Grace looked at Randy darkly, piercing daggers flying from her eyes like bullets. Kralliar stared back with equal intent. From across the room Ms. Delmas looked up from her tablet computer, and then looked back down. The dark pink haired girl was the first to speak, “Kralliar don’t you say it.”

Kralliar, as we all guessed said it any way, “You should really wear a swim suit more often.”  A gasp of pain later Randy was on the cold wet pool floor. Sissi looked up again and sighed, “Just clean up any mess you make, Sharron.”

Graced looked at the drama teacher innocently and pointed at the still, dark form of Randy Kralliar. Ms. Delmas nodded, “yes that is your mess.” The teen age girl looked down at the boy, glanced over at the wet stand that no one was sitting in. They were quite a ways from where her victim had landed. The soft lapping of the pool water drew her attention; the boy lay about a foot from the edge. Grace squatted down next to the incapacitated teen as smiled a wicked smile, “time to take a dip, monkey boy.”

Kralliar was awakened from his pain induced black out by his fully clothed body sinking into the cold water of the pool. He continued to sink until his feet reached the bottom. Positioning himself he pushed off back toward air. As he broke the surface he heard the cruel echoing laughter of Grace as she turned into the girls changing room.

He was interrupted from his scowling session by a soggy foot steps. Shifting his view he saw the black tenny and ragged jeans of the high school student know as ‘Crusher’ and the beat up sandel of the resident Waco. “Kralliar.”

“Onyx, Pripe.”

“Kralliar, Onyx.”

“Pripe.” A sort of awkward silence followed these disjointed greetings. Grant shivered as if shaking of some hideous thought. Squatting down he looked Kralliar, who was still treading and scowling, in the eye. “Kralliar, I never took you as the skull and cross bone kind of guy.”

Confusion echoed across Randy’s muscular face. Glancing over to the left of ‘Crusher’ he saw the blond pointing some were behind him. Fearfully he turned around, and there floating lifelessly about five feet way were his baggy pant.  Beyond those were a gaggle of teenage girls giggling at him.

Sissi looked up and sighed again. Noticing Jeremie walking toward her she shook her head, “Jeremie I don’t know how you do it.” Jeremie looked at her confused, the last echoes of Kralliar’s curses fading away, “What did I do now?”

“The weirdest things always happened to you then, and now you’re molding a new generation of wako’s” Jeremie smiled at the raven haired woman, “Let’s just say it’s a talent of mine. Though I don’t think you have a great amount of room to talk.”

As if on a brilliantly timed que Kadic’s currant drama queen made her entrance. Chi Orrent stepped into the pool house in a flamboyant two piece swimsuit. The brilliant yellow glimmered in the light flicked off the ungluing pool surface. To add to this most extravagant picture she let her presence be known with a bellowing announcement, “Your future goddess has arrived!”

Sissi looked at Jeremie with a face displaying annoyance, defeat, and a since of pleading,”She’s not my fault. Just remember that, I have no clam to her.”

Jeremie chuckled, “Actually I was talking about Delphiki. I think he’s currently trying to muster his courage to talk to Grace. Odd kid, yes I realize that coming from me that must make him a very weird child.”

Jeremie wasn’t actually too far off. The very strange kid known as Julio Delphiki was hiding in the stands of the pool searching for his heart throb. Unfortunately all he had gotten to day was a picture of her in a swimsuit and her pushing the muscular dolt into the pool. After that she had left the pool and exited through the girls changing room. Sighing he stood up and started walking down the bleachers. However in his dream like state he didn’t see the small biocarbon bottle that lay on the steps. As he put the weight of his body on the bottle it slipped away. His foot went up in the air, shortly followed by his the rest of his body.  The stairs had a slight incline that allowed the water to run of them, and in this case Delphiki to experience the same process. The momentum from his fall took him all the way to the bottom of the steps and on into the pool. On the way down he caught a very haughty Chi Orrent and took her with him.

“Delphiki! You’re Dead!”

****

Jeremie’s eyes widened momentarily, then quickly they became narrow slights. Sliding his fingers delicately against the nanoboard he zoomed in on an anomaly in the molecular make of the apple he had been testing. About one hundred trips through the digitizer had yielded about the same result as five through the old scanner. That was good, but this alteration was something else.

