Story: Double Life (all chapters)
Authors: jsyxx
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Chapter 1
Double Life - Chapter 1
The insides of Beverly Hills High School were crowded with students walking to class, jamming things in or trying to yank things out of over-stuffed lockers, or fraternizing with each other in the hall way. As usual, three particular females paraded down the hall way together while making idle conversation about one subject or another.
As if on cue, a raven haired girl stopped in front of them.
She pointed a finger at the blonde one, Clover. “Nice dress, Skankerella. Which dead person at the morgue did you steal it from?”
“Nice hair, Mandy. What do you use as conditioner? Motor oil?” she spat back viciously.
“Hmph!” As tradition, the dark haired girl put her chin up and walked past them.
“Will she ever give up?” Sam, the one with the long, red hair, asked. “I mean really.”
“Not as long as she has a mouth.” Alex, the third, darker, shorter haired friend, answered.
Clover quipped, “Maybe we should freeze it off with the Ice-Queen Perfume.”
“Clover!” Sam thought her friend had gone a bit over the line with that one.
*bring!*
“Never mind that, we’re going be tardy again!” Clover said as the bell sounded off. They all hurriedly ran down the hall and through the door to their science class. Luckily for them, the teacher was too busy writing notes on the black-board to care about them being slightly tardy. He finished his writing and turned around to face the class.
He started talking in a monotone drawl. “Before I give today’s lecture, I want to alert you all that I am assigning everyone a project to be due in one week. Each of you will have to hand in a paper and give a short presentation on a subject concerning Earth sciences.”
An audible “ugh” could be heard from numerous students within the class room.
“This assignment is to be completed outside of class. However, you may be glad to hear that you will not be completing it alone. I have paired everyone off with a partner.”
The old man put on his glasses and picked up a piece of paper. “Group one will consist of Clover Ewing and Chad Hardy. Your project will be on black holes.”
Clover let out an audible “Yay” as she swooned with stars in her eyes. Chad was one she hadn’t hunted down yet. The blonde-headed Chad looked back at her from his seat and grinned with pearl white teeth.
“Group two will be composed of Arnold Jackson and Alexandria Vasquez. Your project will be on the composition of the ocean floor.” Arnold smiled at the news and pushed his glasses up the ridge of his nose with his finger. Alex knew he had a crush on her which she wanted no part of, but she was happy to be paired up with someone who knew a lot about science.
The teacher droned off more names for several minutes. Sam sat patiently in her seat waiting to hear who she would be paired up with.
“And lastly for group 12. Samantha Simpson, your partner will be Amanda Delaroyale. Your project is on the shifting of tectonic plates.”
Sam suddenly felt ill at the thought of working with Mandy. Her week had been ruined for sure.
The elderly teacher then went forward with his lecture which seemed to last forever. What subject it was on was really irrelevant since almost everyone in the class was either sleeping or day-dreaming about being somewhere else. The only people who were alert and paying close attention were Sam and Arnold. Finally, the bell rang and a mass of bodies rushed towards the door like their lives depended on it. Before Sam got up though, Mandy stopped in front of her desk.
“How about you come over to my house at six? You know so we can work on the project.”
“I guess so.” She really didn’t want to, but felt she may as well get it over with as quick as possible.
“See you then.” Mandy gave her a slight smirk and walked off. Sam found that look somewhat puzzling, but didn’t give it much more thought.
As habit, Sam met back up with Clover and Alex outside the door.
“Sorry about you being paired up with Mandy, Sam.” Alex said consolingly.
Sam replied in a seriously agitated tone, “Of all the people in the class it had to be Mandy! What are the odds of that?”
“What are the odds of me being paired up with Chad Hardy! What a hunkalicious hottie!” Clover started drooling with a far-away look in her eyes. Sam and Alex just looked annoyed. Snapping out of her trance she said, “Although, yeah, I feel sorry for you Sam. I’d rather spend time behind bars then work on a project with her. Good luck.”
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Sam stood in front of Mandy’s door with a backpack full of library books on plate tectonics. She had been standing there for a few seconds fighting over whether or not she wanted to go through with this. Reluctantly she pointed her index finger forward and pressed the door-bell.
Shortly, Mandy’s fair-skinned face and head of long, black hair appeared on the other side of the glass. She opened the door. A naturally, nasal voice greeted her, “Well, hi there Sam. Why don’t you come in?” Mandy smiled as she moved aside to let her in.
Sam walked in, not saying anything, still feeling quite apprehensive.
“Just follow me,” Mandy said. Mandy guided her and Sam followed behind. Sam was quite impressed. The house, or more like mansion, was lavish and spacey. She marveled at the architecture and the art that adorned its walls. Although they did extremely well by any standards, this home dwarfed anything Alex, Clover, or Sam had lived in. Finally, they stopped at a room with several leather couches, surrounding a long, short, glass table.
“Please sit down. Make yourself comfy.” Sam took off her backpack and sat down on the couch. She then unzipped her bag and started digging through the books inside.
“Would you like some espresso?” Mandy asked.
“Sure.” Mandy had some brewing on the table behind them. She returned with two cups and handed one to Sam.
“Thank you.” It tasted good. Mandy definitely knew her coffee.
Mandy sat down next to her. “So what is our project on again?”
“Tectonic plates. Do you know anything about them?”
“Not really. Is the world made out of them or something?”
“Yes, actually, that’s pretty much right.”
“Could you tell me more about them?”
Sam started verbalizing her knowledge of plate tectonics. Mandy listened intently, and asked questions when there was something she didn’t understand. Sam would then explain it to her until she understood.
“So these plates are like a rubber band. And when it stretches too thin, it like breaks making these seismic waves.”
“Yes, that’s exactly right. You’re smarter than I thought, Mandy.”
”Well, I’m not as smart as you are, Sam.”
“I don’t think I’m smarter than anyone else. I just do a lot of studying. That’s all.”
“Well, you’re still really smart to me.”
“Thank you.”
They started working on the paper. Mandy was extremely cooperative and was seemingly trying to help as much as she could. They were actually pretty close to finishing it. Eventually, Sam realized what time it was.
“It’s getting late. I think I should go home now.”
Mandy guided her back to the front door. “Can we work on it again tomorrow?”
“Sure.”
“Same time?”
“That’ll work.”
“Ok, see you then. Good night, Sammy.”
“Good night, Mandy.” Sam walked out the door and down the street back to the house she shared with Clover and Alex. She was actually in a quite pleasant mood. It was the complete opposite of what she expected to be earlier that day. She walked through the door and down into the living room. Alex and Clover were sprawled out on the couch, Clover in her nightie and Alex in her pajamas, watching a movie on their big-screen tv. When they saw Sam had entered the room, they both looked at her piteously.
