Hi again! I don't have much to say, other than here's the next chapter. Read and review!
Chapter Nineteen
The Eraser
Bora Bora- 9:48 PM
The waves crashed gently on the shore of the island. The moon above shone a soothing light on the beach below.
All in all, a perfect night for what was about to take place.
As a camcorder was turned on, a man in a sharp suit cleared his throat.
He stood before a group of men and women seated at a table outside the hotel many of these scientists had checked into.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he began. "The Bora Bora Resort Hotel is proud to welcome the recipients of the Achievements in Science Award."
He gestured to the hotel and beach around them.
"Enjoy your retreat!"
"Huh?" one of the scientists proclaimed, inquisitively.
"Look!" another one said, pointing at the beach.
As they got closer, they could make out shapes in the darkness. Almost spherical shapes.
As they got closer, they could see that these... things were pink, three-eyed, and had no visible appendages.
"Beautiful!" one of them exclaimed.
"I've never seen anything like that!" another said.
"It's a new species!"
But after that, the creatures' colors changed from pink to tar black. And each grew a mouth of razor-sharp teeth.
One by one, they jumped onto everyone's heads, leaving them all to scream in panic.
No one saw what happened next, but when each of the scientists came to, they were so disoriented that they didn't see the creatures inching their way back into the sea.
"What's going on?" one of them asked, rubbing his head in pain and confusion.
"Where am I?" another inquired.
But they were so confused that they also missed the periscope observing them in the water.
No one would have noticed, because, after the observer gave a short laugh, it vanished beneath the waves.
Beverly Hills High School-10:35 AM
"Don't forget students," the voice of the principal announced over the intercom. "Monday is School Picture Day! Let's all try to look our best!"
Easy for him to say, Sean thought as he dipped his paintbrush in the bowl of water, allowing the blue paint to rinse off.
He's not the one with a zit the size of Alaska!
No one had noticed, thankfully, but was because it was on his forehead, and easily obscured by his bangs.
But since his mother had the bright idea of him getting a haircut for picture day specifically, that was about to change.
Behind him, the girls were working on pottery.
"I'm so not ready for Picture Day," Sam sighed.
"Tell me about it," Clover agreed. "I totally don't know what to wear."
"Should I smile this year?" Alex asked, looking up from the pot she was making. "Or go for the classic pout?"
She flashed them the look in question.
"Huh," Sean said. "I wish I had your problems."
The girls looked at him, concerned.
"Everything alright, Sean?" Sam asked.
"No!" Sean exclaimed, accidentally creating a streak of green across what should have been a blue sky in his painting.
"Picture Day is Monday, and I'm gonna look terrible all because of my stupid pimple!"
Clover scoffed, waving a hand. "I'm sure it's not that-"
But he cut them off, lifting his bangs to show them the blemish in question.
"Oh," the three girls chorused in unison.
"Word of advice," Alex asked. "You're gonna want to keep that covered. It looks like you're growing a second head!"
"I would," Sean replied, letting his hair fall back into place. "But I'm getting a haircut the day before."
"Tell you what," Clover said. "On Picture Day, I can take care of that for you."
Sean's spirits rose. "Really?!"
Clover winked. "There's nothing that can't be fixed with a little makeup."
"Clover, you're a lifesaver. I just hope it works, because I think it's getting bigger."
"I'll say it is," Alex commented. "I think I even saw it move!"
"Hello, pathetic wannabes," Mandy's voice rang out.
"Ugh!" Sean groaned out. "Not now."
Mandy walked in front of Sam's pottery wheel, striking a pose.
"I'm getting my hair done," she said boastfully. "By Maurice Maurice, the greatest stylist in the world! Only a master such as he can do justice to my beautiful locks!"
She flipped her hair, as if she were in a shampoo or hair gel commercial.
"Uh," Sean tried to say, dropping his brush. "You really should wear your hair up while-"
But his warning came too late. In a nanosecond, Mandy's hair spun around Clover's pottery wheel, getting it stuck.
Mandy screamed in a combination of pain and fear.
"Aah! My hair! Help!"
Sam, thinking fast, jumped to Clover's station, pressing the button that turned the wheel off.
Mandy and her hair were released from its painful grip.
She clutched her hair in wonder.
"Thank goodness!" she exclaimed. "Sam, you... you saved my life!"
"I saved your hair, Mandy," Sam bluntly pointed out.
But Mandy was already hugging Sam, which Sean, Alex, and Clover noted was unlike her.
"My hair is my life!" Mandy said. "I am forever in your debt! From now on, we are friends!"
"Say what?" Sean asked, shocked.
From Alex and Clover's faces, they were equally stunned.
As they got up to leave, Mandy rushed to the art room door, holding it open.
"I'll pick you up tonight to go that new dance club... best friend."
Sam, unsure of what to say, just walked out.
"Um... no, thanks," she said, still dumbstruck.
"No need to thank me," Mandy replied obliviously as she let the door slam back into place, hitting Sean, Clover and Alex and knocking them to the floor
"See you at 8:00, BF!"
The other three just stared at the door, still trying process what just happened.
"Okay," Sean said slowly. "Suddenly, my bump doesn't seem like the worst problem today."
Holding their noses, which were slightly bruised after Mandy slammed the door on them, Sam's three friends looked on in annoyance.
