“Odd, you’re down to…oh, too late,” Jeremie groaned. Down in the scanner room, Odd emerged, weary but grinning. He soon joined Jeremie up in the main lab.

“How are things going?” Odd said. “Did I clear a big enough path?’

“At least as big as the one XANA’s making by diverting the river through Kadic,” Jeremie replied. “Ulrich’s down to 20 life points, but Yumi and Aelita are just fine and at the tower. Ulrich’s got mop up duty on the monsters you didn’t get.”

Aelita’s voice came over the speakers. “Tower deactivated.” Odd peered over Jeremie’s shoulders as the kid Einstein punched in the RTTP. A white light enveloped them and they were whisked back with nobody the wiser.

xxxx

“I knew you were reckless Odd, but that last stunt takes the cake,” Ulrich slapped the purple-clad teen on the back. “Making your laser arrows backfire in the middle of that swarm…kamikaze, but cool.”

Jeremie and Aelita shared a reproachful glance at Odd and Yumi chuckled. “We’re going to be late for science. Hurry up, you guys,” Jeremie said he left. Odd and Ulrich gave committal nods, but really had no desire to go to class. As long as Ulrich was there, neither did Yumi.

Knowing this, Odd decided to go back to his room and leave the two to their own devices. Odd knew he should be in class, but there was so much else to work on. He had his art projects, his music, movies, and the band. Kiwi alone seemed to take half the day to care for. Odd opened his door and flopped down on his bed.

“Jeremie can make a day seem like a week with all he crams into it,” Odd mused as Kiwi came up to lie beside him. “Ugh, Kiwi, I know summer’s almost here, but do you have to share your hair shedding with me?” As Odd plucked the hairs off his shirt, he was hit with an idea only Odd could get. Clutching Kiwi to his chest, Odd bolted from the room.

xxxx

“I’ve seen Jeremie do this enough; shouldn’t be that hard…” Odd mused as he sat down in front of the supercomputer. “I’m usually the first out of Lyoko, and I’ve seen him do it before.” Odd clicked some keys and looked around for the right file. “Ah, the virtualization program…” Odd frowned…Jeremie had said he’d streamlined the instructions in case he was incapacitated, but this still looked like Greek to Odd.

Painstakingly, Odd hunted and pecked around the keyboard, following every letter of Jeremie’s start-up process. He felt more than heard the scanner doors open on the next floor down. Smiling and wiping his brow, Odd got up and, Kiwi following interestedly went down to see his handiwork.

“You don’t mind, do you boy?” Odd held up some of the shed hairs. He placed one in each scanner and returned upstairs. “I need a test subject to see if this works.” Odd ran through the last steps of the program, and finished up with Jeremie’s trademark “Virtualization.”

Odd put on the headset lying next to the keyboard and patted his lap. Kiwi jumped up and stared at the screen, yipping happily. A yip answered from the confines of Lyoko.

“Who’s the genius now?” Odd smirked. “Well, Jeremie, but I’m overachieving here! Now, for the hard part.” Jeremie didn’t leave instructions on de-virtualizing the team because they came back from battles by being defeated or the RTTP most of the time. Odd had seen Jeremie type in the necessary sequence over his shoulder, but nothing more. Mustering his resolve, Odd punched in Kiwi’s name and the factory’s coordinates, then punched a button. He rushed to the elevator and went down. The doors opened and Kiwi ran ahead.

“Wait up, Kiwi!” Odd panted as the dog raced on. “Kiwi, here boy!” Odd swept his sweat-soaked hair out of his eyes and had to rub them to make sure. Two dogs had answered his call.

“YES!” Odd did an impromptu jig that would do Break Break Breakdance proud. He whipped a pocketknife out and sliced off some of his own hair. He threw a handful in each of the scanners and went back upstairs, whistling a tune.

xxxx

“Why does he keep doing this?” Jeremie asked Aelita s they were let out of their last class for the day. “I mean, I know he doesn’t care, but he could’ve at least told us what he was up to.”

Aelita gave him a small smile and Jeremie calmed down. “He has his reasons, Jeremie. And it’s nearly dinner. Since when does he miss a meal?” They laughed as they made their way towards Jeremie’s room.

“But what if XANA had attacked?” Jeremie muttered as he opened his door.

“Then I would have been ready!”

Jeremie jumped back and into Aelita, knocking them both to the ground.

“ODD! What are you doing in my room?” Jeremie picked Aelita and himself up and shut the door forcefully.

