On Today's Episode: The spies continue their quest through Forgo Dreams, hoping to find both the remaining shards of the Master Crown and the final Fruit Fragment, all in the hopes that they can use these powers to free Nick from Fecto Forgo's possession. But these last collectibles aren't going to be easy to find, especially with the phantoms the spies have to face in this area, along with possibly other dangerous foes waiting in the wings...
Act 4: Scattered Souls and Eternal Echoes
9:02 P.M. – Forgo Dreams
The "Purple Area"
"Okay, is it me, or does this area feel very... ominous?" Haruka wondered as the spies began exploring the "purple area".
"Yeah, I'm feeling it, too. Almost like we need to get moving," Melissa commented.
"The question is... is this another callback?" Clover wondered.
"If it happened several times, I don't see this time being any different," Nozomi deduced.
"I just hope we can find that last Fruit Fragment quickly before... you know what," Alex remarked. "I'm not gonna say anything that could jinx us."
"Good idea, Alex," Mat stated, knowing exactly what Alex was talking about.
"Not to mention that we still have to find the last few shards of the Master Crown, and I have a feeling they're not going to be easy to find," May added.
"But the question is... where do we go?" Blaine wondered.
"Let's just keep our eyes and ears open, okay?" Sam told everyone.
"Heads up, everyone, we've got company!" Bridget exclaimed.
"...oh, wonderful, it just had to be him..." Sam groaned at who they all saw.
"No doubt..." Mat added.
The area around them distorted before turning into an area resembling the White House.
When the star-shaped portal opened and another phantom stepped out of it, most of the spies were already prepared for battle. Who was it, you ask?
It was James, but with the same purple eyes and blue irises that all of the other phantoms so far had.
"I was wondering when you were going to show up," May taunted, readying her anchor for a fight.
Anya quickly picked up on the tension surrounding the spies. Naturally, the only member of their rogues' gallery she'd known before this was Professor Genesis, given what he'd done to her.
But a lot of the spies were suddenly aggressive, Sam especially.
Anya didn't get a chance to ask, though, as Sam was the first to go on the offensive, whipping out an Electromagnetic Curling Iron and blasting Phantom James to the ground.
He simply picked himself back up, chuckled in a sinister way, and swiftly turned himself invisible.
"Oh, great, the phantom version doesn't need his serum," Melissa groaned.
As the spies kept their ears open for any possible signs of their opponent, Anya remembered their previous scuffle with Phantom Kandinsky and extended her senses to find their invisible oppressor.
Just as Phantom James was about to grab Sam from behind, Anya ran forward and jumped through the air, headbutting Phantom James in the chest and sending him tumbling back, now fully visible.
"You're wide open, freak boy!" May exclaimed, charging in and bashing Phantom James backwards with multiple anchor swings. "Since Nick's not here, you're gonna have to take my unbridled anger, buddy."
"Damn right, May," Mat quipped as he tagged out with May to spray a cloud of Ice King Cologne, freezing Phantom James into a block of ice that opened him up to more attacks.
Naturally, Alex and Clover were the first to strike, Alex blasting Phantom James with a Sonic Disintegrator Boombox, breaking his icy cage and sending him flying, and Clover dual-wielding Cyclone Blast Hairdryers to send him tumbling even further.
Phantom James jumped back to his feet and turned himself invisible again, but Anya pointed towards where he'd moved to, allowing Clover to force him to reappear with an elbow strike to the gut.
Melissa leaped over Clover, brought out a Helicopter Hand Fan, and extended the blades so she could aim it at Phantom James, the blades whacking him in the face multiple times.
Britney fired her Expandable Cable Bungee Belt, catching Phantom James and yanking him towards her, only for Britney to then send Phantom James towards Sam.
"She's all yours, girlfriend," Britney quipped.
"With pleasure," Sam cackled, knowing she didn't have to hold back because this technically wasn't the actual James.
Phantom James simply gave Sam one of his 'patented' looks, but Sam naturally wasn't having any of it, lashing out to strike Phantom James across the face before leg sweeping him off of his feet.
Before Phantom James could hit the ground, Sam reached out to grab him by the ankles and powerslam him into the ground a couple times before tossing him over to May, who clocked him in the chest with her anchor and sent him flying back towards Sam.
With one last, decisive blow, Sam kicked Phantom James and sent him flying into one of the building pillars, and this caused the phantom to explode into wisps of violet light.
"And boom!" Alex laughed.
"Here's hoping we don't have to deal with the actual James anytime soon," Sam admitted. "Because if I'm getting heated thanks to just a phantom of him, I'm probably actually going to kick him in the junk next time."
"I'd pay money to see that," Blaine chuckled.
"Um... why did you all seem to really not like that guy?" Anya wondered.
"Oh, yeah, she's never seen any of our rogues' gallery before all of this, has she?" Sam quipped. "Long story short, Anya, James is an absolute sleazeball who played on my feelings to get me to do his bidding a long time ago, and he won't stop trying to make me 'his woman', even though he knows I'm engaged."
