On Today's Episode: With Skip Joystick's game conquered and the entirety of Idol Opportunity rescued, the spies confront the mad game maker one last time, but like all self-respecting villains, he still has his trump card ready to play, and this glitchy mess wears a face that's familiar to the leader of Idol Opportunity. Can the spies take down this marauding mess of code and programming before it's game over for reals?
Act 3: Link Your Wish
10:07 P.M. – Skip Joystick's Lair
"Where is he hiding?" Mat wondered as the spies continued to make their way through Skip's lair, still tossing mooks aside as they did so. "I've got a bone to pick with him for that whole 'sweetums' thing."
"Yeah, only Mat's allowed to call me that!" Melissa proclaimed.
"Ask and ye shall receive, you brats."
Just ahead of the spies was Skip Joystick himself, a smug grin highlighting his expression.
"You know, you've got some nerve, buddy boy," Sonia taunted.
"And I hope you're ready to answer for what you've done!" Seven shouted.
"If I were you, I'd be more worried about your other friends," Skip taunted. "They're still in my game, after all, and I'm sure that my final boss will be more than enough to punch them a one-way ticket to the digital equivalent of hell. So, who don't you just accept the fact that I'm the..."
Skip's gloating was interrupted when he was blasted backwards by a Final Shine Attack, and the spies all turned around just in time to see Nick, Alex, May and Nozomi running towards them, with Kanami tailing right behind them.
"I'm sorry, were you bragging about something?" Nick retorted.
"H-How did you all escape?!" Skip gasped. "You couldn't have possibly beaten my game!"
"Well, the fact that we're all here should tell you everything you need to know, really," May quipped.
"Now give it up this instant, unless you want all of us to start beating down on you," Marnie proclaimed.
At that point, Skip indeed realized he was vastly outnumbered. Alongside the thirteen spies, there was also the seven members of Idol Opportunity, alongside both Seven and Rain.
"How quickly you forget that every villain worth his salt always saves their trump card for the very end," Skip chuckled, aiming a small ray-gun like device and firing it in front of him, a column of light bringing something out of the console in his hands.
To everyone's confusion, it appeared to be a fair-skinned girl about Marnie's age with bright green eyes and straight, shoulder length platinum-blond hair that curled at the ends.
The members of Idol Opportunity seemed the most shocked at this, as they knew who that girl was thanks to Marnie.
"S-Shiemi?" Marnie gasped. "Is... is that really you?"
Marnie took a few steps forward, unsure if this was really her old partner or not. Though Shiemi seemed to extend her hand warmly towards Marnie, May was the first to notice that Shiemi's other hand was glitching out...
...and turning into a sharp, bladed object.
"MARNIE, GET DOWN!" May shouted as she ran forward to push Marnie away as Shiemi swung her bladed arm downwards, the attack just barely missing.
The spies all prepared for a fight as Shiemi's body glitched out and transformed into... Marnie, with the same bladed arm.
"Wait, now she's me?!" Marnie gasped.
"Behold, my magnificent trump card, the Glitch!" Skip proclaimed. "Let's just say that I learned a few tricks from another game-maker that you're probably familiar with."
"Because of course you would," Alex groaned.
"Since you're new around here, I'll warn you now: this is far from the first time we've dealt with trump cards like this," Nick proclaimed, his psychic aura flaring to life around him.
"And if you're going to make a mockery of people like Marnie and her friends, then that trump card's gonna get deleted real quick-like!" May taunted, hefting her anchor as The Glitch approached them.
"You don't have the ability," Skip Joystick sneered.
"Better not judge a book by its cover..." May stated as a fair warning.
"And you better spill what you did to Shiemi, too!" Marnie demanded.
"Is this the REAL Shiemi or just a mockery of her?!" Blaine shot back.
"Whoo... Shiemi takes me back..." Samui remarked.
That's when the Glitch attacked all of the spies, and Idol Opportunity as well.
"SCATTER!" Sam shouted as the spies dove in all directions.
After a few additional dodges, Marnie motioned to the rest of Idol Opportunity that they would go for Skip Joystick while the other spies dealt with the Glitch.
