//------------------------------//
// Virtualization 
// Story: Equestria Girls: X.A.N.A Strikes Back 
// by Israel Yabuki 
//------------------------------//

"Alright, here's the rundown. First off, the activity that's been happening in the city is all due to this dangerous program that we know as XANA. It's like a deadly virus," said the guy with glasses.

"How do you know all of this?" Twilight asked.

"Because at one point in our lives, we actually fought against XANA. It was back at our old school, Kadic Academy when we were just junior high school students. XANA's caused a lot of grief and panic to everyone there and I was in the process of trying to come up with an anti-XANA program. During the many fights we had with XANA, he took the keys to Lyoko hidden in Aelita's memory in order to escape the super computer. He also tried to destroy this virtual world called Lyoko, so we wouldn't be able to fight him off. At one point, he took one of our most recent members of the group: William and used him as a dangerous weapon against us and even succeeded in destroying Lyoko. But thanks to Franz we reprogrammed Lyoko." he explained.

"How awful!" Rarity said, shocked.

Wait a second, if you fought XANA once before, then why did he suddenly reappear?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, don't tell me he's been taking a break or something!" Rainbow added.

"Well, at first we had some help from Franz Hopper, the creator of Lyoko. He has some data he transferred to me in order to complete my program to destroy XANA. In the process, he sacrificed himself to save Lyoko, his daughter, Aelita and the whole world. Aelita launched the program and we thought we had destroyed XANA and we went on with our normal lives. But now... it seems that my program wasn't enough. XANA must've hid a fraction of himself somewhere in the network, slowly regaining his strength. Now that he's back, we'll have to give him all we've got in order to shut him down for good," he finished.

"Oh yeah, we should probably introduce ourselves. Name's Odd. Odd Dellarobia," the man with the pointy, blonde hair said, waving at the girls. He wore a purple hoodie with light and dark purple pants.

"My name's Aelita. Aelita Schaffer's my full name, but I'm known to others as Aelita Stones. but you probably know my first name already. Nice to meet you," Aelita said. She had on a long-sleeve dark purple shirt with pink trims, pink pants and dark pink boots. She looked like she was very close to the one with glasses.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Jeremy Belpois," the one with blonde hair, wearing glasses said. He wore this thin blue sweater and tan pants.

"And I'm William Dunbar. Yes, I was the one who got taken over by XANA. But that was on me because I couldn't stop showing off. But I've changed since then and I'm not gonna let it happen again," William said. He seemed to be the oldest in the group. He had on a faded green jacket over his shirt, which was black and had red trims and a sign on the chest area, but none of the girls could make out what it says. His pants were a faded blue color and he the tallest of everyone in the entire group.

"Ulrich Stern, but you can just call me Ulrich," he said. Ulrich had brown hair and wore a light green open shirt over his dark green shirt underneath with faded blue pants just like William.

"Yumi Ishiyama's my name," Yumi said. Black seemed to be her color, considering her outfit. Black shirt, black pants and black shoes, though she did have these cute blue star stickers on lower left hand sie of her shirt, but that's just about it.

"My name's Sunset Shimmer and these girls are my best friends Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash," Sunset gestures to herself and the girls.

"Great, now that introductions are over, can we hurry up and get into the scanner room? There's still a lot of people getting hurt out there!" Odd said impatiently.

"Yeah, I know, Odd, I'll start up the virtualization process right away. In the meantime, you girls can either stay up here and watch what happens through my computer monitor, or you can join up the others and fight off against XANA on Lyoko. It's up to you," Jeremy offered.

Sunset and her friends all looked at each other. "Hmm, maybe I'll give it a shot! I want to help kick some XANA butt on this "Loko" place, or whatever it's called!" Rainbow blurted out.

"Hey, doesn't that sound like a certain little purple cat we know?" Ulrich remarked, grinning at Odd.

"Whatever, at least I look way cooler when you'll ever be with you, Mr. Samurai," Odd remarked.