“So how’d it go?” Alex asked very curiously.
“Actually, a lot smoother than I expected.”
“Did you duct-tape her mouth shut?” Clover asked.
“No, Mandy was actually, umm…” She tried thinking of the best word to describe how Mandy had acted, but she could only come up with one. “… nice.”
“What!”
“No way!”
“I was surprised too. She also worked really hard on the project with me.”
“I’d watch out, Sam. The only reason she would be nice to anyone, would be so she can stab ya in the back!” Clover stated matter of factly with prejudice.
Alex’s reaction was different. “I think it’s nice they got along. We should they be enemies? You know Sam, I don’t think she hated you in particular. Maybe it was because you hang out with Clover.”
Clover looked absolutely pissed.
“Come on, you know I didn’t mean anything by it,” Alex said trying to calm her down.
“Traitors.” Clover huffed.
Sam thought about what they told her. Both Clover and Alex’s explanations seemed likely. She wondered which one was really true.
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*ding dong*
“Hi.”
“Welcome back, Sammy.”
They went back to the same room as before and resumed work on their science project. Mandy was as friendly and co-operative as she was the night before.
Eventually, Sam’s curiosity got the better of her. “Mandy, why are you being so nice?”
Mandy smirked. “Why, do you want me to be mean to you again?”
Sam was slightly embarrassed. “Umm, no. Its just you weren’t like this before.”
“Well, maybe you didn’t know me that well before.”
“What don’t I know?”
“Well, where do you want me to start? The beginning?”
“Sure, if you want.”
Mandy began telling the story of her life. She thought she had a great child-hood up until the age of seven. That’s when her father left her and her mother. She assumed it was because of some other woman, but she didn’t know for sure. She never saw him again.
“I guess maybe it was a good thing he left. I think that’s what motivated my mom to make her fortune.”
“Is your mom at work now?”
“Probably, I’m not sure.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s in New York right now. That’s where her company is. She only lives here part of the year.”
“So you’re living here all by yourself?”
“Yeah.”
That fact was shocking to Sam. She always had Alex and Clover’s company at her house, and before that she had the company of her mom and dad. She couldn’t imagine living in an empty home.
“Don’t you get lonely?”
“Well… yes. But I’m not lonely now.”
Mandy then went on and talked about first moving to Beverly Hills and how awkward it was at first. She decided to avoid mentioning the beginnings of her war with Clover. Sam felt the need to reciprocate, and began talking about her life. She talked about how she was really shy as a child, and didn’t have many friends until she met up with Clover and Alex. The two kept talking and eventually the conversation switched to lighter fare. Sam told some funny stories about stupid things Clover and Alex had done. Mandy told Sam about a number of the pranks she had pulled on Clover over the years. Clover hadn’t told her about many of them, and she found them all highly amusing. One story involved Mandy sneaking into her locker during gym class and putting itching powder in Clover’s panties.
“I remember that! Me and Alex were wondering what the hek was wrong with her.” They both go a good laugh out of it.
The two kept talking. Tectonic plates had been forgotten hours ago.
“So, Sam, can I give you something?”
“Sure, what is it?”
Mandy moved her head in towards Sam’s, and planted a kiss on her lips. Sam was really surprised at first but soon accepted it, and their lips slid into each other. It lingered for a while, until Mandy eventually broke it off.
“So, did you like it?”
Sam’s heart was doing somersaults, and she was blushing wildly. “Yes.” Her answer was spontaneous, but it was also a completely honest one.
Mandy smiled. “Oh, I knew you would.” Mandy took her hand and placed it against Sam’s cheek. She then ran it against her skin until she reached the back of her neck. She then ran her fingers the length of her long, red hair.
Just then, the ramifications of what had occurred came over Sam. She suddenly stood up.
“I’m sorry, Mandy. I have to go.”
“But, I thought you said you liked it?”
“It’s not that, I just… I just can’t.” Sam then hurried through her house, and back out the door.
Sam was used to being able to analyze everything logically. However, now she was just really confused. She really liked the time she had shared with Mandy and the kiss too, but for some reason she couldn’t help but think she was betraying Clover and Alex. She didn’t know what they would think about her being with a girl like that, let alone someone who had caused them as much grief as Mandy.
To Be Continued
Chapter 2
Double Life – Chapter 2
*ding dong*
Alex went and answered the door. The first thing that came into her view was a rather large bouquet of red roses. She then noticed the uniformed man with hat holding them.
“For me???” Alex asked with extreme anticipation.
“Not sure. The order is just marked for 756 Lapeter Drive. Please sign here.”
He handed her a clip-board with paper and pen, and she signed for it. He then handed her the bouquet and left.
Clover saw what happened and ran up in an excited, giddy manner. Sam followed from the other side of the room to see what all the fuss was about.
“Eeeeeek!!! Someone got me roses!!!!” Clover squealed with joy. “I wonder if they’re from Chad. Or maybe they’re from Brad. Or it could be Rick. Or James. Or Leon. Or Jorge,” Clover stopped and thought for a second. “Or maybe they’re from Teensicle!!!”
Alex gave her a creeped out look. “I don’t know, Clover. There’s a card. Lets find out.”
She opened and read it aloud, “Red roses for my red-haired Sammy. Love, M.D.” Alex, remarked cutely, “Awwwwww, how sweet!” She then placed the bouquet into Sam’s arms. “Sam, you didn’t tell me you got a new boyfriend.”
Sam’s face became almost as red as her hair. She didn’t respond. She had a very good idea of who the roses were from and what M.D. stood for.
“Yea, Sam. Who’s M.D.?” Clover questioned. “Is it Michael Diamond from history class?”
“Uhhh,” was all Sam could manage to let out.
“Or maybe it’s Mark Dumas, the star running back of the football team.” Alex guessed excitedly.
“It could Mac Dunn, you know that hot biker, bad-boy.”
“Or maybe it's hunky actor, Matt Damon!!!” Alex swooned.
Sam finally spat off in a nervous voice, “I don’t know who it is. Must be a secret admirer.” She hated lying outside of her “job,” but she decided she had to make an exception in this case.
Alex and Clover both smiled at her. Clover put her hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Sam. We’ll find out who M.D. is for ya.”
“Yea, we are spies after all.”
“Great.” Sam said with sarcasm that neither girl picked up on.
Just then the vacuum cleaner that was left lying around suddenly turned on and came to life. The hose started swinging around violently in the air, and the nozzle stretched to an unbelievable size. All three frightened girls were then sucked up into it.
