1:21 P.M. – Malibu University
The Spies' Penthouse
("Everlasting Shine" by Tomorrow X Together plays)
Henya continued to flip through the channels on the television in the spies' penthouse as she waited for the spies to come back from The Groove.
"I swear, I've never seen someone as obsessed with shopping as Clover is..." Henya chuckled. "Well, except maybe..."
Henya's thoughts were cut off when she heard a ringing coming from the penthouse.
But it didn't sound like any of the spies' phones or their X-Powder alerts.
Henya's gaze snapped to her Wondercube, which was resting on the nearby counter by the TV, when she realized that the ringing was coming from it.
That meant somebody was trying to call her on the Wondercube.
But that could only mean one thing.
When the realization sank in for her, Henya scrambled off of the couch to grab her Wondercube and answer the communication.
"Wh-who is this?" Henya tentatively asked.
"Heya, girl," the voice on the other end laughed.
"Melody?!" Henya gasped. "Wait, if you're calling me on my Wondercube, then..."
"Yup! Yours truly shut down the Prime Field generator with my supreme hacking skills," Melody chuckled. Henya suddenly heard the sound of an explosion on the other end. "And that would be Vei going to town."
"Are the others safe?" Henya asked.
"We're all gathered together in the west wing," Melody responded. "Since Vei's going off in the east wing."
"I'll be there just as soon as I can," Henya stated.
"Can't wait to meet your spy friends, Henya," Melody quipped as the call ended.
All Henya could do now was wait for the spies to return...
...or maybe she could go to them.
(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 100: The Day of Unity
Story Rated: T for Teen
Story Created: February 2nd, 2024
Story Summary: The one-hundred and thirty-sixth co-op project between Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger, and EPISODE ONE HUNDRED of our mission-based series Totally Spies: The New Adventures. With the Prime Field generator down and a revolt happening in the Society, Henya decides it's at last time to return and save her friends, so the spies follow her there in order to rescue Henya's friends and bring the Society down once and for all before they can free Decimus. However, a lot of mysteries still surround Decimus and why Henya and her friends are so adamant that he not be freed from his prison. Is Decimus just that destructive? Could it be a front for another plan? Or is something even more sinister waiting in the wings, eagerly anticipating its chance to take over? One thing's for sure: the spies, as per usual, are in for the fight of their lives. Can they stop the Society's evil plans, or is this only the beginning of the end?
Author's Notes from Mat49324: We have made it! #100! I would say this is another achievement for us since we got back in contact with each other in summer 2019! We have no intention of stopping these fun projects, especially with the new season of TS coming up later this year. I'll be giving it a chance when it comes on, and I hope it won't disappoint. As I said prior, I cracked 100 stories total on Fanfiction with The Water Wars, 100 projects overall with The Blue Time Ranger with The Wrong Touch, and 100 TS projects alone with Sink or Swim. For now, we hope you enjoy this season 8 finale, and that you'll stay tuned for our movie, and season 9 premiere! Here's The Blue Time Ranger for anything he'd like to say.
Author's Notes from The Blue Time Ranger: THIS. IS. IT! It's been almost five years since Mat and I's return to the Totally Spies fanfiction super-train. We've been through so many ups and downs, so many wacky capers, so many memories. And now, at long last, we have reached the big triple digits! This is episode one hundred of Totally Spies: The New Adventures, and if you thought our previous season finales have been insane, you haven't seen nothin' yet. Just to clarify, this episode is going to be five acts instead of the usual three, just because I'm bursting with ideas and three acts probably won't be able to contain all of the madness within. But now I'm just rambling. Let's bring season eight to the finish line and celebrate the milestone of one hundred episodes! 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: The Infiltration Begins
1:34 P.M. – Beverly Hills
The Groove
"Ah, sweet victory!" Clover laughed as the spies exited the Groove, having found everything they were gathering for their upcoming movie night this weekend.
"Says the girl who dragged me halfway across the whole freakin' mall just to buy a single pair of shoes she'll only ever wear once in her life," Nick chuckled. "You needed me there why?"
"Hey, it's the principle of the thing," Clover countered.
