11:37 A.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape, Sector G
("You Are Stronger" by Lyn plays)
As the strange, spider-like creature advanced on her, RiCO leaped over it gracefully, firing a beam of aquatic-blue light from her hands. The beam flew downward and struck the viral spider creature, instantly deleting it.
Once she'd landed on her feet again, RiCO continued to dance around the area, blasting any spider creatures that tried to get close to her.
"This is why you don't open up the obvious spam email, Curtis," RiCO giggled as she continued to delete the viral creatures until the entirety of Sector G was silent.
"Well, that was fun," RiCO proclaimed. "Now to check on the signal tower and make sure it's working right..."
Thankfully, it was only a short walk to the Sector G signal tower, and everything seemed to be in order. No static-y infection blobs like the last time, nothing out of the ordinary.
"Okay, so then that must have just been a result of that spam email," RiCO stated. "Jerry really needs to tell these people not to believe everything that emails tell you, especially when they're clearly in the 'spam' folder..."
RiCO continued to check out the tower, unaware of a large spider virus approaching her from behind a nearby building.
"I know Nick would give him some crap for that, considering how much he likes to keep an eye out for that nonsense," RiCO chuckled.
"RICO, WATCH OUT!"
The spider virus took that opportunity to lunge for RiCO before she could even get her bearings.
However, a giant ruby-red heart dropped from the sky and crashed down on the spider virus, eliminating it immediately.
RiCO turned towards her savior and smiled. "Thanks for the help, Sophia!"
(Don't just sit there and waste your precious time. When you want to do something, do it right away. Do it when you can. It's the only way to live a life without regrets.)
Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger are proud to present:
Totally Spies: Artificial Insanity
Story Rated: T for Teen
Story Created: April 2nd, 2021
Story Summary: The thirty-fifth joint project between Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger, collectively known as Totally Spies: The New Adventures. One day, RiCO introduces the spies to a friend of hers: Sophia, a new artificial intelligence assistant created by the Japanese branch of W.O.O.H.P.. And as Sophia's "senior", it's up to RiCO to show her the ropes. But during Sophia's practice sessions, the W.O.O.H.P. datascape is once again overrun with strange viruses, no doubt the work of Lady Dragon up to her old tricks again. The spies must once again journey into the datascape to quell the threat and stop Lady Dragon and her mysterious partner. But one question remains at large: what exactly does Lady Dragon want with Sophia?
Author's Note from Mat49324: We're set to begin #35 now with a bit of a callback to S1's Game Girls again. I leave all the battle stuff references to The Blue Time Ranger since he's more of an expert in that category while I'm more proficient in fun away from missions. Anyway, we hope you enjoy Artificial Insanity, and some Persona 5 references – a game I don't even play myself.
Author's Note from The Blue Time Ranger: Yes, I have been playing a lot of Persona 5 Strikers lately, due to getting the game as a birthday gift, and yes, Sophia is best girl, DO NOT at me. Originally, RiCO's new AI partner for this story was going to be based on Ritsu from Assassination Classroom, and, well, then Persona 5 Strikers happened. But I won't overwhelm you with my experiences with the game, that's for somewhere else that's not here. Let's get to the action! ROLL IT!
And Now, the Obligatory Disclaimer: Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger do not own anything related to Totally Spies or any of its affiliations. It belongs solely to Marathon Media Group, Image Entertainment Corporation, Vincent Chalvon-Demersay, and David Michel. The only things of this story we DO own are any characters created by us truly for the story (in this case, Nick, Haruka, Bridget, May, Nozomi, Dawn, and Melissa on my side, and Mathew on his side). Any characters or things we don't own, we are just borrowing with no intent of copyright infringement, only for the entertainment of our readers. Besides, if we did own Totally Spies, which we don't, why would we be writing fiction on a fan site?
Episode 1: Humanity's Companion
12:45 P.M. – Malibu University, Nick and May's Dormitory
"PERFECT SHIELD FOR THE WIN!" May exclaimed as she continued to press buttons on her controller rapid-fire, watching with devious delight as Nick's Sonic attempted to launch her Toon Link, only for May to counter with a perfect shield.
Once again, Nick and May were practicing for an upcoming Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament that Mali-U was holding. May was still in shock that they'd made it to the previous tournament, due to said tournament being held on the same day that the spies had been sucked into another dimension.
