Well, I don't have much to say except this: here is the next chapter

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Chapter Five

Training and An Assignment

Sean did have to admit that the girls hit a few bumps in the road as far as training went. Not only were the recruits unconventional but so was the location, or rather locations. Most of the agents he had trained inside a special simulation chamber at W.O.O.H.P headquarters. But for these three, Jerry had insisted they train in different locations around the globe.

The first stop was New York City, where the girls had to descend a building using nothing but their own limbs and some steel cables, while Sean watched through special binoculars on the ground. He thought they did well in that regard, except for Alex accidentally stumbling through a window into someone's apartment.

"Alex!" Sam shouted.

Alex stuck her head out the window. "I'm okay!" she said.

Sean groaned. This was going to be more difficult than he thought.

In the Chinatown segment of New York, the girls sat in a surveillance vehicle, with Clover looking through a periscope.

"Hey girls," she said. "I think I see something."

Indeed, a black-dressed figure was sneaking toward the window of an electronics shop, carrying a honeycomb shaped device.

The figure turned around, revealing himself to be Sean wearing sunglasses and a ski cap.

Sean smiled to himself, thinking for sure they'd passed this exercise.

Sadly, he was left disappointed as Clover rushed out... to the store display right next to it.

"Ooh, handbags!" she exclaimed, practically hugging the window.

Sean facepalmed.

"Clover, I'm over here!"

In Paris, more specifically, the middle of the Seine, Sean watched through his binoculars as the girls were rummaging through the deck of a yacht where he had placed a time bomb that was set to go off in less than a minute. Their objective was to find the bomb and either safely disarm it or remove it before it could detonate it.

As he sat waiting in a small rowboat, he had to admit they were improving.

Which is why he was caught by surprise when he saw Clover, in a panic, throw the bomb overboard... causing it to land in his boat.

He ducked waiting for the explosion, but it was so small the only damage it did was to the boat.

"Nice!" he shouted out to them as his boat sank. "But next time, watch your aim!"

The final phase of their training was hand to hand combat.

"Wow, this place is amazing!" Sam exclaimed with wonder, as they finished climbing the steps to an old Aztec temple in the heart of a dense jungle.

Sean smiled. "I'm glad you think so, but you can admire the scenery later. It's time for the last stage of your training."

They took a few steps backward.

He snapped his fingers, and two large cannons came up from square holes in the floor behind him.

"I'm going to show you a foolproof W.O.O.H.P kata called Blender of Death."

He clapped his hands twice.

"Observe the five lethal speeds."

The cannons fired, letting forth a volley of assorted fruit, while Sean did various karate moves so fast, the girls could barely make them out.

"Chop! Crush! Grind! Liquefy! Puree!"

He landed with a powerful kick beside the pile of what was once fruit, but now looked like the world's largest fruit salad.

"Okay," he said. "Now you show me Blender of Death."

"Hey!" Sam commented, excited. "This is kind of fun!"

"Bring on the baddies, Sean!" Alex joined in, as she did a few punches in the air.

"And the tropical fruit!" Clover added.

As if to answer her, another storm of fruit made its way toward the girls. Even though he'd moved fast enough for him to be a blur, Sean was surprised to see they had copied his moves exactly. By the time they were finished, there was more fruit than brick on the temple floor.

"Impressive," he said. "If you were making a pie."

He pulled out his wallet phone, pressing a button on it.

All at once, a large metallic limb stepped between them. The girls looked up, seeing it was the leg of a 15-foot tall, four-armed robot.

It pulled back one if its fists, prepared to strike.

The girls jumped up, performing a series of moves that took Sean two months to perfect.

"Chop! Crush! Grind!" they shouted.

Sean didn't see everything that happened, but a kick from Clover sent the robot flying into the wall.

And another series of chops the robot's leg landed in pieces of scrap metal. Its other leg followed suit, and the whole thing came crashing down.

The girls celebrated, but that was short lived. Sean, not quite finished with them, whistled.

The robot's head detached itself from its body, revealing four long black and white metallic tentacles.

As it stood up, it looked very much like someone had crossed a spider and an octopus with only four legs instead of the average eight.

"Anyone now the kata for run?!" Alex asked in fear.

The girls backflipped down the temple steps, each landing on one of three motorcycles.

Even though they easily figured out how to drive one of those things, using them to outrun a giant robot was the more difficult part.

Especially since it kept firing green lasers at them.

"We can out-blast, out-fire, or outrun this thing!" Alex shouted. "What do we do?!"

