On Today's Episode: The spies escape the collapsing lair and return to the surface of Lake Inawashiro just as Violet's colossal Mother Legion surfaces and turns this into yet another kaiju battle. Can the spies manage to stop the Mother Legion before it can vacate the area and possibly head towards the city of Fukushima?
Act 3: Lost in the Overgrowth
7:21 P.M. – Fukushima Prefecture
Lake Inawashiro
The spies finally caught a break upon making it to the surface of the lake.
"Whew, somehow we made it out of there," Sam sighed.
"I didn't think Violet would go so far as to destroy her own base just to take us with it..." Mat remarked.
"That's a lot of our bad guys lately," Dawn sighed.
With that, more mooks came out of nowhere.
"Here they come, everyone!" Britney exclaimed.
That was only a prelude to the main event, as following the four or five Soldier Legion was the Mother Legion itself, towering over the spies like any good kaiju would.
"Oh, good lord, that thing is ugly!" Haruka gagged.
"Isn't my grand project just the most beautiful thing ever?" Violet confidently proclaimed, riding on the monster's neck. "I hope you spies have said your prayers, because you're all going down along with this wretched city!"
"...I'm sorry, what did you just say?" Nozomi wondered.
"Maybe I'll go and pay another visit to that house you seem so uppity about," Violet sneered and took off.
Nick clenched his fists tightly, his psychic aura exploding to life around him.
"...oh, now you really stepped in it, Violet! I think it's about time we took down you and your pathetic excuse for a kaiju," Nick scowled.
"You guys better deal with them, and leave Violet to me for a change!" Nozomi boldly told the spies.
"Well, one of us will catch up with you once we get a chance," Sam replied.
"I'm gonna help you, Nozomi," Nick proclaimed as he flew closer to Nozomi. "It's only fair, right?"
"Very true," Nozomi chuckled.
"We can more than handle these big bad bugs," May quipped. "You two just take care of this wacky thing!"
With that in mind, the rest of the spies moved to take care of the Soldier Legion, which allowed Nick and Nozomi to take off into the sky and confront the Mother Legion head-on.
"Oh, just you two?" Violet cackled as the Mother Legion began to turn towards them. "This ought to be easier than I initially believed."
"I wouldn't count your chickens just yet, Violet," Nick taunted. "We've taken down kaiju of all different sizes before."
"We'll see how you two fare against this one!" Violet cackled as the Mother Legion bent down, its nasal horn splitting apart to fire a concentrated blue beam from the opening that Nick raised a psychic barrier to deflect. The Mother Legion tried this attack again, only for it to turn at the last second and fire it at Nozomi instead.
Thankfully, Nick was able to cover Nozomi with a psychic bubble just in time to protect her. After all, that attack had been a concentrated beam of microwave energy, if this monster was anything like it was in the movies.
"Any sign of a weak spot on this thing, Nick?" Nozomi wondered.
"The armor on this thing looks pretty resilient, but I think we need to destroy that horn first," Nick quipped.
"Good luck trying!" Violet taunted as the Mother Legion lumbered forward, the horns that made up its "crown" sparking wildly.
"...wait, why the heck is my Ear Ring Communicator suddenly not working?" Nozomi wondered.
"Because of its Interference Wave Claws," Nick answered. "They produce electromagnetic waves that can interfere with electronic devices."
"Now do you see that you shouldn't have challenged me?!" Violet cackled.
"Um, did you forget that my psychic powers are not electronic in nature?" Nick retorted as he fired off a Final Shine Attack that snapped off the Mother Legion's nasal horn.
The Mother Legion reeled back in pain before roaring in rage and attempting to lunge forward and slash at Nozomi with its razor-sharp claws. Nick quickly fired a Phase Changer Phaser to liquefy the claws before it could do anything, and Nozomi simply dodged the rest of the punch.
The spies had naturally been wary of using the Phase Changer Phaser lately unless absolutely necessary, given what had happened to the Shatterverse version of Nick.
