Hello! Just three chapters left until I start Sean's arc! For now, though, enjoy this next one!
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Chapter Forty-Nine
Green with N.V
New York City-8:10 PM
In an apartment living room on Manhattan's Upper East Side, married couple Rose and Hank sat as their twin children gave them the boxes they'd spent quite a bit of time on. Their parents pulled the wrapping paper off, to reveal the gifts that neither had expected.
"Oh," Hank said awkwardly. "Well, look. Matching Hawaiian shirts."
Rose felt similar to her husband and thought they were tacky, but dare not let her children know that.
"We love them, kids!" she lied with a smile on her face. Then she pulled out a bottle wrapped in red paper. "And last but not least, for you, darling."
She presented her husband with the bottle. Hank pulled the paper off to reveal a purple bottle of cologne that had been released recently.
"'Possession?'" he asked, reading the brand name.
"Top of the line," Rose said proudly. "And the last one in the store."
Smiling gratefully, Hank was about to open the bottle and spray it on himself, but Rose took it from him.
"Here, let me."
Taking the bottle, she squirted a few drops onto her husband's neck.
But neither Rose nor her children had time to take in what the cologne smelled like, for the minute it touched his neck and the scent went into his nostrils, Hank's eyes hazed over and he stood up and began walking out of the room as if on autopilot.
Rose and the kids were in shock.
"Hank?" Rose asked in concern. "Where are you going?!"
"Must find true love," was all Hank said in a dazed tone of voice as he walked under the banner that said "Happy 25th Anniversary!" and out of the apartment.
Beverly Hills High School-2:00 PM
At the new student cafe that had just been installed, three teenage girls sat at the counter gazing at its barista dreamily while their male companion narrowed his eyes in jealousy.
Sean crossed his arms while the girls sighed longingly at David, who had volunteered to be the barista for the cafeteria's new cafe.
"There's just something about a guy in uniform," Clover said as David continued working, oblivious to the girls staring at him longingly.
"Yeah," Alex agreed. "It should be illegal to be that cute."
Sam didn't say anything, but Sean could tell by her expression exactly what she was thinking.
I honestly don't see it, he thought to himself. David's not that attractive!
But he wouldn't dare say it out loud. If Sam heard it, he didn't know what kinds of questions she would ask. And as much as he wanted her to know about his feelings for her, this was not the way to do it.
"Here you go," David said, coming over with four cups. "That's three iced chai teas and one iced decaf mocha frap with no fat whip."
"Thanks, David," the girls said in unison.
"Yeah," Sean said weakly. "Whatever. Thanks."
Clover elbowed him.
"Don't be rude, Sean!" she snapped. Then she turned back to David, her tone sweet again. "So, David, I was wondering if you had plans for Saturday night."
Angered, Alex kicked Clover in the ankle, causing the blonde to exclaim in pain.
"David," Alex said. "Could you excuse us? We need to talk to Clover, in private."
"Cool," David said, walking out of earshot. "No problem."
As Sam and Sean sipped their teas, Alex rounded on Clover.
"You were going to ask David to the Sadie Hawkins dance, weren't you?!" she asked angrily.
"Isn't that the point of a Sadie Hawkins dance, Alex?" Clover asked. "The girl asks the guy!"
"Yeah! But did you stop to consider that this girl might want to ask that guy?!" She pointed to herself as she said this.
"Whoa, girls," Sam said, breaking it up. "No guy's worth this stress! Especially when the guy in question is so clearly interested in me!"
Sean looked down sadly while the girls directed their anger at her.
"What?!" Clover shrieked.
"Excuse me?!" Alex exclaimed.
Snapping out of his depression momentarily, Sean stepped between what was sure to be another fight between his friends.
"That's enough from all of you!" he exclaimed. "In all honesty, I thought you'd learned your lesson when we got back from Switzerland."
He was referring, of course, to when David transferred to their school. The girls had been so busy competing over David that they could barely get their mission done. Sean himself was crippled with envy over the new student, but held himself together long enough to focus on the mission.
"Look," he continued. "It's pretty clear David's not interested in any of you! So why don't you just drop it and find... literally anyone else?!"
Sam looked at Sean in shock that he seemed so passionate about this. Then she turned her attention back to her friends in shame.
"Sean's right," she agreed. "I say we make a pact: none of us invite David to the dance. Best friends, first and foremost. No fighting over guys."
The girls clinked their glasses together as Sean let out a sigh of relief.
"Well," Sean said. "I'm glad at least one of us isn't going crazy over this." And he continued work on his drink.
"By the way, Sean," Sam added. "Has anyone asked you to the dance?"
Sean almost choked, barely forcing the tea down his throat when he turned to look at Sam.
"No," he admitted. But it wasn't true. So far, five girls had asked him that week. And he gave the same answer to every one of them. There was only one girl he would have gone with if asked and she had no idea.
"Oh," Sam said with pity. "Don't worry, I'm sure someone will ask you before long."
Sean smiled then turned away to make sure she didn't see the blush forming on his cheeks.
He didn't know it, but Sam looked at him in a contemplating manner. She had her fingers crossed when making the pact with Alex and Clover not to invite David to the Sadie Hawkins dance, but she knew there was a chance he'd turn her down. If so, the perfect backup plan was just sitting on the other side of the bar from her.
Why am I even thinking of asking him? she asked herself. Sean's just a friend. Isn't he?
But she could feel her face warming up and like Sean, she too turned away.
Just then, a trap door opened up beneath their stools, sending falling down a familiar metallic chute. The ride ended on the same fuchsia cushion in Jerry's office.
Jerry himself stood in front of the four spies, smiling at the fact that his best agents had landed in their places almost perfectly.
"Impressive," he said.
"That was way too easy," Sean said. That was when their drinks came falling down the chute as well, landing in Clover's hair and causing her to shriek.
