(Prologue, written by S.P.D. Gold Ranger)
7:30 AM, Downtown Beverly Hills
A 15-year-old girl with long, wavy auburn hair could be seen walking down the streets of Beverly Hills, a bright smile on her face.
May Iwakura was another close friend of Nick's, though she'd left about a few years ago to see the world at her parent's request.
The second she'd returned, she sent Nick an email hoping that they could meet up again. As of now, she was heading towards the spies' villa, where Nick was currently living with his friends.
"Wow. I can't believe it's been over three years since I've seen him," May stated to herself, looking at the bracelet that wrapped around her left wrist. It was a locket bracelet, given to her by Nick before she'd left for the world. Inside the locket strapped to the bracelet was a picture of Nick and May together at the park, hand in hand and smiling.
May sighed wistfully. She'd always loved that picture...
Suddenly, a series of loud honking sounds brought May out of her reverie. She looked up and groaned - the traffic was becoming too congested. Typical rush-hour nonsense.
Suddenly, May smiled brightly. "Guess I can hoof it."
Saying nothing, May tensed up, bending backwards a bit. Suddenly, a few of the random people looked towards May's position. One second, they saw her...
...but a split-second later, the people only saw thin air.
May had taken off in a rapid streak, her well-exercised legs propelling her forward as she effortlessly weaved through the congested traffic towards her destination. Many people that May sped by reached out of their vehicles to yell, but they only yelled at air.
(AN: Guess I forgot to mention that May is ridiculously fast. She's not as fast as Sonic the Hedgehog, per se, but she's got a speed in humans that is unique to her. She took track and field for a couple years and I guess her body naturally adapted to it.)
Meanwhile, in a shady-looking building...
Somewhere in a dark building, a mysterious figure was watching May's speed-running on a set of viewscreens.
"Interesting... this girl's speed is something I will have to... acquire," the mystery man stated, laughing maniacally. Then, he turned to a girl he was holding captive.
"Isn't that right... Hikari?"
In the spies' villa...
It seemed like a normal day to the spies, at least for a short while after the intense battle that nearly cost them two of their friends. Alex, Nozomi, Mathew, Sam, and Clover were still asleep, while Nick, Haruka, and Bridget were sitting together on the couch, watching the sunrise.
"Man, it feels good to be just sitting here with my friends, just relaxing, especially after what just happened," Nick stated to nobody in particular.
"We're just glad you're all right, Nick," Haruka explained in a slightly worried tone. "I was so afraid we were going to lose you back there..."
"You girls have to learn to stop worrying so much. It's gonna take a lot more than that to bring me down," Nick explained.
Back in the suburbs...
After a while of her super-speed running, May finally reached the suburbs, stopping right in front of the spies' villa.
"I think this is the place. I just hope he's home..." May said to herself, walking up and knocking twice on the villa's door.
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(Memories can be deceiving. They can be a benevolent ruler, or a cruel mistress. But what happens when they're both?)
Mat49324 and S.P.D. Gold Ranger present:
Totally Spies! Undercover in: "Disillusioned Memories"
Rated: K+ for intense moments and a bit of harsh language (the usual with us)
Summary: My third joint project with Mat49324 that picks up right from where Beyond the Looking Glass left off. Another of Nick's friends, May Iwakura, has returned from her world travels, but a mysterious madman has also emerged, and this can only mean trouble for our spy friends. This next series of adventures will put Nick and the spies to the ultimate test, and a sinister plot will force Nick to decide where his loyalties truly lie...
Disclaimer: Neither Mathew nor I own Totally Spies (though we wish we did). The show belongs to Marathon, Inc. But I own the characters of Nick, Haruka, Bridget, May, Nozomi, and Hikari (she'll be coming up soon enough), and we own the plot of this story, so no using author-created characters in your own stories unless you have our permission. Just thought I'd get that out of the way.
