7:06 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters, Jerry's Office
"Shouldn't be much longer now," Jerry quipped as he watched the progress bar on the viewscreen slowly climb up to full. He figured RiCO was probably chomping at the bit to come out and see how her new programs would work out for her, but she sadly couldn't materialize at present, due to the updates still going through.
Eventually, though, the progress bar reached full capacity, and the message UPDATES COMPLETE appeared on the screen, allowing RiCO to materialize in the office.
"That took waaaaaaaaaaaaaay longer than I thought it would," RiCO proclaimed. "I know updates are essential for computer programs, but why do they have to take so dang long?! I'm a super-advanced artificial intelligence, so I would assume my connection speed is up there, right?"
"Such is the curse of computers and updates," Jerry stated. "Now I know how May feels whenever she has to update her laptop. But on to the matter at hand. How do you feel, RiCO?"
"Right as rain, Jerry!" RiCO giggled. "My new files are all working properly, and the new and improved anti-virus software you ordered for me is fully operational!"
"Splendid," Jerry stated.
"Out of curiosity, Jerry, why did you install all this new anti-virus software?" RiCO asked. "I assume my old software was still working fine."
"Can never be too careful these days, RiCO," Jerry answered, only to be interrupted by the call of another agent.
"Jerry, sir, we just got a report that someone has escaped from the containment facility," the agent proclaimed.
"Why do I get the feeling that this escape was almost perfectly timed?" RiCO wondered as she began to scan the database to determine who had escaped.
(Don't just sit there and waste your precious time. When you want to do something, do it right away. Do it when you can. It's the only way to live a life without regrets.)
Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger are proud to present:
Totally Spies!: Virus Busters
Story Rated: T for Teen
Story Created: August 10th, 2020
Story Summary: The nineteenth joint project between Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger, collectively known as Totally Spies: The New Adventures. On what seems like a normal mission day for the spies, things at W.O.O.H.P. suddenly go haywire, enough to trap the spies in the building. Sure enough, Carla Wong, alias Lady Dragon, has returned, having planted a malevolent virus in W.O.O.H.P.'s computer systems before making her escape. Now, the spies will have to journey into the computer systems to eliminate this virus before it can take over the building. However, this time, the spies have an advantage: RiCO, having just been updated with brand new anti-virus software, will guide the spies through cyberspace in hopes of eliminating the rogue virus before it can spread to the outside world...
Author's Notes from The Blue Time Ranger: Ooh, yes, I have been waiting for this one for a loooooooooooooong time. Episode nineteen of The New Adventures is here, and it's RiCO's time to shine! Yep, even W.O.O.H.P.'s AI is getting a spotlight this season! By the way, eagle-eyed readers might be able to spot references to my absolute favorite video game of all time scattered across this story. Try to guess what that game is (in the reviews, if you wanna).
Author's Notes from Mat49324: And #19 is under way. This is gonna be another good one. Oh, and stay tuned for another TS oneshot that will likely be a parody of a new summer show on USA Network on Thursday nights. If you're able to guess that, then this should be no problem then. I might be asking The Blue Time Ranger about including his Nick OC – just for support purposes. I've only seen this show about 2 or 3 times, so I need a bit of time here.
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?
Episode 1: Program Execute
7:15 P.M. – Malibu University, Nick and May's Dormitory
"I got you this time, you little blue porcupine!" May proclaimed dramatically as Pit sniped Sonic with a couple arrows from far off. Nick and May were currently engaged in a heated round of Super Smash Bros. Brawl to prepare for the upcoming tournament that Malibu University was holding.
"Oh, really, angel face?! Tell that to my Sonic speed!" Nick responded just as dramatically as Sonic leaped over the third arrow, then performed a Homing Attack that sent Pit flying.
Or, it would have, had Pit not performed a perfect shield that gave him time to connect one final bow slash that sent Sonic flying instead.
"VICTORY!" May exclaimed as the match transitioned to the results screen.
"How are you so good at this, May?" Nick laughed. "How can you keep perfect shielding so dang consistently?! I've never been that level of consistent..."
