11:37 A.M. – Somewhere In Beverly Hills
She slowly waved her hands across the keyboard in front of her, hoping like always that she could muster up some motivation to continue playing her unfinished song.
But, just like every time she tried, it fell flat due to her bitterness.
She was almost on top of the music world, ready to cement her place as the best in her craft...
...until they showed up.
Those bunches of no-talent punks and their alternative genres of music taking all of the fame and leaving musicians like her in the dust...
Well, she was officially fed up with taking that.
She looked around at everything she'd assembled for the plan she'd been cultivating for so long, sure that she would finally taste her richly deserved revenge after losing everything that mattered to her in the world of music.
Because if they wanted to kick her to the curb and leave her music in the dust, then she would do the same to them.
Eye for an eye, after all.
She typed something in on her keyboard and stood up to walk out of her secret place, ready to show the world the true meaning of heavy metal.
(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 59: Heavy Metal Queens
Story Rated: T for Teen
Story Created: May 30th, 2022
Story Summary: The eighty-second co-op project between Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger, and episode fifty-nine of our mission-based series Totally Spies: The New Adventures. One seemingly normal day, many citizens of Beverly Hills are becoming obsessive fans of heavy metal music and getting the sudden urge to cause chaos in the city. The cause? A woman known only as Metalhead, a former heavy metal singer whose career came to an end far quicker than she anticipated, due to the rise of other kinds of music. And she's extremely salty about it, even willing to kidnap the citizens of Beverly Hills and force them to spend the rest of their lives at her own performances. The spies will have their hands full dealing with Metalhead and her brainwashed groupies, but maybe Seven and Rain can lend a couple hands since they're off on their own idol adventures. Can the spies defeat Metalhead and show her that all kinds of music is still fun?
Author's Note from Mat49324: Well, we've gotten through He's Full of Snit with not one but TWO enemies for the spies to stop. This time, we're dealing with a new kind of enemy this time not from the series. BTW, hopefully you've also had a chance to see my newest one-shot, too. It's titled Hot Tub Talk. While the one-shot does deal with the spies using something at their beach house that they never used during the TV series, there is some other significance of that one-shot – it's my 99th story. That means that unless I think of another one-shot, our next project of The New Adventures will be my 100th story on Fanfiction – completed or not completed. For now, here's The Blue Time Ranger for anything he'd like to say.
Author's Note from The Blue Time Ranger: An original villain that isn't Professor Genesis? IT CAN'T BE! But lo and behold, it is! It's time to return to the world of music, and boy, things are gonna get heavy, if you'll pardon the pun. But enough music puns, let's get to the action! 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?
Act 1: Suspicious Symphony
1:17 P.M. – Beverly Hills
The Groove
("Cynthia no Hikari" by Eir Aoi plays)
"Hey, May, slow the heck down, would ya?!" Nick sputtered as May pulled him along towards The Groove.
"Sorry, Nick, but I'm just so excited!" May exclaimed as she continued to lead Nick along through The Groove towards the music store she was searching for.
"I reiterate, it's not going anywhere," Nick responded. "You pre-ordered it, which means they'll have a copy for you when you get there no matter what!"
What was May so excited about, you ask?
Well, the newest album of her favorite J-pop band Idol Opportunity had just released in music stores everywhere, which meant that, naturally, May was already dashing like greased lightning to The Groove's major music store, Records of Note, to pick up the copy she'd reserved practically the instant pre-orders went live.
Thankfully, unlike the last time a major band had released their album here, the crowd at Records of Note wasn't too ludicrous, which meant May was able to pick up her pre-order and hightail it before the crowd could get any worse.
"Sweet victory," May giggled as she took a good look at the cover, which depicted all six members of Idol Opportunity doing a silly group pose in front of a six-colored waterfall, each color representing one of the members. Just above the waterfall was the name of the album, "Idol Travels", named after their world tour.
"Hey, Nick, wanna listen to some of it on the way back?" May asked.
"Sure, why the heck not," Nick quipped. "We're not really expected anywhere right now."
