5:21 A.M. – Somewhere in Beverly Hills
"Ah, it feels good to be out of that stuffy containment cell. It's nice to know that I didn't spend too long in there."
"And you know you're only free because of my little tricks, lady."
"Yeah, yeah."
In a secret underground lair somewhere in Beverly Hills, fellow baddies Geraldine Husk and The Great Kandinsky were discussing their latest plan to take their revenge on the spies who had put them away.
"Anyways, back to business," Kandinsky laughed. "This is a pretty slick scheme you've got brewing here. It does feel a lot different than what you usually do, though..."
"Well, I do have to try new things every once in a while, right?" Geraldine admitted. "I can't always rely on rule thirty-six."
"Good point," Kandinsky chuckled. "So, what else do you have under the hood?"
"Let me show you, my villainous compatriot," Geraldine cackled. "Those dirty little spies won't know what hit them this time around."
As the two villains pored over the details of their plan, Geraldine couldn't help but crack an evil grin.
Those spies definitely wouldn't know what hit them this time.
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(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 48: Competitive Counterparts
Story Rated: T for Teen
Story Created: November 26th, 2021
Story Summary: The sixty-second co-op project between Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger, and episode forty-eight of our mission-based series Totally Spies: The New Adventures. Two strange assassins are on the rampage in Beverly Hills, attempting to find ways to make the spies doubt their own abilities. Naturally, they aren't buying it in the slightest, but it does mean they once again have to deal with Geraldine Husk, who has teamed up with The Great Kandinsky in order to wreck the spies' chances of enjoying their summer. Can the spies defeat these assassins and take down Geraldine and Kandinsky, or is that it for their summer before it's ever really kicked off?
Author's Note from Mat49324: Well, after we got through with our last project – Fractured Hope – which sent us on the Fiertia again for the first time since our movie fic, Rift Apart, it's now time for us to remain on solid ground for our next project, Competitive Counterparts. This time, we're having not one but TWO villains causing hell all around Beverly Hills, and you'll find out who they are later on. Also, we're not too far away from our third movie project, which is coming in spring 2022 – A Crack in Time. We're gonna save that for later though because we should start Competitive Counterparts right now. However, first, here's The Blue Time Ranger for anything he'd like to say.
Author's Note from The Blue Time Ranger: We haven't seen mister magic man since way back in season one of The New Adventures, so we figured why not give him another shot at revengeance? Also, as Mat said above, we have a third movie in the works, Totally Spies the Movie: A Crack in Time, and just like Rift Apart, you'll see this movie after the end of season four, but before we head into season five. To not bloat the author's notes, I'll give you more details at the end of this story, but for now, let's ROLL IT!
And Now, the Obligatory Disclaimer: Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger do not own anything related to Totally Spies or any of its affiliations. It belongs solely to Marathon Media Group, Image Entertainment Corporation, Vincent Chalvon-Demersay, and David Michel. The only things of this story we DO own are any characters created by us truly for the story (in this case, Nick, Haruka, Bridget, May, Nozomi, Dawn, and Melissa on my side, and Mathew on his side). Any characters or things we don't own, we are just borrowing with no intent of copyright infringement, only for the entertainment of our readers. Besides, if we did own Totally Spies, which we don't, why would we be writing fiction on a fan site?
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Act 1: Summer, Splashes, and Salt
8:21 A.M. – The Spies' Beach House
The summertime was in its infancy for the spies. They were all still relaxing in their beds – including Nick sleeping with Alex in her room, and Mat sleeping with Sam in her room – and not ready to get up and eat some breakfast yet.
Sam yawned as she slept next to Mat. She adjusted her head so that her hair nuzzled into Mat's right cheek. Mat enjoyed this feeling and kissed Sam on the head. Simultaneously, he gently locked his arms around her.
"I think I got your mood started," Sam giggled as Mat nuzzled her.
"I didn't expect the first move from you," Mat giggled back as he kissed her twice on the cheek and her temple.
The two shared a chuckle as Sam turned to lie on her back while Mat held her lovingly.