"Trust us when we say that we hope you never have to deal with someone like James in your life, Anya," Mat stated. "I'm sure Genesis was enough for you."
Anya just nodded as the spies exited this place and resumed their trek through the "purple area", occasionally stopping to solve a puzzle so they could keep going.
At one point, the area around them distorted before resettling into a facsimile of Paris, France.
"Hey, I see us down there," Alex stated.
"Wait, wait, wasn't this when we had to stop that Ambassador guy from stealing people's intelligence for his son?" Sam wondered.
"Hold on, his villain name was just Ambassador?" Nozomi gasped. "Once again, I question these weirdoes' naming ideas..."
"Ooh, I was hoping we've find ourselves here at some point," Clover giggled.
"Oy vey," May groaned for old times' sake.
"Clover, you know now's not the time for that, right?" Sam sighed. "Besides, you've got a boyfriend, you know."
"I know that, Sammy, I just wanted to bask in the memories," Clover chuckled. "Did I ever tell you that I actually met my baguette dreamboat in person?"
"Wait, you did?" Alex gasped.
"Yeah, it was when Eitri shattered the world and we all had to split up to find the Time Stones," Blaine responded, as he had been with Clover for that leg of the search. "We got him away from the busted Eiffel Tower and he was actually holding one of the Time Stones."
"That must have been interesting," Haruka quipped.
"Yeah, but it's like I said to Blaine," Clover answered. "My baguette dreamboat may be, well, a dreamboat, but Blaine's always number one in my heart."
"Aww, you," Blaine chuckled as he and Clover leaned in to kiss each other.
"Not to break up your lovey-dovey times, but I see another portal up ahead," May stated, pointing to a star-shaped portal just ahead of the group.
"Wait, why does it look like Ninja Warrior in there?" Dawn wondered.
"Oh, I think I know what memory this one is drawing on," Bridget quipped. "I'll take care of this one. Sonic Mode, online!"
After transforming, Bridget dashed into the portal, coming out on the other side to behold a Ninja Warrior-esque obstacle course much like the one Willard had pitted her against the last time they'd clashed with him.
Bridget looked around and saw a time board at one end of the course that indicated she needed to clear the course in a certain time.
And just as she'd suspected, the prize for this challenge was another shard of the Master Crown.
Bridget walked up to the "starting line", her mind already focused on the task at hand.
"Gotta start at just the right speed," Bridget stated to herself, falling back into her old training routines. "Account for wind resistance, maintain proper balance..."
After counting down from five in her mind and watching how some of the obstacles were moving, Bridget swiftly took off running, emerald electricity trailing behind her as she ran.
This course thankfully didn't seem anywhere near as gigantic and complex as Willard's course, which naturally meant that Bridget was able to best the course in well under the time limit.
But before she could claim the crown shard, it floated up towards the final stage tower.
Bridget wasn't having any of that, and immediately charged for the tower, running up its walls to get to the top and snatch the crown shard in her hands before it could fly away again.
"And that's total victory," Bridget giggled as she sped back down the tower and through the star-shaped portal to return to the spies.
"So, does it look like we're any closer to completing the crown?" Melissa asked.
Haruka reached into her Jetpack Backpack to pull out the crown shards they'd collected so far to compare.
"It looks like we're still missing about three or four pieces," Haruka replied. "But I'm just hoping that Fecto Forgo hasn't found any yet."
"Hey, as long as we have our shards, even if Fecto Forgo got one or two, it can't use the crown," Britney stated.
With that in mind, the spies continued to explore the "purple area", eventually coming across a large stone chapel that seemed to be surrounded by inclement weather.
"That's... not supposed to be there, is it?" Clover quipped.
"And here's the kicker," Alex stated. "I recognize this place."
Upon getting a good look at it, the other spies did as well. This was chapel in Winter Horns, a blizzard-ravaged city in the Forgotten Land where the spies had learned that the Genesis of this world had teamed up with the Genesis from theirs, and they'd had to fight a clone of Alex in this very chapel.
The spies all cautiously entered the chapel, knowing who was probably waiting for them inside.
"I don't think there's a Fruit Fragment here," May noted. "But I still say we should be ready for a fight."
And sure enough, a star-shaped portal had opened in the center of the chapel, and out stepped a phantom of Forgo Alex, who was carrying the hammers she'd wielded in her second clash with the spies, but without the warthog mask that had been controlling her mind. Her skin suddenly shifted to a dark pink, her hair turned bright blue, and her eyes became purple with blue irises like all of the other phantoms.
"I should have figured," Alex groaned.
Phantom Forgo Alex simply flipped a lock of her hair back as if to say "don't be jealous" (since none of these phantoms spoke) before brandishing her hammers and charging for the spies.
"Oh, geez," Mat groaned.
Phantom Forgo Alex attacked all the spies in every direction possible.
"For one villain, this is totally insane!" Haruka exclaimed.