One more thing: This is Mat49324's last Totally Spies story, period (joint or not). He's retired from it (cause we can't find it anymore right now), and he's now going to work on stories for Detective Conan/Case Closed. He just wanted me to tell you that.
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Chapter 1: If Days Could Kill...
Before Haruka could say anything else, the three friends heard a few knocks on the door.
"I'll get it!" Nick exclaimed, heading for the door. When he opened it, he gasped in surprise: a 15-year-old girl with long, wavy auburn hair, pure emerald green eyes, and an orange and black dress was standing in the doorway. Nick instantly recognized her.
"NICK!!" the girl shouted.
"MAY!!" Nick exclaimed back, throwing his arms around his friend, who in turn did the same.
"I knew I'd find you here!" May exclaimed. "You ALWAYS put your address on your emails!"
"I guess it's a habit," Nick responded. "I take it you already know Haruka?"
"Clear as crystal," May replied.
"And this," Nick explained, pointing to Bridget, "is Bridget Taylor, a friend I met when I first came to America."
"Nice to meet you, Bridget," May greeted, to which Bridget responded with a shy wave of her hand.
"Didn't you say you had some more friends?" May asked.
"Yeah. They should be waking up just about now. When they come down here, I'll introduce you to them," Nick explained, just in time to hear a yawn from upstairs.
(Written by Mat49324)
(Sam's P.O.V.)
I awoke from my slumber and stepped into the bathroom to change to my swimsuit for a morning swim. When I came down, I noticed another girl with Nick, Haruka and Bridget.
"Hey, who're you?" I asked.
"Oh, Sam," Nick said.
"This is May Iwakura -- another one of my close friends; May, this is Sam."
"Geez, how many 'close friends' do you have?" I said.
The four of them noticed me in my swimsuit.
"Another morning swim, Sam?" Haruka asked.
"Mm-hmm," I simply responded.
"Care to join?"
"Sure," Haruka and Bridget said.
Nick joined us.
"What about you, May?" Nick asked.
"Sure, why not," May responded.
(Written by S.P.D. Gold Ranger)
"Wow, Nick," Sam stated to Nick, "you sure seem to have a lot of friends from Japan, huh?"
"I was kinda popular back at Umi no Hoshi," Nick explained. "But May was a different story. She saved me from a bully, and we just hit it off after that."
(flashback)
Nick was walking through the hallways of his middle school alma mater, Umi no Hoshi, just hoping he could get to class without running...
"Hey, kid!"
...into him.
The local school bully, Burt, had just come around, and he'd been making it a habit to bother the heck out of Nick recently. As you could tell, Nick was getting pretty sick of it.
"Look, Burt. I'm in a real hurry, and I'm not in the mood for this," Nick responded. "I have a VERY IMPORTANT English class I cannot afford to miss, so would you kindly shove off?"
Nick tried to dodge around Burt, but he wouldn't let Nick get by. "I don't think so, buddy. Your lunch money has a very important meeting with me today, so fork it over!"
Even though Burt had brute strength on his side, he wasn't very smart. He didn't realize that Nick had brought his own lunch today. "Back off, Burt! I brought my own lunch today!"
"You honestly don't seem to get it, Burt! I'm not in the mood today! Now MOVE!" Nick shouted, breaking into a dash around Burt...
...only to feel a clenched hand come down on his back, causing him to fall to the linoleum floor, dropping his schoolbooks.
"Give me your lunch money before I do something you'll regret," Burt said with a menacing tone, advancing on Nick, but was stopped by a new female voice.
"How about you let that kid get to class before I do something you'll regret?" the new voice stated. Burt turned around to see a girl with long, flowing auburn hair and an orange outfit standing in a fighting stance.
"Jeez! YOU!" Burt exclaimed with a bit of fear in his voice, scrambling to his feet and making a run for it. The girl that had scared Burt off walked up to Nick and started picking up some of his books for him as Nick picked himself up.
"Wow. Thanks," Nick said to the girl. "Why was he so scared of you?"
"He'd heard rumors of the special karate classes I've been taking. He didn't really believe they were true," the girl responded.