"Gross!" she exclaimed, shaking her head and trying to get the sticky beverages out as her friends laughed. A quick snarl from her shut them up.
"Can we get down to business?" Jerry asked, holding up a pink towel, which Clover took as she walked up to him.
"It's always work, work, work with you Jer," she observed, drying her hair. "You know what you need? A date?'
Jerry blushed and Sean zoomed over by Clover's side.
"Hate to break it to you, Clover," he said. "But Jerry's not interested in dating. He's married... to his job."
"Quite right," Jerry agreed, before shooting Sean a glare. "I have no time to date, Clover. And neither do you."
Minutes later, Jerry ushered them aboard his jet, which he explained was on its way to New York City.
"So, what's the emergency, Jerry?" Sean asked.
Jerry cleared his throat. "A recent phenomenon is happening in New York. Men are suddenly leaving their wives and girlfriends."
"Guys can be such flakes!" Alex exclaimed in disgust.
"Except for David!" Sam swooned. "He's perfect!"
Sean fought to keep his stomach from clenching along with his fists.
"And completely Sadie Hawkins-worthy!" Clover added.
"Spies," Jerry insisted. "Please, focus! These men aren't just leaving, they're walking out the door with nothing but the shirts on their backs never to be heard from again."
"That is odd," Sam admitted.
"Extremely," Jerry agreed. "And now for some gadgets that may help you with your mission."
He snapped his fingers, allowing a table to rise up from the floor, displaying all the assorted gadgets Jerry planned to assign them.
"Inside," Jerry began. "You'll find Hoverboards, Bungee Belts, Scanner Watches, Suction Cup-Bottomed Boots and Wonder Makeover Kits. To work the kits, you program the desired look and the automated applicators spring into action."
"Spring?" Alex asked, confused. "But my color's more of a summer."
"Just find where these men are," Jerry said impatiently. "And why they're disappearing."
Then he held up a sheet of paper. "Here's an address of a distressed wife you should question."
He threw the paper to Sean, who caught it.
"We'll head there as soon as we land," he reported as four W.O.O.H.P agents placed the parachutes on the backs of him and his friends.
"Sure you don't wanna come, Jer?" Clover asked playfully. "With all these newly single women, you might just snag a date!"
"Clover!" Sean scolded.
But Jerry didn't have much of a reaction beyond a slight smile.
"Good luck, spies," he said, pressing the button that dropped them out of the plane.
New York City-3:00 PM
It had taken the spies no time at all to find the apartment, where they found a depressed middle-aged woman sobbing on the couch in her living room, which was still decorated for her wedding anniversary.
"So," Clover began, looking at the massive family portrait that hung on the wall. "You were celebrating your anniversary when your husband just bolted?!"
"I can't explain it," Rose said tearfully. "Hank and I had such a happy marriage. We didn't even argue over the remote!"
She then pointed to the picture on the wall, singling out the tanned man on the right with his arm around her shoulder. "That's my Hank."
And she began crying again.
Sean's heart panged with sympathy, but he said nothing to comfort Rose. Right now, he knew the best thing to do was to find out what happened to Hank and all the other men who vanished.
"Rose," he said. "Would you mind if we looked around?"
"Go right ahead," Rose sniffled.
Alex quickly walked over to a corner of the room.
"I'll just check behind that lamp," she said, coming to a stop beside the massive lamp in question. When she was sure no one was looking, she took out her Compowder and pressed the voice-only option button, calling David.
"Hi, David," she said softly. "This is Alex. I just wanted to say hi, and see if you felt like going to the Sadie Hawkins dance with me, okay? Let me know. Bye!"
David wasn't there, but the answering machine picked up. She looked back and saw that her friends were perfectly oblivious to what she had just done.
"Nope!" she called to them. "Nothing behind the lamp! Find anything?!"
"Not so far," Sean responded before looking back down at the floor, where Clover was behind the couch, reaching under to see any sort of clue as to Hank's whereabouts.
"What's this?" she asked, pulling out a discarded ball of red wrapping paper from under the couch.
"Oh," Rose answered. "The gift paper I used to wrap Hank's cologne."
"You got him cologne?" Sean asked.
"Yes," the woman replied. "But I should have gone with the golf clubs."
"Why?" Sam questioned.
"He left after I sprayed it on him, said something about 'finding his true love'."
"Interesting," Sam commented. "Where'd you buy it?"
"A small boutique on the Upper East Side," Rose said sadly.
Sean took out a notepad.
"Can you tell us the name of this boutique?" he asked.
The boutique in question was a small one called Valencia, and it was owned by a cosmetics mogul named Natalie Valentine, who also sold her own brand of fragrances in the store. The spies stood in the boutique, watching an ad for the cologne Rose described.
In it, Natalie Valentine herself, a severe-looking, middle aged woman with brown hair, crawled out of the ocean in a magenta one-piece swimsuit up to a man with long, dark hair in red swim trunks. She positioned herself up to his right ear and held up a yellow atomizer bottle. All of this was set to an unsettling digeridoo soundtrack.
"Possession," she whispered the fragrance's name seductively. "Only from Natalie Valentine."
Though probably meant to be scintillating, Sean just felt his flesh crawl from watching the ad.
"Well, with that," he said when it ended. "I know what I'm not wearing to the Sadie Hawkins dance if someone asks me to go."
"Tell me about it!" Alex agreed, groaning. "That gave me the heebie jeebies!"
"Yes," a sales clerk, a young woman with dark hair, said coming up. "The promo is cheap and bogus, but successful. In one week, I sold a thousand bottles. Natalie Valentine is a marketing genius!"
"Go Nat!" Clover said, impressed. "I'll buy a bottle!"
"Sorry," the woman consoled. "We're sold out. With Valentine's Day in two weeks, it flew off the shelves."
"What about that bottle?" Sam asked, pointing to a bottle that was placed on a display case. From only a few feet away, Sean could tell it was the same bottle used in the ad.
