On Today's Episode: The spies corner Coach and Stacy, but as always, they decide that it's time to pull out their trump card, and this one's quite a doozy. Can the spies manage to mash up this marauding machine without Stacy managing to steal their talents, or could this be the end of that particular road?
Act 3: Muscle Memory
8:45 P.M. – Coach and Stacy's Secret Lair
Before too long, the spies managed to hunt down Stacy and the Coach.
"All right, you washouts, there's nowhere left for you to run!" Bridget proclaimed.
"And that's coming from someone who can really run!" Alex added.
"Oh, who says we're running, you little brats?" Coach sneered.
"On the contrary," Stacy added. "We're only just getting started! Your talent is going to be ours, no matter what you think!"
"Hey, did anyone ever tell you that guys don't like it when ladies are too pushy?" Blaine retorted.
They could see that last statement really irked Stacy.
"Ooh, nice one, Blaine," May commended. "Look at how steamed she's getting!"
"All right, that's it! You've insulted us for the last time!" Stacy shouted.
"I hope you're all ready, because you've got a pressing engagement with hell!" Coach added.
"More like you're ready to be slammed into defeat..." Nick corrected.
"Okay, what the heck is that thing supposed to be?!" Melissa chastised.
Coach and Stacy had jumped into the cockpit of the strange machine, and the lights in the room turned on to reveal a rather large cannon-like device connected to a series of canisters holding various sports implements.
"Hey, we've taken down stranger trump cards before, so this one oughta be no different... right?" Sortiliena told everyone, obviously not fazed.
"Exactly right!" Sam proclaimed. "Let's execute the plan, guys!"
"Try us, you little punks!" Coach laughed as the cannon activated and started firing random cascades of sports objects, mostly the balls the sports used, at the spies.
As Sam and Mat decided to dive in opposite directions to draw the machine's aim away from the others, Sortiliena snuck up behind Stacy, who was standing near the bottom of the cannon as it turned.
Suddenly, Stacy turned around and aimed a strange device towards Sortiliena. Thankfully, Sortiliena was able to jump away as the device emitted a bright flare of light.
"Whew, that was way too close," Sortiliena quipped.
"Oh, lucky me, I just remembered that I did make a spare talent-draining device!" Stacy laughed. "How you tend to forget things sometimes."
"You little punk, you were just playing us this whole time, weren't you?!" Melissa exclaimed.
"And you're only figuring this out now?" Stacy chuckled. "Guess you're not as slick as I thought."
"We'll see about that!" Bridget shouted. "Sonic Mode, online!"
Once Bridget had transformed, she dashed off towards Stacy while running around the cannon in order to keep Coach's attention divided as well.
"What part of this isn't registering in your head?" Stacy taunted. "If I hit you with this, there goes your overwhelming speed. Do you really want to..."
Bridget responded by lunging forward to soccer-kick the draining device out of Stacy's hands and make it go sailing through the air until it was caught by Sam.
"Rules for villains, number forty-nine," Bridget retorted. "Don't monologue any longer than you have to, as it gives the good guys time to ruin your plans."
"Couldn't have said it better myself, Bridget," Sam chuckled as she threw the device towards Nick, who swiftly obliterated it with a Final Shine Attack.
The cannon unfurled actual laser blasters from the side of the main barrel and started firing on the spies, forcing them on the defensive.
"That's right, now you can dance for me!" Coach cackled as the main cannon fired more balls towards a prone Mat.
Henya placed herself in front of Mat and swung her Wondercube upwards to conjure a barrage of glowing cubes that flew forward to stop the barrage of balls, and then snapped it down to absorb the lasers into her Wondercube.
"Hey, no cheating, cube girl!" Coach proclaimed.
"Oh, that's totally rich," Henya retorted. "Coming from someone like you? You can just go and stuff it, okay?"
Not waiting for a response, Henya aimed her Wondercube and fired a large glowing cube into the cannon, momentarily derailing it and forcing Coach to reorient it before he could continue attacking.
"Anyone see a weak point on this thing?" Clover wondered.
"You're not getting that chance, by the way!" Coach proclaimed as the cannon fired claws from the underside of the main barrel that snatched Alex by the wrists and pulled her closer to the machine.
"Hope you're ready to forget everything," Stacy chuckled as she aimed another draining device directly at Alex's face.
