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Manta-tory

Author's Note:

Sorry for the LONG delay. I've been dealing with lots of other stories and real life stuff like looking for a job, but I finally got off my lazy behind and got to work on this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it, thanks for all of your patience and support and keep bronying on.

The next day had finally come and everyone who was now a member of the Lyoko Warriors went back to their daily lives, still pondering about the incident yesterday. It became nearly distracting for some of the girls who had to work, especially for the ever so ambitious college student, Twilight. Between all of the studying she's got to do every week and the fact that the whole Lyoko thing was getting to her was mind-numbing. During her breaks, she spent most of her time in the library with mountains of books at her table.

With no way to contact Jeremy, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, Aelita, or William, Twlight and her friends are stuck until XANA launches another attack. And to make matters worse, if she doesn't get all of her homework done by tonight, she won't have enough time to relax.

Suddenly, someone else sat across from her table. "I take it you're struggling a bit over there, you want me to come over and give you a hand?" a familiar voice asked Twilight. She blinked in surprised and looked to see, not just Jeremy, but also Aelita, sitting straight across from her. "Hi, Twilight."

"Everything okay?" Aelita asked.

"U-Uh, yeah a little. So you two actually study here at Canterlot University?" she asked.

"If I ever want to get a degree in computer science, then yes," Jeremy said.

"That's amazing. Oh, which reminds me, Sunset said we forgot to exchange numbers in case of another XANA attack, is it okay if I get your numbers?" Twilight asked.

"Oh, here, I can do that for you," Aelita said. Twilight handed her her phone and let Aelita put all of the contacts in it before handing it back to Twilight.

"And just to be sure they don't get erased, I'm gonna upload them onto the supercomputer after classes are done, that way you won't have to repeat this process again," Jeremy whispered.

"I suppose you're right. But I gotta ask, where are the others?"

"William's working at a construction sight just a couple of blocks to the West from here. Odd's working as a lifeguard at the Canterlot Beach, and lastly, Ulrich and Yumi are currently working at a pizza joint, either delivering pizzas or serving them to the customers," Aelita explained.

"They both work at the same pizza joint?" Twilight asked. "What's the story behind that?"

Both Jeremy and Aelita chuckled. "If only you had been at Kadic Academy. Yumi and Ulrich had this thing for each other, but would always insist they were just good friends. We, along with Odd and William knew that wasn't true, especially since Odd constantly teased them about it. But during our senior years in high school, Ulrich and Yumi finally got together. They still have a few squabbles here and there, but they still care for each other and we're glad we're all out of Kadic Academy for a few reasons," Aelita explained.

"Why's that?" Twilight asked.

"There was always this girl who gave us a lot of trouble: her name was Elizabeth Delmas and she happeend to be our old principal's daughter, but she was usually referred to as Sissi. She had a thing for Ulrich, but he never had a thing for her. She gave us all sorts of trouble, but on the day we were gonna shut down the supercomputer, we told her she can be friends with us as long as she doesn't cause trouble in our group and she held up her end of the bargain," Jeremy said.

"Oh, well that's nice to hear. Say, do you two think you can help me out? I've got a lot of assignments to finish and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get them all done in time," Twilight said.

"Sure, but for a little friendly advice, you might want ease up a little bit. I mean, look at all of those books you've got stacked up, are you studying for all of these?" Aelita asked, gesturing to the tower of books.

"Well, not all of them, I actually want to read some of them for fun," Twilight said.

"Sounds to me like we've got another genius in the group already," Jeremy said. The three of them silently laughed, knowing full well they were still in a library.

Meanwhile, back at the factory, within the scanner room, all of the scanners were powering up and opening up their doors, letting out the steam. And from inside all three of the scanners, three creatures fly out and let out a screeching noise.

Back at Canterlot University, "Say, Twilight. If you don't mind me asking, where'd you get that lovely necklace, did you have get custom made?" Aelita asked. The lavender egghead looked down at the geode hanging from her neck and turned back to her pink-haired friend.

"You wouldn't believe me, even though I'm about to tell you what it is," Twilight said.

"Why? Is there something special about it?" Aelita asked again.

"I'm curious, too," Jeremy said.

