Operation: Who am I? A Spy… or a Weakling?
9:25pm at a Japanese Secret Lab….
The spiez go through the weird building that no one knew about – except WOOHP and the people who work here. The kids were caution as they searched for clues that would tell them who broke in and what was stolen. Splitting up into two groups was all they could do at the moment to cover more ground.
Marc and Megan snuck around to the security room while the other two went to the scene of the crime. A room that looked like a war zone – sort of speak, Lee touched his eye-tech, scanning the area around him. Tony did the same as he maneuvered through the wrecked room.
"So, boy genius. Find anything yet?" Megan asked her younger twin.
"Not yet," Marc told her, typing away like it was nothing on the keyboard. "And what is it with you, Lee, and Tony calling me 'boy genius' all the time?"
"That's easy nerd breath," Lee told him through the eye-tech communication.
"Nerd breath?" Marc asked, sounding hurt by the nickname his big brother just called him. He didn't stop typing away as he found a few things. "Uh-oh. Guys, I think we have a new enemy this time. I found a surveillance video with the culprit. This guy isn't familiar." He froze the screen as Megan looked closely at it, "Yup. Not familiar at all. And what's with the fashion statement? Plaid jeans and orange stripped shirt doesn't go together at all. Who dressed this guy anyway? A stock broker?" She laughed as Marc downloaded the video onto his MPcom.
"Hey. The Tonester just found a clue on the floor. Footprints and… some on the ceiling? Weird," Tony told them. He scanned the footprints with his MPcom and walked over to his big brother.
"Whoa. What's this stuff?" Lee asked in a somewhat shocked tone. On a broken off piece of table, he found a fragment of something. Along with some claw marks that resembled an animal of some sort. He picked it up and said to his siblings, "Let's get out of this creepy place spiez… and geek head."
"Geek head? What is this? Pick on Marc week?" Marc asked, sounding hurt and annoyed at his siblings. They've been giving him nickname after nickname instead of using his name. He was making a mental note for every new nickname they gave him and the list was getting long.
The four spiez went back the way they entered to exit. But once they made it out, they were greeted by a net. Successfully dodging the net in time resulted in a frustrated shriek. Whoever this person was, was fast enough to knock the kids down and grab Marc. He tried to fight back against the person, but there was no possible way to get out of the guy's hold.
"You won't escape me, boy," the guy whispered into Marc's ear. "We'll meet again soon enough. Don't disappoint the boss now."
"Huh?" Marc wondered, now thinking that the voice was familiar.
"Hey you! Give brainy brat back!" Megan yelled, throwing a freeze disc at the guy's head. However, the guy jumped to a small landing on the roof with Marc still in his clutches.
Brainy brat? Marc thought, forcing himself not to cry.
"Get back here!" Tony yelled jumping up, turning on his reactor boots to hover or fly. He went forward with both fists out in front of him. Scoring a direct hit straight into the guy's face, making him let go of Marc as he went flying backwards.
"Yo, techno guy, you okay?" Tony asked, seeing Marc not standing up.
Techno guy? Seriously? Marc thought again. He didn't speak as a WOOHP jet came over them and WOOHPed them into it.
"He won't be okay once I get my talk with him," Lee said angrily, piloting the jet back home.
11:58pm At the Clark house….
The kids snuck into their house through the windows to their rooms. Not making a single sound as they got into their pajamas. Lee came into Tony and Marc's room to have a little chat before they went to bed.
"Egg-head, what was that all about?" Lee asked in an angry tone, seeing his brother at his computer typing out a list.
"Hm?" Marc asked, not turning around to face the teen.
"You were completely useless in that fight!" Tony shouted softly, as to not wake up their parents.
"Don't you think I know that already?" Marc asked them, feeling useless anyway.
"You are nothing but a weakling and a letdown to our team, nerd brat," Megan added in a snooty way. Her arms were crossed along with Lee's.
"We don't want you on our team again," the three said at the same time. That made Marc gasp in disbelief. Turning his head around to face his siblings.
"Aw, is the little baby going to cry now?" Tony asked in a teasing way.
