Disclaimer: I don't own anything belonging to Code: Lyoko, Total Drama, or Reboot. Code Lyoko is Property of Moonscoop, Reboot is the property of Mainframe Entertainment and Total Drama is the property of Fresh TV.

Xxx

Chapter 23

"And connecting to the archives…now!"

The Skidbladnir was still remotely connected to the Principal Office with Aelita in the cockpit, her fingers dancing across the controls.

"I'm connected to the archives now." Aelita spoke out loud.

"Now it's my turn to take over." Cody said, even though Aelita and the Lyoko Warriors were the only ones who could hear him.

Xxx

Inside the War Room the Lyoko Warriors along with the Commander and her staff watched as the Skid quickly sorted through the information in the archives.

"How fast is it going?" Dot asked, watching the screen intently.

"Very fast. They've already sorted through seventy five percent of the archives." Mouse whistled and smiled at the Lyoko Warriors. "That's some fine equipment you guys brought. It won't be a problem if I take look, would it?"

"Sorry, that's Aelita's call." Bridgette shrugged apologetically.

"What are they doing, sis?" Enzo asked.

"Well, according to them Lyoko is a supercomputer that allows its sprites to directly interface with its functions, explaining why they seem so strong compared to the average sprite. They say they can activated the anti-viral system that will cure Megabyte and XANA's infections in Mainframe and maybe get us back online." Dot explained. "We need to get into contact with the Guardians and tell them what's going on."

"And then what?" Bob glanced at the Warriors.

"That's a very good question." Gwen reluctantly answered.

"Sir, ma'am!" Specky spoke up. "They've found the anti-viral files!"

Xxx

"This is going to be tricky." Cody said as he looked at anti-virus programs Mainframe had.

"What makes you say that?" LeShawna asked.

"Mainframe's a little…outdated when you compare it to Lyoko. From what I can tell this is actually a mainframe computer system that's located…in Vancouver by a computer animation and design company!" Cody looked over Mainframe's address information.

"Wow. The guys are almost back home in a way!" Geoff commented.

"Kind of but Mainframe looks like it's been running since 1994. It's old but still up and running and this…" Cody zoomed in on the island called Lost Angles. "That island…the information I'm getting from Mainframe's history files says this was its Twin City but when I hooked up to the computer the scan says it's what left of another computer like the one holding Mainframe but it suffered a hardware meltdown."

"Meaning?" LeShawna asked.

"When the hardware fried from what was probably that experiment Tom spoke of the city was completely destroyed." Cody explained. "Meaning that it was completely unsalvageable."

"Cody, man, you got something to concentrate on right now." DJ pointed out.

"Right…" Cody quickly got to work. "I have to be careful with managing Mainframe's files with this. The programs we use on Lyoko use a lot more energy than Mainframe does and if I use a high energy pulse I could fry the system. I have to be careful with how much power I put through the connection and how fast I want to make sure the process work."

A few minutes later Cody clicked the mouse on the ACTIVATE Icon.

"Here we go."

Xxx

The black and red sky above Mainframe turned bright green as the anti-viral programs were activated and began to start cleaning and all infected programs in the system. Zombified and infected binomes instantly turned back to normal, allowing them shout out in happiness of being free from the viral infection.

"By the User." Bob whispered in shock. "It's actually working. The entire system is almost viral free!"

Almost was referring to that fact that all viruses besides the one in the infirmary was either deleted or cured.

"Nice work." Duncan nodded with a smirk. "Looks a little friendlier."

"Anti-virus scan complete. Mainframe is a hundred percent clean now." Cody said to the Warriors.

"Good work." Aelita nodded from inside the Skid. "All right, let's get to the work on the network connections. The sooner we have the system back online with the Net the sooner we can find out what's going on out there."

"All right, give me a second to find the network controls. Mainframe's a lot harder to manage since we're used to supercomputers, those are easy to run with this." Cody sighed. "I think I can see it…activating connection…now!"

The controls in the War Room beeped and Specky looked over the readings at his station. "Sirs, Ma'ams, Mainframe is back online!"

"Let's test it. Patch in the Supercomputer." Bob said to Mouse who nodded and quickly inputted the commands into the communications console.

A Vid-Window appeared alongside the main screens showing Turbo sitting at his desk, looking a little stressed.

"Bob is that you? Mainframe's back on the Net." Turbo said as soon as he noticed the window with a hopeful look.

"We are Turbo and we've managed to fend off Megabyte and the virals but our troubles are not over." Bob answered.

