The Mechanist

                                    

                                          
I don't own Code Lyoko. Not based on Code Lyoko Evolution. As if it never happened.
                          
BRRRRRRRRRRING! The class for the day ended. "Well, we survived Mrs. Hertz's class again. Trump one up for the former Lyoko warriors," Odd smiled.
                          
"Speak for yourself. I'm sure she's going to fail me for this last quiz," Ulrich said.
                          
"Did you study?"
                          
"Yeah, but you try to study when Odd's doing the boogie-woogie at 12 am," The brown-headed teen answered Aelita.
                          
"I told you my room is free. Now that XANA's gone, I don't have to stay up all night," Jeremie said.
                          
"And yet you still have your keyboard mark," Yumi laughed, poking at his head, "What were you doing last night that you had to stay up for?"
                          
"Um... well I-" His eyes darted over to a blushing pink-haired girl. Yumi grinned wide as they walked into the lunch hall. "It's amazing. A whole week without XANA, I almost don't know what to do with myself."
                          
"Just don't create another super evil monster, and I think we're good, Einstein," Odd snapped his fingers. Rolling his eyes, Jeremie grumbled while the rest laughed, but unknown to them, Sissi listened from behind.
                          
Herb whined, "Sissi, why do you always snoop on their talk but never talk with us?"
                          
"Well, if you must know, Herb, their conversation interests me while you and Nicholas talk about stupid things like the weather or fish."
                          
"Hey, I like fish," Nicholas mumbled. Sissi rolled her eyes.
                          
Ulrich poked around with his fork, jabbed the broccoli, and stuffed it in his mouth. "Speaking of our ex-friend, did you rewire the code to get into the factory?"
                          
"Not yet, but I'm not worried. Even if someone went there, they wouldn't know how to use the supercomputer," Jeremie said.
                          
"What if they start it up? What if they accidentally start a return to the past? Huh?" questioned Yumi.
                          
"We would know because we would remember. As long as the supercomputer remembers our individual biomolecular scans in its deep network hardware it-"
                          
"Because we would notice," Aelita finished, patting the jabbering genius on the back while he glanced at the smirking pink-haired girl through narrowed eyes. The others giggled.
                          
"Well, that means we have some spare time to get your robots working, Einstein! You've been neglecting them. Come on, I say we get started on them. The world needs Kiwi 3.0!" Odd cheered. As they got up from their seats and left, Sissi, tapping her feet and drumming her fingers, got up, and a Cheshire smile tumbled to her lips.
                          
"Let me guess, you're going to stalk them?" Herb snorted.
                          
"Quiet, idiot. What I do is no business of yours." With a flip of her hair and a lifted nose, the dragon queen of the academy huffily left the building. Now, time to see what they've been hiding all these years. After a short run from the mess hall, she arrived at the old factory. Its rusted dark-brown frame made Sissi gulp. With each step, the entrance loomed over her head, swallowing her like an old dragon. "There's nothing to be afraid of, Sissi. They come here all the time. It's no big deal." Her uncontrollable jitters became soft shivers as she approached the ropes. The inky-haired girl rode the line to the ground, quivered to the elevator, and clicked the button. The elevator's working hum completely quieted her fear. Now cheek rose up from her belly. "Hehe, your secret is mine, Ulrich," Sissi rubbed her hands like a cartoon villain as the elevator rolled its old frame to the top. She got in. Her finger hovered over the buttons, saying, "Eenie meanie mine-y moe!" The door shut, the elevator groaned, she braced her hand against the wall, then the elevator stopped, and she finally walked into a dark room: the reactor core. "Huh? This is it? What a FLOP! Just what I suspected. Just some weirdos doing weirdo things in a weirdo place." Before she could say anything else, light exploded from the floor as the floorboards steamed open. A huge black and gold column sprouted forth from the waters. "Wwwhhaat is this place?!" Sissi stepped back and hit her back to the quaking wall. Humming, the supercomputer dripped from its watery basket.