Code Nexus

Location: Earth, Oceanian Continent, Sunrise Island’s airspace.

Crystal waves lapped the shores of Sunrise Island, the white sand of its pristine beaches sparkling in the tropical sunlight as the sun started to rise above it.

The night on the plane from Sydney to Sunrise Island was quite eventful, as after she gorged herself on all the sweets and sugar present on the plane, Pinkie turned into a noisy bouncing ball that kept everybody awake for most of the night. Not to mention Peridot creeping out a guy by telling him about how easily the plane could have crashed because of it’s archaic engineering.

“Hmm good morning gems…” Steven yawned as he woke up. “How did you sleep?”

“I’ve had better nights, but it was alright,” Amethyst said.

“I can’t imagine how somebody could find these ridiculous seats even tolerable,” Pearl complained “The reclining is only ten centimeters, there was no space for my legs, the lumbar support is completely off. And I’m not even supposed to be annoyed by an uncomfortable seat! Once I get out of here I’m going to complain directly to the company! Thank goodness we normally use warp pads.”

“While being an obsolete flight machine, I must say that the flight wasn’t too terrible,” Peridot said.

“Mmmh alright… How are you feeling Garnet?” Steven asked her, noticing that she didn’t say anything. “Garnet? You awake?” He gave her a couple pats.

“Oh… I’m awake, thank you Steven,” she greeted him as she woke up, though seeming a little dizzy.

“You alright Garnet? You don’t seem very well,” Steven asked her.

“I am fine,” was her only answer.

“You sure you are?” Steven asked further.

“Yes, I am. I guess I’m just adjusting to this place.” She touched her glasses.

“Oh, could it be because we are so close to the island?” Steven asked her.

Garnet crossed her arms. “Probably, but before we make any conclusions I suggest we wait until the ending of the day.”

Garnet wasn’t sure of it yet, but it seemed that her future vision was actually getting worse since she arrived in the proximity of the island. It was like the only thing she could see in front of her was a thick fog, which also kept getting thicker and thicker, allowing her to see only the most immediate things. However her Sapphire side preferred to keep calm about it, and wait until further developments.

“By the position of our plane on the map projected on the archaic image device, we are five hundred and twenty-four miles away from the island. We should arrive there in an hour and thirty-five minutes,” Peridot deduced.

In another area of the plane the girls were waking up too.

“Oh man… what a night.” Rainbow Dash yawned.

“You’re telling me, if I get that pink blur I’m going to teach it a thing or two.” Pinkie Pie slammed her fists together.

“That blur-” Sunset woke up groaning “-was you.”

“Oh right, silly me.” Pinkie Pie looked sheepish.

Twilight woke up a little after them, removing her ear plugs.

“Good morning girls,” she greeted them.

“Morning, Twilight, was your night good?” Sunset asked her.

“It was as a matter of fact. What about yours?” Twilight then took a closer look to their faces. “Oh… I’m sorry, girls. I wish I brought more hear plugs with me.”

“I am too.” Rarity woke up too removing her eye covers. “Oh, first these awful seats with fake reclining, and then Pinkie Pie with high sugar, this night was utterly terrible.”

“Anyways, it’s almost over, look at the map.” Sunset pointed at the screen hanging on the corridor.

“Looks like we’re almost there,” Applejack said.

“Yes we are,” Sunset said.

“Good, so I can finally stretch out. What do we do once we get to the island?” Rainbow Dash tried to stretch a little, but the small seat restrained her uncomfortably.

“Well, first we’ll need to get to the hotel. But don’t worry they offer a good shuttle service,” Sunset explained.

“As a matter of fact, there should be one their whale shuttles waiting for us by the parking lot, they guaranteed for it,” Twilight added.

“Whale... what now?” Applejack asked.

“They’re buses the hotel uses to shuttle guests from the airport,” Twilight explained, “and they're shaped like killer whales."

Pinkie on the other hand pushed her face as much as she could on the porthole, wanting to get a good enough view of the island as they were approaching.

When the airplane curved, in preparation for the descent, she could see the beautiful palm tree groves and the jungle covering the island. Along with the beautiful white beaches, emerald hills and the silhouettes of the buildings composing the town. She could also notice a blur in the far side of the island which looked like a conglomerate of white buildings and domes, which kind of made her Pinkie sense tingle a little.

“Oh look, another two planes!” Pinkie Pie saw other two planes approaching the island, except they didn't seem anything like the plane they were in. “Hey Twilight, are planes usually supposed to land in the airport right?”

“Yes, Pinkie Pie, of course, why?” Twilight asked.

“Because these two planes aren’t heading for the airport, but for the beach.” She pointed at them through the porthole.

Fluttershy lowered the curtain on her own and looked out. “Oh dear, if they’re heading for the beach, they’ll crash!” She closed her eyes tightly.

The members of the group who could quickly looked through their windows and saw exactly what Pinkie Pie described: two single pilot jets – one was white and blue with a light and sleek design, while the other was black and red with an almost gothic and spiky design – and both of them were approaching the beach at high speed.

However before they could crash the wings retracted, and four sets of wheels extended from the cockpits, turning them into what looked like very advanced cars.

“Woah…” It was the only thing the girls could say witnessing what just happened.

“A jet that can convert into a car? Could this mean that… no it can’t be.” Twilight Sparkle’s eyes grew wide.

“What’s up, Twilight?” Sunset asked.

“I already saw things like that, prototypes to be exact, one of them belongs to an inspirer of mine. But I don’t wanna illude myself, unless I see him in person there’s no reason to get too excited.” Twilight remained composed. “And in any case he isn’t one of our priorities.”

“Who is this guy?” Rainbow Dash asked, curious to hear about for whom Twilight was having a fangirl moment. It reminded her of when she met the Bolts.

Dexter McPherson, one of the most brilliant minds of the planet wrapped up in the body of an eighteen year old. He built his own lab in his house’s basement at the age of five, and managed to keep it hidden for more than ten years.

Once he graduated he revealed its existence to the world and used his inventions to fund his own research company: the Dexlabs. This of course allowed him to move out of the basement and to take his research to a whole new level, while still having to cope with his annoying sister and his rivals.

“Computress, give me the conversion data,” he ordered to his computerized assistant. He wore his customary lab coat with purple gloves and tall black boots. On his nose sat the large lens of his HUD-glasses.

An holographic image of a robotic woman’s face appeared in front of him. “Immediately, Dexter.” Holographic screens appeared around him, showing data gathered during the conversion from jet to car.

“Mmmmh it seems that everything went well. How was the tension of the chassis this time?” He examined the data carefully.

“Optimal, Dexter, there were no signs of any creep or deformation,” she answered.

“Excellent, some more adjustments and these road-air vehicles will be good to hit the market,” Dexter exclaimed pleased with himself.

“Some root beer to celebrate the success?” The assistant suggested.

“Not yet, Computress, remember that we are in mission, the pleasure of a cold iced root beer can wait,” he said resting on the seat, letting the automated driving system lead him towards his destination.

