On Today's Episode: The search for Natalie continues as both the spies and the Jellyfish Pirates comb the Gion Matsuri for any sign of the mad perfume maker in hopes of stopping her from fulfilling her sick ambitions. At the same time, poor Mira is wrestling with the bombshell she dropped on May, still unsure if she made the right choice in doing so. Can the spies find Natalie before she can put her master plan into production, and can the Jellyfish Pirates find a way to help their embattled captain?
Act 2: Emotional Support
5:42 P.M. - Kyoto, Japan
Gion Matsuri Parade Route
"That's one of the problems of searching big crowds like this for one specific person," April admitted as the spies and Jellyfish Pirates continued to search the area of the parade route for any sign of Natalie. "It's hard to do that."
"It's a good thing we've got RiCO's superdrone for that," Clover chuckled.
While the search continued, May couldn't help but sneak glances at Mira, knowing she was probably very conflicted about what she'd asked May.
And, if she was being honest, May couldn't blame her for feeling that way.
"I found her, spies!" RiCO exclaimed. "She's just a few yards ahead of you."
Nick moved ahead of the spies, noticing someone covering their face with a festival mask, quite clearly trying too hard to blend in.
Nick raised his hand and psychically yanked the figure out of the crowd, where her mask fell to reveal Natalie.
"I should have figured you'd follow me," Natalie groaned. "You lot are too stubborn for your own good."
"Well, I'd like to think that our stubbornness when it comes to defending our home can be a positive thing," Dizzy retorted.
"Yeah, so go and suck on those expired eggs!" Jam taunted.
"Hmmm... I think I have an idea on how I'd like to proceed," Natalie chuckled, snapping her fingers.
Two of Natalie's mooks barreled forward, forcing the spies to scatter in different directions so that Natalie could move in closer and spray her hypnosis perfume...
...towards Mira.
"Oh, don't you even think about it!" May exclaimed as she charged forward to strike at Natalie...
...only for Mira to swing her own foot out to counter May's attack.
One good look at Mira's now dulled eyes was all May needed to know about what had just happened.
"Now, my lovely little puppet..." Natalie laughed. "Go ahead and destroy them."
"Oh, who thinks this is going to be trouble?" Yuki wondered as the hypnotized Mira advanced on them.
"Mira, quit it!" Akira shouted.
Unfortunately, that went on deaf ears to Mira.
"Scatter, guys!" May exclaimed.
"I think this is one time where we can use your leadership, May..." April groaned.
"No worries, April," May replied as she jumped over Mira, causing Mira to keep her attention on her so that the other spies could surround Mira and keep her from trying to get away.
"Ah, the 'pirate pincer' move," Yuki chuckled.
"That felt like old times," Dizzy commented.
"We can do just as much help here," Bridget told the others. "Sonic Mode, online!"
With that, Bridget kicked up the juice and charged at the hypnotized Mira.
"Maybe you should take a seat!" Bridget proclaimed as she used a makeshift Homing Attack on Mira at the same time they jumped. The impact was enough to send Mira on her back.
"Good move, Bridget," Nick remarked.
He then used his psychic powers to create a makeshift bubble so Mira could not retaliate any further.
"Under control!" Dawn cheered.
"We better find some kind of antidote, and FAST!" Haruka emphasized. "Otherwise, the odds of May leaving might skyrocket..."
The hypnotized Mira did not let any time pass as she made extra attempts at the spy team and the Jellyfish Pirates to fulfill Natalie's orders.
"Hold that thought, Haruka," Melissa quipped as she swerved around another punch from Mira and used an Anti-Gravity Propulsion Ring to send her floating into the air for a short time.
"I just need an opening so I can snap her out of it," Nick quipped.
"Then let's give Nick that opening, shall we?" Alex proclaimed.
Blaine dodged an attack from Mira, but that's when his Laser Chapstick had fired directly at the bottle that Natalie Valentine was holding. It exploded into about fifty pieces and left Natalie's hand soaked in the perfume fluid.