In the meantime, Nick used a few psychic shots to get the Glitch to keep guessing where he was. Sam and Haruka caught on to what Nick was doing and equipped Sapphire Hologram Pendants.
"There may be thirteen of us, but no guarantees to win," Haruka quipped.
"My thoughts exactly," Sam added.
The Glitch saw all the Sam and Haruka copies, but it could not read if they were the real Sam and Haruka or not. Everything it tried failed.
"Hey! That's cheating!" Skip complained.
"You ever heard of fighting fire with fire?" Melissa quipped.
"Someone like you ought to know about resilience!" Mat pointed out.
Sam and Haruka both did an up-and-over on the Glitch to send it flat on its stomach.
"And that's that!" Haruka exclaimed as she and Sam high-fived.
They all saw that Skip Joystick had unleashed another army of mooks to stop them.
"This won't help you in any way!" Clover remarked.
Alex got in the spirit and threw Incendiary Earrings at them, and they all were de-pixelated.
Nick looked to his left to see Idol Opportunity forming a plan.
"And for that matter... you're NOT going on a date with me, Skip Joystick!" Melissa shouted. "Mat already gave you his punishment... and I say it's my turn now!"
Not waiting for Skip to respond, Melissa charged in to attack, and though Skip summoned more mooks, she blew them all away with a Helicopter Hand Fan before switching to a Metal Masher Boxing Glove and pounding the ground with it to make Skip lose his balance.
While all of this was happening, the Glitch shape-shifted into Saitou before going on the offensive, managing to catch both Britney and Mat off-guard for a couple seconds before Nick cut in, blasting the Glitch backwards with a Final Shine Attack.
Thankfully, Skip Joystick was still unaware of Idol Opportunity's secret plan.
"Time to show this guy we're more than just a J-Pop band," Marnie whispered to the others.
"What's your plan?" Seven wondered.
"I think I might know," Rain stated. "I think I still remember certain computer programming tricks..."
"Talk about convenient," Samui quipped. "I'll cover you, Rain..."
"Okay then, Seven, you're with me," Marnie replied. "Let's stop this lunatic!"
"I've got your back, Rain," RiCO responded from Nick's X-Powder.
The Glitch hopped back to its feet, shape-shifting into Rain and materializing swords in both of her hands, much like she'd used while under Sebastian's control.
"Okay, now you're just not being nice," Rain groaned.
The Glitch lunged forward to attack Rain, but May stepped in and swung her anchor upwards to knock the Glitch away.
"Bad virus thingy!" May shouted. "Go pick on someone your own size!"
This left Rain to run towards a nearby computer console in order to execute her plan. Thankfully, Melissa was keeping Skip and his mooks busy while everyone else did battle with the Glitch.
After picking itself back up again, the Glitch shape-shifted into Ruri and attempted to shoulder-barge its way through the spies, but when that didn't work, it morphed its hands into hammers and started punching the ground, creating small tremors that forced the spies to stay away.
Nick fired a few psychic bolts to catch the Glitch's attention before rushing it and slashing a psychic blade across its side, causing it to slump to its knees for a couple seconds. This gave Sam and Britney enough time to blast the Glitch backwards with a double Electromagnetic Curling Iron blast.
"Oh, come on, lady, can't you take a joke?!" Skip shouted as Melissa continued to attack him, trying to think of something that could save face.
"Sorry, but I'm not buying that four-day-old moldy tortilla," Melissa quipped as she knocked Skip away with a boot to the chest.
"...huh. That's an image," Sonia chuckled.
The Glitch stumbled backwards before shape-shifting into Seven and going back on the offensive, only to be jump-kicked away by Marnie and the real Seven.
"Okay, no, you're not stealing my look, buddy," Seven quipped as she and Marnie rushed the Glitch, attacking it from both sides until the Glitch morphed both of its hands into blades and spun around, forcing Marnie and Seven to jump away.
Mat slipped in during a lull in the barrage to spray a bottle of Ice King Cologne at the Glitch, freezing it into a block of ice.
"Let's see how you like some speed, you buggy mess!" Bridget proclaimed. "Sonic Mode, online!"
