On Today's Episode: The RiCO of the alternate future has been freed from the sinister alien intelligence that was controlling her, but the last remaining piece of that intelligence has escaped to the past with the intent of restarting this entire madness all over again. Thankfully, Nick and Sayu manage to get back to the past just in time to help the spies take this marauding mechanical maniac down once and for all. Can they stop the alien intelligence and prevent history from repeating itself?
Act 3: Shadow of Time
5:14 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters
Containment Facility
"Marvelous performance, everyone," Jerry proclaimed as the group all walked out of the containment facility, having stopped there to put Macker behind bars where he belonged.
"We didn't even have to go to his lair or fight whatever his trump card was for once," Nozomi chuckled. "That's definitely a first."
"But now onto the more pressing matter," Sam stated. "Have you had any luck in either getting the Datascape back online or getting answers out of that other Nick?"
"Sadly, I have to say no on both fronts," Jerry sighed. "We've analyzed that countdown device as best we can, but we're afraid to do too much more without possibly causing something catastrophic. As for that other Nick, he seems to have vanished without a trace."
"Yeah, that's distressing," Haruka quipped. "We have no idea what he's planning to do, since he won't talk to any of us."
"I guess all we can do for now is stick around and see if there's anything we can do to help out," Mat noted. "Oh, wait, how much time is left on that countdown?"
"About twenty hours, give or take," Jerry stated.
"Is it strange that I really don't want to know what that countdown is for, yet I have an ominous feeling anyways?" Alex admitted. "I'm scared for Nick, if I'm being honest..."
"We all are, Alex," May responded, putting her hand on Alex's shoulder. "But all we can really do is hope he's all right and that he'll be back soon enough."
"WARNING. WARNING. UNIDENTIFIED ENERGY SURGE DETECTED IN WEST HALLWAY GAMMA," a voice bellowed, no doubt the lookout operators dispatched to figure out what was happening.
"Oh, lordy, did Macker leave behind something for us to deal with?" Blaine groaned.
"Well, let's go and find out, shall we?" Sortiliena replied, with the entire group heading down that hallway to find out what this energy surge meant.
When they got there, they noticed a sphere of translucent blue light, similar to the surge that had sent Nick away.
Alex was the first to step closer, wondering what they were going to do, but stopped when she noticed three figures approaching.
"What is it, Alex?" Britney asked.
"I see someone coming through the bubble," Alex answered.
Taking a step back, Alex moved to the side.
Everyone was surprised to see Nick and Sayu diving through the bubble and out into the hallway, rolling along the ground to minimize the impact.
"We actually beat it here?" Sayu gasped.
"Here it comes!" Nick shouted.
Just then, a rather imposing robotic figure emerged from the bubble as well just before it closed. This robot was sinister-looking, resembling a cross between Rez, Dark RiCO, and many extendable arms similar to GLADIS.
"Oof, you were right, Sayu, that thing is ugly," Nick quipped. "Wait, hold on, are we back at W.O.O.H.P.?"
Almost on instinct, Nick realized something about the situation. Sayu must have as well, because the instant Nick tore off down the hallway, she followed suit, with the Intelligence giving chase.
The spies all followed as well, wondering just what the heck was going on.
Eventually, Nick and Sayu made it to Jerry's office, where they could both see the neuro-electron bomb stuck to the desk, its countdown down to nineteen hours.
"How do I disarm it?" Nick asked.
"Twist it twice counter-clockwise, then hit the button that pops out of the top!" Sayu responded.
Nick did so, and when the button popped up, Nick slammed his hand down onto the button, and nearly instantaneously, the countdown disappeared and all of the computer systems in the area came back online.
Nick was glad that the first thing he saw on the office viewscreen was the RiCO he knew.
"...wh-wha... Wait, Nick, you're back?!" RiCO gasped. "Did you finally disarm that thing that disabled the Datascape?"
"I'm more worried about you and iCO right now," Nick admitted.
