Almost finished with the movie! Just one more chapter to go after this! And this one is kind of long.
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Chapter Eleven
Showdown in the Stars
As Sean and Sam led the girls down a long hall, they both wondered where Fabu got the time and money to make all of this. This couldn't have come from his machines alone. But he wasn't surprised, given Fabu's connections with a former Russian cosmonaut. And Yuri probably had other connections as well, shady ones.
"Do we even know where we're going?" Alex asked between breaths.
Before Sean could answer her, he heard Fabu's voice in distant room ahead of them.
"How about a soothing Fabutopia spa treatment?!" he asked loudly.
Sean didn't have to see inside that room to know that was where he was. And from the mocking tone of his voice, it also seemed likely Tad was in there too, and losing.
And he calls himself a top agent? Sean thought.
"I think that's it!" he called to the girls.
As they rounded a corner, he could hear Tad's voice calling out.
"Hey! What's going on?!" he was yelling in distress, which was something Sean had never heard out of him.
The spies looked into the room, which consisted of a series of narrow catwalks and metal staircases. The room was circular with a large cylindrical rocket in the center.
A diamond was at the very top of it, and a countdown timer was on the wall nearby.
But the thing that caught Sean's attention the most was what was strapped to the rocket. Or more accurately, who was strapped to it.
Tad struggling against a wrap of what looked like seaweed and sounding more scared than Sean had ever heard him.
Fabu, now dressed in a purple and yellow spandex suit, giggled maliciously before pressing a button on a device in his hand.
Tad turned his head, which Sean could see now had a space helmet on it, to look at the countdown timer next to him.
It was counting down.
1:50
1:49
1:48
Tad's cries of distress turned to screams of terror.
"Hold it right there, has been!" Sam announced boldly, making herself known along with the other three.
"There aren't gonna be any explosions on our watch!" Sean added, crossing his arms.
Fabu and Yuri gasped, as did Tad.
"You?!" the top agent exclaimed, shocked to see his rival had escaped the trap he'd left him in.
"Wow, Tad!" Clover said, sardonically. "You're doing a real bang-up job on the mission you hijacked from us!"
"I don't understand!" Fabu cried. "How did you escape?!"
"Let's just say a gadget is an agent's best friend!" Alex said.
She winked.
"Now get ready to have your butts kicked across the galaxy!" Sam said, pointing a finger.
At that, all four jumped off the railing, battle ready.
Sam and Alex decided to take Yuri while Sean and Clover went after Fabu.
As the ex-model tried to descend the staircase, Clover landed in front of him while Sean delivered a kick to his back, sending tumbling down the stairs.
As he landed, so did Sean and Clover.
Fabu quickly recovered and began to charge them, swinging his diamond tipped staff at them. Clover dodged his swipes easily while jumping over him, using his back to propel herself.
Sean leaned backward, narrowly avoiding a blow from the staff, then did a leg sweep at Fabu, momentarily knocking him off balance. But he regained it very quickly and sent a blow colliding with his side and knocking him down.
Sean looked back up at the catwalk to see that Sam and Alex had already subdued Yuri.
Good. That just left Fabu.
Speaking of which, he had just blocked a kick from Clover just as Sean got back to his feet. He kicked the staff out of Fabu's hand just as Clover looked up at the bomb.
"Nice touch!" she complimented. "That's my kind of bomb!"
"Uh, Clover?" Sean said. "I don't think that diamond's just for show!"
Clover looked at him. "Then what's it for?"
"Simple," Fabu said from behind them after recovering his staff. "It's for boring into the Earth's core before it detonates!"
As soon as they heard Alex and Sam knock Yuri to the ground unconscious, Fabu swing recommenced swinging his staff at the other two relentlessly. But as they continued dodging, Clover was able to kick him in the leg, causing him to drop it again and allowing Sean to catch it.
"Try to get out of this one, trendoid!" Clover mocked.
Sean pointed the staff at him, threateningly.
But Fabu wasn't fazed.
"Nothing my 15% extra teeth can't handle!" he said.
Sean laughed. "What are you gonna do? Smile at us until we let you go?!"