They'd thought they'd ditched Mandy earlier, but less than two hours Sam had "saved her life", Mandy had begun following them all around the school, suggesting things she and Sam could do.
"Or we could go to a movie!" Mandy said, turning to a coffee vending machine.
"Or get something to eat, or how about a latte?"
As Mandy was focused on the vending machine, Sam turned to her friends, frustrated.
"This would be, like, the best time to get pulled away to W.O.O.H.P," she said, quietly.
Sam's wish was granted when a buzz from the lightbulb above them sounded off, and all four spies were beamed up into the chute.
Mandy, having gotten what she wanted from the vending machine, turned around. To her shock, her new "best friend" was nowhere to be seen.
"Sam?" she asked. "Sam?!"
Out of a glowing pink portal in the ceiling, four teenagers fell onto the same cushion Sean had been used to landing on for three years.
"Hello, ladies," Jerry greeted. "Sean."
Sam looked up at him, relieved.
"That was perfect timing," she said. "Thanks, Jerry."
"You're welcome," he responded as the wall opened up to reveal the screen behind them.
"I have something to show you. Ten of the world's top scientists were in a conference in Bora Bora when something very odd happened."
"Bora Bora?!" the girls asked, excitedly. And from the looks on their faces, Sean could tell they were having yet another tropical paradise vacation fantasy.
Still, he ignored them, then turned back to Jerry
"Now," he said. "When you say, 'something odd', what exactly do you mean?"
"I mean," Jerry replied, snapping his fingers. "Exactly this."
The screen lit up, showing at least three pink gelatinous... things. They had three eyes and had a smile that would make a newborn baby jealous.
"Those are so cute!" Clover gushed.
But then their complexions turned black, and their smiles became rows of razor-sharp teeth.
"Those are so gross!" Alex exclaimed.
"Yes," Jerry said, dryly. "Well, those cute, gross blobs erased the scientists' memories completely."
"You mean like what we do with people who find out we're spies?" Sean asked.
"This is not unlike the procedure we use to modify people's memories. However, what is most perplexing is, whatever these creatures are, W.O.O.H.P has no record of them."
The screen went dark again, and Jerry continued.
"We need you to find out who's behind this and stop them. This could potentially have dangerous global ramifications."
"I'll say," Sean said. "I mean, who wants a world with those things running around?"
"Now," Jerry said. "Let's get your equipment."
Jerry snapped his fingers again.
In an indent in the wall behind them, kept behind a glass pane were their four spy uniforms, with a new addition: helmets. Each had a visor obscuring where the face would have been. The visors for the girls were all heart-shaped, while Sean's was ovular.
"This is M.U.C.A," Jerry explained. "Multi-Use Cranium Apparatus. Everything you need to sustain yourself underwater."
"Cool," Alex commented. "Do you have one in fuchsia?"
"Nuclear Powered Jet Boots for underwater propulsion, waist restrainers containing titanium grappling hooks, a repellent spear pistol and infusion exploders."
Then he opened up a blue briefcase, revealing an array of devices used for scanning evidence.
"And L.I.A.B 9000."
"L.I.A.B?" Sean asked.
"Lab in A Briefcase for on-the-spot analysis.
Then he held up a book with an oyster shell on the front.
"And you'll need to bone up on your marine biology."
"We have to study?" Clover asked.
Jerry's face remained blank.
"Last, but not least," he continued as a large object covered by a tarp rose up from a hole in the floor.
"Super Cycles."
He pulled off the tarp, revealing a red motorcycle with an inclined seat and a canopy.
"Wow!" the spies said in awe.
"Voice activated," Jerry added. "Each cycle recognizes your own particular voice."
The spies walked over to it, looking it over.
"Simple commands such as 'go', 'faster', et cetera. You tell the bike what to do and it does it. Allow me to demonstrate. Start."
With that command, the bike hummed to life, its pistons backfiring.
"Cool!" the teens said, prompting a fan to pop up from the dashboard.
Jerry let out a small laugh. "They're very sensitive."
"Stop," they commanded.
"Wow," Sam and Sean commented.
Jerry looked at his watch. "Now, there's no time to lose. You must leave right-"
"Wait!" Clover interrupted sharply. "I can't go!"
"Why not?" Jerry asked, confused.
"I left my new sunglasses at home," she explained.
"Clover, please!" her teammates said, exasperated.
Despite Sean's efforts to talk her out of it, Clover insisted on going back to her house to get the sunglasses in question.
She put them on.
"You didn't expect me to go to a tropical island without my new sunglasses, did you?" she asked.
"Couldn't you just buy another pair?" Sean asked. He and Sam and Alex were waiting by the doors that lead to a balcony outside Clover's room.
Outside was a ladder that lead to a helicopter waiting to take them to Bora Bora.
"Well, I could," Clover explained. "But it's the principle of the thing."
"Come on, Clover!" Alex gestured, pointing to the ladder outside.
Clover, in defeat, hopped off her bed, slowly joining her teammates.
Sean walked out the door, followed by Alex, and then Clover.
But before Sam could join them...
"Sammy!" Mandy's voice rang out.
Into Clover's room walked Mandy.
"Hey girl!"
Sam decided she would question how she knew she would be at Clover's house later.
Closing the balcony doors, she turned to face her.
"Ready to hit the dance club?"
"Uh..." Sam fumbled. "Mandy. I-I can't. I've gotta visit my... sick aunt."