"Either way, thanks for scaring him off," Nick replied, holding his hand out to the new arrival, who promptly shook his hand.
"By the way, my name's May Iwakura," the girl stated. "Would you like to be friends?"
"Sure," Nick replied. "Anyone who can do THAT to Burt is a winner in my book." With that, Nick finally picked up the last of his books.
"Okay, let's get you to class," May noted, leading Nick towards his next class.
(end flashback)
"May really saved my butt that day," Nick replied.
"Okay, guys, I'm ready to swim!" May called out, coming back downstairs in an amethyst one-piece swimsuit.
Suddenly, Nick heard a beeping upstairs. Someone was trying to call him on his X-Powder, which he'd hooked to his phone line a couple weeks ago.
"You girls go ahead and get some swimming in. I'll be right there," Nick stated, dashing upstairs.
Inside Nick's room, his X-Powder was beeping like mad. Nick quickly opened up, looking at the screen, which displayed a random assortment of jumbled letters.
"Oh. Looks like someone sent me a message in secret code," Nick noted, pressing a green button on his X-Powder. A second later, the letters began rearranging themselves as the X-Powder began decoding the secret message.
A few seconds later, a loud beep rang out as the decoding finished. Unfortunately, when he saw the decoded message, he gave out a loud gasp of shock.
"Oh, no!" Nick exclaimed, picking up his X-Powder and bolting downstairs.
(back to the swim)
May dove underwater, relying on her gracefulness and agility to put on a good show for Sam and Haruka.
"Wow, girl, you're pretty good," Sam noted as May came back up for air.
"I guess after being on the track team for so long, you get used to stuff like this," was May's simple reply.
That was when May noticed that Haruka had gone missing. May simply smirked, tensing up.
The exact second Haruka (who had dove underwater for a surprise attack) surfaced and lunged at May, she gracefully dodged and retaliated with a powerful arm sweep attack that left the other two girls completely drenched.
"How'd you see me coming?" Haruka asked while brushing off the splash.
"I could hear you from the other side of the pool," May replied. "I attribute that to my martial arts training."
"Really?" Sam asked. "What style do you prefer to use?"
"You know, I never really thought of that..." May pondered. "Sometimes I prefer to use Shotokan karate. That's the style I grew up with. But, other times, I like using Tai Ji Quan martial arts. Nick taught me that style."
Suddenly, Haruka heard some rapid footsteps. "Who's making all that noise?"
Nick made a run for it, not even noticing that he'd dropped his X-Powder on his way down. Completely forgetting about the girls, and the secret message still ringing in his head, Nick stormed out the door, earning a few looks of confusion from Sam, May, and Haruka.
"Where's Nick going?" May asked. "I thought he wanted to swim with us!"
"He looked a little freaked out, didn't he?" Haruka asked, walking back towards the spot where Nick had dropped his X-Powder, a towel wrapped around her body.
"He dropped his X-Powder! He must be in a real hurry, whatever that..." was about as far as Haruka got as she read the decoded message that was still on the screen of Nick's X-Powder.
"Girls! We have a problem!" Haruka shouted, racing back to the girls.
"What's the matter, dear?" Sam asked.
"Look at this!" Haruka exclaimed, thrusting Nick's X-Powder towards Sam and May, who read the message on display:
"To Nick Kelly:
I have your beloved cousin Hikari as my hostage. You will come to the 9th Street Pier in twenty minutes or you will never see her alive again."
(Written by Mat49324)
(Mathew's P.O.V.)
I had just got up and decided to have a morning shave of my chin. When I came downstairs, only Sam was outside in the pool waiting.
"Out here again, Sam?" I asked.
"Mm-hmm," Sam responded.
"But I got a feeling that something bad has happened."
That's when I noticed another girl I didn't recall seeing before.
"Sam, we've got a problem here," she said to her.
"Wait a sec," I said.
"Just who the heck are you?"
