On Today's Episode: With Darien finally back to his senses, he decides to join the spies in going after Tim Scam, but as always, he's got a secret weapon under his proverbial belt to take on the spies. Can the spies do what they always do and trash Scam's weapon, and hopefully get it through his thick head that Sam will never be his? One can only hope...
Act 3: Let's Fighting Love
7:56 P.M. – Tim Scam's Secret Lair
"All right, Scam, where are you hiding?!" Sam proclaimed once everyone had caught up with Scam.
"Yeah, your face has another appointment with my anchor!" May exclaimed.
"He should be right... here," Nick replied and used a psychic shot to sniff Scam out of his hiding place.
"Did I mention I hate it when you do that?!" Scam chastised.
"Yeah, well, get used to it!" May retorted.
"You're not going to get away with what you tried to make me do, you bastard!" Darien shouted.
"One more changes nothing!" Scam proclaimed. "Let's see you run your mouths after you witness my latest triumph in action!"
In response to Scam's shout, a nearby door slid open to reveal that Scam was piloting a massive mechanical exo-suit shaped in his likeness, though with what appeared to be wedding garments scattered around it.
"...um, what the hell is he piloting?!" Darien wondered.
"We consider this to be 'normal'," Clover groaned.
"Yeah, he does this a lot, too," Haruka quipped.
"I don't care what that stupid machine is, Scam, it'll fall just like all the others!" Mat declared.
"Oh, we'll see about that, you little punks!" Scam retorted. "Nobody is going to stop me from making Sam my queen!"
"Yeesh," Alex cringed. "He just won't shut up about that, will he?"
"Well, we'll make him shut up, then," Melissa told the others.
"I couldn't agree more," Sam quipped.
"This is where I officially wash my hands of you insufferable little wretches once and for all!" Scam laughed as his exo-suit marched forward before stopping to punch the ground, causing a small tremor to knock the spies off-balance.
"All right, now you're just being rude!" Clover exclaimed as she rushed by and slashed at the exo-suit's arm with a Platinum Credit Card.
The exo-suit suddenly spun around with its arms extended, forcing both Britney and Haruka to jump back to avoid getting knocked away.
"All right-y, we're playing this game, are we?" Bridget quipped as she reached for her brooch. "Sonic Mode, online!"
Darien couldn't help but watch in awe as Bridget transformed and sped towards the exo-suit at unbelievable speeds.
"Yeah, we're all pretty talented, let's just say that," Melissa chuckled.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Darien asked.
"Actually, yeah," Melissa answered, handing Darien an Electromagnetic Curling Iron. "Take this and wait until Bridget exposes a weak point in that thing, and fire it at that."
"Right," Darien quipped as he held up the Electromagnetic Curling Iron, waiting for the right moment to strike.
"You know, maybe you should stop running," Scam proclaimed as the exo-suit placed two steel pillars in front of itself, creating an electric barrier to stop Bridget in her tracks.
What actually happened, though, was Bridget stopped just short of the barrier and juked around it to leap off of a nearby wall and punch the exo-suit in the back with a Metal Masher Boxing Glove, her gathered kinetic energy boosting the punch enough to momentarily freeze the exo-suit in place.
"Right there?" Darien asked, having seen a weak point as the exo-suit stumbled.
"Yeah, go for it!" Melissa shouted.
Darien steeled his nerves and pulled the trigger, blasting the exo-suit in the upper right back joint and causing Scam to growl in frustration.
"Hey, I think we're getting somewhere!" Mat exclaimed.
"Or so you think, boy," Scam retorted as the exo-suit jumped forward, both of its fists raised, to try and crush Mat underneath said fists. "This is where you die!"
"Not today, sicko!" Sortiliena shouted as she unfurled what appeared to be a whip and cracked it out, electricity lancing along the whip, and when it struck the fists of Scam's exo-suit, that electricity conducted into the suit and forced it to stop moving.
"Hey, Liena, was that a Shock Ravager?" Haruka wondered. The Shock Ravager had been one of the many weapons wielded by Ashley, one of Nick's other-dimensional counterparts.
"Yeah, Ashley left behind some blueprints for some of her more interesting weapons before all of that business with Emperor Terrence," Sortiliena responded.
"One more won't stop me, you know!" Scam laughed, only for his exo-suit to once again get blasted by Darien, who was tucked away in a corner of the arena for safety. "You little traitor..."
"Says the nutjob who brainwashed me for his own sick schemes!" Darien shot back. "You really think I'm just going to let that go?!"
Scam marched towards where Darien was holed up, only for Nick to blast the exo-suit in the back a few times to get Scam's attention.