"Let's see how plant thing likes some good ol' purchasing power," Nozomi quipped as she flew towards the Mother Legion while it was reeling from that last attack and started slashing at its outer shell with a Platinum Credit Card, hoping to break through the armored parts and expose a weak spot.
"I have only begun to fight, by the way," Violet laughed as the Mother Legion bent its head down and unleashed red tendrils of energy from its forehead. Though they resembled the Red Rod attack from the movie (May had clued them in on what the Mother Legion was capable of during their escape from the base), this version didn't appear to be heat-based and instead was more electrical.
Nozomi ducked and weaved through each tendril, whipping a few of them with a Shock Ravager to get some breathing room before flying in and cracking the Shock Ravager across the Mother Legion's chest shell.
"Hey, I think we're making progress here," Nozomi stated when she realized that she could actually see damage on the outer shell now.
"That doesn't mean you've won, now, does it?!" Violet retorted as two Soldier Legion flew towards Nozomi and attempted to grab her and haul her away.
Nick took care of that problem swiftly by firing a flurry of psychic bolts to catch the Soldier Legions' attention before blowing them to heck with a pair of Incendiary Earrings.
While that was happening, Nozomi continued her own assault, firing an Electromagnetic Curling Iron into the Mother Legion's shell, and this finally did enough damage to crack open the outer armor of its shell and expose what appeared to be the beast's core.
All of a sudden, a bunch of plant tendrils burst out of the Mother Legion's claws and constricted Nozomi in her spot.
"This is where you say goodbye, little girl," Violet proclaimed as the Mother Legion unleashed another Red Rod attack that Nozomi seemingly had no way to dodge, constricted as she was.
Thankfully, Nick managed to use an Electromagnetic Field Disperser Walkman to short out the tendrils before slashing the tendrils apart with a psychic blade.
"You're not frying my girlfriend while I'm still here, Violet," Nick taunted before firing a Final Shine Attack into the Mother Legion's head to momentarily stun it.
The rest of the spies all flew towards the Mother Legion, having finally dispatched the remaining Soldier Legion, and all sprayed their bottles of Ice Queen Perfume at once to freeze the Mother Legion's legs to the ground and keep it from moving.
"Now's your chance, you two!" Alex exclaimed.
Nick and Nozomi glanced at each other and nodded, knowing that they were thinking the exact same thing.
With that, Nozomi flew slightly backwards into Nick, where he wrapped his arms around her waist and held her close, the two of them floating backwards just slightly. Nick's body began to shimmer a bright golden, as did Nozomi's.
Nozomi threw both of her arms out, her palms now surrounded by orbs of golden light.
"Come on, move, you stupid monster!" Violet shouted almost desperately, but in its stunned state, the Mother Legion couldn't do much of anything.
"This is why I warned you not to underestimate us, Violet," Nick taunted.
Nozomi slammed her hands together, the two lights surrounding her hands joining into one larger sphere of light, said sphere pulsing wildly with each passing second. Small jolts of electricity lanced around the sphere, indicating that they were pouring a lot of power into this move.
"You made a gigantic mistake when you threatened my parents, you know," Nozomi proclaimed as the energy surrounding her hands began to glow even brighter. "I'm a lot like Nick, in that you mess with my family and loved ones at your own peril."
"And here's the emphasis, you vile little vixen!" Nick shouted.
"FINAL FLASH!" Nick and Nozomi exclaimed together as Nozomi opened her palms to unleash the energy they'd gathered in the form of an immense blast of yellow light that screamed through the air and blasted straight through the Mother Legion's chest cavity and its core like a hot knife through butter.
Once they were satisfied that the damage had been done, Nick and Nozomi raised their hands to angle the blast upwards into the sky where it safely dissipated.
The Mother Legion gurgled one last time before its body calcified and started falling to pieces. Violet found herself falling down towards the ground until Nick caught her in his telekinetic hold.
"See, what did I tell you?" Nick taunted before encasing Violet inside a psychic bubble just as a W.O.O.H.P. chopper approached Lake Inawashiro.
