Author's Note: Glad you're enjoying the story. Quick note for a comment I got. Code Lyoko's confirmed location for its setting is Boulogne-Billancourt, a real city commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France about 5 miles away from Paris' center. However, the factory the show's factory was modeled after doesn't exist any more, but the school Kadic is based off, Lycee Lakanal, located in Sceaux southeast of the factory. Just wanted to clear that up, and unless I forget, I'll try to use Boulogne-Billancourt in the future. As for Glitch Techs, based on fan speculation and the fact most game company leaders are located in northwestern states Bailley is most likely located there. It'll make sense for later. Back to the same story.

Bailley, Northwest United States, Glitch Techs Headquarters

As they were driving, Five was humming to quell the weird silence until they got out of the car. After heading into work and checking to make sure there weren't any civilians, they got ready for the counter where they noticed a ton of people in the store lining up for a new game that would've caught Miko's interest. Nix had pointed to the crowd when another van emerged, having told the crowd the extra copies were in there. The buyers ran out the store in an attempt to snag a free copy and while Nix just had an evil smirk on his face.

Five walked up to the booth. "You weren't lying about the copies for Boss Infinity being in there, did you?"

Nix laughed. "I work at an arcade, I know exactly how to disperse a bunch of hype fans. Still, with all the pre-orders the game was so high, we got customers outside the state. People are really looking forward to this game especially with the sequel."

Five was curious. "The first one was that beloved?"

"Too bad all the other RPG open worlds games besides it have been hit or miss. Our developers really need to iron out the kinks."

Miko raised her head. "Is it really that hype of a game?"

Fives rose an eyebrow. "I thought you loved action games?"

She yawned. "Yeah, but I'll beat it no problem, what's it about anyways?"

Before he could answer, all of them received a call on their gauntlets from Phil with the "Your Boss," ringtone, who told them all to head into HQ.

"I'll cover here, you two find out what the boss man wants. Besides I got tech support to run anyways."

As they entered the portal, Five continued talking to Miko about Boss Infinity, slowly getting her excitement up.

"So you fight devils with guns and weapons? Hmm, maybe I'll pick it up when we're done with it."

"Maybe? Miko, everything alright?"

"Yeah," trying to forget what she talked about "FPS are so tedious though. Half the time, the stories aren't even there, and I gotta pick up different weapons for different matchups and everything. I'd just pick whatever weapon I got and stick with it."

"Didn't exactly work with Castlestein, did it?"

Miko shrugged. "Ehh, I just used whatever works. Besides, I've been trying other games too."

"Hey, just have fun, and focus. What, you don't believe you can do this?"

"What, no, of course I can!" Then she swung her fists down. "You don't believe I can?"

"Of course I do. No wait, I mean Miko, you're unstoppable when you play. After the assignment, we can try the online Battle mode."

Miko lit up. "Online? Battle? Mode?" She rapidly shook Five. "Tell me more."

A dizzy Five tried to respond. "You play as the Boom Dropper or one of the main devils and the demons you can summon and two of you battle to the death. There's leaderboards and everything."

Miko got excited. "I'm in. First the campaign, then the top of the leaderboards!"

"By the way, what was the game you were playing?"

"Huh. Oh, Doki Doki Dreamboat. It was pretty boring."

Five laughed. "You gave up and couldn't figure out how to get your MC your date, could you?"

Miko glared at him with rage and don't you dare spite me attitude. He gulped. "Sorry."

Then they checked the leaderboards, checking out Mitch's name at the top as he knocked them aside to add more XP from his gauntlet. "You two noobs couldn't play your way out of a retro game," he responded in his British tongue while styling back his white pompadour before paying attention to Miko. "You can't be a dating good, because there's nothing good about you, scrub," flicking her in the face.

Miko struggled to come up with a comeback, when a familiar female sound approached them.

