Coming Up Next: It's day two of the Sparkle Theater case and the spies are as ready as they'll ever be to keep participating in the plays and finding the missing actors while dealing with the Sour Bunch, even if one of them happens to be the missing W.O.O.H.P. agent they're looking for. All the while, Madame Grape is simply biding her time, waiting for the perfect chance to strike and realize her goal of turning these stories of hope into tragedies. Can the spies unravel Madame Grape's scheme before an actual tragedy occurs?
Act 3: A Rather Sour Reception
9:32 A.M. – The Sparkle Theater
1st Floor Lobby
"Oh, man, I needed that nap," Clover stated when the next day came around and all seven spies were fully refreshed.
"I think we all did, Clover," Sam quipped.
"I enjoyed sharing the room with Sam, to be honest," Mat admitted.
"Of course," Alex and Clover chuckled with some rolled eyes.
"I'm glad you all found Clancy," Leon told them. "It seems we're one step closer to unraveling this problem."
"And hopefully a giant step towards solving this problem for good," Nick added.
"But that just presents another problem," Bridget groaned. "Now that the Sour Bunch is onto our plan, I'm sure they'll be trying that much harder to sabotage the plays..."
"Then we'll just have to hit 'em back twice as hard!" May emphasized.
"And we're probably going to have to keep an eye out for that one particular goon, since I'm pretty sure that's our missing W.O.O.H.P. agent," Nick pointed out.
"Ooh, he was a guy?" Clover asked, appearing to be excited. "You gotta tell me if he was cute!"
"...Clover, is now really the time for that?" Mat sighed.
Sam and Alex couldn't believe it themselves.
"What? I was just curious..." Clover reasoned.
"We'll worry about that when and if we cross paths with him again," Bridget stated after a sigh of her own. "For now, let's just get ready for the next play. And on that note, what kind of characters am I gonna be playing today, Leon?"
"Oh, you'll see once it's time," Leon quipped. "We've got about an hour and a half until our first play of the day, so when you're all ready, meet me on the third floor and we'll get this party started."
All seven spies nodded in agreement as they moved around to prepare for the first play. Meanwhile, Bridget began to wonder why Madame Grape was so fixated on her, despite there being seven different obstacles to her plans here.
Was it just because she was the one being chosen as the lead actor in these plays? Or was there some deeper reason?
Whatever that reason was, Bridget suspected she'd find out soon enough.
At just about eleven o'clock sharp, Bridget made her way to the backstage on the second stage on the third floor, ready to see just what this particular play had in store for her and her growing acting skills.
Bridget tugged on her waist ribbon twice, and it spiraled around her a couple times before once again constricting around her waist, swallowing her up in a flash of light.
When the flash cleared, Bridget was now wearing a black ankle-length tailcoat, a high-necked waistcoat with gold accents, cinched black pants, brown-black winklepickers boots with taller heels and a pair of red gloves. Bridget was also wearing a white, bird-like domino mask with black designs reminiscent of full eyeliner and sharp lashes over her eyes.
"Ooh, very dashing," Bridget chuckled, wondering what Nick would think seeing her in this outfit before mentally slapping herself. This wasn't the time to be thinking about that. That could happen later. Right now, she needed to focus on being the best phantom thief she could be.
Once the audience for this play had fully filed in, the lights on stage went out before shining on what resembled a bank, and both Sam and Mat started narrating.
"A corrupt organization that funnels money from its unsuspecting constituents has finally met is reckoning tonight," Sam narrated.
"The city's most infamous phantom thief, known only as the Trickster, has come to teach these power-mad CEOs a harsh lesson," Mat narrated.
A spotlight shined down on the roof of the bank, and that was where Bridget had dropped onto the scene, using her yo-yos to swing across the rafters and make her grand entrance.
"So, this is the place, huh?" Bridget quipped. "I should have known they'd be the ones behind this. These fools never learn their lesson, so I guess it's up to me."
Bridget stealthily made her way through the nearby open window and into the "bank" itself, all accompanied by a jazzy little tune being played by the orchestra onstage. Occasionally, Bridget would pause to slip by another spotlight or some other kind of security system, and at times she would also type on nearby computers to open up the room ahead.
All the while, Nick continued to watch from the rafters, a little curious as to why nobody from the Sour Bunch had tried to infiltrate the play.
Maybe they decided to try a different strategy after we ran into that guy last night, Nick thought. Regardless, I think we still need to stay on our toes.
Thankfully, the rest of the play seemed to go off without a hitch, with Bridget snatching bags full of money (very convincing-looking fake money, of course) and preparing to leave the bank with her "ill-gotten gains", when all of a sudden, the lights shut off completely for a brief second.