"Well, I guess I can tell you what it is. On the outside, it looks like a perfectly custom-made geode, but what people don't know is that it holds magic powers. The same can be said for my friends. For instance, Applejack's geode can give her incredible superhuman strength. Rainbow Dash's geode gives her super speed and mine gives me the power of telekinesis. It may sound farfetched, but it's the truth," Twilight whispered.

"Magic? I didn't know such a thing was possible," Aelita said, surprised. "Where'd you get it?"

"My friends and I got our geodes during our weekend trip at Camp Everfree. I won't go into much detail, but I will say we used them to help the owners. And at one point, I was starting to fall for this guy, Timber Spruce, but during my free time, I realized I wasn't ready for a relationship. So, I met up with him one day and told him that we should just be friends," Twilight explained.

"I see. Well then, how about we--" Jeremy was cut off by the sound of people screaming in terror. The Three of them jumped in surprise and looked out the front door of the library.

There were indeed people screaming and running around in terror. Something was probably chasing them and what tipped off Jeremy was the sudden beam that struck from above. What Jeremy and Aelita saw next shocks the two, but Twilight was completely clueless. From above, a group of white and blue-colored flying mantas descended, firing at the students and things only got worse when they looked in Jeremy and Aelita's general direction and fired a few beams at them.

"Mantas? Oh no, not again!" Aelita said.

"XANA's launched another attack. This is the 3rd time he's materialized his monsters into our world! Quick, we have to get to the factory!" Jeremy said. He, Aelita and Twilight all rushed out through the emergency exit, running as fast as they could away from the mantas. Aelita and Twilight got out their phones and called their friends, alerting them of XANA. The mantas still came after them, shooting their beams at Aelita, Jeremy and even Twilight, hinting that XANA knows Twilight and her friends are in league with the Lyoko Warriors.

One of the beams eventually shot Jeremy in the arm and he nearly fell, but caught himself. He was still affected by the heavy impact of the beam, which slowed his movement a little.

"JEREMY, WATCH OUT!" Aelita yelled out. The manta prepared another beam attack until a rainbow blur sped past the group and soon, Rainbow Dash appeared and grabbed the manta's tail, pulling it down, and at the same time, Ulrich rushed into action and jabbed a pointy metal staff into the back of the manta where the monster had on the symbol of XANA. Small sparks of electricity shot out of the mantas back and soon, it powered down and collapsed to the ground, not moving.

"Perfect timing, you two," Jeremy said.

"Hehe, no problem. What would you do without us?" Rainbow said.

"Please, one Odd is more than enough. That aside, we'd better head over to the factory. Who knows how many more of these monsters XANA will sicc on us," Ulrich said.

"I agree. Come on and follow us," Jeremy said. So, everyone fled from the chaos and headed off to the factory, trying their hardest to avoid anymore flying mantas along the way. As they reached the bridge leading to the factory, however, lady luck was not on their side. 3 flying mantas circled over the entrance. "Drat, we can't get anywhere near the entrance without stirring up a commotion!"

"Well, if that's the only way inside, we've got no choice. I'll try and distract the mantas and lead them away from the factory while you guys head inside," Ulrich said.

"You, distracting three flying fish food all by yourself? No way! This is gonna be a team effort, so we're gonna take on these freaks together!" Rainbow said, pumping her fist. Ulrich was clueless on where she gets all this confidence from and went so far as to compare her to Odd.

With a sigh, Ulrich agreed. "Alright, I'm gonna distract them while you jump onto their backs. That is if you can even jump up that high.

"Oh, jumping won't be necessary," Rainbow said confidentally. She quickly grabbed the geode hanging around her neck and soon, these weird ears popped out from both sides of her head. Another thing he found strange was the wings on her back. Ulrich became more dumbfounded when she moved at high speeds, leaving a trail of rainbow behind.

"What in the sam hill?!" Ulrich exclaimed, shocked. One second she was next to him and now she's directly on top of one of the mantas.

And it looked like Rainbow didn't just have speed when it came to running and flying, her punches seemed to be moving pretty fast, too. The manta she was punching screeched out in pain and eventually collapsed onto the ground and didn't move an inch. All that came out of the manta was electricity and smoke.

