AN: Well, if you guys have been following my YouTube channel, or at least seen the September episode of Studio News, you'd know that this is a good sign of me keeping to my word about how October is likely going to be seeing a lot of updates for my RWBY-based stories, starting with this little number here.
Weiss: I'm not entirely sure if this counts that much.
AN: Yes, it definitely does. It features you and the rest of Team RWBY, does it not? Is that not your series' name in the title? Are you not the ones who are having all these encounters with heroes from other franchises/universes/worlds?
Blake: Okay, okay! You've made your point. So, who's going to be coming to Remnant this time?
AN: Who said anything about this taking place on Remnant? No, this time around, the idea has you going to the guest stars' world. In a manner of speaking.
Ruby: Oh! Are we going to be going to another dimension? Or is it us going to another planet?!
AN: Neither. This one is actually an AU story that features Team RWBY being part of the visiting franchise. No Remnant involved, or Grimm, or Salem; just Team RWBY being featured on this world like they were part of it from the start. But it does have a few characteristics from RWBY being taken on. Oh, and before I forget, this story would start at just a little before the beginning of Season 3 of the visiting show. And just what is our visiting show, you may ask? Yang, if you would be so kind to enlighten everyone?
Yang: Gladly. Today, Team RWBY meets the heroes of Code Lyoko.
AN: You heard it here. It's time to enter a World Without Danger!
Weiss: Um, you do realize that there's quite a bit of danger in this world right?
AN: Weiss, I'm trying to be clever by doing a little play on the Code Lyoko theme song's title. Don't ruin it. Disclaimer please!
I do not own anything from any of the RWBY franchise or any other franchise mentioned in this story.
The Lyoko Warriors
A full week into their summer break and there had not been even the smallest sign of trouble from the super-virus, XANA. Not that Yumi, Aelita, and Jeremy were too surprised, mind you. After successfully stealing the keys to Lyoko from Aelita's memory, there did not really seem to be too much reason for XANA to come after them. At least not beyond the typical schemes to either keep them out of his way or get rid of them for good. They figured that since XANA had escaped from the supercomputer and onto the world wide network, he must have been searching for new ways to build up his power and better complete his goals of taking over the world, and since they could only do so much from Kadic Academy, let alone without even knowing just where exactly XANA even was, they could not do much more than sit, wait, and basically enjoy their summer break as much as possible. Not that they intended to leave themselves completely unprepared for any possible XANA attack at all, mind you.
With Ulrich and Odd away to visit with their families for the break, much to the former's displeasure, the Lyoko Warriors were down a few members, so this would have been a perfect time for XANA to strike. Not to mention that they had no idea if XANA was now capable of attacking them anywhere in the world, so Jeremy had kept an even closer eye on the super scanner than ever on the off-chance that a tower became active, while the girls kept their phones on them at all times in case either of the boys called in to report something weird or obviously XANA suddenly happened in their area. As tense as they all were though, they did still take some time to relax and enjoy the break, for Aelita's sake especially.
Out of everyone on the team, the pinkette had naturally been hit the hardest with everything that had happened in their last battle with XANA. After all, it was not every day that you discover everything you thought you knew about yourself had been thrown out the window in the face of the truth. Sure, she had been upset at first when she learned that Franz Hopper, the creator of both XANA and the supercomputer was her father, but when her father restored all of her childhood memories to her, she became even more upset over the fact that he seemed to have vanished from Lyoko without a trace. She also felt pretty bad for ever thinking that her dad could have tried to play god with both his life and her own for any kind of selfish reasons, but Jeremy and Yumi had reassured her that it made sense for her to have felt that way at the time. That did make Aelita feel a bit better, and allowed her to better ease into the mindset of believing she really was human again. Not an easy transition, given that she still had quite a few memories to sort through, and she had to break the habits she had always felt were natural before her memories were restored. It did not help that there were still a few things she could not remember very easily or that even that well at all, but Aelita did count herself lucky that none of those hazy memories included anything about her family. At least, she had thought that was the case.
It had all started as just another day for Aelita, hanging around at Kadic Academy. She was really glad that the school allowed regular borders to remain in the dorms over any of the breaks, so long as they were not graduating students, otherwise, she would have had nowhere else to go. Yumi had offered to let her stay with her family over the summer, and while she did appreciate the kindness of the Ishiyama family, she did not want to take advantage of them too much, or feel like she was being a burden to them, so Aelita had kindly turned Yumi down when the older girl had extended the offer. The only reason that Jeremy had stayed was because he needed access to the supercomputer if he had any chance of finishing the program that would allow them to locate XANA on the network. Well, that and he did not want Aelita to feel too lonely, or leave her to deal with the likes of Sissi on her own. Being the principle's daughter meant that Sissi did not really go very far away when vacation times rolled around, at least not for very long. Even then, it would not have been too terribly lonely, because there were a few other students that had stayed at Kadic for one reason or another, and on occasion, some new ones would even pop up hoping to get their affairs sorted before the start of the new school year.
Aelita actually found herself coming across one such new student that very day as she was heading to the cafeteria for breakfast, much to her surprise. Though, that may have been more because the summer break had only just started a week ago. "Um, excuse me," the new student called out to her. "Could you help me find the administrative office? I think I'm more than a little turned around."
Looking to the speaker, Aelita had been a little surprised to lay eyes on a girl that looked just a bit younger than her. Not to the point where she appeared to be the same age as Milly and Tamiya, but younger all the same. The girl in question was dressed in a dark grey shirt, over which she wore a black hoodie, the hood of which was red, along with a black skirt that had red trim along the hem, and black combat boots with red laces. Rounding out her outfit was a brown belt, to which she had fastened a silver buckle that took the shape of a rose. Aside from her choice of wardrobe, the girl also seemed to have fair skin, bright silver eyes that spoke of an almost child-like innocence, and hair that started off as black before graduating to red.
For some reason, those last few details of her appearance, coupled with the rose-shaped emblem on her belt seemed oddly familiar to Aelita, but she could not figure out why. When she failed to place where she had seen such features before after a minute or two, Aelita shrugged it off and answered her question. "No problem," the pinkette nodded before pointing towards the administrative building. "It's in that building over there. Just follow the hallway from the library and it'll be the first door on your right."
"Thanks," the silver-eyed girl nodded with a smile. She was just about to turn and leave when she paused and turned back again. "Hey, have we met somewhere before?"
"I don't think so," Aelita shrugged. "But I did get the strangest feeling that I've seen you somewhere once, or at least someone who looks like you."
"Hmm…Weird," the girl hummed right after. "Oh well. It's probably just our imaginations. Oh! I'm Ruby, by the way. Ruby Rose. I'm going to be starting here as a ninth grader when the school year resumes."
"Nice to meet you, Ruby. I'm Aelita, Aelita Stones," the pinkette introduced in turn. She failed to notice how Ruby's eyes seemed to widen a little, but only because something that the other girl said had caught Aelita's attention. "Say, aren't you a little young to be in same grade as me?"
Ruby did not seem to hear Aelita at first, still in shock for some reason that Aelita could not quite figure out, but she managed to shake it off before the pinkette could notice. "Yeah, I actually got skipped ahead by a year, and my parents thought that since my big sister was going to be attending Kadic next year, it'd be cool for us to go together. Especially since Yang got kicked out of her last school."
"So I'm guessing they want you to keep an eye on her just as much as she'll be keeping an eye on you, huh," Aelita guessed with a humorous smile, earning a small giggle from Ruby to confirm just that. "Well, if you did get skipped ahead, I guess that means you're pretty smart, huh?"
"You could say that," Ruby bashfully admitted, brushing her bangs as she did. "Well, uh…thanks for the directions, Aelita. Maybe I'll see you around."
"Here's hoping," Aelita nodded in agreement. "Oh, and I love your hair by the way."
"Thanks. Yours is pretty cool, too," Ruby grinned in reply to the compliment, and with that the two girls went their separate ways. Shortly after Aelita had gotten out of sight though, Ruby quickly spotted the long, flowing blonde waves of hair that she had long since become the best way of identifying her sister in a crowd, and rushed over. "Yang! I told you we were going the wrong way! The administrator's office is that building over there."
"I know. I just wanted to go and check out the gym as soon as possible," Yang shamelessly admitted.