Before Toon Link could deal the finishing blow, however, Sonic performed a Homing Attack just in time to throw Toon Link backwards, and the momentum shifted back in Nick's favor.
"You were saying, mister cel-shaded?" Nick taunted.
"Oh, it is on now!" May responded.
The frenzied battle raged for another two minutes, and just when May thought she had won, Nick had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat thanks to a well-timed Homing Attack after May had whiffed one of her own attacks.
"I think I finally found the counter to perfect shielding," Nick quipped.
"Yeah, like that one nut in the last tournament," May giggled, glancing up at the trophy on her shelf shaped like the Smash Bros. symbol that designated her as the winner of that tournament. "He just would not stop."
"But you put him in his place for sure," Nick laughed. "...then I got my ass handed to me by Meta Knight... AGAIN!"
"Come on, Nick, you know that it was so immensely satisfying to take that guy down in the final round," May proclaimed.
"Yeah, you earned that trophy," Nick replied. "So... what should we do now?"
Just then, the door to their dormitory opened all by itself so that a large metal vacuum tube could extend into the room.
"Well, I guess that answers that question," May sighed as Nick raised his hand to project a psychic barrier to defend against the tube's suction until it stopped. "...why does this situation feel oddly familiar?"
Nick just shrugged as he and May changed into their spy suits and hopped into the tunnel, sliding down it until they had arrived at W.O.O.H.P. headquarters where everyone else was waiting for them, Klee and Kana included.
"I may never get used to that," Kana quipped.
"It just takes time, honestly," Sam replied to her future daughter. "Lord only knows how many times it happened to us before we just accepted it..."
"And before we got someone who can actually keep us from getting summoned without warning," Alex giggled, glancing at Nick.
That was when Nick noticed that the office was lacking a certain someone.
"Um, Jerry?" Nick asked. "If anyone's here, give us a sign?"
That was when the office's viewscreen flickered to life, showing RiCO standing in front of the signal tower in Sector F of the Datascape, the world inside the W.O.O.H.P. computer mainframe.
"Hey, everyone!" RiCO proclaimed. "Sorry if I surprised you, I was just busy doing my usual virus cleanup. Apparently, someone on staff opened a spam email and it let some spider viruses into the datascape."
"Oof, I'm glad I didn't have to see that," Alex admitted.
"So... is there actually any trouble right now, RiCO?" Klee asked.
"Nope! Everything's on the up and up for now, Klee," RiCO answered. "The reason I called all of you here is, well... I want to introduce you to my new friend."
RiCO looked towards somewhere off screen and waved for her friend to come closer. "You can come out now, Sophia!"
A few seconds later, another girl stepped onto the screen. This girl had bright red hair with M-shaped bangs and a really short back, as well as the tips being rounded off, cyan eyes with a large black ring around her irises, and seven deep red hearts on each side of her head that curved inwards much like pigtails. She was wearing a white one-piece outfit with large sleeves opening up at the ends and a dress section ending just at her hips, the chest area having a strange hoop-like extrusion with strange black markings on it, and similar extrusions on the end of the dress, as well as the top and ends of the sleeves, and tight black shorts and black boots with silver soles and a large ring-like extrusion on the tips.
"Hello, everyone," Sophia proclaimed. "I am Sophia, humanity's companion."
"Sophia here is an artificial intelligence assistant, much like me, that was developed by the Japanese branch of W.O.O.H.P.," RiCO explained. "Seems like they wanted to follow my example."
"OH MY GOD, SHE'S ADORABLE!" Alex exclaimed.
"Saw that one coming," Nick chuckled. "RiCO, is it okay if we enter the datascape so we can all meet Sophia 'in person', as it were?"
"Sounds like a plan to me, Nick," RiCO replied. "Prepare to network!"
A bright blue device descended from the ceiling and covered the spies in a flash of blue light, transporting them into the datascape.
1:07 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape, Sector F
"Never thought we'd be seeing the inside of this place again," Clover quipped as the spies took a look at the datascape.
"Hey, everyone!" RiCO proclaimed as she and Sophia walked up to the group.
"It's nice to meet all of you," Sophia stated.
"Okay, so one question I had is, well, if Sophia is the AI assistant for Japanese W.O.O.H.P., what's she up to here?" Mat asked.
