On Today's Episode: The four remaining spies make it to Sector F, only to be once again confronted by Rez, and they know that they have two options to save their friends: either finish their fifty-game win streak, or destroy Rez so RiCO can hack in and delete Lady Dragon's firewall. Even though it seems like Rez isn't giving them any choice but to go for the second option, what new tricks does this malevolent supervirus have up its sleeves this time around?
Act 3: Connection Terminated
6:59 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape
Sector F
"They couldn't have gotten far!" Nick exclaimed.
The spies continued to move forward with RiCO scanning Sector F.
"Hey, I think I see them!" Bridget shouted.
"Hey, why don't you nutballs just give it up already?!" Blaine proclaimed.
"Did you forget that your friends are still trapped?" Coach sneered.
"That's right, and you're only halfway through your win streak..." Lady Dragon remarked.
"The way we see it... it doesn't matter to us," Bridget replied. "If we can win 25 in a row, what's another 25 after all...?"
"Or, we could just take out Rez first..." RiCO added.
"Yes, that way they won't have to worry about some ridiculous win streak under these circumstances at all," iCO sneered herself right back at the two villains.
That left Lady Dragon in complete shock and disbelief.
"W-wait, what?! How did you know that Rez was controlling my firewall?!" Lady Dragon protested out of shock.
"Wasn't really that hard," iCO laughed.
"Last chance to get spared some lumps, you know," Nick stated with a big grin, knowing the odds were turning to the spies' favors more and more. "We're sick of this runaround by now."
"Ooh, that does it!" Lady Dragon growled. "I've had all I can stand of your meddling! Rez, destroy them!"
"Allow me first since Clover's captured along with everyone else!" Blaine told the others.
"You got it, Blaine," Nick quipped.
"We'll see how long that snooty attitude of yours lasts!" Lady Dragon laughed as Rez appeared just behind her. "This isn't going to work the same way it did last time!"
As if responding to that, Rez spread its arms out and began growing larger until it matched the size it had been the last time the spies had fought it. Viral material spread out from Rez's eyes and covered the immediate area, transforming it into what appeared to be the interior of a space station, with three viewscreens surrounding the middle circle, and five pathways extending out from the central ring, with each of the spies confined to one of the platforms, and RiCO, iCO and Sophia all bunched together on the last one.
Rez emerged from the pit in the middle of the central ring, laughing in the same creepy way it did before.
"All right, how do we take 'em out this go-round?" Nick wondered, off-handedly firing a few psychic bolts towards Rez, only for them to simply bounce off of its armor. "We seemingly don't have a ceiling to drop on it this time."
"I'm scanning for a weak point now," RiCO responded, opening her data screens even as Rez went on the offensive, opening the missile launchers on its shoulders to fire a bunch of missiles towards the spies.
The others dodged as best they could on the smaller platforms, while Nick grabbed a few missiles with his psychic hold so he could fling them back into Rez, pushing him backwards but seemingly not doing any damage.
But Nick also noticed that when Rez reoriented itself, something on its body seemed to change. Namely, a small port on its upper chest opened as it recovered.
"Blaine, theory testing time!" Nick shouted. "Fire something into that port that just opened right below its head!"
Blaine nodded as RiCO conjured an Electromagnetic Curling Iron and fired a blast from it into that port while Rez was recovering, knocking the supervirus back in clear pain.
"Huh?" Sophia gasped. "The other spies' signal just got stronger for a brief second!"
"I think we've discovered the weak point!" Nick exclaimed.
Suddenly, the platform Blaine was on began to shake, and he decided to book it off and ran to the central ring as the walkway to the platform collapsed behind him, leaving him staring down Rez.
Rez simply laughed and swung its right hand towards Blaine, who jumped over the swing to avoid the business end of Rez's claws, then ducked under a swipe from Rez's left hand.
"Okay, ugly, what are you going to OH CRAPBASKETS!" Blaine shouted, that last being caused when Rez raised its hands to slam them both into the central ring, unleashing a shockwave that Blaine just barely dodged. This shockwave also caused the walkway to the platform he'd been on to reform.
