Screams of hundreds of fleeing civilians were punctuated by the sounds of multiple loud explosions ripping through downtown Southdale. Alpha and Omega had acquired a large bazooka on their trek from the outskirts of the city, and they were firing at whatever they could, narrowly missing the innocent bystanders fleeing in all directions.
"Oh, this is fun!" cackled Alpha, pointing the twins' bazooka at a large restaurant as Omega chased after a group of screaming office workers. "Run, run, as fast as you can! There's no escape!"
Alpha fired just as the last of the restaurant's patrons had cleared out, blasting the valuable property to pieces and raining shards of glass and debris on the people trying to escape. Fires blazed all around, and the city's police department was racing to the scene, establishing a perimeter and blocking off anyone who tried to get too close to the twins.
"Attention, criminal miscreants!" shouted an officer over a megaphone as he crouched behind his squad car. "This is the Southdale Police! Put your hands up!"
"Aw, but you didn't say 'simon says'," Alpha said mockingly, pointing his bazooka at the car. "My turn! Simon says explode!"
Alpha fired a round at the squad car, causing the officers hiding behind it to quickly leap away. The shot destroyed the car in a matter of seconds, lighting it up in a blaze of fire that made the twins cackle simultaneously. The officers pointed their guns at the twins, only to have them suddenly pulled away as Omega stretched out a gloved palm. He collected the guns from the officers, reeling them in with the powerful electromagnet hidden in his glove.
"Sorry, no weapons allowed," said Omega, crushing the guns into a large piece of scrap metal with his bare hands as the horrified officers looked on. "No weapons except for ours!"
Alpha readied his bazooka again. Suddenly, five figures were seen streaking overhead, soaring over the police barricade and landing near the twins.
"Don't worry, officers, we'll take it from here," said Lee with a smile.
"Yeah, so clear out!" Tara added unnecessarily. "Shoo! We can handle this!"
"It's not nice to disrespect the police!" Megan said, glaring over at Tara.
"Whoa…" Marc said in astonishment as he got a chance to glimpse at the group's surroundings. "This place looks like a battlefield… did anyone get hurt?"
"Nobody's hurt but these two nuts caused a ton of property damage," said one of the officers. "You kids sure you can handle this? Maybe you should leave before-"
"They came in on jet boots," another officer said, starting to back off. "Somehow, I think these kids can handle the situation a lot better than we can."
The police retreated to a safe distance, leaving the five spies to deal with Alpha and Omega. Alpha began to laugh.
"Oh, are you sure it was so smart to send them away? There were so many of them…" Alpha said.
"So many of them for you guys to hurt!" Lee shouted back, taking a fighting stance. He was still nervous about Tara's presence, and was almost certain she'd try something reckless. He could see her twitching, chomping at the bit to get in on the action. For her sake and for the sake of his siblings and himself, he knew the twins had to go down fast. "Let's see you pick on someone your own size!"
"Oooh, real intimidating," Tara said, rolling her eyes. "How about, 'I'm gonna smear you punks on the pavement!'"
With those words, Tara suddenly charged forward at the closest twin she could see, which was Omega. She reared back and struck with a quick, powerful punch that the twin managed to block by crossing his arms in front of his face in the shape of an X. The force of the blow still sent him skidding backward, his feet scraping along the ground.
"Tara, that was really-" Megan was about to say 'reckless', but couldn't finish before Tara finished for her.
"Awesome? I know," said Tara, charging Omega again. Smiling, Omega leapt backward toward a damaged five-story apartment building, flipping himself up along the side of the structure until he was on the fifth floor.
"Catch me if you can!" Omega taunted. Tara smiled, accepting the challenge and vaulting herself up along the side of the building by grabbing the fire escape and flipping herself up the side. Lee watched in astonishment and dread.
"Tara, no!" shouted Lee. "Get back here right now, it's a trap!"
"Ha ha!" Alpha suddenly laughed, firing his bazooka down at the feet of the four Clark siblings. They all managed to leap back in time, but the explosion still knocked them down and generated a cloud of smoke that temporarily blinded them.