"Well, I did hit up a few Melee tournaments when I was younger," May admitted as she and Nick fell back onto the bed they shared. "And even that Brawl tournament you and I went to last year. I had to learn advanced tactics really quickly if I wanted to stand even a shell of a chance against these dudes."
"Sounds like they're the types of people who spend every waking second playing these games just to be the best at them," Nick sighed. "I'll probably never get to their level."
"Says the boy who sent mister spiky hair's Bowser back to World 8 where he came from?" May giggled. "That look on his face when you won that match was priceless!"
"Even so, I still lost to the next guy and his dumb, stupid, broken Meta Knight," Nick groaned, having made no secret of his distaste for how absolutely broken Meta Knight was in the tournament scene.
"Hey, if he'd played legit and not defaulted to the Breaker of Tournaments, you would have had 'em for sure," May replied. "Besides, I claimed vengeance for you, remember?"
"Now that face was priceless," Nick laughed.
May leaned over and kissed Nick. "That was a lot of fun, honestly," May stated. "Thanks for inviting me to practice, Nick."
"Hey, this time, we're going to clean house," Nick quipped. "So, any ideas of what to do tonight?"
May looked back at the clock she'd purchased recently (thankfully it wasn't a wailer like her old alarm clock had been), and saw that it was currently 7:20 PM. "Oof, I think we didn't actually eat anything tonight because we were so busy with Smash. How about we head down to the café and get a bite to eat?" May laughed.
"Sounds like a plan," Nick quipped.
Nick and May walked hand in hand to the dorm room door, only to find a large tube protruding from the ceiling and aiming at them.
"I guess a late dinner's gonna have to wait," May sighed as Nick projected a psychic barrier to defend them from the suction until it stopped. Once it did, Nick and May jumped into the tube and let it take them to Jerry's office, where the rest of the spies were already waiting for them.
"You two okay?" May asked Sam and Mat, who were both slightly drenched, no doubt from another trip to the pool.
"I guess we're lucky that no one else was in that pool when Jerry summoned us," Mat sighed as he and Sam dried off.
"All right, Jer, now that we're all here, which of our rogues' gallery wants another piece of us today?" Alex asked as everyone used their X-Powders (or DS in Mat's case) to change into their spy suits.
RiCO appeared in the room, waving her hands to change the picture on the viewscreen until it showed a mugshot of Carla Wong, also known as Lady Dragon.
"Wait, isn't that the crazy video game lady?" Alex gasped. "The one who tried to make me get eaten by virtual sharks?"
"I was hoping to never add 'stuck in a video game' to my resume," Nick quipped. "Bad memories of .hack just came back to me..."
"While we have no idea what her current plans are specifically, we have no doubt she wishes to seek revenge on all of you," Jerry proclaimed. "So please, be very..."
Suddenly, the alarms began to blare rather loudly.
"Oh, what now?!" Clover shouted.
"Is she contacting us?" Bridget asked.
"Worse!" RiCO exclaimed after touching the device strapped to her headband. "I just detected viral activity inside the computer systems! It's attempting to spread out across W.O.O.H.P.'s mainframe!"
"Wait, there's a virus inside the computers here?!" Haruka shouted.
"No doubt Lady Dragon's handiwork," Britney growled.
"So what are we supposed to do about it if the problem's inside the computers?!" Dawn shouted.
To the spies' surprise, RiCO simply smiled. "Oh, that's easy," RiCO answered. "I can transport all of you into the systems, and then we can go hunt for this virus together!"
"Wait, you can do that, RiCO?" Alex asked.
"Hey, this place has tech that let you guys go into Jerry's brain," May teased. "I think jumping inside a computer system is pretty reasonable for them."
A large, ray-gun like device descended from the ceiling. "This will transmit all of you into the system," RiCO explained. "I'll meet you when you get in there, and we'll all hunt this virus down and exterminate it. I was recently updated with brand new, state of the art anti-virus software, so when we find mister virus, it's practically lights out!"
"Sounds like it's gonna be an adventure," Nick quipped. "All right, then, RiCO, let's network and take this thing out!"
The device unleashed a massive flare of blue light that swallowed the spies up in seconds. When the light cleared, they and RiCO had vanished.