And Blaine decided to quickly get back to that platform, as Rez had just started spinning around with both of its claws in an attack that swept the central ring.
"Whew, that was close," Blaine sighed in relief.
"Looks like it's my turn now," Nick quipped as he waited for Rez to fire more missiles and open up its weak point.
This time, however, Rez fired more missiles before its chest port opened and allowed Nick to blast it with a Final Shine Attack. Nick quickly ran over to the central ring before the walkway collapsed, repeating the same dodges that Blaine had earlier, only now Rez swung a bit faster.
"All right-y, here we go, then," Dawn proclaimed.
This time, instead of just missiles, Rez also fired lasers from its eyes that Dawn also had to dodge, giving her a little less time to actually go on the attack.
But she still managed to hit her mark, firing a Cyclone Blast Hairdryer into Rez's chest port, sending it reeling so she could run to the central ring and repeat the process.
For this one, however, Rez decided to change up its attack pattern, starting with a faster right hand swipe before doing the shockwave pound, then doing a quicker left hand sweep, then doing two shockwave pounds before the walkway reformed and Dawn had to retreat to avoid the spinning attack.
"It's getting faster," Blaine noted.
"Yeah, but remember who the speedster is here," Bridget quipped. "Sonic Mode, online!"
Once Bridget had transformed, she wasted no time in dashing across the walkway to the central ring and running in circles around Rez to confuse it.
After a few seconds, Rez fired more missiles, but they all missed Bridget due to how fast she was running, and when Rez's chest port opened, Bridget stopped and snapped her fingers, expelling her gathered kinetic energy to blow Rez backwards and cause it to freeze in its position.
"I think that might have done it!" Bridget laughed.
"RiCO, the floor is yours!" Nick exclaimed.
"You read my mind on that," RiCO quipped, data screens opening up all around her.
Rings of golden data began to spiral around RiCO's hand, and eventually a series of golden data screens opened up around her before absorbing themselves into her.
"Command Line: Full Delete!" RiCO shouted, a massive beam of golden light erupting from her palm and bursting through Rez's chest cavity.
Rez raised its hands to the sky, much like it had in its previous defeat, only this time, half of its face blew apart, and its right arm shattered itself before Rez sunk into the pit in the center of the room and finally exploded into a shower of glowing polygons that swiftly dissolved.
Practically the instant Rez had exploded, RiCO was already back on her data screens, searching for Lady Dragon's firewall and hacking into it to dispel it, now that Rez was no longer acting as a shield.
Once the firewall was gone, the area dissolved and returned Sector F to its normal look.
"H-How?!" Lady Dragon shouted. "How in the hell did you manage to defeat Rez despite everything we..."
Lady Dragon trailed off when she noticed that the captured spies were all free now, thanks to RiCO, and all fourteen of them were glaring at Lady Dragon and Coach.
"...I don't suppose we could talk about this, could we?" Coach asked.
"Oh, we're long past the point of talking this out," Sortiliena quipped.
"And you know what that means, I assume?" May taunted.
The spies didn't give Lady Dragon or Coach any chance to answer that, as all fourteen of them dogpiled on them. Once the two villains were out cold, Nick raised his hand to imprison them both in a psychic bubble.
"And that's the end of that," Clover proclaimed. "Right?"
"Yup," RiCO answered. "Lady Dragon's nonsense has been wiped from the Datascape, so we can send all of you back home."
"Good, because I think we need a break after all of that," Mat admitted. "I think we did pretty well, but that was still exhausting."
"Tell me about it," Melissa quipped.
"No doubt," Haruka stated. "We may not have pulled off fifty volleyball wins in a row, but fortunately, we didn't need to worry about that."
"Well, in the meantime, I've figured out a way for you to return to the real world," RiCO quipped as she opened a portal for them. "And I'll handle putting these two knuckleheads back in their cells."
8:42 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters
Jerry's Office
As the spies exited the Datascape, Jerry was at his desk waiting for them.
"Spies, you've returned!" Jerry exclaimed.
"Yep," Sam stated. "RiCO gave us the rundown and we're back."
Jerry checked out his viewscreen and saw that Lady Dragon and the Zanzibar Coach were locked up with vicious looks on their faces.
