On Today's Episode: With the team fully reunited and any misunderstandings cleared up, the spies continue their way through the datascape, stopping to clear different luck-based challenges so they can keep moving forward. But what exactly do Lady Dragon and Geraldine have waiting up their sleeves at the end of this lucky gauntlet? And can the spies keep their lucky streak going, or will karma strike back faster than you can say "lucky"?
Act 2: Born Lucky
5:13 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape, Sector F
"Here we are, everybody!" RiCO proclaimed as the spies stepped off of the teleporter.
"Thank you so much for installing these, RiCO," Clover quipped. "That walk would have been murder on my feet..."
"So, what did those two put all of you through?" Britney asked. "Besides the quiz show, obviously."
"My love for Final Fantasy IV saved our keesters," May giggled.
"Well, they're basically testing our luck in different ways," Sam answered. "The first thing we encountered was a literal slot machine, after all."
"Oof," Britney quipped.
"'Oof' is right, Brit," Nick proclaimed. "And I swear, if I ever see another Mario Party board in here again..."
"...ummmmmmmm..." Melissa stuttered, pointing to just ahead of the group.
"...there's one right in front of us, isn't there?" Nick responded.
"Can I say 'no' if it would make you feel better?" May asked.
Sure enough, just ahead was another Mario Party-style board game area, though seemingly much more elaborate than the previous one had been.
"I swear I am cursed," Nick groaned. "Let's just get this over with, then."
Nick and Melissa once again stepped up to take the challenge, only to discover that this Star required fifty coins.
"Okay, that's just not nice!" Nick exclaimed as he rolled a five with his first dice block, nabbing three coins.
"Bad memories of Faire Square from Mario Party 6, honestly," Melissa giggled as she landed a six with her own dice block.
After a couple turns, Nick eventually landed on a minigame space, transforming the nearby area into a shoreline that featured rows of different-shaped coins floating through the water. Fishing lines appeared in Nick and Melissa's hands.
"Looks like we've got to fish for as many coins as we can grab," Melissa quipped. "Hey, it looks like we've got room for two more on this one."
"I'm up for some fishing!" May proclaimed. "How about you, Mat, wanna try it?"
"Eh, why the heck not?" Mat replied, walking with May to the open spots on the shoreline and grabbing his own line. "Let's see how this goes."
Everybody cast their lines and threw them out to sea.
"Almost feels like my VERY EARLY childhood days," Mat laughed.
Melissa was doing well herself, having picked up either one coin, one bag, or one treasure chest every single time. Mat was no different, except he kept going for the treasure chests only.
"COME ON!" Nick groaned at not getting anything at least twice.
May was having a decent go of things herself with only one miss herself.
After everything ended, Nick only ended up with 1 treasure chest and 1 bag of coins for 15 total. Melissa ended up with 3 treasure chests, 2 bags of coins, and 1 single coin for a total of 41. May ended up with 2 treasure chests and bags of coins for 30 coins total. However, Mat's total usurped everyone when he ended up with 6 treasure chests... only to run out of time for a 7th; that meant Mat had 60 coins total.
Needless to say, Geraldine and Lady Dragon couldn't believe what they saw.
"You CHEATER!" Lady Dragon growled at Mat.
"I believe it's skill, not cheating," Mat quipped. He even gave a look to Nick as if to say the same thing. "My best go at Cast Aways yet – sometimes I surprise myself, too."
"I'm shocked you pulled it off, Mat," Melissa commented.
"Same here," May laughed.
On the sidelines, Geraldine and Lady Dragon were seething in complete disgust. The rest of the spies were commending Mat on his best performance at the Cast Aways game.
"SILENCE!" Lady Dragon shouted. "This isn't over yet!"
With a snap of both fingers, ALL of the participating spies were thrown into the virtual prison – again for May.
"Hey, that's no fair!" Clover protested.
"Rules for villains, lucky number one hundred," Haruka quipped. "Always know that nothing in life's fair."
"Got that right, little missy," Lady Dragon sneered.
"There's no way you're going to escape us this time!" Nozomi proclaimed.
