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 24

Lilith along with the rest of the Generals and Megabyte stood a circular room with chairs for each of them surrounding the Eye of XANA imprinted in the center of the room. Lilith and the other generals sat on the chairs while Megabyte stood, waiting impatiently for whatever was supposed to happen next. The Eye began to glow bright red and the image of XANA's Avatar appeared in the center of the Eye.

"Good morning, my dear Generals and I see our ally Megabyte has returned to us." XANA noted with his signature grin.

"Cut the pleasantries XANA. I want to know what you are up to now." Megabyte waved off XANA's hospitality. "I am impatient to see this army you have created."

"Of course." XANA chuckled. "The operation has proceeded as schedule, even if there have been obstacles along the way."

A large screen came to life that showed everyone a map of the Net.

"You are all aware that slowly I have been sending out creations in the form of my Web Sharks to systems where viruses were reported to dwell and when my constructs merged with them they were given instant upgrades that allowed them to take over the systems they dwelled in. Despite the Warrior's victory and the loss of Mainframe it served as the perfect diversion to allow me the time to gather the amount of viruses necessary for the mission of acquiring the Super Computer." XANA explained.

"A diversion, hm? Impressive use of the word." Megabyte snorted. "You sent me an army that was crushed by the spawn of my dear sister. What good is the so called army you have ready to conquer the Super Computer?"

"What makes you think the army I sent earlier was even meant to destroy the Warriors?" XANA calmly asked.

Megabyte narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"You think I'd sacrifice valuable resources to help you with your little plan to die a glorious death? My apologies, Megabyte. I believe we both had different ideas on the outcome we were looking for." XANA's lips curled up slightly. "The plan was to give them a victory to give them confidence that they can succeed in stopping us. It was never about who wins or loses, especially when they still cannot predict the next phase and they will not have the chance."

"And what makes you so sure?" Megabyte asked.

"Strategies, decoys, diversions, do none of these words mean anything to you, Megabyte?" XANA tilted his head. "It seems I'll have to show you…the meaning of these words."

Megabyte narrowed his eyes but said nothing.

"When it is ready, you will be given the honor of leading the invasion of the Super Computer. Now tell me, does that not make you want to smile?" XANA asked as he looked at the screen. "The Guardians and the Warriors still can't predict our movements and we shall use that against them."

Xxx

Tom stepped through the portal and onto the front of the entrance of the Principal Office in Mainframe. He could see the Lyoko Warriors along with the command staff of Mainframe waiting for him.

"Hey Tommy!" Izzy waved at him with a big smile.

Tom gave her a brief smile as Dot stepped towards. "Good to have you back, Guardian 453."

"Good to be back, Commander." Tom nodded. "It's nice to see Mainframe looking better than it was the last time I was here."

"We have your friends to thank for that." Dot nodded at the Lyoko Warriors. "But I hear we're still not done."

"No…we're not."

Xxx

They were all gathered in the briefing room with Tom standing in front of a vid-window showing a map of the Net.

"As you can see from the systems highlighted red systems these are the number of systems that have been attacked. We've tried to break through them but so far all success has failed. Morale's not well in the Supercomputer, especially after we just barely came out of that mess with Daemon." Tom gestured to the red colored systems. "Based on what I've learned of this XANA I'd say it's pretty clear that he's paving a path to the Supercomputer."

"Makes sense. The Supercomputer's the largest and most powerful system in the Net." Bob nodded.

"Exactly. But the Guardian fleet was already stretched as we have been reconnecting with all outlying systems after the system travel established by Daemon was lifted. The real concern is here…" Tom pointed at the system that looked to be the farthest system in the outer region. "The Edge of Beyond."

"The Edge of Beyond?" AndrAIa asked.

"What is that?" Gwen spoke up.

"It's formerly a system that existed on the borders between the Net and the Web. I studied it in the Supercomputer in History Class. Scholars believe it was the very first to be destroyed by the Web when an accident opened a portal." Bob explained. "Since then all outer systems have gone through big upgrades in protection of their ports to make sure a portal to the Web was never opened."

