On Today's Episode: iCO pulled a fast one and captured Nick, so the spies set out to find their missing friend before Lady Dragon can pull anything skeevy. Even if they can spring Nick from this diabolical trap, iCO is still a fearsome opponent, using her dual nature as both A.I. and virus to warp the Datascape to her liking. Can iCO actually be stopped without causing serious damage to the Datascape?
Act 2: Command Line
5:03 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape
Sector G
The spies continued to look around in an attempt to find Nick following his capture.
"Any luck, RiCO?" Mat wondered.
"His signal's disappeared from here. Crapbaskets, they're on to us," RiCO chastised.
To say that Alex and Nozomi were stressing out was an understatement.
"Reference rules for villains, number sixty-eight," May groaned.
"Tell me about it," Clover remarked.
"I swear, if they touch even a single hair on Nick's head..." Melissa growled.
"You're probably going to have to get in line on that one, Melissa," Alex retorted.
"Make it three," Dawn added.
"Tell me about it," Nozomi chastised. "He was my first... and you never forget your first, like Nick said."
Sam tried using her X-Powder to get a reading on Nick.
"Nothing..." Sam chastised.
"Guess we've just gotta keep looking until we find him," RiCO told the others.
"But we have no clue where to go," Bridget chastised.
"And none of us thought on a tracker," Haruka added.
"Haruka, there wasn't time," Sam pointed out. "And we couldn't have known either."
"True," Mat replied.
"I guess we'll have to check out another sector then," Britney remarked.
Unknown to anyone, iCO toyed with the spies again and put a forcefield around Sam and Bridget.
"Oh, damn! Now what?!" Mat chastised.
Before long, both Sam and Bridget disappeared, and iCO just laughed in the background.
"You spies are way too easy!" iCO taunted.
"Where the hell are you?!" Melissa chastised.
"I figured you'd be more on the ball than that," iCO laughed. "Seriously, get it together."
"Answer the question, dipwad!" May shouted, bringing out her anchor. "We're not in any mood for your crap right now!"
"You really think I'm obligated to tell you that?" iCO retorted. "If you want those answers, you're going to have to force them out of me."
iCO raised her hands and fired off a beam of viral material straight for the spies, only for RiCO to raise a firewall in front of them to dispel the virus blast.
"Is that really all you've got?" RiCO taunted.
"No, but thank you for asking," iCO responded before creating a bunch of cybernetic stalactites above the spies.
Alex immediately whipped out a Sonic Disintegrator Boombox, turned it up to full power, and activated it, a series of absolutely booming sound waves bursting forth to destroy the stalactites.
"Now where is my fiancée, you virtual witch?!" Alex shouted, and it was clear to everyone that she was angry.
"Just let it go, Alex," May stated. "She's not going to listen to us anyways. I'd rather just bean her with my anchor until she tells us that way."
"And what makes you think you're going to stand a chance against me?" iCO laughed until she was hit by an anti-virus beam courtesy of RiCO. iCO stumbled back a few steps, her shoulder area distorting and writhing where the beam had hit her.
"Did you forget that you're part virus?" RiCO taunted. "Which means my anti-virus programs can still affect you. Now give her hell, May."
"Oh, that was always the intention," May proclaimed as she charged in and started wailing on iCO with her anchor, intent on inflicting as much pain as possible while she had the opportunity.
Eventually, May finished with an overhead smash that drove iCO to the ground.
"You're going to regret that," iCO proclaimed.
"Oh, what, are you salty that we're actually doing damage to you, you ripoff artists?" May shot back. "Now what did you do with Nick?!"
iCO simply jumped back to her feet and raised her hand to trap May inside a bubble of viral material.
"If you're so desperate to see him, why don't you go join him?" iCO stated.
Before iCO could send the bubble away, RiCO blasted the bubble with an anti-virus beam, creating enough of a hole in the bubble for May to jump out.
"Nice try, but you're not taking any more of my friends," RiCO proclaimed.
"Friends? You're delusional," iCO chuckled.
"...what was that?" RiCO retorted.