"All right, who's trying to interfere with my grand heist?" Bridget wondered.
"That would be me, you nefarious thief!" Alex laughed in what she hoped was a maniacal enough way, as she made a grand entrance dressed in a princely pure-white regalia with red accents and a black sparrow's mask to hide her face.
"Well, well, if it isn't Black Mask," Bridget taunted. "I guess I really should have guessed you'd be here to ruin my fun."
"You've tormented these people long enough, Trickster," Alex retorted. "Do you really think that just stealing from these organizations is truly the right answer, even if they're corrupt as heck?!"
"Nobody else is doing anything because they're too scared to realize that these clowns don't have any real power by themselves!" Bridget shouted back. "They're too afraid to realize that their fear is what's giving these knuckleheads power over them! If nobody else will stand up for what's right, I figure it has to be me."
"That self-righteous attitude will be the death of you one of these days, Trickster," Alex laughed. "...so why not right now?!"
Alex pulled out a prop gun and aimed it towards her quarry, but Bridget quickly swung her yo-yos to yank the gun out of Alex's hand and cast it aside.
"Your move, Black Mask," Bridget quipped.
"...this isn't over, Trickster," Alex proclaimed. "I swear on that."
With that, Alex retreated by swinging her way out of the "bank", leaving Bridget to ponder what had been said in this confrontation.
Well, that, and the fact that Alex really knocked it out of the park with that one, Bridget thought to herself.
"With that, Black Mask had been driven off and the Trickster's heist was successful," Sam narrated.
"However, Black Mask's words would linger in the Trickster's mind for a long time to come," Mat narrated. "She would begin to wonder if there was truly no other way of changing this world..."
And with that, the play was over, and all of the actors involved came back onto the stage to give their final bows to the audience.
"Man, you two were really killing it out there," Clover chuckled once all seven spies were back outside the stage in the third floor lobby. "Gotta say, you look really dashing in that phantom thief outfit, Bridget."
"Aw, you think so?" Bridget giggled as she tapped her waist ribbon to return to her normal clothes. "Kinda wish the phantom thief names were a little more imaginative, though..."
"Hey, it can't be any worse than 'Clover-patra'," Alex laughed.
"Ugh, can we not bring that up, please?" Clover groaned. "I was short on ideas..."
"W-Wait, wait, she called herself what?" Nick gasped.
Before anyone else could respond, Bridget felt a small twinge, then glanced down at the floor.
"Did another one of those doors in the basement open up, Bridget?" Sam asked.
"I think it did," Bridget replied. "I have a feeling that the Sparkle Power in my ribbon is reacting to whatever wacky magic that Madame Grape is using in her own nonsense."
"I'll go with Bridget this time," Alex stated. "I think it's only fair, since I did act alongside her."
With that, Alex and Bridget both headed back downstairs while the other five spies all convened with Leon to discuss what was going to happen next.
Sure enough, one of the four remaining doors was glowing, and the symbol of the mask that Bridget had worn as her phantom thief character was shining brightly. Bridget channeled her Sparkle Power into her yo-yos and touched them to the door's lock so that it opened, leading both Alex and Bridget into the world inside the door, which resembled the very bank that they had just been acting on onstage.
"...wow, this is freaky," Alex stated. "Is this what you and Nick had to deal with in the other two doors?"
"Pretty much," Bridget quipped as they began to explore. "And I've got a feeling that it's only going to get weirder from here."
Alex and Bridget continued to make their way through the bank, occasionally pausing to let a spotlight pass them by, as they weren't sure what would happen if they got caught by them.
About halfway through this strange "door world"...
"You know, I'm surprised the Sour Bunch didn't come calling," Alex stated. "Nick even said he didn't sense anything out of the ordinary."
"Yeah, either they're getting better at hiding, or maybe they didn't think this play was one worth ambushing now that we're around," Bridget noted as she swung across another rooftop.
"Oh, by the way, did you decide when you're going to tell Nick?" Alex wondered.
"Tell him what?" Bridget asked, only for her expression to quickly change in multiple ways when she realized that Alex had caught on to her. "...h-how did you figure me out?"
"People say I notice things, after all," Alex responded, wishing there was something she could say to calm Bridget down, since she looked like she was about to start freaking out. "When you came back last night, I did kinda notice your expression."
Bridget knew she was trapped now, and could see only one real way out of this. But before she could tear off, though, Alex quickly caught her by the shoulders, having expected that move.
"Bridget, look at me, okay?" Alex stated. "Do I look angry or disgusted or weirded out about this?"