"And since our Lyoko friends have theorized that XANA has set up shop in the Net…" Tom started.

"Then the reason these systems were targeted so that XANA would have a clear path to the Supercomputer." Aelita finished.

Everyone in the room shared a concerned look.

"Okay, so what do we do?" Matrix asked. "How do we stop him getting to the Supercomputer?"

"An interesting question, my son." Phong came up to the map. "We cannot send a force into the Web to find wherever this XANA is and we do not have the manpower to stop another viral army if Megabyte returns."

"He won't." Dot shook her head. "Megabyte's not interested in revenge anymore. Not if XANA is now targeting the Supercomputer. Power has always been on his mind and there's no way he'll accept someone else sitting on his throne."

"But he had those viruses with him when he tried to destroy Mainframe." Matrix pointed.

"Only because XANA wanted to eliminate his enemies." Dot glanced at the Lyoko Warriors. "It would make sense to get rid of your major enemies first so they can't interfere."

"But we're still here…" Bob almost whispered.

"There is a chance XANA will target Mainframe again, just to get rid of us. Perhaps we should leave to keep the fight away from here." Aelita offered.

"No." Dot shook her head. "We've endured more than one war here and we know if they get to the Supercomputer Mainframe will be in danger again anyways. It's better to have you here to help defend it and to help us combat this new enemy. Regarding this…" She gestured to the screen. "What do you think we should do?"

Aelita sighed and walked up to the map, looking it over a moment. "I'm not entirely sure…but to me the best way to stop XANA from reaching the Supercomputer…if we can't find him in the Web then we do the next best thing. We stop him from entering the Net."

"How?" Tom asked.

"Well, if we look over the map it shows that XANA's clearing a path to the Supercomputer and according to Turbo inner systems with ports have been attacked, diverting the Guardian Fleet's attention…It's literally like a game of Chess. XANA's clearing open a path right to the king." Aelita pointed to the Supercomputer, the largest System in the Net. "If we want to stop him, we need to find a way to put obstacles in his path. Get those systems back up and connected to the Net again."

"You want to rescue the systems that have been attacked?" Tom asked.

"Like you said, Tom, XANA's attacking them because they are in the way of his invasion force." Aelita turned and looked at everyone. "If we rescue those systems and somehow fortify them…"

"Then XANA will have an even harder time getting to the Supercomputer." Noah caught on.

"We cut him off before he has the chance to launch his real attack." Duncan continued.

"And even if his forces do reach the Supercomputer it'll be harder because with those systems freed the Guardians will be able to refocus their efforts on stopping the main invasion." Tom took over. "Even if there are casualties if we can hold them long enough…"

"Then hopefully we will have the Anti-XANA system ready." Aelita finished.

Everyone at the table was silent as they thought over the plan.

"It's not the perfect plan but honestly we're running out of time and XANA is very good at strategizing and preparing all sorts of backup plans. If we don't act now before he has the chance to figure out what we're up to he'll change tactics and make it even harder for us to stop him." Aelita sighed. "This may be the only chance we have if we want to save the entire Net."

"You know we're for it, Aelita." Trent offered. "You haven't been wrong about this before."

"It's the only plan we have at the nano and you have more experience than we do." Bob pointed out.

"But we only have one digital ship and there are a lot of systems to cover." Gwen gestured to the map. "XANA will be half way to the Supercomputer by the time we start."

"So we don't use the Skid, we use the next best thing." Aelita looked at Tom. "Tom, when we arrived in Mainframe you had Dac channel the extra energy from the activate tower."

"Yeah, I did. It was hard but Dac immediately expelled the energy as fast as he received it." Tom glanced down at his key tool. "You want to use Dac again?"

"Aside from the Skid and the Core I noticed that Dac had more energy than other type of machine in Mainframe. Unless there is any other kind of machine that could channel the energy supplied by a tower in Lyoko I think a keytool is the only one that can handle it." Aelita explained. "If you think it's not worth the risk you don't have to."