"Totally!" Clover exclaimed.
"Advice for heroes, number nineteen," Haruka added. "Deep down, almost all your foes are ALWAYS sore losers."
"Ain't THAT the truth!" Sam growled at what just took place.
Haruka checked her X-Powder at the tracker she slipped on again.
"Looks like they're heading to Sector D this time," she told the spy team.
"And another challenge no doubt," Nozomi deduced.
"I can unlock the Sector on my own," RiCO told the others.
"How?" Blaine wondered.
"Sophia gave me special clearance in case of emergencies like this," RiCO answered.
"You go, Sophia!" Alex cheered.
"Couldn't have said it better myself," Bridget commented.
"Advice for heroes, number twelve," Haruka quipped. "Always fight fire with fire."
7:02 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape, Sector D
"Stand back, everyone," RiCO remarked as she used her powers to unlock the sector, specifically by placing her hand on the barrier that was denying the team access and channeling the access clearances granted to her by Sophia through her hand, represented by a bright ruby-red glow that spread from her hand and into the barrier, easily dissolving it and allowing the spies to enter Sector D.
"Thanks, RiCO," Dawn quipped. "So, where to now?"
"I'm picking up their signals to the west," RiCO responded. "Let's get going that way."
The spies wasted no time in moving through the sector in hopes of finding their kidnapped friends.
"This is... very interesting," Bridget quipped as the spies noticed the various objects littered around the area, most likely pertaining to many of the challenges they'd taken part in so far. "How much have they been studying to put us through all of this?"
"And here's my question," Haruka responded. "Why exactly did they decide to just flat-out test our luck? What do they hope to accomplish with that?"
"I really have no idea," Alex stated. "But let's not worry about that right now! I'm not leaving Nick all by himself!"
"Ditto there, Alex," Sam proclaimed. "Nobody takes my man and gets away with it."
"Damn right on that one, Sam," Britney responded.
Just then, a strange noise resounded in the area, causing the spies to stop in their tracks.
"Did any of you hear that?" Clover wondered.
"I sincerely hope it's nothing troublesome," Nozomi stated.
Almost as if fate had been waiting for that line, a large UFO-like machine flew down from the sky and aimed its lasers towards the spies.
"Note to self: SHUT MY FREAKIN' MOUTH," Nozomi proclaimed.
"Allow me to assist!"
Just as the UFO was about to open fire on the spies, someone jumped in front of them and unleashed a ruby-red blast of anti-viral energy to strike the UFO in the glass casing underneath it, sending it flying backwards.
"You will not harm my friends," Sophia proclaimed as her hood flipped upwards and encapsulated most of her head, her "pigtails" merged into one large ponytail of hearts, and a black screen covered her face with two blue LED eyes appearing on the screen to represent Sophia's own eyes. Two large, white yo-yos with a black center and a ring of cyan LED lights inside of them appeared in her hands. "After all, I am humanity's companion."
Sophia wasted no time in going on the offensive, swinging her yo-yos out in wildly flailing motions to attack the UFO and keep it away from the spies.
Eventually, Sophia leaped towards the UFO, her yo-yos shrouded in anti-virus energy, and performed a wide sweep attack that sliced through the UFO effortlessly, the severed halves of the craft falling in different directions before exploding rather spectacularly.
"Virus... eliminated," Sophia proclaimed before returning to her normal appearance and running back to greet the spies.
"Holy crapbaskets, I wasn't expecting to see you here, Sophia!" Alex exclaimed.
"Yeah, I made a call to the Japanese branch to ask if we could borrow Sophia for this mission," RiCO stated. "How do you think I got the clearances from her?"
"It is good to see all of you again, too," Sophia giggled. "However, you seem to be missing a few of your friends..."
"That's because our villains of the day kidnapped them just for clearing one of their challenges," Clover answered. "Talk about sore losers..."
"Well, then let's go and find them," Sophia responded.
With Sophia in tow, the spies set off through Sector D to find their missing friends.
