As anyone who's read my more recent works has seen me announce, I've recently dropped RWBY and disassociated with the fandom. I waited a bit longer to do this than I should have out of fear of losing what was at that point my primary fanfiction sandbox. However, in March, I saw a recommendation on Youtube, titled "Code Lyoko Long theme." I'd never heard of Code Lyoko before, but I've since binged the entire original series. Starved for content, I wrote a spec script, but I've also written a pilot for a spinoff. However, I figured here would be the best place to publish this story for the time being. I'm adapting the first chapter from a screenplay, but the rest are direct-to-novelization. That's actually part of my writing process: I make a story in either novel form or screenplay form, and then adapt it to the other, making changes in the process, rinse and repeat. For example, in the original screenplay of what became this chapter, I had a character called Isla, who basically spoke in Scottish idioms. However, I removed her for her lack of real creative design and overall use in the story.

So, what's this story about? Well, some kids in Canada find a supercomputer and a virtual world. An evil AI within the supercomputer attacks, they stop it. Simple, right?

This is Code Xanadu.

Disclaimer: I absolutely own Code Lyoko. PM me for details about buying the licensing rights.


The old warehouse sat still, isolated from the rest of the city by forestry and only accompanied by a murder of crows. It had been long since abandoned, the walls cracked and aging. This, of course, made it the perfect place for a certain brunet boy and his female friend. The two teens looked to each other as they neared their destination, the former sporting a green tshirt with a blue unzipped hoodie and jeans, and the latter a brown cardigan, black tank top, and black leggings, completing the look with a large brown handbag. The girl was the first to speak as the two trespassers drew nearer to the building.

"So, what is it you expect to find here again?" The boy shrugged in response.

"It's not really about finding anything. It's about the place itself. That nice 'abandoned building' feel, you know, a place that used to be important but now the walls are brown, that sort of thing." The girl narrowed her eyes.

"The sort of place that almost definitely isn't up to code, and by extension, a place we really shouldn't be?" The question was met with a sigh as the two neared the building.

"Malina, if you're that worried, why did you come?"

"What kind of friend would I be if I let you wander out here and get yourself trapped, or worse?"

"You could try talking me out of it." The boy responded flatly.

"I've tried to talk you out of EVERYTHING, Laoch. You keep outsmarting me."

"Hey, YOU'RE the smart one. I'm just the better rhetorician. Important distinction."

"Uh huh. Either way, you're gonna be better off with SOMEONE here."

"My hero. Or heroine, which do you prefer?" Malina smiled.

"I'll just take 'hero,' thanks." Laoch nodded as he grabbed the door handle, trying the lock. Against all odds, the door swung open, and the two glanced at each other. The boy shrugged as he stepped inside, Malina right behind him.

"Alright, remember, Laoch: we can't stay here too long. We have to be at school by seven, and it's a half-hour walk from here." Malina noted with a stern voice.

"Okay, so we have to leave at 6:40." As Malina was about to correct Laoch, he added, "It's called running. It's a fifteen minute run. Get there early like everyone should." The last two words were said with annoyance, and Malina simply rolled her eyes.

"Well, at least that means I'll still get a jog in this morning."

"And we get to stay here longer. Win-win." Malina thought for a moment.

"I'd say it's more of a compromise." Laoch nodded before beginning to wander around the first room. Malina looked towards a desk, spotting a box of newspapers. As she took the papers and looked at the dates, she noticed the last one to be dated November 8th, 1989.

"Looks like this is the last one." She noted to herself. "Either that's the last time this place was used, or the last time a squatter who cared to read a newspaper was here."

Malina looked around for Laoch, and found him looking at a shelf of encyclopedias.

"Hey, Malina, look at this." The boy pointed to the shelf as he spoke. "Those are all in order, right?" Malina looked over the shelf.

"No, number seventy and twelve are switched."

"Exactly! How do you even ACCOMPLISH this?" Laoch complained towards no one in particular.

"Maybe they needed both and just couldn't be bothered?"

"Well, I can." Laoch walked towards the shelf, grabbing the mixed-up editions, and as he pulled both out simultaneously, the two heard a noise from the back of the storage room.

"Quiet!" Malina barked in a whisper. "You heard that too?"

"Yeah." Laoch responded with a nod. The two stealthily walked to a spot that simultaneously acted as a hiding spot and vantage point, and looked towards the source of the noise. What they saw was a doorway where they had previously seen a wall, the section of the wall in question having turned inward by some concealed hinge.