Before Stacy could activate it, though, Nick came flying in and socked Stacy in the face with a whirlwind kick that sent her stumbling, before turning around and using a psychic blade to slash apart the claws keeping Alex trapped there.
"Thanks for the save, Nick," Alex giggled.
"Always my pleasure," Nick replied before turning to Stacy as she picked herself back up. "Now why don't you stay there for a while?"
"Like I'm really gonna listen to you," Stacy retorted.
"Um, I wasn't asking, by the way," Nick shot back before slamming his palm into the ground and sending Stacy helplessly floating into the air with a Zero Gravity.
May snuck in while everyone else was busy dealing with Stacy and started whacking the cannon a few times with her anchor, hoping to do some damage and end this fight quickly before things got even hairier.
But, much to May's surprise, her swings didn't so much as dent the armor this time around.
"Yeah, I made sure to construct this cannon with much sturdier armor," Coach laughed. "Cost an arm and a leg to get the good stuff, but man, was it worth it!"
"Well, this might be a problem," May quipped as she backed off to find another angle of attack.
"You're damn right it's a problem!" Coach proclaimed as he aimed for May and fired, only for the barrage of balls to be stopped by a psychic barrier.
"Nice try, you washout," Nick retorted.
Henya skidded to a stop, only to notice how brightly her Wondercube was glowing, which meant it had absorbed enough energy to give someone a power boost.
"I've got a boost ready, by the way!" Henya exclaimed. "Who wants a supercharge this time?"
"Ooh, me, me!" May laughed as she jogged over to where Henya was standing. "I wanna show this punk a thing or two."
"You sound just like Vei when you say that," Henya giggled as she tapped May's chest twice with her Wondercube and sending a bright blue burst of light into her body.
Suddenly, May found herself floating in the air, dark blue light surrounding her body. A bright flash of neon-blue light erupted from her body, catching Coach and Stacy's attention.
When the flash cleared, May found herself surrounded by a bluish-black aura of light with a glowing cyan glitching effect affecting her body, cyan electric sparks emanating from her body periodically. May's clothes had also turned mostly black, with all of the linings on her clothes glowing a bright neon blue as well. Even her anchor now had glowing neon-blue lines running across it.
Already feeling the power surging through her body, May charged forward to attack the cannon, leaving glowing afterimages behind her as she ran.
"Um, your armor didn't even dent my awesome sports cannon earlier, little pirate chicky, so what makes you think a little glowy is gonna make any difference?" Coach taunted.
Coach would quickly have to eat his own words when May reached the cannon and swung her anchor at the main barrel. The force of the swing combined with the power boost from the Wondercube was enough to completely destroy the cannon barrel.
Naturally, Coach was speechless to see that, so May moved to the main power source of the cannon and destroyed that with a single anchor strike as well.
Intent on finishing this quickly, May jumped into the air and came down on top of what was left of the cannon before swinging her anchor directly into the cannon. Forcing Coach to eject.
And it was good thing he did, as the instant May's anchor made contact with the cannon, a shockwave of neon-blue light exploded outward from it and completely eviscerated the cannon, reducing it to nothing but scrap metal and various deflated balls.
May landed on the floor in front of a clearly scared Coach and Stacy as her Wondercube power boost faded away, her clothes and anchor returning to normal.
"Well, this is a fine kettle of fish you've gotten yourselves into," May taunted. "Anything to say for yourselves?"
"You don't need to answer that, by the way," Nick chuckled as he raised a hand to trap Coach and Stacy inside a psychic bubble.
"And that's officially that!" Haruka proclaimed once everything had settled down. "Another baddie to add to the registry."
"How about we get out of here and check in with Jerry?" Bridget asked as she reverted to normal.
"Don't have to tell me twice!" Britney chuckled.
9:59 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters
Jerry's Office
"Another job well done, agents," Jerry commended. "We'll see to it that Stacy and the Coach are locked away tightly."
"Thanks, Jer," Sam quipped. "I didn't think we'd see them again, especially Stacy."
"We'll send you back for some light dinners, then," RiCO replied, materializing in the office.
"I sure could go for something before turning in for the night," Alex laughed.
10:03 P.M. – Malibu University
The Spies' Penthouse
And eat some food they did.
"Too bad we didn't have the beach today," Britney stated.
"Yeah, that might've been what Mat needed after his last race," Blaine gasped.
"Well, there's really nothing to go crazy over this time," Mat sighed. "Chad Reed's already the champ, but what happened at Southwick... it's a bummer nonetheless."
