Hi! I got to this chapter sooner than I thought I would, which is probably a good thing because this episode and the next are ones I have been looking forward to adapting ever since I started this fic!
Read and review!
Chapter Thirty-One
Spy vs. Spy
Hoover Dam-11:24 PM
Completed in 1936, the Hoover Dam supplied hydroelectric power to many areas in the states of Arizona, Nevada, and California. And in its 67 years of operation, it had never had an accident.
But there was a first time for everything.
Inside, an engineer did his nightly inspection of the dam and the hydroelectric generators housed within. As he shone his flashlight into the top right corner of the hallway, he took out a walkie-talkie, as he did every night upon finishing his inspection.
"Yeah," he said in a bored tone of voice. "Everything looks good in the east wing, over and out."
But as he said those words, he was unaware of a metallic spider crawling along the floor behind him.
However, the spider did not pass by unheard.
"Hey!" he shouted, aiming his flashlight all over the place. "Who's there?!"
As he continued to point the light in various different places all over the hallway, he hoped to find the source of the sound.
Then he heard another sound altogether: the sound of electronic beeping.
Looking up, he saw the spider in question attached to a pipe.
And on its back was a countdown timer.
The engineer didn't need to look closer to know exactly what this was.
"Code red!" he shouted into his walkie-talkie. "Code red!"
As the timer got closer to zero, the engineer did the sensible thing and escape out of a service hatch off to his left.
When the timer on its back reached zero, the spider did exactly what it was programmed to do... and detonated.
Outside, the resulting explosion caused the wall of the Hoover Dam to rupture from the inside out, and let loose a torrent of water cascading down the Colorado River.
Elsewhere, cities throughout the southwest lost power due to the loss of the primary source of electricity in the area.
One by one, buildings in southern California, Arizona and Nevada fell into darkness.
Beverly Hills High School-10:35 AM
Outside school, under a tree and in front of the fountain, Sean and the girls sat on the lawn.
"Is it me?" Alex asked. "Or is today, like, the most perfect day ever?"
"I know what you mean," Sean said, looking up from the book he was reading. Indeed, he'd never seen a day as beautiful as this.
"The sun's shining," Clover agreed. "Cute boys are abundant. I give it a ten."
But judging by the sudden shift in her expression, the day for Clover dropped down to a one.
"No way!" she groaned. "Oh, I so can't believe it!"
"Can't believe what?" Sam asked, curious.
In response, Clover pointed to a boy sitting on the fountain's edge, reading a magazine. His hair was dyed purple and he wore a black leather jacket over his red shirt and beige jeans.
"That's Robbie Guthrie!" she explained.
"Who?" Sean asked.
"Robbie Guthrie, as in my grade school nemesis!"
She sighed, very dismayed.
"Guys, our perfect day has just been ruined by a dark cloud!"
But Alex, apparently, had a different opinion.
"I think he's kind of cute," she admitted.
"Cute?!" Clover asked, offended. "Alex, the guy is a total loser!"
"He can't be as bad as Mandy," Sean said. But he knew as much about this guy as Sam and Alex did.
"Want to bet, Sean?" Clover rounded on him. "He tormented me for years! He was always doing mean things to me like pulling my pigtails and putting 'Kick Me' signs on my back and shoving worms in my lunchbox!"
Sean blinked.
"That's it?" he asked. "Tad and Michelle have put me through worse!"
"Yeah," Alex agreed. "So get over it already. Grade school was, like, a really long time ago!"
"Yeah, Clover!" Sam added. "People change."
But Clover wasn't convinced.
"Oh, please!" she denied, waving her hand. "I'm sure he's still the same old jerk I knew in 3rd grade! As a matter of fact, I'm going over there right now to give him a piece of my mind!"
Her face red with fury, Clover stood up and marched toward the fountain.
"This should be good," Sean whispered to Alex and Sam.
"Robbie Guthrie?" Clover asked.
Robbie looked up from his magazine at the girl standing above him.
"Clover?" he asked, blinking as if he couldn't believe his eyes. "Clover?! Is it really you?!"
"The one and only," she replied, arms folded. "And P.S, you can stop drooling anytime."
"Sorry," Robbie said. "It's just, you look a lot cuter than you did in grade school."
Clover blushed, her face different from the look of rage plastered on earlier.
"Whatever!" she said, turning away.
"I'm serious!" Robbie said, rising from his seat on the fountain. "As a matter of fact, why don't you let me take you out this weekend? We can catch a movie and get reacquainted."
Clover turned her head again, unsure.
"I don't know," she said.
"Come on," Robbie insisted. "It's the least I can do for being such a jerk to you when we were kids."
Clover redirected her attention to Robbie, who flashed a smile, the kind of smile that she usually swooned over. But this time, she looked at him not out of admiration, but with a mischievous sparkle in her eye.
"I don't know," she said, insincerely. But really she was planning something else entirely.
Finally, she had it.
"Okay," she agreed. "Let's do it."
"Great!" Robbie said. "I'll call you."
And with that, he practically skipped off into the schoolyard.
After Clover formulated her plan, her friends slipped up behind her.
"So, what happened?" Sam asked.
"I'm going on a date with Robbie!" she explained with pride.
Confused, her friends looked to each other then back to her.
"Okay," Alex said. "That was unexpected."
"Talk about a complete 180," Sean added on.
"Way to let go of the past, Clover," Sam congratulated her friend.
"Yeah!" Clover scoffed in a tone that said she really didn't mean it. "Are you kidding? I'm only going out with that creep so I can get back at him. I'm gonna give Robbie a taste of his own medicine!"
Then she rubbed her index finger under her chin, deep in thought.