"I'm just glad they actually had the movie this time," May quipped. "When it came out last week, the video store was mobbed so badly I almost thought they were gonna go out of business!"
"You know how popular that place is now, May," Bridget admitted.
"And now, we just need to get back home and get everything set up," Haruka proclaimed. "Saturday's gonna be a big day for us!"
As Nick smiled at the spies' conversation, he looked back towards the parking lot, only to see a hyperdimensional pocket open in front of the group, and Henya jumped out of it soon after.
"Henya, what's the matter?" Nick wondered. "Everything all right?"
"I just got a call from Melody," Henya responded. "The Prime Field generator's been shut down, and the Society's vulnerable now."
"Guess that means it's time we all head back there to kick some faces in, huh?" Alex quipped.
"We all knew this was coming," Dawn replied.
"I'm sending some help your way, too," RiCO proclaimed from Nick's X-Powder. "Henya called us here at W.O.O.H.P. to inform us."
"Hey, did somebody call for a combat instructor?" Sortiliena proclaimed as she landed on the ground right in front of the spies.
"Wow, three capers in a row, huh, Sortiliena?" Mat chuckled.
"Hey, if you guys are finally going to tear this Society place a new hole, I figure you'd need all the help you can get," Sortiliena answered.
"Very true," Nick stated. "Shall we, everyone?"
After a quick detour to drop their groceries and other stuff off at their penthouse, Henya created another hyperdimensional pocket that led back to the Society's location, and all fourteen spies jumped into the portal.
1:45 P.M. – The Society
Location Unknown
"Whoa, so this is the Society?" Alex gasped once everyone jumped out of the hyperdimensional pocket to behold the Society, a large dome-shaped building reminiscent of a futuristic space exploration outpost in a sci-fi movie, with multiple smaller domes branching off from the largest dome in the center. The ground around the building was mostly bare and dirty, with only a few flickers of plant life showing.
"Yeah, it's just as cliché as you'd suspect," Henya admitted.
Suddenly, an explosion of silver light erupted from one of the smaller domes.
"What the heck was that?!" Melissa gasped.
"That would be Vei," Henya answered. "Now that her powers are back, she's going off. Let's go meet up with her so we can all drop this place on Decimus' head."
"Sounds like a plan to me!" May proclaimed as the group all set off for the southwestern dome.
"I feel like this is our space mission again," Clover commented, remembering back to Lady Luna.
"Or should we go with Violet Vanderfleet?" Alex wondered, looking at the plant life.
"Whatever we go with, we need to get this place back to their own civilization," Sam told everyone.
"I'll be ready when the time comes," Sortiliena quipped.
"I don't sense any of our rogues' gallery around here, for what it's worth," Nick replied after using his psychic radar.
"Are these Society people real space exploration fanatics or the latter?" Mat asked Henya.
"They're really into anything – space exploration, sports, science, fashion... just about anything," Henya replied.
"That's pretty encouraging," Sam commented.
"They have all the answers to what's going on in the Society as well," Henya added.
She then led the spies through the building to where they would be.
"There's at least a couple of extras, not counting me," Henya told the spies.
"Well, we look forward to meeting with them," Haruka stated. "And for once, we don't have any athletics or anything of the sorts to worry about for the time being."
Nick and Mat nodded in agreement since they were both part of the student newspaper at Mali-U.
"And Water Polo doesn't begin until the Spring, anyway," Bridget added.
Henya simply followed the light from Vei, and that's where everybody saw the rest of her team.
"Oh, I bet that's the spy team you spoke of, Henya," Melody replied after they both shared a hug.
"You would win that bet," Henya giggled.
She then went through introductions of all the spies, and Sortiliena as well.
To say that Melody and Vei were surprised at hearing Sam and Mat are engaged and Mat having two additional girlfriends – along with Nick – while Clover just had Blaine was an understatement.
"That doesn't bother you guys?" May asked.
"Hey, you should have seen Kuro that one time he pretended to have a harem," Melody giggled.
"You know that was only because he watched that old-school anime," Henya chuckled. "Should have never put ideas in his head."
"They're lucky... and then some!" Clover emphasized.
"Apparently," Vei stated.
