Coming Up Next: Just when the spies seem to be getting more uncomfortable with this idea, they start getting texts warning them they have to keep going or risk those 'raunchy photos' being uploaded to the internet. Before this can happen, though, Hikari and Makoto show up just in time to expose the scheme and force Lumiere on the defensive. What else does Lumiere have in store for the spies this go-round?
Act 2: Deep Focus Shot
4:37 P.M. – The Spies' Beach House
"Okay, can I say something?" Haruka asked once the scene was finally wrapped up.
"What's the matter?" a crew member wondered.
"Well, this scene looks like it's starting to get a bit too... how do I say this without sounding like a jerk... 'out there' for my tastes," Haruka admitted.
"Hey, I'm having fun," May giggled.
"That's because you really have no shame, you goofball," Nick chuckled.
"If that's the problem, then we can make a few changes to the script," the director answered. "We're willing to accommodate."
Before the spies could express their relief, all of their phones suddenly beeped, and as they checked the messages they were sent, the director suddenly looked nervous when he realized the spies were now looking at him with intent in their eyes.
"Okay, so... you all wanna start explaining yourself, like, right the hell now?" Clover growled.
"W-Wait, what do you mean?" a crew member gasped.
"Oh, don't play coy with us," Mat retorted. "We all just got a text message saying that we need to continue with the raunchy scenes or those photos of us are going to be posted all over the internet!"
"I knew you perverts were too insistent about the swimsuit scenes!" Melissa shouted.
"H-Hey, what's this all about?!" the director sputtered. "We would never do something like that, honest!"
"Like we're really going to believe that crock of nonsense?!" Haruka growled, looking like she was about to actually get up and start attacking the crew, until Nick stopped her from doing so.
"...this might sound weird, but they're telling the truth," Nick proclaimed, surprising the spies. "I don't detect any bad intentions from them."
"Then who's blackmailing us with that photo crap?" Sam wondered.
Practically the instant the answer clicked to the spies, Nick's psychic radar picked up something approaching their location.
"Ooh, I don't like that look," May quipped. "Is there trouble coming our way, Nick?"
"Yeah, directly above us!" Nick responded.
Before the film crew could really process what was happening, Nick jumped to his feet and fired a Final Shine Attack into the sky, just enough to disorient who else but Marco Lumiere as he came flying down to greet them.
"Aw, why'd you have to go and ruin the surprise?" Lumiere cackled.
"You've got some nerve, movie boy," Alex growled. "Was this all your idea the whole time?!"
"But of course," Lumiere sneered, holding out a phone of his own. "And now that I have those photos, all I have to do is hit the send button, and your despicable mugs will be all over the internet for anyone to see. I hope you've said goodbye to your social lives, you little pests!"
Lumiere dramatically hit the "send" button, only for his phone to suddenly display a cartoony image of RiCO sticking her tongue out instead.
"W-What?" Lumiere gasped.
"Yeah, nice try, you film hack," RiCO laughed from Nick's X-Powder. "But those photos aren't going anywhere except the trash. Did you forget that the super-advanced artificial intelligence sees all?"
"There's no way you figured out my plan so quickly, you little digital tart!" Lumiere growled.
"Oh, she had a bit of help," Hikari proclaimed as she and Makoto made their own dramatic entrance. "Makoto and I had our suspicions this whole time, and wouldn't you know it, my intuition was spot-on as always!"
"Oh, wonderful, it's you again," Lumiere groaned. This gave May ample opportunity to jump into the air, boosted by Nick's telekinesis, summon her anchor to her hand, and swing it hard enough to send Lumiere flying out of the beach house and into the front lawn.
"You all might want to pack up and vamoose before you get caught up in this," Nick stated to the film crew. "We'll handle this bozo."
Despite their confusion, the film crew definitely agreed and swiftly vacated the beach house, allowing the spies to use their X-Powders and equivalent devices to change into their spy suits and rush out to the front lawn to confront Lumiere.