In that moment he was heading for the Island’s most prestigious hotel, the Surfer Paradise Deluxe to settle in. Officially it was a vacation of pleasure, but it was actually an undercover research mission to acquire data about the strange phenomena related to the island. As soon as his satellites reported the mysterious energy pulse, he could already foresee the potential uses of its source, and such an occasion deserved to be exploited.

Unfortunately for him he wasn’t the only one heading for the island. His greatest rival, Susan Astronomanov -also known as Mandark- was there too, in the car behind his own.

Mandark had been a prodigy like Dexter, and for the two of them it was rivalry at first sight. Their feud continued for most of their lives, even after they entered in the corporate world. It could be also said that the superfast development of their respective companies was caused by their very powerful competition, even if his company, the Mandark Industries, were often sued for unfair play and patent infringement.

He wore his usual white shirt with jean shorts held by braces, as well as long black socks with small cream colored shoes. He had drop shaped glasses and a black and yellow tie.

“Master, we have arrived,” The computer of his vehicle informed him, though nobody answered it. “Ahem, Master?”

Mandark was too busy smooching a life-size inflatable doll of his beloved one: Dexter’s sister Deedee.

“Oh Deedee, your love is like a… balm for my tormented life. Why do you have to be related to that awful skunk of Dexter, how could your beautiful genes have come from the same pool of him…?” he was blathering while kissing the doll repeatedly.

If the computer could have facepalmed it would have. “Master, I’m sorry to interrupt but–”

“How dare you interrupt my smooching!? I ordered you to remain silent until we have arrived at Sunrise Island,” Mandark interrupted it.

“But Master, we are at Sunrise Island.” The computer proceeded to turn the glass that surrounded the cabin from opaque to transparent allowing him to see where he was.

“Oh, you are correct. Sorry, my beloved Deedee, but unfortunately more pressing matters require me.” Mandark pressed a button that deflated the doll and made it collapse inside a compartment of the cabin. “Computer, prepare the mandroids to proceed to the unpacking as soon as we arrive at the hotel. Also, program them to be as reserved as possible regarding the espionage equipment”

“Of course, Master.” The computer started to program the bots inside the recharge compartments in the back of the vehicle.

“Soon I’ll know all the secrets of this island, and once they’re mine I’ll be able to crush Dexter and his company once and for all!” He started to laugh loudly but as soon as he raised from his seat he hit the roof of the cabin with his oversized head. “Youch!!!”

By eight in the morning the airplane landed by the island’s small airport, located behind the mountains. And afterwards the passengers flooded the gate.

The Rainbooms quickly got their luggage and headed out, as well as the crystal gems.

Sunrise Island’s airport was almost as big as Canterbury’s, the design was almost the same, with the only difference being that around it there weren’t pines, but palm trees. Right next to the airport there were some docks, connected to it by a pathway for rapid transit, and by them there were some buses, belonging to the different hotels on the island ready to pick up the paying customers.

The bus belonging to the Surfer Paradise was one that stood out. It was designed after an orca whale, only that it had purple coloring and was wearing beachwear. It even had a blowhole that erupted water for the client’s fun.

“Wow, that was orcatastic!” Pinkie Pie laughed as the water jet covered her.

“Here for the Surfer Paradise Deluxe, the best hotel of the island.” The man driving greeted them as he opened the door.

The group of passengers got on the bus quickly, including the Rainbooms. Once all the seats were taken and all the dock was empty, the bus’s doors closed and it drove off. After leaving the airport’s parking area, it got on the main road that led to the town, passing through the lush jungle that covered most of the island.

“I do hope that the hotel’s service will be better than their taste in design. This mix of purple and yellow hurts my eyes,” Rarity whined. She already saw the hotel’s color scheme from the photo on their site, but seeing it in person was even worse – even if it was only their whale bus.

“Don’t worry about that, Rarity. We are here to explore, after all, it’s not like we’ll pass all our time at the hotel,” Pinkie Pie said, trying to distract her.

“I know, Pinkie, but still we deserve to stay in a place that appeals the eye too,” Rarity answered, thinking about the dresses in her suitcase.

“Ah don’t worry about that, Rarity. You should enjoy the little pleasures, like this.” Pinkie Pie suddenly stuck her head out the window and let the warm tropical breeze pass on her face. She found the air very clean and refreshing.

“You are probably right, it’s a very well quoted hotel, after all.” Rarity relaxed. “I mean it’s impossible that so many good reviews were all wrong.”

Twilight, on the other hand, was sitting next to Sunset Shimmer, and was typing stuff on her PDA.

“Hey what are you doing, Twilight?” Sunset asked her.

“Writing down today’s program, a list of the stuff we need to do once we get to the hotel. For today it will be mostly unpacking, setting up our data center, preparing the research equipment and then letting our families know that the trip went well. I placed it for last because of the time zone,” Twilight explained.

“Oh, good thinking, Twilight.” Sunset smiled.

“Thank you, Sunset,” Twilight said.

“Will we be able to do something fun like exploring the town or something like that?” Pinkie asked eagerly. Her hair was even more a mess than usual, having been blown around by the wind.

“Today that will be quite unlikely, we have got a lot of work to do to get settled in, Twilight explained. “We can think about that tomorrow, and even in such case we’ll need to restrict the free time at a minimum.”

"Oh, okay..." Pinkie Pie said, frowning.

As everybody tended to their own affairs the bus exited the main road and started to move across the little tourist town.

At the hotel a deal was being struck inside the manager’s office.

“So with this everything is settled.” Mr. Ridgemount, a fairly old but robust man, was sitting behind his desk in the middle of his office, facing a young adult American-Asian woman with moderately long black hair and green eyes.

“It seems so,” The young woman answered, reading the contract she held in her hands. “These conditions seem fine as well as my payment and benefits.”

“Very well then, Miss Cassidy, you may sign when you feel sure.” The man handed her a black pen with a purple case and the hotel’s logo.

The woman quickly wrote her name – Katarina Cassidy – making her an official employee of the hotel.

“Welcome to the Surfer Paradise staff. Your room is by the water park’s arena, by the training tank,” he explained.

“Thank you, I’ll be on my way now.” Kat raised from the seat and prepared to leave.

“Ahem, Ms. Cassidy.” The man stopped her.

“Yeah?” Kat turned around.

He looked at her sternly. “Before you go, I want to make one thing clear: I rarely give second chances, and never give three. The investment I’m making on you is extremely relevant to my company’s balance, and I expect it to pay off immediately, so failures will not be tolerated.”

Kat frowned a little, but kept herself in line. “Understood, sir. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.”

“One more thing.” The man sounded just as stern as before.

“Yes?”

“Take your tiger shark out of my wall aquarium before he devours everything in it.” He pointed at the blue and grey tiger shark swimming around the aquarium embedded in the wall chasing around the exotic fishes inside.

Kat looked at the aquarium, then turned around with an embarrassed expression. “Of course sir, just give me a minute!”

The girl walked to the aquarium’s glass and started to beat on it, getting the tiger shark’s attention.

“Kenny come out of there! That's not for you, do not make us look bad in front of the new boss!” She spoke to him through the glass.