"I know. Tom made it back and briefed us on what he discovered. I see these are the Lyoko sprites." Turbo looked at the Lyoko Warriors. "Nice to meet you all. Thanks for saving Tom and for helping Mainframe out."

"Our pleasure." Bridgette smiled at the Prime Guardian. "Anything to throw a wrench in XANA's plans."

"Tom briefed us on this XANA and he briefed us that he was responsible for Megabyte's upgrade and the recent outbreak of viruses in other systems." Turbo continued.

"Outbreak? Other systems?" Dot asked.

"You heard right, Dot. Around the Net system are being attacked by viruses more powerful than we can handle and they've all gone silent with all connections to the Net closed and locked. We've done our best but any attempt to reestablish connections or force our through the firewalls have failed." Turbo looked to the Lyoko Warriors. "You guys seem to be the experts on this. Do you have any idea what is happening?"

"Well…" Noah shared a look with everyone and realized he might have to be the main speaker in Aelita's place. "We know XANA's been upgrading viruses and we think he's trying to use the systems as a source of power to increase his own. With an army of viruses at his command he'll be able to overwhelm us easily and take over Lyoko if he takes over the Net."

"That's what Tom said." Turbo nodded. "Any idea on how stop him?"

That was when the doors opened and Aelita stepped inside. "Hi, everyone. We just got Mainframe's connection up and running."

"Aelita, meet Turbo, Leader of the Guardians. Turbo this is Aelita, Leader of the Lyoko Warriors." Noah gave a quick introduction. "Aelita, tell Turbo how we're going to stop XANA."

Aelita stared Noah for a second and then back at Turbo. "Well, as long as there is a single program associated with XANA in the Net or the Web he'll be able to start over again even if we stop the virals. If we want to make sure this never happens again we not only need to destroy everything with XANA's codes but we also have to close the portal that allowed XANA to slip through into the Web and send his monsters out from there."

"And how do we do that when the entire Net is in danger? It would take hours to travel all over the Net even if we can break through the firewalls." AndrAIa pointed out.

"There is a way…Cody bring up the specs for the XANA Destruction Program." Aelita looked up at the ceiling.

Everyone was confused for a mere second as a new Vid-Window appeared with the designs of a program.

"Everyone this is a special Anti-XANA program that works much like an Anti-Virus program. We designed it to wipe out and destroy XANA by splitting it up into thousands of smaller anti-viruses that collide with everything that has XANA's codes and take them out in a kamikaze attack." Aelita explained. "We believed it would destroy XANA for good but he managed to outsmart us by hiding himself from the program. Even though it failed the results showed it can be used here to spread through the Net to wipe out XANA's influence."

"Much like how Hex wiped out Daemon's infection." Bob stated with an instant of regret for what happened to Hexadecimal. "It'll spread through the Net and go through system to system, taking out XANA's own infection, right?"

"Essentially, yes. However the program requires a lot of power, especially if XANA's hold over the Net is very strong. It'd be too much to use in a system like Mainframe, not only would it almost ineffective but it might spend all of Mainframe's power in an attempt to use it." Aelita pointed out. "By now XANA's infection has spread enough over the Net that we would need the largest amount of power the Net has."

"The Supercomputer." Bob and Turbo said at the same time.

"I guess." Aelita shrugged. "With enough power we can clean up the entire Net but our work would not be done."

"Why not?" Matrix asked as he crossed his arms.

"Because Tom explained that XANA came through a portal in the Web so even if we take out his infection in the Net he'll just fall back to the Web and regroup." Turbo answered. "So not only do we need to clean the Net but we also need to clean the Web."

"That's just Alphanumeric." Matrix groaned. "The Web will be impossible to navigate. We'll never clean it up since it's already a mass of corrupted files."

"True but if we want to save the Net we have no choice but to try." Turbo looked the Lyoko Warriors. "I'm sending Tom to lead you to the Supercomputer as soon as possible. There is not a nano to waste if we want to save the Net."

"Thank you." Aelita nodded. "We'll do everything we can to help."

Xxx

Megabyte growled as he walked through the dark red hallway in the castle XANA had constructed in the Web and opened the large doors leading to throne room. The doors hit the wall with a loud thud as he walked in and spotted Lilith sitting on the throne.

"Those doors were not locked." Lilith lounged on the chair with her eyes closed. "Did you know the meaning of the word 'manners'?"

"I am not interested in your games Lilith." Megabyte walked up the throne. "Where is XANA? He should be here for me to vent my rage on."

