8:09 A.M. – The Moonflow Tides

Northeast Wave

Patty yawned softly as she headed towards the upper deck of the Fiertia, ready for another day of treasure hunting.

And it seemed like Pirate Nick was as well, considering he was already at the main control console checking out the radar scope.

"Ooh, did you find something interesting already, hubby?" Patty giggled as she joined her husband at the main console.

"Did I ever," Pirate Nick responded. "Take a look at this."

Patty glanced down at the radar screen, which was detecting a rather large hoard of treasure somewhere to the southwest of their current position.

"Oh, wow, my treasure instincts are going crazy already," Patty chuckled.

"And it doesn't look like there's anyone near it right now," Pirate Nick quipped. "What do you say, honey, you wanna be the first ones to claim this treasure?"

"Nick, if I ever say no to unclaimed treasure, then I give you full permission to shake me until I snap out of my delirium," Patty laughed. "Let's go find the booty! Full speed ahead, me heartie!"

Pirate Nick did so with gusto, activating the main thrusters so the Fiertia could speed off towards the treasure they were looking for.

About halfway there, though, something in the sky caught Patty's attention.

Patty looked up into the sky and saw a small purple light hanging there, usually the sign of a Quantum Rift that was about to open.

"Honey, you haven't activated the Rift Generator, have you?" Patty asked.

"Not yet," Pirate Nick replied. "Why do you..."

Suddenly, an explosion occurred in the sky, sending a massive ripple of purple light spreading across the upper atmosphere and causing multiple Quantum Rifts to open and close at random intervals.

Patty and Pirate Nick just glanced at each other, knowing that couldn't be anything good.

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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 81: Volleyball Vandals

Story Rated: T for Teen

Story Created: May 16th, 2023

Story Summary: The one-hundred and twelfth co-op project between Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger, and episode eighty-one of our mission-based series Totally Spies: The New Adventures. Apparently, persistence is Lady Dragon's middle name, because she's back again with yet another scheme to take over the W.O.O.H.P. Datascape, but this time, she's teamed up with the Zanzibar Coach to force the spies to... play volleyball? Normally, this would be no problem for them, but Coach and Lady Dragon definitely seem like they're cheating, and with each "loss", more and more of the spies are trapped. Can the spies overcome the cheaters, or will this be the end of their summer?

Author's Notes from Mat49324: Well, let's start #112 together. Our last one was full of speed for sure in Lightning Round. This time, it'll be full of balls – volleyballs to be exact, as you can tell by the title – Volleyball Vandals. If you put two and two together, you might be able to find out that this mission is around one person, and I don't think it'll take a genius to figure that out. Anyway, here's The Blue Time Ranger for anything he'd like to say.

Author's Notes from The Blue Time Ranger: And we're finally heading back to the Datascape! Yeah, the spies never went to the Datascape at all in season six, its only scene being the time RiCO was re-testing the Boomerang Bazooka, so I figured it was time to fix that now. (And yes, I know we were actually in the Datascape the whole time in Once Upon a Time, but that was a movie, so it's counted separately.) Yes, Lady Dragon doesn't know when to quit, but her new partner might be an interesting wrinkle this time around, so let's network! 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: File Compression

2:25 P.M. – The Spies' Beach House

It was another usual summer day for the spies at their beach house, and it had been quite some time since their weekend "party" with some of Bridget's track friends.

Clover, Blaine, and May were just finishing their lunches when they saw Mat, Sam, and Melissa head out for their car wash battle; both Melissa and Sam had two-pieces on.

"Getting that over with," May giggled.

"No doubt," Blaine chuckled.

In the meantime, Nick, Alex, Dawn, and Nozomi were having another Smash game going on.

"You will learn to fear the almighty Ganon!" Nozomi shouted, attempting to use a Warlock Punch on Nick, only for Sonic, his character, to easily dodge.

"Oh, yeah, then if Ganon's almighty, why is he not gonna be in Spirit Tracks?" Nick taunted as Sonic kicked Ganon into the sky, only to be suddenly sent flying himself by Alex and her Captain Falcon.