"Not in a million years," Ulrich argued, chuckling.

"If you boys are done arguing, then hurry up and hurry up and get in the elevator!" Yumi intervened. Ulrich and Odd had stopped right away and got onto the elevator with the others. Rainbow and, surprisingly, Fluttershy followed the group into the elevator. Aelita pushed the button and the elevator took them further down and stopped 15 seconds later. The door opened up and lo and behold, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy gasped at the sight of these three cylinder cabins that were set up around the center of this circle.

Jeremy's voice was soon heard over the speakers, but Rainbow and Fluttershy couldn't see them. "I'm sending you all into the glacier region. Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, you go first!"

"Understood," Yumi said. So Odd, Ulrich and Yumi all stepped inside the scanners. The doors closed on them and Fluttershy got a little worried at first.

"Transfer Ulrich! Transfer Yumi! Transfer Odd! Scanner Ulrich! Scanner Yumi! Scanner Odd! Virtualization!" Jeremy said over the speakers.

Shortly afterwards, a light flashed from the tiny cracks in the scanners. Once the doors opened up, Odd, Ulrich and Yumi were completely gone. Not a single trace of them could be found. Next, Aelita and William entered the scanners before Jeremy could tell them.

"Alright, now it's Aelita's and Wi--" Jeremy said before Aelita cut him off.

"Under control, Jeremy, we're all set and ready to go," she said.

"Ready when you are," William added. Soon, the doors closed on them, too.

"Transfer Aelita! Transfer William! Scanner Aelita! Scanner William! Virtualization!" Jeremy said. The same process happens to those two and right away, the doors open up, empty and ready to be used. "Alright girls, it's your turn, head for the scanners and I'll teleport you both to Lyoko."

"A-Are you sure it's not gonna... hurt?" Fluttershy asked.

"Don't worry, everyone else did it before and they reached Lyoko safe and sound," Jeremy reassured. "Now, are you ready to take the big jump?"

"You bet I am! Let's do it! Come on, Shy! Let's go!" Rainbow said, energetically.

"Uh... umm... o-okay then," Fluttershy stuttered. Both girls stepped into the scanners. "Okay Jeremy, w-we're ready for you to begin."

"You got it. Now just close your eyes and take a deep breath," Jeremy said. Fluttershy did so and ignored the sound of the doors closing. The scanner began to make these strange noise, but Fluttershy remained calm and kept her eyes closed. "Transfer Rainbow Dash! Transfer Fluttershy! Scanner Rainbow Dash! Scanner Fluttershy! Virtualization!"

And so, the virtualization process began and both girls and feel themselves leaving the real world and entering the virtual world of Lyoko. The light surrounding them shined as bright as the sun and vefore they knew it, they felt their bodies being digitally constructed on Lyoko from above the ground before falling down onto the round in front of the others.

"Gah!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"Ouch!" Fluttershy exclaimed. The ladies picked themselves up and took a gander at their new outfits. "Oh my, look at you Rainbow Dash. You look... amazing!" she complimented. Rainbow Dash's outfit was a blue tank top with her signature cloud shooting a rainbow lightning bolt on the front. She also wore black combat pants with matching combat boots. Attached to her boots were these rainbow-colored leg guards with spikes on them. On her arms, she had on these gauntlets with these weird rainbow orbs embedded on the back-hand parts and also had spikes on it, except for the hand areas. And for the cherry on top, Rainbow Dash had this spear on her back and the blade of the spear was rainbow colored.

"Get a load of your outfit, Fluttershy!" Rainbow said, pointing to Fluttershy's new outfit. She seemed to be wearing a white dress with these purple trims and wore dark purple pants with white boots that matched her beautiful angelic dress. Reaching her sides, Fluttershy grabbed these two golden rings, which looked a lot like angel halos and they seemed to be glowing a little. But that's not all, on Fluttershy's back, a pair of wings formed from what looked like light energy, so they weren't solid. However they were pretty.

