I made it back. Sorry it took so long. I'll try to update faster since the story's almost halfway through. (And I really want to write the next stories already! Haha)
Thank you for the overwhelming reviews! I hope you enjoy this chapter! Lots of things revealed here. :)
Chapter 5: Familiar Formula
Seconds after the school bell rang, doors were flipped open and soon, the hallways were filled with people again.
Megan was walking towards her locker with a book tucked between her arm. She was a few feet away from the locker dial when a voice called her from behind.
"Megan!"
She turned around and saw a friend riding his skateboard towards her. "Hey, Brian!" she answered.
Brian was a skateboarder friend of the Clarks. He had spiky brown hair under his cap and he was wearing his usual jacket and skateboarder clothes. His foot kicked against the floor, boosting his speed as he went around Megan. "What's up?" Megan asked him, twisting a bit to see him.
"You know, same old," Brian answered, still skating around Megan. He kicked his foot again. "Hey, you know that dance on Friday? Are you already going with someone?"
Megan watched him skate in a big circle around her. "Nope, not really."
"Whoah. Well, if it's okay with you, can I go with you to the dance?"
Megan smiled, "Sure, Brian."
"Really?" Brian asked in surprise that his skating came into a halt.
"Yeah." Megan walked towards him.
Brian smiled nervously as one of his hands picked up the board and the other fixed his cap. "That's cool. So, I'll call you?"
"Yep," Megan replied.
"O-okay. Thanks. See you around, Megan!" he said before leaving on foot with the skateboard tucked in his arm.
Megan watched him go before turning back to her locker. As she dialed her combination, she heard his older brother's voice from a distance.
"Oh yeah!" She saw him walking in her direction, his attention on his cellphone. He was grinning as his fingers pressed on different keys in the keypad in great speed, as if he was engrossed in yet another game. But Megan knew exactly what was up.
"Careful there, big guy," Megan told him.
Lee looked up and stopped just in time to prevent the possibility of having his face molded on Megan's opened locker door.
"Whoah!" he yelped.
"Judging from your obsessive stare towards your cellphone, I'm guessing you already have a date for the dance," said Megan, putting the book into her locker.
"You're correct, little sister! I'm taking Heather Johnson to be specific." Lee's face began to look all dreamy as he stared blankly into space. "I bet she's going to smell really nice when we dance together," he fantasized.
"Oookay. Creepy," was Megan's response. "I wonder how Marc and Tony are doing," she added, closing her locker and ignoring Lee's dazed expression.
In that same hall, Tony was kneeling on both knees in front of a girl's locker. He was helping a girl pick up the books that she had dropped just a few moments ago.
"T-thanks," the girl with glasses muttered as she fixed her hair behind her ear, but she kept her head down while picking up her things.
"It's okay," Tony replied. Then with nothing left on the floor, they stood up. "Is that all? We didn't miss anything?" he asked.
The girl nodded and then quickly went to put her things into her locker, with the door blocking her face from Tony's view.
Here goes nothing, Tony thought. He swallowed.
"Umm... so I was wondering if you're going to the dance this Friday. You know, it's a school thing after all," Tony started, trying to keep his legs and arms perfectly still to remain his cool.
"Hhmm," he heard the girl say.
"So I was wondering...again," he put down the arm that was aiming to scratch his head, "if you'd like to go with me to the dance? But I'm not-"
"Okay," he heard her say.
"What?"
"I said okay," the girl repeated softly, closing the locker door and looking shyly towards Tony.
"Oh, then that's cool!" Tony exclaimed with a big grin on his face, then he realized how loud he had become and tried to regain his composure. "I'll text you okay?" He took out his phone and they exchanged numbers, with Tony having his white teeth exposed in a grin. In reality, he was actually trying hard not to jump up and down in glee.
"The dance sure is going to look like a lot of fun, especially since you're with me." He crossed his arms and stood straight with his back against the locker door.
The cool Tonester has returned.
"TONY!" Marc called him. Before Tony could face him, he was already pulled away from the locker and towards the panting Marc. Marc stood in front of him, bent down with his hands on his knees. He was breathing heavily.