"Good luck, spies," Jerry proclaimed as he moved to contact some of W.O.O.H.P.'s cyber-security agents and see if there was anything they could do to protect the building from the outside while the spies dealt with the viral activity.
When the spies could see again, they couldn't help but marvel at the sight before them. They were currently standing in a large, open area made of refracting blue light that formed into many different structures. Though, some of the areas that could be seen in the distance also had some ugly splotches marking them, no doubt virus activity.
The spies also noticed that their spy suits now had glowing neon lines running across them, much like Bridget's Sonic Mode suit.
"Wow, this is trippy," Alex quipped.
"That's what I said the first time," RiCO giggled. The only difference between her real world appearance and her cyberspace appearance was that she had an actual physical body here inside the system.
"So, where should we start hunting for viruses?" Nick asked, doing a quick radar scan of the immediate area, just to be sure he could still use his psychic powers here in cyberspace.
RiCO activated her virus scanner program, pointing to an area just to the southwest. "I'm detecting viral activity somewhere that way," RiCO stated. "Let's start there and keep cleaning up until we find the source of the virus."
"Sounds like a plan, RiCO," Sam proclaimed. "Let's move out, spies!"
"Right behind ya, Sammy!" Alex proclaimed.
"I sure hope these lights don't mean medical attention though," Mat remarked.
"I think we're all okay here, bro," Nick deduced.
"Now I think I know what Alex and May had to go through for saving Nick," Clover quipped.
"Oh, trust me, trippy doesn't even begin to describe what we went through," Alex giggled.
"Was it that much of a mind-freak?" Haruka asked.
"It's really something you had to be there to believe," May admitted.
"So, anybody got any idea where we should go?" Haruka wondered.
"Just follow me," RiCO simply answered.
"This is certainly another trippy experience that we're all going through," Nozomi remarked.
"It's a good thing RiCO is our tour guide, so to speak," Mat stated.
"Tell me about it," Britney quipped. "Hey, she might know this place as good as you know your way around Hawaii, Mat!"
"Good point," Alex giggled.
The spies moved on to where the viral activity RiCO detected was. "There it is!" RiCO proclaimed.
"What... in the actual hell am I even looking at right now?!" Nick gasped once he got a good look at the viral activity.
The blobs scattered around the floor and ceiling in this area, no doubt parts of the virus, were basically blobs of what appeared to be television static that were crawling around and eating away at whatever they touched.
RiCO was on the move in seconds, stepping towards the virus blobs and raising her hand to unleash a small shockwave of blue light that blasted the blobs and dissolved them almost immediately.
"That seemed easy," Bridget stated.
"Most likely because these are just small offshoots of the actual virus," RiCO explained. "We'll probably be seeing bigger and more advanced forms the more infected an area is."
"Talk about gaudy and freaky!" Alex commented.
"I think I know why people don't look inside for things like this," Melissa stated.
"I know," Clover commented. "It's almost similar to looking at the outside of the human body in biology class at Bev High."
"True that," Sam quipped.
"Good thing I'm a frequent web surfer in this case," Mat told the others.
"Especially the rest of us," Haruka groaned.
"Ideas, anyone?" Sam asked.
"I was hoping you had some, Sammy," Clover answered.
"I'll admit the binary stuff around here is pretty nice," Alex stated, remembering her brief job helping kids at Beverly Hills High create their own websites.
"Any refreshers there, Alex?" Nick asked.
"We're waiting..." Bridget added.
Alex didn't get a chance to answer.
"I see the problem!" RiCO exclaimed.
The spies all looked forward to see Lady Dragon herself causing her trouble.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!" Sam proclaimed.
Lady Dragon saw the twelve spies and just simply cackled. Immediately, she fired a shot at the boys.
Nick reacted quickly, raising his hands to create a psychic barrier that deflected the shot. Inside the datascape (as Nick decided to call it), though, Nick's psychic aura, normally a bright gold, was now a solid aquatic blue.
I like the color choice, Nick thought.
"Well, well, you seem to have picked up quite a group since the last time we met, huh?" Lady Dragon cackled.