"We outsmart it!" Sam responded confidently. "Follow me!"

The girls did as instructed, retreating deeper into the jungle.

Sensing it had lost sight of its quarry, the robot crouched down, scanning for them.

"Hey, grease-breath!" Sam's voice called out. "Over here!"

Seeing Sam, the robot once again pursued.

"Let her rip!"

"Incoming!" Alex warned her. Her motorcycle had a vine to the end of it. Wrapping it around two trees, the robot stumbled when it hit the trap.

Which gave Clover the opening she needed. Jumping off her bike, she landed as it collided with the robot's face.

The bike exploded and the robot shared a similar fate, crashing to the jungle floor in flames.

In celebration, the girls jumped up and did a group high-five.

"How's our accessory looking now, Sean?!" Clover asked, elated.

"Amazing!" he complimented. "But don't take my word for it."

Pulling out his wallet phone, he called Jerry up on the screen.

From in front of the screen on the sub that would take them out of there, he looked as awed as his protege.

"Most impressive, ladies!" Jerry beamed. "Perhaps you can be spies after all!"

"You think so?!" the girls asked.

"Yeah," Sean agreed. "But, Jerry, do you think they can work on the rest of their skills in the field?"

"Let's ask them. Girls?"

"Yeah!" the girls agreed, enthusiastically.

"Consider it done!" Alex added.

"Then consider yourselves W.O.O.H.P agents!" Jerry said. "Sean, if you would be so kind?"

"Oh!" he remembered that he had been given these in case they had passed their training.

He took out three plastic cards and threw them to the girls.

"These are your I.D cards," he explained.

The girls cheered again, which was interrupted by a beeping coming from somewhere behind Jerry.

"Duty calls,' he explained.

"Huh?!" the girls asked, confused.

"Well, tell to call back later!" Clover complained. "We've been up all night!"

"Sorry, Clover," Sean consoled her. "There's a crisis and you three are the only ones available right now."

Reluctantly, they followed Sean to the submarine docked at the bay close to the temple

As it submerged, Sean allowed himself a moment of satisfaction. For a while, he was sure these three would be a lost cause. But they had surpassed each and every one of his expectations. He hadn't trained agents this good since... well, him.

"Being a spy is so cool!" Alex rejoiced, jumping up and down in wonder at the sub. "I always wanted to take a sea cruise!"

"Me too!" Sam agreed!

"Me three!" Clover said, though a little more tired than her teammates.

"Congratulations, spies!" Tad said, descending a ladder. "It's gonna be a pleasure working with you."

"The pleasure's all mine!" Clover said, rushing up to Tad, lovestruck.

Sean crossed his arms.

Should I tell her about him? Nah, not right now.

"Ahem," Jerry cleared his throat.

"Are there any W.O.O.H.P rules against inter-office romance, Jer?" Clover asked.

Sean answered for Jerry. "Well, no. But we don't have time for that right now."

"Now for the mission," Jerry began. "There has been a number of mysterious disappearances in the Greater Los Angeles area. One of them being rockstar Rob Heartthrob."

An image of the missing rockstar popped up on the screen behind him.

Clover rushed over to the screen, blushing.

"Rob Heartthrob?! He's only like, my special celeb soulmate!"

Sheesh, Sean thought. First me, then Tad, then some guy she's never met. What next?

Clover teared up. "I get all misty thinking about his songs!"

She used Jerry's necktie to wipe her eyes.

"Well save the sobbing," he interrupted. "Because you'll be exploring a missing celebrity of a different sort: Peppy Wolfman!"

Another picture showed up, the man in it clearly seemed to live up to his name, with unruly hair covering every part of his body except his face.

"Like I've said before," the man said in a gruff voice. "A peppy pet is a happy pet!"

He winked.

"Hey, I've heard all about this guy!" Alex pointed out excitedly. "He's a pet motivational speaker. He specializes in cheering up animals of the rich and famous!"

"Or at least he was up until yesterday before vanishing from his Beverly Hills office," Jerry interjected.

"I want the four of you to investigate and see if the disappearances are connected."

Sean felt his mouth go dry. "Wait. 'The four of us?'"

"That's right, Sean. You've done such an impressive job with these three I'm promoting you to field agent. I've decided to assign you to Sam, Alex, and Clover's team to see how you perform. Unless of course you'd rather be assigned to a different one."

"No!" Sean objected. "They're fine! I'm just surprised."

Jerry looked to Sam, Alex, and Clover.

"What do you think girls?"

"Uh, yeah!" Clover responded as if it were obvious.