They were now falling through a steel tunnel. “I’ll never look at the vacuum the same agaaaaaiiiiiin!!” Alex screamed and cried as she fell. Clover was screaming, as well, and attempting to cover herself up from any prying WOOHP cameras. Sam screamed too, but was also clutching onto her bouquet tightly in an effort not to ruin it.
All three girls dropped through an opening in the tunnel and fell into a provocative looking pile on a couch below. Luckily, Sam maneuvered herself so she landed on top, saving her flowers. Although she wasn’t completely successful as many lose roses and pedals floated down on top of them.
The girls unraveled their selves from each other and sat down properly on the couch.
A skinny, fifty-something, balding man, their boss Jerry Lewis, walked from his desk over to Sam.
“Why, Sam, how very considerate of you.” He said in a British sounding accent as he plucked the bouquet from Sam’s arms. Sam was still blushing brightly, but it wasn’t because of Jerry.
Jerry then put the flowers up to his face, sniffing them, and recited off, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
“They’re not for you Jerry. They’re from Sam’s secret admirer.” Alex told him.
“Its some guy name M.D.” Clover added. “Hey, Jerry, can we use WOOHP’s spy-satellites and super computers to find out who it is?”
“While that sounds like an intriguing use of WOOHP technology, we have more pressing concerns.”
He then sat the bouquet down on his desk, and the giant screen in front of them turned on. There was an image of a long office table. Men and women in business attire sat in chairs that lined both sides of it. They all stared completely shocked at a fat, balding, middle aged man in a business suit standing on top of the table. He was mock strumming his brief case like it was a banjo and singing off-tune in a very corny sounding southern accent, “I drunk half a bottle of Wild Turkey, because my wife’s been cheatin’ on moyeeee.”
“Do any of you have any idea who that man is?”
“Is it Willie Nelson?” Alex guessed.
“No, Alex, it’s not Willie Nelson,” Sam corrected her, “That’s Terry Crawford, CEO of the fifth most profitable corporation in the world, Gen-Corp.”
“Precisely, Sam.” Jerry said impressed with her as always. “This is video footage of what was planned as a board meeting on company strategy. As you can see, the agenda was changed to an impromptu, solo, country performance by the company’s CEO.”
Clover asked, “So some bad guy is making people sing country? That is like soooo evil. Now maybe if it was Ultra Loud Zone…”
Jerry cut her off, “There have been many other reported cases of odd behavior across North America, as well.” The screen switched to numerous faces, names, and cities of different people living across the United States and Canada. “Your assignment is to investigate some of these individuals and see if you can find the root of their sudden change of character.”
“Sure thing, Jerr,” Sam said now trying to focus her mind on business. “What about gadgets?”
Jerry pressed a button under his desk, and a panel flipped around on it revealing a number of items.
“Today’s selection includes the Sensible Soundproof Earmuffs, the Laser Lipstick, the Boomerang Buzzsaw Barrettes, and of course the Jetpack Backpack.”
They went up and got their gadgets. There of course was a fight over the Boomerang Buzzsaw Barrettes, this time the barrette of contention being the dolphin shaped one. After wrestling for it, Sam held it up, beaming with victory.
“There’s one more thing you should know before you leave.”
“What’s that Jerr?” Sam asked.
“It’s almost Fall.”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!” All three girls screamed as the floor fell out from beneath them.
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*knock, knock, knock*
A dazed looking man opened the door and looked at the three, young females in business attire before him.
“Hi. My names Sally Sampson. I’m with the zoning commission. These are my assistants Alegra and Clarissa. I’d like to talk to you about the construction that’s about to take place in your municipality.” Sam said in her attempt at a serious, public worker voice.
“WHAT?!!” The man screamed.
“We’ll the construction is…”
She was cut off, “WHAT?!!”
Alex cut in, “She said the construction is…”
“WHAT?!!”
“She said she wants to talk to you!” Alex yelled back.
“WHAT?!!”
“She said she wants to talk to you!!”
“WHAT?!!”
“She wants to TALK TO YOU!!!” Alex was now shaking with frustration.
“WHAT?!!”
Alex slapped him across the face.
“WHAT?!!”
Alex started rolling up her sleeve. Sam grabbed her arm to restrain her, “Alex, I think that’s all he can say.”
“We’re going to go inside now.” Sam said.
“OKAY!!!”
They walked by him, he made no attempt to stop them.
“What a dump!” Clover remarked. The place was indeed a mess, with food, trash, and other items lying all over the place.
“WHAT?!!”
“Ok, were going to play a game called hide in the closet.” Alex said as she started pushing him towards it. “You win if you can stay in there until we leave.”
“OKAY!!” Alex then pushed him into the closet and slammed the door shut. Muffled what’s and the occasional okay could still be heard.
They started combing through all the debris trying to spot anything that could be a clue. They didn’t find anything of note until Sam noticed that the CD player to his sound system was still running. She deduced the speakers had all blown out. She ejected the CD and examined it. It was Hillbilly Jamboree by the Da Crunk Boyz.
“Girls I think this is what we were looking for.”
They went to more homes, where similar events occurred. Their next stop was in Madison, Wisconsin.
*knock, knock, knock*
“Hi. My names Sally…”
“CONFUSING WHAT IS REAAAAL!!!” The man screamed. Hideous noise was playing in the background.
Sam, Clover, and Alex looked at each other, nodded, and then proceeded to slip on their Sensible Soundproof Earmuffs. They then pushed their way past the man, and he made no attempt to stop them, continuing to scream to himself. They went directly to his stereo where Sam ejected the CD. She examined if for a second. It was Man-Cry Theory by Stinkin Park.
“Ok, let’s send this one to Jerry.”
“What did you say?” Alex asked talking very loudly. Clover took off Alex’s earmuffs and handed them to her. Sam then opened up her X-Powder, and switched on her link to Jerry.
“Jerry, we got one more for ya.”
“Ok, Sam, send it over.” A purple laser shot out of the bottom of the X-Powder and scanned the CD. When it was done, Sam tossed the disc on the ground. “Have you found any new information?”
“No. I still can’t find anything detectable that would distinguish it from your average, store-bought, music CD.”
“Good, can we go home now?” Clover whined.
“However, we’ve researched the history of these CDs and there is a link between them. They were all published by different labels, manufactured in different factories, but they all share the same distributor, a company named Silver Star.”
“Silver… Star.” Sam put her hand on her chin thought to herself for a second. “This all did seem very familiar. Jerry, there hasn’t been any recent escapes from the WOOHP maximum security prison has there?”