"A hidden passageway? What would a warehouse like this need to hide like that?" Malina pondered aloud.

"Want to investigate, Miss 'My Father's a Detective?'" Malina rolled her eyes as she stealthily walked towards the doorway, her choice to wear Chuck Taylors now thankfully being more than the stylistic one. She leaned against the wall on the hinge side, and Laoch joined her on the opposite side of the doorway. The two nodded to each other as they quietly entered the hidden passageway, following it for what felt like a minute before reaching a room.

The room was filled with a soft blue light, and a raised platform could be seen in the middle. On the side to the pair's right sat a large computer monitor, or rather, several assorted monitors collectively forming one of greater size, all connected to a chair below and to the roof above by a metal beam. On the side of the raised platform was a switch, and at the far end of the room were three hollow, dark, and cylindrical pods. The floor was littered with papers and large wires, all the latter tied down. Malina and Laoch looked around the room in awe.

"Someone was working on something here and didn't want other people knowing about it." Laoch noted the obvious.

"Whoever they were, they seem to know a thing or two about computers." Malina added, noticing a myriad of lines of code on the assorted papers. "Definitely more than me."

"That's a first." Laoch quipped.

"I'm smart, Laoch, not omniscient. But whoever did all this has got to be something else." Malina rested her hand on the switch for a moment.

"Hope that doesn't do anything horrendous."

"Agreed." Malina pulled the switch downward, and the soft blue light of the room became brighter. The monitors turned on, though no active programs were running, and the hollow pods filled with a yellow light. Above the raised platform, a hologram activated, and displayed a small sphere with three protruding ovular masses. Each mass was a thin line of rock, similar to Saturn's rings, and each possessed what appeared to be a different climate: one ice, one an arid desert, and one a forest.

"Hey, what's that?" Laoch wondered aloud. Malina narrowed her eyes.

"I don't know. It's not a map of anywhere, not that I'm aware of anyway."

"Maybe it's a concept model of some sort of man-made planet or something. Like an orbital." Malina nodded.

"Our 'genius' being a fan of Banks' work wouldn't surprise me. But what would all this be doing here? That sounds more like something that would be going on in some dedicated lab in the United States, not a warehouse in unincorporated Toronto."

As Malina continued to look around the room, Laoch stepped into one of the pods, looking around the interior of the thing. Malina approached the monitors, and saw that one of them had opened a program for code to be entered. She also noticed a notecard resting in a corner of the screen, listing code and titled "Virtualization."

"What does this do?" Malina pondered as she typed the code. As she hit 'enter,' the pod Laoch was inside slammed shut.

The boy turned around violently, and brought his arms to his face as artificial wind blew upward. As this happened, Malina burst out of the chair and ran towards the pod, failing to see the window showing the progress of the task she had set in motion. The task was completed by the time Malina could force the pod open, revealing nobody inside.

"Laoch!" When the girl didn't see her friend within the pod, the panic began to set in. "Oh, no, what did I do?!" As Malina ran to the computer to attempt to figure it out, she heard a faint noise from a headset resting on one of the monitors. She brought it to her ear, and heard a familiar voice.

"Malina?"

"Laoch!" The girl shouted in relief. "Where are you?"

"Malina? I can hear you, but it's more like a voice from heaven than anything else."

"What? Laoch, just tell me where you are!"

As Malina said this, she noticed the hologram on the table had changed. It now only showed the ring of ice, with a single red blinking dot on one of the chunks. "Laoch, describe your surroundings." The girl ordered sternly.

Laoch looked around, his surroundings very different from what they had been moments ago. The place was blue with ice, with almost nowhere he could see absent of some sort of glacier. The place was also well-lit, he noticed, even without the presence of a celestial body in the dark sky.

"Uh... ice?" The boy responded. Malina brought her hand to her mouth as it opened in shock. The girl looked towards another monitor, and now saw a window with a picture of Laoch. However, in this picture, she saw that her friend was wearing a black bodysuit covered with lightweight blue armor plates, which Laoch had also noticed in the meanwhile. Below the picture, she saw several sets of numbers, though their meaning was unknown to her as of yet.

"Incredible..." The girl whispered in awe.

"What'd be more incredible is figuring out how I get back." Malina regained her composure.

"Right, I can't imagine it's warm there."