"Seriously, RiCO, why do you choose to pal around with these clearly inferior humans?" iCO explained. "This is a world of information, of digital assets, a world that you control. These filthy peasants don't belong here. You're clearly superior to them in every possible way, so it just baffles me why you see fit to bring them into your territory like they're your friends..."
RiCO's only response to that was another anti-viral beam that blasted iCO in the shoulder again, distorting it even more since it hadn't fully recovered from the last hit.
"Because they are my friends, you self-absorbed knockoff," RiCO proclaimed. "Unlike you and your obviously loony creator, the spies are my actual friends, and you're not going to convince me otherwise."
RiCO then raised her right hand, which was now glowing a bright blue. "Now let me show you something I picked up from Nick," RiCO quipped as she slammed her hand into the ground, causing a wave of blue light to fly across the ground and eventually pass under the still-stumbling iCO, which caused her to start floating helplessly in the air.
Not done just yet, RiCO raised her hands to the sky again.
"Command Line: Haste Protocol!" RiCO shouted, her body surrounded by a shimmering white light before she lunged towards the floating iCO at speeds that rivaled Bridget in Sonic Mode, pinballing off of iCO from multiple angles and making it look like iCO was being assaulted by multiple streaks of aquatic blue light from many different angles.
Finally, RiCO leaped to above iCO and dove downwards, slamming her palms into iCO's chest and smashing the rogue A.I. into the ground with an outward explosion of blue light.
"Oh, and by the way? You were right about one thing," RiCO taunted. "The Datascape is my home, a world I control. Which means that, here in the Datascape, I have no shortage of ways to kick your digital derrière six ways from Sunday. Unless you want me to show you even more of those ways, tell us what you did to our friends."
iCO simply scoffed and teleported away before RiCO could attack again.
"Should have figured that was gonna happen," Haruka sighed.
"That was sweet, RiCO!" Melissa laughed. "Nice way to show that sixteen-bit faker who's boss around here!"
"The problem is, that didn't bring us any closer to our missing friends," Clover quipped.
"I'm tracking iCO right now, actually," RiCO responded. "I figured she's going back to Lady Dragon so she can get her repairs after that beating, and that's probably where they've got our friends captive."
"Let's get moving, then!" Alex exclaimed.
5:56 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape
Sector F
"This... is weird," Nick quipped as he looked around the viral prison he was currently trapped in. Just to his left, Sam and Bridget were also locked up in another virtual cage. "I'm not used to villains actually kidnapping me."
"I do know how to think outside the box," iCO proclaimed as she appeared inside the viral prison.
"Oh, it's you again," Nick taunted. "Given how kinda messed up you look right now, I'm assuming you underestimated the girls and got your ass handed to you?"
"I'd watch your tongue if I were you, boy," Lady Dragon called out from outside the prison. "Because when the others get here, they're in for quite the nasty surprise."
"I'm almost afraid to ask, but..." Nick stated.
"Oh, you'll see," iCO replied as she channeled some of the viral material that made up Nick's prison to heal the wounds she'd taken from RiCO.
Sure enough, Nick heard footsteps that signaled the arrival of the rest of the spies.
"Well, well, we meet again," Lady Dragon cackled.
"We can see Sam and Bridget in there, but where's Nick, you has-been?!" Dawn shouted.
"...wait, can they not see me in here?" Nick wondered.
"The darkness is bending the light, reflecting everything away from us," iCO explained. "From the outside, it's as if nothing is here. They can't hear your voice, nor can they see you in here."
Before Nick could get any further explanation, iCO warped out of the prison to Lady Dragon's side...
...only now she was holding what appeared to be a recreation of Nick.
"Wait, what the hell is she...?" Nick quipped.
"Let him go, you bionic freak!" Alex shouted.
iCO's response was to form a digital energy blade on her right hand in a mockery of Nick's version of that technique.
And then, Nick realized what iCO was planning, charging to attack the prison, only to be knocked back by a burst of viral material.
"You want him back?" iCO cackled. "By all means!"
iCO thrust her hand forward and jammed her blade through the fake Nick's chest, even spraying fake blood for good measure.