"No more missions for you and that's final, geek brain," Lee told him.
"If anything, the only time I'll even look at you is if I have no choice," Megan told him. She and Lee left to their own rooms to go to bed.
"You better not come by me in this room, smarty pants," Tony told him, going to sleep.
Marc's eyes widened in disbelief even more. He felt something in his heart. Like it got ripped in three different ways. He stayed by his computer all night and most of the next day since it was a weekend. Not feeling up to breakfast or anything else.
His siblings' words rang through his head during that time. Over and over, it was driving him to the point to call Jerry. He told him that he wasn't going to go on the next mission and not to WOOHP him with his siblings. The middle aged British man tried to reason with the smartest spy he ever had, but that proved futile. He agreed to not WOOHP him next time, but he would be informed about the mission. That didn't bother Marc as he decided to head out.
Heading down the stairs he noticed his siblings in the living room, fighting over the remote to watch TV. He sighed softly as he started for the door, "I'm heading to the library, mom!" he hollered before he turned the door knob.
"You haven't eaten yet, Marc. Come eat before you go," Karen told him.
"Sorry mom, but I'm not hungry," Marc told her, even though his stomach said otherwise.
"Marcus Clark. Get over here right now and eat some breakfast, now!" Karen ordered in her authority tone. Lee, Megan and Tony heard that and laughed.
"Someone's in trouble!" Lee laughed.
"For once it's Mr. Big brain!" Tony laughed, holding his stomach.
"I gotta see this!" Megan laughed as she went into the kitchen to see Marc sitting down at the table as their mom placed a plate of French toast in front of him. Megan took out her phone and took a few pictures of him before going back to the other two.
Marc ate with a sigh. If anything, he felt as though his siblings were truly correct about him. It didn't take him long to finish his breakfast. He took care of his plate and went out the front door before anyone could say something else.
"They're right," Marc said to himself, walking down the street with his hands in his hoodie pocket. "They don't need me on missions anymore. Megan knows how to hack… maybe not as fast as me but she can do it no sweat." Entering the library, he went straight to a certain section. Everyone that went there knew Marc but never thought he'd actually grab a horror book, sit down and start reading it.
About half way through his book, he got a text message from his big brother. He took out his cell phone to read the text.
Hey, geek boy. That was once in a lifetime that mom says ur full name XD
Marc sighed and decided not to answer him. Getting back to his book, he felt something aching at his heart. Wha- what's this feeling? He wondered, already knowing the answer. Finishing his book, he couldn't help but feel really scared, more than usual. Once he walked outside the library building, his MPcom went off.
"What's up?" he asked, answering it to see the middle aged man come on screen.
"I have a new mission, Marc. I suggest you head home and tap into WOOHPs cameras," Jerry told him.
"Alright, Jerry," Marc said, as he started home. It didn't take him long at all to get home. Once he got into his room, he got on his computer and hacked into the WOOHPs cameras, like Jerry told him. He watched the screen as Jerry briefed his siblings on their mission.
"There's been a few computer chip robberies within the last few hours, spiez," Jerry told them. "In the wrong hands these chips could cause mass destruction. Your mission is to go to the scene of the crime, collect clues and possible grab our villain."
"Sweet, I can't wait to go check it out," Tony said in a giddy tone.
"Yeah. We'll get done a lot faster without Mr. Smarty-bo-barty around," Megan smiled with a little giggle.
Marc sighed lightly, "Like I need more of this," he groaned lightly, getting up from his chair.
"Where's that book head going?" Lee asked, looking at the screen behind Jerry.
"Huh?" Marc looked down at his screen to see himself on the big screen. "Jerry, you didn't say anything about you guys spying on me as well."
"Heheh, sorry Marc," Jerry nervously chuckled. "Couldn't help myself."
"If we need any help, which I seriously doubt, we'll give you a call," Megan laughed.