May quickly fished out her walkman so she could plug in the CD and a pair of headphones for both her and Nick to listen to.
However, before May could start the CD up, someone rushed forward and bumped them aside. May had to scramble to keep the CD from falling to the ground, but once it was safely back in its case, she spun around to confront the offender...
...and stared in honest confusion.
"Um, Nick? Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" May asked.
"Okay, good, so it's not just me," Nick quipped.
The offending shover was Mandy, but she looked very different. Her whole face was decorated with black and white face paint that wouldn't look out of place on a KISS groupie, and she had a very excited expression.
"Do I dare ask the question?" Nick wondered.
"OH, YEAH!" Mandy exclaimed, catching Nick and May off guard. "Who's ready for some chaos?!"
"All right, now I've definitely seen everything," May stated. "Why the heck is Mandy acting like a rockstar? I didn't even think she was into that kind of music!"
Nick did a quick psychic scan of Mandy's mind, and just as he suspected, he noticed a subliminal message in her mind that clearly didn't belong there.
"Come on, you two, join my totally fantabulous crusade and let's rain down some metal on this town!" Mandy proclaimed.
"What do you think, Nick?" May asked. "Is she being mind-controlled?"
"Oh, for sure," Nick responded, throwing his hands out and unleashing a short-range psychic pulse that caused Mandy to stumble backwards before shaking her head.
"...ow, my head hurts," Mandy groaned in her normal voice. "That was... wait. Why the heck do I have face paint on?! Did I unknowingly take a nap and let Mindy paint on my face again?!"
"...wait, that happened before?" May wondered.
"Mandy, what's the last thing you remember doing?" Nick asked.
"Well, I heard some kind of metal song on the radio," Mandy explained. "I was about to change the station, since metal's not really my thing, but that's the last thing I remember before I woke up here at The Groove. Was I brainwashed by something?"
"I think so," Nick stated. "Thankfully, I have an easy way to wake people up when they're brainwashed."
"Of course metal's not your thing, you stupid little harlot!" a new voice shouted from far off.
Nick and May shifted into fighting stances as the source of the voice emerged from the shadows to reveal herself. She appeared to be a couple years older than Nick and May, with long brown hair mixed with black, white and red, along with "hair spikes" along her forehead, blazing orange eyes that were clearly thanks to colored contacts, and an absolutely insane mish-mash of an outfit that called back to many classic metal bands and their fashions.
"And who, pray tell, might you be?" Nick wondered.
"Are you for real?!" the woman growled. "You're just like all of the rest of those pathetic little bastards who shunned my music! I thought that crap had stopped after everything I went through in Japan, but nooooooooooooooo, it just keeps happening!"
"Lady, you're not making a lick of sense, you know," May proclaimed.
"Well, so help me god, when I'm through with all of you, you will know my name, and you will worship the ground I walk on!" the woman shouted. "So says Metalhead!"
With her speech finished, Metalhead decided to retreat for the moment.
"...what the hell was that all about?" Mandy wondered.
"I have no idea, but it sounds like we've got trouble on our hands," Nick responded. "You might want to head back to Mali-U for now, Mandy. My friends and I are probably gonna be on the case for a while."
Mandy nodded as she turned around and dashed back towards Mali-U so Nick and May could beat feet for W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters.
1:56 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters
Jerry's Office
"I tell you, they looked like they jumped straight out of a KISS fan club," Mat quipped as the spies all discussed what they'd seen before being summoned by Jerry.
"Yeah, but last I remember, KISS fans don't normally assault people or smash up mailboxes," Haruka stated.
"Oh, so you all had trouble with some heavy metal fanatics, too, huh?" May chuckled as she and Nick entered the office, already switching into their spy suits.
"I'm willing to guess you ran into one of them?" Sam asked.
"It was Mandy, in this case," Nick quipped. "Thankfully, we un-brainwashed her quickly, but then we ran into the woman I'm pretty sure is behind all this, and get this, I'm pretty sure she's not part of our rogues' gallery."