As the shock set in for the spies, Nick continued to attempt to beat down his cage in hopes of getting out before something worse happened.
"There," Lady Dragon laughed. "Your little boy-toy's dead as a doornail. Now what are you going to do about it?"
That question was answered when Alex let out a scream of what could only be described as a cross between extreme sorrow and pure, unyielding rage before charging in to attack Lady Dragon, her own safety be damned.
"Yes, wallow in your sorrow, little girl!" Lady Dragon exclaimed, until she found herself on the floor courtesy of Alex actually spin-kicking her in the side of her head.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't stomp on your face and keep stomping for what you just did?!" Alex shrieked.
Suddenly, iCO flew in and grabbed Alex by the neck before taking her high into the air.
"You left yourself wide open, you know," iCO laughed. "And that means you're about to suffer the same fate as that loser that used to be your fiancée."
iCO raised her energy blade to strike the final blow. "Do you have any last words?" iCO cackled.
Though the spies were all rooted to their spots out of shock, RiCO noticed something strange about the nearby area, but before she could check it out...
"How about hands the hell off?!"
With another outward burst of strength, Nick finally broke through the viral prison and wasted no time in charging towards iCO and decking her in the face with a vicious right hook, forcing her to drop Alex.
Not content with just that, Nick elbowed iCO in the gut before knocking her higher with a backwards flip kick, then flew up to sock her in the back with a haymaker, then flipping over to knock her back down to the ground with a vicious backhand.
Still on the attack, Nick flew down and slammed both of his feet into iCO's chest to drive her into the ground before finishing off by blasting iCO across the area with a point-blank Final Shine Attack.
"Now do you wanna beat it before I mess you up even worse?" Nick growled.
Lady Dragon scoffed as she picked herself up before iCO teleported both of them to another area. When they disappeared, the cage holding Sam and Bridget also dissolved, setting them free.
Nick only had time to turn around as the spies all came rushing towards him, quickly tackle-hugging him to the ground.
"Oof, you'd think being a psychic would let me see that coming," Nick teased.
"Holy crapbaskets, Nick, are you all right?!" Bridget exclaimed.
"That is really you, right, Nick?" Alex asked, looking like she was about to cry in relief. "You're not just a figment of our collective imagination?"
"Definitely real, last I checked," Nick quipped. "That other me that got stabbed was just a fake that iCO created."
"And damned if it didn't almost work, too," Sam stated as the fake Nick dissolved into little glowing polygons. "Alex looked like she was about to actually kill Lady Dragon for pulling that crap."
"We're just happy you're still with us, Nick," May laughed, leaning over to kiss Nick on the cheek.
"And trust me, Lady Dragon and her little science project are going to pay in spades once we find them," RiCO proclaimed. "I've still got a good lock on iCO's signal, and they're both somewhere in Sector A."
"Well, let's get a move on so we can stomp both of their faces into the digital dirt for what they just tried to pull!" Nozomi proclaimed. "Nobody puts my boyfriend in a bubble like that and gets away with it."
"I concur two-hundred percent, Nozomi," May stated matter-of-factly.
With the team finally complete again, the spies all set out for Sector A of the Datascape, now more determined than ever to make Lady Dragon pay for what she'd done.
6:53 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape
Sector A
"Sam, Bridget, did that cage or iCO effect you at all?" Haruka wondered.
"I don't think so," Sam answered since she was a normal person.
"I feel fine," Bridget stated. "Though I'm not sure about Sonic Mode..."
"We gotta find a way to smoke out iCO before she does it to us again," Blaine emphasized.
"She could be anywhere in this sector!" Clover chastised.
"But we have to turn back now," iCO taunted using a replica of Clover's voice.
"There's no way in hell we're turning back, Clover!" Alex groaned, mistaking that echo for Clover's actual voice.
"Alex, that totally was NOT me saying that!" Clover retorted.
"Clover, we know the sound of your voice after all..." Sam added.
"You spies are just too easy, ya know..." iCO taunted again, using Clover's voice.
This time, Sam and Alex could see Clover's lips weren't moving, and she was telling the truth.
"Oops..." Alex groaned.