"We're fine, just more confused than anything," RiCO sighed.
"What happened to that other Nick?" iCO wondered.
"I'm pretty sure he got sent back to his own time," Sayu answered. "And speaking of which..."
Right on cue, the Intelligence marched into the office, ready to destroy everything in there.
"Not this time, you freak!" Nick shouted, firing a Final Shine Attack to blast the Intelligence out of the office so he and Sayu could pursue it, much to the rest of the spies' confusion.
Nick, what the heck just happened?!" Haruka exclaimed. "Are you all right?!"
"And who's this lady?" Mat wondered.
"I'll fill you in when we're not in big danger!" Nick responded. "Right now, we have to destroy this thing, and fast!"
"Sounds like a plan to me," May chuckled as she summoned her anchor, the rest of the spies joining Nick and Sayu so they could face off with the Intelligence.
For Alex, May, Nozomi, and Haruka, any celebrations regarding Nick's safe return had to wait.
"Bro, I can't wait to hear this when we're done," Mat replied to Nick.
"And I've got plenty to say," Nick insisted.
"Just so everybody knows, my name is Sayu," Sayu told the rest of the spies.
"Okay, we're behind you both," Melissa remarked.
"I don't know who these people are, but either way, they're not the good guys," Bridget commented.
"They're called..." Sayu started before one of the Intelligence commenced an attack on the spies. "The Intelligence."
Jerry knew it was in his best interests if he helped, too.
"Hey, you're getting in the act, too, Jer?" Mat wondered.
"If at all, I know this building like the back of my hand," Jerry quipped.
"Point taken!" Clover emphasized.
"Clover, watch out!" Blaine exclaimed as he rushed forward to grab Clover by the shoulders and pull her away from the Intelligence as it tried to grab her.
Once Clover was safe, Blaine brought out his Boomerang Bazooka and started firing it rapidly, only for the Intelligence to tank each shot as it closed in on Blaine, one of its many arms extending into a razor-sharp blade that it thrust forward to stab Blaine in the gut.
Thankfully, Sayu was there to help, extending a blade of her own from underneath her arm and slicing off the Intelligence's arm, before taking that bladed arm and tossing it into the Intelligence's mooks, cutting a few of their robotic bodies apart.
Jerry used some of his ballet moves that worked before on some of the mooks, and he did not even get hit.
"I never thought I'd see ballet be used again to get you out of a jam, Jer," Mat commented. "Nice work!"
With the army of Intelligence mooks left, they started running off.
"We better catch them!" Nozomi exclaimed.
"I want to believe that we have quite a bit of time left," Mat remarked. "But hopefully we might get a little lucky..."
"I'll be around to beep or vibrate when you're close," RiCO told the others.
"Duly noted, RiCO," Sortiliena quipped.
"And glad that you're online again," Sam added.
"Of course," RiCO giggled.
Nick could feel the vibration on his X-Powder from RiCO.
"We're close, guys," Nick told them.
"Wait, they're heading towards the drive core room," Jerry noted.
"Oh, that's not good," Nick quipped. "We can't let that thing get in there!"
"So, do you know what to do, Sayu?" Britney wondered.
"No doubt about it," Sayu quipped. "But for now, let's not worry about discussions and focus on taking this thing down."
"Wait, you said something about a 'drive core', Jer?" Sam asked.
"It's the room where we keep everything that powers some of our more intensive systems, like the Datascape," Jerry answered.
"Hey, you little robotic nutjob, eyes on me!" Nick shouted, catching the Intelligence's attention while it attempted to force open the doors to the drive core room much like Other Nick had attempted earlier.
"You're not going any further," Sayu growled.
In response, the Intelligence belted out a sound that sounded like a cross between an inhuman screech and a primal beast's roar before charging to attack the spies.
Nick did a backflip over the Intelligence and fired a Final Shine Attack from above to drive it into the ground, allowing Sayu to go on the offensive and unleash a burst of light from her visor that drove the Intelligence backwards.
