5:59 A.M. – The Shatterverse
That was a bad idea, THAT WAS A BAD IDEA, Nick thought as he juked and weaved through the air to avoid the energy blasts that Captain Dread was sending his way relentlessly. Nick had made the mistake of believing that Captain Dread couldn't fight without the Prism Shard she'd lost, and now he was paying for it.
"That's right, you little coward, run for your life," Captain Dread laughed. "You can regret your mistakes in the next world."
As Nick continued to dodge the wayward shots, Captain Dread summoned her anchor and tossed it just ahead of Nick, so that it collided with a crystal pillar he was nearby and broke part of it, the shards flying out in different directions.
Captain Dread waved her hands and caused the shards to attack Nick, forcing him to put up a psychic barrier to protect himself.
Much to Nick's surprise, the crystal shards actually broke through his barrier and slashed at him. Though they didn't hurt too bad, it left Nick wide open from behind.
A fact that Captain Dread took full advantage of, charging forward and striking Nick in the back with enough force to send him careening into the crystal pillar she'd just broken part of.
"What was that you said about trying harder?" Captain Dread taunted. "I may need the entire Paradox Prism to restore what I've lost, but I don't need their power to teach you a lesson."
"Is that a fact?!" Alex shouted as she rocketed forward to slug Captain Dread in the face with a wicked right hook before flying over to extricate Nick from the crystal pillar.
'You're okay!" Nick gasped. "I thought she'd..."
"Nah, I just hid by one of those gateways," Alex admitted. "I'm just glad she's not psychic like you are."
"You wanna take her together?" Nick offered.
"I'd be delighted," Alex proclaimed as she and Nick turned to face Captain Dread together.
(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 109: Countdown
Story Rated: T for Teen
Story Created: June 17th, 2024
Story Summary: The one-hundred and forty-seventh co-op project between Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger, and episode one hundred and nine of our mission-based series Totally Spies: The New Adventures. One day, during a mission briefing, Nick suddenly vanishes without a trace and is replaced by another version of himself who, after some cryptic words, activates some kind of strange countdown device that seemingly shuts down the Datascape and leaves RiCO and iCO unable to help, which is a bad thing when Macker the Safecracker is on the loose. But the problems don't stop there, as it turns out that Nick has actually been switched with his counterpart from an alternate future timeline, who is trying to stop a homicidally evil version of RiCO from using this W.O.O.H.P. to conquer and destroy everything. With assistance from an android girl named Sayu, can Nick get back to his own time, stop this evil version of RiCO, and hopefully save the RiCO he knows from whatever nasty fate awaits at the end of the countdown?
Author's Notes from Mat49324: Time for #109, people! We got through Discord and Disappointment rather well, but as I had mentioned in a prior A/N (presuming I did), let's just say 2010 Supercross will not be one to Mat's liking. Don't expect me to not include more races as either the sub-plot or epilogue or the occasional bulk of why this project was inspired. For now, we just hope you enjoyed that one, that you'll stay entertained for this new project, and here's The Blue Time Ranger for anything he'd like to say.
Author's Notes from The Blue Time Ranger: Season nine continues to truck on, and we've got a bit of an unusual one today. Not your typical future adventure, the future spies we've seen through most of The New Adventures will not be showing up in this one, just so we're clear. You might not be able to guess the inspiration for this one (maybe if you know me and the things I like), but feel free to guess. Enough jib-jab, let's get this countdown started! 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: Yesterday Again
1:13 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters
Jerry's Office
Nick made sure to raise his hand just before everyone made a crash landing in the office, creating a psychic "landing pad" for everyone to safely land on as they fell out of the tunnel.
"I almost had you that time, didn't I?" Jerry chuckled.
"Key word being 'almost', Jer," Nick quipped as everyone prepared for today's mission.
"I'm just glad we got to finish our lunch date before we all got summoned," Sam stated after glancing Mat's way.
"Yeah, I made sure to hold off on that until you were finished," RiCO chuckled as she and iCO materialized in the office. "It's kinda a faux pas to interrupt a date, even if there's bad guys on the loose."
"And considering you all clean house every time, bad guys can wait until you're finished with a date to get their licks," iCO giggled.