“I missed class, and figured you’d have the notes,” Odd cocked his head. “Kiwi was sick, so I stayed in my room with him.”

“You could’ve told us,” Jeremie had calmed down again, perhaps because of Aelita’s hand on his shoulder. “Yeah, here they are.” Jeremie tossed a notebook Odd’s way; Odd mimed shooting it with laser arrows before he caught it.

“Thanks a ton, Jeremie. I’ll see you at dinner.”

xxxx

Odd walked into cafeteria as if floating on cloud nine. Sissi took immediate notice and got behind him in line.

“What’s got you so happy? Found a girl that didn’t dump you after the first date?” She put some acid in her voice to rile Odd, but he turned around with a mile-wide smile.

“Yeah, actually, I’ve got three dates.” Sissi’s face fell. “And the best part is that none of them is with you.” Those around the duo in line laughed, including Ulrich, who’d just entered and cut his way in front of Sissi. They got their food and sat down.

“So, Odd, three girls? Two didn’t exactly work out well last time,” Ulrich intoned as he bit into his biscuit.

“Well, maybe they’re coming around to see the real me,” Odd shrugged and chugged milk.

“And the real you is…”

“I’m svelte, artistic, funny…I’m multi-faceted!”

“Now only if your brain was multi-faceted, maybe you’d learn something in school,” Ulrich chuckled as he threw the rest of his dinner in the trash.

“NO! Oh, the humanity! Starving people in this very room would be happy to have that food.”

“Dig it out then.” Odd momentarily contemplated this before realizing Ulrich had gone on ahead. As they settled down for the evening, Odd spied his notebook out on his bed and not in his bag. He flipped it open and saw the day’s notes there, along with some random song lyrics. Odd shut it and tossed it under the bed.

“No studying again? You had time to play soccer with me after class, but not for hitting the books?” Ulrich looked genuinely concerned, but Odd knew it may just be his poker face in full effect.

“So my priorities are screwed up? I live like I want to,” Odd groused.

“What’s gotten you worked up?” Ulrich definitely had an edge of emotion in his voice, so Odd answered honestly .

“I don’t know anymore.”

The next morning, Odd slept in even later than usual. Only Kiwi’s repeated attempts to pull the boy out of bed were successful. Rubbing his eyes, Odd managed, “Kiwi, go let yourself out, I’m tired,” before curling back up on the floor and dozing off. Kiwi turned around and made for the door, but stopped on the way and did his business on the end of the bed before wandering off.

“Hey!” Odd signed and sat up. Far from feeling fulfilled, he felt abnormally exhausted this morning. He got up and donned his purple attire while looking for some cleaning supplies. Odd turned around from having his head buried in the closet only to find his bed made and the mess wiped up.

“Huh?” The cleaning rag and bottle fell from his hands. “I’m not still asleep, am I?” Odd pinched his cheek and winced. No dreamland for him. Now confused and sleepy, he trudged down to breakfast as the rest of the gang was leaving.

“Wow, Odd, you beat us out here,” Yumi grinned at Odd’s shaky smile. “It must’ve been from all the energy those five servings of breakfast gave you.”

Odd tried hard to keep his smile in place, but something was wrong. He was tired, but he wasn’t hungry. He hadn’t eaten since yesterday. Maybe he was coming down with a cold? Shaking his head, he followed his friends to class.

xxxx

“”I’ve never seen Mrs. Hertz so mad before,” Ulrich patted Odd on the back as they trudged to lunch. “You fell asleep six times today. Anything the matter? You seemed fine yesterday…”

“I can’t put my finger on it yet. Something’s off, is all,” Odd waved off Ulrich’s reply as they got in the lunch line.

“Mashed potatoes or corn?” the lunch lady inquired.

“Could you mix them both together? Yeah, that’d be good,” Odd got a strange look but received a corn-riddled scoop of mashed potatoes. He sat down next to Aelita and Jeremie, who had his laptop out. “Not an attack?”

“We just had one yesterday,” Jeremie replied. “I’m just checking my logs, writing in my journal.”

“I thought you kept that stuff private,” Ulrich said as he sat down.

“Yeah, normally, but something struck me and I had to put it down before I lost my train of thought.”

“”You should’ve seen him,” Aelita’s voice barely held back laughter. “He ran straight into Jim when he turned around.”

The group chuckled. “Hey, where’s Yumi?” Odd asked.

“She went home to grab some equipment for this afternoon,” Ulrich said. “You ready for a beating?”