"Perfect timing as always, Jer," Melissa quipped as Nick sent the bubbled Violet towards the chopper.
"Hope you don't mind that we took a page from your book, Haruka," Nick chuckled, remembering that he and Haruka had performed a very similar combination attack to defeat Nebula Grey so long ago.
"Nah, that was awesome," Haruka responded.
"Magnificent job as always, everyone," Jerry proclaimed as the chopper approached them.
"Ah, it's always fun to watch a good ol' kaiju battle," RiCO giggled. "So, you all ready to head back home?"
"Actually, I wanted to check in with mom and dad one more time before we go, if that's okay?" Nozomi asked.
8:31 P.M. – Fukushima Prefecture
The Itou Household
"Is everything okay, Nozomi?" Mrs. Itou wondered when Nozomi and the spies returned to the house. Everything that had been damaged during the "fight" had been mostly repaired. "We heard reports of some kind of monster near Lake Inawashiro, and..."
"Yeah, that was Violet," may quipped. "She tried to reenact a Gamera movie, but we put that thing its place just like always."
"Nick and I pulled off a spectacular combo attack to rip that monster thing a few new holes," Nozomi chuckled. "Didn't we, Nick?"
"All in a day's work for us, right?" Nick responded as Nozomi leaned over to kiss Nick on the cheek.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Itou looked surprised for a few seconds before they gave knowing smiles. Nozomi suddenly looked a little surprised herself, as she hadn't yet told her parents about her and Nick's "reconnection".
But those smiles told her everything she needed to know about what they thought.
"Why don't you all go home, then?" Mr. Itou stated. "I'm sure you've all had a rough day and need to relax."
"Tell me about it," Clover groaned. "We missed our beach day because of the stupid plant lady!"
After giving one last hug to her parents, Nozomi followed the spies back outside so they could get in their Skyskimmer and head for home.
4:16 P.M. – Malibu University
The Spies' Penthouse
A Few Days Later
After arriving back at Mali-U, everybody got through midterms just before the Spring Break. A few days later, everyone was enjoying another weekend, and Mat occupied the TV again for the 2010 Daytona Supercross by Honda. The usual team of Ralph Sheheen, 1997 Supercross champ (and 1997 Daytona winner) Jeff Emig, and Erin Bates as the pit reporter were at the helm.
"Did you really think I was gonna leave W.O.O.H.P.?" Nozomi wondered.
"To be fair, I'm sure at least some of us had thought that before we found out that Violet was behind this," Nick quipped.
"Hey, I've got too good a thing going to wanna give that up," Nozomi chuckled as she leaned forward.
"Very true on that," Nick answered as he did the same, and their lips met halfway.
They then noticed Mat looking excited for the first time in what seemed like a long time. Everybody else was present, too.
"Is it good news?" Nick asked.
"Well, Chad Reed's returned," Mat replied. "But he's undecided on whether or not he will ride..."
Sam had returned with a few snacks of her own, and she looked happy for Mat.
"For Mat-honey's sake, I hope Chad Reed will race tonight," Sam told them.
"He had a crash in practice, too, but nothing serious," Mat added. "But I fully agreed when he said Daytona 'is a brutal place and you really, really gotta respect it'."
"Well, you're due for real happiness, Mat," Nozomi quipped.
"No doubt," Blaine remarked.
Currently, the Lites heat races were close to finishing; heat #2 was close to starting, which included the fastest rider of the night, Christophe Pourcel on his #1 Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki. Heat #1 went to Suzuki's Austin Stroupe #45.
Everybody could see a graphic come up, and Pourcel was indeed the fastest rider combined with a 1:02.2 lap time; Chad Reed was the second fastest rider overall with a 1:02.9 lap time, but in terms of the Supercross class only, Reed was the fastest rider of that class.
"My instincts are saying Chad Reed WILL ride tonight," Mat commented, trying not to get too excited.
"I'm more shocked that Pourcel's THE FASTEST on a smaller bike, to be honest," May commented.