Unlike her sister, Yang's attire was not too modest, and with good reason too since the blonde was a literal, walking definition of a bombshell beauty, at least for her age. She wore a tight-looking, orange tank-top that slightly exposed her midriff, black pants that hugged her legs like a second skin, and a brown, aviator jacket that paired nicely with the brown boots that reached midway up her lower legs. Not only that, but her entire body seemed to ripple with a definition of muscle that could only come from constant hard-work and exercise, indicating just how in shape she was. The only other defining feature about Yang, aside from her long, golden locks, was her brilliant, lilac eyes that shined with a drive for adventure and excitement.
Ruby merely rolled her eyes at her sister's comment, and asked, "Please tell me you were just looking at the gym itself, and not for anyone who you may or may not want to punch later? Don't forget, that's the reason why you got kicked out of your last school, and I don't think Dad wants to go through the stress of finding you another one."
"Hey, the guy tried to grope me! What was I supposed to do? Let him off easy," Yang asked like she had been justified. Granted, she was in a sense, but not to the extreme that she had taken.
"Yang, you broke the guy's arm in at least three places. As a start! And that was before you basically punched him through a wall," Ruby pointed out.
"He was asking for it! Especially after that comment he made about Blake," Yang insisted. "Come on, Ruby! You can't seriously tell me that Cardin didn't deserve what he got, or that he got off easy, can you?"
Ruby opened her mouth to rebuttal, but came up short since she knew that Yang had a point. Cardin Winchester had been the resident asshole of their old school, thinking he owned the place and everyone should bow to his every whim, and even she wanted to kick his butt on more than one occasion for some of the things he did. She never acted on those feelings, but she had far more restraint than Yang, hence the whole reason why their parents insisted that they attend Kadic together after Ruby had passed the exams that would let her skip ahead. The hope had been that having to live in a dorm with Ruby would help Yang to simmer down and learn to control her temper a little better, and even when the idea had first been suggested, Ruby felt more than a little skeptical.
As much as she wanted to continue this discussion with her sister, Ruby had far more important things to discuss right now. "We'll talk about this, later," Ruby cast aside. "Right now, I need to ask you something important."
"If it's anything about boys, or girls if you've decided that you play for that team, then I'm only good for dating advice, Little Sister. Anything else, you'll need to ask either Dad or Mom. Just don't even think about asking Uncle Qrow," Yang stated with a no-nonsense tone that did not go with the playful smile on her face.
"No! No, no! Not that," Ruby insisted, though her face did start doing a very good impression of a tomato after her sister's comment. "I wanted to ask…Does the name Aelita mean anything to you?"
Now Yang's expression took a turn for the serious, and it showed in her next question. "Where did you hear that name?"
"From the girl that told me where the office is," Ruby explained as she pointed over her shoulder to indicate the pinkette who had already disappeared into the cafeteria. "She introduced herself as Aelita Stones."
Yang hummed in thought, now a lot less serious than she had been before, and asked, "What did she look like?"
"About a year older than me, I think, and she looked like she liked pink a lot. Even her hair was that color," Ruby described.
Yang's eyes widened in realization when she heard that last part, and after a moment of silence, she said, "As soon as we get done at the office, we need to call Mom right away."
Ruby did not seem to really understand why Yang had suddenly gotten so serious, but she still nodded all the same. Yang never really got this serious unless it was something really important, so she had to believe that this was a big deal based off that alone.
Later that afternoon, the sisters found themselves basically spying on Aelita and her friends, though for what reason, they could not tell you. When they called their mother and told her about the pinkette, Ruby and Yang were told a brief story about some people that she knew a few years ago, and immediately afterwards, they were asked to keep an eye on Aelita and find out if she was related to them in any way. Ruby had asked why they could not just ask Aelita directly, but their mother insisted that if Aelita really was the person she believed her to be, then the girl would not be so willing to just open up to them right away, so their best chance was to figure things out on their own. The only other thing that she told them was that if Aelita did turn out to be who she thought she was, then they were to call her back at the first possible chance, and that was all she said before bidding them goodbye and hanging up.
After a few hours of watching Aelita just hang around with her two friends, playing a board game with a Japanese girl who looked to be the same age as Yang while the boy did something on his laptop, Ruby and Yang were starting to think that they had been sent on a wild goose chase. Ruby was just about to suggest they call it quits and just move on when something interesting finally happened. The boy's laptop suddenly started beeping really loudly, and given how all three of them were now facing the computer with such intense seriousness, it would not be unreasonable to compare it to an alarm going off. Seeing this change prompted Ruby and Yang to get a little closer so they could try and hear what they might be talking about, but they only really caught the tail end of the conversation.
"…We need to get to the factory right away," the boy with glasses stated. "Better safe than sorry, especially now that XANA is out on the network."
"Do you really think we'll be able to manage without Odd and Ulrich, though," the older girl asked.
"We'll have to. It's not like we can just call them up and have them rush over like normal," the boy pointed out to her.
"Okay. Let's get going then," Aelita nodded, and with that the three immediately took off in the direction of the gym.
Yang and Ruby did not even need to share a look to know that they were thinking the same thing, and after waiting a reasonable few seconds or so, the sisters chased after Aelita and her friends. Their targets ended up taking quite the interesting path after they got into the gym, as they led the sisters down a secret passage in the boiler room that led right into the sewers, much to Yang and Ruby's disgust. Between the disgusting environment and how Aelita and her friends had started racing through the passage on skateboards and scooters, almost like they had done so countless times before, the girls came very close to losing the group of three. Luckily, they were able to keep pace pretty well, and ended up right outside the factory that they had been talking about just a couple minutes after the other three had arrived.
When they went inside the factory though, they saw no sign of Aelita or her friends, but given that the freight elevator seemed to have been recently used, assuming it did still work, and that there did not seem to be any other place that they could have gone, the girls had to assume that they were somewhere in the factory. So, they started to take a look around the place, taking note of every nook and cranny on the off-chance there would be a clue as to what was going on. They ended up finding a lot more than a clue when they finally got into the boiler room and spotted a light shining out from a small hole in the opposite wall. Thankfully, they found a ladder leading right up to said hole, but neither Ruby nor Yang were prepared for the sight that greeted them when they reached the top of the ladder and looked inside.
Inside was a room that looked to be straight out of science-fiction and right in the center was a domed device projecting a holographic image of a weird-looking map. Next to it, they could see what looked like a computer connected to large machinery leading into the ceiling, and one of Aelita's friends was seated at said computer right at that very moment, rapidly typing away while he spoke into the microphone on the headset in his ear. Even from this distance, Ruby and Yang could catch a faint glimpse of the images being displayed on the various monitors, and while some of them did not seem to hold a great deal of information beyond the basic ones and zeros in binary coding, the main monitor did seem to be showing him a map of something, along with playing-card-like pictures of two girls that looked a lot like Aelita and the other girl. There were some obvious differences, mainly in terms of the outfits, but the resemblance was far too uncanny for the images to be depicting anyone else.
Taking in the sight of everything in the room, Ruby could not stop herself from speaking her mind about what they had found, and whispered, "Holy cats."
Apparently Ruby had not been as quiet as she thought, because the boy at the computer immediately spun around to where she and Yang were after she spoke, his eyes wide with panic. "What the…?! Who are you two? How'd you get in here," he demanded.
"Name's Yang, and that's my sister, Ruby. I believe that your buddy Aelita has already met her," the blonde sister happily announced. "As for how we got here, we followed you and your friends."
"Well you need to get out of here, now," the boy told Yang. "There's a chance that something really dangerous could happen to you or us if you…" He stopped short at the sound of someone crying out in pain, and immediately turned back to his displays. "Oh no! Yumi, be careful! You just lost a huge amount of life points after that barrage. If you get hit by even one more shot, you'll be devirtualized, and…"
"And Aelita will be left here on her own. Relax Jeremy. I know," the Japanese girl's voice replied through the computer's speakers. "But it's not like XANA's making it all that easy for us this time around."
Jeremy could only groan in reply as he rapidly typed on the keyboard, looking for anything in the supercomputer's databanks that could help his friends. He was not holding out too much hope, but there was always a chance there could be something inside that might come in handy. Since he was so busy doing so, he barely paid much notice to when Ruby and Yang had properly come all the way into the lab, or when they had come to stand on either side of him. At least, not until Ruby spoke up again.
"Is this really an actual, working quantum supercomputer," Ruby asked.
"Yes," Jeremy answered shortly, too focused on his work to go over any specifics. Not that he would have bothered anyway. Most kids his age did not really so much as have an interest in quantum physics, let alone understand it like he did. He was in for quite the surprise.