"Eyes on me, you washout," Nick taunted.
'You're calling me a washout, boy?!" Scam growled, and Nick was happy to see that Scam looked offended at that. "Consider that your final mistake! You can regret your bitter tongue in the afterlife!"
"He's losing it," Alex chuckled. "That can only mean we've got his keester on the ropes."
"Sounds like we're gonna need to strike a decisive blow pretty quickly," Britney quipped.
"I might have an idea," Melissa admitted. "Let's just keep up the fight for a bit longer so we can do some more damage to his suit."
Scam marched towards Nick with every intent of ending him on the spot, but Nick simply projected a psychic bubble around himself to block the overhead strike before snapping his fingers to pop the bubble, sending Scam's exo-suit reeling with the recoil of the burst.
"Seriously, get a new act, because we're kinda sick of it by this point," Nick quipped.
"Oh, we'll see about that, won't we?" Scam bellowed. "Sam is mine and mine alone, and no stupid little Hawaiian dish or psychic brat is going to stop me from claiming what is rightfully mine!"
In his blind rage, Scam didn't notice Bridget once again running circles around his exo-suit while spraying a bottle of Ice Queen Perfume to completely freeze the suit's lower half to the ground.
"All right-y, that should do it," Bridget proclaimed as she sped back to the spies. "Whatever the big final blow is gonna be, now's your chance!"
Melissa took a few steps closer, with Nick right by her side. As the spies all wondered what was about to happen, Melissa raised her right hand towards the exo-suit, and Nick grasped Melissa's other hand with his own before closing his eyes and concentrating.
Suddenly, Melissa's right hand began glowing a bright green, and she gave a cheeky grin.
"What are you...?!" Scam shouted, trying desperately to get his exo-suit unfrozen.
"Just putting an exclamation point on this nonsense," Melissa taunted. "FINAL SHINE ATTACK!"
A bright burst of neon-green energy erupted from Melissa's open palm and blasted a gigantic hole in Scam's exo-suit, which caused the entire thing to start exploding. Scam wisely ejected in time as the suit was destroyed in a big explosion, and Nick wasted no time in capturing Scam inside a psychic bubble.
"Look at that, you lost again," Nick quipped. "Maybe get yourself a new shtick, because the supervillain thing is clearly not working out for you."
Now assured of their victory, both Sam and Mat shared a passionate kiss to celebrate, which only seemed to get under Scam's skin more.
"Oh, get used to it," Melissa taunted as the spies all exited the secret lair. Once they were outside, Nick flicked his hand upwards to send the bubbled Scam towards the incoming W.O.O.H.P. chopper.
"Man, am I glad that's over," Britney sighed in relief.
"All wrapped up in a nice little bow," Sortiliena stated. "Always fun to stick it to those LAMOS."
"And on that note," Melissa quipped, turning to Darien. "I did promise some explanations and introductions once we were done with Scam, sooooooo..."
With that in mind, Melissa explained everything she could about what had just happened, with backing from the other spies.
"I really don't know how you all deal with nutcases like him on what feels like a daily basis," Darien chuckled.
"Really, it's just an acquired skill when you do what we do," Nick noted.
"So, I guess the only thing I have left to say is..." Darien sighed as he looked at Melissa. "Can you ever forgive me for the way I acted, even back in our youth?"
Melissa simply raised her hand in a high-five gesture, and when Darien realized what that meant, he instantly high-fived her.
"Apology accepted," Melissa replied. "Like I said, we were all pretty stubborn kids back then, and the stuff you did today was only because of Scam."
With that, Darien simply waved to the spies before dashing away, knowing he still had some things to do.
Melissa and Mat both smiled at each other, holding hands as everybody flew up to the chopper so they could head back to W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters.
9:00 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters
Jerry's Office
"Excellent job once again, spies," Jerry commended.
"Thanks, Jer," Sam quipped.
" We've apprehended Tim Scam, and he is sitting in his cell more pissed than normal," RiCO added, materializing in the office.
"Maybe because he saw one of THE LAST things he wanted to see," Alex giggled, referencing Mat and Sam's passionate kiss right in front of him.
"That's a pretty safe bet," Britney quipped.
With that, RiCO sent the spies back to their penthouse.
9:05 P.M. – Malibu University
The Spies' Penthouse
Some of the spies were detoxing from the mission with a Smash game, but Mat and Melissa weren't home; they had elected on a short walk around the Mali-U park or anywhere else that was open on campus.
"Oh, you're not getting away with that!" Haruka shouted as she maneuvered Luigi around to avoid the relentless assault of the others.
"Um, who's keeping an eye on the Smash Ball?" May wondered.
