4:34 A.M. – Somewhere in Beverly Hills
"So, you're a fellow lover of the arts, too, I see," Marco Lumiere chuckled.
"Oh, but of course," Milton Bard proclaimed in a very theatrical tone of voice. "I had the perfect play in mind, until those damned spies ruined everything."
"Oh, trust me, I've been down that road before, and it's a plot device that gets really boring after a while," Lumiere admitted. "That's precisely why I've brought you into my fold for this scheme. With two of us connoisseurs of theater working together, we'll surely best those annoyances this time around."
"You say that a lot, but they always find a way around our plans somehow," Milton responded. "What makes you so sure this one will succeed where all the others have failed?"
Lumiere glanced over at his movie camera, where a few different movie props were resting on the table around it.
"I'm very glad you asked that, my boy," Lumiere chuckled. "Because this plan of mine..."
Lumiere stepped into the shadows for dramatic effect, picking up a prop that looked like a knife.
"...is going to be a real killer, if you catch my lingo."
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(The pages constantly turn, no matter how long the reader takes. When one story ends, another story will inevitably start. In the end, there is only a new beginning.)
Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger are proud to present:
Totally Spies: The New Adventures
Episode 70: And Then There Were Some
Story Rated: T for Teen
Story Created: November 19th, 2022
Story Summary: The ninety-eighth co-op project between Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger and episode seventy of our mission-based series Totally Spies: The New Adventures. Crazed filmmaker Marco Lumiere has returned, and this time he's bringing along the mad playwright Milton Bard to assist him. Their plan this time? To draw the spies into a murder mystery-type movie where the danger is very real. Even worse, the baddies seem to have singled out Melissa, Haruka, and Blaine for their dastardly deeds. Can the spies help their friends and shut down this killer flick before it turns into an actual murder scene?
Author's Notes from Mat49324: Well, that was a helluva project we got through in Close Encounters of the Freaky Kind, was it? BTW, hopefully you saw the play on the title on that one. I had another one based on Murder on the Orient Express, but Nick had a seemingly better title with And Then There Were Some, but eh, whatever. Anyway, we're dealing with not one, but TWO villains yet again with a similar background. I'm sure you'll figure one of them out, but the other is an S5 villain that appeared only once. I'll leave it at that. Anyway, we are just TWO PROJECTS AWAY from 100 co-op projects together. Hopefully you've also had a chance to see my newest one-shot, Some Things Never Change, our 97th project. For now, here's The Blue Time Ranger for anything he'd like to say.
Author's Notes from The Blue Time Ranger: Our 'favorite' movie man is back, and he's bringing along a villain I have actually never written anything about before, so this'll be a learning experience for me. As for the title, it's obviously based on the classic murder mystery And Then There Were None, but with a TS! twist. Well, let's not keep the movie waiting, shall we? Cameras up, lighting on, and ROLL IT!
And Now, the Obligatory Disclaimer: Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger do not own anything related to Totally Spies or any of its affiliations. It belongs solely to Marathon Media Group, Image Entertainment Corporation, Vincent Chalvon-Demersay, and David Michel. The only things of this story we DO own are any characters or locations created by us truly for the story. 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?
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Act 1: Crime Scene Crisis
1:05 P.M. – Malibu University
The Spies' Penthouse
It was another usual Tuesday afternoon at the spies' penthouse. Mat was in the den rewatching the 2009 New Orleans Supercross Lites broadcast after both races aired on TV on Saturday. The 450cc broadcast was up next, but Mat and the others had already watched the broadcast, which saw San Manuel Yamaha's James Stewart getting back on the winning track with his 8th win of the 2009 season, and Suzuki's Chad Reed taking another 2nd place – much to Mat's dismay.
On another note, Nick and Sam happened to be watching with him again – just like they and some of the others had done with the 450cc class. Currently, the 250cc Last Chance Qualifier was seconds away from beginning.
"Hey, bro, were you okay with this race?" Nick wondered.