"What do we do now?" Tony groaned through a series of coughs. "We got separated from Tara!"
"Well, the twins separated from each other too, so… four on one is pretty good odds, right?" asked Megan, looking over at Marc.
"I agree, if we fight smart we can take Alpha down!" Marc said confidently. Lee nodded and quickly began to formulate a plan.
"All right spies, surround Alpha and don't let him fire that thing again!" said Lee, quickly moving toward Alpha to rip the bazooka out of his hands. The villain responded by leaping back and pointing the weapon right at Lee's head.
"Say goodnight, Lee Clark!" shouted Alpha, putting his finger on the trigger and preparing to fire. Suddenly, he found the bazooka yanked out of his hands and right into Tony's. The youngest spy had quickly taken his suction cup gun and had fired at the bazooka, using the climb function to generate a suction cup connected to a rope that he then used to pull the weapon right from Alpha's hands. "What the?"
"I got his bazooka thingy!" Tony said, grabbing Alpha's weapon and clutching it tightly in his hands.
"Great job, Tony!" Lee complimented, knowing he'd been just a second away from having his head blown off. "Guess I should learn to be more careful too… but now we've all got Tara to worry about!"
O-O-O
Tara pursued Omega into the building, ignoring the smoke that was billowing into the halls from the nearby window. She could hear his footsteps as he fled further away.
"You're not getting away from me," thought Tara, placing her hand on her can of Instant Freeze Spray. "I'm gonna make a bad guy popsicle outta you!"
Tara could hear the footsteps come to a stop, in a room down the hall from where she was standing. She passed several doors as she strode across the hard floor, sniffing smoke nearby but unattentive to any danger she might be in. She was aware that she could be walking into a trap, but also confident that she'd be ready for anything.
"I'll show Lee what I can do… he thinks I can't handle myself as a spy, he's probably just jealous of me!"
Tara approached the door and opened it up. To her surprise, she saw Omega standing in the middle of the small, windowless room, a creepy smile on his face as he placed his hands down near his waist.
"I knew you'd come after me," Omega said, his grin not subsiding.
"So you've decided to surrender, then?" replied Tara, putting up her fists. "That's smart, since if you don't surrender, I'll have no choice but to-"
Omega lunged at the girl, who was taken by surprise before she could ready the can of freeze spray. She lifted it up, but it was swiftly knocked out of her hands, right before Omega landed a powerful blow to her cheek that knocked her back into the wall. He continued to come at her, only to receive a kick to the chest for his trouble. The kick threw him back and allowed Tara time to recover. She took advantage, coming forward again and this time launching into a series of punches that Omega was able to swiftly block.
"Oh, you're good!" Omega said cheerfully, starting to laugh once more. "It's nice to have a challenge for once!"
"It won't be a challenge for me!" said Tara, coming forward with one last powerful uppercut that knocked her opponent into the air. Omega was stunned by the blow, and Tara allowed herself a victorious smile. "KO!"
But Omega was far from out. He recovered in midair, doing a single flip before landing on the ground in a three point stance, looking right up into Tara's eyes and continuing to smile in a completely unsettling way.
The only thing that emerged from his mouth was a knowing laugh.
O-O-O
Back on the street below, the four spies were pursuing Alpha as he leaped back and forth from car roof to car roof, sneering and taunting the spies the whole way.
"You can't catch me, I'm too fast!" Alpha shouted at them, before suddenly extending his arms toward Megan in an attempt to wrap around her body. Megan gasped, contorting herself between the arms to avoid being hit and wrapped up. She pointed her dart gun at Alpha's head, aiming quickly and setting her gun to 'blinding' mode.
"Let's see how fast you run when you can't see!" said Megan, unaware that Alpha's arms were coming back toward her from behind.
"Megan, watch out for the rebound!" Lee shouted, causing Megan to gasp and turn back. Just as Alpha's arms began wrapping around her body, Marc tackled her out of the way, causing the villain to come up empty.
