Hi! Sorry, I meant to post this chapter yesterday, but I was busy with something else. Namely, spring cleaning. Anyway, here it is. My apologies for making you wait.

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Chapter Six

The First Mission.

It turned out that Jerry's idea of transporting them to Peppy's office involved placing all four spies in torpedoes and launching them to the surface. As the four teens parachuted safely down, Sean made a mental note to not accept missions from Jerry while in a submarine ever again.

They landed beside a gold fence that went around what Sean assumed was the office. Though, admittedly, it looked a little more a like a mansion than anything he'd ever seen. As they looked through the gate, a girl holding a white cat rushed into the building.

"Okay spies," Clover said, trying to take charge. "It's mission time!"

Activating the bungee belt, she summersaulted over the gate, crawling on the ground like a Navy Seal.

Sean and Sam landed in front of her on their feet.

"Woah," Sam stopped her. "Time out, Clover. Don't you think we should try to look a little less like teen spies?"

"Sam has a point," Sean said. "I mean, we do kind of stick out. We're gonna need some disguises."

Alex joined them, landing to the left of Sean.

"Disguises are a great idea, guys!" she said. "Only, how do we get them?"

Sean pulled out his wallet phone. "I think I can help with that."

Opening it, he quickly found the program he was looking for.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked.

Sean smiled. "My wallet phone just got a new feature: holographic disguise. It can change your appearance by manipulating the light around you."

"Wow!" the girls said in awe.

"Unfortunately, it doesn't last longer than fifteen minutes. They're still working on that."

"How does it work?" Alex asked.

"Well, if I remember right, you just select the disguise you want, point it at the person you want to disguise, then press this button."

He demonstrated the ability on Clover, who was caught off guard by the flash of light emanating from the phone. When the light faded, Clover was in a simple red shirt covered with overalls. And her hair was in two small braids. Combined with a chicken falling into her hands, though Sean had no idea where it came from, she looked a little more like a farmgirl than a spy.

Clover screamed at the sight of the bird and dropped it, backing away in disgust.

"Ew, nast!" she exclaimed.

"Oops," Sean admitted. "Wrong one. Maybe this one."

He selected another one that looked more like something Clover would wear.

Another flash of light later, Clover was wearing a white dress with a purple fur-lined coat and carrying a green purse.

"Now this is more my speed," Clover said, relieved.

"Wow!" Alex said, impressed. "Do me next!"

Pulling up another disguise, Sean complied.

Soon enough she was in a blue dress that made her look somewhat younger, the opposite effect of Clover's disguise, complete with a teddy bear backpack and Mary-Jane shoes.

Sam's disguise also obscured her gender, giving her a fake mustache, fedora, navy blue business suit and a cane.

Sean's own disguise consisted mainly of a dark green t-shirt, designer jeans and black sneakers.

"Voila!" Sam said, trying to lower her voice. "The perfect Beverly Hills family!"

"All we need now is a pet," Sean added.

Looking at her backpack, Alex whistled. A miniature pig came out with a rhinestone collar.

It landed at her feet, jumping into her arms, letting her cuddle it affectionately.

"P.U!" Clover exclaimed. "What are you still doing with that thing, Alex?!"

"It's not a thing!" Alex objected. "It's Oinky!"

She held it out in front of her.

"Where did you get a pig?" Sean asked.

"Hm? Oh, I saved him from a giant runaway sushi roll!"

"Sorry I asked."

"Well," Sam said. "Not exactly what I had in mind, but I guess he'll do in a pinch."

Passing the dog statues at the door, the four entered the office lobby as a woman holding some kind of pet carrier walked out the door.

"It's scandalous!" she cried, outraged.

The numerous sounds of animals clearly indicated this was the right place.

"Mr. Wolfman isn't seeing any of his animal clients today!" a blonde receptionist cried, apologetically.

"I'm gonna have to ask you all to leave!"

"But I have to see peppy this instant!" a high male voice called out. "Crackers is so depressed, he hasn't spoken to me in days!"

"If we're gonna figure what happened to Peppy," Sam whispered loudly. "We're gonna have to get past that receptionist."

"We're gonna need a diversion," Sean said, agreeing with Sam.

Clover looked over to Alex. "Hey, Alex, why don't you put that pig to good use?"

Alex nodded, putting the pig down. "Okay, Oinky. Wanna be a deputy spy? Go hog-wild for mommy!"

The pig ran off into the crowd of pets and owners, and though they couldn't see everything going on, it sounded like every animal in the place was chasing him.

The four teens took advantage of the chaos and ran up the stairs.

When they reached the top, they found a large yellow double door at the end of the hall.

"I can't believe that worked!" Sean said, amazed.

Sam ran to the door, pulling at the handle.

"It's locked!" she informed the other three.

"Luckily," Clover reassured, walking over. "I've got just the key to get us in!"

She pulled out the Molecular Separating Perfume she got from Jerry and sprayed it all over the door.

Walking against it, they passed through it as if it were a curtain. Well, not quite.