"To be honest, the 450cc class... I was happy for Stewart to win after how the past two races had gone, but I think Chad Reed could have taken him if he didn't wait to pull the trigger on that new rhythm," Mat answered.
In the 450cc class, Reed had matched a new rhythm of jumping over an entire dragon's-back and an additional jump that Stewart did during the heat race, but Stewart did the rhythm first on lap 2 in the 20-lap main, and Reed was forced to settle for 2nd; however, Reed wasn't happy in his winner interview saying he felt he didn't ride that great, but he was still the points leader by 8 over Stewart with 6 rounds remaining.
"I think I was more surprised it'd been seven years since they last raced in New Orleans myself," Nick commented.
"Ditto," Sam quipped.
Nick was also a bit interested upon learning on both broadcasts that former 125cc East Supercross champ Travis Pastrana would race the next round in St. Louis.
The 4-lap Lites LCQ had just gotten under way, and two notable factory riders that were in there were Team Suzuki's Nico Izzi #20, and KTM's Martin Davalos #577; both had suffered crashes in their qualifying heat with Izzi going for a pass on Davalos on the opening lap, only for them both to crash. Then, Davalos crashed again badly after just making it into the top 9 and was forced to ride that LCQ.
"I think this was the disappointing part from my view..." Mat told the others as Alex came in the penthouse with Melissa.
"What was?" Melissa wondered as they saw Mat and the others watching the New Orleans race on the TV.
"The Lites LCQ," Mat answered as Britney came in shortly after Alex and Melissa.
Currently, Suzuki City's Steven Clarke on his #77 was leading the way; on lap 3, KTM's Davalos had tried to make a pass on rookie privateer Vince Friese on his #719 Honda, and both riders had gone down. With only two riders transferring to the Lites main, Davalos' night was essentially over.
"Man, they were going at it," May quipped.
"These things do tend to happen," Bridget replied.
On the last lap, Nico Izzi had moved up to 3rd and was a few bike lengths behind Star Racing Yamaha's Matt Lemoine #41 for the 2nd place position – the last spot to the 20-rider main. Izzi and Lemoine made physical contact with each other while Steven Clarke won the LCQ; Lemoine just made it to the FINISH line just in time to get the last spot to the main and send Nico Izzi – one of the fastest qualifiers on the night – to the Suzuki rig and out of the night. As for KTM's Davalos, he crossed the line in 5th, which also ended his night, too.
"THAT was just as disappointing from my view," Mat replied. "Nico Izzi – the fastest qualifier... 2nd place in the East series... and he misses the main event by one spot..."
"Oh yeah," Alex replied. "You were saying that move he made on what's-his-name was too overanxious or something like that..."
"Izzi on Davalos – yeah, exactly," Mat answered.
"How so?" Melissa wondered.
"Easy – rookie move," Mat replied. "But the worst part is... Izzi was one of the fastest qualifiers at New Orleans, he's been on the podium 4 times in 4 races – no wins – he's 2nd in the East series... and he doesn't qualify for the main..."
"Yikes," Nick quipped. "Yeah, that's a big oof."
"Missed it by that much," Haruka stated. "Yeah, I'd be pissed, too."
"It's that particular moment that makes my biggest fear about the rule change of 2 guys out of the Lites LCQ instead of 4 that make it a bad move," Mat went on. "There were 3 guys in the LCQ that shouldn't have been there, and they only take 2 out of there... and the only guy whom I expected would be in the main was Matt Lemoine. Nico Izzi should've won that, but the start killed him; Martin Davalos... I commend the effort, but I think his night was pretty much ruined after that second crash in the heat race; I give him credit though because if he didn't crash after that move on Vince Friese, he may very well have made it and sent Lemoine home."
Haruka, May, and Bridget came in simultaneously, completely unaware of the convo that had just taken place, but Bridget noticed Mat was re-watching the New Orleans race.
"You know we believe in Chad Reed as much as you do, right, Mat?" Haruka told him.
"Yeah, I know," Mat replied. "But this is the Lites broadcast actually."
"Oh, so it is," Bridget laughed after she saw Mat was right. "But still... it ain't over yet."