"Dude, you handle these things a little better than I would," Nick told Mat. "And we're all still hitting the beach tomorrow, period."
"No doubt we are," Alex giggled.
Sam cuddled next to Mat after she was done with her light dinner.
"What about the 250cc title, dude?" Nick wondered.
"I think 17 points is a sizeable gap for Ryan Dungey," Mat replied. "And while wacky things have been known to happen, I don't see that happening this time around. These 4-strokes have come a long way, but then again, it IS a machine, and it has a mind of its own..."
"Hey, if there's one thing I've seen with all the sports I've watched, it's that you should never count anyone out until it's all said and done," Nick quipped. "After all, my grandma always said 'any chance is still a chance'."
"Even though Mat thinks it's a done deal, I'm checking out that last race indeed," May giggled.
Nick nodded in agreement.
"What the heck... Mat's Motocross series can get entertaining," Haruka chuckled.
10:04 A.M. – Malibu University
Beach Area
When the next day came around, everybody was having their fun.
Clover and Blaine were having a beach volleyball game against Nick and Nozomi.
"I saw that, Clover!" Nozomi exclaimed as she performed a diving save to knock the ball back upwards when Clover had thought she'd gotten a point off of them.
"Yeah, but did you see this?!" Clover proclaimed as Blaine bumped the ball into the air towards her, after which she jumped into the air spinning before whacking the ball over the other side.
"They get pretty rowdy, huh?" Henya chuckled.
"Tell me about it," Haruka quipped.
In the meantime, Sam, who decided her red and white tie-on bikini would be best for this beach outing, was having a happy chase with Mat.
"You're mine, ya know!" Mat exclaimed.
"No way..." Sam giggled.
Back at the shoreline, Alex, Britney, and Melissa were tanning themselves, along with Britney and Melissa seeing Mat and Sam have their chase.
"Brit, I know you're going to get another outing with Mat, but I would personally count this like I am," Melissa stated to Britney.
"No doubt I am," Britney replied, knowing Sam and Mat were going to come back to their designated spots on the Mali-U Beach.
"By the way, hope you're enjoying the beach, Henya," Haruka stated as she, May, and Bridget were getting some quality swims in for the water polo season.
"This place is amazing," Henya giggled. "I haven't seen a beach since I was a kid, before the Society nabbed me."
"Well, just make sure you enjoy it as much as you can before fall comes along and messes everything up," May chuckled. "It still feels like summer right now, so squeeze every last drop out of it."
To May's surprise, Henya changed into her own swimsuit (thanks to her Wondercube) and dove into the water to start swimming around with Bridget, who was doing all kinds of underwater tricks.
"You little showoff," Haruka quipped.
"Hey, I am the speedster of the three of us," Bridget stated.
"Yeah, but can you do this?!" May retorted, jumping out of the water briefly to do a stylish flip before diving right back in.
As Henya tried to replicate Henya's move, she couldn't help but think about the rest of her friends and how much they'd love to do something like this.
Don't think bad thoughts, Henya thought. I'm gonna go back there soon enough. And if Melody has things under control by the time I do, then it shouldn't be too bad. And I know Melody.
7:27 P.M. – The Society
Location Unknown
"Wow, Melody actually figured out a weakness in their systems?" Vei gasped once Froot told her the specifics of how they were going to screw up the Prime Field generators. "Well, if anyone could do it, it would be Melody."
"Yeah, Henya may be the smartest of all of us, but Melody's definitely the hacker queen around here," Froot chuckled. "Are you sure you still want to go through with this, Vei? You know how things tend to go around here..."
"Of course," Vei replied. "I've been stuck here as a powerless girl for too long. I want to cut loose and fly free again. And if this'll help me do that again, then you bet your flying keesters that I'm all in."
Vei stood back up and cracked her knuckles to prepare. "I've been wanting to stick it to these jerks for a long time now," Vei proclaimed.
"Good to see you're so enthusiastic about it," Froot quipped.
"So, how exactly are we going to handle this mission?" Vei wondered.
"We've just gotta wait a bit longer," Froot answered. "Melody's hacking into their systems right now, and once she's gotten in, that's when we'll make our move."
"I know Melody can do it, too," Vei stated.
"I've got Kuro and Nazuna on standby, too, just in case we need a backup plan," Froot replied. "It shouldn't be too much longer before we can go nuts."