"But two can play that game," Bridget quipped. "Sonic Mode, online!"
Bridget turned on the juice and began running circles around Phantom Forgo Alex, building up kinetic energy as she did so.
However, Bridget had to jump away when Phantom Forgo Alex swung her hammers upwards to send a fiery tornado towards Bridget.
"Oof, that was close," Bridget quipped as she prepared to make another run.
The Phantom Forgo Alex still did not say a word.
"For someone who is of very little words, you're not very smart when it comes to certain venues since this is a chapel after all..." May pointed out.
"Unfortunately, since this chapel's abandoned, it may be a double-edged sword," Britney commented.
"Regardless, it's over for this cheap knockoff of me," Alex growled. "I wanna get back to my babe!"
Phantom Forgo Alex simply raised her hammers as if to say "oh, bring it", and this provoked the real deal to charge in and start kicking at her clone, each swing of her legs countered by a swing from the phantom's hammers.
Alex then jumped backwards before springing towards her phantom with a double sidewinder kick, but Phantom Forgo Alex spun her hammers around to deflect the kicks before slamming them into the ground to create tremors that made Alex stumble.
Not one to be deterred, Alex quickly recovered, jumping over another hammer swing before lashing out with a windmill kick that connected and sent Phantom Forgo Alex tumbling to the ground, dropping her hammers.
"And that's all she wrote," Blaine quipped.
But unfortunately, Phantom Forgo Alex managed to get back up to her feet.
"What in the world?!" Melissa groaned.
"I had no intention to celebrate just yet," Dawn remarked.
Phantom Forgo Alex clutched the sides of her head, almost as if in the throes of a massive headache, before dropping down to her hands and knees and roaring, a screeching sound that almost felt like the call of a feral beast.
The roar had scared a few of the spies stiff, but nobody backed down.
"You're gonna have to do better than that!" Mat exclaimed as Phantom Forgo Alex started running on all fours like an animal towards him.
Having seen that song and dance before, Mat jumped away, leaving Phantom Forgo Alex wide open to Bridget charging forward and punching Phantom Forgo Alex in the face with a Metal Masher Boxing Glove, expelling her gathered kinetic energy on impact to send Phantom Forgo Alex flying backwards.
"That's check and mate, pal!" Clover proclaimed.
The Phantom Forgo Alex immediately took off.
"Guys, we better make a break for that Alex mockery if we want to find another Fruit Fragment!" Blaine exclaimed.
"That's a valid point," Sam quipped.
The spies moved forward until they found themselves in what appeared to be a particular toy store. (A/N: Think S2's Toying Around.)
"Ugh... the killer toys again!" Alex groaned.
"Only this time, I'm not seeing Seth," Sam deduced.
"Vladimir Kozirev?" Dawn wondered.
"Not him either," Sam added. "Plus, his toys never came to life."
It turned out that was a mysterious figure.
"Oh, please do not give me Corvus feelings..." May groaned.
"Only one way to find out," Anya told the group. "But if any consolation, Sam's right, it's not either of those two..."
"Do you know who it is, Anya?" Alex asked. "You're the psychic here with Nick indisposed, so..."
Anya focused her senses to try and figure out who was about to approach them, but before she could get a lock on the figure, it vanished through a star-shaped portal.
"Wait, so whoever it was just chickened out?" Clover quipped.
Almost as if it had heard Clover's question, another star-shaped portal opened up somewhere further away in the toy store.
"Oh, so we're playing that game, huh?" Melissa proclaimed as she ran towards the portal, only for it to close up again and reopen somewhere else.
It was a good few minutes of "portal tag" before the spies were finally able to corner the figure in question.
"And of course it was you!" May groaned when she finally saw who the mysterious figure was.
Indeed, it appeared to be an old-looking man with beady-looking yellow eyes and a sinister smile, wearing a rainbow-colored cloak.
Phantom Corvus simply smiled in that sinister way, his hands glowing with a combination of violet light and dark magic.
"Oh, this isn't going to end well," Blaine quipped.
Just then, another star-shaped portal opened up nearby, allowing Phantom Forgo Alex to jump out of it, still clutching her trademark hammers.
"You're seriously going to make this the weirdest tag-team match since Scam and that Vince King guy?!" Mat exclaimed.
But just as both phantoms started to advance on the spies, something very strange happened.
A third portal opened slightly down the hallway, allowing Phantom Nick from earlier to fly through it and slash his sword across both Phantom Corvus and Phantom Forgo Alex, causing both of them to explode into wisps of violet light.
After effortlessly dealing with the other phantoms, Phantom Nick turned around and leveled his sword to aim it at the rest of the spies, his intent clear.
"Oh, so now this faker's back for round two, is he?" Nozomi taunted.
"And this time, you're not trapping us just so you can go after Anya, you bully," May proclaimed, spinning her anchor in her hands. "You want a fight, then you've got one!"
Phantom Nick simply smirked before going on the offensive, swinging his butterfly sword outwards.