"It's a return."
"I don't care if it's missing a squirt," Alex said.
"Look," the woman said sternly. "I'm doing you a favor. You're too young to get your hearts broken. The product is a total flop!"
"Flop?" Sean asked. "I thought you sold a thousand bottles."
"And now, I have a thousand unhappy customers, myself included."
She walked over to a purple curtain, parting it. From behind the curtain, the four teens saw at least a thousand bottles of the "Possession" cologne stacked in piles of boxes, each labeled "Returns."
"Whoa!" all said in unison.
"Yes," the clerk agreed forlornly. "After I gave a bottle to my fiancé, he just vanished."
Just like Rose's husband, Sean thought before the clerk zoomed over to them.
"Trust me. You're better off without it."
"Sounds like men don't just hate this stuff," Clover said. "They run from it."
"Good to know," Sam said knowingly, walking over to the bottle.
Wanting to know more about this new fragrance, Sam purchased it for the purpose of furthering their investigation. Even so, Clover dared not touch it.
"Keep that stuff away from me," she said as they left the store and rounded a corner. "Or I'll never get a date for the dance!"
"So," Sean asked Sam. "You think this stuff has something to do with why these guys just disappeared?"
"Could be," she answered. "We should check out the manufacturer. There's a barcode on the back of this bottle. I'll use my Scanner Watch to trace it."
"I'll send a few drops of the guy repellent to Jerry for analysis," Alex said, opening her Compowder as Sam let a few drops fall on to the scanner. That was their first mistake. The second was allowing Sean to get within three inches of the fragrance.
"I don't get it," he said, leaning over and sniffing it. "How could cologne-"
But he never finished his sentence. In just a nanosecond after smelling it, Sean's eyes turned cloudy and his face went totally blank. Even stranger, he began to walk across the street, not paying attention to the cars in his way and they all collided with one another.
"Hey!" an angry taxi driver shouted. "Watch where you're going, kid!"
But Sean paid them no mind. The girls, in the meantime, watched their friend, their faces the very picture of concern.
"Hey," Sam said. "What's the matter with Sean?"
Alex looked at the remnants of the cologne that still remained on her Compowder.
"Oh, shit," she swore.
They ran out into the street, catching up with him on the sidewalk on the other side.
"Sean!" Clover shouted. "What are you doing?!"
"Must find true love," Sean said in a voice that was part lovestruck fool and part mindless zombie.
True love? Clover thought. That's silly. His true love is right behind me!
"Looks like whatever happened to Rose's husband is happening to Sean!" Sam said as she stopped behind Clover.
"Must find true love," Sean repeated.
"Well, looks like we know what made all of them make a run for it," Alex commented as she caught up and Sean pulled his Head For Cover Hoverboard out of his backpack.
"Come on!" Sam shouted. "We can't let him get away!" And she pulled out her own hoverboard as Sean boarded his and began to take off. With no time to waste, the girls each hopped on the same board and pursued their friend just ten feet above the ground.
After pursuing him through boroughs, alleyways, and even startling an old woman feeding pigeons ("Sorry!" Alex called out), their board collided into his just above Bethesda Terrace in Central Park.
The four spies landed in a heap in front of the fountain. Sean quickly rose to his feet and leapt into the air, preparing to deliver a powerful kick to one of the girls' necks. The three rolled out of the way and jumped to a standing position.
"Sean!" Sam pleaded. "Stop! We're your friends!"
"Yeah!" Alex agreed. "Although you did eat my candy bar without asking! But it's okay, you didn't know it was mine! And then there was the time you-"
"ALEX!" the girls scolded loudly.
"Shutting up."
Sean's face was still as blank as an unpainted canvas, but his lips contorted downward into a frown.
"Must find true love," he said for the third time that day. And the girls each took a fighting stance, followed by Sean.
Clover tried to land a blow to his face, but he caught her by the wrist and flung her backwards into the fountain.
Similarly, Alex came in from his right and tried to grip his shoulder hard enough to paralyze him, but Sean ducked and delivered a leg sweep that sent her flying into a trash can.
Finally, Sam came up to him. In contrast to how he normally looked at Sam, Clover could see that there was nothing but cold indifference in his eyes this time. Sam jumped up and swung her legs around, preparing to kick Sean in the solar plexus. However, he grabbed her by the ankle instead and tossed her off to the side, causing her to soar through the air until she hit some bushes.
"It's no use!" she shouted to her friends. "We can't fight Sean! He knows all our moves!"
"Uh, he should, Sammy," Clover pointed out. "He's the one who taught them to us."
"Must find true love," Sean repeated yet again, remounting his hoverboard and soon he flew out of sight.
"Well," Clover said under her breath. "I know I kept telling Sean to be more assertive when it came to dating, but this isn't what I had in mind."
"What was that?" Sam and Alex asked as she joined them by the fountain.
"Nothing!" she denied. "Now, we've gotta find where Sean went."
"But how?" Alex asked.
"My guess is he went wherever this stuff's being made," Sam hypothesized, holding up the bottle. "I'm gonna scan the barcode to see if I can find an address."
"You do that," Clover said, trying to sound as innocent as possible and pointing behind the fountain. "I'll just step over there and check my makeup."
As soon as she was on the other side, she pulled out her Compowder and used it to send an e-mail to David.
"David," she whispered to herself, typing. "Want to go to the dance together? Big kisses, Clover!"
As soon as she sent it, she quickly rejoined Sam and Alex.
"Did you get the location?"
Sam nodded in confirmation. "Looks like we're off to Paris, girls."
Clover's eyes went wide with excitement.
Possession Distribution Center-Paris, France-5:45 PM
It was no secret that the girls, particularly Clover, loved Paris. But Sam had to remind her friend that they weren't here on vacation but to find out what happened to Sean and several other men who disappeared after coming in contact with Natalie Valentine's cologne.