Obediently, the tiger shark swam up to the aquarium's edge and got out in the maintenance area. Kat went into the hallway to look for him.

This is either going to be one of my greatest failures or my greatest successes, Mr. Ridgemount thought as the door closed, staring at the computer screen on his left showing his current balance.

Mr. Ridgemount was the owner of an already successful hotel at Sunset Island in British Columbia, however as the businesses kept getting better and better he decided that it was time to expand. His choice for first new hotel site was Sunrise Island as, besides having very low real estate costs, it offered an environment that was even better than Sunset’s. In five years his project became a reality as the Surfer Paradise Deluxe was completed, becoming a great success among the vacationers almost immediately. Since then he kept his eyes peeled for other occasions to increase the resort’s popularity and income, and Kat was one of them.

She came from the town of Tiburon. A little suburb of San Francisco, located on a peninsula in the eponymous bay. She had been a sea lover since her childhood, and the fact that the town was surrounded by the sea allowed her to enjoy it even better. Her dream was to become a sealife researcher someday, but because of her economic situation, in order to get into good university she needed a job with a good income and save up. It was exactly that necessity that brought her to the Surfer Paradise Deluxe.

The team Lyoko arrived the prior day, and having arrived quite late in the evening they had little to no time to unpack their stuff.

The rooms that they could afford were basic ones, so nothing very fancy were in them. Just a flat screen TV of medium size, a medium purple sofa, two queen size beds each with purple and yellow sheets, a nightstand with a cordless phone stood between the two, and a fairly large desk was in front of the main window, equipped with plugs.

By nine o’clock most of them were still asleep, except for Jeremy and Aelita who had their alarm clock set.

“Good morning, Aelita.” Jeremy yawned, waking up and turning the alarm off by pressing a glowing button on the room’s phone.

“Hi, Jeremy, was your night good?” she asked, raising from her bed.

“Best night in the last few months, these king size beds are great for the back.” Jeremy got down and put on a pair of slippers.

“I agree, way better than the ones at Kadic.” She got up as well and put on her slippers as well.

“Alright, ladies first, Aelita. I’ll check on the others.” Jeremy started to raise the purple curtain allowing the sun’s rays to fill up the room, revealing the presence of their suitcases semi open still on the room’s floor.

“Thanks, Jeremy.” The pink haired girl smiled and started to wash herself and get ready for the day.

Jeremy sat in front of his laptop and turned it on. For now he only had that one, as he had been too tired to assemble the rest of his equipment, which was still inside the larger boxes in the closet.

Once the laptop was on, he clicked on an icon which activated a program called Lyokolink. The program was a personal invention of Jeremy’s, it was a micro scale social network that connected their smartphones. Along with internet chat, it allowed their watches to work as walkie-talkies on short and medium distances, not to mention to allow the user to inform the others of their state, like: ‘fine’, ‘calm’, ‘eating’, ‘asleep’, etcetera.

On the computer screen a window opened up displaying six cards, one for each Lyoko Warrior. They looked exactly like the ones that used to be displayed by the virtualization program running on the supercomputer, the only difference was the absence of the life points counter, which was substituted with the ‘state’ display.

“They are all sleeping it seems.” He closed the program and stretched. “Something tells me that they aren’t going to get up for a long time.”

He then got up and went to the closet and started to take out boxes. “Better if I start assembling the computer now, so we can start the surveillance from today.”

One after another, the five boxes filled with electronic components were removed from the closet, and Jeremy started to assemble the contents, while Aelita was finishing her shower.

She finished just as he was in the process of connecting an external disk to the computer case he just unpacked. “Alright this decypher goes over here…”

“I’m done, you can go now, Jeremy.” Aelita interrupted him. “You can leave the rest to me.”

“Alright, thank you, Aelita.” Jeremy took her place in the bathroom as she continued what he was doing before, connecting the components left to the main computer case and placing the auxiliary one on the other side of the main screen. In the end the machinery that was laying on the desk was exactly like the one that Jeremy used to have when he studied at Kadic.

“Done, let’s turn it on.” Aelita pressed the a red button on the bigger case.

After a few seconds the screens turned on, showing loading bars first, then thick lines of DOS code indicating that the operative system was being booted. Some minutes later the usual desktop appeared, and the computer was ready for use.

Jeremy came out of the restroom shortly after finishing to brush his teeth, just in time to see to see Aelita had finished setting the computer up.

“Excellent job, Aelita, now we are ready to start.” Jeremy sat in front of it and started to input commands.

“What program are we going to use first?” Aelita asked sitting on the sofa holding her laptop.

“Probably the superscanner, it can sense the activity of quantum supercomputers even if they are not Lyoko’s,” he explained accessing it.

“Good idea, I’d suggest to keep it active around the clock, at least for today,” Aelita recommended.

“Alright, let’s set the parameters.” Jeremy started to type commands. “Range of interest for GPS survey: Sunrise Island. Discard other locations: yes. Scanning period: twenty-four hours.”

“Everything should be set now.” Aelita checked on her laptop that the connection was safe enough.

“Ready to go.” Jeremy pressed the enter button. And as he did so, an imagine of the island appeared inside the program’s window, encased inside a cartesian plane.

“Okay, now this is done.” Jeremy reduced the program’s interface to an icon.

“So what’s our program for today, Jeremy?” Aelita asked.

“Well, we still need to decide it, but Odd will probably have some suggestions once he wakes up.” Jeremy looked at the Lyokolink program.

“Speaking of whom, it seems that he is already waking up.” Aelita pointed at his card, showing that his state changed from asleep to waking up.

“Let’s give the others some time to get ready for the day, then we can decide what to–” Jeremy was interrupted by the ringing of his phone.

He took it out and placed it upon his ear “Hello, Odd is it–”

“HEY EINSTEIN! Are you ready to start the vacation of a lifetime!?” Odd’s voice boomed out of the speaker, loud enough that even Aelita could hear clearly.

“It’s Odd…” Jeremy told Aelita. “Yeah, Odd, did you sleep well?”

“You asking me if I did? That was one of the best, these beds are great!” Odd exclaimed excitedly from his room.

William’s voice could be heard through the phone.

“Calm down, Odd, I’m still trying to wake up here.” He could be heard throwing a pillow to Odd.

“Ah! Missed!” Odd said, just before he was hit by the second pillow. “Anyway… I hope you had a good night too, how about we meet to discuss plans for today at breakfast? I’m famished”

“Sounds good to me, Odd.” Jeremy answered. “See you at the Submarine restaurant.”

“Well, it’s only a matter of time before Yumi and Ulrich wake up, let’s use this time to get some of our stuff unpacked since they’ll take some time to get ready,” Aelita suggested, having heard the dialogue because of Odd’s loud voice.

Jeremy nodded, took his suitcase and started to put his things inside the desk’s drawers and closet as did Aelita.