"Nick will explain once we find him," Sam said to me, climbing out of the pool.
"Now come on, Mathew... We've got to get Clover, Alex and the others up and tell them we've got another emergency."
(Written by S.P.D. Gold Ranger)
Not daring to look back, lest he lose time, Nick only began to speed up as best he could, racing towards the 9th Street Pier to save his cousin. He didn't even know that his spy friends were chasing him, shouting for him to explain just where the heck he was going.
"Hikari... I don't know what this freak's done to you, but I swear to god I'm going to make him pay," Nick said to himself, hanging a sharp right at the downtown intersection, taking him into the city.
"Man! He's going so fast that I can't even keep up with him anymore!" Alex exclaimed, and she was usually the athletic one of the group.
"Then let's split into teams and try to track him down," Nozomi explained. "Alex, you go with Sam, Clover and May and check downtown. Mat, Bridget, Haruka, you guys are coming with me. We're going by the wharf."
Once everyone had grouped into Nozomi's suggested teams, they split and headed towards their destination.
Nick checked his watch; no small feat at the speed he was going. "Only five minutes left..." That was all the motivation Nick needed to kick it into overdrive.
In a few more minutes, he'd reached the 9th Street Pier, desperately searching for an entrance. Soon enough, he'd found a door that held a sign. It read: "Evil supervillain's lair."
"Figures," Nick said to himself. Wasting no more time than was necessary, Nick brought his foot up, and in one swift kick, the door to the 'lair' was down. Inside was a tangled mess of computer consoles, with a man standing by the central console. Nick couldn't see who it was, since the dark and dankness of the pier was keeping the man in the shadows. To the other side, Nick could see a girl tied up; a girl with long, wavy violet hair that reached down to her waist, along with a pink and blue blouse and dress combo. The pink and white scarf wrapped around her neck was a dead giveaway as to her identity.
"Well, well," the shadowed man stated. "I was almost beginning to think you wouldn't show."
"Stow it, you jackass!" Nick shot back, raising his fist. "Let Hikari go or else!"
"Oh, Nick. I thought you knew me better. I never capture hostages alone. I always go for pairs."
"What?" Nick exclaimed, but that was when he noticed another girl next to Hikari, both struggling to break free of their bindings. The second girl was wearing a pink t-shirt covered by a blue sweater, and a light blue skirt that reached down to just above her knees. Her hair was a bright ruby red, and spiked down in a style that reminded Nick a lot of Clover's hairstyle, only much spikier. Nick gave a gasp of shock as soon as he'd recognized the second girl.
"Maylu..."
Nick quickly turned back to the shadowed man. "You bastard! You took my sister, too?"
"I told you, I don't prefer to travel alone."
Nick immediately made a break for the two girls, only to be stopped by the returning voice of the shadowed man.
"Ah, ah. I wouldn't do that if I were you. One more step towards them and they'll pay the price."
Nick stood rooted to the spot, secretly charging up a psychic energy burst. "All right, what do you want?"
"All I prefer is for you to ally with me. Together, we could conquer the world!"
Nick's energy ball was beginning to grow. Suddenly, Nick smirked. "Sorry. I prefer to travel first class!"
With that, Nick fired the psychic energy burst, which flew towards the shadowed man at an alarming speed. About a second later, the energy ball collided with the shadowed man, knocking him clear into a set of consoles. Nick took advantage of the moment of distraction to run over and untie his cousin and sister.
"Nick? Just what was that?" Hikari asked as Nick undid the bindings holding the two girls.
"I'll explain later. Right now, we need to get out of here before that guy wakes up!"
Suddenly, the shadowed man began stirring, and Nick could hear a series of familiar voices coming from the nearby door.
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All right! Here we go! This one's just getting started!
Next time:
Chapter 2: If Loyalties Could Lie...
The Spies finally form one group to take down the latest villain du jour, but a sinister request will force Nick to decide where his loyalties lie...
Ja ne,
Mat49324 and S.P.D. Gold Ranger