"I'd stow it right now if I were you," Mat proclaimed. "There's twelve of us and only one of you. Thirteen if you count the one who's going to exterminate your precious virus!"
"Oh, don't think you'll be able to defeat my virus so easily," Lady Dragon proclaimed. "Sic 'em, my lovelies!"
More of the nearby virus blobs began to shuffle towards the spies in response to Lady Dragon's command.
"Okay, did not need that image in my head again, thanks," Alex groaned as she kicked a blob away as it tried to jump on her. "Violet and her Biollante 'babies' was bad enough..."
Mat dove to the ground to avoid another flying blob, only for a larger blob to try and pounce on him. Sam rectified that by reaching into her backpack and pulling out a Wind Tunnel 9000 to blast the blog into a cluster of other blobs. This allowed RiCO to blast the blobs with an anti-virus beam and delete them.
"Viruses deleted!" RiCO proclaimed. "Next?"
"Got a couple here for ya, RiCO," Nick quipped, using his psychic hold to snatch another cluster of virus blobs so RiCO could blast them out of existence as well.
"Thanks for the assist, Nick!" RiCO exclaimed.
"You really think you've won?" Lady Dragon proclaimed. "My patented virus has infected many more systems than just this one. You'll definitely have your work cut out for you if you want to save W.O.O.H.P.'s computer network. Ta-ta for now, and I wish you good luck, spies! You'll certainly need it."
With that, Lady Dragon pressed a button on her belt and teleported away.
"Of course," Sam sighed. "Are you doing okay, sweetie?"
"No problem, thanks to you," Mat replied as he and Sam shared a kiss.
"Hold on, I'm still seeing a lot of that static-y infection around here," May stated. "Are we not finished here?"
RiCO checked her scanners for the possible culprit. "Hmmmm... it looks like this sector's firewall isn't properly working," RiCO stated. "That can only mean that the signal tower's been infected as well."
"Wait, there's firewalls here?" Alex asked.
"Usually, the firewalls keep viruses out of the systems by broadcasting a signal to the anti-virus software, and that signal comes from those towers," RiCO explained. "Which means that this virus must have attacked the signal towers first, and that's cutting off each sector's ability to fight back the virus."
"No wonder it spread so quickly!" Sam gasped. "The virus decided to go after the only thing keeping it from actually infecting the other sectors!"
"Gotta admit, that's actually a smart move," Britney quipped.
"Basically, we have to go find the signal towers and clear the infection out of it," RiCO stated. "Then I can reactivate the tower and it'll do the rest of the work and disinfect that sector."
"You're the expert here, so lead the way, RiCO," Nick replied.
Activating her scanner once again, RICO led the spy team to an out of the way area of this sector, where a lone tower stood, covered by viral static.
"Oof, that looks yucky," Alex stated.
"Stand back, everyone," RiCO proclaimed. Once the spies gave RiCO her space, she spread her hands out and began charging up. A couple seconds later, RiCO opened her palms and unleashed a flare of aquatic blue light that enveloped the infected signal tower.
The instant the light touched the virus, it started screeching in obvious pain as RiCO's anti-virus software destroyed it effortlessly.
Once all of the viruses infecting the tower had been eliminated, RiCO was able to walk up to the tower's control panel and type in a few commands to re-activate it, causing the beacon at the top of the tower to light up and spread a wave of blue light across the entire area.
"Well, how'd we do?" Sam asked.
RiCO just smiled. "Sector C is completely virus-free," RiCO stated.
"Okay, next question," Nick responded. "How many sectors are there in this datascape?"
"Ten," RiCO answered.
"Welp, looks like we've got our work cut out for us, huh?" May sighed. "Eh, a spy's work is never done."
"And consider that this was the sector with the least amount of infection," RiCO stated. "The other sectors will probably have more threats to contend with, especially as we get closer to the source of the virus."
"Hey, no one ever said it'd be easy, right?" Nick quipped. "Where are we off to next?"
"It seems like Lady Dragon and her virus cronies have been spotted in Sector F," RiCO proclaimed. "Let's head there and cut her off at the pass."
