Operation: Filter Disaster
Summary:
People are hooked by beautifying filters from a certain application in their phones, and unbeknownst to them—the filter is not just a mere photo or social media post improver. B-Story: Winterfest is approaching and Lee has difficulties dealing with Tammy, who is nagging him to take her out to the dance! Set in three years after the second season, when the Clarks are all in High School.
The Amazing Spiez (c) Zodiak Kids Studios (was Marathon Media)
Another characters beside The Clarks aka OCs (c) me.
Finally, I decided to write for my favourite childhood cartoon due to the overwhelming nostalgia from these past weeks. English is not my first language, so, pardon me if the story has many grammatical and spelling errors!
An important reminder: This story sets in three years after the latest season, making Lee 17 years old and a High School junior (11th grade) while the rest of his siblings are in their sophomore (10th grade) and freshman (9th grade) years. I know that not all high schools in Canada include 9th grade, but for the sake of trying to not make any continuity errors from the original cartoon, I am making Southdale High to include 9th grade.
[ Somewhere, in a room, 01:20 P.M. ]
Someone is sitting by a multi-monitored computer, dragging the cursor to the corner of the taskbox in a document that they opened. A loading bar appears, moving along until it reaches 100%. The person's fingertips lay on the keyboard, pressing several letters until a tab for composing email opens.
They write the recipients' email silently, then pressing the caps lock to write the subject of the mail: BDF FINAL, USE AS YOU WANT.
A file was being attached before the person sent the email.
They reach for the smartphone beside the mouse, opening the camera and a grin in visible as they take a selfie.
[ Southdale High, 3:02 P.M. ]
"I can't believe this," says Lee, while picking up a post-it sticker from his locker door, "Tammy asked me out for the winterfest."
Upon hearing that, laughs are erupting from Megan, Marc and Tony. The only daughter of the Clarks sheds some tears.
"I thought she has moved on since your graduation in Middle School!" Megan comments, still wiping her tears from her excessive laughing.
"Then don't reject her," Tony holds his stomach, his voice is wavering as he tries hard to not laugh again, "... talk about DEDICATION." He says, mockingly.
"Oh, come on. Among all those girls, why is it her? Even Marc's nerdy lab partner is hundred times better!" Lee crumples the post-it before throwing it into the trash can. He eyes Marc after that. The 16 years old with the cobalt blue hoodie smiles at his brother apologetically.
"I already asked her while I was in the lab," Marc takes a deep breath, "and she already has a date for the Winterfest. If you have an intention to ask her—sorry, Lee. No chance, even … for me."
"Aah, poor Genius." Megan places a hand on the right shoulder of her twin brother, giving it a few light pats.
As Tony opens his mouth to talk about something, a girl with long blonde hair walks to the siblings. Tammy takes a few steps closer to Lee as she puts a strand of her hair to the back of her left ear. She smiles, widely, but Megan and the rest of the Clarks immediately think that the smile is rather eerie. Megan's eyes widen when she notices something … different … from Tammy. It is not her clothes, as she wears her usual buttoned-up lilac sleeveless shirt with blue denim capri pants and a pair of sneakers from a certain expensive sportswear brand. Not to mention the long gold necklace with a cat-shaped locket similar to her belt buckle that she usually wears back then in middle school.
It's from her face, or to be exact, side profile. Her jawline looks awfully sharp and the texture of her face is somewhat blurred with a likeness to when a modelling photographer touches up a photo. Megan knows well the difference between a caked-up face with makeup and a bare face, and Tammy's face is certainly polished with no products. Except for her lips and eyelids.
It seems flawless, yet unnatural.
But she keeps her mouth shut and she darts her eyes to Marc and Tony, hoping them to notice it also.
"Sooo, Lee, have you read the message I sent you…?" Tammy asks, cocking her head to the left while staring at Lee. The eldest Clark gulps, leaning his back onto his locker door.
"Which… message?" answers Lee, awkwardly. But he tries to make it still sound polite. He already knows Tammy for years, and he knows that making her throw a childlike tantrum because of his direct rejection is way worse than having to spend time with her to do some uninteresting activities like tutoring school subjects.
"Well, nevermind!"
Tammy's smile gradually fades. She reaches for her purple glitter resin-cased smartphone. The girl types something in a rather aggressive manner then smiles again.
Lee can feel some vibrations from his pocket as Tammy says, "You could answer that later but not so long, ok?! Like, A-S-A-P. Because I will wait for it from the moment I sent it. See you!" She tiptoes to match her height with Lee, then bops his nose using her right index finger. Before walking away, she glances at Megan, Marc, and Tony, looking at them with a visible dislike.
