Ulrich pushed open the double doors as Sissi and Odd covered him from behind. What they all discovered beyond the doors was astounding. What was formerly a cafeteria had been transformed into a makeshift assembly line. Each of the tables held different mechanical parts that several crudely constructed robotic arms picked up. From there, the parts were placed on another table where another set of arms went to work assembling them together. Finally, the completed creation was taken to another table and injected with a battery, giving life to a XANA-infected Kiwi-2 bot.

"My poor little diggity-dog," Odd lamented, "being perverted from man's best friend to man's worst enemy."

"Hey," Jeremie protested over the microphone, "blame XANA for stealing my blueprints."

Ulrich unsheathed his swords. "Either way, we have a job to do."

Sissi unleashed her claws while Odd took aim at one of the mechanical arms. After a three count, all three Lyoko warriors went on the offensive. Before any of the arms knew what was going on, they were attacked. Whether by blade or by arrow, they each fell before they were able to mount a defense. Once the arms were destroyed, the group went after the newly-completed Kiwi-2 bots and their individual parts, ensuring that their construction would be put to an end.

"That was easy," Sissi said as she stomped on a still twitching bot.

"Why did you say that?" Odd asked. "You know that anytime someone says that in the movies something goes horribly, horribly wrong." At that moment, the group heard the sound of a large creature's footsteps coming towards the room. "Told you!" Odd shouted as he and the rest of the group faced the closed double-doors, preparing for the attack. Each one of them clenched their weapons tighter as the sound amplified. Just then, the wall opposite of the buffet line burst open, revealing a volkanoid flanked by two kankrelats.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Ulrich shouted. The bipedal monster was taller than the door, almost reaching the ceiling. It's skin was thicker than the other XANA creatures and had a large version of the symbol on it's front. The legs were short and stubby while the body was round and smooth in the front. The back of the creature was open and exposed the molten core of the being.

Odd shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe XANA was able to translocate this guy to the real world."

"So this is what you guys have to face everyday?" Sissi asked.

"Nah," Ulrich responded. "Sometimes they're taller. Hey, Odd, remember what we did last time. Sissi, help me provide a distraction while Odd tries to shoot it in the back. From there we can then attack the eye and kill it."

Both Odd and Sissi nodded as they went into position. Sissi grabbed a chair and threw it at the behemoth, causing it to fire at the ground in front of them. Both the lioness and the warrior scattered in opposite directions, causing the volkanoid to constantly switch focus between the two. One of the kankrelats decided to fire a shot, hoping to hit anything. Ulrich returned the shot with his sword, destroying the creature in the process.

While all of this was going on, Odd began his part of the attack. He scampered around the room, leaping off of walls and debris to get behind the creature as quickly as possible. He kicked a kankrelat before it was about to fire, knocking it down on the floor but not completely killing it. Finally, he was close to the molten core of the creature. He extended his arm and closed one eye in order to get the right aim for the perfect shot. "Stay on target. Stay on target," he told himself. Just as he was about to fire an immobilizing shot, Odd noticed that the core began to glow. He lowered his arm for a bit and opened both eyes to get a better view of just what was going on. The glow intensified and, at that moment, a large blast of fire shot through the back of the volkanoid. Odd was caught in the blast and got knocked back several meters until he slammed against a wall. Once the blast had subsided, he collapsed on the floor, his body still smoking from the heat.

"ODD!" Sissi shouted as she saw her boyfriend collapse from the attack. Until that moment, she never realized the kind of danger the group had to endure every time they would go off into the virtual world. Had she known about this before, especially when she chased after Ulrich in the past and when she decided to hook up with Odd, she would have tried to stop them from ever putting their lives on the line. Now that she saw for herself what they were fighting for, she understood what was at stake and what could happen to them when things go wrong. Sissi's fear for Odd's safety quickly manifested into rage when she saw that he wasn't getting up anytime soon. With a fire in her eyes and a low growl, she darted towards the volkanoid. She expertly dodged all of the creatures attacks as she rushed forward throwing objects towards the monster. As she dodged another fireball shot, she picked up the downed kankrelat before leaping at the volkanoid's body. Before the creature had any time to react, Sissi threw the body of the kankrelat into the molten core of the volkanoid, causing both a massive explosion and the collapse of the brute. She then mercilessly slashed and stabbed at the behemoth until it became nothing more than digital dust. As the particles faded away, Sissi stood with her claws extended, foaming at the mouth as she panted hard.

Odd groaned as he got up. While no real pain could be felt by their digital avatars, the knowledge of what it would feel like to get thrown into a wall still registered into his mind. When his head finally cleared, he saw his girlfriend transform from someone unfamiliar with her newfound powers to an animal thirsting for blood. "Um... Sissi?" he asked. "Are you alright?"

Sissi retracted her claws and wiped away the foam from her mouth. In the blink of an eye, she calmed down from her frenzied state. "Oh, I'm fine," she answered. "I'm just a little..." Before she could finish the sentence, she collapsed on the floor.

Both Odd an Ulrich ran over to her body. Before any of them could say anything, Jeremie spoke over their headsets.

"She's fine, guys" he assured them. "She just fainted due to the intense adrenaline rush. Sissi should be conscious again shortly."

Odd breathed a sigh of relief as he took Sissi in his arms and kissed her on the forehead. "You did good, lioness. Thank you," he whispered. He looked at Ulrich, who had just finished sheathing his swords. "Now what?" he asked.