"Ew!" Mandy exclaimed in disgust. "I hate sick aunts! But, okay, I can help. Any relative of yours is a relative of mine!"
"No, thanks," Sam said fast. "She's got... monkeynucleosis."
She walked over to Mandy, slowly pushing her out the door.
"Very rare and very contagious. I wouldn't want you to get it. Gotta go!"
That was when she shut the door.
Mandy stared at the door, confused.
As Sam boarded the helicopter, she let out a huge sigh of relief.
The last thing she needed on this mission was Mandy bugging her.
Bora Bora-2:00 PM
Upon arriving, Sean suggested the first thing they do was speak to the resort owner about the attack.
Shortly afterward, the man in glasses who owned the resort showed them the beach where it happened.
The spies, as part of their tourist cover, were all dressed for the beach.
The girls each wore swimsuits, while Sean opted for a pair of black boardshorts with a white tank top.
"Working undercover as tourists is the best," Clover said as she rubbed lotion on her arm.
"Cool it, you guys!" Sam said to her and Alex. "We're supposed to be investigating here."
"Who says you can't tan and investigate at the same time?" Alex asked as Clover rubbed some lotion on her back.
"Uh... pretty much everyone?" Sean said.
But Alex ignored him, turning over. She felt her fingers through the sand, then let out a noise of exclamation a few seconds later.
She looked at her hand. In her palm was a sticky, black, tar-like fluid.
"Ew!" she said. "Blob juice!"
She tried to shake it off.
"Don't!" Sean exclaimed, gently grabbing her wrist. "That's evidence!"
Opening the briefcase Jerry gave him, he collected a test tube from it, placed the blob residue in the tube, then placed it inside a compartment in the case.
But as the results popped up, Sean looked at the marine biology book, puzzled.
"That's weird," he said.
"What?" Clover asked.
"These blobs aren't organic. They're man-made. Somebody manufactured these things."
He closed the book.
"We'll send this to W.O.O.H.P for further analysis," Sam said, closing the briefcase.
"Now, let's check out those scientists."
That night, the owner showed them the ballroom where most of the scientists had gathered.
"Who are you? Who am I? Where am I?"
No matter where you went in the ballroom, the same questions could be heard.
In addition to their memories being stolen, they all seemed to be very... disoriented.
At one point, two scientists didn't look where they were going and walked into each other.
Another popped up in front of Sam and Alex, looking very confused.
"Mommy?" he asked.
Sean walked over as the scientist left them.
"This is worse than we thought," he said.
"Hi," he heard Clover say in her usual flirtatious tone.
He looked at the far side of the room, where he noticed Clover running her fingers over the chest of one of the scientists, a young-looking one.
"My name's Clover. I'm taking biology this year. You get you memory back, you could help me on my midterm."
She giggled.
"Uh..." the scientist droned. "Who's biology?"
Before Sean could go over there and reprimand her for getting distracted, Clover gasped.
Looking up at the ceiling, he could see why.
Dozens of those same blobs fell from the air vent and into the ballroom.
Moving faster than they looked like they could, they gathered in the center of the room.
As soon as they were clustered together, a beam of light shot up into the room.
From it, Sean could make out the dark outline of a man.
"Mr. Hannigan," he said in harsh voice. "I will only say this once. $1 billion must be left at Black Death Cove by tomorrow morning at dawn. If not, I promise you will regret it!"
Sean and the girls could only gasp.
The hologram disappeared, and in the next six seconds, so did the blobs.
"This is the most horrible thing I could ever imagine!" Clover exclaimed.
"Hey, Sam!" a voice cried out in joy.
And unfortunately, Sean knew who it belonged to.
Mandy walked into the room, wearing a white sundress with a matching hat and pulling a suitcase.
She was waving to Sam.
"Hello!"
"No," Sam corrected, pointing at Mandy. "That is the most horrible thing you could ever imagine."
"What is she even doing here?" Sean asked.
"What a totally amazing surprise!" Mandy exclaimed. "I needed to get a tan for the school pictures. I look like a mime. And this is my favorite tanning beach in the whole world!"
Then she turned to Sam.
"Where's Auntie Monkeynucleosis?"
"Auntie Who?" Sean asked Sam.
"You don't wanna know," Sam whispered to him before looking at Mandy.
"She got better."
"Great!" Mandy squealed. "Now we don't have to take care of that cranky loon. We can hang out together, cause that's what best friends are for, right? So, what exactly are you all doing here, Sam?"
Sean panicked.
"Uh..." he struggled to find an answer.
"Um..." Clover mimicked him.
"Well..." Sam said hesitantly. "The hotel hired us to give dance lessons!"
Mandy blinked as Alex went over to the ballroom's radio, turning it on.
The girls, in various places around the ballroom, began dancing... badly.
"This is the lamest thing I have ever seen in my entire life," Mandy said, yawning.
Watching the whole thing from the bar, Sean found himself agreeing with Mandy for once.
"Mandy needs her beauty sleep. Goodnight, Sam. Meet me at the bazaar tomorrow morning. We'll go shopping."
Then she leaned closer, making the shape of an "L" with her fingers.
"Just lose the losers," she added.
"I heard that!" Sean shouted to her.
"See ya!" Mandy said, ignoring him, before walking out the door.
"You'd better get rid of your friend," Alex said to Sam in a singsong voice.