"You're mine!" May exclaimed as she ran forward to start attacking the Intelligence with her anchor, making sure to do as much damage as she could.
After a few more swings, though, the Intelligence spun its multiple arms around, each tipped with razor blades, forcing May to jump backwards to avoid getting skewered.
This gave the Intelligence a chance to start trying to force open the doors to the drive core room.
"Um, RiCO, what happened to that ominous countdown thingy from earlier?" Alex wondered.
"Nick disabled the device that was causing it when he came back," RiCO answered. "So we don't have to worry about that."
"Problem is, if this thing gets its chrome fingers on the drive core, this whole city's screwed!" Nick exclaimed, raising his right hand to psychically grab the Intelligence and yank it away from the door. "We have to stop it right here and now!"
"Let me give it a whack, then," Sortiliena proclaimed as she jumped in to start attacking the Intelligence, ducking and weaving through each of its attempts to slash at her before using a Platinum Credit Card to start cutting off its multiple GLADIS arms one by one.
Sam and Mat quickly slipped behind the Intelligence and fired Electromagnetic Curling Irons into its back, sending it stumbling.
"Think we're getting anywhere?" Haruka wondered.
Suddenly, the Intelligence unleashed a pulse around itself that drove Sam and Mat away from it, then lunged forward to strike at Jerry. Much to its apparent surprise, Jerry easily dodged through each attack before jumping off a nearby wall to kick the Intelligence back.
"Still got the moves," Jerry chuckled.
The Intelligence roared in that same inhuman way again before firing off crimson red laser blasts from its arms, forcing the spies to scatter to avoid getting hit by the beams.
"I think we need to move this to a much more spacious area," Sam stated. "This hallway isn't giving us much room to maneuver!"
Just as Sam attempted to juke around another bladed arm, the Intelligence barreled forward and smashed through the doors to the drive core room.
"Not good!" Britney shouted.
Before the Intelligence could march into the room and finish what it had started, Sayu ran over and grabbed it from behind in a full nelson hold, struggling as hard as she could to not let go.
"Everyone, this is your chance! You have to destroy it before it can get into the drive core!" Sayu shouted.
"B-But what about you, Sayu?!" Melissa exclaimed. "You might get caught up in it, too!"
"It's the only way!" Sayu responded. "Hurry, I can't hold this thing off for much longer!"
"No freakin' way, Sayu!" Nick shouted. "You're not sacrificing yourself on my watch! We'll find another way to..."
"GOT IT!" RiCO's voice resounded as lights in the drive core room came back online swiftly. "You're mine, buddy!"
Suddenly, the Intelligence's eyes flickered between red and blue before dying out, its entire body going limp in Sayu's grasp.
"W-What just happened?" Sayu wondered.
"Simple. With the anti-virus software finally fully back online, I managed to zero in on the thing controlling that body and wipe it out," RiCO answered. "It was similar enough to a virus that it wasn't too much of a problem."
"Then let me put the finishing touches on this," Nick quipped, spreading his arms out and concentrating. Sayu released the now limp body of the Intelligence and scooted off to the side while Nick charged up.
A sphere of green light surrounded Nick's left hand, and a sphere of yellow light surrounded Nick's right hand. After a couple seconds, Nick slammed his hands together and the two lights combined into a larger sphere of silver light around his hands.
"Now stay out of our time, you monster!" Nick shouted as he wrenched his hands apart, a trail of silver light connecting his palms, before clapping them back together to unleash his gathered energy in the form of a massive burst of silver light resembling an ocean wave. The energy wave collided with the Intelligence's robot body and eviscerated it completely, only small scraps remaining.
"There," Nick stated. "Try and piece yourself back together from that."
"So... is it over?" Sam wondered.
Sayu looked down at what little was left of the Intelligence's robotic body. "...yeah, I think it is," Sayu sighed in relief. "Now I'm glad I convinced Nick to try that."