"I'm just showing her the ropes, basically," RiCO answered. "Sophia was just finished recently, so they wanted our branch to bring her up to speed, considering, well, me."
"Shall we get started, everyone?" Sophia giggled.
"We most definitely shall," Nick replied as the group headed off into the datascape to see what Sophia could do.
("Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake plays)
"Almost makes you wonder if that former W.O.O.H.P. agent from Japan had any hand in creating her," Alex told the others. (A/N: Remember S1's Man or Machine?)
"There's a good chance that's possible," Mat deduced.
"Try 'very possible'," Haruka quipped.
"You sound like you have inside info, Haruka," Clover remarked.
"Well, I was from Japan, after all," Haruka answered.
"Well, nonetheless, we gotta get back to the task at hand," Nick stated. "Or... whatever that task is..."
"RiCO, Sophia, any reason why we're summoned here?" Melissa asked.
"There has to be a reason, right?" May added.
"We'll get to that shortly," RiCO told them. "After I finish showing Sophia the ropes."
"Very well," Sam stated.
"Virus incoming!" Sophia announced, pointing towards a blob-like creature that shaped itself into a metallic spider as it approached the group.
"EW!" Alex exclaimed.
"All right, Sophia, show us your moves!" RiCO proclaimed.
Sophia took up a fighting stance. "Roger that!" Sophia stated.
Sophia's hood flipped upwards and encapsulated most of her head, her "pigtails" merged into one large ponytail of hearts, and a black screen covered her face with two blue LED eyes appearing on the screen to represent Sophia's own eyes. Two large, white yo-yos with a black center and a ring of cyan LED lights inside of them appeared in her hands.
The virus spider sprayed a net of webbing towards the spies, but Sophia swung her yo-yos in various trick motions, cutting through the webs easily. While the virus spider attempted to think of another strategy, Sophia rushed it, her yo-yos glowing with the same blue glow as RiCO's antivirus powers.
Sophia swung her yo-yos in a spinning motion around her, striking the virus spider and deleting it quickly.
"Virus eliminated," Sophia proclaimed as she exited her "battle mode", her face screen retracting and her hood falling down to show her face again.
"That was awesome, Sophia!" Alex exclaimed.
"Praise accepted," Sophia giggled, humming a tune to herself.
After all that was taken care of, RiCO and Sophia then turned to the fourteen spies at hand.
"Now, Sophia, this is the spy team that Jerry and I deal with," RiCO explained. "First, we have the main spy trio – the one in green is Sam, the one in yellow is Alex, and Clover's in the red spysuit; the one in the light blue is Britney."
"Good to meet you," Sophia quipped.
"And now, the rest of the spy team: there's Nick, Blaine, and Mathew – though we've been calling him 'Mat' this whole time," RiCO continued on. "Then, there's Nozomi, Haruka, May, and Nick's family – sister Melissa, cousin Dawn, and Klee... his future daughter with Alex."
Sophia seemed to be surprised at hearing "future daughter" and that some of the spies were in relationships – at least Nick anyway.
"Nick's going out with Alex, and May's his girlfriend on the side, too," RiCO added. "Mat's going out with Sam, and Britney's his girlfriend on the side. Clover's going out with Blaine."
"There seems to be a lot of love in this group," Sophia answered. "And some very unique circumstances that brought you all together, huh?"
"You could say that," May quipped.
"As long as you love each other, that should be all that matters, right?" Sophia asked.
"Plus, if you had noticed another girl with us back at W.O.O.H.P., that was Kana, our future daughter," Mat pointed out. "Me and Sam to be specific."
"I see," Sophia quipped.
"Anyway, now that we're back here," Mat replied. "I'll be the first to say that I didn't think we were coming back here again."
"Ditto," May quipped.
"Yes, and now that introductions are squared away," RiCO stated. "Allow me to explain why I've called you all here and for Jerry's absence, too."
"Yeah, that is highly unusual now that you've brought that up," Nick commented.
"A couple days after Sophia came over, we began to notice odd patterns of viral activity around the datascape," RiCO explained. "It didn't appear to be anything threatening at first, mostly just oddly-shaped viruses that didn't do much more than a normal virus."
"But when I was able to analyze the patterns of one of the viruses that RiCO and I were able to capture, I noticed that this particular one was created by a miss Carla Wong," Sophia stated.