"Now, how shall I do it?"
"And there's the Clover we know and love," Sean said.
But before she could go into detail about her revenge plan, the ground opened up beneath them, causing them to fall through a trap door and down the same old chute they had ridden dozens of times.
"This had better be important!" Clover exclaimed. "Because I've got some serious revenge plotting to do!"
Once again, the ride ended with the four teenagers on the fuchsia cushion in Jerry's office.
"Oh, it's important, alright," Jerry responded calmly but with a hint of urgency. "Someone's destroying energy plants around the globe."
"Wow," Clover said, awed. "Creepy!"
"Indeed," Jerry agreed. "Not only have we lost the Hoover Dam, but several electrical and nuclear power plants are out of commission as well."
"Actually," Clover clarified. "The creepy thing I was talking about was the fact that you were eavesdropping on our conversation."
Jerry went on, as if she had never changed the subject.
"People will soon be without heat and electricity. It's sure to be chaos in the streets. And I wasn't eavesdropping, I just happened to overhear."
Ignoring the implications that Jerry was possibly listening in on them, Sam spoke up.
"So, who do you think's behind this, Jer?"
Jerry walked over to his desk, turning on the screen behind it.
"We don't have any leads yet. But we'd better come up with something quick, because the effects of this crisis are quite disturbing."
Sean found himself agreeing. On the screen flashed several images of rioting, looting, and general violence.
"The next suspected target is the South American pipeline. That's where your mission will begin, spies."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Sean asked. "Load us up!"
"Of course," Jerry agreed, splitting his desk open to reveal the assortment of gadgets for this mission.
"Today, you'll be utilizing the W.O.O.H.P Turbo Submarine, the Expandable Cable Bungee Belt, now in a stylish faux snakeskin, Heat Sensor 6000 Infrared Motion Detector Sunglasses, and a tube of high-gloss, moisturizing Lip-Stalk."
"You mean 'lipstick," Sam tried to correct Jerry.'
"No," Jerry denied. "I mean Lip-Stalk. A lipstick with a built-in tracking device."
"Excellent!" Clover said excitedly.
The girls pink, heart-shaped backpacks landed in their arms as well as Sean's blue, circular one.
"Prepare for departure," Jerry said.
A trapdoor opened up, letting the spies fall in. Moments later, the platform sprung back up, catapulting them into a hatch in the ceiling.
Pacific Ocean-11:46 AM
Under the blue depths of the Pacific, the W.O.O.H.P Turbo Submarine swam, passing various species of fish, clusters of seaweed, and the occasional spot of open water.
Finally, they reached the system of pipes that signaled the location of an oil rig.
"According to the radar," Sam said from the controls. "The pipeline should be close by."
Sam had no idea how right she was.
An instant later, the submarine slammed into something hard, causing Alex, who was looking through the periscope, bang her head against it and her teammates to tumble forwards to the front of the cabin.
"I think we just found it," Sean said, rubbing his head in pain.
"Either that," Alex added, rubbing her bruised cheek. "Or we've just collided with the world's largest sea snake."
After the spies regained their footing, Clover shoved Alex away from the periscope to get a closer look.
"Looks pretty boring to me," she reported, scanning the pipeline as well as the water around it.
"Still," Sam argued. "We'd better get a closer look.
She pressed a button on the control console. In the center of the cabin, the floor opened up, revealing a wide, circular window built into the floor, apparently for observing outside the bottom of the submarine.
"Keep your eyes open for anything out of the ordinary," Sean instructed, as they knelt down on the glass surface.
After only about twenty seconds of scanning the pipeline and the ocean floor, Alex cringed in disgust.
"Ew!" she exclaimed, pointing at something off to the left. "Does that qualify?"
Following her gaze, the spies saw something swimming through the pipes and directly under the sub: a metal spider.
"Gross!" Clover cried. "What is that thing?!"
"Looks like some kind of spider," Sam said, once it was out of sight.
"Then I say we catch it," Sean added.
He ran over to the console, and pressed another button.
The sub fired a torpedo, one that Sean knew contained a net for collecting samples.
The torpedo reached the spider, and opened it's top, letting the net float out.
But before it could wrap around the spider, the net exploded.
When the dust settled, only the spider itself was left.
"It's not a spider," Sam said, after the resulting shockwaves knocked the four off their feet. "It's a bomb! Somebody's trying to blow up the pipeline!"
"Looks like they're about to succeed," Clover said, her tone grim.
Clover was right, for outside the sub, the spider had attached itself to the main pipe.
"Not if I can help it," Alex said, taking a seat at the controls.
But before she could fire the torpedo, a hand gripped her arm, stopping her.
"Wait!" Sean exclaimed. "If you hit the pipeline, you'll pollute the entire Pacific Ocean with oil!"
"Right," Alex admitted, blushing in embarrassment. "Hadn't thought of that."
"Well, if we can't squash him," Clover said, rushing to another set of controls. "Then we'd better locate the little creep."
As the sub landed, a long pair of robotic arms retracted from either side of the hull.
With Clover gripping the joystick to control the arms, she aimed for the spider.
However, it scurried out of the way, and the sub veered out of control, colliding with the side of the pipe.
As a result of the impact, the wall behind the spies now had a small hole in its surface. A hole that allowed seawater to trickle in.
"Careful, Clover," Sean warned. "We're here to protect the pipeline, not get ourselves killed."
"Sorry," she consoled. "Didn't know my own strength!"
It didn't seem to matter what they did, though, because further down the pipeline, the spider settled in one place.
And judging by the countdown timer on its back, it would soon be gone and take the whole pipe with it.