"It's not me or Dac you have to be worried about. We both know the risks here but if Guardians with key tools have doubts in this plan it'll be difficult to convince and could take a while." Tom replied. "We'll need to speak with Turbo again and get into contact with every Guardian who has a keytool. I should also let you know that keytools are extremely rare and we're not the one who created them. They were created by User managing the Supercomputer, to help in running and protecting it. We Guardians found a way to link with them, share our code, making us one being instead of separate."

He held up Dac.

"This is to ensure Keytools are never used against us and to ensure we are never separated. Only a small amount of Guardians truly bond with a Keytool which is why they are kept close to us and any Keytools not in use are kept in storage where no viruses, not even super viruses can touch them."

"Sounds pretty cool." Duncan commented. "Must feel good to be one of the few out of a dozen to get one of those things."

"It was an honor." Tom nodded. "So, Aelita, you believe you can increase Dac's powers with a tower so he can break through the firewalls around the off lined systems?"

"It's the only way we have if we want to save all those systems." Aelita nodded.

"Hmmm…." Tom frowned in thought. "I might be able to convince a few Guardians to help out but remember Aelita, you guys are still strangers from a system no one has heard of with powers we didn't believe sprites were capable of with an equally dangerous enemy. There is also another matter…"

"What's that?" Bridgette asked.

"It'll take possibly seconds, possibly minutes or even a full hour to travel from system to system from here to the Edge of the Beyond without taking into account the dangerous viruses that are lurking in those systems." Tom pointed out. "By the time we even start XANA will be on the warpath to the Super Computer."

"Unless…" Everyone turned to Bob as he stood up. "We use the fastest method of traveling from system to system."

Xxx

"Right out of Stargate…" Noah whispered as Bob and Dot lead them all into the Core Control Chamber. "Is it just me or does anyone else notice how things from TV shows come to life around here?"

"I know. I remember what Enzo said about Nullzilla and the giant robot." Izzy whispered.

She had been so tempted to shout out 'You guys have Power Rangers?!' when she heard how the robot was formed.

"This Gateway Command is designed to search out and located other systems, lock onto them, and form a stable portal that will allow us to walk right through and enter that system." Bob explained. "We can use it to reach the other systems without having to travel all over the Net to find them."

"It does sound faster than the Skid." Gwen noted,

"A lot faster." Noah nodded. "We can split up into smaller teams and free those systems, come back here, and go to the next one after a break."

"Knowing us, we won't get much of a break." Duncan muttered.

"Don't be such a downer, Duncan. This is going to be fun!" Izzy grinned. "We're going on a huge adventure, see different places, and beat up all sorts of bad guys!"

"Great." Noah drawled.

Xxx

Cody and the rest of the group who were unable to go to Lyoko watched as Tom sent them a map of the Net and what systems were under XANA's control.

"Okay, by the looks of it there's over twenty systems that have been attacked and cut off from the Net. And since there's only nine Lyoko Warriors we're going to need some reinforcements which we have in the form of Mainframe." Cody started. "Now Aelita's plan involves going to systems that form a path from the Edge of Beyond, that's here."

He pointed at one of outermost systems.

"That's the spot where XANA's army will emerge because he has no idea where the Supercomputer's Web Address is. It's impossible what your system's Web Address unless you're willing to go through billions of corrupted data files to find the address. So XANA will send his forces through the Net to invade the Supercomputer directly." Cody continued.

"Cody, can we hurry up here?" LeShawna asked impatiently.

"Okay, okay. Anyways, the best way to enter these systems is to activate a tower and break down the fire walls XANA put up like how we got to Mainframe. Good thing is that the link Dac made with Lyoko was never severed so all I have to do is activate the tower when Tom tells me to, channel the extra power through Dac and hopefully we'll break down the fire walls surrounding these systems." Cody outlined the plan. "The only problem is how long it'll take and whether or not Dac can handle the extra energy. It's like creating a specter, gathering electrical energy from the city and then channeling it through the cables and into digital space were Dac receives the energy through the link. If we're off by even a single second Dac could explode and all that extra energy could set off an explosion that could destroy Mainframe."

