7:19 P.M. – The Society
Location Unknown
Melody continued to type away at her computer, relying on her hacking skills in order for this particular mission to have any possible chance at success.
After all, she knew that most of the Society's data centers tracked outside intrusion attempts very thoroughly.
However, she knew they probably didn't know how to handle an inside intrusion attempt very well thanks to the Prime Field generators.
But she also knew that it probably wouldn't take them too long to get wise. And that meant she'd have to work fast, making sure to disrupt the Prime Field generator's systems just long enough for Froot and Vei to fully disable it, and then remember to wipe all traces of her intrusion so that the Society wouldn't figure out who was behind it all.
But Melody was willing to risk it for Henya. That girl was such a treasure, and Melody hoped the spies were treating her right.
After a few more double-checks to make sure everything was ready on Froot and Vei's end, Melody turned back to her computer and hit the enter key to initiate the hacking program that would mess up the Prime Field generator.
"All right, you two, my program should be working its magic," Melody stated on her communicator, hooked up to her left ear. "Everything clear on your end?"
"Yup, everything looks good so far," Vei answered. "Froot's got an illusion covering both of us, and we've got Kuro and Nazuna covering for us just in case things go south."
"Those two are certainly a pair," Melody giggled.
"Yeah, but a pair of what?" Froot chuckled.
"All right-y, then, I'm into the system," Melody proclaimed. "Froot, Vei, go do some damage."
"Music to my ears," Vei quipped. "Let's get this thing done."
(The pages constantly turn, no matter how long the reader takes. When one story ends, another story will inevitably start. In the end, there is only a new beginning.)
Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger are proud to present:
Totally Spies: The New Adventures
Episode 96: Irate Internet
Story Rated: T for Teen
Story Created: December 15th, 2023
Story Summary: The one-hundred and thirty-second co-op project between Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger, and episode ninety-six of our mission-based series Totally Spies: The New Adventures. Wouldn't you freakin' know it, Lady Dragon is back with yet another scheme to take over the W.O.O.H.P. Datascape, and she's got a new supervirus by her side, ViA. It seems like Lady Dragon hasn't learned from rule thirty-six, but, to the spies' surprise, iCO wonders why ViA seems so familiar to her, despite having never met him before. This time, however, Lady Dragon is getting ready to strike at what RiCO calls "The Deep Log", effectively the central core of the Datascape. Knowing clearly what would happen to the Datascape if the Deep Log fell into enemy hands, the spies follow RiCO and iCO into the Datascape in hopes of squashing Lady Dragon's ambitions once again...
Author's Notes from Mat49324: Well, we escaped the watery troubles from Water Polo Washouts, and it's now time to visit the Datascape once again for Irate Internet! We hope you enjoyed Water Polo Washouts as well! We're coming down to the end of season 8, and we're now one project closer to 100 complete projects, and our movie fic (which is already finished) as well. As of right now, it looks like Another Side, Another Story will definitely be coming in 2024. For now, we're going to be focusing on this project, and when we get to the season finale, we'll probably say some things about the movie. For now, here's The Blue Time Ranger for anything he'd like to say.
Author's Notes from The Blue Time Ranger: Five to go! We're heading back to the Datascape once again, which means Lady Dragon just doesn't know when to give it up, really. And since our last trip to the Datascape, um, Mega Man X Dive ended. In case you missed it, RiCO and iCO were borrowed from that, as is ViA, showing up today. When I finally saw how that story ended, it inspired this episode. But enough bantering, I don't want to spoil what's about to happen, so make sure your login password is typed correctly and let's network! ROLL IT!
And Now, the Obligatory Disclaimer: Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger do not own anything related to Totally Spies or any of its affiliations. It belongs solely to Marathon Media Group, Image Entertainment Corporation, Vincent Chalvon-Demersay, and David Michel. The only things of this story we DO own are any characters or locations created by us truly for the story. Any characters or things we don't own, we are just borrowing with no intent of copyright infringement, only for the entertainment of our readers. Besides, if we did own Totally Spies, which we don't, why would we be writing fiction on a fan site?