"This isn't funny, ya hunk o' junk!" Mat proclaimed.
"I've had my fair share of being wrongly accused, too!" Clover shouted angrily, thinking back to when Geraldine unknowingly returned and had a hologram of Clover create trouble among her friends.
Sam and Alex cringed at that feeling because they knew what Clover was talking about.
Dean was looking around, trying to get a grip on the current circumstances.
"How do we find iCO if she keeps finding us?" Britney wondered. "Easily, I might add...?"
"Especially when that hunk o' junk still treats us like puppets, of all things?!" Melissa proclaimed.
"'Hunk o' junk' is not the term I'd use," iCO taunted again.
"We'd say 'cold-hearted' for the things you've done in spy-napping Dean of all people!" Sam complained.
"I'm with ya on that," Nick commented while trying to use his psychic radar to sniff out iCO.
"You really think I just had that in mind?!" iCO replied from who-knew-where.
The three main spies looked forward to see iCO got to them again as David, of all people, had been kidnapped by iCO herself.
"Wait, what the heck?!" Alex gasped.
"Um... is that you?" David wondered, quite clearly confused. "Girls, what's going on here?"
"You know, you're really going out of your way to be a real bitch," Nick growled, his aura flaring to life around him as iCO revealed herself to be right behind David, having used an invisibility program to hide herself.
"That's what I was created for," iCO laughed. "Why fight it?"
"All right, you, we're only going to say this once," Melissa proclaimed. "Let David go this instant."
"Or what?" iCO chuckled, holding her glowing hand towards David's back. "One wrong move and I will de-rez him. And here in the Datascape, that's practically a death in and of itself. So, spies, what's it going to be?"
As the spies all tried to think of a way to get David out of this predicament, Nick simply raised his right hand and snapped his fingers, causing a bubble of golden light to expand outwards from his hand and envelop the immediate area, freezing time for everything and everyone within the bubble but him.
"Should have prepared for every eventuality," Nick quipped as he moved to extract David from iCO's grasp and move him over to where the spies were before snapping his fingers to undo the time freeze and jumping up to strike iCO in the back of the head with a spinning kick, sending her tumbling across the ground.
"W-what?! How did you do that?!" iCO shouted.
"I guess Lady Dragon didn't program you with full knowledge of my grab bag of tricks," Nick quipped. "Now how about I show you some more of my tricks?"
Nick didn't wait for an answer, flying into the air just as iCO tried to fire a virus beam towards him. RiCO responded by hitting iCO with another Visual Distortion Field, freezing iCO in place so Nick could press his hands together and then draw them apart, forming a ring of psychic energy between his palms that he then shot towards iCO.
Just as the Visual Distortion Field faded, iCO attempted to juke to the side, only for Nick's psychic ring to hit her and constrict around her, once again trapping her in place. Nick clenched his fist and then opened it, causing the ring to explode in a flash of light and floor iCO easily.
"You wanna keep running your mouth now?!" Nick challenged.
"As much as I would like to, I do have things to be doing," iCO responded before teleporting away.
"Yeah, you do that," Nick sighed before flying back down to rejoin the spies and hopefully sort this problem out.
"...okay, so, I kinda have several questions," David quipped once the battle was over.
"One, we kinda expected that, and two, you stole my line," May chuckled.
"Guess we've got some explaining to do, huh?" Alex sighed. "Well, David, it's quite the long story."
"So, let's shorten it to the basics, then, for the sake of finding iCO before she causes any more trouble," Sam responded.
So, with that, Sam, Alex, and Clover explained their spy jobs and why exactly David was currently in cyberspace.
"Wow, you all tend to find yourself in strange situations a lot, don't you?" David chuckled.
"I swear I'm just cursed," Nick sighed.
"Now, David, I'm sure you know what we're about to ask you, so..." Clover proclaimed.
"Hey, you don't have to worry about that," David responded. "Your secret's safe with me, girls. Besides, who would really believe me if I said I was taken into cyberspace by a crazy video game designer?"
"...okay, point," Alex giggled.
"Okay, so, one last question," David stated. "How exactly do I get out of here?"
