10:37 A.M. – Somewhere in Beverly Hills
Momo hopped along the roofs of the buildings of downtown Beverly Hills, still glad she could jump around as well as she could before she'd fled her home planet. Finding herself on a different planet thankfully hadn't dulled her skills.
As she continued to hop across the rooftops, she thought back to her home planet, wondering if she was ever going to see it again.
Considering the way her father had been acting, she doubted she'd be going back any time soon. His misguided stubbornness was the whole reason she'd left in the first place, after all.
At least here, she had allies she could rely on if things ever got tough. Who would have thought the first Earthlings she'd run into would be welcoming of an off-worlder?
Then again, given what they had all been through in their lives, maybe aliens weren't such an off-the-wall concept anymore.
Momo continued to think of the rest of the family she'd left behind on her homeworld, her thoughts leaving her oblivious to the strange shadow that was approaching her.
When she did notice something off about the area, though, Momo skidded to a stop on one of the rooftops and extended her claws, ready to rip apart whatever was pursuing her.
Two small beacons flew to either side of her, and before Momo could make a move to slash them apart, they conducted electricity between them, shocking Momo into unconsciousness.
Someone stepped onto the roof and grinned at Momo's unconscious form.
"Ah, a splendid specimen."
(The pages constantly turn, no matter how long the reader takes. When one story ends, another story will inevitably start. In the end, there is only a new beginning.)
Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger are proud to present:
Totally Spies: The New Adventures
Episode 69: Close Encounters of the Freaky Kind
Story Rated: T for Teen
Story Created: November 4th, 2022
Story Summary: The ninety-sixth co-op project between Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger and episode sixty-nine of our mission-based series Totally Spies: The New Adventures. When a bunch of researchers are seemingly abducted by a flying UFO, it appears that Sagan Hawking has returned, and like every other baddie put away by the spies, she's come for revengeance. However, this caper is a little more complicated, because not only has Sagan captured Sam, Alex, and Clover with her latest unidentified flying thing-y, she's also captured Momo, who let her guard down while dealing with her own issues. So now the remaining spies have to track down Sagan and her alien spacecraft before it disappears into the reaches of space...
Author's Notes from Mat49324: Well, we got through with Future Frenzy, which took 10 of the spies to the future to stop 3 villains (James, Boogie Gus, and Corvus), which led to Corvus double-crossing them. That "reward" for stopping Corvus then came in the epilogue with Future Sam and Future Alex giving birth to their second babies. Anyway, we have another one lined up on the docket, which will deal with Miss Alien Lady, Sagan Hawking. That's all I'm saying here. For now, here's The Blue Time Ranger for anything he'd like to say.
Author's Notes from The Blue Time Ranger: It looks like everyone's favorite-in-massive-quotation-marks alien lady is back with another extraterrestrial scheme, and it somehow involves our guest star for the season, too! We're most likely gonna be getting some more backstory for Momo and why she's here, and I'm definitely fired up after dealing with James in the previous story, so let's reach for the stars! 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 or locations created by us truly for the story. 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?
Act 1: Is Anybody Out There?
11:25 A.M. – Malibu University
Nick and May's Dormitory
"Guess who's back with cookies?!" May proclaimed as she returned to the dorm room clutching another batch of Mrs. Appleseed's cookies. Nick could already feel his mouth watering in excitement.
"I bet you were in the line the instant her store opened today, right?" Nick quipped.
"Pretty much," May replied. "You know I would never miss a chance to nab some of these babies."
"Did Ami ever like to bake cookies like that?" Nick wondered, as May had told him that her friend Ami's own cookie recipe was to die for as well.
"Oh, her mom taught her really well," May answered. "I never did coax the secret recipe out of her, though..."
"It was probably one of those well-guarded family secret 'I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you' kind of secrets," Nick chuckled. "I know a lot of moms that were the same way."
"So, Nick, you ready for our practice rounds to actually get started?" May chuckled. She and Nick were once again preparing for a local Smash Bros. tournament that was coming up in a couple months.
Before Nick could answer that question, there was a knock on their dorm room door. Nick jogged over to open it and noticed a very concerned Mat standing there.
"Everything on the up-and-up, bro?" Nick wondered.
"Have either of you seen Sam today?" Mat asked. "It's been a couple hours since the last time I saw her."