"You're in a whole heap of trouble for trying to exploit us like this, you whackjob!" Alex exclaimed.
"What you've done officially crossed a line, you know," Nick proclaimed, his psychic aura flaring to life around him. "So I hope you're ready for a beatdown!"
"I say I have not crossed any lines since your little AI hooligan ruined my plans..." Marco sneered.
"You seriously wouldn't consider putting those pics on the Internet..." Clover growled, despite she wasn't affected.
"And I'd call what RiCO did a huge favor!" Haruka proclaimed, relieved her dignity was intact for now.
"So, this is your new idea?!" May shouted.
"Why'd you devise something like this?!" Sam retorted, demanding answers.
"Why not?" Lumiere sneered again.
Nick was the most ticked off and fired three psychic shots at Marco Lumiere that he'd resort to something like this. Lumiere wasn't fazed and dodged them all.
"Where'd that come from?!" Nick shouted.
"Attack from all corners," Sam told Clover and Alex.
With that, Sam used her Laser Lipstick at Marco Lumiere himself to make him "dance."
While this was happening, Alex fired a Cyclone Blast Hairdryer while Clover fired an Electromagnetic Curling Iron. Though Lumiere just barely managed to dodge the blasts by the skin of his teeth, it left him wide open to May slipping in behind him and clocking him in the back with a swing from her anchor, sending him tumbling across the lawn.
"So, your M.O. is to have us star in a dirty movie?!" Nick chastised.
"You only got that partly right," Lumiere sneered, fully admitting things now. "And it's a good thing I came prepared with more ways to get those photos out..."
("All Star" by Smash Mouth plays)
"Well, so sorry, but you're not getting that chance!" Bridget proclaimed. "Sonic Mode, online!"
Lumiere attempted to dodge away, but naturally, Bridget was too fast for him, speeding past him to send him flying into the air with a clothesline before turning around and blitzing back to grab him by the ankles and slam him back into the ground.
Nick followed this up by telekinetically yanking Lumiere back into the air.
"Put me down this instant," Lumiere growled, only for Nick to bring his hands down to smash Lumiere right into the ground.
"Well, he insisted," Nick chuckled.
"You gunning for a spot on the sex offender registry?!" Mat taunted. "Because you've crossed a lot of lines there!"
"No... gunning for stardom!" Lumiere corrected. "What more degrading field to REALLY turn your worlds upside down?!"
"Well, isn't that relieving..." Mat sarcastically remarked. "You resort to Girls Gone Wild since summertime's here?"
"Why not?" Lumiere sneered. "It's that time of year, isn't it?"
"Well, we have standards!" May shouted as she ran forward to swing her anchor again. Lumiere managed to dodge the first swing, but May made a second swing faster than he anticipated, and she nailed him square in the chest with that swing.
"We're nothing like those snooty little nutballs who only wanna 'show off' for the cameras!" Haruka exclaimed as she stomped on Lumiere's foot to make him jump so she could grab him by the ankle, spin him around for a bit, and toss him towards Nick, who sent him flying with a point-blank Final Shine Attack.
Despite being forced flat on his back, however, Lumiere was still smugly confident.
"What's with your smirks, buddy boy?" Blaine chastised.
"Since I'll have your dignity sooner or later, I suppose you can find out now..." Lumiere remarked.
Instead of saying something, he threw down a smoke bomb, and despite Nick clearing it all away, Lumiere had gotten away.
"I don't know how they do this," Melissa groaned.
"We'll have to leave that up to the conspiracy theorists," Clover commented and rolled her eyes.
Before long, the spies could hear their X-Powders go off.
"Who'd have guessed we'd be part of a dirty summer movie?" Alex chastised.
"Totally," Clover added. "Keep the R and X-rated stuff away from me!"
Haruka and May had some cringy looks on their faces.
"What's with you guys?" Melissa asked.
"Look at these..." Haruka replied.
It was another blackmail letter demanding that Haruka and May go through a raunchy pool scene or Marco Lumiere would still release those photos and videos regardless.