"Just barely edged out Reed," Haruka noted.
"Oh, I'm sure Reed's comin' for that title soon enough," Melissa chuckled.
The heat race began with Factory Connection Honda's Brett Metcalfe #24 getting the early lead; a few corners later, Pourcel shoved Metcalfe out of the way and led the heat race.
"Looks like Pourcel's on his way to making the East a snoozer again," Melissa commented.
Pourcel would go on to win the second Lites heat race.
"Yeah! Go Frenchy..." Clover giggled.
"...dare I even say the thing, Clover?" May sighed.
"Hey, French guys are still hunky, even if Blaine's got them all beat," Clover laughed.
Ralph: ...And they're hoping they're going to watch THIS GUY! Chad Reed, the #22... are we gonna see him in action here tonight? If we do, it'll be in the second heat of Supercross; here's heat #1.
Jeff: Well, and Chad was very impressive in qualifying practice! He looked rested, he looked confident...
"I REALLY hope he does line up," Mat sighed. "If James Stewart hadn't dropped out of the season, too, I'd be hating this Supercross series and then some..."
"Bro, if Reed's the fastest in the 450cc class, I think he'll ride Daytona as well," Blaine deduced.
Nick did remember something similar with a football team he had really enjoyed, when their quarterback had been injured early in the season and left fans wondering how the rest of their season was going to go. Thankfully, said quarterback had made a return near the middle of the season and the team had gone on to make an amazing playoff run.
Grant Langston on the #8 J-Law Racing Yamaha had led the way, but the man on the move was the points leader Ryan Dungey on his #5 Rockstar Makita Suzuki, who had moved up from about a 6th place start to 3rd. On lap 3...
Ralph: And, Jeff, everything that he has gone through... with the cancer in the eye, overcoming that... injuries... it has been such an amazing road back for Grant Langston, and here he is... OH, HE STALLS IT!
Jeff: HE STALLS IT!
Ralph: HE STALLS THE 8! AND JUST LIKE THAT, [Kyle] CHISHOLM HAS THE LEAD!
"Oh my goodness!" Mat sighed at that unfortunate turn of events.
It took Langston 4 kicks to restart his Yamaha, and he had dropped from 1st to 6th.
"...and down he goes," Britney sighed.
"Yikes," Alex quipped.
Kyle Chisholm on his #55 privateer Yamaha led until lap 6 (of 8 total laps) when Dungey got around him for the lead. Coming up behind them was the #14 Factory Connection Honda of Kevin Windham in 3rd.
Ralph: And if Windham can hang on for transfer, he'll get his 167th Supercross career start tonight...
"That many starts already?!" Haruka gasped.
Ralph: And if Windham gets that 167th career start tonight, that's 4th on the all-time list!
Jeff: That's a... [chuckles] That's quite a bit, okay? That's a lot of gate drops, and a lot of laps here!
"And a year ago, it was 150 for Windham," Mat replied, obviously not aware of that accomplishment.
"Wow," May gasped.
"Who's got the most starts?" Melissa asked Mat.
"Mike LaRocco," Mat answered. "At 228 before he retired around the middle of the 2006 season."
Dungey went on to win the first heat of the 450cc class, but the real question remained: Would Chad Reed on his #22 Kawasaki make his official return or not?
Mat waited through highlights of Reed's 2009 Daytona win, but when the broadcast went to Erin Bates for a pre-race report, Mat got his answer and was immediately disappointed: Reed was still in his Team Kawasaki jacket, which meant your fastest 450cc qualifier was NOT going to race Daytona.
Chad: You know, I have nothing to gain from it at this point. I think I achieved what I wanted to do – I had to be here for signings and I just went out and had fun and rode and got the fastest lap you know so... nothing changes... it's a good time to be out there with the team...
"What a bummer..." Bridget sighed.
"I couldn't have said it better," Mat added, feeling his excitement wiped out as that pit report came to an end.
Ralph: Maybe Toronto, Jeff? In a week?
Jeff: Well...
Ralph: What did he learn today, you think?
