7:45 A.M. – The Shatterverse
Ancient Ruins
"Man, I have never hated mazes more than I do at this point in my life," Nick sighed as he continued to make his way through the labyrinthine passageways of the ancient temple. Whatever sadist had designed this place had created a winding maze of paths to try and discourage anybody from finding the treasure within.
Nick was at least happy that he appeared to be making progress. Despite the whole maze-like structure of the temple, he had a feeling he was heading in the right direction, no doubt due to the pull of the red and yellow Prism Shards in his hands. Their energy seemed to be guiding him towards the Purple Prism Shard that no doubt awaited here.
And yes, Nick was very eager to find the shard and get out of this maze so he could figure out a way to repair the Paradox Prism and fix this mess.
Inwardly, though, he wondered if he'd be able to handle that kind of power. Nick was acutely aware that the power to literally reshape reality was incredibly dangerous for anybody to handle, even someone with good intentions like him.
Regardless, Nick naturally only planned to use the Paradox Prism long enough to fix his home dimension and then relinquish the power.
But first, he'd have to see if he could visit the dimension those other spies came from, considering they were currently in possession of the Blue Prism Shard that they had taken from Captain Dread.
First things first, though. He still had one more shard to find.
As Nick continued following the pull of the red and yellow shards, he had to duck under barrages of arrows coming from the walls, crushing spiked walls, and yes, even a gigantic rolling boulder.
"This just isn't my day!" Nick exclaimed as he continued to dodge the traps of the temple.
Hopefully it wouldn't be much longer until he could claim the purple shard and get the heck out of here.
(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 111: Go Away Ghost Ship
Story Rated: T for Teen
Story Created: July 12th, 2024
Story Summary: The one-hundred and forty-ninth co-op project between Mat49324 and The Blue Time Ranger, and episode one hundred and eleven of our mission-based series Totally Spies: The New Adventures. In the Moonflow Tides, Patty's noticed a strange ship sailing the waters lately, and it always seems to be following the Fiertia. With that in mind, Patty decides to bring the spies over to help them investigate this mysterious ghost ship. As it turns out, though, this is no ordinary ghost ship, but the Atherum, which was once a thriving community of pirates and adventures, until a mysterious incident claimed the lives of everyone on board, their souls unable to escape the ship. While trekking through the depths of the Atherum, Patty may unexpectedly have to deal with a specter from her past, and this ghost of vengeance wants her head for something related to Aifread...
Author's Notes from Mat49324: Well, after finishing Buzzer Beaters, it's time to move on to a new one... Go Away Ghost Ship. We do hope you enjoyed Buzzer Beaters as well, especially over something that happens quite often. Have you witnessed your fair share of them... whether basketball, baseball, water polo, etc.? I've witnessed quite a few myself in attending college basketball for 27 years (28 this Winter). Anyway, we're going back to the Moonflow Tides again, and we hope you have a good time reading this. For now, here's The Blue Time Ranger for anything he'd like to say.
Author's Notes from The Blue Time Ranger: Only three episodes remain in season nine, and we're heading back to the Moonflow Tides for a plot I can't believe I didn't think of sooner, considering its inspiration. And yes, it may have also been inspired by a recent viewing of the Scooby-Doo episode this story's named after. But let's not argue semantics, let's set sail for adventure! 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: Coast-to-Ghost
12:57 P.M. – Malibu University
The Spies' Penthouse
("Wake Up!" by AAA plays)
"Man, it's as lively as ever in here, isn't it?" Sam chuckled. She and Mat had just returned from a bit of a romantic walk, and when they entered the main living room, yet another raucous game of Super Smash Bros. was already underway. No doubt May wanted a little more practice before the tournament taking place two weeks from now.
"That's usually how it gets when we play Smash in this penthouse," Dawn giggled.
"And I got stuck with Olimar," Nick groaned as he attempted to fly away from May, who was actually playing as Sonic. "We decided to pick random characters for this one, and I got saddled with the one I absolutely SUCK as."
"That's just the way the cookie crumbles, Nick!" Haruka taunted as she, playing Lucario, hit Olimar with an Aura Sphere that sent him flying.
"Oh, please don't mention cookies right now, I'm seriously jonesin' for some of Ms. Appleseed's cookies," May groaned.