Jerry glanced at his computer for a second, “Yes, actually, there has.”
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The girls were now back in school, and walking together again before their Earth Science class.
“Sam, I talked to Mark Dumas during gym today. He said he didn’t send you the flowers,” Alex told her.
“I talked to Michael Diamond, Mitch Daniels, Major Donahue, Mac Dunn, and Max Dix. I don’t think they sent the roses either. But I did score some digits!!”
“That’s great Clover. But really, you guys don’t have to do this. I’m serious.” Sam replied dryly.
“But we’re your best friends, Sam,” Alex told her assuringly. “Of course were going to help you find out who M.D. is.”
Then she saw her. Sam’s heart felt like it was going to jump out of her chest. She must have over heard their conversation. She glanced at Sam for a moment before she spoke.
“What’s up loOOsers?”
“Just your huge, inflated head, Mandy,” Clover sneered.
“Nice face Clover. Who does your make-up? Bozo the Clown?”
“UGHH!!” Alex and Sam had to restrain her arms so she didn’t jump her that second.
Mandy smirked and walked past them with her chin up as usual.
Finally Clover calmed down enough for them to let her go. “Yea, she’s reaaaal nice, Sam.”
Sam just shrugged her shoulders. But she was a lot more puzzled than she let on.
They went to their Science class, almost being tardy again. Sam sat down and took out her note book and pencil. The lecture soon began. She began taking notes, but her mind started wandering elsewhere. She had been paying close attention to Mandy all day. It seemed as if nothing had changed between them, as if that night had never happened. In fact, Mandy had been acting as bratty, arrogant, and egotistical as ever. She wondered what had happened to that honest sweetness she had shown her before. Which one was real the Mandy? Sam glanced over in Mandy’s direction for a moment and looked at her. She looked like she did any other day. She was wearing one her short, violet, designer dresses. Her skin was a fair creamy complexion except for that one, small mole right below her right eye. Her hair was long, smooth, and seemingly darker than pitch black. Mandy then leaned back in her chair. She started running her fingers over her ear through her hair slowly. A playful smile developed on her face. Sam quickly turned back down to her notes. She must’ve noticed her looking. Sam was usually very attentive in class, but today she didn’t spend very much time thinking about Earth Science.
Finally, after another drawn out, lifeless lecture, that no one would ever remember, the bell rang, and the mass of students rushed towards the exit. Sam took a little extra time getting her stuff ready to leave, and Mandy did the same. Soon they were the only ones left in the class-room. Sam walked over to her.
“Mandy, I..”
“Shhhhhhhh,” Mandy whispered with her finger over her lips. She then winked into Sam’s green eyes and passed by and through the door.
Sam went back to her friends, and the day proceeded seemingly as normal. She went to more classes, took more notes, and listened hopelessly as Alex and Clover argued over their theories of who Sam’s secret admirer was. She didn’t see Mandy again until near the end of the school day.
Sam was exiting the women’s rest-room when she looked down the hall. From a distance and could see Clover flirting with the ridiculously handsome Chad Hardy. Sam shook her head at how obvious her methods of flirtation were even from this distance. She then noticed Mandy who was approaching them with her hands stacked with books. When she got close enough, Mandy performed a painfully, obvious fake trip. Her books went everywhere, and she latched onto Chad’s tall, muscular frame to prevent herself from “falling.”
“Oh, I’m soooo sorry, Chad.”
“Its ok, Mandy.” Chad grinned. “Why don’t I help you with those?” He picked up all her books and they started walking together further down the hall. Mandy latched onto his arm, cocked her head around, and stuck her tongue out at the now fuming Clover.
Sam started walking in the opposite direction. What she had seen made her angry, but over-all she couldn’t help but feel extremely disappointed.
To Be Continued
Chapter 3
Double Life – Chapter 3
The three spies walked down a back-street together in their colored uniforms. Their destination was the circular, towering building that acted as Elektro Records’ head-quarters.
“Let’s hurry and wrap up this mission. I gotta date tonight with that hunky, hottie Chad. If I don’t show, that bitch, Mandy, will probably try to whore her way to him.”
“Clover, if you don’t shut up, I swear I’m going to slap you!” Sam said obviously agitated.
Clover looked shocked. Sam was never that sharp with her, “Sorry, Sam. Did I say something wrong? Do you like Chad?”
“NO!!”
Alex and Clover both looked at her. She looked like she was fighting hard to hold back tears.
Clover put her hand on her shoulder and gave her a concerned look, “Is there something wrong Sammy?”
“Sorry, Clover. I didn’t mean to yell at you like that. There isn’t anything wrong with me. I’m ok.” Her voice didn’t exactly exude confidence.
“If there’s something wrong Sam you can tell us. We’re you’re best friends,” Alex told her compassionately. “You can trust us.”
“No, really, there’s nothing wrong. I don’t know what came over me. I’m just fine. I swear.” She said that but to Clover and Alex she looked pathetic. In fact, she had been acting depressed ever since she got home from school.
Mean while, up on the Elektro Tower rooftop stood four individuals. One was the ex-guitar player, ex-eccentric record producer, turned criminal mad-man, Sebastian. As usual he wore his long silver hair over one of his eyes, and in place of one of his hands he lost in a pyrotechnics accident was a metal claw. Next to him stood a man in his early forties. He had out of style, female-length, brunette hair and wore a black, cutoff t-shirt. Strapped to his chest was a blue, angular Floyd Rose electric guitar. A third short-haired, dark-skinned, thirty-something man was holding a man in a business suit by his collar dangerously close to the edge of the building
“Jerrell, I’m sorry. Honest. How about we cut a deal? I’ve got tens of millions,” pleaded the terrified record exec.
“Bob, you should’ve thought about giving me your money, excuse me, MY MONEY, ten years ago when you left me with nothing!!”
“How about twenty mil? Does that sound good???” He was sweating beads.
“I don’t want your filthy money anymore, BOB. I’ve moved on to bigger things.” He pointed his thumb back at Sebastian and the man with the guitar.
“Get on with it. We’re on a schedule.” Sebastian told him.
“Ok, you dropped me from Elektro. Now, I’m going to drop you!!!”
Jerrell pushed him over the edge.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”
“And he said I couldn’t cross-over! HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa!”
Clover spotted the man falling, “I got this one!” She flew up with her jetpack-backpack and saved him from certain doom about fifty feet from the ground. Clover hovered back down to the street and let him off.
“Oh, thank you!”
“We’re spies from WOOHP,” Alex said. “What happened up there?”