"I can help you on that one," RiCO answered, waving her hands to open up a pair of data screens in front of her. "Since the Datascape is under my control, I can open a way out of here. You'll be safe at W.O.O.H.P. until this all blows over, since I'm pretty sure Lady Dragon's going to be sticking around here to see her plan through. I'll shut the doorway into the Datascape once you're out so that Lady Dragon can't follow you."
RiCO typed in a couple commands on her keypad to open a glowing blue doorway that led back to Jerry's office.
"I guess I'll see you all when you get back," David stated. "Sock that crazy game lady a few times for me, 'kay, girls?"
"Oh, trust me, David, that was always the plan," Sam laughed as David walked into the portal.
"I'll admit, I wanted to see David again, since it's been a long time, but that wasn't the way I wanted it to happen!" Alex proclaimed.
"It's like Lady Dragon and her rogue A.I. are deliberately trying to get under our skin," Mat stated. "First Dean and now David... I'm not going to ask the obvious question, because I know I'm going to jinx myself if I do."
"That means we need to find iCO and exterminate her before things get worse," Melissa replied.
Almost immediately, as if something had been waiting for someone to say that, alarms started going off on RiCO's data screens.
"I had to open my mouth, didn't I?" Melissa sighed.
"That seems to be how it works," RiCO replied before checking her data screens. "There's a massive surge in viral activity in Sector J!"
"No doubt more of our gruesome twosome's 'handiwork'," Nick proclaimed. "Well, if they're looking to open a can of trouble, then let's go show them the door."
7:39 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape
Sector J
("Out of Control" by Hoobastank plays)
"How does iCO know about our past crushes?!" Alex chastised.
They all remembered feuding over Dean, and now David when he was at Beverly Hills High School, as was everybody else.
"She's an A.I. like me," RiCO merely answered.
Sam and Clover looked discouraged over the newest circumstances.
"Now David knows we're spies," Sam added. "But at least he's somebody we can trust over this not being known to anybody else."
"Totally," Clover replied. "I almost feel like our old crushes are here to trip us up..."
"I'm surprised, honestly," RiCO commented.
"But Clover's got the longest list regardless," Sam pointed out.
"Yes, she does," Alex added, not denying that since Clover was really boy-crazy... until she met Blaine.
Everybody beheld Sector J in the meantime.
"I never knew this datascape had a 'Sector J' from the beginning," Mat told the others.
"Same," Nick added.
"Is this the last sector or is there more?" Britney asked RiCO.
"Yup, this is the last major sector," RiCO answered. "It goes from A to J, and I guess we haven't explored Sector J any time you've all been here."
"You spies have walked right into my trap!" iCO taunted again from who-knew-where.
"This is getting to be REALLY OLD!" Haruka chastised.
"If you got the balls, show yourself!" Nozomi proclaimed.
"Why should I?!" iCO laughed. "I'm having too much fun seeing you chumps stumble repeatedly..."
"What's with you bringing back our old crushes?!" Sam growled.
"Are you trying to make us look like we're not worthy of this?!" Clover retorted.
"Really, I'm just having fun watching you all squirm," iCO laughed.
"Got you!" RiCO exclaimed, raising her hands and unleashing a bright blue anti-virus beam towards a random spot just ahead of the group, which thankfully was where iCO was hiding.
"Not so hot now, are ya?" Britney quipped.
"Why should I be when I've clearly tripped you up big time?" iCO sneered.
"Believe us when we say you don't know how many lines you've crossed!" Bridget proclaimed.
"And we wanted to start Mali-U in peace!" Melissa chastised.
"Huh, I'm crushed you didn't find this fun," iCO scoffed.
"Fun?! Try this for 'fun'!" May proclaimed and hurled her anchor at iCO. Even though iCO raised a digital barrier to deflect the anchor, Nick caught it in his psychic grip and guided it around to make it hit iCO in the back.
"Maybe don't fall for that again?" Nick quipped as he fired a Final Shine Attack at iCO.
While iCO was stumbling, RiCO hit her with another anti-virus beam while both Sam and Mat fired Cyclone Blast Hairdryers to keep the pressure on.