"Sorry, guys, you snooze, you lose!" Nick laughed as he managed to break the Smash Ball and unleash the full might of Super Sonic on his hapless opponents.
"WHY IS SUPER SONIC SO BROKEN?!" Bridget exclaimed.
"I tried to warn ya," May chuckled.
Sam looked outside, knowing full well that they would not deal with Tim Scam again anytime soon.
("Send My Love" by Adele plays)
In the meantime, Mat and Melissa still enjoyed their walk together.
"We should feel pretty safe around here," Mat commented.
"No doubt about it," Melissa quipped.
They both sat on a bench before thinking they should head back.
"So, be honest," Mat told Melissa. "You really didn't have any sparks flying with Darien?"
"Not really," Melissa replied. "I guess timing wasn't really our friend there."
Mat nodded at that.
"To be fair, though, he wasn't at all a bad person," Melissa explained. "It's like I mentioned, we were still young and pretty stubborn in said youth. He was a pretty funny guy, always the best joke-teller in our class. Just don't tell Dawn I said that. But even when he floated the whole 'dating' idea my way, I just never felt that spark."
"Did he ever take the hint, though?" Mat wondered.
"It was about when we first went to high school, before we all moved to Beverly Hills," Melissa replied. "I told him we were moving to another country, and he took it surprisingly well. I guess when he saw me here, he thought he had another chance, and well, we all know how that went."
"Safe to say that us... 'just happened', did it?" Mat deduced.
"You can say that again," Melissa chuckled. "But really, I'm glad it did. And I'm also kinda glad that Nick talked me into confessing, because I was worried I might have chickened out."
"It's like Nick said, sometimes these things happen and you just gotta go with the flow," Mat quipped.
Although they'd only been out for around fifteen minutes, Mat felt they shouldn't be out too late. Melissa agreed to that, and Mat helped her to her feet from the bench they were sitting on. The two shared a few kisses before walking back to the penthouse.
"By the way," Melissa remarked to Mat. "I know it seems like we're saying this all the time, but it IS a breath of fresh air that you can live with your Supercross series now, Mat."
"I know," Mat sighed. "I guess my only consolation would be Chad Reed getting a win when he returns to the series."
"How DID you know that Reed's title hopes were gone so early?" Melissa wondered.
"Aside from being around the sport so often, think of it like a basketball team jumping out to a 15-0 lead in the first half, and the gap only gets bigger and bigger," Mat replied. "Chad Reed did a similar thing with 4 points due to the back-to-back DNFs while James Stewart had 31 points with the win and the 15th before his season came to a screeching halt. When Reed was a no-show for Anaheim 2, that's when I knew the title chase was all over for him."
"Yeah, you kinda just get that feeling of 'yeah, they're done like dinner' just from looking at it," Melissa quipped.
10:08 A.M. – Malibu University
The Spies' Penthouse
One Day Later
After a night's sleep and breakfast, the spies immediately chose to be at their penthouse pool.
" PIRATE DIVE!" May shouted, and she landed on top of Nick AND Melissa.
"Uh oh," Alex remarked. "May, I don't want to be you now..."
"And I definitely don't want to be here right now," May stuttered as she tried to swim away quickly, only to be grabbed from behind by Melissa.
"Sorry, May, but you know how this works," Melissa chuckled in what she hoped was a sinister way (she'd never been good at the whole 'sinister tone of voice' thing). "Big bro, if you would?"
"With gusto," Nick quipped as he raised his hand before waving it around in a few bizarre patterns, telekinetically lifting some of the pool water out of the pool and hovering it over the prone May.
"I guess there's nothing I can do to talk myself out of this, huh?" May stated.
"Too true," Nick teased before snapping his hand down.
"Well, then, you're going down with me, Melissa!" May cackled before spinning around to grab Melissa and yank her into the path of the water so that both May and Melissa were drenched.
"...you're gonna get it for that," Melissa noted.
"Try and stop me!" May laughed as she swam away.
9:13 A.M. – The Shatterverse
Nick flew out of the purple gateway, making sure to clutch the three Prism Shards he was holding tightly. He didn't want any of them to fall out of his grip and possibly get lost in... whatever, if anything, was in that void at the bottom of this space.
But all in all, he was pretty optimistic about this.
After all, he and Alex now possessed four of the five Prism Shards, and all they had to do was find a way to that particular dimension and ask their spies for the Blue Prism Shard, then he could reform the Paradox Prism and fix this mess once and for all.
In his excitement over finally being able to put everything back together, Nick didn't notice somebody appearing right behind him.
"By the way, thank you so much for doing all of the hard work for me."