"She is not my friend!" Sam snapped.
"Well," Sean said. "Friend or not, she's becoming a problem. Let's just hope she doesn't get in the way."
Then he turned to Clover.
"Clover," he said. "Are you coming?"
But she wasn't listening. She was still dancing with the same young scientist from earlier.
"You know," she said. "I have a Fall Formal coming up and-"
"Clover, come on!" Sean and Sam interrupted, dragging her away from him.
Black Death Cove-6:00 AM
Just as the sun rose, Clover, now in her spy uniform along with her teammates, closed the briefcase containing the money.
As Sam watched through her binoculars, Sean kept feeling his forehead. His pimple, which he had forgotten in the mission, had reminded him very painfully when he had woken up that very morning.
"Stop poking at that!" Alex said, in warning. "You're gonna make it worse!"
Sean let his hair fall. "I'm making it worse? The stress of this mission just made it bigger!"
"Well, if you don't stop messing with it, it's gonna leave a scar."
"Will you two cut it out?!" Sam hissed. "We can worry about skin care after we catch our bad guy!"
Clover rushed over to the rock her fellow spies were hiding behind.
"Okay," Sam continued as Clover crouched down between her and Sean.
"We wait here with the money till someone shows up."
Alex didn't seem to concerned with the stakeout, as further away, she was reclining on another rock, a tanning mirror held up to her face.
"Just let me know when the bad guys get here," she said lazily.
"Uh," Sean said, looking through his own binoculars. "The bad guys are here."
"What?" Alex asked, rushing over.
Further down the beach, two men slowly approached the briefcase.
"Only two of them? This should be easy."
"Yeah," Sam said. "Too easy."
Sean nodded in agreement.
"At least we outnumber them," he admitted. "On my signal."
As the man on the right knelt down to grab the briefcase, Sean made a gesture signaling them to jump into action.
The two men turned around to see the four teenagers blocking their path, Sam waving her finger disapprovingly.
"You're gonna wanna drop that," Sean warned.
Grinning, the man threw the briefcase into the air...where it was caught by another figure wearing a white suit and kept aloft with a jetpack.
Getting over the initial shock, the spies took off.
The money didn't stay airborne for long, as the jetpack pilot dropped the case into the open sunroof of a jeep, which took off faster than Sean and the girls could process.
Even though they tried to chase it, they only thing they caught was dust.
"We've..." Sean coughed. "Gotta go after him!"
"This is so bad for my skin," Clover complained.
The others ignored her, jumping up to their Super Cycles parked on the dunes.
Putting on their helmets, each spy prepared to start their engines.
"Go!" Sam shouted, as her green one sped off.
"Go!" Sean echoed, beckoning his blue one forward.
"Go!" Alex commanded, her yellow one becoming a streak in the distance.
"Yeah!" Clover shouted, but her red cycle remained motionless.
"Oh!" She exclaimed, realizing her mistake. "I mean go!"
And she was off.
It wasn't long before the jeep was in their sights. But it was still going too fast.
"We'll never catch him!" Alex's voice said into their helmet comms.
"Let's speed it up!" Sam said.
"Ready? 1, 2 3..."
"Faster!" the spies commanded.
The cycles accelerated so that soon, they and the jeep were closer in range.
But apparently, the driver caught onto them, for no sooner than Sean's cycle came close to the rear, the jeep sped up... faster than any of them had expected.
Not that it phased Sean or the girls.
"Supersonic!" they shouted to the bikes.
The backs of the vehicles opened up to reveal a small but powerful engine, one that allowed them to travel at what seemed like the speed of sound.
It wasn't long before they caught up with the jeep and Sam was right by the driver.
"Hey!" she shouted at him.
Surprised, the driver, a portly man wearing a fishing hat, slammed the brake.
The jeep stopped, letting the four bikes fly right past him.
"Turn around!" Sean ordered his bike, but it seemed to misunderstand his command, as it began to spin out of control.
Looking over at Sam's bike, it seemed hers had a similar problem.
And Alex's had apparently crashed into a tide pool after she had told it to go the other way.
But Clover...
She looked ahead to see two surfers in the back of a pickup truck.
"Hi!" she waved to a particularly... attractive one.
As she said that, her bike rose into the air.
"Not you!" she shouted.
After getting their bikes back under control, the spies continued the chase.
"Jerry was right," Sean said. "These things are sensitive."
He willed the bike to go faster, his teammates following suit.
Soon enough, they'd caught up with the jeep... for the third time that day.
And once again, they lost it as it blended in with the traffic of the crowded bazaar in the center of the island.
"Stop!" the spies ordered their bikes.
"What the..." Sam started, looking at the traffic jam in front of them.
"Damn it!" Sean growled. "How are we gonna find him in this?"
"Wait!" Sam shouted, accelerating her bike.
She drove it up the ramp of a waiting truck before hopping out of her bike and jumping on the cab of the truck.
Scanning the cluster of vehicles, she looked very carefully for her target.
Finally, she succeeded.
"There it is!" she proclaimed.
Using the other cars as stepping stones, she hopped over to the jeep, looking down at the driver through the open sunroof.
"This chase is over, buddy!" she said, harshly.
"I don't think so," he said, smiling maliciously.
He took out a device that reminded Sam of a vacuum cleaner, then fired a black, sticky substance at her.
Sam realized what it was too late in time for her to duck, and the blob attached itself to her face.