"Then you'll have to be extra careful, Cody. Tom will be sending coordinates on key systems that will be in the path of XANA's army. We're not targeting every system, just the systems that will slow XANA down." Aelita spoke up.

"I know, but there's a lot of calculating to do here, Aelita. Heck for the first time I'm actually a little sick of math." Cody chuckled.

"Take a break after we're done, Cody. We still have a universe to save down here." Gwen spoke up. "I can tell you this now, after we're done we can check out where we'd want to vacation if we ever came back."

"True that!" Cody laughed. "Man, I'm kinda envious that you guys can see an entire digital universe different from what we've seen so far. It must be something you'll never forget!"

"We'll send pictures to you when this is over. Right now time is of the essence, Cody." Aelita replied. "Hurry and activate a tower. The longer we wait the more time XANA will have to launch another attack."

"Right." Cody started typing on the computer again. "And here we go!"

Xxx

A tower in the Tropical Sector began to glow green.

Xxx

"Input programs now. Gathering digital energy." Cody looked over the scans. "The tower's collecting energy right now, Aelita. We'll be ready to channel it through the link and into Dac when you give the order."

Xxx

"Thanks Cody." Aelita nodded and turned to the gathered audience. "We're ready."

"Right." Tom nodded and stood in front of the portal. "All right, let's target a system that we lost contact with."

Mouse nodded and turned to the controls. She looked over a map of the Net and randomly picked a system that was flashing red meaning it was one of the systems that had been taken over and severed from the rest of the Net.

"System found...Targeting….Locking!"

The Gate came to life in a blast of light that blinded everyone for a few seconds before showing the image of a system with a red light highlighting the surface of the portal.

"It's just like before." Bob stepped forward. "It's hard to believe something is capable of blocking portals."

"When it comes to XANA nothing is in possible hear." Noah muttered.

"Cody, the portal is ready." Aelita spoke out loud.

"Okay, Tom. You ready?" Cody voice came from Dac.

"As I'll ever be I guess." Tom pointed Dac straight at the portal. "Hopefully Dac can handle this."

"All right." Aelita turned and faced everyone. "We should form groups to go through the gate. If we all go we'll be stuck saving systems one at a time and we don't have time for that."

"Well, Aelita, you need to be at the Supercomputer to install the Anti-XANA program." Noah pointed out."We can start off of thinking of who can take on the viruses that'll be in this system. I'm a support type fighter so I can't do it on my own."

"Of course." Heather rolled her eyes.

"Heather sounds like she wants to volunteer." Noah smirked. "Of course she's a stealth type so she'll need a little help."

"Hmph!" Heather crossed her arms and pouted.

"If we're going to sit here and do nothing but brainstorm a way for Noah to not have to step into that I guess I'll volunteer." Gwen stepped forward. "I already fought a couple viruses on my own and even though they are tricky I have a few surprises of my own."

"And we all thank you for being brave, Gwen." Noah clapped his hands.

"And you can be my support." Gwen said with a smile as she put her hand on Noah's shoulder. "Just so I don't in alone. Besides," She leaned in and whispered in Noah's ear. "If this is like Stargate someone has to play O'Neil."

"Yeah…" Noah stopped clapping his hands. "Sure."

"Don't mind if I cut in." Mouse stepped forward. "I got to see you guys in action before and if you guys handle those nasty viruses I can handle getting that system back up and running with your friend's help. I'm good but your XANA's codes are more advanced than anything I've ever seen before and I'll need some help if I want to make sure that system is safe."

"Mouse…" Dot started.

"Sorry honey, but you heard everyone. We got to move fast before this endangers all of us again." Mouse said. "Besides with these guys here it'll be a lot easier."