"Actually, that's the weird thing. I don't feel the cold." The boy placed his left hand against the ground beneath him. "I don't even really feel the ground. It's like my mind knows it's there and it's just filling in the blanks, I don't know. It's uncanny." Malina narrowed her eyes.

"Well, I have no idea what any of this is. I might research all this later, but the priority right now is getting you out of there. Hang on!" The girl removed the headset and began digging among the papers on the floor, hoping to find some sort of solution to her problem.

As Malina began working on this, Laoch looked at his right hand, and saw it was surrounded by what looked like some sort of laser blaster. He fired it once, releasing three short lasers towards the sky, and then at some ice. He raised an eyebrow, however, as the ice didn't melt.

"A cold laser? What IS all this?" Laoch asked himself as he started to wander around the place. He hadn't gotten far, however, when something came around an ice structure.

It was cube-shaped, and each side except the bottom and the top appeared to have a circle with a strange symbol in the middle. The top was flat, but the bottom housed a set of several mechanical legs. Laoch started to step back, but the thing shot a laser at him out of one of its eyes. However, with a roll to his right, he managed to avoid it, and out of reflex, shot the laser weapon on his right hand at the monster. It was clearly harmed by it, and after only two bursts of three lasers, the monster spun and exploded.

"Oh, so NOW it does something?" Laoch vocalized with frustration. He aimed it at the ice again, and it once again did nothing. "Well, at least it cooks what it needs to." Laoch looked around, unsure if any more of the same were around. Meanwhile, Malina returned to the monitor.

"Hold on just a little longer, Laoch, I'm still looking. Did you find anything there?"

"Only this cube thing that tried to shoot me."

"What?! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Apparently, I've got armor and a laser blaster. Doesn't melt ice for some reason, but got rid of the cube just fine."

"Alright. Laoch, find some cover. I should be able to find something pretty quickly, and then we can get you out of there."

"Have fun with that." As Malina continued looking, Laoch looked to his left, and saw two more of the cube monsters coming towards him. The boy held up his laser weapon, and fired at the left one of the pair. As he destroyed it, the other fired, hitting him in the leg. "Gah!"

Malina heard Laoch's exclamation despite some distance from the headset, and ran over to it with a paper in hand.

"Laoch! What happened?" Laoch destroyed the second monster before responding.

"One of them got my leg. Apparently, there's not a whole lot of blank for my mind to fill when it comes to pain!" Malina looked at the monitor, and saw that one set of numbers had changed from '35/35' to '20/35.' Malina thought for a moment.

"If I'm not mistaken, you can take one more hit, but a third will do it. Find some cover, Laoch, I think I just found what we need!"

"I'll try, but I'm not sure where these things are and aren't!" Laoch turned the other direction, and saw yet three more cube monsters. "Oh, come ON!" The boy fired his laser blaster as he ran into a cave to what was now his right, damaging two but not destroying either. As he backpedaled into the cave, he turned around and found himself face-to-face with a different monster, this one in the shape of a crab. As Laoch fired lasers at the beast, it charged a blast of its own.

As Malina was about to hit 'enter,' she heard the pod Laoch had disappeared from close again, before quickly reopening to reveal her friend, in the same attire he had been before, but now clearly exhausted.

"Laoch!" She shouted as she ran to the boy and helped him onto his feet. Her eyes narrowed, however, as she started thinking. "But wait, I didn't hit enter. The code shouldn't have run yet."

"It wasn't you. This crab thing showed up and one-shot me, and I ended up here." Malina sighed.

"Well, I'm glad you're alright. I don't know what I would've done if..." Malina stopped herself in the thought, shaking her head. "Come on. It's only six twenty, but I've had about enough of this place for one day."

"Agreed." As Laoch moved towards the entrance, Malina removed a laptop from her bag, and began copying some of the systems from the larger computer onto her smaller one.

"What are you up to?"

"I'm trying to get at least some of this computer's data and functions onto mine. Maybe I can work on it a bit later. All I know is, I'm looking into this."

"Are you gonna get help from your dad?" The girl shook her head.

"No. I'm going to keep this a secret for now, and so are you if we're staying friends."

"Deal. Don't have much of anybody to talk to except you, anyway." Laoch shrugged.

Malina unplugged her laptop from the larger one, and placed it in her bag as she approached the switch. As she flicked it, however, she noticed that nothing happened.

"Huh? It won't turn off."

