Coming Up Next: With Ariel taken care of, all that's left is King, so the spies chase after him to shut his whacked tournament down once and for all, but naturally, he's got a secret weapon of his own ready to get into the ring. Can the spies thwart this latest menace and restore some semblance of order to the .W.O.O.H.P. Containment Facility?
Act 3: Wrestle Maniacs
5:41 P.M. – W.O.O.H.P. Headquarters
Containment Facility
"Whoa, what did he do to this place?" Alex wondered once the spies reached the area where King had run off to.
"It looks as gaudy as the rest of his style," Haruka commented.
"We better find these two ringleaders and send them to a circus," Blaine added.
"We don't need to wait very long," Nick quipped.
"All right, King, we've got you cornered! Do us a favor for once and just give it up!" Mat proclaimed.
"Now why would I do that when I have a show to run?" King sneered.
"Well, can't say we didn't try, right?" Michi rhetorically wondered.
"You could also try to make the 'gay vibes' disappear, too," Mat added.
"We've already shut down your little 'tournament' and put all of our baddies back in containment where they belong, King," Sam proclaimed. "It won't be longer before you're gonna join them!
"Oh, but Samantha..." King nonchalantly stated. "You must remember that a true performer always saves their best performance for the very end."
With that, King disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"H-Hey, where'd he go?" Dawn wondered.
"There he is!" Melissa shouted when King landed back in their vision.
"...and what the heck is he wearing?" Nick chastised.
The spotlights around the ring shined down onto King to reveal that he was wearing a rather gaudy wrestler's suit almost reminiscent of Hulk Hogan, only his fists were covered by large metallic boxing gloves lined with spikes, and from a mechanical backpack sprouted five sharp pincers like a praying mantis.
"Okay, I don't even know what I'm supposed to say to that," Michi admitted.
"Try and stop me now, you little bastards!" King exclaimed as he charged towards the spies.
"I guess it's a given to stay the hell away from those gloves," Blaine quipped.
However, as Blaine dodged a punch from King's spiked gloves, the pincers on his back stabbed outwards, and Blaine just barely managed to get out of the way, though not without a cut on his spy suit.
"Looks like that's going to be a bit of a problem," Clover noted.
"What will you do now, spies?" King laughed. "You can't get anywhere close to me, or my pincers will get you first, or I could just punch you out. What's it gonna be?"
"Then maybe we just have to fight you at range for a bit," Nick retorted as he fired a Final Shine Attack to push King backwards. "You seriously don't think we have ranged options, given who we work for?"
"Then I'll just have to punch you into jelly first!" King exclaimed as he aimed his gloves towards the spies and fired the spikes off like missiles towards May.
Not impressed, May simply twirled her anchor around in her hands to deflect the spikes away from the ring.
"Yeah, don't think I'm scared of you," May chuckled as she moved in closer to start swinging her anchor at King, who would counter each swing as best as he could with a punch from his gloves.
Eventually, though, May found an opening in his wild flurry of punches and swung her anchor overhead to clock him and send him crashing to the ground.
Alex took advantage of this opportunity and ran forward to slash two of the pincers off of King's suit with a Platinum Credit Card, only for the three remaining pincers to snatch her up and yank her closer to King.
"That was not your boldest move, little girl," King taunted.
"Well, sorry I saw an opening," Alex retorted.
"This is your only warning, King," Nick growled. "Get your claws off of her right now."
"And why would I do that?" King laughed. "She's the one who made the foolish decision of trying to catch me off guard when my pincers have all of that covered for me."
King was too caught up in his gloating to notice that Sortiliena had made her way into the ring, slipping between the ropes as silently as she could.
"And now, your little sporty girl is my captive, and either you let me run my little tournament, or she'll probably have quite a few more holes in her," King stated. "Isn't that right, my precious little hostage?"
But when King turned around to look at Alex, she was gone, and the pincers that had been holding her had been severed, lying twitching on the mat.
"Surprise!" Sortiliena exclaimed as she lunged forward to kick King in the back, sending him stumbling forward.
"Who dares..." King growled.
"That'd be me," Sortiliena chuckled as Alex stood by her side, ready to lay a beatdown on King. "Rules for villains, number forty-nine: Don't monologue any longer than you have to, as it gives the good guys time to ruin your plans."
"Where did you come from?!" King exclaimed.
"Oh, everywhere and nowhere all at once," Sortiliena quipped. "I was just busy getting all of the villains you and Ariel sprung back into containment where they belong."
"And now, I think it's time you joined them!" Alex exclaimed as she and Sortiliena rushed towards King.