“And what’d I do to deserve one?” Jeremie looked up sharply at this.

“You asked Yumi to train you in some martial arts yesterday after our soccer game.” Ulrich almost had a look of bemusement on his face. “You backing down?”

“No, I just…never mind.” Odd dug into his vegetable concoction and Jeremie typed furiously on his laptop.

xxxx

Once the afternoon classes let out (with no more sessions of Odd falling asleep), the gang made their way to the soccer pitch, where Yumi was already waiting.

“I shouldn’t be looking forward to this so much,” Yumi sported a huge grin and a fighting stance. “Why don’t you start by miming what I do?”

Odd shrugged and stood next to Yumi in the same pose. “Now, HYAA!” Yumi spiraled and sent her foot flying at Odd. He never saw it coming and crumpled to the ground as Yumi connected with the blow.

“”Where’s Lyoko powers when you need them?” Odd complained as he sat up.

“Oh, Odd, why didn’t you move?” Yumi was aghast.

Odd was internally wondering the same thing. Normally, he could’ve avoided the attack with no problem, but today, everything was off. He thought back to yesterday. Everything had been going so well with his experiment and…

That had to be it! Something had gone wrong, and was taking time to set in. Odd had a dazed look on his face as he mulled over what wrong.

“I didn’t addle his brains, did I?” Yumi intoned.

“What brains?” Ulrich said, but Yumi just glared at him.

“I might’ve done permanent damage!”

“You said mime you. I was going to, but you hit me.” Odd was unusually sheepish as he stilled the mini argument.

“I was trying to teach you a lesson,” Yumi explained. “Martial arts are all about defense, preparedness. “Looks like you need work in both.” She helped Odd to his feet as faced him again.

“Just a second, you guys,” Ulrich stopped the pair as they squared off. “I’ve got some cub reporters to take care of.” Rounding quickly, Ulrich sprinted toward the bushes, which seemed to come alive. Millie and Tamiya fell out of their hiding spot, blushing.

“Go find another scoop, girls,” Ulrich demanded more than suggested as he picked the two up and hauled them off.

“You don’t know how big of a scoop you’re missing out on,” Millie complained as they were led away.

Yumi looked on after Ulrich before turning back to Odd. “Now, where were we?”

“Are you sure my face isn’t permanently deformed?”

“For the last time, Odd, the swelling will go down.” Yumi sighed. “And I thought I was going to have fun training you…” She’d given up after a half-hour of handing Odd’s butt to him in every way she knew how to. To Yumi, Odd’s training was all but a lost cause. Odd seemed to have caught on to this.

“Make sure you keep some ice on that overnight,” Ulrich supplied as he opened the door to the cafeteria. “You get enough attention with your purple clothes and hair style.”

“Just pile on, why don’t you?” Odd groused as he picked up a tray and got his meal.

“What happened to mirthful Odd?” Ulrich asked as they sat down.

“Oh, he’s around somewhere, I suppose.” Odd looked far too serious when he said this and Yumi and Ulrich both noticed. “You could’ve just beaten him out of me, too.”

“This has been going on since before this afternoon, Odd.” Yumi mustered up her most sympathetic look. “Tell us what’s going on.”

Odd fiddled around with his food, splitting his fries in two like string cheese as he responded. “If I knew, I’d let you guys know. Really.” His awkward smile didn’t help matters. “I’m going to bed.”

As the door shut behind him, his friends alternated startled looks at his 3/4ths full tray and Odd’s retreating form. Ulrich whipped out his mobile. “Jeremie? We need to talk.”

xxxx

“Why me?” Odd flung one of Kiwi’s toys across the room in a perverse game of fetch. Kiwi cowered for his life in his dresser drawer. “Nothing ever comes easy for me, like it does Einstein. I try to make things better, and it only gets worse.” Odd threw an arm over his face as he flopped down in bed. Kiwi ventured out to lick at Odd’s outstretched palm.

“I feel them, Kiwi.” The dog looked quizzically up at his owner. “They’re sapping at my mind. They’re out there, and I have no control over them at all. I never even thought about that.” He punched his head as far down in his pillow as it could go. “I never think about anything.” Kiwi jumped up into bed with Odd as the boy into a fitful sleep.

xxxx

“You’ve noticed, too?”

“Ulrich, how could anyone not notice?” Jeremie sternly looked at the trio in his doorway. “The school will be abuzz about this tomorrow if it gets worse. And none of you have a clue what’s going on?” They shook their heads. “I think I do. Shut the door.”

