46School continues as it does. As it always does. Currently the group is sitting in the library of the main school. As it stands, the group got into some trouble a bit ago and now as a consequence they are now forced to stay and read books in the library for detention. Alex actually found a book for him to read and keep himself occupied and Jermey is currently on his laptop and quietly talking to their super-secret virtual friend. They both would prefer not to spur the ire of their would-be jail warden, i.e. Jim.
Jim is at another table and currently reading a bodybuilding magazine, but doesn't seem as appealing as he would have hoped as he grimaces at the images inside. Either way its enough for Jeremie to continue speaking,
"But I can't speak any louder. I'm in a library now." He quietly informs Aelita.
"What's a library, Jeremie?" Aelita replies in a quiet tone. Alex had the forethought before to actually lower the volume of the computer before they started talking so Aelita doesn't exactly make too much noise.
"A databank where everything's printed on paper. And where you can't make any noise." He quickly tells her. Alex maneuvers himself a little so he's able to cover a little bit more of Jermie so he can talk. Jim still is focusing on his own thing so he doesn't look at them.
"Oh. I guess because you need silence to concentrate on what you're studying." Aelita surmises.
"That's usually the case for it yeah… when some people want to concentrate on studying." Alex quietly adds with a bit of tiredness in his voice. Not over anything strenuous but just what's going on with the others as both he and Jeremie look at the other two with them.
"Yes. And so as not to miss the match point!" He answers with a playful smile.
"And what a riveting game it is." Alex uses his book to cover his mouth as he sarcastically says.
Ulrich and Odd on the other hand… well they decided to play paper… something.
Odd and Ulrich have a sort of ball court set up using pens and pencils as the boundaries and books as the net. A ball of scrunched-up paper is the ball. Alex isn't sure what they are doing but just some faux tennis game from what he can tell they are doing. Without any sort of subtlety whatsoever, Odd serves. Ulrich hits it back with as much gusto as Odd does.
"Hey, quiet!"
And Jim is none too happy to hear them goof off.
Jim looks up to see what the boys are doing. Alex sees Jim about to come after them and he wants to warn, but he simply sighs and continues reading, knowing they continue regardless. They continue their volley where Odd leaps up and makes a dramatic hit of the paper ball, causing Ulrich to lean back dangerously far in his chair to hit it back. He just barely manages to hit it and makes the ball go back onto their little court area. It hits the top of their 'net and rolls onto Odd's side of the court, making Ulrich the winner.
"Game, set and match." Yumi declares Ulrich the winner.
"Yeah! Whoa—!" While Ulrich was about ready celebrate his win, his foot was the only thing keeping him upright, and it slips from under the table, causing him to fall backwards.
Or he would have if Alex hadn't grabbed his foot and kept him from tumbling all the way down.
Ulrich sighs in relief as he's still held precariously up but his friend. He looks at Alex, "Phew, thanks man."
Alex chuckles a little before giving Ulrich a look, "No problem, but I think you got bigger problems now."
Ulrich looks at Alex confused for a second.
"Eh-hem." Ulrich tenses up at the person clearing their throat to get their attention. Ulrich looks back, looking upside down to see Jim standing over him.
"Oh… uhhhh, hey Jim. How's your reading going?" Ulrich tries to play it off cooly like nothings wrong.
"Can it." He fails. "I saw your 'game' you two were playing." Jim angrily states, pointing to Odd. Alex takes the moment to pull Ulrich back and allow him to sit down properly as they get lectured. "Is that what you call studying?!" He angrily asks them. Ulrich can't help himself and laughs a little. This only irks him even more as he turns to the rest of them all. "In case no one told you, THIS is not the school yard! You are here to work, ok?! And work means SILENCE!" He loudly and angrily shouts at everyone. Even though Alex and Jeremie didn't do anything, its fair for Jim to assume by association that they would have something playful or funny going with this. Case in point when Yumi laughs into her hands. "And no more games from now on!" He outright demands of everyone now.
In the moment of his yelling and anger, he doesn't notice the door to the library open and someone walks in. Alex looks off to the side to see who is there. Of course Jim notices the diverted attention for Alex and glares at them.
"Ah! Ok, we-he-ell if that's the way you wanna play, I can play just as hard as you can, my little friends! YYYYYYYOU!" Jim lunges forward and grabs whoever walked in by the earlobe.
Unfortunately his enthusiasm to catch any of the Lyoko warriors or any miscreants led him to accidentally grab the ear of someone else entirely.
Principal Delmas to be more precise.
"Two hours detention! I'm-!" He opens his eyes and looks at the annoyed face of his boss. He let's go of him and stands up straight. "Ohhhh sorry about that, Sir. I uh…"
This breaks the gang as everyone laughs at the confusion of what happened. Once they've calmed down, Jeremie and Alex go back to reading a book. They are interrupted though as Delmas approaches Jeremie.
"Ahem. Ah hello there, Jeremie, uh… uh would you come to my office now? I want to talk to you. It's very important." He carefully asks Jeremie. This gets some confusion both from Jeremie and the rest of the group. Alex has a bad feeling of what the Principal wants from their resident genius.
The gang, minus Jeremie, are sitting on the steps by the door to the main administrative building, looking glum as they wait for Jeremie to come out. Their time in the library was over and with the classes out for the moment they opted to wait for him.
"So… what do you guys think Einstein is in for?" Odd bluntly asks them all.
"He's not in there for anything bad Odd!" Yumi gets a little defensive of the idea that they assume its something bad for him. Soon Yumi's expression to one of concern as she looks down a little. "… Is he?" She asks uncertainly.
"Beats me." Ulrich shrugs. "Frankly most of the time when they call any of us to the Principals its always something bad, concerning or anything generally not good." He lists them off with this fingers.
"Except most of those times they are stern or angry when they have to grab any of us." Alex begins to say with an inquisitive look, "This time though the Principal seemed more… nervous than anything else. Not angry or gunning for punishment but just nervous about something." Alex crosses his arms as he looks up to the sky. "What it is though? You got me."
"I hope your right Alex." Odd mutters. "The last thing we need is something else to get in the way of—" Before he can finish speaking, the doors to the building open and they all stand up as Jeremie makes his way out, head aimed down. "Jeremie?"
"Wha…?" Ulrich mutters in confusion as he walks straight past them, looking down.
"Huh…?" Odd is still stumped what happened. The group quickly moves forward and catches up to Jeremie before he gets away from them.