"But we have gotten word of how fun some of you are away from your missions... partly thanks to Henya herself," Melody added.
The spies shared a chuckle.
"So, you care to tell us what's going on here?" May requested.
"Certainly," Melody replied.
The spies then geared up to hear the explanation.
"Well, to make a long story short, after Henya vamoosed the first time, I did some digging as to why," Melody explained. "Since I'm kinda a master hacker, it didn't take me too long to figure out."
"And I always suspected that their lies were a big ol' crock," Vei quipped. Vei was about Melody's age, with long, silver-white hair and brownish-gold eyes. "But I couldn't do anything against it while the Prime Field generator was suppressing my powers."
Melody turned towards the nearby hallway, lined by doors that reminded the spies of the hallways of Mali-U dorms. "All right, ladies and gentleman, you can all come out now!" Melody proclaimed.
After a couple seconds, four more figures shuffled out of the closest room to greet the spies.
"Henya!" Nazuna gasped as she flung herself forward to hug Henya. "I'm so glad you're doing okay!"
"I could say the same about all of you," Henya replied before turning back to the spies. "Well, spies, I think it's time I introduced you to the rest of my friends here who have helped out."
Henya gestured to each of her friends in turn. "This is Froot," Henya stated. Froot had tussled, neck-length, teal-colored hair with emerald green highlights and long "tails" in front that go slightly past her shoulders. She has emerald green eyes, and was wearing a short black and purple off-shoulder revealing dress with a hexagon design on the chest, arm-length fingerless gloves, a single thigh high fishnet, spiked heels, a choker, and a silver crown with a skull motif. "She can cast illusions on people to make them look like other people."
"This is Nazuna," Henya continued. Nazuna was slightly younger than Henya, and the spies recognized her, since Snit had transformed into her during a previous caper. "Her power is that she can read people's emotions as colored auras around them."
"And this guy is Kuro," Henya quipped. Kuro had short, dark hair with red undertones and bright red eyes, and was wearing a black t-shirt with a tear in the front and stitches that fell over his left shoulder to reveal a white pattern on the front of the shirt, black shorts, a red and black jacket with puffy sleeves and a black hoodie with red ears, and black boots with silver spikes that reached his ankles. "His talent is the ability to blend in with the shadows and become practically undetectable, which means he's a master at stealth."
"Finally, we have Filian," Henya stated. Filian was about Henya's age, with shoulder-length white hair and violet eyes, wearing what resembled a Japanese schoolgirl outfit. "Her power allows her to gather kinetic energy and use it to boost herself."
"Ah, a girl after my own heart," Bridget chuckled, knowing she did mostly the same thing with Sonic Mode.
"It must be nice to finally use your talents again, huh?" Melissa quipped.
"Oh, tell me about it," Filian responded. "I just hope Vei didn't do anything reckless when she was letting loose..."
"Oh, don't worry, I just blew up some of their precious computers," Vei chuckled. "The instant I started smashing them up, the guards just turned tail and ran."
"Okay, so, now here's the question I'm sure is on everyone's mind," Haruka quipped. "Do any of you know exactly where Decimus' prison, seal, or whatever is in this place? That way, we can head that way and make sure nobody's trying to break the seal."
"It should be at the lowest level of the facility, a couple miles underground," Froot stated. "The only problem is, security's no doubt been put on high alert thanks to our little 'jailbreak'."
"Well, that's what you've got us for," Mat proclaimed. "We're kinda masters at this whole thing."
"Then let's get out of this area and find a way to take us to the lower levels of the facility," Sam stated. "RiCO, is there any way you can help us?"
"Do I always come through for you all?" RiCO giggled. "It took a bit longer than I thought, probably due to whatever was left of the Prime Field firewalls, but those firewalls are gone now, so I have a full map of the facility for all of you."
A detailed map of the Society facility appeared on all of the spies' X-Powders (and Mat's Nintendo DS, of course), a bright blue line detailing the quickest route to reach the underground bunkers they were looking for.
The spies all followed the map in the indicated direction, Henya and her friends not too far behind.
However, as soon as they reached the elevator, a gaggle of Society security guards approached the group, shock sticks aimed their way.
"That is far enough, Subject XIII," one of the guards proclaimed. "You shouldn't have come back here."
