On Today's Episode: While Melissa and Dawn handle the rampaging Lady Dragon in the real world, the rest of the spies still in the datascape are ready to face off with CHAD one last time. Armed with Adam's multi-agent program, RiCO's anti-virus powers, and Sophia's superior yo-yo skills, it's going to be one impressive final battle. But what other tricks does CHAD still have up his sleeve, and can he actually be stopped?
Episode 3: You Are Stronger
10:17 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape, Sector F
"Found you, virus boy!" Nozomi exclaimed as the spies, sans Melissa and Dawn who had returned to W.O.O.H.P. to stop Lady Dragon, approached CHAD in his attempts to destroy the buildings of Sector F.
"You know, why am I not surprised that you all followed me here?" CHAD chuckled.
"Well, you're a malevolent AI-virus-program mutant thing that's trying to destroy the datascape thanks to the whims of some whacked-in-the-head game designer," Bridget proclaimed as she transformed into Sonic Mode. "Us stopping you is obvious."
"Just give it up, CHAD," Nick challenged, his aura flaring to life around him. "There's nowhere left for you to run!"
CHAD turned to face the spies, his facial expression speaking volumes. "Oh, who said I was running?" CHAD laughed.
It was then that RiCO noticed that something seemed different about CHAD, so she double-checked her data screens just to be sure.
"Stay on guard, everyone," RiCO stated. "Something doesn't seem right."
Sophia shifted into battle mode, twirling her yo-yos in intimidation. "I hope you're ready to be deleted, CHAD!" Sophia shouted.
In response, CHAD's smile grew even wider as he crossed his arms over his chest. What appeared to be viral material began to spread out from his chest across his body.
"Those are some big, bold words, little program," CHAD proclaimed. "You can talk the talk, but let's see if you can walk the walk!"
("Last Surprise –Strikers ver.-" by Lyn plays)
CHAD threw his arms out and viral material began to surge around his body with such pressure that it forced the spies to take a step back so they wouldn't get caught in it.
Alex was the first to catch a glimpse of the monstrous form that CHAD had become, namely a towering, silver-white humanoid figure without a head. Instead, it had a pair of wings resembling a moth's antennae on top of where his head should be, also sporting red bio-organic features instead of mechanical or digital ones, those being a spinal-cord like waist and tendons jutting out from his shoulders. CHAD now had six arms, resembling human arms, each one holding a staff pointing upwards on a pair of extra appendages, which were seemingly connected by the aforementioned tendons. Plastered directly on this creature's chest was CHAD's vile face, an evil smile directed at the spies.
"...wh-what the heck did he just transform into?!" Alex gasped.
"I don't care what you turn into, CHAD, we're still going to stomp you down like all the rest of them!" Nick exclaimed.
"IS THAT A FACT?!" CHAD's voice bellowed. "I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY NOW, YOU WRETCHED MEDDLERS!"
Sophia simply twirled her yo-yos in preparation. "That's the plan," Sophia giggled.
"Truer words have never been spoken, Sophia," RiCO quipped. "All right, everyone, let's delete this creep!"
"Couldn't have said it better," Klee remarked.
As it turned out, May, Mat, Sam, Britney, and Blaine went back out of the datascape to fend off Lady Dragon's attack.
"We can take you now," Nick told CHAD.
"It'll be over for you soon," Clover added.
"Try look... it's eleven against two!" Alex exclaimed.
"DOESN'T MATTER NOW," CHAD cackled. "I WAS CLOSE TO BEATING YOU UNTIL MY CREATOR INTERVENED."
"And we've got tricks up our sleeves to take you out!" Bridget remarked. "Sonic Mode, online!"
Bridget immediately dashed forward to attack, actually jumping onto and running up CHAD's body so she could jump, avoid a swing from CHAD's many staffs, and punch the rogue virus in its face with her Metal Masher Boxing Glove. (Since CHAD's current form didn't actually have a head, this meant she actually punched it in the chest, where CHAD's face was.)
"Love this thing!" Bridget laughed.
"Good moves, Bridget!" Nick commended.
"We'll add to the fun!" Melissa exclaimed.
"I'm behind ya!" Dawn added to Melissa.