The group arranged themselves around the genius’ room. Jeremie brought up a diagram on his computer. It looked like a heart monitor of a dead person – flat. “What’s that?” Aelita asked.

“It’s a program that keeps track of power usage of the supercomputer and Lyoko. Right now, all is stable. But over the past two days, there have been irregular spikes on Lyoko. Usually, these would indicate a XANA attack, but no towers have been activated.”

“So, what else could it be?” Yumi looked worried.

“The only other time the system gets anywhere near this level of output is when the scanners are in use. But we haven’t been to the factory since before all this. I would know if XANA had used the scanners to bring over more monsters. I don’t want more Krab duels.” Ulrich broke from his stoic state to crack a grin.

“But I was hoping for a rematch…” he mock-whined.

“The point is, tomorrow we’re going to the factory to do a diagnostic on the equipment,” Jeremie interjected. “I need to prove my hunch correct, too.”

“I was wondering when this would get back around to Odd,” Ulrich said.

Jeremie only scowled slightly. “Yeah, about that…”

A.N. – Stay tuned for the big reveal next chapter, though almost all the important parties know. And I haven’t forgotten about Millie and Tamiya. They make a return next chapter, and they drag Sissi with them, too.

A soft knock sounded through the darkened dorm room. Odd turned over in his fitful sleep before cracking a bleary eye open. Mumbling under his breath, he opened the door, figuring Ulrich has forgotten his key.

Not only was Ulrich outside, he had brought the rest of the gang with him. Jeremie addressed Odd. “Mind if we talk?”

“Uh, yeah, whatever,” Odd said sleepily. Yumi came in and flipped the lights on, and leaned up against a wall. Ulrich stood next to her, while Aelita and Jeremie sat on Ulrich’s bed.

“Are you okay?” Yumi asked.

“Okay as I can be with my bruised face,” he sent Yumi a half-hearted glare.

“Glad you brought that up, Odd,” Jeremie said. “You see, coming back from dinner, Yumi and Ulrich had a weird experience.” Both blushed profusely.

“Do you have to include that part?” Yumi said. Aelita looked askew at Ulrich as he face-palmed. Jeremie nodded and continued.

“They were down in the art wing in a supposedly empty classroom when you wander by.”

“I was…” Odd cut himself off abruptly. Jeremie noticed and pressed the issue.

“You were apparently better,” Odd looked confused.

“Yeah, your face was back to normal,” Ulrich supplied.

“Not your attitude, though. You saw us and ran off.” Yumi formed a half-smile. “I thought you’d go blabbing to Jeremie or something.”

“Anyway, they saw you and came to me,” Jeremie said. “We’ve talked, and our experiences the last day doesn’t add up.” Odd broke out in a sweat.

“How so?” he asked.

“Well, the fact you’re sitting here, still showing injuries is the most glaring thing,” Jeremie said. “Care to explain?”

You’ll hate me if I do,” Odd bemoaned.

“We do not hate you. We’re concerned for your well-being,” Jeremie said.

“Fine then.” Odd composed himself. “I did an experiment, and it’s backfired.”

“We’re going to need more than that, Odd.” Jeremie was deadly serious now.

“I got sick of having so much to do and so little time, so I went down to the factory and…”

“No…” Jeremie was stunned. “You can’t have been as dense to try that.”

“Gee, thanks, make me feel worse,” Odd bit back.

“How many?”

“Well, I used a handful of my hairs, so…a lot?”

“Oh crap…”

xxxx

The next morning, everyone got up early to do some damage control. The first order of business was making sure someone was with Odd at all times, so they didn’t lose track of him.

The gang went down to breakfast and found their plans already compromised. A small group had gathered around Sissi, who was brandishing the newest copy of their paper.

“Shoulda known something was up when they were in the bushes yesterday,” Ulrich said. He stormed over and shoved kids aside to get to the perpetrator.

“Ulrich, dear, look at this!” Sissi’s voice dripped saccharine, but beneath it lay dubious intentions. He had a paper pushed under his nose. Ulrich scanned the front page story – a blaring headline that read “Odd Occurrences at Kadic” and two photos of Odd, one bruised and the other not. He yanked it out of Sissi’s hand and took it back to the gang.

“They’re on to it, but they haven’t got it right. They think someone’s impersonating you,” Ulrich almost let relief slip into the sentence.

“Yeah, leave it to her to get 2+253,” Odd joked. “Still, they know, and they’ll be following us along with the rest of the school now. What do we do?”