Jeff: Yeah, well he, you know, he got a chance to gauge where he's at, where the injury's at, where he's at as far as his speed... he came back and qualified fastest of all of the Supercross riders, so I'd say that when he does come back, this is going to be a real confidence builder towards that.
Sam and Britney were there to console Mat since he had to wait a little longer for Chad Reed to make his official return to the series.
"Mat, what's the urgency?" Dawn wondered.
"I just want to see him win one race before Supercross is over," Mat sighed. "The title's over for him already, so if he wins one, I can live with the season since James Stewart later dropped out due to injury."
"Yeah, sometimes some players can power through injuries to pull off a win," Nick quipped. "Trust me, I've seen it happen."
The second heat began without Chad Reed indeed, and Trey Canard on the Factory Red Bull Honda #38 had led the way once again while battling with Josh Hill on the #75 San Manuel Yamaha.
"Geez, for a West Lites rider, Canard's probably 3 notches ahead of EVERYONE on that 450!" Mat chastised.
Kawasaki's Ryan Villopoto #2 was already working on 2nd place Hill, but Hill proved to be stubborn and kept 2nd place. Villopoto then got around Hill and went for race leader Canard.
Mat looked on, but it was hard for him to get excited after hearing Chad Reed was not racing that night.
"Oh, I think Villopoto's sizing him up now," Haruka commented.
Villopoto then got around Canard for the lead going around the outside, which completely shocked everyone.
"You were right, Haruka," Alex remarked.
Villopoto went on to win the second Supercross heat race and set the new fastest lap with a 1:03.2.
It was also reported that Canidae Suzuki's Ryan Morais #116, another Lites West rider, had made his return to the Supercross series on the 450 since a bad crash in the heat race at Anaheim 2 on the 250F. He was able to qualify with a 6th place finish.
As the Lites main got closer, "The GOAT" Ricky Carmichael joined in the booth, but Mat was still pretty depressed that he had to wait some more on Chad Reed to make his return.
"I guess Toronto's going to be the one where he does return," Mat commented.
It was later reported that Yamaha's Martin Davalos #577, who was benched for the Atlanta race after an incident in practice with Justin Barcia had his troubles continue with a crash on the opening lap in his heat race that sent him to the Last Chance Qualifier; he came back to win it with MotoConcepts Yamaha's Vince Friese #61 finishing in 2nd.
"You already know my pick," Mat replied, referring to Kawasaki's Pourcel.
"Yeah, I'm gonna go with Pourcel, too," Sam answered.
"Same here," May responded. "He kinda looks like he's got the best chance tonight."
Ralph: HERE WE GO! LITES MAIN EVENT...
Suzuki's Austin Stroupe got the early lead out of the first turn with Pourcel on his tailpipe, as well as one of the rookies: Blake Baggett on the #66 Rockstar Canidae Suzuki.
"Ooh, another yellow bike up front!" Alex giggled after Baggett got around Pourcel for 2nd.
However, Pourcel managed to get back around Baggett for 2nd while Stroupe led the way.
"Still twelve laps out of fifteen to go, though," May told Alex.
"Stroupe looks pretty good, though," Nick commented as the 15-lap main fleshed out.
On lap 6, Pourcel turned the fastest lap of the main with a 1:04.2, and then he got around Stroupe for the lead.
Ricky: That was unbelievable! That pass... on the inside – he did the double from the inside...
"That's what the 450cc guys were doing!" Mat exclaimed. "But I don't understand why Stroupe didn't just take that inside line with Pourcel on his tailpipe."
A replay then came.
"Sometimes, you're not entirely sure if you can make it, which is why I'm sure some people play it safe," Dawn noted.
"But sometimes, you gotta just throw caution to the wind and take a chance," Bridget quipped. "I've had some of my most exciting track and field wins that way."
"Not to change the subject," Melissa stated. "But I did like that section called 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Busted Bikes' or something like that..."
Pourcel still led the Lites main as it began to wind down.
"You think Pourcel is going to win every race, Mat?" Blaine wondered.