"I don't need three guesses to figure out Marco Lumiere typed up this threat..." May stated matter-of-factly. "But NO WAY IN HELL am I swimming in the pool or sitting in the jacuzzi TOPLESS!"
The same thing applied to Haruka as well.
"Oh, gosh..." Mat cringed.
Blaine made a cringy face as well.
"And you better see this, Nick..." Haruka added.
"The psychic stars with them?" Nick read.
"Exactly!" Lumiere exclaimed from who-knew-where.
The spies could see he stood on the roof of their beach house.
"Get down here and face us like a real man, you halfwit movie fraud!" Alex shouted.
"Now why would I do that?" Lumiere chuckled, unaware that Hikari was slowly floating up towards him, being telekinetically levitated by Nick. "After all, I'm the one who holds the cards here."
Nick set Hikari down gently, and she started stepping towards Lumiere.
"And I thought you craved attention like that?" Lumiere laughed.
"Not when people could do unsavory things with that kind of attention, you freak!" Blaine shouted back.
"Hey, it's not really my fault that the tabloids eat this crap up," Lumiere sneered.
"Going my way?" Hikari chuckled.
Lumiere quickly spun around at that voice. "W-What the...?"
Lumiere's surprise gave Hikari enough time to step forward and punch him in the face, and the both of them struggled for a bit until Lumiere reached out and grabbed Hikari by the shirt collar.
"Just who the hell do you think you are?" Lumiere sneered.
Hikari's response was to throw her arms up, breaking Lumiere's grip on her, and then slugging him in the face with a wicked right hook. This dazed Lumiere enough for Hikari to grab him by the shirt collar and pin him down against the edge of the roof.
"I'm the director, you son of a bitch," Hikari laughed before kicking Lumiere off of the roof and sending him tumbling down in front of the spies.
"I still have the upper hand, spies, so you may as well say goodbye to your dignity while you still have it," Lumiere laughed as he picked himself up. "But, since I'd like to think I'm at least a bit of a nice guy, I'll give you a challenge. If you can stop me in the next four hours, you may just scoot away with your dignity intact. Tick-tock, spies. Make your choice while you can."
And with that, Lumiere swiftly made his exit.
"Ooh, I'm gonna grab something on that jerk and squeeze when I get my hands on him..." Alex growled.
"Let's actually focus on finding him first," Sam stated before flipping open her X-Powder. "RiCO, do you know where Lumiere is headed? We've gotta get after him really quick-like."
"He really needs to learn how to keep his mouth shut," RiCO chuckled as the X-Powder displayed a map of the area for Sam. "When I hacked into his phone, I also discovered the location of the server that he's keeping those 'images' in. As long as I've got my dainty little digital fingers in there, he can't do crap about it. That should give you enough time to find him and knock him down a few pegs."
"We traced his signal to an abandoned television studio in the downtown area," iCO answered. "We're pretty sure that's where his secret lair is."
"Well, then, how about we get going and stomp a few new holes into him?" Blaine proclaimed.
However, as the spies made their way towards the downtown area, they were stopped when they heard what sounded like a very explosive argument.
Hikari glanced towards where they'd heard the shouting coming from and saw a couple outside the nearby house screaming and yelling at each other rather viciously.
"Yikes, what's eating them?" Clover wondered.
"Seems just like your average lover's spat to me," Melissa stated.
"This heated, though?" Alex quipped. "Must have been something pretty dang bad..."
Nick, though, was staring intently at the arguing couple, wondering what exactly that weird feeling was.
"I don't know, something about this one just gives me bad vibes for some reason," Nick admitted. "But we should worry about that later. After all, we've got a mad movie man to maul, right?"
As the spies all continued towards downtown, they just missed the fact that both the husband and wife who were arguing were surrounded by a faint, almost-invisible dark red glow.
5:34 P.M. – Downtown Beverly Hills
Lumiere's Secret Lair
"Gotta say, he still doesn't really know how to make secret lairs not look gaudy," Makoto admitted once the spies found themselves inside of Lumiere's secret lair, which resembled a beach party crossed with, what else, a movie set.