"What kind of processing speed does it have? Does it run on a nuclear battery of some kind, or some other self-sustaining power source? Is there some kind of synchronicity principle involved in its operations, or maybe just its apparatus," Ruby rapidly fired off, and she did not seem likely to stop any time soon, much to Jeremy's surprise.
"Hold on. You…understand all of this," Jeremy asked in surprise.
"Yeah. It's not that complicated," Ruby shrugged, giving Jeremy a brief sense of déjà vu as she looked back at the screen. "Wait…Is this thing generating some kind of virtual environment? And is that really Aelita in there?"
"Wait, what?!" Yang gasped. "Why and how?!"
"It's a long story, but I'm not going to waste my breath explaining, because one, I don't have the time to do so, and two, you're both just going to forget all about this once we're finished," Jeremy quickly replied. He only realized that he had just unleashed the beast when Yang yanked him up by his shirt to glare down into his face.
"Yeah, I doubt that, buddy, and if you want to keep typing on your own, you're going to make time. Now," Yang growled.
Ruby was just about to try and calm her sister down before she did something really bad to Jeremy, when another yelp from Yumi reached their ears. Turning back to the screen, they all saw the image of Yumi's avatar slowly lose color and then vanish, while another display showed one of three rectangles lighting up. "What just happened," Yang asked.
Jeremy went to answer, but Ruby beat him to it. "Relax, Yang. It looks like she was just transported back into some type of scanning cabin of some kind," the silver eyed girl said. She still looked to Jeremy to ask for confirmation though. "Right?"
"Uh…Yeah, exactly," Jeremy replied, breathing a silent sigh of relief when Yang finally let him go. "But we've got bigger problems. Now Aelita's alone on Lyoko, and if she loses all her life points, she won't be devirutalized like Yumi. She'll disappear forever."
That scared both sisters a little, prompting the older of the two to ask, "You know that and you still sent her in there? And for what? Some stupid video game?!"
"We don't have a choice," Jeremy snapped back. "Not unless you want us to let who knows how many people get hurt, or worse."
Hearing that clued the sisters in, but only Ruby was brave enough to say something. "This isn't just a video game. There's a lot more going on here, isn't there?"
"To say the least," Jeremy replied as the elevator doors opened up, admitting a tired-looking Yumi into the room.
The Japanese girl paused for a second at the sight of Ruby and Yang, but soon relaxed when she saw that they were just standing there and doing very little else. "How's Aelita doing," she asked Jeremy.
"She's used her creativity to take cover, but the monsters still have her surrounded. There's no way for her to make an opening without putting herself at risk," Jeremy explained, still rapidly typing in an attempt to find a last minute, miracle solution.
Ruby looked between the two and asked, "Can't you call someone else to help out? Another friend or something?"
"We would if we could, but the only other people who know anything about this are away on vacation right now. There's no way for them to get here, and even if there was, they'd never make it in time," Jeremy replied.
Hearing that, the level of panic amongst the four seemed to rise a little more, and Ruby had to figure that if Aelita heard them, she was probably not doing much better, so she scrambled to think of something she could do to help. In the end, she could only think of one thing, and it seemed that her sister had the same thought. "How does it work," Yang asked, much to Jeremy and Yumi's surprise. "How do you send people into that place?"
"Why are you asking," Yumi questioned with an air of caution.
"I think that should be obvious, Ninja-Girl," Yang replied.
"Ninja-Girl?" Yumi repeated in wonder.
Jeremy, on the other hand, was more focused on what Yang's question implied. "You're not asking what I think you're asking, are you?"
"If you think I'm asking you to send me in there to help save Aelita, then yeah, you'd be right," Yang confirmed.
"You mean to send us in there," Ruby corrected, her gaze daring the others to argue.
Jeremy and Yumi both seemed very hesitant, but as they glanced between each other and the display on Jeremy's screens, they both quickly came to realize that they did not have any choice in the matter. If they wanted to save Aelita, they needed to take accept what these two were offering. Still, they had to be sure, especially given what sending them to Lyoko would mean for their group and their secret. "You sure about this," Yumi asked. "Once you go into Lyoko, there's no going back, and you'd have to keep our secret safe, no matter what."
Yang was about to make a smart remark about whether or not the two trusted them, but Ruby saw it coming and quickly elbowed her in the side to stop it before she could say one word. "We're sure," she then replied to Yumi's question. "And as far as keeping all of this a secret goes…well, we can only promise to do our best."
"…That'll have to be good enough," Jeremy shrugged to Yumi, and he then started typing at the keyboard again as he gave out his next orders. "Take them down to the scanner room, and I'll start up the process."
Yumi hesitated for a second before she finally nodded, and led the sisters into the elevator so she could do as asked, still uncertain about whether or not this was a good idea, but acknowledging that they had no other options right now.
After spending so much time running and hiding while others fought, or basically just cowering inside of something waiting for a rescue, anyone would be a little annoyed at the very least, and despite her reputation for being one of the nicest people at Kadic, Aelita was certainly no exception to this. Not that she did not understand why she needed to take cover more often than the rest of her friends when they went to Lyoko, but it did get very tiring after a while. She felt like she was just as capable a fighter as the others, even if the only powers she had were her creativity abilities, but then again, there was only so much she could do with that, especially in a situation like this. There were all kinds of monsters surrounding her, and while most were easy targets such as Bloks or Kankrelots, there were a number of Tarantulas, Krabs, Hornets, and even a few Flying Mantas as well. The last one was most surprising since they hardly ever left Sector Five, but right now, Aelita was more concerned with how they were beating down on the hard wood of the shelter she had fashioned for herself just seconds before Yumi had been devirtualized.
Normally, losing her only protectors would not be too bad of a thing; Aelita had managed to survive on Lyoko by herself many times before, but at the moment, she was nowhere near the activated tower, there were a horde of monsters surrounding her, and even with her creativity, nothing about her current environment could possibly be used to turn things to her advantage. Not to mention trying to outrun them from here would be difficult since she was right in the middle of a kill-box, and even if Jeremy sent her one of the vehicles, it would doubtlessly get blasted apart seconds after it had been materialized alone. Oh, and the monsters had nearly broken through the barriers she had created for her protection too, so there was also that.
When the hole became big enough for Aelita to see her attackers again, she could not help but flinch back a little, only to jump forward again when the wall behind her gave way as well, letting her hear all the monsters' growls and charging weapons unfiltered. If there had been somewhere to run, Aelita would have, but now, not only was she boxed in, but the monsters were closing in on her too. Just when she felt a scream begin to build up, a loud bang suddenly echoed through the air, followed by another, unfamiliar voice.
"Woo-hoo!" the unknown person shouted, just seconds before a yellow blur shot through several of the hornets, some of them ending up destroyed upon contact. Though that may have had just as much to do with the pair of explosions that sent the blur further forward until it landed on top of a Krab, revealing itself to be a girl with long, blonde hair. Said girl then fired another blast from what appeared to be a gauntlet on one of her arms, right into the eye of XANA on the Krab's shell, and then leapt off the oversized sea-food platter before it exploded. When she made contact with the ground again, a quick roll helped to get her back on her feet as she lightly jogged forward and confidently declared, "Nailed it."
"What…who," Aelita stuttered in confusion, already on guard even as the blonde girl approached with a friendly smile on her face. When the blonde started to talk though, Aelita quickly began getting a few reminders of her friend, Odd.
"Hey, Aelita right? I'm Yang. Ruby's older sister," the blonde proudly introduced, getting Aelita to relax a little more than she already had been before, and she then took a moment to take in Yang's Lyoko avatar.
Like most of the rest of Aelita's friends, Yang's physical appearance had not changed too drastically after being virtualized, but her outfit definitely went through some changes. For one thing, her yellow tank top had been replaced with a low-cut yellow shirt, over which she wore a brown jacket that bared her midriff and had short, puffy sleeves with black cuffs. On the left side of her shirt, one could also see what looked like a heart-shaped flame over the left breast. In addition to that, she also wore a brown belt that was covered with pleated pieces of material wrapping around the back of her waist so that it reached from one hip to the other, with the same emblem being emblazoned on the right-most pleat in gold. Underneath the belt was a long, asymmetrical piece of white material reaching her knee on the right side, and a pair of black, mini-shorts. Her boots were now knee-high and worn over a pair of orange, over-the-knee socks, with the right sock being pushed down to just below the knee, while her left knee was also covered by a black bandanna. The final touches to her new attire were an orange scarf, a pair of fingerless black gloves, and the yellow gauntlets that covered her lower arms. All-in-all, the impression that she gave off made Aelita think of what Odd had once described as a biker-chick.