"You guys handled missions before without me. Megan can hack anything better than I can. Lee has the strength and Tony has the keen eyes," Marc told them. "Better yet, maybe everyone should erase me from their minds altogether. I'm not worth being known as anything other than a complete weakling." He crosses his arms for a bit, while the others stayed silent. Marc grabbed the mouse to his computer and was about to exit out of the window when…
"Hold it Marc. Don't exit out of it just yet, please," Megan pleaded.
"Since when did you start using my actual name? Jerry give them their gadgets and send them on their mission. I'm going to do some chores around the house," Marc told them as he clicked the red X on the top of the window.
At WOOHP…
Lee, Megan, and Tony stared at the screen behind the middle aged man. They watched as Marc got his pillow, blanket and clothes together in one. He went out the window with the stuff, heading straight for the tree house. Marc put his stuff in the tree house before heading back inside saying in a sad tone, "Tony always wanted the room to himself. Who am I to hold it off any longer?" He sighed as he turns the back doorknob to go back inside.
"Marc, where are your siblings?" Karen asked, seeing him coming through the kitchen.
"Uh-oh. What excuse will he tell her?" Lee asked in a scared to find out tone.
"They went to the skate park," Marc told her. Lee sighed in relief.
"Huh? Don't you normally go with them?"
"Yeah, but I wasn't feeling up to it today," Marc said going into the living room. "They sure made a mess in here." He started cleaning up the area without being told or asked.
"Okay, why is he cleaning our mess?" Megan asked in a confused tone.
"Why did he move into the tree house? He knows I don't like being in that big room alone… much," Tony added.
"I'll keep an eye on him, spiez. The mission calls," Jerry told them, giving them some gadgets without naming them off and WOOHPing them into the jet.
"Okay, this isn't right boys," Megan told them. "What just happened with Marc?"
"I don't know sis. He's been acting weird," Tony shrugged.
"Actually, I think it's us who did the 'acting weird' thing towards him," Lee told them. "Look at this." He turned on something in the jet that played their last mission and the previous missions, along with what they said to Marc in their room.
"Okay, those nicknames were so harsh," Megan told them.
"And what we said to him after the last mission… I guess is why he feels the way he does," Lee thought out loud. "How can we make it up to him? I mean it's not the same without him with us."
"I know what you mean. Huh?" Tony wondered when he heard a beeping sound coming from the jet's computer. "I think that means we're here." Megan came over and nodded. "Yup, we're here alright. Let's go boys." She fired up her boots with the boys as they jumped out of the jet.
Somewhere in Vegas at 3:15pm…
The siblings split up to check every inch of the building said to have the few remaining chips the bad guys were after. Megan went straight to the security room while Tony prowled around in the air vents. Lee went straight to the microchip room to see for himself what the chips look like.
"Huh? Whoa, what's all this stuff?" Lee wondered, going into the room with his eye-tech screen on. Scanning the area full of machines that were powered down and lots of computer chips on conveyer belts. He touched his eye-tech, "Find anything yet spiez?"
"I'm afraid not, Lee. Fast hacking is Marc's thing. And plus, I can't find anything that Marc would find easily," Megan told him.
"Keen eyes, Marc said I have? Yeah right. I can't see anything that would help," Tony complained.
"Well, he is right about me being the strongest on the team.
Can't complain about that. Maybe I should bring a chip back to him," Lee wondered.
"That might be a good idea, Lee," said the other two. Lee picked up one chip and told his siblings to fall back. Calling Jerry to inform him that no one was there and that they want Marc back on their team.
Same day, Clark house at 7:00pm…
Lee, Megan, and Tony walked inside their house to find everything spotless. The house was never cleaner than it was now. That got the kids thinking critically as they went into Tony's room.
"Whoa! How'd Marc know I always wanted the room like this?!" Tony hollered in excitement, seeing all of his stuff out in a clean fashion. But he didn't see Marc's things anywhere, except for the computer.
Lee exchanged glances with his sister. Both thinking that they should find out where Marc went. "Tony, we gotta find Marc. He could be anywhere in the house…" Lee was cut off by the sound of the front door opening.
"Mom, I'm back!" Marc's voice rang through the house. The three ran downstairs in time to see Marc going into the kitchen with some paper bags in his arms.