"Right on the money, Nick," RiCO proclaimed as she materialized in the office, then waved her hands to change the viewscreen to a photograph of the woman that had accosted Nick and May. "She apparently goes by 'Metalhead', former stage name Mallory Metallic. Apparently, she was a rising heavy metal star until other genres of music pushed her out of the spotlight, and now she's out for revenge."
"Definitely fitting for the kinds of villains we tend to face," Clover chuckled.
"Wait, you already figured out who she is?" Bridget quipped. "That was fast."
"Well, she did have a little help."
Nick and May were the first to notice the two figures stepping out of the hallway, quickly revealing themselves to be Nanairo Arshavin and Nijika Karatachi, idol names Seven and Rain. They were two idol sisters who the spies had helped out on their last trip to Japan to assist Idol Opportunity in taking down Sebastian Saga.
"Holy crapbaskets, I didn't know you two were here!" May gasped.
"Since you're here, I'm willing to guess that little miss Metalhead gave you two the business as well?" Nick asked.
"She was relentless," Seven proclaimed. "I don't know what she had against us, but she kept accusing us of abusing our popularity and making it harder for people like her to get ahead in life."
"Of course we thought that was pretty suspicious, so we called Jerry to get us over here and see if there was any connection," Rain stated.
"Looks like we found a connection after all," Alex quipped. "Anyone think we should head back into the city and see if we can find her before she brainwashes any more people?"
"Sounds like a plan, Alex," Britney responded.
2:31 P.M. – Beverly Hills
Nick and May seemed the most worried, May especially, that Metalhead was going after Idol Opportunity.
"Okay, remind me again why we're not going back to The Groove this time?" Clover wondered.
"Rules for villains, number one-hundred and seven," May pointed out. "Try not to go back to a location where your foes attacked you."
"Valid point there," Haruka commented.
"We find Seven and Rain, we find Metalhead, too," May emphasized.
"Totally," Alex added.
The spies searched high and low for Metalhead.
"Anybody feel like we just saw KISS wannabes?" Mat wondered.
"I'll second that, man," Nick answered.
Sam was already on her X-Powder trying to get a lock on the location of Metalhead.
"Find anything, Sammy?" Alex wondered.
"No, not yet," Sam answered.
Just as she finished that sentence, she got a reading.
"Santa Monica Pier!" She exclaimed to everyone.
"Damn, I think another concert is scheduled there next week," Bridget remarked, having watched some TV recently.
"Well, maybe we can save it," Haruka quipped.
"We gotta get there fast though!" Blaine emphasized.
"I can help us," Bridget added and used her Sonic Mode speed to get the spy team to the Santa Monica Pier.
2:58 P.M. – Santa Monica Pier
People were enjoying themselves either on the pier or on the beach.
"Looks like everything's in order," Melissa remarked, slightly dejected.
Melissa was immediately jinxed when the spies heard music playing by Metalhead sounded nearby.
"Don't jinx it, Melissa!" Dawn chastised.
"Nonetheless, Metalhead's right there," Mat replied.
"And we got a chance to take her down!" Nozomi added.
"And we may be in luck," May quipped. "Seven and Rain are there already trying to stop Metalhead."
"How about that," Sam remarked. "Let's go put the odds in their favor, eh?"
"I'm with ya, girl!" Clover exclaimed.
"Oh, if it isn't the idols who got in my way yesterday," Metalhead laughed. "What, did you seriously come all the way to the states just to put down my crusade?"
"Given what you're trying to pull off, I would say so!" Rain shouted. "Do you even realize what you're doing?!"
"Oh, don't even pull that card with me," Metalhead cackled as she brought out a megaphone and unleashed a booming sound wave from it that knocked Seven and Rain to the ground. "I know exactly what I'm doing, and why I'm doing it! Heavy metal used to be a thing to celebrate until bitches like you came along and shifted the landscape of music to leave rising stars like me behind! You'll have to forgive me for being appropriately salty about that!"
"And how is any of that our fault?!" Seven shouted. "You know that j-pop isn't the only kind of music out there, and consider that Rain and I only became idols in the past two years!"