“Some rapper I signed a million years ago is trying to kill me!”
“Was there anyone else with him?” Sam asked.
“An ancient looking Rock guy with a guitar and some scary guy with a metal hand. I think he was producer from years ago.”
“Say, I’ve been looking to start my career as a pop-idol. How about since I saved your life, you sign me!” Clover said getting all giddy.
The record exec looked her over for a moment. “Actually, you look just like the kind of artist I’ve been searching for. Can you sing?”
“No!” Sam and Alex both responded simultaneously.
“Well that’s not a problem. Here.” He handed Clover his business card.
“Yay!!!” Clover jump up and down. “I’m going to be a star!!!”
“Earth to Clover. We have a job to do!!!” Sam yelled sounding whiney and pissed off again.
“PMS much?” Clover mumbled to herself.
“What did you say?”
“Um, nothing. I guess my fame and fortune can wait. Let’s go.” They all turned on their jetpack backpacks and flew the four hundred feet to the top of the tower.
They landed, just as the three men were boarding their helicopter.
Sebastian stepped down from the chopper. “Well, well, well. I thought you three would turn up sooner or later. Surprised to see me?”
“Are you kidding? We already knew it was you,” said Sam. “I figured that out a long time ago.”
“Yeah, hello! Sebastian. Music CDs that brain-wash people. We get it. You don’t think we wouldn’t figure it out after the first hundred times you tried that one?” Clover went on, “Just because they weren’t glowing this time, doesn’t mean we wouldn’t figure it out. We’re not stupid.”
Alex added, “Maybe you should try making movies that brain wash people. Or you could do books or magazines. Or maybe you could try brainwashing dogs and cats instead of people…”
“May I talk now?!” Sebastian asked in an angry, annoyed tone.
“Yes, you may.” Alex answered.
“Boys, why don’t you help me exterminate these pests?”
“Sure thing, Sebastian,” replied Steve the rocker. Both men stepped forward.
Jerrell reached into the back pocket of his baggy pants and extracted a microphone. He put it in front of his lips. “A mic check one two, one two.” He then flipped it forward and pressed a button on it with his thumb. Green rings of energy shot out through its chrome head. He moved it from side to side, spraying the rings and the three spies. Each of them gracefully avoided the rings by flipping their bodies in the air and landing back on the ground. He sprayed the energy blasts until it suddenly stopped. The rings traveled over to the adjacent building where it crashed into some office windows shattering them with a loud crash.
“Hey sweet thing, how about you and me, one on one? I’ll promise to be gentle.” Steve said staring a hole in Sam.
“How about you SHUT UP!!” Sam jumped and floated through the air with her right leg extended in the direction of Steve’s chest. Steve mean while took the pick in his thumb and strummed the strings of his guitar. The sound of the guitar could be heard as a wave of white, condensed, sonic energy burst out from the guitar. It hit Sam, and she was knocked to the side landing on her hands and knees.
Mean while Clover was sizing up Jerrell.
“Nice thing you got there.”
“Why thank you. I am quite proud of it.”
He pointed the mic at her and fired it shooting the bright, green rings in her direction. Clover swiftly sailed out of the way landing on her hands, flipped back to her feet again, then back to her hands, and back to her feet, expertly avoiding the energy blasts. Finally, the shot ran out and Clover ran forward with her fist arched.
“Back up.” He pulled out a large, hunting knife with his left hand and swiped it at Clover’s neck. Clover was able to react fast enough to pull back so the blade was inches from her neck, saving her from death. At the same time, she swept with her right foot and tripped him. He landed on his butt, but that didn’t stop him from simply aiming the mic at Clover and firing again. Clover ducked and rolled her self out of the way.
Alex approached Sebastian. “Looks like we’re dancing partners. Where’s your fancy weapon?”
“Since my last stay at your prison, I’ve been studying the martial arts. I am a weapon.”
“Ok, let’s see what you got.” Alex put her hands up in her fighting stance.
Sebastian swung his foot forward. He wasn’t joking. That kick was expertly delivered and lighting fast. Alex was able to twist out of the way of as his boot which just missed her. She swung her hand towards his neck in a chopping motion. Sebastian blocked it with his metal claw.
“Ouch!” Alex cried and held her hand after it contacted the hard steel.
Sebastian then lunged another kick forward towards her chest, but Alex put up her fore-arm and blocked it. He then swung his metal claw around in a circular motion towards her head. She reacted by ducking out of the way of the claw, planting her hands on the ground and sweeping with both her feet in an attempt to trip him. He jumped over both of her legs. Alex than with both hands still on the ground, pushed herself up with both her legs aimed at Sebastian in a double kick. Sebastian moved to the left and caught her in mid flight, then slammed her body forward one hundred and eighty degrees so that she landed face first into the concrete.
“Ok, you’re not too bad for a beginner,” Alex said from the ground as some blood flowed down her lower lip.
Clover was having quite a time dodging the energy rings from the suped up microphone. So far her fine tuned agility was doing her well, but all this jumping around was quickly making her haggard. Finally, his latest string of energy blasts temporarily ran out. Clover took this opportunity to remove the kitty-cat shaped Boomerang Buzzsaw Barrette from her hair. She took it and flicked it hard in the direction of Jerrell. The blade extracted and it cut through the air spinning. It made contact with his microphone, and its chrome head fell to the floor. The barrette flew back in the other direction planting itself and into the wall some distance behind Clover.
“Awwww, looks like you lost your manhood.” Clover said breathing deeply with her hands on her knees.
“I always carry a spare.” He whipped out another microphone from his back pocket and blasted the rings at Clover. She was caught off guard and took the shot full on. She was pushed back until she slammed against the wall. She slumped over unconscious.
“And my battle record is still spotless.”
“Clover!” Sam yelled seeing what happened to her friend.
“Don’t worry about your friend, baby. You should be worrying about me.” What he said was true, Sam had been taking a good beating from his guitar weapon. “You know my favorite groupies were always the red-heads. I can’t wait to add you to my list.”
“I told you to SHUT UP!!” Sam charged at him in a rage with her fist arched. He ran his pick across the strings again and a blast of white energy shot out from the guitar. She managed to cart-wheel out of the way.
“Didn’t your mother tell you that’s a rude thing to say. Looks like I’m going to have to give you a spanking.” He started running the pick back and forth again, and a long, stream of the energy started blasting out as he played a chord. Sam tried to jump out the way, but she tripped clumsily. Before she hit the ground, the energy smacked her and she flew in the air, landing and passing out next to Clover.
“Sam!!” Alex yelled looking at what happened to her.