"Oh, what, you constantly go on these diatribes about how you want me back in your fold, and when I finally do come back, you say I shouldn't have?" Henya retorted. "Why don't you just spare me the hypocrisy already?!"
"Regardless, you will regret your foolish decision to escape, Subject XIII," another guard stated, all of them aiming their shock sticks for Henya, only to get blasted backwards by a burst of silver light courtesy of Vei.
"Her name is Henya, you padded-room clucks," Vei shot back. "And now that the Prime Field generator is taken care of... it's time for you to feel our wrath."
"Let me at them first, Vei!" Nazuna shouted. "I wanna clobber these jerks for making Henya run."
"Be my guest, Nazuna," Vei chuckled, stepping back so that Nazuna could go on the offensive.
"Um... should we maybe, just maybe, retreat?" one of the guards asked, knowing exactly what happened when Nazuna got angry.
Nazuna simply closed her eyes for a second, and when she opened them again, both her pink eye and her blue eye had turned a sinister shade of red.
"Oh, you lost that chance," Nazuna cackled, her voice low and sinister-sounding as she took her giant key off of her back and charged, swinging it much like May would her anchor to beat down the Society guards without mercy until every last one of them were out cold.
Once the guards were out cold, Nazuna looked back towards the group, her eyes returning to pink and blue. "Sorry if I got a little intense back there," Nazuna giggled.
"Lesson of the day is, do not piss Nazuna off if you value your life," Melody quipped.
"Duly noted," Alex replied as the entire group entered the elevator that would take them down to the lower floors of the facility.
"Ditto," Mat commented.
The spies knew ticking Mat off was a similar fate, despite the worst was Mat giving the dirty look if it was really bad, but it was normally related to his Supercross season.
"So, what should we expect here?" Blaine asked.
"From what I remember of the last time I was down here, there's some kind of extensive tunnel network that leads through multiple security checkpoints on each level," Melody quipped.
"Yup, I can confirm that," RiCO answered after checking the map she'd made of the facility.
"So, does this mean...?" Nick started.
"I'm afraid this will require the skills of some of you," Nazuna stated.
"If it were any other day, we'd handle these no problem," Vei added. "Unfortunately, the guards also knew about you through us... not really sure how."
"Oh, I do," Nazuna told Vei. "They must have either overheard our convos with Henya, or they did some digging on their own."
"They must have done some digging," Melody quipped.
"Then I guess it would make sense if they knew I was on the swim team at Beverly High," Alex added.
"And that Bridget, May, and I are on the Water Polo team at Mali-U," Haruka chimed in.
"Well, whoever's the quickest swimmer among us has to take this one," Sam remarked.
Alex stepped forward since she was the best of them all.
"This is going to be a bit of a refresher," Alex commented.
"Swim 50m in twenty-three seconds?!" Britney chastised.
"Twenty-three seconds is for swimmers IN SHAPE!" Nick exclaimed.
"Tell that to Travis Pastrana when it comes to racing Supercross," Mat commented. "The guy was out for weeks on end, and he still fought with Ivan Tedesco for the heat win at Daytona '06!"
"Well, Mat has the right mental thinking," May chuckled.
"Totally," Sam laughed.
"Well, I guess I'll totally have to prove something to these chodes," Alex stated.
What she didn't know was that she'd be competing against seven other "swimmers" like she were in the Olympics.
"They DID look into us, apparently," Sortiliena stated.
However, there was one open lane, which Alex certainly noticed.
"What's with that open lane?" Haruka wondered.
"PAGING THE FINAL SWIMMER..." A voice boomed from who-knew-where.
The spies saw a jumbotron nearby, and that final swimmer was Sortiliena of all people.
"Wait, it's me?" Sortiliena gasped.
"Crapbaskets," Nick remarked.
"I guess Alex and I will have to show them," Sortiliena replied as she did a wardrobe change, too.
Something else caught Bridget out of the corner of her eye.
"Uh, guys... I think they might be walking into a trap," Bridget told the others and pointed.
Some of the guards had a makeshift pool shark there.
"So, they want to bend the rules, do they?" Nick remarked. "Well, then, you wanna play? Let's freakin' play!"