"True that," Haruka noted. "So who's on the 'hey please kick my face back to containment' list today?"
RiCO waved her hand to change the office viewscreen to a mugshot of Macker the Safecracker.
"Ah, it's been a while since we've dealt with this lug nut," May quipped as all thirteen spies suited up.
"I just hope he's got a more sensible plan this time around," Melissa stated. "I really don't want to see Professor Genesis ever again."
"Yeah, I'm kinda done with that guy," Haruka teased as the spies all moved to retrieve their Jetpack Backpacks, which had already been filled with their gadget loadouts.
"Well, I'm in the mood for a normal mission for once," Nick chuckled. "So how about we all head out and find Macker so we can kick his keeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."
Nick's line trailed off as his form strangely distorted, surrounded by an aura of light-blue energy. Before anyone else could ask just what was happening, that light exploded outwards with enough force to send everyone stumbling backwards.
When the flash of light from that explosion cleared out, Haruka was the first to notice that Nick was still standing there, in that same spot.
...or was it?
Now that she could get a good look, Haruka realized that Nick suddenly looked very different, most notably, he looked a couple years older, and his body was covered in long-healed but still bad-looking wounds.
"...Nick?" Alex gasped. "Is that... is that really you?"
"...hello, everyone," Other Nick sighed, his voice more gravelly and weary, as if he'd survived some kind of catastrophe and lived to tell the tale. "It really is good to see you all again... like this."
Other Nick reached into his pocket and pulled out a strange spherical device. "I just want you to know that I'm sorry," Other Nick proclaimed. "But... we've run out of options."
"Wait, wait, what do you mean 'out of options'?" May retorted. "What just happened, and what did you do with our Nick?!"
Other Nick didn't respond, only slamming the spherical device down onto Jerry's desk, whereupon it opened up and emitted a flash of light before spreading a wave of blue hexagonal patterns across the office. Whenever the wave touched one of the computer consoles in the office, it immediately shut down. RiCO and iCO didn't have a chance to say anything in protest before they vanished as well.
To add onto this strange occurrence, the spherical device was now displaying a holographic countdown above itself, starting at twenty-four hours and counting down.
Jerry quickly took a look at what the device had affected, and gasped in shock. "That device... just shut down the entirety of the Datascape," Jerry proclaimed.
"Wait, what does that mean for RiCO and iCO?!" Sam gasped.
"They most likely won't be able to help us until the anomaly is corrected," Jerry answered.
Other Nick didn't say anything else, simply walking to the corner of the room and sitting down there, as if he was waiting for something.
"You try and get some answers out of him, Jerry," Mat proclaimed. "We'll go ahead and take care of Macker."
The twelve remaining spies all cleared out of the office as Jerry started thinking of a way to interrogate this other Nick, even if he didn't seem like he'd be a talker.
12:39 A.M. – Unknown Location
Nick appeared in a flash of blue light, unaware of what had just happened.
"...so how about we all head out and find Macker so we can kick his keester, and then we..." Nick proclaimed, only to trail off when he realized his surroundings were different. "H-Huh? Wait..."
Nick took a good look around him. He appeared to be in Jerry's office, though nobody was inside it, the computer systems were active, though they looked like they'd seen better days, and waves of eerie orange and red pixel-like effects were intermittently spreading around the room.
Nick quickly used his psychic radar to search for anybody else in this strange version of W.O.O.H.P., but he picked up nothing. Even spreading his radar to the edge of its range didn't pick up anybody's thoughts. He seemed to be all alone here.
"...all right, then, so, there's two possibilities for whatever this is," Nick quipped after looking at the nearby computer. "Either I'm having a really vivid daydream... or something really bad just happened."
Nick sat down in the nearby chair so he could think. "Knowing my luck... what are the odds it's not the second option?" Nick groaned.
Knowing the second option was the likely winner, Nick could only groan at reality. He didn't hold himself responsible because nobody saw that coming.
"Now, is this REALLY Jerry's office, or did I have one too many tacos from last night's dinner?" Nick asked himself once more just for the heck of it.
He then tried using his X-Powder to contact someone, but all he got was a lot of static and no chance at a legitimate connection.