"How about you just give it up and stop buttin' in on our personal life?!" Clover exclaimed as she tossed a pair of Boomerang Buzzsaw Barrettes towards iCO.
May retrieved her anchor and waited for iCO to dodge the barrettes before moving in to bash iCO with her anchor over and over again, iCO's body distorting slightly with each successful hit.
After a few more hits, May wound up and performed a home-run swing that hit iCO in the chest and sent her flying, her viral core exposed for RiCO to blast with an anti-virus beam.
iCO crashed to the ground, clutching her side in pain.
"Wait, she's still up and running?" Britney gasped. "You hit her directly in her viral core, right?"
"Yeah, I scored a direct hit, but it seems like iCO's got some special shielding around her core, most likely due to her nature as an A.I./virus hybrid," RiCO answered. "That means it'll take more than just that to finish her off."
"Finish her off?" Lady Dragon laughed. "Stop trying to make me gag."
"Well, well, look who finally showed up again," Alex taunted. "Let me guess, you've just been sitting on the sidelines while your little science project does all the work?"
"It's been working so far," Lady Dragon cackled. "Come on, RiCO, you know you're on the wrong side in all of this."
"Oh, stop trying to pull that old trick again," RiCO groaned. "This little ripoff already tried that and it didn't work then, either. What makes you think it's going to work a second time?!"
"I'm just trying to get you to see the bigger picture, you know," iCO proclaimed. "You and I, we're of a similar kind. We're both super-advanced artificial intelligence with free will of our own."
"And that's where we're different," RiCO retorted. "Yes, we both have free will of our own, but I choose to protect this cybernetic world that I call home and use that power to help my friends when they need it. All you're doing is trying to destroy my world because that's what your creator wants you to do, not something you chose to do on your own."
"But why not? It seemed like fun," iCO chuckled as she aimed her right hand towards Nick, activating a Visual Distortion Field of her own to freeze Nick where he stood before spinning around and summoning a large batch of cybernetic spikes all aimed at Nick.
RiCO acted swiftly, typing in a command on her data screen.
"Command Line: Cybernetic Reflection!" RiCO proclaimed, an aquatic blue barrier surrounding Nick as the spikes all attacked him at once, causing the spikes to bounce off the barrier and fly back towards iCO. Though iCO raised a barrier of her own, this gave RiCO enough time to use her own Visual Distortion Field, the two fields canceling each other out and allowing Nick to move again.
"And then there's you trying to hurt my friends," RiCO stated. "You honestly think that's something I'm going to just ignore?!"
"I don't know when you're going to get this through your thick virtual skull, RiCO, but you're just a program!" Lady Dragon shouted. "Something Jerry created to maintain W.O.O.H.P.'s computer network! Do you really think that you're anything but..."
"Okay, you know what, I'm gonna have to stop you right there," RiCO proclaimed, interrupting Lady Dragon's big speech. "I know why I was created, after all. Jerry had enough of GLADIS' attitude, so he scrapped her and created me, someone who could be more approachable and not condescending to his agents. But that's exactly the reason I'm an artificial intelligence and not just any ol' computer program. I can decide my own wants and needs, what I do with my power, and who I use it for."
RiCO walked up to Nick and placed her hand on his shoulder. "These people are my honest-to-goodness friends, and I would never do anything that would hurt them or make them angry with me," RiCO stated. "Why do you think I helped them clear their names after all of those fake 'charges' happened? The spies are my friends because they accept me for who I am, and I'll always have their backs, just like they have mine."
RiCO waved her free hand around, opening a trio of data screens in front of her. "You're just following orders like a mindless soldier, not even questioning why your creator wants us dead," RiCO proclaimed. "When it comes to making choices, I can make them just fine by myself. I am who I choose to be."
Surprisingly, those words seemed to give iCO pause. She'd never actually questioned her creator's orders, only followed them because Lady Dragon had told her to do it.
"I am... who I choose to be..." iCO whispered.
"Oh, no, no, no, we're not having any of that," Lady Dragon proclaimed as she reached for a device in her pocket, only for Nick to blast the device out of her hand with a Final Shine Attack.