Clover brought out an Extendable Mascara Brush and moved in to start dueling with Phantom Nick, noting that the gadget was actually holding together with each swing.
"Hey, maybe it is mighty fine this time," Clover chuckled.
Sadly, Clover would have to eat her own words when Phantom Nick jumped into the air and came down with a downwards vertical slash, splitting the Extendable Mascara Brush in half.
Phantom Nick didn't give Clover any time to process this, jumping back into the air and swinging his butterfly sword to launch three crescent-shaped blades of light that knocked Clover for a loop.
"Don't think I didn't see that, you ripoff artist!" Blaine shouted, equipping a Boomerang Bazooka and firing it rapidly to keep Phantom Nick in place while the other spies thought of a plan of attack.
Eventually, Phantom Nick simply planted his butterfly sword into the ground, creating six fire tornadoes that spun around him, incinerating the boomerangs before all six spun away from him in a spiral formation, forcing many of the spies to duck and cover to avoid them.
When the tornadoes dissipated, Anya took advantage of the lull to fire a Final Shine Attack into Phantom Nick's chest, sending him reeling backwards.
Recovering quickly, Phantom Nick floated into the air and concentrated for a couple seconds, eventually summoning a ghostly image of Fecto Forgo in its incomplete form that swept the area with purple lasers.
When one laser came her way, Sam wrapped herself up in a Cashmere Deflector Shield, reflecting the laser back into the ghostly image and dissipating it.
This caused Phantom Nick to land on the ground, twirling around before performing a single heavy slash with his butterfly sword, this motion sending a wave of fire across the floor, forcing the spies to jump to avoid it.
Both Melissa and Dawn aimed Cyclone Blast Hairdryers before firing, sending Phantom Nick flying backwards with the blasts, only for Phantom Nick to loop around in the air and then charge straight towards them, flapping his butterfly wings and creating sound waves around him that swiftly disoriented both Melissa and Dawn.
While they were trying to un-dizzy themselves, Phantom Nick raised his sword to strike down both Mat and Melissa.
"Eyes on me, you faker!" Mat exclaimed, firing his Electromagnetic Curling Iron to draw Phantom Nick's attention onto him. However, Phantom Nick rushed him and slashed the ECM apart in Mat's hands.
Three separate Laser Lipstick shots made Phantom Nick turn around to see Sam, Alex and Clover aiming for him.
Phantom Nick's grin suddenly turned sinister as he teleported to one edge of the arena and concentrated, his butterfly sword splitting into two identical copies, one in each hand.
"...oh, crapbaskets," Alex groaned, swiftly deploying an All-Weather Umbrella to hopefully weather the barrage she knew was coming.
Phantom Nick rushed at Alex, swiping at her with one sword, then the other in multiple different patterns. Thankfully, the All-Weather Umbrella held up against the barrage of sword strikes.
Not finished yet, though. Phantom Nick enlarged both swords to incredibly oversized proportions before swinging both at the same time, unleashing an incredibly massive X-shaped wave of fire that shattered the All-Weather Umbrella and sent Alex tumbling.
Phantom Nick smirked before rushing to attack the tumbling Alex and end her right on the spot, but was suddenly stopped when May's anchor was thrown into his back courtesy of Anya's own psychic powers.
This caused Phantom Nick to turn around and charge towards Anya, but May called her anchor back to her hands via her Emergency Gadget Transporter and slammed it into Phantom Nick's head, sending him down to the ground so that Anya could finish the job with a point-blank Final Shine Attack.
Phantom Nick reeled back, light shining from his body, though he seemed strangely content with his defeat as he disintegrated into a cluster of dark red butterflies that all exploded into wisps of violet light.
One last butterfly fell to the ground and disintegrated to reveal another shard of the Master Crown which Haruka quickly pocketed.
"And that's all she wrote!" May exclaimed. "Way to show that faker who's the boss, Anya!"
Anya just smiled brightly in response as the area around the spies distorted again, now taking the form of the stage for the old game show F.I.G.H.T. (Fear Intimidation Gladiator Habitat) that Vince King had ran.
"Oof, I was hoping to never see this place again," Sam admitted. "Bad memories of brainwashing came back."
"Let's see if there's anything of interest before we head out," Melissa quipped.
It didn't take long for Clover to notice something out of place, something that hadn't been on the F.I.G.H.T. stage during their initial caper with Vince.
It appeared to be another tablet full of ancient runes, no doubt the last piece of the backstory of the Master Crown.
"All right, RiCO, do your thing," May quipped as she held her X-Powder towards the tablet so that RiCO could decipher the runes.
"Ooh, yikes," RiCO stated once she'd finished her translations. "According to these particular runes, the kingdom of Halcandra, the kingdom that had eventually taken possession of the Master Crown, was almost completely destroyed by its power."
"Wait, so the Halcandran ruler just about destroyed his entire kingdom?!" Alex gasped.