"THAT'S NO DAMN EXCUSE!" Metalhead shouted as she advanced on Seven and Rain. "Every musician who came out after I debuted contributed to my downfall, whether they meant to or not! And that means I get to make an example out of you, to show the world what'll happen if they mess with my comeback!"
Metalhead lunged forward, only for Nick to fly in and land a resounding flying kick that sent Metalhead stumbling backwards.
"I'm gonna have to stop you right there, little lady," Nick proclaimed.
"So, you're defending these little upstarts?!" Metalhead shouted.
"Yes, I'm defending them, because they're my friends," Nick responded. "And you need to chill with the whole 'other music wrecked my career' shtick, because that's just how music and trends go. It sounds like you were the one who just couldn't keep up."
"Oh-ho, I see your game now, buddy," Metalhead growled. "Well, that means you're just as guilty as the rest!"
Metalhead raised her megaphone again, only for Nick to blast it out of her hands with a Final Shine Attack.
"Okay, so we're doing this the hard way, I see," Metalhead stated before unsheathing what appeared to be a long glow stick, only for her to push a button on its handle and cause electricity to crackle around its "blade". Metalhead charged forward and swung her makeshift stun baton at Nick, only for him to easily dodge each swing.
"It seems like you're new to this whole supervillain thing, so let me educate you on something," Nick stated. "When you're trying to swing at someone, don't telegraph your attacks so easily. And this is coming from a psychic!"
Nick ducked under another swing, then threw out a psychic pulse to knock Metalhead away from him.
"Curse you, you little brat, I won't forget this!" Metalhead shouted as she retreated for the moment.
"Okay, so... that was a thing," Haruka stated once the area was calm again. "She sounds really salty about losing her time in the spotlight."
"Hey, music is kinda like fashion, really," Clover answered. "Trends update and change constantly, and everything can't be in the spotlight forever."
"Couldn't have said it better myself, Clover," May quipped. "Sounds like little miss face-paint forgot that."
"You two okay?" Bridget asked as Seven and Rain walked up to them.
"You all got here just in time," Rain responded. "Metalhead was really getting on our case before you all showed up. I've never seen even our most fervent fans act like this lady, and believe me when I say I've seen some obsessive behavior when it comes to them."
"Why can't our super-fans be more like May?" Seven wondered.
"Awww, you guys," May giggled, blushing slightly.
"RiCO, can you track Metalhead for us?" Nick asked.
"Say no more, my superdrone is on the case!" RiCO proclaimed. "It seems like Metalhead has stopped somewhere inside the Lux Theater."
"Well, then let's go show this metal nut what it means to be a real music lover!" Blaine shouted.
3:15 P.M. – Beverly Hills
The Lux Theater
"Man, it's awful quiet in here," Sam stated as the spies skulked through the seemingly empty Lux Theater. The spies hadn't been here in a while, ever since Eri's mother had held a concert here.
"Kinda seems like the perfect place to spring..." Alex started, only for the lights to all come on at the same time when the spies reached the main stage and revealed a couple dozen citizens surrounding them, all wearing face paint like Metalhead's. "...a trap."
"Advice for heroes, number twenty-three," Nick responded. "Try to avoid troublesome phrases like 'it's too quiet here' or 'everything's gonna be all right'."
"Too true, you little meddlers," Metalhead proclaimed. "Now I've got you right where I want you."
"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that," Mat retorted. "We've gotten out of worse scrapes before."
"Also, refer to rules for villains number seventy-nine," Haruka quipped.
"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" Metalhead countered. "Well, how do you think you'd do when we have a hostage in our midst?"
Two of Metalhead's brainwashed mooks stepped aside to reveal two more mooks holding someone by the arm.
Someone that the spies almost instantly recognized.
"I'm only going to warn you once, Metalhead," Nick proclaimed, his psychic aura flaring to life around. "Tell your mooks to get their greasy hands off of Eri, or there's going to be consequences."
"Did you forget that she's my hostage?" Metalhead laughed. "Any of your fancy light shows and I'll turn her into one of my groupies like that. Can you really put her through that?"