"Whoa…! That was a close one," said Megan, rubbing her head and smiling gratefully at her brother. "Thanks for the save, Marc!"
Alpha's arms continued to remain outstretched, wrapping around the car and pulling it up from the ground. He lifted up the car and placed it over the two spies, preparing to crush them under its weight.
"Marc…!" Megan shouted, seeing what was about to happen to them. She grabbed her brother and quickly rolled away just as the car came crashing down beside them. "Geez, we need to get up!"
Alpha laughed and began to pick up the busted car for another try, only for Tony to come at him from the side, hitting him with a powerful tackle and knocking him through the window of another nearby car. Tony flew back to admire his handiwork as Alpha lay groaning in the backseat, but the twin's groans quickly turned into a smirk and Tony suddenly found himself with an outstretched arm wrapped tightly around his throat.
"Tony!" shouted Lee, flying over to the car Alpha was strangling his brother from. He punched his way in through the front door and climbed in through the window, leaping into the back seat and striking at Alpha with a powerful fist. Alpha released Tony and dodged to the side of the punch, then grabbed Lee by the back of the head and slammed his face hard into the steering wheel, causing the horn to make a loud noise. "Nnngh!"
"Honk if you love smashing spies!" shouted Alpha, bashing Lee's face repeatedly into the steering wheel. "Honk! Honk! Honk!"
Though dazed from repeated blows to the head, Lee quickly snapped back into his senses and stopped himself from being slammed into the steering wheel again. He turned around, grabbing Alpha by the wrist and attempting to get his arms cuffed behind him.
"You're… under arrest, you creepy-"
Alpha kicked up with both feet, knocking Lee back out the window. He landed next to Tony, who was still on the ground recovering from being choked.
"You okay, Lee?" Tony said, his voice a bit raspy. Lee nodded, brushing shards of glass out of his hair.
"I'm fine, just a bit-" Lee stopped at an unexpected sound. "Is that car… starting up?"
Alpha had hotwired the car and was now backing up, driving back over the curb from the car's parked position while aiming the front of the car right at Lee and Tony… and Marc and Megan behind them.
"Oh crud…!" Lee exclaimed, his eyes wide.
"He's trying to run us over…!" Marc shouted.
O-O-O
"What's so funny?" asked Tara as Omega continued to creepily grin up at her. "You're freaking me out!"
"Good!" said Omega, "that's the idea…"
"I've had enough of you, time to put you down!" Tara dove at Omega, attempting to pin him to the ground. He grabbed Tara by the arms and swung her forward, kicking up and throwing her into the air. She landed nearby in a controlled stance similar to the one Omega had been taking. "You won't do that again!"
The two rose at the same time and came at each other, meeting with fierce punches in the middle of the room. They dodged each other's blows and began clashing again, both of them trying to get the upper hand. Tara pushed Omega away and threw several more quick punches at him, all of which were easily dodged.
"You're pretty fast, but no one's faster than me!" Tara said proudly, coming forward with a high kick aimed straight at her opponent's head. Omega reached up, grabbing Tara by the ankle. "Oh no you don't!"
Using her powerful leg muscles, Tara spun herself around in Omega's grasp, leaping up and kicking with her other leg right at the side of Omega's head. Her other ankle was grabbed and Tara found herself with her upper body on the floor and her legs held high up in the air. With a laugh, Omega tightened his grip on Tara's ankles and flipped her over, sending her crashing hard to the floor on her face.
Tara let out a cry of pain, barely having time to spin around as Omega thrust his fist down at her face. She managed to catch his punch in her palm, but was barely able to hold him back as he continued pushing down toward her. A bead of sweat trickled down the side of her face.
"Getting tired yet?" Omega asked.
"You kidding? NEVER!"
Tara raised her other arm and began punching at Omega's face, only to one again have her blows rapidly dodged. She reared back and struck one final time, a massive punch aimed right at Omega's jaw. Again, Omega moved to catch her fist. Tara smiled, and unclenched her fist, reaching forward quickly and grabbing her opponent's wrist in a tight, crushing grip.