"YOU'RE FOOLS IF YOU THINK YOU CAN STOP ME AS I AM NOW!" CHAD bellowed as he swung his staffs towards Melissa and Dawn, who dodged in different directions.
Melissa brought out a Helicopter Hand Fan and started it up just as Dawn ran up to join her, the two flying around CHAD faster than he could turn in his new form.
"Suck on this, code creep!" Dawn shouted as both she and Melissa fired their Wind Tunnel 9000s towards CHAD's chest, causing him to stumble backwards.
"When do you wanna team up, Nick?" Alex asked.
"I thought you'd never ask," Nick quipped.
Nick stepped closer and wrapped his arms around Alex's waist so Nick could ferry them both into the air.
While Dawn and Melissa were keeping CHAD busy, Nick raised his hand to charge up a Final Shine Attack while Alex whipped out a Cyclone Blast Hairdryer.
"STAND STILL SO I CAN DELETE YOU!" CHAD shouted, swiping at Dawn and Melissa and actually forcing them to return to the ground.
"I think that's our line, buddy!" Alex shouted as Nick fired a Final Shine Attack, Alex firing her Cyclone Blast Hairdryer to add some oomph to it. The blast struck true, colliding with CHAD's chest-face and exploding, driving the rogue virus to the ground.
As CHAD picked himself, Nick suddenly noticed that part of CHAD's chest was slower to regenerate, showing what appeared to be his bare digital skeleton.
"That must be his code," Nick stated. "Adam did say that we have to expose enough of his bare code so that RiCO can end him..."
Sophia tried to help out Nick and Alex with her trusty yo-yo attack as well.
"Take these!" Sophia exclaimed. "It's like food, YOU NEED IT!"
RiCO even scanned CHAD for any weaknesses.
"See anything?" Haruka asked RiCO.
"I do," RiCO replied.
"Geez, if we had RiCO's help, we might've had an easier go of things the first time around," Clover commented.
"I won't disagree there," Alex quipped.
"THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU'RE GOING TO DEFEAT ME THIS TIME!" CHAD exclaimed, raising two of his staffs to unleash a large lightning blast that struck the ground near the spies and exploded outwards into a large shockwave, forcing everyone nearby to move.
"Oh, we'll see about that," Sophia giggled as CHAD unleashed another lightning blast straight for her. Despite the spies' worries, Sophia swung her yo-yos around her, creating a data barrier that absorbed the lightning blast.
CHAD decided to get up close and personal this time, but for each attack he made with his staffs, Sophia seemed to have an answer for it, perfectly countering each swipe with a well-timed yo-yo swing.
"What was that you said?" Sophia taunted.
11:21 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters (Jerry's Office)
"I think I now realize the difference between Nick and Corvus," Sam stated.
"Uh-huh," Mat replied in agreement.
As it turned out, Lady Dragon had created a backup gadget of her own similar to the Sapphire Hologram Pendant.
"Unbelievable!" May exclaimed. "You'd put in a fake knockoff of Lady Dragon?!"
"To be fair, May," Jerry proclaimed. "Nobody would've guessed she'd go this route..."
"True that," Mat replied. "Anybody could've been fooled."
"Uh-huh," Blaine replied with a nod.
"Yes, this Lady Dragon has certainly proven to be a challenge," Keiko commented, keeping Kana safe for Mat and Sam until they could come.
"I'll keep Kana safe for a while," Mat remarked.
"Never doubt Jerry after before, too," Sam quipped.
"Now you're gonna get it, Lady Dragon!" Britney proclaimed.
"Oh, we'll definitely see about that," Lady Dragon cackled as she and her holograms advanced. "I guess I'm actually grateful for that cloak guy knocking me out of the datascape, because now I get to take over W.O.O.H.P. while the rest of you wretches are fighting for your life!"
"Not as long as we're here!" May shot back, pressing the main button on her Emergency Gadget Transporter to summon her anchor to her hands. "Now back off unless you want a beating."
"You don't have the guts, little pirate girl," Lady Dragon laughed, only to take a step back when May swung her anchor.
"You were saying?" May shot back.
Sam and Mat rushed in to attack, slamming their elbows into Lady Dragon from both sides and causing her holograms to fizzle out. They then landed four rapid attacks in perfect sync with each other before knocking Lady Dragon into the air with an upward kick. Britney joined in the fun by jumping after Lady Dragon and sending her crashing back to the ground with a two-fisted overhead smash.