"He's done this longer than we have," Sam added. "He'll be good in a tight spot."

"And he can show us some more of those super cool kung fu moves!" Alex said.

"Actually, Alex, it's karate, not kung fu," Sean corrected.

"Whatevs."

"Well," Jerry said. "I suppose it's unanimous. And now for a spy's best friend: the gadgets."

He held up a pen and a small, flat piece of circular glass.

"We have the fountain pen microphone, the monocle magnifier, and my favorite, the ascending ascot cable."

He made a demonstration of the last one, aiming his necktie at the ceiling letting a cable loose and eventually hitting the ceiling.

"Ahem," Clover coughed, rushing over. "Jer, if we're gonna do this whole spy thingy, we're gonna have to do it with some style!"

Both Jerry and Sean looked confused.

The next thing they knew, Clover was holding up a sketch pad with pictures of different outfits on each page.

"I took the liberty of coming up with a few new designs!" she proclaimed proudly.

The first "design" pictured showed her in a superhero costume, complete with cape and mask.

"I'm not sure," Jerry said.

"Okay," Clover relented, turning the page. This one showed her in what could only be described as a Japanese schoolgirl uniform as if it were designed by Karl Lagerfeld.

Clover, apparently, was into magical girl manga.

"There's no way I'm wearing that!" Sean protested.

The third page showed all four teens in different colored spy suits. Clover's was red. Sam's, green. Alex's, gold. Sean's, dark blue.

"Now that's more like it!" Sam exclaimed with glee.

"Well, we do like more like spies in that one," Sean told Jerry.

Jerry sighed. "Very well."

He scanned the drawing with his wallet phone, plugged into a terminal below the screen, and four different curtains came down from the ceiling, each teen boxed into four different sections.

When they were lifted, each spy was now wearing a suit identical to the ones in Clover's drawing.

Sean looked over his new outfit. Compared to the girls, it was more... masculine, particularly the belt and boots. Whereas the girls' boots had stiletto heels and were clearly designed with Clover fantasizing herself as a runway model in mind, Sean's boots more or less resembled hiking boots, albeit with slightly elevated heels.

The girls' belts had a heart insignia as the buckle, but his a simple, plain circle.

It was little tighter than he wanted it to be, but all in all, not bad.

"Now, for your new, albeit unorthodox gadgets." Jerry called up the first one.

"The Compowder, a communication device supercomputer, discretely concealed in the shape of a makeup compact. It can sync up to Sean's wallet phone and perform many of the same functions."

The girls each took one.

More gadgets were delivered by robotic hands from the ceiling.

"The Expandable Cable-Bungee Belt."

All four, got one.

"The Laser Lipstick."

Alex twisted the tube, letting a laser hit the ceiling and breaking a pipe. Tad rushed over to block the leak.

"Oopsie," Alex guiltily said.

Her new teammates sighed.

"In the future," Sean said. "Could you maybe not fire that while we're in a submarine?"

"I'll try!"

Jerry queued up more gadgets. "The Ever-Expanding Bubble Gum, The Suction Cupped Bottomed Boots, The Heat Sensor 6000 Infrared Motion Detector Sunglasses, The Molecular Separating Perfume, The Tornado in a Can of Hairspray, The Super Foaming-Pomade Grenade, and of course, The Jet-Pack Backpacks."

Tad went over to Sean.

"Good luck on your first mission," Tad said, taking the younger boy's hand.

"Thanks," he said, his tone a little colder than what Jerry or the girls used with him.

Tad had literally no reason to offer him luck. Sean remembered their training together, and they got along like water and oil. Tad did everything he could to sabotage Sean's progress. Tampering with his wallet phone, sending him on the occasional wild goose chase, even spraying graffiti on the break room wall and leaving a hair that had fallen off of Sean's jacket at the scene.

Of course, Jerry didn't believe Sean did it, but there was no evidence that Tad did either.

Because he didn't know who was truly responsible, he'd made both of them spend an entire afternoon cleaning up the graffiti.

To Sean, Tad was the biggest downside of working for W.O.O.H.P. If being an agent offered an escape from Mandy, then school and home were his refuge from Tad.

He didn't know himself which was worse.

He honestly couldn't tell what attracted Clover to him.

Then again, she tried flirting with him when they first met. Clearly this girl couldn't look past appearances if she tried.

"So, Jerry," Sam said, breaking Sean out of his thoughts. "Where's our super cool personal transport device to get us to Peppy's office?"

"Just leave that to me," Jerry replied straightening his tie.