"...but I thought you were gonna think I was trying to steal your boyfriend away from you," Bridget sputtered, unable to stop herself now.
"Come on, Bridget, I know for a fact that you would be the last person to ever do something like that," Alex proclaimed. And Bridget could understand that. "I actually took some time last night to think about it, and, well, if it's you, Bridget, then honestly, I wouldn't mind sharing, because I know how much you care about him."
Bridget could hardly believe her ears, that Alex was being so understanding about this kind of issue. Then again, Nick had said that this was just how Alex was.
In her surprise, Bridget couldn't help but hug Alex, one that Alex eagerly returned.
"I just didn't want to blurt it out at the wrong time and cause any problems," Bridget admitted.
"I don't think you've really got anything to worry about, Bridget," Alex giggled. "But, I really would like to know when you plan on telling him, you know..."
"I'm gonna tell him when we're done with this whole business at the Sparkle Theater," Bridget answered, feeling much better now. "After all, I don't think we're going to get any time for that with Madame Grape and the Sour Bunch still on the loose. Just keep it a secret from the others until I'm ready, okay?"
"Yeah, we'll wring them out to dry soon enough," Alex chuckled. "And don't you worry, my lips are sealed."
It didn't take much longer for Alex and Bridget to come across another door that, just like the previous two times, led onto a stage where the actor who had played the Trickster before was bound by magical ribbons.
"H-Hey, is he okay?" Alex gasped, trying to run up and free the actor only for Bridget to stop her.
"Last two times this happened, something came to greet us," Bridget quipped. "And I'm expecting it to happen this time, too."
Almost as if something had been waiting for Bridget to say that, someone dropped down to greet them, and it turned out to be that mysterious Sour Bunch goon that was apparently the missing W.O.O.H.P. agent they spies had been tasked with rescuing.
"Y'all shouldn't have come here," the goon proclaimed.
"Yeah, well, it's the lead's role to 'steal the show', so to speak," Bridget retorted, bringing out her yo-yos and twirling them around her.
"Come on, whoever you are, just take off that mask and we can talk this out," Alex offered.
"My name is Blaine, and you won't stop me or the wonderful Madame Grape!" Blaine exclaimed as he charged in to attack Alex and Bridget.
"Blaine?!" Alex chastised, as she was obviously not familiar with this Blaine fellow.
"Watch out, Alex!" Bridget shouted as she hooked her yo-yos around Alex's wrist so she could pull her out of the way of Blaine trying to drive her to the ground with an overhead kick.
"Something tells me that mask is the tell-tale story of why Blaine's acting like this," Alex remarked.
"I'll put money on that presumption myself," Bridget quipped.
"Well, let's hope this guy has no Ph. D in skating," Alex stated and used her Ice Queen Perfume on the ground.
Blaine came straight for them, but he didn't seem to be ready for the icy conditions on the ground and began to slip.
"Just like he's sliding on grease," Alex quipped.
Unfortunately, Alex had spoken too soon, as Blaine was able to find a way to balance on the icy ground.
"Oh no!" Alex chastised as Blaine advanced towards her and Bridget.
"I think I can put a halt to his progress," Bridget remarked, throwing her yo-yos out in different directions to keep Blaine on edge, then yanking them both back to grab Blaine and yank him towards them.
"Good move, Bridget," Alex commented.
"Thanks, but it's not done yet," Bridget quipped. "We've gotta get that mask off of him, and fast!"
"You can't stop me!" Blaine shouted. "Nobody will!"
"Okay, I've kinda had enough of that," Bridget quipped, switching to her Super Elongated Titanium Yo-Yos and readying herself, trying to bait Blaine into getting closer.
Thankfully, Blaine took the bait and charged forward, only for Bridget to roundhouse kick him backwards, at the same time slashing her Super Elongated Titanium Yo-Yos outwards to cut the mask apart, the pieces clattering to the floor and dissolving in a dark purple mist.
"Did it work?" Alex asked.
"Let's hope so," Bridget stated after seeing Blaine on his hands and knees.
"...ow, my head hurts," Blaine groaned, his voice sounding more normal. After Bridget helped him to his feet, she and Alex were finally able to get a good look at him. Blaine had green eyes and messy black hair, and was wearing a black, short sleeve jacket under an orange shirt, denim pants, and black shoes, and he appeared to be about their age.
"Being hypnotized will probably do that to ya," Bridget chuckled.
"W-Wait, I was hypnotized?" Blaine gasped before he gasped in surprise, remembering what had happened. "H-Hold on. The last thing I remember was coming down into the basement to investigate those strange doors, and then someone jumps me and everything after that's a blur..."