"Incredible!" Aelita said in astonishment.

"What in the world was that?!" Jeremy asked, shocked at what he saw.

"That's Equestrian magic, but I'll explain later. We gotta hurry and get inside!" Twilight urged.

"You guys go on ahead, Rainbow and I will take care of the mantas and lead them away from the factory, there's no telling when the others'll get here," Ulrich implied. Everyone else was in agreement and soon, Rainbow and Ulrich got the last two mantas' attention and lead them away from the entrance to the factory, giving the rest of the group the chance to head in. One at a time, they swung down the ropes and entered the elevator, heading straight down into the super computer.

Jeremy got up in his chair and booted up the super computer. He then proceeded to check and see which of the sectors has an activated tower.

Meanwhile, back in the city, people were either running scared or hiding someplace where the mantas won't find them and hurt them. But the same can't be said for the remaining Lyoko Warriors. Applejack was just about to head home after she finished delivering fresh apples to the market. But as of right now, she's stuck in traffic and everyone's abandoned their vehicles, including Applejack. And she was face-to-face with a flying manta that was firing beams at her.

Applejack jumped to the side, paying close attention to the manta. She also looked around her to see what she can use to fight back. The manta decided to make things harder for her by circling around her and firing shots at her to keep her from advancing anywhere.

"Dagnabbit! This ol' flyin' fish is really gettin' on this gal's nerve. Ah gotta find a way to git passed it!" Applejack said, dodging the attacks. Applejack was running out off options, so in order to improvise, she hid behind one of the abandoned cars, unlocked the magic in her geode, and picked up the car before throwing it at the manta, knocking it back, but not knocking the monster out. Applejack finally took this window of opportunity and fled from the flying manta to get to the others.

The flying manta, however, refused to let AJ out of its sight and flew towards her. "GERONIMO!!!" shouted Odd's voice, and just in time. Sure enough, just as the flying manta was going in for a close-range shot, Odd literally jumped into action with a very sharp pole in hand and jammed it into the manta's back.

And just like that, the manta shut down and collapsed to the ground with a fading screech. "Heh, talk 'bout perfect timin' there, Ah thought Ah was a goner!" Applejack said. "If Ah had waited any longer, then Ah'd be on the menu fer that there flyin' fish food." But not even this victory could last when she and Odd heard more mantas screeching from down one of the blocks.

"We'll really be fish food if we don't get out of here soon!" Odd said. Applejack agreed and followed Odd just before the mantas could find them.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Lyoko Warriors had a bit of trouble of their own: Yumi grouped up with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, holding off any flying mantas that might target them or the people in Sugar Cube Corner, including the Cake family, who's kids were scared stiff. Conveniently, Pinkie Pie had enough party cannons to pack more than enough punch to not only hold off the enemy, but to also pack more explosive punch.

"Alrighty girls, on my count!" Pinkie commanded, holding her arm up.

"I'd ask where and how you got these cannons, including those strange ears you've grown, but I'd rather ask if these cannon even work," Yumi said. And she had every right to have her doubts, considering she's never met Pinkie, nor did she quite grasp how Pinkie Pie's unpredictability can be come in handy. And she was about to find out right now just how handy she can be.

"3! 2! 1! FIIIIIIIIIRRRRRREEEEE!!!!!" Pinkie shouted. Right on cue, Fluttershy, Yumi and Pinkie Pie fired the party cannons and blasted the 3 mantas up in the air.

First, the party cannon Pinkie controlled had sprinkles inside of it and with the amplified magic powers emitting from her geode, ponified Pinkie Pie gave the sprinkles some extra kick in them, making them explode upon contact with the manta. The party cannon Yumi was in control of had water in it and once it made contact with the manta, it short circuited and collapsed to the ground. The party cannon Fluttershy handled was also filled with water and was fired directly at one of the flying mantas.

However, only two of the mantas got destroyed while the last one dodged by flying up higher into the air. That flying manta was the one Fluttershy was aiming at. However, seeing how much of a threat the girls can be, the manta takes the easy route and flies off towards its other targets.