"UGH! YOU IRRESPONSIBLE DOUCHE!" Natalie shouted at Blaine.
"You talking to me?" Blaine wondered.
"Don't you dare play dumb with me, kid," Natalie sneered.
She was immediately met by a throwing of the Extendable Mascara Brush directly from Clover herself.
"And you don't DARE talk to my Blaine-y that way!" Clover retorted.
Natalie tried to retreat and take Mira with her, but Nick immediately stopped them both via a psychic hold.
"Going somewhere?" Nick sneered.
"You're not going anywhere until you un-hypnotize Mira!" May demanded.
"If you don't mind, May, we deserve to stop this hack of a perfume seller," April remarked.
"Besides, Mira's done a satisfactory job as leader since your departure," Akira added. "She just doesn't seem to know or think so..."
"Yeah, it sounds like she's just being too hard on herself," Sam admitted. "Trust me, as a leader myself, I know that feeling."
"You know, while you're all yapping, your precious 'captain' can still tear you to pieces!" Natalie laughed, trying to project an air of confidence even if she was still seething over Blaine destroying her perfume bottle.
Mira demonstrated this by backflipping over Natalie and lashing out with a horizontal kick that sent Melissa and Dawn flat onto their backs.
"Come on, Mira, snap out of it already!" Alex shouted.
Mira chose not to respond, instead leg sweeping Alex off of her feet before jumping forward to attack the other Jellyfish Pirates.
Seeing his opportunity, Nick placed himself right in front of Mira and threw out his arms, unleashing a psychic pulse around him that floored Mira rather quickly.
A few seconds passed as Mira picked herself up, slowly shaking her head and looking around in confusion, her eyes no longer dulled.
"Um... what just happened?" Mira groaned.
"Now do you wanna try running your mouth, Nat?" Nick taunted, aiming his glowing right hand towards Natalie, who decided to instead make her retreat for the moment, only to find herself tripping and falling courtesy of Jam, who had snuck behind Natalie while Mira was getting herself reoriented.
"Oh, you're not going anywhere until you take our lumps," Jam quipped, barging forward to shoulder-tackle Natalie backwards and right into April's path.
"You've got some nerve messing with our captain like that, you know," April proclaimed as she threw her right hand out to slap Natalie across the face and send her reeling.
"In case you missed the memo, I can't stand bullies," Dizzy responded, jumping into the air and kicking Natalie with both of her feet. "And that's exactly what you're being right now."
Deciding that she'd had enough for the time being (mostly because she didn't want to keep getting a beatdown from the Jellyfish Pirates), Natalie threw down a glass grenade that obscured her with a cloud of perfume long enough to make her escape.
"Okay, that's a new one," Clover quipped.
"Should we go after her?" Yuki asked.
"In a moment," May answered. "Let's make sure Mira's all right first."
"Wait, what just happened to me?" Mira wondered. "Why are the last few minutes a total blank? I remember that crazy perfume lady getting up in my face, and then... nothing."
"She used one of her perfumes to hypnotize you," Sam replied. "She's got a fetish for that, methinks."
"See?! This is exactly what I was talking about!" Mira shouted. "Whenever stuff like this happens, I just fold under the pressure! What kind of leader does that?!"
Almost immediately, the rest of the Jellyfish Pirates were over by Mira's side, turning it into a much-needed group hug.
"Mira, stop," May stated. "Just because one bad thing happened doesn't make you a bad leader, okay?"
"Yeah, and consider that this is the spies' rogues' gallery we're dealing with, too," April replied. "They never play fair."
"We still believe in you, Mira," Yuki stated. "Always have, always will, 'kay?"
"So don't go and beat yourself up just because some hack of a 'supervillain' decides to screw around, all right?" Dizzy quipped.
"At the end, you're still our captain and our leader, no matter what anyone says," Fena stated.
"I mean, come on, you never gave up on me when I'm the one who got brainwashed, remember?" Jam chuckled.
Despite her own conflicting emotions on the matter, Mira couldn't help but smile at her friends' encouragement.