"That would probably be Madame Grape," Alex quipped while Bridget moved to free the trickster actor. "She and her goons nabbed you and brain-bleached you into working for the Sour Bunch."
"Sounds like I've got a lot to catch up on, huh?" Blaine sighed.
"Less than you think, really," Bridget replied. "Come on, let's get outta this place."
Alex, Bridget and Blaine, accompanied by the trickster actor, exited the stage and back out into the basement. The phantom thief door shined brightly before dissolving into purple mist, much like the others.
"This place is kinda interesting," Blaine admitted.
"Oh, trust me, Blaine, you have no idea," Bridget laughed.
Meanwhile...
"I'm not seeing any clues anywhere, guys," Mat told the spies while they looked around another part of the studio.
"They HAD to have left something!" Nick chastised in full agreement with Mat.
"Well, no criminal pulls off the perfect plan," Sam quipped.
"We're bound to find something..." May added.
"I wonder if Alex and Bridget found out about that other guy yet," Sam quipped.
"Let alone if he's friend or foe..." Mat remarked.
"He's GOT to be friend," Clover begged, hoping for a sign that this was her chance at love. "PLEASE GIVE ME A SIGN!"
Everybody present had sighed.
"Clover, do you really think this is the time for that?" Sam retorted.
"I know, I know, but my curiosity's really getting the better of me," Clover groaned. "I'm the only one of us original three ladies that still hasn't found a steady somebody like you and Alex, and..."
"Hey, I think I see them!" Nick proclaimed. Sure enough, Alex and Bridget found their way to the studio, with Blaine right behind them. The trickster actor, actual name Stephan, had bolted to the second floor to find Leon and let him know he was all right.
"How'd it go down there, you two?" Mat wondered.
"Three doors down, three to go," Bridget responded. "And I have a feeling that we'll only find Madame Grape again once we've taken care of those last three doors."
"So, who's the new guy?" May asked. "Wait, is that the guy you saw last night?"
"Yup," Alex answered. "This is Blaine."
"Nice to meet you guys," Blaine stated. "Sorry it really couldn't have been under better circumstances..."
"Honestly, we're used to that," Nick chuckled. "Especially considering our track record..."
Clover, almost as expected, was staring intently at Blaine, hearts in her eyes. Sam and Alex simply facepalmed at how predictable Clover was being.
Thankfully, Bridget hooked Clover's waist with her yo-yos and pulled back to make her spin around slightly, disorienting her enough to make her pay attention again.
"Wh-wha-what I did you said that..." Clover sputtered.
"Clover, down," Bridget quipped. "You'll have time to swoon later. Right now, I'm sure there's about to be another play that needs to be fixed so we can get one step closer to Madame Grape."
Hey, I mean, you can't help but admire the view, Clover thought as she continued to (discreetly) stare at Blaine, glad that he was every bit as handsome as her mind had pictured him.
As the spies followed Leon's instructions and headed back up to the third floor for the next play that needed their assistance, Alex and Bridget shared a silent glance between each other, determined to keep what they'd discussed inside the door world a secret until Bridget was ready to spill the beans.
Onstage, Sam and Mat were back on narration duties, while Clover and Blaine decided to assist in the prop department (a perfect excuse to get to know her potential future boyfriend better, in Clover's opinion), May prepared for her own role in this particular play, and Nick and Alex both headed up to the rafters to keep an eye on the Sour Bunch. Just because they hadn't interrupted the previous play didn't mean they wouldn't do the same here, especially considering that the spies seemed to be getting closer to something with each door world they investigated.
Backstage, Bridget focused herself, actually much more excited for this one. When Leon had told her what kind of play this was, she had gotten pretty psyched. Bridget was, naturally, kind of a tomboy. Whereas most girls her age liked to play with Barbies and the like, she preferred stuff like Power Rangers, mostly because it was what Nick liked as well.
When she heard the restless applause of the audience from her spot, Bridget figured it was time to get to work and tugged the end of her ribbon a couple times. Like always, it circled around her twice before wrapping around her waist and enveloping her in a burst of Sparkle Power.
When the flash cleared up, Bridget was now wearing a Chinese teal and aqua colored top, along with short white pants and sandals, parts of her hair were tied into buns held with white pieces of cloth, and she was now clutching two small, golden bronze bucklers in her fists, most likely for protection as well as to punch stuff.
"Enter the kung-fu princess," Bridget giggled. "I think Nick and I watched too many of those hokey, badly-dubbed Chinese action movies as kids..."
Putting that thought aside for now, Bridget headed out to the stage. It was showtime, after all.