"Wait, isn't she technically on vacation until Monday?" Alex asked.
"And that's the problem!" May proclaimed. "It's been way too long!"
"You really love those cookies, don't you, May?" Blaine teased.
"I can't help it if she makes some of the most delicious cookies I've ever laid eyes and ears on," May laughed.
As the Smash game continued, Nick suddenly heard a strange noise coming from right behind the group. He turned around to check it out just in time to see a Quantum Rift opening up in the center of the room.
"Um, should we be concerned about that?" Britney wondered.
Nick took a closer look at what was inside the rift, only to smile.
"I don't think we need to worry this time," Nick chuckled. "I know who that is."
Sure enough, the world on the other side of the rift was that of the Moonflow Tides, and the spies could now clearly see both Patty and Pirate Nick standing on the deck of the Fiertia.
"Ahoy there, mateys!" Patty exclaimed. "Been a while, hasn't it?"
"Well, it's been a while for most of us," Melissa answered. Nick had been the only one to head to the Moonflow Tides previously, thanks to Ashley requesting his assistance in finding phase quartz in order to rebuild the Dimensionator. The rest of the spies had been dealing with Sagan Hawking during that time.
"Is everything going okay over there, Patty?" Sam wondered.
"Welp... that's why we got in contact with you guys," Patty admitted.
"I think it'd be easier if we show you in person," Pirate Nick stated. "Why don't you all cross over so we can figure this out together?"
"Sounds like a plan to me," May quipped.
After Sam and Mat put in a call to Jerry to let them know where they'd be, and after RiCO downloaded herself into Nick's X-Powder for the trip, the spies all got up and crossed through the Quantum Rift.
6:34 A.M. – The Moonflow Tides
Southeast Wave
"Ah, the wonders of the ocean," Haruka chuckled once everybody was onboard the Fiertia.
"Hey, is it me, or is there a certain... spooky kind of energy in the air right now?" Alex wondered, shuddering slightly at the thought.
"Wait, you mean like... ghosts, or other supernatural stuff?" Mat asked.
"That's actually why we brought you guys here," Pirate Nick proclaimed, checking his sea charts.
"For the past month now, the Fiertia's been being followed by a very strange ship," Patty explained. "At first, we thought it was just some dumb ol' rival pirates trying to get a leg up on us."
"But when we did a radar scan of that ship... there was nobody on board," Pirate Nick stated.
"Hold on, nobody was piloting it?" Clover gasped.
"Oh, no, we do have a ghost ship on our hands," Alex groaned.
"Whenever we tried to cut off that strange ghost ship so we could check it out, it simply vanished without a trace," Patty quipped. "Hubby and I have spent the past couple weeks trying to track it down so we can see just what the heck the deal is."
"And we figured we'd bring a little extra firepower to help us, so to speak," Pirate Nick chuckled.
"Yeah, fifteen is better than two," Melissa answered.
"Where was the last place you saw this strange ghost ship?" Dawn asked.
"Our last reading came from the Northwest Wave of the Moonflow Tides," Patty stated. "Hopefully it's still there so we can get a leg up on figuring out what's actually going on here."
"Well, then, let's not waste any time and set sail, shall we?" Nick proclaimed.
"I like the way you think," Pirate Nick laughed as he and Patty made a beeline for the main deck so they could start up the ship. "I guess you are me, in a sense."
After about ten seconds, the Fiertia rumbled to life and started sailing across the waves, towards the last known destination of this mysterious ghost ship.
"So, is there anything you want to bring us up to speed on?" Patty asked the spies.
"Well, Mat's case is pretty cut and dry... good and bad," Melissa replied immediately.
"Chad Reed loses the 2009 Supercross title by four points, wins the Motocross title, and now, he's out of the 2010 Supercross title chase," Mat clarified immediately. "After two races..."
"That's a drag," Pirate Nick commented.
"Plus, not sure if we told you the last time, but..." Mat added as he put an arm around Melissa.
"You can probably guess," Melissa giggled.
"I think I remember you saying something, but maybe we forgot to ask you to elaborate," Pirate Nick quipped.
"And us, too," Haruka added and leaned into Nick gently.
"Now that DEFINITELY is news to us," Pirate Nick replied. "How'd that come to be?"