"They're safely tucked away, Jerry," RiCO stated, materializing in Jerry's office.
"Yes, I did hear they had to win fifty volleyball matches consecutively," Jerry replied.
"But RiCO got us out of that," Bridget stated.
"Well, I'll send you back to continue your summer vacays," Jerry quipped and sent the spies out of the office and back to their beach house.
8:50 P.M. – The Spies' Beach House
Considering it was late, everybody had light dinners. After eating, the spies had a movie night for a few hours.
"Man, that was a good one," Sam giggled.
"Yeah, Adam Sandler's still got it," Alex chuckled.
"I'm surprised how dark it got near the end," Nozomi quipped. "I mean, holy crapbaskets."
"That's what I kinda like about it," May replied, having been the one to suggest this particular movie. "It catches you off guard, thinking it's mostly gonna be funny with some heartfelt stuff, too."
During the second movie, Mat tried to make a move on Sam without her knowledge, but Sam happened to see what Mat was doing and threw her right arm around her fiancée's shoulders.
"Quick Smash game, guys?" May wondered.
"Not me," Mat stated.
This didn't come as a surprise since he never ever took part in Smash games. The rest of the spies, however, did see what Sam and Mat were doing.
"Oh, come on... your room's upstairs, you two..." Clover teased.
"You see us complaining?" Sam giggled.
"You tell 'em, Sam," Nozomi replied.
Later, after everyone had showered and everything, Mat and Sam shared the bed in Sam's room.
"I'm glad that mission's done," Sam told Mat.
"I'll say," Mat answered. "Fifty wins in a row wasn't in our future, but that's for the special people, I guess."
"Totally," Sam remarked as she and Mat held each other in bed.
As it got later in the night, the two lovers whispered sweet nothings to each other and shared some kisses.
Meanwhile, in Nick and Alex's room, something very similar was happening.
"Boy, am I glad that's over," Alex chuckled. "You guys must have been running yourselves ragged doing all of those volleyball games."
"If Nozomi hadn't been taken by Lady Flop's cheap shot, she might have been able to carry us through the rest of the streak," Nick admitted. "She was the volleyball queen back at Umi no Hoshi."
"I think I know what can help you relax, by the way," Alex giggled.
"I like the way you think," Nick teased as he and Alex leaned towards each other, their lips meeting halfway.
8:41 A.M. – The Spies' Beach House
The Next Day
The next day was met with a "summer normal" pool day... but first, Mat and Sam awoke to find Nick and Alex kissing in the kitchen.
"Are we interrupting?" Mat laughed, which got their attention.
"I do need my OJ, after all," Sam reminded them.
"Oh... sure," Nick replied, a little dumbfounded this time.
"I'll eat after our pool day," Mat replied.
Before long, everyone had awoken and got to the backyard pool for their said pool day.
"I have to say that us getting twenty-five in a row for volleyball matches is pretty noteworthy," Nick commented.
"No doubt," Blaine stated. "This'll spell great when beach volleyball season comes around."
"That's true," Melissa added.
What most people hadn't counted on was the "usual"...
"PIRATE DIVE!" May shouted.
"Oh, crapbaskets, I forgot about that!" Alex exclaimed.
Nick happened to sense it though and swam out of the way... and May landed on Haruka.
"ACK! THAT HURT!" Haruka shouted after resurfacing.
"Ooh, you're in trouble, May," Nozomi warned.
"H-Hey, my eyes are usually closed when I jump in, so how am I supposed to see who's there?!" May countered.
Haruka wasn't listening, though, and lunged forward once she'd resurfaced to dunk May under the water by her shoulders.
"That's what you get, May," Haruka cackled, only to find her body surrounded by a yellow glow before being yanked underwater.
"And that's what you get, Haruka, for forgetting the 'only I can dunk my girlfriends' rule," Nick taunted.
"Oh, it is on now!" Haruka sputtered as another glorious water battle began.
3:15 P.M. – Somewhere in Another Dimension
"Okay, where the heck am I now?" Ashley quipped after the Quantum Rift had deposited her somewhere in a vast desert. "And... is that a mall?"
