It was the middle of class and the teacher was telling them all about the Nuclear Powerplant.
Ulrich, Odd, Jeremy and Mel all had this class together. Ulrich was staring out the window, Odd was doodling in his book and Mel had one heaphone in as she listened to her music, neither of them finding any particular interest in the lesson being given. The only one that seemed even the slightest bit interested was Jeremy as he was taking notes the whole time.
"Uh, Sir?"
They were all brought out of their own little worlds as Jeremy raised his hand and spoke.
"Yes, go on, Jeremy." Mrs. Hurtz (A/N: Is that her name?) spoke.
"I would like to know if an atomic process exists for fusing virtual particals and materialising them in the real world." Jeremy asked.
"Son, that is in the realm on science fiction. Sorry." The teacher replied.
"Jeremy is an excellent student, but he's a bit of a dreamer." Mrs. Hurtz said.
The class started laughing but immediately stopped after Odd sent them all a look.
The projector suddenly flickered off.
"Well, now. What's happened here?" Mrs. Hurtz said as she tried to turn the machine back on. "Certainly nothing serious, just a blown fuse, that's all."
Jeremy and Odd shared a glance while Mel and Ulrich did the same.
****
Class had ended and they were all making their way outside to meet up with Yumi.
"And I'm saying that maybe Xana is behind this." Jeremy said as they left the building.
"Don't get too excited." Mel said.
"Yeah, it was just a short circuit." Odd said.
"Odd."
They all turned to see Principal Delmas heading their way.
"I've thought it over and you can form your group, the, uh... Foxtrot Fanatics?" He said.
"Yes!" Odd cheered.
"It's the Poprock Progressive, Sir." Yumi corrected.
"But, it must be open to anyone who wishes to play, is that clear?" Principal Delmas said.
"No problemo, Sir." Odd said as the others nodded in agreement.
Principal Delmas then walked away and Odd fell to his knees dramatically.
"Yeah! Let's hear it for the God of Rock'N'Roll!" He cheered. "Hey, come on. If we step on it, we can photocopy the leaflets before lunch, Jeremy."
"Well, you know that I'm not into rock." Jeremy declined. "Besides, I want to check on that outage."
"Okay. See you later, Jeremy." Yumi said as Jeremy walked away.
****
"Ugh! Their gross!" Ulrich said as he pushed away his plate of Brussels Sprouts.
Mel hadn't even attempted to eat hers before she too pushed it away.
"You know, sometimes I wish I had Odd's appetite when it came to food." She said.
Ulrich laughed a bit.
"Yeah. As far as we're concerned, he could swallow a fly while eating and not care." He said.
The table of friends all laughed at that.
"Odd. What are you up to now?" Coach Jim said.
"We're holding auditions for our group." Odd explained as he handed a flyer to the teacher. "Hey, if anyone is interested, we need a drummer!"
In case you're wondering what everyone's position is in the band, Ulrich is on keyboard, Odd is on electric guitar, Yumi is a singer and Mel is the back up singer.
Odd passed out flyers to just about anyone he passed by, until one of Sissi's cronies, Nicholas, approached him and he didn't give him one.
Mel frowned a little at this as she thought it was a little mean of him, even if it was to one of Sissi's cronies.
****
Odd was trying to make a decision as to what drink to get from the vending machine, but he was taking too long so Ulrich pressed one for him.
"Hey! You pressed soup!" Odd said.
"Oh, come on. It's not that aweful." Ulrich said.
The machine whirred for a bit before only a drop of soup came out.
"Oh, this miserable machine's on the blink again." Odd complained.
"Maybe it's another power failure." Jeremy said.
"Are you worried?" Mel asked.
"Yeah, I am." Jeremy replied. "I'll keep checking things out."
"If you need us we'll be in the gym." Yumi said. "We're going to hold auditions."
****
Just as Yumi said, they were all in the gym as they listened to people play on the drums.
"Well, yeah, you've got a lot of style." Odd said. "It's heavy metal, right?"
"Oh yeah, for sure. I love it." The boy, Mike, said.
"Really sorry, Mike. But we're looking for something a little more traditional." Mel said.
Mike shrugged as if it was no big deal and walked off the stage.