"...you really are the best friends I could have asked for, you know that?" Mira admitted. "Thank you, everyone..."
"Um, sorry to interrupt your moment, but Jerry and I figured something out," RiCO stated from Nick's X-Powder, catching everyone's attention. "We did some analysis on the perfume bottle that Britney found, and we traced it back to a perfume store here in Kyoto."
"Guess that's where we're heading to," Britney quipped. "Thanks for the update, RiCO."
"Let's mosey, everyone!" Sam proclaimed as the spies all headed out, the Jellyfish Pirates close behind.
Though she still wasn't sure if she was still cut out to be the captain, Mira certainly felt a lot more at ease knowing that her friends still had her back no matter what.
It was definitely a comforting feeling.
It didn't take the group too long to find the store that RiCO had identified, though it appeared to be closed.
"Should have figured," Alex sighed.
"Wait, it looks like it's just closed for the festival," Souji noted.
"Regardless, if this is where Natalie's holed up, we'd better head inside and find her before this gets any worse," Clover replied, using a Hairpick Lockpick to open the door so they could all head inside and investigate.
At first, nothing seemed out of place until Mira noticed something off about a nearby bookshelf that was slightly askew, as if someone had tried to move it hastily.
Nick definitely counted that as suspicious, pushing the bookshelf aside to reveal a hidden door that descended a ways underground.
Eventually, the group found themselves in Natalie's lair, which appeared to be modeled after a traditional Japanese castle alongside multiple parade floats reminiscent of the one seen on the Gion Matsuri parade route.
"Okay, I was not expecting Natalie to take an interest in Japanese culture, if she themed her lair around it," Bridget quipped.
"I'm more curious what she plans to do with all of these parade floats," Nozomi noted. "Because they look kinda off to me."
"Whatever the case, let's start combing the place for Natalie," Sam stated as the group began exploring the lair.
As Mira looked around, May reached out to ruffle her hair affectionately, something that Johnny had done a lot to May during his time as captain.
And May was glad it made Mira smile.
"Just remember what we said earlier, Mira," May told Mira. "Our rogues' gallery never plays fair... so don't count them."
"Okay, I'll try," Mira replied.
"It's just what they do," Clover stated, overhearing them.
"We won't forget our last mission in the W.O.O.H.P. Datascape where we had to win fifty volleyball matches consecutively," Nick told them.
"I think I'd be tired just after twenty in a row..." Dizzy commented.
"But props to Mat for coming up with some significant win streaks," Melissa told them.
"And you pulled off fifty in a row?" Yuki wondered.
"We didn't have to," Sam answered.
"We did, however, lose quite a bit of our spy team because of Lady Dragon's antics, not to mention the Zanzibar Coach, too," Bridget stated. "No thanks to their cheater antics."
"You see what we mean?" May asked, turning to Mira again.
"Yes, of course," Mira replied. "But it's going to take a lot more than just a pep talk to get that spark in me going..."
"You'll find it somewhere... and somehow," Jam told Mira.
May looked on, hoping so; she didn't want to give up everything because of Mira's uncertainty to remain as leader.
"Somebody find anything in the meantime?" Sam asked the others.
"Nothing yet, Sammy," Clover remarked, looking in all directions.
"What ARE we looking for, besides Natalie Valentine?" Bridget wondered.
"I'm curious about all these parade floats she has here," Mira quipped. "She's obviously not planning to just run them in the parade, right?"
"True that," May answered. "We'll probably need to see if we can find some kind of schematic or anything that could tell us what she's planning with this..."
"Well, finding Natalie Valentine shouldn't be rocket science," Blaine commented.
"Just keep your ears open," Sam told everyone in her leader tone.
Before long, Nick sensed a sneak attack from some other doses of perfume that Natalie had cooked up.
"Guys, think fast!" Nick exclaimed as he used the Pouffy Pendant.
Everybody saw what happened and equipped their own Pouffy Pendants; as for the Jellyfish Pirates, Nick used a psychic bubble on them to block the smell.
