2:37 AM, Unknown Location, South America
Somewhere in the vast forest wasteland of northern South America, a boy decked out in a light purple jumpsuit was listening to a conversation from the US via an odd phone-like gadget. This boy was wondering what the people he used to call his allies were up to. As part of a secret spy organization, he was great at this kind of thing.
"All agents scan the area! Boss' orders are to find those rogue spies and bring them in! Do I make myself-"
Sighing, 15-year-old Nick Kelly snapped his X-Powder shut, therein cutting the transmission he'd been monitoring for about a half-hour.
What was the point, anyway? The people Nick had been listening to probably didn't give a damn about the safety of the World Organization of Human Protection's four best agents.
Last week had literally turned into hell for the four spies, as a mysterious perpetrator began committing devastating crimes in their name. With every shred of evidence pointing to them, their only choice was to bolt, so Nick, along with best friends Sam, Alex, and Clover, including his childhood friend Haruka, had run like hell, just barely escaping with their lives.
Now, they had been forced – quite literally – into exile, with absolutely zero chance of living a normal life anymore.
To Nick, that was fine. WOOHP didn't care. Why should he?
A loud rumble shook the night sky, effectively shattering the tranquil setting. Nick looked into the sky, only to have a drop of salty water fall on his head. The trickle morphed into a downpour quickly enough. Nick ducked under a nearby tree to wait out the coming storm when his X-Powder rang. "I swear to god, if that's mom again..."
Ever since the spies had retreated to South America, Nick's mother had been calling his X-Powder nonstop. (Nick's family knew about his spy identity, having been victims in an attack waged by one of WOOHP's enemies, Tim Scam.) It was beginning to annoy him. However, he felt sorry for his mom. She really didn't want to know why they were where they were right now.
He opened the compact gadget, only to see the face of his girlfriend Alex on-screen. He breathed a sigh of relief.
"Nick, please come back to camp. I miss you..." she asked her boyfriend in a pleading, sympathetic tone. Who was he to resist?
"I'll be right there, Alex," Nick replied, making the brunette smile. Closing the X-Powder, he retreated from the tree and felt a shiver coming on. This cold was nothing to him, especially seeing how the freaking world could be so cold, anyway.
A few minutes later, Nick had arrived at the makeshift camp the spies had set up to be greeted by his girlfriend.
"Say, where did Sam, Clover, and Haruka go?" Nick asked.
"They went into town to get something to eat. Something on your mind?" Alex replied.
"Actually, there is. I've been thinking a lot about last week."
"Why last week?" Alex really didn't need to ask that question, because she knew exactly why Nick was thinking of last week.
Alex wrapped her arms around Nick, who in turn returned the embrace.
Nick looked up at his girlfriend. Soft brown eyes met sky blue eyes. Nick said one more thing:
"Because that's basically when this whole world went to hell..."
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(What would you do if your best friends, your supposed "allies", turned on you? Look through the eyes of a fugitive and see their side of the story.)
S.P.D. Gold Ranger presents:
Totally Spies! Undercover in: "Hunter or Hunted"
Author's Note: I'm doing this story while I wait for Mat49324 to finish up on his part of "Beyond the Looking Glass". This story came to mind when I read a piece by Racewing.
Summary: Cast into exile by the very organization they'd saved from destruction not too long ago, Nick, Haruka, Sam, Alex, and Clover retreat to another country in hopes of finding the freak that framed them in the first place. It won't be easy, though, as they soon get wrapped up in mysterious doings, plots of revenge, former "friends", and even a plan that could destroy the world...
Note: For those readers of "Beyond the Looking Glass" who are wondering where Bridget is, don't worry. She'll make her appearance later in the story.
Official characters and show copyright Marathon. Original characters and this story copyright S.P.D. Gold Ranger, January 2006.
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Log 1: Cast AwayThe whole ordeal had started when Jerry had decided to monitor the spies in their villa. That had all seemed well and good... that is, until the person responsible for framing them suddenly resurged.
Destructive acts counterbalanced well-written threats and, to top it all off, a diary page in Clover's journal had listed all kinds of destructive acts she was going to perform on WOOHP. The real Clover had denied up and down that she'd ever written anything like that.
But, when Nick and the girls had been WOOHPed last Tuesday, that had been the final straw...