But it turned out to not be quite that simple. As Fabu grinned, the light reflected off a small diamond embedded in his teeth, letting out a flash of light that took Sean and Clover by surprise and momentarily blurred their vision.
Both screamed as they closed their eyes tightly against the bright light.
"If I could still see, I'd imagine Fabu's getting away right now!" Clover yelled.
"No, really?" Sean said, still reeling from that himself.
As Fabu made his way up the stairs and out the door, Clover, in her daze, walked into a steel beam knocking her to the floor.
Luckily, both recovered their sight in time to see the countdown timer had finished.
"He's not the only thing about to take off!" Alex shouted.
"Help!" Tad pleaded. "I have an acute fear of being tied to exploding projectiles!"
He screamed as the bomb took off and Sam activated her bungee belt.
The hook managed to land on the side of the rocket, to Sam's joy.
"Yes!" she cheered. "Direct hit!"
But it was too soon as she was pulled up along with it.
"Sammy!" Clover and Alex shouted in alarm.
"Sam!" Sean yelled.
"I mean, no!" she said to herself, worriedly. "Bad idea!"
Sean, Alex, and Clover ran in the direction of the bomb and jumping into the air, grabbed onto the cable that now held Sam aloft.
"Well," Alex said, panicking. "Whether we like it or not, looks like we're going for a ride!"
"It's just as well!" Sean struggled to be heard over the roar of the rocket.
"Cause if we don't stop this thing, Earth's gonna be shattered into a million pieces!"
He then got a terrifying thought that his mother was still on the planet.
"Earth?!" Tad complained. "What about me?!"
"Oh, please!" Clover said, aghast. "You are so replaceable! Our planet isn't!"
After only a few seconds, they saw a pair of metallic, circular doors opening.
The girls screamed.
"Wait!" Sean shouted. "I have an idea! But first, I'm gonna need you to hold your breath!"
The girls did so, with him imitating their actions. For as long as Sean could concentrate with his breath held, he tapped the left shoulders of each of their spy uniforms, letting the collar turn to metal, expand around their faces and seal themselves with glass. Luckily, these new spy suits each came with a built-in helmet for space related missions.
Activating his own, he let out a huge sigh of relief as the bomb was outside the station.
He looked out at the vast sea of stars and allowed himself a moment of awe. Until becoming a spy, one of the many things he'd dreamed of as a child was going into space.
Seemed like he could cross that one off the bucket list.
He looked at the planet below him, appreciating how beautiful it was. But then reminded himself it would be destroyed if he didn't do something.
"Here I am," he heard Tad say. "Facing my destiny. Close to the stars! Flying through outer space like a shooting star!"
Sean rolled his eyes.
"My journey was short but sparkling!" Tad finished, sighing.
"Hello!" Clover said. "Over dramatic, much?"
Tad looked up, confused.
"Huh? What? Who's there?!"
"I've seen better acting on daytime TV!"
Tad looked shocked.
But through her helmet, Sean could see Clover was smiling.
"Good thing there are some real spies around to save your butt!"
Pressing a button on her sleeve, her teammates doing something similar, the space suits' jet propulsion systems brought them back to the bomb.
As they clung to the seaweed securing Tad, they could hear another rocket engine close to them.
"Look!" Alex shouted pointing to a pink, crystalline vehicle that looked like a cross between a spaceship and a sports car.
And in it was...
"There goes Fabu in another one of his tricked-out rides!"
He waved, a hairless cat on the dashboard in front of him.
"Bye-bye, little spies!" he said.
He laughed, and his rocket/car disappeared from sight.
Clover looked impressed. "You've got to hand it to him! He sure knows how to escape in style!"
"Okay," Sam said. "Forget Fabu! We have to diffuse this bomb!"
Sean nodded. "Sam's right. We can worry about him later!"
He crawled up along the bomb's shaft, careful not to accidentally hit Tad.
Of course, he didn't care either way.
"What are waiting for?!" Tad asked, impatient. "A written invitation?! Hurry up!"
Clover was soon at eye level with him.
"I've heard about all I wanna hear out of your pie hole all day!"