After transforming into Sonic Mode, Bridget dashed forward, running circles around the Glitch to build up kinetic energy until it broke free of its icy prison, shape-shifted into Samui, and raised its hands to summon glitchy ice blocks all around itself.
Bridget swiftly dodged each ice block at it came her way, equipped a Metal Masher Boxing Glove, and charged forward to punch the Glitch in the chest, expelling her gathered kinetic energy on impact to unleash a shockwave that sent the Glitch flying across the room.
After picking itself up, the Glitch shape-shifted back into Shiemi, morphed both of its hands into wickedly razor-sharp daggers, and gave a positively psychotic grin.
"...who thinks this is any sort of good?" Mat quipped.
"Oh, yeah, you're all screwed now!" Skip laughed. "Now my magnificent Glitch is ready to kill!"
"Oh, that's what you think!" Rain exclaimed, dramatically pushing a button on the console in front of her. This caused the Glitch to freeze in its spot, its form, well, glitching out immensely. "I don't know how long that'll hold it there, so someone needs to land a knockout blow quickly!"
May decided to step up, though she gestured towards Nick, who easily got the message. May hefted her anchor up, and Nick placed his hands on it to channel some of his psychic energy into the anchor, causing it to glow a bright yellow.
"There you go, May," Nick quipped. "Now go and fudge that thing up."
"With pleasure," May replied, leaning over to kiss Nick on the cheek before walking over to the trapped Glitch.
May stared the viral creature down. "Look at you," May taunted. "You're just a monster who took Shiemi's form when you don't deserve to look like her. So, I hope this hurts."
May took a step backwards before lunging forward with a mighty home-run swing, and when her anchor made contact, the psychic power Nick had charged it with exploded outwards in a burst of golden light that sent the Glitch tumbling down the hallway.
When the Glitch picked itself up, its form began to wobble and distort, cracks appearing along its body as it stared in disbelief, until it could take no more and exploded into a shower of glowing shards of light that swiftly dissipated.
Naturally, Skip was shocked that the Glitch had been defeated.
"Hey, I told you, we've dealt with way worse trump cards than that thing," Nick taunted. "What did you really think was going to happen?"
"Regardless, you haven't seen the last of me," Skip proclaimed. "We will meet again, spies!"
Just as Skip attempted to escape, however, Nick simply raised his hand to encase Skip in a psychic bubble.
"Yeah, yeah, we've heard it all before, thousands of times," Nick taunted. "You're nothing special, buddy."
"And that really should be that," Marnie sighed in relief. "Let's get this guy out of here, shall we?"
Waiting for everyone when they exited Skip's lair was a group of Japanese W.O.O.H.P. agents led by Keiko.
"We heard that you had a villain ready for us," Keiko chuckled.
"Aw, how'd you guess?" Nick teased as he pushed the bubbled Skip over to the agents.
"We can take him into custody from here, everyone," Keiko proclaimed. "We've already got a Skyskimmer ready to take you back to the states so you can check in with your boss."
"Thanks so much for the help, Keiko," Sam stated.
"And tell Sophia we said hi!" RiCO proclaimed.
"I definitely shall," Keiko answered as she and the agents took Skip away.
"Well, I guess that's the end of another whirlwind adventure, huh?" Marnie quipped as the rest of Idol Opportunity gathered. "Despite... well, everything, it really was good to see all of you again."
"I guess the only question we have left is..." Ruri chuckled. "Are we gonna see you at our Beverly Hills show, May?"
"Nick and I already ordered our tickets before this caper even got started," May responded. "So you'd better believe it."
Marnie just smiled and gave her famous salute as Idol Opportunity left to return to their studio to prepare for the next leg of their world tour, while the spies hopped into the Skyskimmer so they could fly back to Beverly Hills and check in with Jerry.
2:08 A.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters
Jerry's Office
"Another job well done, agents," Jerry commended.
"Thanks, Jer," Sam quipped. "And we really appreciate Keiko getting Skip Joystick locked up for us."
"As always," Jerry stated.
"By the way, Mat," May remarked. "I've been following Idol Opportunity, and they said they can't wait to visit Hawaii again soon."
"I figured," Mat chuckled.
With that, Jerry sent the spies back to their beach house for a night's sleep.