"He doesn't really care about substance or style at times," Nozomi quipped.
"In case you were wondering, spies, I did some research on the film crew that was shooting that movie, and it turns out they're a legit studio," RiCO stated from Nick's X-Powder. "It seems like Lumiere might have hijacked part of their shoot for his own schemes."
"That definitely seems like something Lumiere would do," Blaine noted.
"To be fair, the director did say he'd be willing to change the script if those swimsuit scenes were making us uncomfortable," Haruka noted. "That might have been the big hint before we saw those blackmail texts from Lumiere."
"Gotta say, Lumiere really hit a new low this time, huh?" Hikari chuckled. "And I didn't think there was much lower to go."
"That's just the thing with our rogues' gallery," May quipped. "Every time we think they've hit the bottom in terms of degeneracy, some other baddie decides to throw them a shovel."
"Let's get moving, everybody," Sam proclaimed. "Who knows what kind of dastardly obstacles Lumiere's put in our way?"
"Roger that, fearless leader," Nick responded as the spies all set out to explore Lumiere's lair and stop his fiendish schemes.
"I wonder if what he's done so far is enough to put Lumiere on the sex offender registry," Mat commented.
"He's getting there, for damn sure," Nozomi quipped.
"We'll just have to make sure he doesn't get any worse," Dawn noted.
"You two holding up okay?" Clover asked Haruka and May.
"For now," May stated.
Haruka nodded in agreement.
"I won't let this be a reason to give up the bikinis at all," Haruka remarked.
"Yeah, they're an essential part of pool time in the summer," May quipped. "Just let that jerk try and mess with it!"
Nick could only chuckle since Haruka got a real kick out of teasing him with her two-pieces.
"Movies aside, what kind of lair did Lumiere create this time?" Sam wondered.
"Apparently, he's shooting for an even raunchier scene with Haruka and May..." Mat deduced.
"Obviously it's a beach party," Britney observed.
"Either way, I'm not taking part in this..." May grumbled.
"Ditto..." Haruka emphasized. "How certain girls find it a ton of fun to show their boobs on camera is beyond me..."
"It's one thing to be shameless, but showing EVERYTHING..." Bridget added before coming to a pause. "You gotta wonder where the heck the line is when it comes to that, if you catch my drift."
"Totally!" Clover replied, completely grossed out.
"Remind me to stay away from that world..." Nick cringed, knowing that was the last thing he'd want to see Alex, May, Nozomi, and Haruka do.
Mat was in complete agreement with Nick; he also found that to be nasty and gross.
"I guess everybody finds their kicks somewhere," Nozomi sighed.
"I could understand if it was a really hot day, or if you're all alone somewhere with someone you love, though..." Melissa replied. "Just saying."
With that, everyone checked out the setting.
"This is way too weird and gross, too," Alex remarked.
"The only thing I see is this drawn setting is similar to the Venice Boardwalk," Sam stated, looking at the green screen.
"Hey, does that look interesting or what?" Hikari wondered when she noticed a computer console sitting just along the 'beach area' just ahead.
"That definitely clashes, if you want my opinion," Clover noted.
"RiCO, could you pretty please work your magic?" Nick chuckled.
"No problem-o," RiCO quipped as Nick set his X-Powder down on the computer so RiCO could crack her way into it.
About twenty seconds later, the screen flashed a blueprint of something rather interesting-looking.
"It looks like... some kind of motion capture suit," Makoto stated when he recognized what this most likely was. "I know the kind because I actually used one during our last film shoot."
"We got a little extra budget for our film adaptation of Tale of the Moon Warrior, and Makoto actually did the motion capture for one of the monsters the princess had to fight," Hikari answered. "It wasn't something we could really do practically without making it look way too dumb."
"And I'd like to think I pulled it off with aplomb," Makoto chuckled.