Yang then glanced around for a second before asking, "Speaking of Ruby, you haven't seen her yet, have you?" When Aelita shook her head in reply, Yang then looked to the remaining monsters and asked, "How about you guys? Have you seen her? She looks a lot like Little Red Riding Hood if she went goth." The monsters just growled at her while some prepared to attack, prompting Yang to jokingly reply, "You could just no."
As the monsters all moved into attack positions, Yang flexed her arms a bit, causing her gauntlets to let out a sound of weapons being cocked, and then charged forward with an extra boost of speed being provided by the recoil of her gauntlets being fired behind her. A quick round of punches allowed Yang to fire even more shots whenever she struck, letting her take out several of the Bloks with one blow apiece, while at the same time, getting her airborne so she could land some hits on the Mantas that had been flapping about through the air. Not that any of it helped her to avoid the few mines that the Mantas had released, or even all the blasts that the Tarantulas and Krabs had fired at her, but Yang did manage to dodge a good number of said attacks. Just not all of them.
Aelita had been especially worried when she saw the tell-tale signs of crackling electricity to show that they had been hit by the monsters' attacks, but Yang did not even slow down for a second after any of the hits. In fact, she barely even winced in response, almost as though she never even registered being hit in the first place. Aelita was not sure if it was the adrenaline of the fight getting to Yang or if she really was that tough. Whatever the case, Yang was still worrying Aelita with how many hits she had taken, because if it kept up, Yang's dramatic rescue would have been for nothing. At least, that was what she thought until she next heard Jeremy's voice.
"Yang, be careful! If you lose all your life points, Ruby will be alone to protect Aelita, and those blasts are all really…" Jeremy had started to scold, only to stop short and let his surprise show when he next spoke. "Hey…That's really weird. Yang, your life points have barely gone down at all, despite the number of serious hits you've taken and how powerful the blasts themselves were. It's like…It's like you've only taken half the damage you normally would, at least."
"Guess I'm just that tough," Yang shrugged when she finally got a chance to pause in her attack on the monsters. Too bad for her, that moment of boasting allowed one of the Bloks to counterattack and then freeze her leg in place. "Hey!" Yang yelped as she tried to pull free. "Now that was just cold."
"Something tells me you and Odd will be great friends. Your jokes are almost as bad as his," Jeremy critiqued, with Aelita giggling in agreement.
Yang just smirked a little before she resorted to just blasting more monsters with her gauntlets. Aelita had to note that it looked like Yang was shadow-boxing every time she fired a blast, but that was not really the most bizarre thing anyone had ever seen on Lyoko, but all the same, she needed to move while Yang was keeping XANA's monsters busy. She did not get very far though, as several monsters moved to bar her path just after she had started to run towards the angry red tower, much to her frustration. The tower was so close she could practically taste it, and yet with XANA's monsters blocking the path, it seemed to be miles away from her grasp.
Aelita's inner grumbling probably would have allowed the monsters a perfect chance to blast her into oblivion, had it not been for a sudden twister of rose petals suddenly coming from out of nowhere and scooping her up and away to safety. That same twister continued moving for quite a fair bit of distance until it suddenly dispersed and reformed into the shape of Aelita and another girl who had been holding her tight, even as they crashed into a nearby tree. Taking a minute to get over the dizzy spell she got hit with by that rescue, Aelita then turned to face a familiar pair of silver eyes accompanied with neck-length, red-tipped black hair, and a wide smile.
"When I said maybe we'd see each other around, I don't think this is what either of us had in mind," Ruby joked with a cute little laugh that Aelita could not help but share in.
Once they were on their feet again, Aelita took the time to look over Ruby's Lyoko avatar as well, and from what she could see, Yang's earlier description was pretty accurate. Along with a flowing, red cloak with a hood that was fastened to her shoulders by cross-shaped pins, Ruby also now wore a black, long-sleeved blouse with a high collar and red trim on the sleeves, over which she wore a black waist cincher with red lacing up the front, and a matching skirt with red lining. Along with that, she also wore thick, black stockings and black combat boots with red laces, soles, and trims around the top. To round it out, she also had on a wide black belt, which her rose-shaped, silver buckle had been fastened onto, along with a pocket and what looked like a row of bullets. On the back of her belt, Aelita also caught sight of what looked like a large, red and black, rectangular box of some kind, but aside from that, nothing else really stood out about Ruby's appearance. At least not beyond what Aelita could think of to describe her newest friend.
"I like your outfit, Ruby. It's kind of cute in a fairy tale warrior kind of way," Aelita complimented.
"Aw, thanks. The pointy ears and elf-like outfit looks really good on you, too," Ruby smiled in return.
Their conversation was interrupted when a Tarantula suddenly blasted Ruby away from the pinkette with its laser barrage. Unfortunately for the monster, Yang had caught sight of this, and her violet eyes suddenly changed to a raging red as she let out an angry scream. The next thing anyone knew, Yang had broken out of the ice, rushed towards the Tarantula that had dared to attack her sister, and hit it as hard as she could while firing another blast from her gauntlet. As it turned out, her punch had been so powerful that it sent the overgrown spider flying through the air long before it blew up, much to everyone's surprise.
"Whoa! Guess I don't know my own strength," Yang quipped in awe, not even realizing that at some point during her charge, her hair had somehow lit itself on fire. Then again, that may have been an aesthetic change like with her eyes, because it reverted back to normal almost at the same time as her eyes had.
"I'd say it's a bit more than that, Yang. It looks like whatever was allowing you to take less damage from the attacks was also serving as a way to boost your strength a little, and that last burst attack depleted your reserves of stored up power in one go," Jeremy reported.
"Wait, so not only does Yang get a cool biker outfit and shotgun gauntlets, but she's also basically a super sayain? That's so not fair," Ruby complained.
"Hey, come on, Sis. You look…almost as good as me," Yang shrugged with an easy-going smile.
"Almost as good?" Aelita questioned.
"Well, I'd be lying if I said she did look as good as me, because, let's be honest, no one can match all this," Yang bragged while gesturing to herself.
"Still, why did you give Yang all the cool stuff, Jeremy," Ruby demanded.
"Hey, don't look at me, Ruby. I didn't do anything other than run the virtualization program. The supercomputer just determines what shape and form your avatar takes, and from what we've figured out, it reads into your subconscious desires and then projects them onto your digital incarnations."
"Uh…what," Yang asked, not really understanding most of what Jeremy said. Ruby on the other hand was a different story.
"Okay, while I will admit I do often dream about being able to run really fast, and that roses have had a huge impact on my life, I definitely don't dream about being Little Red Riding Hood," Ruby insisted. She then reached back and pulled out the box Aelita had noticed earlier and said, "What's more, I'd rather have a weapon like Yang's; not this great big, useless box."
Just as Ruby had finished saying that, the "box" she had been talking about unfolded into a long, massive scythe that seemed to be several times Ruby's size, and it likely would have either taken one of the other two girls' eyes out, if not chopped their heads off had they not jumped back in time, leaving it to impact the ground with a loud thud. Aelita and Yang could only look on in shock at the massive weapon that Ruby now held in her hands, and their shock grew when the small girl not only lifted it without any trouble, but also proceeded to swing and spin it around with ease.
"Hey, watch out there, Sis," Yang cautioned.
Aelita was about to voice her own concerns about Ruby's weapon before she noticed something on the scythe's handle. "Is that a targeting scope?"
Ruby turned the scythe around so that she could study it a little closer, and confirmed that there did indeed seem to be such a scope on the handle, along with a bolt-action pump that was typical of many rifles. Upon turning the scythe around so that it was pointed at one of the monsters, and to where she had the eye of XANA on said monster dead center in the scope's targeting sight, Ruby pulled back and fired a single shot from the monstrosity. The recoil caught her slightly off-guard, but the blast itself still struck true, and caused the monster to be destroyed.
Seeing all of this, Ruby could not help but let out an excited, appreciative grin as she said, "Okay, I take it back. I love this thing."
Yang just playfully rolled her eyes before she caught sight of the red tower that Aelita still needed to deactivate, and said, "How about we compare equipment later. We've still got a job to do."