“Mmmmh yes, this room seems adequate,” Dexter commented, stepping inside his suite and contemplating the luxurious contents: a very thin flat screen HDTV with 3D, a walk in closet, a king size bed and last but not least a very large desk on which was laid a charger that held a touch screen device capable of controlling the lights, the air conditioner, and also worked as a phone. Not to mention the bathroom that also had a jacuzzi inside. Besides these luxuries it was considerably bigger than the cabins, and had a massive balcony with a great view of the ocean. The perfect place for Dexter to start his research.

“Oh on behalf of the Surfer Paradise Deluxe, I’m very pleased that you think so, Mr. McPherson. It is truly an honor to have you here in our humble hotel. If you have any request you can use the touch screen device,” Andrew Bahumer – the manager and Ridgemount’s second in command – said, indicating the device. “We’ll make sure that a member of our staff will be ready to satisfy any of your requests at all times. In the case you find the service unsatisfying, don’t have any scrupules of signaling the problem to us using the personnel evaluation schedules.”

“I surely will, I too want my staff to work at the top of their efficiency. Thank you for accompanying me to my room, you can go now.” Dexter dismissed him.

“You don’t wish to have anybody help you unpack?” Andrew asked.

“It won’t be necessary. Dexbots!” he exclaimed in his phone, causing a group of five robots arrive in the corridor. They were very short, and had a blocky aspect, much like the rovers that were sent on Mars, and tracks as a means of motion.

One of them stopped in front of him and saluted. “Yes, Dexter?”

“Proceed with unpacking my things and setting up my equipment, after this you can recharge until I give you the next directive,” Dexter ordered.

“It will be done Dexter. Come on, units, to work!” It said, heading inside the room with the others, carrying their master's luggage with them.

“Ah such efficiency, if only my personnel was as good as these prodigies of technology,” Andrew said.

“Haven’t I dismissed you?” Dexter asked.

“Oh right, of course, I’ll be on my way now.” The manager left.

Dexter entered his suite, witnessing with great satisfaction the efficiency of his robots. He then turned on the HUD mode of his glasses and started to oversee the activities of his laboratories back in the US.

Meanwhile Mandark reached the hotel he was going to reside in: The Queen Oyster Deluxe, owned by Captain Ron. The resort had a very different look than the Surfer Paradise and owned a less impressive beach, but offered nearly the same kind of entertainment and attractions.

“This room is barely tolerable!” Mandark yelled to the hotel’s owner as he was escorted to his room. It was exactly like Dexter’s, only that it had different tints and different logos were on the furniture and other products.

In front of him stood a quite fat and old man, wearing a navy captain suit which included a captain hat.

“Oh I’m very dismayed, sir. If you wish we can give you a discount on our products to make up for this?” The owner implored.

“This will at least give me a reason to stay here. However I’ll have my robots redecorating this room tomorrow, yellow and gold aren’t colors that I enjoy, red and black will be perfect,” Mandark said.

Captain Ron gulped, he didn’t want to allow that, but he couldn’t lose such an important customer. “Certainly, sir, if you need help from our staff please don’t be afraid to ask, our personnel will be ready to assist you at any moment.”

“That will be unnecessary, my bots are state of the art machines and they’ll do it by themselves. But where are they?!” he yelled, noticing that they weren’t there yet.

“Unit one three four, nine one five, six nine seven and eight nine seven, reporting sir…” A bot similar to Dexter’s ones but with a more gothic look and completely different colors arrived by the door, startling Captain Ron.

“What does this mean? I told you to bring my luggage here before my arrival!” Mandark barked.

“We are sorry, sir, but the weight was too high so our speed was gravely diminished,” the bot answered.

These bots, named mandroids were copies of the Dexlab’s dexbots, only were significantly less efficient than them.

“You are lucky I still need you for some aspects of my work here! What are you waiting for!? Start to undo my luggage and place it in the room!” He pointed inside the room.

The robots quickly began to execute the order just as they were told.

“Now leave me to my work!” he ordered the owner.

“Of course, Mr. Mandark.” The man left the room grinding his teeth.

“Now while the robots complete our room...” He took a device out of his pocket. “Let us continue where we interrupted.”

He pressed a button on the device releasing another inflatable balloon of Deedee, which he immediately started to smooch in a deranged fashion.

Meanwhile, the Rainbooms were arriving at the hotel.

“End of the line, enjoy your vacation in the paradise of surfing,” the man cheerfully said.

The Rainbooms were the first to leave the bus, and after collecting their respective luggage they headed inside.

The hotel’s hall was very tall, ten stories overall. In its center there was a very tall circular aquarium, featuring lots of colorful fishes swimming around an artificial barrier reef with real corals. Beside it there was a restaurant-bar built to look like it was inside a submarine, and all around the hall there were numerous shops for surfing, swimming, trekking and other similar things.

“Woah, I get why it’s considered such a great place for vacation, it has everything,” Rainbow Dash commented.

“Oh my… does that surfboard have diamonds encased in it?” Rarity’s eyes sparkled at the sight of a surfboard with sparkly jewels in a large glass case in front of the surfing shop.

“Keep it together Rarity, remember that we aren’t here just to look at the nice stuff they have,” Sunset Shimmer said.

“Oh don’t worry, Sunset, witnessing some of the local products won’t distract me too much,” Rarity answered her.

“There’s the reception.” Rainbow Dash indicated a purple desk with a young black man sitting behind it.

“Hello, welcome to the Surfer Paradise Deluxe, I’m Johnny the concierge, how may I help you?” He stood up as soon as he saw them arrive.

“Good morning, my name is Twilight Sparkle, my friends and I would have a reservation for three rooms.”

The young man quickly typed the name into the hotel’s computer, and the booking came up immediately. “The reservation is confirmed. Here are your keys. If you want this evening there is going to be a party for the new arrivals by the main pool.”

“This seems nice, we could meet new people!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed cheerfully.

“We’ll take it in consideration. Where can we find our rooms?” Twilight asked.

“Go by the elevator, and they'll be on on the third floor.” Jhonny indicated an elevator room.

“Thank you, sir, here is a tip for your good work.” Rarity gave him a five dollars bill.

“Oh thanks, very appreciated,” Johnny said.

“Ten strips of bacon please, with extra fried eggs, two waffles and these royal croissants please,” Odd Della Robbia told the waitress.

“Alright then. Man you surely have a large appetite,” The waitress commented, writing everything down. She seemed to be one of the teenage summer staff, and her name badge read 'Emma’.

“You know, this physique isn’t going to sustain itself, I need proteins.” He indicated his own body, which differently from what he fantasized about it was quite scrawny due to his metabolism.

“Uhm…” Emma couldn’t help but crack a smile.

“Don’t worry, just play along,” Ulrich jokingly commented.

“Hey Ulrich, don’t be envious!” Odd joked back.

“What can I bring to the rest of you?” Emma asked.

“I’d want a maxy fruit salad for me and Aelita, with a side of this fruit juice thank you.” Jeremy decided with Aelita.

“I’ll take the rice pudding.” Yumi indicated the dish she wanted.

“I’ll take a simple croissant, with coffee and orange juice please,” Ulrich ordered.

“For me a simple croissant too, with black coffee,” William ordered as well.

“Okay, they’ll be done shortly.” Emma left going into the kitchen.