Over the course of three years, the rich girl is being less-mean compared to her attitude in their middle school days. Even Megan was invited to her party in her family's penthouse—although Tammy ignored her most of the time.
"Ew, barf." Tony commented.
"I think I'll get barfed for real upon reading the texts she sent me!" Lee opens his locker, taking his basketball shoe bag before closing it again.
"Guys, did you notice her … face?" Megan asks, zipping up her baby pink short jacket.
"Nu-uh." Her three siblings give the same response. Guess because they do not really think about girl's stuffs much.
Before Megan could explain, her locker opens, leaving a hollow space that was supposed to be the back of it. It stays like at instead of sucking and pulling them. Because the hallway is still filled with students that mostly walk to the front door or take their winter coats out of the rack near the entrance.
She looks around for several times until there are no students and school staffs left, taking a glance to look at the turned-off school CCTV before entering the hollow space beneath her locker. Her siblings follow her only to join their only sister to slide on metal sliders.
They land on the usual pink bean bag sofa as they hear Jerry talk to a pair of WOOHP employees in their darker-coloured spy uniforms. Noticing the Clarks' arrival, the boss turns his chair to face the pile of teenage siblings. "Afternoon, Spies."
The Clarks fix their positions to sit properly before responding to their boss' greetings. "Afternoon, Jer."
"So, what's up?" Marc asks, eyeing the pair that Jerry talked with before he arrives. One is a tall man with a deep green spy suit with a curtain haircut. The other is a girl with a similar fair skin complexion, upturned slanted eyes with greyish blue irises, and black hair. Only that she makes her hair into a plait that reaches her hips and she wears a deep dark aubergine spy suit. She also has a beauty mark dot below her right eye. Her height also reaches the male's ears. It seems that they are siblings due to their likeness in terms of facial features.
Marc also notices that their freezdisks and belts are black, unlike those on his and the rest of the Clarks' suits.
The british man smiles and presses something on his desk. The monitor behind changes from the usual blue W into several photos of a person with gradually changing faces. From normal, onto an unnaturally perfect shape until it bloats and full of blemishes. Megan gasps, "That's what I meant about Tammy's face!"
"Huh? I thought her face was just normal like everyday—like, yeah, I did not really think or pay attention to her that much unless her face transformed into… that?" Lee points at the bloated face while putting one hand to his pocket to stop his phone from vibrating.
"Our field agents across the branches gathered some datas about this… certain phenomena." Jerry presses a button, again, and the view of the monitor changes to several boxes containing pictures and explanations.
"According to a conclusion from several agents from the IT department, the source of this phenomena could be traced from a third-party and user submitted-feature to use on Pictag, a social media used mainly for posting photos."
"Now, to think about it… Pictag allows users to submit their own filters. Tammy is one of the most popular students in our school and it is obvious if she uses that platform often. So, the source of the phenomena is from filters in it," Megan rubs her index finger under her chin. "Maybe I won't ever search for any Pictag filters anymore to try on for fun after seeing this…"
"But, which filter? I never use filters on Pictag, but I know there are probably millions." Tony comments.
"Correct, Megan." Jerry changes the display on the monitor to the world map with many red dots spreading across the continents. "We could only track some basic datas including the usernames and locations of the creators, but we cannot decide yet who is the real perpetrator behind. There are many people who are the suspects because of their contribution in submitting filters, including the one in Canada—"
Several pictures pop up on the monitor from the highlighted area in Manitoba Province. In the Winnipeg area, two red dots pop up, showing a teenage blonde boy in a dark blue school uniform and a girl with heavy make up.
"That is my classmate!" The girl in a deep aubergine spy suit exclaims with her strange accent—it is like a mix of british and american english combined—then she closes her mouth with her palms. Her face reddens. "Sorry… boss."
Jerry clears his throat then fixes his tie, "That is okay, Charlotte. Now, back to the explanation. Our agents across the world are working to catch the perpetrator of this photo filter phenomena. For example, Sam, Alex, and Clover are on their way to investigate in the U.S. area. So do the other agents in their respective branches and areas of operations. For you, Spies, you must deal with the ones in your own province."
The monitor changes its display back to the normal blue W.
"For this occasion, I'd like you to team up with Charlotte." The british man points at the girl in a deep aubergine spy suit, now smiling timidly. "Charlotte and her brother Frederic just moved from the Java branch of WOOHP. Frederic would go to the other area to deal with this problem because he is a solo spy, leaving his sister to team up with you."
"The Winterfest accepts guests. Maybe I should ask her so that Tammy would stop calling me." Lee whispers to Tony as he checks his phone, only to see 14 missed calls from Tammy.