"You snooze, you lose, honey!" Alex laughed.

"Just wait until Skyward Sword comes out, he'll be back," Dawn quipped as she waded into the fracas to send Captain Falcon to his doom with a forward strike from Link (how appropriate).

While that was going on, Mat, Sam, and Melissa were already having fun.

"HEY, STOP THAT!" Melissa screamed as Sam sprayed her.

"Oh, I don't think so," Mat added as he got in the fray and got Melissa completely soaked.

He and Sam shared a high-five after that.

"Come on, you guys, I didn't deserve to be ganged up on," Melissa laughed.

"Oh, don't go that route, Melissa," Mat stated.

But that was a ploy that Mat never realized, for Melissa used that to snatch one of the hoses and get Mat back with a spraying of her own.

"WHAT THE..." Mat sputtered as Sam came to his rescue.

Before long, it became clear that Mat, Sam, and Melissa were more interested in getting each other wet than they were getting their car washed.

After about ten whole minutes, they finally ceased their "battling" and got the car washed.

"Well, now I can check that box off," Mat laughed, regarding a car wash battle.

"By the way, Mat, hopefully you're okay after that race at Hangtown," Melissa stated.

"Well, honestly, I'm not looking for Chad Reed to win immediately," Mat told them. "But Villopoto being out was something I wasn't expecting, especially so early in the season."

"Totally," Sam commented. "Two races in and a green guy's out..."

"I didn't think that knee injury Villopoto had was from that long ago, too," Mat replied.

"Back on 80s, he said?" Melissa wondered. "I don't know the timeline for a Motocross racer like you probably do."

"Well, doing the math... that might be around 1999 or early 2000s since Villopoto turned pro in 2005," Mat deduced.

What they didn't know was that some of the spies, specifically Clover, Britney, and Blaine were secretly watching them.

"I hope you guys are debating who's getting the next one," Nick told them, immediately noticing.

"You and me then, Brit," Clover immediately told Britney.

"Deal," Britney giggled.

"But, Nick, you can't say those car wash battles are not entertaining," Nozomi pointed out.

"She's right, after all," May added.

Blaine and Alex looked to see Haruka and Bridget in bikinis of their own at the pool. Simultaneously, Mat, Sam, and Melissa came in, having finished their car wash battle.

"Pool cleaning?" Alex wondered.

"Well, I guess we sort of neglected the pool after Kikki, Renee, Corina, and Zoey were here," Nick deduced.

"ACK!" Haruka suddenly sputtered as Bridget playfully pushed her into the pool.

"You snooze, you get splooshed, silly!" Bridget laughed.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm tempted to run and jump in," May told the others.

Sadly, any thoughts of jumping into the pool were dashed when a large metal tube suddenly sprouted from the pool and sucked Haruka and Bridget into it before doing the same to the rest of the spies one by one.

"Ack, Jerry, you ruined my moment of triumph!" Bridget shouted as the spies slid down the tube.

Eventually, all thirteen spies landed in Jerry's office, flipping back onto their feet so they could change into their spy suits for the upcoming mission.

However, when they could get a good look at the office, Jerry was nowhere to be seen.

"Um, Jerry? If you're here, give us a sign?" Sam asked.

"Don't worry, you guys, Jerry's just double-checking the containment facility," RiCO proclaimed as the office viewscreen flickered on to show a video feed of RiCO and iCO in sector F of the W.O.O.H.P. Datascape.

"I can see the Datascape behind you two," Nick quipped. "Does that mean that Lady Dragon's on the digital warpath again?"

"How'd you guess?" RiCO giggled.

"Seriously, how many failures is it gonna take for Lady Dragon to realize that she's never going to get anywhere if she keeps recycling the same tired ol' shtick?!" May proclaimed. "This is, like, the sixth time she's made an attempt to take over the Datascape!"

"Yeah, and so soon after she trapped us in that 'storybook' thing, too," Melissa noted. "Guess she's just resistant to trying new schemes."