Nick flew into the air while Alex and Sortiliena prepared themselves. Once the starting whistle sounded, Alex and Sortiliena both dove into the pool and started swimming with everything they had.
After a couple seconds, one of the guards let their pool shark loose, only for Nick to blast it backwards with a flurry of psychic bolts.
"Hey, no cheating!" one of the guards shouted.
"You're the ones cheating with a shark, of all things!" May exclaimed. "So don't feed us those expired eggs!"
"...huh. That's an image," Filian chuckled.
Nick continued to keep watch over Alex and Sortiliena as they swam, until he finally decided to just put the shark thing out of its misery by blasting it with a Final Shine Attack, the 'shark' disguise fizzling out to reveal a robotic drone that sparked and exploded.
With that little distraction taken care of, Alex and Sortiliena finished the course with just a second to spare.
"Holy crapbaskets, that was intense," Alex gasped once she'd stopped to catch her breath.
"No kidding," Sortiliena admitted. "Now I'm glad I stay in shape."
"You are going to regret what you've done," one of the guards proclaimed as all five of them advanced on the spies.
"Oh, you wanna bet?" Filian laughed, running in place to start building up kinetic energy.
"Ooh, I'm joining in on this one," Bridget chuckled, reaching for her brooch. "Sonic Mode, online!"
Once Bridget had transformed, she prepared herself before dashing forward, running circles around the guards to confound them long enough for Filian to rush forward, jump over Bridget (so she didn't get in the way of her running) and stomp on the ground in the middle of the guards, releasing her gathered kinetic energy as a lightning rod of sorts that shocked all five guards into unconsciousness.
A large steel door slammed shut over the way forward, but Bridget simply blitzed towards it and punched the steel wall with her Metal Masher Boxing Glove, her own built-up kinetic energy causing a shockwave to ripple out from the point of impact and crumple the steel wall effortlessly.
"...okay, that was awesome," Froot chuckled. "I've seen Filian do similar stunts, but that was like, Filian times ten!"
"The natural combination of my Sonic Mode suit and my time on the school track team," Bridget quipped. "Let's keep moving, everyone."
The entire group moved through the broken wall and through another security checkpoint that RiCO hacked into to allow them through, only to find what appeared to be a maze on the other side, filled with spotlights rapidly flickering on and off.
"Of all the things that it could have been, it had to be the one thing I suck at!" Clover shouted.
"I feel ya on that one," Bridget replied. "I can't really use Sonic Mode effectively in those cramped passageways."
"And there's also the problem of those spotlights," Sam noted. "I don't think I'd want to know what would happen if one of those caught us."
"Oh, you just leave that to me," Kuro responded. "This one is my element."
Kuro took a few steps towards the maze, waved his hands in a strange pattern, and then dove down into the floor, seemingly becoming one with his own shadow.
Then, Kuro's shadow moved, speeding along the floor of the maze and underneath the spotlights. To the spies' relief, the lights didn't seem to catch Kuro's movement.
After a tense minute and a half, Kuro jumped out of the shadows on the opposite end of the maze, shrouded his hand in darkness that formed the shape of a claw, and sliced the main console apart. All at once, the spotlights all shut down, and the walls of the maze all retracted into the floor, leaving the way onward wide open.
"No problem," Kuro chuckled.
"Told ya, stealth is Kuro's time to shine," Filian laughed.
After crossing through the next security checkpoint (thanks to Melody hacking it this time), another group of guards appeared, their shock sticks out and ready.
"Damn it, there's been a security breach!" one of the guards exclaimed.
"Eliminate the intruders!" a second guard bellowed.
"Oh, I don't think that's the wisest idea," Vei quipped as she bent back, a silver glow surrounding her body before she thrust her hands forwards, unleashing a massive whirlwind from her palms that blasted the guards backwards. "We didn't come to play."
"Oh, right, I forgot to mention," Henya stated. "Vei sorta kinda has a nature spirit inside of her body, and it allows her to control wind."
"It's a long, long story that I won't bore you guys with, not when we have more pressing matters to attend to," Vei noted. "Let's stay on the move. The less of these random trials we have to deal with, the better."
