked an eye open, but quickly shut it again from the light, burying his head into what was most likely a shoulder.

"Odd?" he heard Ulrich's voice. "You awake?"

The boy didn't want to answer. He felt too tired, and the effort it would take to even grunt wasn't something he really felt like spending. He felt the boy stop and slide him to the ground.

"Is he awake?" Yumi asked from farther away.

"I dunno. I thought I felt him move just now."

Odd opened his eyes again, squinting this time. He could see Ulrich standing above him. He muttered, "Mmmwaee…" which was supposed to be 'I'm awake' but his mouth didn't feel like obeying him much.

"Yeah, he's waking up," Yumi spoke again, walking into his blurred line of vision. She was supporting Jeremie, who was thankfully awake despite his injuries.

He closed his eyes again and sluggishly sat up, feeling sore all over. He felt a hand on his back, helping him to stay upright.

"You doing okay?" Ulrich asked. Odd grunted in affirmative. "Think you can walk?"

"Yeah, in a sec," he responded, much more successful this time with his speech. "Feel like I got hit by a truck."

"Try electricity. And a lot of it too," Yumi said.

Odd opened his eyes again and rubbed his head. "What happened?"

"You don't remember?" Ulrich asked, raising an eyebrow. "You were acting real strange… and violent," at that statement, he rubbed his neck. It looked bruised.

The boy felt a pang of guilt as he remembered. "Oh crap, Ulrich, Jeremie I'm so sorry!"

The both of them waved him off. "I'm not mad," Jeremie reassured the boy. "Something strange attacked you when you were alone in Xanadu. Those monsters might've tried something new. They always are."

Odd calmed down, but he still felt guilty. "Something weird did happen… I saw a weird monster… But not just that. I actually saw what had happened in the lab before it happened!"

"What?"

"I did! I probably sound crazy, but I actually did!" He began to explain his precognitive vision and the creature he had met and how it was on their side.

"I'll have to look into that…" Jeremie muttered in thought after the boy had finished explaining.

"Not now you're not," Yumi said sternly. "Now you need to rest and we need to find some sort of explanation for the two of you getting hurt."

With that, the four of them headed toward the school, Ulrich supporting Odd and Yumi supporting Jeremie. Odd couldn't help but let a grin spread across his lips as they walked. Despite what had happened, he felt thrilled.

Wait 'til I tell Kiwi!

The End

Author's Note: I've been working on this for a long time. Pretty much since I first saw Garage Kids. That was a long time ago. Only a little bit ago I finished and looked it over one last time. Actually, I finished this twice, the other time a while ago, but I wasn't satisfied with it so… yeah. I'm still not satisfied, but I've reached my limit with this one. Hope you enjoyed.