"And speaking of that..." Mat quipped.
"Welp... I hope you guys like long stories," Nick chuckled.
6:13 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters
Jerry's Office
"And that's basically everything that happened," Nick quipped after he and Sayu finished explaining everything that had occurred in the alternate future.
"Yikes, that sounds like a lot of trouble to go through," Mat answered. "I'm just glad you were able to fix that RiCO and that your other self didn't have to blow us all sky-high."
"Where is he, though?" Sortiliena wondered. "I didn't see him anywhere..."
"He's back in my time," Sayu responded. "When Nick and I jumped back, the whole 'matter in two places' thing kicked in and sent him back to our own time. And on that note, I should probably get going myself. We've got a lot of cleanup to do back there."
Sayu typed something into a display on her arm, her body surrounded by a surge of blue light.
"I just wanted to say thank you to all of you," Sayu quipped. "For helping us make our future something worth fighting for again."
Sayu smiled brightly as she vanished from sight.
"Man, you seem to keep getting sucked into these crazy adventures, huh, Nick?" Sortiliena chuckled.
"Does nothing but enforce my belief that I'm cursed," Nick sighed. "I'm just glad everything's back to normal again."
"Tell me about it," RiCO chuckled as she and iCO materialized their holographic forms in the office. "The Datascape's fully up and running, too, so everything worked out in the end!"
"I'm sure you're all in need of some relaxing time, given how stressful all of this must have been, so we'll send you all back home," iCO stated as she waved her hands to send the thirteen spies back to Mali-U.
7:08 P.M. – Malibu University
The Spies' Penthouse
Upon returning to the penthouse, the spies had some dinner while Mat had missed a few minutes of the Supercross Lites broadcast from Anaheim 2 2010.
"Oh, geez," Mat reacted at seeing an immediate crash in heat #1 from Canidae Suzuki's Ryan Morais #116 and KTM's Phil Nicoletti #175.
Nick and Haruka came to see what was going on when they saw Morais was being attended to by the medical crew.
"Uh-oh," Haruka stated.
A replay showed Nicoletti had gone for a triple in the same rhythm section as Morais and his front wheel landed right on the back fender of Morais' Suzuki; Morais on the other hand went splat flat on his back on the face of the next jump.
"Yikes, that looks brutal," Haruka noted.
"Guess Morais' lucky it wasn't worse," Nick quipped. "I've seen worse, trust me."
In the meantime, Josh Hansen on his #100 Pro Circuit Kawasaki led the way.
Melissa and Sam came to see Mat was still watching his Supercross series.
"Mat, are you sure you're still going to watch your series?" Melissa wondered.
"I don't think you should torture yourself, bro," Nick added.
"First off, this is the Lites broadcast," Mat pointed out. "Secondly, I'm trying to look at it as 'Can Chad Reed win a race at least?', you know what I mean?"
Hansen went on to win that first heat race; his teammate Jake Weimer #12 went on to win heat #2, but some of the spies, along with Mat, had reacted at a pair of crashes from French import Gautier Paulin #321 on the Star Racing Yamaha and Blake Wharton on his #21 Factory Connection Honda. A third crash from Suzuki privateer Ben Evans #42 also took the spies by surprise.
The LCQ highlights showed Wharton and Paulin were the final two riders who made the 20-rider 15-lap main event.
"Yay... French guy made it," Clover cheered.
"I saw that twinkle in your eye, Clover," May quipped.
"Don't worry, May, you can oy vey no longer," Clover chuckled.
"Pourcel is a French citizen, too, Clover," Mat chuckled. "And he'll be in for the East series in the Lites class..."
"I noticed," Alex giggled.
Just before the Lites main came another replay of Morais' bad crash in heat #1; Morais did not return for the LCQ.
"Ouch," Alex stated. "And I've seen more than my fair share of crashes in this sport, too."
"Tell me about it," Dawn quipped.