"What's up, bro?" Tony looked over and quietly waved goodbye to the girl. Then he crossed his arms with a frown on his face. "This better be important because you just interrupted me and my date."
"Is it true?" It was Megan. She and Lee were walking towards the two. "Tony, you have a date?"
"You bet it's true. You were right, Megan. All I have to do is be nice to girls."
"Ummm...isn't that the whole point of being a guy?"
"Guys," Marc finally spoke, getting their attention. He straightened up and looked at his siblings. "We have a problem."
"Maybe it wasn't supposed to be heated so there didn't seem to be any effect," Lee said as Marc opened his locker.
"Yeah or maybe some chemical in the experiment already had it neutralized," Megan added.
Marc took out the clues from his bag and placed them in his locker. Instantly, a chute materialized and sucked the clues into it. It was a custom WOOHP feature in his locker, another communication channel and a handy transport for clues especially in instances like this.
"I'm not going to dismiss those possibilities but the point here is the clue was exposed and used in an experiment," Marc stated. "There could have been residues left in the test tubes, or it might have turned into something worse that if we don't look out for it, it might endanger the school."
"Did you check the laboratory materials before you got out of class?" Lee asked him.
"Yes. I even offered to clean them but there didn't seem to be anything that looked suspicious."
"Then that's a good sign."
"Not really," Marc objected with a raised voice. He faced them. "What if it had already transformed into something else, like a mutant blob or poisonous gas before the class ended? It's how we are with spiders. When we see them but kill them right away, we panic when they disappear."
Tony felt a chill race down his spine. "Whoah. That is scary."
"I understand where you're coming from, Marc but we can't really assume much because we don't know what we're dealing with yet," said Megan.
"That's the scary part: We don't know what we're dealing with," Marc stressed.
"The only thing we can do now is wait for the clues' analysis and right then will we take action," told Lee.
The siblings looked at each other in agreement.
"Okay. Then I guess we have nothing to worry about as of the moment," Marc said, closing his locker.
"Oh yes you do."
Marc raised an eyebrow. "Hhmm? What's that?"
Megan crossed her arms. "Did you just forget what's going to happen on Friday night?"
Marc thought for a moment. "You mean the dance?"
"Yes I mean the dance," she sighed. "We already have our dates."
"You do?!" He looked at one sibling to another and then frowned.
"Don't tell me you forgot to ask Celine," said Megan, softer this time.
Marc blushed. "Well, I was going to ask her but because of the clue-"
"Yeah yeah I get it," Megan interrupted him. "You better ask her now." She looked around the hallway and spotted, on the other end of the hall, the redheaded Celine approaching her locker.
The other three already knew what was happening.
"You better get out there, Marc," Lee said as he backed up his brother.
"It's now or never, bro," Tony added, pushing Marc from behind.
They pushed Marc from behind to which he let go. He rounded back at them."Why are you guys so hooked with this?"
"Just go!" they insisted.
Marc turned around.
"And remember what I told you," he heard Megan tell him in thoughtful tone.
Marc knew what she was saying. He didn't need to turn back around and ask. He observed the long hall of lockers and the girl who stood at the end of it.
After letting out a deep breath, he began to walk towards her.
Here we go, he told himself as he got closer and closer.
"Hi, Marc!"
He was already halfway there when Tami suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Uhh hi, Tami." Then he looked past her and stepped to the side.
She skipped to the side, facing him. "That was a nice flip you did in class today."
"Uhh thanks, Tami," he answered blankly and tried to make a step past her, but Tami's feet landed right in front of his before he could even go forward. Puzzled, he looked up and just noticed that Tami was smiling at him. And the more puzzling thing was it wasn't the evil kind.
"T-Tami?"
She leaned closer to him, making Marc step backwards. He was seriously freaked out because Tami looked way more evil this way.
"Umm Tami, excuse me but I have to-"
"Why? Where are you going?" She didn't sound threatening, which was at the same time threatening for Marc.
"I-uhh..."
"Maaaaarc!"
Another girl entered the hall. She bumped against Tami and stepped between him and her.
"Are you having lunch with anyone today?" she asked.
