A tasty prologue for sure..now, are you ready for some Spy goodness? A(n almost) purely Totally Spies chapter this is, but don't worry, more Soul Calibur action will be taking place quite soon. Now then...

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Leitmotiv – Good to know you'll be following this! ^_^ As for how I'm going to make this work, you'll just have to read on and find out for yourself! Thanks for the review!

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Disclaimer: I do not own anything by Namco Bandai or Marathon Inc. I do, however, have several smexy fanarts from both TS and SC...hehehe. Uh, ignore that.

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Reverie

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Beverly Hills High School – 11:23am

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It was bliss. Too long had she been delayed, turned down, or else thwarted by her. But now...nothing could stop Clover Ewing from her everlasting bliss. Throwing her arms around her lover, David, they shared an embrace that seemed to last an eternity, and then, very slowly, they looked into each other's faces.

Each saw peace and solace in their other's eyes. It was the kind of relief that neither had experienced since they had first laid eyes onto each other. But now they were together, and no threat within even time itself could separate them...

Their lips met...

"MRS. EWING! Could you please pay attention when I am talking?"

"I'm-not-daydreaming-I-swear!" cried Clover in a quickly uttered slur as she sat bolt upright, her crystal-blue eyes now dilated with anxiety about having been caught napping in class for the umpteenth time this week. Several of her classmates snickered unpleasantly, to which Clover shot them a patronizing look.

"Oh really? Then kindly repeat the last lines of Romeo & Juliet that I have recited," replied the teacher, slightly scornful.

"Oh, um... 'Romeo, Romeo...where are you, my hot, hunky - ' "

"Thinking about your love life again, aren't you..." the teacher sighed. "Clover, this must stop. This is the fourth time this has happened since Monday. If you cannot take your lesson seriously..."

"Of course I'm taking this seriously!" said Clover, shocked. "Otherwise why would I be here?"

This remark was met by more snickering, instantly quelled by the look the teacher gave them.

"When you are in my classroom, you will pay the utmost attention when I am speaking, and not allow yourself to wallow into dream land," said the teacher curtly. "And I warn you: if this happens again, I will have to report you to the principal."

Clover looked for a moment like she might argue, but then dropped her gaze and replied furiously, "Yes, miss."

"Good." The bell rang, and for Clover it could not have been more welcome. She gathered her books, and trotted off without a word, her two best friends on her heels. The teacher folded her arms and shook her head exasperatedly.

"Clover!" Clover's friends had caught up with her. She kept walking down the hall, her nose in the air, as though she didn't realize they were there.

"What's the matter with you?" said Samantha Simpson, her fiery-red curtain of hair swishing about her as she glared at Clover. "Thinking about boys when our mid-term is coming up?"

"Hey!" Clover turned right around to face Sam, a vein pulsing in her temple. "One, it's so not any of your business," she growled, pointing a finger at Sam's indignant face, "and two, it's only one boy."

"It's completely my business if you're not paying attention in class and have to copy notes off of me for the mid-term!" said Sam angrily.

"Maybe Clover's not getting enough sleep?" suggested Alex Vasquez helpfully. Alex was their other friend, her short but puffy black hair looking glossy in the brilliant sunlight through the window nearby. She looked between Clover and Sam uncertainly, afraid of a fight. She did not like to see her best friends at arms with each other as had happened before. Clover snatched quickly at Alex's words

"Well duh! Do you know how long it takes to find a decent pair of designer boots in Bev Hills?" she demanded. "You know I totally have to look as best I can every day, and - "

"You just got your new boots last week!" said Sam in exasperated tones. "Are you telling me you're looking for a new pair of boots every day?"

Clover shrugged. "Wearing the same footwear every week is like soooo passé," she said with a little wave of her hand, as to signify her distaste.

Sam sighed. It was so very typical of Clover to act as such towards fashion. "Look, Clover," said Sam, "if you don't pass the English course with a good grade, you won't be going many places."