"I know I don't deserve you sometimes, Mat-honey," Sam quipped. "But I'm so appreciative of you, Mat."
"I'm extra appreciative, babe," Mat replied back and stroked Sam's cheek. "I didn't think you and the others really cared about how big a fan of Supercross that I am, but you certainly proved otherwise after Vegas '06 when you told me 'you have my support.'"
"And I always will," Sam quipped as she and Mat passionately kissed.
The two lovers hugged each other tight and repeatedly kissed each other for a good seven minutes until they both decided to get up out of Sam's bed and stretch.
"By the way," Mat told Sam. "Are you... sure you're okay with me having Melissa as a third girlfriend?"
"Why do you ask?" Sam wondered.
"I really think I should clear the air with you and Britney to know that Melissa's speech to me was totally unexpected," Mat answered, even though Britney and Melissa were "side-girlfriends" to him.
"Mat, you know that no matter what happens, you and I will always be together," Sam answered. "And besides, I know you've got more than enough room in your heart for Britney and Melissa, so I honestly don't mind sharing. Besides, you remember Kana, right?"
"I really wonder how she's been doing lately," Mat chuckled, remembering their future daughter who had come from the same future as Nick and Alex's future daughter Klee.
After all that, Sam was about to leave her bedroom, but Mat stopped her. They caved in to at least two more minutes of hugs and kisses.
"Now I'm gonna take you out in style," Mat quipped.
Sam gasped before she could even ask, and Mat held her in his arms. She giggled at this feeling as Mat brought her downstairs. As if things couldn't get any better, they did – nobody else was downstairs.
"It'd be nice if we got the place to ourselves and I could chase you like on the beach," Mat told Sam.
"I'd like that," Sam quipped, knowing the odds of that happening were slim to none. "It was fun to chase you, too." She went on, remembering the beach chases they had.
That was when Mat put his girlfriend down, and Sam hugged him again.
"You should do that more often," Sam quipped.
"Oh, I will," Mat replied as the two shared a kiss.
Meanwhile, while Mat and Sam were eating their breakfast together, Britney and Clover were the next ones up out of bed and stretched.
"I think I heard Bridget and Nozomi say they got the next car wash," Britney told Clover.
"Well, there's a lot of summertime left," Clover replied.
Nick and Alex were the next ones awake, and Nick seemed to have unknowingly copied Mat because he was holding Alex in his arms.
"Hey, you," Nick laughed.
"Hey yourself," Alex giggled.
Unable to resist any longer, Alex leaned in to kiss Nick, and they did so for at least three straight minutes.
"Seems like you two aren't wasting time when it's a long summer," May stated, getting Nick and Alex's attention after a kiss.
"May, don't do that again," Nick laughed.
"Totally," Alex added. "If Nick and I wanna be romantic, we can."
"Hey, I'm not gonna stop ya," May giggled. "You two have every right to be as lovey-dovey as you want."
Bridget, Haruka, Nozomi, Melissa, and Dawn all got up themselves and came downstairs to see the living room vacant.
"Did anybody see Sammy and Mat anywhere?" Alex wondered.
"Maybe they're still in bed?" Bridget guessed.
"Nope," Clover deduced, looking in the fridge at Sam's orange juice carton. "Sammy was up earlier... and I'll bet Mat was, too..." she even noticed Mat's soup bowl in the sink.
Britney already found Sam and Mat in the pool together since she was looking out the window.
"What's a summertime without a pool?" Alex giggled.
"Totally," Haruka quipped. "It's summertime, so..."
She got out her X-Powder to change from her PJs to a bikini.
"I say we go and use the pool, too," Haruka finished her statement.
"I'm all for that!" Melissa laughed as she changed into her own swimsuit and jumped into the pool.
"PIRATE DIVE!" May shouted, changing into her swimsuit and cannonballing into the pool like she always did. Luckily, Melissa made sure to dodge away from May this time, scooting towards Mat in the process.