"Mitch, the only date you'd get is with yourself in the mirror." Zahra had walked up to them alongside the shorter Haneesh, who giggled at his partner's diss that managed to piss off Mitch. Even teammates weren't safe from Zahra's wrath, though Miko loved how amazing she was at parkour.

Haneesh spoke. "So what's this about dating?"

"Oh yeah, I was trying to beat Doki Doki Dreamboat. I'm trying out more Five-like games, but it's so hard and I can't get any of the characters to fall for me. Also, the gamer characters are so not us looking. And half of them act like Mitch."

"Shut your mouth scrub!"

Haneesh, being the more rationale one of the Techs, just offered her advice. "They're more slower paced games. The more you play it, the more you'll care and want to build bonds with them. It's kinda like being a Glitch Tech. It's hard on the first try, but the more missions you go on, the better we get. Kinda like being on a team."

"Huh, never thought it that way." She thought about it. Come to think of it, Miko realized she had struggles with Ally and Five's friendships but in the end, they were now two of her closest friends. In her own way, she understood love, she just couldn't master it in a video game.

Zahra pegged a question. "What did you mean by Five-like?" Five was also curious.

"He's much better at strategy and games where you got to think about it." She turned to her partner. "He'd do much more than me. Right, fearless leader?"

"Ah, thanks Miko," blushing with the confidence he was slowly building up. "I haven't tried one in a while, but it'd be pretty fun. Haneesh, Zahra, what about you?"

Zahra was a bit confused. "I-um-wadha-mean?" Five clarified it was about trying dating sims and games with social elements.

"Oh yeah, I love Kamen 4 and 5. You really get to understand the characters more, and I love building the connections with the team members. They're not as fun as the show, but the combos and powers you get from bonding with them are pretty wild, especially with the twists at the end."

Zahra adjusted her hijab. "I don't know, I guess the action ones are cool, but I don't like what dudes say to people who play them."

Five was much more accepting. "Those are just trolls. You should play what you want, I'd never judge you for that."

"Oh," Zahra stunned, took a step back and looked away from him. "I, um, thanks Five, kinda sweet of you."

Haneesh giggled much to Miko's confusion. All Five was doing was looking up to his fellow Glitch Techs, which yeah, she agreed Haneesh and Zahra are pretty cool. Even more amazing was how much they managed to put up from Mitch.

Miko then wondered where Phil was. "Anyone know why Phil called us all in?"

Mitch interjected the discussion. "Maybe because he wants me to lead the four of you to make sure the D-time doesn't screw up."

Not in the mood, she blasted him with a cat bubble. "Yeah, let's not have you kill stealing. We can handle it on our own, if you wanna dominate the meta, you can do it yourself."

"Said the girl who got her gauntlet destroyed on her first mission," Mitch taunted back while trying to blast himself out of the way with his gauntlet. "Whatever it is, I'm sure I get to clean up your mess when you can't beat the level."

Already having enough people doubt her, Miko just wanted to ring his teeth out. "Turn off your voice box for once you are a pompous douchebag! I'm just as good as a Glitch Tech, if not better!"

"Better? You couldn't catch a arcade glitch without screwing something up!"

"Umm, Earth to Mitch, I beat you in Hinobi Smash!"

"You needed Five's help for that and you couldn't even come up with a strategy on your own. You're nothing without him!"

"Take that back!" Miko jumped into the bubble and attacked Mitch. Five immediately jumped in after her as she began attempting to tearing him to shreds.

"My hair, you're going to pay for that you little," just as Miko decked him in the face. Five grabbed her from behind and pushed his legs back so Mitch's counter attack wouldn't it as Haneesh and Zahra jumped in to stop him from hurting Miko. Both parties wrestled to get back into the fight but Five especially wasn't having it.

"Miko, chill! We'll beat this troll for the next mission, just calm down!"

"Calm down? He kill steals from us and everyone else, lies, reset you, takes control of the meta so none of us can level up as much as he can, his own teammates don't like him, and he's saying my skills are bottom of the barrel? He doesn't deserve to be a Glitch Tech!"