"Looks like she's gonna blow," Sam warned. "Brace yourselves!"
They each gripped on to something, preparing for the explosion.
But it never came.
Outside, a flat projectile hit the spider, dislodging it from the pipe.
Above from the projectile's directory, four figures swam toward the site where the spider landed.
They were clad in wetsuits and each wore a helmet that hid their faces from view.
One of them grabbed the spider and tossed it into a crack in the ocean floor, while up from on a ledge, two others shoved a boulder downhill.
The boulder landed on top of the crack, blocking it and the explosion that would have destroyed the pipeline.
From the submarine, the four teens watched in amazement.
"Okay," Alex said once the shock wore off. "That was unexpected."
Sean nodded in agreement.
"Who are they?" he asked.
After dealing with the spider, the team who rescued the spies offered them via a message on Sean's wallet phone to fish them and their damaged sub out of the ocean.
An offer the spies immediately accepted.
As a winch lifted the sub back to the surface, it deposited it and its occupants onto the deck of a small ship.
Exiting the sub, the spies took their first breaths of fresh air in what felt like forever. Then they looked at their rescuers, three of whom, judging by the figures were women while the fourth one was male.
"Wow!" Clover said, hopping down to the deck. "That was totally amazing!"
"Yeah!" Sam agreed. "We can't thank you enough!"
"A few more seconds and we'd be fish food by now!" Sean added.
"By the way," Alex broke in, daring to ask the question of them had wanted to ask. "Who are you guys?"
In response, the leader, who wore a violet wetsuit, took off her helmet, revealing a Caucasian young woman with a head full of long, flowing blonde hair.
The next, a woman in a maroon wetsuit, showed her face to reveal a face full of tan skin and framed by silky, jet black hair.
The third woman to take off her helmet was fair skinned with short red hair that perfectly contrasted with her light blue wetsuit.
Finally, the sole male member of the group, who wore an olive-green wetsuit, removed his helmet to reveal his face, his light brown hair and the small amount of stubble already on his jaw.
"I'm Pam," the blonde introduced herself, then gestured to her teammates.
"This is Alice, Crimson, and Sky. We're spies from W.O.O.H.P: The World Organization of Human Protection."
The four younger spies' mouths dropped open.
The shock didn't end when they returned to W.O.O.H.P headquarters.
When Jerry saw who had come in with Sean and the girls, he was speechless.
Well, almost, anyway.
"I... can't believe it's really you," he said to his older spies while the younger generation of W.O.O.H.P agents looked on bitterly.
"So, let me get this straight," Alex said as if she had something sour in her mouth. "You used to have our jobs?"
"Until we were captured by the villain on our last mission," Alice explained, temporarily breaking away from the reunion.
"Edison," Sky added, putting an arm around Alice's shoulder in an... almost intimate way.
I wonder if there's something going on between those two, Sean thought.
"He held us prisoner on a remote crater island for seven years," Crimson explained.
"Judging by those outfits," Clover said, indicating their... slightly outdated spy uniforms. "I'd have guess it was even longer."
The girls laughed while Jerry looked at his old agents with sympathy.
"We looked everywhere for you four," he said with regret. "And when we didn't hear from you after a few years, we assumed you were... well, you know."
He looked down in shame.
"It was one of my greatest failures as head of W.O.O.H.P," Jerry continued.
Sean furrowed his brow, deep in thought.
Were there more? he wondered.
"Well," Pam said reassuringly. "We're back now, Jerry."
She hugged him.
"And everything's going to be just like old times."
"I was hoping you'd say that," Jerry said as the other members of Pam's team joined in.
With the four younger spies' jealousy reaching a boiling point, Sean took the moment to break up the touching scene.
"Whatever happened to Edison?" he asked.
"We were able to escape," Sky explained. "But we weren't able to capture him."
"Unfortunately," Crimson broke in. "He could be anywhere."
"And how did you end up at the pipeline, exactly?" Sam asked.
But the four older spies just stared at her.
The long, awkward moment was interrupted by the sound of an alarm.
Rushing into action, Jerry looked at his laptop.
"Spies!" he called out. "We've got another emergency! This time, it's a hydroelectric plant!"
"We're all over it, Jer!" Alex reassured.
"Actually," Jerry added. "This would be a perfect opportunity to reassimilate Pam and her crew! Why don't you all go on the mission together?"
Sean and the girls looked at their older counterparts, then at Jerry, then back again.
From the moment he first saw these spies, Sean couldn't help but regard them with suspicion.
After all, they had been presumed dead for seven years and only just resurfaced now.
And he had to agree with Sam. Their arrival back at the pipeline couldn't have been a coincidence.
Still, he didn't want to disappoint Jerry.
"Fine," he said.
"Okay," Sam said.
"Sure," Alex added.
"Whatever," Clover agreed halfheartedly
Hydroelectric Plant-3:32 PM
According to Jerry's source, the hydroelectric plant in question was located somewhere outside of Spokane.
After the W.O.O.H.P helicopter landed on the roof of the plant, the eight spies hopped out.
"We'll check out the hydro infuser sector," Pam instructed. "You four take the lower level."
After the two teams split up, Sam looked back with suspicion.
"They sure seem to know their way around here," she said.
Trying to ignore the loud sound of the alarm siren, the four younger spies ran down staircase after staircase to reach the lower levels of the plant.
After finally stopping at a turbine, they could hear a ringing coming from Clover's pocket.
She took out her cell phone, answering it.
"Hello?!" she shouted into the phone, trying to be heard over the sound of the rushing water.
"Hey, Clover!" Robbie's voice greeted on the other end. "So, I was thinking maybe we could catch that new monster movie on Saturday night."