Act 1: Reroute Executables
6:14 P.M. – Malibu University
Nick and May's Dormitory
"YOU WILL FEAR THE FALCON KNEE!" May shouted.
"Even the almighty Captain Falcon can't outrun the fastest thing alive, you know!" Nick responded just as dramatically.
Not for the first time in recent memory, Nick and May's dorm room was getting pretty lively, as the both of them were practicing for the upcoming Smash Bros. tournament that Mali-U would be holding in just under a month's time. For this match, May was playing Captain Falcon, and Nick was playing his main Sonic.
"Damn you, fast guy!" May exclaimed.
"Oh, what, salty you can't keep up?" Nick cackled. They were clearly having way too much fun with this.
"So help me, I'll catch your pasty blue keester yet!" May retorted.
"Everything okay in here?" Henya asked after peeking into the room, having clearly heard the loud shouts. "I almost thought something was wrong when I heard all the yelling."
"No worries, Henya, everything's perfectly fine," May giggled. "We just tend to really get into things when we play Super Smash Bros., after all."
"Wanna give it a try, Henya?" Nick offered. "I'm sure a super-genius like you could probably pick it up in no time flat."
"Ah, heck it, why not?" Henya chuckled.
Of course, due to Henya's intellect, she picked up how to play Super Smash Bros. very quickly, and the match quickly devolved into rowdiness that eventually drew the attention of both Sam and Mat, who had just returned to Mali-U from a dinner date.
"Sounds like you're all having fun, huh?" Sam quipped.
"Henya's wavedashing me to death here!" May sputtered as she tried to escape from Ike, the character Henya was playing as, to no avail.
"And I'm just enjoying the sight," Nick chuckled.
"Your mistake, May," Henya laughed.
Once that particular match was over, the dorm room door suddenly flew open all by itself, and a large metal pipe emerged from the ceiling and aimed into the room.
"Okay, seriously, does Jerry have secret transport pipes everywhere?!" Henya quipped.
"We've kinda learned to accept it by now," Sam chuckled as the four spies all changed into their spy suits before jumping into the pipe, Henya following closely behind.
6:56 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters
Jerry's Office
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.
7:01 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape
Sector E
"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.
"Seems Lady Dragon is becoming a little too predictable here," Mat commented.
"Something tells me she's going to keep going with the Datascape no matter what," Nick replied.
"No doubt there," Blaine added.
"Not to change the subject, but where'd you come from, Sam, while we were playing Smash?" Henya wondered.
"Mat and I were out to dinner – Italian again," Sam chuckled. "Mat and I split the bill for a change."
Henya shortly remembered that Mat and Sam are engaged, and Britney and Melissa are his extra girlfriends.
"You two really have it made for each other to go out for Italian again," Dawn told them.
"Well, as luck would have it, the restaurant we go to has some creamed calamari, too," Sam giggled.
"But pasta's not the only thing I eat... naturally," Mat added. "Put me with a steak, and I'm in heaven again."
"Sounds like me, sort of," Nick chuckled.
"But I do also try and be a little open with what I try and eat," Mat added.
"Except spaghetti's something you can't go wrong with," Bridget commented.
Everybody was in agreement there.
"You guys really should see the kind of cook that April is," May quipped.
"I didn't know April could cook," Alex admitted.
"Oh-ho-ho, next time we're in Tachikawa, I'll have to have her cook something for all of you so you can see for yourselves just what an amazing cook she is," May chuckled.
"Sounds like fun," Melissa stated.
Hearing that Sam and Mat had gone to dinner again got Alex thinking if she should do the same with Nick again.
"Bridget makes a valid point, too," May added. "Who DOESN'T love spaghetti, after all?"
Melissa and Dawn were in agreement.
"Keep it up and you're gonna make me hungry," RiCO warned them playfully.
Before long, they got to sector G before anymore food talk could go any further.
"Everything seems okay for now," Haruka remarked after looking around.
"Maybe iCO got the whole sector cleaned up," Dawn commented.
"Are you nearby, iCO?" RiCO called out.
"Present," iCO replied, who then noticed Henya. "And yet another mystery guest, too."