Nick and the girls fell through a long tunnel, eventually ending up on their usual landing pad in WOOHP. Nick was the first one to notice the looks of pure hate on the agents surrounding him – and he was even more surprised to see a look of pure disdain on the face of Jerry, the spies' commander and head honcho of WOOHP.
"Please don't give me this crap again, Jerry. I told you, we didn't do any of that stuff!" Nick shouted to Jerry, hoping he would get the message.
Jerry raised a finger, and 4 rather burly-looking agents came up and held the four spies in their places.
"Girls and boys, we have photographic proof that you were at the scene of every single crime we've been monitoring this month ever since your reports came in."
"But that doesn't mean it was US!" Nick shouted. "Don't tell me you're blind!"
"Well, maybe with his old age," Clover said sarcastically, trying to lighten the mood. She was met with 3 sets of eyes staring down at her.
"What?" she exclaimed.
Suddenly, Nick realized something. Hey, why wasn't Haruka WOOHPed with us? he thought.
Jerry looked down sadly. "I really, really want to believe you, but..."
"But what?" all 4 spies said at once.
Jerry snapped his fingers.
Alex looked on in fear. "You mean -"
Nick held his fist up. "You'd BETTER not -"
Jerry held up his hand. "Don't worry, I'm not going for the 'lobotomy' this time. However, I must contain you in our finest holding cells until we can find a way to monitor you every single moment of the day. Do I make myself clear?"
All 4 spies looked on for a few seconds. Nick was the first to react. His arm tensed.
"Not on your LIFE!" Nick shouted, taking action and driving his elbow into his captor's stomach, loosening his grip on him. Nick took advantage of this and grabbed the agent's arms, utilizing amazing strength to throw said agent clear across the room.
"Now that THAT guy's been knocked into next week..." Nick commented before rushing forward and KOing the agents holding the girls. When only Sam was left to free, Nick jumped into the air, clenched his fists tight, and brought them down hard onto the agent's head, knocking him out cold instantly.
"That looked like it hurt," Sam said.
"Hey, girl, do you want original, or do you want effective?" Nick said sarcastically. "Now let's get the hell out of here!"
The spy girls didn't need to be told twice, and rushed away. Jerry, however, had other plans, and motioned to quite a few other burly agents, who formed a barricade to keep Nick and the girls from going any further.
Nick wasn't impressed. The next second, Nick's eyes flashed a pure golden yellow. Holding his hand out, he called upon his psychic powers. A few seconds later, Nick spun around, firing an immense psychic energy blast that knocked all the agents to the ground.
Jerry decided to take matters into his own hands, and pulled out his personal taser...
...but the spies were gone.
They had already reached the jet hangar, looking for a plane with which to escape. So far, they'd found nothing.
Suddenly, an all-too-familiar voice came from nearby.
"Need a ride?" a girl's voice resounded in the near-empty hangar.
The spies turned to see a 14-year-old girl with waist-length brown hair and decked out in a bright pink jumpsuit standing by their favorite transport, the Skyskimmer.
"Haruka!" all four spies shouted.
Indeed, Nick's childhood friend Haruka Rose was standing right by the Skyskimmer. "How'd you get here, Haruka?" Nick asked. Suddenly, he shook his head. "Never mind that! We need to get the heck out of here before those –"
"Don't worry, Nick. I already know what happened. And that's why I'm offering you guys a ticket out of here."
There were definitely no declines.
Once everyone was in the Skyskimmer, and the takeoff procedures had been started, the agents (and Jerry) burst in, all holding lasers.
"Busted!" Alex shouted.
"Punch it, Haruka!" Nick screamed.
With a little smile, Haruka slammed her hand down on the ignition button, and the plane was lifting off quite fast. The agents began firing their lasers, but the spies had already cleared the landing bay.
They were free.
Once in the air, Nick began maneuvering towards an odd-looking island.
"Where are we going, Nick?" Haruka asked.
"South America," Nick replied. "Or as I like to call it, WOOHP's blind spot."
And that's how the whole story went down. The minute the Skyskimmer had entered South American territory, the spies had become exiles, fugitives, and all that. That was fine with them. It gave the spies much-needed time to find the real culprit and stop him or her.
Later that night, while Sam, Clover, and Haruka were still in town, Nick began having a strange dream.
Nick (in his psychic super form) and Jerry (in his little one-seater fighter jet) were flying through space, chasing down an odd-looking cube thing with 6 large, metal claws and a bulging electric-red eye that didn't seem to want to open.
