"Hey, wake up." Kya pulled the cover off of Lynn. She and Emi had been trying to wake the boys for the last fifteen minutes. After the competition ended, Alexei invited them back to his place. Campus curfew had been extended to ten thirty for students going to the competition. Since the group was headed to the mansion in the morning, it was easier for them to spend the night together. Epsically, because Emi technqually didn't have a place to stay. She offered to stay in the mansion until they spoke with the prinpcal. As Kya's 'cousin', Emi was going to stay in Kya's dorm while she toured Kanna Academy. It was a temporay solution, but one that worked for now.
"We're not gonna have enough time to head for the lab if you don't wake up!" Kya shook Lynn as hard as she could, but he won't move. "A little help Emi."
Emi giggled. "They were up half the night playing video games." Once they arrived at Alexei's house, they continued their celebration. The girls, however, went to bed around midnight. "Why not let them sleep for a little longer? It's barely 6:30am."
Kya gave up on waking Lynn and moved to Cam. "Lynn will take forever getting ready." This she knew from experience. More than once during elementary school they'd been late because of Lynn's sluggishness. "Alexei hates getting up, period. And Cam can be extremely difficult to wake up sometimes. Like now!" She pushed her gamer friend off his bed. He landed on the floor with a loud thump.
The sound was enough to wake Alexei, but not Lynn. Feeling 'playful', Kya pounced onto a sleeping Lynn. Who jolted awake.
Emi doubled over in laugher from the scene in front of her. "Y'all look ridiculous!" Cam was tangled in his sheets, Alexei appeared confused, and Lynn wrestled Kya off of him.
"Guys," Kya smirked, "attack!" She lead the charge to tackle/hug Emi. The five landed on the floor with a thud.
"What's going on!?" Tyia stood in the doorway of Cam's room still in her pajamas. "When I said you could have a sleepover. I didn't mean literally." She tried to withhold a chuckle at the sight of five teenagers piled on top of each other like a mess of spaghetti.
"Sorry mom, the girls attacked us." Alexei lay on his back, waving to his mom.
"It's probably your fault for not waking up. I'd tackle you too to wake you." Which she'd done multiple times to Cam. "Now get dress, breakfast is ready." Tyia left the pile of giggling teens to get herself ready for work.
Sure the boys were completely awake, the girls headed for Alexei's room to get dressed. Kya and Lynn each kept a spare outfit or three at Alexei's place. It wasn't unusual for a food fight of some sort to break out whenever they hung out at the house. Kya had several stained shirts to prove it.
Kya lent Emi some clothes, while she rumaged through Alexei's closet for a shirt to 'borrow'. "Once we got to school, we'll speak to the princpal. Than all we have to do is enroll you." Finding a dark blue hoodie, Kya wore it over a tank top and shorts/leggings. While her style boadered on goth most times, Kya also enjoyed the tomboy stlye. Anytime she went home, she came back with a bag of her brothers' clothes.
"I'm looking forward to attending school with everyone." Dressed in a jean skirt, Emi wore a light purple shirt that matched her eyes. "What grade do you think I'll be in?"
"Probably eigtht like me, Cam, and Alexei. Or ninth with Lynn." Kya brushed her hair out of it's long braid. "Cam will decided when he's enrolling you."
The girls' met the guys in the kitchek once they were dressed. Tiya had made a feast large enough to feed a small army. Alexei and Lynn each had two plates in front of them, they ate like they hadn't seen food in months.
"Don't forget to breath." Cam moved his own plate closer to him. Given the chance, Alexei would steal rood from someone's plate.
Kya grabbed a plate and sat beside Cam. Like him, she was use to seeing Alexei and Lynn's eating habits. "Keep your hands and good away from the living stomaches." Lynn flicked a piece of bacon at Kya, playfully. She tossed one back at him.
"So this is how your food fights begin." Emi sat at the end of the table. She poked her food for a bit, not knowning what to try first. The food she'd eaten while in Kya's body was good. But would her own body like them?
"Your over thinking." Alexei shoved a piece of bacon into Emi's open month. Shocked, she glared at him as she chewed. "Good, isn't it?"
"When are we turning the supercomputer off?" Lynn asked, as he stuffed a piece of toast into his mouth.
"This morning, that's why we're going to the mansion before school." The night before, Cam suggested they head to the mansion before school. "The sooner we turn it off the better."