"What the heck was that?!" Yuki chastised.
"Natalie Valentine trying to trip us up, is she..." May growled.
"That's right, two can play that game when we find her," Melissa remarked.
"The question is... how much longer until we find this Natalie?" Jam wondered.
"Any sign of her, Nick?" Alex asked.
Nick used his psychic radar to search for Natalie's thoughts in the vicinity.
"Let's try that way," Nick stated, gesturing to a tunnel to the southwest that the group all started walking down.
As they did so, Mira continued to look around the lair, wondering if there was some way she could be of assistance. She was happy her friends still believed in her leadership skills, even if she didn't believe in herself yet.
As the group continued to explore, Mira eventually noticed a row of computer consoles lining the opposite wall of a nearby room.
"Hey, that looks interesting," Mira stated.
"All right, RiCO, you know what to do," Nick quipped as he placed his X-Powder onto the console.
"Already on it, Nick," RiCO answered as she did her thing and hacked into the computer to see if it held any information on Natalie's ultimate scheme.
After about twenty seconds, a schematic of a large parade float with multiple perfume sprayers attached to it appeared on the console screen, along with notes about what had inspired it.
"Wait a minute, is she planning to use a parade float to spray all of the festival-goers with her hypnotizing perfume?" Dizzy gasped when she realized what that schematic meant. "Is Natalie off her nut?!"
"A lot of our baddies are permanently off their nut," May admitted. "Honestly, it feels like a miracle when one of them actually realizes 'hey why am I doing this' and actually gives up their villainous ways."
"We could probably count the times that's happened on one hand," Clover quipped, as Professor Paradox, Kawaki, and Mallory were the only ones that came to mind. "That's quite the story twist."
"Hey, speaking of story, what's this all about?" Bridget asked, pointing to the wall of text underneath the schematics.
"I think that's the legend of the Masked Ogre," April quipped, catching everyone's attention. "It's a pretty popular folktale around these parts."
"They say that many hundreds of years ago, a masked ogre and its human companion were shunned by the people of the ancient days due to their strange appearance, so they lived in a nearby mountain, isolated from the villagers," Mira explained.
"The village's mask-maker took pity on them and crafted four absolutely beautiful masks for them, and this allowed them to blend in with the other people during the village festival," Yuki stated.
"But this newfound fame attracted three greedy demons," Dizzy continued. "And these demons eventually attacked the ogre's companion in their cave when she was away."
"When the ogre came back, her companion was gone, and all that was left was the one teal mask," Fena explained. "The ogre was so pissed off that she actually attacked and killed the three demons, but her rage only caused the villagers to hate her even more."
"After that night, the three demons were immortalized as the 'Loyal Three', unaware of their true intentions, while the ogre was left alone in the cave, saddened by the loss of her companion," Jam finished.
"I wonder what that tale has to do with Natalie's scheme?" Britney wondered. "It looks like that's all the data on this computer."
"Then we'll just have to wring the answers out of Natalie herself whenever we find her," Mat quipped.
Just then, Nick perked up, having sensed something strange nearby. He quickly ran out of the room and fired a Final Shine Attack into the nearby wall corner, the explosion of which forced Natalie out of her hiding spot.
"You seem to keep forgetting that you can't fool a psychic, Natalie," Nick taunted. "Now how about you cough up what you're planning to do with that parade float of yours?"
"Oh, it's quite simple, really," Natalie cackled. "I'm planning to slip my own parade float into the route, and when it gets to the big crowds, I'll have it spray them with my perfume so the crowd will turn against each other and completely wreck the festival. It's brilliant, isn't it?"
"It's insane is what it is," Jam countered. "And as long as the Jellyfish Pirates are on the job, we won't let you lay a finger on the Gion Matsuri!"
"Oh, and what are punks like you going to do to stop me?" Natalie laughed.
The glare that April shot Natalie's way was actually enough to make the perfume maker back up a couple steps.
"You don't want to know the answer to that," April growled.