Nick had tried all kinds of attacks, but nothing seemed to faze this creature. Even direct attack was impossible with the eye being the cube's only weak spot. Nick just needed a way to get the eye open...
"Nick!" Jerry spoke up suddenly. "Charge up my ship with your psychic powers and throw me at the eye so I can get it open!"
"WHAT?" Nick exclaimed. "Please tell me you're kidding!"
"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Your psychic power can help me open the eye so you can attack this thing directly!"
"All right, if you say so," Nick said with hesitance. He placed his hands on the wings of Jerry's ship and began channeling his psychic energies into it. A few seconds later, the fighter jet began glowing a bright orange.
"Checkmate!" Nick shouted, thrusting Jerry's ship forward. The needle of the plane came into direct contact with the cube creature's eye, causing it to open.
As Jerry fell back, Nick's fist began radiating a bright purple. With that, Nick slammed his glowing fist into the cube's eye, causing a mighty explosion.
Nick shot out of his makeshift bed, drenched in cold sweat. He scanned his surroundings. "Good, we're not in space..." he said to himself.
Alex woke up and looked at Nick. "Something wrong?" she asked.
"I just had the strangest dream," Nick replied, relaying the dream he'd just had.
"Wow," was all Alex could really say.
"What's even weirder is that I was working with Jerry," Nick said. "I didn't think he'd want to work with me after THAT."
Suddenly, both their X-Powders rang. As they flipped the compact gadgets open, Sam, Clover, and Haruka appeared on their screens.
"Hey, guys," Haruka greeted. "Before you ask, Jerry installed 5-way calling on our X-Powders a few weeks before we left."
"Oh," Nick and Alex said in unison.
"How's grocery shopping coming?" Nick asked.
"We just finished. We're heading back to camp as we speak," Sam replied. "We should be there in about 5 minutes."
"Good," Nick said, wondering if he should tell the others about his strange dream.
Haruka was the first to notice Nick's thoughtful expression. "Nick? Is something wrong?"
Nick stammered slightly before answering his childhood friend. "Not really. I'll tell you when you get back, okay?"
"Okay," Haruka replied, smiling.
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On the rain-soaked road that led in and out of town, Sam, Clover, and Haruka were carrying the group's groceries. Lucky thing I'd grabbed my allowance before I checked out, Haruka thought. I'm not the only one who saves a lot of money.
"I'm kinda surprised, girl," Clover said to the brunette beside her. "You're so nice to Nick, almost like you two were related. Like, why is that?"
"He's my best friend," Haruka replied. "What else is there to say? We've done so many things together, and he's always sticking up for me. I've done pretty much the same thing for him. He's always been there for me when I'm feeling down, and vice versa. Speaking of which..."
"Did I ever tell you guys that my first kiss was with Nick?"
Sam and Clover looked surprised upon hearing that.
"It's not what you'd think," Haruka explained. "It was a few years ago, a couple weeks after Nick and I started out in WOOHP. Nick's family was badly attacked, and he needed some comfort..."
His eyes shining, 13-year-old Nick rushed into his bedroom and slammed the door shut. 'Poor Nick,' 12-year-old Haruka thought. 'He must be really shook up. I should go see if he's okay.' With that, Haruka walked to Nick's bedroom door, taking into account the fact that only the master bedroom was damaged in any way; the whole rest of the house looked as if it'd never been touched.
"Nick? Can I come in?" As Haruka waited, fixing her long brown hair, Nick slowly opened his door, the tears evident in his soft brown eyes.
"Nick, I know it hurts, but you need to stay strong."
"What's the point, Haruka?" Nick said. "My family's all but dead, my life is ruined, and who knows what that freak did to my brother?" He burst into tears at that.
Haruka thought for a moment. 'I've never seen Nick like this since his mom was attacked 6 years ago. He came to me seeking comfort, and I gave it to him. I've got to do the same here. Nick needs me more than ever now.'
Her mind made up, Haruka walked up to Nick and placed her hands on his shoulders, softly rubbing them in an attempt to soothe her best friend.
"Nick? Can I ask you a question?"
Nick slowly looked up at Haruka.
"6 years ago... the night your mom was attacked. Who did you go to? Who did you seek comfort in?"
As she spoke, Nick began to remember that very night, 6 years ago...