Nick simply raised his right hand, then before Metalhead could make a move, snapped his fingers, causing a bubble of golden light to expand outward and cover the entire stage area, grinding time to a halt for everything within the bubble except for him.
Nick ran up and elbowed the two mooks holding Eri captive so he could bring her back by the rest of the spies, then snapping his fingers again to cancel the time freeze.
"Well, I guess you don't really have a..." Metalhead started, only to gasp in surprise when she noticed that Eri wasn't being held captive anymore. "W-What the hell did you do?!"
"New baddie here, so you probably don't know all of my tricks," Nick proclaimed. "You doing okay, Eri?"
"I am now," Eri answered. "Thanks for helping me out, Nick."
"Always happy to help, Eri," Nick stated, his aura flaring up again. "Now watch us unload."
("All I Want" by The Offspring plays)
Blaine took Eri to a safe spot; the odds were in the spies' favor with twelve of them out there.
"I've never seen this person before, honestly," Eri told Blaine.
"That goes for all of us," Blaine replied.
Nick unleashed a psychic shot at Metalhead to draw first blood, but Metalhead was too fast for that.
"Old school sucks for you," Metalhead taunted.
"You only saw maybe less than 2% of our ability," Mat proclaimed.
"At best!" Melissa added, immediately using the Helicopter Hand Fan with Dawn.
Three of the mooks jumped up to attack them, but Dawn simply blasted them back to the ground with her Cyclone Blast Hairdryer.
"Suck on that!" Dawn laughed. "This combo rules!"
"Way to go, girls!" Nick proclaimed.
Mat and Haruka opted on a team-up of their own before Metalhead stopped them both with an attack of her own.
"I hope you'll still have hearing after this," Metalhead cackled as she blasted rock music at the spies.
"Sebastian's raves got nothing on you!" Clover shouted.
She used quick thinking to whip out the Sensible Soundproof Earplugs; everyone else saw that and caught on. As for Blaine and Eri, Blaine had some SSEs on him, and tried to plug Eri's ears himself.
"Now THAT isn't fair!" Metalhead whined.
"I thought you'd be used to that," Bridget called out.
"Don't remind me what I should be used to," Metalhead chastised.
"We can, and we will..." May remarked and hurled her anchor at Metalhead.
Nick used his psychic powers to keep May's anchor on course and got a direct hit on Metalhead.
"Whoever taught you about rock music must have been really shameful in their own right," Bridget proclaimed.
"That's a giant no-no for you, pal!" Metalhead shouted as she attempted to attack Bridget.
"Better yet, learn from KISS or any other punk rock band!" Alex shouted back as she hurled the Digit Decoder Credit Card as a makeshift boomerang at Metalhead.
It cut at her outfit, making Metalhead more enraged.
"Be thankful it didn't send your disastrous outfit down the crapper," Nick called out.
"Do we gotta double or triple the fun or are you coming quietly?" Britney called out.
"Coming quietly is something I don't plan to do..." Metalhead boasted, then flashed a grin at what was going on behind the spies.
"You're gonna come quietly if it's the last thing we do," Sam replied.
"I concur," Dawn added.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Metalhead taunted.
"Ooh, I see what she means," Mat stated when he looked behind him.
A giant crowd of people was there and surrounding the spies.
"Safe to say none of us took this into account," Nozomi chastised.
"Maybe we can still compensate for this," Bridget stated, getting her Sonic Mode ready.
"You're surrounded, you know," Metalhead laughed. "Just give it up!"
"What did we say about rule seventy-nine?" Bridget taunted. "Sonic Mode, online!"
Before the light from her transformation had even faded, Bridget was already on the move, blitzing through the crowd of groupies and bowling them over before they even knew what hit them.
While this was happening, Nick let a bunch of mooks surround himself before unleashing a psychic pulse all around him that sent them crashing to the ground.
Another pair of mooks approached Seven, expecting an easy win, only to quickly rethink that strategy when she jump-kicked them back into another pair of mooks.
"Yeah, nice try," Seven laughed.
Metalhead was starting to grow concerned as she witnessed the spies easily taking down her army of groupies.