The force of the projectile knocked her off balance, causing her to fall off the jeep and into a nearby fountain.
Spitting water out of her mouth, she sat up as three bikes revved over to her.
"Sam!" Alex shouted as she disembarked.
"Sam!" Sean echoed, rushing over, standing between Clover and Alex.
"Are you alright?!" Clover asked worriedly.
But before anymore could be said, a car horn stopped them.
"Sam!" an irritatingly familiar voice screeched.
"Oh, no," Sean muttered. "Not now!"
"I've been looking all over for you," Mandy continued, holding up a purple shirt she had just bought.
"Look at these fabulous things I got! I am gonna look gorgeous in these."
But Sam just stared at the group, confused.
"Who are you?" she asked.
Sean, Alex, and Clover let out a gasp.
"She got blobbed!" Clover exclaimed.
"Blobbed?" Mandy asked, suspiciously. "What is going on?"
"Huh?" the other three teens asked.
"Uh..." Sean uttered, trying to think of an answer.
"We were just playing a game," Clover responded for him.
"Yeah," Alex agreed. "It's called 'Who Are You?'"
"Who are you?" Sam repeated.
"Sam is really good at it," Sean said, nervously, realizing that they had come close to having their covers blown.
But Mandy, apparently, bought their lie.
"I wanna play too!" she said, excitedly.
"Uh, sure!" Alex replied. "You can play the next round!"
"But..." Sean added. "You have to play it on jet skis."
"Right," Clover agreed. "Round Two is on jet skis. So, go rent a jet ski and we'll meet you at the marina."
The three walked away from the car, leaving Mandy puzzled.
"Jet skis?" she asked.
The spies hopped back on to their bikes, with Sam riding on Sean's, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
"Go!" he commanded, accelerating his bike forward... blowing dust on Mandy, causing her to cough.
Back at the hotel, Clover opened her Compowder, deciding to tell Jerry what had happened with Sam.
"Jerry," she said, urgently. "Sam got by a blob and lost her memory."
Sam and the other spies sat on one of the hotel beds with Clover, with Sam staring blankly ahead, still out of it.
"Don't let her out of your sight," Jerry ordered. "She's safest with you."
"Right," Sean concurred. "If she's forgotten who she is, then she's forgotten her spy training too."
"Listen," Jerry continued. "I have new information."
"Fire away," Sean said.
An image of an elderly man showed up Clover's screen. He was holding a mop.
"We analyzed the blob residue and traced it to a man named Lester Crowley."
"A janitor?" Alex asked.
"Well," Jerry went on. "He was a janitor at the Brooks Marine Biology Institute."
The photo of Crowley was replaced with a group photo of the same scientists who had lost their memories.
Crowley himself was in the background, scowling.
"He wanted to be a scientist. Evidently, he tried some experimenting on his own. At night, he secretly worked on a cure for memory loss using sea creatures."
The photo dissolved to security footage of a lab. On a workbench below sat Crowley, sitting across from a tank of jellyfish and looking through a microscope.
He looked up, seeing the camera observing him.
Then with an angry groan, he threw the microscope at the camera, breaking them both.
"He was discovered, fired, and arrested."
That was where the feed was lost.
"He escaped and disappeared, stealing millions of dollars worth of equipment. You need to find him, fast!"
"We'll do our best, Jerry," Sean assured.
"Good luck." And with that, Clover's Compowder went dark again.
Sean looked at Clover.
"Any ideas where we should start looking?" he asked her.
Clover's face narrowed.
"Marine biologist wannabe, huh? I think I know."
Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean-1:13 PM
"This is what you had in mind?" Sean asked Clover.
"According to the staff," Clover explained. "Those things came from the ocean. I bet my favorite nail polish that Crowley's somewhere close by."
"Well, I guess we don't have any other ideas. It's a good thing these things can fly."
Indeed, their Super Cycles were soaring silently over the vast blue surface. And thanks to Clover's discovery of this, combined with the fact that they were voice-activated, made them easy to fly.
But since Sam had lost her memory, she had to ride on Sean's bike, holding her arms around his waist.
Sean was glad none of the girls could see his face, otherwise the redness on his face would have been perfectly visible.
"I wish someone would tell me what is going on!" Sam complained.
"Okay," Sean said to her. "To start off, your name is Sam."
"Sam? Am I a man?"
"No," Clover countered, gently. "You're a girl."
"'Sam' is short for 'Samantha,'" Sean added.
"Okay," Sam said. "But what am I doing out here?"
"Well, you're a spy."
"A what?" Sam asked, not convinced.
"A spy. We all are, actually. You, me, Alex and Clover."
"And who are you?"
"Sean. And I'm-"
"Are you my boyfriend?" Sam cut him off.
Sean's cheeks became hotter and he almost forgot where he was.
"I.." But that letter just droned out.
Say "Yes", a voice in his head told him.
Did he want to?
"No, we're just friends."
He wanted to say the opposite, of course. But in Sam's current state, it just wouldn't be right.
Before things could get any more awkward, he looked at the radar screen in front of him. A single red dot had shone up in the northwest corner.
"Bingo," he said, then turned to his teammates. "Switch on helmet subs."
The visors on each of their helmets lowered, and the oxygen tanks stored within them immediately activated.
Sean had do Sam's for her, though.
"Down!" All but Sam said.