"Damn straight," May proclaimed, spinning her anchor in her hands. "One of my besties is already going through some turmoil right now, and we seriously don't need chodes like you making it worse!"
"Hey, it's not my fault that she's..." Natalie countered, only for May to respond by throwing her anchor like a javelin, just barely missing Natalie before calling it back to her hands via her Emergency Gadgets Transporter.
"None of that," May retorted. "I don't want to hear another word about Mira from your fat lips. Mira is a wonderful friend and an amazing captain, no matter what jerkoffs like you say."
May took a step forward, ready to charge. "So I hope you're ready for some pain, Natalie!"
"You wouldn't dare hit someone who has no defense against an anchor, would you?" Natalie laughed, only for her to eat her own words when May swung her anchor and clocked Natalie in the chest, sending her tumbling down the hallway.
"Oh, don't even give me that," May retorted. "I know you're wearing body armor under that tacky dress of yours."
"My, my, you're super salty today, aren't we?" Natalie chuckled as she picked herself up.
"Well, when one of my best friends is upset and you're just making it worse, then I have every right to be salty," May proclaimed. "All right, Jellyfish Pirates, let's get her!"
With that rallying cry, all of the Jellyfish Pirates, even Mira, joined May to surround Natalie and prepare to go on the offensive.
"Let's make it like old times, then!" Yuki shouted.
May led the charge this time as the Jellyfish Pirates scattered in all directions to take on Natalie Valentine.
"You all hardly play fair," Natalie growled. "But no matter..."
"Don't be discussing 'playing fair' considering you're part of our rogues' gallery," May replied. "I can already smell the hypocrisy in your voice, and boy, do you stink of it..."
Natalie heard that loud and clear and was very bitter about that.
"You've got a lot of nerve saying that to me..." Natalie sneered.
"Look who's talking, you trash queen!" Yuki shouted, rushing over to leg-sweep Natalie off her feet.
"After everything you've tried to do, you really have no right to talk about nerve!" Jam shot back as Natalie picked herself up, barging forward to shoulder-tackle Natalie into April's path.
"And there's a rule among the Jellyfish Pirates that I'm sure the spies share," April proclaimed, leaping to kick Natalie in the face and send her reeling. "You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!"
"Right on, April!" Nozomi exclaimed.
"Aw, you guys," Mira giggled.
"What do we do now, guys?" Alex wondered.
"Um... I have an idea – maybe we can stop her in her tracks..." Mat quietly told the others as he brought out the All-Day Adhesive Hair Pomade.
"Good thinking, Mat," Sam commented.
During the battle, May noticed Sam, Mat, and Alex using the Pomade behind Natalie in an attempt to trip her up for a change, and she kept quiet about it.
It would pay off as Natalie turned around and tried to escape... only for her high-heels to step on the residue, and it sent her flat on her face.
"Always know that working behind their backs stands a good chance of working," Dawn quipped.
"If only they were that easy," Nick chuckled.
"No way your high heels are getting out of that!" Mat remarked. "And don't think you're off the hook for what you did to me either!"
"Those were just my shoes, you know..." Natalie sneered, knowing they were likely celebrating too early.
"For our rogues' gallery, you sure can be really dumb sometimes," Haruka retorted.
"And besides, that's 24-hour Adhesive Hair Pomade... you're officially stuck there..." Britney teased.
"Try to get your way out of that!" Melissa added.
Natalie Valentine then felt something wet around her side, and she also noticed some of the Pomade was stuck to her coat around the elbow area on her left side.
"Ooh, you spies make me SOOO MAD!" Natalie scowled.
She tried to wiggle free, but she had no luck.
"Maybe you'll now realize that taking over the world is just not meant to be for you..." Blaine remarked.
The spies then ran ahead, leaving Natalie Valentine stuck.
"So, what do we look for now?" Bridget wondered.
"Probably some way to shut down her fake-ass parade float," Dawn quipped.
"I HEARD THAT!" Natalie shouted from afar, clearly still stuck.
"YEAH, AND WE'LL SAY IT AGAIN, YOU SUCK!" Dizzy and Fena exclaimed, high-fiving each other.