"Also known as 'Lady Dragon'," Nick proclaimed. "Looks like we've got another baddie who just didn't learn their lesson."
"Jerry's off searching for whoever might be her 'partner' this time," RiCO continued. "Since Lady Dragon mentioned something about that..."
"Oh, brother..." Clover groaned. "Another mission in cyberspace..."
"And it's a first for me, too," Blaine pointed out.
"Me as well," Klee added.
"You two would not BELIEVE what we went through the first time!" Dawn emphasized to Blaine and Klee.
"Should we call Kana lucky?" Bridget wondered.
"Let's worry about that later," Klee remarked.
With that, Sophia and RiCO led the spies deeper into Sector F.
"Are the signal towers working like they should be?" Sam asked, remembering their previous mission in the datascape.
RiCO opened a data screen with a sweep of her hand so she could check on the signal towers of each sector.
"So far, so good," RiCO answered. "All ten signal towers are online and functioning normally."
RiCO suddenly gasped in shock, cursing herself for speaking too soon as one of the displays turned from blue to red.
"Well, that didn't last long!" RiCO exclaimed. "Viral activity's been detected here in Sector F, and it's apparently some nasty stuff!"
"Sounds like we've got a job to do," May proclaimed. "Let's go kick some viral keesters!"
With Sophia leading the way, the spies eventually reached the Sector F signal tower, which was now covered in blobs of what appeared to be television static.
"Déjà vu much?" Clover quipped.
"And speaking of déjà vu," Alex replied, pointing towards the signal tower. "Look who's here to greet us!"
Sure enough, who else but Carla Wong, alias Lady Dragon, was standing in front of the signal tower's control panel.
"I would say it's good to see you again, but you know how that would end," Lady Dragon laughed.
"Now even you're resorting to recycling your schemes?!" Nozomi shouted. "Too many baddies have been doing that lately, with much less than success!"
"You should learn to study and apply rule thirty-six," Sophia proclaimed.
"...yeah, I kinda taught Sophia about the 'rules for villains'," RiCO admitted.
"It's a very interesting list," Sophia replied as she switched into her 'battle mode'.
"Oh, you've allowed yet another meddler into your group, I see," Lady Dragon cackled, only to take a step back when Sophia rushed towards her, stopping right in front of her.
("Axe to Grind" by Lyn plays)
"I am Sophia, humanity's companion," Sophia stated cheerily before going on the offensive, swinging her yo-yos in various patterns and knocking Lady Dragon around.
"Look at her go!" Alex exclaimed.
"Yeah, Sophia, get that jerk-face on the run!" May shouted.
After a few combos, Sophia swung her yo-yos so that they spiraled around her, sending Lady Dragon crashing to the ground.
"And I cannot abide you trying to wreak havoc in the datascape," Sophia proclaimed. "Now surrender and make it easy on yourself."
"Sorry, yo-yo girl, but if you're with this bunch of weirdoes, you would know that that's an option I never consider," Lady Dragon laughed. "And trust me, I have a much better plan than simply taking over this wretched data world."
"You wanna cough up the details now, or should we have Sophia wail on you some more until you do?" Mat shot back.
"Oh, where's the rush?" Lady Dragon replied, reaching for a device on her wrist. "I haven't even introduced my partner yet."
"Let me guess, it's Lumiere again?" Alex groaned.
"Even I'm not that stale, dearie," Lady Dragon stated, pressing the button on her device to call her partner.
A flash of light erupted from somewhere in the sky, and from that light fell a gigantic creature made up of shadowy blobs and television static, along with a very familiar face.
"Hey, girls? Have we seen that face before?" Sam asked.
"Wait just a minute," Clover gasped. "Oh, no freakin' way, is that CHAD?!"
"Aw, how'd you guess?" CHAD laughed. "I'll admit, it's been a while, you accursed spies."
"During my recent escape, I heard about this marvelous piece of software," Lady Dragon explained. "But when I heard it had initially been destroyed by you lot, I... shall we say, convinced Adam to recreate it for my plans."
"You mean you forced him!" Alex exclaimed.
"Coerced, forced, what does it really matter as long as I am reborn?" CHAD laughed, advancing menacingly on the spies. "And now I get to take my revenge on you spies personally."