"Oh come on, Sammy, we all know how to speak English," said Clover, with another wave of the hand.

"And what will happen when you have to write a letter to a fashion agency stating you want to be a model?" Sam shot at her, grateful for the opportunity to shove this in Clover's face. Speaking of Clover's face, it had turned an ugly, blotchy red.

"They don't look at the letters much, Sam, they look at the model!" she shouted. "Besides I know perfectly well how to write a stupid letter! And what would you know about it? You don't take fashion courses anyway!"

"Maybe not, but unlike some people I do my research," said Sam smugly.

"And unlike some people I happen to watch America's Next Top Model," said Clover, sticking out her tongue. At that Sam actually laughed. Again, so very typical of Clover, to get her ideas off a fashion reality show. Not that Sam knew Clover had been doing it for a while; Sam had only seen Clover changing the channel as she and Alex had come in for a movie night about a month ago.

"Well if you insist, Madame," Sam said mockingly. Then her scathing tone dropped, "but I think we should be getting our lunch now, don't you think?"

"Yes let's get some," said Alex quickly, preventing further argument, and they walked off to the cafeteria together, gabbling away about the upcoming Chemistry class.

It was March; a clear cloudless sky loomed over Beverly Hills, despite the fact that a blinding snowstorm had pounded the region for a few days before, ceasing early in the morning. Such snowstorms were rare in that region at this time of the year, but the jet stream had brought a cold front sweeping down on Southern California, and with it a sudden winter storm. The scenery around was piled with snow, slush, and in some cases foot-deep puddles on the roads, where some reckless driver would spray an unfortunate soul on the sidewalk with the runny sludge and earn several curses for their action. Earlier Sam herself had jumped back from a nasty spray courtesy of a 1999 Hyundai Tiburon.

Unfortunately for Sam and her friends, that was not even the start of their real troubles.

The girls had entered the cafeteria and had barely registered the familiar surroundings when something else strikingly familiar, but unpleasantly so, occurred. They felt a great pull, and next thing they knew, they were being sucked through a garbage can, of all things.

Which surprisingly led to a metal chute underground.

They screamed as they slid down, the air pulling at their faces and stretching them bizarrely.

"WHY DOES HE HAVE TO CALL JUST BEFORE LUUUUUUUUNCH?!?" Clover yelled.

Barely a second passed after her indignant howl, when they collided with a great big pink cushion. Which opened up into a wide metallic room, spilling the girls into it. They knew the room all too well, it belonged to Jerry Lewis, head of the World Organization Of Human Protection, or WOOHP.

"Greetings again, ladies. So nice of you to drop in, ho ho," said Jerry himself, chuckling.

"You don't think that's getting a bit old by now, Jer?" moaned Sam, rubbing her hinder; the cushion did not entirely save them from some pain.

"You should know by now that good jokes never grow stale, Samantha," replied Jerry with the ghost of a smirk.

"For some people," growled Clover. She had never appreciated Jerry's unexpected and repeated calls, accompanied by humiliation, a bit of pain and some ominous news that told them that they were about to go on a –

"Mission," said Alex resignedly. "You've got one for us, Jerry?"

"Indeed," said the old spy. The view screen appeared behind him, displaying a less-than-detailed map of the Earth. "And it is quite simple, as well." The map zoomed in on the United Kingdom as Jerry was talking. "A few years back, a technical engineer by the name of Reginald Thinley held an experiment in southern Birmingham. Needless to say - "

"He screwed up and now he wants revenge, just like almost every other villain we've had to haul back here," said Clover, yawning.

"Well actually, there is no revenge to it, accounting for lack of interference or sabotage," said Jerry. "However, his experiment consists of draining an exponential amount of electricity from nearby reserves and living completely under its power. It failed last time only because of his…incompetence, for lack of a better term. He has since illegally tapped into the entire United Kingdom system of hydro stations and reserves, and there is a high likelihood that his - "

"Experiment thingy will fail and jolly old England goes completely without power for a long time," yawned Clover. "Which results in us going there to kick his butt, right?"