"Any sign of that, RiCO?" Sam asked.
"Just follow the blinking light, and I'll lead you right to it," RiCO answered, Nick's X-Powder screen displaying a map of the area with a glowing blue line that led towards the float in question.
As the group followed RiCO's directions, Mira had some time to think about everyone's encouragement and why she felt like she wasn't doing a good enough job as the captain of the Jellyfish Pirates.
After all, it was a position that May had bestowed on her after Johnny's death, as she hadn't wanted to leave her new life behind.
But Mira had asked May to do exactly that due to the fact that she didn't feel up to being the captain.
Despite encouragement from the Jellyfish Pirates that she was doing a fine enough job as their captain, she still felt like she had to be better. After all, the leader was usually the one everyone looked to for, well, leadership in times like this.
But then she also considered that maybe she might have been overthinking things again. Sam had told tales of times when she'd felt tested, being the overall leader of the spy team, and she seemed to have gotten along just fine.
Mira's thoughts were interrupted when she looked back up and saw a gigantic parade float just ahead of them, no doubt Natalie's big project that she planned to use against the festival-goers.
"This the one?" Alex wondered.
"It matches what we saw on the schematics earlier," RiCO responded.
"Well, then, shall we wreck it good?" May chuckled.
"You read my mind, and that's something I usually do," Nick quipped, spreading his hands out. "Stand back, everybody."
When everyone moved back to a safe distance, Nick concentrated, his left hand glowing a bright yellow and his right hand glowing a bright green. After a couple seconds to focus, Nick slammed his hands together, the light surrounding them combining into a sphere of silver light that surrounded his hands.
"Consider yourself kicked out of the parade, Nat," Nick taunted as he wrenched his hands apart, a silver trail of light connecting his palms, before clapping his hands back together. This motion caused Nick's gathered psychic power to erupt from his open hands in the form of a large wave of silver light that thundered out like a tidal wave, crashing into Natalie's parade float and exploding in glorious fashion, filling the area with a flash of light that completely eviscerated the float in question.
"And that's one lame-ass parade float trashed like everything else she claims is 'good'," Nick quipped. "Now let's go find her secret weapon and trash that, too."
"Ooh, you brats are going to pay dearly for that one."
"You know, why am I not surprised that you managed to get out of that?" May groaned as everyone turned around to face down Natalie, surrounded by three of her mooks.
"How nice it is to have henchmen that will bail you out when it's needed," Natalie quipped.
"You might as well just surrender now, Natalie," Mat proclaimed. "We've already trashed your perfume float, and you can be damn sure that we'll be coming for your secret weapon next, and you know what we do to those."
"That remains to be seen, really," Natalie laughed as she scooted closer to Mira, spraying her perfume around them to force the spies to back off. "Look at you. You're supposed to be their leader, aren't you? But here you are, waffling and letting them down when you're needed the most."
"I'm warning you, Natalie, if you don't shut your trap right the hell now, you're gonna be in for a universe of pain!" May exclaimed.
"Hey, don't knock me for telling the truth, even if it hurts," Natalie laughed, staring down a clearly conflicted Mira. "Face it. As a leader, you're nothing but a total washout."
Natalie leaned back as if she was about to attack Mira. "I'm just telling it like it is," Natalie quipped. "In the end, it's your own fault."
Once again, those thoughts came back to Mira at the worst possible time, despite knowing that Natalie was just trying to get into her head.
While trying her hardest to think of something to do to get herself out of this pickle, she suddenly recalled something that Johnny had said to May during their training sessions way back in the day.
"May, you've gotta calm down. I don't want you pushing yourself too hard."
"But I've gotta be better at it! I can't just let go of my lessons now!"
"But it's also important to take a step back at points. You don't always have to be the best at what you do to be effective at it. Sometimes, 'better' can be 'good enough'."
Mira glanced down at the floor, those words echoing in her mind. "Better can be good enough..."