"Well, let's just say a lot of us were forced to withdraw from a mission with Violet Vanderfleet and Max Exterminus due to their master plan," Bridget started.
"But my symptoms wound up worse than everyone," Haruka admitted.
"What kind of symptoms?" Patty wondered.
"The small flu-like symptoms; Blaine had a cough, Nick and May had shivers, and Haruka had some violent puking," Dawn replied.
"Oh, geez," Pirate Nick cringed. "I think we get the gist, so you can stop there."
"And that's where it started for you, Haruka?" Patty deduced.
"Yeah, pretty much," Haruka sighed. "That's where it actually first hit me."
"So... FOUR girlfriends?" Pirate Nick told Nick. "And three for Mat?! That's lucky!"
"Oh, come on, hubby, don't tell me you're that surprised," Patty giggled. "What about that guy from the Clouds of Dawn who's literally got three wives?"
"Well, one fiancée and three girlfriends to be exact," Alex corrected.
"Something tells me the same thing is going to happen to you, Mat," Patty commented.
"Quite frankly, I'm at a point where I'm not ruling it out," Mat chuckled.
Clover just sighed and looked on since Nick was an item with four girls, and Mat was an item with three, while she just had Blaine.
"Aside from all the girlfriends," Bridget stated next. "May's got something else to be proud of with a buzzer beater in our first water polo game..."
"Oh... do tell," Pirate Nick remarked.
"I just saw the clock expiring and just threw it with everything I had," May chuckled.
She had thrown the ball from about 3/4 length of the Mali-U pool with only two seconds left on the clock, and the ball had just barely made it into the goal, which sent the crowd and the team into an excited frenzy.
"Well, it resulted in a 10-9 win in overtime," Haruka reminded May.
"Congrats, then," Pirate Nick added.
"Mat was asked to cover the game, and we all saw his story and interview with May," Sam giggled.
"Well, aside from catching up, we've reached our destination," Patty told the others.
"Can you walk us through the chain of events?" Blaine requested.
"Oof, I'm starting to feel that shiver-y feeling again," Alex admitted. "And... is it... is it getting foggier?!"
"That's usually a good sign that the ghost ship is lurking around," Patty quipped.
Sure enough, despite the fog growing thicker as they approached, the spies could easily see another pirate ship nearby. It was very rickety and worn-down, as if it had been sailing without upkeep for longer than the New World had been around.
"Yikes, it definitely looks creepy enough," Sam noted.
"And I just did a psychic scan of that ship, and just like Patty said, there's nobody on board," Nick proclaimed. "...nobody alive, anyway."
"W-Wait, you don't think there are actually ghosts on that time-worn mess of a ship, do you, Nick?" Dawn asked.
"If that ship is what I think it is, then I'm sure of it," Pirate Nick answered. "If I'm not mistaken... that ship is the Atherum."
"A long time ago, say, about fifty years or so, according to the stories, the Atherum was your normal, run-of-the-mill pirate ship," Patty explained. "Its crew were mostly full of pirates like me or hubby, simple treasure hunters who wanted to make a living by uncovering relics of the old world."
"But as the story goes, one day, the crew of the Atherum sailed into a strange area of the Hollow Current on a particularly nasty weather day," Pirate Nick continued. "But... when the Atherum returned... none of its crew were there. Physically, anyway."
"They say that whatever horrible incident that claimed the lives of the Atherum's crew also bound their souls to the ship's corridors, leaving them unable to pass on and trapped, haunting their own ship for possibly eternity," Patty noted. "The weird thing is, I always thought the tale of the Atherum was nothing more than a silly bedtime ghost story. Grandpa Aifread always told me that story around Halloween time, but I never thought the Atherum was actually real..."
"To be fair, given everything that we've been witness to on our own adventures, nothing much really strikes you as surprising anymore," May admitted.
"My question is, what is the Atherum doing here?" Nozomi wondered.
"That I'm not as sure of," Pirate Nick admitted.
"...hold on, hold on," Alex stammered. "Did that... did that ship just say something?"
The spies all listened for whatever Alex had heard.
"GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTT"
The sheer volume of that screeching voice was enough to make the spies all take a step back as the Atherum suddenly turned towards the Fiertia and started sailing in its direction.
"Okay, so not only did it scream at us, it's actually coming towards us?!" Bridget exclaimed.