Having been reminded of her quest for revenge on her longtime bully, Clover smiled mischievously.
But, apparently, she forgot where she was since the noise of the water could still be heard on the other end even if Robbie didn't know what it was.
"What's all that noise?" he asked.
"Oh!" Clover exclaimed, trying to think of an excuse. "I'm at a salon under the hairdryer! A monster movie sounds great! Um, I'll meet you at the mall around 8:00-ish! Later!"
Meanwhile, with the Heat Sensor 6000 Infrared Motion Detector Sunglasses, Sean scanned the area below the turbine, looking for anything that resembled the spider back at the pipeline.
"I'm picking up something!" he whispered loudly.
"So, am I," Clover said to herself. "Saturday night!"
But Sean still heard her, prompting him to glare at her for the lack of focus that he had come to expect from her by now.
Looking back down at the turbine, he spotted the exact same type of spider crawling along the surface off to the right.
Pointing at it, he gestured for the girls to follow him in jumping over the railing and down beside the turbine.
Alex had the misfortune of landing beside the spider as it crawled away.
"I hate spiders," she said so quietly only her teammates could hear her. "Why couldn't it be a ladybug or a butterfly bomb instead?"
"Let's just grab it before it blows!" Sean said urgently.
But before any of them could make a move, a loud noise from above them put an end to those plans.
"Wow!" Crimson's voice echoed throughout the plant. "Isn't this place so cool!"
As the four teens gasped at the sound, the spider scurried off the turbine.
"No!" Sam exclaimed. "We lost the bomb!"
"Oops," Crimson admitted. "Sorry!"
The younger spies split up in different directions while on the level above, Alice put on her own pair of sunglasses.
Serving the same function as Sean's, the glasses allowed her to spot the spider high up on a pipe above the four teens.
"There it is," she exclaimed, pointing at it. Then she aimed her wrist at the spot.
Leaning over, Sky quickly pressed his lips against her left cheek.
"You got this," he told her reassuringly.
Seeing the action, Sean concluded that his thoughts about Sky and Alice were justified.
After a momentary blush at the man who was now confirmed to be her boyfriend, Alice fired a cable at the ceiling from her wrist.
A hook on the end of the cable burrowed its way into the ceiling, allowing Alice to swing from the upper level, kick the bomb off the pipe, and safely hook onto another piece of railing.
However, the bomb landed in the water the turbine sat on... right below Sean and the girls.
Before any of them could process what happened exactly, the bomb went off, breaking the enormous window that over looked the spillway and demolishing the platform the spies stood on.
And the spies landed in the water... careening down a seemingly fatal drop.
While their older counterparts looked on without even a shred of remorse.
When Jerry heard the news, he had difficulty believing it.
Marshalling as many free agents as he could find, he rushed to the scene of Sean and the girls' accident. For several hours, helicopters shone searchlights into the reservoir that the spillway lead to. And he even obtained permission from the plant's owners to dredge the reservoir for any sign of the teens' bodies.
But it was no use. After four hours of searching, Jerry stood before the four older spies in despair.
"I'm afraid the outlook isn't good," he said, trying to sound as professional as he could. "We haven't been able to detect any trace of Sean or the girls."
"If there's anything we've learned over the years," Sky said from behind Jerry. "It's that this job has a way of weeding out the week."
"Guess that just leaves our unit now," Alice added on to her boyfriend's statement.
"I know you four did all you could to save them," Jerry said sadly. "Now that they're gone, you're my number one team again."
Jerry was so upset that he didn't notice the four each flash a sinister smirk.
As he boarded the helicopter, he couldn't help but think of Sam, Clover, Alex, and especially Sean.
From the moment Jerry first met Sean, he knew the boy had potential.
And he hadn't been the first.
Years before, Jerry had met a brave, resourceful, and compassionate young woman who had passed every test he had presented her with flying colors. A woman who risked life and limb to protect the weak and defenseless. A woman who, he admitted, had been the first of his agents he had considered to be his friend.
But not long afterward, Jerry made a mistake that almost led to W.O.O.H.P's destruction. And that poor girl got caught up in the middle of it.
When the time came for her to leave W.O.O.H.P, he promised her that he would never fail again.
Unfortunately, now that promise had been broken as far as he was concerned.
And even though he hadn't seen or spoken to her in fifteen years, Jerry was now faced with an impossible task: how to tell a mother that her son was dead.
"I'm sorry, Rachel," Jerry whispered to himself as the helicopter took off.
Of course, if Jerry had stuck around a little longer, he would have seen that he was mistaken.
Out of the reservoir crawled a very exhausted, very wet, very alive Clover.
After her teammates dragged themselves out of the water, alive but drenched, she spoke up.
"I don't know about you guys," she said, collapsing on the rocky shore beside the spillway. "But I feel like I just went through the spin cycle."
"I can't believe we're still alive," Alex said, out of breath.
"No thanks to the old spies," Sam said, pushing one of her soaked bangs out of her eyes.
"But it was just an accident, right?" Alex asked.
"Or made to look like an accident," Sean answered. "I say we get back to W.O.O.H.P and tell Jerry what happened."
After crumpling up the third sheet of paper that day, Jerry frantically scratched his fountain pen all over the surface of the fourth, looking at pictures of both his old spies and his (late, he reminded himself) younger ones.
"'It was my pleasure to have known Sean, Sam, Clover, and Alex,'" he read the attempted eulogy aloud to himself.
"No, that's not right. 'I was fortunate enough to have known Sean, Sam, Clover, and-'"
"Don't people generally write eulogies," a voice interrupted Jerry's brainstorming. "After someone bites the big one?"