"The young princess of the Graceful Fist martial arts style was on a search for one person in particular," Sam narrated. "The vagabond martial artist who had ransacked her family's ancestral home and dispatched her father."
"Long had she searched, long had she traveled in her quest to reclaim her family's honor," Mat narrated. "But now, here she stands at the door of the Indomitable Fist school, ready to prove to them that martial arts is more than just the quest for power."
The lights turned off in the stage, then a spotlight shined on a martial arts dojo that Bridget approached, a contemplative look on her face.
"This is it, father," Bridget proclaimed, silently wondering what her actual father would think if he could see her right now (he was still alive, don't worry). "Now, I take back what these honorless hooligans so cruelly ripped away from us."
Bridget took a step back, adorned a martial arts pose, and concentrated, her body surrounded by flames as she charged herself up. (They weren't actual flames, just a magical illusion projected by the Sparkle Power she was wielding.)
With a loud karate cry, Bridget lunged forward with a thrusting punch that knocked down the door to the dojo.
("Kung Fu Dancing" by Carl Douglas and Fun Tomas plays)
"Hear me, Indomitable Fist!" Bridget exclaimed, causing a bunch of other actors all dressed in kung-fu outfits to swarm towards her. "I come from the Graceful Fist school. There will be a reckoning for what you have done to my family!"
"Your father was weak, little girl," one of the actors cackled. During this whole spiel, Bridget scanned all of the actors with her eyes, not seeing anything that marked these guys as undercover Sour Bunch goons. "When will you learn that, in this world we live in, power is the only thing that matters?"
"You just want to make excuses to bully anyone that you think is beneath you!" Bridget shouted back. "And just because my school teaches mostly non-violent methods of conflict resolution..."
Bridget prepared herself for a fight, causing the actors to start slowly stepping backwards.
"...doesn't mean that we won't throw hands when someone disrespects us so brazenly."
With that, Bridget went to work, dancing rather gracefully around the arena and laying into the actors as they tried to attack her. Anyone who even got closer to Bridget was instantly flipped onto their back or slammed into the prop wall.
"Now I'd advise that you stay out of my way," Bridget taunted once she'd cleared the room. "I have an urgent appointment with your master."
Bridget hopped over one of the actors and made her way into the next room, where she expected to find the actor that played the role of the Indomitable Fist master.
Instead, she only found some guy she didn't know, and he was wearing another masquerade mask.
"Oh, wonderful, we've got a party crasher," Bridget groaned under her breath as she prepared to clash with the Sour Bunch goon.
The rest of the spies saw what was going on with Bridget, and they were getting irritated.
"Not another one!" Sam groaned.
Mat was feeling overwhelmed at yet another Sour Bunch goon coming after the spies.
"Just how many of them are there?" Mat wondered.
"No idea, man," Nick sighed as well.
"Another delay... again?" Leon wondered.
"We're just as confused as you are, Leon," Sam replied.
"Like Mat said, 'how many of them are there?'" Clover groaned.
"Guys, I know we're a team, but leave this to me for a change!" Bridget proclaimed.
"Sure thing," Alex replied to Bridget.
"But I've officially had it up to here with these Sour Bunch goons interrupting this film..." May stated.
"So, don't be surprised if one of us ever steps in," Mat added. "Because I'm in the same boat as May!"
"In fact, all of us are..." Nick stated.
"And I'm really in no mood for quickly learning kung fu on the fly..." Mat remarked.
"I totally wanted to start my summer the right way!" Clover exclaimed.
"Don't worry, we've still got a lot of summer ahead of us, and these freaks aren't gonna stop us!" Bridget proclaimed as she punched forward with her bucklers, but when the goon blocked that with his own, she switched to her yo-yos to yank the goon's bucklers away from him.
With the goon vulnerable, Bridget jumped forward and hit the goon with both of her bucklers, sending him stumbling back.
"I'm totally fed up with all these goons!" Mat shouted and went ahead with using his Laser Chapstick after Bridget's most recent blow.
Bridget let Mat have this one until the goon felt a retreat was necessary.
"Bro, what gives with you?" Nick wondered, looking surprised.
"You already know," Mat remarked. "I don't know how many of these goons there are, but these guys are getting me pissed off!"
"I sympathize with you, Mat," Sam quipped. "But hopefully we'll find a way to get Madame Grape defeated and get back to Beverly Hills and enjoy our summer sooner rather than later."
"On a good note, Mat, I like your thinking that time," Alex commented.
"And hopefully that's the last of the goons, too," May added.
"All we can really do is hope," Bridget quipped.
With that problem done and dusted, the play resumed in earnest, and Bridget, back in her kung-fu outfit, approached the door to the inner chamber of the Indomitable Fist's master.