Running the length of the roof, they approached the side that held what they assumed was an entrance. Down below them, dozens of men, young and old were filing in at a slow but steady pace.
"What is that smell?!" Alex exclaimed, wrinkling her face in disgust.
Sam and Clover smelled it as well. It was a very strong scent, not unlike most perfumes. But this was more potent than anything they'd come across.
"It's coming from down there," Sam said, pointing to the sidewalk below and the men disappearing inside the building.
"What is this?!" Clover complained. "A stink convention?!"
"Hold your noses, girls," Sam instructed. "We're going in!"
"Can we not and say we did?!" Alex asked.
"Earth to Alex!" the redhead reminded. "Sean could be somewhere down there!"
Clover and Alex just sighed in defeat.
They jumped down into the alleyway that connected the warehouse with another building and zoomed over to duck behind a kiosk.
None of the men seemed to notice three girls blending in with their ranks until a man in a black security coverall stopped them at the door.
"My true love doesn't accept visitors," he said in a monotone voice.
"Hey!" Alex exclaimed recognizing the man from the picture at Rose's apartment. "You're Rose's husb-"
Sam quickly clamped a hand over her friend's mouth and smiled nervously.
"Bonjour, monsieur," she greeted. "Nice cologne. Is this where we can greet a bottle?"
But Hank's face remained hardened.
"No women allowed," he said in the same tone. "Except my true love."
This is getting us nowhere! Sam thought. Meanwhile, who knows what's happening to Sean in there?! She could ponder no more on what he was going through before she had an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach.
He's just a friend, she reminded herself. Right?
Clover stepped up closer.
"Leave this to me," she said to her friends.
She giggled in a suggestive manner in front of Hank before smiling and flipping her hair backwards once.
Once again, Hank was unmoved.
"No one enters but the true love!"
Clover grunted in confusion and exasperation before Sam and Alex dragged her away back behind the kiosk.
"Okay," she said. "What just happened?! The hair flip and smile always works!"
"This is the weirdest case ever!" Alex said, concurring with Clover.
"Then it calls for drastic measures," Sam said, scanning the crowd of men before pulling out her Wonder Makeover Kit.
True to its name, the Wonder Makeover Kit worked wonders with making Sam, Clover and Alex look not only about five years older, but male as well. It had also provided them with clothes they could wear while infiltrating the warehouse.
Sam's new outfit was that of a police officer, Alex's disguise included a coverall, hard hat and fake mustache. And Clover's outfit echoed that of a surfer. All in all, they did look a little conspicuous, as Alex was quick to point out.
"This might be a little too drastic, Sammy," she said as they began their trek up to the entrance.
"Come on, Alex," Sam returned jokingly. "Try to be a man about it."
Needless to say, this didn't reassure Alex. But as they approached the door, neither Hank nor the other guard on his right said anything nor made any effort to stop them from going in.
"Thanks, dudes," Clover said, lowering her voice to sound more masculine. If Sean were there, he'd probably tell her it had mixed results.
"Hey," Sam said as they came inside. "We're pretty good at this. If we can't get dates to the dance, we can always go with ourselves."
They all gasped when they saw what was in front of them. All throughout the warehouse, men were firmly placing barrels on flat carts and wheeling them outside, loading them into one of four jets.
The girls jumped up to the upper level of the warehouse, watching with confusion.
"From bottles to barrels?!" Sam asked. "That's quite a marketing shift."
Just then, Alex felt something wet drip onto her palm.
"Hey," she said to the others. "Anyone getting rained on besides me?"
They looked up. Above them were hundreds of fire sprinklers, all dripping with the same liquid that Alex felt land on her hand. But judging from the smell, Clover could tell that it definitely wasn't water.
"It's not rain, Alex," she said. "It's cologne."
Sam placed her fingers under her chin, pondering. "Something's not right here. Why would someone mist cologne?"
"I don't know," Clover replied, covering her nose with her hand. "But someone should tell them less is more."
"Girls," Alex said, pointing off to the right. "Look at that!"
"Huh?!" Sam and Clover uttered before looking in that direction.
On the further end of the building, just below them was a large space containing what looked like lab equipment. Most prominent was a vat of an unknown substance that was hooked to what reminded Sam of a sauna, only for one person instead of several.
"Good eye, Alex," she congratulated. "Maybe that lab will tell us something. Let's slide down there and check it out."
As soon as they reached the lab, the girls spied something written on the chamber attached to the vat.
"'Possessor Perspirator?'" Alex read. "That sounds incredibly weird!"
"I'm calling Jerry," Sam announced, pulling out her Compowder. "Maybe he's gotten the cologne analysis back."
"Good idea," Clover agreed. "Alex and I'll go check out the Perspirator. Also, keep an eye out for Sean."
Sam nodded as she hit the button to call W.O.O.H.P.
But to her shock and disappointment, all she got was a shot of Jerry's empty office chair.
"That's odd," she said to the others. "He's not there. I'm gonna try one more time."
Sneaking behind the machine, Sam quickly pressed the audio only option and called David, only to get his answering machine.
"Hi, David," she said softly. "This is Sam. I guess you've already left work. Anyway, I was wondering if you'd like to go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with me. Give me a call."
She hung up, her stomach knotted in both apprehension and guilt.
Wait a minute. Guilt?
She had no idea why she should be feeling guilty. Yes, she admitted to herself. She did break the pact she made with Clover and Alex and asked David to the dance, but even Clover couldn't hold a grudge that long. So where these guilty feelings come from?
Then it hit her.
Sean.
It pained her to admit it, but it just didn't feel right to ask David on a date with one of her best friends still missing and possibly under someone's control.
From the moment they'd met, he'd been nothing but compassionate toward her, even when she made the catastrophic mistake of falling for a criminal who only used her to steal an invisibility spray. And afterward, he comforted her by buying her coffee. It was sweet, but none of it meant anything. There was nothing between her and Sean.