"Not this time, May," Melissa chuckled. "...oh, hey, Mat?"
"What's up, Melissa?" Mat asked, having a pretty good idea what Melissa wanted to say.
"I just wanted to say, well, thank you for accepting me," Melissa answered as she swam closer to Mat and leaned her head on his shoulder. "I know we're in what would be a very strange situation to a lot of people, but..."
"Hey, it's fine, Melissa," Mat replied as he wrapped his free arm around Melissa. "We can make this work, I know it."
Melissa smiled and kissed Mat on the cheek, only to sputter loudly when herself, Mat, and Sam were drenched by a wave of water, courtesy of May.
"...May?" Melissa proclaimed, a dangerous edge to her voice.
"Hey, hey, blame Nick and Alex! They went underwater to avoid that before I even knew what was happening!" May exclaimed, only to find herself being dunked by Melissa in return.
"I hope you're ready to reap what you sow, May!" Melissa mock-shouted before suddenly being dragged underwater with a loud noise of surprise (she most certainly did not "EEP").
"All this time and you're still too easy, huh, sis?" Nick laughed.
Sadly, the pool fun would come to an abrupt end when a loud beeping noise resounded and a large metal tube came from the ground just outside the pool and aimed for the spies.
"Well, guess it was fun while it lasted," Clover sighed as Nick raised his hand to surround the spies with a psychic bubble so that the tube's suction didn't pull them in.
"Makes you wonder why Jerry still tries the tube thing if he knows Nick can just defend against it?" Melissa wondered.
"Probably just his way of letting us know it's mission time," Dawn quipped as the suction stopped and the spies all jumped into the tube, changing into their spy suits on the way down.
Once everyone was present and accounted for, RiCO materialized in the office to give the spies their latest briefing.
"No Jerry today?" Mat asked.
"He's just double-checking some of the footage we captured earlier," RiCO explained, waving her hand to change the office viewscreen to the footage she'd mentioned. In the video, two strange figures covered in black hoods straight out of a Kingdom Hearts game were combing the streets of Beverly Hills. "We caught these two weirdos prowling the streets and figured 'hey, this could be a problem'."
"Do we know who sent them?" Sam wondered.
RiCO waved her hands again, and the viewscreen changed to show two mugshots, that of Geraldine Husk and The Great Kandinsky.
"Oof, it's been a while since we've had to deal with magic man, huh?" Britney stated. "And I was hoping not to see any of the L.A.M.O.S. for a long time."
"Yeah, you'd think Sortiliena trashing Terrence would have made them learn a lesson," Alex quipped.
"Hey, our baddies never learn their lesson," May replied.
"...point," Alex answered.
"Well, let's not waste any time and get out there," Nozomi proclaimed. "We've got some stomping to do!"
9:13 A.M. – Beverly Hills
"So this is where those creep-a-zoids in the hoods were last seen?" Clover wondered as the spies all arrived at the last spot where the hooded figures had been spotted.
"Looks like it," Blaine answered. "Did Jerry and RiCO say if they've attacked anyone?"
"From what we can tell, not really," Sam replied. "But that means we might not know their motive, so I'd stay on your toes, everyone."
Nick extended his psychic radar out as far as he could to scan for any threats coming their way.
And sure enough, Nick quickly picked up two people running their way.
"Heads up, peeps!" Nick exclaimed.
One of the hooded figures burst from the nearby bushes and tried to pounce on Mat, but Melissa rushed in, grabbed the figure by the torso in mid-jump, and powerslammed him into the ground.
The second figure attempted to grapple with Nick, but he simply threw out a psychic pulse to send her flying backwards.
"Nice try, but you can't normally fool a psychic," Nick taunted. "Get that weak sauce outta here."
"Don't think we're done with you yet," the first assassin proclaimed.
"Not by a long shot," the second assassin stated.
"Prepare to die," the two assassins growled as they prepared to charge down the spies again.
"COMIN' THROUGH!"
Someone lunged forward while the assassins were on the move, bowling them both over with a windmill kick.