"Just don't tell Kanji that," Hikari laughed. "He really wanted to do that part again."
"How observant you spies discovered my next intended scene," Lumiere's voice boomed from who-knew-where.
Everybody looked around.
"I'm looking forward to Haruka and May going for it on the beach along with the psychic chump..." Lumiere taunted.
"What part of..." May started before the spies saw themselves being teleported to who-knew-where.
5:58 P.M. – Venice Beach
"Venice Beach?" Clover wondered when they saw where they were.
There was a camera crew already set up, and Haruka and May knew they were being asked for that raunchy scene.
"No way are we taking part..." Haruka growled.
"I'm afraid you don't have a choice, little missy..." Lumiere sneered.
Both Haruka and May stared in concern at each other, not noticing that Nick was staring intently at the area around them, having noticed something off about this particular location.
...I see his little game now, Nick thought.
"Okay, so, what should we do here?" Melissa wondered. "I can't really see any way out of this..."
Before Haruka or May could voice their concerns, Nick sent a telepathic message to both of them.
Hey, can you two hear me? Nick thought.
Loud and clear, buddy, May thought. Did you figure something out?
Yeah, something about this place, Nick thought. And for the moment, let's just play along, all right? Let Lumiere think he's got the upper hand...
And then we sucker punch him, Haruka thought. I like the way you think, Nick.
All right, then, just follow my lead, Nick thought.
"Well, spies, what's it going to be?" Lumiere cackled.
"Fine, then," Haruka growled, just as Nick had told her to do. "As long as you keep your mitts away from those photos."
"That depends on your performance," Lumiere sneered. "Now let's see those acting skills."
As Nick, Haruka and May got into position, the remaining spies all looked worried that this was happening.
"Wait, they're actually going through with it?" Britney gasped.
"Seems like we might not actually have a choice this time," Blaine sighed.
Unbeknownst to the spies as well as Lumiere, RiCO already had her digital fingers inside of Lumiere's network, ready to strike at a moment's notice.
Nozomi, though, quickly realized something was different about this, though decided to keep her mouth shut. She knew Nick probably had a plan, and she didn't want to expose it to Lumiere before it was time.
Guess we watch and wait, Nozomi thought. Nick's never let us down before.
After changing into their swimwear, Haruka and May took their positions as the scene called for, with Nick standing right behind them. His eyes kept wandering towards a particular corner of the room, and thankfully Lumiere didn't notice, as focused as he was on the shoot.
That's right, you little freak, Nick thought. Fall right into my obvious trap.
"Wait, back the hell up," Haruka proclaimed, adopting an expression that was half surprised, half annoyed. "Are you seriously telling me he actually did that? You're not just pulling my leg?"
"What did I tell you before?" May responded as she laid down on the beach towel that had been provided. "You never really know what people are truly capable of until they show it off themselves."
"I know it's really sucky," Nick sighed, secretly preparing himself for the big moment. "But that's just life. That same thing happened with somebody I thought was my friend a few years ago."
As the scene went on, Haruka and May realized that they had reached the point of the script where they were supposed to, in Lumiere's oh-so-eloquent words, 'flaunt what they had'.
Just as May began to pose, she sent out a simple thought to Nick.
Do it.
Happy to oblige, Nick raised his hands and snapped his fingers, causing a bubble of golden light to expand outwards rapidly and cover the immediate area, with time grinding to a halt for everyone inside the bubble except for Nick.
Glad that the plan had gone off without a hitch (Nick had needed time to charge up a time freeze, after all), Nick began wildly firing psychic bolts all around him while twirling around, the bolts stopping in place soon after due to being inside the time freeze bubble.
Once he'd taken care of that, Nick snapped his fingers again to cancel the time freeze, returning the area to normal. This caused all of the psychic bolts that he'd fired to fly out and blast at areas of the 'beach' around them, easily destroying the hidden cameras along the wall.
This caused the 'beach' to fizzle out and dissolve, revealing that the spies were all still in Lumiere's lair. The film crew also disappeared, which meant they had only been holograms projected by the hidden cameras.