She placed a hand on his head, shoving it underneath the seaweed.
Sean smiled.
"About time someone did that!"
Sam got to the control panel, then opened it.
"That control panel might be our ticket to shutting this thing down!" she announced.
"But we don't know how it works!" Sean reminded her.
"No problem!"
She grabbed a handful of wires, ripping them out.
The rocket seemed to stop for a moment.
The other three cheered, only for it to pick up speed again.
Then they screamed.
"Okay," Sam said, worried. "That was not the desired effect!"
"Well, that's good to know!" Sean said back. "Otherwise, I'd think you were trying to get us killed!"
"We've got about half a minute to figure this out before we splat into Earth!" Clover panicked.
"Hey!" Alex chimed in, holding up a book that Sean was required to read upon joining W.O.O.H.P.
"Maybe we can use the W.O.O.H.P employee manual to stop it!"
"Good thinking!" Sean gave her a thumbs up. "Flip to chapter thirteen! It's about bombs!"
Alex did so but looked distressed upon finding the page.
"What is it?" Sean asked.
In response, she showed them the page. On it was a series of illegible scribbles drawn in red ink.
"Oh," he said sheepishly. "Must be a new edition."
Clover groaned.
"Okay. Either Jer hired a chimpanzee to type this up... or it's written in some kind of weird W.O.O.H.P code!"
Sam looked to Sean.
"Can you read it?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Sorry, my codebreaking skills are a little rusty. I'd never have it translated in time!"
"Don't worry, guys!" Alex said. "I think we can still use it!"
Sean probably would have been reassured by that... had Alex not decided to repeatedly hit the control panel with the manual.
"Alex?" he asked. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
But he was answered by the bomb turning off and, more importantly, away from Earth.
The bomb turned back on, but at least it was heading in the opposite direction now.
"Nice job, Alex!" Clover complimented. "Before this, the only book that's ever saved my life has been my little black book!"
Sam and Sean just sighed, relieved.
"Sorry I doubted you," he said to Alex.
She just smiled.
Tad, however, wormed his head out from where Clover had stuck it.
"When you're done celebrating," he said. "You might want to check out the collision course you've just put us on!"
"What collision course?" Sean asked.
But as he looked ahead, he could see what Tad meant.
True, the bomb wasn't heading to Earth anymore. But it was going to hit Fabutopia instead.
"Oh no!" Sam cried.
Sean's jaw dropped.
"All those people," he said. "They're gonna get blown to bits! And us with them!"
"What are we gonna do now?!" Alex asked.
"Prepare for impact?" Sam suggested.
But a new sound suggested that wasn't necessary.
"Hello, agents!"
They looked up.
"Need a lift?!"
A plane-shape spacecraft, one that looked sideways while flying was right next to them.
And piloting it was...
"Jerry?!" the spies asked, deeply relieved.
"All aboard!" Jerry said.
And all four propelled themselves into the open hatch on the side of the ship.
"Hey!" Tad screamed. "What about me?!"
"Send us a postcard when you finally get to wherever you're going!" Clover said.
But Jerry and Sean had different ideas.
"Clover!" they both scolded.
Even though Sean hated Tad as much as she did now, even he didn't deserve this.
Clover groaned. "Okay!"
She pressed a button on a remote dangling in front of her, which activated the spaceship's claw, grabbing Tad out of the seaweed and pulling him into a secured area of the ship.
Alex, Clover, and Sean laughed to themselves as Tad landed behind a glass cell right behind the cockpit.
"I'm not sure what kind of heat you're packing under the hood, Jerry," Sam said. "But we've gotta make it back to the space station before that bomb does!"
Jerry smiled, putting on a pair of sunglasses.
"Don't you worry about that," he reassured. "We're packing W.O.O.H.P power!"
"What?" Sam and Sean asked.
Then a shadow passed over them, making all look up.
"Hey!" Sean exclaimed.
A much larger, more powerful version of their ship was hovering above them.
Then it was behind them.
With a loud metallic thud, it connected to the smaller craft, ensuring it would not only carry more people, but go faster as well.