Jerry looked up to see Sean, Sam, Clover, and Alex standing in front of him, a little damp but otherwise no worse for wear.
"Girls! Sean!" he exclaimed, overjoyed. "You're alive!"
"And ready to get back on this case," Sam quickly added.
"Actually," Jerry said, getting over his mournful look from earlier. "I have wonderful news: you're officially retired! My original spies have taken your place."
"What?!" Sean asked in disbelief.
"I don't wanna be retired!" Alex complained. "I never even got a chance to have a midlife crisis!"
"It's a done deal," Jerry said in a tone of finality. "Now you'll get a chance to enjoy your lives like regular teens, and the world is in the capable hands of Pam, Alice, Sky, and Crimson."
"Jerry," Sean said. "There's something really fishy about those spies."
"Whatever are you talking about?" Jerry asked.
"Think about it!" Clover replied. "Why did they just reappear at the pipeline? And why did they know their way around the hydroelectric plant?"
Jerry brought a hand to the side of his head in contemplation.
"I think I understand what's happening here."
"You do?" Alex asked.
"Yes," Jerry replied. "Obviously, you four are jealous of my original spies. Who can blame you? They're wonderful. But I trust them unconditionally."
He sat back down, holding up what looked like a pamphlet.
"Might I suggest an 'acclimating back to civilian life' seminar?"
"Us?! Jealous?!" Clover asked. "As if!"
"Those spies are dirty," Sean tried to argue. "I wouldn't be surprised if they were planting bombs as we speak!"
Jerry swerved his chair around.
"Actually," he explained. "They're in eastern Europe, aiding civilians in the rebuilding of their destroyed power plants. I gave them their gadgets and they left a couple of hours ago. Those four never pass up a humanitarian mission."
Alex, Sean, and Clover grit their teeth in rage while Sam just spoke calmly.
"On second thought, I think we would like to take that seminar, Jer."
Her teammates gasped.
"We would?" Sean asked.
She nodded. Then winked at him.
Understanding, he decided to play along.
"Oh, yes. I think that's a good idea."
But Alex and Clover still looked confused.
"Mind if we hop a W.O.O.H.P jet?" Sam asked. "My car's in the shop."
"Not a problem," Jerry said, giving his permission.
Far above the sky, a single W.O.O.H.P jet flew through the clouds, piloted by Sam and its passengers consisted solely of Sean, Clover, and Alex.
"Sean, Sammy," Clover complained. "Tell me again why we're going to some lame seminar while those spy wannabes are stealing our jobs!"
"Yeah," Alex agreed from her place on the copilot's seat. "I was wondering the same thing."
"Get real," Sam said. "We're not going to any seminar!"
"Really?" Alex asked. "Then what are we doing?"
"We're trying to find those 'spy wannabes' as Clover called them," Sean answered. "Something tells me they're not on a humanitarian mission."
Sam took out her Compowder, studying the screen and considering herself grateful Jerry didn't ask for them back. Or Sean's wallet phone, for that matter.
"I just hope Jerry's gadgets included Lip-Stalk," she said.
After a few moments, the Compowder's tracking signal zeroed in on a location.
"Bingo!" Sam called out.
"Good thinking," Clover complimented her.
Sam looked closer at the screen.
"Looks like they're on Crater Island in the Arabian Sea," she announced.
"Isn't that where they said they were held captive all these years?" Alex asked.
"Yeah," Sean answered, looking up from the results of his own search on his wallet phone. "Which is odd considering the island has been barren since a volcano erupted there ten years ago."
"Let's check it out," Clover said, determined.
Crater Island-11:24 PM
The plane touched down on the harsh, rocky surface of the island.
As the spies left the jet, they walked toward the center of the very small landmass.
Sean looked around. He had to admit, the island was smaller than he anticipated. You could walk around it in less than two hours by his estimation.
He didn't know what those spies were doing here, but it certainly wasn't a humanitarian mission.
"Rebuilding power plants my foot!" Clover exclaimed. "Look at this place; it's barren!"
"Totally," Alex agreed. "This island is just a big, useless piece of rock!"
But as Alex stamped her foot for emphasis, she unknowingly caused a very thin rock formation to crumble from beneath them, causing all four to plunge underground.
Sean considered himself lucky that the fall wasn't very steep and that they landed in water.
As he slowly lifted his head toward the surface, he didn't know what he would find. An underwater cave? A secret reservoir for some ambitious Arabian sheik?
But he and the girls saw neither of those things.
Before them was a beach.
A beach complete with lounge chairs, palm tress, white sand, and even sunlight.
Wait, Sean thought. Sunlight?
He looked above him and his confusion was eased when saw that the sun was really just a giant lamp that he suspected was just as powerful as the real thing.
"Okay," Alex conceded. "So, maybe this island isn't so bad after all."
"Yeah," Clover agreed. "The kind of place I wouldn't mind being held prisoner for, say..."
"Seven years or so?" Sean offered.
But the sound of footsteps told them that they would have to wonder about this later.
"Someone's coming!" Sam warned and they dove back under the water.
Swimming just barely under the surface, Sean could see shapes of people walking along the shore.
People he recognized.
As they surfaced behind some rocks, they could hear the voices of the older spies more clearly.
Pam and her team, all dressed in swimwear that matched their spy uniforms in terms of color, sat on the lounge chairs someone had clearly provided for them.
"Ah," Crimson sighed contentedly. "You gotta love this 24/7 sunshine!"
"Oh, yeah!" Pam agreed. "Nothing like a little R&R after wiping out a few power plants."
Running into the waves, Pam dove underwater before surfacing after only a few seconds.