Blaine was immediately on the move, dashing over and handcuffing Lady Dragon before she could get up and retaliate.
"Sorry, Lady Loser, but, well, you lose. Again," Blaine laughed. "Should have thought twice before recycling an old scheme."
Blaine yanked Lady Dragon to her feet and started escorting her out of the office. "I'll take her to the containment facility, Jerry," Blaine stated.
"That was amazing, mama!" Kana exclaimed as she ran up to hug Sam and Mat now that the battle was over. "You and papa really kicked her butt!"
"That we did, Kana," Mat laughed.
As the spies, Jerry, and Keiko turned back to watch the end of the battle with CHAD, no one, not even Blaine, noticed Lady Dragon's wicked grin.
11:46 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P Datascape, Sector F
"Why won't you just de-fragment already?!" Haruka shouted as she dodged another spinning staff attack from CHAD. "We have other things we should be doing!"
"NOT WHEN I'M SO CLOSE!" CHAD exclaimed, raising all six of his staffs and charging them with viral energy. "YOU WILL NOT BE LEAVING THIS DATASCAPE ALIVE!"
"Oh, that doesn't look pleasant," Bridget proclaimed. "Any ideas, everyone?"
RiCO quickly scanned for any weaknesses they could exploit, but then her eyes caught something.
CHAD was staying where he was, no doubt because of the charge time for this attack.
And she could see part of his code from a hole in his lower chest that hadn't regenerated completely.
"Nick, can you keep CHAD distracted?" RiCO asked. "I think I see my opportunity to take this creep down."
"All over it, RiCO," Nick responded, dashing over to CHAD to give RiCO the time she needed.
"WHAT'S THE MATTER, BOY? ARE YOU READY TO SUCCUMB TO YOUR FATE?!" CHAD laughed as he turned towards Nick while still charging his attack...
...and exposing his code to RiCO.
"Oh, I could say the same about you," Nick teased.
"WRETCHED BOY, YOU WILL BE THE FIRST TO BE DESTROYED!" CHAD bellowed, aiming his staffs towards Nick, only to be frozen in place when Nick ensnared him in his psychic hold.
Even so, the others could see that Nick was visibly struggling to keep CHAD in his psychic grip, most likely because of how gigantic CHAD had become.
"I don't know how long I can hold him here!" Nick shouted. "RiCO, hurry and re-format this bastard!"
"Roger!" RiCO proclaimed, aiming the device Adam had given her towards the hole in CHAD's side. Rings of data began to swirl around the device as RiCO prepared herself, knowing she'd likely only get one shot at this.
Lightning began to crackle around the device's antenna as it charged up, and after a few seconds, RiCO took her shot, firing a giant red beam of light from the device and straight into the hole on CHAD's side.
A second later, CHAD finally broke out of Nick's psychic hold and turned threateningly towards RiCO, his face breaking into a sinister sneer.
"AND JUST WHAT WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO DO?" CHAD laughed.
RiCO just winked. "Wait for it."
CHAD decided not to, and marched towards RiCO and the spies...
...only to lurch forward, his sinister sneer replaced by a pained look of agony.
"W-WHAT?! WHAT DID YOU DO?!" CHAD shouted, his voice growing more tinny and distorted by the second as he slumped to his knees. From this vantage point, the rest of the spies could see that the hole in CHAD's chest was growing larger and more gruesome-looking, no doubt thanks to Adam's multi-agent program eating away at him from the inside out.
"T-THE MULTI-AGENT PROGRAM," CHAD gasped. "OH, ADAM, YOU SON OF A..."
CHAD's curse was cut short as the multi-agent program took full effect, dissolving CHAD completely within just ten seconds. Nothing was left of the malevolent virus once it was over.
"Wow," Bridget quipped. "What a way to go."
"Hey, as long as it gets rid of him, that's good enough for me!" Nozomi proclaimed.
"Magnificent show, everyone," Jerry proclaimed as RiCO opened a data screen to show the headquarters office. "Lady Dragon has just been taken to the containment facility by Blaine."
"So, I guess we can call this a 'mission complete', huh?" Melissa asked.
"You can all come back now," Jerry stated. "RiCO, if you will?"