"I just hope Reed doesn't go through that bad start spree that got you pretty pissed," Britney stated to Mat.
"That's true," Mat quipped. "But if I know Chad Reed well enough, that won't happen again – I'm sure."
As the Lites main went on, Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Austin Stroupe #981 was leading. As it turned out, Stroupe led all 15 laps en route to his second win of the 2009 East season.
"I sure hope not for your sake, bro," Nick added. "Anyway, I got to get out of here – Mali-U baseball game I got assigned to."
With that, Nick grabbed his things and left for the baseball stadium, even giving Alex a kiss good-bye.
"Well, looks like Nick's relieved of the water polo games," Mat chuckled.
Haruka seemed to be slightly disappointed she couldn't tease Nick again that way, but she knew she had him over a barrel with her bikinis.
"Don't be surprised if I get assigned to them," Mat commented.
"You win some, you lose some, right?" Haruka chuckled.
"I guess Clover's not done with her shift at the Mali-U Café yet," Alex replied.
"Yeah, and Blaine said he had beach volleyball practice," Britney added.
"By the way," Sam replied, centering on May, Haruka, and Bridget. "Hopefully you three aren't too ticked off about... the last mission?"
"Hey, from what I heard, it sounded like an emergency that couldn't wait, despite the whole 'future' thing," May responded.
"We'll get another chance sometime, I'm sure of it," Haruka stated.
"I'm just glad James got what for in the end," Bridget responded.
"Well, hopefully somehow you'll get to see them before the next mission takes place in the future," Britney quipped.
"Anyway, where's everyone else?" Alex wondered.
"Well, you already know about Clover and Blaine, but Nozomi was going to hit the Mali-U beach," May answered.
The spies agreed to go there; they found Nozomi already reserved a spot while Alex let Clover know they were going to be at the Mali-U beach.
"Hey, where'd she go?" Alex wondered once they'd reached the beach and couldn't find Nozomi.
"Oh, I see that little showoff," Nick chuckled when he looked further ahead and saw Nozomi swimming through the water like it was nothing to her.
"You gonna join her, Nick?" May teased. "I know you can actually swim now, so..."
Nick didn't get to make a decision on that, though, as the spies were all suddenly sucked into the sands one by one.
1:42 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters
Jerry's Office
Once the spies were all gathered in Jerry's office, shaking off sand (or in Nozomi's case, water), Nick couldn't help but give Jerry a "look".
"I said I'd keep finding new ways to surprise you, Nick," Jerry chuckled.
"But did it have to be under the sand?!" Clover gasped. "I don't even feel like making the obvious reference here!"
"Well, as long as none of it got in my hair, we're good," Sam stated, Mat checking just to be sure and giving a thumbs up when he saw no sand in Sam's hair.
As the thirteen spies all changed into their spy suits, both RiCO and iCO materialized in the office.
"I'm pretty sure you'll recognize this guy, really," RiCO quipped as she waved her hands to change the office viewscreen to a mugshot of Marco Lumiere and the evil playwright Milton Bard.
"Ah, dang it, not mister movie nut again," Alex groaned. "Doesn't he ever give up, even when he knows his movies freakin' suck?!"
"Wait, Milton's out again?" Sam gasped. "Didn't we just put him away about a month ago?"
"I've got a feeling that Lumiere's responsible for that," May stated matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, I'd really like to forget what he almost did to the café," Clover quipped.
"And to me!" Alex proclaimed.
"Any idea what they might be up to, Jerry, besides the obvious 'revengeance'?" Nick wondered.
"Hollywood's been seeing a strange rash of equipment thefts recently," RiCO explained, changing the viewscreen to show the reports that had been made. "Mostly really high-tech special effects stuff, but the kind of thing Lumiere likes to drool over."
"There have been some thefts of computer chips as well," iCO stated. "And yes, it does seem like the same kind he used before."
"With those two things combined, that could spell trouble if we let it happen," Bridget quipped.
"Then we'd better get moving and find them before they can stir up trouble," Melissa proclaimed. "Any lock on their last known location, Jerry?"