"Sounds like a fun time to me," Vei chuckled. "The Society's kept us under its thumb for long enough."
Froot just nodded as she glanced out the window of Vei's room, just waiting for a signal from Melody so they could get started.
Anything to finally be free of this prison masquerading as a sanctuary.
Totally Spies: Water Polo Washouts
~The End~
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Final Note from Mat49324: Well, that's all for Water Polo Washouts! We hope you enjoyed this one, and that you'll stay tuned for the next project on The Blue Time Ranger's account. If any of you got a Space Jam vibe from this fic with May, Bridget, and Haruka's talents being taken, then good call on your parts. I really felt I had to touch on this plot twist with those three going for the Mali-U Water Polo team, especially since all I really had done with that was have them not join on a mission in Future Frenzy due to a road trip with the WP team. For now, we hope you've enjoyed season 8 so far. We're getting closer to the movie fic (which is already completed), but up next is another project that's taking the spies to the Datascape again. Find out more in Irate Internet, which will be posted by The Blue Time Ranger. For now, here IS him with anything he'd like to say.
Final Note from The Blue Time Ranger: And that's all she wrote for this one! I'm honestly surprised that Space Jam wasn't the first thing that came to mind when "talents being taken" came up, but like I said, my mind is weird sometimes. As for the whole water polo thing, we do plan on showing some more action with May, Haruka and Bridget in games later on, but that's for another time that's not here.
And now, here's what's coming up next time on Totally Spies: The New Adventures! It's time to head back to the Datascape for yet another scuffle with Lady Dragon, and she's got yet another supervirus by her side, but let's just say that things are not gonna go down the same way they did in Subdigitals. If I say anything else, I'll just end up spoiling things, so prepare to network for Irate Internet, which will be posted by me. So, until next time, have a fantastic day, don't listen to the screeching morons, enjoy this preview of Irate Internet, and we'll see you next mission!
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Once all thirteen spies were in Jerry's office and suited up for the mission briefing, the first thing they noticed was that Jerry wasn't in the office, the large viewscreen was already active, and it was showing a video feed of RiCO searching through what appeared to be Sector E of the W.O.O.H.P. Datascape for something in particular.
"I don't think I need to ask anything to know who's probably on the loose today," Melissa chuckled.
"Nice to know you've got the routine down pat by now," RiCO teased. "But to actually answer your unasked questions, yes, I caught wind of Lady Dragon snooping around inside the Datascape again. Jerry's just double-checking the containment facility to make sure nobody else got out."
"Doesn't this whacko game maker know when to just cut her losses and give up trying to mess with the Datascape?!" Alex proclaimed. "She's really starting to get stale with her schemes, you know!"
"Remember when she used to just be a crazy video game designer?" Clover quipped. "Ah, those were good times."
"Regardless, if Lady Dragon's trying to muck up the Datascape again, then whatever she's planning can't be anything good," Nick responded. "So, how about we join you in there and help you two take down this persistent little nutball?"
"Sounds like a plan to me, Nick," RiCO quipped. "Prepare to network!"
The Virtualizer emerged from right above the wall by the viewscreen, and it blasted all thirteen spies, Henya included, with a bright flare of blue light that turned them into data so they could be transmitted into the W.O.O.H.P. Datascape.
"Wooooooow," Henya gasped once everyone was safely inside the Datascape, glancing around and marveling at the strange world she was inside of.
"Oh, yeah, we've never told you about this part of W.O.O.H.P., huh?" RiCO giggled as she walked up to Henya. "This is the Datascape, essentially the world inside of W.O.O.H.P.'s computer systems. I usually bring the spies here whenever Lady Dragon's snooping around, since in the past few years, she's been obsessed with trying to take over the Datascape."
"Given that the Datascape effectively runs W.O.O.H.P.'s computer systems, that'd be pretty bad if she took control of it," Sam noted.
"Speaking of which, is iCO all right?" Nick wondered. "I don't see her anywhere nearby."
"She's in Sector G searching for Lady Dragon or any of her viruses," RiCO answered, waving her hand to open up a trio of data screens in front of her. "I was going to meet up with her once I finished my sweep of sector E, so how about we do that?"
With RiCO leading the way, the spies and Henya followed her towards the nearby set of teleporters that would take them to sector G, now very curious about what exactly Lady Dragon was up to this time.
To be continued in Totally Spies: Irate Internet...