“So, how did you all sleep tonight?” Odd asked.

“Not bad, the bed was really comfortable, and room had just the right temperature,” Ulrich said.

“I can say the same for myself, definitely a comfy night,” Yumi agreed with her boyfriend.

“It was good for me too… except that I had to share my room with Odd… ” William looked at him sternly.

“Come on, it’s not like I was that annoying,” Odd told him.

“You had been chatting with your dog all dang night, not to mention the fact that the stench of your shoes managed to overwhelm the vanilla scent emitters… ” William finished.

“Hey, don’t blame Kiwi because he feels lonely without me, he needs constant caring you know?” Odd objected.

“But aren’t your sisters taking care of him?” Aelita asked.

“They are, but I doubt that they are giving him the correct care he needs, so I am supplying whatever they’re forgetting,” Odd said putting his hands behind his head.

“Okay… anyways, have any of you unpacked yet?” Jeremy asked.

“Well, I kinda started already but… ” Odd was interrupted by William.

“He stopped and went to sleep right after opening his suitcase up and littering his clothes all over the room.” William remarked.

“Come on, Willy, we are roommates! We should back up each other,” Odd told him.

William could only facepalm.

“We didn’t unpack either, we are probably going to do that today, as well as probably explore the hotel a little in the afternoon,” Ulrich said.

“What about the two of you?” Yumi asked.

“Aelita and I finished packing this morning,” Jeremy answered. “Besides, we have activated the superscanner on my computer. This way we can start to look for whatever Aelita’s dad left for us here.”

“Shouldn’t we do things like… search the island? Or explore the jungle for anything strange?” Odd asked.

“We’ll get to that, but for now we need to at least know where to start,” Aelita explained. “The program will scan for any quantum computer activity on the island and if it finds any we’ll try to look into them.”

“Trying to explore the island completely and accurately would take too much time, we have only got three weeks, Odd…” Jeremy noticed that Odd turned around. “Odd? You listening to us?”

“Oh… Sorry, Einstein, it's that I just noticed some celebrities.” Odd was looking at the Rainbooms heading for the elevators.

“Who are they?” Jeremy asked.

“I figured you wouldn't know them, they are the Rainbooms, one of the better known rock bands of the internet,” Odd answered.

“Rainbooms? Oh yeah, I heard about them, they made quite a name for themselves after the Canterlot battle of the bands,” Aelita said. Having really been involved with music and such, she often had enough time to hear about the latest news in that matter.

“What’s so special about that?” Jeremy asked.

“It’s hard to describe, but lemme tell you something, their songs are awesome and so are their special effects!” Odd said.

“Odd is right, if you want later I could show you their video,” Aelita offered.

“Hmm we’ll see…” Jeremy’s thought trailed off as he noticed something else, precisely what looked like a robot moving around the hall carrying an hardcase with a logo on it.

“Wait a minute...” Jeremy started to squint trying to get a good look. “Wow, I can’t believe it.”

He finally recognized the logo.

“What’s up Jeremy? Noticed another celebrity?” Odd asked.

“Potentially, though I’m not sure about that.” He put an hand on his chin, wondering if he was right.

“Your breakfasts are here, bon appetit!” Emma returned some minutes later along with another waiter carrying the group’s dishes.

Meanwhile somebody arrived at the hotel on one of the whale buses.

“End of the line, you can get off,” the driver said to a young adult, visibly in his very early twenties, with dark brown hair, sitting in the back of the vehicle.

The young man got up, revealing that he wore a half sleeve white shirt with an A printed on it, underneath it there was a pair of dark blue shorts and sandals. He had a quite modern looking briefcase with an electronic fingerprints locker.

“You here to join the summer staff?” The driver asked.

“As a matter of fact I am, good man.” He walked towards the exit.

“Good luck coping with the bosses, the can be pretty demanding,” the man commented, knowing Bahumer’s and Ridgemount’s character.

“I’m sure I can cope with this, thank you.” The young man left the bus and headed for the hotel.

He looked around the hall almost in a scouting fashion, and soon he noticed the manager Andrew.

He then walked up and greeted him. “Hello, egregious Mr. Bahumer, my name is Abram, I’m here to...”

“Are you the new doorman?” he asked.

Abram noticed that he looked pretty stressed out. “Uhm, yes of course sir, I was wondering where I could check in…”

“No time for checking in, you gotta start working now,” the manager quickly interrupted him.

“But shouldn’t I–”

“The uniform is in the locker room hanging from one of the clothes hangers. The rules are simple: three strikes and you are out, any infraction, including being late, counts as a strike. You are dismissed.” The manager walked away.

Abram shrugged and headed for the locker room, keeping a cool attitude.

“Log date one zero one four five, Peridot recording,” Peridot spoke into her tablet. “After successfully landing at the location known as Sunrise Island we are now scouting its jungle in search for a viable place to install our base of operations.”

Garnet was leading the group’s way inside the jungle, occasionally moving away heavy logs with her gauntlets.

“Alright, if we proceed in this direction we should arrive by the mountain ridge’s path,” Pearl said, projecting from her gem a holographic map of the island a compass too.

“Perfect, from there we’ll be able to good look of the town and the surrounding area,” Garnet commented.

Peridot interrupted the log and coughed two times to get the gem’s attention. “If possible I suggest to install our base on the mountains, so that we might have a good lookout on the island.”

“That could give us more reconnaissance capacity, but we might be a little exposed due to the inferior vegetation cover, not to mention that this might also make problematic going back and forth for our exploration trip.” Pearl objected.

“We’ll decide once we get on the ridge,” Garnet exclaimed sternly, removing a big log from their trail.

Amethyst on the other hand was walking in the back with Steven, who was trying his best to keep the flies away.

“What on Earth?” Pearl looked at the fence with barbed wire around its top. “This fence wasn’t on the maps I memorized.”

“There appears to be a sign.” Peridot indicated it.

Garnet moved forward to read it. “It appears that this is private property.” She summarized what was written on it.

‘Private property. KEEP OUT. No trespassing, any transgressors will be prosecuted accordingly to law.’ And besides the writing there was a large danger signal with a skull inside, along with a round one that was the standard keep out sign, as well as a smaller danger signal that indicated generic danger.

“Man it looks like they are doing some dangerous stuff out here,” Amethyst commented.

Steven looked pretty tense. “Maybe we should turn around, I have a bad feeling about this.”

Garnet looked left to right several times and noticed small cameras installed around the pillars that held the fence, as well as pressure sensitive wires running on the ground, partially hidden by very large leaves.

“Approved, there is nothing worth our time here, at least for now,” Garnet decided. “We’ll need to find another lookout point. Pearl?”

“Oh of course, Garnet, another good lookout point but with reduced visibility would be the emerald hills.” She pointed at the projection.

“Let’s go.” Garnet walked off followed by the other gems.

The Rainbooms finished to settle by lunch time and took the afternoon to rest, except for Twilight and Sunset, as they needed to turn their room into a full blown research base.