The spies filled her in on Henya and her situation.
"This could become a habit," iCO chuckled. "I heard about that Ashley fellow thru RiCO as well as Momo."
"True that," Nick commented.
"I guess certain people see something in us that others don't," Britney added.
"By the way, Mat, I also heard what happened to you as well earlier with your Supercross series that didn't end the way you wanted it," iCO stated to Mat.
"Yeah, but I got what I wanted with Chad Reed wrapping up the Motocross title early," Mat quipped.
"Anyway, what's going on here, iCO?" Clover wondered.
"Well, for starters, unless this fellow is friend or foe, I've got a heck of a lot to tell," iCO quipped.
The spies looked confused because they did not see this new person before.
Lady Dragon suddenly made her appearance by teleporting onto the scene in front of the mystery figure that iCO had mentioned earlier.
"Well, well, spies, we really have to stop meeting like this," Lady Dragon chuckled as she tapped something on her wrist device.
"Yeah, yeah, we've heard your spiel before, Lady Flop," Mat retorted. "This is, what, your seventh attempt at taking over the Datascape?!"
"Or maybe I'm just going to assume you've become something of a masochist?" RiCO chuckled. "Hey, I don't judge. Just know that you're still going down no matter what you try."
"Oh, that remains to be seen," Lady Dragon laughed back. "I've cooked up something incredibly useful this time. And I'm sure your 'sister' has already had the privilege of meeting him, but I think I'll introduce him properly, so the rest of you wretches know exactly what you're up against. ViA, you're on."
Lady Dragon stepped to the side so that ViA could show up. He appeared to be someone wearing blue and white armor, colors similar to RiCO, rectangular shoulder plates on his armor, gems embedded into said shoulders, a red crystal embedded in his helmet, and he had long white hair tied up in a ponytail and a mask that shrouded his face so the spies could only see is yellow feline-esque eyes.
"So, you're the nuisances that my creator's told me so much about," ViA chuckled. "Hey, that works just fine for me. You're all here at once..."
ViA reached behind him and drew a small golden pommel before activating it, causing it to transform into a long, crescent-shaped beam saber.
"...so that means I can exterminate you all right here," ViA cackled as he charged to attack the spies.
"Okay, so we're playing that game, are we?!" RiCO shouted, raising her hands. "Command Line: Visual Distortion Field!"
A blast of near-invisible silver light flew from RiCO's hands and surrounded ViA, covering him in a shimmer of light that froze him completely in place.
"All right, my turn," iCO proclaimed, also raising her hands. "Command Line: Haste Protocol!"
iCO's body was surrounded by a shimmering white light before she lunged towards the frozen at speeds that rivaled Bridget in Sonic Mode, pinballing off of ViA from multiple angles and making it look like ViA was being assaulted by multiple streaks of shimmering silver light from many different angles.
Finally, iCO leaped to above ViA and dove downwards, slamming her palms into ViA's chest and smashing the supervirus into the ground with an outward explosion of silver light.
Much to their surprise, however, ViA simply brushed off their attacks.
"You're gonna have to do better than that, dearie," ViA laughed as he rushed towards RiCO and swung his saber towards her.
"Then try this on for size!" Henya exclaimed as she swung her Wondercube upwards to launch a barrage of glowing cubes towards ViA.
"Oh, what, you want to die first?" ViA cackled, slashing through most of the cubes with his saber before firing a blast of viral material straight towards Henya.
Thankfully, Henya was able to absorb the viral material into her Wondercube.
"Your move," Henya taunted.
"Why is it that you seemingly always have a new brat or two following you every time I see you punks?" Lady Dragon growled.
"Maybe we're just that cool," Clover chuckled.
"Hey, if that's more fools I can slice to ribbons, the more the merrier!" ViA laughed as he continually swung his saber at Henya. Much to the spies' relief, Henya was agile enough to dodge each slash until she emitted a burst of light from her Wondercube to drive ViA back.
RiCO took advantage of ViA's momentary stumble to blast him with an antivirus beam to his shoulder, but she was surprised to see that it didn't seem to expose anything this time.