"It wasn't your father. It wasn't Ms. Thompson. It wasn't that girl who always follows you around at school. It was me. You came to me that night, seeking comfort over your loss, and I gave it to you. Why? Because you're my best friend, Nick. I'd do anything for you, and I mean anything," Haruka explained, emphasizing heavily on those last few words.
"You... you mean that, Haruka?" Nick asked, still slightly broken up.
"Of course I do. I'd never lie to you."
Nick hugged his best friend upon hearing that. "Thanks, Haruka. I didn't know you cared so much."
Haruka smiled brightly. "It's what I do, Nick. You're my friend, and that's never going to change."
"Haruka-chan..."
The girl leaned forward...
...and her lips met his.
They stood like that for a while, eventually breaking apart to catch their breath.
"It's okay, Nick," Haruka said softly. We'll find the freak that's doing this. I promise."
Then, Nick's Compowder rang. He flipped it open, sitting himself on his bed while Haruka brushed her hair.
"What's the status, Jerry? Are my parents going to be okay?" Nick asked the veteran agent.
"Well, we've run a number of tests on them, and we'll need to take a few more blood samples to determine if any lasting harm was done to your parents, but they should be okay," Jerry responded.
"That's a relief," Nick replied. Haruka walked up and put her arm around Nick.
"See, Nick? Everything's going to be okay. Your parents will fight this until the end. I know it."
Nick smiled; he was lucky to have such a great friend.
Haruka looked into the sky after retelling her story. "We've been close friends for so long. He's really the best friend a girl could have."
Suddenly, Haruka's X-Powder rang with the emergency signal. Fearing the worst, Haruka flipped the gadget open. "What's wrong, Nick?"
"Trouble! And I mean BIG! We've been found!" Nick shouted while running from one of the few WOOHP agents South America had. This guy apparently wasn't going to give up until his targets were apprehended.
"We'll be right there!" Haruka exclaimed, shutting the X-Powder.
"What's the plan, Haruka?" Sam asked.
"We drop these off at camp," Haruka replied, pointing to the groceries, "then we find Nick and Alex."
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After making a quick stop at camp to drop off their goods, Sam, Haruka, and Clover raced towards the woods to help Nick and Alex.
"Look! We're in another country, for god's sakes! Why won't you just leave us alone?" Nick shouted to the agent that was chasing him and Alex.
"I really don't want to hurt our best agents, kid, so if you know what's good for you, you'll come with me," the agent said, only to have Nick stop in his tracks, a grin on his face.
"Then you obviously don't know me very well," Nick said, focusing his psychic powers. The next second, he was engulfed in a bright yellow energy aura that lit up the night-darkened sky. When the light cleared, his hair had stood up and turned a bright yellow, and his eyes had shifted to a shining emerald green, quite similar to the transformation in his dream.
Nick had just become his psychic super form.
This agent apparently knew what these powers were capable of, so he backed away. But Nick would have none of it. He brought his hands out and began channeling his psychic powers into a ball of energy in his hands. Giving the agent no time to react, Nick thrust the ball forward, knocking the agent to the ground.
Nick wasn't done yet, however. He picked up the agent using his levitation abilities, and threw the man clear across the landscape, eventually landing in a lake far off. (Author's Note: I'll go more in-depth on Nick's psychic powers later.)
That was when Sam, Haruka, and Clover arrived, only to see Nick in his psychic super form.
"Hey, Nick? What's with the glowy?" Haruka asked.
Suddenly, Nick realized that he hadn't told Haruka about what happened before she'd rejoined the Alpha branch of WOOHP. (Author's Note: In other words, Haruka rejoined AFTER my "It Helps To Cry" story, FYI.)
"I'll explain on the way back to camp," Nick said as the spies headed for camp.
Back where the spies had just been, two mysterious figures popped out from a nearby bush, unknowing that they were being monitored by a small camera sitting on a tree.
"Those spies have no idea what they're about to be up against," the first figure said.
"Once we collect those rare artifacts, we can revive the ultimate evil and destroy this pitiful world!" the second replied.
They began laughing like insane people.
Off in the distance, a few miles from the mysterious figures, a light could be seen shining through the pitch-blackness of the night.