"Patty, activate the weapons systems!" Pirate Nick shouted.
"Roger that, hubby!" Patty proclaimed as she pressed a pair of buttons on the console nearby, and the hull of the Fiertia revealed a set of weapons, as did the sails on either side of the Fiertia's mast. "You wanna dance, ghost ship?! Then by all freakin' means, let's dance!"
Pirate Nick started steering the Fiertia around the Atherum while Patty handled the weapons, ready to shoot down anything the Atherum would try and throw their way.
Sure enough, the Atherum fired a barrage of what appeared to be slightly transparent missiles from its starboard bow, but Patty was quicker on the draw, locking on and firing off their own cannons. This unleashed their own barrage of raritanium-tipped bolts of steel that countered each missile effortlessly.
"That'll teach ya!" Patty laughed.
At that precise moment, a large cannonball fired from one of the Atherum's cannons towards the Fiertia, but Nick shot it out of the sky with a Final Shine Attack.
"Yeah, try to be a prick again," Nick taunted. "See what happens!"
A few seconds of silence passed before the Atherum seemingly ceased its attack and turned to sail away into the fog, said fog actually clearing away as the Atherum got further and further away.
"...okay, wasn't expecting it to actually get whatever counts as cold feet for ghosts," Nick chuckled.
"Wait, I'm more concerned about where it's going," Mat stated. "What's gonna happen if the Atherum encounters another pirate crew and they're not as lucky as us at fighting it off? I don't really know what those trapped souls are planning or if it's even the Atherum itself doing this, but I don't really want to think about those ghastly implications."
"Well, then, let's keep up the pursuit, shall we?" Patty quipped as she reset the Fiertia from battle mode to traversal mode, after which the Fiertia started sailing in the direction that the Atherum had retreated to.
It was by this point that Nick got a good look at Alex and how nervous she was about this whole thing. Wanting to make sure she was all right, Nick walked up to her and gently pulled her into a hug, easing some of her tension.
"...am I that easy to read?" Alex chuckled.
"Hey, I'm your fiancée," Nick quipped. "I can kinda read you like a book, psychic powers or not."
"I'm just... not really used to dealing with ghosts and stuff, even now," Alex admitted. "Despite, you know, being agents of W.O.O.H.P. where we see practically every crazy thing that reality could possibly throw at us before dinner time... we've rarely ever had to deal with the supernatural, you know? ...that Channeler guy notwithstanding."
"Yeah, it's a little weird to me, too, but it's nothing we can't handle, right?" Nick responded. "After all, we're not just spies, we're super spies. We're not going to let some silly ol' spooky scary skeletons frighten us off, right?"
"Well, when you put it that way..." Alex laughed. "But seriously, thanks, Nick, for telling me pretty much exactly what I needed to hear."
"Hey, I wouldn't be doing my job as your fiancée if I didn't, right?" Nick quipped as he and Alex shared a kiss.
As the Fiertia continued its chase of the Atherum, Patty couldn't help but think about why that strange voice that came from the Atherum felt so familiar.
Pirate Nick certainly noticed how Patty was acting upon hearing that strange voice.
"I know when something's bothering my wife," Pirate Nick stated to Patty.
She sighed since nothing got past Pirate Nick.
"You know that voice that shouted at us to 'get out'?" Patty answered. "It seems really familiar, but I'm not sure why..."
The spies overheard what Patty was saying, and they listened in to get educated on that, too.
"You think you recognized that voice, Patty?" Bridget wondered after getting the gist of things.
"You must know some people in high places," Mat commented.
"Some I wish I never did," Patty replied. "But you're right, Bridget... I just can't put my finger on who it might be, though..."
"Anyway, as far as the Atherum is concerned, the unfortunate part is we're on the open seas," Mat stated. "There's got to be a way to box them in..."
"...maybe there is," Sam told the others after hearing Mat say "box them in."
"What're you thinking, Sammy?" Alex wondered.
"I'm thinking that once we get close enough to it again, we all try and spread out to keep the thing from getting away as easily," Sam stated.
"Maybe I can start something up," Nick remarked.
"It'll take a group effort, though," Clover deduced.
Everybody agreed there.
"Thar she blows!" Patty exclaimed as the Atherum came into view, fog and everything.