"Gotcha," said Tara with a smirk. Using a move she'd learned from years of martial arts, she used the leverage she'd gotten to both pick herself up from the ground and push Omega forward, keeping her hold on his wrist in order to pull him into a tight, inescapable arm lock. Omega winced in pain as Tara held him in her grip. "Say uncle!"
Tara tightened her hold and wrenched Omega's arm even more awkwardly behind his back, causing him to bite his lip in pain.
"Give it up!"
Tara's grip became even tighter, though she didn't notice something wrapping itself around her waist. It was Omega's free arm, stretching longer and longer as it made its way up Tara's body.
"Huh…?" Tara exclaimed, looking down to see Omega's free arm coming up above her elbows. "What the heck are you-"
Omega then wrenched his other arm out of the stunned Tara's grip, stretching and wrapping it around both her arms to pin her completely. By the time Tara realized what was happening, her arms were totally trapped and immobilized to her sides. She started to kick, only for Omega to stretch his arms out even further, slamming the trapped spy into the hard wall.
"Hehehehe… I was expecting that the whole time!"
"You were NOT!" shouted Tara, just before Omega slammed her into the wall again. "Nnnggh!"
Now in a daze, Tara was helpless to resist as one of Omega's arms looped around her body even tighter, encasing her thighs and ankles to prevent her from kicking. Stunned but still strong, Tara fought hard in his grasp, determined to break free and win the fight.
"Struggle all you like, those muscles of yours are useless now!"
"You piece of crud, I'm gonna wail on you so hard when I get free!" Tara shouted, angrily fighting against Omega's grip. "You cheating dirtbag!"
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me… but this might hurt you!" shouted Omega, just before slamming Tara into the wall again.
"OW!" Tara cried, wincing in pain as she sustained another blow. "This can't be happening!"
O-O-O
Alpha slammed on the gas and steered his car right toward the stunned spies, who dove out of the way and watched as the car barreled past them and made a sharp U-turn.
"What do we do?" Megan exclaimed, seeing Alpha's car spin around and come at them again. "That thing's too big and fast to stop!"
Lee didn't even have time to think of a plan before having to dive to the ground again, the car barely missing him and sideswiping Tony to the ground.
"Ow!" Tony shouted, falling to the pavement and waving off the others as they came to check on him. "I'm fine but this has still been a really bad day!"
"Time to make pancakes out of you spies!" Alpha declared, taking aim with the car and coming around a third time. "This'll be the end of you!"
The car took aim at the fallen Tony and came at him as quickly as it could accelerate. Tony let out a gasp, watching as the car's front bumper rapidly closed the distance.
"I'm not gonna be able to get up!" thought Tony, blinking his eyes shut as the car rushed toward him.
"Tony, duck!" shouted Marc suddenly, streaking toward the car with a handful of Static Burrs in his hands. "I hope this works!"
Marc threw the burrs, aiming as close to the radiator as he could. Several of them slid through the grates and into the car's internal systems, prompting an immediate electrical reaction that shorted out the car and forced it to a stop just inches from Tony's body. Alpha let out a quizzical 'huh?', trying to hotwire the car again only to receive a shock for his trouble.
"OW! No way!" said Alpha, who looked up to see the four spies advancing on him. "Grrr…."
He quickly leaped out of the car and attempted to flee, only for Megan to leap down in front of him, blocking his path and pointing her instant freeze spray right at his face.
"You're not going anywhere!" Megan shouted. Alpha turned to see Lee behind him, and in the other two directions were Marc and Tony. Alpha was trapped, and quickly took a defensive stance, ready to pummel any of the spies who got close.
"I can still take you on!" Alpha shouted, looking back and forth between his enemies. The four closed in, though they were all hesitant, knowing that the dangerous twin could have anything up his sleeve.
"Even without his brother he's still good enough to thrash us all if we're not careful…" thought Lee. "I can't believe Tara went after the other one alone!"