"Wait, what's Jerry doing in the containment facility?" Mat wondered.

"We have reason to believe that Lady Dragon has some extra help this time around," iCO answered. "Jerry's running a prisoner check to see who it might be."

"In the meantime, let's get all of you in here so we can take care of this little problem," RiCO proclaimed. "Prepare to network, everyone!"

The Digitizer unfolded from the wall above the viewscreen and covered the spies with a bright flash of silvery-blue light, transporting them all into the Datascape.

3:12 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape

Sector F

"It doesn't look like much has changed since the last time, thankfully," Nick quipped once the spies were all inside the Datascape, even waving to RiCO and iCO as they ran over to join them.

"Yeah, we've been updating our firewalls and security ever since that whole 'storybook' nonsense," RiCO noted. "And Lady Dragon's gonna regret being a dirty hacker soon enough, I assure you."

"I'm picking up viral activity not too far ahead of us," iCO responded, opening a trio of data screens in front of her to pinpoint the source of the viral activity. "It should lead us right to them."

"All right, then, let's move, everyone!" Sam proclaimed.

The thirteen spies, plus RiCO and iCO, all set off in the direction that iCO had stated, and sure enough, when they reached the designated area, one of the towers was crawling with static-y blobs of viral activity.

"Okay, that still grosses me out, no matter how many times I see it," Alex groaned, whipping out a Cyclone Blast Hairdryer to blast some of the blobs off of the tower so that RiCO could hit them with an anti-virus blast.

"Yeah, they never get any easier on the eyes, sadly," RiCO chuckled as she let a bunch of blobs surround her before destroying them all with a short-range anti-virus shockwave around her.

Sam and Mat coordinated to knock virus blobs away from them so that iCO could capture them in a Visual Distortion Field, allowing RiCO to finish them off swiftly.

"And that should be all of them," RiCO quipped, checking her readouts. "And just in time, too. We've got two bogies headed our way!"

Nick aimed his hand in the direction that RiCO had indicated and fired a Final Shine Attack that way, hitting the ground and causing an explosion that forced Lady Dragon to come out of hiding.

"You really never learn, do you?" Nick taunted. "Attempt number six and you're still on the same hare-brained nonsense. You wanna explain that, or did you just run out of ideas?"

"Yuk it up while you can, boy," Lady Dragon retorted. "Because this time, you won't be singing that same ol' chiptune."

"Would your co-conspirator have anything to say before we have to yank them out and stomp all over 'em, too?!" May shouted, summoning her anchor to her hands.

Right on cue, Lady Dragon's partner, the Zanzibar Coach, stepped out from behind the nearby pillar.

"Oh, lordy, it's you again," Blaine groaned. "I was hoping to have to not deal with you after the last time!"

"Yeah, well, you can never keep a good villain down, I always say," Coach chuckled. "And despite the fact that I really don't know much about this computer world, Lady Dragon here made me an offer I simply couldn't refuse, if it meant taking you wretches down."

"Well, then, how about we just get it on already?!" Bridget taunted. "We're sick of you wasting our time!"

"But you see, that's the thing," Lady Dragon laughed. "Coach and I have some wonderful things to show you. So, we'll head over that way so you can see 'em."

"Don't keep us waiting," Coach sneered as Lady Dragon teleported them away.

"Still got the arrogance down," Haruka sighed.

"Any sign of which way they went, RiCO?" Clover asked.

"Yeah, they just hightailed it to Sector D," RiCO responded. "It shouldn't be too far from here."

"All right-y then, let's go clean their digital clocks," Melissa proclaimed.

"Couldn't have said it better," Haruka quipped.

3:20 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape

Sector D

RiCO led the spies to Sector D where Lady Dragon and the Zanzibar Coach were waiting for them.

"I'm detecting a lot of viral activity thanks to Lady Dragon," RiCO told the others.

"That's right Comp-u-girl!" Lady Dragon called out.