"So sorry, my dear, but you won't be taking me down that easily," ViA chuckled. "I've got much more resistance than iCO did when she was still a hybrid."
"Then I guess I'll just have to keep up the pressure!" RiCO shouted as she materialized a large laser cannon to blast ViA back into iCO's path, where she continued the attack by waving her hand to conjure a field of digital spikes that battered at ViA's body.
Nick flew up into the air and blasted ViA back with a Final Shine Attack, only for him to quickly recover and join Lady Dragon.
"Well, spies, we must be off," Lady Dragon chuckled. "We have things to do, after all."
"Try not to get yourselves de-rezzed and rob me of that pleasure," ViA quipped as they teleported away.
"Well, that was a thing," Bridget stated. "I'm seriously wondering what ViA's angle is..."
That was when RiCO noticed that iCO was lost in thought.
"Everything okay, sis?" RiCO asked.
"...something about ViA just feels incredibly familiar to me, and I'm not sure why, since this is clearly the first time we've met him," iCO replied.
"Hey, we'll figure it out sooner or later," RiCO answered. "And we'll kick Lady Dragon's keester out of here and make her regret being so stubborn about taking this place over."
iCO nodded and smiled as she and RiCO high-fived each other.
Just then, an alarm bell rang on one of RiCO's data screens, and she opened up the rest in front of her to check out what was causing the disturbance.
"Let me guess, viral activity?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, the signal tower in Sector B is under viral attack," RiCO responded. "I dread to think what nonsense Lady Dragon's got in mind this time, and ViA's gonna be a problem of his own, so let's head out and put a stop to this!"
The spies all followed RiCO and iCO to the nearby teleporters that would take them to Sector B.
8:02 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape
Sector B
("Far Away" by Nickelback plays)
"This has to be Sector B," Blaine remarked.
"OH MY!" Nick gasped at the anomaly that stood before them.
It was a wildfire that showed no signs of letting up.
"Damn! We didn't come prepared for this!" Clover chastised.
Some of the spies were rummaging through their backpacks of gadgets to see if there were any water-related gadgets on them.
"We better hurry, guys!" Alex exclaimed.
"I don't see anything..." Haruka groaned.
RiCO, Nick, and iCO were scanning the wildfire to see if this was an illusion or otherwise.
"Looks like it's as real as it can get here in a digital world," RiCO stated after checking her data screens to see for herself.
"I think the closest thing we have to a hose or anything on us is the Wind Tunnel 9000!" Sam told the others.
"Then I guess we'll have to make due haste with them," Britney quipped.
The four main spies then used their Wind Tunnel 9000s to try and diffuse the wildfire.
"Is it doing anything?" Alex wondered.
"The wildfire's going backwards..." Sam stated as a starter.
Unfortunately, the fire advanced forward on the spies.
"That's not happening!" RiCO exclaimed.
She and Nick stepped forward to diffuse the wildfire themselves.
"How the heck do you stop a digital fire?" Nick wondered.
"I think there's a virus that's controlling the fires," RiCO stated after double-checking her data screens. "If we want to stop the fire, we're gonna have to find the virus that's causing it."
"No wonder we couldn't diffuse it..." Sam remarked.
"Maybe my Sonic Mode can help," Bridget suggested. "Sonic Mode, online!"
Bridget began running circles around the fire to build up kinetic energy before skidding to a stop and blasting said fire with a kinetic shockwave, not doing much to the fire itself, but it did expose the virus that was controlling the fires, allowing both RiCO and iCO to blast it with an anti-virus burst, deleting the virus on contact.
"Lady Dragon sure knew how to throw this kind of monkey wrench towards us!" May exclaimed.
"But nothing we can't handle," Melissa added.
"My sentiments exactly," Dawn quipped.
"Hold on a sec," RiCO remarked. "My sensors are telling me this wildfire is a diversion from Lady Dragon!"
"How do you figure?" Mat wondered.
"She's probably trying to keep us busy so she and ViA can wreak even more havoc," RiCO quipped.
"So, where to now?" Nick asked.
"I've got a lock on the both of them," iCO responded as she checked her own data screens. "It looks like they're somewhere in Sector C."