"Next!" Odd called out and his face lit up as the next person walked in.
It was a pretty brunette girl and Mel couldn't help but roll her eyes with a small amused smirk as she saw the way her best friend looked at her.
"Hello, guys." She said as she stood on stage.
"Hey, how are you, Naomi? I didn't know you played the drums." Odd said.
"Well, yeah, a little. Besides, I've always dreamed of being in a band." Naomi replied.
"Okay, then. Go on." Ulrich said.
Naomi started playing the drums and they all flinched a little at how bad she was.
"Great, Naomi! That was fantastic! I mean, come on. We're not going to find anyone better, right?" Odd said as she finished playing.
Ulrich, Mel and Yumi all gave him a look.
They went through a few more auditions before Jeremy ran in seemingly out of breath.
"This is Xana's doing. I'm almost sure of it." Jeremy said as he sat down.
"Yeah, go on." Yumi said.
"The current's cutting out all around the school and the pile on outside is way over the voltage limit, it could explode." Jeremy explained.
"But why would Xana do that?" Ulrich asked.
"Your guess is as good as mine, Ulrich." Jeremy replied.
"Surprise." They were interrupted as the one and only Sissi Delmas entered the room followed by her ever present cronies. "It's obvious my friends and I aren't very welcome, but my father did say that the band was open to everybody, right?"
They all gave her a look.
"Oh, but don't worry. I don't want to be in a group of deadbeat weirdos." Sissi assured them. "But Nicholas just loves the drums."
"A drummer, huh? What does he play? His Mum's pots and pans?" Odd said which earned him an elbow to the ribs from Mel.
"Okay, guys. I'm off to the Factory." Jeremy said. "I'll keep you posted."
Jeremy then left the gym and the others decided to hear Nicholas play.
He was really good, way better than Naomi, and they all applauded him, including Sissi and Herb, her remaining cronie.
"Looks like you found yourself a drummer." Sissi said as she and her cronies left.
"Nicholas? The drummer in our band? I don't care how good he is, the answer is no." Odd said. "Besides, Sissi set this up just to give us a hard time."
"Maybe, for once, she was trying to be helpful." Mel said.
"And you've got to admit that Nicholas can really play the drums." Yumi added.
"Better than Naomi, that's for sure." Ulrich said, agreeing with the two girls.
"She's only a beginner, she needs a little more time." Odd defended.
"Uh-huh. A couple of years should do it." Ulrich said.
"Well, if that's how you feel, then listen up." Odd said. "If you want Nicholas to be your drummer, you better find yourself another guitarist."
"And I say, if you don't take him, you better find yourself a new singer." Yumi argued back.
"If Sissi's idea was to cause trouble she's done a great job." Ulrich said.
Suddenly, there was a sound of a trombone going off and they all turned to see Coach Jim.
"Would you guys need a slide-trombone by any chance?" He asked.
They decided to hear him out and he was good, but not quite what they were looking for.
"Well? What do you say?" Coach Jim said.
"Well, Jim, the fact is... You see, we're a rock band not a military brass band." Odd said.
Yumi then got a phone call from Jeremy and they all quickly excused themselves from the gym and headed down to the Factory.
"At last." Jeremy said as they entered the room with the Super Computor in it. "Here's what Xana's up to. Once he's stored enough voltage in that pile on, he'll unleash it all."
"Unleash it where?" Odd asked.
"Guess. On the Nuclear Plant." Jeremy replied.
"Creating a short circuit, and..." Yumi said and they all gasped in realisation.
"The pile on can take one million vaults. Once it's accumulated, Xana can blow everything up." Jeremy explained.
"Nuclear sabotage. That's a little over our heads, wouldn't you say?" Yumi said.
"Yeah? What do you mean?" Ulrich asked.
"Think about it. If we fail on Lyoko the whole region will be wiped out. We've got to warn the authorities." Yumi said.
"Are you crazy? There'll be an anchory and we'll be questioned. We'll have to tell them everything." Jeremy said. "And if they descover Xana, they'll pull all the plugs out."
"And we'll lose Aelita, I know that. But we're talking about a Nuclear disaster." Yumi said.
Yumi and Jeremy had a little stare off before Jeremy decided to take a vote.