"So, how do I get back?" Nick wondered as he decided to trek through this makeshift W.O.O.H.P. location in the hopes someone could help him.
But the more he explored of this place, the more it freaked him out, given how... wrong everything here looked. And those waves of red and orange pixels spreading across everything wasn't doing his anxiety any favors.
"...I swear, I am just cursed," Nick groaned as he walked around the hallways, hoping to find something that could help him either get home, or at least figure out where he was.
Or when he was. Either one was a possibility at this point.
1:43 P.M. – Santa Monica
"I'm not sure if we're in the right place," Sam told the others. "With RiCO and iCO out of commission, we're practically working blind here!"
"I'm still at a loss for words at what that Nick doppelganger did," Mat commented. "He went from a defiant kid to a somewhat remorseful soul in a way..."
"Not even the real Nick did that when we were kids," Melissa added and looked at Dawn.
'The closest he even got was when he thought he'd accidentally injured me at the park," Dawn admitted. "But I kept telling him, I did that to myself. It wasn't his fault I decided to climb up a tree to help a baby bird get back to its nest."
"Well, I didn't need three guesses to figure out that WASN'T Nick in WOOHP earlier," Alex groaned.
"I think the real question is... WHERE did he go?" May wondered.
"And HOW do we get him back?!" Haruka added.
"Seems like the new year is turning around and spitting us in the face," Bridget commented. "Sure hope that's not the same when Water Polo season begins."
"I think we'll be okay," May deduced.
Alex tried giving Nick a call on his X-Powder, but she was not able to get through to him.
"No luck, Alex?" Nozomi wondered.
Alex shook her head. "I guess Mat's not the only one having a crisis this early in the new year..."
"Totally," Clover added. "And I have no clue where to start either with RiCO and iCO down for the count..."
Before long, the spies were met with a sneak attack via extra clones.
"I think we just got our answer," Sam groaned.
"This is madness!" Britney remarked.
"No worries, guys," Bridget proclaimed. "Sonic Mode, online!"
Once she'd transformed, Bridget sped off in a straight line, bowling clones over one after the other, before running back to grab Haruka's hand so they could try something.
Bridget ran back into the crowd of clones and started spinning Haruka around, who used her feet to kick away any clones that tried to get close. The two of them together almost resembled a miniature tornado of sorts thanks to Bridget's speed.
"Thanks, Bridget," Blaine quipped.
"Now it's our turn to react to you, Macker!" Haruka exclaimed.
But strangely, Macker was not among the clone army, much to the spies' surprise.
"What in the world?" Nozomi wondered.
"He's not here?" Alex gasped.
"Jerry, can we use RiCO's drone tracker even while she's out of commission?" Sam asked.
"Thankfully, yes," Jerry answered from Sam's X-Powder. "She recently adjusted it so we can use it to track down villains without her using it, just in case something like this were to happen."
"That's RiCO for ya, always two steps ahead," Haruka chuckled.
"By the way, did you get any answers from that facsimile of Nick?" May asked.
"Nothing, sadly," Jerry responded. "He simply... refuses to talk to me."
"And any idea what that countdown is about?" Mat quipped.
"No clue, but given what has already happened, it cannot be anything good," Jerry admitted. "I'll see if I can figure anything out."
Sam nodded before switching her X-Powder's screen to the drone tracker, then inputting the code for Macker. A few seconds later, a map of Beverly Hills was displayed on the screen, with a big red dot pointing out Macker's location.
"We always say 'forever lost without you, RiCO' when she helps us out," Alex sighed. "Never thought that'd actually come true."
"I guess all we can do for now is take down Macker and hope our Nick gets back before that countdown runs out," Haruka stated.
"Yeah, let's go kick that clone-maker's concave face in, shall we?" May proclaimed.
12:56 A.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters?
Having had no luck in figuring out anything about his surroundings, Nick returned to the main office to plan out his next move.
"This is really starting to weird me out," Nick quipped. "Even in situations like this, there should be somebody around here that could help me with this... maybe there might be something in the computer."
Nick sat down in the office chair and reached out to activate the main computer, only for the image displayed on the screen to unnerve him.