11:27 A.M. – The Spies' Beach House
The Next Day
("Rise" by Ceres Fauna, Ouro Kronii, Nanashi Mumei, Hakos Baelz and Tsukumo Sana plays)
After a night's sleep and breakfast, the spies were enjoying a day indoors for the time being.
"Idol Opportunity must have liked Hawaii a lot to want to go back," Nick told May.
"And why not?" May stated rhetorically. "They all liked the beaches, the shopping, the hula, etc.; word is that Seven is so happy about going to Hawaii."
"Hopefully we might head back there soon," Alex stated, coming to sit with Nick.
"Yeah, it feels like we've been long overdue for some vacay in Hawaii, honestly," Nick admitted.
"Tell me about it," Alex giggled as she leaned over to kiss Nick.
Melissa looked outside at the pool to see Mat in his swim shorts, followed by Sam in her red and white tie-on bikini.
"Oh, Sam and Mat are swimming again," Melissa told the others.
Britney appeared behind them both in a two-piece of her own. They all went in the pool one at a time, beginning with Sam and ending with Britney.
Melissa stopped what she was doing and went to get her suit on and join them.
"Typical," Bridget chuckled.
"Anybody for Smash then?" Nick asked the others.
"I'll get the Wii," Dawn quipped.
Naturally, the match got rowdy very quickly.
"GET BACK HERE, YOU!" Bridget shouted as she attempted to catch up to Dawn's Toon Link, who was moving too quickly for Melissa's Ganondorf to catch.
"Hey, it's your fault for picking slow-ass freakin' Ganon, silly!" Dawn taunted.
"We all picked random, you know!" Bridget retorted.
Dawn cackled as she continued to outmaneuver Bridget, only to be sent flying by Nick, who by some stroke of luck, had been given his own Smash main, Sonic.
"Not even Toon Link can outrun the fastest thing alive, you know," Nick teased.
In addition to Mat and his girls in the pool, Clover and Blaine were also outside getting a tan.
"Now that we've stopped Skip Joystick, it's now back to R&R," Sam quipped.
"You got that right," Mat added.
After over twenty minutes of swimming, they all joined Clover and Blaine in getting a tan.
They all heard rapid footsteps, but instead of it being May with her usual Pirate Dives, they saw it was Haruka, who had excused herself from the Smash game.
"INCOMING!" Haruka exclaimed as she barged forward and cannonballed her way into the pool.
"Bravo, Haruka," Melissa remarked with a few claps as Haruka resurfaced.
"I guess it won't be long before the pool's got to be cleaned," Clover commented.
Britney and Sam shared a look and rejoined Haruka in the pool. That was when Haruka decided to try something different when she noticed Mat staying where he was.
"You coming in, Mat?" Haruka asked.
"In a bit," Mat answered.
Melissa perked up at Haruka's actions.
"Maybe you'd... like to do a jump in with me?" Haruka asked.
"Okay sure," Mat replied.
Haruka, knowing she had a two-piece on, attempted to tease Mat this time, but what she didn't know was Nick and the others had come outside, too.
"Don't try that with me," Mat warned with a laugh.
"No worries, bro," Nick stated quietly. "I got ya covered..."
Haruka looked over to see if her trick had worked, only to find a small sphere of water floating just above her head.
"Nice try, Haruka," Nick chuckled as he snapped his hand down, causing the water sphere to fall and drench Haruka.
In response, Haruka could only smile brightly. "It was worth a try, I guess," Haruka conceded.
7:42 P.M. – Kedaro Station, Cordelion
Rubicon Forge
Ashley continued to jump out of the way as the monster continued to toss pipes and other busted machinery her way, occasionally stopping to use her Mass Inverter to send a bunch of it floating into the air and away from her.
"Okay, Glitch, how do we get this thing off my ass?!" Ashley shouted. "If none of my weapons are working on it, how do we stop it?!"
"I'm searching for an escape route now," Glitch answered.
While this was happening, the monster was slowly closing in on them with inexorable intent, the look on its face making it extremely obvious what it wanted to do when it caught Ashley.
As the chase continued, Ashley eventually noticed that the gateway just ahead was listing slightly.