"You've got to have the thickest line of thinking if I have to say so," Mat shot at her.

"It won't be so thick once Lady Dragon and I capture all of you troublemakers in here and ultimately end your summertime," the Zanzibar Coach sneered.

"Some nerve you have using the term 'troublemakers' considering your past history," Sam remarked.

"Totally," Clover added. "And don't think you're off the hook with the slimy bugs, either..."

"Or zapping me to your virtual reality either," Alex replied, centering on Lady Dragon.

"It's not healthy to hold grudges," the Coach sneered.

"Speak for yourself," Nick shot back.

"You may as well make yourselves comfy since you're not leaving the Datascape anyway," Lady Dragon confidently sneered.

With that, plenty of stadium lights immediately turned on, which surprised the spies as they beheld volleyball courts.

"THIS is your 'grand plan'?!" Clover chastised using quote marks on saying "grand plan."

RiCO still tried removing some of the viruses and spyware, but she wasn't having any luck.

"Try all you want, Comp-u-Girl," Lady Dragon sneered. "There's no way you can remove all of that yourself... and your sister won't help you either..."

"Any luck, RiCO?" Blaine wondered.

"I'm trying, Blaine," RiCO replied. "I hate to say it... but Lady Dragon could be right; I've already gotten the word to iCO, too."

"The only way you can get rid of it is fifty volleyball match wins in a row..." The Zanzibar Coach sneered.

"Then if Ricky Carmichael can win 27 Motocross races in a row, and Ken Jennings can win 74 Jeopardy games in a row, we can take you!" Mat retorted.

"Believe us when we say that'll be your downfall!" Sam exclaimed.

"Oh, I think not..." Lady Dragon sneered.

"I guess we have no choice," RiCO replied. "Every time I think I have a lock on these viruses, they change their code."

"Well, winning fifty volleyball matches in a row's a different playing field from Jeopardy and Motocross," Alex pointed out. "But it's nothing we can't do..."

"Little do you spodes know that volleyball happens to be my forte..." Blaine proclaimed.

"And my old skill, too," Nick added.

"Sounds like you could use a little more help!" a voice called out.

The spies saw it was none other than Sortiliena Serlut.

"Sortiliena?!" Sam exclaimed.

"What a shocker!" Melissa remarked.

"I didn't think we'd see you, Sortiliena," Haruka stated while understandably speechless.

"Yes, normally when the LAMOS are running amok, I come a callin'," Sortiliena quipped. "And while there aren't any LAMOS running vamoose, you guys look like you could use all the help you can get."

"You can thank me later, spies," RiCO giggled.

"Well, then, where's the court?" Sam asked.

"Just ahead of us," Coach chuckled. "I look forward to watching you fail."

Coach and Lady Dragon jogged ahead to wait for the spies while RiCO continued to search for a way to break through Lady Dragon's latest programming.

Srue enough, there was a large volleyball court near where they'd stopped, and some of Lady Dragon's viruses had taken the form of volleyball players.

"Makes sense," Alex quipped.

"Whatever, let's just get it on!" Clover proclaimed.

Nick, Nozomi, and Blaine stepped up to take on the viruses for this first game, and though the viruses in question were very aggressive, that simply made it easy for the spies to turn that aggressiveness against their opponents.

Eventually, Nick's team was able to win the game 4-2.

"There, how's that feel?!" Nozomi taunted.

"That was only your first win, though," Coach laughed. "I wouldn't be getting too cocky just yet."

The viruses rearranged themselves for the second game, and Nick, Nozomi, and Blaine tagged in for May, Haruka, and Bridget.

"Welp, let's see if water polo can translate to some volleyball fun," Bridget quipped as she reached for her brooch.

"You wouldn't dare," Lady Dragon taunted.

"I'm keeping this on, by the way," Bridget retorted. "I don't trust you two any further than I could throw Tim Scam. Sonic Mode, online!"

Thankfully, Bridget had made the right choice in activating Sonic Mode, as the viruses were much more aggressive this time around, and this allowed Bridget to keep her team in the game.