Kya nodded, "No reason to give Xana the chance to attack." She was all for shuting the supercomputer off. The sooner the better.
"Once the supercomputer's off, that means no more attacks." Lynn held his glass up.
"No more sleepless night working on programs." Cam also held a glass up.
Kya joined the cheers, "No more lame excuses to get out of class."
Execited about her new life, Emi added. "No more being trapped on Lyoko."
"But most importantly," Kya started.
"No more Xana!" Everyone but Alexei cheered and clacked their glasses together.
Everyone happily chatted about their soon to be Xana free lives. However, Alexei join in. Instead he pushed the food around on his plate, while gazing at his reflection in his glass. "No more trips to Lyoko or Defenders."
***********************************************************************************************
Emi's POV:
We entered the mansion via the landing on the second floor. The others vaulted over the railing and grabbed onto the ropes hanging from the ceiling. In one smooth motion, they landed in front of the library entrance. I hesitated long enough to watch the others, than copied their movements to land safely behind them.
"You guys always take this long?" The voice came from inside the library. Sitting on a table reading a book, was Ally. She passed a lazy glance to us, than returned to reading.
The others were as surprised as me by her appearance. She had a deal with Alexei to speak to the princpal once the supercomputer was shut off. Someone was eager.
"What are you doing here Ally?" Cam asked, not pleased by her presence.
Closing her book, she stood up. "Waiting for you. And before you ask no, I'm not keeping 'taps' on Alexei." She made air quotes. "I know he'll keep our deal. I'm here because I'm curious about this 'supercomputer' you keep talking about."
Kya placed her hands on her hips, "Thought you didn't care what we were doing?"
Ally shrugged, "That was late night, today's a new day. Besides, who am I going to tell? No one's going to believe me if I tell them their's an abandon mansion with a hidden lab in the forest."
"None of this matters anymore." Lynn walked to the front to stand before everyone. "Whether Ally's here or not, it doesn't change the fact this is our last trip to the mansion." He looked each of us in the eye. "We're minutes away from shutting down the supercomputer and getting rid of Xana. Can we not argue for five minutes?"
Kya shared a look with Cam, while Alexei stared at Ally. "He's right." I said, earning everyone's attention. "These are our last moments at the mansion. The ending of one journey-"
"And the beginning of another." Alexei finished for me.
Kya sighed, "Why do you always have to be right?" She patted Lynn's shoulder as she walked by. She went over to one of the shelves and pulled out a book, revealing the hidden elevator. Once we'd piled inside, Cam hit the button for the third sub-level. The sound of the elevator's motor rang loud. We were all quiet, probably because we couldn't believe today we'd end things for good.
Cam was the first one out, followed by Alexei, Lynn, Kya, Ally, and myself. Like Ally, I've never been in this part of the mansion. Cam walked into the middle of the room to kneel down and push something in the floor. A rush of stream was released as a giant cylinder object rose out of the floor. Several blinking lights and beeps confirmed this was the supercomputer.
A compartment opened to reveal a lever. Cam placed his hand on it. He looked at all of us for final confirmation, did we want to do this? We all firmly nodded yes. "You've given us a difficult time since we turn on the supercomputer. This is the end, but we will say thanks. Thank you Xana for allowing us to create the Lyoko Defenders. Who will always be friends." As the one who restarted the supercomputer, Cam was the one to also shut it down.
The moment he pushed the lever down, everything went dark.
***********************************************************************************************
Alexei's POV:
"Cam turn it back on quick!" Kya shouted. She knelt beside Emi, who'd randomly fainted. I rushed over to also check on her. Emi's skin was pale and she barely breathed.
"What happened?" Ally asked, concerned yet confused like we were.
Lynn looked between the reactivated supercomputer and Emi. "She must still be connected to the supercomputer." He stated. As crazy as it was, it made sense. Oringally she lived solely on Lyoko. The materlzatioin program, from what I understand, allowed her to be brought to Earth. But did it server her overall connection to the supercomputer?
"Let's move her to the library for now." Cam instrusted. "I'll run a scan on her own she's awake."
Kya and I helped place Emi on Lynn's back. He carried her up to the library were there were several chairs and couches. He placed our unconusius friend on a couch, allowing her to better rest.
"This isn't normal, is it?" Ally asked.