7:15 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape, Somewhere in Sector D
"Well, this is strange," Nick quipped. "Usually, I'm not the one who gets put in a cage when this happens."
"Welcome to the club, then," May laughed.
"Never would have guessed those two would be even more sore about losing than I initially thought," Mat sighed.
"Any luck, Nick?" Melissa asked as Nick fired another Final Shine Attack into the cage surrounding them.
"No dice," Nick quipped. "If only this was a cage that I could blast my way out of..."
"Well, then shall I assist?"
Nick looked up just in time to see Sophia leading RiCO and the rest of the spies towards the cage. Sophia quickly swiped her hand to open a series of ruby-red data screens and start typing on them, eventually causing the cage to dissolve and allowing the entire team to reunite once again.
"Talk about a speedy rescue," May laughed.
"It helps that, as administrator over my own datascape, I naturally still carry my admin privileges," Sophia proclaimed. "Lady Dragon didn't think that far ahead, apparently."
"She never does, considering this is her third attempt to take over the datascape," Nick chuckled.
"YOU WRETCHED SPIES!"
The group looked to the left to see a seething Geraldine standing near where the cage had once been.
"And now she's here, and she's salty," May taunted.
"You damned interlopers are going nowhere!" Geraldine shouted. "I don't know how you escaped your cage, but this time you're all going right back in, permanently!"
"I wouldn't be too sure of that, Geraldine," Sophia shot back, shifting into battle mode.
"And who is this little fruitcake?" Geraldine cackled, only to be forced to duck to avoid getting sideswiped by one of Sophia's yo-yos.
"I am Sophia, humanity's companion," Sophia answered as she lunged to start attacking Geraldine. "You'd do well to remember that."
"Well, everyone, I say we follow Sophia's lead and start wailing on Geraldine," May proclaimed as RiCO summoned a digital anchor for her to wield. "I think we all owe her some lumps."
"Nothing but the truth," Nick stated as the spies moved in to attack.
"Thanks for the digital anchor, too," May added, remembering RiCO's actions just now.
"The best part of virtual reality is the same as the real world: anything's possible," RiCO quipped.
"That's the truth there," Nick remarked.
"Does this work like the original anchor I have?" May wondered.
"They're one and the same as the original," RiCO answered.
"SWEET," May cackled.
"Well, at least that'll do for May until we get the real one back," Bridget responded.
"No doubt," Sam replied.
"Let's see if this thing packs a wallop as good as the real one does," May quipped.
She charged forward and swung her new digital anchor around as if it were a boomerang. It worked like her old one indeed.
"Do I need to worry about this?!" Geraldine scoffed as she moved out of the way quite a bit of times.
"You can keep trying, but I won't tire out," May told her.
"We'll see..." Geraldine taunted.
"Reference rules for villains, number seventy-three when it comes to overconfidence, Geraldine," Haruka quipped.
Clover and Bridget both appeared behind Geraldine in an attempt to trip her. It worked.
"Advice for heroes, number eight" Bridget quipped as she high-fived Clover. "Sometimes an old-school gimmick works."
"Got that right," May remarked as she landed a hit on Geraldine with her digital anchor.
"How's it feel to be trapped like a rat?" Dawn taunted at Geraldine.
"This is not over!" Geraldine yelled.
Out of nowhere, Lady Dragon came at breakneck speed to pull the anchor off of Geraldine.
"Holy crapbaskets, where'd she come from?!" Haruka chastised.
"And more importantly, how'd she move at my speed?" Bridget added.
"That's where the 'anything is possible in Virtual Reality' can be used negatively," RiCO answered.
"Always fight fire with fire in this case," Sam quipped.
"No worries then," Bridget remarked. "These two rip-offs are all mine!"
Bridget kicked up the Sonic Mode and charged at them, easily dodging their own super-speedy attacks.
"Yeah, you don't know how to use your super-speed, do you?!" Bridget shouted. "Maybe learn how to use it before you repeat the same mistake that Candy did!"