"Don't be so grumpy, Byte." Lilith opened one eye. "Master XANA's existence is not for you vent you little temper tantrum on. Besides you should be happy to be out of that dump. Now we can get started on the real plan."

"Oh really?" Megabyte crossed his arms. "And what is that?"

"The one where we send a viral army to take the Super Computer, the home of the Guardians." Lilith sat up with a smile. "Does that make you feel better?"

Megabyte raised a nonexistent eyebrow. "Really now?"

Looks like things were getting interesting again.

"Yes, the whole point of this plan was to gather an army to take over the Super Computer. Of course there some complications like having to send the small army to help you out in Mainframe and even then we lost some valuable fighters. You're only lucky we have a lot of viruses here or Master XANA might have been annoyed." Lilith said, probably hoping to scare Megabyte.

It didn't work.

"But now that the whole mess in Mainframe has been put aside for the moment we can focus on the real mission." Lilith grinned. "Does that make you happy?"

Xxx

Harmony giggled as a scan slowly covered her body, head to toe. The screen next to her showed the results while Enzo along the still recovering Phong and Welman Matrix back in his exo-skeleton were looking over the results.

"This is most astonishing. I have never seen anything like this before." Phony remarked with widened eyes.

"What is it Phong?" Enzo asked.

"Her codes…" Phong looked at the screen showing rows of red and green lines of code. "They are a mix…of Hexadecimal and Daemon!"

"No way…" Enzo gasped.

"Her energy levels are off the charts, even for a Super Virus. It looks like she may be a…Class 5. However it seems she does not yet have access to Hexadecimal or Daemon's higher level functions."

Class 5 viruses were the highest level a virus could reach and the most powerful. A single Class 5 could destroy an entire system less than a cycle and was considered extremely dangerous.

"But how can she have Hex and Daemon's codes?" Enzo asked.

"Well…It is possible that when Hexadecimal went through the gate and scattered her infection across the Net to counter Daemon's its possible the two infections somehow…merged together to form a new virus." Welman speculated.

"Mother left me all her powers and her memories." Harmony sat up and looked at the next table, seeing the container of Nulls.

She hopped off the table and walked over to the container, slowly drawing her finger across the glass container. The three watched as the Nulls followed the movements of her finger.

"Control of the Nulls, just like Hex." Phong whispered.

"Wow." Enzo walked up next to Harmony. "So cool…but how?"

"I was born when all that was left of Mother and Daemon came together at the very edge of the Net." Harmony turned around smiled at Enzo. "I awoke, seeing and hearing all their memories and slowly pieced together what I am…and I wanted to come here. You guided me here when I felt you."

"But how did you feel me?" Enzo asked.

Harmony pointed at Enzo's icon. "Mother left you a gift. She gave you back Grandpa." She nodded at Welman. "And left you protection against infections."

"So that's why Megabyte couldn't infect me!" Enzo realized.

"Yes." Harmony smiled at Enzo. "You guided me back to Mainframe; I could hear and feel your emotions all the way at the edge of the Net."

"A psychic link?" Phong sounded worried.

There was no way Dot or Matrix would react well to this explanation at all.

"Kind of." Harmony glanced at Phong. "Now that I am back I plan to stay and it seems you might need me. Now more than ever."

"She's right Phong." Enzo agreed. "You should have seen how she helped out there. She totally owned those viruses."

Harmony giggled at Enzo's praise while Phong and Welman exchanged nervous glances.

This might be a little worse than they thought.

Xxx

'Mainframe has been cleansed of my data.'

If he was human XANA supposed he should be angry at the failure to eliminate the Warriors in Mainframe but XANA was not human and he was not irrational like humans were with their emotions. He just calmly processed the information and formed a new strategy on what to do next.

'Their victory in Mainframe in the long run does not matter. However no doubt Aelita will have figured out the best course of action to expel my influence from the Net. In that case I'll have accelerate the plan and take over the Super Computer before they have a chance. Megabyte and the army I assembled alone will be sufficient for the Guardians but if the Warriors intervene…' XANA closed the eyes of his human Avatar. 'I suppose I should be grateful that Megabyte provided me with another opportunity to neutralize them. If I want them to be in a position not to intervene then I will need…a diversion, a distraction, decoys, all that to divert them from saving the Net…to saving themselves.'

XANA smirked as he opened his eyes.

'This will be fun, what a rare and exciting challenge. I suppose I should actually consider myself blessed in enjoying such an occasion.'

The battle for Mainframe is over but the battle for the Net was about to begin and unlike Megabyte XANA had no interests in revenge…

Only destruction.

'Time to start the next phase.'