"All right, everyone, get ready," Sam proclaimed.
However, before any of the spies could execute their flanking maneuver, a couple other pirate ships all sailed onto the scene, and it seemed they had the same idea, as they all sailed into a square formation that kept the Atherum from escaping.
Patty immediately recognized the ships, as two of them belonged to Siren's Fang, a sort of rival pirate clan to Patty, and the other ship was the Artorius, the personal ship of fellow pirate Shirley Fennes.
"You guys came in at literally the perfect time!" Patty laughed.
"Well, that's one less thing to worry about," Britney quipped.
"Did you fill in any blanks yet, Patty?" May asked.
"Not even close," Patty sighed.
"Don't even think about trying to escape from us!" Nick shouted at the Atherum crew.
Instead, the crew decided to have a round two and got out some of their ammo. This surprised the spies.
"Why do they always do this the hard way?!" Nozomi chastised.
"I guess that's what makes them who they are," Melissa sighed.
"We weren't going to play this game, but they left us no choice," Haruka sighed.
"How about I get us going here?" Nick quipped as he jumped into the air and fired a Final Shine Attack into the side of the Atherum's hull, hoping to draw its ghostly crew out into the open.
The Siren's Fang ships and even the Artorius got into the action as well, firing their own weapons in order to keep the Atherum distracted.
Before long, the Atherum crew decided to abort the battle and plan an escape.
"We better follow them," Alex told the others. "This could be our only chance to stop whatever their plan is..."
"Don't even think about it!" Shirley called out from onboard the Artorius as she pressed a button on her control panel, and this caused a large electric snare net to fire from underneath the front hull of the Artorius. The snare net constricted around the hull of the Atherum and stopped it from trying to escape.
"Nice shot, Shirley!" Patty exclaimed.
"Man, am I really glad Shirley's back on our side now," Nozomi admitted.
"That should be yer chance to get on board that thing, Patty!" a Siren's Fang guildmate proclaimed.
"We'll keep the Atherum busy for you," Shirley responded. "You all just get on board and figure out what this thing is!"
"That sounds like all the invitation we need," Pirate Nick quipped as he piloted the Fiertia close enough to the Atherum so they and the spies could board the ghost ship.
8:32 A.M. – The Moonflow Tides
The Atherum – Lower Deck
"Y-Y-Yikes, if this thing was creepy on the outside, it's actually twenty times creepier on the inside!" Alex stammered as the spies all entered the Atherum's lower deck.
"Ghost ships do tend to be that way," Dawn stated.
"All right, so what exactly are we looking for in this decrepit old rust-bucket of a ghost ship?" Clover wondered.
"We'll probably have to find whoever's acting as the captain of the Atherum," Pirate Nick answered as he reached for the handle of his scimitar, just in case. "It might give us clues as to what this thing wants."
"I-I just hope it's not the usual ghost thing..." Alex groaned.
Nick stepped closer and held Alex's hand, which thankfully calmed her down enough to try and keep her composure as the spies began to explore the Atherum.
"Man, this place looks old school, even by pirate standards," Pirate Nick quipped. "Really makes me wonder how long the Atherum's been sailing these waters for..."
"Since we're actually on the ship now, I was wondering, Nick, if you could, you know..." Sam asked.
"Already on it, Sammy," Nick responded, using his psychic radar to search around the Atherum for any thoughts to pick up on, only to find nada. "And it once again looks like there's nobody on board, at least nobody alive. I am picking up a lot of background noise, though. I wonder if it's because they're ghosts, because I've never actually tried to read the 'mind' of a ghost before. I don't think I got a chance to try that with Rosalia before we took care of the Channeler, so..."
"You shouldn't have come here," a ghostly voice bellowed.
"Yeah, well, we're stubborn, so go and shove that down your undead tailpipes," Clover taunted.
"You will not survive this," another ghostly voice proclaimed.
Just then, a nearby door slammed open by itself and a large suit of armor carrying a razor-sharp steel sword marched out to confront the spies.
"Oh, that can't be good," Dawn quipped.
"There's nobody in that thing, right?" Mat asked.
"That means I don't have to hold back!" Patty exclaimed, reaching into her pocket to pull out a set of nethicite-infused knives before jumping into the air and throwing them towards the armor. The knives all planted themselves into the floorboards around the suit, forming a blue octagon-shaped magical glyph underneath it.