It was a bit tougher than before, but Bridget's team did squeak out a 5-4 victory.

"Told ya so," Haruka quipped.

"This is only the beginning," Lady Dragon taunted. "We'll see how long you'll run your mouth."

While the spies once again rotated players for their third game, RiCO continued to search through her readouts, hoping to find some way to break into the constantly changing security data that Lady Dragon was using.

She may be learning, but every program has its weakness, RiCO thought. I just gotta find what this one's weakness is.

This time, Sam, Mat and Britney decided to start playing, and though the viruses they were playing against seemed a little too coordinated for their liking, they managed to win the third game with a 3-2 score.

"See? We're just getting started!" Britney proclaimed.

"Well, then, I guess we'd better step it up so we don't make this easy for you," Coach responded, snapping his fingers.

The volleyball court rearranged itself thanks to Lady Dragon's programs, but while it was doing so, RiCO noticed something strange in her readouts.

It was only there for a split second and then it was gone.

"Huh, that was strange," RiCO quipped. "I wonder if that's related?"

RiCO glanced at the volleyball court as Nick returned to the court, this time followed by both Melissa and Dawn, keeping her eyes and sensors open for any abnormalities.

For game number four, the viruses that the spies played against were less aggressive, but more prone to trying tricky combinations to throw the spies off.

Though it was a hard-fought game, Nick's team was able to pull off another 4-3 victory.

"I'm not even breakin' a sweat," Nick chuckled. "...can you even sweat in a data world?"

"You know, I never thought to ask that," Melissa giggled.

"All right, who's next?" Dawn asked the rest of the spies.

Deciding to switch things up a bit, Alex, Haruka and Britney moved to tag in for game five.

"This shouldn't be too hard, huh?" Alex quipped. "We're already on a roll, aren't we?"

Alex would soon have to eat her own words, because once game five was in full swing, the viruses began to pull off crazy trick shots, ones that theoretically shouldn't have been possible.

Though Haruka managed to keep them in the game, one of the viruses hit the ball in such a way that it went in a spiraling motion, flying in circles even as it rocketed forward. This threw Alex off just enough for her to miss the ball by inches, causing the viruses to win 3-2.

Before Alex could say anything about what had just happened, a bright light surrounded Alex, Haruka and Britney before warping them away.

"All right, you clucks, you'd better start singing right now," Nick growled, aiming his glowing hand towards Lady Dragon and Coach. "Just what the hell was that? That didn't look like a normal volleyball serve to me."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Coach taunted. "I just know that your friends lost, and they're ours now. You'll still have to win fifty games in a row if you want them back."

"Same goes for anyone else who might lose these games," Lady Dragon cackled. "And maybe you just need to get better."

Suddenly, Lady Dragon took a sudden step back when something flashed across her own wrist device. When she tried to reactivate the program she'd used to help her viruses win that match, she only saw a cartoony image of RiCO's face sticking her tongue out at her.

"Yeah, you left yourself open there," RiCO taunted. "Whatever hack you used back there, you won't be using it again. You're gonna have to try harder than that to pull the wool over my eyes."

"Mock me while you can, Comp-u-Girl," Lady Dragon growled. "You may have terminated that program, but you haven't gotten through my firewall yet."

"It's only a matter of time," RiCO retorted. "Sooner or later, I'll find my entry point and then you're screwed."

"We'll see, won't we?" Coach laughed as he and Lady Dragon retreated.

"Come on, everyone, after them!" Sortiliena exclaimed.

"I'll have iCO meet us there," RiCO stated. "Let's burn all the rubber!"

Sam tried to lock on to Alex's X-Powder, but it was no help.

"I'm picking up their thoughts in Sector G," RiCO stated. "That's Lady Dragon and the Coach, of course."

"So, is it safe to say that our win streak is still standing?" Clover wondered.

"Don't worry about that, Clover," RiCO quipped. "Your four wins in a row are safe, thanks to what I did to Lady Dragon's program."