So why did she feel like she just betrayed him?
Snapping back to the present situation, Sam called out to Clover and Alex.
"So?" she asked.
"No clue," Alex answered. "It far exceeds bizarro!"
"Talk to Jer?" Clover inquired.
"Nope," Sam said quickly. "He's still not there!"
"That's weird," Clover commented. "Ooh, maybe he's on a date!"
The girls blinked for a minute before bursting into laughter. It was so uproarious that Sam forgot her internal conflict, even if only for a moment.
On the far side of the warehouse, two steel doors opened, letting in a brown-haired, middle-aged woman in a dark suit. She was accompanied by a younger male with blond hair who constantly stayed on her right side. The two walked through the building, flanked by two rows of men who threw flower petals in the woman's direction.
"Our true love!" they all chanted repeatedly. "Our true love!"
The spies leaned over the balcony the lab was perched on to get a better look.
"That's Natalie Valentine!" Clover whispered loudly.
"Oh no!" Alex shuddered, remembering the promo back in New York. "Here come the heebie jeebies again!"
"You're not the only one who's getting them," Sam said back, pointing downward at the teenage boy accompanying Natalie. "Look who's with her!"
Clover and Alex followed Sam's finger. The boy who came in with Natalie Valentine wore a dark coverall. But it wasn't the outfit that caught their attention, but the face inside it, along with the fair skin, luxuriant dirty blond hair, and blue eyes that were normally so gentle but now looked so dead.
"It's Sean!" they all said at once, as he put his arm around her shoulder.
"Great," Alex groaned in disgust. "I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit."
"Our true love!" the men chanted, and Sam thought she heard Sean along with them. Then she saw that they were about to ascend the staircase leading up to the lab.
"Quick!" she instructed her friends. "She's heading our way!"
They snuck behind some equipment as Natalie, Sean and the rest of the procession came up.
"Our true love!" they all chanted, and this time Sean's voice was distinguishable.
In an effort to make it look like they belonged there, Sam, Clover and Alex each grabbed a basket of flower petals and began to throw them at Natalie as she passed by along with Sean. To add to the effect, they lip synced to the chanting of Natalie's admirers.
Natalie and Sean came up to the giant, sauna-like box connected to the vat. Sean pressed a button on the side, extending some steps for Natalie to climb up and into the machine, which closed its doors automatically.
The inside of the box began to glow red and the interior temperature became very warm. So warm, in fact, that Natalie began to sweat. Outside, the girls watched with disbelief.
"You've got to be kidding!" Sam whispered just loud enough for her friends to hear.
"Gross!" Clover exclaimed in disgust. "Doesn't she know that faux tanning is so not good for the skin?!"
But a quick glance behind the machine told Sam that what Natalie was in was not a tanning bed. She could see thousands of drops of the woman's perspiration drip out of a series of tubes into the vat below. A pipeline connected the vat to a robotic arm holding a spray nozzle, which was positioned just above a conveyor belt holding hundreds if not thousands of beakers. As the nozzle began to fill the beakers with the strange, glowing green liquid, it all became very clear to Sam just what was happening here.
"She's not tanning," she said, fighting the urge to vomit. "She's putting her sweat into the cologne!"
"So," Alex said, catching on. "It's her own sweat that's keeping Sean and the rest of these guys possessed?"
"That's genius!" Clover exclaimed, earning a glare from the other two. "I mean, that's sick!"
The lights inside the box turned off and Natalie stepped outside again, with Sean helping her down by the hand.
All at once, the men began bowing as she walked past.
"As if!" Alex exclaimed loudly, refusing to play along. Then she clasped her hand to her mouth, realizing her mistake. "Oops!"
But it was too late, for Natalie had already heard her.
"What did you say?" she asked the person she thought was a male construction worker. She came back over to the girls.
"I said," Alex cleared her throat, lowering her voice as much as she knew how. "You're my one true love!"
This, unfortunately, failed to convince Natalie, who ripped Alex's fake mustache off her face. As Alex began to exclaim in pain, Natalie turned to address Sean and the rest of the men gathered there.
"Devotees!" she said loudly. "Get them!"
As Sean began to leap in the air to deliver a blow, the girls screamed in terror, activating their Head For Cover Hoverboard, jumping on and flying over the balcony railing.
The board zoomed through the warehouse, with Clover taking the lead. Overhead, two men dropped a net down on them, but they swung to avoid it, only to narrowly evade the next net and the next four or so after that one.
It got even worse when they saw that the exit was blocked by a living wall of men who had formed a formation by standing on each other's soldiers.
"Pull up, Clover!" Sam cried. "Pull up!"
Clover did as instructed, swerving around and just missing the wall of men.
"Phew!" they all sighed in relief... but that was when Sean's own hover board collided with theirs, knocking it into a stack of boxes and causing them to fall off. As the girls landed in a heap in front of Natalie, Sean hopped off his own hoverboard, kneeling before her.
"Uh, wipeout!" Clover said, embarrassed.
"Prepare them for the vat," Natalie said to Sean, laughing.
"Anything you say, my love," Sean replied, still under the cologne's power.
The girls smiled nervously before Sam looked at Sean in concern.
Minutes later, Sean had placed the girls into a steel cage that was suspended just above the vat of cologne. Natalie stood just below the cage, with Sean positioned on her right.
"Um, couldn't we just talk about this?!" Sam asked fearfully.
"What's to talk about?" Natalie asked rhetorically. "I loathe girls like you. Sixteen-year old popularity queens with scores of boys chasing after them."
"Okay, it isn't scores, Natalie," Clover corrected. "Just dozens. Oh, with the exception of David. We're chasing after him."
"Unlike you three," Natalie went on. "My teen years were rotten."
"But look at you now!" Alex exclaimed. "You're pretty, intelligent. A little crazy, but that's nothing some therapy couldn't cure!"