Before Lady Dragon could retaliate, Bridget began dashing around the two villains in a circle, eventually whipping up a miniature tornado of sorts that lifted Lady Dragon and Geraldine into the air. When they fell back down, Bridget bowled through them with one final lunge, sending them both crashing to the ground.
"Ole!" Nozomi exclaimed.
May was able to recover the digital anchor that RiCO loaned her as Lady Dragon made a break for who-knows-where.
After that, Dawn, Melissa, Haruka, RiCO and May stood forward to face down Geraldine Husk.
"Thought you could use some extra help," May called out to Bridget.
"Not gonna say no," Bridget quipped.
"You guys go for Lady Dragon," Haruka told the others. "My tracker says she's getting to Sector A."
"Then that's where we're going!" Sam declared in her leader tone.
Nick, Mat, Nozomi, Clover, Alex, Britney, Blaine, and Sophia took to Sector A. When they got there, they found that Lady Dragon had sealed the entrance shut.
"Password protected?!" Alex chastised.
"No worries, spies," Sophia quipped. "I can bypass this."
Sophia walked up to the entrance and opened up a few data screens in front of her, then began typing on it. It only took a few seconds for Sophia to crack the code, the barrier dissolving to allow the group access to Sector A.
Just after Sophia successfully bypassed the password, another anomaly came up: a blank puzzle.
"Since when is Lady Dragon into Wheel of Fortune?" Mat commented.
"No idea," Clover chastised.
Nobody had a visual guess at what the solution was... until Mat took a look.
"I think I might get us in," Mat told them.
"How?" Britney wondered.
"I have a guess off the top of my head..." Mat answered.
The puzzle was four words long with a colon included; the colon gave Mat an idea to try the solution CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Mat turned out to be right.
"OH... MY ...GOODNESS!" Clover exclaimed.
"I honestly don't know how you figured THAT out!" Nozomi chastised.
"Not a lot of titles out there with a colon included," Mat simply replied.
Just when it looked like Sector A was unlocked, a physics question popped up.
"Any ideas, Sam?" Mat wondered when he looked at the question.
Sam studied the question for a couple seconds before reaching for the screen and touching the (hopefully) correct answer. One ding later, that gateway opened up, too.
"Nice one, Sammy!" Mat exclaimed.
"I also might have an answer for why we saw Lady Dragon with Bridget's Sonic Mode speed as well," Sophia told the others.
"Well, let's hear it," Blaine remarked.
"According to my readouts, they seem to have found a program here in the datascape that contains Sonic Mode data," Sophia explained. "So, they decided to incorporate it into their scheme."
"But, naturally, they didn't know how to properly utilize that speed and got their clocks cleaned by Bridget," Nick quipped.
"Precisely," Sophia giggled.
Deeper into Sector A, Sophia looked ahead and noticed that part of the recent area had been changed as well.
"I swear to all that is holy, if that's another flip-truckin' Mario Party board..." Nick groaned.
Alex took a closer look just to be sure. "Um, it doesn't look like Mario Party to me," Alex answered. "At least, not one I've seen..."
The area ahead had turned into a strange amalgamation of tracks and different panels on the ground, and six small, purple UFOs were flying in erratic patterns around the board.
It didn't take long for Nick to recognize what he was seeing, thankfully.
"Holy crapbaskets, that's the Special Stage from Sonic CD!" Nick exclaimed. "I was obsessed with that game as a kid!"
"Nick told me it was literally the who reason he got a Sega CD back in the day," Nozomi quipped. "And also the only game he played on it specifically. That thing was cool, but it didn't have too many interesting games, honestly..."
"Okay, so if you know what this is, I assume you know what we have to do?" Sam wondered.
"First, the main goal is to destroy all six of those purple UFOs in about a hundred seconds," Nick explained. "Second, stay out of the water, as it'll deduct your time quickly. I think I can handle this one."
"All right-y then, Nick, work your magic!" Alex proclaimed.
Nick walked into the game area and saw a large screen above the area show off his time and how many UFOs were left to break.
Nick prepared himself as a countdown ticked down from five seconds. When it blared "GO!", he was off and running, and he couldn't stop running, exactly as expected.