"Swirling water balloons!" Patty shouted. "Hydraulic Raid!"
Not giving the armor suit a chance to attack, Patty raised her grandfather's pistol and fired a shot into the air that eventually came back down as a large bubble of water that fell directly on top of the armor suit before exploding outwards, destroying the suit.
"Okay, that was cool," Alex chuckled, forgetting about the spookiness, if only for the moment.
"Yeah, I found out how to switch up the elements I use for Glittery Rain, in this case, water equals a new attack," Patty quipped. "The nethicite power is already in the knives anyway, so boom."
"We'd better get moving before we have to deal with more spooky shenanigans," Blaine stated.
As the spies continued to explore the Atherum, the voices seemed to have quieted down for the moment, but in exchange, the hallways seemed to be trying to lead them somewhere, random doors opening at very specific moments and strange shadows popping up to egg them on.
"These wily little spooks are up to something, no doubt," Patty quipped.
"Then why are we still following them?" Alex gasped.
"Advice for heroes, number nine," May responded as she twirled her anchor around. "I don't really like the idea either, Alex, but it really does feel like it's the only way we're gonna figure out just what the heck is happening with this ship."
As the expedition through the Atherum continued, eventually, Patty would start seeing flashes of a particular spirit, once again telling the spies to get out or face the consequences.
And there's that odd feeling, Patty thought. Why do I know that voice?
When the group rounded the next corner, a bunch of bright white wisps converged on one spot to form an image of a ghostly pirate blocking the way ahead.
"Stay on guard, everyone, we've got an actual ghost now," Bridget quipped. "And I have a feeling he's not gonna let us through that next door without some kind of fight."
"Now you little punks will know our pain," the apparition in front of them bellowed.
After getting a good look at the ghost, Patty suddenly gasped in shock when it all clicked into place for her.
"What's wrong, Patty darling?" Pirate Nick asked.
"S-Seifer?!" Patty exclaimed.
The spies overheard Patty's answer.
"You know some pretty wacky people," Clover commented.
Alex was about to give Clover an elbow bump, but Patty already saw what she was doing, and motioned not to do that.
"She's not wrong, Alex," Patty told her. "That's Seifer..."
"Sounds like a real troublemaker in itself," Mat remarked.
"You don't know the half of it," Pirate Nick groaned.
An explanation was going to have to wait because the spies seemed to have been spotted.
"This is your last warning..." the apparition warned.
"Travis Pastrana got a harsher warning than what you're giving us," Mat retorted.
"You will know that this will be worse!" the apparition remarked back, not liking Mat's sarcasm.
"Bro, you have some pretty creative retorts," Nick commented to Mat.
"Totally, you'd give me a run for my money at times," Clover added.
Before long, another army of mooks came into view, but these took some of the spies by surprise. The mooks appeared to be doppelgangers of their rogues' gallery.
"Looks like this guy's trying to send us down memory lane with our enemies," Sam observed.
"No matter though," Bridget remarked. "We'll take these chodes like they're nothing!"
What the spies did not know is these doppelgangers had mimicked Bridget's Sonic Mode, much to her surprise.
"Did this Seifer guy read up all about us?" Nozomi wondered.
Another of the doppelgangers had copied Nick and Haruka's up-and-over move from their pool days when they tried to stop them.
"Oh, please, I invented that trick!" Haruka taunted as she jumped to disrupt the doppelgangers' attack before both her and Nick kicked that doppelganger back into the crowd. "Why don't you try better than just cribbing off my style?!"
Nick punctuated that by firing a Final Shine Attack, then sweeping it across the area to dispel the doppelgangers.
"We should throw them for a loop somehow," May told the others.
"We will... somehow," Melissa stated with some optimism.
However, that was easier said than done, as some more of the crew tried to ascertain control of the Fiertia.
"What gives?!" Pirate Nick chastised.
"This battle must have been some kind of ruse," Britney told the others.
"If anybody's got control of this ship, it's us!" Patty proclaimed. "You ghosties aren't taking over my ship while I'm still breathing!"
"We can arrange that," one of the ghosts laughed.
"Okay, I think that's our cue to leave!" Melissa exclaimed. "I don't like the looks of what they're planning!"
