The story starts out in science class, where Mrs. Hertz is telling the class about titanium and why it is used by NASA for their spacecraft. Nicholas tells Herb he should have used it for his robot for the Robot Competition, to which Mrs. Hertz tells them that the alloy is extremely expensive. Then she informs her class that the robot competition is afterschool, and that they should all have their robots finished by now.
The scene then switches to the Factory Floor in the Factory, where a Spectre floats out of a plug and enters a control computer. The Eye of XANA appears on all the computers in the area, and then the factory machines come to life, carving something out of metal. It is not shown at this point what the metal actually becomes, but it hacks into Kadic's network systems with the Supercomputer and downloads Team Lyoko's files.
Later, in Herb's dorm, Herb shows his gang his robot, the Iron Sissi, a tribute to Sissi, who thinks it is extremely ugly. The robot rolls around for a while and accidentally swipes at Sissi's face, to which she gets quite frightened of the machine. Herb stops the droid from causing to much trouble, and Sissi says that if Herb doesn't win, he and Nicholas will have to leave her gang.
Meanwhile, in Jeremie's dorm, Jeremie is similarly showing off his robot to the team. Named the Kiwi 2, it is modelled after Kiwi, as its name suggests. Aelita finds the robot cute, and the rest of the gang agree. The mechanoid then urinates oil on Odd, to which Jeremie notes it must be taken outside once a day, just like Kiwi.
In the next scene, only the grand finale of the robot competition is seen. Jim announces the two contestants, Iron Sissi and Kiwi 2, then informs them they will have to play basketball with their robots. The two then shake hands, Herb reluctantly (to which someone in the crowd says "Look at them shake hands!"), and the battle begins. Both robots seem equally competent, and soon the match is tied 4 to 4. Jim announces the game ball, and Kiwi 2 quickly grabs the basketball and heads for the basket. But Herb, laughing in evil fashion, presses a button on his control panel, and the opposition explodes. Jim, instead of announcing Herb the winner, tells the ninth grade they have gym in 5 minutes.
Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd find Jeremie sitting on the side of the robot field, tinkering with the broken parts of Kiwi 2. When he says he doesn't understand why the robot exploded, Milly and Tamiya come up and show him their recording of the contest, which in slow motion shows that the Iron Sissi fired a metal nut from its mouth to damage the Kiwi 2's internal components. Jeremie goes over to talk to Herb, but suddenly, a huge robot appears and slams Jeremie against the wall while Herb and Sissi run for their lives. Ulrich then grabs Jeremie and runs with him to the boy's locker room, along with Yumi and Odd. When the robot tries to get in, the ninth graders run away screaming, and Jeremie contacts Aelita on his laptop. She tells him she felt Pulsations in the Mountains, and Jeremie takes Odd with him to the Factory whilst Yumi and Ulrich try to stop the robot.
At the Factory, Jeremie virtualizes Odd, who appears in the Mountain Sector, where he and Aelita fight some Blocks and try to make their way to the activated Tower. In the real world, Yumi and Ulrich grab Herb and persuade him to make a robot. In the Science Building, Herb completes his masterpiece, a robot that looks like a cross between an insect and a bird. They throw it onto XANA's robot, where it pierces the robot's metal exterior and enters it, damaging the internal components. The robot shuts off, and Yumi and Ulrich head to the Factory as Herb leaves the school grounds with the rest of the students.
In Lyoko, Odd is devirtualized, and Aelita is left alone with a bunch of Roachsters pursuing her. She is almost shot down, but Yumi, just virtualized, kills the monsters with her fan. Aelita gets to the Tower just in the time, as in the real world, Ulrich discovers more robots, who plan to kill him. Just as Ulrich is about to die, Aelita types in the code, and Jeremie activates a time reversion.
Back in time, Jeremie and Herb are once again at the game ball in the Robot Competition. As before, Herb fires the nut, but Jeremie, knowing the projectile's path, dodges it with the Kiwi 2, and makes the basket. The crowd goes wild, and after Jim asks the two to shake hands, Herb screams "No!" and leaves the Gym, only to get yelled at by Sissi.
This episode contains examples:
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Well, kind of. Jeremie only manages to avoid Herbs attempt to cheat via knowledge gained in the return trip, but Herb started it by shooting Kiwi-2 before the time trip.
- Enemy Mine: Yumi reluctantly asks for help from Herb, despite nobody from their group liking each other.
- Expy: XANA's been watching too many The Terminator films, as his robot looks very similar to a naked T-800. If only he had more time to graft a proper Arnie skin.
- Funny Robot: Both Kiwi-2 and Iron Sissi, although the former is more aesthetically pleasing.
- Karma Houdini: A variation: Herb is outed from Sissi's group as he didn't win, but in order to win he cheated and shot Kiwi-2 to pieces, which Jeremie doesn't tattle on in the time rewind.
- Killer Robot: XANA starts using the factory to build them, possibly with mass-production as his ultimate goal.
- Mundane Utility: XANA for once using the factory to actually build something in an attempt to kill off the Lyoko warriors.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: XANA seems to be going for scare-content when building his robots.
- Mook Maker: XANA has set up the factory to do this, and by the time the heroes get there, he's upgraded them.
- Smash Mook: XANA's robots really can't do anything but attack.
- Super-Persistent Predator: A given for an expy of the T-800, though in two stages. The first robot is taken down by Herb with a mouse device that eats it from the inside, but XANA builds another one at the factory that fixes the issue of having no weaponry, and corners Ulrich in a corner.