Sebastian took advantage of her moment of distraction and jabbed his metal claw into her stomach hard.
“Ughhh!” Alex fell over in a fetal position with her hands clutched around her stomach in immense, sharp pain.
“Enough games.” Sebastian said to his troops. “Steve lets blow this place.”
“Music to my ears.”
They all boarded the helicopter. Jerrell took the pilot’s seat, and the blades started spinning.
Alex saw them leaving from her position on the ground. “Why didn’t they finish us off?” She knew something wasn’t right.
The helicopter hovered a few hundred feet higher in the air. Steve took off his blue Floyd Rose and strapped on a rounder, black, Rickenbacker bass. He stood in front of the open window.
“Elektro Records, are you ready to ROCK?!!”
He started running his pick across the strings in another chord, and a darker thicker energy shot out from the guitar. The energy sped down in at angle and collided against the top of the Elektro Tower in a thunderous crash. Steve kept on playing, and the ground shook as the blasts decimated the building sending rubble everywhere. Soon the entire structure simply collapsed into ground into a huge pile of wreckage. Tan dust flooded the air in the streets below. Steve stopped playing, and the helicopter lifted higher and off into the direction of the setting sun.
Alex landed on the ground carrying Clover and Sam in her arms. She shook both of them until they finally slipped back into consciousness.
“Wh..what happened?” Sam asked dazed.
Alex pointed at the wreckage, “Well, let’s just say I don’t think Clover’s getting a record contract from there anytime soon.”
Clover started crying. “My music career!!”
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They were now back in Jerry’s office sitting on his couch.
“Spies what happened?”
Alex answered him, “Well, Jerry, the short story is we got our butts kicked.”
“Yeah, they had these really cool weapons,” Clover said.
“Yes, we observed the microphone and guitar weapons from surveillance footage. It is my belief these are based on WOOHP technology of gadgets and weapons we have and have been working on. Sebastian must’ve acquired them before he escaped. To say the least, I’m looking into improving security in the weapons cache and R&D department.”
“And you may want to improve the security in the prison too, you know so he stops escaping,” Sam said in a sharp voice.
Jerry scrunched his lip up, “Hmmmmm.” He didn’t expect that kind of attitude from Sam. “Point taken.”
“We’ve also IDed the two men working with Sebastian.” The screen behind him turned on showing the profiles of the two men and their various statistics.
“The one with the guitar weapons is Steven Coscarelli, the former lead guitarist of the rock and roll band….”
“Rock and roll band?” Clover and Alex snickered. “Owwww!” Alex gripped her bandaged stomach. Laughing was painful.
“Yes, well his band was named The Blind Gun Theory.” Jerry raised his eye-brow. “The man with the microphone weapon is one Jerrell Williams. He was once a rapper known as MC Fax in a hip hop group named Underground Science. Both men had worked with Sebastian at some point in their careers.”
“I’ve never heard of either of those groups,” Clover said. “They must not be very good.”
“Well, you might not have because both men were dropped from their labels in 1995 when management deemed their music to no longer be marketable. Both subsequently met financial ruin and slipped into obscurity until now.”
“Great, more washed up has-beens who are mad they aren’t popular anymore.”
“Misery loves company,” Sam said in a drab tone.
“Perhaps. Both of their former record label head-quarters were destroyed tonight. To say the least, I am disappointed in you girls. It’s obvious to me not all of you had your heads in the mission tonight. I suggest you go home rest, and clear your mind of any personal problems you might be dealing with. Who knows what atrocity Sebastian will try to commit next.”
Sam stared at the ground. She knew Jerry was talking to her. Her performance tonight had been horrible. She was acting like a complete amateur. Was she really this upset over what had happened with Mandy? She wish she could sleep off this sadness that had over-taken her, but she knew deep down that wouldn’t be enough.
To Be Continued
Chapter 4
Double Life – Chapter 4
It was late at night in Beverly Hills. It would’ve been completely dark if it wasn’t for the moon light which made everything a seemingly blue tint. The light reflected off of Mandy’s purple eyes as she stood next to the spies’ home. Her left hand was full of pebbles she managed to procure someplace. She took one in her right hand tossed it over her head up in the direction of a particular window on the second story. It bounced off with a light crack.
“Spshhh.. Sammykins. Wake up.” She said trying to whisper, but her naturally whiney voice was still quite loud.
Sam was lulled out of her sleep by the periodic taps at her window. She groggily opened her eyes and pulled the covers off her slim, athletic body. She walked over to the window, pushed up the sill, and looked down. Mandy’s face looked up excitedly to greet her.
“Mandy, it’s a school night. Are you crazy??”
“Maybe I am. Put on something and get down here.”
“Oh, all right. Give me a minute.” She didn’t know why she was even listening to her. She closed the curtains over the window and unbuttoned her teal night shirt from top to bottom. She let it slide off her arms and body, and it fell to her feet. She then went and opened her closet to find something to wear. She yanked a small, olive dress with spaghetti straps off one of her hangers. She slipped it over her head and pulled it down over her chest and thighs. She proceeded to try and make herself somewhat presentable. After she was ready, she sneaked quietly down the hallway past Clover and Alex’s doors careful not make a sound. Alex’s was slightly ajar. She peaked in. Alex was out like a light and snoring loudly but somehow managed to pull off sounding cute at same time. Sam continued moving down the hall way stealthily and then down the stairs.
Alex suddenly shot up in bed. “Fat Free FroYo.” She got up and trudged her way towards the kitchen for a late night snack.
Sam finally made her way on the lawn to where Mandy was waiting for her.
“What do you want Mandy?” Sam sounded agitated. She looked it too.
“I want to take you some where.”
“Why? Wouldn’t you rather go with Chad?” She spouted off.
Mandy was somewhat befuddled. “Why would I want to go anywhere with that idiot?”
“I saw you today. You were all over him.”
“Oh.” Mandy suddenly looked ashamed. She looked down and was quiet for a minute while she thought of a way to explain it to her. “Sam,…… Sometimes I have to do things.. If I didn’t people might start to suspect, you know. If they knew what I was at Bev High, I wouldn’t last a minute. How else would I be popular?” Mandy stopped and continued, “You’re the only one I really care about, I swear.”
Sam soaked in her words for a moment. There was no way it could possibly be true.
“You mean you don’t like boys?”
“Never have.”