King attempted to punch them away, but without his pincers, the much more nimble Alex and Sortiliena were easily able to dodge each punch while moving closer at the same time.
"I can still smash you with these!" King exclaimed as she slammed both of his gloves into the mat, creating a small tremor that nearly collapsed the ring and forced Alex and Sortiliena to jump to avoid getting knocked off-balance.
However, this left King wide open from behind, a vulnerability that both Nick and May exploited viciously, by way of May tossing her anchor towards King like a javelin and Nick using his psychic powers to telekinetically guide it into King, hitting him multiple times to the point he couldn't dodge.
"All right, I'm putting an end to this," Michi chuckled as she raised her hands. "Hope you enjoy a portal ride, mister gaudy suit!"
Before King could even properly process that insult, Michi had opened a portal underneath him that he fell right into. Michi then opened another portal from the roof of the room, causing King to fall out of it and right back onto the ring, the collision damaging the rest of his suit.
King quickly discarded the suit before it could explode on him, which it did after he'd thrown it away from the ring.
"Whew, that was a close one," King sighed.
"You were saying?" Nick quipped. King could only curse his own cockiness as Nick imprisoned him inside of a psychic bubble. "Your shows are never going to amount to anything, and you know it."
"Well, excuse me for trying," King groaned.
"Is everything okay out there, Sortiliena, considering you're here?" Sam wondered.
"Everything is peachy keen, Sam," Sortiliena answered. "I just got finished rounding up the last few baddies before I came to help you out."
"Then I guess that means this case is closed, huh?" Britney wondered.
"You'd be completely right on that front," RiCO answered from Nick's X-Powder. "All of the bad guys are back in their containment cells, and I already refreshed the security codes so they can't break out like that again. We're sending a team to clean up the mess that King and Ariel made, so you guys can head back home and chill, okay?"
"I like that idea!" Clover laughed as a large metal tube protruded from the ceiling, sucking the spies into it so they could head back home.
"And no worries about your race today, Mat," RiCO added. "I took care of that for you."
6:00 P.M. – The Spies' Beach House
After being sent back home to resume their summer vacation, Mat was a little bit flabbergasted that he'd forgotten about the 450cc class from Hangtown due to the mission.
"I'm glad that we stopped Vince King and Ariel from that tournament becoming a bloodbath," Bridget remarked.
"No doubt about that," Dawn replied with a sigh of relief.
Mat checked things out, and he was surprised that RiCO had recorded the 450cc class from the 2010 Hangtown Motocross opener for him.
"So, everyone up for pizza to start our summer vacay?" Britney suggested.
The whole den was filled with a "yes" answer.
"We've gotta get Canadian bacon this time!" Haruka exclaimed.
"Isn't that just regular ol' bacon in a different form?" Melissa wondered. "Why does there need to be a difference?"
"They've got chicken, freakin' chicken as a pizza topping?" Britney gasped when she looked at the topping list Clover was providing.
"I think it's more ground chicken as a sausage substitute," Nick answered. "My mom liked to make tacos that way, too."
"There's green onions there, too," May quipped. "I didn't know onions could be that kind of green."
Again, Clover opted to pay for everyone, but Nick noticed Mat with a sigh of relief and the 450cc class being replayed. Mat looked in his DS to see a message from RiCO.
I took care of your race, Mat.
"Oh, yeah, you didn't get a chance to see the 450s, huh?" Nick chuckled.
"Yeah... hey, Townley's back?!" Mat remarked after seeing former 250 East Supercross champ and 250 Motocross runner-up Ben Townley of New Zealand return to the U.S. for the first time since 2008.
"Say what?" Melissa wondered.
"Former Team Honda racer Ben Townley's returned this season," Mat replied.
A prior shot had showed Townley aboard a Troy Lee Designs Honda CRF450R. Now, there was a pit report from Erin Bates while Racer X Writer Jason Weigandt and 4-time Motocross champ Jeff Emig were calling the race.
Erin: A lot of riders back from injury, but some major changes for the #24 of Brett Metcalfe, who comes in today making his first race in the 450 class. We just saw him during that first moto took home a 5th place, but this happens to be the exact same engine that Kevin Windham had run. He said this bike suits his style, this track suits his style... he's feeling nothing but comfortable. The biggest change he's had to adapt to is managing all the power – basically power control – and also the handling of this. Take a look at "The Hunter" on the back of his pants... it's because he never seems to get a good start, so he's gotta hunt these riders down. His main focus is obviously a great start here for moto 2.
"Sounds appropriate to me," Blaine commented.