"Remember, the crown's power was corrupting him, attempting to consume his soul and turn him into nothing more than an empty vessel for its power," RiCO answered. "There was a terrible battle in the ruins of the kingdom, and the ruler's sister was just barely able to separate him from the crown before it destroyed them all."
Anya walked up to the tablet and placed her palm on it, her mind suddenly flooded with a rush of memories as she saw in her mind the very same battle that the runes described.
She saw the absolute chaos and destruction that the possessed ruler was causing in the crown's single-minded drive to destroy.
She saw the ruler's younger sister making a brave attempt to attack the crown itself in order to stop it, only to be heartlessly stabbed by the ruler.
She saw the ruler briefly break through the crown's control just long enough to yank it off of his head and slash it apart, shattering it into pieces.
"After the ruler shattered the crown, he used the last bits of the crown's power still within him to seal the destroyed Halcandra inside of a temporal rift so the crown could hopefully never be found and reassembled by anyone with malicious intent," RiCO explained.
"Wait, hold on just one flip-truckin' second," May cut in. "So... everything in this world we're in right now... is technically the ancient Halcandran kingdom?!"
"It would explain why these tablet pieces are still here despite lord only knows how long Halcandra's been sealed away," RiCO responded. "Remember, the only reason we're reliving old capers is because Fecto Forgo is using its psychic powers to shape the realm according to its host body's memories."
"And I really think that should be all the incentive we need to find that last Fruit Fragment and get Nick back before Fecto Forgo can fully possess him," Melissa stated.
"Damn right, Melissa," Dawn proclaimed. "Let's go get my cousin back!"
With that in mind, the spies all left the F.I.G.H.T. stage and moved back out into the "purple area", crossing a long bridge that appeared to have once belonged to the Halcandran castle before finding themselves in a recreation of Silicon Valley High School.
"Well, well, we meet again, C.H.A.D.," Clover quipped. "I just hope he stays deleted this time and Lady Dragon doesn't try to bring him back again..."
"That plan thankfully already failed," RiCO giggled. "For as many times as Lady Dragon's tried to take over the Datascape, I'll give her this, at least her schemes are varied even if it's towards the same end goal."
"Sorry to interrupt, but I think I see another one of those bubble things over there," Mat stated, pointing to the center of Adam's computer room, where another bubble of light was waiting.
"You think it might be the last Fruit Fragment?" Alex wondered.
"Only one way to find out," May quipped as she walked up to the bubble and bashed it a few times with her anchor. Eventually, the bubble shattered and a flock of Doomers escaped from the bubble to start flying around the room.
"Well, we haven't seen these things in a while, huh?" Nozomi stated, shifting into a fighting stance.
"Let's just take 'em out so we can get back to our actual problem," Alex responded as the Doomers slowly began to encroach on them.
"My thoughts exactly," Clover remarked. "We still got a summer to enjoy!"
"These Doomers don't scare me either way," Sam proclaimed.
However, the Doomers looked like they came prepared, as these Doomers' arms had changed to sharp cleavers worthy of chopping trees, and even somebody's head clean off.
Despite being surprised, the spies did not let that phase them. The Doomers then charged at the spies.
"Scatter, guys!" Mat exclaimed, beating Sam to the punch.
Everybody did so. Blaine and Sam were first to break the ice by unleashing Incendiary Earrings at the Doomers. They exploded before the Doomers could even touch them.
"Bullseye!" Blaine shouted.
"We still got a ways to go," Sam quipped.
"No doubt," Haruka remarked.
That's when Sam had looked to her left at a pair of Doomers that had sent Mat down to the floor.
Sam quickly reacted by sending the Doomers floating helplessly with an Anti-Gravity Propulsion Ring, allowing her to assist Mat.
"Oh, major thanks, Sam," Mat sighed in relief as Sam helped him up.
They only had time for a quick kiss before going back to battle.
A trio of Doomers surrounded May, but she spun around with her anchor extended to bash the Doomers away from her before slamming another Doomer into the ground with an overhead swing.
Anya even chipped in where she could, firing a Final Shine Attack to send a cluster of Doomers scattering and even surrounding Sam and Mat with a psychic bubble to protect them from more Doomers.
Eventually, the Doomers retreated since their army had dwindled down to a select few.
"That'll teach ya!" May exclaimed as she recalled her anchor.
"I almost hesitate to ask... but what's next?" Bridget wondered.
As the background came into view, Anya immediately realized they were back in what appeared to be the Halcandran castle.
"I think as long as we move forward, no turns, we should be okay and in the clear," Anya told the others.
"How can you tell?" Mat wondered.
"I don't know why, but I can feel something pulling me that way," Anya answered.
"Well, regardless of how, there's no turning back since we have to save Nick," Dawn remarked.
"No doubt," Haruka stated.
Alex sighed, knowing she wanted to have a surf session with Nick after the mission was over; Haruka felt similar regarding teasing Nick with her bikinis, which she'd grown to being very amused by.