"What's going on?" Yumi asks concerned.
"Jeremie c'mon. Please talk to us." Alex also voices his concern for his friend.
Jeremie finally relents, most likely knowing he can't keep this a secret, as he sighs and explains to them what happened, "Well, you know the principal. He went on and on. He says the school psychologist has been 'observing' me for a long time, and he thinks that I'm an… overly gifted student." He tells them.
Some look skeptical about the seriousness of this, especially Odd.
"Is that all? But that's nothing. We were scared that the principal had found out about the lab! Big deal." Odd brushes it off like its nothing.
"I don't think so Odd." Alex voices his unease about this. "Jeremie you wouldn't be in this funk if it was as simple as Odd is making it out to be, wouldn't you?"
Jeremie sadly shakes his head in agreement, "You're right Alex. It's worse than you think, Odd. The shrink's decided that I have to take all kinds of tests tonight, to determine what my IQ is."
"Yeah, so?" Ulrich asks for clarification.
"If the tests show that I have a really high IQ, the guy is going to see to it that I get sent to another school." The other three stop in their tracks while Jeremie walks on with Alex following after. He sighs as this was something he feared. Well, not exactly that but he knew it was something bad and problematic for them for sure.
"Huh?!" Yumi is the first to slightly recover as she voices her shock.
"Oh no! Are you saying that he's going to send you to a school for, like, future Einsteins?!" Odd loudly states is disbelief.
This gets Jeremie stops and looks disheartened. "Yeah…"
"Ughh… come on." Alex mutters as he places his hand over his face in frustration.
"That is serious. If you're not here, we can never go to Lyoko again, and XANA will be able to do what he wants!" Yumi loudly states the seriousness of the situation involving XANA.
"It's not just that, guys. I don't want to leave here because of you all. You're my friends!" Jeremie sadly says. Alex smiles and pats his shoulder in thanks for the words, but they are still bummed out about the whole thing.
Odd thinks hard for a second on the situation and then approaches Jeremie, putting his arm around his shoulders.
"H-hold on, cool it! Don't panic, ok? I mean, they can't force you to change schools…" Odd does what he can to try to alleviate Jeremie's worries over it all.
It doesn't work as well as he had hopped as Jeremie simply shakes his head and explain, "It's not all that easy. The psychologist creep couldn't wait to talk to my parents. He told them that at that kind of school, I'd be entitled to a big scholarship. My folks aren't going to pass up a great chance like that…"
Jeremie breaks away from Odd and walks ahead of the group, no doubt to their next class.
Alex sighs as she waves for the others to follow. "He's not wrong. This place is nice and a very good school but if theirs a chance Jeremie can get a full run scholarship to an even better and more expensive school, his parents can and will jump at the chance for him to get into it."
The others groan at the news. "This bites." Ulrich mutters in annoyance, much to the agreement of everyone else.
Another period of one of their classes passes and the gang are back near the admin building leaning against it, trying to figure out their situation.
Odd decides to chime in his own opinion. "What's the big problem? You mess up on the test, and they'll think you're a total moron! Nobody'll ever know! And you're home free." He thinks its as simple as that but from the expression on Jeremie its not.
"Sure, I thought of that. Only there's a problem because tests like that are full of all kinds of trick questions, and if you really want to mess up and make mistakes, you've got to be very clever." He explains.
"Some tests try to anticipate when people think differently on it, in an attempt to get the high results they want on these gifted students." Alex adds in. "It's not perfect but he has to be careful and think critically to make sure he doesn't get taken."
"But that shouldn't be a problem," Yumi states, "Since Jeremie is the cleverest kid around! He should be able to figure out how to fail this test. Right, Jeremie?" She pats his shoulder.
Jeremie looks thoughtful for a second before nodding. "Well ok… I'll do my best to flunk. But I can't promise anything."
Alex pats his shoulder and gets him to look at him. "You've always been on top of things Jeremie. Think carefully… and you got this."
Jeremie nods and goes to leave.
The others stay there and watch as Jeremie heads off to hopefully flunk a test on purpose.
Yumi looks uneasy about this and sighs, "Uhh… I'll see you guys later. Keep me posted, ok?"
Alex and Ulrich wave to her in agreement as she heads off to her next class.
"We better get going as well. Not much else we can do at the moment and hope Jeremie is able to bomb his test." Alex gets agreements from the others as they head to continue the day.
The days continues as usual for the group. Yumi's classes are done for the day so she has made her way home to relax and sleep for the next day. Jeremie stays stuck in the library and having to deal with the psychologist giving him his test and setting themselves up. It was a long test because it has now turned to night time for everyone around the city.
The bell rings and the last class for the day ends with the students heading out to eat at the cafeteria.
"So what's for dinner?" Ulrich begrudgingly asks his friends.
"Oh, I dunno, some kind of hash. They all taste the same." Odd informs Ulrich. Alex shrugs his shoulder at the idea of the meal.
"Anything sounds good at this point. To be honest I'm still worried about Jeremie." Alex voices his worry. The boys go and grab some food and start eating their fill.
"I wouldn't worry about it." Odd comments as he takes a bite of the hash he mentioned before. "Jeremie's the smartest guy we know. If anyone can figure out how to intentionally fail a test, it'd be him."
"You think so?" Alex asks. Ever sense they learned of Jeremie's potential leaving of the school Alex has been anxious at the idea of losing his friend firstly, but also losing an expert on the supercomputer was also a very big blow for them. So much so that Alex dreaded the idea that maybe they would have to get the governments involved to avoid allowing XANA to do as it pleases without them being able to do anything if they can't figure out how the system works.
A pit formed in his stomach at the idea of shutting down the computer to stop XANA, as well shutting Aelita down as well. That's not something she deserves, even Alex is sure that Aelita might be willing to in order to protect them.
"I know so." Ulrich's answer snaps Alex from his thoughts. "We've seen the way Jeremie is. I think he's got it." He confidently says as he takes a bite of his food.
Alex stares at them for a few seconds and sighs, hoping they are right truly. Alex goes ahead and finishes up his meal and stands. "Hope you guys are right. I'm gonna go ahead and turn in, or go find Jeremie see how he's doing, or check on Aelita for that matter. With Jeremie being preoccupied nearly all day, we haven't exactly had an update on her recently."
"That's a good idea. We'll finish eating up here and meet back in Jeremie's room." Ulrich proposes they do with Odd nodding with a mouthful of food.