"Right. Yang, you take Aelita and head for that tower. I'll try to give you both some covering fire," Ruby ordered, getting agreeable nods from both girls, and the three soon went into action.
Ruby was able to blast all of the Hornets out of the sky with a few more shots from her sniper-scythe, and several Bloks went down soon after, but there were still plenty of monsters left for Yang to deal with, and she had no problem with blasting them all out of the way with some quick jabs of her fists. The plan could not work forever, as the Flying Mantas eventually began converging on Ruby's position, having realized what the girl in the red hood was doing. Not that Ruby gave them the chance to attack. Instead, she used that incredible recoil of her scythe to boost into the air and get within range of the Mantas' weak points. Another blast then sent Ruby spinning and allowed her to unleash a series of deadly slashes that took down all the Mantas in one fell swoop.
From the corner of her eye, Yang noticed Ruby had now joined the fight in full, tearing through any monster that dared cross her path, and she let out a proud smile at seeing her sister in action like that. She probably should have been paying better attention to her own surroundings, as a Krab used her distraction to land a hit on her, and this time it definitely hurt quite a bit.
"Yang, looks like your earlier resistance to attacks has been nullified for the moment, because that attack just cost you thirty life points. You're gonna need to be careful until I figure out how to restore it to normal," Jeremy cautioned.
"Yeah, thanks for the heads up," Yang grumbled in reply as she picked herself up again.
"Sorry, but I'm still learning about what the limits of yours and Ruby's avatars are, same as you two," Jeremy reminded her.
Even if she did not say anything out loud, Yang still begrudgingly admitted that Jeremy had her there, and instead just took her frustrations out on the monsters that were still attacking them. Thankfully, there were not too many left, and the way to the tower seemed pretty clear. At least at first glance. Neither sister noticed when another Krab suddenly materialized and began to close in on them, ready to attack the closer of the two, which turned out to be Ruby. Aelita did notice though.
"Ruby!" Aelita shouted in warning, only for her eyes to widen as an orb of light suddenly appeared in the hand she had stretched out in Ruby's direction. Acting more on instinct than anything else, Aelita quickly redirected her palm so towards the Krab that was about to attack her new friend, and then flexed her hand again, letting the orb fly. When the orb hit the monster, the Krab became enveloped in pink energy, and then blew up seconds later, despite not being hit on its weak point.
The two sisters both stared at where the Krab had once been, before Ruby finally rushed over to her sister and Aelita in another burst of rose petals, and asked the latter, "How did you do that?"
"I…I don't know," Aelita admitted. "That's the first time I've ever been able to use a power like that."
"Well it seems like it picked the perfect time to show up, if you ask me," Yang grinned. She then nodded towards the tower and said, "Go do your thing, and we'll see you on the other side."
Aelita nodded and then ran the rest of the distance between her and the tower, phasing through the wall once she had gotten close enough. A couple minutes later, Ruby and Yang saw the tower's aura change from red to white, indicating that it had been shut down, leaving them with just one question. "So, how do we get out of here," Ruby asked.
"Leave that to me," Jeremy answered. "After all, we've still got a few things to talk about with you two."
In little time at all, Ruby, Yang, and Aelita had been brought back from Lyoko, and were now gathered up in the lab along with Jeremy and Yumi so that the Lyoko Warriors could tell the sisters their full story. It would only be right for the secret heroes to do so now that there was no chance of using a Return to the Past to wipe their memories anymore, but regardless of whether or not it was possible, it still did not mean that Ruby and Yang would join the team. For one thing, just bringing in two new people without Odd and Ulrich's approval did not feel right, but more importantly, none of them felt too great about adding anyone to their group without telling them everything about the fight against XANA. So, they proceeded with the story and then paused for a bit to let everything process.
By the time the three friends had finished, Ruby and Yang had been rendered nearly speechless, and that worried Aelita and the others a little bit. They thought for sure that one of the two would go out and tell someone at the school, or worse the authorities. They thought that one of the two would urge them to shut down the supercomputer, despite knowing that it would no longer kill XANA. They expected many different reactions from the sisters, but not the one that they actually received.
"That is…AWESOME!" Yang cheered excitedly. "I mean, not any of the bad stuff, of course, but everything else…Wow! I can't believe you guys aren't telling everyone about this!"
"Yang! You know superheroes have secret identities for a reason! I mean, sure the bad guy knows who they are, but anyone like their families knew, it would be a lot more dangerous for them," Ruby scolded, even though she was still smiling like a kid who had just got out of school for an extended weekend. She then looked to Aelita and said, "Honestly, I'm more surprised by your part in the story."
"And why's that," Aelita asked.
Yang and Ruby shared a look with each other before the latter admitted, "Well…parts of your story actually line up with something that our mom told us about. Namely about a little girl that she knew a few years ago before she and her father suddenly disappeared."
"That's actually why we were following you guys," Yang picked up from there. "When we called our mom and mentioned Aelita's name, she told us that we should keep an eye on her for a little bit, because she thought that you might be related to the girl she once knew or something. After hearing all of this though, I can't help but wonder if you're the same girl."
The three Lyoko Warriors looked to each other in silent thought for a little bit, before Jeremy admitted, "I mean…it's not impossible. We know that Aelita and her father were virtualized several years ago, and if they hadn't been, Aelita would be in her twenties by now at the very least, so…"
Yumi nodded along in reply, but still felt that it needed to be asked, "Do you remember anything about Ruby and Yang's mom, Aelita?"
"I'm not sure. Even after my father restored my memories, there are still some things I have trouble remembering," Aelita shrugged. She then looked to Ruby again and recalled, "Although, I do admit that when we first met, I thought Ruby looked a little familiar."
"That's probably why then," Ruby reasoned out for her. "I mean, everyone's always saying that I look just like Mom."
No one could say anything in reply to that, but Yumi did have another question for them. "So, now that you know, do you guys still want to stick around and help us?"
"You bet," Yang said without even thinking, and Ruby was of the same mind.
"Our parents always told us that we should help people whenever and however possible, so there's no way we're going to just ignore any of this," Ruby added on.
All three present Lyoko Warriors could see that the sisters were dead-set on their decision, and that made things at least a little easier for them. "Okay, I say that we at least bring Ruby and Yang on in a trial-run basis, at least until Ulrich and Odd get back. Once they do, we let them judge how the sisters perform, and put it to a vote on whether or not they fully join up."
"But you're still going to have to keep the secret for us," Yumi pointed out.
Ruby and Yang's confidence quickly melted away into sheepishness, as the latter admitted, "Yeah, about that…Our mom made us promise to call her the minute we found out anything about Aelita, and said that if we didn't call her back by tomorrow, she would be coming to visit and see Aelita herself, so…kinda don't have much choice there."
The Lyoko Warriors were a little conflicted on that, but considering that this was an arrangement the girls had made before learning about their secret mission, they could not really fault either of them for it. Besides, if their mom really was someone from Aelita's past, it would be wrong to deny either of the two a chance to reunite. After all, this could be a big help for Aelita in the way of remembering everything from her life before Lyoko, so they agreed to let the girls tell their mother. "Is that all we have to worry about," Yumi asked.
"Not exactly," Ruby admitted, still looking a little sheepish. "The other thing that'll keep us from easily keeping that promise is…You see, our two best friends are also going to be attending Kadic starting this year, and they can read us like books even better than our own parents. They'll know we're keeping something from them even if we don't say anything."
"Not that one of them will even need to," a new voice suddenly interrupted from behind them, making them all spin around to the ladder out of the lab.
There, standing before them was a young woman about Yumi and Yang's age with a long curtain of raven black hair, held in place by a black bow, and dressed in nearly as much black clothing as Yumi, save her white, short-sleeved jacket. Her eyes were a very distinctive amber shade that, when put together with the bow she wore, almost made her look like she was part cat, and she also wore a touch of purple eye shadow that made her eyes stand out a little more. While Jeremy and Aelita had no idea who this girl was, Yumi seemed to recognize her at least a little bit, even with the evident surprise on her face, while Yang and Ruby's shock was mixed with happy excitement.
"Blakey!" Yang cheered as she rushed over to hug the girl in question, making the brunette break out of her serious façade a little bit as she returned the hug with a small smile of her own. A smile that only grew a bit when Ruby joined in on the hugs as well, making it into a group hug.
"Oh my gosh! Blake, it's so good to see you," Ruby cheered as she squeezed her friend. "We've missed you so much!"