The Clarks continued to form a perimeter around Alpha, ready to strike at the first sign of movement.
"I think I've bought my brother enough time," said Alpha, looking back and forth at the spies to see which one was the most nervous. "Interesting… the one in red is shaking like a leaf! He's usually so confident, I wonder what's on his mind…?"
While Alpha was sizing up Lee, Megan's free hand was beginning to move down to her dart gun. She grabbed it and began to lift it up when Alpha suddenly seemed to disappear.
"Huh?" gasped Megan, turning to see that Alpha had suddenly appeared behind Lee and was holding him in a vicious grapple lock, his arms up under Lee's arms and around his shoulders.
"Aaaah!" Lee cried out, wondering how Alpha had been able to move so quickly. "Get off me you big creepy jerk!"
Alpha just laughed, tightening his grip on Lee's body and holding him like a human shield as Megan, Marc, and Tony all pointed their dart guns at him.
"Whatever you're going to fire at me, you'd better reconsider, you might hit your brother instead!"
"Guys, what do we do?" Tony shouted nervously, looking back and forth between Marc and Megan. "Lee's in trouble!"
"But these guns don't fire lethal projectiles, if Lee gets hit and trapped we can just free him later!" said Marc, steadying his arm. "Sorry, big bro…"
"Actually…" said Lee, suddenly pressing his foot down hard on Alpha's ankle. The blow stunned him, and gave Lee enough leverage to flip the twin hard over him, smashing him down on the pavement. "Now you can fire!"
As Alpha lay stunned on the ground, Megan, Marc, and Tony all fired their guns at once on the 'encasement' setting, triggering three orange rubber cocoons to affix themselves to Alpha, completely covering his body and trapping him on the ground in a thick rubber sack.
"Gotcha!" shouted Tony, pumping his fists. "I don't think even HE can get out of that!"
"Yeah, but what about Tara?" asked Tony, looking toward the building into which Tara had pursued Omega. "She might still be in trouble!"
"Right!" said Lee, turning toward the building with the others. "Let's go in and find-"
"Looking for someone, spies?" came a voice from the roof of the building. When the four spies looked up, they could see Omega, holding the tightly wrapped and thrashing Tara in front of him.
"Nnnnngh! LET ME OUT!" Tara screamed, her body still flailing wildly. The four spies below gasped at the sight of their fellow spy in captivity.
"Let her go, Omega!" shouted Lee, pointing at the cocoon containing Alpha. "We already trapped your brother, there's nowhere to run!"
"There's plenty of places to run if you know where to look!" said Omega, laughing at his own joke. "And besides, I don't think you have my brother at all… look!"
Omega pointed down at the cocoon, which was starting to break and buckle under the strain of Alpha's struggling.
"Quick, the freeze spray!" said Lee, taking out his can and pointing it at the cocoon. Megan, Marc, and Tony did the same.
"If we reinforce it with ice, we can keep him trapped inside!" Marc added, putting his finger on the trigger of the can.
Suddenly, the cocoon ripped open, and Alpha lunged out, striking Lee with a punch and knocking the freeze spray from his hand. Before the others could react, Alpha had sprayed them all, turning the Clarks into stunned, frozen spycicles and leaving Alpha totally unharmed.
"Oh, that was lots of fun!" Alpha shouted with a laugh, watching the four spies as they blinked inside their frozen encasements. The twin ran toward the building where his brother was standing, quickly scaling the fire escape and flipping up onto the roof. As Alpha was making his ascent, Tara stopped her struggles and briefly looked down at the frozen spies, focusing her gaze particularly on Lee.
"They can't get out, they're totally helpless!" thought Tara, her eyes locked right onto Lee's, which were wide with fear and worry. "He looks so scared… he can't be scared for ME, can he be…? Or is he worried he's gonna freeze in there?"
Tara could feel a chill go down her own spine as the reality of the situation began to set in. She felt a wave of concern for Lee and his siblings, worrying that their ice encasements could freeze them to death. She tried to blink the thoughts out of her mind, focusing only on escape and revenge as Alpha walked over to her and her captor.