“We need to get to the Factory so I can try to reverse what you did,” Jeremie said.

“I can’t help that feeling I might’ve caused this,” Aelita spoke up.

“And what gave you that idea?” Jeremie queried. “Just because we tried the same thing with you? That’s absurd.”

“Yeah, it was all my doing,” Odd patted Aelita on the back briefly.

“So, when do we go?” Yumi asked.

“Lunch. But for now, we’re taking Odd to the infirmary for a medical slip so he can miss class,” Jeremie explained. “That way, you can track down the other you’s.”

“Got it,” Odd clenched his fists. “But what if they…resist? I’m been feeling weak since they were made.”

“They should be weak then, too,” Jeremie theorized. “They’re clones; they could never live up to you. We’re going to take them down, and set things right.”

“They’ll be weaker, sure…” Odd mumbled to himself as he walked from the cafeteria. The Salisbury steak was not exactly sitting well in his stomach. It left precious little room for all the butterflies that had appeared as the fight got closer. Odd clamped a hand to his middle and grimaced.

“What, you need help walking now?” Ulrich said as he tailed behind Odd. The others had gone to the factory as planned after lunch, electing Ulrich to stay behind with Odd for “clean-up duty”, as they’d called it.

The problem was, they couldn’t find a trace of anything out of the ordinary. No other Odds were poking their heads out of windows or making themselves visible in any way.

“How long is this going to take?” The cheesy smile did not match the dead tone of Odd’s voice.

“As long as it takes,” Ulrich said resolutely. “We need to do this before you collapse or someone really finds out what’s going on.”

“You’re right,” Odd agreed. “But how are we supposed to find all these me’s? They’re not predictable; I didn’t order them to do anything.”

“Can you concentrate really hard, and try to feel them out?” Ulrich theorized. “You said you think they’re draining your energy, so maybe the link works both ways.”

“Yeah…” Odd grew silent and stopped walking, clenching his eyes shut. Beads of sweat popped out on his forehead. Suddenly, he fell flat on his backside. “Oww…” Odd moaned.

“What the heck was that?” Ulrich asked, helping the other boy up.

“I think they’re up to some mischief,” Odd said. “All this red swam in my vision, and they I felt like someone was shoving me.” He shrugged.

“So, they’re on to us,” Ulrich frowned. “Great.”

xxxx

“It’s as I thought,” Jeremie turned away from the console. “The clones have been intermittently coming out though the scanners.”

“So, this is a bad thing, right?” Aelita said, only questioning because Jeremie had sounded a bit too positive.

“Yes and no. Because they’re coming from Lyoko’s power source, XANA knows about them. He is probably going to use them for some sort of attack, soon,” Jeremie said.

“So, where’s the good part?” Yumi scowled.

“XANA has to stretch his resources so thin that he is especially vulnerable right now. He’s had a growing number of Odd clones running around Kadic for days now. He’s never tried this prolonged of an attack.” Jeremie pushed his glasses up his nose and continued. “I stopped the cloning program Odd started, so no more clones will be coming, but we still have a small army to deal with. And, we should try to strike XANA while he’s down, too…” Jeremie trailed off, lost in thought.

“Any battle plans, general?” Aelita sent a coy grin at Jeremie, who blushed.

“Permission to kick butt, sir?” Yumi cracked a devilish grin of her own.

“Patience, patience,” Jeremie preached, but the choir was mostly deaf. “I need to come up with a way to locate all the clones first. I’ll try to get a program to trace their DNA pattern. It should be different, having some signs of XANA infiltration. Once I get that done, we can go and help Odd and Ulrich.”

“Well, what are we waiting for? Get to it!” the girls said in unison.

“Sheesh, alright already…” And Jeremie bent down over the keyboard once more.

xxxx

Odd had led Ulrich to the locker room off the side of the soccer pitch.

“You think one of them’s in here?” Ulrich said, unsure. “Why would an Odd be here? You don’t play soccer much at all…”

“But I want to. The clones came out of a want to be able to do more on my part, so it makes sense they’d do all the things I’d want to but can’t,” Odd finished as he got to the door. “You better kick it in. I’ll need the strength to kick his butt.” Ulrich shrugged, but complied.

The door slammed into the opposite wall, splintered down the middle. “Whoops…” Ulrich minutely blushed, but grinned anyway.

A set of eyes gleamed from behind the bank of steel lockers, cat-like in their intensity. A hand reached out to kill the lights, and bedlam erupted.