"England is not the only part of the United Kingdom, Clover," said Jerry with a raise of the eyebrow. "And please do not interrupt me."

"Yeah Clover, don't you remember your geography?" smirked Sam, while Alex giggled slightly. The ugly red tone reappeared on Clover's face almost instantly.

"Don't you remember ever shutting up?!" she growled, then turned her back on Sam with a snort. "Hmph!"

"All right, what are the gadgets, Jerry?" said Sam, regaining her composure.

"Do let me finish explaining the rest of the mission first, however little there is left, Sam," said Jerry curtly. Sam nodded politely and the WOOHP boss went on. "Your task is relatively simple. First of all, you must seek out Professor Thinley's hideout. Reports say he has built up a small underground base below the town of Reading, and it is well protected. Where under the town it is, is not specified. You must infiltrate his base and put a stop to his plans. As for gadgets...you will need no new gadgets for this mission, and as such, all previous gadgets are in your packs," replied Jerry. "Oh, and…please do not fail, ladies, it is after all - "

"Your home country; don't worry, Jer, we'll put a stop to his plans, take him down, and still be back in time for our scheduled pedicures," said Clover smugly.

"Pedicures? I didn't know anything about pedicures," said Alex blankly, turning to look at Sam. Sam blinked.

"Clover…"

"All right, all right, so yesterday I kinda scheduled some pedicures for all of us in advance…but don't worry, I'm sure you both need them," the blonde said, chuckling. This did not go down well at all with Sam or Alex.

"Excuse me? We NEED them? " exclaimed Sam. "How dare you!"

"And now we have to pay for them!" shouted Alex. "I can't believe you'd do that to us, Clover!"

"Hey! I had good intentions in doing that!" said Clover, equally angry, glaring directly at Sam. "Well hey, if you don't want them, I suppose I could just cancel the reservations," she added haughtily, but eyeing Alex rather ashamedly.

"That's a good idea," Sam scowled. Clover returned it with indignation and Alex was eyeing them nervously again.

Jerry sighed. "If you are through debating about your hygienic needs, ladies, there is a mission to attend to."

"Right Jerry, sorry about that," said Sam with a start, then flashed her friends a swift smile. "Uh, let's go, girls!"

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Reading, Berkshire – 11:58pm

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"Well, this is Reading, huh? Weird name for a city, I guess they all read books a lot," said Alex. Both Clover and Sam clapped a hand to their faces in exasperation; Alex wasn't the brightest in this regard.

"Uh Alex, I don't think that's what it means," muttered Clover.

"Yeah, this town was originally a settlement in the 8th century named after a man called Reada, 'The Red One'," said Sam. "Its people were called the Readingas, or 'Reada's People'."

"Such a great little bookworm you are," smirked Clover, "but how's about we find us an underground base, huh?"

"Yeah, let's do that," said Sam sheepishly. She took out her trusty X-Powder and scanned the area for any abnormal activity. Evidently the search proved rather fruitless as a moment later she remarked, "Seems pretty normal…we'd better go around town and look for clues. Tackling the local hydro facility would be a good bet."

"Sounds like a plan," Clover agreed, and Alex assured this with a "Totally!"

"Hold on…we should try to cover more ground," said Sam. "We'll find something faster that way. Clover, you check the outskirts of town. Alex, you follow power lines and see if there's anything wrong or suspicious about them. We'll contact each other in about an hour to report our findings. Good idea?"

"Good idea," echoed Clover in a bored voice, while Alex nodded, they set off. Clover took to the skies in her jetpack while Sam and Alex went off in opposite ways across Reading.

But much to Clover's chagrin, there was hardly anything to find. To and fro she flew but nothing seemed to look out of place. The sleepy town bathed in the moonlight, but even the light given off from the planetary satellite could not clarify any irregularities that may have lurked in the grassy fields around Reading. Of course Clover didn't know exactly what to look for, but anything out of place would surely be a marker. Unfortunately, it seemed vain. After what seemed like an hour, Clover cursed under her breath and took out her own X-Powder to contact Sam.

