The Observer_

Written by_

AmericanLyokoTeam_

Thanks for a brilliant world to play with:_

Moonscoop_

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their_ respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author_ is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No_ copyright infringement is intended_

***

There is an old bench in the middle of the grounds of Kadic that had been there for almost five years now, and though it’s finish had long since faded and the wood was beginning to crack, it still served as a public meeting spot. The bench was in an ideal location, under shade, and universally between buildings. If one didn’t turn their eyes from it for a whole day they would still get an interesting and dynamic cross section of what the student body at Kadic is like.

As it happened that morning, the first to walk by and rest on that spot were Odd and Jeremie. Jeremie sighed, tired of explaining, “That’s all there was in the message, basics. Franz feels if he gives away the advanced interconnecting systems XANA will be able to quickly replicate how the supercomputer was run and build his own base of operations to attack the world with.”

Odd stuck out his tongue. “Really lame, you’re a couple of geniuses and you pass half finished notes like 6th graders.”

“It’s not funny, Odd.”

“Hey look at least I’m telling jokes again. Would you prefer I go back to moaning and moping about everything?”

Belpois rolled his eyes, but truthfully, he was glad to have this Odd back, it gave sense of normalcy to compare with Ulrich and Yumi.

“So what does it do for us at least?”

“Well, with a q byte controller, I can start the supercomputer on the road to being able to return to the past, super scan, and other things. Some of its only theory, and there would be some long shot programming involved but-”

“Well, spit it out!”

“I think I may be able to write a controller to activate SAPs and modems without a tower, and-”

“You’re talking tech again, English if you please”

“Basically I may be able to create a specter effect without a tower, if not the most effective one. It’s going to take time, but at least I have something to work on again.”

“That’s our Einstein. First we get to work on Chemistry though, c’mon.”

“-And I told you two dorks to stop following me. I’m sick of it, your little fan club isn’t even useful for anything.”

“But Sissi-”

“Don’t but Sissi me, Herve.” She flipped her hair angrily “Don’t even bother talking Nicholas, I already know he has the brain for the both of you.”

“So what exactly do you have without us?” Herve asked in a suddenly more bitter tone.

She scowled immediately. She leaned in inches from his face, and in as much of a growl as she could manage, Sissi answered him “A chance at being whatever I want instead of ringleader of the useless.”

She stormed off, and Herve plopped down on the bench.

“Wow.” Nicholas slowly observed, “She thinks we’re useless?”

“Apparently so, and now we’re out of any kind of clique.”

“Click?” asked Nicholas

“Clique, a social strata in closed environments like this school.”

“Oh. So we’re not popular anymore?”

“Essentially, yeah. Our only standing was through her.”

“Bummer. So, breakfast?”

“I guess” Herve snarked, getting up and ambling off.

Yumi entered from the direction of the front gate and carefully and neatly sat on the bench, leaning back and staring up at the sky. She didn’t even notice Aelita walking from the main building out toward one of the other structures. She snapped in surprise as Aelita tapped her shoulder.

“Hi, you” Aelita smiled.

Yumi tried to give an earnest smile back “Shouldn’t you be in class?”

“I had to talk to Delmas, the investigation is still ongoing. Fortunately Jeremie linked up his old voice changing program to an answering machine in case they try to call my contact numbers now.”

For a moment, Yumi really did smile “You two can engineer a solution out of anything.”

“Great ingenuity is in my genes, I guess.” Aelita paused for a moment. “Yumi, are you all right?”

“Huh, oh, I- I guess I was just affected a little deeper than the rest of you by- Yeah, I’ll be all right, don’t worry about me.”

Aelita struggled with this for a minute, but finally stood up straight and continued on her way “If something is wrong, it won’t get any better if you don’t tell us.”

“I know” Yumi called after her, then much more quietly, continued to repeat it to herself.

The morning sun was turning to clouds and they started to drizzle. Though she didn’t have class for some time yet, Yumi forced herself up to find cover before the sky opened up.

Then time seemed to move as though somebody had pushed the fast foreword button on a video. The morning rain came and went. Some younger students climbed all over the bench between classes. An older boy and girl sat and talked for a time. Lunch passed and the afternoon sun came out.

Then finally things evened out and Jeremie once again walked into view with Aelita and Ulrich.

“The problem is I haven’t got any way to refer to the elements of the hardware. Writing a driver is enough work on a regular computer, imagine not having any idea how the hardware you’re writing for is linked. Throw into it that what’s basically required is writing a way to test the status of a quantum super state that doesn’t exist anymore due to time reversion and…”

“And you get an enormous headache, we got it” Ulrich said, face palming. “Do you even have enough to reasonably start, or have we got to wait again.”

“I’ve got enough to test out things, but this is going to be a long haul. I need you and Odd to cover for Aelita and me, all right?”

“Sure, just like the good old days, huh?” Ulrich said, with a sly expression

“At least I don’t have to get you to skip class anymore.”

“I think Odd rather would have. All right, I’ll think up something clever, good luck Jeremie.”

Though their destinations were different, they all headed to the main building.

Seconds later Odd ran out of the cafeteria building chanting to himself “Late late late, not again!” Unfortunately he didn’t quite take the landing well off the final step and after a few strides, he had to start hopping to keep himself upright. Strangely this was a recurring situation for him, and he knew he could correct it by catching hold of the upcoming bench. His plan would have worked flawlessly were it not for a poorly positioned Elisabeth Delmas. Both tumbled with the force of impact and took a second to get bearings.