"So? This place probably doesn't have to worry about energy bills. It'll just be on for us when we come back." Malina raised an eyebrow, but soon joined Laoch at the doorway, and the two walked out the way they came in.

"Well, we don't really have to run anymore." Malina shrugged.

"We could. Being early never hurts."

"Are you sure? You looked pretty tired coming out of that thing."

"And nothing wakes you up like a nice morning run." The two nodded to each other as they exited the warehouse, the secret door slamming shut as they left.


The grass of the Earl Haig Secondary School shone with dew as the students entered the building. While the bigger crowds were yet to come, there was a modest number already there nonetheless. As Malina was about to enter, however, she stopped as she felt a tap on her shoulder. The girl turned around, and was met with the sight of a short blonde girl, wearing a red tshirt, tight tan capris, and black ballet flats. Malina smiled.

"I was wondering if we'd catch each other on the way in." Malina remarked to the girl as they continued walking inside.

"So was I." The girl paused for a moment. "Is something wrong, Malina? You look... frazzled."

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing, Amanda, but thanks for looking out for me."

"You're welcome!" After a short pause, the girl followed up with another question. "So what's the plan for tonight?"

"Hm. I was a bit torn. It's an anniversary, but only six months, so I wanted to go formal but not overly so, and-" the brunette was interrupted by a peck on the cheek.

"Malina, you always overthink these things. I'd be happy with whatever you have in mind."

"Of course, right." The taller girl reacted, slightly flustered but quickly composing herself as she thought. "How about bowling? We could get ourselves something to eat there." Malina suggested.

"It's a date." Amanda smiled.

As the couple discussed their anniversary date, Laoch walked quickly to his classroom. If he wasn't one of the first five students there, he was late by his own standards. As he entered his first period classroom, he internally pumped his fist as he found himself the second student present. The classroom was quickly filled, and as the teacher of Laoch's class began his lesson, the teacher of Malina's began to as well.

As her teacher lectured, Malina looked out the window, lost in thought.

What could that thing be? That place? Is it some sort of alternative if Earth goes under? If worse comes to worst, as some sort of 'fallout shelter'?

Malina shook her head.

But then what about the things that attacked Laoch? What's their purpose? Security, big game?

"Miss Aulnoy? Is something on your mind?" Malina perked up at the sound of her surname, but quickly composed herself.

"No, sir, why do you ask?"

"Are you able to repeat what I just said?" The brunette opened her mouth to speak, but found she couldn't remember what the teacher had said. She lowered her head somberly.

"No, sir." The teacher sighed.

"Miss Aulnoy, we all pay less attention than we should at some point or another. However, this has not been a problem for you so far in youre academic career, and I hope it does not become one." Malina nodded.

"Yes, sir, I apologize."

Malina could see Amanda's worried gaze out of the corner of her eye as she began to listen more intently to the listen, jotting down notes as perfect as ever. However, her attention was redirected again as her laptop began to buzz within her bag. The girl raised an eyebrow before raising her hand. "My apologies again, sir, may I be excused for a moment?" The teacher nodded.

"Of course. Whatever your troubles are, I hope they are resolved shortly."

So do I. Malina thought as she left the room, and as she neared the door, she noticed Amanda's hand raise as well.

As the brunette stepped into the hallway, she sat down next to the lockers and opened her laptop. The images on the screen were unfamiliar to her: one was a strange symbol, which appeared to be a set of two circles, one hollow and a smaller solid circle in the middle, with two diagonal lines emanating from the outer circle, slashing through the smaller circle and beyond the opposite point of the larger. Above the larger circle, two diagonal lines stemming from the same place as the other two met at a ninety degree angle. This symbol was to the left of what appeared to be a tower with a halo above it. As Malina pondered the meaning, she was joined by Amanda, who observed the same.

"What's all that?"

"That's exactly it, Amanda. I don't know what any of this is."

"Maybe some sort of virus?" Malina shook her head.

"No. My family can't afford to risk cyber security, so we have the best protection money can buy."

"Well, that doesn't mean nothing gets through." Malina nodded, but as she did so, she noticed the light flickering above them. The brunette brought a finger to her girlfriend's lips, silencing her as she also noticed the light.

Normally, a flickering light wasn't a problem: it was just something the janitor would fix, and in fact, the two could hear his cart rolling near. However, what was far from normal was the mass of black smoke emerging from the light. The smoke was somehow descending, collecting into a mass on the floor, and the two stood up as it rose again into a vaguely humanoid shape.