"...you know, come to think of it, I haven't seen Clover at all today, either," May quipped. "And that's pretty odd, considering..."
Just then, Nick realized the hat trick, that he hadn't seen Alex since this morning, either.
Before he could vocalize that concern, however, he sensed something odd. Closing his eyes and focusing his senses, Nick used his psychic radar to try and pinpoint the source of the anomaly.
Nick slowly stepped out of the dorm room and headed through Mali-U with Mat and May following him.
Eventually, they left campus altogether, and Nick looked up into the sky at something that didn't seem to actually be there. Out of curiosity, Nick raised his right hand and fired a Final Shine Attack into the air, and the blast eventually collided with something and dissipated.
"Wait, what the heck did that hit?" Mat wondered.
"It seems like some kind of gigantic ship," Nick replied. "Kind of like... an alien spaceship."
"Oh, lordy, how much do you bet that means Sagan Hawking's back?" May groaned.
Suddenly, a small sci-fi drone flew down from the invisible alien spacecraft, stopping in front of the three spies and projecting a holographic screen from the craft's cockpit, where Sagan Hawking herself could be seen sneering at them.
"How ever did you guess that it was me?" Sagan taunted.
"Stow the corny jokes, lady," Nick retorted. "Do you, by any chance, have any hostages on board your ship?"
"Naturally," Sagan chuckled, moving her camera to show that Sam, Alex, and Clover were all trapped inside glass tubes in the cockpit room. "And you won't believe this, but I actually found a real-life, honest-to-god alien!"
Nick knew what Sagan meant before the camera turned, but his psychic aura still flared to life when he saw Momo trapped in another glass tube.
"Isn't she brilliant?" Sagan proclaimed.
"You'd better let them go this instant," May growled. "That includes Momo, too!"
"Oh, she's your friend? That's even better for me!" Sagan laughed. "Well, sorry to say you won't be getting them back. You're more than welcome to try, though. In the meantime, I have places to be. So, hasta la bye-bye, suckers!"
Nick quickly smashed the drone with a Final Shine Attack to cut off the video feed as the alien craft began to fly away from Beverly Hills.
"Well, this could be trouble," Mat stated. "What do you think we should do?"
"First, call the others and tell them to meet us at W.O.O.H.P.," Nick responded. "Second, let's get there on the double."
Mat put in the call to the remaining spies as he, Nick and May took off for W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters.
"Funny, I was looking for Clover at the same time," Blaine replied when Mat had put in the call.
"I guess some of us are in the same boat," Mat chuckled.
12:03 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters
Jerry's Office
"Oh? Spies, you walk in unexpectedly once again," Jerry commented.
"Yeah, Jer," Mat replied. "We've got a big problem – Sam, Clover, and Alex are missing!"
Jerry's attention suddenly perked at hearing that, and he immediately ran a trace of their X-Powders.
"Our W.O.O.H.P. satellites have pinpointed them..." Jerry replied, but he stopped when he looked at their location.
"Where are they at, Jer?" Haruka chastised.
"Sagan's craft was last spotted in New York City," Jerry proclaimed.
"All the way over there?!" Nick gasped. "What the heck's her game, really?"
RiCO materialized in Jerry's office with the spies' gadgets.
"We've already determined that Sagan Hawking is behind this," RiCO told the spy team.
"Her again?!" Nozomi chastised.
"I'm afraid so," RiCO replied.
"I've sent the coordinates to your X-Powders, spies," Jerry replied.
With that, he sent the spies on their way to rescue Sam, Clover, and Alex and wished them luck.
"We better be careful," Britney replied. "No doubt Sagan Hawking is setting up a trap..."
"I'll second that," Melissa quipped.
She certainly remembered Sam and Mat being spy-napped after they didn't return from the 2007 Anaheim 1 Supercross opener.
"One other thing..." May stated. "Sagan also got Momo."
"...that kooky alien girl that was on top the W.O.O.H.P. skyscraper while we were in Hawaii?" Dawn wondered.
"That's her," Nick answered. "It turns out Momo's dilemma is similar to my own..."
"And 'kooky' is not a word I'd use for Momo," May commented.
"What would you use?" Bridget wondered.
"I'd go more with 'interesting'," May quipped. "Remember, you guys, Momo's not from Earth. What might be normal for her and her people might not be the same for us Earth peoples."