"I want to say yes," Mat replied. "But a perfect Lites season in this day and age is a lot easier said than done."
Before long, Blake Baggett began to get right up on Stroupe's tailpipe for 2nd place with only 5 laps to go; Pro Circuit rookie Dean Wilson #108 was also hitching a ride in 4th. Wilson then tried to pass Baggett, but they came up on a group of four lapped riders until...
Ricky: Seems like they got up to a clump of 'em all of a sudden, man, like... OH!
Jeff: Oh, he got him!
Ricky: Wilson getting by Baggett there, and all along, I thought Baggett was gonna get Austin...
"I thought he was gonna get Stroupe, too," Blaine remarked.
Pourcel went unchallenged since taking the lead on lap 6 and made it 3 out of 3 in the Supercross Lites East series.
Ralph: HE TAKES THE LITES WIN AT DAYTONA! CHRISTOPHE POURCEL JOINS BRIAN SWINK AND TRAVIS PASTRANA AS THE ONLY RIDERS TO WIN DAYTONA LITES BACK-TO-BACK...
"I think you're right, bro," Nick told Mat. "Pourcel looks like he's got full control of this series."
Pourcel and Stroupe finished 1st and 2nd while Wilson got around Baggett for 3rd, and Justin Barcia rounded out the top 5. It was Wilson's first career podium finishing 3rd.
While the Supercross class main was getting ready, everybody made predictions again for the winner.
"I think Villopoto's got the flow tonight," Mat remarked.
"Yeah, me, too," Haruka quipped.
With that, the gate dropped for the main.
Ralph: Who's gonna get the holeshot? Battling it out... it goes to Villopoto BARELY on the Kawi!
Just like last week in Atlanta, Trey Canard was running in 2nd! Unfortunately, Grant Langston was running around 4th before...
Ralph: And look at Tedesco and Langston...
Everybody reacted as Grant Langston crashed very hard going over the bars!
Ralph: OH GRANT LANGSTON TAKES A VICIOUS TUMBLE! Well, we called it "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Busted Bikes" and it BIT Grant Langston!
"Ouch," Melissa groaned.
"That's an understatement for sure," Nick responded.
After a replay of Langston's crash came up, a red flag was being waved, which meant a full restart.
"That was really nasty," May remarked. "Hopefully Langston's okay."
"Yeah, but I could hear a rev from Langston and as soon as his front end dropped, it was done," Mat added, shaking his head.
As was semi-expected, Grant Langston did not return for the restart because he was taken away on a backboard.
The restart showed little change, as Villopoto once again took the early lead, but Josh Hill was running 2nd.
Jeff: Well, and Ryan Dungey got a much better start this time...
Currently, it was Villopoto, Hill, Dungey, and Canard the top 4 on the restart.
Ricky: Absolutely! Man... Villopoto has CHECKED OUT already!
"That's an understatement," Mat remarked.
Sam was enjoying this with a green bike out front.
In the meantime, Dungey had gotten around Hill for 2nd place.
"I just can't believe the rookies again," Mat stated, shaking his head again as Canard made the move on Hill for 3rd on lap 5 of 20.
"You got that right," Bridget remarked.
In terms of fighting for the win, Villopoto had shut the door on that, despite Dungey did remain somewhat close.
"Mat, you holding up okay?" Britney wondered.
"I'll live," Mat answered. "Just a little perturbed I have to wait some more on Chad Reed to return and hopefully win one before Motocross begins..."
Ralph: So many historic names have won here, and now SO HAS RYAN VILLOPOTO! HE ADDS HIS NAME TO THE LIST OF WINNERS HERE AT THE DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY BY WINNING THE DAYTONA SUPERCROSS BY HONDA!
Jeff: What a ride by Villopoto...
The final results showed Villopoto, Dungey, and Canard as your top 3 with Windham and Davi Millsaps on the Red Bull Honda rounding out the top 5; Josh Hill, who ran as high as 2nd, had fallen down to a disheartening 9th place.