"Well, so much for your mook army," Haruka taunted.
"I'm not finished with you yet!" Metalhead exclaimed, once again brandishing her megaphone and shouting into it to unleash a pounding sonic boom towards the spies, one that Nick was just barely able to block by projecting a psychic barrier in front of everybody.
"You were saying?" Nick quipped.
"...this isn't over, spies!" Metalhead sputtered as she retreated, most of her 'groupies' following her. The only ones that didn't were the ones that Nick had hit with a psychic pulse, and thus were snapped out of their brainwashing.
While Seven and Rain escorted the confused people out of the Lux Theater, Eri walked up to Nick now that the battle was over for the moment.
"Are you doing okay, Eri?" Nick asked. "I know I just asked that, but..."
"It's fine," Eri answered. "You all came to help me out, after all."
"Where did those face-painters find you, Eri?" Alex asked.
"Mom and I were on our way to the Lux Theater so we could get ready for mom's next concert, and then a bunch of those guys with the weird face paint grabbed me and dragged me here," Eri answered. "One of them took my mom somewhere after they shouted at her and called her music... well, a lot of words I probably shouldn't say at my age."
"Definitely sounds like our bad guy du jour," Clover quipped.
"And on that note, we should probably keep going after Metalhead before she brainwashes any more people into her metaphorical KISS Army," Mat stated. "No doubt if we keep following her, we'll find Emi before any trouble happens."
With that in mind, the spies left the Lux Theater and set off into Beverly Hills to keep searching for Metalhead.
"Seriously, I thought we'd had enough of fanatical fans after what happened in Europe," Rain sighed.
"Wait, what exactly happened in Europe?" Bridget asked.
"Oh, man, now I really wish you'd all been there to see that," Seven laughed.
"Basically, it happened during the Europe leg of Idol Opportunity's last world tour, the one that Seven and Rain were a part of," May explained. "When they all performed at the PostFinance Arena in Switzerland, a couple of loony fans actually bum-rushed the stage because they, in their own words, were 'absolute super-fans' and they 'wanted to get an autograph while they had a chance'. Problem is, the group was holding autograph signings after the show anyway, and what kind of maniac just bum-rushes the stage shouting for an autograph?! Don't they know that's bad manners and makes you look like a psycho stalker?!"
"Some fans just don't know their boundaries," Nozomi quipped.
"One of the loonies even tried to get a little grabby, if you catch my drift, but I actually kicked that guy back into the crowd," Seven giggled. "Serves him right."
"Any sign of our metal lady?" Sam wondered.
Nick did a quick psychic radar sweep and found something just up ahead. "I'm sensing a bunch of commotion near The Groove," Nick stated. "Let's head over there before they turn the place into a rockstar's hotel room."
4:17 P.M. – Beverly Hills
The Groove
Not for the first time in recent memory, The Groove was an absolute warzone when the spies reached it. Face-painted people were absolutely everywhere, moving around and causing chaos wherever they went.
"Holy crap, it's a nuthouse over here!" Alex exclaimed.
"How many people did she mind-melt?!" Melissa shouted.
"We'll probably have to yank that question out of Metalhead herself," Sam proclaimed. "And we'd better do it fast, because this looks like it's gonna get problematic real quickly."
"Metalhead's inside the actual mall, so let's move," Nick stated. "Eri, stay close to us, okay?"
Eri nodded and reached out to take Nick's hand as the spies began fighting their way through the crowd of brainwashed 'groupies' in order to actually get inside the mall.
"Hey, grabby fingers off!" May shouted as she pushed a bunch of people away. "You don't want me to break out the anchor, do you?!"
"This is insanity!" Seven shouted as she jumped over another person trying to pull at her hair. "Does Metalhead really hate other musicians that much?!"
When the spies reached the main entryway and entered the mall building, though...
"Oh, god, it's even worse on the inside!" Clover exclaimed. "There's so many people here!"
"And they all look like they want a piece of us," Blaine quipped.