Natalie smiled in satisfaction, rubbing her hand over Sean's face. "New York City was just the beginning. Now that I know my cologne works, I'm gonna spray the entire male population with my scent. And I'll never worry about rejection again."
She laughed maniacally before walking moving her hand from Sean's face down to his chest.
Sam found herself growling in fury.
"Get your hands off of him!" she shouted.
But the older woman just smiled. "Sorry, but I don't think he wants me to. Thanks to my fragrance, your little boyfriend here is all mine."
"He's not my boyfriend!" Sam argued. "And you're way too old for him!"
"Well, what can I say?" Natalie chuckled maliciously. "Youth appeals to me."
"Okay," Clover added. "What else can I say but 'ewww?!'"
Natalie let go of Sean.
"It's time for your demise, spies. Death by drowning."
The side doors of the warehouse opened, revealing the jets that Natalie no doubt intended to use as part of her plan. There was one jet landing that the spies recognized right away due to the unmistakable "W" insignia on the side.
"It's Jerry!" Sam exclaimed in relief. "We're saved!"
However, when the plane's door opened, Sam was immediately proven wrong. Jerry was there alright, but his face and eyes were so clouded over that Sean looked almost lucid by comparison.
"Must find true love," he said slavishly, earning a gasp from the girls as he descended the plane and knelt at Natalie's feet. "My true love."
"Oh no!" Sam cried out in despair. "He must have sniffed the sample we sent him!"
"Wow!" Alex said fearfully. "We are in trouble if Jerry can't even resist her!"
As Jerry got to his feet, Natalie delivered a kiss on his cheek then to Sean's. Both chuckled in delight.
"Lower the cage," she instructed in a suggestive tone. "It's showtime."
"As you wish," Jerry said.
"Whatever you say, sweetie," Sean added.
And both of them walked over to the control console that would lower the cage into the vat.
"No, Sean, Jer!" Clover pleaded. "Don't do it! I promise I won't give either of you dating advice ever again! Although, obviously, you both could still use some."
"Sorry, girls," Sean said in the same lovestruck voice as the rest of the men there, including Jerry. "But it's over between us."
"Good luck, spies," Jerry added before he and Sean pressed two buttons and the cage began to descend from its thick chain and into the vat below.
Natalie, along with Sean and Jerry made their way to a large pink jet just outside the warehouse.
"Uh, girls?" Alex asked nervously as soon as Natalie was gone. "Any thoughts here?"
Sam rubbed her chin, thinking. Then at last, it hit her.
"Our gadgets!" she realized as Natalie's plane began to take off. "We still have our gadgets!"
She pulled out her backpack and began to rummage through it, eventually taking out her Bungee Belt.
"Okay," Clover said. "Unless you have a snorkel in there, we're spy stew!"
Ignoring her, Sam fired the belt buckle at one of the departing jets. When the buckle attached itself to the tail of the plan, she wrapped the belt around the bars and the force with which the plane took pulled the cage forward until the wall was torn off. The spies fell out of the cage and were deposited on the floor.
"That was pure genius, Sammy!" Alex said, impressed.
"Yeah!" Clover agreed. "One demented diva is no match for three dynamic spies!"
Sam was just about to remind her that they still needed to save the fourth member of their team as well as their boss, but her friend's words struck her with inspiration.
"Clover, that's it!" she exclaimed, looking up at the sweatbox Natalie was in briefly.
"What's it?" Alex asked, bewildered.
"We'll make our own cologne to combat N.V's spell."
Alex and Clover voiced their objections, but Sam dragged them into the sweatbox anyway. Seconds later, they were cramped inside as the process started. Within moments, all three girls were covered in a thick sheet of sweat.
"Okay, can we open a window?!" Clover complained. "I'm having a heat stroke!"
"I thought that was the point," Alex fired back.
In about three minutes, the conveyor belt had enough bottles of cologne to help the spies stop Natalie's plan.
"Quick!" Sam urged as they stepped out. "Grab a cologne and run for the jet!"
As they each grabbed a bottle, they were just about to run down the stairs and toward the W.O.O.H.P jet that was parked outside. But they were confronted by Hank, who was still under the cologne's influence.
"You three!" he shouted. "Stop! No trespassing!"
Sam decided that this was the perfect opportunity to test their cologne and she took out her bottle, spraying a cloud of the stuff in his direction.
At first, he growled in frustration at having breathed the stuff in, but one look at Sam, Alex and Clover had him singing a different tune.
"My true loves!" he said adoringly.
"Look!" Clover exclaimed with delight. "Our first groupie! Can we take him with?"
"Depends," Sam answered, snapping her fingers. "Can you fly a plane, Hank?"
Somewhere Above the Clouds-6:00 PM
Thousands of feet in the air above the French countryside, Natalie sat in a chair between two pilot seats on her own jet. The one on her right was occupied by Sean and the left by Jerry, each piloting the plane with their faces completely blank. Natalie's face, on the other hand, was the picture of satisfaction.
She was blissfully oblivious, however, to the W.O.O.H.P jet that was approaching her convoy from behind, piloted by her former devotee Hank and containing three young girls determined to do whatever it took to stop her and save Sean and Jerry. Putting on their Suction Cup-Bottomed Boots, the girls gathered around the open plane door as Sam addressed them.
"Okay, spies," she said. "We'll each take over one of N.V's planes and then go after her."
"Not without a parachute!" Alex objected, seeing where Sam was going with this. "No way!"
But her objections did her no good.
"Way!" Sam and Clover argued in unison before pushing her out of the plane before jumping themselves.
Each spy landed on a separate plane. Alex had quickly gotten over her fear and entered the cockpit through the emergency hatch.
The two pilots turned back to look at her, both making an unsaid plan to attack her.
"Stop right there or I'll spray!" she threatened, holding up the cologne bottle.