The moto 1 highlights left Mat with a big grin, as defending champ Chad Reed on his #1 Monster Energy Kawasaki got the holeshot.
"Atta boy, Reedy!" Mat cheered.
The highlights continued with privateer Steven Clarke #43 crashing in turn 2, and then a later shot showed Team Honda's Andrew Short #29 also down on the ground.
"How would you crash there?" Bridget asked after seeing Short's Honda was almost invisible and lay behind a left-hand turn.
"No idea," Nick stated.
Jason: Dungey would STALL on lap 2, a few more mistakes coming through traffic... a disappointing 10th for the new Supercross champ!
The next shot showed Metcalfe had a wild ride, but he did not crash, fortunately.
The man on the move was Joe Gibbs Racing Yamaha's Josh Grant #33, as he had moved up to 2nd place around Honda's Davi Millsaps #18 on the last lap.
Jason: A clutch move by Josh Grant to take 2nd, but there was no answer for Chad Reed... your first moto winner of the season!
To say Mat was happy about the first moto was an understatement. Sam noticed this, and she was happy for Mat, too; however, there was still one more moto to run for Chad Reed to be declared the overall winner.
As the second moto was set to start, Mat had a good feeling about things.
"I'm taking Chad Reed," Mat told everyone.
"No surprise," Britney chuckled.
"Yeah, why the heck not?" May stated. "After the season he's had, let him have one for once!"
"Tell me about it," Michi quipped.
Currently, the second moto was moments away from starting, and there were three keys to the race regarding TLD Honda's Ben Townley #101.
Jeff: Well, Townley definitely needs to get a better start; inside the top 5, I think he will be happy with. Also, if he can do that, he has a chance at running the pace with the leader. He had some good lap times... not quite with the leader, and if he can latch onto the leader and run that pace... and then of course, finish the moto! He's trying to build the foundation; remember, Rome wasn't built in a day. Right now, he's coming back after almost two years off, so he needs to finish all the laps, all the motos today.
Jason: 6th in moto 1 for Townley – I'd say that's right where he wants to be.
Jeff: That's a great start – no doubt.
Jason: Solid run... Has not raced since Hangtown in 2008, and was out for almost a year-and-a-half with a shoulder injury...
"Nice to see an old face back honestly," Alex commented.
The second moto began.
Jason: And guess who... the 350cc KTM of Mike Alessi has the start!
Jeff: Well, I guess the questions have been answered! KTM has delivered a brand new machine, which is out front here in moto 2 at Hangtown!
"A 350?!" Nozomi asked.
Jeff: Short's in there... Mike Brown... Kyle Regal up front...
Jason: Where is Reed? There he is!
Jeff: Reed mid-pack!
It was reported that Chad Reed was around 10th position.
"I don't know if this is good or bad," Mat deduced.
By the end of the first lap, Alessi led by 3.5 seconds.
Jason: You got Kyle Regal, Brown, Metcalfe, and Reed IS IN 10TH at the end of lap 1, and Dungey is 13TH! So, another tough start for the new Supercross champ... and Josh Grant is 14th!
"Oh, Reed is very lucky now," Mat stated with a sigh of relief.
Reed was battling with 2001 125 Motocross champ Mike Brown on his #3 KTM. Up ahead was Honda's Metcalfe, and a few others before Chad Reed could even think about the overall.
"This doesn't look good..." May commented.
"It's still early, though," Nick pointed out.
There was also a second eulogizing speech regarding the passing of former pro racer Danny "Magoo" Chandler, who had died in his sleep at only 50 years young.
"Too bad that happened to him," Haruka commented. "So young, too..."
Now, Reed was working Honda privateer Kyle Regal #41 for 8th place, but Josh Grant – 2nd in moto 1 – was behind him now, which got Mat's attention.
"I hope that Reed didn't foolishly give this away..." Bridget remarked.
There was still over 20 minutes and two additional laps to go. At this point, Reed winning this second moto appeared to be impossible, but he did make the move on Regal for 8th a bit later.
"Is there any difference with a 350, Mat?" Melissa asked.
"Aside from 100 less CCs, I don't think so," Mat remarked. "It's still a 4-stroke; I can remember John Dowd rode a KTM 520 back in 2001, and Doug Henry rode the first Yamaha 4-stroke – a YZ400 – in 1997, and Tim Ferry rode a YZ426F in '01 and '02."
"You really know your stuff, huh, Mat?" Michi chuckled.
"Mat's the Supercross guy, for damn sure," Nick quipped. "I didn't know even a fifth of what all this hoopla meant before we met Mat."
In the meantime, Reed got around Honda's Andrew Short for 6th, and 5th place Ryan Sipes on the #46 MotoConcepts Yamaha.