"Agh, she's leading us on a wild goose chase, isn't she?!" Clover growled.
"Seems that way," RiCO responded. "But it's nothing we can't handle, right?"
"Yeah, we've stomped on Lady Dragon and her viruses at least seven times so far," May quipped as she used her Ultra High Pressure Water Cannon to douse the last of the flames around them. "This won't be any different!"
"All right, Sector B is clear of viruses," RiCO stated. "Let's find those two jerks!"
"Wait, hold on, sister," iCO responded as she checked her data screens again. "I just got a more precise lock on Lady Dragon, and she and ViA are approaching our location fast!"
"Welp, at least they saved us the trouble of having to hunt them down for once, huh?" Alex chuckled.
"Watch me surprise them," Bridget quipped as she equipped a Metal Masher Boxing Glove and waited for Lady Dragon and ViA to arrive, since she was still in Sonic Mode.
The instant she caught sight of ViA, Bridget blitzed forward and slammed the Metal Masher Boxing Glove into ViA's face, sending him reeling for a couple seconds.
"...really, track girl? You're resorting to punching?" ViA chuckled as he regained his composure.
"Hey, don't knock what works," Bridget taunted. "And you know that hurt thanks to how fast I was going."
"Oh, it did," ViA proclaimed, activating his beam saber. "And now, you're going to get it for that."
ViA lunged forward to slash at Bridget, but she simply dashed away, waving two fingers at ViA in the universal sign of "bring it". ViA continued attempting to hit Bridget, but she was simply too fast for him to attack.
"Yeah, catch me if you can!" Bridget laughed as she continued to zip around Sector B.
"We'll see how long that enthusiasm lasts," Lady Dragon cackled as she typed something on her own wrist device, a holo-screen displaying a program she was attempting to run.
However, when she tried to execute said program, her holo-screen suddenly displayed a cute, cartoon-y image of RiCO sticking her tongue out.
"Did you learn nothing from the last time you were here?" RiCO taunted. "Your amateur hacks are nothing when you're dealing with me."
"Then how about I carve you up instead?" ViA chuckled as he moved to strike at RiCO, only for Henya to blast him backwards with a giant glowing cube. "...you are starting to vex me, little cube girl."
"Good, that means I'm doing my job correctly," Henya chuckled as she deftly dodged each swing of ViA's saber.
"So help me, you're gonna learn to shut your mouth!" ViA exclaimed as he continued to try and slash at Henya, only for iCO to hit him in the back with another anti-virus beam, turning his attention onto her.
"All right, start talking," iCO proclaimed. "Why exactly do you give me this strange feeling that I know you from somewhere?"
"...iCO, my dear, I thought it was obvious," ViA chuckled softly. "I mean, if even you can see it..."
"Get to the point, you masked skunk-weed!" Melissa shouted, aiming a Cyclone Blast Hairdryer towards ViA.
"Given that most of you aren't that tech-savvy, I'll spell it out clearly for you," Lady Dragon proclaimed. "When you turned iCO over to your side, I managed to save a part of the source code that I'd used to create her and set it aside for a future attempt at conquering this world of data. After my last defeat, I figured it was time to execute that plan of mine, and so I reconfigured iCO's old source code and used it to create the magnificent being you see before you. In essence, ViA is what iCO was always supposed to be before you wretches interfered, and it's all thanks to her own source code."
"That essentially makes us siblings, iCO," ViA quipped as he moved closer to iCO. "And you know your original purpose, after all. So why don't you forgo these losers and take your rightful place by our side?"
iCO's answer to that was to blast ViA backwards with a radial anti-virus shockwave.
"Because I'm not like that anymore, you soulless fake," iCO taunted. "I found a home here in the Datascape, and you're not taking that away from me as long as I still function."
"And if you lay another hand on my sister, you freak show, I swear I'll delete you so fast and so hard that there'll literally be nothing left of you," RiCO proclaimed. "I've beaten back so many threats to the Datascape before. And you, my blue ripoff friend, are no different."
RiCO raised her hand to open up a data screen as ViA attempted to split them up again.