"Are you sure these are made for water landings?" Clover asked as they descended.
"Of course they are!" Alex reassured, as the bikes touched the water.
But they were instantly proven wrong.
"Whoa!" they all shouted as the bikes sank.
Once underwater, Sean watched the vehicles hit the ocean floor.
"Okay," he said. "Looks like we're gonna have to swim."
Clover and Alex nodded, activating their Jet Boots along with Sam and Sean.
After passing what Sean could have sworn was the 100th rock they'd seen that day, they finally saw it.
A tall building was trapped under a large glass dome. (Was it glass? Sean could never remember if it withstood this kind of water pressure.)
The building itself was tall, reaching up past the underwater cliffs it was built beside. Four structures, shaped like octopus tentacles curved upward from beneath the base.
Near one of these tentacles, Sean could just make out a door.
"The Lester Crowley Underwater Research Institute," Clover said, reading the writing above the door as they propelled towards it.
"I think this is it."
"How are we gonna get in?" Sean asked.
In answer, Clover opened a compartment on her belt. She took out small device, big enough to fit between her fingers. It was pink and shaped like a heart.
Flicking it at the door, the device exploded, caving the door in and letting a torrent of seawater wash through.
And four startled spies along with it.
"Whoa!" they screamed as they landed in the flooded hallway of the facility.
"Subtle, no," Clover said in satisfaction. "Effective, yes."
Sean lifted himself out of the water.
"Glad it worked," he said. "Just warn us next time you do that."
After leaving the entrance partially submerged, the four managed to make their way up a staircase that led into a large chamber.
In the center of this chamber was a large column with various covered walkways protruding from it. Each walkway led to a different door.
As they heard footsteps, each hid themselves against the wall.
Glancing over Alex's shoulder, he could see a squad of white-uniformed men and women marching past them.
"Well," he said as quietly as he could. "We can't go that way."
He looked up, and on the wall to his right was a grate. No doubt leading to an air vent.
"There!" he pointed at it.
Alex and Clover nodded, understanding.
"Hey!" Sam said loudly. "What am I supposed to do."
"Shh!" the others silenced her.
Crawling behind Alex and in front of Sam, Sean was beginning to feel a little claustrophobic.
He normally didn't have a problem with enclosed spaces, but this was a little too much for him.
"Can I go home please?" Sam asked from behind him. "Wherever my home is?"
He looked back.
"As soon as we get your memories back, promise."
But Sam didn't appear to be listening.
"This is not fun at all."
It wasn't long before they stopped at another grate.
On the other side, they could see about five people observing several chambers hidden behind glass panes.
Inside each, a pink gelatinous mass came down from hole in the ceiling as two clamps on either side of the chamber expanded toward the center.
Once the clamps encapsulated the gel, electricity sparked throughout the chamber, lighting it up like a Christmas tree.
When it stopped and the clamps retracted, the pink mass was gone, replaced with the black monstrous creature that Sean had seen back at the hotel.
A hole opened up beneath the blob, causing it to fall through and allowing the chamber to continue its work.
Overseeing all of this was an elderly man in a white coat and indigo turtleneck. He was holding a device that reminded Sean of a hand mirror.
"That's our man," Alex said, pointing down at him.
"Lester Crowley," Sean agreed.
Crowley, unaware of the four intruders, turned to face the other people in the room.
"We will now implement the final phase," he said, holding the device up. "I will unleash my vengeance upon the world and then... utter chaos."
The guards genuflected.
"I will hold the world's memories in my hand," he finished.
Sean looked to the remote Crowley was holding, then to Sam, then back to Crowley.
"I bet that remote is where he stores all the memories," he whispered to the girls.
Alex nodded. "We have to sneak back out, get reinforcements, then..."
But she was cut off by Sam punching the grate off.
"Hey!" she shouted to Crowley and his henchmen.
"You in the white coat!"
This earned a collective gasp from Alex, Clover, and Sean while earning a look of surprise and then a glare from Crowley.
"Do you know who I am?"
Crowley pointed at the vent, ignoring her question.
"Seize them!" he commanded, signaling the guards to charge at them, batons drawn.
The spies looked on in horror, knowing that they couldn't fight in such a narrow vent. And they couldn't evade them in it so easily either.
"Was that a bad thing to do?" Sam asked, obliviously.
"Well," Sean said. "You did let the bad guy know we're here, so yeah, pretty bad."
Restrained by shackles that connected their arms legs and necks from moving, the spies could only glare up in annoyance at Crowley, as they rode the elevator up to the higher levels of the building.
"You look like intelligent young people," he said. "I think you'll enjoy a demonstration of the hatching process of my blobs."
"Actually, I'd rather relive that W.O.O.H.P New Year's party I went to," Sean said.
Alex and Clover looked confused, as well as Sam. (Though, in her case that was to be expected, having lost her memory.)
Sean cringed remembering that the night ended with someone spiking the punch bowl, Jerry drinking a little too much, and singing a very bad rendition of "Memory" from Cats.
"You had to be there," he explained.
At last, they reached the top floor. Standing four yards away was an enormous plane that could only be used to distribute those blobs all over the globe.
"Observe," Crowley said, gesturing to four pods that resembled oyster shells.
"After hatching, they search for the closest human brain and suck the memory out."
"Great," Sean said, sarcastically. "Just what I always wanted. Walking around as clueless as Mandy."