"Sounds like a plan," Nick responded. "Let's go clean this place up!"
With that in mind, the spies set off for Sector F.
"Hey, Nick, you wanna know something?" RiCO asked.
"What's up, RiCO?" Nick replied.
"It's really awesome that I can actually help you and your friends out," RiCO admitted. "I know you haven't really had the best history with GLADIS, from what Jerry's told me, so I didn't know how you'd feel about another AI assistant helping you..."
"To be fair, maybe downloading the brain of a whackjob who wanted to start a world war to use as GLADIS' brain was not Jerry's finest move," Nick answered. "Regardless, you've definitely proven yourself, RiCO."
"Awww... thanks, Nick," RiCO giggled, reaching out to high-five Nick, happy that she could give him an actual high-five this time. "Now let's go stomp this virus."
"You know it," Nick proclaimed.
With that, the spies made their way to Sector F. The spies even looked around in every direction.
"I know we've only been in here a while, but I'm already itching to get back to the real world," Clover stated.
"That makes two of us," Nozomi replied.
"That's the one thing about virtual reality stuff like this," Mat quipped. "Anything can happen in here, even things that defy the laws of nature."
"No question about it, bro," Nick stated.
"We better stay on our guards," Bridget told the rest of the group.
"No doubt," Alex replied.
Unknown to the spies, another of the blobs were right above them. It had a VERY sharp stalactite from a cave in its possession. The blob dropped it directly down for Sam. Mat saw this in the nick of time and dove to push Sam out of harm's way. The stalactite just barely grazed Mat's leg. Mat's actions caught the attention of the other spies.
"UP THERE!" Haruka exclaimed, pointing at the creature.
RiCO was on that like a shot and eliminated that said creature with a blast of her own.
"I guess the favor's been repaid," Mat sighed in relief.
"No doubt," Sam answered. "Thanks for the save, honey-bunches."
She gave Mat a kiss, which left Mat unable to respond back in any way.
"Well, we better be set," Britney stated. "We're in the wild west here, that's for sure."
"No question about it, Brit," Alex replied.
"It's Gunsmoke and The Rifleman the virtual way," Mat quipped.
"Dude, that's old school!" Nick laughed.
"Except no horses or anything," Clover pointed out. "Not that it matters."
With that, the spies continued to meander their ways to Sector F.
"Here we are," RiCO announced. "Sector F!"
"Wow, another five more minutes and I'd have begged for a break!" Melissa exclaimed.
"Same," Dawn added.
"But, then again, you never know if the floor is booby-trapped," Mat stated.
"Point taken," Melissa quipped.
"It doesn't appear to be though," Nick deduced.
"Uh-huh," Mat stated. "Lucky thing, too, because I now know what it's like to play Pathfinder on The Price is Right with our lives on the line in a way."
"True there, Mat," Alex stated. "It's almost like hopscotch with Russian Roulette consequences."
"I'll bet that's what Lady Dragon's game is," Sam deduced. "She's baiting us."
"And I think we took it," Mat replied.
"No doubt," Nick answered. "When we got in here."
"But RiCO's our 'shield', per se," Alex stated.
The spies continued looking around and walking forward to find Lady Dragon again.
"Man, this is creepy times fifty," Alex quipped.
"Yeah, the infected zones do not look pretty," RiCO answered. "Believe me, I speak from experience."
Little did the spies know that a large virus blob was approaching them, forming into the shape of a wicked claw that began to slowly slither towards Alex.
"Okay, so where's this sector's signal tower?" Bridget asked.
"It should be close by," RiCO answered. "Just follow the trail of static-y blobs."
The viral claw decided that now would be the most optimal moment to attack and lunged for Alex, with every intent of ripping her apart where she stood.
Unfortunately for the claw, Nick had sensed its approach and spun around to blast it backwards with a Final Shine Attack, doing enough damage to paralyze it and allow RiCO to blast it out of existence.
"You okay, Alex?" Nick asked.
"I should be," Alex replied. "Thanks for saving my bacon, Nick."
"Just doing my boyfriend-ly duties, as May puts it," Nick quipped.
"Hey, check this out," Sam remarked, finding something. "I think Lady Dragon is nearby."