"Got it," RiCO responded, waving her free hand to open a gateway that would lead back to the real world. "Well, guess it's gonna be just you and me for a while, huh, Sophia?"
"You promised you'd take me on a tour of the rest of your datascape, right?" Sophia wondered.
"Hey, a promise is a promise," RiCO laughed.
As the spies all walked into the gateway, Mat chatting excitedly about his upcoming Motocross race, Nick stopped just short of the gateway.
Something didn't seem right.
Just as he was about to turn back to the gateway and relay his thoughts to the others...
...the gateway had disappeared.
"W-wait, what just happened?" Nick gasped. As of this moment, it was just himself, RiCO, and Sophia in the datascape, as the rest of the spies had returned to the real world.
"Um, Nick, we have a problem," RiCO proclaimed, checking her data screens. "I'm detecting viral activity really close by. It doesn't seem too strong, but it's definitely concerning, considering..."
Nick prepared himself for a fight, only to see something very unexpected.
A small cloud of dark viral material was floating just above the ground nearby.
Right where CHAD had been destroyed.
"Wait, is that...?!" Nick exclaimed.
"I think so," RiCO replied. "I can still read CHAD's code in that cloud, but... here's the thing. It doesn't appear to be sentient like CHAD was..."
"You think he had a backup plan or something?" Sophia asked.
"Whatever cloud thing is, let's just wipe it out before it causes any problems," Nick proclaimed, his psychic aura flaring back to life.
In retrospect, Nick wished he'd reacted faster.
The cloud pulsed twice before flying forward incredibly fast, but instead of attacking either RiCO or Nick, it went straight for Sophia, absorbing itself into her body.
Before Nick or RiCO could approach, Sophia suddenly began clutching her stomach and crying out in pain.
"Hey, Nick, what's happening in there?" Alex asked. "I'm surprised you didn't make the jump yet."
"Maybe he wanted to say goodbye to Sophia for now," Mat quipped.
Almost as if fate had been listening, Sophia screamed in agony as a vortex of viral material erupted around her, carrying her prone body into the air with it.
"Um, you guys, I don't think that's a farewell handshake," May proclaimed. "What's going on, Nick?!"
When the vortex of viral energy finally cleared, Sophia slowly floated down to the ground. Though she didn't appear to have changed in appearance, her different posture indicated that something appeared to have gone wrong.
And when she looked at Nick and RiCO, her green eyes now a piercing shade of red, they knew what had happened.
"You wanna explain yourself, CHAD?!" Nick shouted. "Was this your plan all along?!"
"Oh, but of course," Sophia responded, talking in a mixture of CHAD's voice and her own voice. "I deliberately left behind a small piece of myself before you deleted me, on Lady Dragon's orders. Consider this my trump card in case I fell at your hands."
"You monster! What exactly do you intend to do with Sophia?!" RiCO growled.
"Oh, I think that should be obvious," Sophia laughed. "I'm going to use this girl to destroy you and your precious datascape! So I hope you're ready for an appointment with hell, because THAT'S WHERE I'M SENDING YOU!"
Sophia shifted into battle mode, only instead of her blue LED eyes, her mask now displayed the black-and-red eyes of CHAD, and her yo-yos now sported wickedly-sharp blades all around them. The area around them transformed into a large, open area with a multi-colored black hole in the background.
"Nick, what happened in there?!" Sam asked. "Why is the gateway into the datascape locked?!"
"CHAD left behind a piece of himself and possessed Sophia," RiCO explained. "And apparently, I can't open the gateway back right now, so it looks like it's gonna be just me and Nick for this one."
"You should have enough of the multi-agent program left," Adam stated.
"Absolutely not, Adam!" RiCO immediately countered, surprising Adam. "That's going to destroy Sophia if I use it on her! I intend to save her."
"We just have to find a way to force CHAD's remnant out of her, then delete that before it tries anything else," Nick responded. "I'm with you, RiCO. Let's get humanity's companion back."
"Roger that," RiCO proclaimed, her and Nick shifting into battle stances as the possessed Sophia approached them.
"I hope Adam's right," Alex remarked from outside the datascape.
"Jerry, isn't there any way to open the datascape back up?!" Sam wondered.
"We're trying to," Jerry replied.