The points standings showed Dungey still as the points leader with 192, but Villopoto had moved into 2nd place 20 behind Dungey, and Hill had fallen to 3rd place 30 behind Dungey.
Mat couldn't really say much because he was overall very discouraged with Reed not returning officially.
"I get it that the Motocross season's more important," Mat finally stated. "But I guess I just want him to win one Supercross really bad..."
"I'm pretty sure there's still time for that," May responded. "You never know, he might still be able to pull one off."
Before Nick could add his own two cents on the matter, he suddenly glanced upward, having sensed something out of the ordinary.
"...what's up, Nick?" Alex asked.
Suddenly, a circular portal of soft green light burst open just around the ceiling, leaving the spies to wonder what was going on.
A few seconds later, a girl about their age tumbled out of it and fell to the floor, the portal closing itself up almost as quickly as it had appeared.
"Whoa, are you okay?" Haruka wondered as the spies all moved closer to see who had literally fallen into their penthouse.
This girl had long purple hair with a couple white streaks, two braids in her hair, one in her bangs and one over her shoulder, with quite a few colored gems and beads strewn throughout her hair and a piercing on her left ear. She wore a slightly ripped black eye-patterned shirt with red and white stitches over her chest, as well as an oversized jacket. She also had a stitch over her face and a cat-like mouth, and her eyes were mostly white with purple undertones and a red ring around her red pupils.
"Ow, my head..." the girl groaned before realizing what exactly was going on.
"Hey, now, we're not gonna hurt you," Nick stated, hoping to keep her calm. "Is... everything okay?"
The first thing that Nick easily noticed was that this girl's thoughts were a tempest of confusion.
"...I'm not entirely sure," the girl admitted. "I just went through that portal, hoping I could find someone who could help me, and it just dropped me off here."
"We're kinda used to that by now," May quipped. "So, miss, what's your name?"
"That's the strangest part," the girl answered. "I... don't remember my name. When I woke up, I found myself in a strange dark place, surrounded by a bunch of creeps in hoods. I have no idea what they did to me, but when they left, I bolted as fast as I could. I just ran for a while, trying to find somebody that might be able to help me out. Eventually, I found that I could create those portals, and so I just hopped into one, and well... here we are."
"What, exactly, do you think those hooded whackjobs were up to?" Nozomi wondered.
"Not really sure, but I know for a fact that whatever it is, it can't be anything good," the girl explained. "I hope this isn't a weird request, but... since that portal led me to all of you, could I stay with you guys until everything blows over?"
"Sounds like a plan to me," Mat chuckled.
Naturally, she was pretty surprised by this. "You're... you're all taking this extraordinarily well," she admitted.
"Trust me, like May said, we're pretty used to people somehow finding their way to us and needing our help with something," Nick stated. "It's kinda what we do. So, one more question. Is there anything specific you'd like us to call you? You know, until you remember what your actual name was?"
The girl thought for a couple seconds, cycling through ideas...
...until one appealed to her and she smiled at the spies.
"Call me... Michi Mochievee."
8:49 A.M. – Location Unknown
"Heads up, Raora!" Elizabeth exclaimed as the four of them were suddenly jumped by more of the hooded creeps, no doubt the Collective's foot soldiers.
"Don't worry, Liz, I've got this!" Raora responded as she easily ducked under the green blast the goon sent her way before snap kicking his little 'artifact' out of his hands, then headbutting him into unconsciousness.
"Stand still, you little gnat," another goon growled as two of the goons attempted to corral Gigi, who was swiftly hopping to and fro.
"Gotta catch me first, you little dead weights!" Gigi taunted, summoning her cat-paw gauntlets as she kicked off of a nearby cliff face. This gave her enough momentum to swipe at the goons with her gauntlets, sending them both crashing into another goon. "STRIKE!"
"Focus, Gigi, they're still coming!" Cecilia shouted as she summoned her spears to her hands and started thrusting them rapidly, forcing the Collective goons to keep their distance.