"Did somebody call for a combat instructor?" Sortiliena laughed as she spun back around and shifted into a fighting stance just as the assassins picked themselves up again.
"Right on time, Sortiliena!" May exclaimed.
"Figured you guys could use some help against these wanna-be fighters," Sortiliena proclaimed.
"The more, the merrier," Nick responded. "Let's kick their asses!"
"Couldn't have said it better myself," May quipped as the spies charged for the two assassins.
"Your days are over, people!" Nick proclaimed as he fired two psychic shots at them both.
The two assassins were quick to dodge Nick's attack.
"You'll have to do better than that," One assassin taunted.
"Believe us, we CAN!" Blaine proclaimed.
Alex had an idea to use the 24 Hour Extra Power All Day Adhesive Pomade unsuspectingly on the assassins and quickly squirted some on the ground behind him while Haruka and Clover tried to make them back up to help execute Alex's plan. Unfortunately, those two assassins seemed to already know and transformed out of sight.
"Talk about being less than scrappy," Haruka commented.
What Clover and Haruka didn't know was that the two assassins appeared behind them, but when Haruka turned around, she saw one assassin going for her and quickly reacted by hurling him into the sky. The other assassin was behind Clover, but she didn't know until she unknowingly elbowed him in the nose, which caused him to abort his attack.
"That was totally unexpected," Clover quipped.
"I'd call that a lucky shot," the second assassin complained while still holding his nose. "Not to mention a cheap shot!"
Clover took a lot of offense to that verbal punch and retaliated with a full-on karate spin kick before the assassin could even let go of his nose.
"Nobody calls my fighting cheap!" Clover proclaimed.
"And we're by far from scrappy, either," Bridget added as she and Sam teamed up themselves.
"Prepare for your clock to be cleaned," Sam quipped as she and Bridget charged forward to attack the two assassins.
Even as the first assassin tried to slug Sam in the face, Bridget countered with a double palm strike, and this allowed Sam to flip over Bridget and knock the first assassin down with a snap kick.
"Time for clock cleaning!" Bridget laughed. "Sonic Mode, online!"
The second assassin attempted to lunge for Bridget, but she was much faster now, blitzing back and forth to juggle the second assassin around before sending him sprawling with a gut punch.
"Nice job!" Bridget exclaimed as she and Sam high-fived.
"Don't even think about trying us next," Nozomi proclaimed as the thirteen spies surrounded the two assassins.
"We didn't think this team of scrubs was at thirteen," one assassin told the other.
"Make it fourteen with those other two rejects," the other assassin replied.
"REJECTS?!" Sortiliena proclaimed.
"There's only two of us, but we got more to make this a fair fight with you meddlers," one assassin proclaimed.
"And when we're through with you..." the other assassin stated before they were roped into one.
The spies looked to see that was Mat who did that via his Expandable Cable Bungee Belt.
"I BLEED confidence like Chad Reed does," Mat proclaimed. "And when WE'RE done with you, you'll know what it's like to have ALL your confidence stripped!"
"You got that backwards, pal," the first assassin taunted.
The second assassin kept a fancy machete in his pocket and managed to cut Mat's cable from his ECBB.
"Believe us when we say that your days of do-gooding won't matter anymore," the second assassin proclaimed.
With that, the first assassin threw down a smoke bomb while Nick shielded everyone and the two assassins were nowhere to be found.
"Okay, talk about cocky 'tudes and overconfidence," Clover commented.
"Apparently our baddies don't get enough of that," Haruka groaned.
"Their cheap shots were by far pathetic, too," May told the others.
"But they did leave something behind," Alex replied.
She saw some sandy substance on the ground.
"Now, that's odd," Melissa commented.
"Hopefully Jerry might make something of that weird sand," Sam replied as she scanned it with her X-Powder.
"By the way, Mat," Sortiliena replied, trying to release some tension. "Ronye and I happened to see that series you follow."
"You were at the Vegas Supercross finale?!" Mat gasped.