"That's weird, why is it leaving during the middle of our blowout?" Pinkie asked. "Hey don't be such a party pooper and get back here right now!" she shouted, but Yumi placed her hand over the party-thrower's mouth, trying to quiet her down. Pinkie stared directly at Yumi out of curiosity. Yumi shook her head as a warning to try not to provoke XANA's monsters.

"Let's focus more on our friends, they could be in danger," Yumi implied. She reached into her cell phone and then dialed up William's number. He picked up on the 1st ring. "William, it's Yumi! Are there any mantas coming after you and the others who are with you?"

Meanwhile, in the Canterlot Central Park, "As a matter of fact, they are! And this might sound crazy, but apparently Rarity's got some kind of magic powers and she's using it to shield us from the mantas' attacks, it's gonna be next to impossible to be able to get to the factory. Tell Jeremy, Aelita and whoever's with them that we may or may not be able to make it," William said.

"Rarity's protecting us for now, but we don't know how much longer she can keep this up," Sunset yelled, making sure Yumi can hear her.

Meanwhile, outside Rarity's magic gem dome, 4 mantas were hovering around them, firing off rapid shots, trying to break through the fashionista's defenses.

"Alright, if it comes down to it, we'll try and head over as fast as we can after we've notified Jeremy," Yumi assured on the other end before both of them hang up.

Not long after that, Jeremy received the call from Yumi and immediately got the rundown on what's keeping the others and understood the situation. Afterwards, he checks the screen on the super computer. "Okay, I've spotted the activated tower. It's Northwest in the mountain sector. Twilight, this'll be your first time going to Lyoko, so brace yourself for what you're about to face," he said.

"We don't have much of a choice," Twilight said, understanding the situation.

The lavender bookworm followed her fellow pink-haired bookworm friend into the elevator and both headed straight down into the scanner room. Aelita and Twilight stepped inside and soon...

"Transfer: Twilight! Transfer: Aelita! Scanner: Twilight! Scanner: Aelita! Virtualization!" Jeremy said. The scanner doors closed and soon as the girls were scanned, they closed their eyes and felt themselves being reconstructed and virtualized into the mountain sector.

Once there, Aelita and Twilight drop down with only Twilight not anticipating her fall. "Ouch!" she yelped before picking herself back up. Aelita looked back at Twilight and was astonished with her outfit. Twilight had on a dark purple cybernetic body suit with bright pink neon lights. On the back of each glove, she had these strange disks equipped, probably for attacking and defending.

Twilight checked out her gear and was amazed herself with these new gadgets. "Wow, impressive. But, what am I supposed to do with these disks?" she asked.

"No time to explain, the tower is due north from your position, about 120 meters. Hurry, you've got to deactivate the tower and watch out for monsters," Jeremy warned.

"Come on, Twilight, follow me," Aelita said.

Twilight did so without question. The two girls quickly travel across the mountain sector while at the same time keeping their eyes peeled. Sure enough... "Watch out, girls. 3 hornets are coming your way! I'm sending you the overwing right now," Jeremy said. Twilight was tilted her head at the sight of what looked like some sort of hover scooter being virtualized in front of her.

Aelita hopped on and gestured Twilight to jump on as well. Twilight did so, but was hesitant at first. After boarding, Aelita flew the two of them in the direction where the hornets were coming from. Twilight was shocked to see what they looked like in this world and how big they were.

"Oh, this is not gonna be good," Twilight said right before the hornets fired beams at them. Twilight slightly ducked while Aelita swerved away from the blasts. The lavender bookworm wasn't sure how to fight back against the hornets and all she had on her were the disks attached on the back of her gloves. Taking one of them off, she trying throwing them at one of the hornets. "Take that!"

However, the hornets dodged out of the way. It was only the first throw, but she was already frustrated and clenched her fist tightly. Suddenly, the disk... changed direction and somehow managed to hit its intended target, devirtualizing one of the hornets before returning to Twilight.

The disk quickly re-attached itself to the back of Twilight's glove. "Not bad for your first try. But we've still got quite a ways to go if we want to get to the tower," Aelita said before flying her and Twilight off at full speed. The hornets were still hot on their tail, but with her newfound abilities, Twilight disconnected one of her disks from her glove and threw it at the hornets. She knew the hornets were gonna dodge it, but she planned ahead and clenched her fist, focusing her mind, causing her disk to redirect and hit the hornet that dodged. At the same time, the last remaining hornet fired its beam at the girls.