"Gotcha. Be seeing you guys." Alex bids them farewell and deposits his tray.
"See you!"
"Tahk caarh!"
"Ahh Odd! Say it don't spray it." Ulrich berates Odd a little at him bidding farewell too but almost spitting food on Ulrich.
Alex smiles a little as he makes his way outside. He takes a deep breath of the cool night air as he places his hands inside his pockets. He makes his way through the courtyard and to cut through his doom to get to the library.
All the while his thoughts continue to plague him a little as he's alone. 'Please do this Jeremie.' He thinks, hoping Jeremie is able to properly fail the test. 'You are one of the few people I was able to make friends with here. Most of that is circumstance thanks to XANA and all that… but I don't care. You're my friend I hope… I really hope… just please…' He can feel his heart starting to beat a little more rapidly as his anxiety starting to increase. The thought of his friend being taken away from him is starting to hit a little too much for him as he places his hand over his chest. 'Please fail this Jeremie. I can't lose a friend. I just can't. I can't—'
His thoughts are shifted away as the hallway he was in is suddenly bathed in darkness. "What the…?" He mutters in confusion as he looks around the hallway but finds not a scrap of light active. "Oh come on." He mutters annoyed as he flips open his phone and shines the screens light around. "Better… but what's going on?" He mumbles as he continues to keep going.
"HEEEEEELLP!"
He doesn't get far as a loud scream of fear cuts through the silence. Immediately Alex recognizes the voice. "Sissi?" He calls out and looks towards the door near him. He goes up to it and knocks on the door. "Siss! Is that you?! What's going—"
"Please help me!" She cuts him off and screams for help.
Without wasting a moment, Alex swings open the door. "Sissi!" He shouts her name and freezes as he looks before him what's going on.
Sissi is seen cowering on top of her bed with a pink robe on her hair slightly messy than her usual getup, most likely due to her just about to go to sleep. What has her scared and almost crying is on the other side of the room from her: a whole horde of rats staring at her menacingly.
As soon as Alex opened the door all the rats and Sissi look at him. Alex just about flinches when he notices the dangerous looking red eyes staring back at him. Dozens and dozens of red eyes.
"Alex! Please help me!" Sissi cries out in desperation. This is all that is needed to trigger the rats as they scurry forward to attack Alex. He quickly looks to the side and grabs onto Sissi's dresser next to him. With a heave he grabs onto the top and topples it over onto the ground in front of him. The rats stop midway running to him and immediately backpedal and scatter away. The dresser crashes hard onto the floor sends tons of beauty products and some clothes scatter about but this was all the distraction Alex needed.
"Sissi come on!" Alex shouts to her.
Sissi blinks in surprise before she jumps off her bed and lands on the back of the fallen dresser, jumping off of that and jumping towards Alex. He reaches out and grabs onto one of her outstretched hands heaves her through the door just as a flurry of rats jump at her, teeth bared and tiny screeches can be heard from them.
*SLAM*
Thankfully as Alex is pulling Sissi out he pulls the door closed right in front of the rats. As Sissi grunts when she lands on the ground, her door slams closed with a loud 'slam' followed by small thuds from the rats hitting the door. Alex breathes heavily as he holds the door tightly closed and can even hear the rats screeching angrily from the other side. With it firmly closed, Alex sighs in relief and relaxes. "Okay… I think we're goo- Oof!"
"Oh thank you thankyouthankyouthankyooouuu!" Sissi immediately latches onto his back, arms wrapped around his neck and thanking him profusely.
Alex grunts in surprise at the sudden grab from Sissi but doesn't do anything crazy. "Okay okayokay okay! You're welcome Sissi! Please let me go. Air please." He grunts out as he feels his air being slightly restricted. Nothing of concern but she doesn't need to know that.
"Oh right! Sorry." She lets go and steps back, looking a little sheepish. "Thank you again."
"No problem no problem." Alex pats his clothes down and aims his phones light down to the ground, illuminating the both of them just a little without actually blinding either of them potentially. "But what's going on? What's with all the rats?" Alex comments as he waves at her door, which has the sounds of the scratching rats on the other side trying to get out to them.
"I don't know!" Sissi loudly complains, annoyed at having been chased out her room by them. "I was just getting myself ready for bed when I scared one of those disgusting rats away, then the lights went out, shoddy electricity I tell you, and then their was an army of those things ready to attack me!" She states in anger at how the whole situation became for her. She looks down and sighs sadly before looking at her room. "All my stuff. I bet those nasty rats are having a meal of my dresses."
*Thunk*
"Ahh!" Sissi recoils back as a particular loud noise can be heard from her room.
Alex stares at the door warily. Seeing those red eyes from rats was definitely not a normal thing. Then again he doesn't exactly look at what rats look like at night so he's not sure. Regardless he knows staying there isn't a good decision.
"C'mon." He waves for her to follow him. "Jim and the others are having dinner in the cafeteria. Let's go let them know and I'm sure Jim will find you a place to sleep while he figures out how to deal with this infestation."
"Okay." Sissi meekly states as she glances at her door before following Alex, a little too close for his comfort but follows nonetheless.
They move in silence through the hallway to the stairs with Alex lighting the way for them. He has to be careful for the both of them as he walks down the stairs for the both of them so they don't trip and fall. After the last things that happened with him involving Sissi Alex still feels tense being with her but frankly the whole thing with Jeremie, then the crazy rats trying to attack Sissi, he doesn't need to add more drama to his life, or at least for the moment. "Watch your step." Alex warns her as he makes it to the last step and hits the bottom floor. Sissi still looks nervous over the whole situation, especially since the lights still haven't bothered to come back on. He reaches out and takes Sissi's hands and eases her down a little.
"Thank you." She thanks him, which he nods back to her.
Looking to the wall to the side he walks over and goes to flip the light switches. Several flips and nothing changes for the light situation. "Of course they don't turn back on." He grumbles in annoyance. "I wonder if the rest of the campus is out of power."
"A-A-Alex!"
"Sissi?!" Hearing her call out to him he whirls around to see her staring out the main doors to the outside. He runs to her and stops she looks scared almost beyond belief, looking like she's about to start shaking. "Sissi! What's wrong?" He looks to make sure she's alright but soon enough she points forward out the door. When Alex looks, his heart just about sinks. "…Oh."
Rats.
Lots and lots of rats.