"Yes, we were," Sortiliena grinned. "I can see why you like that Supercross series so much."
"How about that!" Britney proclaimed.
"Hopefully Jerry might have something on that sandy stuff Alex found," Sam quipped as she got out her X-Powder.
"Maybe we'll get our next step after that or perhaps go back to our beach house for some more fun," Dawn commented.
"Afternoon, spies," Jerry greeted after Sam opened her X-Powder.
"Hey, Jer," Sam quipped. "Any idea on that sandy stuff Alex found?"
"Scanning now," RiCO answered, closing her eyes to do so. "There appears to be some kind of weird, diamond-like substance mixed in with this sand."
"Wonder if that's from whatever Geraldine's been working on?" Alex wondered.
"Or maybe something from Kandinsky's grab bag of tricks?" May quipped.
"Guess we've got something else to investigate, huh?" Nozomi replied. "And if those assassins come back, we'll just stomp 'em again, right?"
"Dang right!" Clover proclaimed.
("Bully" by Megan McDuffee plays)
And with that, the spies all continued exploring Beverly Hills in hopes that they could find any more clues that would lead them to the assassins or Geraldine's master plan.
"So, what do you think was up with those two insulting our tactics?" Alex asked. "I never thought they'd get salty about it."
"Probably just some kind of way to mess with our confidence," Mat quipped. "But, as we already saw, that's not gonna work with us."
"Like I've said, it takes a lot nowadays to really get me angry," Nick responded. "And these hooded nutballs don't really faze me at all."
As the team continued their trek, Nick glanced over at something he'd noticed falling from a nearby tree. It appeared to be an owl's feather...
...but when he tried to get a good look, it was gone.
Huh. What was that all about? Nick thought. Was it just my imagination?
Nick stopped in his tracks when he heard footsteps approaching the group, raising his hand to create a psychic bubble around the spies that prevented the two assassins from reaching them.
"Sorry, boys, try again for a dime?" Nick taunted.
"You would resort to such cowardly tactics to fend us off," the first assassin retorted. "How gutless."
Nick simply snapped his fingers and popped the psychic bubble, the recoil throwing the assassins backwards.
"In case you missed the memo, we're not falling for your salty tirades," Nick proclaimed. "So if I were you, I'd be ready for your clocks to get cleaned again."
May activated her Emergency Gadget Transporter to summon her trusty anchor to her hands.
"Punks like you get a taste of the almighty anchor, too," May quipped. "Now eat it!"
May lunged forward and started swinging her anchor towards the assassins, forcing them to step away to avoid getting hit. One of the assassins leaped over May in order to get the drop on her, but Nick blasted him out of the air with a Final Shine Attack.
"No flippys on my watch, boys," Nick taunted.
The second assassin juked around May and tried to stab at Mat with a hidden knife, but Melissa sent the assassin flying backwards with a Sonic Disintegrator Boombox attack.
"Why don't you just face the music?" Melissa giggled.
The two assassins regrouped, then jumped into the air and came down towards Alex, but this time, Sortiliena was there to intercept, jumping and lashing out with both of her legs to knock the assassins back.
"Um, hello, combat instructor here?" Sortiliena laughed. "Keep trying."
"Don't act like you're superior," the first assassin proclaimed.
"I think in this case, I am, considering you two don't really know how to fight like I can," Sortiliena retorted.
The two assassins regrouped and started throwing barrages of what appeared to be shurikens towards the spies, only for Nick to raise a psychic barrier to deflect each one.
"Seriously, get a new shtick already," Nick proclaimed. "You're not gonna get anywhere by ganking from other villains who've tried this and failed. Seriously, what part of psychic isn't ringing in your brains?"
When the assassins ran out of shuriken to throw, they both charged again, juking around the edges of the barrier to attack Nick while they believed he couldn't retaliate.
In response, Nick simply threw his hands out, unleashing a psychic pulse that sent both assassins flying backwards.
"All right, this is just getting sad," Nick sighed. "How about you just come out of hiding, Geraldine? Stop embarrassing yourself with these lame-o's here and actually fight us head-on?"