Sam was dumb-founded. As far back as she could remember her, Mandy had spent an inordinate amount of time chasing boys. It seemed like every week her and Clover were having another epic battle over a different guy. She couldn’t even count the number of boyfriends she had at some point or another, much more than Sam had ever had. Pretty much every male at school fawned over her, and she appeared outwardly to bask in all of the attention. This had all been a lie? She was much better at acting than Sam had ever been as a spy. She didn’t even really like lying then. Having to live your whole life like that had to be a miserable existence.
“Mandy, I’m sorry. I had no idea.” She was no longer mad at her. In fact, her eyes were watering up.
“Its ok, Sammy. You don’t have to be sorry.”
“But why do you trust me? Aren’t you afraid I might give you away?”
“Of course I know I can trust you, Sam. I’ve watched you since grade-school.”
There was a silence for a while between the two. Sam broke it. “I liked the flowers.”
Mandy’s face lit up brightly. “Oh, it was nothing. Don’t mention it.”
Just then the front door was pushed open, and Alex stepped out clad in her pink pajamas. “Sammy!? Where are you??” She started walking to the side of the house where Sam and Mandy were.
Sam heard her coming, and grabbed Mandy’s wrist pulling her behind a bush that lined the house.
She whispered, “Mandy get down.” She sat down on the ground to hide herself from view.
“Sure thing,” she whispered back. Mandy straddled Sam’s thighs then leaned her body forward on top of Sam, pushing and pinning her to the ground. Sam didn’t protest. Any sudden movement might alert Alex of their presence. Some of Mandy’s black hair draped over Sam’s face. Mandy moved her face in closer so that their noses were touching.
“This good?” Sam put her hand over her mouth to quiet her. Alex was looking at Sam’s car parked on the side, but she heard a noise from the bush and went to investigate.
Sam’s hand felt around Mandy’s side until she found her purse. She dug inside until she grasped a small glass, vile of perfume. She tossed it in the air. Thanks to a combination of Softball practice and spy training, the trajectory of the throw was perfect so that it sailed over the top of the house and landed near the front of their drive-way. Alex heard the sound of breaking glass and turned around in the other direction to go check it out.
Sam knew she had to move fast and silently or Alex would notice them. Reacting more or less on her spy instincts, Sam scooped up Mandy in both her arms and started sprinting stealthily to the back of their home. Mandy wrapped her hands around Sam’s neck to hold on. She speedily, zigzagged around the pool and jacuzzi, and then hurdled over the line of bushes that separated their yard from Mandy’s. She kept running until she was at Mandy’s backdoor. She opened it, carried Mandy inside, and shut it behind her.
“That was close,” Sam said after finally coming out her fight or flight mode activated by the fear of getting caught. She then looked down at Mandy who stared back up at her from her arms looking completely flushed. Sam forgot she was even carrying her. “Oh, sorry about that.”
“I’m not,” Mandy replied as Sam let her down.
“Owwww.” Sam gripped her side. She was still reeling from the beating she took earlier that night.
“Oh, Sam, are you hurt??” Mandy asked very concerned.
“No, I… um, just got hit with the ball today during soccer practice, that’s all.”
“Awwww, poor Sammy. Do you want me to help make it feel better?”
“Um, no thanks Mandy.” She laughed nervously. “It’s not that bad, really.”
“Well, ok. I just hope you’re not too sore for what we’re going to be doing tonight.” Sam’s face became even redder. What did she mean by that?
“Sammykins, follow me.” Mandy gripped her hand and guided her though the hallways of the house until they reached her expansive bedroom.
“Here sit down, make yourself comfy.” Sam sat down on her lacey bed nervously. “I’ll be back in a sec.” Mandy pressed her finger against Sam’s nose and winked at her seductively. She then went inside her walk in closet and closed the door.
Sam gulped.
A little while later, Mandy reopened the door. To Sam’s relief she was as fully dressed as she was before. Mandy was also holding some items: a trench-coat, an over-sized hat, and a pair of sunglasses. She handed them to Sam.
“Here put these on.”
“What?”
“It’s so I can sneak you out of the neighborhood without anyone recognizing you, silly.” Sam felt a bit stupid for not realizing, and put them on.
She stood up and modeled them for Mandy, “How do I look?”
“Um, you look great, Sam.” She looked ridiculous.
Meanwhile down the street at the spies’ home, Alex pulled a half-awake Clover, in her blue nightie, by her arm through the front door and to the drive-way.
“And then I heard glass shattering. I think its perfume. Sam must’ve dropped it from the flying saucer as the aliens took her away.”
Clover walked over to the scene of the shattered perfume bottle careful not to step on the broken glass with her bare feet. She sniffed the air. “No doubt about it, that’s Foetor by Fernando.”
“Isn’t that the kind you’ve been wearing?”
“Yes, and I’m still the only girl wearing it at school. Sam should ask me next time if she wants to use by beauty secrets.” Clover looked at the ground sadly, “And she wasted a whole bottle too.” Alex knew she was lying. Mandy was actually the first girl at school to wear Foetor. Clover just copied her.
“Well, let’s call Jerry. We need to save her from the Aliens.” Alex took out her X-Powder. Before she could open it Clover grabbed her wrist and put her other hand on her shoulder.
“I don’t think she was abducted by aliens, Alex,” she told her calmly. “She probably just dropped the perfume when she was sneaking out with that new, mysterious boyfriend of her. He must be pretty hot stuff if she doesn’t want us to know about him.” Alex conceded that was the more logical explanation, but she was still concerned. This was the first time Sam had not told her about a new boyfriend. “Come on, lets go back to sleep, ok?”
“Ok. Good night, Clover.” She went back through the door. Clover was about to follow her when she noticed lights from behind. She turned around and saw Mandy pulling her black, convertible Porsche Carrera GT out of her garage. Mandy looked over in her direction and noticed Clover at the front door.
“Get down,” Mandy whispered as she took her hand and forced Sam to duck down at the waist. As she pulled out of the drive way, she gave Clover a nasty look.
“I hope you drive that Porsche off a cliff ya bitch!” she yelled.
Mandy responded by simply raising a middle finger in the air as she peeled by.
“Did anyone see me?” Sam said still hunched over.
“No you’re good. You can take off that junk now.” Sam sat back up and took off the trench coat and glasses. She took off the hat and let her red hair run in the night air as they flew out of Beverly Hills.
“Where are we going?”
“It’s a secret.”
They stopped at a light. “So where did you guys go all day?”
“Um… We were at the mall.”
“Really? I was there today and I didn’t see you.”
“We must’ve just missed each other.” Sam felt real guilty. Mandy had told her everything, and she was still lying to her.
The light turned green, and they drove for some time through the streets of L.A. They ended up in a part of town Sam wasn’t familiar with. Finally, Mandy parked her car in an open lot.