Like an insurmountable amount of rats. The day may have turned to night but that doesn't detract at all the massive horde of wriggling, squeaking and moving rats that litter the entire place outside all over the ground. "What in the…?" Alex can barely believe what's going on and just how serious things have taken. It wasn't even a few minutes when he walked across the quad to make it to the building and now it's completely taken over.
The idea of what would have happened if he was still standing there when the rats came out leaves a very sick feeling in his stomach. Even so, theirs no doubt about it for him.
XANA has activated a tower.
"This is not good."
"Wha-What are we going to do?" Sissi whisper shouts to Alex in dreaded fear. It was one thing when their was only a few rats she had to deal with but now the amount of them they see is like nothing she's ever had to see.
Alex doesn't immediately answer her, instead trying his best to figure out something for them to do. Because right now last he remembered his friends and pretty much the rest of the student body and faculty are stuck in the cafeteria building and surrounded.
He grunts in frustration as he can't really come up with a solution to get out of there as well as save the oth—
"Ok, outside, everyone!"
Alex looks up at the shouting towards the cafeteria. He watches as everyone files out, including Ulrich and Odd as they use some fire extinguishers to blast the rats with foam and keep them away.
"Perfect!" Alex says at the idea before he quickly looks around and spots the fire extinguisher back inside the building. He runs back inside to grab it while everyone tries to deal with the rats.
"There are way too many of them. We'll never be able to hold them back all night!" Odd informs them in worry, especially since they only have the two extinguishers.
"Hey! Help! We're over here!" Sissi goes ahead and calls out the entire group to hopefully get themselves some help.
Unfortunately this comes with the problem that the rats have taken notice and turn their heads in her direction.
"Sissi?! What's she doing here, anyway?!" Ulrich calls out in frustration at the additional headache they might have to deal with.
"We have to help her, or she's going to be eaten alive!" Odd tells him. Despite their feelings with Sissi and all that they do still need to help her.
Sissi looks on fearfully as the rats begin to make their way to her.
"Sissi get back!" Alex shouts as he comes running out. Sissi steps to the side as Alex immediately begins spraying the rats back away from the both of them.
"Is that Alex?" Odd questions in surprise at his friends appearance.
"It sure is." Ulrich answers with a smile. "Looks like they didn't get him and he saved Sissi. Nice one." He says before blasting some more of the rats coming a little too close for comfort.
"Yeah but we still need a way to get out of this mess." Odd mutters in frustration as he blasts some more rats.
Alex meanwhile grunts as he tries to keep the rats away but theirs way too many for them all to deal with. "We need a way out of here! These aren't going to last forever!" Alex shouts angrily as the horde of rats is pretty much never-ending.
"But how do we- Wait, what's that?" Sissi begins to fearfully say before confusion replaces her tone and she points out to the side.
Alex takes a second to look to where she's pointing and he sees a form speeding towards them.
The rats look up as they hear something approaching them. Alex smiles in relief as Yumi comes speeding through the park on a bicycle, ringing the bell as she does.
"Ah, here she comes!" Ulrich informs Odd at their backup.
"Yumi!" Alex calls out as he and Sissi wave to her.
The bike ploughs through the sea of rats and skids to a halt in front of Sissi, giving them a small break from the horde. Yumi gestures to the rack on the back of the bike.
"You two need a ride?" Yumi asks with a wry smile. They are both about to get on but Alex grimaces as it would be difficult for them both to get on the back with Yumi already on it.
"Take her." Alex quickly orders Yumi to do. "We both can't fit on there."
"What are you gonna do?" Yumi asks as she kicks a rat that was going to jump on her.
"I'll go find Jeremie. You know we can't fix this without him. You all keep safe." Alex informs her. While most of the Lyoko warrors are accounted for, the brains of their operation is still missing, making him top priority at the moment until they can get to the factory.
Yumi grimaces but nods in the end. "Okay."
"Mhwa!" To Alex's surprise, Sissi quickly gives him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you!" She thanks him and quickly hops on the bike, clinging to Yumi's waist.
Alex is still stunned, as is Yumi, but Alex soon enough shakes his head clear and waves them off. "Go!" He shouts and sprays some of the rats away from them. Yumi is shaken from her stupor too and they race back through the rats, skidding sideways and clearing a decent path right in front of the cornered students.
"Welcome to the rat pack!" Odd calls out happily at seeing their friend with them.
"Where's Alex?!" Ulrich asks in confusion when he sees their other friend isn't with them. He looks back to the building to see Alex running back in and slamming the doors shut before the rats can get at him.
"He's going to find Jeremie. We need to focus on getting you all out of here." With Yumi's words, Odd and Ulrich nod in agreement and get ready to get going.
Elsewhere on the campus, more specifically in the library, Jeremie with his psychologist Simone hunkered down in the room.
For obvious sake when the power went out, taking the test wasn't an option anymore for Jeremie and when the rats came, it was all that they could do to stack a massive pile of books to bar the door as much as they can to keep the rats from coming in.
"Ok. Keep going alone, Sir." Jeremie orders Simone to do as he runs back to the table and gets out his laptop. "Let's hope this will hold them back long enough…" He mutters and quickly boots up his program to get in touch with their last friend. "Aelita?"
On Lyoko, Aelita is in the desert region of the virtual world and is taking cover. She peeks out from behind a rock column and spots the tower they need to deactivate. "XANA has activated a tower, Jeremie. I've spotted where it is. I'm on my way there now. I'll try and get a closer look, ok?"
Jeremie nods back and closes his laptop, glad to know she's okay and has confirmed what they need. He looks over at his phone.
With the group at the cafeteria, everyone is still pressed in trying to figure out a way out of their situation.
Odd and Ulrich are still fending off the rats with the extinguishers.
Yumi's phone rings and she answers. "Hello, Jeremie… Yes, the rats have attacked… Ok, right… Alex? He left to go find you. Where are you?... Alright I'll let him know. We'll meet at the lab." With the information relayed, she hangs up. "We have to find a safe place."
"Where, huh? The rats are all over." Ulrich questions the plan.
"I-I know one!"
"Huh?" Ulrich mutters at Jim.
"Uh, the only place with no access to the sewers is the science building. Let's go!" Jim informs them. With that being the best place for them to hunker down at, that's the plan to do.
"Better hurry. I'll call Alex." Yumi says as she uses her phone to call Alex. "C'mon c'mon." She mutters impatiently as she tries to get him on the line.
But the call doesn't go through.