"All right, you, where are you hiding?!" Bridget proclaimed. "You've got a lot to answer for, and I intend to see that you do!"
The curtains drew themselves back and the Indomitable Fist master made their presence known. Bridget couldn't help but chuckle when she saw May dressed up in those silly-looking karate robes.
"What business have you here, little girl?" May proclaimed, putting on her best 'arrogant kung-fu guy who really needs to be taught a lesson' voice. "This is clearly no place for soft-hearted fools like yourself."
"After what you and your sorry excuse for a school did to my father and our own school, did you seriously think I wouldn't show you just how big a mistake you've made?!" Bridget retorted.
"Oh, please, it's not like I killed him, just broke both of his arms," May laughed.
"And because of that, he can never perform his martial arts ever again!" Bridget shouted. "Stop freakin' acting like this is all just a run to the store for you!"
"You dumb blonde, there are plenty of martial arts that don't require your arms," May cackled. "Your dad can just learn a new one. And besides, you didn't need his sorry keester anyways."
"...I'm sorry, what was that?" Bridget growled.
"Wow, May's really going all in on this whole villain shtick, huh?" Alex chuckled.
"She knows when to put on a performance," Nick quipped.
"Your father was only weighing you down, you know," May proclaimed. "We of the Indomitable Fist eschew such tawdry teachings as trust and camaraderie, for sentiment is the enemy of strength. Attachments constrict lesser men and prevent them from attaining true power."
"Shows what you know, you monster," Bridget shot back. "I've only been able to get as far as I have because of my friends, my family, and my fellow students. You claim that connections make you weak, but you're dead wrong. Other people push me to grow stronger, to become even more than I could be all by myself. And now, I think it's high time that I showed you just what true strength, strength of the heart, can really do!"
Bridget prepared herself for battle, as did May, with May even striking a very goofy-looking pose much like the martial artists of all those hilariously badly dubbed kung fu movies.
"Very well, then, little girl, if you're in such a rush to die," May proclaimed. "Let the revelry of blood begin!"
And with that, Bridget and May rushed in to battle each other. The fight lasted a good four minutes, with neither side gaining the advantage for too long.
Eventually, when it came time for the finale, May had knocked Bridget down despite her best efforts, and decided to take this time to gloat.
"What did I tell you, you waste of a martial artist?" May cackled. "Your bonds only tie you down in the end. You will sadly not live to actually learn that lesson, but oh well. In fact, once I'm finished with you, I may just pay another visit to your father so that you can join him!"
Bridget gasped in shock (just as scripted), then let out a particularly loud battle cry as she jumped back to her feet. Bridget channeled the Sparkle Power in her ribbon to unleash a massive burst of illusory fire around her, signifying her powering up for the final blow.
Leon had explained that Sparkle Power was primarily channeled by the audience's excitement and faith in the show they were watching, so the more into it the audience was, the more Sparkle Power the actors could use. And Bridget figured she'd need all the Sparkle Power she could muster when it finally came time to take down Madame Grape.
"Wh-what is this?!" May gasped.
"You made a big mistake in underestimating me," Bridget proclaimed. "You thought I was out of moves, but I've actually been saving my trump card for the big finish!"
Bridget charged towards May, the fire around her intensifying (thank goodness it wasn't actually real fire) as she prepared to unleash her 'secret technique'.
"Now behold, the culmination of my family's martial art, a technique passed down between generations, and the orchestration of your defeat!" Bridget bellowed. "Heavenly Peak's Descent!"
Bridget quickly sprung into action, lunging forward and unleashing a massive flurry of punches and kicks in succession, moving so fast that she appeared to be teleporting around May (her Sparkle Power was taking care of that), until finishing with a devastating series of blows with her appearing to be in four places at once.
And finally, Bridget landed one final kick to May's chest that sent her soaring through the air and crashing through her throne until she hit the gong behind it.
"This... this cannot be..." May gasped dramatically. "Bested... by a mere... a mere child..."
And May flopped down to the ground and lay completely still.
After the audience cheered loudly for the Indomitable Fist's defeat, Bridget glanced out the nearby window towards the setting sun (that Blaine was actually creating by shining a spotlight on a circular mirror).
"And with this, the Indomitable Fist has been vanquished," Sam narrated. "Despite the master's overwhelming power, our heroine has indeed proven that strength isn't everything in martial arts."
"Though her father remains unable to use his arms for the foreseeable future, our heroine is confident that, given time, their family's martial arts legacy will rise again," Mat narrated.
With that, the play was over, and all of the actors came back out to give their final bow, much to the thunderous cheers of the audience.