"Uhh-" he stuttered as he began walking around them, waving his hands. "I don't really feel like eating lunch today heh-heh."
"Hey, Marc!" multiple voices called from behind. He turned and saw three girls standing behind him.
"I waited for you after class today," one of them stepped forward, flashing him a smile.
Another stepped ahead of the first girl. She stared at Marc. "Are you still tutoring students? Because I think I need some help with our homework in Science." She looked at him with dazzling eyes and a cute smile which made Marc think of glitters and sparkles that might appear in the background anytime now.
"Tutor me too, Marc!" the last girl jumped the closest to him. Soon, more girls came and crowded before him, as if every girl in his Science class suddenly cared about their education.
Marc tried to look past over them to catch a glimpse of Celine closing her locker door.
"Sorry but I have to go!" He placed his hands on the nearest girl's shoulders and jumped to a cannonball over them. With his feet on the floor, he ran away from the crowd and headed towards Celine.
"Wait, Celine!" He stopped right in front of her just as she turned to see him panting.
"Marc, what's wrong?" she asked.
Marc looked up and met her dazzling blue eyes that looked back at his with curiosity and worry. Her hair was no longer in a braid now and it rested freely on her shoulders and chest, complementing the deep blue color of her clothes with its vibrant red. Marc couldn't tell if it was the hall lights or her skin itself that was giving her a bright glow.
And then, Marc felt the strong and pounding in his chest spread to his whole body.
Finally, he managed to speak. "What's up? Are you having lunch?"
"Yeah but just a quick one. I have to go straight to the library right after. What about you?" Then the look of worry returned to her face. "Are you okay? You look stressed. Did something happen? Was it because of earlier?" She reached out her hand towards his shoulder.
"Waah!" Marc suddenly yelped, surprising both of them. He felt like his heart had taken a dive. That was when he realized that he was shaking, and Sel was still looking at him worriedly.
"Nothing. Sorry, it was just nothing. Don't mind me. Haha." He let out a nervous laugh that made Sel look less worried. Then he focused on controlling his breathing.
Once he felt fine, he looked at her again and said, "Sel, are you going to the dance this Friday?"
Wait! Urgh. I could have said it better. Of course she's going to the dance! I should have asked if somebody's already asked her. GRR. Stupid. Stupid.
"I'm not sure. I'm not really into dances..."
"That's okay! Me too! Do you want to go to the dance with me?"
Sel's eyes widened at Marc's loud voice.
GAAAAHH! I spoke too fast! Now I look so desperate! I ruined it!
"Wow, Marc, that's really...umm..."
"MAAARRC!"
Marc turned around and couldn't believe it when it's the girls from before, racing towards their direction and now looking like a bigger crowd than earlier.
"Tutor me please!"
"Help me with my homework!"
Marc didn't understand why he felt like he was being threatened with their smiles and niceness.
"Wah! I-I have to go now, Sel. I'll catch up with you later. Umm, text me?" He sprinted past Sel and she watched in curiosity as the crowd of girls pass by in front of her and Marc disappearing from view.
Marc made a round trip and came out on the opening in the middle of the hall, heading towards the other end where he found his siblings still standing and waiting for him.
"How did it go, Marc?" Megan immediately asked him.
"No time!" He ran past her but Megan grabbed a hold of his arm and pulled him back.
"What's going on, Marc Clark?" Megan interrogated him.
"Wait, what's that?" Tony asked. He raised his hand to his ear, listening and thinking if Big Foot decided to drop by in their school.
Then from where Marc came out arrived a crowd of about eleven girls, coming to a halt in the middle of the hall and then resumed running towards the Clarks' direction, shouting Marc's name.
"What do they want from you?" Megan wondered.
"I don't know but they won't go away!" And before he could finish his sentence, he already ran off, taking with him his sister who was still holding his arm.
"Maaaarc! Wait for us!" the girls called, still running.
Tony and Lee remained standing there.
"Hey, how come Marc's getting all the attention?" Lee complained. He stepped forward and spread his arms. "Lee is right here, girls! I already have a date for the dance but I'm totally free this lunch and after school. As usual, I'll be at the gym, shooting some hoops..."