Stuck in the ground between a rock formation and an old oak tree, a glowing green jewel sat there, completely clean and shining despite being buried in the dirt. The next second, a girl walks by and picks the jewel up. The light from the gem reveals her face, with shoulder-length, spiked green hair and pure sapphire eyes.
"So it begins..." the girl muttered to herself.
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(Author's Note: You thought I was done, didn't you?)
12:08 AM, WOOHP
Inside the main WOOHP office, the head honcho of the aforementioned spy company was checking his files. Most of it was evidence of whoever was framing his top agents – the very evidence that forced the spies into exile.
Jerry was just about to shut off his computer for the night when he noticed a file he hadn't noticed before. As he played it, his eyes widened.
This piece of footage shocked Jerry, also making him realize what he'd done to his best agents.
"Oh, dear. I've got to find the spies and let them know about this," Jerry said to himself, heading for the hangar. "I just hope they'll listen to me..."
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4:08 AM, Campsite, South America
Back at camp, Nick was explaining to Haruka about the day he'd first discovered his psychic powers. Sam, Alex, and Clover had gone off into town to run a few errands, leaving the childhood friends alone with their thoughts and tales.
Haruka was stunned.
"That's cool," she said.
"Yeah. Ever since then, I've been practicing these powers so there's much less of a risk of losing control. I'm still trying to forget the last time I lost control."
"Must have been a mess, huh?" Haruka replied.
"You could say that," Nick responded.
Suddenly, Nick could see a shadow of someone – a girl, no doubt (he could tell by the shadow's hairstyle) – approaching the tent.
As soon as Haruka noticed, she tensed up. "Do you think it's another agent?"
"Not sure," Nick replied, "but here's the plan. On 3, we jump whoever it is."
"1..."
Haruka looked back at the shadow. That hairstyle looks familiar... she thought.
"2..."
She bent backwards, ready to strike.
"3!"
With that, Nick and Haruka leapt to their feet and charged out of the tent, aiming attacks at the mysterious shadow. But, when they reached the outside, they were in for one hell of a surprise.
"Bridget!" Nick exclaimed.
Indeed, the green-haired track member Nick had known for a while was standing right by their tent. She nodded, smiling brightly.
"How'd you get here?" Haruka asked.
"Sam and Clover called me the other day and told me everything. I was able to sneak into WOOHP and grab a jet. I got here as fast as I could, but I couldn't find you guys anywhere," Bridget replied. "I even tried dialing your X-Powders, but I kept getting that old 'this line has been disconnected' bit."
"We set up a frequency that blocks callers we don't have in our X-Powder's memory. The frequency also makes sure that outside callers that aren't linked to our X-Powders won't recognize the number. It's a little precaution we put in to make sure we weren't tracked here," Nick explained.
"Wow," Bridget responded. "You've gotten better with that kind of stuff."
"Hey, getting exiled gives you more time to focus on things like this," Nick joked.
Bridget giggled slightly, then turned serious. "I can't believe they turned on you like that," she said in a sympathetic tone.
"Neither can I," Nick replied. "We still haven't found out who's been framing us."
"But I think we're getting close," Haruka continued. "Whoever this person is, they've been leaving clues at the scene of every crime that's been in this country."
"Whoever's doing this must really hate you guys," Bridget said.
"I don't think it's Macker. We just busted him a month ago," Nick said.
"If it's not the clone man, then who could it be?" Haruka wondered.
Bridget silently looked at the jewel she was holding behind her back.
Suddenly, she was hit by a realization.
"Guys, I don't think that whoever's doing this is just trying to frame you. I think that they've got bigger plans."
"Like what?" Nick asked.
"Before I came here, I snuck into WOOHP while Jerry was sleeping and hacked into some of his files. I found a mysterious video that revealed 2 people that were collecting some kind of mysterious artifacts to revive an 'ultimate evil'. I think they're trying to destroy you guys!"
Nick looked on for a few seconds.
"Man, it seems no one wants to just take revenge anymore. It's always 'wreck this, destroy that' nowadays. If you ask me, it's pretty –"
But what that plot really was, the girls never found out. That very second, Nick's sentence was cut short by a laser blast that shot right through their tent, miraculously missing the 3 teenagers. Nick looked up and saw a heavily armed WOOHP jet hovering a few miles above them.
Figures.
"Did they track us here?" Haruka asked.
"Let's hope not, otherwise we're in trouble!" Nick exclaimed.
Jerry stepped out of the jet, holding a megaphone to his mouth.