"What?!" She cries out in surprise before she tries again and again as Ulrich and Odd lead everyone away. "Alex pick up c'mon!" Yumi calls out desperately. "Why won't you answer?!" She calls out angrily.
"Well that's not good."
With Alex, after he was able to lock himself back inside the main dorm building, he breathed a sigh of relief and went to pull out his phone. To his disappointment and awkwardness, he drained the battery using it as a flashlight with Sissi, and because he was planning to charge it overnight.
"Of course that's my luck." He mumbles and makes his way up the stairs. He would go along the ground hallways to get elsewhere on the other side of the building but he already spotted rats starting to make their way through the hallways through the glass windows on some of the other doors. His best bet now that he's cornered in the building is to go up and over through the dorm rooms area and hopefully get to the other side of the building without being accosted by rats constantly. While he's still got a lot of the extinguisher left in the tank, he wants to make sure to use sparingly, at least until he can find another one. "Just keep moving. Got to find Jeremie." Alex mutters.
With the others hopefully figuring out a way to get out or to the factory, Alex will work his way through the campus to find and get Jeremie back to the factory. Although he's not exactly sure where he is. He would call him but having a dead phone battery kind of put a damper on that plan. With an annoyed grunt he makes it back to the top of the stairs and finds himself back in the hallway that he found Sissi in. Trudging forward he finds his thoughts coming forth, 'Okay then. Just have to find Jeremie and get him to the supercomputer. Question is: Where is he? Best guess they'd sit down in a classroom or something to take the test. Some place quiet at the very least as I'm sure the psychologist wants to make sure theirs no distractions for the genius that Jeremie is.' An idea pops into his head. 'Huh, well we were in the library. That's another place they can go to.' He grimaces at the thought. "But that's furthest away from here." He grumbles quietly before shaking his head in resignation. 'Doesn't matter. I'll head to the classrooms first since those are closest and try to find him. From there it shouldn't be that much a problem to—'
*Scrtchtchtchtcht*
He pauses as he hears some sounds. "What?" He mutters confused and looks to his side. He hears the scratching sounds coming from one of the rooms to his side. "Hello?" He calls out and knocks on the door. The scratching gets more violent and he steps back. When he does, it finally makes him realize that in his thoughts from earlier, he didn't notice he made it back to Sissi's room. His eyes widen, "Oh no."
*CRACK*
"SCREEEEEAAAHHH!"
One rat busts through the wooden door and sticks its head out, screeching as it does. Alex jumps at the action as he fumbles with his extinguisher. Suddenly several more rats bust through the door and screech at him as they desperately try to get their bodies through the holes they gnawed through the door. "Oh screw this!" He shouts and begins sprinting down the hallway to get as far away from them as he can. He can't move very fast due to the weight of the fire extinguisher but he does make some distance down the hallway.
Unfortunately after the rats first burst through Sissi's door they managed to tear through more of the door and a horde of rats are already starting to chase after Alex. He looks back as he hears them scampering up to him.
"Oh I don't think so!" He twists back and starts spraying the rats as they try to jump at him. They are knocked back and the rats squeal loudly as they are hit with the cold foam spray of the extinguisher. They scamper back away from him as he covers the width of the hallway between him and them. With a good amount of the rats being sprayed back, Alex quickly begins making his way through the hallway again. He was able to keep them back for a bit but they are quickly gathering themselves back and giving chase.
Alex is able to make his way back to the other staircase and starts jumping down several steps to cover as much distance as he can, being careful to grab the railing to steady himself so he doesn't stumble and roll down the stairs. Soon enough he makes it to the ground floor and stumbles a little before getting himself back up. He looks up the stairwell to see and hear the rats coming down the stairs, and to his surprise he sees some rats jump off the top floor and freefalling down to him.
"Oh come on!" He shouts and heads for one of the doors into a side hallway but he stops as he sees through the glass the rats still congregating inside. "Really?!" He shouts incredulously and without much choice he makes for a break to the door to the outside. A quick look shows this side of the building is clear of rats. The sound of the rats is getting uncomfortably close so he quickly turns around and sprays some more of the extinguisher and gives himself some breathing room from the rats. With them held back, he swings the door open and quickly pulls himself through before he slams the door closed. Alex breaths heavily as he watches as the rats begin to slams themselves into the door. He steps back a few feet as he takes steady breaths as he watches them.
*Crack*
One of the panes of the window cracks from rats slamming into it. "Oh hell." He mutters in worry. He turns to run away…
And theirs more. A lot more. The rats outside have already started to surround the building and heading right for him.
"Oh damnit!" Alex shouts in exhaustion and quickly looks around until he spots another building behind him. Without another choice he pushes towards the building and tries to get inside. Another round of rats are trying to stop him but he quickly manages to force them back by spraying them some more. By the skin of his teeth he slams through the doors with his shoulder and manages to fling them open. He tosses the fire extinguisher down, making it clang loudly as it rolls on the ground, so he can focus on grabbing the doors and slams them closed. For a second they don't close at first but one quick kick he locks them up tightly. He breaths heavily again as he watches the rats try to slam into the door and window again but luckily these ones are made of metal and the windows are slightly reinforced. "Oh boy… phew… so close." He steadies himself and even in the darkness of the whole place, he notices something on the ground in front of the door, and on it when the doors closed.
Alex decides to not try to see through the darkness to see what might have happened when he slammed the doors closed on the rats and focuses on grabbing his extinguisher. Grabbing it, he takes a look around to see he's in one of the classroom buildings of the campus. Which one, he's not sure. The darkness isn't helping and he got turned around trying to figure out his escape routes from everywhere.
"Okay okay okay… okay Alex. Try and get your bearings. Jeremie has got to be here somewhere, or nearby. I don't know just close hopefully." He steps forward and carefully moves through the empty quiet building, keeping steady to allow his eyes to adjust to the darkness properly. "Just keep calm and be on your toes. Just find Jeremie and get out… and find some more fire extinguishers."
He's not sure how much he has left in his and its too dark to see the gauge.
He just has to hope for the best.
From there he spends a few minutes walking quickly through the building, glancing into every classroom he comes across to hopefully find his friend. "Jeremie?" He calls out quietly as he opens a classrooms door.
Empty.
He grunts and moves to another one. "Jeremie?"
Empty.
He murmurs in annoyance anc continues going. "Jeremie are you there?"
Empty.
"Seriously." Alex mumbles annoyed before just about slamming open another door. "Jeremie?!"