"I've missed you both too, Ruby, Yang," Blake giggled a bit. Once they broke the hug again, she turned a bit more serious as she looked to Yumi with a simple nod. "Ishiyama."
"Belladonna," Yumi nodded just as evenly, though the others could tell that there was no form of hostility between the two. Just a simple exchange of greeting.
Not that it kept the other four from being curious. "Wait, how do you two know each other," Jeremy asked.
"She and her family moved into a place just down the block from my house. We met by chance one day as they were moving some boxes inside, and struck up a brief conversation," Yumi explained before she looked to the sisters. "How do you know each other though?"
"You kidding? Me and Blake have been best friends for ages. We're pretty much partners in crime," Yang grinned happily while Black just rolled her eyes, albeit with a certain fondness.
Ruby on the other hand was a bit less playful with her eye-roll as she clarified, "And by partners in crime, she means that Blake helped keep Yang from doing anything too drastic that could end up putting her in jail or something. Usually. Other times, she found ways of convincing Yang to take a more subtle approach with her antics." She then moved a bit closer to the Lyoko Warriors and whispered, "Between you guys and me, I'm pretty sure that they both have a serious crush on each other. They always try to insist that they're just good friends, but it's so obvious to everyone that they're in love. It's kinda painful to watch them dance around the topic sometimes."
"Yeah, we know how that feels," Jeremy told Ruby, while Aelita nodded in agreement before they both turned to Yumi.
"What?" Yumi asked when she picked up on her friends' looks. Her only answer was silence and the continuation of said looks. "What?!"
Blake then brought them all back to the situation at hand. "Look, I heard every word, and I know you're probably not too fond of me knowing your big secret, but if you think for a second that either me or Weiss won't figure this out again, then you've got another thing coming." That worried Jeremy, Yumi, and Aelita a little, until Blake let out a catty-smirk, and added, "More importantly, if you think that you're going to ask my friends to risk their lives fighting this XANA thing, then you'd better sign me up as well, because there's no way I'm letting them do this without my help, and Weiss will be saying the same thing when she finds out."
"You mean if she finds out," Yumi corrected.
"No, I mean definitely mean when," Blake insisted. "Despite some people's beliefs, Weiss isn't just some spoiled, sheltered rich girl."
"Wait a second. Are you talking about Weiss Schnee? As in the Schnee Technologies heiress," Jeremy asked.
"Yep, that's my BFF," Ruby proudly declared.
"How do you know that, Jeremy," Aelita inquired, suspicion seeping into her voice.
"Schnee Tech is one of the biggest technology companies in the world, at least among rising stars. Some people have even theorized that it could start rival some of the biggest names in computers within a couple of years," Jeremy explained. "Most of the news about the family who runs it is very public."
"Only in terms of the public faces," Blake corrected, much to the others' confusion.
"Yeah, when you meet Weiss, you'd be doing yourself a favor by not bringing up her family or their company. She's not really too fond of what her father did with it, or anyone in her family aside from her older sister," Ruby explained.
While the Lyoko Warriors did nod in understanding of that information, there was still the other matter to address. "Are you sure about this, Blake? We can't just let anyone into our group after all."
"Hey, I'm no stranger to making sure important information stays secret, and being the heiress of her family's company, Weiss is no stranger to keeping certain knowledge hidden from the public," Blake promised.
After another moment of silent debate, the three Lyoko Warriors looked back to the three friends, and made their decision.
A Short Time Later
When Ulrich and Odd finally came back from vacation, the others had tried introducing them to the potential new members of their team, but several different problems kept getting in the way. It started with finding out that Odd was not going to be in the same class as the rest of them anymore, and then went on to Ulrich trying to find some time to talk with Yumi about some important matter that she claimed she had been thinking about a lot over the break, only to have trouble finding time for them to have said talk as several different things kept getting in the way, two of those most common things being William and Sissi. You would think it would top off at Jeremy finally locating XANA's position on the network, but even that was not the end of the reasons for delay. No, the final thing that prevented them from getting into the topic right away was an odd surge of activity from XANA's monsters in an unknown area of Sector Five, which the original five Lyoko Warriors all quickly moved to investigate.
When they came into the chamber, they found many Creepers and Flying Mantas firing at a large sphere of some kind that seemed to hold an image of Lyoko within it, and that was enough to let them know they needed to keep it intact. As they made their way up to where the other monsters were though, something unexpected happened. An entirely new monster suddenly appeared and pounced at them, and it was like nothing any of the Lyoko Warriors had ever seen before. For the most part, it looked a lot like an ostrich in appearance, and had a very fleshy body even by the standards of XANA's other monsters, to the point where it had organic tissue connecting various parts of its body to each other. Its long arms extended outwards and down, and thanks to the large metal contraptions on the end of them, they ended up acting more like legs than arms. A red XANA emblem glared out at them from its bird-like face, and it also had a visible ribcage, giving the impression of something that had not eaten in a while. To really hammer home its monstrous nature, it also possessed a long, technorganic tail with long spines on it that ended with a large, sharp blade.
"What on earth is that thing," Ulrich gasped at the sight of this beast.
"Don't know, but I know where it's going: down," Odd quipped as he took aim. "Laser Arrow!" His blast would have hit its mark, were it not for the beast swinging its tail around to bat the projectile away. "Hey, didn't anyone ever teach you to play fair?"
"MOVE," Yumi shouted, seeing the beast rearing its head back in preparation for attack.
The next thing the Lyoko Warriors knew, they were ducking and dodging at a rapid pace to avoid the electric blasts that the beast was firing at them, while at the same time trying their best to avoid being slammed or sliced up by its massive tail. When Ulrich and Yumi tried to deflect the blasts with their weapons, they found out that doing so was very ill-advised, as just one blast was enough to break through their defenses and leave them vulnerable to attack. Odd's shield proved no better against said attacks either, and the monster did not give him any time to recover before it pounced at him.
"Geez! This overgrown scorpion's going to tear us apart before we can even reach any of the other monsters," Odd grumbled. "In fact, that's what I'm gonna call this thing: a Scorpion."
"Guys, focus! You've got to get past that thing and stop the other monsters from destroying that sphere," Jeremy informed them, his voice carrying a tone of great urgency.
"Why," Ulrich asked as he ducked behind some cover, only to jump to one side and spin his saber around to deflect some blasts from the Flying Mantas that had started flying down towards them.
"Because that is the Heart of Lyoko! The direct access to all of the core programs of the virtual world! If the monsters destroy it, it's game over for good for Lyoko," Jeremy explained, raising the others' concerns to a whole new level.
"We're doing our best, Jeremy, but the Scorpion isn't giving us any openings to climb up there and attack," Yumi reasoned, spinning her fans around to deflect the blasts being fired from the Mantas while still maintaining her cover from the monster she just mentioned.
"Don't worry, Yumi. Backup is on the way. I've already told them what I just told you, and I think they've got already got a plan for at least getting you an opening to get up there," Jeremy reassured her.
"Huh? Backup? What're you talking about," Ulrich asked.
"Yeah. All of us are already here," Odd mentioned as he nodded to their group, not noticing the exasperated looks on the girls' faces.
"That's what we've been trying to tell you all day," Aelita revealed. "While you two were gone, we did have to deal with one XANA attack, but then, we got some extra help."
"From who," Odd and Ulrich both asked, and their answer came in the form of loud gunshots being fired.
Right after the gunshots, a yellow blur came flying up from the floor below until it was right above the Scorpion, and then came flying back down, crashing into the giant monster with a powerful boom. Soon after, Yang leapt off the monster's back and over to the rest of the Lyoko Warriors, watching as the Scorpion tried to stand and ended up with a long black ribbon wrapping around its neck. A flash of black signaled the arrival of Blake, who used the ribbon to pull herself up and start hacking and slashing at the thing's back armor. It did not seem to do too much, aside from knocking a single plate off of its neck, but right when the Scorpion had managed to shake her off, Blake had actually managed to create a double of herself to take the hit for her and got away.
A tornado of rose petals signaled the arrival of Ruby, who leveled a powerful glare at the Scorpion with her silver eyes before firing her sniper rifle scythe at the beast's back several times. The Scorpion instantly turned on the red hooded girl so it could return fire, but Ruby easily sped her way around the room to avoid said blasts. The numerous white glyphs that formed in certain spots to act as stepping stones certainly helped her quite a bit though, but not as much as the fourth and final girl to arrive on the scene, who launched a few icy blasts at the Scorpion with a wave of her own sword, even as she danced after Ruby and joined the others.