The members of the Lyoko team spent their day unpacking too, some more than the others as their roommate, wasn’t being very cooperative. As of the evening, no quantum signature was picked up by Jeremy’s superscanner, but he still kept it running, hoping that something would be revealed soon.

Dexter and Mandark, while ignoring each other's presence, prepared their equipments and decided how to proceed with the research.

Kat and her tiger shark friend finished settling in at the hotel’s exhibition aquarium. It was a refreshing environment for Kenny as now, instead of a small swimming pool in a suburb of San Francisco, he had a nice large exhibition pool where he could swim as much as he wanted to, not to mention the food paid for by the hotel.

Katarina, on the other hand, didn’t like the new accommodation. It was a small room with an even smaller bathroom, but at least she still had a wifi connection to talk to her friends back home, and the company of her finny friend.

The two were heading for the shore, as Kat imagined that the others would have wanted to use the evening break to catch some nice waves, making going there a good occasion to make new friends.

Kenny was kind of anxious, as the last time the two of them had anything to do with surfers it took some time before they were accepted, and he really didn’t want to screw up this time too.

In the distance, the howls of excitement from the surfers could be heard.

To maximize the incomes of the new hotel, Mr. Ridgemount transferred most of the experienced personnel from Sunset Island’s hotel to the new resort behind a little promotion benefit. Some of them were enjoying the waves of the hotel’s beach.

They were all in the sea enjoying the awesome waves forming around the island, some of them even had the luck to score a passage in the tubes.

“Woohoo!!!” one of them howled, coming out of on his red surfboard with black decorations, then swimming to the beach.

“Man, this place rocks, not even at Sunset Island there were tunnels like this!” he said then speaking to another friend of his waiting on his surf.

“You can say that again, Reef. My turn!” The young man had afro hair and an orange surfboard with a yellow stripe decorated with some motifs painted on its side.

He swam up to another wave and masterfully rode it, even managing to make an acrobatic move when at it’s top.

“Woah! Nice job, Broseph!” Reef complimented his friend.

Nearby two girls were surfing as well. One was Emma, along with the other waitress of the submarine restaurant. And along with them there were three other guys, one of whom was Jhonny.

“Man these waves are the perfect way to relax after working for twelve full hours” one of the two girls said.

“Come on, Lo, you didn’t get used to it yet?” one of the other three guys teased. He had light black hair kind of tending to a dark blue color.

“Well I did get used to the length of the old shift, Ripper, but these new ones are even more devastating. But anyways these waves and the fact that I’m with friends make up for everything,” Lo answered resting her arms on the board.

“Hey check it out, there behind the bushes.” Emma indicated exactly as Kat was about to come out on the shore.

“Isn’t that one of the two new newbies?” Ripper asked, noticing them too.

“What’s up?” Broseph asked returning ashore.

“There is a member of the new staff arriving.” Reef indicated her.

“Oh?” Borseph looked at Kat. “Cool!”

“How about we go and meet her?” Reef suggested.

“You got my approval, bro. Let’s go.” Ripper started to head towards the shore.

The others joined him too, and noticed something strange.

“Dude, what is she doing?” Reef asked noticing that Kat was talking to a bush for some reason.

“Come on, Kenny, come out of there, what are you doing?” Kat asked.

“I kinda want to make an effect entrance, I wanna look as good as possible!” Kenny answered.

“Alright, Ken, just don’t take too long,” Kat told him before turning and seeing the surfers staring at her. “Oh uhm, hello there.”

She smiled nervously.

“Hello there, babe, who are you?” Ripper asked.

“I’m Kat, Kat Cassidy, just started working here today,” Kat answered.

At the mentioning of the name Broseph’s eyes widened. She kinda looked familiar but he didn’t imagine it was actually her. “Kat Cassidy? As Kat Cassidy from Tiburon, San Francisco?”

“Well yeah, that would be me…” Kat answered. Here we go again…

“Oh man, it’s a true pleasure to meet you, you’re the shark whisperer!!!” Broseph shook her hand.

“Ahem, what’s up Broseph?” Reef asked, noticing that his friend acted more weirdly than normal.

“Come on, don’t tell me you didn’t read about her, she’s the girl that started that big protest against the shark cull in the US back in two thousand twelve,” Broseph explained.

“Wait, you mean that girl that claimed to be capable of talking to sharks, and to have a shark pet?” Ripper asked as well.

Kat looked up and nodded. “Yeah that was me, can’t believe that somebody still remembers that these days.”

“Woah cool, was that all true? I mean the fact that you can talk to sharks and that you have one of them as a pet?” Reef asked further.

“Or are you just some kind of freakshow invented by some environmentalists?” Ripper asked, having always been skeptical about it.

Kat looked at them with a serious expression. “Yeah to the first two, but no to the last one. I’m able to talk to sharks, and one of them is my best friend.”

“Woah, this is cool dude. Though how exactly can you talk to them? I mean they are fish right?” Reef asked.

“Well I can’t really explain it, I always had this power since the day I was born. And trust me tons of scientists tried to understand how it worked,” she answered.

“I heard of this, scientists called it ‘the truth talking phenomena’. I read that a whole research facility in Polynesia was built to study this,” Johnny explained.

“It was a science facility? Strange I thought it was just a very exclusive holiday village.” Reef wasn’t really the article reader kind.

Jhonny just rolled his eyes at him.

Ripper on the other hand looked pretty skeptical, as well as his friend standing by him. Kat could tell they didn’t believe her.

“If you want some kind of proof however, Kenny, happens to be right behind this bush,” Kat said indicating the bush in which Kenny was sitting.

“Yeah right, and I'm –” he thought a little about what to answer her “– a seal in disguise!”

“Oh no…” Kat’s clenched her teeth for a second.

Ripper started to laugh, but he was suddenly silenced when a towering tiger shark jumped out of the bush and landed in front of him.

He was Kenny, a full grown tiger shark in his prime. Capable of walking on land thanks to his tailfins and breathing like a human.

“Hey, did you say seal? I love seals? where is it?” He was too excited to remember that only Kat could understand him.

Everybody flinched in fear while Ripper cowered on the shore and felt like he was about to have an heart attack.

“Well guys, this is Kenny, my pet shark.” Kat introduced him, trying to dissipate the panic.

“A full grown… walking… tiger shark.” Johnny's legs assumed an X like position.

“With a dozen of lines of razor sharp flesh tearing teeth!” Reef felt a strong impulse to release his bladder and flee upon noticing Kenny’s smile.

“No, please, everyone calm down, he is very docile actually!” Kat answered trying to calm down everyone.

“Please tell him to not eat me!” Ripper was still in a cowered position.

“Don't worry, he knows that surfers aren't food, he wants just to know where ‘the seal’ is,” Kat explained.

“Okay… sharky if you hear me, I lied, there is no seal, I was just kidding,” Ripper said slowly.

Kenny’s triangular toothed smile turned into a disappointed frown. “Oh bummer.” Everything the others heard was just a blubbering sound. He then stopped looming over the terrified surfer.

“Ah… ahem, well this first presentation didn’t go very well… Let’s try to start over.” He rubbed one of his fins on his head. He waved his fin. “Hi there, name’s Kenny.”