"You will regret having followed us," one goon cackled. "You can't stop what's coming. Nobody can."
In response, Elizabeth unsheathed Thorn and readied its, a blue flame-like battle aura exploding to life around her.
"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure of that, given how many of your other schemes we've scuttled," Elizabeth chuckled. "Now I'd back away slowly if I were you."
When the goons advanced anyway, Elizabeth swung Thorn hard enough to unleash a wave of blue fire that engulfed the goons. When the fire finally died down, all that was left was the cloaks.
"Oh, they got away again," Raora sighed.
"More like they folded like little clucks when Liz went to town!" Gigi laughed.
"We still need to keep chasing them," Elizabeth noted. "We don't know what exactly they're up to, but if it has something to do with that thing... then we can't afford to waste our time."
Totally Spies: Family Fracas
~The End~
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Final Note from Mat49324: Well, that's all she wrote for Family Fracas! Looks like Nozomi WON'T be leaving WOOHP after all (as I sort of suspected later on), and the spy team will be staying at 13 for now. Will the same thing happen down the line to another one of the spies? Don't rule it out for future projects. Anyway, we hope you enjoyed Family Fracas, and that you'll stay tuned for our next project, Marina Madness. That will be authored by The Blue Time Ranger as well. Also, make sure you read and review my newest one-shot with assistance from The Blue Time Ranger himself that's titled Somewhere in the Rain, too. For now, here's The Blue Time Ranger for his final thoughts.
Final Note from The Blue Time Ranger: And that's a wrap on this chaotic little project! We had a lot of ups and downs this time, didn't we? Originally, the villain was going to be Natalie Valentine, but I changed it to Violet Vanderfleet almost as soon as we started writing this, because it hit me that, given how this is literally Violet's M.O., she'd be better suited as the villain of the piece. That, and it gave me an excuse to have Violet bust out another kaiju. Also, we finally have a name for our mystery girl, and yes, she and the Arbiters of Justice will be important as the season rolls on.
Speaking of which, let's yap about the next episode of Totally Spies: The New Adventures! Our favorite lobster girl Siren's back on the scene again, so you may think that Helga is up to her usual tricks, but you'd be mistaken! Like I did with Grid Connection, I wanted to change up the villains so it's not always the same one you expect in cases like this. Who could it be this time? You'll see soon enough, next time on Marina Madness, which will be posted by me. So, until next time, have a fantastic day, don't listen to the screeching morons, enjoy this preview of Marina Madness, and we'll see you next mission!
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The surprised spies all fell down onto the large cushion formed by the O in Jerry's office, still a little surprised that Jerry had pulled a fast one on them again.
"He's getting better," Clover quipped.
"I do have to try and catch you off guard sometimes," Jerry chuckled. "But anyways, let us get down to business."
RiCO materialized in the office and waved her hands to change the office viewscreen to a video feed of Siren Island, a large island far off the coast of Beverly Hills where Siren and some of her fellow mutated animals lived.
"Recently, some of the animals on Siren Island have gone missing," RiCO stated.
"Oh, lordy, you don't think Helga's back, do you?" Britney groaned. "This smells like her handiwork, after all..."
"Actually, it isn't them," RiCO responded, and this surprised the spies. "Our surveillance footage caught these two charlatans in the act."
The viewscreen changed to show a much earlier video feed of both Charleston, the dolphin-human hybrid from Dorsal Academy, and the Ringmaster, the four-armed man who had run his own freakshow circus.
"Oh, lordy, it had to be these two," Alex groaned. "After what both of them did to me, I kinda hoped they'd just waste away in their containment cell..."
"W-Wait, is that Siren they captured?" Nick gasped when he saw who the Ringmaster had caught in his large net.
"Oh, that can't be good in the slightest," Melissa stated.
"How about we head over to Siren Island and see if we can find some clues?" Nozomi responded. "Maybe it might be able to help us find where they took Siren."
Nothing more needed to be said as the spies all retrieved their gadgets so they could set out.
To be continued in Totally Spies: Marina Madness...