"Anyway, it looks like we won't be getting another mission callback this time," Clover told the others.
The background then went to black, and it turned out to be another mission callback for the spies.
It turned out to be the open ocean, but the spies were quick to activate their jet pack backpacks; good thing, too, because they were above their neighborhood.
"Oh, I bet this is the one with me as a fifty-foot giant," Clover groaned.
She got confirmation when a tiny chopper was going around like a pesky mosquito.
"OH... CRAPBASKETS!" Haruka shouted at seeing two fifty-foot giants.
"Okay, this could be a problem," Clover sighed. "I'd really rather not deal with this problem right now."
Well, once again, I think we have a stereotype to enforce," May quipped as she flew forward and started bashing at the ankle of one of the giants, forcing her to her knees so that Alex could fly up and blast the giant in the face with a Sonic Disintegrator Boombox, sending the giant toppling into the water.
Thankfully, that seemed to do the trick, as before the other giant could retaliate, the area around them distorted again, until it resettled in what appeared to be the Moonlight Canyon from the Forgotten Land.
More specifically, they were in the tunnels that had led to the lair of the last of the mutant generals.
"Oh, I don't like the looks of this," Melissa sighed. "I'm pretty sure I know who's waiting for us down there."
"Oh, I hope it's that armadillo thing," Bridget chuckled. "I had so much fun sending that guy flying smack dab into next week."
The spies cautiously made their way through the tunnels and past the familiar wall of junk covered with crude crayon drawings of Anya, much like it had been in the Forgotten Land.
Eventually, they found themselves in a large, circular cavern filled with even more of that strange junk, stuffed animals, and a cage hanging from the center of the cavern's ceiling. Unlike before, though, instead of a plush doll resembling Anya, this cage housed what appeared to be the final Fruit Fragment.
And just as the spies expected, a star-shaped portal appeared in the center of the arena, and out of it stepped an oversized armadillo mutant with a gray shell that had street signs stuck on it, with black lining and white-gray fur on its front, long, skinny gray arms that ended in paws with three large, sharp claws, two feet with flat bottoms and claws similar to the ones found on its hands, a gray face, large bulging eyes that were both looking in different directions, giving it a goofy expression, a long snout with round red nose, two rodent-like buck teeth, and two gray ears with black hairs sticking out from them.
Before the spies could get their bearings, the armadillo transformed, now sporting pink fur, magenta claws and nose, a green shell, and eyes that matched those of Fecto Forgo in its nightmarish chimera blob form.
"Just one more to go," Britney proclaimed. "Bring it on, bug-eyes!"
Phantom Sillydillo cackled and reached behind itself to throw a trio of small Anya plushies towards the spies. Anya herself reacted quickly, throwing up her hands to create a psychic barrier that defended them against the plushies that exploded once they hit the ground.
"Now the thing's got exploding plush dolls?!" Alex exclaimed.
"This place is just full of surprises," Melissa quipped.
Phantom Sillydillo then brought out a cage and started marching towards the spies, swinging it towards them in an attempt to capture them inside. The spies all dodged in different directions to keep Phantom Sillydillo's attention away, even as it kept throwing more exploding Anya plushies inbetween cage swings.
"All right, somebody's gotta hit that thing in the belly, because I know we won't be getting through that shell!" Sam shouted.
"Allow the cowgirl to show off," Clover chuckled, firing her Expandable Cable Bungee Belt to catch Phantom Sillydillo in the back of its head and yank it backwards, causing it to expose its not-armored belly.
"Open wide, Mighty!" May proclaimed, swinging her anchor hard enough to sock Phantom Sillydillo square in its chest, sending it bouncing back into the opposite wall before belly-flopping onto the floor.
The force of Phantom Sillydillo's belly-flop caused the ground to crack and splinter until it eventually shattered completely, causing both the spies and Phantom Sillydillo to fall to the lower level of the cavern.
"Everyone all right?" Sam asked as the spies all regrouped.
"Incoming!" Haruka shouted as Phantom Sillydillo curled up in its shell before spinning around and rolling towards them much like a certain famous hedgehog would do. Haruka dodged away from the roll attack, only for Phantom Sillydillo to turn around and perform it again.
After the third dodge, Phantom Sillydillo rolled towards Bridget much faster, but she was ready, jumping to the side so that Phantom Sillydillo only crashed into the wall. But this time, it didn't daze itself in doing so, instead recovering quickly and jumping away.
After landing, Phantom Sillydillo reached behind itself to procure a strangely-charming handmade armadillo doll as large as it was.
"Sorry, but I'm not in the mood to be a dance partner today, thank you very much!" Alex shouted, juking in different directions as Phantom Sillydillo started spinning around with its handmade dance partner, creating a whirlwind of dust and sharp rocks around it as it spun.
Eventually, Phantom Sillydillo threw its handmade dance partner straight for Alex.
Anya reacted quickly, raising her hands to cover Alex in a psychic bubble that deflected the handmade dance partner back at Phantom Sillydillo, dazing it momentarily.