"Oh, yeah, that is enough to make you hold your breath," Mat sighed with a cringe.
The Lites main saw both Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Josh Hansen and Jake Weimer running 1st and 2nd. Hansen only led for one turn before Weimer got around him; running in 3rd was #49 Wil Hahn on the Troy Lee Honda.
"Mat, are you sure you're not torturing yourself like Nick was saying earlier?" Bridget asked.
"No," Mat answered. "I'm just hoping Chad Reed can just win a race, honestly..."
"You can't seriously think Chad Reed's title hopes are over this early..." Nozomi reasoned.
"Believe me... they ARE over..." Mat emphasized. "I saw the 450cc class earlier this week, and Chad Reed was a no-show for Anaheim 2..."
"Yeesh, that bad?" Melissa gasped.
"That sounds like trouble," Blaine noted.
"Any hope he'll come back later in the season?" Blaine asked.
"...we'll see," Mat sighed. "Broken bone in his hand is what I heard..."
"Even so, dude, that was one helluva race between Dungey, Hill, and Stewart," Nick replied.
"Totally," May added.
In terms of the Lites main win, the race didn't give much to get excited over because Weimer had checked out on the rest of the field and made it 3 wins in 3 races. Hahn had gotten around Hansen for 2nd place, where he would finish; Trey Canard on the Factory Connection Honda would come from a mediocre start to a 3rd place finish. Hansen would finish 4th on the night, which gave Mat a bit of a smile at least.
"Stewart was there?" Britney wondered.
"Yep... finished 3rd," Mat replied. "But he did not look like the James Stewart I remember before last week at Phoenix..."
"Is this the news you wanted to hear, Mat?" Dawn wondered.
"Close, but not quite," Mat replied. "If Stewart's scratched from the series, I think I'll be able to live with it."
"I know that feeling," Nick remarked. "If my guy couldn't win, and his rival doesn't win either, that's always a consolation."
"Yeah, the whole 'at least you didn't win, buddy' bit," Bridget chuckled. "That was totally Zoey this one time our middle school track team got blindsided during a multi-team meet. Our rivals from SoCal thankfully got stomped during that event, and we came home with third place. I'd call that a win."
"That was the one that Zoey wouldn't shut up about when your track friends were hanging out here, right?" Nick replied.
"She's definitely more fanatical about our track team than the others," Bridget laughed. "I can't remember how many times Kikki had to do the ol' Nozomi ear pull just to get Zoey to knock it off."
"The old track team's still as rowdy as ever, huh?" Mat chuckled.
"Yup, and I wouldn't have them any other way," Bridget proclaimed.
6:15 A.M. – The Shatterverse
"Eat some blizzard, lady!" Alex shouted as she sprayed the nearby area with Ice Queen Perfume to keep Captain Dread from getting closer.
"You know, you're really beginning to grate on my nerves," Captain Dread growled as she thrust her hand forward to unleash a pulse wave that blew the icy mist away. "Why can't you understand that I only want the Paradox Prism to bring back somebody I loved?!"
"We're not knocking you for that, but did you ever maybe think that there's a damn good reason that the Paradox Prism was hidden away like it was?!" Nick exclaimed, using his Red Prism Shard to project a barrier of light to defend himself and Alex from Captain Dread's next attack. "The power to literally shape reality can be dangerous in the wrong hands! Why the heck do you think I broke it to keep it away from Tim Scam?!"
Captain Dread raised both of her hands and created an barrier of water spheres that orbited around her. Even though she didn't have her Blue Prism Shard any longer, she clearly still retained some of its powers.
"Regardless, I need the completed Prism, so why don't you just hand over the three shards you have on you?" Captain Dread proclaimed.
"Did you even hear a word Nick just said?!" Alex retorted. "I understand you're grieving and upset, but you're toying with powers you seriously don't understand!"
"Then why are you using the shards' powers?!" Captain Dread countered.