When it was all over, the spies all gathered with Leon in the third floor lobby to discuss how this play had unfolded.
"You two were magnificent out there," Leon proclaimed. "What a show you put on."
"I caught onto a way to pull it out and I just rolled with it," May chuckled. "Looks like the audience really loved it, thankfully."
"That's probably the hammiest I've ever seen you," Nick quipped.
"And Nick and I both know for a fact that you like to really ham it up when you're play-acting," Bridget replied as she tugged her waist ribbon to return to her normal clothes. "I'll gladly admit that was Nick and I way too many times as kids, what with all the Power Rangers we watched."
"I guess there hasn't been any sign of the actor who was supposed to play the Indomitable Fist master?" Sam wondered.
Bridget suddenly glanced back towards the stairway, and the spies knew what that probably meant.
"Man, it must be heck on your poor legs, having to keep running up and down those stairs, along with whatever running you do in those weird door worlds," Blaine quipped.
"Honestly, it's good exercise," Bridget chuckled. "I'll be back as soon as I can, you guys."
As Bridget headed back down the stairway to return to the basement, Clover couldn't help but shuffle towards Blaine in a rather unsubtle way.
Down in the basement, Bridget prepared herself as she glanced at another empty door, now filled in with the symbol that had been on her bucklers in the kung-fu play.
Bridget raised her yo-yos and used her Sparkle Power to open the door and head on into the world inside the door, which resembled a cliffside with multiple connected martial arts dojos.
"Yeah, that's about what I expected," Bridget quipped as she set out for the dojos, though only one appeared to be accessible, the others blocked by magical barriers of that same dark energy that Madame Grape and the Sour Bunch utilized.
When she entered the first dojo, she found a group of Sour Bunch goons all dressed in karate gear attempting to ambush her. Bridget simply started whipping her yo-yos around, dispatching each goon that came her way handily.
Once all the goons in this dojo had been defeated, Bridget noticed that the barrier surrounding one of the other dojos had disappeared as well.
Figuring that meant she had to dispatch all the goons in each dojo to progress, Bridget set out to do just that, easily taking care of any goons that tried to cross her path.
Once she'd finished in the fourth dojo, a passage up the mountain that had been blocked was uncovered, and Bridget ascended that pathway, still tripping up any Sour Bunch goons that she came across.
Eventually, she reached the top of the mountain and found herself in front of one last dojo that resembled that of the Indomitable Fist from the play. The same door from the basement was in front of her, which could only mean that she was close to the missing actor.
"Well, here goes something, I guess," Bridget stated as she pushed her way through the door and onto the stage.
Sure enough, this stage followed the pattern and the captured karate actor was tied up on the front stage. Still, Bridget tread cautiously, knowing that something was about to go down.
Like clockwork, the stage began to change shape, taking the form of a large tower-esque structure. And rising from the void in the middle of the tower was a gigantic robotic snake wearing a golden masquerade mask like the rest of the Sour Bunch.
"Oh, that's lovely," Bridget groaned.
Light Fang stretched out slightly and started shining a large spotlight along the paths that led up this winding tower. Bridget decided to tread carefully, not wanting to know what might happen if she were spotted.
Occasionally, Bridget would stop to hide behind a large wall so the spotlight would harmlessly pass by her and allow her to keep moving up the tower. Eventually, Bridget made it to the tip-top of the current path and found a large pink light.
Just as Light Fang noticed her and tried to shine its spotlight on her, Bridget hit the light with her yo-yos and caused it to turn on, emitting a bright flash that disassembled Light Fang and dropped a dark purple sphere onto the ground in front of her, just like what had happened with Disco Wing.
Bridget channeled her Sparkle Power into her yo-yos and started attacking the sphere until it flashed and retreated, Light Fang's body reforming around it.
The tower area flashed with a dark purple sheen and rearranged itself so that the path to the top was much different this time.
Bridget continued to make her way up the tower, occasionally whacking a smaller pink light to momentarily disable Light Fang so she could continue to ascend without trouble for a short time.
However, Light Fang reactivated itself and quickly managed to shine its spotlight on Bridget before she could get to safe ground, and all of a sudden, she found herself back at the beginning of the current path up the tower.
"...nuts," Bridget groaned. "Okay, so definitely do not get caught, then."
Bridget resumed her climb up the tower, this time taking a slower and more methodical approach, figuring she was really in no hurry here.
About halfway up the tower, though, Light Fang whipped its tail out to destroy one of the walls that Bridget was hiding behind, Bridget just barely ducking out of the way in time to avoid it.