"Who's for raising the alarm?" He asked.
"For." Yumi said as she raised her hand.
"Against." Jeremy said as he also raised his hand.
"Against." Odd also said while raising his hand.
Aelita then popped up on the computor screen.
"Sorry, Aelita. But I also think we can't take that big of a risk." Ulrich said. "I vote for. Let's report it."
"What are you thinking, Mel?" Odd asked.
"I'm on the fence. Yumi and Jeremy are both right and both hold valid points." Mel said. "If we fail on Lyoko, the whole region will be wiped out, but if we tell them and they happen to believe us, we could lose any chance of materialising Aelita. Sorry, I couldn't be your tie breaker, but I just don't know."
"Okay. Without your vote, it's two votes for and two votes against. It's a tie. We don't tell anybody." Jeremy said.
"I think it means we should tell everybody!" Yumi said.
"Don't I have the right to vote?" Aelita asked.
"Why, sure you do. That way there won't be a tie." Jeremy replied.
"In that case... I vote for." Aelita said. "I don't want thousands of people to die just to save me."
"Thank you, Aelita." Yumi said.
Mel couldn't help but smile a little at this. Aelita was far more selfless than people gave her credit for.
Soon, Odd, Ulrich and Mel were all virtualised and sent to Lyoko.
"We're going to make it, right?" Odd asked.
"I sure hope so, Odd." Ulrich replied.
"Okay, I've got it. The scan has located the activated tower." Jeremy informed them as the three of them found Aelita. "It's in the desert region near an oasis."
"I know where it is." Aelita told them. "That way, on the other plateau."
****
They followed the pulsations over to the other plateau to find no tower, but a puddle of water.
"I don't believe this. What's going on? Where is this tower?" Odd asked.
"We can't see it right now, but it's here alright." Aelita said. "Look at Xana's pulsations. They all converge here."
"Come on, you can do it. You can't be too far away." Jeremy encouraged. "You've got to find it fast, the pile on is going to be overloaded soon."
The four Lyoko Warriors were waiting around the puddle they found trying to figure out where the tower could be. Ulrich was stabbing the ground with his sword, Aelita and Mel were looking around and Odd was throwing rocks. Just as he threw one, it landed in the puddle, only to reveal it wasn't a puddle after all.
"I found it. We've been tricked." Odd said. "There's no water down there, just a surface layer. I'll go and have a better look."
Odd then jumped into the 'puddle' and the others soon followed suit as they all landed on another plateau with the tower right in front of them.
"There." Odd said as he pointed to the tower.
Suddenly, a monster appeared and shot Odd in the leg.
"Odd!" Jeremy called out to him.
"I hate those horrible Crabs." Odd said.
Two more monsters appeared and Ulrich and Mel drew their swords.
"Aelita, it's you they're after." Ulrich said. "Go on, run."
Aelita did as she was told and Mel went with her for protection. And just as well, because a Crab followed after her.
It shot at the two of them a few times before Odd jumped in the way of one that almost hit Aelita and ended up being devirtualised.
Ulrich stood in his place and used his Triplekit to take down two of the monsters, the remaining monster managing to hit and devirtualise him.
"Damn it." Mel said before running at the remaining monster. "You only get one shot."
"Mel, are you out of your mind?" Odd asked in slight concern.
She was shot in the shoulder, which slowed her down for a bit before continuing on her way.
"Come on! Hurry! The pile on is on ninety eight percent." Jeremy informed her.
Once she was close enough, Mel leaped into the air and landed on the monster before stabbing the target with her laser blade and jumping off right as it exploded, landing gracefully on her feet.
"Okay, Aelita. Do your thing." Mel said and Aelita ran past her and into the tower.
Soon enough, a bright light washed over them all as time reset itself.
****
The group were in the gymnasium and were practicing for their performance with Nicholas as their drummer and Coach Jim on slide trombone.
"You guys were right, he's doing great." Odd said as he sidled up beside Yumi.
"You talking about Jim?" She asked.
"Great, guys! Your energy is super Nuclear. You're going to make this town explode." Jeremy said as he applauded the performance.
A/N: Another chapter for my lovely readers! I hope you all Enjoy!