It appeared to be a diagram of W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters, only refitted with what seemed like multiple different kinds of dangerous-looking weapon systems. Sifting to the next page of these diagrams showed what looked like plans to convert the W.O.O.H.P. building into a gigantic spaceship-like vessel.
Deciding to see if his personal user account would help, Nick accessed the keyboard and started typing his password into the field, only for alarms to start blaring in the office.
"That's... not supposed to happen," Nick stated. "Where the heck's my user account? If this is W.O.O.H.P. like I think it is, then I should at least have access to my..."
Nick's thoughts were cut off when a nearby door opened up to reveal a small swarm of spherical drones that entered the room, flying around in a circle formation.
And every one of them had laser sights trained on him.
"...okay, that definitely proves something's wrong here," Nick quipped as the drones advanced. "But, in the meantime, I think it's high time to RUN!"
Nick jumped out of the office chair just as the drones started firing laser bolts at him, piercing through the chair and other spots on the wall and leaving searing holes on impact.
Nick ran down the hallway he'd just explored, west down another crossroad, and towards another tunnel. The drones continued to chase him down, though they didn't seem to be too fast.
Nick eventually skidded to a stop and rounded a corner to get some breathing room, still confused as to what the heck was going on.
Just then, a door on the opposite end of the tunnel opened itself up.
"Nick, over here!" an unfamiliar voice exclaimed.
"Looks like I've gotta cross through the lasers to get there," Nick admitted. "But an open door with someone wanting to help me seems like a much-needed improvement."
After taking a moment to get ready, Nick charged for the open door, projecting a psychic barrier to block the drone's laser fire until he reached the open area. The door immediately slid shut and locked itself the instant Nick was through, managing to decapitate a drone in the process.
"Okay, so... thanks, whoever you are," Nick stated. "Who, exactly, are you? And can you tell me anything about just what the heck is going on?"
It took a few seconds, but somebody stepped out of the shadows to reveal themselves to Nick.
It was a woman about his age with medium length light blue hair, robotic animal 'ears' sticking out from her head, a light-blue visor over her forehead, and differently-colored eyes, one light blue and one brown. She was wearing a mainly black outer jacket with a yellow collar and light blue details, and Nick quickly noticed that most of the left side of her body, despite having normal-looking skin, showed off occasional robotic parts through clear damage marks. That could only mean this woman was an android of sorts.
"Hey, Nick, it's nice to see you again," the android girl stated, even though Nick was pretty sure he'd never met her before. "My name is Sayu. And... well... welcome to the future."
"W-Wait just a chicken-fried minute, I'm in the future?!" Nick gasped. "This isn't anything like the future I know about!"
"Very true, but I can explain," Sayu responded. "Just let me do it quickly, because we're running out of time."
"Okay, can you maybe start with what happened to everyone here?" Nick wondered. "Because that diagram of headquarters I found on the office computer didn't exactly paint a bright picture of this supposedly alternate future."
Sayu nodded as she typed in something on her wrist device, and her visor slid down over her face to project a holographic recording of the events that still haunted her to this day.
"About five months ago in this timeline, a very strange storm system passed through Beverly Hills," Sayu explained as the video showed a tower of dark purple cumulonimbus clouds hovering over the city, particularly W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters. A few seconds later, the clouds unleashed a torrent of eerie red lightning down onto the W.O.O.H.P. building. The video then changed to the office, where Nick could see Sam, Alex, Clover, Mat, what appeared to be himself, and RiCO standing there investigating the anomaly. Aside from RiCO, these spies all appeared to be a good bit older than the ones Nick knew.
Suddenly, the red lightning struck RiCO and caused her to emit a mechanical screeching that caused all the nearby computers to go on the fritz.
"At first, it didn't seem to do anything besides futz up the computers," Sayu continued. "But then... RiCO began to change."
In the video, RiCO slowly turned towards the rest of the spies, her eyes glowing a piercing red, before the video cut off.
"What happened to her, then?" Nick wondered. "Where is this RiCO?"