"But it appears that Lady Dragon and CHAD sealed the entryway after you left," Adam concluded.
"We're trying our best to get you back in," Keiko went on.
"We can't just sit back and watch, can we?!" Clover chastised as Blaine returned, overhearing her.
"Sit back and watch what?" Blaine wondered.
He got a look and noticed Nick still in the datascape and about to battle with Sophia.
"What the hell's goin' on?!" Blaine chastised. "We gotta get in there!"
"We can't!" Nozomi exclaimed.
"The datascape's sealed off," May explained.
"I'm afraid we can't unseal it," Keiko replied, completely discouraged.
"So, it's up to Nick then," Haruka commented.
"I'm afraid it is," Klee replied, a little worried for her future dad.
"I think Nick can take CHAD though," Mat added, then got a look in the datascape again. "Oh, I think CHAD got into Sophia..."
Adam and Jerry tried to intercept the firewall and allow the datascape to open, but CHAD happened to sense it and blocked their access.
"Is there any way we can get him out?" Kana wondered.
"I guess Nick's gonna have to defeat CHAD or get him out of Sophia," Mat deduced.
Back in the datascape, Nick and RiCO faced down the brainwashed Sophia courtesy of CHAD.
"Your trump card may have taken us by surprise," Nick told CHAD. "But that DOESN'T mean YOU WIN!"
CHAD just cackled in total overconfidence in Sophia's body.
"And we'll be taking Sophia back, too!" RiCO exclaimed.
"Considering how 'badass' you say she is, I highly doubt you're going to do much good!" Sophia shouted as she rushed in to attack, her yo-yos now leaving a trail of viral energy as she swung them around.
RiCO rolled under a yo-yo strike and blasted Sophia backwards with an anti-virus pulse.
"Maybe, but you forgot one specific thing," RiCO retorted.
"Oh, and what's that?" Sophia challenged, lunging forward with a yo-yo spiral.
To Sophia's surprise, RiCO easily dodged the attack.
"All of those 'badass' yo-yo moves you're forcing Sophia to use against us? I taught Sophia those moves, dipwad," RiCO retorted as she began to duel with the possessed Sophia, matching her yo-yo strikes blow for blow.
Sophia attempted an overhead slice, but RiCO quickly rolled to the left and blasted Sophia in the back with another anti-viral beam, hoping to weaken CHAD's defenses enough to force him out.
Nick stood there while RiCO and Sophia fought, waiting for his moment to strike.
"For a sentient AI virus thing, you're not very smart if you keep using the same moves on me," RiCO quipped. "You wanna maybe try something different?"
RiCO jumped over another yo-yo spiral attack, only for the yo-yos to suddenly grow much larger.
"Well, then glad to oblige!" Sophia exclaimed, raising the yo-yos to smash them down onto RiCO.
"Oh, crapbaskets!" RiCO gasped.
Just before the giant yo-yos could crush her, Nick flew in front of her and kicked the yo-yos away.
"You were saying, CHAD?" Nick taunted, blasting Sophia backwards with a Final Shine Attack to give him and RiCO some breathing room. "All right, RiCO, what's the plan here?"
"I just need to weaken Sophia's current defenses, and that should give me an opening to force CHAD out of her," RiCO stated. "Once he's out of her, he's as good as deleted."
"You're going to have to try harder than that!" Sophia exclaimed as she rushed forward, the eyes of CHAD on her mask glowing with an evil-looking red light. Before Nick could retaliate, Sophia's mask fired a beam of that same evil red energy, striking Nick in the chest and knocking him to the ground.
Sophia quickly took advantage, pouncing on Nick and holding one of her bladed yo-yos towards his throat.
"How fortuitous," Sophia cackled. "Now that I have you at my mercy, there's nothing to stop me from separating your head from your shoulders. And in a world where you won't even leave a body behind! I told you that you had an appointment with hell, and I'll be gracious enough to send you there myself!"
Sophia swung her bladed yo-yo straight for Nick...
...only for the yo-yo to stop inches from Nick's throat.
Nick chanced a glance upwards, and he saw that Sophia's mask was now flickering back and forth between her own blue LED eyes and the evil red eyes of CHAD.
Almost as if she was fighting back.
"S-Stop..." Sophia gasped, her voice back to normal.