"Yeah, and consider that we've rarely dealt with aliens in our time at W.O.O.H.P.," Nick quipped.
"True, true," Dawn admitted.
1:59 P.M. – New York City
Times Square
"Well, here we are," Melissa replied when the spies touched down in Times Square.
"Where do we start?" Blaine wondered.
Nick and Mat were trying to stay composed since panicking wasn't going to get anybody anywhere.
"Say, does anybody feel bad for the city workers who get saddled with cleaning duty here on New Year's Eve?" May asked, trying to lighten the mood.
"Oh, don't get me started on that," Nick laughed. "Every time I watch Dick Clark's New Years' Rockin' Eve, one of the first things I think after welcoming the new year is always 'I feel sorry for the poor bastards who have to clean this mess up'."
"No kidding, especially considering how crazy the party can get at times," Bridget quipped.
"On to business, is there any sign of our kidnapper?" Haruka wondered.
Nick spread out his psychic radar as far as he could in hopes of finding some trace of their missing friends.
"Hey, I was wondering something," May asked. "How the heck was Sagan's ship invisible earlier?"
"I'm willing to bet that Sagan swiped a Disappearo Device," Melissa quipped, remembering their previous trip to Lyrobia. "She did it before, after all."
As they continued to search, however, the spies were suddenly surrounded from all sides by alien-looking robots.
"Must be Sagan's welcoming party," Mat quipped.
"Well, then, let's trash the party!" Nick proclaimed, his psychic aura flaring to life around him as the robots approached them.
2:13 P.M. – Sagan's Mothership
Cockpit
"Well, this is a pickle," Sam sighed as she glanced around the cockpit, seeing no sign of Sagan anywhere.
"This is more than a 'pickle', Sammy!" Clover exclaimed. "We're currently at the so-called 'mercy' of some mad scientist whacko who wants to capture aliens, and we're all trapped in a giant glass bubble!"
"I think we get the picture, Clover," Alex replied. "I definitely wasn't expecting Sagan to go after Momo, too..."
Almost as soon as Alex had said that, Momo yawned loudly, indicating that she was finally waking up.
When she didn't recognize her surroundings, though, Momo immediately jumped to her feet and extended her claws, her eyes turning an eerie shade of black in the process.
"Whoa, whoa, Momo, calm down, you're all right now, right?" Alex asked.
Momo glanced over at Alex, her eyes returning to their normal emerald-green hue. "Wait, you all got captured, too?" Momo wondered.
"Yeah, Sagan pulled a fast one on us," Clover sighed.
"I'm willing to guess that this lady is part of your rogues' gallery?" Momo asked.
"Oh, definitely," Sam chuckled. "Sagan Hawking is a weirdo who wants to capture and enslave good aliens so she can steal their alien technology and use it to, get this, rob banks."
"You were right about a lot of your baddies being petty," Momo quipped.
"Say, what was that thing you did with your eyes?" Alex asked.
"Oh, that," Momo replied. "It's just a trait my people have, where our eyes kinda go black when we're in heated situations. It's sorta meant to be an intimidation factor, a warning going 'hey, don't screw with us'."
Momo looked around the cockpit of Sagan's craft. "When I woke up and saw myself in this glass tube, I almost thought that my father or one of his toadies finally managed to capture me," Momo admitted. "Guess I'm glad it wasn't him in the end."
"You... really don't like your dad, do you, Momo?" Clover stated.
"Like I mentioned, it's complicated," Momo sighed. "He's just trying to make me something I don't want to be, and he's very insistent on it no matter what I say to him."
"You finally hit your 'rebellious teenager' and 'shut up, dad, I do what I want' phases of your life, huh?" Alex giggled. "I don't know if it's different with other alien races, considering you're the first alien we've met since probably our first tussle with Sagan..."
"I mentioned this to Nick a while ago, but it's basically the reason I fled my home planet, because I'd finally had enough of dad's shenanigans," Momo replied. "That helmeted cat-guy you fought off in Hawaii was one of my dad's enforcers."
"So, he knows you're on Earth now?" Clover quipped.
"If he didn't before, he definitely does now, given we kicked that guy's tail and sent him running," Sam responded.