“Kari, can you tell me the mass density of the experiment.”

“Unchanged, why?” Jeremie shook his head. It was only one proton in perhaps trillions, but it had disappeared. The Digitizer was meant to perfectly reconstruct an item, without flaw.  Somehow it hadn’t, one proton was missing. The atom that it was in was unchanged; it was still the same element, the same weight, the same number of electrons, but without one proton. This defied the very laws of chemistry that he was teaching right now.

“I don’t know Kari. Just when you thing you can take something for grated it changes on you.” Jeremie started to prepare for another test, but his stomach loudly protested. Grinning sheepishly to himself he excused himself from the computer. Kari might just be a program but Jeremie made every effort to make her feel like a real person. That was what her program was meant to do, truly personalize the computer, make it a more personal experience.

Stepping on the beaming pad he sent himself up to the entry hall of the factory. He marveled at how easy the beaming pad had been, and how difficult the Digitizer was in comparison. The same technology but by changing the application changed the whole dimension. An encapsulated energy stream against data, the natural world verses a virtual universe, how different things were.

****

Jeremie placed his plat on the table and turned to the large one way window that looked into the students’ area of the cafeteria. For now the students seemed content to eat and talked. Faintly Jeremie wondered how long the piece would last. Jeremie looked around the students kindly, his little gang was as spread out as ever, outside of Terra Machina they were so distant.

Jeremie remembered the bond that had so quickly appeared after his own discovery of Lyoko. Then again these kids didn’t of the threat of death, or the fate of the world resting on their shoulders. How typical, it almost sounded like some sort television show. Jeremie quietly laughed to himself.

“What they’re not even trying to kill anyone yet, why are you laughing?” Jeremie turned his head and looked across the table. Sissi sat backwards in a chair, her chin resting on her arms. She glanced over at Jeremie and smiled. Jeremie shook his head and turned back to the window. To took a second but Jeremie realized the peaceful sight that he had seen just a few seconds ago was gone. It had been replaced by chaos at its finest.

Erin was shamelessly crashing his head against the table in fits of laughter. Chi was in a state of free fall, what the kitchen staff tried to pass off as potatoes was splattered everywhere, and Grace had Delphiki by the neck. Randy and his sparing gang looked to be on the edge of war with another group on the other side of the room; both team s had a mass of projectiles ready. Grant was probably the most disturbing sight of them all, a smile was plastered on his face that could only mean bad things. The rest of the students were cowering under the tables hoping for shelter.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know, I blinked.

***

Delmas sat behind his desk, the penguin game that had infuriated him so was forgotten. In his had rested a small chip. It looked like it belonged to some ancient computer. The gold circets glimmered in the afternoon sunlight. Gingerly he turned the chip over in his palm. Somehow it seemed precious, like if he lost it there would be consequences. Shaking his head he stood and left, slipping the chip into his pocket.

***

Herb stood shivering against one of the cold cement walls. The dark room seemed to suck the life right out of him, and the woman replaced it with fear. His legs were rooted in ice, and his arms tangle in web. Well not really but they might of well been. 

Sarah looked up that the whimpering creature that John had brought. She glanced over at John, giving him a pleading look. He sighed and rolled his eyes, “I you want him to wet his pants go right ahead. Just don’t start experimenting on him, remember the last time you tried that. “

Herb shuttered, the last time the witch had hooked him up to the machine that she was working on he had not regained consciousness for a week. Not to mention that he was probably not going to have kids any more, not that he would have had them in the first place. Sarah stood up a shook her long mahogany hair. It fell to about midway down her back, she had a figure that would cause most men to try everything to woo her, it made Herb want to faint.

She put her hand on the wall right next to Herb’s head. Leaning in close she smiled, “Hi” That did it, Herb slipped to the ground unconscious. Sarah was slightly pouted, “He’s not very much fun.”

John grimaced, he definition of fun was as twisted as it could get. He hadn’t asked her if she had a pet as a child, afraid she would produce the carcass of the pet out of now were. “No, John I never had a pet, and even if I did I wouldn’t kill it. Killing is boring, I like to play games.”