It was an old school message in a bottle.
"It looks like some kind of riddle, does it?" Mat asked, looking over Sam's shoulder.
"Anybody wanna guess an evil movie director is in cahoots?" Clover wondered.
"Marco Lumiere," Sam remarked.
A scream took place and the spies saw the blobs were attempting to spy-nap Alex.
"Oh, you can forget it!" Nick shouted, slamming his hand into the ground and using Zero Gravity, causing both Alex and the blobs to start floating helplessly in the air. Nick quickly pulled Alex down to the ground as RiCO blasted the blobs with her anti-virus beam, erasing the blobs completely.
"Man, these things are getting pretty brazen!" Haruka shouted.
"And I'm pretty sure that's your fault, isn't it, Lady Dragon?" Nick proclaimed as Lady Dragon emerged from behind a nearby structure.
"You catch on quick, huh?" Lady Dragon laughed. "I created this virus specifically to aid my escape from the virtual world you wretches trapped me in, and when I got out, I modified it to attack W.O.O.H.P.'s computer networks in hopes of destroying them from the inside."
"Oh, don't act like we're the ones who got you stuck in your own game!" Mat proclaimed. "You brought that on yourself!"
"But therein lies the twist," another voice laughed, stepping out from the shadows to reveal yet another baddie that the spies had hoped to never see again. "After all, every good movie needs one, am I right?"
"Ooh, I should have known you'd be backing this scheme," Sam growled as Marco Lumiere himself stepped forward.
"After all, it's the duty of a star film creator to see their schemes through to the end," Lumiere laughed. "And what better way than to eliminate you here, in a world that won't even leave a body for you to be remembered by? Quite the climax, if you ask me."
"Don't think you're gonna stop us!" May shouted. "So many other villains in our rogues' gallery have said the exact same thing, and look what happened! We stomped all over them! Now, unless you wanna get added to the 'stomping list', you'd better back the hell off."
"As much as we'd like to stay here and take you all down, we do have things to take care of," Lady Dragon stated. "Our true masterpiece is not yet complete, after all."
"The core virus that's spreading itself to everywhere in this network," Lumiere explained. "It had to spread many pieces of itself to infect a system this large, so we must get to work on repairing it so it'll be ready to infect the system all over again. Until then, spies, we'll leave you a little something to play with. Ta-ta!"
Lady Dragon and Lumiere teleported away before anyone could make a move to stop them.
"Aw, nuts," Britney groaned.
"I think we should get to the signal tower real lickety-split like before whatever they left for us decides to come out and play," Nick quipped, and the spies all agreed, letting RiCO lead them to Sector F's signal tower.
"This shouldn't take too long," RiCO giggled, opening her hands and blasting the signal tower with a sphere of blue light that eliminated the virus infecting it.
But before RiCO could move to reactivate the signal tower, something caused the immediate area to start glitching out.
"Um, what's happening now?!" Clover shouted.
"I'm detecting a large cluster of viral activity concentrating in this area," RiCO announced. "It must be the 'friend' our bad guys left us!"
As the area continued to glitch out, viral activity began to concentrate in a spot close to the signal tower, eventually forming into what appeared to be a large, humanoid pig creature with lanky cow legs, a mustache, and a monocle over its left eye.
"Okay, what in the hell?!" May exclaimed.
The viral creature laughed maniacally before charging towards the spies, specifically Alex.
"Hey, hey, beat it, mister pig!" Alex shouted as she ran away from the creature's pursuit. "I'm not your computer bacon!"
"It's most likely trying to keep us from activating the signal tower," RiCO proclaimed. "And I don't think one simple anti-virus blast will take this one down. You guys are gonna have to damage it enough for me to wipe it out."
"Consider that an easy request to grant," Nick responded, his aura flaring to life.
"One question, RiCO," May asked. "Since we're in a different world, technically, that kinda means I don't have my signature weapon..."
"Ah! Say no more, May!" RiCO giggled, raising her hand and causing streams of data to erupt from her hands and converge on May's hands, forming into a large metal ship anchor with neon lines running across it.