Before Jerry could answer that, RiCO gasped in surprise and checked her readouts.
"Well, it looks like you guys are in luck, because they've both been spotted in Hollywood!" RiCO exclaimed. "No doubt trying to seal more of their tech."
"All right, then, let's head 'em off!" May stated as the spies moved to retrieve their gadget loadout.
2:37 P.M. – Hollywood, California
"Hello, Hollywood, my old friend, we meet again," Alex quipped once the spies had touched down. "Kinda wish we didn't have mister film flop breathing down our necks again, really..."
"Speaking of which, any sign of him?" Sam wondered.
A loud commotion answered Sam's question, and the spies' attention was drawn to one of the nearby studios, where they could now see Lumiere and Milton absconding with movie technology.
"Guess that answers that question," Dawn chuckled. "Let's go say hi to the nuts, shall we?"
"Say, Lumiere, what exactly do we need all of this stuff for?" Milton wondered as they beat feet away from the studios they'd just robbed.
"All part of the plan," Lumiere chuckled. "Trust me, when the time comes, you'll be in awe of the glory I can create behind a camera."
Lumiere laughed evilly, only to be stopped when he and Milton ran head-first into a psychic barrier that Nick had projected in front of them. The tech they'd stolen went flying into the air, but was thankfully corralled by Nick in a small psychic bubble that he set aside for the moment.
"Well, well, ya film flunkies, you lost?" May taunted. "How about you let us escort you somewhere you'll be safe and can't cause any trouble?"
"Rewrite your script a bit, pirate girl, because I've heard it all before," Lumiere retorted.
"How about you punks rewrite this?!" Nick taunted as he raised his glowing right hand, used it to draw a horizontal line of light in front of him, and finally thrust his right hand forward to unleash a barrage of psychic needles on Lumiere and Milton, dropping them right to the ground.
"Ow, that actually hurt, you little brat!" Milton shouted.
"Good, then that means my new move is a success," Nick quipped. "Now how about you stop playing these dumb games and take your lumps already?!"
"I wouldn't be talking a big game right now, you know," Milton chuckled. "Because once we're in business, you won't be so cocky."
"You wanna explain that little wrinkle, or is that just not happening?" Britney taunted.
"Let's just start beatin' on 'em," Melissa stated. "They're not gonna listen to us."
"Hey, that's no fair of you!" Milton complained.
"Our rogues' gallery is one to talk about what's fair and what's not..." May proclaimed. "Now how about you shut your yaps and eat anchor?!"
May decided not to wait for an answer and charged in to swing her anchor at both baddies, sending both of them tumbling away.
"Hey, little lady, you shouldn't swing things far bigger than you," Milton proclaimed, having clearly not seen May in action before.
"Look who's talking, mister gaudy theater boy!" May shot back, landing an overhead swing that knocked Milton flat on his back.
"We don't know what your M.O. is this time," Nick replied. "But you're not going to succeed, ever!"
"Oh, on the contrary, we plan to make our win foolproof," Marco Lumiere sneered.
"And that's for us to know and you to find out," Milton added.
"But we'll say we'll likely be in close proximity," Lumiere replied. "And it'll be a movie to die for, too..."
With that, the two put together a disappearing act and left the thirteen spies in complete shock.
"Damn it!" Nick swore.
"Sounds like two more loonies in that rogues' gallery," Blaine commented.
"Believe us, Blaine," May quipped. "Our rogues' gallery is about as long as the Supercross guys Mat grew up watching..."
"Not gonna argue with that," Mat laughed, a little surprised May thought of that.
"Hopefully those spodes left something behind..." Dawn stated.
Everybody took a good look around.
"I got something!" Alex proclaimed.
It turned out to be a strange piece of film from a reel.
"A piece of film?" Clover wondered.
"No surprise there given our two enemies," Britney replied.
"But nothing Jerry and RiCO can't analyze," Sam quipped, getting out her X-Powder.
After scanning the film strip, everyone wondered what to do next.