"W-What the heck just happened?" Mat wondered.
"Yeah, I'd like to ask that, too," Dawn quipped.
Naturally, Lumiere was seething that he'd been figured out. "How did you know?" Lumiere snarled.
"I didn't detect any thoughts from your 'crew', so I knew they weren't actually real," Nick responded. "That might have fooled a younger spy team before I came along, but now... well, you do the freakin' math."
Haruka and May both hopped to their feet and changed back into their spy suits now that they no longer had to pretend.
"Basically, we're officially done kowtowing to your perverted little whims," Haruka proclaimed.
"So I'd prepare for a few headaches if I were you!" May exclaimed as she used her Emergency Gadget Transporter to summon her anchor to her hands.
"And when did you forget that I still have those photos I took earlier?" Lumiere laughed, reaching for his nearby computer to upload the photos as he'd threatened to do...
...only to find that all of the photos were gone.
"W-Wait, what the hell happened?! Where did my blackmail ammo go?!" Lumiere gasped.
"Simple. I deleted them," RiCO giggled as she appeared on the computer screen. "You REALLY should invest in better protection for your systems, buddy."
Lumiere was so angry that his scheme was falling apart that he failed to notice Haruka and May had jumped up to his perch.
"Hey, asshole," Haruka quipped.
"Surprise!" May shouted.
("Shadow Loop" by Lyn Inaizumi plays)
Haruka leg swept Lumiere off of his feet, and while he was tumbling, May swung her anchor to whack Lumiere in the chest and send him flying back to ground level where the rest of the spies were waiting to engage.
"This perverse game of yours ends now, Lumiere," Sam proclaimed.
"Like I'm supposed to be intimidated," Lumiere laughed.
All of a sudden, Nozomi quickly crossed the distance between them and punched Lumiere in the gut, causing him to double over in pain.
"Oh, you should be," Nozomi taunted, not giving Lumiere a chance to recover as she jumped onto her hands and started twirling her feet around to kick Lumiere in the face multiple times.
While this was happening, Melissa and Dawn both fired Cyclone Blast Hairdryers to knock Lumiere further away.
"Is this a lot more fun than it usually is?" Melissa wondered.
"Probably because we're sticking it to a pervert," Dawn quipped. "That's always fun."
"Why don't you suck on this, you sicko?!" Clover exclaimed as she flung a pair of Platinum Credit Cards towards Lumiere, and though he dodged both of them it landed him squarely in the crosshairs of both Sam and Mat.
They didn't even give Lumiere an opportunity to taunt before Sam and Mat clocked Lumiere from both sides with a right hook, followed by juggling him around with four rapid strikes in perfect sync with each other, and finishing by knocking him into the air with a rising snap kick, and finally jumping into the air and hitting Lumiere with a double diving kick to the chest.
"Ah, that was satisfying," Sam giggled.
"Haven't used that move in a while, have we?" Mat chuckled.
A trio of cameras unfurled from the ceiling and started firing lasers at the spies, forcing them to stay on the move.
"Okay, now you're just being rude," Haruka taunted as she fired a Laser Lipstick rapid-fire to destroy the cameras.
"Ooh, you're going to pay for ruining my equipment, you wretches," Lumiere growled as he rushed forward to attack, unaware that he had put himself in the crosshairs of Hikari and Makoto.
"You know what to do, Makoto?" Hikari quipped.
"Oh, hell yes I do," Makoto chuckled.
Lumiere made a valiant attempt to dodge, but only found himself frozen completely when he stepped on a blob of Stun-Tan Lotion that Alex had fired onto the floor.
This left Lumiere a sitting duck for Hikari and Makoto to rush in and clock Lumiere from both sides with a double-fisted punch.
"Hey, Bridget, over to you!" Hikari exclaimed as she got into position behind the still-stunned Lumiere.
"Happy to oblige!" Bridget responded as she reached for her brooch. "Sonic Mode, online!"