Emp—
Alex's eyes widen.
Rats. Lots and lots of rats. He sees a whole horde of them congregating inside the middle of the classroom. A quick look up and Alex see's one of the windows inside the room was left open.
"Oh crap." He mutters and goes to grab the handle.
"Raaaah!"
"Whoa!" Alex shouts as one rat jumps up towards the handle and nearly bites his hand. Just barely he was able to jerk his hand away and quickly scrambles backward as more of them try to swarm him. It's too late for him to close the door as they get after him as he fumbles with his extinguisher. Soon enough he's able to get it going and begins spraying the rats and keeps them back from him. "Yeah take that! Jeremie!" Alex calls out again. He steps back a few more feet before he has to spray some more. The hallway he's in now is pretty wide so the rats are doing what they can to get behind and around him so he's forced to use the extinguisher more times than he's comfortable with. "Jeremie! Where are you?!" He calls out again but to still no avail as he gets no reply. He goes to spray some more away from him.
*Crash*
He looks to his side at the sound and sees a ceiling panel had fallen down the ground. Rats scurry away as he sees a few more jumping down from the hole in the ceiling. He looks up and to his horror many more of the ceiling panels are moving a little too much. "Oh no way!" He shouts and tries to start sprinting away as more of the rats fall from the ceiling around. "Forget this!" To Alex's frustration he's moving too slow lugging around the extinguisher. So he jams the lever to activate it and tosses it behind him. With the loud clanging sound of the metal tube hitting the floor, the aerosol spray of the fire extinguisher goes off continuously and sprays all over the hallway behind him as he sprints as fast as he can down the hallway, allowing it to keep the majority of the horde of rats from him.
But he's still being chased by some rats, and he's still trying to dodge the ones falling from the ceiling. He has to juke left and right as the ceiling tiles fall to avoid them hitting him or allow the rats in the opening to jump onto him. He is about to pass by a T-intersection of a hallway and spots a janitors cart with a mop on it. He swipes it as he passes by, thankful its dry or otherwise it would have been annoying trying carry it with the added weight of water.
What isn't good though is when he turns to the right he spots himself stopping at a dead end. Mentally cursing to himself he turns around to head back.
*SCREEAHH*
"Whoa!" He dodges to the side as a rat nearly jumps and bites him. He has to dodge a few more times as its tenacity continues to have it jump at him and miss. Annoyance bubbles in him as he grips the mop tightly as he looks on at the rat as it prepares to jump at him. "Get…!" He pulls his mop up.
The rat jumps at him one last time.
"AWAY!" He shouts and swings as hard as he can.
*Smack*
With the sound of him impacting it, he sends the rat sailing across the hallway several dozen feet before it plops onto the floor. Alex breathes heavily after almost getting bit and for a second he's worried that he straight up killed it, but that's soon gone as he watches it slowly get up.
Soon enough his worry turns to fear as he realizes he doesn't hear the fire extinguisher anymore. Before he can think to get going, a horde of rats suddenly sprint out from around the corner and he's instantly cornered in the hallway.
"Oh great… ohhhh come on now."
The rats move at him slowly, making sure to cover the hallway fully so he doesn't try to get past them. Alex swallows the nervousness in his throat and tightens his grip on his mop, his breathing going a little hard, his adrenaline starting to spike in preparation.
"Alright… you wanna go?!" He calls out in challenge to them. The rats move a little faster to him. "You wann go XANA?!" They stop and prepare to charge him as he holds his weapon up high. "Well I'm right here! LET'S GO NOW!"
The rats almost as one, charge him at full speed. Alex holds his ground as he prepares to take one as many of them as he can.
Hopefully to buy the others some time.
He swings as the first set jumps.
"Say cheese!"
Alex grunts because as soon as he hears the voice, his eyes are suddenly blinded. He still makes impact with the rats that jumped but he's sure they are also blinded too. He covers his eyes as he hears the sounds of the rats squealing in pain as they scurry away. At the same time Alex can hear the sounds of a camera flash going off constantly around him. It lasts for several long seconds until everything is silent and he hears nothing else around him. He keeps his eyes closed after the blinding effect that hit him.
"Alex are you okay?"
Alex blinks his eyes several times as he tries to get his vision back. "Jeremie?" He calls out as he recognizes the voice.
"Yeah its me." He hears Jeremie say. His vision returns and he manages to make out the form of Jeremie.
A smile forms on Alex's face as he sees his friend safe and sound. "Jeremie! Man am I glad to see you." Alex says in relief.
"It's good to see you too. Was Yumi able to contact you?"
Alex shakes his head no. "She didn't. But that's mostly because my phones battery is dead."
"That's not good."
"No it isn't. But how did you manage to scare the rats away?" Alex asks his friend, remembering how one second he was going to be swarmed by hundreds of rats and next they are all gone.
"With this." Jeremie smiles at him and holds up a small device.
Alex looks closely at the item in his hand, "Is that a camera flash attachment?" He mutters confused.
"It is. Check it out." He walks into one of the nearby doorways, which Alex follows into. To Alex's surprise, the room is actually a large photography room, which includes some liquid tubs for developing film, film reels and other things similarly. Jeremie makes a bee line to a cabinet stocked with dozens of the camera flash attachments from lenes and the flash pieces. "Since XANA decided to launch his attack at night, I figured they might have been more sensitive to bright lights. Since I didn't have enough flashlights, I decided to go here to get something else bright enough to drive them away."
"I'd say you chose right." Alex compliments him as he rubs his eyes a little.
"Sorry about that. Didn't really have time to give you much of a heads up." Jeremie apologizes but Alex waves him away.
"No worries. Just glad you saved me really."
"Same here." Jeremie replies and grabs several more of the flash attachments, including a few batter packs to keep them running just in case. "Now, shall we head to the factory and end this nightmare?" He gives Alex a smile as he holds out one of the attachments to him.
For the first time tonight, Alex gets a devilish smile as he takes the device in hand. "Oh… yes. We shall." He feels content, happy, and ready to properly fight back now that he's got his new weapons in hand.
"Great! But first we got to stop by the library and save the psychologist." Jeremie nonchalantly stays as he walks past him.
Alex looks up in confusion for a second as he processes what he said. "Wait, what now?"
True to what Jeremie said, the duo make their way back to the library where Jeremie was originally taking his test. This time, while they were accosted by rats the whole way, using their newfound weapons easily made dealing with them a breeze and allowed them safe passage to the trapped psychologist, Simone.