"You stay here and protect Sissi," he said. "Unless XANA has any other big surprises up his sleeve, I should have no more problems finding the bus driver and the override switch for the factory." As Ulrich began to walk away, he heard a low rumbling sound in the distance. Odd heard the noise as well; the sound of hundreds of tiny mechanical legs left no doubt in his mind that another batch of Kiwi-2 bots was headed their way. Both of them looked at each other before gathering the few unbroken tables together to create a makeshift fort. Once construction was complete, Odd took Sissi behind the fort walls while he extended each arm, one pointing to the broken double doors while the other pointed in the direction of the hole created by the volkanoid.

"Go!" Odd shouted. "I'll be alright."

Ulrich nodded before leaving to find the switch. He kicked open the other set of double doors in the cafeteria and traveled down the hallway. After a few rooms, Ulrich found a set of doors that were propped open. He opened them further to find a man lying face first on the floor. He ran into the room and turned him over to confirm that the man was indeed the bus driver they were looking for. Using a technique he learned in health class, he placed two fingers on the neck of the driver. The pulse he felt was faint, but he was glad to know that the driver was still alive. Ulrich stood up and looked forward to see a large control panel with several dials and graphs on them. The monitors in front of the panel all displayed the same thing: XANA's symbol. Ulrich cupped his ear to contact Jeremie. "Looks like I'm in the main control room," he told him.

"Excellent," Jeremie responded. "We need to find a way to overload the plant so that it shuts down for good."

"Wait a minute," Ulrich interrupted. "If we do an overload, doesn't that mean the whole plant will blow up?"

"That's the plan," Jeremie said. "Since you, Sissi and Odd are in a virtual state now, you'll all be fine."

"What about the bus driver here?" he asked.

There was a brief moment of silence before a word was spoken. "I got it!" Jeremie exclaimed. "I can have Aelita perform a 'return to the past' right as the plant begins to explode. It's going to be risky, but if we time it just right we can save the bus driver. You got all that, Aelita?"

Aelita opened a window that gave her a view of the scanning area. "Got it," she told him. "As soon as I see someone emerge from the scanners I'll hit the switch."

Jeremie contacted Ulrich one last time. "It's up to you now."

Ulrich took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing," he muttered to himself as he turned every knob and dial he could find to the maximum level. The lights in the facility immediately turned red as a siren wailed all over the plant.

"Warning," said an automated feminine voice over the loudspeakers. "Five minutes until plant overload. Please evacuate the facility in an orderly fashion."

Ulrich ran out of the room and began to gather up his comrades. As he ran into the cafeteria, Sissi was still lying unconscious on the floor while Odd fired a shot at a Kiwi-2 bot, single-handedly destroying the tide that had come in earlier.

"That's the last of them," he said as he bent his arms to regain some feeling in them.

Ulrich nodded. "We gotta go. The plant is going to explode and we have to re-materialize so that Aelita can go a 'return to the past' before the bus driver gets killed."

"How much time do we have left?" Odd asked.

"Warning. Four minutes until plant overload," announced the automated voice.

"OK," Odd said, bothered by the fact that the voice seemed to know exactly when to answer his question. "Can you help me get Sissi onto my back?"

Ulrich picked up the unconscious girl from the ground and draped her arms on Odd's shoulders while he had him hold her legs. "She's kinda heavy," he commented.

"I thought so, too, at first," Odd replied, "but I got used to it after a while."

Ulrich shook his head. Now was not the time to decipher what his best friend meant by that remark. Both of them began their run towards the outside of the building. The group ran through several rooms and corridors, kicking aside corpses of Kiwi-2 bots along the way. Moments later, all of them made it outside.

"Now what?" Odd asked.

The PA system began to crackle to life. "Warning," said the female voice again. "One minute until plant overload."

"Thanks," Odd said to the voice.

Ulrich looked around and found what he was looking for. "Head for the transformers. We should get an explosion or electrical shock from there." The group ran to the middle of the transformer field. To help the process along, Ulrich unsheathed a sword and held it straight up into the air to act as a lightning rod. "Hold on tight!" he ordered as he sensed that the overload would happen very soon.

"Warning," the voice said for the last time. "Plant overload will occur in 5. 4. 3. 2. 1."

As the announcement ended. Bolts of electricity flew through the air and the sound of transformers exploding could already be heard. One of the bolts came into contact with Ulrich's sword, instantly draining all of the remaining hit points the group had, sending them back into the real world.

Aelita kept a close watch on the window displaying the scanner room. Moments later, she saw three doors open. Ulrich and Odd stepped out of their respective scanning pods while Sissi almost fell over, catching herself at the last minute. With everyone confirmed to be alright, Aelita hit the Enter key to begin the 'return to the past' process.

In the scanner room, Odd ran over to Sissi and helped her get on her feet again. "You OK?" he asked.

Sissi blinked twice and tried to get herself acclimated to the real world again. "I think so. Did we win?" Odd nodded. "That's nice," she said as she began to lean on his shoulder to rest.

Odd's head leaned against hers. "You think she'll remember all of this when we go back?"

Ulrich shrugged his shoulders. "No clue," he said. "But I guess we'll find out soon enough."

The white dome of time appeared in the factory and began to grow, encompassing everything it touched. Moments later, the dome touched the campsite and the forest. It then reached the cabin where a battered and bruised Jim and Yumi disposed of the last Kiwi-2 bot that terrorized the students. The dome hit the power plant, touching the bus driver before a fireball from the many explosions roared through the room. Before anyone could notice what was happening, the whole world was bathed in a white low as the program began to reverse time itself.