"Did your program only materlizae her or did it also sever her overall connection to Lyoko?" Lynn asked, the same thing I'd been wondering.
"The program was designed to create a 'body' for Emi, using data recovered from each of the four keys." Some techno blab from Cam later and we were still no closer to figuring out why Emi was still connected to the supercomputer and Lyoko.
"Look," Cam pinched the bridge of his nose. "you guys head to school. I'll stay here with Emi. We'll head over once I've competed scanning her."
"He's right." Lynn agreed. "School will begin soon, all of us being late or skipping will rise supsuations. Plus we still have to talk to Prinpcal Hall about Emi."
Kya appeared hestiated to leave. "Your not going to skip classes to spend all day in the lab, are you Cam?" The look on Cam's face comfired that's what he planned to do.
"Helping Emi is important, but she wouldn't want you to skip school...again." Maybe he'll listen to me for once. He's been lucky mom allows us so much freedom and that the school hasn't questioned when we've been 'helping' mom. "Come on general, you wouldn't want to also miss Emi's first day of school."
Ally clapped her hands to get our attention. "I'll stay here and make sure him and Emi get to school." We'd all forgotten she was here, so her annoucment suprised us. "What? My cousin will be less likely to question them if I'm with them. We'll just say we've given Emi a tour of campus." She shrugged like this was normal.
Taking Ally's offer, Lynn ushered me and Kya out of the library. He stated we needed to make an appearacne at breakfast and class to keep teachers from becoming supesuse. Once at school, Kya headed for the princpal's office, while Lynn and I went to the cafetiara.
***********************************************************************************************
"Sleeping Beauty's awake." Ally annouced. She louged on a couch across from where Emi laided. Flipping a page in her book, she informed Emi of what happened. "You fainted the moment Cam shut off that werid machine thing. You've been out for fifteen (twenty) minutes." She closed the book and got up. "Lynn took Alexei and Kya to school."
"Did I really pass out?" Emi asked Cam, who sat on the floor in front of the couch.
He was hunched over his laptop, looking over something. "Yes, it appears you may still be connected to the supercomputer and Lyoko. I'll need to do a scan to get a better idea of what happened."
The three entered the elevator, with Ally and Cam getting off at the lab and Emi going to the scanner room. Emi entered the scanners, allowing Cam to run a quick scan of her. While the program ran, Cam looked at the incoming data.
"So?" Ally stood behind Cam, glancing at the montior. She was able to understand enough to determine something had went wrong with a program. Why this affected Emi earlier, she wasn't sure.
"The materilzation program worked like it was suppose too." At first glance, nothing seemed wrong with the program. On the surface, everything ran normally.
"Than what's the issue?" Ally asked, sensing there was a but.
"Part of the program has been altered." He tried to islocate the affected area to get a better look. The coding remaining mostly unchanged, execpt for a certain symbol which hadn't been there before. "Xana."
"Did you find anything?" Emi stepped out of the elevator and walked over to the montior. She noticed the frown on Cam's face. He didn't have good news.
"Xana's partirally altered the materalztion program." He pointed the altered coding. "The program is working like it's suppose to, even with Xana's additions."
"Basically, you'll need to fix the coding." Emi's exiectment about her new life was replaced with dred.
"I know that look." Cam playfully poked Emi's forehead. "I'll have the supercomputer run an anlayazs on the materlaztion program to make sure we've found all the alterations. Than I'll began work on fixing it." He got out of the chair to strech. "Until than, your first day of school awaits."
***********************************************************************************************
Cam's POV:
"Are you sure no one will notice?" Emi asked for the third time as we neared the classroom. She'd been worrying since we left the manison that people would notice she's a vitural being. How anyone would notice something like that is beyond me.
"Relax, it's only math." I patted Emi's shoulder, slighly forcing her to continue walking.
"I would've perferred a technogloy or language class." She's right those classes would've been super easy for her. Other than her vast technical knowledge, Emi spoke two other languages. Her time on Lyoko allowed Emi to study the real world, quickly learning many things.
"If that were the case, you'd be teaching us." Alexei caught up to us, with Kya beside him. "If Emi taught the class, maybe everyone would stay awake." He referred to the technolgy teacher's boring lectures.
"She's not a mircale worker." Kya chimed. "Even Emi can't educate a block head." The joke appeared to be aimed at Alexei. Then we noticed Kya staring into the distance, at Mara. Emi and I laughed, while Alexei got quiet.