"Just be glad they're just rock zombies and not actual zombies, otherwise we'd probably be stuck in a Dead Rising ripoff," Nick responded. "Come on, let's get moving."
The spies all began pushing their way through the crowd, knocking away anyone who tried to get in their way. However, when the group passed by Records of Note, they all noticed a bunch of people holding a large steel beam as if they intended to use their makeshift battering ram to destroy the store.
"Oh, absolutely the hell not," Nick proclaimed, taking a few steps forward before slamming his palm into the ground, causing a wave of yellow light to sweep across the floor underneath those people and sending them floating into the air. "Why don't you go cool off for a while?"
Nick moved his hand to psychically toss those people into the nearby pool so the group could move on.
"She's gotta be somewhere in this madhouse," Britney quipped.
"My radar's telling me she's not too far off," Nick responded. "Hopefully it won't be much longer before we can kick her to the curb."
Almost as if fate had been waiting for Nick to say that, a sound wave blast hit the ground just in front of him, forcing him to jump back as Metalhead descended from the upper level via a grappling hook.
"Or she could find us and spare us that trouble," Nick teased.
"Make your jokes while you can, boy," Metalhead sneered. "In case you missed it, I've got practically everyone else in this mall under my control. And it won't be long before you're next."
"Just go and stuff it already," Clover shot back. "We're here to stop you from giving music a bad name!"
"Is that so?" Metalhead chuckled.
"Where's my mom, you jerk?!" Eri shouted.
"Patience, little girl," Metalhead replied. "We have all the time in the world for our little runaround."
"You didn't answer the question, jerk dip," Alex shot back.
A loud gasp of surprise caught the spies' attention, and they followed it to the upper level just above them, where Alex's mother Carmen could be seen glancing down in surprise and slight worry over the current circumstances.
"M-Mom?!" Alex gasped.
"Alex, sweetie, what's going on here?" Carmen wondered, only for two of Metalhead's groupies to sneak up behind her and grab her.
"Tell your mooks to let her go, Metalhead," Nick growled, raising his hand to charge up a Final Shine Attack. "I'm not going to ask you again."
"I think you're forgetting that I'm the one holding the cards here," Metalhead laughed. "I don't think you'll want to know what I'd do if you provoke me."
"Come on, Mallory, do we really have to do this?" Nick asked, hoping to get through to Metalhead.
"...don't you dare call me that," Metalhead growled. "There's a reason I left that name behind! You're just trying to yank me back into the ridicule I thought I'd left behind!"
"Why are you saying that when you're the one who can't let go of the past?" Seven proclaimed. "There's gotta be a better way to move on from what happened than... well, all of this!"
"I swore I would never let go of my past!" Metalhead shouted. "That would be no different than just forgetting all of the pain I suffered for being forgotten and abandoned just because of trends! The music world made a grave mistake in pushing people like me to the wayside! Now you'll all feel the same pain that I felt!"
The two mooks lunged forward to shove Carmen off of the upper level, though she was thankfully caught quickly in Nick's psychic hold, then safely carried down to the ground level.
"You're going to absolutely regret that," Nick growled, his psychic aura exploding to life around him. "That was my fiancée's mother you just tried to hurl off of a railing, by the way. And that means you instantly crossed a line you're not meant to cross."
To be continued...
On the next episode...
Nick: There's really nowhere for you to run, by the way, so why don't you just do us all a favor and surrender, just to make it easy on yourself?
Metalhead: You really think I'm done? Advance, my groupies!
Alex: Oh, boy, there's more of them!
Bridget: Okay, this is getting dangerous. I think we need to find a better place to do this!
Sam: Wait a minute, where'd Mat go?!
Melissa: ...oh, you didn't.
Metalhead: And so what if I did?
Nick: Guess that means we're really gonna drop the hammer now.
Seven: While you all do that, I'll take care of the preview line. Well, readers, we're stuck in a swarm of groupies, but can we find the way out? Find out next time on Totally Spies: Heavy Metal Queens, "I Like My Weapons How I Like My Music"!
May: ...do I dare push my luck?
Nick: I'd try not to provoke him regardless.