"Girls! Listen!" Jerry shouted.
"I don't think so, Jerry! Not after what happened!" Nick shouted back, firing a psychic energy burst that knocked the jet backwards.
As Jerry struggled to regain his balance, he looked back at the first half of his best team.
"Please, spies, I can explain!" Jerry shouted once again, but Nick wasn't listening.
"What's there to explain, Jerry?" Nick replied, once again becoming his psychic super form. "You treated us like trash for things we've never even done, and to top it off, you actually tried to arrest us! Your top agents! I never thought you could be so cruel..."
"That's why I'm here! I have proof that you're innocent!"
"Liar! Don't talk to me about innocence! Not after the way you treated us!" Nick shouted, getting ready to fire an immense psychic energy burst – one that would probably destroy the jet and get Jerry out of their hair.
"Sayonara, Jerry!" Nick said, but just as he was about to fire the energy, Haruka grabbed his hand and stopped him from unleashing the energy.
"Stop! He's telling the truth!" Haruka exclaimed.
"How can you be sure?" Nick asked.
"Sometimes, a girl just knows," Haruka explained.
Nick thought for a moment, then let his collected energy dissipate, returning to his normal state.
"All right, we'll listen to you, Jerry. But I'm warning you, if you try even one thing, there's going to be trouble," Nick said.
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Inside the WOOHP jet, Nick, Haruka, and Bridget were watching the very footage that proved their innocence.
"Wow," Haruka said, speechless.
"Just one question: who are these guys?" Bridget asked, referring to the two dark figures in the video feed.
"That's the one thing we don't know," Jerry replied. "But, whoever it is, they've been traced to somewhere in this country."
"What did they mean by 'rare artifacts'? Are they some sort of collectors?" Nick asked.
Nick suddenly recognized one of the artifacts the dark figures were holding.
"Is that a..." Nick began.
"Yes, it is," Jerry finished, knowing exactly what Nick was talking about.
"If they get all of those, we're going to have a real problem on our hands," Nick replied.
"Why? Are they dangerous or something?" Bridget asked.
"Not by themselves, they're not. But if combined, the power the artifacts would generate could have enough force to destroy this world," Jerry explained.
"They're nuts!" Nick exclaimed.
"You must not let them get the remaining artifacts," Jerry said.
"Do you know where the other ones are?" Nick asked.
"Not all of them," Jerry replied, "but the ancient key is somewhere in that temple that overlooks the town. You'd best hurry, spies."
"Wait. What about the others? They don't know what you've told us!" Nick asked.
"I've already told them everything they need to know," Jerry replied. "They're waiting at the edge of town."
"All right, spies, let's roll!" Nick said, and together, they all jumped out of the plane.
However, this mysterious new force has other plans for our heroes...
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Next time on "Hunter or Hunted":
Nick peeked around the corner – a bright light was illuminating the nearby room.
"What do you think it is?" Alex asked.
"If I knew better, I'd say that's what we're looking for," Nick replied, inching around the corner. There it was, in plain sight – the ancient key they were looking for.
Suddenly, footsteps could be heard – and they didn't belong to any of the spies.
"Who's that?" Sam asked.
"I'd rather not find out," Nick said. "Grab the key and let's beat it!"
No more words needed to be said. But just as Alex was about to grab the key, the whole temple began rumbling.
"This place is collapsing!" Clover exclaimed.
"We'd better grab that key before we become buried!" Alex exclaimed, diving for the key.
(scene change)
Nick quickly turned around to see who was chasing them – another WOOHP agent.
"Look! Didn't Jerry tell you that we're innocent?" Nick shouted, just then noticing that the agent's eyes were glowing a bright red – not a good sign.
Then, Haruka noticed that the agent was carrying one of the artifacts they were looking for.
"Nick! He's got one of the artifacts! Do you think it's possessing him?" Haruka shouted.
"You may be right!" Nick replied. "We just need to get that artifact away from him before something bad happens!"
"Already on it," Haruka said, whipping out her Wind Tunnel 9000 and firing it at full blast. The gust of wind from the device blew the agent backwards, making him drop the artifact. His eyes instantly returned to normal.
"What happened?" the agent asked, holding his head.
"I'd rather not tell you," Nick replied.
"Should we get him out of here?" Bridget asked.
"Take him to Jerry. He'll give us our answers."