CHAD raised a fist to crush the spies underneath, only to be blasted backwards by way of Nick's Final Shine Attack.
"So sorry, computer boy, but no one hurts my friends and gets away with it," Nick proclaimed. "Sophia, let's give 'em hell!"
"Roger!" Sophia exclaimed as she and Nick charged into battle.
CHAD swung its arms around to keep his attackers at bay, but Sophia was thankfully short enough to slip underneath CHAD's attack and start striking at him with her yo-yos.
This caused CHAD to attempt to kick Sophia away, but she deftly dodged the strike and countered with a yo-yo spin, then thrust both yo-yos forward and twirled them in the way that made them both spin in a large circle towards CHAD.
While all of this was happening, Nick was flying around and pelting CHAD's body with psychic bolts in hopes of exposing a weakness for RiCO to hit.
"You're just more bodies for me to de-rezz and scatter to the digital wind!" CHAD exclaimed as he rushed for the spies, only for Sophia to throw one of her yo-yos and hook it around CHAD's leg, causing him to fall to his knees and give RiCO the perfect opportunity to blast him with an anti-virus beam.
"You were saying?" RiCO responded. "Now give it up so I can delete you!"
"That won't be happening today, spies," Lady Dragon proclaimed as CHAD retreated for the moment, hoisting her onto his shoulder so they could escape. "This isn't the end!"
"Okay, add that to today's list of 'things I never thought we'd see again'," Clover quipped. "Not only did we return to the datascape, but now we have to deal with Adam's psychotic computer virus thingy!"
"From what it sounded like, he didn't have any choice in the matter," Sam replied. "Regardless, we need to follow those two and stop them before they cause too much damage."
"Well, one easy part of this," RiCO quipped. "Since CHAD's current body is partly composed of viral material, that means I can track him no problem. Looks like he's heading towards Sector J right now!"
"I don't think we've been to that sector yet, considering we only cleaned about seven sectors before we got pulled into fighting that Rez thing," Bridget stated.
"I'll lead the way," Sophia proclaimed, shifting out of battle mode and dashing off, the spies and RiCO not too far behind.
"Lead the way, then," Mat remarked.
Nick and Klee got their psychic powers ready in case of any surprise attacks.
"I hope this 'Sector J' isn't as trippy as the other sectors in this datascape," Nozomi stated, referring to the last time they came here.
"Tell me about it," Haruka added, remembering back to that particular mission.
"Must've been pretty wild," Blaine commented.
"'Wild' is only the tip of the iceberg, Blaine," Alex told him.
"I'll second that," Britney added.
"That's one of the missions we try to forget about, ESPECIALLY the first time against Lady Dragon!" Clover exclaimed.
"I was kidnapped into one of Lady Dragon's wacko games," Alex clarified to Klee and Britney.
"That's awful!" Klee exclaimed.
Sam and Clover surely remembered when Lady Dragon captured them as well and had joined Alex in a water-skiing game, but Sam remembered the way to get out was through a silver jumpsuit for Alex.
"Credit Sammy's quick thinking to get us outta THAT jam," Clover quipped.
"And you wonder why I love this girl," Mat laughed.
"Aw, you," Sam giggled, leaning over to kiss Mat.
"Of course," May chuckled at Mat's clever statement.
"As far as CHAD goes, I never thought we'd see him... or it... again," Alex stated.
"Right," Nick replied.
"And I can't believe Adam's likely in trouble again..." Alex added. (A/N: Remember S1's Silicon Valley Girls?)
"We'll certainly have our hands full to get Adam to listen to reason again," Melissa quipped.
"Should some of us exit out of the datascape and try to find Adam to try to save him if he is in danger?" Mat wondered. "Or does Jerry have that covered?"
"I already forwarded a message to Jerry," RiCO replied. "He's checking on the matter right now, actually."
"Nice thinking, RiCO," Nick replied.
"Thank you, I try," RiCO giggled.
"Then so be it," Britney quipped.
"We'll have to check in with him a little later," Sam pointed out.
"I second that," Haruka quipped.
The spies then followed Sophia and RiCO deeper into Sector J.
"It's... a black hole?" Alex asked.
"Oh, that's just a background effect," RiCO quipped. "Sector J likes to get really trippy, even if it's very easy to navigate."