Malina entered a fighting stance, one developed by years of Tae Kwon Do, as Amanda took cover behind her. As the mass leapt upward, in a trajectory Malina knew would cause it to get the shorter girl, the brunette kicked well above her head, seemingly leaving the 'ghost' unharmed. However, instead of pursuing Amanda further, it rushed a new target behind them.

As the janitor writhed in pain, the entity appearing to have been completely absorbed into his body, Malina repositioned herself to protect Amanda, and as he stood up, both girls saw in his eye a symbol just like the one on Malina's laptop screen. They had little time to process this information, however, as the janitor grabbed a mop, wielding the cleaning tool like a bo staff as he charged the two. As Amanda shielded her face, Malina threw a roundhouse kick, breaking the mop handle in two, before using the continued momentum to chamber for a side kick, knocking the janitor to the ground.

As the janitor went limp, Malina put her laptop back in her bag and took Amanda by the hand, running for the nearest exit. As the two ran, Malina used her free hand to text Laoch, the message containing only three simple words:

/Warehouse now, urgent/

Laoch, of course, received the message, and promptly raised his hand.

As the couple emerged from the building, promptly joined by Laoch, the three of them were oblivious to the school's locking behind them, as the specter which had possessed the janitor moved into a nearby thermostat.

/17*/

A moment passed.

/18*/


Malina kept a tight grip on her lover's hand as the three neared the warehouse, practically sliding to the entrance. Amanda glanced around the room as Laoch grabbed the encyclopedias labelled '70' and 12,' opening the door to the computer room for the second time that day.

"Alright, so what exactly happened?" The male asked as they all ran down the corridor.

"My laptop buzzed, and this spirit or ghost or something possessed the janitor. We have to assume the two are linked."

"It's only reasonable."

"I'm sorry, what?" Amanda spoke for the first time since the light had flickered. "What is this place? What's going on? Malina, is this what you were frazzled about earlier? Why you couldn't pay attention in class?" The brunette nodded.

"Me and Laoch found this place earlier today. Whatever's happening, it wasn't before we touched this thing." Malina pointed to the supercomputer, still on and running from before.

"And this is...?"

"Some sort of computer. Laoch, ready to go back to that place?"

"Hold up, I'm going back? What'll that accomplish?"

"My laptop showed some kind of structure when it started buzzing. I'd wager that structure is in that place."

"What place?"

"Later." Laoch stepped into one of the pods. "Alright, do your thing."

Malina typed in the code again.

"Alright, ready for virtualization?"

"So that's what we're calling it?"

"That's what the note was labelled. Launching." As Malina hit 'enter,' however, an error message flashed onscreen. "Huh?" The girl shook her head. "Sorry, Laoch, it looks like there's some sort of cooldown before you can head back. Apparently, the system doesn't like someone going in and out in such rapid succession."

"'Rapid' as in a few hours?"

"Looks like a twelve hour waiting period."

"Okay, so now what?"

"Well, I have to run the computer here if anyone's going to be..." Malina stopped and looked to her girlfriend.

"Malina?" Amanda asked nervously. Malina and Laoch looked to each other.

"She couldn't hurt a fly if she wanted to." Laoch noted.

"And normally you don't have a 'laser blaster.'" Malina countered. "Do you have a better idea?"

"No." Laoch rolled his eyes. "Alright, you see this pod?" Laoch spoke to Amanda as he stepped out of the pod in question. "Get in."

"Excuse me?"

"Amanda." Malina started, standing up and approaching the girl. "I don't know how to explain any of this to you, and maybe I can later. But right now, you're the only person I can count on, and I need you to trust me. Please?" The pair locked eyes for what felt like a minute before Amanda nodded, her face still expressing the same fear as before.

"I trust you." The girl nearly whimpered. Malina responded with a kiss on her forehead.

"Thank you." Malina sat down at the computer monitors. "Alright. Do what Laoch just said." Amanda nervously complied, and audibly gasped as the door closed. "Launching the virtualization program."

Amanda struggled to refrain from screaming as the artificial wind started, and as she felt it disappear, she nervously opened up her eyes. She gazed at her surroundings, which were limited to mostly islands of grass and trees. As she looked down at herself, she found herself in new attire that appeared as if it had come from some medieval fantasy piece, the red dress starkly contrasting the sunlit green around her.

"Malina?" The girl cried out.