Twilight's disk reattached itself to her glove and with some luck, she managed to block the attack.

"Nice job, Twilight! Just hold it off for a little longer, you'll be reaching the tower soon," Jeremy said. While he was observing the girls ward off the hornets, a notification popped up on the screen... a warning notification and a very very big problem was soon taking form. "Oh no... it... it can't be! Not now!"

"Jeremy, what's wrong?" Aelita asked from Lyoko.

"Aelita, Twilight, be careful when you reach the tower, you're about to say hello to an old friend. Whatever happens, you can't let it hit you or we won't be able to deactivate the tower!" Jeremy warned.

"What are you talking about?" Twilight asked from Lyoko

"Let's just say that compared to the hornet tailgating you, this monster won't be so easy," he said. Jeremy then types on the keyboard, trying to get a hold of everyone else.

Meanwhile, back in the park, the flying mantas were still firing their beams at Rarity's gem dome. Rarity was losing most of her strength pretty fast.

Just then, "Rarity, take down part of the shield, I'm gonna try and create a diversion!" William said. Rarity's eyes widened to the craziness that was spat out of William's mouth

"William, no! You'll get hurt!" Sunset said.

"We don't have any other choice, Sunset. It's either now or never! Once I've gotten the mantas' attention directed towards me, you take Rarity to safety and then I'll find a way to destroy the mantas' and head to the factory to help out the others!" William explained.

"William, deary, you can't be--" Rarity said, struggling to keep the shield from disappearing completely.

"This is no time to argue, just do it!" William urged the fashionista. Rarity didn't argue any further and opened up part of the shield, allowing William to run out and grab 2 of the mantas' attention. They screeched and flew off towards their ex-right hand man of XANA, continuing to fire their beams at him.

Suddenly... "CHAAAAARGE!" shouted a group of people. Just as William was about to turn the corner, most of the gang had rushed over to help.

Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Applejack had arrived on time. Rainbow Dash flew on top of one of the mantas' backs and jabbed her fists on it rapidly. The manta screeched in pain and tried to shake off the flying diva. Meanwhile, Odd charged at the other manta and leaped onto its back when it flew down low enough to try and deliver a close-range shot. Still having a sharp pole in his hand, he jabbed it right in the center of the XANA symbol, shutting the manta down.

"Perfect timing, you guys," William said.

"What would you do without me?" Odd said. William, Ulich and Yumi all shook their heads from their blonde pointy haired friend's bragging. "What?"

"No time to brag, Odd, we've gotta help the others," Ulrich said.

"I'm heading off to the factory to help out Jeremy and Aelita. They might not be able to pull this off if Aelita's got no one else Lyoko with her. You guys help the other girls," William said.

"Alright, but don't let the Scyphozoa catch you again!" Yumi warned.

"I won't... not this time," William said before he ran off. With the others fending off the remaining mantas, William took out his phone as he turned the corner ran at full speed. He dialed Jeremy's number and waited anxiously for him to pick up. On the 2nd ring, his voice was heard. "Jeremy, I'm on my way to the factory! How is everything going so far on Lyoko? Is Aelita pulling through okay?"

"Yes, Aelita's on Lyoko right now with Twilight. Where are the others?" Jeremy asked over the phone.

"Let's just say they're playing with the fishes and those fishes are starting to play a little rougher than usual, I'm not sure how long they'll last," William said.

"Alright, get here as soon as you can, I'll be waiting," Jeremy said.

"Gotcha. I'll try to get there as quick as I can," and afterwards, William hung up and sprinted on ahead.

Meanwhile, back at the factory. "Aelita, Twilight, William's on his way. Just hang in there a little longer and backup will be on the way," Jeremy said.

"Don't worry, Jeremy. I can see the tower. It's almost within reach," Aelita said from inside Lyoko. Just then, Jeremy's monitor started to beep. He checked to see what was going on and just as he expected, the tower isn't exactly going to be easy to get to.