John mentally smacked himself for thinking about her in the room. She probably was recoding all the thoughts in the room, trying to find… whatever it was she was looking for. She sat down next to John, her overly tight cloths rustling slightly. She laid her head on John shoulder and drifted off to sleep. She may be a crazy psychopath, but she had chosen him to show her real personality to. For what reason he couldn’t guess.

Slowly she mumbled, “The epsil… Soon we… The epsil… The epsil… Fire…Call…Answere…All…”

***

Jeremie glanced up from the nanoboard, “let me guess, company?” Kari blinked innocently and nodded. Jeremie sighed, somehow his life really seemed to be taken from the TeleScreens. “I’ll call them”

It didn’t take much to wrangle up an attack force. Erin and Grant were doing something that Jeremie figured it might just be safer not to ask about. However Grace and Kraillar were ready to go, even if Randy was a bit scared of the fact that he would be in close proximity to a bellicose Grace.

***

 Grace shook of the disorienting feeling of digitization and looked around. Ice as far as the eye could see. Terrible crevasses dotted the landscape were the immense glacier had collapsed upon its own weight. Silver white, stony blue the whole icescape shimmered in the light of the digital sky. Even the data bits that whizzed through that chilly blue sky seemed to shiver in the digital cold.

“Well it’s not the swim suit but I guess that that will work.” Grace shot daggers from her eyes at the raggedly clad, dark skinned boy. The expression that flashed across Randy’s face pretty much said ‘you can try to kill me, but I’d probably enjoy it.’ Grace shivered.

“I hate cold. Professor where are they, I need something to beat into oblivion.” A electric buzz answered her. The blast of red digital energy streaked from a crevasse several meters to Kralliar’s right. The attack missed both of them and rocketed into the sky where it exploded with a deafening sound. A metallic ring and Randy held his longest blade naked and poised.

Grace concentrated on her fist trying to collect enough energy to do some damage to the monster that was crawling out onto the icy plane. The Zpider looked terrifying in the light. This was Randy’s first experience with the thing. Its diamond shaped head swung around to face the dark skinned boy.  From its jagged jaw a second blast streaked. Amazingly Randy’s blade got in the way of the attack. The streak of digital energy glanced of the huge knife and landed in a fissure several meters behind the children. A metallic screech filled the air and a second wave suggested a second Zpider had been killed by friendly fire.

The first monster was furious. It threw itself into the air. Swinging its legs it began to spin. Just as its underside was about to reach a favorable position for attack Grace lept at it, her gloved fist blazing with pink power. She was knocked out of the sky by one of the creatures swinging claws. She gasped in pain as she fell back on to the ground. Breathing hard she pushed herself from the icy ground.

Randy was flung next to her, the Zpider digging its claws into the ice as it reoriented itself to solid ground. A couple of knives whizzed from Kralliar’s hands, two glanced off the tough sides of the creature, but rest stuck in the fleshy legs.  A deafening screech came from the creature.  The creature whipped his head toward the children. Randy just saw something that looked like a biohazard sign glow before was blasted sky high.

The red energy hit just in front of them, and the explosion tossed them like rag dolls. Grace rolled along the ground but Randy was lifted into a long graceful arch. He fell, and didn’t stop falling, the ground passed him and he kept going. Shortly he relized that he must have been flung into one of the gapping fissures in the ice. He grabbed his blade and shoved it into the wall of the crevasse. Quickly he came to a grinding halt. Hanging from the blade he wondered how far he had fallen.

The digital sky didn’t eliminate the dark ominous blue ice here.  He pulled out a small knife and shoved it into the slick wall. Randy had once fantasized about being a mountain climber, but this was ridicules. Next to him came a fuzzy glow. Sanding in the air next to him was Kari. She giggled at him, “Need some help?”

Grinding his teeth Karlliar stared at her. “Okay if you don’t want it I won’t help you” Swallowing his shame Kralliar mumbled. Kari furrowed her eyebrows, “Sorry didn’t catch that.” Randy grumbled it again, “What?”