"I'm not letting myself be captured by a wannabe bank robber, so excuse me while I make a door in this thing," Momo proclaimed, re-extending her claws and slashing twice at her glass tube, carving large gashes in them. Momo then kicked at the weakened glass, shattering the tube around her so she could step out and do the same to the tubes holding the spies.
Once the three of them were finally free from their glass prisons, Sam, Alex and Clover all spread out around the room to see if they could find anything useful about Sagan's scheme. After all, they didn't have any gadgets on hand due to having been abducted.
"Okay, so how do we signal to the others that we did a jailbreak?" Clover wondered. "Because I'm pretty sure they chased Sagan's ship here."
"Hmmm... I've got an idea," Alex replied, closing her eyes and hoping that Nick could hear her thoughts.
2:24 P.M. – New York City
Times Square
"And that's the end of that," Nick quipped as he shook off a robot arm, the spies having finally defeated the robots that had come after them.
"Is Sagan still here, or did she vamoose while we were busy?" Dawn asked.
"Let me give it another whack," Nick stated, using his psychic radar once again.
And this time, he heard something.
Nick? Can you hear me? Please tell me I'm in range...
I can read your thoughts loud and clear, Alex. Is everything okay up there?
Mostly. We're all on Sagan's big ol' starship, but Momo busted us out of our glass bubbles. I think we're currently over the Empire State Building, too. We kinda have to wait for you to make an entrance, since we don't have our gadgets with us, but Momo's got our back.
Sounds like a plan to me. We'll see you soon, sweetie.
"Any luck, Nick?" Nozomi asked.
"We have hit paydirt," Nick proclaimed. "Sagan's ship is above the Empire State Building, and the girls are currently not imprisoned thanks to Momo. So, I suggest we head up there before Sagan gets wise."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" May exclaimed. "Let's make with all the haste!"
"I guess we should say 'thanks, Momo' when we get that chance," Britney commented.
"No doubt about it," Nick replied. "I didn't know Momo could do that."
"I think we're all in the same boat," Haruka quipped. "Especially when we barely know a thing about Momo."
Mat's Nintendo DS beeped, and Sam appeared on his screen.
"Mat, just thought we'd let you know Momo busted us out," Sam replied, just to ease Mat's stress. "It turns out I had a spare X-Powder with me. Thank goodness for that, huh?"
"We figured it out thanks to Nick," Mat replied. "Are you guys okay yourselves?"
"Yeah, we're all fine," Alex answered for Sam.
"Totally," Clover replied as well to ease Blaine's stress levels.
"I got 'em out," Momo added.
"We certainly owe you a lot of thanks," Britney started.
"Yes, thanks a lot," Blaine replied, going next.
"None are necessary," Momo humbly told them.
"We already know about Sagan Hawking, too," Bridget replied. "We should be wherever you are shortly..."
Just as they said that, the transmission went out immediately.
"Uh-oh," Melissa commented. "I'll bet that only means that Sagan Hawking just found out Momo broke them out."
2:39 P.M. – Sagan's Mothership
"Okay, that was by far rude!" Clover complained when Sagan Hawking had indeed cut their call short.
"Not in the least when you aren't where you need to be," Sagan growled.
"You got a lot of nerve taking us with Momo!" Alex shot back at her. "We won't EVER aide you in your scheme to use Momo to conquer the world or whatever it is you plan to do!"
"We have ways of making you comply," Sagan sneered as more of her henchmen came out from hiding.
"And we have ways of not taking 'no' for an answer under these circumstances," Sam quipped.
"Try us then," Sagan sneered.
"How about we even things up?" a voice remarked.
The four of them looked to see that Nick and the others had just arrived.
"Ah, just in time," Alex quipped.
"Indeed we are," Haruka giggled.
"Here's one time where I think extra members will help!" Bridget replied.
"Oh, we'll see about that," Sagan laughed, pointing dramatically towards the spies. "Get 'em, boys!"
The henchmen circled out and surrounded the spies, drawing futuristic-looking laser cannons in the process.
"Oh, I do not wanna be a laser salad today!" Clover shouted.
"Then jump, quickly," Nick responded.
The spies all got what Nick was planning, and even though Momo didn't know what was going on, she understood what she had to do regardless.