"Well, how are we going to make our escape?" Omega pondered, smiling. "As you can see, I'm just about as tied up as she is!"
"Keep your grip on that girl nice and tight," said Alpha, looking down at Tara's jet boots. "And I think I'll do the same!"
Alpha wrapped one arm around Tara's encased body and used the other to press a button on Tara's boots, activating her jets. Tara let out a gasp as she was suddenly lifted into the air, Alpha's button presses overriding the boots' navigation and giving him total control over where the three of them were going.
"See you idiot spies later! And thanks for the present!" shouted Alpha, laughing down at the still-frozen spies. Lee could hear Tara give off one last loud 'LET ME GO!' as the three of them flew off.
"Tara…!" thought Lee, struggling to move his body in its icy encasement. "I know she got herself into this mess but I still have to save her, and my brothers and sister too! Oh man… it's so… cold!"
The Clarks' bodies were totally encased, none of them able to do anything other than squirm a tiny bit inside the ice.
"This is even worse than the time Snowy Falcon tried to freeze me and Marc and Tony to death!" thought Megan, shivering inside her icy encasement. "At least then we could move…! And Lee's frozen too, there's no chance we'll get out of this one!"
Marc and Tony looked over at Megan, seeing the worry and fear in her eyes. Marc wanted to give her some encouraging words, but the ice had frozen his lips tightly shut and he was unable to communicate anything to her, though it didn't stop him from trying. He worked his lips as much as he could under the ice, looking at Megan the whole time while trying to tell her not to give up. Megan watched him and blinked, wondering what Marc could possibly be trying to do.
"Is he trying to tell me something? Or… wait a minute, I know! Warm air from our breath might melt the ice, he's trying to get his mouth open so he can breathe out some warm air! Maybe I can do it!"
Megan also began working her lips against the freezing ice, and with a bit of determination, was able to get her mouth the tiniest bit open, exhaling several small breaths that melted the rest of the ice from her lips. She continued exhaling more and more, taking a breath when she needed to as the ice started to melt off of her face. With a good portion of her face free, Megan was able to struggle against the ice with her entire head, soon knocking off all the ice and melting the rest away, freeing her head entirely. She then began exhaling rapidly onto her shoulders, which in turn freed up her arms to struggle.
"Don't worry, you guys, I'll get this ice off all of us soon!" Megan said. The others were unable to smile, but they blinked their encouragement.
"Guess that really did the trick!" Marc thought. "I wonder how she understood me with my mouth all frozen up though?"
After a few more minutes, Megan had cleared all of the ice off her body. She quickly ran over and freed Marc by pulling and punching the ice off with her hands. The two of them then freed Lee and Tony, leaving large chunks of ice and watery puddles around them as they continued to shiver.
"Great thinking, Megan!" said Lee, patting his sister on the shoulder.
"Well, it was Marc who came up with the idea to try and breathe off all the ice," Megan replied, looking over at him.
"Wow, nice!" Tony gave Marc a thumbs up, while Marc could only blush, hiding the real truth away and allowing himself to have a quick moment of pride.
The spies' relief that they were free, however, gave way to the reality of the situation. Tara was still in Alpha and Omega's captivity, and they had absolutely no idea how to find her. Lee was clearly the most distraught by the situation, bowing his head and trying to think of a way to save his kidnapped companion.
"Lee, are you okay?" asked Megan, concern in her voice. "We're all really worried about Tara, but we'll save her, you know we will…"
"Yeah, we always save our friends and we always save the day!" said Marc, pumping his fists.
"Besides, I thought you'd be mad at Tara for going off on her own like that," Tony said quietly. "Not to say we shouldn't save her, but it is kinda her fault that she got captured."
"Tony!" Megan snapped, glaring over at him.