'Well, duh, to keep people like you from misusing them!" Nick responded before placing the green shard in Alex's hands. "I'm gonna make a break for the purple gateway. That's the last piece of the Prism we need."
"Gotcha," Alex answered. "I'll keep little miss lug nut busy for you."
As Alex used the power of the Green Prism Shard to go toe-to-toe with Captain Dread, Nick took off in the opposite direction, flying towards the purple gateway.
Just one more shard to go. He was pretty sure the spies of that other dimension were holding onto the Blue Prism Shard.
Soon, this would all be over. ...he hoped.
Totally Spies: Countdown
~The End~
Final Note from Mat49324: Well, with that, Countdown has been completed. We're very close to the end of season 9, and we hope you've enjoyed every project so far. Our movie fic, New Cinema Labyrinth, has been completed for some time now, and The Blue Time Ranger will be posting that one. For now, we have just two projects left, and I am authoring the next one. We've got another sports-related one, but this time, it has to do with something I'm sure everybody has seen quite a few times in their lives: buzzer-beating shots. It'll be the spies' version of March Madness just two months earlier than normal. Our next project is titled Buzzer Beaters, and here's The Blue Time Ranger for his final thoughts on Countdown.
Final Note from The Blue Time Ranger: And that's all she wrote for this one! Bit of an interesting one, huh? To clarify now that we're finished, this story was inspired by the Toonami event Countdown from 2017, which had a similar premise of Toonami host TOM being switched with his future self who came back to stop SARA, who had been infected and changed by a mysterious alien intelligence their ship had flown through. And the android Sayu is based on another one of my favorite V-Tubers, Sayu Syncronisity. And yes, she is very entertaining and you should go check out her stuff.
And with that cleared up, let's talk about the next episode of Totally Spies: The New Adventures! Buzzer beater wins are leading to brawls, and it's all the fault of yet another unlikely teamup of bad guys. Who, you may ask? You'll just have to wait and find out, next time on Buzzer Beaters, which will be posted by Mat. So, until next time, have a fantastic day, don't listen to the screeching morons, enjoy this preview of Buzzer Beaters, and we'll see you next mission!
Later that day, Mat was busy covering a basketball game at the Mali-U sports complex, and it was getting to be a pretty close game.
Though, in the end, the Mali-U team had managed to swipe the victory at the very last second by way of a buzzer-beating three point shot.
Mat looked down to write on his notepad about what he'd seen, but when he looked back up, he wondered just what he was seeing.
The rival team had suddenly started going after the Mali-U team, their players quickly getting physical and throwing wild punches and other moves all over the place.
As the fighting began to spill out into the audience stands, Mat quickly decided it'd be best for him to hide somewhere, and he did so by ducking and covering underneath one of the nearby media tables that were meant for reporters like himself.
After waiting about a couple minutes with no sign of an end to the fighting, Mat found an opportunity to slip away and get out of there.
But as he left the sports complex, Mat noticed someone odd out of the corner of his eye. But when he tried to get another look, that person was gone, lost in the crowd.
Still, Mat's spy training made him more suspicious of odd figures in times like this, so he filed it away for the moment as he got the heck out of the sports complex and ran back to the spies' penthouse.
"Hey, you're back already?" Haruka asked. Water polo practice had ended about an hour ago, and Haruka, Bridget and May were thus back at the penthouse. "Didn't the game just end?"
"That's why I booked it back here," Mat explained. "Our team won the game, but here's the problem. The other team apparently got really angry that the Mali-U team won by a buzzer beater, and both teams just started brawling."
"Yeesh, someone on that team must have been salty," Melissa quipped.
"But that's not what's bugging me," Mat continued. "I was hiding under one of the media tables until I could find a clear shot to get the hell out of there, but before I escaped, I saw someone rather shifty-looking in the crowd for about a second."
"Oof, how much do you wanna bet I know who that was?" Blaine groaned, realizing who Mat had probably seen.
To be continued in Totally Spies: Buzzer Beaters...