As the henchmen inched closer, Nick eventually gave a finger signal, and all of the spies jumped into the air, as did Momo, while Nick slammed his glowing right palm into the ground. A bright golden ring of light spread outwards from where Nick's palm hit the ground, and when it passed under the henchmen, they all started floating helplessly in the air.
"You've got a lot of tricks up your sleeve, don't ya?" Momo giggled as she hopped around the floating henchmen, using her claws to destroy their laser weapons and leave them helpless.
"Yeah, I know lots of them," Nick quipped as he blew the henchmen away with a psychic pulse. "I've got versatility on my side."
Sagan wasn't too concerned, snapping her fingers to sic a bunch of robots on the spies.
"Please, we already trashed a bunch of your bot boys," Melissa taunted. "What makes you think this'll be any different?"
Melissa fired a Cyclone Blast Hairdryer into one of the robots, only for it to only be slowed slightly.
"Sturdier armor, that's what," Sagan cackled.
"...crapbaskets," Melissa sighed.
Momo lunged forward while the robot was resuming its march and slashed at it with both her claws, rather easily cutting it into chunks, much to Sagan's surprise.
"Please, lady, my claws can carve up solid steel," Momo proclaimed. "You think a silly little robot is gonna do much?"
To emphasize her point, Momo began leaping around the room and carving up the robots one by one until they were nothing more than piles of parts.
"Case in point," Momo chuckled.
Sagan sputtered slightly before deciding to make a tactical retreat, as she knew for a fact that her secret weapon wasn't ready yet.
"We'll pick this up at a later date, dearies!" Sagan exclaimed as she made her getaway.
"Yeah, you do that," Mat taunted.
"So, everyone, what do you think we should do?" Sam asked.
"I suggest we explore this spaceship and see if we can figure out what Sagan's actual scheme is this time," Britney quipped. "It can't just be petty revenge, after all."
"Good point," May responded as she flipped her X-Powder. "Say, Jerry, do you and RiCO have any info on that front for us?"
"Several prominent astronomy researchers have been going missing lately," Jerry answered. "At first we thought it might have been Lady Luna, but she's still in containment."
"And you guys were right about the theft of a Disappearo Device," RiCO responded. "That's probably how she's abducting people without anybody noticing."
"We're gonna explore the mothership and see if we can find anything interesting," Sam stated. "Keep us posted, 'kay?"
"Roger that!" RiCO quipped.
With that, the spies began to explore the mothership.
"Where do weirdos like Sagan get the material to build these things?" Momo wondered. "I've always wondered that, especially when they don't really spend much time out of containment before you guys put them right back in."
"It'll probably forever be one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in bad guy history," Alex chuckled.
"I'll admit, she's got a flair for interior decorating, at least," Momo quipped. "This just screams 'alien spaceship' to me. That's kinda why I thought this was one of my dad's ships when I woke up earlier..."
"You did mention your dad and his 'shenanigans' earlier," Sam replied. "Did you wanna elaborate, or are we not at that level of trust yet?"
Momo looked back at the spies, who were waiting with curious intent. Honestly, she hadn't known what to make of them initially, but after seeing them in action...
...she believed that she could trust them with the gritty details.
"A long time ago, say, about three hundred years or so, my people were feared the galaxy over as some of the most ruthless conquerors around," Momo explained, remembering the stories her mother had taught her. "We were basically born warriors, and out of that came an instinctive need, almost like a primal desire, to make their strength known to any who would oppose them."
Glancing out a nearby window, Momo continued her story. "But, about two hundred years ago, something changed. One of the worlds my people conquered wasn't really built for fighting, so they kinda got steamrolled, from what I heard about it. But during an invasion attempt, an innocent family got caught in the crossfire of their battle, and they finally realized what their conquest was doing to the galaxy, to innocent worlds and people who wanted nothing to do with war and bloodshed, only to get dragged into it anyways because my people knew nothing better."
"You definitely don't seem like the type to do something like that, Momo," Mat stated.
"That's because I was born around a hundred years ago, a long while after that incident," Momo answered. "I may look like a teenager in Earth terms, but that's because we have really long life-spans. Thankfully, after that incident, my people's conqueror ways began to fade away into obscurity, and we eventually became a more peaceful race, though still willing to throw hands to protect what we cared about."
"I'm sensing a 'but'," Nick responded. "And I'm also willing to bet it relates to your father."