Before any of the spies could move in for the finishing blow, however, a sandstorm suddenly started up, covering the entire cavern and obscuring their vision.
"Oh, wonderful, this is all we freakin' need right now!" Nozomi groaned as she tried to look around for any sign of Phantom Sillydillo in this sandstorm.
Sam quickly equipped her Heat Sensor 6000 Sunglasses (noting that they hadn't used these in a long while) and started looking around for Phantom Sillydillo, eventually catching it trying to sneak up on Bridget.
"Bridget, to your right!" Sam shouted.
"Nice try, shell boy," Bridget quipped, jumping back as Phantom Sillydillo tried to hit her with more exploding Anya plushies. "But now it's time I kicked your shell. Sonic Mode, online!"
After transforming, Bridget began running circles around Phantom Sillydillo as fast as she could, generating a whirlwind of her own sparking with emerald electricity that carried Phantom Sillydillo into the air.
Once Bridget felt like she'd gathered enough kinetic energy, she stopped running, jumped back, equipped a Metal Masher Boxing Glove, and blitzed forward to punch Phantom Sillydillo in the chest with it.
All of the kinetic energy that Bridget had built up with her constant running unleashed an immense shockwave of emerald electricity from the point of impact that, when combined with the force and speed of Bridget's punch, caused Phantom Sillydillo to almost instantly explode into a shower of violet wisps.
"And that, my friends and fellow spies, is how it's done," Bridget laughed. "Poor thing never stood a chance."
"Well, now that that's over, let's get that final Fruit Fragment and mosey on out of here, shall we?" Haruka quipped.
Unfortunately, it wouldn't be that easy.
Just as May flew up to the cavern's ceiling to retrieve the Fruit Fragment, the bubble protecting it suddenly started glowing a dark purple, as if surrounded by dark magic.
"Oh, I don't like where this is going," May sighed.
All of a sudden, the area distorted around the spies again, leaving them all on the bridge to the Halcandran castle, only they were now out in a dimensional void with the bridge being their only ground to stand on.
The dark purple glow surrounding the Fruit Fragment began to increase in size and density until the Fruit Fragment itself disappeared, the purple glow forming into what appeared to be a quartet of much larger Doomers with purple bodies, golden horns and yellow eyes, with five tails sprouting from their lower body.
"Oh, great, more Doomers?!" Alex groaned.
"Wait, something about these ones seems very different," Mat noted, eventually realizing that inside each of the four Doomers' mouths were chunks of the final Fruit Fragment. "H-Hey, they ate the Fruit Fragment!"
"So, I guess the only way we're getting it is if we take these things down," May quipped, readying her anchor. "Okay, then. We've beaten swarms of Doomers today, what's four more?!"
The Rampaging Doomers all roared as if accepting that challenge and started flitting around the bridge area, opening their mouths to drop orbs of darkness on the spies that forced them to keep away.
"Sorry, but you're leaving yourselves wide open, fools!" Melissa shouted, bringing out a Cyclone Blast Hairdryer as one of the Rampaging Doomers flew over her, dropping what appeared to be purple and gold stardust over her.
Though it didn't seem to do anything at first, Melissa would curse herself for not reacting faster, as the stardust eventually exploded around her, throwing her right off of the bridge.
Mat moved quickly, firing his own Expandable Cable Bungee Belt to catch Melissa and yank her back onto the bridge.
"Oof, that could have been bad," Melissa quipped as she kissed Mat on the cheek. "Thanks for saving my bacon, Mat."
"No problem," Mat replied before firing his own Cyclone Blast Hairdryer at the Rampaging Doomers as they flew by, hitting one of them and driving it back.
At first, the Rampaging Doomers didn't seem to do much besides flying around the bridge while dropping more of that exploding stardust, but said exploding stardust did force the spies to play defensive given the limited room they had on this bridge, and they didn't want to risk their Jetpack Backpacks running out of fuel at the worst possible time, even if they had refills on hand.
Anya covered May with a psychic bubble to protect her from another charge attack from the Rampaging Doomers, after which May retaliated by waiting for the Rampaging Doomers to charge at her again before hitting all four of them at once with a well-timed home run swing.
The Rampaging Doomers all reeled back slightly before roaring loudly, indicating they were about to change up their attack patterns.
"Brace yourselves, everyone!" Sam exclaimed.
The Rampaging Doomers all flew further out into the void before arranging themselves in a diamond formation and charging towards the spies, spinning around as they did so and leaving a large cloud of exploding stardust on the bridge.
After the stardust exploded, the spies went back on the offensive, blasting the Rampaging Doomers with whatever projectile gadgets they had on hand, and Anya handling defense where she could.
Eventually, the Rampaging Doomers all regrouped and floated outwards from the bridge, coughing up a barrage of dark energy orbs that soared into the air before dropping down onto the bridge, forcing the spies to scatter in different directions.