"You mean you can detect her programs and shut them down?" Blaine asked.

"No doubt," RiCO answered. "They can try all they want, but it's like I always say: the super-advanced artificial intelligence sees all. They won't even see ONE W next to their names."

"Fair and square makes you feel good about yourself," May quipped.

4:18 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape

Sector G

The spies managed to find Lady Dragon and the Coach in some press box. This time, it looked like your average sand volleyball courts.

"Great... more volleyball," Mat groaned.

"Only forty-six matches to go and we don't have a choice, unfortunately," Sam stated, being realistic.

"But with RiCO in your corner, there's no chance of losing," Sortiliena replied as the eleven remaining spies looked on.

"As much as I'd like to move to something else, we have to stay in it to save Alex and the others!" May exclaimed.

"Besides, like you said, bro," Nick added. "If Ken Jennings can win 74 games in a row on Jeopardy, we can get 50 in a row ourselves!"

"And if anybody can do it, we can!" Clover exclaimed.

With that, there were two pairs of mooks that came out to take the sand courts for Lady Dragon and the Zanzibar Coach eagerly awaited them.

"Seems they're staying true to sand volleyball rules," Mat commented. "It's always two-on-two after all."

"Well, if the last volleyball match was any indication, we better be ready the next time they cheat," Melissa remarked.

"No doubt," Bridget replied. "And if I remember correctly, sand volleyball is a race to 21, but you have to win by 2."

"Don't forget in factors of 7, the teams switch sides," Mat added.

"How do you know that?" May wondered.

"I was assigned to sand volleyball myself just before Mali-U completed the spring term," Mat answered. "The matches are called 'flights' and it's a best of 3, with the third being a race to 15; whoever gets to 3 wins first is credited with the W."

"Talk about paying attention to detail," Dawn remarked. "Seems like nothing gets past you in terms of sports, Mat."

Nick decided to team up with Sam while Clover and Blaine made up team two.

After the good guys scored the first few points, Lady Dragon and the Zanzibar Coach began to execute their plan to stop the spies' win streak, but RiCO was quick to spot it.

As Clover and Blaine continued to volley the ball back and forth while keeping on their toes, RiCO continued to scan for any signs of Lady Dragon's malicious programs, countering and disabling them when she got a clean lock on them.

"Nice try, suckers!" Clover shouted as she executed a beautiful diving save to keep their game alive.

"Wow, they're pretty good when it comes to volleyball," RiCO noted. "I guess you've gotta be good at a lot of things in this line of work."

Clover and Blaine won their first match 21-18, and Nick and Sam won their first match 21-16. It appeared that Clover and Blaine were close to winning their second match, as they were up 20-15 to win the second match of three, but Lady Dragon and the Zanzibar Coach then executed their game plan. Extra mooks began appearing on the opponents' sides, not just for Clover and Blaine's match, but on Nick and Sam's sides, too; Nick and Sam were also leading 19-14 themselves in their second match as well prior to that turn of events.

"Hey, that's not supposed to happen!" Clover proclaimed.

Mat, Sortiliena, May, and Bridget tried to enter the court for extra help for the spies' teams, but they couldn't as a mysterious force field suddenly formed around Nick and Sam's side; same went for Clover and Blaine.

"Just perfect..." the Zanzibar Coach sneered.

"I see no way you spies will go 5-0 in this game now, too," Lady Dragon added.

With the added mooks for the villains, they began to quickly catch up to both Nick and Sam and Blaine and Clover... and there was nothing the rest of the spies could do.

"I can't believe they found a way to make the spies go 5-0 or they won't be credited with the win!" RiCO thought to herself.

Before long, the mooks had managed to find a way to erase the spies' 5-point gaps as it was now 20-19 for Clover and Blaine's second match, and 19 all for Nick and Sam's second match. That meant Clover and Blaine needed to score on this possession, but Nick and Sam would have to work harder to win their second match.

There was nothing Mat and the rest of the spies could do... or was there?