We entered the math room and took our seats near the back of the class. I sat with Alexei, while Kya sat behind us with Emi. Moments later, other students filed into the room. Their loud chatter filled the air, as Mr. C walked in. He took on look around and sighed. "Quiet down." He stood before the class, clearly not happy playing sub. "We have a new student. She'll introduce herself."
All eyes turned towards Emi. "Hi, my name's Emi." She started off strong, than her voice grew low. Emi didn't seem like the type to be shy. Than again, she might be neverous. This is her first time in school and around alot of people.
"She's my cousin." Kya pulled Emi into a hug. "Like me, she's not from around here. You'll see her around campus alot."
Everyone began asking Emi questions all at once. "Where are you from?"
"Why did you transfer to Kanna?"
"Are you rooming with Kya?"
"Enough!" Mr. C clapped his hands, silencing everyone. "You can question her later. For now, we'll review your last test." He pulled out the test we took last week to pass out.
By the frown on Alexei's face, he must've failed...again. While Kya let out a sigh of relief, signalign she must've passed. My own test showed a ninty-five.
"Ms. Tiya's going to take away your dvd collects." Kya joked, not knowing she was right.
Alexei groaned, "She's going to do more than that." He shoved his test into my face. A giant D, marted the paper.
Letting out a low shistle, I gave it back. "Better hope we get out science tests back." Alexei's science grade overall is worst than his math grade, which is decent. Doing well on the science test should improve is overall grade.
"We'll be reviewing the questions that most students got wrong." Mr. C wrote a problem on the board. "Than you'll be free to ask any other questions you may have."
***********************************************************************************************
Kya's POV:
"So how was over new earthling's first day?" Lynn caught up to us as we entered the crowded lunchroom.
"Brillant!" Alexei cheered, as he slung an arm around Emi's shoulder. "She answered more questions than Mr. C in math class."
"To be fair, Mr. C isn't a math teacher." I defended the schoo's nurse. "You know he doesn't like subbing." I left out the part of him perferring to stay in his office and read comics all day.
Emi giggled, " I don't understand why everyone struggled on the test. The content was easy." Anyone else would sound like a know it all. But for Emi, she' simply stating an obseveration.
We entered the food line and quickly got our food and amde our wau to a table. Emi took Cam's usual seat beside Alexei, in has absents. Cam was going to sneak into my dorm after class to check the supercomputer's progress on the analazys.
"Not all of us are a super smart A.I." Ally had joined us at saome point. For some wacky reason, she chose to sit with us and not Mara. "So, you guys going to the dance."
Lynn and I hand already pallned to spend the night hanging in my dorm. I thought Alexei would go with Mara and friends, but who knows, since they fought. Cam will mostly go to the lab for the night.
"Dance?" Emi asked. We'd never mentioned the dance to her. Now that she's here our plans may change.
"We should go." Lynn suggested, to which I gave a horrorifed look. He patted my shoulder, laughing. "It'll be a good way to offically welcome Emi."
"It's the first day of the year, the perfect ime to also get Emi use to large crowds." Alexei added. He's the most social and outgoing of the group. Even if none of us went, Alexei's got dozens of other 'friends' to hang out with. The face that he spends most of his time with the Defenders, shows how much he values out friendship.
"What is a dance?" Emi asked. Alexei went into a detailed describlition of a dance. Highlighting the music and food. "Sounds fun, can we go?"
Lynn and Alexei turned to me for an answer. They'd go with Emi either way. The guys want me to go for two reasons. We're friends and they don't want to leave me out. And, I'm currently Emi's only female friend. There are some things guys can't do, like find an awesome outfit last mintue for Emi.
"Fine." I sighed over dramacally. "Since the dance is tonight, I'll have to take Emi shopping right after school."
"I'll go with." Ally said, reminding us of her prescence. "Mara stole the shoes I was gonna wear. I need to buy new ones."
"Why are you sitting here?" Mara arrived right on cue. She appeared unhappy by Ally's choice of company. "Let's go, Avery's waiting." She waited for Ally to stand, than glared when the girl didn't move. "Ally-"
"Don't start Mara." Ally gave her friend a bored stare. "Your the one who kicked me out of our dorm. So don't blame me for no sitting with you."