Even though they kept doing their best to avoid getting hit by enemy attacks, the boys still took a little time to analyze Ruby and Yang's virtual avatars, before they turned to do the same with the other two girls and did the same. The first person they looked over was the black haired girl, who they both quickly noticed had a pair of cat ears atop her head. Fitting as it seemed she moved with the same speed and grace of said animal, and her outfit gave off a kind of French beauty feel in a way for some reason. The outfit in question consisted of a black, buttoned vest with coattails worn over a white, sleeveless, high necked crop shirt, white shorts with a zipper on the front of each leg, black low-heeled boots, and full stockings with a color graduation of black to purple at her ankles. On the outside of both her thighs, they also caught a glimpse of a white, flower-shaped emblem just below her shorts, while her left bicep had a black, detached sleeve with a silver cuff, and black ribbons seemed to be wrapped around her forearms. Rounding out her look was a black scarf around her neck, and a silver backpack of some kind on her back that was kept hidden beneath her long hair.
The other girl in white seemed to be just as much of a beauty as the first, though she had a certain regal sense to her that you would expect from someone of high society. Her outfit seemed to reflect this as well in a way, as one of the most eye-catching parts of it was the strapless, thigh-length dress she wore that had a faint color gradation from white to pale blue. The hem of said dress was scalloped and stitched to resemble snowflakes, and had layers of white tulle under the skirt. Along with the dress, she also wore a bell-sleeved bolero with the same color gradation as the dress, at least from the shoulder to the wrist, lined with red and with a ruffled collar, white boots with wedged heels and red lining, and a thin white sash around her waist that had a pouch attached to the back. What really caught Ulrich's attention was how the girl kept her hair in an off-center ponytail, pinned back with an icicle-shaped tiara, and the snow-flake emblem on the back of her jacket, as both of these features struck him as oddly familiar for some reason.
He soon learned why when the girl suddenly spun around to face him after dodging another electric blast from the Scorpion, and locked her pale blue eyes onto him, allowing him to better see the scar she had running vertically down her left eye and face, and the small smirk she was shooting him. "Well, this certainly explains why you've neglected to respond to some of my past messages since you transferred to Kadic, at least for the previous year, but I suppose it's better than the possibility your father may have ordered you to cut off contact with me like mine tried to with you," she proclaimed.
Ulrich's eyes widened in quick recognition; there was only one person he knew of who could so easily compare his father to their own, even if said person's father was arguably worse than his. "Weiss?! Weiss Schnee is that you," Ulrich gasped as they both ducked down to avoid getting their heads chopped off by the Scorpion's tail. "When…What are you…How are you…"
"You can thank that dolt over there in part for that," Weiss explained as she nodded in Ruby's direction. "Well, her and her sister. And their mother, I suppose, but it feels wrong to place any kind of blame on that woman."
"Okay, time out! Not that I'm opposed to them being here, but who the heck are these good looking babes," Odd interrupted right when Ruby had landed next to him and unfolded her scythe again, now using it as a long-barrel sniper rifle.
Ruby merely rolled her eyes at Odd's comment and grumbled, "Yeah, yeah. My sister and our best friends are all really beautiful; like we haven't heard it before, but don't you think we've got more important things to worry about it?"
Odd quirked an eyebrow at Ruby, willing to acknowledge the latter part of her statement, but much more curious about the first half. "Well, yeah, they are all hot, but why are you talking like that doesn't apply to you too? I mean, you are a real cutie."
That made Ruby nearly drop her scythe while her face turned as red as her hood. No one had ever given her a compliment like that before and meant it. Usually she only heard that type of thing from boys that were interested in her sister, thinking that getting in Ruby's good books was the best way to get an in with Yang. Thankfully, Weiss was able to get her attention back on the problem at hand when she pulled both Ruby and Odd out of the way of another blast before spinning around and deflecting a blast from one of the Flying Mantas with her rapier.
"We can share stories later! Right now, we've got bigger problems," Weiss told both of the two.
"Right," Ruby nodded once she had shaken away her blush. "You guys get up there and deal with the Creepers and Mantas. Leave the big guy to us."
Blake then came swinging in as she changed her katana into a sharp-looking pistol, and proceeded to fire several, rapid blasts at the Scorpion as she spoke. "Are you sure we can handle this thing, Ruby? It's tougher than it looks."
"Then we'll just have to hit it with everything we've got," Yang determined as she came down next to the group as well.
Ulrich and Odd dropped all of their next few questions after that, seeing the resolve of these girls quite clearly now, and then waited until the girls all proceeded to fire several blasts at the Scorpion, distracting the massive monster long enough for them, Yumi, and Aelita to finally start their long climb up to where the rest of XANA's monsters had gathered for their attack on the Heart of Lyoko. Not that it stopped Odd from taking notice of one other thing as they were all climbing.
"Hey, is it just me, or do all their weapons seem either part gun or able to into guns," the original cat-themed Lyoko Warrior asked.
Aelita turned back to take another look at the four girls' weapons, and wondered aloud, "Huh. You know, now that he mentions it…"
"Save it for later. We've got work to do," Yumi determined, unfolding her fans as the Mantas came flying after them, and she then proceeded to engage the fish-like monsters while the others continued their climb.
After a hard fought battle, the Lyoko Warriors all happy to report that the Heart of Lyoko had been safely secured from XANA's attack, at least for the moment. Sure, some of them had nearly suffered a heart attack upon seeing Aelita lose her life points, only for the girl to end up rematerializing back on Earth like the others normally would when they were devirtualized, but that was of little importance in comparison to the other elephant in the room. While they were unable to help very much in the destroying the monsters that were focusing their attacks on the Heart of Lyoko, Ruby, Yang, Blake, and Weiss all managed to take down the Scorpion with an impressive display of teamwork and skill, and the fact they had triumphed over a foe that had been giving the veteran Lyoko Warriors so much trouble certainly spoke volumes of how great it would be to add them as official members of their group. Not only that, but Ruby revealed that she learned Aelita no longer needed Code Earth to come back from Lyoko for some time now, after doing some of her own research on the supercomputer, meaning that they would have three people on the team who could operate the controls if they just added her to the team.
Regardless of how well they performed on this mission, the Lyoko Warriors still intended to put it to one final vote on whether or not the four girls would join their team, and that it had to be a unanimous vote at that. So, after returning from the factory, Yang, Weiss, and Blake found themselves waiting outside Jeremy's room while the original five made their final decision. Ruby would have been there with them, but she had been called up to the administration building for some reason, and she insisted that she would be right back before they knew it. She ended up not making it back before the decision was made, because right when Yang was preparing to go and look for her sister, Jeremy opened the door and asked for the girls to come inside.
Yumi ended up being the first to notice the absence of the youngest of the four, and asked, "Where's Ruby? Wasn't she waiting with you?"
"She had to take care of something at the administration building. Didn't say what, though; only that it was apparently important," Weiss replied. Speaking of Weiss, Ulrich could not help but notice that a good deal of her regular attire was similar to that of her Lyoko avatar, save for the absence of the earrings that he only realized she had after the battle had ended.
Deciding that they could just inform Ruby later, Jeremy got right down to business and made the big announcement. "Well girls, after much discussion, I think you'll be happy to know it was unanimous," the boy genius revealed with a smile. "You're now, officially part of the team."
"Welcome to the Lyoko Warriors, girls," Yumi congratulated.
"And don't worry. If you have any questions, just ask us, or look to me for inspiration on how to take down XANA with a bang," Odd confidently boasted.
Weiss and Blake both cringed at that, knowing what was going to come now that he had said that, but ended up unable to stop it as Yang had already started grinning. "That's cool, but I prefer to take down my enemies with a Yang! Eh? Eh?"
Most of the group let out tired groans at the horrible pun, but Odd just grinned a little more and offered up his own joke in return. "Guess we'll just have to see if you can…beat the Odds!"
Yang turned a surprised look at Odd, having never heard a comeback like that from anyone besides her father, but it soon melted away for a challenging grin. "Oh, I can beat the odds, to a hair raising extent," Yang punned back, indicating both her and Odd's hair when she did.
"We'll see about that, but I'm sure you're chances will be saying 'Xiao Long' soon enough," Odd continued on.
As the puns continued, Ulrich finally groaned out what everyone was thinking. "Oh great. Now there's two of them!"