"Yeah, because I have a feeling I know why the guards and other peeps are trying to delay us," Alex replied. "They're probably trying to free Decimus before we can get there."
"Um, if I may?" Sortiliena wondered. "Do any of you know what, exactly, Decimus is and why he's sealed up down here? All we know is that Henya says we can't let him escape."
"Decimus is a technological monster from another dimension, in the basest terms," Melody explained. "A long time ago, the Society experimented with dimensional warp technology, but Decimus was dragged through their initial portal experiment and proceeded to lay waste to the entire area."
"It took a lot of work, but the Society was able to seal him away," Vei continued. "But over the years, Decimus managed to project enough of his will through his seal in order to trick the Society into working to break the seal, since the current Society has technology much different than what was used to seal him in the first place."
"These clucks working here all seem to think that Decimus is some kind of prophet that will lead them all to salvation or something," Filian stated. "But... you saw how barren and ruined the outside of the facility was, right? Decimus did that decades ago, and the land still hasn't recovered."
"So, basically, it's like Henya said," May quipped. "If Decimus gets out or is freed, we're all in deep trouble, right?"
"That's the plot synopsis in a nutshell," Nazuna stated.
"I think we can still beat him even if he does get out," Nick admitted. "You all may not know this, but my friends and I, we've taken down far worse threats than this guy seems to be."
"Yeah, like a dark cult leader, a witch who messed with time, a sadistic alien warlord, and even an evil version of Nick who was super-powerful!" Alex proclaimed.
"Here's hoping you guys can back up that claim if it comes down to that," Kuro admitted.
"We'll try our best," Sam responded as the group arrived at the next security checkpoint to see what trial awaited them this time.
"We could go on with going into Mat's body to stop another of our rogues' gallery from messing with his system," May pointed out.
"Yeesh," Filian cringed.
"I can attest to that," Mat sighed, remembering the 2009 Las Vegas Supercross finale.
The rest of Henya's group took their word for it after Mat's statement.
"Believe us when we say it wasn't fun, but we had to do it," Melissa quipped.
Upon arrival, the spies could see their second challenge awaited them: a lightning trivia round.
"Well, I bet this is up Sam's alley," Clover commented.
However, Sam was not chosen for the lightning trivia round... Haruka was - according to the photo that showed up on a nearby screen.
"Me?!" Haruka remarked.
"Anybody know why they're just randomly choosing one of us for these... games?!" Alex wondered.
"It's part of their M.O.," Henya replied. "But if my guess is right, they're going to throw us a curveball sooner or later..."
Haruka stepped forward to do the lightning trivia round.
"Make us proud, Haruka," Bridget stated.
Haruka took to the stage while the spies looked around for any booby traps or anything indicating foul play.
"I'm not picking anything up," Nick told the others.
As for Haruka, she was holding her own after taking about three questions to get comfortable.
"WHOA!" Haruka exclaimed.
She had seen that lightning bolts were coming for her, even on correct answers.
"What's going on?" Dawn wondered.
The spies could all see the lightning bolts going for Haruka only.
"Is this their curveball?" Blaine wondered as Nick countered the lightning bolts.
About three lightning bolts all tried to strike Haruka at once, but Nick covered her with a psychic bubble to protect her.
"Nice try, you jerks," Nick quipped.
"I don't even want to think about if that's real lightning or not," Mat cringed.
"Believe me when I say it is," Henya replied.
"Decimus is all about harming others, whether physical or mental," Melody added.
"This guy could be the most sadistically one of all," Clover commented.
"We can personally guarantee that," Melody told Clover.
"How're you coming, Haruka?" Mat wondered.
"Mostly fine," Haruka responded as she continued to dodge more bolts. "I'd really like it if this thing can stop trying to drop Zeus' wrath on me!"
"I'm searching for the naughty program right now," Melody quipped, opening up her laptop so she could search for the program that was causing the lightning show to happen.
Thankfully, it didn't take Melody too long to find it, and she pressed a button on her keyboard to send a virus of her own making into the systems to delete that program and allow Haruka to finish her trivia round.