"Hey!" Clover complained. "Who's getting all gropey with my bag?!"

She turned around, spraying the door again, freeing the bag in question.

The disguises wore off faster than Sean expected, which he suspected had something to do with using it on four people at once.

"Let's see," Sam said. "If I were a clue, where would I hide?"

"Not in plain sight, that's for sure," Sean said.

All four looked around, hoping to find something that gave any indication of where Peppy disappeared to.

"Hello?" Sean heard Clover say as he inspected a rug. "What's this thing?!"

She collapsed against a bench. "Man, this spying stuff is harder than I thought!"

"And you thought it would be easy?" Sean deadpanned.

Two minutes passed, and they still were no closer to finding any clues.

"If only W.O.O.H.P had a time machine," Alex said, exhausted. "We could travel back to yesterday and see what happened to Peppy in person."

Sean looked up, seeing something move on the corner of the wall.

"Maybe we can!" he said.

He pointed to what he saw, namely a security camera.

Sam looked up, seeing where he was going.

"Come on!" she told her teammates. "Give me a boost!"

Seconds later, all three spies lifted her up with their hands, up to the camera. She took out her Compowder.

"If I can hack into the surveillance system with my Compowder, maybe we can see what happened yesterday!"

But as she said this, a jolt of electricity rushed through the other three spies, causing their hair to stand on end.

"Sorry," Sam said, sheepishly. "Wrong plug."

She found the right one immediately after, though. Landing on her feet, she opened the Compowder.

An image of the office popped up on the screen, nothing out of the ordinary was happening though.

The only thing different about the office was that Peppy was reclining in his chair, feet on the desk

"There he is!" Alex pointed out. "Just like in the photo Jerry showed us! Except, is it possible he got any hairier?"

He was looking up at the camera, smoothing his hair down. Then he began to leave the office.

"Uh!" Clover groaned in frustration. "How dare he walk away! Doesn't he know we're trying to spy on him?!"

After giving his teammate a look that said, "Seriously?", he turned his attention to Sam.

"Fast forward," he said. "See if he comes back."

Sam did as Sean said. When the video was playing at normal speed, Peppy had returned to his office. Only, something wasn't quite right.

As Sam froze the image and zoomed in on it, it was clear that this man looked drastically different than the one that just walked out.

His eyebrows were more arched, he had a cleft chin, a mole under his left eye and a platinum blond bang covering his right.

"Who's that overly processed cosmetic counter disaster?!" Clover asked.

"I think it might actually be Peppy!" Sam answered, just as surprised as her teammates.

"But why does he look so different?" Sean asked.

"Hey!" Alex exclaimed. "What's that in his hand?"

Sam zoomed in on his left hand, in it was a small, rectangular piece of paper.

"I don't know," she said. "It looks like some sort of receipt. And check out the weird symbol on it."

Sean looked at it closely. He didn't need to live in Beverly Hills to know what it was.

"A diamond?" he asked. "I wonder what it stands for."

Now they were getting somewhere. But at the same time, it wasn't much to go on.

"You celebs think you can go anywhere you please!" an angry voice shouted from behind the door.

All four spies jumped to attention.

"Now let me in or I'll break the door down!"

"It's the receptionist!" Sean said.

"And she's majorly chaffed!" Clover added.

"Quick, the boots!" Alex shouted.

As Sean quickly told them how to use them, they jumped up on the ceiling just as the receptionist made good on her threat and broke the door off its hinges.

"Peppy is not gonna be very happy about this!" she growled. But as she looked around, she could see there was no one there.

"Where'd they go?" she asked herself, confused.

But before she could look any further, the sound of an elephant trumpeting beckoned her back to the lobby.

As she slammed the door behind her, all four spies pulled the suction cup bottomed boots off the ceiling.

"Good thinking, Alex!" Sean complimented. "These boots work like a charm!"

"Fashionable and functional!" Alex said.

They dashed to the window behind the desk and leaped out.

As soon as they were sure no one was around, they rushed over to the sidewalk, walking calmly.

"Besides that one bad hair moment," Clover said. "I'd say our first mission was way cool!"

Sean nodded in agreement. But before he could tell her it wasn't over yet, a large noise cut him off.

None of them even had time to look around before they were trampled by a group of people very anxious for... something.

Clover stood up, infuriated.

"Rude, much!" she shouted after them. "Don't they know there's a totally secret spy sesh going on here?!"

"Uh, no, Clover," Sean reminded her. "That's kind of the point."

More people rushed by on the opposite sidewalk, disappearing around the next street corner.

"Where are they going in such a hurry?" Sean asked.

"Come on!" Alex shouted. "Let's follow them!"

They rushed down the sidewalk, barely missing another mob, following signs with a familiar diamond insignia.

Eventually, they came to a store with the same logo over the door.

People were clamoring just to even touch the door.

The four teens looked at each other, knowing that in order to find out what was going on, they'd have to go in.

When they reached the entrance, they got down on all fours and crawled in.

When they got inside, what they saw amazed them.