"Be glad you didn't have to grow up with one of them," Ruby's voice reminded him as a way of announcing the arrival of said girl. She took a moment to try and better tune out the two blondes before she asked, "So what'd I miss?"
"Just our official welcome to the team," Blake informed her with a smile.
"Really? You mean we're in," Ruby excitedly asked, earning proud nods from the other Lyoko Warriors. Seeing that, Ruby grinned a little wider and cheered, "Yeah! Team RWBY's back together and gonna kick butt in the virtual world!"
"Uh…Team what," Yumi asked, her bewildered expression passing over all of her other friends as well. None of them expected the answer to come from someone that the original Lyoko Warriors were not familiar with though.
"It's something she got from me, her father, and our two best friends," a woman's voice explained. Turning around to face the woman in question, the RWBY girls all smiled happily at the sight of her, while the original Lyoko Warriors just went wide-eyed, slack-jawed, or both. Entering the room and the conversation was a woman who looked very much like an adult version of Ruby, from the silver eyes and hair color, to her attire. The only big differences, aside from the level of maturity her attire held, was that the woman's jacket was nearly all white instead of black and red like Ruby's, save for the red collar, and that she wore her shoulder-length hair in a half-up/half-down style.
The only one who did not seem too surprised by the woman's arrival was Ruby, and to a certain extent, Yang. "Hey Mom," the latter greeted.
"Whoa, wait! This is your mom," Odd asked in surprise.
"Well, more like stepmother in my case," Yang shrugged. "Did I forget to mention that Ruby and I are actually half-sisters? Same dad, different moms."
The Lyoko Warriors took another look at the woman in question before Yumi finally said, "No offense, but you look more like you could be Ruby's older sister than her mother."
"None taken. I hear comments like that all the time. Blame it on whoever decided that I should stop showing any signs of aging after I hit my twenties," the woman laughed off. When her eyes came to rest on Aelita, her smile softened a bit more as she stepped forward to better look at the pinkette. "Aelita. I don't believe it," she whispered. "You've hardly aged a day since I last saw you."
Aelita studied the woman for a moment, trying to place where she had seen her before, until she finally just gave up. "I'm sorry, but I can't really remember where I met you."
"I figured as much, at least from what my girls told me," the woman reasoned with a smile, not looking the least bit upset. "But the short version is…I knew your parents. They also asked both me and Taiyang to babysit you on occasion when they both got too busy. Of course, they also let our friends help us out, but after the one time that Qrow and Raven kept an eye on you without our help, we all agreed that it was better to not leave alone with just those two."
"Taiyang…Qrow…and Raven," Aelita muttered to herself, the name's each striking a chord in her memory. Finally, one name came to Aelita's mind, and she now looked at this woman with a new light. "Miss Summer?!"
"Well look at that. I guess you didn't need that much of a reminder after-Omph!" Summer Rose ended up unable to finish her sentence as Aelita surprised her with a sudden hug. Not that it seemed to bother her too much. "Still quite the hugger, I see," Summer noted as she wrapped her arms around Aelita.
The others just smiled at seeing this sweet reunion, until Aelita suddenly thought of something. "Hang on. If Ruby and Yang are your daughters, then how come I don't remember ever seeing either of them back then," Aelita asked.
Summer smiled and explained, "Part of that's because Yang had only just recently been born at the time, and that's also why you didn't see too much of Raven. It wasn't until a little while after your mother disappeared and your father had you both move away that I became pregnant with Ruby. Though there was this one time that Raven had brought Yang along with her when your father asked us to help watch you, and I remember how you excited you got at the sight of her. It was so sweet that it even got one of Raven's rare, heartfelt smiles out of her, and made her decide that she would bring Yang along a little more often. Guess she thought you would end up being like something of a big sister to her."
"Who'd have thunk it," Yang smiled brightly before she came up to wrap an arm around Aelita in a side-hug. "I almost had a big sister of my own. Which means that Ruby almost had two big sisters! Pretty cool, huh?"
Aelita could not help but let out a small giggle at the thought of that, and her smile only grew more when Ruby came up to join in on the hug, giving her a feeling that she could only compare to how the one she experienced when her father was restoring her memories. Seeing how happy their resident princess looked, the other Lyoko Warriors could not help but smile a little more too, and those smiles spread to everyone else in the room too. Whatever came next, they all had a feeling that this was just the beginning of something beautiful.
AN: Okay, now before I get into anything, let me just remind everyone that most of these Meetings are in fact rough drafts/sneak peeks, hence why there was so much left out or cut out. Ie the big fight between Team RWBY and the Scorpion. And to all you Code Lyoko fans who either don't know or don't remember, the Scorpion is in fact a XANA monster. Just not one that was used in the main canon of the show. It was the final boss of the first Code Lyoko video game released on Nintendo DS, Code Lyoko: Get Ready to Virtualize. If I pushed forward with this idea, I wanted to have Team RWBY's first real XANA battle as a team to be against something comparable to the Nevermore they took down in Vol. 1 of RWBY, and out of all the monsters I've seen XANA use, the Scorpion from that game seemed like the best bet.
Ruby: Question! Just to be clear, about our virtual forms...
AN: Yes, they were in fact your outfits from Volumes 1-3. The only real change was the absence of Blake's bow, so her kitty ears are out for everyone to see on Lyoko. Coming up with designs for Team RWBY's real world attire was a bit more difficult, and by the time we came to the point where I had to describe Weiss's Earth attire, I had just gotten lazy and said screw it, I'm gonna leave it to everyone's imagination. I suppose the same could be said of Summer's, but then again, it's been shown and stated quite a few times that she and Ruby dress pretty similarly to each other, so what did you expect me to say about her outfit?
Blake: Should we take that scene at the end to mean that Summer would've been around a bit more than just that one scene?
AN: Yes. I had it in my head that after that point, Summer Rose would've joined the staff at Kadic Academy, giving the Lyoko Warriors an inside assist on the school staff. They kind of have one in the form of Jim, but that always ends up being temporary because they just erase his memory of everything by the end of it. Plus, making Summer someone from Aelita's past that knows her also allows for a few additional opportunities as well.
Ruby: I can't help but wonder a little about how well that would work.
AN: To be fair, Aelita and her father had been virtualized on Lyoko for about ten years by the time the adventure had started for the others, so it wouldn't be too great a stretch to say that at least Yang would have been born by that time. I mean, I suppose it's possible that Ruby would've been as well, at least in the case of this story's version of Ruby, but I didn't really want to get too into all that math at the time. I had kinda felt pretty drained when I reached that particular point of the story, so I just did my best to calculate the who, what, and when of that scenario. Oh, and if anyone's wondering, yes, there would be a good number of age alterations involved for the girls of Team RWBY as well, just for the sake of making them at least close to the same ages as the rest of the Lyoko Warriors.
Yang: Here's something I want to know. Why didn't you showcase a few more of the jokes that Odd and I told? I think there are pretty good Odds that they all went off with a Yang!
RWB: [all groaning, eye-rolling, or just otherwise letting out noises of complaints at the bad pun]
AN: Yang, please stop. Weren't the ones we already showed here enough?
Weiss: Getting serious though, when the new looks came about in Season 4 of Code Lyoko, how would our virtual forms have changed?
AN: Honestly, I'm kinda on the fence about whether I have you all switched over to your Vol 4-6 attire or your newest, Vol 7 attire. I haven't really made a final decision, but then again, it's not like I'm really planning on so much as starting this idea any time soon, let alone getting to that point.
Weiss: And the rest of our friends? Namely people like Team JNPR and such. What would their roles be here, if they have any?
AN: I haven't really thought of any for them. At the moment, the only other RWBY characters that would be involved in this story, aside from Summer Rose, would likely have been the rest of Team STRQ, Winter, and the rest of the Belladonna family. Anyone other than that, I haven't really thought of a place for yet. Then again, there's at least one case where I think we can all agree that we wouldn't want to see showing up at all if it can be helped.
Team RWBY: [sharing looks before saying as one] Salem?
AN: Well...yes, her too, but I was actually talking about Jacques Schnee. Unless you guys would want that guy around.
Weiss: No thank you.
AN: Yeah, thought so. Anyways, let me know what you guys all thought of this latest Meeting, and the ones before it, and as with some of my other, past Meetings, if you want to use this as a springboard or basis for your own Code Lyoko&RWBY crossover, by all means, go for it if you think you can handle it. Until next time...
Please read and review, and I'll see you again in the next colorful adventure!