"Very insightful, Nick," Momo giggled.
"Hey, I don't always need psychic powers to piece details together," Nick replied. "W.O.O.H.P. taught me that."
"My father is part of the only remaining clan on my home planet that still believes that they're meant to be the ultimate conquerors they once were," Momo continued. "He believed that my people had gotten soft, that we needed to become the unstoppable force we once were. He resented the new generation for their so-called 'ignorance' and 'soft-heartedness', a problem that only got exacerbated when I was born."
Momo thought back to the 'good ol' days' as if they were just yesterday. "Naturally, mom didn't want dad to drag me back into our past, but he seemed convinced that I was destined to be the 'resurgence of our greatness', no matter what mom or I would say to him," Momo explained. "So, I basically had a very tug-of-war adolescence, mom wanting me only to fight when I had something to protect, and dad wanting me to embrace my 'true warrior self'."
Out of frustration, Momo swung her hand towards a nearby wall, her claws tearing a large gash in the metal. "It sickened me that he was trying to force me to be something I never wanted to be in the first place," Momo proclaimed.
"I couldn't begin to tell you all the stories of that kinda thing here on Earth," Nick quipped.
"It was about a month ago today that I finally couldn't take any more of dad's nonsense, and so when he wasn't paying attention, I fled my home planet and eventually found my way to Earth, and well, you all know the rest," Momo explained. "I really hope this doesn't change anything between all of us, since..."
"Hey, we know you're not like your dad," Blaine responded. "You said it yourself, you hated that he was trying to turn you into a battle-hardened fighter basically against your will."
"Yeah, if anything, your dad's the one who needs a good keester-kicking for being so unwilling to listen to his own freakin' daughter!" May proclaimed.
Momo couldn't help but smile brightly as the spies all affirmed their belief in her. Now, she knew for an inescapable fact that she'd made the right choice in trusting them.
The moment was brought to an end when Nick looked towards a large steel door to the side of the tunnelway, having sensed someone's thoughts behind that door.
"I'm willing to bet that might be some of the researchers that Sagan abducted," Mat stated.
"Well, then let's go bust 'em out!" Dawn proclaimed.
As was semi-expected, Sagan had sealed them away in a room with a key code.
"I don't need no stinking code to figure out here," Nick quipped as he immediately went to a Final Shine Attack.
Sam was about to use the Dynamite on a Stick, but she was also fine with Nick using his powers. Nick then executed his attack, and the door was just a giant hole.
The spies then all beheld that the researchers that Sagan Hawking had kidnapped were all there, tied up and all.
"No worries," Sam told them. "We'll all have you out in no time."
Everybody went to the researchers to free them one by one, but then an alarm buzzed.
"Uh oh," Britney commented. "Looks like Sagan Hawking was counting on us to do this..."
And Sagan had indeed, as another band of her henchmen came after the spies.
"If you guys know another way out of here, get going," Mat told the researchers.
They nodded, didn't question him, and immediately made a break for it.
"You're going to wish you never did that," Sagan growled as she came into view, too.
"Trust us," Haruka replied. "We WILL be glad we did that!"
The henchmen again came after the spies, but they were all ready.
"Have our rogues' gallery ever wanted to do things the easy way?" May wondered.
"I wouldn't count on that happening anytime," Melissa replied.
"Neither would I," Blaine added.
Sam, Clover, and Alex whipped out their Laser Lipsticks quickly and used them as makeshift machine guns on Sagan's henchmen.
"I think this is gonna be pretty rough," Sam quipped.
"No doubt, Sammy," Alex added.
"Bring it on, scrubs!" Clover exclaimed.
"My sentiments exactly," Haruka quipped.
She immediately used her version of the up-and-over on one of the henchmen. Haruka ended it with a hard kick like she were throwing a bowling ball down the alley into the pins. She then managed to knock over several henchmen that were in a small bunch.
"STRIKE!" the spies proclaimed.
"Never gets old," Haruka giggled.
"Hands up or we will shoot!" one of the henchmen proclaimed as four of them aimed their laser cannons for the spies.
Momo simply grinned as she extended her claws and rushed the henchmen, swiftly slashing their weapons apart until they collapsed into pieces in their hands. This naturally got the henchmen to retreat, as they didn't want to be on the business end of those claws.
"Thought so," Momo giggled.