"Ooh, hell yes," May cackled as she rushed to attack the viral creature.
"SOMEONE GET THIS THING AWAY FROM ME!" Alex screamed as the viral creature attempted to take a swipe at her, only to be stumbled when May swiped her new anchor against its back legs.
The viral creature turned around to glare at May, who was waving two fingers in the universal sign of "bring it". The creature took the bait and started charging towards her.
When the creature was close enough, May leaped into the air and swung her anchor to smack the creature in the face, sending it tumbling backwards.
"Yeah, you want some?!" May taunted. "Come and get some, mister pig!"
Haruka took advantage of the creature's stumbling and blasted the creature with an Electromagnetic Curling Iron, stopping the creature in place and allowing May to continue wailing on it with her anchor.
After a couple swings, though, the creature did a ground stomp that caused three rings of electricity to explode outwards from the point of impact, forcing the spies to either move away from the shockwave or jump over it if they were too close to the creature.
"All right, that wasn't nice!" Bridget shouted. "Sonic Mode, online!"
Once the glow of her transformation faded, Bridget was already on the move, striking at the creature's legs with each pass she made and allowing May to slip in more anchor strikes.
Eventually, the creature seized up in the middle of its own attack after May moved to attack it from behind. The damage she'd done to the creature now revealed a pulsing blob inside of the creature's chest.
"Okay, ten kinds of yuck," Clover gagged.
"That's its viral core!" RiCO exclaimed. "Someone keep it steady for me so I can take out the core! That'll send it packing!"
Mat did that honor, rushing in to spray the creature with a burst of Immobilizing Stun-Tan Lotion, freezing it in its place.
RiCO raised her right hand narrowing her sight as if she was using a sniper rifle, and unleashed a concentrated beam of blue light from her hands that struck the viral core of the creature, destroying said core and causing the creature to fall flat on its face before exploding into a cloud of glowing polygons that quickly dissipated.
"Ooh, very Sword Art Online in its doom explosion," May giggled.
"What's... Sword Art Online?" Nick asked.
"Oh, man, do I have something to show you when we're done here," May laughed.
The creature destroyed, RiCO walked up to the signal tower control panel and typed in a few commands to reactivate it, its beacon dispersing a bright wave of light that cleared out the rest of Sector F's infections.
"And Sector F is free of viruses!" RiCO proclaimed. "We're already a fifth of the way there!"
"Did you have the same idea that I did, RiCO, that we probably won't be able to find this 'core virus' that the baddies were talking about until we disinfect all the other sectors?" Nick asked.
"Yeah, we both definitely had that same thought," RiCO replied. "I figure they've got some special protections against the area where the core virus is waiting, and those protections will only go down once we get all of the signal towers back online. Then we can go in and end those nutballs."
"All righty then, where are the virus busters off to next?" Alex proclaimed.
"Looks like Sector E is closest to here," RiCO answered. "It shouldn't take us too long to get there from here. Let's get moving, everybody!"
"I often wonder if there's, like, a cyber-taxi we could take," Clover admitted. "Because this has already been a lot of walking, and we've only cleaned two of the ten sectors here..."
"Trust me, Clover, the way to the other sectors won't be as walk-heavy," RiCO replied.
"Here's hoping..." Clover sighed.
To be continued...
Next time on Totally Spies: Virus Busters...
Clover: Are we there yet?
Sam: Yes, Clover, we're here.
Clover: Wow, I only had to ask once.
Nick: And just as I thought, the infection's worse in this sector. They're getting pretty ballsy...
Alex: Whoa, it looks like these ones are taking on all kinds of different shapes...
Haruka: And what the heck is THAT one?!
Nick: Oh, you've got to be kidding me.
RiCO: Well, it looks like things are ramping up, readers! We've got some... shall we say, "tricky" viruses to exterminate on the next episode of Totally Spies: Virus Busters, "Copy and Paste"!
May: I guess we have a lot of...
RiCO: Command line: Pun delete!
May: Ah, thanks, RiCO! Saves me the hassle of having to hunt down the scriptwriter again.
RiCO: I'm sure he's had enough of getting bonked by you and your anchor.