"It's pointless to fight me, girl!" CHAD proclaimed.
"I... I don't want to... hurt my friends..." Sophia responded, stepping backwards and clutching her head, trying to regain control of herself.
"My dear AI, what do you think you've been doing for the past few minutes?" CHAD cackled. "Now please stop resisting me and kill the boy."
Sophia continued to move towards Nick, though she was struggling the entire way, not wanting to give in to CHAD's control.
"Come on, Sophia, snap out of it!" RiCO called out.
"Yeah, don't give in to mister smiley's crap!" Nick exclaimed.
"Please... you have to stop me..." Sophia gasped.
"I said stop interfering!" CHAD shouted, taking control back and slashing Sophia's yo-yo forward, the blade just barely touching Nick, leaving a small cut on his face.
However, even that tiny cut seemed to leave Sophia in a state of shock as she continued to fight for control of her body.
"It's a start," CHAD laughed. "Now please do that to his head, and... wait, what are you...?!"
"I SAID GET OUT OF MY BODY!" Sophia screamed, her body glowing a bright ruby-red and her CHAD-eye mask shattering as the light eventually forced CHAD's remains to leave her body.
Nick immediately raised his hands, catching the dark cloud in his psychic hold.
"That should do it!" Nick exclaimed. "Finish him off, RiCO!"
"You read my mind, Nick," RiCO responded, aiming her hand so she could unleash a massive flare of blue anti-viral light that enveloped the dark cloud, and with one final scream of disbelief, CHAD was fully deleted, the datascape returning to normal around them.
"Virus... eliminated," RiCO proclaimed.
"You okay, Sophia?" Nick asked as Sophia slowly picked herself up, her eyes back to their regular shade of green.
Nick definitely didn't expect Sophia to run over and hug him tightly.
"I'm sorry..." Sophia sobbed. "I... I didn't mean to hurt you..."
"Hey, don't worry about it," Nick responded as he returned Sophia's hug. "That mean ol' virus forced you to do it. And trust me, Sophia, I've had way worse than just a tiny cut on my face."
"We're just glad you're doing all right," RiCO answered.
"Hey, the gateway just unlocked!" Sam proclaimed.
"That must mean they pulled it off!" May exclaimed.
"Affirmative on that one, everybody," RiCO stated after activating her communicator. "CHAD has been completely deleted, Sophia is safe and sound, and everything's hunky-dory again."
"Marvelous performance, I must say," Jerry proclaimed. "You can head back now, Nick."
"Hey, Nick?" RiCO asked. "Thanks again for all your help."
"And thank you for not giving up on me," Sophia stated, walking up to give Nick another hug as the gateway to the real world opened up in front of them.
"I would never give up on my friends, Sophia," Nick proclaimed. "And that's a fact."
As Nick walked into the portal and returned home, Sophia couldn't help but smile at what Nick had said.
"We're... friends?" Sophia asked.
"If there's one thing that Nick's really good at, it's making friends," RiCO answered. "Now come on, I still have a tour to take you on."
Sophia nodded and followed RiCO towards the nearest sector.
10:59 A.M. – Malibu University, The Spies' Penthouse
Back at Mali-U, the spies enjoyed a night's sleep and breakfast before getting the weekend out of the way.
"So, what's this race, bro?" Nick asked Mat.
"The 2007 Glen Helen finale," Mat answered. "I'm SOOO excited because James Stewart IS NOT going to be the titlist, and it's between four guys – Mike Alessi, Andrew Short, Tim Ferry, and Grant Langston."
"Who's your money on?" Blaine wondered after he showed up.
"Well, Grant Langston has the momentum since he's won the last two races after Millville," Mat deduced. "So, my money's on him."
"I was surprised myself that Langston guy hadn't won a race up until two races ago," May commented.
"Totally," Haruka added while Mat got the TV set.
Coming into the final round, Yamaha's Grant Langston was in the driver's seat to take the 2007 Motocross title, and the first for Yamaha since former pro Doug Henry won back in 1998. Langston had used a pair of 2-1 performances to win the overalls at Steel City (Delmont, PA) and Freestone (Wortham, TX). It was the beginning of a charge for Langston, who after Washougal sat 6th in the series. Now, Langston was leading the series by eight points over Short. Calling the race were announcer Ralph Sheheen, 4-time Motocross champ Jeff Emig, and pit reporter Erin Bates.