"I must go," Crowley said, ignoring Sean. "But I do hope you enjoy the demonstration."
"Is this like an initiation into a secret club or something?" Sam asked as Crowley walked off.
As he boarded the aircraft, the shells began to open, earning a groan of disgust from all four.
Outside, the building was beginning to rise above the waves, propelled by very powerful jets.
When it finally emerged, one could almost mistake it for another island. An island made of metal, but an island.
As the top part rose, revealing the the landing pad for Crowley's plane, it's propellers began to rotate.
Meanwhile, the spies were faced with the prospect of losing their memories (or in Sam's case, losing more) to the hatching pink blobs now out of their shells.
The blobs turned black, and Sean knew that meant unless someone did something, they would walk around amnesiac for the rest of their lives.
Luckily for them, as Crowley's plane took off, a jet ski pulled up to the building. An on it was Mandy.
At any other time, Sean would have groaned in exasperation. But maybe Mandy's presence there would get them out of this.
At least he hoped so, watching Mandy's jet ski go up the ramp of the building and letting her crash down to their level.
She fell off her jet ski, which ran into the blobs, crushing theme into mush and letting Mandy slide across the deck.
After getting over her shock, Alex spoke up.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but thanks, Mandy."
Mandy rushed over, fiddling with the restraint on Alex's neck.
"What is going on here?" she asked.
"Uh," Sean said, hesitantly. "We're still playing 'Who Are You?'"
"Wow," Mandy commented, apparently buying it. "This is a really elaborate game."
As soon as Alex got the others free, she ran toward the edge of the platform.
Opening a compartment on her belt, she took out a small pistol-like device. Attaching a hook to the end of it, she fired it, letting a long titanium cable fly upward and attach to the plane, and knocking her off balance from the recoil.
Sean ran over to catch up with her, then Clover.
"Excuse me," Sam said, running up to her friends. "But this game is way out of control.
Then she and the other spies grabbed hold of the cable just as it was slipping out of reach.
"What about Mandy?" Clover asked, as they left her behind.
"No time to worry about her," Sean responded. "She's safe right there, and more importantly, she's not following us."
But Sean was about to proven wrong. For no sooner than those words left his lips, Mandy's ankle got tangled up in the cable. Hanging upside down, she exclaimed as the plane flew out of sight.
Seattle-8:20 PM
As the city's iconic Space Needle approached the view of the plane, Crowley narrowed his eyes.
"Preparing approach to Seattle," he said.
But as the plane drew closer and closer to its first destination, Alex finally succeeded at prying open the plane's emergency hatch, allowing Sean, Clover, and Sam to crawl through easily.
Clover blocked the shaft from closing again with a metal pipe, just in case they needed a quick exit.
Taking in their new surroundings, they could see dozens of tanks filled with Crowley's pink blobs.
But Sean noticed something was suspiciously missing.
"Gee," Clover said, noticing it too. "You'd think he'd have a bunch of guards in here."
That was when the door opened, letting three men out. Men holding the same type of device used on Sam.
"I was right!" Clover exclaimed.
Each man fired, letting a blob loose.
Unlike what happened with Sam, her friends were able to dodge it more quickly, running to the other end of the room.
Clover grabbed hold of the neck of one of the guards, used it to propel herself into the air, then, doing a backflip, leapt behind him and pushed him into the blob he intended to erase her memory with.
Sean delivered a blow to his opponent's neck with his foot, sending him into another blob.
Alex had the most trouble with evading hers, climbing on top of a tank as it tried to jump up to her. Due to the lack of balance, the tank tipped over, breaking.
The blob looked disturbed at first as it stared at Alex, who was hiding behind Sam. Then it looked hungry as it turned from pink to black and attacked the sole remaining guard.
But it didn't stop there.
Next, it went for Clover, who screamed as she held the vacuum-like device she'd picked up in front of her. Instinctively pressing a button, the device let out a long burst of air, sucking the blob back in.
"That was close," Sean said, taking the device.
Then he looked to the cockpit.
"Now we just have to get Crowley."
"I don't feel so good," Sam said queasily, holding her hand over her mouth before walking into the cockpit.
"Sam!" Sean exclaimed in worry. "Get back here!"
But she was already in... and right next to Lester Crowley.
"What are you doing here?!" he asked furiously.
"Uh," she answered. "Do you have any of those little bags? I think I'm gonna barf."
She was joined by Alex, then Clover and finally Sean, who held the device used to launch blobs.
"Okay, Crowley. It's over!" Alex began.
"Turn the plane around!" Clover ordered.
"Now!" Sean added, pointing the device at him.
"Okay," another voice said, prompting shock from the other occupants.
Behind Sean stood a very curious and very irate Mandy.
"Tell me right now exactly what is going on!"
"What are you doing here?!" Sean asked.
"Trying to find out what you losers are up to!" Mandy replied like it was obvious.
Crowley, sensing an opportunity, adjusted a lever on his control console, tilting the plane backward and sending the five teenagers into the back of the plane.
A nanosecond later, the plane leveled out, leaving Mandy crushed under their weight.
"We've gotta destroy the rest of those blobs!" Alex said as the door to the cockpit closed.
They got up, Sean, Alex, and Clover walking toward the control console that would release the blobs. Behind it was vast array of gears, wheels and axles.
"If we can jam the machine we might be able to," Clover said.