"Cyberspace, we meet again," Nick replied. "This place kinda reminds me of a 'final boss room' in some RPGs I've played. They usually like to make the arena very trippy and out-of-this-world when it's time for the final battle."
"Not to mention cyberspace is almost like virtual reality," Bridget pointed out. "Anything's possible!"
"That's a valid point," May quipped.
A while later, Sam's X-Powder went off, and she answered it.
"Spies," Jerry remarked as his visage appeared. "I have an update on Adam's whereabouts..."
"You do?" Mat asked. "Well, come on, Jer, tell us!"
"It turns out that Adam did not recreate CHAD of his own choosing," Jerry explained. "He had recently moved to a new home in Silicon Valley, only to be accosted by Lady Dragon after her most recent escape."
"Is he safe right now?" Clover asked.
"A few of my agents are in the process of bringing him to W.O.O.H.P. as we speak," Jerry continued. "This way, he will be safe."
"Are you sure he'll be safe at W.O.O.H.P., Jerry?" Sam wondered. "I mean, if Lady Dragon's already here in the datascape, what's stopping her from getting out?"
"Already thought ahead, Sam," RiCO answered, waving her hand to open up a diagram of the datascape. "Jerry and I temporarily sealed off the gateway into the datascape so Lady Dragon can't get out. Once we've captured her and deleted CHAD, I'll reopen it so we can head back home."
"Once again, RiCO pulls through!" May proclaimed. RiCO couldn't help but blush at that.
"Any sign of our resident superbads, Sophia?" Alex asked.
Sophia glanced around before pointing to the west. "That way!" Sophia exclaimed.
The spies followed Sophia's directions to a more city-like area of Sector J, where they found CHAD smashing through a nearby building with Lady Dragon gleefully watching the destruction.
"Hey, Lady Flop!" Nozomi shouted, catching the two villains' attention. "You wanna stop inflicting unnecessary property damage?!"
"I tend to forget how stubborn you all are," Lady Dragon proclaimed as she and CHAD turned around to face the spies. "But that train wreck ends right here and now, you know."
"Oh, and why is that?" Britney wondered.
"Simple, my lovelies," CHAD laughed. "Now that I am strong enough thanks to Adam's skills and Lady Dragon's additions, I can break out of this wretched cybernetic prison and wreak all the havoc I want in the real world!"
"You wouldn't dare," Nick growled, his psychic aura flaring to life around him.
"Sad, but true," Lady Dragon cackled. "And now, we wash our hands of you!"
Lady Dragon dramatically pushed a button on her wrist device...
...only for nothing to happen.
"W-what?" Lady Dragon gasped, pressing the button multiple times. "Open up, you damn digital doorway!"
"Oh, is your door locked?" RiCO taunted. "So sorry, but Jerry closed up the gateways out of here, and they're only going to open back up when you're in a bubble and your virus friend is nothing but stray code."
"You seem to have an answer for everything, don't you?!" Lady Dragon exclaimed.
"Because we're agents of W.O.O.H.P.!" Alex proclaimed. "We're practically required to have an answer for everything."
While this was going on, Sophia shifted into battle mode and swung her yo-yos in such a way that they stretched out far enough to knock down both Lady Dragon and CHAD with a well-placed wide swing.
"Oh, now you're hurting my feelings, spies," CHAD cackled, leaping into the air and landing in the center of the group, his stomp creating a large shockwave that forced the spies to dodge away from it. This gave CHAD an opportunity to snatch Alex out of the air mid-dodge. "Now, how about you all just stay put, or I crush this one into so much fine code. And I don't think you want that."
Nick simply raised his hands in response, and when CHAD thought he was surrendering and loosened his grip on Alex, Nick snapped his fingers, causing a bubble of golden light to expand outward from his hand and cover everything nearby, freezing time for everything inside the bubble but him.
Naturally, Nick took this opportunity to charge in and wrench CHAD's claws off of Alex, then bring her back to the group. Nick snapped his fingers again to undo the time freeze, then blasted CHAD in the face with a Final Shine Attack.
"Grabby claws off of my girlfriend, buster," Nick taunted. "That's the only warning you're getting."
"Does anyone have any ideas how we can take this virus boy down for good?" Bridget quipped as she transformed into Sonic Mode. "Because, considering this guy is an AI and not a full-on virus, I don't it's gonna be as easy as 'expose viral core, delete core, boom goes the virus'."