"Thanks, Marc. Wow, you've been so helpful today. I really appreciate all the help," Karen told him as he put away the groceries. "Take tomorrow to have some fun, alright."
"Okay, mom," Marc said as he started to the back yard. Lee followed him with the other two. Seeing Marc go straight into the tree house, they went in there as well, before their mom saw them.
"Marc, dude what'cha doing?" Lee asked, seeing his brother at the computer in the tree house.
"Why do you want to know?" Marc asked back, typing away as he listened to different voices on the WOOHP recorders. "And again, when did you start calling me by that name?"
"Oh, come on, bro. We need your help with this mission," Tony told him.
"Hm?" Marc turned around to face his siblings. "You need my help? I doubt that, cause you three can handle anything without me. A complete weakling like me shouldn't even be a WOOHP agent. If anything, I'm just dead weight for the team. Can't do anything right at all…"
"Now stop right there!" Megan interrupted him. "This isn't the Marc Clark I know and love. We shouldn't have been teasing you so much like we did."
"We were wrong to kick you off missions," Tony told him.
"We need you back on the team, Marc," Lee added in a sincere voice.
"Nice try, but that's not going to work. Go on a few more missions without me and find out you're better off without me," Marc told them, turning back around to the computer screen.
"Kids, dinner!" their mother hollered from the house. Marc sighed, deciding to put his little snooping on hold to go eat with his family. Even if he does feel wounded at the heart.
The siblings went inside the house and sat down around the table. Even though their mom always made a buffet for dinner, the smartest Clark barely ate anything.
"Marc, are you feeling alright?" Cal asked, noticing the others still eating and him no longer eating.
"Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm fine, just… I have a lot on my mind is all," Marc answered. His siblings knew he wasn't lying this time. They could tell there was a lot on his mind, but they didn't know how to help him. They didn't even know how to get him back to his old self.
It was like this for the whole weekend and at school when it was a school day.
Southdale at 9:39am…
Three of the Clark siblings were at their lockers, discussing how they should go about getting their brother back to normal. They didn't come up with anything that would be effective enough. They even called Jerry for some help on this, but he didn't have any ideas either.
"Hm… wait guys," Tony had a small idea. "What if that's not the real Marc?"
"Huh? What do you mean T?" Lee asked confused.
"Think about it, big bro. Marc's never like this for this long. Something must've happened," Tony explained, with his finger on his chin.
"Say, where is Marc anyway?" Megan asked looking around but not seeing the brother in question, anywhere. That's the moment when a certain snooty blond girl came around the corner with a handful of papers.
"Oh, there you are Clarks. I've been looking all over for you. You gotta just out this latest issue of Tami's Behind the Scene Peek at Geeks," Tami smiled brightly at her work as she handed the three Clarks a paper. She left, passing out more papers to everyone in the school.
"Tami's Behind the Scene Peek at Geeks?" Megan wondered. The next second, she gasped once she realized something. "Please tell me she didn't put Marc in here." Flipping through the pages, her fears were also realized when she found an article about her twin brother. "Marc Clark is such a geek, that he could marry the grass if he could."
"If Tami Talk wasn't bad enough. Now she's just targeting Marc's life to ruin? Like it wasn't ruined enough thanks to us," Tony complained. "This isn't right. She shouldn't be doing this. I mean, it's hard enough for us to get him back to his old self. Now Tami's gone and made things worse than before."
"I'm calling Marc to see where he is," Lee said, getting his cell phone out and calling his little brother. For once he was happy that it didn't go to voice mail.
"What's up, Lee?" Marc asked. The sound of typing was clear as crystal in the background.
"Where are you bro? I don't know where you disappeared to," Lee told him.
"Hm? Oh, I'm back home. Wasn't feeling well enough for school. Sorry, forgot to check in with you about that," Marc said, coughing a little bit.
"Uh…" Lee put his phone on speaker. Wondering if this was the same brother who was reluctant to speak to them before. "Other than the cough, how are you doing?"