And to Lee and Tony's surprise, the girls didn't stop running.
Marc still didn't understand why the girls were suddenly forcing him to help them on their homework. More importantly, he didn't understand why he was feeling really terrified of them.
"Marc, where are we going?" Megan asked, now out of hold of Marc's arm.
Marc spotted a janitor closet door somewhere along the hall.
"There!" he pointed and made a run for it.
But before they could reach the door, they felt some kind of force surround them and suck them upwards into the school vent, pulling them out of the tubes until they were high up in the sky and until they landed on cold metal.
Techno buzzing and beeping. Propeller spinning and chugging. Marc and Megan got up and found themselves in yet another one of WOOHP's flying vehicles. On the driver's seats were two WOOHP agents in their black uniform and shades and ear communicators. And standing behind the driver's seats, facing the two Clarks were their boss Jerry.
"Sorry for the emergency WOOHP-ing, spies," Jerry told them, standing firmly as always.
"No, Jerry. Thank you. It's just what we needed," Marc told him.
Before Jerry could even ask, the hatch opened and popped in Lee and Tony, lying on their sides in awkward fetal positions.
"What happened to you, guys?" Megan asked.
"Lots. Of. Screaming. Girls." Tony was whispering and obviously shaking in terror.
"How could you leave us flattened there?!" Lee told the fraternal twins, managing to get up.
"Lots. Of. Screaming. Girls." Tony was still hugging his knees.
"Is the exams even coming up? Why are they suddenly into studying?" Megan wondered.
"Beats me," Marc said, also shaking.
"Lots. Of. Screaming. Girls."
"Now, now," Jerry said thoughtfully, helping Tony get to his feet. "I called you here for a reason, spies."
The four of them were now standing with serious faces on. "Right, you received our samples, Jerry?" Marc asked.
"Yes." Jerry pushed a button and an image appeared on the monitor on the wall, showing various colors and labels of the analysis. All, except for Marc, turned their eyes to Jerry instead.
"The substance from the tissue and the one from the Absorbent Hanky showed almost the same structure of a certain formula," said Jerry. 'Almost' because they had the same chemicals but they differed when it came to the chemicals' amounts. Nevertheless, they're still the same."
Jerry swiped the screen with his arm, making the screen zoom to a certain label.
"Here is the most eye-catching component in the formula," Jerry added. The screen showed that the label and the color it referred to was taking up a big amount in the formula.
"A pheromone."
Tony raised an eyebrow. "A what-a-mone?"
"A pheromone," Marc corrected. "Why do I feel like we've encountered this term before? Or was it just me in school?"
"Yes, we have," Megan smiled. "Remember when we fought against that baddie who created the Sunrise Tan? It was the pheromone in the tan that made you guys fall in love with Tami." Megan began to laugh but her brothers struck her a glare. "Oh wait, of course you don't remember that." And it was true. She finished that mission on her own after all, and by 'on her own', it meant 'with her clone'.
"Exactly," Jerry continued, referring to the pheromone. "Only this time, it's a male pheromone to be specific."
"So what does it have to do with our case?" Tony asked.
"It means that whoever made this substance had the goal of attracting girls in mind," Lee said.
"And it means that this was the substance in the smoke which the two scientists had caught," Marc reminded.
"So you're saying that somebody 'attacked' the two scientists with smoke to make them get girls?" Tony repeated. Confusion finally struck his siblings' faces. Their little brother was right.
"It does sound ridiculous," Megan said. "There should be another motive...But it does explain those women drooling over that old man," she added in disgust, turning to Marc to share her sentiment.
"What are you talking about, Megan?" asked Lee.
"I'm talking about Dr. Skinner, that professor we investigated. The female teachers were all around him, trying to get his attention and even massaging his feet! Ugh. I'm glad that this explains it."
Lee and Tony looked at each other. "Nothing like that happened with our scientist," they shared.
"Really?"
"Yeah, he was just sneezing all over the place," Tony said. "We even hoped that it was the smoke that gave him his cold."
"So no drooling women for your scientist, huh? I wondered what went wrong."