"Okay, that wasn't nice, you stupid snake thing!" Bridget shouted as she took cover inside a corridor, sure that Light Fang couldn't just knock this one down.
Finally, though, Bridget made her way back to the top of the tower, and though Light Fang shined its spotlight on her, Bridget managed to activate the big pink light before it could affect her, Light Fang falling to pieces again and the dark sphere landing in front of her. Bridget clobbered the sphere with her yo-yos until it flew back into the middle of the tower, allowing Light Fang to once again reform and rearrange the pathway up the tower.
This final pathway was much longer and Light Fang moved faster, occasionally destroying walls before Bridget could even reach them, but she managed, continuing to climb the tower until she reached the big pink light again, activated it to disassemble Light Fang, and attacked the sphere until it finally exploded for good.
One loud screech was the last sound from Light Fang as its mechanical body parts all fell down and exploded with much pageantry. One bright flash later, Bridget was back on the main stage, and all was quiet again.
"Welp, that was fun, I'd say," Bridget quipped as she moved towards the edge of the stage and used her yo-yos to sever the magical bindings keeping the actor trapped there. "All right, you're good to go."
"Wait, aren't you the actor that's been performing in the plays recently?" the actor wondered.
"Ah, I see my reputation precedes me," Bridget teased. "But yeah, I'm acting in the plays to figure out all this nonsense with the Sour Bunch, and my friends are helping me out."
"I've heard rumblings from the rest of the Sour Bunch, that they're getting increasingly frustrated with how much they've been set back in the past day or two," the actor quipped.
"Good, that means our 'interference' is working," Bridget chuckled. "At this rate, it shouldn't be too much longer before we can find Madame Grape and take her down a couple hundred pegs."
Once everything had calmed down, another door appeared in the stage area, and just like the last three door worlds, Bridget and the actor exited through this door back into the Sparkle Theater basement. Once they were back, the door shined with a bright blue light before dissolving completely, leaving only two remaining doors in the basement.
"Hopefully this means we're getting closer to finding Madame Grape," Bridget quipped as she and the actor, real name Johnny, left the basement and returned to the third floor lobby, where everybody was waiting.
"I take it things went well down there?" Sam stated.
"I clocked a bunch of goons in dojos, fought a giant time-rewinding snake, and relived a lot of bad movies," Bridget laughed. "I'd say things went phenomenally."
"So, how many of those doors are left?" Mat wondered.
"There's only two doors remaining," Bridget responded. "And I'm pretty dang sure that once we finish up those last two, we'll find out where in this place Madame Grape is holed up."
"So, then, Leon, how many plays do we have left on the docket today?" Alex asked.
"When it comes to the plays where our actors have gone missing, we have one more scheduled for tonight, and then another one tomorrow," Leon answered. "Hopefully completing these will flush Madame Grape out of hiding."
"I'm hoping so, too, because I've got a big itch to clock that lady with my yo-yos," Bridget proclaimed.
"We still have some time before the last major play for tonight, so how about we head on up to the fourth floor and discuss what we're going to be doing next?" Leon stated.
"Sounds like a plan to us," May chuckled.
Little did they know that they were all being watched from somewhere deep in the Sparkle Theater by Madame Grape herself.
"Yes, keep on going, you little pests," Madame Grape chuckled. "You just keep on fixing everything. Keep giving them hope. It'll make it all the more delicious and tragic when I crush that hope in the palm of my hands."
To be continued...
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Next time...
Alex: Wow, it's like the floors get more and more extravagant the higher up we go.
Leon: We host some of our more elaborate plays up here, since the stages on floor four are larger to accommodate bigger and better experiences.
Nick: Hey, what do you think that is?
Sam: It looks like some kind of barrier. And I have a feeling I know who's waiting for us up there.
Leon: Yes, we've been locked out of the fifth floor ever since Madame Grape and the Sour Bunch took over the theater.
Bridget: That confirms my suspicions, then. Once we free the last two missing actors, then we can go after Madame Grape. ...oh, let me guess, you finally caved and decided to ask Blaine out?
Clover: And he said yes!
Blaine: We're gonna wait until this whole thing is over to make actual plans, considering it'd be tricky while we're still dealing with this.
Leon: We should probably head to the stage to get ready for our next play.
Mat: Yeah, so we can get this wrapped up as soon as possible and get back to enjoying our summer, next time on Totally Spies the Movie: The Greatest Showtime, "The Curious Case of the Grueling Grape"!
Clover: Man, it's kinda weird to act like this is the first time I've met Blaine when we've already been dating for so long in the main show.
Nick: That's the interesting thing about these alternate universe stories. You never know how different things can be.