"Me? You make everything worse! I'm just cleaning up after your messes all the time!"

Five interjected. "Whoa, that is not true. Miko may be reckless but we make up for each other's weak points, that's the point of a party. I may not be good at brute force and she's not the best at planning, but we still," stopping as Miko turned with disappointment in her eyes.

"Five. You don't believe in me either?"

"Huh, no. We just gotta get better at planning and options so if we rush and screw up, we know how to,"

Miko felt a tear dropping. "You think I'm a screw up?"

"That's not what I'm saying!"

"Then what are you saying? That I'm a screw up who can't do anything right?"

She waited for him to answer. He was about to say no, when Mitch interrupted them.

"The silence speaks for itself noob."

Miko powered through Five's grip to blast him with her gauntlet.

Five finally got his thoughts out. "Miko, I know how awesome you are, but-"

"You don't believe in me! Just like my family, just like mom, just like everyone else in my life! If I wanted to hear that from everyone, I would've just stayed home with both my parents!" She shrugged him away, hurt, not wanting to speak with for the rest of the day, and he let go.

"At least you have both of your parents around."

Miko didn't entirely hear what he said, in the midst of blocking anyone and everything out.

Before she processed it though, Phil arrived with his gauntlet and with a sword upgrade, casually cut the cat bubble in one go, dropping everyone to the ground. Five fell on top of Zahra, Haneesh on top of Mitch, and Miko in the middle. While Mitch pushed Haneesh off and she rushed to her aid, Five helped Zahra up, who thanked him both embarrassingly and nonchalantly.

"Alright everyone, here's the download," pulling digital screens around. "The new Boss Infinity game is out today, but management forgot to fill in some last minute patches, and now we're getting case after case of the game's mooks becoming real life glitches."

"Big deal," Mitch voiced with no sense of worry. "A ton of normal glitches, more XP for me."

"It is a big deal ringleader," bopping him over the head, as screens of multiple glitches formed from the ground with different symbols and enchants present. One of them soon summoned an electrical deity Five recognized from the box cover of Boom Infinity.

"The bosses from the game. The foot soldiers are summoning them and turning them into Mapper Glitches?"

"And to make matters worse," Phil added, "the Mapper Glitches are also affecting the towns and circles to generate more soldiers for them. So we're going to need all the Techs on deck."

Most of the other Techs, including Bergy and Simi, were close by, as serious as Bergy could appear, though the lime green girl seemed more sour than Simi. Phil walked up to her.

"We'll get your transfer to," shuddering, "Dabney when you can. I know times are tough for your folks, so we'll get this done ASAP so you can get back on track."

Simi slightly warmed up. "Let's do this yall. One last hurrah while I'm at Bailey!"

The other Glitch Techs cheered on as with BITT's help, Phil began programming instructions to their gauntlets. Miko and Five looked down. They were with Bergy on this mission and were clearing out some low level spawns.

"Alright everyone, it's time for Tech Support!"

Everyone raced to their vehicles, prepping their weapons, transferring their XP for more upgrades, coordinating with their teammates and heading out.

Five and Bergy race to their van, though the latter tripped. Miko followed, seeming assuring Five that she was fine and to forget their argument on the surface.

Deep down, she knew exactly what she was aiming for, and this time, she'd make sure no one would ever doubt her again.

Boulogne-Billancourt, France

The group had swung around the ropes that led from the bridge to the Factory and slid down, with Odd putting the Hinobi console in his bag. When he went down, all of them raised their fists and guards.

"What's wrong? XANA atta-"

He looked at the person in front them, who cocked their head at them with nothing but confidence, cracking his knuckles.

"Where are you all going?"

Odd prepared himself. "Nice to see you again handsome. Oh wait, I'm not Yumi. Isn't that right, William?"

Thunder struck as William walked towards them with nothing but a grin on his face.