Once she'd transformed, Bridget ran towards Nick, making it obvious what she intended to do.
"What do you say, Nick, you wanna teach this guy to not be a massive perv?" Bridget chuckled as she extended her hand.
"We'll drill it directly into his thick head," Nick quipped as he reached out to take Bridget's hand so they could charge towards Lumiere. "Let's show this perverted movie maker our shiny new Purple Comet Attack!"
Hikari put her hands on Lumiere's back and shoved him forward, right into Bridget's path as she blitzed forward and performed a sliding kick to send Lumiere flipping into the air. Nick let go of Bridget and flew up to tackle Lumiere higher into the air.
Bridget skidded to a stop before jumping towards Lumiere and landing a trio of lightning-fast hits before kicking Lumiere towards Nick, who continued the combo by stomping on Lumiere's foot before uppercutting her back into the air.
Nick and Bridget both charged in mid-air from either side to clock Lumiere from both sides, immediately dazing him so they could send him crashing back to the ground with a dual overhead fist slam.
Before Lumiere could even bounce, Nick and Bridget flew back to the ground so that Nick could use a short-range Zero Gravity and send Lumiere floating helplessly, while Bridget ran a few quick circles around Lumiere before leaping to headbutt him further aloft.
Nick and Bridget struck again, rapidly striking from multiple angles and making it look like Lumiere was being pinballed through the air.
"And here comes the big finish!" Bridget exclaimed as she grabbed Nick by the hands and lifted them into the air before spinning Nick around faster and faster. After a few more spins, Bridget tossed Nick towards Lumiere so he could finish the attack with a double-footed kick to the stomach that sent Lumiere crashing right back into the ground, skidding to a stop before tumbling backwards.
"Ah, that never gets old, does it?" Bridget giggled as she and Nick landed back on the ground to share a high-five.
"Nope, not really," Nick chuckled.
"Do you wanna do the smart thing and surrender before we have to hurt you even worse than we already have?" Haruka proclaimed as Lumiere stumbled back to his feet. "Because you're this close to crossing a line that isn't meant to be crossed, to quote something Nick always likes to say."
"Ah, but how soon you forget," Lumiere sneered. "I may have lost my blackmail ammunition, but I still have one last trick up my sleeve. We'll see who's truly got the last laugh soon enough, won't we?"
And with that said, Lumiere threw down a smoke bomb to cover his retreat.
"Is it me, or are they really getting stale with their lines recently?" Blaine wondered. "And Lumiere's a filmmaker, so he should be swimming in different lines he could use to taunt us."
"There's the key, though," Hikari quipped. "He's a bad filmmaker. Real movie makers have heart and passion, not whatever Lumiere's trying to peddle."
"Then let's head out and scuttle this stupid movie plan of his once and for all," Sam proclaimed. The spies all agreed to that and followed the direction where Lumiere's signal was strongest, ready to finally put all of this nonsense behind them.
To be concluded...
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Coming up next...
Haruka: All right, Lumiere, we're sick of giving you the runaround by now!
May: Yeah, get your keester out here so we can teach you a lesson!
Mat: ...is he actually still here, or did he give us the slip?
Nick: Nope, he's here. I can sense him clear as day.
Alex: Get out here, you jerk-face!
Lumiere: Well, sorry, but I have to stay in here in order to utilize this piece of technology.
Sam: And that's supposed to mean what?
Hikari: I think he's talking about that.
Makoto: Whoa, I didn't think robots like that could actually look gaudy.
Clover: Wait, wait, how is it moving like that?!
Sam: He's controlling the mech with that motion-capture suit of his!
May: Well, then, let's wreck both that robot and his dumb suit, next time on the final act of Totally Spies: The Creepy Jeepers Peepers, "Capsule Review"!
Alex: H-Hey, Momo, I didn't know you were on this set!
Momo: Yeah, I figured I'd stop by and see how this side of the series is going. Hikari over here's directing a big scene for the movie.
May: Oooh, that sounds dope.