"Oh my... am I an angel?" Fluttershy asks, twirling around in the air, trying to see her wings. "It's so beautiful... but what are these rings for?" Fluttershy asked, curious.

"Well, you never know, maybe you can use them as throwing weapons," Ulrich said, getting both girls' attention and they were surprised of what the gang looked like. Ulrich had on this impressive yellow and brown samurai outfit with two swords sheathed behind him.

Odd was dressed up as some giant purple cat with a picture of this little dog on his chest and shoulder pads that Fluttershy found absolutely adorable.

Yumi's outfit looked like a purple and pink body suit with shoulder pads that had sakura flower stickers with the addition of these two tessen fans she carries.

Aelita had on the pink bodied suit with some sort of wrist band with a star on it.

As for William, his outfit looked like a black bodied suit and held this bulky Zweihänder. Though, there was just something about his suit gave him a sort of dark vibe.





Meanwhile back in the Super Computer room, "We'll figure it out later, but first, you two have to follow the group and help Aelita deactivate the tower," Jeremy said.

"A tower? What's so important about this tower and what do you mean by "deactivating it?" Sunset asked. "Does it act as a link to something or is it more dangerous than that?"

"Yeah, I'm curious, too," Twilight said.

"Well, on Lyoko, there are multiple towers in each of the 4 sectors, including Sector 5, but I'll tell you about that place later when I got time. As for why the towers are important, we gotta deactivate them because they're portal between Lyoko and the outside world. When they're red, it means their activated and XANA can use this as a means to cross over into our world and wreak havoc," Jeremy explains.

"Ah wanna know why this here XANA would want to wreck our city," AJ said.

"His goals are probably the same as they were back when we were about to stop him for good: XANA probably wants to build a robot army in order to enslave all of humanity. One thing's for sure is that he's not gonna go down without a fight this time. And we'll have to give it everything we've got in order to stop him once and for all," Jeremy said. Suddenly, the computer started rapidly beeping for some reason. "Hmm? Everyone, get ready, XANA's sending out in two megatanks and two tarantulas! 





Back on Lyoko, "No sweat, Einstein, we got this," Odd said, cracking his fingers while grinning. "Alright ladies, let Odd show you how to beat a couple of measily monsters!" he bragged.

"Oh and Odd, before I forget, I've modified your outfit so you can be able to rapidly shoot 3 laser arrows from both of your hands and you'll have twice as much as you did before," Jeremy said.

"Thanks a lot, Einstein. That just makes my job a whole lot easier," Odd replied. Stepping out in the open, he can see one of the monsters approaching him. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy notice this huge black ball coming towards them and when it stops, it splits open, showing the same logo they saw all over the city. The symbol started to glow and the monster fired its beam at the group. Everyone dodged out of the way while Odd moved in, shouting out at the monster. "How about this, you oversized bowling ball! LASER ARROW!!!"

Out from the tips above his hands, these tiny arrows aimed straight at the megatank, hitting it right on the symbol, which seemed to be its weak spot from Rainbow's and Fluttershy's perspective. It explodes upon impact and its remains get devirtualized after that.

"Don't celebrate just yet, there's still one more megatank and two tarantulas," Jeremy said. Right on cue, two more of the monsters rush into the battle. Both looked like 4-legged spiders with the same symbol on their heads the megatank had. The two tarantulas aimed their two front legs at the group, putting everyone on high alert, but Rainbow and Fluttershy remained clueless.

"W-What's going on?" Fluttershy asked.

"They're gonna start shooting, watching out!" Ulrich shouted. He sprinted into the center taking out his two katanas just as the tarantulas fire their laser cannons. Ulrich blocked each of their attacks with his twin katanas while the rest of the group pressed on the attack. Aelita took to the skys by placing her two fingers on this wrist band with a star on it, bringing out these beautiful pink wings. She proceeded to head for the other megatank that was still out on the battlefield. 