"Other than that, I'm alright. Starting to get a running nose but that's it," Marc told him.
"What's going on Marc? A few days ago you didn't talk to us like this," Tony had to say.
"Hm? Oh right. Well, I can't sulk all the time now can I? Oh yeah, when you guys get home, I would suggest you take a look at the computer in the tree house. There's a few things I know or hope you'll understand," Marc told them, coughing again.
"Marc, come inside. It's getting colder out there," their mom's voice sounded in the background.
"Coming, mom! Gotta go guys. If you need anything else, text me alright," Marc told them, coughing again before hanging up his phone.
The three Clarks blinked in confusion. "Okay, is this really the Marc that's been down in the dumps all of last weekend?!" Tony asked slightly freaking out.
"When did he get out of his funk anyway?" Megan asked, equally as freaked out.
"I don't know guys. But we'll find out when we get home guys," Lee told them, putting his phone away before any grown-ups saw him with one out. For once, they had a smooth school day. Jerry didn't WOOHP them at all that day.
The kids rushed home to see their brother. Once inside their house, they spotted their big brained brother on the couch, laying down watching TV.
"How're you feeling bro?" Lee asked coming closer to the couch.
"Hm? Oh, hi guys," Marc smiled softly, turning his head slightly to see his siblings. "I'm fine."
"I brought you your homework, bro," Megan told him, showing him some papers.
"Oh, thanks Megan," Marc smiled at her as an alarm or a ringtone went off. Uh-oh. Not now "Uh, could you guys excuse me for a moment?" He gets up and runs straight to the bathroom.
"Huh?" the three wondered, glancing at each other.
"Come on. Something's definitely up with him. Quietly guys," Lee tells them as they silently head up to the bathroom door that was closed and locked up tight. They heard Marc talking to someone whose voice was very familiar.
In the bathroom…
Marc had his MPcom on the sink, staring at a person he never thought he'd see again. Or hoped he'd never see again. "Why now of all times to drop a line, Sherry?!"
"Come now, Marc. That's no way to speak to a commander, a boss, a captain," Sherry told him with a smirk.
"Tsk, yeah right. Commander of your own army," Marc shot. He knew his siblings were right out the door not making a sound. He took this as an opportunity to let them know what was really going on.
"Don't look so sour, defeated, duped. After I finally figured out how to get to you and making you purposely letting my pals flee… it's been a piece of cake to gather everything we need."
"You're forgetting that you don't have all the pieces to your 'Master Plan' yet, Sherry. You still have three things to get before your stupid distucto bot is ready for a test drive."
"Heh. I wonder why you haven't told your little spy family about this yet. Oh yeah, because I have my little invisible friends spying on you guys so if you do tell them, they'll get eliminated on the spot! But of course we have to give you kids your privacy sometime," Sherry laughed.
Marc growled, feeling utterly responsible for all of this happening in the first place. I can't believe I have to keep this from them. But if I don't want them to die, I have no choice but to play Sherry's game
"Oh what's wrong, genius? Not liking my little game?" Sherry laughed again.
"As a matter of fact Sherry… I don't like it at all," Marc told her, forcing himself not to cry.
"Well, until next time Marcy," Sherry held up two fingers like a piece sign and hung up the call.
Marc broke down at that moment. Dropping to his knees all hunched over, he covered his mouth with his hand.
Outside the bathroom…
Lee, Megan, and Tony gasped silently in shock once they heard that conversation. Now they knew why their brother's been acting the way he was. But they all knew that they had to act clueless still if they didn't want the baddies to find out that they knew.
Exchanging glances Megan and Tony went back downstairs in time to see their mom coming through the door with some bags full of food in her hands. "Hi kids. Where's Marc?" Karen asked, noticing that he wasn't on the couch where she left him.
"He ran to the bathroom, mom. Lee just went up to check on him," Tony told her.
"Oh, I hope that slight fever of his isn't getting any bigger," Karen said going into the kitchen.
"Huh? Slight fever?" wondered the two.