"Would our new teammate accept, though? You barely know her. Yeah, her looks are beyond okay…" Tony raises his eyebrows, "but who knows if she's more annoying than Tammy? I hope she's not, but, just to make sure."
Jerry looks at Frederic and gives him a nod as the young man walks to the other room. Charlotte walks up to the Clarks and says with a simper, "Just call me Lottie… pleased to meet you all. I already heard about you guys from Boss, although I already know about Marc since he's the smartest in WOOHP and Eddie just placed in the seventh place for the smartest. And Megan—you were the spy of the month in this branch."
"What about me…?" Lee asks.
"Yeah, what about us?" Tony echoes.
"Before Jerry told me, Eddie showed the database of the spies that work here. So… I already know you both too. Although not personally. … eh, and, am I talking too much? Sorry!" Lottie bows apologetically, "let's save the introduction session for later." She glances at Jerry.
After the Clark changes into their spy suits, Jerry transforms his table to display several gadgets. He picks up a strip of six white flat tablets. "You all will need this newest experiment from the WOOHP lab—Anti Mutation Milk Candies," he throws at Lee and the lad is catching it perfectly, "... to minimize any forced modification, transformation, mutation and manipulation from external forces to your bodies. It lasts for 14 days and the effect would apply to you approximately two hours after consumption."
"The all-lockpick paperclip. It could crack passwords and many types of security systems." Tony catches those little things that Jerry just threw and shares it to the others until they are getting one each. Lottie happily uses the paperclip as a hairpin.
Jerry points at an old mp3-like device and lets Megan pick it up, "The Device of Disguise. The lite and more convenient version of the similar-functioning device with sombrero hat. With 8500 and more outfits to wear from its database. Including the hairdo and make up."
"Device duplicating bracelet, if you need to sneakily collect the data of things from as small as a nano memory card to the things that are as big as a tablet PC." Marc grabs the device and slides it to his wrist.
"Last but not least, a pair of recording earring." Lottie puts the gadget on both of her earlobes upon receiving.
The monitor on Jerry's back then rises, displaying the garage of the vehicle that the spies would ride to investigate: a superjet that the Clarks usually ride on their missions since they were in middle school.
"Good luck, Spies! Good luck for your first mission in Canada, Charlotte."
The five teenagers hops into the jet. Lee immediately sit on his usual spot as a pilot. Marc beside him, being the co-pilot as usual. Lee flies the plane across the garage until it gets out from a waterfall, rather far away from the city.
"Jerry sent us some datas," Marc says, eyes looking at the display screen that shows the people that they should investigate first in Southdale.
"First, Robert Lapointe. A student from Southdale Academy—that private high school—which excels in informatical engineering. He made three filters for pictag and the usage traffic of one of his filters is incredibly high. The filter's name is Marmaladex, it makes people who uses it could take a picture as if they are being shone in the golden hour." Megan's fraternal twin explains.
Lottie steps up from her seat, her eyes gleam with confidence. "If we are really going to investigate him, let me do it."
"Then I am with you," Lee responds, still navigating the jet.
"Ahem. But it is my one and only chance to actually have a real mission with a fellow agent who is a girl and not my family!" Megan points at herself.
"I am … okay with anyone, though." Lottie says with a low voice.
"Sorry, Megan! But actually he wants to get to know that girl so that he could invite her into the Winterfest." Tony gets close to Megan and whispers at her.
"Oooh, reasonable, I guess? Okay, Lee. I'll navigate the jet while you and Lottie go." Megan peeks the window, observing the orange skies.
"I have a request," Lottie speaks, walking up in between Marc and Lee.
"Just tell us," Marc says, fixating his vision to the flying radar.
"Before we jump, could we fly higher and wait until the skies are dark? I am afraid the people around would hear the sound of our jet if we fly too close. As for the jump, I'll use parachute to minimize the noise before sneaking. And we maybe should land on the roof discreetly since we could make a trace on the snow."
"That sounds like something that we actually planned and would do. But it is okay. And one thing—we plan to abort the mission after this one is finished. Our family would look for us to have dinner." Lee grabs the steering wheel harder, "okay, Lottie, back to your seat, because the jet is going to climb."
TO BE CONTINUED
Phew! I can't believe that I am actually writing this. Maybe the tone of this fanfiction is more serious and technical from the other T.A.S. Fanfictions, it is because the siblings are growing up and they could not have the same childlike way of dealing with missions as spies, I think…
And I am still having difficulties in portraying the emotions of the characters because I do not write it using someone's perspective.
Rate and review, please? If one of you also want to be the beta reader, I will gladly accept because I am still learning to write in English. Once again, I am sorry for any grammatical and spelling mistakes. This is my first time to write in English.