Ashley took a step closer, keeping her Negotiator at the ready just in case something tried to jump her.
"Yeah, that is a mall," Ashley stated. "What is a freakin' shopping mall doing all the way out in the middle of dust-bowl nowhere?!"
"It seems like this world has been abandoned for a long time," Glitch answered. "The only living beings left are local indigenous wildlife."
"You can tell that just by looking at it?" Ashley wondered.
"There are some working computer satellites still in orbit around this dimension's Earth, so I simply looked into them," Glitch responded. "From what I can tell, humanity in this dimension once developed planetary warp technology and used it to colonize other worlds, and they simply left Earth behind."
"Yeah, that would make sense," Ashley noted. "That's kinda what we did, too, in a way."
Ashley stepped closer to the entrance to Alivel Mall and slowly pushed what was left of the door open, heading inside to see if there was anything of note still inside.
"And do you think there'd be phase quartz here?" Ashley asked.
"Probably not," Glitch stated. "Planetary warp technology and dimensional travel technology are two entirely separate fields."
"Figures," Ashley sighed. "Well, while we're here, let's at least check this place out. Maybe we might find some hints to something."
Keeping a tight grip on the Negotiator, Ashley began exploring Alivel Mall, hoping she could rebuild the Dimensionator sooner rather than later and fix this dimensional cataclysm before it was too late for reality itself to be saved.
Totally Spies: Volleyball Vandals
~The End~
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Final Note from Mat49324: Well, we bring an end to Volleyball Vandals. We hope you enjoyed this one since Blaine got SOME of the spotlight considering this was volleyball-related. Anyway, we hope you enjoy our next one, which will be on Nick's page, and it's titled Quartz Quest. We're heading into the Moonflow Tides again, and that means Pirate Nick and Patty. Anyway, here's The Blue Time Ranger for his final thoughts.
Final Note from The Blue Time Ranger: And that's all for that one! Bit of a different Datascape adventure this time, what with the volleyball marathon and Lady Dragon actually stepping up her hacker game for once. And yes, Ashley was in the Forgotten Land at the end there. Let's just say that we might be heading back to the Forgotten Land for the upcoming movie, but one step at a time.
Anyways, next time on The New Adventures, it's time for another trip to the Moonflow Tides, and considering that dimensional troubles are the big arc of this season, what better time to reintroduce the two who technically introduced our spy friends to the many wonders of the multiverse? But this time, the spies also have to deal with a certain alien-obsessed nut while Nick's helping out our pirate friends, so swash those buckles and hoist the port blubber for a double-sided trip next time on Quartz Quest, which will be posted by me. So, until next time, have a fantastic day, don't listen to the screeching morons, enjoy this preview of Quartz Quest, and we'll see you next mission!
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"Oh, no, not this again!" Ashley shouted as she fell out of a Quantum Rift and right towards the ocean. She'd had enough of getting dumped into the water on her inter-dimensional trip.
Thankfully, this time she was ready, equipping her O2 Mask before she hit the water so she could breathe and activating her Hydropack, a jetpack-like device that allowed her to swiftly swim around.
After all, she wasn't much of a swimmer, and she had a sinking feeling that Nick had been the same way in his own youth.
When Ashley resurfaced, she began glancing around in hopes of finding something interesting about this particular dimension. As far as she could tell, it appeared to be ocean as far as the eye could see, but with multiple pirate ships floating around the waters.
"Ooh, Captain Quantum would love this place," Ashley giggled.
"Ahoy there, lassie!"
Ashley glanced to her left as a pirate ship approached her position, its two occupants waving to her.
And one of them looked a lot like a slightly older Nick.
Oh, wait, that's probably another dimensional counterpart of his, then, Ashley thought.
"We saw you just fall out of a Quantum Rift, and we just wanted to see if you were okay," Pirate Nick stated.
"W-wait, you two know about Quantum Rifts?" Ashley gasped.
"Yup! We're kinda dimensional travelers ourselves," Patty chuckled.
At the mention of the word 'dimensional', Ashley realized something.
Maybe these two can help me.
To be continued in Totally Spies: Quartz Quest...