The person in question is still sitting in the same sitting and exhausted position as when Jeremie left him. Alex and Jeremie make it back into the room and are relieved to see no rats have managed to break in. Alex notices that the guy is still so freaked out he barely looks like he notices Alex and Jeremie have entered the room. Just to make sure, Jeremie walks over to the windowsill and flashes the rats congregating there, making them jerk back and fall off.
"It still worked! Great!"
"Awesome. Now lets get out of here and deal with the problem at the source." Alex proposes they do.
Jeremie nods in agreement as he walks over drops a torch on the table next to Simone.
"Eh?!" The psychologist loudly cries out in surprise.
"If they come, use this. It'll chase them away." He informs the scared adult before looking at Alex. "Let's go."
Alex nods as he and Jeremie run over to a window and climb out.
"Stay! P-please don't go!" They barely managed to hear Simone call out desperately for them but they are already gone. "I'm a-afraid of rats! Waah! Oh no…"
The duo focus on getting out as they flash the ground, clearing the way for them so they don't get swarmed. Alex makes sure to close the window tightly before they both begin making their way towards the factory.
Meanwhile the rest of the Lyoko warriors were able to make their way to the factory, after leading the rest of the student body to the sealed up science buildings rooftop and subsequently rappelling their way back to the ground. Then of course to run all the way to the factory since the sewers were filled with rats, and then having to use a rickety old boat to ferry their way across the water to the bridge when the rats blocked the bridge.
All three Lyoko warriors are in the elevator as they make it to the supercomputer. Yumi exits the lift into the lab while Odd and Ulrich hang back inside. She sits down at the computer and looks utterly lost at what she needs to do. Before she can think to do anything, her phone rings, which to her relief is Jeremie on the other line.
"Hey, Jeremie. Did you find Alex?" She quickly asks him.
"I did, barely but now we're making our way to the factory. What's going on over there?"
"I'm in the lab. I have to contact Aelita, and virtualise Odd and Ulrich. Explain to me how to do it!" She pretty much demands of him to do, which as of this time they are on a tight time-table and need to get this done. Jeremie and Alex find themselves walking along the riverbank with Alex holding two of the camera flashes so Jeremie can focus on the phone conversation.
"Listen up, now…"
Yumi listens diligently as she types in the commands. "Ok. That's done. I found the activated tower, and I've located Aelita. She's got a problem!" She tries to listen carefully but Alex and Jeremie are having trouble. "Um…what? Speak louder, I can hardly hear you! I have to type in the co-ordinates? Say that again? Nineteen degrees west? That's it… Isn't it nineteen degrees west?"
"Wait, no! I said seventy-nine degrees west, seventy-nine degrees west! Listen, Yumi. The rats have invaded the city, do you hear?!"
"Ok then, I'm ready."
*BEEEEEP*
The dial tone sounds on Jeremie's end.
"Yumi, can you hear me?" Jeremie asks through his phone but grunts as he looks and sees the call was dropped.
"Jeremie what's going on?" Alex asks worriedly over the franticness his friend was speaking.
"I don't know. The call just got dropped. I don't know how—"
Suddenly a small explosion can be heard. They look in the distance to see a small fire has started on one of the nearby cell phone towers with an explosion having gone off on it. Not enough for significant damage or injury but enough for the both of them to know that XANA's rats just about took out their only means of communication.
"Well that's not good." Alex mutters in annoyance.
"C'mon, we're almost there." Jeremie leads Alex forward. "Let's hope Yumi didn't materialize the others over the virtual sea." Alex nods in agreement as they take off in a jog. To the duo's dread it seems the rats didn't only get to the academy to stop them but instead have infested all over the city. They can hear some sirens going off in the distance and they can only hope nothing deadly has happened to the people in the city. As they just saw the rats are doing what they can to disrupt their means to get to the factory and properly fight XANA. While it was a simple matter for them to make it to the factory, especially with the camera tools Jeremie was able to scavenge.
The entire bridge is covered all over with rats and it doesn't take long for them to immediately charge the two of them. Fortunately, they have just what they need to fight back.
"Smile!" Jeremie calls out with a smile as Alex holds up two of the camera flashers. With Jeremie holding one up, they douse the rats in bright flashes of lights, immediately making them backpedal and scurry away from them as they launch continuous flashes of light and clear the way for them. Alex even uses the flasher on the supports struts for the bridge to make sure the rats don't try to jump on them from above.
While Jeremie swings on the chain downwards, Alex stays up top for a second to keep the rats away from them. "Alright Alex! C'mon down."
Alex turns around and grabs onto the chain and slides down. In a desperate bid to get at them, a dozen rats sprint forward and try to get at them as they jump off the eldge.
Unfortunately for them Jeremie simply aims his flasher up and flashes as they are falling, making the rats recoil and go off course from them.
"Thank you." Alex thanks him as he lands on the ground.
"No problem. Let's go." Without further ado, they finally make it to the elevator.
They both breathe a long sigh of relief and relax in the elevator as they feel themselves drifting downward towards the underground floors.
"That… was close." Jeremie breathes out as he lets the camera flash fall to the floor.
Alex leans back and lets out a long heavy sigh of air. "Way too close."
"I wonder what else XANA can do to mess with us." Jeremie mutters in tired curiosity.
Alex shakes his head. "Don't know, don't care, and never want to know." To see XANA take over the horde of rats like that… really put Alex on some heavy unease with everything that happened and he saw.
"Yeah, your probably right." Jeremie agrees with him. Not long after the elevator finally stops. The doors open to reveal to them the supercomputer room, except they see Yumi sitting in the chair with a very nervous look about her. Whatever's going on on Lyoko then things don't seem as good.
Both of them walk up to her. She's so engrossed in the screen and worried she doesn't notice them until Jeremie places a hand on her shoulder.
"Need any help?" Yumi looks up at the voice, much to her immense relief she sees its Jeremie and Alex.
On Lyoko, the situation is bad, very bad and not going good. Odd has already been devirtualized, barely after nearly falling into the digital sea. Never has any of them thought it was a relief for one of XANA's monsters to double tap them.