As one of the UFOs rounded a nearby corner, Nick leaped into the air above it and drove a psychic blade into its underside, destroying it instantly. Five to go.
Nick continued down the path he was on, eventually rounding another tight corner and leaping over the water surrounding a square of land to destroy another UFO. Four to go.
Destroying this UFO made Nick start running much faster, which meant he had to be careful not to lose control as he danced around different areas of the board, even touching a large fan block that sent him spinning through the air, coincidentally into another UFO. Three to go.
However, Nick did land in the water surrounding the center island, which deducted ten seconds from his time and left him with forty-six. Not to be discouraged, Nick did short hops over water lines, his speed back to normal, and eventually hit another UFO on his way back to the outer edges. Two to go.
"Um, you guys, is it me, or is Nick running out of time?" Clover asked, noticing that Nick still had two UFOs left to destroy with only thirty seconds left on the clock.
Deciding to play it safe for the moment, Nick continued to work his way around the corners of the board until his time went down to twenty seconds and a slightly larger blue UFO appeared in the center of the board. Nick turned down a nearby pathway that took him to the center of the board so he could leap and destroy the blue UFO. This didn't seem to count as a destroyed UFO, but it did drop a clock that added thirty seconds back to the timer.
"Whew, crisis averted," Blaine sighed.
"Guess those things spawn when you're down to twenty seconds," Nozomi replied.
This gave Nick ample time to run down the left side of the board, then jump over another water line to destroy a UFO that was passing by. One left.
And finally, Nick crossed over to the southwest island and leaped to destroy the final UFO with thirty-two seconds remaining. When Nick landed on his feet and stopped auto-running, the digital barrier around the game board shattered, allowing the group to move further onwards.
"I gotta say, those were some killer moves, Nick!" Alex giggled.
"With how much I played that game as a kid, I practically know these Special Stages inside and out," Nick admitted.
"Hey, there's someone up ahead," Nozomi stated.
"It's not Lady Dragon, is it?" Britney asked.
Nick used his psychic radar just to make sure, only to blink in confusion.
"No, it's not her," Nick answered. "I don't know who this is, honestly..."
"Well, let's go check it out!" Alex proclaimed.
The group moved to make sure the person in question was all right. She appeared to be a few years older than them, with very long and straight dark brown hair tied in a ponytail with a lilac ribbon, and navy blue eyes. She was wearing a neat, purple jacket and a purple long skirt.
"Is she okay?" Mat asked.
Thankfully, she took that second to finally wake up, shaking her head before glancing at the spies.
"Um... is there something on my face?" the woman asked. "And... where exactly the heck am I?"
"Long story short, you're in the Datascape, the world inside W.O.O.H.P.'s computer network," Sophia answered. "Did Lady Dragon and/or Geraldine drag you in here?"
"The last thing I remember was heading off to my assignment, then I get a brief flash of those two in my face, and next thing I know, I'm here in TRON world," the woman replied. "O-Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, so let me do that."
The woman stood up, smiled brightly, and saluted to the spies. "W.O.O.H.P. Combat Training Instructor, Sortiliena Serlut, at your service!"
"You're a combat instructor?" Nozomi wondered.
"Yup," Sortiliena replied. "Gotta get our new recruits into fighting shape somehow, right?"
"Considering that a lot of our villains are getting nastier and nastier with each new scheme, yeah, we could probably use the extra help," Sam replied.
"HEY, GUYS!" May shouted as she, Haruka, Bridget, Melissa, Dawn, and RiCO rushed up to join the group. "How goes the virtual tour?"
"Well, I just played a Sonic CD Special Stage," Nick replied.
"And we found someone else that got yanked into the datascape," Sam answered. "What happened with Geraldine?"
"We kicked her keester, but she nope'd out, as expected," Bridget responded.
"You all must be Jerry's team, right?" Sortiliena asked. "He's told me a lot about all of your exploits recently."
"Well, we have been through a lot," May laughed. "I mean, for crying out loud, we just got done with an adventure through multiple dimensions! ...story for later."