The program began with a recap of the seasons for the four title contenders. Of the four title contenders, KTM's Alessi, and Honda's Short were the only two contenders yet to win an overall in the 2007 season; Kawasaki's Ferry had taken Washougal, but an 11th place at round 3 at Southwick hurt him. Since being tied with Short after Millville, Ferry's starts suffered terribly, and Short crashed in the second moto at Freestone to finish 5th for 3rd overall. Langston, who had won the last two events, had a 10th place at Lakewood as his worst finish of the 2007 season. As for Short, his worst finish was the Hangtown opener with a 7th overall.
"Well, let's see if Mat's right," Haruka commented.
The first moto highlights showed some good racing – even a one-off appearance from 2001 125 Motocross champ Mike Brown on a privateer Honda 450F. That cameo from Brown put a smile on Mat's face. Ferry had suffered another bad start, and crashed – along with Windham. Langston won the first moto; coupled with Short's 3rd place, Langston was now ahead by 13 points going into the final moto.
"Looks good for Langston so far," Mat replied.
"Here's hoping he can keep that momentum going," Nick responded.
"Yeah, that's such a pain when you lose that momentum when you really need it," Haruka quipped.
"Oh, could I tell you some track team stories," Bridget replied.
The second moto got under way with Mike Alessi getting the holeshot with Kevin Windham on his #14 Samsung Honda in 2nd place. Langston was running in 3rd, and Short was running in 4th; Tim Ferry got yet another bad start. It appeared the title chase was done until...
Ralph: ...oh, I like that. Well done. OH, down goes Alessi! Right out of the lead... and maybe out of the championship cause there goes Grant Langston.
Jeff: Oh, and that's SO disappointing for Mike Alessi! He was executing his game plan to a T here in the second moto...
The replay showed Alessi coming down Mount Saint Helens, only to grab a big handful of front brake, the front end twitched, and down he went. That gave the lead to Windham. Alessi's crash put him back to 3rd place.
"Oof," Alex gasped.
"Big oof," May quipped.
"Still think Langston's gonna win?" Britney asked Mat.
"Yep," Mat answered. "Once it's up to 10 or more, it's almost a done deal unless a mechanical happens – and it's happened before if you remember correctly..."
Nick was the first to remember the 2001 Steel City race that Mat showed them.
"Oh, yeah, that," Nick stated. "Well, it's like I say, you never know what's gonna happen until it happens."
Windham went unchallenged for the rest of the second moto, and Langston continued to run in 2nd place; Alessi even had a little fun of his own by doing a no-footer over one of the big tabletops, which took Jeff Emig by surprise.
Jeff: Nice little no-footer there. At first, I thought he made a little mistake – might've caught a rock with the front wheel, but I think at this point, he's actually having a pretty good time out there.
"Can't say I blame him," Alex commented.
"Try to have a little fun while you're at it," Nozomi quipped.
"If Langston wins this title, this should spell good news for Chad Reed in 2008," Mat replied.
"How do you figure?" Melissa wondered.
"Well, Emig did say on the Washougal broadcast was that the '07 Yamaha 450 'didn't turn – it wanted to go straight'," Mat answered. "Now, with Langston on the '08 YZ450, it certainly corners well; now, I almost see why Reed couldn't really challenge Stewart in Supercross this year."
"I'd like those odds myself," Klee commented.
Later in the moto, Langston let Alessi by for 2nd place.
At the checkers, it was Windham who won his second moto of the season to go along with winning the first moto at Unadilla (round 7). Windham ended up 3rd place overall for the day, and Alessi crossed in 2nd place, but the REAL winner was the man who crossed the line in 3rd: Grant Langston. Langston's 1-3 was enough to win the overall, and more importantly... the 2007 450cc Motocross Championship – Yamaha's first since Doug Henry in 1998.
Ralph: Here it is – checkered flag for Kevin Windham! He wins moto #2... should finish 3rd overall. Mike Alessi will be the next one across the line... finished 2nd – he'll finish 2nd in the championship, but Grant Langston and the factory Yamaha team are the best Motocross team of 2007! Grant Langston WINS the AMA Motocross Championship presented by FMF! The 2007 title is his with a 3rd place finish in moto #2!