"Enjoy yourselves," another voice said. This new voice was male and clearly did not belong to Sky.
An older man came out of the shadows. He was balding, with the little amount of hair on his head completely back. And he wore a cream-colored jumpsuit with strange symbol in the shape of the sun on his left lapel.
"Thanks to your hard work," he continued. "We'll soon be the sole proprietors of the world's energy supply."
"And not even those loser junior spies could stop us," Sky said, slinging his arm around Alice. "I mean, did you see that Sean kid? What a wimp."
Sean clenched his teeth in anger.
"Oh, I don't know," Alice argued. "I thought he was kind of cute."
Confused at his girlfriend's statement, Sky stared at Alex, looking almost hurt.
"Cute like a marshmallow!" Alice clarified.
"But yeah," Crimson agreed. "If you ask me, W.O.O.H.P's talent pool is really slipping!"
While Sean was able rein his anger in, Clover, unfortunately, didn't have that kind of patience and stood up.
"Why those-" she tried to exclaim before Sean and Sam dragged her back down behind the rocks.
But the damage had already been done, and the spies found themselves caught.
"Easy, Clover!" Sam said, not knowing that their cover had been blown.
Pam gestured to the rocks, motioning her team to follow her.
And soon enough, all four teens had their older counterparts looming over them.
"Oh, we've got company," Clover said, feeling ashamed for giving them away.
"Let's get out of here!" Sean exclaimed as they took off running.
But using their own Bungee Belts, the older spies were able to hook on to the stalactites above them, and launched themselves at their fleeing targets.
Soon enough, the spies were pinned to the ground, with Pam restraining Alex, Crimson sitting on top of Clover, Alice pinning Sam, and Sky holding Sean down.
"Who says you can't teach an old spy new tricks?" Pam asked rhetorically.
Later, the spies found themselves tied to a massive net that resembled a spider web.
In front of them was a massive computer screen manned by the four older spies and the man they had been talking to on the beach. The man who Sean correctly deduced the be the villain who held Pam and her team captive for seven years: Edison.
The older spies themselves had traded their swimsuits for black versions of their spy uniforms. But as an added feature, each one had different color highlights to the shoulder pads. With Pam, it was red. Crimson, green. Alice, golden yellow. And Sky, dark blue.
At another time, the spies would have agreed they all looked cool. But now they just took it as sign that Pam, Sky, Alice, and Crimson had sold W.O.O.H.P out.
"I can't believe you traitors have the nerve to call yourselves W.O.O.H.P spies!" Alex said as she struggled against her ropes.
"Really!" Clover agreed. "Where's your pride?!"
"It's not quite so simple," Edison laughed. "You see, when I first met the spies many years ago, they were wasting their time fighting for the cause of good."
He turned Crimson around, and gestured to a spot on the back of her neck.
"I then liberated them with my behavior modifying electronic spinal splints."
Sean could see what he was talking about.
On the back of Crimson's neck was a small, circular device about the size of a thumbtack. It had a white light flashing in the middle.
"Now, they're helping me pursue much worthier causes."
"Ew!" Clover cringed at the sight what she had been shown. "And I thought belly button piercings looked painful."
"Why do I suspect your goals aren't all that worthy?" Sam asked.
Edison walked back over to the screen, pressing a few keys. On it appeared the image of a power plant much like the ones that had been destroyed.
"You be the judge," he said. "Half the worlds power plants are now inoperable. Soon, they'll all be reduced to rubble."
The power plant on the screen exploded, earning a gasp from the spies.
"Destruction for the sake of destruction?" Sean asked, confused. "It doesn't make any sense!"
"On the contrary," Edison argued. "It makes dollars and cents, when I extort the nations of the world for the use of solar power!"
"Ouch," Clover whispered. "I thought Jerry's puns were bad."
"News flash," Alex said, louder than Clover. "The sun is free, Einstein."
"Correction," Edison said. "The sun was free. And it's Edison."
He scowled as another image appeared on the screen.
Floating in the middle of the ocean was an enormous structure that resembled an oil rig. Only, in lieu of the derrick, there was a gigantic glass globe with two rotors that eerily resembled an atomic structure inside.
"With my orbital override machine," Edison continued. "I can control the Earth's rotation and sell sunlight by the hour to the highest bidder."
He chuckled with satisfaction, before looking at a watch on his wrist.
"Time to go to my ocean platform and start the auction."
He walked out of the room, while the older spies stayed back a while longer.
"So long," Pam said. "And no hard feelings."
"Don't hate us because we're the better spies!" Crimson added as they left.
"Don't worry!" Clover called out after them. "We've got plenty of other reasons to hate you!"
"Well," Alex said as she continued to struggle against the ropes. "This should be easy to get out of! Usually, the bad guys leave us in a hopeless predicament."
That was when they heard the metallic clanking sound from above them.
Alex's optimism faded when she and her friends saw the giant robotic spider just inches away from them.
"Is this hopeless enough for you?!" Sean asked, his fear becoming very evident.
While the spider crept closer to them, Sam tried to reach into her pocket.
"If I could just reach my Compowder," she said to herself.
After a small struggle, she was successful.
Opening it, she was able to call Jerry, who's face appeared on the screen.
"Hello, agents," he greeted warmly. "So very lovely to hear from you."
"Jerry, you've gotta help us!" Sam pleaded.
But Jerry's expression turned serious.
"Wait a second, you're not the real spies. This line is only to be used by legitimate W.O.O.H.P agents!"
And he hung up, oblivious to the danger Sean and the girls were in leaving them to fend for themselves.
"Rude much?!" Alex asked as the spider sprayed them all over with a strange silk-like substance that hardened all over their bodies.