"And if that Johnny person you keep mentioning was the 'captain' before you, he must have been pretty lousy at it," Natalie laughed as she lashed out to strike Mira across the head with a windmill kick...
...only for Mira to swiftly raise her fist to block the kick, grabbing Natalie by the ankle in the process.
While trying to extricate her foot, Natalie glanced at Mira as she looked back up at her.
Instead of looking conflicted and scared, Mira was now positively angry.
("Last Strike" by Lyn Inaizumi plays)
"Wh-what?" Natalie gasped.
"...you pushed the Johnny button," Mira growled. "You shouldn't have done that."
Not waiting for Natalie to start yapping again, Mira spun Natalie around before kicking her in the chest, sending the perfume maker reeling.
Mira immediately went on the offensive, lashing out with multiple punches and kicks, clearly intent on doling out as much hurt as she could.
"April, Yuki, make sure Natalie's mooks don't try anything stupid!" Mira exclaimed. "Jam, Dizzy, you're with me! Everyone else, support the spies!"
"ROGER!" the Jellyfish Pirates exclaimed, splitting into their assigned teams.
While April and Yuki moved to battle the mooks, Jam and Dizzy joined Mira to continue laying a beatdown on Natalie.
"Where did all of this come from?!" Natalie shouted. "I thought you were gonna give up that whole 'captain' thing!"
"I just remembered something that Johnny said once," Mira answered, grabbing Natalie by the shoulders and yanking her down so she could knee Natalie in the face. "He said to May that, sometimes, better can be good enough."
While Natalie was reeling, Mira lunged forward to grab Natalie by the wrist and yank her closer. "Also, you insulted Johnny," Mira stated. "That's something you don't ever do around the Jellyfish Pirates unless you want your ass to get kicked."
Natalie reached up with her free hand to aim her hypnotizing perfume bottle for Mira, but she simply snap-kicked the bottle into the nearby wall where it shattered on impact.
Mira spun Natalie around a few times before tossing her towards May, who gladly responded by clocking Natalie in the chest with her anchor. Natalie stumbled backwards, still thankful her body armor was holding.
"You really think you've won?" Natalie gasped. "You won't be singing that horrid tune once I unleash my secret weapon on your precious city."
Natalie threw down a smoke bomb in order to obscure her escape.
"That didn't sound good," Souji quipped. "We don't even know what her secret weapon is, do we?"
"All we know is that she's apparently going to use it on the festival-goers, and that means we need to get out of this place and back to Kyoto right stat now!" Sam exclaimed.
"Well, then, let's get going, shall we?" Mira proclaimed in a tone more befitting a leader. "Jellyfish Pirates, let's set sail!"
The Jellyfish Pirates all followed Mira's lead as the entire group retraced their steps to escape Natalie's lair and get back to Kyoto to stop Natalie's secret weapon, whatever it was.
May couldn't help but smile at Mira, seeing that the spark had returned to her eyes. She moved to high-five Mira, glad that she returned it, as that meant the captain had returned.
To be concluded...
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Next time...
Britney: Where is that crazy lady? It can't be that hard to find something that's gigantic, like...
Yuki: Oh, you mean like that?
Natalie: You can say goodbye to your precious festival, you phony pirates!
Melissa: Holy crapbaskets, what is that thing she's riding?
Nick: I don't care what it is, we'll trash it like all the rest!
Mira: You're going to pay dearly for all of that nonsense you tried to put into my head, you know!
Natalie: I wasn't the one who put it into your head, I just made it worse!
Mira: Doesn't matter, you psycho! Remember what April said? You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!
May: I hope you're ready for a Jellyfish Pirates combo platter of pain, Nat, because that's exactly what we're serving up for you!
Mira: And with that, readers, we'll meet you on the parade route for the final act of Totally Spies: Captain's Lament, "A Captain's Duty"!
Jam: Man, you weren't kidding. The props and special effects departments are really going all out for these!
Nick: I know I've said it a lot, but if you think that's impressive, just you wait until you see what they've cooked up for episode one hundred. I promise, it's going to blow your freakin' mind.