Jeff: What a great feeling that is for Grant Langston and everyone around him – family, friends...
"Now THAT'S a season I wanted this year!" Mat grinned.
"I'll say," Clover remarked.
The final points standings showed Langston as the champion by 16 over Mike Alessi (439-423), but the emotion from Langston was completely priceless.
"How ironic the last rider to win a title before Carmichael came from South Africa," Dawn replied.
"Yep, Greg Albertyn," Mat replied. "Who cares if Ricky was racing 125s at the time (1999) – a title's a title!"
"Am I interrupting anything?"
Nick reached over for his X-Powder and saw that Sophia was on the screen.
"Well, the race just ended, so we've got some time to talk," Nick answered. "What's up, Sophia?"
"My training's complete, so that means I'm heading back to Japan now," Sophia responded. "But before I go, I wanted to say thank you to every single one of you for never giving up on me. It really means a lot more than you know."
"Hey, it's our pleasure, Sophia," May quipped. "We're friends, after all."
"And friends look out for each other," Alex replied. "Tell whoever created you that he or she did a wonderful job."
"Praise accepted," Sophia giggled as she hummed her tune again just before the screen cut out.
2:16 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape (Japanese Brach), Sector D
("You Are Stronger" by Lyn plays)
Sophia looked around her own datascape, restored to pristine condition after what CHAD had tried to do to it. She was still feeling very happy to have made a bunch of new friends.
After all, that was her entire prime directive, according to her creator, to be a friend and protector to humankind.
"I am Sophia," Sophia proclaimed. "Humanity's companion."
Totally Spies: Artificial Insanity
~The End~
Final Note from Mat49324: And with that, we complete Artificial Insanity. This was a fun one for sure, and a good introduction to a game I don't follow – the Persona games. Anyway, we hope you enjoyed this project. Stay tuned because coming up in the future is my next one-shot, which is titled Brit-surfing, and the title should be self-explanatory. For now, we're moving forward to our next project - #36. Another sports villain has come out of the shadows again – a S2 villain. Our next project is titled Sam-zibar Bound, and the title should provide a hint on whom that villain is. For now, here's The Blue Time Ranger if there's anything he'd like to say.
Final Note from The Blue Time Ranger: Why, yes, I have been playing a lot of Persona 5 Strikers lately, why do you ask?
In all seriousness, this was a fun one to write. Like I said in the beginning, way back when I first conceived this episode, the new AI partner was originally going to be based on Ritsu from Assassination Classroom, since I'd been (finally) watching the first season of the anime on Toonami. But as we got closer to this story, I got Persona 5 Strikers as a birthday present, and it introduced me to the precious AI bean that is Sophia. And that's why the roles for this story shifted. Yes, I absolutely love Sophia, and I hope I did my best to keep any possible Persona 5 Strikers spoilers to a minimum.
And with that out of the way, here's what's coming up next time on Totally Spies: The New Adventures. It seems like a certain coach from early season two of the original show is coming back, and he wants Sam and Alex to be part of his games... whether they want it or not. We'll see what his dastardly deeds are in Sam-zibar Bound, which will be posted by Mat. So, until next time, have a fantastic day, don't listen to the screeching morons, enjoy this preview of Sam-zibar Bound, and we'll see you next mission!
As he watched the citizens prancing about in their sport of choice, he glanced around at the facility he was currently in.
Yes, this would make a grand spot for his latest scheme.
After all, it had been a while since he'd tried anything.
But with the renovations going on at the W.O.O.H.P. Containment Facility, he'd been able to sneak out to prepare his plan.
The first step, he knew, was finding a way to get revenge on those three spies who had foiled his original plan.
Though he'd heard through the villain grapeline that Sam, Alex, and Clover had actually built up quite an impressive team since his last defeat, he wouldn't let that stop him, no matter what.
Rules for villains, number sixty-five: never cast doubt on your own plans, because then they'll fall apart quickly.
He glanced down at the jar strapped to his belt, which held a few of the bugs he'd used in his first scheme. Never hurt to be safe, right?
Soon enough, he was sure his new team would be the top dogs.
And revengeance would be his.
To be continued in Totally Spies: Sam-zibar Bound...