“We have got to stop meeting like this.” Odd laughed, picking himself up.

Sissi had a terribly sour look “Oh great, now my day is complete, Della Robbia has come to deliver something stunningly witty he spent all morning thinking up.”

“I usually manage it over lunch, actually. Really, it’s not hard if you have hal-”

“Oh, shut up, you’re not perfect yourself.”

Normally Odd would have continued, but after yesterday her words had a new meaning. Instead he offered his hand to help her up. “You’re right.”

“Yes I a- what?”

“I’m not perfect. It took a big event to make me see it, but I can’t always just do what I feel.”

She took him up on the offer for help up, and got to her feet. She was actually stunned silent by the uncharacteristic response.

“I can deny I ever said that if I have to but I’d appreciate if you wouldn’t tell anybody, I still kinda like my reputation.”

“I, yeah, sure.” She regained her composure. “You’re nuts, Della Robbia. Get outta here.”

He charged off to class, running perhaps even faster than before to try and avoid being late.

Sissi sat for a moment on the bench, head in hands. “What a day this is shaping up to be.”

Time jumped foreword again. At an impossible speed, Milly and Tamia passed, squabbling. The young couple returned, and kissed, Jim stopped at the bench and used it to stretch, before flexing a few times. Yumi silently left campus. The afternoon sun became orange and got low in the sky.

Odd exited the cafeteria harassing Ulrich. “I’m telling you, I’m glad the appetite returned. I might have wasted away to nothing with only one or two days without a good meal!”

Ulrich looked disinterested, continually looking away from the spastic Odd. “Yumi must have left without a word.”

Odd jumped in front and gave him a dark look.

“What, I can still be concerned as a good friend can’t I?”

“You’re gonna kill yourself with that attitude you know. You know why she told you that, don’t you?”

“Possibly because that’s what she wanted?”

“You, good buddy, have no clue how girls work. She wants you to –”

Ulrich’s mobile rang, cutting off any further discussion.

“Jeremie?”

“What? Tell me it isn’t over already. Life was just getting good.” Odd said, suddenly worried.

“Nah, nothing like that, hang on. Yeah Jeremie, talking to Odd, go on. Really? That’s really strange, but what isn’t these days? Yeah, nobody missed you guys. Ok, get back soon.”

He clicked the mobile off and returned it to his pocket.

“So what was it then?” Said Odd, calming down.

“Jeremie says they weren’t getting very far, and it could have taken days, but then suddenly somebody sent them a schematic.”

“Who, Franz?”

“No, he was very clear, it was from some other outside source. Franz wouldn’t risk it, and if XANA knew this stuff, he’d be building his own version somewhere far away and untouchable.”

“A Mystery benefactor huh? Makes you wonder who on Earth could even know about all this any not get involved for so long.”

“We didn’t even know about Franz until late last semester, mind you, and now suddenly, he is our guide.”

“True enough.” Odd decided.

Herve and Nicholas stumbled out and both sat on the park bench.

“We’ve gotta do something about this. I’m gonna die of boredom if all we do is go to class.”

“Well don’t look at me.” Nicholas shrugged.

As chance would have it, the still arguing Milly and Tamia came to the same bench and started pressing Herve’s last bit of patience.

“You got involved to help me out with my journalistic ability, you said you didn’t mind being the camerawoman!”

“I didn’t mind because I figured people would see my ability to ask the right questions would be better!”

He’d had enough and stood up to holler “Has it occurred to EITHER OF YOU, that if you got somebody else to hold the camera you could BOTH be the investigators? Seriously the WHOLE SCHOOL is sick of this ongoing feud.”

Silence settled on the impromptu meeting.

“What are you suggesting?” Asked Tamia.

And then Herve’s manipulative brain forged an idea.

“Well, I guess Lurch here” Herve elbowed Nicholas “Could do it, he does have a steady hand.”

“Just maybe-” Said Milly who then began whispering in Tamia’s ear, and vice versa.

Finally they faced front and answered, “We agree.”

Herve was still scheming however. “You know, I have a bit of skill with video editing. If you ever want a real pro cleaning it up for you, let me know.”

“Oh sure, great!” Tamia answered, as she had always hated the editing anyway.

As younger people are apt to do, with the argument resolved, Milly and Tamia walked off to start catching up, now that they didn’t have to yell at each other.

“What did you just do?” Asked Nicholas.

“Gave us a social clique. Sure, it’s with the underclassmen, but it gives us something to shove in Sissi’s face if she tries to come crawling back to us.”

“Wow, you sure are smart.” Nicholas applauded “I’m glad you’re around to think this stuff up.

Herve gave a grin “Yeah, I’m glad I’m around too.”

Time leaped foreword again once more, the sun finished going down and the stars came out, lamps turned on, and somewhere close to the school, the glare on a camera from a nearby lamp rendered it useless for distance vision.

Aelita and Jeremie came from the manhole cover on the campus grounds and stopped to rest for a moment at the bench.

“Did you really need me there?” She asked.

“To deal with technology? I could have worked alone, though you were a huge help.” To go back there and deal with that place?” He paused. “Absolutely.”

“Mmm, pretty good answer.”

“Anyway, we made huge progress, but it’s going to keep bother me. Who was that message from?”

“Isn’t it enough that somebody else is on our side?”

“Not necessarily, they might not know how to keep their information safe from XANA, or- or lots of other things potentially. I don’t like mysteries.”

“Well, I’m going to sneak in and get to sleep, Try not to stay up all night working, all right?”

“You’ve got it.” Jeremie answered with some enthusiasm.