Sam looked onward at Sagan Hawking and motioned to Mat about a two-on-one battle. Mat was quick to accept.
"Oh, just you two? This oughta be easy," Sagan laughed as she stepped forward.
"That's your mistake," Sam and Mat proclaimed as they barged towards Sagan.
Sagan started by unfurling a laser pistol from her pocket and firing on them, but Sam and Mat split apart and rushed to opposite sides of her before lashing out with a dual punch that stunned Sagan before she could start firing again.
With Sagan stunned, Sam and Mat started attacking from both sides in perfect sync, landing at least four different punches before kicking Sagan into the air with upward snap kicks. For the finisher, they both jumped after her, then drove their fists into Sagan's chest with enough force to send her crashing to the ground.
"We told you not to underestimate us," Sam taunted.
Sam was ready to deliver the coup-de-grace on Sagan Hawking, but Sagan got out of that somehow.
"I guess we'll have to call this a draw," Sagan sneered and retreated immediately.
"I suppose that was something I wasn't counting on," Mat commented.
Sam nodded in agreement.
"Not a total loss though," Blaine replied. "I found something from one of the henchmen."
"What'd you find?" Bridget wondered.
"It looks like... a piece of a blueprint," Blaine quipped, handing it off to Sam so she could study it.
"Hey, this looks like it's a blueprint to build a Disappearo Device!" Sam gasped. "Is that why Sagan stole one herself, to learn how to build one of her own?"
"I wouldn't be surprised, really, given her shtick," Dawn quipped.
"What's this Disappearo Device you keep mentioning?" Momo wondered. "Is it how Sagan's ship is staying invisible?"
"Pretty much," Alex answered. "Sagan's stolen one from W.O.O.H.P. before, but that one was just a prototype. The one she's using now appears to be the finished product."
"Guess we'll have to see if she left any other pieces of that blueprint lying around this place," Melissa stated.
"So sorry, spies, but I have other places to be right now," Sagan proclaimed. While she spoke, a nearby hatch opened to reveal the outside. "Try not to get jet lag from your trip!"
Suddenly, the wind sucked all fourteen of them out through the hatch and back into the sky of New York City. Nick could just vaguely hear the rumbling of the ship grow quieter, which no doubt meant that Sagan and the ship were moving away from New York City.
"Yikes, I wasn't expecting her to just throw us out the airlock," Alex quipped.
"W-wait, where'd Momo go?!" May gasped. "She doesn't have a flying gadget like us!"
"I'm down here!" Momo called out, having landed on the rooftop of the Empire State Building, which Sagan's ship had been hovering over until recently. The spies all flew down to the rooftop. "Remember, I can jump really good. A landing like that is nothing to me."
"Thank goodness for that, huh?" Britney quipped. "But that now leaves the problem of where the heck Sagan skedaddled off to."
"Yeah, with a ship that can move that quickly, she could be anywhere," Sam stated.
"Never fear, spies, RiCO has hit paydirt!" RiCO proclaimed from Sam's X-Powder. "I just detected Sagan's mothership stopping somewhere in Paris."
"Ooh, Paris?" Clover giggled.
"Don't even start, Clover," May quipped. "You can enjoy Paris after we send Sagan packing."
"Regardless, we'd better head there right stat now," Mat stated as a Skyskimmer parked by the rooftop for the spies. "You're more than welcome to join us if you want, Momo."
"Yeah, I think I'll do that," Momo replied. "I still owe Sagan some lumps myself, so this'll be perfect."
With all of its passengers loaded, the Skyskimmer took off into the skies.
To be continued...
Next time...
Clover: Ah, Paris is still as beautiful as I remember it...
Alex: She didn't waste any time, did she?
Blaine: To be fair, Alex, the last time Clover and I saw Paris, it was in shambles because of Eitri.
Melissa: Any sign of our fugitive?
Nick: She must be close, if she's already surrounding us with her goon squad.
Melissa: Wait, who's that knocking them all over like bowling pins?
Momo: Hey, I actually get to do the preview line this time. Well, readers, our little alien adventure is just kicking off, so stay with us for the next act of Totally Spies: Close Encounters of the Freaky Kind, "Ship Happens"!
May: ...oh, I get it.
Nick: Yeah, that one was a slow-burn for me, too.