The megatank quickly saw Aelita and opened up its protective shield, firing its beam at her. She quickly dodges and blasts out these small pink orbs of energy. "Energy Field!" she yells. The first one missed and only hit the shield, but the 2nd one lands perfectly just as the megatank opened back up. It exploded and devirtualized just as the first megatank did.

Meanwhile, Ulrich is trying all he can to block the tarantula's attacks, but his fatigue is starting to get to him and soon, the tarantulas landed a few clean shots, knocking him back. Yumi took the initiative and threw both of her tessen fans at one of the tarantulas, but it blasted one of her fans back at her. However, Yumi's second fan hits the tarantula, but the fan only managed graze the side of the monster's head. Yumi caught both fans and ran to get Ulrich out of the line of fire, taking cover behind a boulder.

"Nice recovery, Yumi. Ulrich, you've only got twenty life points left. You okay?" Jeremy asked.

"I'm fine, just got the wind knocked out of me," Ulrich said. 

"Alright, if those guys can fight, then I can, too!" Rainbow said, bringing out her spear. "Better watch your step, little buggies, it's squishing time!" Rainbow said, confidentally.

The hot-headed rainbow athlete ran out into the battle, dodging just about all of the lasers being fired at her and jumped up high in the air. "Hey, be careful!" William called out. Rainbow didn't listen and landed on top of the tarantula, jabbing her spear right into the tarantula's head before jumping off and delivering a literal explosive uppercut, sending it flying 100 yards into the air. The monster quickly exploded and devirtualized before it ever reached the ground.

"Whoa... I did that?" Rainbow asked, staring at her hand.

"Yikes, that gives a whole new meaning to the term "punching your lights out," Odd said. Unfortunately, for the ecstatic cat boy, the remaining tarantula proceeded with its attack and fired rapid lasers at him, devirtualizing Odd and humiliating him.





Back in the scanner room, the door opens up and Odd steps out with a pouty face. "Darn it, why couldn't XANA teach those stinking tarantulas a little something called "patience?!" he whined.





Back on Lyoko, William charged at the taranula midway, then suddenly shouted, "Super Smoke!" right after that, he faded into this black smoke and continued on towards the rapid-firing tarantula. William's body reformed right behind the monster, did a backflip and slashed the monster's head. It staggered a little, then exploded before it devirtualized.

"That takes care of that. Let's hurry up before more monsters show up," William urged.

"He's right, head for the tower, but keep an eye out for any other monsters XANA might send your way," Jeremy warned, putting the team on high alert as they continued down the path. Within no time flat, they find the tower, only to realize it's heavily guarded. This time, there were 5 monsters: All of them were these strange red crab-like creatures. "Looks like you've got company."

"Don't worry, Jeremy. We'll clear up these monsters as fast as we can," Ulrich said.

"Just don't get carried away, Ulrich. You only have 20 life points left. Try to avoid taking anymore big hits, otherwise it'll be game over for you," Jeremy replied.

"Gotcha," Ulrich nodded.

After that, the group set their plan into action: Yumi, William and Aelita created a distraction by having Yumi get up close enough and throw her tessen fans at one of the crabs. She automatically destroys one of them, getting the other crabs' attention right away. William snuck underneath the right most hat and slashed upwards, dealing major damage to it and destroying it. Aelita flew around in the air in circles, causing the crabs to focus and attack her, leaving Ulrich the perfect chance to strike them.

"Super Sprint!" he exclaimed, running onto the battlefield. With one leap into the air, he lands on top of the middle crab and jabs his two swords into the symbol on the crab's head. He jumps off the moment the last two crabs had spotted him. 

Aelita fires an Energy Field at the crab on the left, destroying it before it was about to fire at Ulrich. However, the remaining crab shoots Ulrich, devirtualizing him. Fluttershy gasped and all of a sudden, her halo rings started to glow and then she throws one of them. "Ray Thrust!" she shouted. Her ring traveled at blazing speed, literally cutting up the crab in half, destorying it.

The others were baffled at what they just witnessed, then realized... "Aelita, hurry! Deactivate the tower!" Yumi urged to her friend, which she did.