"...all around us," Sayu sighed. "RiCO is W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters now, supercharged, corrupted, and on a mission to wipe out all organic life on Earth, thanks to whatever junk from that storm that infected her. Those weapon systems you saw on the building? ...that was RiCO's doing. She plans to convert this building into a vessel to patrol the world. Once she's refitted herself for maximum damage... she intends to destroy everyone, Nick. Everything."
It was hard for Nick to comprehend this, that someone as sweet and kind-hearted as RiCO could be capable of such destructive ambitions, infected or not.
"I tried to reason with her," Sayu continued. "I tried fixing her, and... in the end, I even tried to destroy her."
Sayu gestured to the different spots on her body where some of her mechanical parts were exposed. "I only got all of these scars for my trouble," Sayu stated. "As for your friends here... they're gone, Nick. RiCO killed them all."
"Wait, then does that mean that your version of me is in my time?" Nick wondered. "What's he doing there?"
"I'm not sure," Sayu admitted. "Maybe he's trying to figure out a way to fix all of this, but... for now, you need to come with me."
Nick was surprised to learn that he could read Sayu's thoughts, since she was an android (he wasn't sure how that worked, having never tried to read an android's thoughts before), but the worry he picked up from her was more than enough to convince him that she was telling the truth.
After absorbing everything he'd learned, Nick nodded to Sayu, who couldn't help but smile.
"Thank you," Sayu sighed in relief, extending her hand. Nick took her hand so Sayu could lead him through a secret passageway through the nearby wall.
"So, what exactly do I have to do here?" Nick wondered.
"Simple. Find a way to shut down RiCO at any cost," Sayu responded. "Blow up the building if you have to. Kill her... if you even can."
Sayu looked back at Nick with a serious expression that carried all the gravity of this situation.
"...but you have to stop her, Nick. Or we're all dead."
"Just once, I'd like to come to a future without grim circumstances..." Nick told himself.
He definitely remembered it only happened once. (A/N: That's Future Frenzy if you may be wondering.)
"Does the Datascape work in this dimension?" Nick asked Sayu, thinking that would be a good place to start.
"I'm afraid RiCO closed the only entrance to the Datascape," Sayu replied.
"Crapbaskets... well, there goes that," Nick chastised.
"That was the first thing RiCO did before going on her killing spree," Sayu added.
"She is MA-A-AD!" Nick proclaimed. "Isn't there something that drove her to this?"
"It must have been whatever anomaly was in that storm," Sayu answered. "Because it was only after that red lightning hit the building that she started acting like this."
"Then there must have been some kind of intelligence inside that storm that infected her," Nick noted. "That's literally the only thing I can think of."
"Dang, what now?" Nick chastised, knowing he had to think fast.
"I'm leading you to a secret area that I have locked off from the rest of the building," Sayu answered. "I rewrote the code for that room to keep it hidden from RiCO's sensors. That's also the only reason I managed to stay alive after my last attempt to take her down."
"Oh, I didn't get to ask this earlier, but... you're an android, right?" Nick wondered.
"Oh, yeah," Sayu responded. "A lot of us were based on RiCO's template, since she'd become so human-like because of her interactions with all of you."
"Just like our RiCO, without the whole 'infected by alien intelligence' thing," Nick quipped.
Before Nick and Sayu could continue talking, a small barrage of laser blasts cascaded towards them, Nick projecting a psychic barrier to defend themselves.
Nick glanced behind them, noticing that the drones from earlier had found them, and they were clearly on the warpath.
"Crapbaskets, I was hoping they wouldn't find us," Sayu groaned.
"Let's get to that safe room of yours, quick!" Nick exclaimed as he and Sayu booked it down the hallway, avoiding random laser blasts from the drones.
2:29 P.M. – Santa Monica
"I think we got 'em all, guys," Sam remarked after the battle with the mooks was over.
"That's great and all," Haruka stated. "But it doesn't lead us anywhere to finding out where Nick got taken to..."
"And if Jerry couldn't get any answers out of that Nick clone, I'm not sure where to go now..." Alex replied, showing a bit of worry.
"It appears the drone has picked up where Macker's location is," Jerry spoke up from Sam's X-Powder.
"We better find out what that location is," Clover remarked as she got out her X-Powder.