"Girls, be careful, XANA's got 2 bloks and a tarantula guarding the tower. Twilight, you've got to make sure Aelita doesn't get de-virtualized or there'll be no one to deactivate the tower!" Jeremy said.

Meanwhile in Lyoko. "Consider it done, Jeremy. Let's go, Aelita!" Twilight said, feeling a little more confident. Not wasting anymore time, Aelita put the overwing at full speed and flew down low just above the path, heading straight for the activated tower. Both girls spotted the monsters that were guarding the tower and prepared themselves as they closed in on their enemies. Twilight's eyes locked on two monsters she's never seen before, which looked like a pair of yellow blocks. To top it off, the blocks both have the same XANA symbol just like the tarantula in the middle.

"Get ready to jump, Twilight. And be careful with the bloks, they're just as dangerous as the tarantulas. they can shoot regular beams either between a few seconds or rapidly. Beware of their freeze beams, avoid them at all costs and watch out for their ring beams. Either move to the side or jump through the rings and you should be just fine, okay?" Aelita asked.

"Y-Yes," Twilight confirmed nervously. Right after explaining the gist of the enemies, Twilight realized... "Wait, where do I hit the bloks?" she asked.

"Their weak spot is where they attack! Hit the XANA symbol, any side!" Aelita confirmed.

However, the bloks gained the upper hand by blasting a few rounds at the Overwing. The impact of each beam that struck it caused it to blink and devirtualize. Aelita grabbed Twilight's hand and jumped off onto the path just before they nearly fell off-balance while still on the Overwing. The bloks continued to fire at the girls, but Twilight got in front of Aelita blocking most of the attacks with her disks.

"Energy Field!" Aelita exclaimed, throwing a pink energy ball one of the bloks. The attack misses, sadly, and soon the blok who almost got hit aims for Aelita. Twilight tried to guard Aelita, but ends up getting a beam struck onto her shoulder and shrieked upon impact.

"Let's see how well you do against this!" Twilight exclaimed. She detached one of her disks from her hands and threw it at the blok that shot her. Meanwhile, the other blok took the fight to the next level with rapid fire beams, all were hitting the center of Twilight's disk. Suddenly, her disk began to glow a bright lavender color and soon an even bigger beam fired back at the firing block. She gasped when the giant beam not only blasted the block, but it took it clean off its legs before it, along with the other blok got slashed by Twilight's disk and both got devirtualized.

"Jeremy, did you see that?" Aelita asked.

"That's only natural, I fitted Twilight's disk with a special ability to return any attacks it absorbs and make it twice and more dangerous in one blast," Jeremy added.

"Jeremy, what would we do without you?" Aelita asked happily.

"Aelita, watch out!" Twilight exclaimed. After warning Aelita, Twilight got in front of her just in time before the tarantula's attack started. The disk she threw came back to her and re-attached itself onto the back of her hand and was about to use it again, but it didn't work. "Huh? What the? Jeremy, I can't throw my disk, what's going on, is it broken or something?"

"Oh yeah, that's right, your disks need at least 15 seconds to recharge before you can use it again. But that's not the worst of it, after you used that giant beam against that blok, it's going to take both disks 15 more seconds, so for now, you can only defend," Jeremy explained.

"Great, just when I thought we had this already won," Twilight said. While she couldn't attack, Aelita gave her a helping hand by firing off a few Energy Fields at XANA's last monster. The tarantula easily dodged the first one, but barely dodged the second one. The taranula continued its barrage and Twilight continued to block its relentless attack while Aelita continued to fire back, but missed.

Meanwhile, back at the factory, the elevator doors opened up and Jeremy's eyes lock on William. "I hope I didn't get here too late," William said.

"No you got here just in time. Twilight's doing all she can to guard Aelita. You've got to get to Lyoko pronto, Twilight's not gonna last long without some additional help," Jeremy said. "Get down to the scanners and I'll go ahead and start up the virtualization process."

"No problem!" said William. He wasted no time heading down into the scanner room and then entered inside one of the scanners, allowing Jeremy to start the virtualization process.