"Guys..." RiCO called out from the sidelines, at least to the spies that weren't on the sand courts.

The air was so thick with tension, you could probably cut it with a knife, but much to Lady Dragon's surprise, both spy teams were able to squeak out another win.

"Hey, don't underestimate how much volleyball we like to play in the summer," Clover quipped.

"Keep yapping," Coach laughed. "Sooner or later, your luck's going to run out, and then you're all in trouble."

"Keep dreaming!" Sam shot back.

As both teams got themselves set up for the next match (normally it would be three matches for the W as Mat had mentioned without Lady Dragon's cheating), RiCO noticed something odd in her scans of the area.

While she'd been keeping an eye on Lady Dragon to counter any hacks she might try to use on the spies, she'd noticed a strange, out-of-place anomaly moving through the Datascape's systems.

Hmmm... I wonder if that's what could be keeping me from properly accessing Lady Dragon's firewall? RiCO thought.

Making sure to double-check her scanners, RiCO definitely noticed something moving through the systems, and from the looks of things, it appeared to be infecting certain areas.

Of course she would, RiCO thought.

"Did you find something, RiCO?" iCO asked as she jogged over to her sister.

"I found something, all right," RiCO quipped. "Take a look at this."

iCO stepped closer to take a look at the readings. "That is pretty peculiar," iCO admitted. "You think it might be some kind of supervirus?"

"That's the vibe I'm getting, especially since it seems to be infecting places around the Datascape," RiCO responded. "It may also be what's keeping me from just dispelling Lady Dragon's dumb security program so the spies don't have to deal with this volleyball marathon."

RiCO continued to scan the anomaly as best she could while countering any hacks Lady Dragon attempted to use on the spies, allowing both Nick and Sam, as well as Clover and Blaine, to win their third game of the set.

"I'm gonna go check this thing out, sis," RiCO stated. "Can you handle keeping Lady Dragon in check while I'm gone?"

"Shouldn't be a problem," iCO replied.

With that said, RiCO switched her data screens to pinpoint the last known location of the anomaly so she could teleport to that particular sector.

iCO swiftly opened up her own data screens to continue monitoring the situation, but she gasped in surprise when she saw that the volleyball courts were now made of slippery ice.

"Shouldn't have turned your back on me, am I right?" Lady Dragon cackled.

Naturally, this made it harder for the four spies on the courts to keep their footing as the virus mooks upped their assault in order to disrupt the spies' winning streak.

But somehow, they made it through and won their fourth game of the set.

"Just one more and we can move on," Sam quipped.

"Yeah, but you won't be taking it that easily!" Lady Dragon laughed. "Let's see how you like a little wind with your ice."

Before Lady Dragon could activate that hack, however, iCO made her move, raising her hand to launch a termination command into that hack that shut it down and deleted it before it could affect the court.

"Nice try," iCO quipped.

"Ooh, you're starting to make me mad now," Lady Dragon retorted. "Can't you just let us cheat in peace?"

"I don't think so," iCO shot back, turning back to Nick, Sam, Clover and Blaine as they prepared themselves for the final match of this set.

I hope you can find that supervirus before it's too late, RiCO, iCO thought as the game began. I'm sure she will. This is my sister we're talking about.

To be continued...

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Next time...

Sam: Is it me, or are these things getting sneakier and sneakier?

Blaine: Focus, Sam! We can worry about that after we beat this!

Clover: Yeah, well, this ice isn't making things any easier!

Coach: Now do you realize you shouldn't have meddled in our affairs, you little dopes?

Nick: You're the ones who are trying to scuff up the Datascape, so don't even go there!

Bridget: There's gotta be something we can do, you guys.

Alex: Well, iCO's doing everything she can just to keep the cheaters from cheating too much, so...

May: Hey, I know there's a way through this, and I'm not giving up until I find something, next time on Totally Spies: Volleyball Vandals, "Data Uplink"!

Haruka: There's so much neon...

Nozomi: Blame the set designers. They wanted to neon it up for this season.