After looking at the coordinates, the spies were shocked to see...
"MALI-U?!" Sam, Clover, and Alex chastised in unison.
"That's a dick move," Mat commented.
"He's likely going there to eliminate us," Melissa deduced.
"Come on then, guys," Bridget proclaimed. "Sonic Mode, online!"
With that, Bridget kicked up the juice and took the whole spy team (minus Nick) back to Mali-U.
2:41 P.M. – Malibu University
"Where is he?!" Haruka chastised.
"Never you fear, spies, for I have arrived."
"Yeah, like that's something for you to be proud of," Melissa groaned as Macker the Safecracker made his appearance, alongside a small swarm of spy clones.
"It's been a little while, hasn't it?" Macker laughed.
"Not long enough, in my opinion," Bridget retorted. "Now how about you just waltz on back to your containment cell and leave us be for once?!"
"Yeah, we've got more than our fair share of issues to deal with today!" Alex shouted.
"Yes, I have noticed that you're down a meddler," Macker chuckled. "Though I don't know what's going with you, nor do I care, nonetheless, I see a perfect opportunity to take care of you punks once and for all. Get 'em, my army!"
Just as the army of clones began to charge towards the spies, however, a loud grunt of surprise caused them to look in that direction, where Sortiliena could be seen grabbing one of the clones by the arm, spinning it around, and tossing it into the crowd, opening up some room for the spies to work.
Sortiliena went right back on the attack, gracefully weaving through the clones and kicking them aside one by one until she managed to reach Macker.
"You again?!" Macker gasped in surprise.
"Yes, me again," Sortiliena taunted as she blasted Macker back with an Electromagnetic Curling Iron before taking down a few more clones to join up with the rest of the spies.
"Your timing literally could not be any better, Sortiliena," Sam chuckled.
"Jerry filled me in on what's been happening, and I'd be happy to tag in for Nick until he gets back," Sortiliena stated. "Now how about we all teach this guy a little lesson on what it means to mess with us?"
"Best idea I've heard all day," Mat responded. "Let's mess this guy up good."
"Come and take me if you think you can!" Macker laughed as more clones surrounded him.
May simply took a step back, used her Emergency Gadget Transporter to summon her anchor to her hands, and wound up before throwing her anchor low like she would a bowling ball, the spinning anchor knocking clones aside easily until it struck Macker and sent him sprawling to the ground.
"STRIKE!" Haruka laughed.
Macker didn't have time to pick himself up before Bridget was on him, blitzing back and forth to strike Macker with each pass and keep him from retaliating.
While all of this was happening, Melissa and Dawn were already hovering through the air on a Helicopter Hand Fan, Dawn firing a Cyclone Blast Hairdryer intermittently.
"Nope, still not sick of this combo," Dawn giggled.
Both Alex and Haruka ducked down before barging forward with a shoulder charge, knocking clones away left and right.
Macker attempted to fire lasers at the spies from his robotic hand, but Nozomi wrapped herself in a Cashmere Deflector Shield to reflect the lasers back before going on the offensive, jumping onto her hands and spinning around to kick Macker in the face a few times.
Eventually, Macker decided he'd had enough of getting knocked around for the moment and moved away, calling his clones to his side.
"As fun as this is, spies, I must be off for now," Macker proclaimed. "Much work to be done, after all, especially now that I know you've lost a lot of your fight."
Macker fired a laser blast into the nearby ground, kicking up enough dust to obscure his and his clones' escape.
"Ooh, I'm getting real sick of them just dipping out in the middle of a butt-kicking," Clover groaned.
"Hey, we'll get him in the end," Blaine replied. "We always do, right?"
"And we'll show him that we haven't lost any of our fight just because Nick's not around," Melissa proclaimed.
"Yeah, we were kicking Macker's butt multiple times back when the team was just me, Sammy and Clover!" Alex responded.
"Dang straight, Alex," Sam stated. "Let's keep after him."
The spies all regrouped before rushing off, using the drone tracker program to follow Macker's trail.
2:15 A.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters?
"Jeez, they just keep coming!" Nick exclaimed as he stopped briefly to fire a Final Shine Attack, sweeping it across the area to take down a bunch of the drones, only for just as many drones to replace the ones that Nick had destroyed.