They stood on a balcony and below that were twelve booths that made Sean think of photo booths. If they came with Greek columns that is.

"Ooh!" Clover exclaimed. "Maybe they're some kind of newvo tanning beds!"

"What are those things?!" Alex asked.

"Whatever they are," Sam said. "They've got the same weird symbol on them we saw on the receipt Peppy was holding."

"Hey, you're right, Sammy!" Clover agreed.

Sean shrugged. "But what do they do?"

As if to answer him, a clear feminine voice rang out throughout the store.

"Do you crave cool?"

They looked up at a giant screen on the opposite end of the room. On it was a woman dressed to look like the Mona Lisa, with a streak of platinum blonde hair over her eye.

"Do you long to be more popular at school? Do you desire the joy of being a 10 over the pain of being a 2? Then the Fabulizer is the process for you."

The woman faded out on the screen, replaced with the same logo on the machines and the receipt.

As people below them cheered, Sean looked on in bewilderment.

"Fabulizer?" he asked, looking the girls, Clover in particular, since she seemed to like being in style.

"What?" she asked.

"Does that sound familiar to you?"

"No, never heard of it."

"Well, I get the feeling we're about to see what it does," Sam said.

The doors to each of the booths opened, and one by one, people began stepping in.

After a minute or so of waiting, a girl who stepped in came out looking different than she did before, complete with heightened cheekbones, platinum-streaked hair, and a mole under her left eye.

So it was with the others who got in those machines, flipping their bangs and proclaiming, "Fabulous!"

"I don't know what's weirder," Alex commented. "The way they look or the fact that they all seem to like it."

"And they all look the same," Sean added. "I swear, I've had a nightmare like this before."

"Now we know why Peppy looked so different," Sam broke in. "He must have gone out gotten this gnarly treatment."

A familiar beeping sound cut them off.

"Hmm?" Sam hummed.

Sean answered before she could ask, knowing what it was.

"It's your Compowder. Jerry's calling."

All four of them rushed behind a pillar, Sam opening her Compowder, revealing Jerry and Tad on the top screen.

"Hello, spies!" Jerry greeted. "How's the mission going?"

"Freaky," Alex replied. "On account of before he went missing, the Pepster was Fabulized!"

"Fabulized?" Tad asked.

"Put through a trendy machine for insecure people," Clover explained. "And given a majorly unoriginal look."

"It seems like it's becoming popular," Sean said.

"Though I'm extremely disturbed by the idea that someone would employ a machine to alter their looks," Jerry said. "I must say, you four have done excellent spywork!"

He gave them a thumbs up.

Then he looked at Tad.

"Wouldn't you agree, Tad?"

"Absolutely, Jerry," Tad said, in a tone that Sean immediately recognized as the one he used to suck up to Jerry.

"Their findings are... interesting."

Sean rolled his eyes, knowing that his compliment wasn't sincere.

"What's even more interesting," Alex beamed. "Is like, we're totally beginning to dig the spy life!"

Clover giggled.

"So, if you ever wanna get together over a latte," she said flirtatiously. "Or swap spy stories, I'm so there."

Tad raised an eyebrow as did Sean. He had to admit, Clover's romantic preferences were... questionable.

But a bell tolling stopped him from raising the issue about Tad.

Sam's eyes widened and she gasped, rushing over to the window, which had a view of a clocktower.

And once he caught eye of the time, Sean knew why she was in distress.

"Oh no!" she cried. "We're late for school!"

"On the contrary," Jerry said. "W.O.O.H.P has high-tech holograms standing in for you."

"No one will even notice you're missing," Tad added.

The screen flickered off, and when it came back on, it showed an image of Sam in the library... glitching in and out. Then Alex running in a track meet, with no one apparently noticing that she moved right through a barrier. Finally, Sean was at a drinking fountain, with water passing right through his face.

The three teens watching looked distressed.

"Oh, yeah!" Clover said, sarcastically. "Real stealthy! No one will notice a thing!"

"As in we really need to get back to Bev High ASAP," Alex added. "Or we're dead meat!"

"Yeah," Sean agreed. "My perfect attendance record is in jeopardy!"

"I'll send the W.O.O.H.P jet for you right away," Jerry reassured.

Turns out, right away meant less than five seconds, because in that time, the jet in question soared above the store.

"Coolio!" Clover said.

Then she looked back at the Compowder.

"When you say, 'right away', you mean, 'right away'."

"And since you have a trigonometry test this afternoon," Jerry continued. "I've taken the liberty of picking up the foremost authority on the subject to get you up to speed on your way to class."

Sam came back over.

"Thanks for covering our backs, Jerry," she said, grateful.

Then Alex gasped.

"Wait! I forgot Oinky!" she panicked.

"Don't worry, Alex," Jerry said. "I'll send an agent out to retrieve him. Cheerio!"

Then the screen went dark.

"Okay," Sean said. "Now we just have to get back before anyone finds out we're gone."

"But how are we gonna get to the jet?" Alex asked.

In response the floor opened up beneath them, sending them down another chute.