"Well, I guess we just wait until we hear from Jerry and RiCO again," Haruka told the group.
"My thoughts exactly," Sam commented.
"Nice... beach break!" Clover cheered.
With that, the spies decided to go back to Mali-U to resume their beach day that got interrupted.
3:49 P.M. – Malibu University
Beach Area
"Don't you even try, Haruka..." Nick told Haruka after Haruka tried seducing him with her bikinis again.
"...why should I, Nick?" Haruka giggled.
"I'll bet she's rehearsing for that first car wash battle over the summer," Bridget laughed.
"She must be..." Nozomi giggled.
"YOU'RE MINE, MAT!" Sam playfully screamed as they had a merry chase into the ocean.
Britney and Melissa got in the spirit, too.
"This is what I call beach fun!" May proclaimed as she had a smoothie with her while she got a tan.
"Tell me about it," Clover chuckled. "It's nice to finally get a between-mission beach break, especially considering how some of our last capers have gone..."
"ACK NOT THE FACE!" Haruka sputtered as Nick playfully tackled her into the water.
"And lo, karma bites back hard," May laughed.
They then heard some noises from some students nearby.
"Hey... what's going on?" Clover wondered, hearing the hubbub.
Sam, Mat, Britney, and Melissa even saw what was going on from the ocean. It appeared to be what looked like a film shooting.
"It better not be them, I swear..." Melissa replied.
"Well, at least the break was nice while it lasted, I suppose," Sam stated as the spies all moved in to investigate what was going on and if their baddies were involved.
Sure enough, Lumiere was standing there filming something, with a few students wondering what exactly was being filmed.
"It doesn't seem like Lumiere knows we can see him," Melissa stated. "Should we sneak up on him while we still have the element of..."
Almost as in on cue, three large glass capsules fell from the sky and captured Melissa, Haruka and Blaine, then rose back into the air, taking their captives with them.
"Surprise!" Lumiere finished for them. "Yes, I knew you'd find me here, and you fell right into my trap as the script said you would."
"You wanna explain why you nabbed them, or was it just to get under our nerves?" Sam challenged.
"Simple, really," Milton laughed as he made his presence known. "We need some test subjects to try out our newest movie set. Let's just say, it's going to be a killer good time."
"Okay, Milton, you seem to be a relatively recent addition to our rogues' gallery, so I think we oughta warn you right now, that you just made a gigantic mistake," May proclaimed. "Well, multiple mistakes, considering you just shanghaied our friends, but there's one in particular that you need to know."
"Oh, really?" Milton quipped.
"One of the spies you kidnapped was Nick's sister," Nozomi stated.
"And I'm supposed to care about that insignificant pest why?" Milton taunted.
In response, Alex simply pointed to Nick, who had let his psychic aura explode to life around him with such force that it actually caused Milton to take a step back out of fear.
"Because messing with my family is a line you're not meant to cross," Nick growled, unleashing a flare of psychic power that floored Milton instantly and trashed most of Lumiere's current equipment.
"Hey, that equipment wasn't cheap, you know!" Lumiere shouted.
"Well, too freakin' bad!" Nick exclaimed. "Now where's my sister, you son of a bitch?!"
"Ah-ah, we wouldn't want to spoil the big mid-movie plot twist, would we?" Lumiere chuckled. "You'll get them when the show's over, and not a second before. After all, it's bad manners to just crash a filming, you know?"
Lumiere and Milton both aimed a camera at the spies and caused a bright flash to obscure their escape.
"Ooh, just wait until I get my hands on those bastards..." Nick growled, his hands still glowing brightly.
"Hey, we'll find them," Dawn responded. "We always do, you know?"
"RiCO, any sign of our baddies?" Sam immediately asked. "They just absconded with Melissa, Haruka and Blaine, and I think we need to find them quickly, given some of the hints Lumiere dropped about their plan."
"Never fear, the all-seeing A.I. sees all!" RiCO proclaimed. "Their signal appears to be heading somewhere downtown."
"All right-y, then let's get going before either Nick or Mat actually murders something," Bridget responded.