"Here we go. Transfer William! Scanner William! Virtualization!" Jeremy said. Within minutes, William's body is teleported inside Lyoko. "The tower is located due north from your position, about 120 meters. I'll send you one of the vehicles so you can get there faster."

"No, I can get there just fine on my own. SUPER SMOKE!" William exclaimed.

The young man transformed himself into a puff of black smoke and traveled off into the direction Jeremy pointed out for him at high speeds.

Meanwhile, Twilight and Aelita were still being blocked by the tarantula's rapid fire lasers coming from its front legs and Twilight can barely hold off these attacks for so long.

"How much ammunition does that thing even have?" Twilight asked. Sure enough, her 15 seconds were finally over and her discs were fully charged. Now that she's finally able to use 'em again, she aims it at the tarantula and launches it right away. But the tarantula shot her disc back at her. Twilight dropped her guard for one second to try and catch it, but that proved to be a big mistake.

The tarantula fired off another shot, getting Twilight in the back and knocking her down. "Twilight be careful, you just lost 20 life points!" Jeremy alerted.

"Thanks for the heads up, I'll try to remember that," Twilight said, getting up. Aelita covered for her by firing off an energy field, but the tarantula dodged it before resuming its assault. Twilight got in front of Aelita and kept blocking its attacks, absorbing its beams of energy. Thankfully for both of the girls, they didn't have to wait for long as Aelita spotted a familiar black smoke approaching them.

William quickly formed out of the black smoke above the girls with his zweihander out. The tarantula focused its gaze on its master's former lethal weapon and aimed at William. It only had enough time to shoot one beam at it, which was deflected with a swing of William's blade.

As he descended, William raised his blade up high and swung it down on the tarantula's head, leaving a deep slash gash on its head where the symbol was. William backed away just before it exploded and devirtualized, giving Aelita a clear path to the activated tower. William turned his attention over to the girls with a calm smirk, holding his blade over his shoulder. "That takes care of that," he said.

"Perfect timing," Aelita replied. With the coast clear, she dashes off to the tower and enters through it. Once inside the tower, she walks to the center and levitates up high to the top level. She approaches the center of the tower once more and places her hand on a virtual pad.

The pad recognizes her handprint and displays the words "Code Lyoko." Soon, all of the data surrounding the inside of the tower descended to the bottom. Outside, the red aura surrounding the tower changed to a white color, which gives Twilight and Wiliam the clear sign that the tower was deactivated.

Back with the others, the remaining manta was preparing to fire a beam at the group of friends, but quickly stopped in place as if frozen in time.

Back in the factory, Jeremy entered the code and then... "Return to the past, now!" Jeremy said. In that moment, a light emitted from the super computer, gradually expanding worldwide, reversing time back to how things were before the mantas were virtualized.

Once time was reversed, Jeremy, Aelita and Twilight were back in the library, talking about something important, something that Twilight finds bone-chilling.

"I guess I should've figured X.A.N.A would try this again. Twilight, you might not know this, but X.A.N.A once found a way to virtualize his own monsters... thrice now," Jeremy said.

"Does that mean he can do it again?" Twilight asked.

"It's possible. The first time he did it was when I first came back to Earth after being on Lyoko for so long, only the monsters he virtualized were kankrelats. The 2nd time was during a driving test out in the Kadic Academy track and at that time, he virtualized 3 krabs," Aelita explained.

"And the 3rd time was now?" Twilight asked.

"You got it. That's why we need to take drastic measures: I'm gonna make sure to install a program where X.A.N.A can't try this trick again. You can never be too careful with these kind of things," Jeremy said.

"I guess I can't argue with you there," Twilight replied.

"Oh and another thing before I forget," Aelita chimes in. "There will be times when we have to skip class in order to save the world from a X.A.N.A attack. I hope you're prepared to that.

Right then and there, Twilight dropped her books in shock. "I HAVE TO WHAT?!" she shouts.

"Shhhhhh!!!" the other students and faculty said in unison to Twilight. The lavender bookworm sank into her seat, hiding under the table with a blush on her face. Jeremy and Aelita giggled quietly at her reaction.

"We never said being a hero was easy," Jeremy whispered to Twilight, who gave him a deadpanned look.

To Be Continued...

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