“I SAID HELP WOULD BE NICE!!!”

Kari stepped back a little, her shoes were a soft yellow. She shrugged, “Okay, but you don’t have to yell. Jeremie said you have some sort of ability, should help you get out of this and probably help Grace, too”

Randy looked at her suspiciously, “So how do I use this ability?” Kari smiled and Randy didn’t like that cheeky smile. Kari put her hand up to about shoulder height and shrugged innocently, “I don’t know, Jeremie said you needed to figure that out on your own. Bye!” She disappeared with a soft glow.  Randy glowered at where she had been, fat lot of help that had done him.

Randy yanked out the smaller knife and plunged it back into the gritty ice several inches above the previous mark. Pulling hard he managed to get his largest blade free. He slid it into its holster and retrieved a second smaller knife. He stabbed the ice a little above the other blade. Slowly he started to make his way up the near vertical face.

It was a slow painstaking effort but finally Randy could see the light of the steely blue sky. Sounds of the battle floated down to him. A myriad of electrical buzzing punctuated by deadly explosions echoed off the crevasse walls. Kralliar haled himself over the ledge back on to the battle field. Looking up he saw Grace weaving around three Zpiders. She fluidly dodged bolts of energy and claws. Dodging was about all she could do.

Swinging her arm Grace let fly several pink throwing stars. Then she disappeared, Randy looked around thinking he had lost her in the fray. She reappeared beside one of the belligerent creatures, her gloved hand blazing with pink energy. The electric magenta fist slammed in to the hard angular side of the Zpider. The creature rocked but remained fairly upright. Grant snapped out of his stupor suddenly realizing what was going on and the fact that he was hanging on to an ice ledge next to a near infinite drop. Groaning he heaved himself back on to the ice. Grace and the Zpiders were too busy to notice the muscular boy stand up.

As Randy placed his feet back onto solid ground he felt something odd. An electrical shiver spun its way around his body. It felt sort of like you expect static to feel. It finally settled on his back, just were his blade hung. Randy reached up to pull out the blade, but as he reached up the gem on his glove caught his eye. It was glowing, the yellow gem was pulsing a soft gold. Kralliar did what he always did with something that intrigued him, he poked it.

Everything changed, the staticy feeling rushed through out his body, filling every part of him with the warm electrical energy. His body even seemed to glow with the same light as the gem. Unsheathing his blade Randy found it to be shimmering with the same energetic glow.  Now the Zpiders took notice of the glowing boy. One fired a blast of red light at him. Kralliar dodged it easily. He ran toward the beast in his way he left a ghostly after image of himself. The images faded as he moved away. He was fast, very fast, he closed the half a kilometer gap in about 15 seconds.

The closest Zprider let loose a beam of light, but it was batted way by Krailiar’s glowing blade. The reflected blast streaked into the sky and exploded. The shock wave knocked Grace over, but the Zpiders had focused their attention on Randy.  The dark skinned glowing boy swung the huge knife wildly as one of the mechinoid creatures leapt toward him. The randomness of his swings paid off. The curved end of his blade cut a deep diagonal upon the creatures face.  The Zpider collapsed and shrieked in pain. It heffeted itself up and then exploded. The blue white explosion knocked the other two Zpiders, along with Grant, away.

 As one of the creatures stood up a small pink throwing star implanted itself in its head, and it too died in a similar blue white explosion. This left one Zpider. Grace turned to it and a glowing Randy stood to face it. Grace said, “Monkey boy, we go on three.” 

“Wait, on three or three and then go?”

The creature was charging another blast. Grace heard the start of the paralyzing buzz that had trapped her before. “On three. One. Two.”

 “Three” Randy rushed forward, his wake marked with a stream of after images. He held out his blade and made a long cut spanning the length of the creature’s body.  Its legs severed the Zpider fell to one side and died in the usual manner.

Grinning Randy sheathed his blade and put his hands on his hips triumphantly. He looked over at Grace and flinched. She was walking toward him a murderous grin on her face. The glow faded from around Kralliar’s body. 

Jeremie sighed as he heard the screams of Randy. These were defiantly not the Lyoko warriors, but at least they were entertaining.