"I'm all for that!" Alex shouted. "Let's get the heck out of here!"
With that, the group all retreated the way they'd come from and back onto the Fiertia, making sure none of the ghosts were actually on board. Thankfully, the Fiertia was ghost-free, as it seemed they couldn't go beyond the bounds of the Atherum.
In a flash of eerie white light, the Atherum vanished from sight, the fog around it clearing up as well.
"Oof, that was way too close," May sighed in relief.
"Guess we have to start chasing it again," Sam noted.
"Say, Patty, you said something about one of those ghosts," Mat quipped. "Did you want to elaborate, or..."
"Yeah, I heard that name, too," Pirate Nick stated. "...was that really him, Patty?"
"I'd recognize that face anywhere," Patty admitted. "That was Seifer, Aifread's former first mate."
The spies had to admit, there was still a lot they didn't know about Aifread, despite how much Patty loved talking about her grandfather.
"Every good pirate captain worth their salt needs a first mate to handle what they can't on their own," Patty explained as she leaned over to hug Nick. "Hubby's filled that role for me quite exceptionally, and Seifer did the same thing for Aifread. Seifer was Aifread's liaison when it came to negotiating with other pirates, since despite the more noble pirates out there, there were still a lot of pirates who wanted Aifread's head thanks to his reputation."
"Basically, Seifer handled most of the day-to-day operations of their pirate crew while Aifread and his men handled the more hands-on stuff," Pirate Nick continued. "Aifread may not have been as young as most of his crew, but he never let that stop him from getting his hands dirty when there was 'fun' to be had."
"...but Seifer's a ghost now, right?" Haruka wondered. "Did... did something happen to him?"
"...that's what I was so afraid of," Patty answered. "About a year after I met Nick, Seifer went on a scouting mission to check out a strange pirate ship that had appeared in the Hollow Current. He... he never came back from that."
"We always wondered what had happened to him," Pirate Nick proclaimed. "But I guess Patty and I never got a chance to investigate because we'd gotten so sucked into our search for the Maris Stella."
"But why is he so hostile?" Patty asked. "Seifer was never like that when he was alive, right?"
"I've got a theory that it's got something to do with the Atherum," Nick quipped. "If he somehow met his end because of that ship like I'm thinking he did, then whatever's keeping all of those souls bound to the Atherum is probably corrupting them, distorting their feelings and turning them into twisted mockeries of what they were like when they were alive."
"That would make sense, given how those ghosts were acting," Sam noted.
"Then what are we supposed to do about all of this?" Clover wondered.
"Simple," Pirate Nick proclaimed. "We chase down the Atherum and find a way to free all of the trapped souls. They won't be able to properly rest in peace until we do."
"Sounds like a plan if I've ever heard one, hubby," Patty giggled. "Besides, I've got a few questions to ask Seifer myself."
"Then what the heck are we waiting for?!" May proclaimed. "Let's go and chase down that creepy ghost ship!"
"Aye-aye!" Patty exclaimed as she and Pirate Nick headed over to the main controls so they could plot a course for the Hollow Current, where the Atherum's signal was currently located. (Haruka had managed to slip a tracker on the walls during the scuffle.)
The Fiertia rumbled to life and started sailing across the waters towards the Hollow Current. Patty could only steel herself and hope she'd be able to get some answers from Seifer when they found him again.
To be continued...
Next time...
Mat: Oof, this place is as creepy as ever.
Alex: Tell me about it. It's creepy enough on a normal day, but add in the creepy ghost ship and its fog, and yikes...
Britney: Anybody see anything unusual out there?
Pirate Nick: Wait, now I'm getting multiple readings from the Atherum. There can't be multiple ships like it, can there?
Nick: Okay, they're playing this game, are they?
Haruka: Incoming, everybody!
Patty: Seifer, I know you're there! Now answer me!
Nozomi: ...um, I don't think they're in the mood for talking.
Bridget: Well, then, we'll just have to make them start talking, next time on Totally Spies: Go Away Ghost Ship, "Ghost Who's Coming to Dinner"!
Alex: Man, whoever's making the ghosts in the special effects department really knows what they're doing. I almost thought those were actual ghosts...
Nick: That just means they're doing their jobs.