KTM's Alessi still led the way, but Chad Reed was on the move.
Jason: He's gonna have to move up to 3rd... he's not gonna win this moto – no way! Mike Alessi is gone unless Alessi and Millsaps and these guys throw it away; Reed's gonna have to hope that he can get far enough forward in the running order in this moto to win it based on math...
"I'm sure he'll get there..." Nozomi deduced.
"I think so, too," Mat remarked.
Ben Townley on his TLD Lucas Oil Honda #101 was going after his former Team Honda teammate Davi Millsaps for 2nd place.
Jason: ...Ben Townley – last time we saw him was right here at Hangtown in '08. He had a shoulder injury, he tried to ride through it, he crashed... and he... many people thought called it a career at that point! He basically went back to his native New Zealand and disappeared. He was a teammate of Millsaps at the time; he actually told Honda, "Don't pay me! I'm leaving! I'm done! I need to recover... I'm terminating my own contract. I need time to clear my head and get back into this game," and in his very first race back right now, he's right where he used to be – a podium position!
"He needed some time to recover, but damn, did he," May chuckled.
"Yeah, talk about an epic comeback story," Bridget quipped.
In the meantime, the spies had finished up their pizza, and Clover, May, and Nick helped clean up.
On the next lap, Townley got around Millsaps for 2nd place, much to Mat's surprise.
"What a ride by Townley after practically two years!" Mat exclaimed.
Before long, Reed was working on Sipes for 5th place. He then muscled his way past Sipes for 5th, and Sipes had to drift wide. The next guy in line was Brett Metcalfe, who was running 4th.
"Mat, I really hope this is the kind of season you were looking for after how Supercross went," Bridget stated.
"Totally, bro," Nick added. "It was no fun seeing how pissed you got after just three races, but I can't say I'd have reacted any different..."
As the moto wound down, it was reported that Townley had made a mistake and had fallen down to 6th, and Reed was now working on Metcalfe for 3rd place and the overall win.
Jeff: ...Right now, with... looks like two minutes, we probably have... 3 more laps to go in this moto, and Chad Reed's pushing forward.
Fortunately, Reed was only about two seconds behind Metcalfe.
"Oh, he's going to get him," Mat replied confidently.
He was right! Reed had erased that gap and passed Metcalfe for 3rd which would give Chad the overall win. However, Alessi had crossed the finish line jump with time to spare, so now it was 3 laps to go.
"Well, Mat, you may not have much to worry about for now," Blaine chuckled.
A later shot found Suzuki's Ryan Dungey #5 running in 7th place.
Jason: Erin, what have you got on Dungey?
Erin: Well, you guys, when I spoke with the team earlier, I've come to find out because he was so focused on the Supercross Championship, he really didn't log in as many hours as he normally would testing for outdoors! He's been struggling all day long trying to get comfortable on the bike. Mike Gosselaar, his mechanic, has made multiple changes with the suspension; he's just not exactly feeling himself today, but hopefully he will be able to turn it around before the end of the season.
"Whoops..." Mat remarked.
"These things happen," Alex quipped.
When the final lap came around, Alessi was long gone, but Chad Reed was going to conquer the day, much to Mat's delight.
Jason: Well, the "Mike Alessi Experiment" is obviously in play! The 350 WINS HERE AT HANGTOWN! Davi Millsaps, a solid run, finishes 2nd; CHAD REED TAKES 3RD FROM DEEP IN THE PACK! HE WILL TAKE THE OVERALL WIN! Great racing here at Hangtown! Mike Alessi's happy... so is Chad Reed!
"YEAH!" Mat cheered since Chad Reed's 1-3 (45 points) was enough to win the first overall of the 2010 Motocross season.
"Great on Alessi to win the moto on that 350 as well," Melissa added.
In the overall, Mike Alessi's 4-1 (43 points) put him 2nd place overall, and Davi Millsaps went 3-2 (42 points) put him 3rd place overall. Down in 8th place was your Supercross champ Ryan Dungey with only 26 points.
"I say this calls for a celebration," Nick stated after patting Mat on the shoulder. "Anybody with me?"
'Oh, hell yeah," May laughed. "Let me just go upstairs and..."
"Just try not to jump on Mat this time, okay?" Bridget noted. "I think he's had enough of that after last time."
Naturally, the spies all headed for the pool and waited for May to come barging downstairs like she always did.
Michi got a cheeky glint in her eyes as she borrowed Nick's X-Powder so she could use its quick-change function to change into a purple two-piece swimsuit with bright blue polka dot patterns.