"Command Line: Data Invert!" RiCO shouted, snapping her hand down to send out an aquatic-blue wave of light around her just as ViA tried to slash at her. This wave caused ViA to start floating helplessly in the air, much like Nick's Zero Gravity would.
Nick made it a point to fly up into the air and blast ViA into the ground with a Final Shine Attack.
"Now step off unless you want us to mess up your face even worse," Nick taunted. "If you even have a face under that thing."
"Go ahead and make your jokes while you can," Lady Dragon cackled as ViA retreated to her side. "But this is only the beginning."
Their piece said, Lady Dragon and ViA teleported away in a flash of dull blue light.
"Man, despite trying the same thing over and over, she just keeps getting more sadistic with each new attempt she makes on the Datascape, huh?" Mat quipped once everything had settled down for the moment.
"Well, it's a good thing we're here, then," Sam responded. "We're not going to let Lady Dragon or her wacky inventions have her way, right?"
"Couldn't have said it better myself, Sam," RiCO chuckled as she opened her data screens again to track Lady Dragon. "Let's follow them, shall we?"
The spies all followed RiCO and iCO's lead as they headed out to intercept Lady Dragon and ViA.
"They aren't getting away that easily," Melissa remarked.
iCO was having a bit of a hard time comprehending that ViA said they're both siblings.
"Did that feel like a bombshell to you?" Blaine asked iCO.
"A little," iCO answered. "But I can't understand how I couldn't have known about ViA."
"To be fair," RiCO chimed in. "I had no clue about this, either... unless this is some kind of diversion, too..."
"I wouldn't rule it out," Mat stated as RiCO prepared a teleportation to the next sector.
"Did they get to Sector C now?" Nick wondered.
"As predicted, they did," RiCO stated after doing a radar search herself. "But I think Sector C might be a little 'too close to home' for you all, if you know what I mean..."
"There's no way Lady Dragon could know what our beach house looks like..." Clover chastised.
"Well, I guess there's only one way to find out, is there..." Haruka groaned.
9:03 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Datascape
Sector C
"So, what did..." Sam started until they immediately recognized the surroundings.
"It's my old house?!" Clover chastised.
"That's disturbing if they know what our old homes looked like..." Mat commented.
"I'll say," Nick added.
The spies looked around, but it looked like "Clover's old mansion" had been ransacked.
"What in the world..." May remarked.
"This isn't how I left my old house before!" Clover exclaimed, knowing how responsible she was in these circumstances.
RiCO and iCO were busy scanning everything thinking this was another virus of sorts.
"Who forgot to lock the door after leaving?!" another voice boomed at Clover.
It sounded like Stella, who was less than happy with Clover.
"Don't buy it, Clover!" RiCO exclaimed as the "Stella" came into view. "It IS the virus again!"
Nick immediately knew how to combat that and fired a psychic shot at the "Stella," which turned out to be that virus in question that RiCO spoke of.
"I admit I was almost convinced," Britney chuckled.
"Let us handle this one," iCO stated as she swiped open her data screens to pinpoint where exactly this particular virus was coming from.
Once she'd figured it out, RiCO spun around and fired an anti-virus blast into the extremely large television hanging on the wall, exposing the virus and causing it to screech in pain as it was swiftly deleted.
Doing so was able to destroy the scenery and smoke out ViA from who-knew-where.
"Damn! I thought this was foolproof!" ViA chastised.
"You of all people should know A.I.s by now," iCO remarked to ViA. "Supposed 'sibling' or not... you're a disgrace to the term 'A.I.' unless I see something drastic."
"You'll be sorry you even belted out those words..." ViA growled.
He was interrupted by a Laser Lipstick shot from none other than Sam.
"I'm inclined to agree with iCO there," Sam emphasized.
"Don't think you're going to get away unharmed for that, Missy," ViA seethed.
Before long, the spies were surrounded by an ice cage, much to their surprise.
"What the heck?!" Blaine exclaimed.
Bridget, May, and Haruka tried using whatever gadgets they had, along with May using her anchor to break the cage, but nothing even made a scuff mark. Even Nick's psychic powers did not help one iota.