"Got it!" Haruka shouted after she'd answered the final trivia question. Nazuna jumped in and swung her giant key to smash the trivia console into scrap metal before turning her attention to the guards presiding over this trial, her eyes both turning red.
Thankfully, that seemed to be enough to get said guards to turn tail and run for their lives.
Nazuna chuckled, her eyes returning to normal. "That was easy," Nazuna giggled.
"Yeah, because these guys know better than to incur your wrath, Nazuna," Filian chuckled.
"That should be everything on this floor," RiCO stated from Nick's X-Powder. "There should be about three more floors for you to descend down before you all make it to where Decimus is sealed."
"And I'm sure that there's more distractions waiting for us on the way, too," Melissa sighed.
"I guess all we can do is try to get through them as quickly as we possibly can,"" Sam responded. "We've done it before, and we can certainly do it again."
"Allow me to make sure the other guards can't follow us down there," Henya quipped, waving her Wondercube to conjure a cluster of glowing cubes to block the entrance to this room.
"Say, can't you just portal us down there, Henya?" Bridget wondered.
"I'm pretty sure they have defenses against that," Henya admitted. "And if the guards are setting up all these different trials for all of you, there's no telling what could be waiting for us."
"Yeah, that's a very good point," May quipped. "Guess we're playing it by ear."
"One floor down, and three to go, huh?" Blaine noted as the entire group stepped into the nearby elevator so it could take them down to the next floor.
As the group all made small talk to pass the time, Nazuna scooted closer to Nick, having wanted his opinion on something since they'd been introduced.
"Hey, Nick?" Nazuna asked. "You're psychic, right?"
"Yeah, actually," Nick replied. "Why do you ask?"
"Henya told you that I can read people's emotions, right?" Nazuna answered. "I see people's emotions as differently-colored aura surrounding their bodies that only I can see. And, well..."
Nazuna glanced over at Kuro, who was telling some (rather funny, apparently) jokes to both Melissa and Dawn.
"Before you all came here, while we were working to shut down the Prime Field generator down, I saw a very disturbing red-and-black aura around Kuro," Nazuna explained. "And he won't tell me why he's feeling that way. I can read people's emotions, not their minds like you can."
"Yeah, that is kind of peculiar," Nick quipped. "But I'd rather not intrude in his mind unless I absolutely have to, because despite being able to read minds, I know people value privacy in their heads."
Nick looked over at Kuro. "Maybe he's just really worried about Decimus, especially if he's as scary and powerful as you all said he is," Nick stated. "But, if you want, I'll keep an eye on Kuro just in case to make sure. I don't know if he's got a plan or something, if he's being manipulated, or what, but we'll figure it out."
"Thanks, Nick," Nazuna answered. "I'm just worried because Kuro's been my friend for so long, and it baffles me why I'm seeing that kind of aura from him."
As the elevator continued to descend, Nick began thinking about what all of this could mean. Kuro didn't seem like a bad person (even if he wasn't really the best joke-teller), but if there was anything that Nick had learned during his tenure at W.O.O.H.P., it was that anyone could surprise you. You never knew what other people were thinking until it was usually too late.
And Nick knew he'd rather not deal with any sudden problems that they didn't need right now, especially in a place like this with tricks and traps around every corner.
What are you hiding, Kuro? Nick thought. What won't you tell your friends?
To be continued...
Next time...
Haruka: Okay, what did we run into this time?
Melissa: It looks like... a board game?
Nick: Oh, no, do not freakin' tell me they made another Mario Party game for us...
Filian: Bad memories, huh?
Dawn: It's almost like they're drawing on our previous capers for all of these challenges.
Mat: Regardless, we should probably get through this one first so we can keep moving. Who's playing this one?
Sortiliena: I'll stand guard and make sure nobody tries anything underhanded.
Vei: Just let those fools try something with us around.
May: All right, here we go!
Nick: Well, readers, the insanity is only just beginning, so make sure to stay tuned for more crazy stuff, next time on Totally Spies: The Day of Unity, "Sinister Shadows"!
May: Okay, I gotta know who put those digital effects together, because they're really slick.
Melody: That would be me. I do know my way around video-editing software.
Nick: Oh, so that was you typing away in the computer lab the other day.