"Amanda! Don't worry, I'm here."

"Where's here?" The girl responded to the disembodied voice.

"Well, technically, I'm still in the same room as before. But think of me being there, with you."

"O-okay." Amanda took a deep breath. "So, where am I?"

"Apparently, some sort of virtual world. Laoch was there earlier, but he ended up in an icy place. I wager you're in some sort of forest?"

"How did you know that?"

"Your position's on this hologram next to me. I'm going to try and find the structure we saw. Now, Amanda: Do you have any sort of... weapon, on your person?"

"Excuse me?" It was then that Amanda felt a weight on her back, and as she grabbed it, she soon realized she was holding an arming sword. "Malina, where did I get a sword?"

"A sword?" Malina repeated. "Alright, listen to me. While Laoch was there, he was attacked by some cube monsters. Don't panic, but the system seems to limit how much damage you're allowed to take before it'll send you back here. By the looks of it, your limit's higher than his. He had thirty-five, you have eighty!"

"Are you kidding me?" The boy commented to himself as the girl continued.

"So, don't be too afraid, but try not to get hit by too many lasers, okay?"

"A-alright..." Amanda readied the sword, despite her unfamiliarity with a weapon of any sort, and started walking.

"Alright, I've narrowed down the position of the structure. There's an anomaly just north of you- that's the direction you're going now. Do you see something?"

Amanda narrowed her eyes.

"In the distance! There's a tower with red mist around it, just like on your laptop!"

"That sounds like it. Alright, make your way to it. In the meantime, I'll try and work on giving myself some light admin privileges. They won't be much, but I should be able to deactivate the tower. With you there, I can virtualize myself to your location, but you have to help me by making sure the area's clear so I don't get sent back here, okay?"

"Okay." Amanda took another deep breath before heading towards the tower.

"Malina?" Laoch started. "What do you think the janitor's doing?" Malina pondered for a moment.

"Laoch, head back to the school. See what you can do while we work on fixing this."

"Got it." The boy ran out of the room as Malina focused on the task at hand.


As Amanda came to a spot where the islands seemed to connect, she could swear she heard footsteps behind her. As she turned to look, her eyes widened with horror as she came face-to-face with a giant mechanical crab. The girl yelped as she jumped out of the way of its first blast, and Malina's attention immediately turned back to the virtualized girl.

"Amanda! What happened?"

"Malina, there's a giant crab! What do I do?!"

"A giant crab? That sounds like what got Laoch earlier!" As the brunette noted this, an image of the beast appeared on the computer screen. After a moment of thought, Malina instructed her girlfriend. "Amanda, you're going to have to get close to it. I can't imagine it would appreciate a slice to the leg."

"How do I get close without getting hit by those lasers?"

"Go left and right, like a snake! Make yourself a harder target to hit!" Amanda nodded, still imagining Malina being right there with her. The blonde ran towards the beast, narrowly dodging its attacks as the distance closed. When she came in striking distance, the monster raised a leg to strike her, but this was evaded as well as the girl rushed for the hind leg.

Amanda slammed her eyes shut as her weapon connected with her target, which caused the monster to stumble for a moment before falling.

"Malina, I hit its leg!" Amanda cheered.

"Alright! Just one more slice to the top should get rid of it." Amanda shut her eyes again as her blade once again made contact with the beast, and opened them as it harmlessly exploded.

"Malina, did I just-"

"Amanda, it's virtual. None of it's technically real, but it's a real threat to our stopping this thing."

"Okay, got it. Are you gonna be here soon?"

"I'm pretty close. Just get to the tower and I'll join you there, okay?" Amanda nodded once again as she ran for the structure.


As Laoch arrived at the door of the school, he immediately felt two things: firstly, the door was locked, and second, the handle was much hotter than it should have been. Laoch peered through a window, gritting his teeth as the glass burned his hands.

He could see the students within, and it was immediately apparent they weren't enjoying the heat. As Laoch looked around for something to break the window, the answer came tumbling out of another one, and Laoch turned towards the sound of breaking glass.

The student who had thrown the chair, the school's star athlete Garrett Jones, emerged from the window, and his class soon followed suit. Laoch ran over to the group, picking up the chair.