That shut Mara up. Mara's not use to Ally 'disobeying' her. Seeing their interactions up close, I've noticed something. Mara's a demanding brat, even to her best friend.
"I didn't kick you out, you left." Mara finally said.
Ally shook her head, "I left because you were being unreasonable and needed to calm down. Your the one who told me not to come back if I left." She stated. "You got your wish, now please leave."
"Sorry Mara, this is a no air head zone." Cam pushed pass Mara to grab the end sit at the table. "Take your diztiness elsewhere. We don't want to catch it."
Mara took the hint that her presence was unwelcome and left.
"Woah Cam." Lynn let out a low whistle. "It's unlike you to be so blunt."
"Yeah, general. Did something happen?" Alexei passed look of concern at Cam, who appeared to be stressed.
Cam let out a hollow sigh. "Sorry guys, it just seems that every time we make any progress we also take three steps backwards."
This wasn't going to lead to any good news. "What did the anaylanza reveal?" Since Emi fainted this morning, I've been worried about what it could mean. Cam explained earlier that Xana had modified part of the materizalation program, but other than that the program ran as it was designed to, even with the unexpected modifications.
Placing his fork down, Cam ran his hand through his hair. "Nothing, it revealed nothing."
Everyone looked at each other, sharing a slightly confused look. "Isn't that a good thing?" Lynn asked.
Cam shook his head, "It either means there was only the one modifiaction or there's to many for the analyaz to detect right way. Either way, the analyaz won't be complete until later tonight or sometime tomorrow. Until, there's nothing I can do."
"Great!" Alexei shouted, earning a glare from Cam. "We wer just talking about going to the dance. You'll have to go now, since there's no work to do." Alexei leaned closer to Cam, letting him see how determined he was to get Cam to go to the dance. "And don-"
"Okay." Cam stated, than began eating.
"He's got a fever." I placed hand on Cam's forhead to feel if he was feverish.
"Or replaced with a pod person, like in the Night Field movie." Emi's random statement reminded us that she's spent way to much time watching movies with Alexei. His horrblie taste in movies is rubbing off on her.
"Stop it." Cam shoved Alexei away and my hand off of him. "You guys seem to think I like spending late nights and sleepless nights in the lab. News flash, I'm the only one who can fully use the supercomputer, so I have to."
"We know that, general." Lynn tossed a grape into the air. "Why do you think Kya and I voluteered to learn the basics of using the supercomputer." He opened his mouth to try and catch the grape, it bounced off his nose instead. "We're just shocked you willing to go to the dance. I mean, Kya and I surely weren't going to go if Emi wasn't here."
"If you must know." Cam paused to look at each of us. "I was going to suggust we all go to the dance." We gave him another shocked look. "Stop it with the looks. The dance will be a good way for Emi to learn and experience life on earth. It'll also provide us with a chance for some much needed fun."
No one aruged with his reason. After all, we came up with the same reason moments before he arrived.
"Now that that's settled." At some point during the conversation, Ally had left to toss her taste away and return. She now stood before the table with her school bag in hand. "The bell rang, class will be starting soon." She disappered into the crowd of studening leaving. Some were scrambling to get out the door.
"We have bio next!" Alexei shouted, as he rushed to grab his stuff. It than dawned on us what that meant. On test days, Mr. Z had a policy. Anyone arriving late would be locked out of class. They'd than have to make up the test in afterschool detention, in addition to writing a two page paper. Mr. Z isn't usually strict, but for some reason he doesn't tollerate any excuse or lateness on test days.
"Lynn, take Emi to your next class." Grabbing my stuff, I raced to catch up with Cam and Alexei. Those boneheads actually left me. "We'll meet afterschool." Emi tried to say something, but I was already out the door. She'll have more fun in Lynn's classes, since we have a test, study hall, and a quiz later.
Mr. Z stood at the door, looking at his watch to countdown before looking the door. The late bell rang just as I crashed through, collisiding with Cam and Alexei who arrived seconeds before I did. The three of us landed in a pile on the floor. "Take your seats." Mr. Z closed the door as three students got to the door. "For those of you who arrived on time, you'll be happy to know this verison of the test has extra credit questions."
As the test was passed out, I mentally went over the information I've been studying. Because of Xana's attacks, I don't have as much time to study as I wished. Once this is all over, I can fousc more on studying. Yay?