"We should probably get moving before those two can pull any more of their nonsense," Haruka proclaimed. "Where to, RiCO?"
"They're still deeper in Sector A, but it shouldn't be much further from here," RiCO answered. "Let's get moving, everybody!"
"Let's hope so," Mat quipped.
"And a spy team of sixteen will be tough to beat," Haruka quipped.
"Believe me when I say with me, Sophia, and Sortiliena, you're covered from any anomalies that arise," RiCO told the others.
"Hold on, what about the last sector we were in?" Alex wondered.
"That's the easy part," RiCO answered. "Once Sector D was rid of Geraldine and Lady Dragon, Sophia and I were able to clean it up from the anomalies they added."
"Did you guys take care of Geraldine, or did she 'nope out' on you again?" Sam asked the others.
"We had her on the ropes, but she bolted, as we expected," May replied.
"Well, here's Sector A," Sophia quipped, getting back to the current task at hand.
"Please no Mario Party!" Nick pleaded.
"I don't think Lady Dragon listened," May chastised. "Look..."
There were a total of nine pipes in front of them with piranha plants coming out of some of them.
"I'm cursed," Nick chastised himself.
"Then take solace in the fact I'm not calling you forward," Lady Dragon sneered.
"The Whack-a-Plant mini game," Mat immediately stated.
"You're not as old as you look," Lady Dragon commended.
"Dude, this thing's all yours," Nick told Mat.
"Not so fast," Lady Dragon proclaimed. "Your other boy's taking this challenge..."
Nick groaned and stepped forward, but his access was blocked; Mat was no different. The boys then knew that Lady Dragon was referring to Blaine.
"She's calling on you, Blaine," Sam told him.
"ME?!" Blaine exclaimed.
With no experience under his belt, Blaine went ahead anyway.
"Believe me, this 1-player mini game is easy to me," Mat told Blaine. "Think of it as similar to hopscotch."
"Believe us," Nozomi proclaimed. "Blaine, you can pull this off."
When Blaine took the reins, RiCO programmed a clip for Blaine to see what he should do.
As it turned out, Blaine had to hit 36 piranha plants... out of 36.
"Perfect score?!" Blaine chastised.
As it turned out, Blaine managed to get the hang of things easily and immediately; as it turned out, Blaine managed to hit all 36 piranha plants consecutively without fail.
"Ugh... too easy, I bet," Lady Dragon growled.
She then changed things up to where Blaine was then surrounded by white ghosts called Boos.
"Oh, gosh," Mat groaned. "It's Ghost Guess... 9 times out of 10, I lose at this game!"
"Never thought I'd hear you say that, Mat," Bridget commented.
Sam looked out of the corner of her eye to see Lady Dragon escaping for another sector.
"Guys, this is a diversion!" Sam exclaimed in her leader tone.
Mat, Nick, and Haruka were the next to catch on.
"Say what?" Alex wondered as she caught on to what Nick listened in to.
"Alex, Clover, this thing is a diversion while Lady Dragon tries to get away," Haruka told them.
"What about Blaine?" asked Clover.
As it turned out, it took Blaine just three tries to find the leader of the Boos. Another one-player mini game was commencing, but Blaine was thrown out; Melissa was the only one who was cleared to play – Memory Match.
"Rules for villains, number one hundred and three," May quipped. "Always try diversionary tactics to make an escape."
"Ain't that the truth," Dawn remarked.
"Oof, I remember this one," Melissa quipped as she took note of the nine different tiles in front of her and what they showed before they flipped over. Walking up to the first one, Melissa did a short hop before slamming her foot into the tile, flipping it over to reveal a star.
Melissa walked over to another tile, jumping on it and flipping it over to reveal another star.
Thankfully, it didn't take Melissa much longer to finally flip all of the tiles and match the shapes up, which dissolved the nearby barrier and allowed the spies to continue on through the area.
"Okay, so... I have to ask," Sortiliena wondered. "Why are those two making you play a bunch of Mario Party minigames?"