"Then you won't mind if I tag along." Ray the Surfer stepped forward, holding his board. "Just make sure you ladies don't get in any trouble."

"Try not to slow us down, sugar." Mouse winked.

"Izzy wants to go! Izzy want to go!" Izzy hopped up to them.

"Hold on, Izzy." Aelita put her hand on Izzy's shoulder. "I think only four should go. We need to spread out as much as possible to help the other systems. You can go on the next team."

"Okay." Izzy pouted and crossed her arms like a little girl that had been denied a treat or a toy she wanted badly.

"Cody, we have our team ready." Aelita spoke up.

"Okay, channeling energy…now!"

Xxx

Cody began inputting instructions into the activated tower and watched as a meter bar appeared on the screen. The bar went up as the tower began gathering energy for Tom to use to break through the fir walls around the system they had found.

"We're nearly at full power." Cody announced.

"Now!" Aelita called out.

"Channeling power now!"

Xxx

"Dac! Fire!" Tom shouted.

As the energy was channeled through the link Dac expelled the energy as quickly it received it straight into the portal. The bright beam of light collided with the smoky wall and everyone watched as the fire wall tried to repel the energy beam but it was slowly starting to crack.

Xxx

Agri Prime

Nyx looked up at the sky as shockwaves of light travelled above the city. "Ooohh! What's this?"

She and the sprites she had gathered together had been running hit and run attacks on Inferno's stronghold but the dragon like virus was still too strong and he maintained a strong grip on the city and its resources. Try as they might the rebels simply did not have the power or the numbers to challenge Inferno out in the open and every cycle they lost more as civilians were infected by the strange virus that changed sprites and binomes into zombie like monsters. They had just prepared another attack when this strange event started happening.

Nyx's eyes widened as a hole was torn through the black and red sky that shined brightly. "Someone has managed to open a way to the system! We're back online!"

That meant reinforcements!

That meant they would have help!

That meant they had a chance to get rid of Inferno.

"Well, finally." Nyx grinned. "Things are finally getting interesting."

Xxx

Tom quickly stopped the energy beam as Cody cancelled the energy transfer to Dac. The plan had worked perfectly, XANA's fire walls had been knocked down, allowing the team to walk through and enter the new system.

"The way is clear." Tom nodded.

Gwen, Noah, Mouse, and Ray glanced at everyone and nodded as they were ready.

"Be careful everyone. I don't want anyone to come through that gate and tell me they lost someone." Dot said as she stepped forward. "I want everyone to come back."

"You know us, honey." Mouse grinned. "We'll be fine. You just get this place ready for when Megabyte comes back."

"Be careful you guys." Bridgette quickly hugged Gwen and Noah. "Please be safe."

"We will." Gwen nodded with a smile. "I should be telling you that."

Bridgette chuckled as she stepped back. Gwen bumped fists with Duncan, gave a quick hug to Trent, and nodded at Heather, Courtney, and Izzy who nodded back. Aelita smiled and gave Gwen and Noah quick hugs, surprising the both of them but they quickly hugged her back. Mouse gave a quick hug to Dot and AndrAIa, a kiss on Bob's cheek, nodded at Matrix and bent down to give little Enzo a kiss on the head. Ray simply smiled and nodded at everyone as he stood in front of the gate with Mouse.

"Man down the fort while I'm gone little man. Your big sister's going to need all the help she can get." Mouse winked at Enzo who happily nodded back at her.

"Now that we have the teary good bye stuff taken care of, we ready?" Noah asked.

"Sure." Gwen said as they stood next to Mouse and Ray.

The four glanced at each other and stepped forward into the gate, vanishing into the portal.

"Good luck." Aelita whispered.

The others watched solemnly as the portal closed, closing off the system that their friends had just vanished into.

"Let's hurry and start finding other systems that need help." Dot spoke up. "Dad, type up another address that's been attacked."

Xxx

XANA grinned as he sensed that one of the systems he had taken over had been infiltrated. "Phase One has begun."