"Right," Sean said, reaching for the switch that would turn it off. Or at least he tried, but it was too far back and his arms weren't long enough.
"I can't reach it! I need something longer!"
That was when Mandy snuck over to see what he was doing.
Clover, looked at Mandy's long hair, and remembered how it got stuck in a pottery wheel back at school.
She smiled to herself, thinking, When will I get a chance like this again?
Pushing Mandy, she almost wasn't able to look away when her hair inevitably got jammed. Almost.
"My hair!" Mandy exclaimed, trying to get free.
"Sam, help me!"
As Mandy stood there flailing around, electric sparks built up behind her.
"Aah!" Alex screamed.
"It's gonna blow!" Clover yelled as the tanks exploded in a shower of fluid and glass, killing each and every blob inside.
Hearing the noise, Crowley entered the room to find his creations destroyed.
"No," he muttered as smoke filled the room.
"Nooo!" he repeated, much more loudly as Sean and Clover tackled him to the floor.
Clover grabbed hold of one of his legs, while Sean sat on his chest, restraining him.
"Excuse me," Sam interrupted. "I know you're busy tying up the bad guy and everything, but who exactly is flying this plane?"
Sean and Clover went limp on hearing that. Then everyone in the plane screamed in terror as it began to lose altitude.
"Let's get out of here!" Sean exclaimed as he grabbed a parachute.
"Hey!" Mandy shouted, her hair still stuck. "What about me?! Help!"
Alex, the only one who hadn't yet jumped out, carefully unclenched Mandy's hair from the gears.
Just as the plane exploded, the four spies, Crowley and his henchmen, and Mandy were safely parachuting down to the Seattle streets.
"Okay," Alex said to Mandy, who was clinging to her for dear life. "I saved you. But I do not want you as my best friend. Got it?"
Mandy nodded weakly.
Sean rolled his eyes.
I will never understand how Mandy thinks, he thought to himself.
It was amazing that someone could be so... serious about her hair.
Well, at least she wound up helping us... more or less.
After landing at Lumen Stadium, which had opened the year before, the spies looked around for Crowley.
Clover found him, lying in the grass of the stadium, broken, defeated, and utterly exhausted.
"Okay, Crowley," she said. "We've gotta restore Sam's memory. Where's the thingy with all the memories?"
She held out her hand.
Growling, Crowley took out the remote and handed it to the girl.
Clover went back over to her friends (and Mandy.)
Kneeling down to Sam's level, she pressed a button on the device, letting out a beam of white light that touched Sam's forehead.
After a while it stopped.
"Sam," Sean said, helping her up.
"Do you know who you are?"
"Duh," Sam responded. "I'm Sam. We're spies for the World Organization of Human Protection. You know, W.O.O.H.P?"
"She's back," Sean said, relieved.
"Where did I go?" Sam asked. "You three look tired."
"Well, it's been kind of a long day," Clover commented before hugging her.
Sean and Alex joined in, pinning Sam to the ground.
"So," Sam said. "Have we found out who's behind this? Did W.O.O.H.P get anything from the blob residue?"
But an annoying laugh halted their celebration.
"Hi, Mandy," Sam said, ignoring her. "Did we-"
But before she could ask any more, she turned around and did a double take.
"What is she doing here?!" she asked pointing at Mandy.
"It's a long story," Sean answered.
"Oh!" Mandy exclaimed. "Oh my God! You're all spies! I cannot wait to tell everyone about this at school!"
"Okay," Sam continued. "We've got a problem here."
"Not for much longer," Sean countered, pointing the blob launcher device at Mandy.
He fired it, letting the blob attach itself to Mandy's head.
"Aah!" she screamed in terror. "My hair!"
As the girls smiled in satisfaction, Sean folded his arms.
"Don't worry!" he called out to her. "In a minute, you won't remember your hair getting ruined! Or anything else that happened in the last two days!"
Beverly Hills High School-11:10 AM
"Almost finished," Clover said, adding the last touch of make up to Sean's forehead.
"There."
She took out a compact mirror, holding it up to his face.
Sean examined his forehead carefully. Touching it, he could still feel the elevation of his blemish but thanks to Clover's skills with make up, at least it wasn't obvious anymore.
"Thanks, Clover," he said, as he took his place on the bleachers where the school picture would be taken.
He sat between Sam and Alex.
"I'm glad we erased part of Mandy's memory so she doesn't remember we're you-know-whats," Alex said.
"And she's not trying to be Sam's friend anymore," Sean added, sighing in relief at that. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but she's less annoying when she's mean to us."
"Yeah," Sam agreed. "It's so great to have the old Mandy back."
Speak of the devil, Mandy walked up behind them.
"What are you even bothering getting your pictures taken?" she asked snidely. "You'll never look as gorgeous as me."
"Thank goodness," Sean heard Clover mutter under her breath.
Mandy, in the meantime, decided to berate the photographer.
"Are my perfect teeth in focus? Hey! Monkey Boy! You are shooting perfection here! Work with me!"
She groaned in frustration.
"I knew I should have brought my own photographer."
As the photographer readied his camera, Sean smiled, along with the girls.
In their eyes, he could see the same look. An unspoken agreement.
Now that things were back to normal with Mandy, they might as well bring her back down to Earth.
"Cheese!" they all exclaimed as camera flashed, standing up and obscuring any view of Mandy's face.