"Wow!" the girls muttered in amazement, looking out the back, while Sean stood next to Jerry, who looked ready to go.
He pulled the switch, and the ship's speed picked up, zooming past the bomb.
"The airlock's right there!" Sean pointed out.
And the ship docked, allowing Sean and the girls to access Fabutopia.
Entering the circular hallway they had run through before, they looked around.
People were walking like models on a runway, completely oblivious to the danger they were in.
Sean looked around him.
"We've got to warn them about that bomb," he urged.
"I have an idea!" Alex beamed.
And she took off, her teammates following close behind her.
Plugging her Compowder into an intercom terminal, it didn't take long for her to appear on every screen in the station.
"Attention all Fabulites!" she announced. "You're in extreme danger! Drop your umbrella drinks and evacuate immediately!"
But the Fabulized people didn't seem to get the message, for below them in the artificial beach, they just flipped their bangs for what Sean could swear was the thousandth time that day.
"Fabulous!" they shouted.
They looked down.
"Ugh!" Clover groaned. "I think it's gonna take more than public service announcement to get through these dimwits!"
Sam gasped. "You're right! We've gotta take out Fabu's homing beacon!"
She took out her Compowder, an image of Fabu's staff popping up on the screen.
Sean nodded. Taking out his wallet phone, he began to trace the origin of the homing signal.
After about seven seconds, he found it in a side drawer near where they were standing.
Taking out the diamond-tipped staff, he threw it high into the air, then turned to Clover.
"Alright," he said, sure this would work. "Now!"
Kissing her Laser Lipstick, Clover fired it at the staff, completely destroying it.
The explosion caused a flash of blinding light and left multiple cracks in the windows.
"One fabulous decadent hood ornament going down!" Clover said in celebration.
And with that, all around the station, blond bangs started disappearing from people's heads, their moles burning themselves off.
And perhaps most important of all, they were finally beginning to come to their senses.
Soon, everyone below them let out noises of utter confusion, either wondering why they weren't home or why they were on an artificial beach or...
"What are you losers doing here?!" Mandy's voice demanded from down below.
Sean grimaced.
"You know," he whispered to Clover. "I think I liked her better when she was Fabulized."
Clover nodded in agreement.
"Look!" someone shouted.
And just by looking at it, they knew what it was and that they all had to get out of there.
Luckily, Alex's Compowder was still plugged in.
"Everyone!" Sam shouted into it, trying to be heard over the panic. "Please proceed to the W.O.O.H.P spaceship in a calm, orderly fashion!"
Though still scared, the crowd did as they were told.
And it wasn't long before the whole ship was at full capacity.
"Okay," Sean said, about to close the doors. "That's everyone."
"Wait!" Alex said. "It's not! Where's Oinky?!"
She looked down the hallway, searching for any sign of him.
"Alex," Sean said. "I'm sorry, but we don't have time to wait for him."
He pressed the button that would close the doors.
Alex looked away, tears in her eyes.
Then she heard a loud squeal and saw a pink blur rushing down the hall.
"Run, Oinky!" she cheered. "Run!"
He slipped, then slid into the closing doors and into Alex's arms.
"Wow!" she exclaimed. "For a guy with really short legs, you sure can boogie!"
Oinky just pressed his snout against her cheek affectionately.
"Come on, Alex!" Sam shouted as she, Sean and Clover rushed to the cockpit.
"We have no time!"
"Speaking of boogeying," Clover said, reaching Jerry. "It's time for us to bolt!"
She pointed to the bomb outside the ship.
"Floor it, Jerry!" Sean urged.
Jerry pulled a switch, causing the ship to zoom away from the ship as fast as it had arrived. No sooner than they were clear, the bomb collided with the station, and in a brilliant flash of fireworks, Fabutopia was gone.
"Ooh!" Alex cooed. "Fireworks! What a totally cute ending to our mission!"
While those weren't Sean's sentiments exactly, he did agree it was beautiful, even if those fireworks almost followed the destruction of his home.
"Our mission's not over yet!" Sam reminded.
"Yeah," Sean agreed. "We still need to catch Fabu!"