"It's part of their scheme, apparently," Britney admitted. "They want to test our luck when it comes to all of these challenges."
"Some of them we're good at, some of them we're not," Nick quipped. "But it looks like luck has been on our side so far, and I hope I didn't jinx anything by saying that."
Sophia checked her data screens for any sign of an anomaly. "It looks like Sector A is completely clear," Sophia proclaimed.
"Then let's get after those two!" Alex exclaimed. "Where to, RiCO?"
Just then, an alarm sound began to blare, forcing RiCO to check the map of the datascape to see where it was coming from.
"I think they might have finished preparing their trump card, because I'm detecting a surge of viral activity in Sector E!" RiCO proclaimed.
"Well, then let's not waste any time and head there with all the speed," May stated. "I think it's time we thump those two real good!"
That was all the motivation the group needed to follow RiCO and Sophia to a (thankfully close-by) teleported that sent them off to Sector E.
9:05 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape, Sector E
"Man, this place looks rough," Sortiliena admitted when the spies stepped into Sector E, which had seemingly been transformed into a volcano-esque area, what with all the lava pools and strange rock formations everywhere.
"I'm getting really sick and tired of Lady Dragon reformatting the place every time she comes here," RiCO proclaimed. "Like, seriously, can't she get a better shtick for once in her life?!"
"I feel ya on that one, RiCO," Haruka replied.
"Those two have to be around here somewhere," Nozomi stated.
Nick caught a glimpse of something far ahead of the group. "I don't think they're too far off," Nick responded. "Let's mosey and put an end to this."
The spies made their way forward, eventually ending up in an area with a large, multi-sided cube object hanging in the sky, with Geraldine and Lady Dragon waiting just under it at the center of the room. A beastly-looking viral creature was waiting on the west side of the cube.
"All right, you," Sam growled. "This is the end of the line, so just surrender before you take a few extra lumps!"
"Sam, my dear, when has that ever worked?" Geraldine cackled.
"Hey, it's worth a shot," Sam admitted.
"What's with the big ol' creature up there?" Alex wondered.
"Isn't it lovely?" Lady Dragon proclaimed. "The core of our latest scheme, and my greatest creation yet."
"Oh, we'll see about that," Nick shot back, his aura flaring to life around him.
"I wouldn't get too far ahead of yourself if I were you, boy," Geraldine retorted. "If you want to have a shot at our creation, you're gonna have to clear one final challenge. And yes, I'm specifically picking you this time."
"I've seriously had enough of your Mario Party bullcrap!" Nick shouted. "Just let me at that thing before I come over there and knock you into next week!"
Melissa walked up and put her hand on Nick's shoulder.
"If Nick goes in there, I'm going, too," Melissa proclaimed. "And nothing you can say will sway me on this."
"If you insist, girl," Lady Dragon laughed. "That's less spies we have to deal with later."
"You sure about this, Melissa?" Nick asked.
"Hey, who better to help you than the actual Mario Party master in this group, huh?" Melissa giggled. "You and I are gonna stomp this final challenge together, big bro, and that's a promise."
Nick couldn't help but smile knowing his sister was there to support him.
With that said, Nick and Melissa walked up to the underside of the large cube structure, nodding to each other before jumping towards it. Gravity took hold and let them land on the platform, ready to begin the final challenge.
To be concluded...
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
On the next episode...
Sam: I hope those two are going to be okay up there.
Nozomi: Hey, if anyone could help Nick clear this thing, it's Melissa, for sure.
Bridget: I hope so. That thing looks nasty.
Melissa: Come on, Lady Loser, is that really all you've got?!
Lady Dragon: Oh, I wouldn't get too full of yourself.
Nick: This is seriously getting exhausting. Let's just keep moving so we can end this!
Melissa: Since Nick's occupied, I'll do the preview line, then. We've got one final challenge to conquer, and then a big ol' virus to delete! We'll see if lady luck is still on our side next time on the final act of Totally Spies: Luck Be a Lady Tonight, "A Personal Lucky Charm"!
May: ...not a single stupid pun yet. I'm shocked.