By the time they were finished, the spies could not be seen, as they were trapped inside four very small, very suffocating cocoons.
Or they would have been had Clover not burst out, breaking the cocoon apart like a candy bar.
When she was free, she sprayed the cocoon holding Alex with the same substance she used to break out.
The silk over the cocoon froze over and it broke apart, freeing Alex.
After repeating the process with Sam and Sean's cocoons, she jumped down in front of the spider, spraying it this time.
The spider was so iced over that it couldn't move.
"Thanks, Clover," Sean said, as he, Sam, and Alex walked over.
"How'd you do that?" Alex asked.
In response, Clover held up the tiny blue spray bottle she used.
"Icy Fresh Liquid Nitrogen Breath Spray," she explained. "Good thing I always carry a backup gadget."
With a flick of Alex's fingers, the now brittle metal arachnid broke into a million pieces.
"Come on," Sam said as they all too off running. "Let's go save the world."
Oil Rig-3:17 AM
Edison's machine was built on an abandoned oil platform in the middle of the Indian Ocean. A few years ago, an oil company built the rig upon discovering a huge deposit of oil just below the surface.
But a geologist confirmed that the ground of the seafloor was too unsteady in that area to drill for oil and the project was abandoned.
However, just because the oil rig was decommissioned, that didn't necessarily mean that it was useless.
For Edison had found the perfect use for it.
"I think that's quite enough sunlight for Russia," he said in his control room to the four brainwashed spies.
"But they paid for two hours," Pam pointed out. "And it's only been an hour."
"Prices have just gone up," Edison countered, adjusting the controls. "Besides, I wouldn't mind a little sun for myself."
Outside, the rotors on Edison's machine began to whirl. And the sky turned from dark and starry to the delicate pink light of dawn.
The four older spies stepped out onto the platform to get a better view of the sunrise.
Then Crimson saw something.
"Hey!" she exclaimed, pointing at the sky. "What is that?!"
Above them, four parachutes had unfurled, each a different color. Green, Blue, Red, Yellow.
Even though they could see the parachutes, they weren't sure who was attached to them.
"I'm not sure," Alice responded.
"Wait!" Sky explained. "It's-"
All four tried to run back into the platform only tackled to the ground by the four parachuting teens.
"Hope you don't mind if we drop in," Sean said, taking off his parachute.
"But it seems this is the only place on the planet to get a good tan!"
Pam growled. "It's you brats again!"
"What's the matter?" Sky taunted. "Looking for someone to change your diapers?!"
Pam charged first, with Sam leaping over her, landing on her hands and flipping backwards to land on her feet. But Pam just continued her assault.
Clover dodged punch after punch from Crimson next to the rotor of Edison's machine. After a few leg sweeps from the older woman, Clover did a backflip over her and got in a leg sweep of her own, making Crimson lose her footing.
Alex, in the meantime, tried to land a series of kicks to Alice, but she either dodged them, or in one case, caught Alex's leg and twisted it until Alex spun around like a propeller and landed on the ground.
Alice tried to jump Alex, but the younger girl delivered a kick to her midsection, knocking her back.
Sean avoided at least a dozen blows from Sky, at one point bending backwards just to avoid being hit in the face.
"You sure you're a seasoned agent?" Sean asked, tauntingly. "Because I've seen snails move faster than that."
Sky growled and attempted to tackle Sean, who just leapt into the air before landing his leg down on the older man's left shoulder. Finally, Sky crumpled to the ground.
Upon hearing all the noise generated from the fight, Edison rushed outside to see what was going on.
Below the railing he leaned on, he saw the spies facing off their older counterparts.
"Eliminate those pests once and for all!" he growled.
Pam and her team charged at them again.
But this time, Sam was able to tackle Pam through the glass window of the control room, before doing a series of flips to land on the other side.
Pam, having recovered from the impact, stood up in an attempt to regain control of the fight. She jumped up, preparing to tackle Sam, but the redhead just kicked her into a computer console.
This damaged the controls, and caused the sky outside to turn from day to night again.
"This orbit machine is really starting to throw off my schedule!" Alex complained as Alice pulled out a large gun.
"Check out this nifty gadget gave us!" she said, firing the gun, which launched a series of nets at Alex.
After dodging each one, Alex glared at her opponent.
"'Nifty?!" she asked, trying not to laugh. "Man, you really were on that island a long time, weren't you?"
Alice fired again, this time hitting her mark. Alex was entangled in a net and fell over the side before landing on nest of wire between the pillars of the rig.
Seeing their friend in trouble, Sean and Clover abandoned their fights to try to help her. Unfortunately, Crimson and Sky were faster, and each threw a small, green grenade at their feet, encasing them both in a hard, gel-like substance.
The two teens landed at Alice's feet.
"You kids have it so easy with all those great gadgets," Crimson said, coming over. "In my day, we had to make do with our brains and our brawn."
Clover and Sean looked up at her.
"When was that?!" Clover asked. "The Stone Age?!"
Sam, in the meantime, was thrown backwards out of the broken window toward the glass sphere that contained the rotors.
She looked up at the older woman above her.
"You about ready to give up?" Pam asked.
"Not before we reintroduce you to an old friend!" Sam retorted, taking out one of the spider-bombs Edison had been using.
During the fight, she had taken the opportunity to swipe one from the control room.
She threw it at the sphere, causing it to stick to the surface.
Edison, still looking on, pointed at the device.
"Quick!" he urged. "Get that creature off of my machine before it explodes!"