Her threat had no effect on the pilots, who began to advance on her. She sprayed in their direction.
On the other two jets, Sam and Clover did the same thing, with the same result of the men shifting their devotion toward each of them and falling at their knees.
"My true love!" the pilots in Sam's jet said adoringly.
"Oh, you're sweet," she said sincerely. "But not exactly my type."
In the third plane, Clover was enjoying the attention.
"My true love," one of the pilots said. "Your wish is my command."
"Oh!" she squealed happily. "How about a quick mani-pedi and some of those cute packs of honey-roasted peanuts?"
But since the plane was lacking peanuts, Clover decided to shift her attention to the matter at hand. She turned on her Compowder, allowing her to communicate with Alex and Sam.
"Okay, girls," she said. "Phase one complete. Time to shut down the diva!"
Onboard Natalie's jet, it didn't take long for her to notice that the other three broke formation and were now practically on top of her.
"This isn't the plan!" she snarled angrily before turning her attention to Sean and Jerry. "What's happening?!"
"This is just our first date, babe," Sean said, still under her spell.
"I was hoping for dinner and a film," Jerry added. "But-"
Natalie stood up, caressing the underside of each of their chins.
"Look, if you keep those little menaces from stopping me," she said. "Forget the first date. I'll marry the first one who gets me away from them."
Planting a kiss on each of their cheeks gave an additional motivation for them to grip the controls even tighter.
Outside, the plane looped in circles and the vapor trail formed a heart shape.
"I always knew Sean had a big heart," Sam said, looking at the heart.
"For a guy who didn't have time for women," Clover added. "Jerry's sure wrapped around her finger."
The conversation was interrupted by a barrage of bullets coming from Natalie's plane. Alex was the first one to reach for the turbo button.
"Sorry, guys," she said to Jerry and Sean, who of course could not hear her. "But this is for your own good."
She pressed the turbo button and the resulting blast from the engines blinded Jerry and Sean long enough for Sam and Clover to position themselves above and below Natalie's plane respectively. But Sean regained his focus and moved the plane to the left, causing the girls' jets to bump one another instead.
Then the pink aircraft took a nosedive.
"Close call," Clover said, breathing out heavily. "You have to admit, Sean and Jerry sure know how to take care of a woman."
"Who knew they had it in them?" Sam asked, thinking about Sean in particular for reasons unknown to even her.
"Now what do we do?" Alex asked.
The answer to that question came in the form of the girls jumping down onto the fuselage of Natalie's plane, planting themselves firmly on the roof.
Inside, Natalie heard their landing and turned to her two brainwashed pilots.
"Speed up!" she ordered harshly.
"Love can't be rushed, my dear," Jerry said.
"But if you want us to," Sean added. "Anything."
They accelerated the plane's speed. Outside, the jet lurched and the spies only had enough time to attach themselves to it with their bungee belts before they realized what was happening.
"Time for a quick makeover, girls," Sam said to the other two.
They each pulled out their Wonder Makeover Kits and jumped to three different sections of the jet.
Clover hopped down to the cockpit window, catching Natalie by surprise. The long, extendable brush popped out of the makeover kit and scrubbed thick, pink face cream all over the window.
"Finally," Clover said to herself. "A cover-up that actually works."
At the engines, Sam squirted a pint of red primer into the turbines, stopping them completely.
"A little dollop of this red gel does go a long way," she said.
Alex, on the other hand, was at the nose and was only using hers to paint images of a teddy bear, a flower and a heart on the metal surface. Clover and Sam dropped their heads down, in disbelief that she could think of nothing more than petty vandalism.
"What?" she asked defensively.
They grabbed her and leapt off the plane as it began to lose altitude.
In the cockpit, Natalie was clinging to Sean and Jerry for dear life.
"Do something!" she screamed as the jet was spiraling down to the ocean.
"I have no control over anything," Jerry said. "Especially my deep love for you."
"Same here," Sean agreed.
Outside, the girls watched as Natalie's plane completed its descent and fall into the water, parachuting into the safety of their own plane.
Sean slowly opened his eyes, seeing a familiar shape above him. As the figure came into focus, he recognizes that it was none other than Sam.
What a way to wake up, he thought. Then he realized what his thoughts were. Hey, I'm back to normal!
"Sam?" he asked. "Alex? Clover?"
"Good to have you back, Sean," Sam said, as she and the rest of the girls hugged him. As he returned the gesture, it didn't take him long to register his surroundings. He and the girls were on a beach surrounded by cliffs, with the W.O.O.H.P jet parked nearby. Sean didn't remember what happened to him between now and when Natalie's plane crashed, but he knew that he must have wound up in the ocean itself somehow, judging by how dripping wet he was.
"So, how do you feel?" Clover asked as they broke apart.
He stood up, rubbing his temple in pain.
"Like someone hid me on the head with an anvil," he said bluntly. "Five times."
"So, do you remember-" Alex began to ask but he finished for her.
"-being hypnotized by that cologne?" he shuddered. "Unfortunately, yes."
He looked down in shame.
"I can't believe I was so stupid!" Then he looked at his friends, focusing especially on Sam. "Look, about what happened, I'm sorry."
"Hey, it's not your fault," Sam reassured him, putting her hand on his shoulder. "You weren't in control of yourself."
"Then again, what guy is?" Clover asked no one in particular.
"Clover!" Sam reprimanded, before turning back to Sean. "How do you think you snapped out of it?"
"I don't know," Sean shrugged. "The last thing I remember was the plane crashing into the-" then it hit him. "The water must have washed Natalie's cologne off of me."
"If that's the case," Sam pointed out. "Then Jerry should be back to normal too."
"Hey, where is Jer, anyway?" Alex asked.
"Maybe over there?" Clover suggested, pointing off to two figures lying unconscious in the waves about ten feet away from them. They drew closer to them both, at once recognizing them as Jerry and Natalie.