Upstairs…
Lee knocked on the bathroom door lightly, "hey Marc. You okay little brother?" He already knew that he wasn't okay, but if he was going to make it seem like he was still clueless about what was going on with Sherry, he had to say obvious things.
"Uh!" Marc gasped.
"It's okay, Marc. It's just me. Please open the door," Lee said sweetly. He waited for a few minutes before the door opened up to reveal his little brother still with tears racing down his face. Lee did the first thing that came to his mind in this situation. He wrapped his arms around Marc, protectively and held him like that for a long while. Whispering almost inaudible words in his ear.
Once Lee embraced him, Marc clung onto Lee's shirt and buried his face in his big brother's chest. He couldn't stop crying his eyes out. Lee didn't want to let go but he knew he'd have to soon.
Megan and Tony came up to check up on their brothers. Once they saw that Marc was out of the bathroom, with Lee trying to calm him down, they ran over to them. Joining in the protective hug.
At least they're still here with me right now Marc thought, slowly calming down with his siblings near him. Thanks for eavesdropping guys. Now you know why I haven't been fighting much during the missions. I just hope you guys can keep this 'act' going so they don't find out that you know
"Kids, time for dinner!" Karen hollered up. "I made some soup for you, Marc!"
"We'll be right down, mom!" Tony hollers back.
"Think you're up to some dinner, bro? Or at least the soup mom made you?" Lee asked, kindly. Marc only nodded slightly as he whipped away his tears on his sleeve. Before they went downstairs, Megan decided to feel her twin's forehead. With all that crying, he's going to be a bit hotter than before she thought. Oh, I can't believe Sherry would do this
The kids went downstairs to the dinner table. Their mother did tell Marc that if he wanted to try eating something other than the soup, it was alright. Marc did try eating some of her famous banana bread, but after a couple small bites he spotted a small mechanical fly on it. Sighing, he put the slice of bread on the plate next to him and started on the soup.
Spying on me while I'm trying to eat? Tsk, I hate that Sherry so much Marc thought, annoyed at her for doing that.
After dinner, Marc decided to stay in the room for that night, with Tony. They talked for a little bit before going to sleep.
At Sherry's hideout in England, same time…
Sherry watched a few screens that showed Marc and his siblings in their beds asleep. Smirking at how easy it was to get everything she needed for her plan. After a few moments, she called in her pals.
"Leon, Alpha and Omega, Granny, Tweedlead, Mannok, Yoshitorol. Front on center my friends. It's almost time to put our little plan into action," Sherry told them once all of them stood in front of her.
Tweedlead had on an orange stripped shirt with plaid jeans. His hair cut made him seem so gentle but his attitude was nasty beyond comprehension.
Mannok was equally as nasty, but his hair cut basically said 'I'll kill whoever gets in my way'. He wore all black with red spikes around the edges.
Yoshitorol was a master of disguise. He never showed anyone what he truly looked like. But his hair style was always the same. Thick straight hair that curled a bit at the ends.
"You know, Sherry. The main thing we could do is get rid of that kid altogether," Mannok suggested.
"Yes, I know. I wanted him to suffer dearly for what that big brain of his made of me before hand," Sherry snickered, as she walked down the stairs to the ground level where the others were.
"Well, the brat has surely suffered. Why don't we grab him and put him through more Hell?" Yoshitorol also suggested, skimming his index finger on a sharp pocket knife that could be mistaken for a butcher knife.
"Yes. We'll do just that," Sherry snickered, then laughed. "Yoshitorol, Tweedlead, and Leon will go snag Marc tonight. We'll take the spy flies offline once you have the little brat."
They all laughed hysterically as the three left for the Clark house in the United States.
Back at the Clark house…
The Clarks slept somewhat soundly. Only one of them couldn't sleep much. He tossed and turned, groaning and whimpering in his sleep. Marc couldn't get himself to wake up.
Inside Marc's nightmare…
Next time on Arikashika5985 stories
…
Sorry guys, couldn't resist the last sentence there. Heheh. Anyway, I know there's not much detail in it, but I will go back through it and add in the missing details.
Please review ^_^