The monster stalked closer to her as Ashley stood her ground, and right as the monster lunged, she fired the Negotiator into the ceiling, causing the entire gateway to collapse into chunks that completely blocked the gateway she'd ran through to get here.
The monster attempted to break through the collapsed debris, but gave up after a few tries and walked off the way it had come from.
"Jee-zus," Ashley sighed in relief as she leaned against a wall to catch her breath. "That was terrifying. I often wonder how Nick deals with stuff like this, given all the loonies and psychos I'm sure he and his friends have had to deal with..."
"They probably have more experience in that field, what with a much more varied rogues' gallery," Glitch answered.
"Yeah, I really only joined our W.O.O.H.P. a couple months before Emperor Terrence happened, so I didn't get to fight as many bad guys," Ashley admitted. "And, well, if we want to live to fight more bad guys sometime, we'd better find the forge and build this dang Dimensionator."
Ashley got back to her feet, Negotiator clutched tightly in her hands. "Glitch, keep leading the way."
Totally Spies: Button Mashers
~The End~
Final Note from Mat49324: Well, that's all for Button Mashers. It was a nice change to add in an S6 villain in Skip Joystick this time around. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this one as we get closer and closer to the end of our seventh season. No doubt an 8th season will be coming! BTW, as far as the Mat/Haruka part that you saw at the pool, no, that's not happening since a fiancée and two girlfriends is certainly enough (as I'm sure you saw from Nick and Bridget). For now, we're moving forward to our next project, which will be on my page. It's titled Grim Tide-ings, and a part of it is based off a scene in the 2009 movie Hole, which I found on YouTube. For now, here's The Blue Time Ranger for his final thoughts.
Final Note from The Blue Time Ranger: And that's the end of our karaoke session for this one! Can you tell there was a good bit of Hololive inspiration for this one? The "cursed" versions of Idol Opportunity that were bosses in Skip's game were based on the Cursed Council members in the Hololive fangame CouncilRyS RPG, which I've been playing a good chunk of after watching some livers play it themselves. o7 Sana
And now for what's coming up next time on The New Adventures! We've got one more caper before the season finale, and this one involves an original villain! Yeah, an original villain. This time, as you may have figured out from Ashley's adventures all season, the baddie of our upcoming season finale won't be an original villain for the first time in TNA, so I figured we'd make up for that with this one. Check out the water-y shenanigans next time on Grim Tide-ings, which will be posted by Mat. So, until next time, have a fantastic day, don't listen to the screeching morons, enjoy this preview of Grim Tide-ings, and we'll see you next mission!
"Hold that thought, Sammy, because I think I just hit paydirt," Nick cut in. "I'm picking up some devious-sounding thoughts on the rooftop. I think we'd better go check this out."
The spies all headed for the rooftop, and sure enough, they found their target standing on the roof of The Flow, overlooking the city of Beverly Hills. The figure was covered in a dark blue robe decorated with images of random aquatic life.
"All right, buddy, you want to start explaining yourself?" Nick stated. "Because if you're up to something, we'd rather just kick your keester so we can get back to our summer already."
The figure slowly turned around to face the spies.
"Have you ever considered this?" the figure proclaimed. "The sea is an irreplaceable treasure for every living thing on this planet. But with our selfish extravagance, humanity dirties the great ocean, destroying this source of all life..."
The figure started walking around while continuing his ranting. "Day by day, we're all destroying our most precious resource!" the figure ranted. "If we humans suffer from our actions, well, maybe we'll end up getting what we deserve in the end. But what about the wonderful sea creatures in our world? The fish that no longer have a place to live because we stole and soiled their seas? The whales and turtles that won't have a place to raise their young and watch them grow?! We are creating a world in which innocent creatures suffer as a result of our actions!"
"This guy's really starting to weird me out," Alex noted.
"...and that is something that I cannot forgive!" the figure shouted. "That's why I came to a decision, you see. The foolish actions of my fellow humans, the seas we have blighted, and even nature itself... I will return everything to its unspoiled beginnings!"
The figure raised his hand and summoned a staff to his hands in a splash of water. "So says Wavemaster!"
To be continued in Totally Spies: Grim Tide-ings...