The brainwashed spies obeyed the command, while Clover took the opportunity to use the Icy Fresh Liquid Nitrogen Breath Spray to freeze the gel keeping her stuck to the platform. After helping Sean out of the same situation, they both joined Sam in jumping off the platform and clinging to a series of wires like the ones Alex was stuck in just as the machine exploded.
As the sky returned to the normal light of early morning, Alex was able to restrain Edison with ropes while Sean, Sam, and Clover tied up Pam, Sky, Alice, and Crimson.
"I don't get it!" Sky exclaimed up at Sean. "How did you beat us?!"
"Didn't Jerry tell you?" Sean answered with a question of his own. "You're looking at W.O.O.H.P's youngest instructor."
The spies, apparently, didn't care.
"Let us out of here!" Pam growled.
"No problem," Clover reassured, parting the back of the girl's hair. "We'll let you out in just a sec."
With Sean, Sam, and Alex doing the same with Sky, Crimson, and Alice respectively, they pulled the devices Edison had implanted in them out of their skin.
After lifting their heads, Pam and her team looked around the platform, very confused.
"What happened?" she asked. "And why are we on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean?"
"I feel, like, so gnarly," Crimson added.
"Trust us," Sam said as she and Sean reached down to untie them. "You're doing a lot better now than you have been for the past seven years."
Alex looked away from the scene to find a discarded pile of rope not too far away from them.
A rope that, apparently, she hadn't tied very well.
"Hey!" she exclaimed. "Edison's getting away!"
Indeed, on the water below the rig, Edison was laughing to himself while piloting a small boat off to parts unknown.
However, a dark shadow rising up from the water put a stop his escape attempt.
The shadow turned out to belong to a massive submarine, which his boat was now stranded on.
Sean looked at the submarine and saw the W.O.O.H.P logo on the side.
Out of the top, a hatch opened, letting Jerry poke his head out.
"Not so fast," he said as he made the motion for two W.O.O.H.P agents to arrest him.
Edison could only howl in anguish.
Later, on the ruins of Edison's platform, Jerry faced his four original spies.
After learning what had happened on their last mission and what they had been doing in the seven years since, Pam and her team made the unanimous decision to retire from being W.O.O.H.P agents.
"Isn't there any way I can convince you four to stay with W.O.O.H.P?" Jerry asked once he heard the news.
"Sorry, Jerry," Sky consoled. "But we've had enough W.O.O.H.P adventures for one lifetime."
He slung an arm around Alice, who kissed his cheek.
"Besides," she added. "We decided we want to help rebuild the world's energy plants. We can't help but feel a little responsible."
Jerry and the others smiled.
"Um," Clover broke in. "Hurry up and fix the plant in Beverly Hills by Saturday night, because I have a totally hot date."
"Thanks for helping us out," Crimson said, shaking Sam's hand. "And for all those cool fashion tips."
"Hope you're not to angry about what we did," Sky added.
"We weren't really ourselves," Pam said quickly.
"Don't worry about it," Sam dismissed, waving her hand.
"We understand," Sean added. "This isn't our first brush with brainwashing."
"Yeah," Clover said cheerfully. "We forgive you."
But then she and her teammates turned to glare at Jerry, clearly still sore over him essentially, albeit briefly, firing them over nothing.
"Jerry, on the other hand," Sean said. "That's gonna take a while."
"Yeah," Alex agreed. "Like until Mandy gets a boyfriend."
Jerry just sighed in shame and exasperation.
"Sorry?" he said, as Pam and her team boarded a helicopter scheduled to take them to one of the first power plants they destroyed.
Sean and the girls waved goodbye.
As the helicopter faded out of view, Sean's heart swelled with hope from thinking about Sky and Alice.
Even under the influence Edison's device, they still showed a devotion to each other and worked very well in the heat of the moment.
With that, he started think that he and Sam might have a chance yet.
Soon enough, it was Saturday night, and the time for Clover's movie date with Robbie had come at last.
And with it, came unexpected news from Clover.
"So, you're serious?" Sam asked at the concession stand as Clover got her drink. "You've decided to give Robbie the benefit of the doubt."
"That's right!" Clover confirmed with a smile. "I'm giving up my plans for revenge."
"So, what made you change your mind?" Sean asked.
"Well, if there's one thing I've learned this week, it's that people can definitely change."
Alex hugged her friend from behind.
"I'm so proud of you, Clover," she said.
Later, Sean and the girls entered the auditorium where the movie was being played.
Since the mission was over, Sean suggested to Sam and Alex that they see the movie as well. And they agreed. After a mission as intense as that, they needed to unwind.
"Clover!" Robbie's voice called from about three feet away. He was sitting in the very back row, beckoning her to sit next to him. "You made it!"
"Hey, Robbie," she greeted sweetly. And this time, it was genuine. Then she turned to her friends. "I'll catch you guys later."
Sean nodded, and he and Alex and Sam took their seats further down below.
"Have a seat," Robbie said as Clover got closer to him.
"Don't mind if I do."
But as Clover sat down, a very loud, very rude flatulent noise came out from under her.
Everyone in the theater, her friends included, stared in her direction.
As Clover sunk in embarrassment, Robbie just laughed.
She was confused... until she saw the whoopee cushion in her seat.
Angry, Clover stood upright again.
"That's disgusting!" she shrieked.
But Robbie could barely hear her over his laughter.
"I can't believe it!" he said through his chuckles. "I can still get the best of you after all these years!"
"We'll just see about that!" Clover said furiously.
And then she poured her drink all over him.
This time, the whole theater was laughing... at Robbie instead of Clover.
Even Sean had to admit it was kind of funny.
"Okay, looks like Clover was wrong," he said, taking his first breath after laughing for so long. "Some people never change."