"Mind if I borrow this?" Without waiting for an answer, the brunet ran towards the first window he'd peered into, and with a quick throw, shattered it. As the students emerged, so too did a black mist, which Laoch observed as it traveled towards Garrett. Laoch grabbed his phone as Garrett writhed in pain. He realized he only had time to send a quick message, and sent the most comprehensive he could with the least words:

/School boiling, ghost got Garrett/

As he sent this message, he put his phone back into his hoodie pocket, taking up a fighting stance native to kickboxing as Garrett approached him, his eye containing a symbol Laoch had only previously seen on the block monsters he'd fought before.

"So, you're what Malina dealt with?" Laoch asked no one in particular as the ghost charged him. Laoch jumped towards the possessed athlete with a jab, and brought his leg up to feign a kick, but quickly turned the attack into a superman punch to send the ghost tumbling backwards. While Laoch's technique had never been as clean as Malina's, it worked well enough, and he leapt towards the ghost again with a back kick as it stood up.

Back at the warehouse, Malina heard her text tone, but paid it no mind as she neared completion of the necessary code.

"Amanda? Are you at the tower?"

"Uh huh. Are you coming now?"

"Yup. Hang on!" Malina entered some more code before running to one of the pods. It closed behind her, and her eyes slammed shut as the artificial breeze kicked in. When they opened, she was met by the sight of her girlfriend, sword drawn and gazing around. As the two made eye contact, Amanda smiled, and ran towards the brunette, who was now clad in attire reminisent of a Native American huntress, with what appeared to be a large rifle on her back. The latter didn't stop Amanda, however, as she embraced the taller girl.

"Malina!" The blonde cried out. "Are you gonna deactivate the tower?" Malina nodded.

"Yeah, just stay out here! I'll be right out!" Malina planted a quick kiss on the blonde's lips before running toward the structure. As she touched it, she found herself phasing through, and soon walked into the tower entirely.

The interior of the tower shone with a blue light, with what appeared to be moving and alternating code decorating the walls. As she neared the center of the circular platform, she found herself rising, and was elevated to a second platform above. As the girl looked around, she noticed a set of letters on the wall, but her attention was pulled away as a holographic screen appeared in front of her, and she placed her hand on it.

/Malina/, the screen read, startling the brunette with its recognition of her name. However, the text soon changed to read /Code: Xanadu/.

"Did that do it?" Malina asked herself as she looked around. When her gaze turned downward, she saw a blinding white light emerging from the base of the tower, and shielded her eyes as it filled her vision. Outside the tower, Amanda could see the same light, and reacted in kind as it swallowed the world around her.

Meanwhile, at the school, the fight had become somewhat even between Laoch and the possessed Garrett as the ghost gradually caught onto the brunet's general fighting style. However, both combatants turned as a blinding white light came into view, spreading to fill their whole vision within moments.


"Miss Aulnoy? Is something on your mind?"

Malina perked up at the mention of her surname, and raised an eyebrow as well.

"No, sir?" Malina answered, confused. What kind of deja vu is this? The girl turned to Amanda, who exchanged a glance, and quickly started marking her paper, and brought it back up to show the brunette what she'd drawn: a bullseye with three lines emerging from beneath and one from above. Malina's eyes widened at the realization. With this, she had failed to hear what the teacher had said, but responded out of memory.

"No, sir." The teacher sighed again, and as he chided her, Malina was lost in thought once more.

So, we've just gone back in time? That's... A look of determination crossed the girl's face as she grabbed her notebook.

That's definitely worth looking into.


Hey, you made it to the end of this. This is my first non-RWBY fanfic on this site, and I hope I did a good job.

Quick trivia about Amanda: she originally was going to have the 'friends of the group but not part of it' status until 'episode' 13, but with Isla out of the story, I decided to instead just make her part of the gang from the get-go. In addition, instead of introducing her in 'episode' 2, she is introduced in 'episode' 1.

Also, don't ask what made a Mormon decide to write a lesbian couple. I just sort of thought one day, 'what if Malina was lesbian?' and bam. Let me know how awfully I did that whole shebang, no pun intended.

So, quick rundown of health and weapons while on Xanadu:

Laoch has 35 life points and a laser weapon that fires in three-shot bursts, where each laser does 10 damage.

Amanda has 80 life points and an arming sword that deals 60 damage.

Malina has 80 life points and a laser sniper rifle that deals 130 damage, but can only be fired once every five seconds.

Also, quick disclaimer: this story takes place in 2007, AFTER the events of Code Lyoko, and still within the same universe. Some of you can already guess how this is going.

I think that's about it. See you next chapter!