The instant that Michi heard the telltale sound of racing footsteps, she raised her hand to create a portal in front of the pool, and then another one a few feet above the pool.
Naturally, May didn't see the portal in her mad dash to do a Pirate Dive, so she ran right into the portal and fell out of the other one, doing a powerful but unintentional belly-flop before she even knew what the heck had happened.
Amid the laughter of the spies laughing, May resurfaced, sputtering slightly before looking around, then catching Michi's eye, and laughing along with them, happily admitting that she'd been had.
Unknown Time – The Still World
"Stop right where you are!" Elizabeth exclaimed as the Arbiters finally caught up with the Collective goons at the edge of a much larger floating platform.
"Why, hello there, Arbiters," one of the goons laughed. "How nice of you to show yourselves. But... I'm afraid you're too late."
Elizabeth only had time to ready Thorn as a large dark purple rift opened in the air behind the Collective goons, and multiple tendril-like arms with warped three-digit claws began to emerge and attempt to rip the rift open further.
"How does it feel knowing that you've failed again?!" another goon laughed maniacally.
"The only time we fail is if we fall," Raora retorted. "And we're still here, aren't we?!"
"Also, don't you freaks even understand what letting Null out is going to mean for, I dunno, all of freakin' reality?!" Gigi exclaimed.
"You're just upset that you can't stop Null," a third goon taunted. "After all, you haven't before, right?"
"Well, that's mostly because our efforts have been to keep Null sealed away," Cecilia admitted.
Suddenly, a trio of the tendrils coming from the rift snatched up the Collective goons and pulled them all into the rift before they could even scream.
"Yup, called it," Gigi groaned.
"We need to get out of here," Elizabeth proclaimed.
"But what about Null?" Raora asked.
"I can cast a spell that will keep him sealed in the Still World, but it'll only hold him for a little while," Elizabeth noted. "I think it's time to change our priorities and shift our focus to actually destroying Null."
Elizabeth looked behind her as she swung Thorn to open a gateway out of the Still World and back to the real world. "And I think I know exactly who might be able to assist us."
Totally Spies: Jailhouse Jostle
~The End~
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Final Note from Mat49324: Well, that's all for Jailhouse Jostle! We hope you enjoyed this one, and that you will stay tuned for our next project, which will be our season 10 finale! Hard to believe, isn't it? Well, anyway, The Blue Time Ranger will be authoring that one, and he's titled it Sinister Souls. This may also fill in the voids or any other questions you all may have about the new OC Michi Mochievee that was introduced earlier this season. Anyway, here's The Blue Time Ranger for his final thoughts on this project and this season overall.
Final Note from The Blue Time Ranger: Glad that's over, huh? With everything that just happened, it might be time to update the containment facility. And that may extend to any possible OG season 7 villains, considering that it's FINALLY started airing in the states.
And with that out of the way, let's get to the next episode of Totally Spies: The New Adventures! The next one is the big season ten finale, and as you may have noticed at the end of this one, things are probably about to get crazy now that Null's so close to escaping. Get ready for a bunch of wild and wacky antics as we bring season ten to the finish line, next time on Sinister Souls, 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 Sinister Souls, and we'll see you next mission!
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
The sound of knocking coming from somewhere downstairs was what finally brought Nick back to reality.
"...I swear, whoever just woke us up, it had better be for a damn good reason," Nick groaned as he hauled himself out of bed, trying not to wake Alex up in the process, to see who was trying to get their attention.
In his sleepy state, Nick didn't even bother looking out the nearby window, because if he had, he would have seen something very disturbing.
As Nick continued to descend down the stairs, the knocking he'd heard became louder and more frantic.
"Dude, I just woke up," Nick groaned. "I can only move so fast when my mind's still kinda stuck in la-la land..."
When he finally reached the front door, he slowly opened it, only to see an equally-bewildering sight.
It was Mandy.
"...wait, Mandy?" Nick wondered. "What the heck are you doing here? If I remember correctly, you're never up this early on the weekends, especially in the middle of summer..."
Now, even in his half-asleep state, Nick definitely noticed that Mandy appeared to be panicking about something.
"J-Jeez, Mandy, calm down," Nick stated. "Just take a few deep breaths, okay?"
When Mandy did so and allowed herself to calm down a little, Nick looked back at her.
"Now, what's the matter?" Nick asked.
Mandy simply pointed to the sky, which had turned a cancerous shade of purple and had multiple disturbing-looking tendril arms poking out from various spots.
"W-What the hell?!" Nick shouted, now fully awake.
To be continued in Totally Spies: Sinister Souls...