XANA had decided to tilt the whole of one of the land platforms in the Desert sector completely vertical. It was only through the quick thinking of Aelita that she was able to make a piece of the land jut out and be a platform for the group. While it did well to save the group, Odd, Ulrich and Aelita were still at the mercy of the Krabe monsters, giant red crab like monsters made by XANA, as they clung to the original floor of the land platform and shoot down at them. It was only through Ulrich's quick thinking that he was able to shield Aelita with his body and take the full force of a flurry of laser shots to prevent her from getting hit.
Now that Odd is gone, Ulrich is down to the last bits of his health and is barely able to keep Aelita safe from the last Krabe as he deflects the lasers trying to hit them.
The situation is dire and for every second they spend in Lyoko, the more time is spent for the rats to get at everyone that's still stuck and ready to get eaten. Ulrich as he deflects a few more lasers and takes a couple hits. One more and he's gone. The Krabe climbs forward until it lands on their platform. With the final enemy now within reach, Ulrich smiles and charges the monster, intent on ending this threat and being done with it. Just as he strikes the monster, the Krabe shoots Ulrich as their weapons connect each other.
Aelita is on the ground from the explosions and devirtualization that happened. Aelita look forward and hopes that the monster was at least destroyed.
To her horror the last monster walks forward and comes up to Aelita. It raises its claw up and poised ready to destroy her.
"No!" Aelita calls out in fear as she holds her arms up in a futile attempt to protect herself.
It lowers its claw.
"Hey crustacean!"
From the yell, Yumi's fan comes flying by and chops off its claw. Barely a second after and a flurry of blaster bolts impact the top of the Krabe before a few hit the eye dead center on top. The monster wobbles a little until it eventually explodes. Aelita breathes a sigh of relief as she stares at where the monster just was.
"Hey Aelita!" She looks up at the call of her name. She smiles as she sees Alex and Yumi staring down at her, perched on some rocks. Alex gives her a small wave. "Ready to finish this?"
Aelita returns the smile and looks up with determined look. "Of course."
With the danger of the monsters gone, Aelita just needed to use her powers again to help reorient the platform back to its original place. With it set properly again, they were able to get Aelita to the tower all well and good. Alex and Yumi both watch as their friend enters the tower. A sigh of relief escapes the both of them now that the hurdle is over.
"Well, that was close." Alex mutters as he takes a quick look around. While he doesn't need to he feels like he doesn't want to give any of XANA's monsters a chance at a free shot.
"Yeah, it sure was." Yumi sighs in agreement. She looks at him in slight concern. "Do you think the others are okay? At the school?"
Alex purses his lips as she thinks about what had happened and his hope that things didn't get worse when they all left for the factory. Alex shakes his head as he hears Jeremie activate the RTTP. "I hope so, Yumi. I hope so." He closes his eyes as everything turns white.
The day has gotten reset as it does thankfully. None of the others are none the wiser to what had happened before the do-over and things are as good as they can be from what the Lyoko Warriors can tell. There is just one problem that they now have to address:
Jeremie's test.
Currently the group is back at the library like they were before last time. Yumi takes the opportunity to get some answers from their resident genius. "Jeremie. Hey, did you figure out a way to flunk the test, huh?"
Jeremie smiles since it seems like he's got a plan to make things work. "Well now that I know all the questions, I shouldn't have any trouble giving all the wrong answers." He informs them, much to some of their relief.
"Are you sure it's going to work?" Ulrich asks to be sure. With them having thwarted XANA, and the fact that even though Yumi had gotten tech support from Jeremie over the phone, a spotty connection made it so they came very close to losing everything when Yumi accidentally inputted the wrong coordinates to spawn in Ulrich and Odd away from Aelita.
This goes to show that they really did need Jeremie there to help.
"Anyway, I've got a foolproof way of flunking: I'm going to get all of my answers from Odd!" Jeremie cheekily states.
This causes Yumi and Ulrich to laugh at the answer. Alex chuckles as well as he shakes his head.
"Well that's a good a plan as any. If that doesn't work then I don't know what will. Haha." Alex's comment makes all three laugh now alongside now, much to the grumbling annoyance from Odd.
"Yeah, yeah, go on, laugh your heads off. But who knows? You might be in for a big surprise." Odd replies good heartedly. Everyone shares some chuckles, relief flowing through them as they now have a means and a plan to help Jeremie.
"Quiet!"
Others though… are not as easily amused, as evident from Jim, their library guard warden.
Another day, another brush with almost defeat by the hands of XANA. While I would have liked for Alex to have fought in the unique way the Lyoko map was turned, I think the freakiness and overall horde horror setup the rats had was pretty good in showcasing Alex trying to survive the entire mess from getting to the others, to navigating much of the dark and just overall trying to get away from every single rat that tries to make a meal of him.
It's crazy to think of the sheer number of rats that XANA was able to infect and turn on the Lyoko warriors. Gave me some Plague Tale games vibes when I rewatched the episode. Obviously not as much or as intense as the games but was still crazy to think about.
Pyrojack25: It is crazy the way how things go for the Lyoko warriors when it comes to all the crazy stuff that XANA can throw at them. Safe to say the Samurai and alien monster were some of the strongest and freakiest XANA had at its disposal for a more hands on approach, not counting the nuclear plant meltdown and satellite laser as those were completely out of the control for the warriors, and from here on out, things will only get crazier for them all.
Reggielacey2: In a fight between the different Lyoko warriors, including my OC, I'd say theirs a good chance that Ulrich might be the one to prevail. Here's how I see it: Yumi is elegant and maneuverable but if she throws her fan at Ulrich he could deflect her fan and now she's defenseless.
Odd has the movement and agility but he only has so many arrows he can use and his claws can't really block much if Ulrich goes on the offensive.
Alex while he has a lot of blaster fire he can only shoot so much, in which Ulrich can deflect the shots and block them, before Alex has to switch to his Kukri and Ulrich has the edge in range of their melee weapon swings, plus Ulrich has abilities to make himself faster.
This is what I'm thinking off the top of my head on how things could go in a fight for them but who knows. Would be interesting either way.
Kitehaseo: Shippings are always an interesting way for relationships to progress for stories and while I currently have no plans, it is an idea for Alex to possibly having something with Yumi or Aelita. I can't say for sure how things go as ideas always crop up but we'll see how things go.
Glaive165: My apologies for the long update times. I still work on some of my others stories when I can hence the time it takes so please bear with me as time goes.
Thank you all for your continued support. Hope you all had a fun time reading. Go ahead and fave, follow, review, whatever you wish. Take care everyone. Have fun reading all, but most of all have a great day each and every one of you.