"Tony's right, though… Tara got herself caught, she went off on her own and got captured because of it. But…" Lee stopped himself, thinking of everything that had happened over his entire career as a spy. He remembered his early missions, all the mistakes he'd made, all the times he'd been proud or reckless or brash. Never to the same extent as Tara, but still potentially fatal to himself and the team. "But that doesn't make her any less of a spy. Yeah, she might be reckless, and we have to get her to understand that. But… she's really brave too, and really talented. I guess that's what Jerry saw in her when he recruited her for WOOHP."
"Well, that or the spy gene," said Marc with a knowing smile.
"Anyway," Lee continued, "it's not like Tara's the only WOOHP agent who's ever screwed up and gotten caught. You guys remember when I got captured by Mel?"
"Yeah, you threw a big fit about not wanting a babysitter and ran off like a-" Tony started before Megan cut him off by lightly elbowing him. "Ow! What? I was just helping Lee prove his point."
"I felt really bad because I screwed up and almost got you guys blown up too. I was really scared, not just for me but for all the other captives and of course you guys… well, I knew I made a mistake and I learned from it. We have to give Tara the chance to learn from hers too."
"Wow…" said Megan, smiling proudly. "You're the last person I'd have expected to be wanting to give Tara another chance."
"Yeah, well… you know," said Lee, looking away slightly and blushing. "Tara might be stubborn and really cocky, but she's also kinda cute… wait, why am I thinking that?"
Megan noticed Lee's blush and started to say something else, only for the spies' communicators to ring.
"Spies, I need you to return to WOOHP headquarters immediately!" said Jerry. "It's about Agent Prefontaine, she's-"
"She's been kidnapped, we know," said Lee. "Got any leads?"
"We got something else," said Jerry. "I'm WOOHPing you now, it's of the utmost importance that you see this immediately!"
The spies were quickly sucked back to WOOHP, landing on the couch just in time to see Alpha and Omega's faces appear on the video screen.
"If you're watching this, you're probably wondering what we did with that new girl of yours!" Alpha said with a sneer.
"Oh yes, you must be tingling with anticipation!" Omega added.
"Where is she?" shouted Lee, rising up from the couch and clenching his fist. The twins stepped aside, revealing that they had Tara hanging high from the ceiling by two long lengths of chain. The lengths of chain were connected to more chains that were wrapped tightly around Tara's upper body, criss-crossing her chest and keeping her crossed and chained wrists pinned to the small of her back, with more chains anchored around her waist, keeping her arms completely locked down. Tara's ankles were shackled tightly together, though she was still able to swing furiously back and forth at Alpha and Omega, who were safely on the ground below.
"I'm gonna thrash both of you jerks when I get free! You hear me?" Tara shrieked, struggling wildly against her bonds while letting out a series of angry screams.
"She's quite safe…" Alpha sneered reassuringly.
"For now," added Omega. "If you want to visit, come to the rocket fuel facility just outside of Southdale. We'll meet you there… it'll be a blast!"
The twins laughed maniacally as the screen shut off.
"The abandoned KEPCON facility?" Marc noted, looking extremely nervous. "That place is said to have a kiloton's worth of high explosives stored inside!"
"Right," said Jerry, "if that fuel were to be made into a bomb and detonated, it could destroy all of Southdale."
"Or totally vaporize us…" Megan said quietly. "It's gotta be a trap!"
"I don't care, we're going in to save Tara and put an end to those creepy twins once and for all!" Lee said, determination in his voice. "Come on, spies, let's get out there and knock some heads together!"
"You got it, Lee!" Tony said eagerly, hopping to his feet. "It's go time!"
"Guess we don't have a choice," said Megan, following Lee and Tony out the door. "Tara's counting on us!"
"Yeah… and we could be counting down to the biggest explosion in the history of the town…" Marc said, the last of the four spies out of the room.
"Be careful, spies!" Jerry warned. "You know how dangerous a situation this is!"
The spies headed up to the roof and fired up their jet boots, racing across the sky in the direction of KEPCON. Alpha and Omega surely had a masterful trap planted for them, and the spies could only hope they'd be good enough to overcome it and rescue Tara from certain death.
O-O-O
To be continued…