Aelita fazes through the tower and walks slowly to the center. She slowly levitates to the top and walks to the center up above before she finally enters the Code Lyoko. Soon, everything in the tower goes down into the pit, a clear sign the tower had been successfully deactivated. "Tower deactivated," Aelita said.

Outside the tower, the red aura surrounding it changes to a white color.





Later on, after everyone is materialized back into the real world, they all head into the super computer room with Jeremy and the others. "I gotta say, I didn't know you two had it in you to pull off something like that, you've got some serious fire power in those weapons of yours," Jeremy complimented Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, making the shy one blush and Rainbow Dash feel proud. 

"What can I say? I'm just that awesome," Rainbow gloated.

"But what happens now? We can't leave things the way they are right now. They city is still a big mess and everyone's pretty shaken up after what happened earlier," Fluttershy pointed out.

"She's right, how are we going to fix that?" Twilight asked.

"Well, that's easy. You see, the super computer has a program called "Return to the past." If I can enter the code, everything will return to the way they were before all of this mess started. But there is a small drawback that conclusion and it might not sound so pleasant," Jeremy said.

"What do you mean?" Sunset asked.

"If Jeremy launches a return trip to the past, none of you will have any memory of what just happened. You'll forget about the factory, the super computer, Lyoko, everything. But there is a way for you to return back in time and keep all of your memories in tact," Aelita said.

"Really? How do we do that?" Pinkie asked.

"First, you all have to make a promise that you won't tell anyone about the factory, not even your relatives or anyone else for that matter. Do we have ourselves a deal?" Yumi asked. The girls looked at each other and talked it over for about a minute or so until finally...

"We promise not to tell anyone about this place. You have our word," Twilight said.

"Alright then, all in favor of welcoming these girls into our group, say "aye," Jeremy said.

"Aye!" the group said in unison.

"Looks like you ladies are officially a part of the Lyoko Warriors," Odd said.

"Great! So, what's next?" Sunset asked.

"First, I want all of you, except for Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to head for the scanner room. When you get there, I want a few of you to step inside for a moment, then the rest of you will go in afterwards. What I'm going to do is I'm going to have the supercomputer scan you all so that when the program is launched, you'll be able to remember everything that transpired here," Jeremy explained.

"Okay, but are you sure it's gonna work?" Twlight asked, hesitant.

"Relax, little Ms. Einstein, it's as easy as riding a bicycle, you'll be fine," Odd said.

"Uhh... okay then," Twilight said.

All of the girls, except for Rainbow, Fluttershy, Yumi and Aelita headed down to the scanner room. Once down their, Twilight and Sunset went into the scanners first. Jeremy began the scanning process on both of the girls, adding their data. Once that was done, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity stepped inside. Jeremy repeated the same scanning process on the remaining ones. After that, "Okay girls, you're all done. Come on back up and I'll launch the program," Jeremy said.

Within a minute, everyone was present and accounted for. Jeremy worked his magic and booted up the program before pressing enter. "Return to the past, now," he said.

It wasn't long before a bright white light shined out of the computer and lit up around the city, then traveled from country to country throughout the whole entire world until the light had dimmed.





Time had reversed and Sunset was back in the mall at the gaming corner all by herself. "What the!" she said, scanning the area around her. "Jeremy was right, it worked!" She checked her phone and it was set to 11:50 A.M on the exact same day as before the chaos had started.

She texted her friends in a group chat to see if they still remembered the factory. They all replied saying things like "how could I not forget," from Rarity or "you're darn tootin' I remember it," from Applejack and "Jeremy did say we would keep our memories after we went into the scanners and we did! But there's one thing he didn't do that was probably crucial before turning back time..." which came from Twilight. Sunset texted Twilight, asking her what she meant by that. And she replied with the fact that Jeremy and his friends never exchanged phone numbers in case of another XANA attack.

Sunset facepalmed herself. "How could we have forgotten than," she chuckled.

To be continued...