Marc snapped his fingers. "I get it now. The samples had almost the same formula like Jerry said, meaning it showed two different results. If the formula was for attraction of the opposite gender, then the formula used on our scientist was the right one."
"And on ours?"
"A failure. Whoever planted this substance on the smoke was trying to figure out which of the formulas he had was working. And he used the two scientists as his experimental subjects."
"Aaahh..." Tony realized. "So he used the old nerds as his guinea pigs."
"And he must have done that because he's planning something bigger," Lee pointed out.
"Oh really," Megan said sarcastically. "I bet this scheme is for selfish reasons again," she stressed, remembering the Sunrise Tan baddie who invented the tan to make boys fight over her.
They all turned to Jerry who was talking to one of the agents in the driver's seats. He looked back at the spies once done and made another swipe on the screen. "We just received a report from the headquarters which is conveniently relevant to your mission. Apparently, this mission is comparable to the Sunrise Tan operation so we had a few agents go over the villains' inventory again. And the surveillance revealed that a few days ago, we had a break-in."
"And you just found that out now?" Megan crossed her arms.
Jerry felt slightly embarrassed. "The surveillance was hacked during the break-in in such a way that no traces were left. A specialized group of WOOHP agents are currently trying to figure out how it was done," Jerry said in defense.
"Impressive," Marc commented, but to the culprit and not to the WOOHP agents. "Whoever we're dealing with must be a specialist in computers."
The images in the screen were replaced by a video footage. It showed a top view of a hall in the WOOHP's Villain Inventory Room. The view looked down on a hall of vaults and shelves in front of a desk of computers. Then, a masked figure was shown entering the room and stopping in front of one of the shelves. The shelf was opened and the figure took out a test tube and placed it into his pocket. Then he left the room as quickly as he came in.
Jerry stopped the video as the spies absorbed what they just saw.
"And I'm guessing that thing he took with him was WOOHP's collection of the Sunrise Tan," Tony told them.
"Correct."
"It all comes together now. This culprit is most definitely the one who made the formula and used it on the two scientists," said Lee.
"Don't be so sure. They might be two different people who are part of the same alliance. They really might be devising a more sinister plan," Marc mentioned.
"Well then, I guess we just have to find out this person's identity, give him a visit and take him down," said Megan.
"Lucky for you, the room was already investigated and we found footprints belonging to the culprit." Jerry struck a proud look at Megan that might have meant that it's now the time for his agents to redeem themselves.
"Here is your bad guy." He swiped the screen again and the images disappeared and were replaced by a photo of a guy, with details appearing beside it like it was being typed.
"Marvel Brussels. A college student in Michigan University," they read. "Of course! Why didn't I think that he'll be in the same university?" Marc said to himself.
The others ignored him. "Looks like we're going back to Michigan."
Jerry nodded. "But, I'll be sending you over to your jet."
"Why?"
I'll be using this chopper for umm..."
"Selfish reasons?" Megan chuckled.
Jerry sighed. "Yes, if I don't, I'll be late in meeting with my mother." He frowned and rubbed his forehead with his palm.
The kids laughed. They've already heard Jerry's tales of his mother, who had no idea that her son was a professional spy.
"Oh well. Good luck, spies! I'll see you when I see you."
He pressed a button and the hatch on the floor opened, sucking out the spies and letting them fall out of the chopper and into an open hatch on top of the Spiez jet. The chopper flew to the opposite direction and the jet remained still, facing the direction towards Michigan.
-end of Chapter 5-
Thank you so much for reading this chappy! How was it? I thought it went too fast with the revealing of info. It seems like there's no mystery left to figure out...or does it?
Again, I'm sorry for the slow updates. RL always getting in the way. *sigh*
AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS! I'm being too emotional again because this is the only source of motivation and inspiration for me to keep writing. And school sucks with all its research papers. It takes away the creativity in writing.
Thank you also to Redbox275. I wish I read your review sooner so I could have gone over this chappy. Yeah, I tend to put too much details to paint the setting. I'll try to work on that. Thank you!
I pray that I update soon. Thank you so much guys!
-Kimmy!