"And with all this extra cargo," Jerry said. "The spaceship is too slow to catch him. You'll have to use your jetpacks."
He indicated them on the wall behind them, three heart shaped, one circular. And each a different color, Red, Gold, Green and Blue.
"I don't suppose we have a choice in the matter?" Clover asked, sounding exhausted.
"Of course not!" Jerry chuckled, as they each put one pack on and reactivated their helmets.
Then Jerry opened the hatch above them.
"Cheerio!" he saluted as all four were sucked into space.
It was at that moment that the jetpacks activated, sending all four teens into varying degrees of control.
Alex, Sam and Clover managed to link hands in what Alex called the "the buddy system," giving them time to get control of the jetpacks.
But Sean's for some reason, was going faster than he could control it, and he certainly didn't have time to link hands with the girls.
There had to have been a malfunction in the pack, and now it was sending him spiraling further into space.
At least he was closer to Fabus' ship. But at the speed he was going, he wouldn't so much as catch up to as he would crash into it.
He closed his eyes, hoping it would be over quickly.
But it never happened.
"Hang on, Sean!" Sam's voice cried out.
And seconds later, he felt a pair of hands take hold of his shoulders, then another jet propulsion steering him in the opposite direction.
No longer feeling like he would die young, Sean opened his eyes to see Sam.
He could see her silky hair cascading down the back of her head, even through her helmet. He could see the way it beautifully framed her perfect cheekbones. And he could see those striking green eyes which combined with her full lips just made him feel...
He snapped back to reality. Why was he just thinking that? He'd only known her a few days.
"Hey," she said to him. "Are you okay?"
"Huh?" he asked, still not completely there. "Oh, yeah."
But he wasn't sure. His heart was beating faster than any drum he'd ever heard.
Sam pulled him back to the other girls, and once again they joined hands, but this time, Sean linked hands between Alex and Sam.
And notably, he felt his face getting a little hot when he touched the latter's hand.
"Okay, guys!" Clover announced, snapping Sean out of it. "It's time to blow this baddie out of space!"
She pulled out one of the few gadgets they hadn't had a chance to try yet.
"Tornado in a Can, don't fail us now!"
She tried to kiss it like she did the Laser Lipstick, but due to the fact her lips were behind glass, it failed miserably.
"Oops!" she said, blushing.
"Alright!" Sean announced. "Let's get him!"
Regaining control of his jetpack, Sean and the girls flew toward Fabu's retreating ship.
In mere moments, they were right on top of him.
Clover aimed the hairspray can at the ship, then pressed the nozzle, letting loose a powerful tornado that sucked in Fabu's ship.
As it swirled him around, all they could hear were cries of surprise and fear.
Finally, the tornado let the ship go. Then the ship itself exploded.
All that was left was a few spare parts, and a containment capsule that Fabu and his cat were stuck in.
The spies activated their bungee belts, hooking them on to the capsule.
The disgraced model looked up.
"Sorry Fabu," Clover said. "But your Fabulizing days are like so dunzo!"
"But don't worry," Sean added. "I know a perfect modeling gig for you, if you like prison orange!"
"Not you again!" Fabu complained inside the glass. "Pesky spies!"
The girls laughed at both Fabu's misfortune and Sean's joke.
Then the W.O.O.H.P spaceship hovered above them.
"Congratulations on a job well done!" Jerry praised them through the communication feature on their helmets.
Sean smiled as he and the others propelled themselves back on to the ship, towing Fabu with them.
When the hatch closed, Sean deactivated his helmet.
"Now we just have to get back home," he said.
"Yeah," Sam agreed, doing the same, letting her hair bounce down her back as she did so.
"It's probably almost morning in Beverly Hills by now."
But Sean barely heard her.
The way her hair moved, the way it perfectly framed her face.
It was making his heart beat loudly again.
He looked away, hoping he could conceal the blush now appearing on his cheeks.
"Hey," Sam said, noticing. "You okay?"
"Um," Sean fumbled. "Yeah. I guess I'm just happy we did it."
He felt a weight lifting from his shoulders. That at least, wasn't a lie.