"Sam, there's nothing here, and I'm getting damned tired," she spoke into it tersely.

"Just keep looking! I haven't found any leads yet either but a mission's a mission," Sam's voice replied. "How's Alex doing?"

"Just fine!" spoke up Alex's voice, "but I haven't found anything yet either! Can we go home now?"

"We have to wait for Jerry's signal, Alex," said Sam. "I'm tired too but we can't give up yet."

"All right, but if this goes any further I'm making Jerry do my mid-term for me," growled Clover as she closed the X-Powder and continued flying for a few minutes. At that moment she saw the ruins of a wooden train car in a field below. This struck Clover as a bit odd, there were no tracks around anywhere…she flew down to it.

"Huh, what a wreck," remarked the blonde as she peered at it. Only the walls and floor were there to hold it up, the floor appeared to have been ripped away completely, and the cart door blasted open. Clover cautiously approached it. Shingles were missing and some that remained appeared to have been burned straight through. She quickly put her back to the side, then took a quick glimpse into the car…and then a longer one. Still a wreck, it seemed, except for a few large crates that looked unharmed. She went in; something was behind the crates, she was sure of it…

"GOTCHA!" Clover shouted triumphantly as she leapt upon…two stacked mattresses and a woollen pillow. "Aww…"

Brilliant violet light suddenly streamed through the cart, almost blazing through Clover's irises as her eyelids snapped shut to protect them. "What the hell?!" she exclaimed in confusion, but could do little more with word of tongue. She bolted outside, ready for a fight…

But there was nothing. Light stopped, no source, no enemies…nothing. The confusion was infuriating.

"Come on!" Clover kicked a rock in frustration, then stomped. "Urrrrrgh!"

The stomp, however, did more than vent Clover's anger slightly. It kicked up some dirt…uncovering something very irregular indeed. It was several moments before Clover noticed it.

"Hey, cool," grinned the blonde spy. She bent down to peer at it. It was a very, very thick orange wire. Random wires weren't just buried in the ground like that…Clover continued to smirk as she got out her X-Powder and opened it.

"Sam! I've got something!" she called into it.

"Clover? What is it?" came the reply.

"Yeah I found something…well, not really normal. I guess there's this big wire buried in the ground," said Clover. "It's…pretty thick. And orange."

Sam's face appeared on the X-Powder for the first time. "Hmm, looks like visuals were down, but they're back up now," she mused. "Anyway, what's this about a buried wire? There are actual wires buried in the ground for different communication lines."

"Are they thick and orange like this one?" Clover held the X-Powder to the orange wire so Sam could see it.

"Whoa…I guess not," said Sam. "Good find. Follow where it goes, then send us your co-ordinates, then we'll meet up with you. I'll see if Alex has found anything now."

"No, not yet!" came Alex's voice after a moment's pause; her face appeared next to Sam's on a split screen. "Did Clover find something?"

"Yeah she found a weird power line underground," Sam told her, "we don't know where it goes yet, though…I'm going to continue searching here though for a little while longer."

"Yeah I'll let you both know what else I find, see you!" Clover closed the X-Powder again and looked down. Finally, a lead…things seemed to be looking up.

But what was up with that light, earlier? Surely random bursts of illumination were not normal? The way it singed her eyes for a moment, too…

And what was that strange feeling she was starting to have…? It was as though something was watching her…from all directions…

Little did she know she would soon be in for the fight for her life…

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A/N: Finally, FINALLY the actual Chapter 1 is done! I'm sorry it took so long! D: Other things repeatedly, repeatedly got in the way and I apologize most dearly for it! I hope Chapter 2 doesn't take this long. Speaking of which, that chapter has the first real crossing over of the two worlds…stay tuned!