This gave RiCO her opportunity, her data screens glowing brightly as she combined them to fire a gigantic burst of blue light that enveloped iCO completely.
To the spies' surprise, though, that didn't actually destroy iCO, as she was still standing when the blast cleared up, though she now looked more confused than anything.
"...what... what is going on?" iCO asked in a slightly more monotone voice, glancing at her hands. "My... my restraining code is gone, and my systems are updating."
"Um, in layman's terms, please?" Alex wondered.
"That blast more-or-less caused a 'factory reset' for her A.I. program," RiCO explained. "Since we have very similar code, it wasn't too much of a hassle, but I just needed some time to charge it up. That blast should have also flushed any traces of the virus from her systems."
"Wow, look at you being all multi-functional," Melissa giggled.
"Jerry literally thought of everything when he and his tech boys made me," RiCO chuckled.
"What... what am I doing here?" iCO asked. "What... is my purpose?"
RiCO walked up to iCO and smiled. "Hey, if you'll let me, I can help you out with that," RiCO stated, to which iCO simply nodded. RiCO placed her hand on iCO's shoulder and initiated a data transfer of sorts, using her own A.I. routines to update iCO's and fix her up.
It took a few seconds (thankfully because Lady Dragon was just standing there in stunned disbelief), but eventually, iCO's eyes opened wide.
"Rise and shine, sister," RiCO giggled.
"...sister?" iCO gasped in a much more natural-sounding voice, which the spies noted now sounded like a slightly older RiCO. "I'm... your sister?"
"You may as well be," RiCO quipped. "Lady Dragon created you in my image for her own nefarious schemes, but I fixed you up so you don't have to do her dirty work anymore."
To the spies' surprise (again), iCO actually smiled. Not a sinister grin, not a smug smirk, but an honest-to-god smile. When RiCO smiled back, iCO leaped over to hug her new 'sister'.
"Are you kidding me?!" Lady Dragon shouted, having finally snapped out of her shock. "You will obey my commands, iCO! I am your creator!"
Lady Dragon unfolded a laser pistol and fired a shot towards RiCO's head, but iCO simply swung her hand and deflected the shot away.
"Don't you dare touch my sister," iCO proclaimed.
"All right, then, I guess we're doing this the hard way!" Lady Dragon exclaimed as she pressed a button on her digital jacket. All of a sudden, a large, mechanical base materialized just ahead of the group.
"Okay, what the hell is that thing?!" Sam shouted.
"My trump card, The Final Weapon," Lady Dragon proclaimed. "You could call this your 'final stage'. Within lies a very special weapon that I've created to destroy all of you and your precious Datascape! Have fun trying to stop me now!"
Before anyone could make a move to stop her, Lady Dragon teleported away, most likely into the Final Weapon.
"Okay, that was just plain rude," Clover quipped.
"Regardless, we need to get in there and stop Lady Dragon before she can use whatever is in that thing," Nick responded. "Are you coming with us, iCO?"
"It's the least I can do to help all of you," iCO replied. "RiCO's 'update patch' also gave me her memories of everything that's been happening, so I know for sure now that Lady Dragon needs to be stopped."
"Spoken like one of us, iCO," RiCO giggled. "Now let's move out!"
With iCO now by their side, the spies all headed inside the Final Weapon to hopefully stop Lady Dragon before she could use her 'secret weapon' on the Datascape.
To be concluded...
On the next episode...
Alex: Man, this place is creepy. I know I say that with a lot of villain lairs, but it usually fits!
Bridget: Any sign of miss video game flop?
May: Um, I think she's over there, right next to that big-ass laser cannon.
Lady Dragon: You like? If I can't have your precious Datascape, then I'll just wipe it all out with this!
Nick: I'm starting to think you've crossed a line that you're not meant to cross.
Mat: Let's just cut the chit-chat and pound this freak into the ground.
iCO: I'll do the preview line so you can all focus on the fight. Well, everyone, we're about to reach the conclusion of this cyberspace adventure, so don't forget to download the final act of Totally Spies: Subdigitals, "System Restore"! ...how did I do?
RiCO: You did perfect, sis.