Just like before, nobody understood him, and Kat put an hand on her forehead.

“Okay then, now that I almost got eaten, I’d suggest to go check out the other surfing spots… and get new pants.” Ripper got up.

Most of the other surfers exchanged agreeing looks.

“No wait! He didn’t mean any harm!” Kat implored.

“For how much I can dislike Ripper, I agree with him… we have to go somewhere anyways,” Reef added heading back to the path leading back to the hotel.

“But...” Kat’s plea served to nothing, as the surfers already left, the only one who didn’t run was Broseph.

“Sorry girl, they aren’t really shark lovers. But don’t worry, it’s fine with me, see ya soon.” He walked away.

Kat looked down and sighed, a gloomy expression dominated her face.

“Hem… I guess that was my fault right?” Kenny asked with a very sorry tone.

“Don't worry Ken… it's okay,” she answered heading back to the exhibition pool.

Meanwhile, the gems found a decent enough campsite. It was located on top of one of the hills, in the middle of a field of tall grass, giving them an equal amount of cover and reconnaissance.

The campsite consisted of a rather large tent made of a tissue capable of camouflaging with the surrounding environment, a little invention Peridot and Pearl came up with some time before their departure. Inside of it there were a few things, such as a nice sleeping bag for Steven, a computer complete with a solar charger and the pile of garbage Amethyst would use as a bed. In the middle of the tent there was a small heat radiating electric lantern, with some pillows placed around it.

Steven was sitting on one of the pillows, checking out a brochure of the island, while Amethyst just lazed about on the garbage pile. Nearby, Pearl was typing on the computer, coordinating their research equipment outside.

“Log continued, Peridot recording. After a quick analysis of the situation, we have set a base of operation on this side of a moderately tall geological formation. The mimetic tent seems to be working correctly, it seems that Pearl’s correction to the light reflection system worked well. Our settlement is completed and we are preparing for the night. End log.” Peridot put her tablet away.

“I hope we’ll be able to visit the town tomorrow, there are some places that look fun to visit.” Steven said.

“Steven, remember that we are here on a mission, having fun in the town is purely secondary,” Pearl said without taking her eyes off the screen.

“I know, but… having some fun can’t hurt, right?” Steven asked.

“I second that!” Amethyst slid by Steven’s side. “We got lots of time to solve this right?”

Pearl observed a map of the island. “Well, we can stay here indefinitely, however we should be quick about this matter in any case. If there is a threat for the planet, it needs to be neutralized as quickly as possible.”

“That’s correct, acting with celerity is the best policy, at least until we have gathered and analyzed more data,” Peridot added.

In that moment Garnet entered the tent, carrying some large containers.

“I finished the reconnaissance, nothing visibly abnormal to note. I also returned to the fenced area, it goes from the cliffside of the bay all the way to the other side of the island, for a total length of three kilometers. The only visible structures are some domes in the distance. We’ll rest for the night and start the investigations tomorrow,” Garnet explained.

“Alright, Garnet. I myself have pinpointed some locations that we can check out tomorrow,” Pearl said, showing Garnet the computer’s screen.

“Good job, Pearl. Steven, I got something for you.” She handed the boxes to him, allowing him to open them.

“Pizza!” Steven’s eyes sparkled seeing that it contained a large pizza with a fishy topping in the same fashion of Fish Stew Pizza. “Thank you so much, Garnet!”

“You’re welcome.” The fusion smiled at him. “Now, I need to check something out”.

Garnet, for the first time since their arrival, prepared to use again her future vision power, but once again her vision was so obscured that the fog she had in front caused her a little headache.

“Garnet? You okay?” Steven asked before he took the first slice, noticing that she was rubbing her temple.

“It’s the problem I had back in the plane…” She removed the fingers from her temple. “My ability to see in the future hasn’t returned to normal yet.”

“Oh… the fog is still there?” Steven asked worriedly.

“Yeah, I thought right, something on this island is interfering with my power, and it isn’t wearing off…” Garnet said.

That answer startled Steven and the others as well.

Garnet smiled at Steven, hiding her own concern. “Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“Mmmmh, I studied how Sapphires can see the future, they use their gemeurons to run stochastic analysis algorithms. Maybe the traces of the wave’s energy are interfering with your gem,” Peridot observed.

“If that’s true, it’s best if you try not to use that power Garnet,” Amethyst said.

“Oh dear, but this means that our gems could be affected too! Is everybody still fine?” Pearl asked frowning.

Amethyst looked at herself and at her gem. “I feel totally fine.”

Steven touched his forehead and then looked at his gem too. “Me too.”

“My other powers work correctly.” Garnet evoked her gauntlets.

Peridot came to the same conclusion of the others. “Visibly, I seem fine too. Probably Garnet’s power was affected because of how many gemeurons it employes, these algorithms can be extremely demanding.”

“It’s the most plausible explanation as of now.” Garnet sat on one of the pillows.

“Later I’ll add about this phenomena to the mission’s daily report, which I’ll write during the night. Hopefully once we find out the source of the energy and stop it, your gem should come back to normal,” Peridot explained.

Garnet looked pointedly at Steven, “I’m sure it will. For now I suggest we rest and keep the usage of the gems at a minimum.”

“Okay. Hey Steven, you gonna leave me the box of that right?” Amethyst asked Steven who was getting ready to eat his meal.

“Alright, Amethyst.” Steven smiled.

“Come on, Dash, wake up!” Applejack was shaking Rainbow Dash in her bed.

“Not now AJ –” she yawned “– five more minutes.”

“You said the same thing twelve times already.” Applejack had a very unamused expression.

“Ah, then wake me up when you are ready to go, I can get ready in a moment.” Rainbow Dash rolled her face on the pillow.

“We’re already ready! We have been for the last half hour, you’re the only one we’re still waiting on,” Applejack told her.

“Fine.” Rainbow Dash rose from the bed, and stumbled around in a daze as she started to put on her usual clothes.

In that moment Pinkie’s phone chimed, signaling the arrival of a message from Twilight.

“Applejack, Twilight says that since the party has already started we’ll all meet there directly. Sunset, Fluttershy and Rarity are there as well.”

“Let’s hope we don’t miss all the fun thanks to Loafer Dash,” Applejack remarked.

“I can hear you, you know?” Rainbow Dash grumbled while putting on her shoes.

“I know.” Applejack smirked a little.

The party was being hosted at the large pool of the hotel, in its yard. It was very large, and it was surrounded by smaller pools connected by shallow ‘rivers’. And as the day was nearing its end, they were illuminated by small LED lights, creating a very appealing visual effect.

While it was usually closed off by the evening, that particular night it was very crowded, and lots of buffets and bar tables were positioned around it. There were even in pool bars.

It was an idea of Mr Ridgemount, a way to welcome the newcomers at the beginning of the summer season.

Most of the guests were present, including four girls waiting by a bar.

“While I have to lament their poor choice of colors, I can say that by first glance that their parties may be good,” Rarity said looking around.

“The pools look so relaxing, I could look at them all night,” Fluttershy added.