Nick slowly glanced behind him, but before he could acknowledge how screwed he probably was, Captain Dread had already blasted him into a nearby crystal pillar with a barrage of sharp vines from the Green Prism Shard.
To Nick's horror, the three shards he'd collected flew out of his grip and into Captain Dread's waiting hands.
"You shouldn't have made such a foolish mistake," Captain Dread chuckled. "Because you won't live long enough to regret it."
"Wait, what did you do to Alex?!" Nick shouted, with both himself and Captain Dread unaware that Alex could see them from very far away in the void.
"Oh, don't worry, I simply restrained her so I could work unimpeded," Captain Dread quipped. "You, though? ...you're not getting that luxury."
Before Nick could dodge out of the way, Captain Dread raised the Yellow Prism Shard and unleashed a barrage of lightning bolts that ravaged Nick until he fell unconscious.
Captain Dread flew down to grab the unconscious Nick by his shirt collar, then simply scoffed at him before throwing him down into the void below the Shatterverse. Once that was over, Captain Dread focused before using the red shard to open a Quantum Rift to a very familiar dimension.
After all, she only had one piece left to collect.
Totally Spies: Mad Love
~The End~
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Final Note from Mat49324: Well, that's all for Mad Love. Hope you enjoyed this one, and maybe you may have figured out which show this "Darien" came from, too. For now, we're about to put the final touches on season 9 of Totally Spies: The New Adventures with our final project of that season up next. The Blue Time Ranger will be authoring that one, and he's titled it From the Top. After that will be our next movie, New Cinema Labyrinth, and The Blue Time Ranger will be authoring that as well. Our tenth season will be after that, too. For now, here's The Blue Time Ranger for his final thoughts of Mad Love.
Final Note from The Blue Time Ranger: And we're all finished with this tale of mad love! And yes, Darien was a nod to Darien/Mamoru from Sailor Moon. Why him, specifically? Well, I've been rewatching Sailor Moon on Toonami Rewind recently, and I remembered something that I think was exclusive to the anime: Mamoru was such a DICK to Usagi early on! I mean, I know they eventually did grow beyond that because of their past selves, but holy crapbaskets, Mamoru, stop antagonizing poor Usagi, she's only a freakin' teenager!
Anyways, I digress. Next time on Totally Spies: The New Adventures, it's the season nine finale, and as always, things are gonna get crazy! As you no doubt noticed just above, Captain Dread now has four of the five Prism Shards and she's coming for the last one, which means the spies are gonna be in for a hell of a fight. Season nine comes to a mind-shattering end next time on From the Top, which will be posted by me. So, until next time, have a fantastic day, don't listen to the screeching morons, enjoy this preview of From the Top, and we'll see you next mission!
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Once the Skyskimmer managed to find a safe location to park itself that wasn't broken or covered in strange material, and after Nick sent James on his way to containment, the spies beheld what had happened to Beverly Hills since they'd been gone.
Practically the entire city was infested with light violet crystal formations growing every which way like weeds, some of them actually piercing through buildings and warping the structures. In addition to this, some of those crystal formations were sprouting incredibly odd-looking anomalies, almost as if they were statues of things that didn't belong in this world. Even the sky above them was turning an eerie shade of dark purple.
"What in the hell happened while we were away?!" Clover gasped. "We weren't gone that long, were we?"
"Wait just a minute, everyone," Mat proclaimed. "Do these crystal walls look familiar to any of you?"
Upon a closer inspection of one of the nearest crystal formations, Nick gasped in shock when he pieced it together.
"This could be very bad," Nick stated. "This stuff is apparently from the Shatterverse."
"Hold on just a minute, are you implying that the Shatterverse is starting to leak into our dimension?!" Blaine wondered.
"Remember, that place is no doubt very unstable due to what happened with the Paradox Prism," Sam responded. "I wouldn't be surprised if it's starting to affect other dimensions now."
"If that's the case, I only hope that other me found the rest of the Prism Shards," Nick stated. "We have to get to the Shatterverse and fix it before this problem gets even worse."
Suddenly, a crackle of static came from Nick's X-Powder, and he flipped it open to see both Jerry and RiCO on the screen.
"Oh, thank goodness we finally got a connection through," Jerry proclaimed. "Are you all right, everyone?"
"We're fine, Jerry," Alex answered. "I wish I could say the same for the city. We just got back and... well, this happened."
"You all might want to get to headquarters on the double," RiCO responded. "I think one of your old 'friends' is trying to make a house call."
Nick looked up towards W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters, which looked to be mostly intact, only to see the faint outline of a Quantum Rift opening up just above the rooftop.
To be continued in Totally Spies: From the Top...