Sure enough, Geraldine stepped out from the shadows, with the Great Kandinsky flanking her.
"I guess I can't fool the mind of a mind-reader, can I?" Geraldine laughed. "It's been a while, hasn't it, you damned spies?"
"That goes double for me," Kandinsky proclaimed. "After all, I have a bunch of new tricks to show off for you meddlers."
"Then how about you just dispense with the salty assassins and come at us, then?" Clover retorted. "We've been itching to give you guys a pounding again, after all."
"That goes triple for me, especially considering what you and the rest of the L.A.M.O.S. put me through," Sortiliena taunted. "I hope you're ready to get your keesters booted right back to confinement!"
"Oh, we'll see about that, won't we?" Geraldine cackled as she and Kandinsky advanced on the spies.
"Prepare to meet your doom!" Kandinsky boasted.
"We took you twice," Sam quipped. "This time will be no different!"
"You'll want to think of something else, Miss Smart-Alec," Geraldine taunted.
The Great Kandinsky performed an illusion where he made Geraldine disappear. Everybody gasped.
"Now, it's up to you to find her," Kandinsky sneered.
Nick's psychic sense was able to pick up Geraldine's presence coming behind Blaine and Bridget in an attempt to trip them up, but Nick aimed a psychic shot at her, making her re-appear.
"Impossible!" Kandinsky gasped.
"Impossible I did it?" Nick quipped. "Or impossible that YOU forgot I'm psychic? Did you seriously forget how this went down last time?"
"It's not going to matter in the long run, anyway," Geraldine stated and snapped her fingers.
The two assassins from earlier reappeared. After Kandinsky snapped his fingers, twelve more assassins came out of nowhere to even the fight at fourteen all.
"Now, let's see how you handle this!" Geraldine cackled.
"It's not gonna matter for you," Mat proclaimed.
The spies got out a gadget each, but something seemed to happen. The assassins had copied the spies' thoughts with gadgets of their own.
"Copycats now?!" Alex chastised.
"I hope you enjoy it," Kandinsky sneered. "Geraldine and I were able to make extra assassins that know what you're going to do next..."
"So make things easy on yourself and us and surrender," Geraldine cackled.
"For someone who's a WOOHP reject, you sure are gullible with a capital 'G'," Mat responded, taking a potshot at Geraldine himself.
One assassin snickered, and that caused a bit of discord with the other assassins.
"Nice one, Mat," Haruka laughed.
Kandinsky could only look on in disbelief for a while until he flicked his cape at the assassins in an attempt to tell them to get back to the task at hand.
"It's not over yet," Blaine quipped.
"Betcha didn't think two can play at that game," Britney mocked.
Alex and Clover even taunted all the assassins themselves.
"You'll have to do a lot more than take cheap shots to piss me off," Nick proclaimed.
"Now you eat anchor!" May shouted and hurled her anchor at them as if it were a slingshot.
It was a direct hit that sent everybody on their keesters.
"Told ya you can't beat us," Clover taunted.
"And we're not done with ya yet," Melissa added.
"It's our turn to get even with you taking potshots at us," Dawn remarked.
With that, everyone equipped Vapor Emitting Gloves to ascertain the assassins. Geraldine and Kandinsky could only look on and plug their noses at this turn of events. That was when Britney and Haruka turned to face Geraldine and Kandinsky.
"Now, YOUR TURN!" Haruka proclaimed.
"Oh, is that a fact?" Kandinsky laughed as he covered himself with his cape and seemingly vanished.
"Haruka, to your left!" Nick shouted, allowing Haruka to jump over Kandinsky charging for her and subsequently bean him in the face with a downward snap kick.
When Kandinsky reappeared, Britney rushed in and hit him with a windmill kick to send him stumbling backwards.
"Pointless, my lovelies," Kandinsky laughed, waving his wand and creating ten copies of himself to surround Britney and Haruka.
As all of the Kandinskys fired blasts of magic at the same time, Nick raised his hand to surround them with a psychic bubble that blocked the blasts.