4:25 P.M. – Downtown Beverly Hills
"Any sign of them, Nick?" Sam asked as Nick continued to use his psychic radar to search the area for their missing compatriots.
"Nothing yet," Nick responded. "But I'm sure their secret lair or whatever they're using for a hideout is around here somewhere."
"Hey, what about that?" May quipped, pointing towards a nearby building that seemed like it was abandoned, if it wasn't for the eerie lighting coming from the inside.
"Yeah, that seems like a place we should check out," Clover stated. "I'm not leaving my Blaine-y in there for a second longer than necessary!"
Nick did the honors of walking up to the building and kicking the door open, only to reveal a movie set that looked like it had jumped straight out of every cheesy 1980s horror movie.
"Okay, this... makes sense, I guess," Alex quipped.
"It looks like it's either a murder mystery or just a straight-up horror flick," Mat stated. "And I don't know which one is worse, honestly."
"Let's keep moving, then," Nick responded. "Before anything happens to them."
"If they try anything to them, they're getting an anchor to the face, I guarantee that," May proclaimed. "We know how much Melissa means to you."
"You, too, Mat," Sam answered.
"They're gonna get it for messing with any of our friends," Alex responded. "Come on, guys, let's check this place out."
With that, the spies all split up to check out the set for any way into a secret lair in hopes of finding their missing friends.
"I sure hope they didn't get far," Mat replied.
"Tell me about it," Dawn quipped.
"By the way," Nozomi pointed out. "Since when did this Lumiere guy go for murder films?"
"That's a pretty good question," Alex replied, knowing what happened the first time around with her.
"I can't believe it honestly," Mat added. "I stay away from the scary stuff like the plague..."
"I hear ya, bro," Nick stated.
"For someone who finds Jurassic Park to be scary, I can see why you'd say that, Mat," Bridget replied.
"Anyway, they bigger question is where did Melissa and Haruka and Blaine get to?" Alex wondered.
"I'm not getting a reading from their X-Powders," Sam complained.
"Those guys came prepared..." Clover chastised.
"Yeah, I'll second that," Alex stated.
That was when Sam's X-Powder chirped again. After answering it, Jerry's visage appeared.
"Hello spies," Jerry greeted.
"Jerry?" Mat wondered.
"RiCO and I have just finished analyzing the strip of film Alex found," Jerry told them.
"Well, let's hear it..." Nick replied. "Is it connected to their M.O.?"
"As it turns out... yes," RiCO answered. "It's from an old-school horror movie, but it's laced with a hypnotizing agent, no doubt Lumiere's."
"No wonder Marco Lumiere is centering around scary movies this time," Nozomi groaned.
"What else has happened otherwise?" Jerry wondered.
"Well, Mr. Film Floozy got Melissa, Haruka, and Blaine," Bridget answered.
"And we can't pinpoint where they got to either," Sam added.
"Oh dear," Jerry groaned.
"The worst part was we had no idea it was coming," Nick added.
"I think regardless, I've found another reason to avoid scary movies," Mat commented.
"Word..." Britney replied.
"We'll keep an eye out for anything interesting that we find," RiCO stated before they hung up and let the spies continue their search.
"I think I've got a reading on something," Nick told them after using his psychic radar.
"Anything interesting or suspicious?" Clover wondered.
Nick concentrated slightly, before gasping in shock when he realized just who he was picking up.
"That's Melissa!" Nick exclaimed.
"Well, then that means we need to get moving!" Dawn proclaimed. "Does anyone see a secret passage or anything that'll lead us to Melissa?"
"Hey, this looks promising," May quipped as she walked up to a set full of trees, much like many horror movies would have for its inevitable forest scenes. May activated her Emergency Gadget Transporter to summon her anchor to her hands, then swung at one of the fake trees, sending it crashing down to reveal a secret doorway where its 'roots' had been.
The ten spies all slowly moved down the tunnelway, making sure not to accidentally trip anything that would trap them, before eventually finding themselves in what appeared to be a forest road leading to a large cabin just ahead.
"Yup, very horror-esque," Sam stated.