Jerry was the first one to wake up.
"Oh," he groaned, sitting up. "My aching head!"
Natalie regained consciousness at the exact same time, noticing Sean and Jerry.
"Darlings?" she asked hopefully.
"I'm sorry, madam," Jerry said as politely as he knew how. "This relationship has been grounded. I prefer to fly solo."
"And you're way too old for me," Sean added, the memories of his time under her control nearly making him vomit.
"Yay!" Alex cheered. "We have our Jerry back!"
In no time at all, two W.O.O.H.P agents handcuffed Natalie as two helicopters hovered in the distance, preparing to escort her to jail.
"I just wanted to be loved!" she shouted before glaring at Sam, Alex and Clover. "You girls are lucky to have boys love you!"
"It's more than luck," Clover said before coming up to one of the agents beside the apprehended villainess.
She flipped her hair sideways and the agent let out an enormous grin before falling over backwards.
"It's the hair-flip and smile! No boy in his right mind can resist it."
Natalie groaned. "Why didn't I think of that?"
As Natalie was lead away, Jerry turned to the girls.
"Thank you for saving me, spies," he said, happy to be free of Natalie's control.
"Same here," Sean added. "If it wasn't you three, I'd still be stuck with... her!"
He pointed behind his shoulder with his thumb at a sulking Natalie.
"No sweat," Sam and Clover said, before covering their mouths sheepishly.
"You did not just say that," Alex said.
Beverly Hills High School-10:00 AM
As the three girls took their places at a table in view of the cafe, Clover spoke up.
"Girls, now that the mission's over, there's something I need to confess."
"Me too," Alex added, looking down shamefully.
"Me three," Sam said, looking just as guilty.
Sam took a deep breath. She might as well get this over with.
"I asked David to the dance!" she admitted along with Clover and Alex. Sam's eyes widened in shock at the fact that she was not the only one to break their pact to not ask David.
"Oh, this is horrible!" she exclaimed. "I mean, what kind of friends are we?!"
"The kind that get a little possessive," Alex said.
"Okay," Clover cut in. "Let's not be so hard on ourselves. I mean, he is a hottie!"
Then an idea hit her.
"Hey! Maybe David would be up to going with all three of us!"
"Good idea," Sam said, congratulatory.
"Let's ask him," Alex suggested and the zipped right over to the cafe, where David was cleaning out a pitcher.
"So, David," Clover began on behalf of the group, all three girls flashing beaming smiles. "The three of us were wondering, you know, if you didn't already have a date for the Sadie Hawkins dance..."
"Sorry," David consoled with a smile. "Mandy asked me three days ago."
"Mandy?!" the girls exclaimed in shock as David went back to work.
Scowling, Clover held up the cologne bottle she'd kept from her mission.
"A little of our exclusive cologne could change that!" she said, angered that David had been invited by her nemesis.
"It's not worth it," Alex said, making her put it down.
"Agreed," Clover said sadly. "Even if he does rank a fifteen on a scale of one to ten."
"Glad that's over," Sam sighed. "But we still have one more case to solve: who are we gonna take to the dance on such short notice?"
Sam and the girls sat still thinking. Then Sam looked over her shoulder at Sean, who had just taken his seat at a table a few feet behind them. Remembering that he didn't have a date yet either, she quietly tiptoed over to him.
Sean had just taken the first bite of his lemon poppyseed muffin when Sam approached him.
"Hi, Sean," she said in a friendly tone.
"Hey," Sean returned, swallowing his breakfast. "What's on your mind?"
"I was wondering, if you weren't busy Saturday night," Sam began. "That is, if you still don't have a date for the Sadie Hawkins dance."
Sean dropped his muffin on the floor in shock. Was Sam suggesting what he thought she was?
"I was wondering, maybe you could go with me?"
Happily, Sean stood up and was just about to open his mouth to say yes when two voices rang out through the cafeteria.
"BACKSTABBER!" Alex and Clover screamed, approaching Sam.
"What?" Sam asked defensively.
"I can't believe you copied my idea!" Alex said angrily.
"Uh, what idea?" Sean asked, but the girls took no notice of him.
"Your idea?" Sam argued. "I thought of it first!"
"And you weren't gonna share?!" Clover demanded.
"Clover, Sean's practically your stepbrother by this point! Don't you think it'll be a little weird if you go with him?!"
"It's not my fault every other guy in school is taken!"
Then she calmed down.
"Since David's going with Mandy, why don't we see if he wants to with all three of us?
Sean couldn't believe what he'd just heard.
"You asked David first?" he asked, sounding almost hurt.
"Well, duh!" Alex replied. "So what's it gonna be? You in or out?"
Getting over the initial devastation of Sam asking David before him, Sean steeled himself.
"In that case, the answer's out," he said firmly, and the girls dropped their jaws in shock. "Sorry, girls, but I can't go with all three of you! And frankly, I'm a little offended that you're only asking me as a last resort."
He went up to return his tray and came back to the girls, their expressions unreadable.
"Well, looks like none of us is going to that dance," Sean said, before Clover flashed a mischievous smile.
"We'll see what our new fragrance has to say about that," she countered, holding up the cologne bottle. "Courtesy of Miss Natalie Valentine."
Sean's face went pale.
"Wait a minute," he said, realizing the implications. "You made your own?!"
The girls nodded as Clover held the bottle closer to his face. Sean gulped.
"Uh... I just remembered! I promised I'd help Arnold plan that party the chess club is throwing. Good luck finding someone else!"
He ran out of the cafeteria screaming, with the girls in hot pursuit.
"Don't let him get away!" Alex exclaimed.
Well, there you have it. My first chapter of 2025. Hope you appreciate the little revised ending I threw in. Speaking of revisions, just to give you a heads-up, I am swapping the places of Boy Bands Will Be Boy Bands with The Matchmaker for timeline purposes. So I will be adapting the latter episode next.