"Guys, we better think of something fast!" Alex remarked.
"There's nothing you CAN do!" ViA sneered and snapped his fingers.
Before long, the cage they were in began getting colder and colder.
"That's right, you're going to freeze to death in there, and there's really nothing you can do, is there?" ViA cackled. "That ice is programmed to be unbreakable, and even if RiCO could figure out how to hack it, it won't be long before you're not an issue either way."
Henya just smirked, realizing how familiar this felt, and raised her Wondercube into the air. One bright flash of neon-blue light later, the supposedly unbreakable ice had shattered into multiple harmless shards that were swiftly absorbed into her Wondercube.
"H-How in the hell did you..." ViA gasped.
"Please, I've dealt with that kind of 'unbreakable' ice before," Henya taunted. "My Wondercube is just too much for your amateurish tactics. Hey, I know a few hackers myself."
"Way to go, Henya!" Mat exclaimed.
"You know, you're really beginning to vex me," ViA growled. "I think it's about time I wipe you out of this wretched digital world once and for all!"
However, as ViA reached for his beam saber, RiCO had slipped behind and hit him with a Visual Distortion Field to freeze him in place.
"He's all yours, Nick!" RiCO shouted.
"Don't have to tell me twice," Nick chuckled as he spread his arms out wide, a sphere of green light forming around his left hand and a sphere of yellow light forming around his right hand.
Nick then slammed both of his palms together, the two spheres of light forming into a silver sphere of light that grew in intensity.
"Hope you're ready to reap what you sow, ViA!" Nick shouted as he wrenched his hands apart, a trail of silver light connecting them, before clapping his hands back together to unleash all of his gathered energy in the form a massive wave of silver light that resembled a tsunami.
The Visual Distortion Field wore off at that moment, but ViA couldn't get out of the way in time as Nick's Shining Star Attack crashed into him and exploded violently, illuminating the immediate area with a flash of silver light.
Nick was pleased to see that his Shining Star Attack had finally done some visible damage, with ViA's body warbling in different places.
"Just give it up already, ViA," Nick taunted. "Your creator has tried this same thing at least seven times already, and it's always failed. You really want to push your luck and make it an eighth failure?!"
"Oh, but we won't be failing this time," ViA chuckled as his body reformed itself, though it took a bit longer due to the damage he'd taken. "And iCO, you will come around sooner or later."
"I don't think that's going to happen," iCO retorted. "We may have been made from the same source code, but I am nothing like you."
"We'll see, won't we?" ViA chuckled as he made his retreat for the moment.
"Man, talk about polar opposites," Britney quipped.
"I'm more worried about what exactly ViA is planning to do," Blaine noted. "It can't be simply conquering the Datascape again. Lady Dragon's gotta have more creativity than that, right?"
"We'll figure it out, and we'll scuttle whatever her diabolical scheme is," RiCO proclaimed. "We always do, right?"
"Damn right, RiCO," May responded. "How about you lead the way?"
"That was definitely the plan," RiCO answered as she and iCO led the charge, leading the spies out of Sector C and towards wherever Lady Dragon and ViA were hiding out in hopes of stopping whatever their diabolical plan for the Datascape was.
To be continued...
Next time...
Melissa: Hey, Lady Flop, why are you running from us?!
Lady Dragon: Because I have better things to be doing with my time, of course!
Mat: Oh, what, you don't want to play with us?
ViA: Maybe she won't, but I will!
Dawn: Hey, we've seen what you can do, and we're really not impressed.
ViA: Is that a fact? Well, then, we'll see if this shuts you up!
Nick: Hands off my cousin, you viral reject!
ViA: Or what?
Nick: I'm glad you asked that.
iCO: Hey, I actually get to do the "next time on" line. I've usually been too busy to do it. We've still got a lot of web space to crawl, so make sure you log in to the next act of Totally Spies: Irate Internet, "Secure Connection"!
RiCO: Oof, my helmet got stuck to my head. Is it seriously because I'm sweating my keester off on this set?
Alex: Well, you do perform all of your own stunts, right?
May: Hold on, is the air conditioning busted? Seriously?!