"Yeah, they're very persistent," Sayu quipped. "Come on, we're almost there!"
After rounding another corner, Nick and Sayu headed down the straight path until Sayu skidded to a stop and slammed her hand into a seemingly innocuous wall panel. This caused the nearby wall to open up into a hidden room. Nick and Sayu quickly ducked into the room, and the door slid shut just as the drones all flew by, completely oblivious to where they'd gone.
"Oof, talk about close shaves," Nick noted as he and Sayu walked over to a hexagonal control panel at the other edge of the room. "I really thought they were gonna catch up to us."
"Thankfully, the drones aren't really that smart," Sayu replied. "They're simply weapons for RiCO."
"Okay, we're probably as safe as I think we'll be here, so I'd like to ask another question, if I can," Nick asked. "If I'm here, where exactly is this timeline's me? Or... is he gone, too?"
"We actually stole some of the power from RiCO's systems," Sayu explained. "We used it to boost the strength of our matter transponder to, essentially, send him back to your time."
"Of course," Nick gasped. "That means the other me is in my W.O.O.H.P. with the others! And since I at least know that matter can't occupy the same space at the same time, I was sent here. But... wait, now I'm wondering why this me went back to my time. Unless..."
"Yeah, you probably already figured it out, but... the Nick I know was planning to blow up W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters in the past," Sayu sighed. "He wanted to prevent any chance of something like this happening."
"Wait, wait, would I really go that far?" Nick responded. "I know RiCO like the back of my hand by now. She's not a monster! Remember, you said that she only got like this because of whatever alien junk came down from that storm system and infected her, right?"
"Yes, but after Nick lost his friends in RiCO's rampage, he grew more and more despondent, believing that there was no other way," Sayu answered. "I actually suggested that he switch places with his past self, in hopes that you might be able to come up with something that can help."
"So, basically, if I can fix things here, then the other me won't have to hurt RiCO or my friends in the past, right?" Nick wondered. "How much time do we have?"
"The neuro-electron bomb he took with him was set to detonate in twenty-four hours from the point of activation," Sayu replied. "But time is relative, of course, so it may be a little off."
"So, I'm basically on a timer to find a way to fix all of this," Nick quipped. "Jeez, just when I wanted to have a normal mission again, huh?"
After looking back up, Nick noticed that Sayu was staring wistfully at the nearby video screen, which was playing some archived video of what must have been this version of the spies before everything had gone to hell in a handbasket.
And Nick didn't need to read minds to see that Sayu wished that everything could have gone back to the way it used to be.
"Okay, then, Sayu, what do we have to do to get this started?" Nick quipped.
Sayu looked back at Nick before shaking her head a couple times to get herself focused back on the matter at hand.
"Y-You're right," Sayu replied. "This is no time to be getting wishy-washy."
Sayu walked back over to the control panel and swiped her hand over the holographic display to conjure a digital keyboard and screen.
"Let's start by checking the systems and looking for a suitable weak point to attack," Sayu proclaimed. "If we can take down some of the systems RiCO is using, that'll limit her options against us and give us a chance."
Nick nodded and walked over to stand by Sayu, the two of them typing on the digital keyboard in order to rummage through the system files and hope they could find a way to stop this evil RiCO before it was too late.
To be continued...
Next time...
Dawn: Any sign of mister roboto?
Sam: Wait, I think I'm picking up his signal just ahead!
Macker: Oh, why can't you wretches just leave me to my business for once?
Sortiliena: Because your 'business' involves trying to destroy us and possibly the place we work! You'll have to forgive us if we're not interested in your crap!
Macker: Well, too bad. Your reckoning is coming, and how wonderful that I'm going to be the one to hand it out to you.
Alex: Fat chance of that happening, you metal muncher!
Haruka: We're already frustrated because of our missing buddy, so hopefully you won't mind if we introduce our fists to your fat face, next time on Totally Spies: Countdown, "Future Unknown"!
May: Gotta say, I'm diggin' that makeup, Sayu. It really looks like you've got exposed android parts!
Sayu: Yeah, this department really knows their stuff.