“They really have a nice way to welcome the new guests.” Twilight’s stomach grumbled a little, as both her and Sunset passed the entirety of the afternoon working on their research equipment, skipping lunch. “I think I’ll go grab something to eat. Wanna join me, Sunset?”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Sunset said as her stomach was pretty grumbly too.

“Want us to bring you something too?” Twilight asked as she prepared to leave.

“No need, Twilight, but thank you,” Rarity said politely.

“Oh, don’t worry about me. I’ll check it out later, thank you though,” Fluttershy said without turning away from the pool lighting.

“Be right back then.” Twilight made her way through the crowd along with Sunset, heading for the large buffet in front of them.

“Man the reviews were correct, this place is pretty popular,” Sunset remarked as the many people made moving quite hard.

“Yeah, the sites we checked out were pretty accura–” Twilight suddenly stumbled. “Woah!!!” she yelped as she lost her balance and landed onto somebody close.

“Ouch, hey watch it!” A rather young man, wearing a light lab coat said.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I was –” Twilight’s eyes grew wide in surprise and she realized who she had in front of her. “D… Dexter, Dexter Mcpherson?”

“Uhm, that would be me yes. Dexter Mcpherson, CEO of Dexlabs and freelance scientist. And you are?” the young businessman and scientist asked, noticing something familiar in his interlocutor as well.

“Oh, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I’m a huge admirer of yours! You are one of my main inspirations in the science field.” Twilight barely managed to contain her enthusiasm.

"Twilight Sparkle?" Dexter tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Mmmmh I heard of you, you used to ran a blog about strange magnetic phenomenon around the city of Canterbury right?”

“Oh yeah, that was me. You mean you checked them out?” Twilight asked excitedly.

“As a matter of fact I did, and I was really impressed by how professional the reports were. I could have sworn they were done by myself,” he said with a smirk.

“Oh thank you.” Twilight blushed a little.

“Hey you alright, Twilight?” Sunset asked as she reached them.

“Yeah, I’m alright. Even more than alright I’d say!” Twilight answered.

“Greetings, who are you?” Dexter politely asked.

“Ahem, Sunset, Sunset Shimmer. And you are?” Sunset asked.

“Oh, this is Dexter Mcpherson, Sunset. He’s the one I told you about on the plane.” Twilight interjected.

“Oh right, I see. Very nice to meet you,” Sunset said.

“I could say the same, even though your friend kind of bumped on me.” Dexter caused Twilight to assume an awkward expression.

“OH! That… I’m sorry, it’s that I fell and –”

“As I had no injuries there is no need for excessive apologies,” Dexter interrupted. “As a matter of fact, I’m happy to meet budding scientists such as yourself. I’d enjoy discussing about your findings as a matter of fact, may I offer you an appetizer?”

“Uhm, that would be very kind of you,” Twilight answered, she never imagined her first conversation with a celebrity would have gone so well.

“May I come as well?” Sunset asked.

“Mmmmh is she a friend of yours?” Dexter asked.

“Yeah, a great one too,” Twilight answered.

“Well then as they say, the more the merrier. Dexbots make a way.” Dexter ordered his robot-valets, who immediately managed to clear a way through the crowd.

“Oh my, these robots are so advanced,” Twilight remarked looking at one closely.

“Thank you, I projected and built them myself. They compose most of my workforce,” Dexter explained as they walked up to the buffet.

“What kind of CPU do they use?” Twilight asked.

“Laser maze based CPUs, another one of my labs many products,” Dexter explained. “They are twenty five times faster than electron based CPUs, and need next to none cooling system.”

“I didn’t know your company already developed these CPUs.” Twilight was really interested by the topic, while Sunset seemed suspicious.

Could this guy be here for the anomaly too? she thought.

“We did, though we are waiting to put them on the markets because of, err… mostly some stupid market laws. They are quite annoying if you ask me,” Dexter explained as they arrived at the large buffet table.

“May I serve you?” one of the surfer paradise employees wearing a purple waiter suit asked the three politely.

“No thanks, my good man, we are fine,” Dexter answered taking a platter along with Twilight and Sunset.

“Alright, enjoy your evening,” the waiter said as he left.

“So, Ms. Sparkle, returning to our previous conversation; how is your research developing? I noticed that the blog was interrupted for a while.” Dexter took some food from his platter.

“Oh uhm, pretty well I suppose, though I had to slow down my studies because of an accident involving that energy,” Twilight explained.

“I see, collateral effects caused by accidental over exposure?” Dexter asked.

“You...could say that.” Twilight took some food too.

“A pity, I hope that setback hasn’t crippled your research,” Dexter said.

“Well as a matter of fact it didn’t. Instead, it made me take a new direction to it actually.” Twilight ate some of the food on her platter, while Sunset listened.

“I see.” Dexter pondered a moment about what his next question could have been. He found Twilight’s research quite interesting and he would have wanted to talk more about it, but then it came to him that the subject she was studying could have been related to the phenomena that happened on the island. She could have been there for the exact same reason as himself, and he wanted to be sure about it.

“So anyway, Ms. Sparkle, what brought you here at Sunrise Island? A vacation of pleasure, or was it work?”

“Uhm...” Twilight was caught a little by surprise by that question, but before she could formulate a good answer Sunset interjected.

“We could ask you just the same thing.” She scowled at him.

Dexter looked at her, narrowing his eyes. “As a matter of fact, I’m here for pleasure mostly, guiding a science company is an extremely tiring task, and this island was the perfect destination for me.”

“Oh alright, good for you then,” Sunset said.

“Sunset...” Twilight glared at her.

“Please don’t worry, I recognize that I was being a bit invadent. Not having a very active social life, it’s a bit hard for me to say.” Dexter suspected that they were hiding something, but apologizing was the most logical decision since it made keeping them under surveillance easier. His train of thought however was interrupted by two melodious voices coming from the stage along with a very good music.

“What’s this?” Dexter asked turning his sight to the stage as well as Sunset and Twilight.

The two girls recognized Fluttershy singing for the crowd, along with a girl with pinkish hair almost like her own.

“It seems that Fluttershy’s has completely conquered her fear of large crowds while singing.” Sunset smiled.

“Yeah.”

“I imagine she is another friend of yours?” Dexter asked.

“Yes, she is,” Twilight answered. “Her name is Fluttershy, as you see she has a very good singing voice. She is also very gentle and kind.”

“I see,” Dexter said. “Well, I guess you should probably go cheer on your friend.”

“Oh, alright, care to join us?” Twilight said hopefully.

“No, while I enjoy a melodious music, I’m not very comfortable in crowds,” Dexter said.

“Okay then,” Twilight said, although she didn’t leave immediately. She smiled and stood up straighter. “Well, we’re both staying on the island, maybe we’ll run into each other again!”

In the end, Sunset had to practically drag her away.

Dexter looked at them before his HUD glasses activated. “Computress, compile a list of suspects, names: Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer.”

However he was unaware that Sunset had her own suspicions of him as well, and although she joined the crowd in cheering for her friend, her thoughts remained focused on figuring out what he could be up to.