"What was that about new tricks, you washout?" Nick taunted before popping the bubble, the recoil dissolving all of the clones and throwing the real Kandinsky backwards.
While all of this was happening, a bunch of assassins surrounded both Alex and May.
"Oh, what, are you scared that your boyfriend can't come to your rescue?" one of the assassins taunted.
The assassins closed in, only for May to spin her anchor around herself, forcing the assassins to back away.
"That's mistake number seven," May shot back. "Alex, how do you wanna go about this?"
"Well, that's simple," Alex giggled. "Let's kick their keesters!"
Alex and May lunged to attack the assassin surrounding them, flooring them rather quickly with perfectly-coordinated strikes.
Meanwhile, Mat found himself surrounded by three assassins who all jumped at him at the same time, but he simply activated an Anti-Gravity Propulsion Ring to send all three assassins floating into the air, helpless. This gave Nick the chance to blast them down to the ground.
Eventually, the assassins all decided to regroup and charge towards the spies as one massive group, but Alex rectified that by blasting them all away with a Sonic Disintegrator Boombox.
"Yeah, eat concentrated sound waves, ya loonies!" Alex laughed.
"Focus on us and not the hired help, sweetheart!" Kandinsky cackled, waving his wand before snapping it down and sending a large wave of magic straight for Alex. Nick rushed in and raised a psychic barrier to defend against the wave.
"Hey, no one calls Alex 'sweetheart' but me," Nick proclaimed. "It's like I said last time, Kandinsky. If you want to see real magic, I'll show you real freakin' magic!"
While Melissa and Dawn kept the assassins busy, Nick raised both of his hands, his left hand surrounded by green light, and his right hand surrounded by yellow light. After a few seconds, Nick slammed both of his hands together, the two lights combining into a silver glow that surrounded both of his hands.
"Stop standing around and dodge, you fools!" Geraldine shouted.
Nick wrenched his hands apart, creating a trail of silver light between his palms.
"SHINING STAR ATTACK!" Nick shouted, clapping his hands back together and unleashing a gargantuan wave of silver light that screamed through the air like a tidal wave, blasting the assassins as well as Geraldine and Kandinsky, causing them all to go flying backward and crash into a pile.
"Guess we still have some work to do, then, don't we?" Geraldine quipped as she picked herself up.
"This isn't the end of the show, you meddlers," Kandinsky laughed. "After all, a real magician always saves his best act for the end of the show, right?"
With that said, Geraldine and Kandinsky retreated, with their assassins following suit as well.
"Of course they'd chicken out," Nozomi quipped.
"Well, there's nowhere they can hide anymore, thanks to advanced W.O.O.H.P. technology," RiCO proclaimed from Nick's X-Powder. "Just follow the blinking light on your X-Powders, and I should be able to lead you straight to their hideout."
"Much appreciated, RiCO!" Sam responded. "All right, everybody, let's move on out!"
And so, the spies set out to search for Geraldine and Kandinsky's hideout, in hopes that they could scuttle their plans.
On the way there, though, Nick once again noticed a strange feather seemingly falling from the sky, but when he blinked, it was gone.
What is that all about? Nick thought. Could this be another one of Kandinsky's illusion tricks?
Despite that being a very real possibility, Nick knew it most likely wasn't as simple as that.
To be continued...
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On the next episode...
Nick: Okay, then, this is definitely not what I was expecting for a bad guy lair.
Alex: Yeah, it's all creepy and boiler room-y.
Sam: I guess bad guys all have different tastes in lairs.
May: Here's my question, though: what exactly are they planning in this strange place?
Melissa: Here's hoping we'll find out soon enough.
Nick: Hey, who wants to do the preview line this time?
Dawn: I'll take that liberty. Well, readers, we have quite an interesting villain lair to traverse through next time on Totally Spies: Competitive Counterparts, "Boiler Room Doom"!
May: Where have I heard that name before?
Nick: ...oh. That's actually quite a reference.