"Wait a minute, is this supposed to be Camp Crystal Lake?" Dawn gasped when she recognized the cabin they were looking at. "When would they go to straight-up ripping off horror flicks?!"
"Well, that new Friday the 13th reboot just came out recently, so maybe they were inspired by that?" Nozomi quipped.
"Okay, so here's my question," Bridget asked. "Why does it look like Melissa's trying to either sneak into that cabin or break its windows?"
Nick decided to ask that question himself by walking closer to the cabin and trying to catch his sister's attention.
"Melissa?" Nick asked. "Is... is everything okay?"
In response, Melissa did probably the last thing that anybody expected her to do in this moment.
She screamed. Loudly, in fact.
Before Nick could ask what had scared her, Melissa stumbled the other way, almost tripping over her own feet in the process, and started running to the other side of the cabin in fright.
Naturally, Nick was very confused.
"...okay, that was... not what I was expecting to happen," Alex quipped. "Why did Melissa just treat her own brother like he was Jason Voorhees coming to kill her or something?"
Nick looked at the cabin, then back to where Melissa had run off to, before it clicked into place. "That's exactly what's going on, I bet," Nick proclaimed. "Lumiere must have brainwashed Melissa to think that I'm Jason and I'm coming for her. That would explain this Crystal Lake set we're standing in right now."
"Yikes, if he did all that to just Melissa, what the heck do you think he made Haruka and Blaine believe?" Britney asked.
"Guess we'll find out when we find them," Bridget quipped. "But for right now, let's try and catch up with Melissa. Sonic Mode, online!"
Emerald electricity lanced around Bridget, forming into her Sonic Mode suit, and once the transformation was complete, she sped off down the tunnelway to catch up with Melissa.
When the spies followed, though, they were forced to stop when they noticed Bridget being flung back by something.
"Okay, that was a cheap trick," Bridget taunted as she snapped back to her feet.
"Who ever said anything about playing fair?" Milton responded.
"You know something, I'm really not in any mood for your movie talk," Nick shot back, his aura flaring to life around him. "Now here's how this is going to go down. You're going to undo whatever you did to my sister, and I'm going to waltz over there and pound your sorry faces into the ground for daring to screw with my family!"
"Oh, but we're not even finished yet," Lumiere cackled. "So if I were you, I'd just shut up and let us film our movie."
"All right, that's it," Nick growled, finally losing his patience and rushing forward to attack Lumiere, only for Melissa to jump forward and swing a knife at him in her panicked state, forcing him back on the defensive.
"You're not killing me like you did the others!" Melissa exclaimed, still under her trance.
"Melissa, snap out of it already!" Nick shouted, dodging each wild knife swing as best he could. "I'm not the one you need to be swiping at!"
Nick prepared to use a psychic pulse to dispel the brainwashing, but Melissa lunged forward before he could and slashed him across the arm with the knife, causing him to stumble backwards.
"That's right, little one, carve this one up for what he's done!" Milton laughed. "Avenge your fellow campers!"
But Melissa didn't move. Instead, she just stood there, staring in shock at Nick's wound. The one she'd just caused. Her eyes regained their sparkle, indicating that she'd broken free of her brainwashing, but they quickly filled with tears at the realization of what she'd just done.
Before Nick could say anything to her, Melissa turned around and tore off in the opposite direction, the knife she'd used left behind.
"Hey, who said you could bail in the middle of a shoot?!" Lumiere exclaimed, only for Nick to blast both him and Milton away with a psychic pulse.
"Just shut the hell up for once in your lives," Nick growled as he took off after Melissa, the remaining spies not too far behind.
To be continued...
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Next time...
Sam: ...um, would it be odd if we said we didn't have a preview this time?
Dawn: Yeah, I think we need to give Nick and Melissa a minute.
May: So, we'll let them take care of that, and we'll see you all next time on Totally Spies: And Then There Were Some, "Seeking Clues".
Mat: Gotta say, though, Melissa really knows how to sell the emotions in a scene.
Melissa: Oh, you.