"Man, it sucks that I can't use Sonic Mode effectively on this narrow bridge," Bridget groaned.
"That's probably why the Doomers rearranged the arena this way," Nozomi quipped. "To take advantage of that."
The Rampaging Doomers continued to fly across the arena, dropping both exploding stardust and dark orbs onto the bridge.
"Okay, this is getting annoying," Alex growled as she deactivated her All-Weather Umbrella and tossing a pair of Boomerang Buzzsaw Barrettes upwards at the Rampaging Doomers as they flew by, hitting two of them and causing all four to stop in place.
This wasn't a blessing in disguise, though, as the Rampaging Doomers flew to just above the spies, arranged themselves in a diamond formation, and started spiraling around, energy forming inside the formation until expanding into what could only be described a miniature black hole. Clouds of exploding stardust also began to circle the Rampaging Doomers as they did so.
"Cheese it!" Dawn exclaimed, and the spies all started running away as fast as they could so they didn't get caught in the black hole, though it was harder for Anya due to her smaller frame.
Just when it looked like Anya was about to lose her balance and go flying, May used her own Expandable Cable Bungee Belt to grab Anya and pull her back just as the black hole attack ended.
"I gotcha, Anya," May quipped.
"Thanks," Anya giggled.
The Rampaging Doomers tried another diamond formation dive attack, but their delay after the black hole attack had given Sam, Alex, Clover and Britney just enough time to assemble the Vortex Blaster, with Haruka and May attacking the Rampaging Doomers to distract them just long enough.
Eventually, they found their opportunity, and this time Alex did the honors of firing the Vortex Blaster, the blast catching all four Rampaging Doomers as they attempted to divebomb the spies. The blast sent all four Rampaging Doomers reeling backwards, roaring in stunned disbelief as their bodies disintegrated before eventually exploding into a shower of violet sparkles.
The Fruit Fragment chunks that the Rampaging Doomers had eaten floated downwards once they were gone and reassembled themselves into the final Fruit Fragment. The fragment floated down into May's hands, and she sent it on her way with a wave of her hand.
"And that should be the last one," May quipped just as a large star-shaped portal opened at the center of the bridge that led back to the Ethereal Altar.
"Well, what the heck are we waiting for?!" Alex exclaimed. "Let's get back to the altar and see if those Fruit Fragments can help us!"
Nothing more needed to be said as the spies and Anya all jumped into the portal to return to the Ethereal Altar just as the last Fruit Fragment came to rest on the only remaining pedestal.
The five Fruit Fragments floated upwards before joining together with a bright flash of red and yellow light. When the flash cleared, the fragments had combined into a very large crystalline apple adorned with two rows of simple golden filaments. Unlike the Fruit Fragments used to create it, its skin was mostly red, fading to yellow near its base, with a short brown stem on top and surrounded by intertwining roots which were brown in the middle, yellow near the top of the apple, and purple near the bottom.
"Whoa," Clover gasped. "They turned into a giant gem apple?"
The Gem Apple Seed shined with a crimson glow before firing a beam of red light towards the void in the distance, the beam actually forming a long bridge that extended outwards from the Ethereal Altar behind the pedestals, eventually leading to something far in the distance.
When the bridge was completed, the Gem Apple Seed floated down the bridge it had created.
'I think we're getting close to the end of this crazy adventure," Sam proclaimed. "Let's follow the Gem Apple Seed and see where it takes us."
The spies didn't need any more motivation than that, as they all charged along the bridge towards their destination.
After getting a good look at the Gem Apple Seed, though, now Anya was pretty sure she knew what it was for. But why was that memory coming to her now of all times?
...and why had she seen a similar-looking seed in those memories she'd received from the ancient runes?
To be concluded...
Next time...
Alex: Whoa, is that what I think it is?
Sam: Yeah, I think that's the castle of the Halcandran royal family. But if it was destroyed, what's it doing here of all places?
Britney: I wonder if Fecto Forgo has something to do with that?
Nozomi: W-Wait, are those Gem Apples?! What are they doing here?!
Mat: You think that seed we created is for growing trees like this?
May: Man, for every mystery we solve, it seems like another one pops up, but I guess that's just part of the job description nowadays.
Alex: Let's not dilly-dally, then. I have a feeling that Nick's waiting for us somewhere in that castle, and I'm not leaving the guy I love behind.
May: You took the words right out of my mouth, Alex.
Nozomi: Couldn't have said it better myself.
Mat: Let's head on in, then, shall we, everyone?
Alex: This is it, readers! We're so close to the final confrontation, and this opening moment is all we dare spoil of the insanity to come! So stay tuned to see how this crazy caper ends next time on the final act of Totally Spies the Movie: Forgo Dreams, "Tree Crown Without a Ruler"!
Bridget: Holy crapbaskets, look at that thing they're building for the final battle! I didn't think a you-know-what could look so threatening!
Melissa: "You-know-what"?
Bridget: So I don't spoil the final fight.
Nick: Good call on that, Bridget.