"I'd probably need a piece of CHAD to send back to Jerry's data centers so he can analyze it," RiCO admitted.
"Then let papa and me take care of that for you," Klee proclaimed, her own psychic aura flaring to life as she took off into the air to assist Nick.
Bridget charged forward, using her lightning speed to land a good few hits on CHAD and distract him so that he couldn't defend himself from Nick and Klee taking psychic potshots on him from the air.
"Stand still, you meddlers!" CHAD exclaimed, pounding the ground in order to keep his attackers away. This gave Nick and Klee a chance to form psychic blades on their hands and slash CHAD across the back, actually carving a few pieces off of him. Even though the wound in CHAD's back quickly regenerated, Nick and Klee scooped up the pieces they'd cut off and flew back to the group.
"Got something for you, RiCO!" Klee proclaimed, handing off the pieces they'd collected, which resembled black hexagons, so that RiCO could scan them and send them Jerry's way.
"You really think you've won?" Lady Dragon cackled.
"Um, we're kinda kicking your keesters," Alex retorted. "So, I dunno, you tell me."
"We're not even close to the full realization of our grand scheme yet," Lady Dragon proclaimed. "Trapping me in this cybernetic world won't stop my plan from being fulfilled. And I assure you, once it's come to fruition, you'll never see it coming."
CHAD walked over to hoist Lady Dragon onto his shoulder before marching off. "I guess this can be considered a draw for now," CHAD laughed as the two villains disappeared. "Next time, I'll be stronger, and you won't be so fortunate."
"Why do they always do that?" Haruka groaned. "I mean, I know rule seven's a thing, but why does every villain we come across have to abuse that rule like it's going out of style?"
"Guess it's just a general villain thing," Nick answered. "You'd think they'd get a clue by now that their arrogance is nearly always what brings them down in the end."
"Say, I was wondering something," Melissa asked. "How exactly did Sophia get here? I mean, Japan's a long way from Beverly Hills, even through cyberspace."
"International travel is not as troublesome for AI like us," Sophia answered as she changed out of battle mode. "The Japanese branch sent me through an email file to this datascape."
"The way you said 'this' datascape makes it sound like Japanese W.O.O.H.P. has one, too," May quipped.
"Naturally," Sophia giggled. "We have some advanced anti-virus software keeping the Japanese branch's datascape clean while I'm here training with RiCO."
"Honestly, it sounds like the Japanese branch was inspired by all the cool stuff that RiCO's done and wanted to emulate that," Nozomi stated. "That's the vibe I'm getting, at any rate."
"Getting back to the task at hand, does anyone know where our pair o' punks vacated to?" Dawn asked.
"From what my data screen tells me, they're heading off to Sector H," RiCO proclaimed. "That's another of the three sectors we didn't get to visit last time you all were in the datascape."
"Well, then let's get a move on, everybody!" Alex exclaimed.
"Yeah, I seriously wanna bash that CHAD thing with my anchor," May quipped. "I haven't been able to use that today, since good ol' Sophia's been stealing the whole show!"
"They won't get far," Sophia proclaimed. "With RiCO and I tracking them down, we'll find them and then you can wail on them with your anchor, May."
"Sounds like a plan," Nick stated. "All right, everybody, let's head out!"
To be continued...
On the next episode...
Alex: Okay, I was not expecting Sector H to look like this.
RiCO: ...that's because it's not.
Nick: And I'm pretty sure I know the reason for that.
Lady Dragon: Aw, how'd you figure me out so quickly?
Bridget: Save the dumb speeches, Lady Lizard! You know we're not gonna stop pursuing you until we take you down!
Lady Dragon: Like I haven't heard that one before. CHAD, you know what to do.
CHAD: Oh, yes.
Sam: ...what?! MAT!
Nick: Oh, that is it, you virtual vixen! Now you're gonna pay dearly for that, next time on Totally Spies: Artificial Insanity, "The AI and Its Heart"!
Sophia: Um... I do not understand this pun. Is it supposed to be a play on my nature?
May: Now the scriptwriter's even making Sophia say stupid puns?! All right, that's about all I can stand, excuse me.
Mat: May, I don't think he needs a concussion! ...May?
Nick: I'll go stop her.