“We’re here,” Mandy told her excitedly.
They both got out of the car. Mandy started walking in the direction of a building and Sam followed beside her. Sam looked up and read the pink, neon sign. It said, “Double Flower.” The words were followed by the neon image of two flower blooms facing each other. Their stems were bent into the shape of a heart. They passed through the door into a small enclosed room with a woman sitting behind a table. Mandy pulled her Master Platinum card out of her purse and paid for both of their entrance fees, and they passed through to the main part of the building. Sam looked around. It looked like any other dance club she had been to. It was dimly lit except for some colored lights, there was music playing loudly, and there was a crowd of people huddled on the dance floor. But after inspecting it a little closer, she noticed there weren’t any guys to be seen, only girls.
“Hey, Mandy what’s up?!” a voice shouted from across the room. A girl with short, red hair wearing black leather approached them. It was Beverly Hills High’s resident, biker bad-girl, Donna Ramone.
“Hi Donna,” Mandy greeted her. Donna did a double take when she saw who her companion was.
“Sam,” she said surprised, “I didn’t know.”
“Well, no one else does either, if you catch my drift,” Mandy told her.
“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.” A grin then formed on Donna’s face, “So Sam, you wanna dance?”
Before she could answer, Mandy butted in, “Hey Donna back off!!” she yelled with her voice getting even higher and whinier sounding than usual, shaking a clenched fist in the air. “That is unless you want a free face-lift! She’s my girl-friend!!”
“My bad, my bad,” she said with two, open hands raised in front of her. “You two kids have fun now.” Donna left them to go find other pursuits.
“So I’m your girl-friend now, huh?”
“Well, we kissed and you carried me. What else would you be?” A mischievous look formed on Mandy’s face. “You’re not using the Clover-scale are you?”
“Um, no. Of course not.”
“Well, come on then. Let’s dance.” Mandy gripped her hand again and lead her to the dance floor. They danced. Sam was surprised at how good Mandy was. Sam liked the music and atmosphere, but above all she liked the close, personal attention from Mandy. Her body was in pain from the damage she sustained during the mission, but she some how was able to ignore it and enjoy herself.
After some hours they were back in Mandy’s house.
“I had a great time Mandy.” Sam told her.
“Well that means we can do this again some time.”
“I’d really like that,” she said truthfully. “But I should go back home now. I need to get a little bit of sleep before school.” Sam smiled at her. “Good night, Mandy.” She left out the back door, but Mandy pursued her and grabbed her arm.
“Wait, don’t I get to say good-bye first?” Sam knew what she meant. Honestly, she had been waiting for it all evening.
“Sure you can.”
Mandy smiled as she put her hands around Sam’s waist and pulled her close. She tilted her head a bit and moved in towards Sam. Sam moved in too meeting her half way, and their lips sunk into each other.
Meanwhile, in some undisclosed, darkened room, Sebastian viewed a monitor with his one eye that wasn’t draped over with silver hair. He pressed a remote and the image zoomed in on Mandy’s back porch.
“Interesting,” he said upon viewing the two girls locking lips. He pressed another button that switched on a communication link. “We’ve had a change of plans.”
Finally, after lasting quite a long time, the kiss ended as Sam pulled her lips out of Mandy’s.
Sam then stared lovingly into Mandy’s eyes. “Sweet dreams, Mandy.” She left.
Mandy went back inside her house and walked through its twisting halls until she was back in her room. Mandy wished Sam would’ve stayed, but for once in a very, long time she didn’t feel so empty inside. She slid one of the straps of her dress off her shoulder. But she noticed two shadows on the ground emanating from behind her, and she slid it back up. She calmly walked over to her dresser and clenched a fist around her hand mirror.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!!!” She shrieked as she ran at the man on the left holding the mirror in the air. He was caught off guard and it smashed across his face. Jerrell fell to his knees and put his hands over his bleeding face. Mandy then tried to make a run for it.
“No you don’t,” the taller Steve said. He clutched her arms and lifted her off the ground. She started wiggling around violently to break free, but he was too strong.
“Let me GO!!!” Mandy put her right knee up in the air and then kicked back as hard as she could. Her foot jabbed into his testicles hard. He dropped to the ground, moaning in pain. Mandy then sprinted down the hall way to escape. Unfortunately, Jerrell picked himself up off the ground and caught up with her, tackling her to the ground from behind. He pinned her to floor as she continued to scream and shake around violently to break free.
“Damn’t, Steve! Use the rag!!” He screamed at his partner as blood ran down his face.
Steve wobbled over to them clutching his privates. He pulled a white rag out of his pocket and pressed it against Mandy’s nose and mouth. Mandy tried to hold her breath as long as possible, but eventually she had to breathe in, and she inhaled the chloroform. Every thing around her faded into darkness.
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“These ropes are too tight, LOOSEN THEM!!” Mandy screeched in the most high-pitched, annoying voice possible. She was tied to a chair in the middle of a white room, located where she didn’t know. “I’m thirsty. Get me something to drink!! NOW!!!” Steve and Jerrell just sat on the couch in the room hopelessly with their hands over their ears. She had been going on like this for almost an hour. “I’m one of the richest girls in Beverly Hills!! You can’t treat me LIKE THIS!!!”
Finally, the door opened and Sebastian walked into the room.
“Can we kill her now, pleaaase??” Jerrell pleaded. He now had several bandages over his face and fore-head.
“Not yet, I need her to finish my opera.”
“Who is this chick, anyways?” Steve asked.
“She’s the red-head’s lover.”
Sebastian’s two cohorts suddenly looked at her with more interest. “That’s hot dude!” Steve then clutched his privates again in pain.
“What did you do to Sammy???!!! If you touch one hair on her head, I swear to god, I’ll RIP YOU LUNGS OUT!!!”
Sebastian walked up to the chair and smacked her hard across the face with his metal claw.
“I haven’t done anything to her… Yet.”
“Nice claw. How’d you loose your hand? Jacking off too much??” She said as she spit blood on his shirt viscously.
“Please shut her up, before I change my mind.”
Steve took off the bandana he was wearing on his head, wrapped it around her mouth, and knotted it tight behind her neck. Mandy continued to try to talk back, but now all she could do was mumble sounds. After several minutes of doing that, she looked down at the ground in defeat. Everything had been going so well just before this happened, but now she was just really worried about Sam.
To Be Continued
Chapter 5
Double Life – Chapter 5
“So how’d it go last night, Sam?” Clover asked teasingly.
“Um, what are you talking, Clover?” Sam said startled.
“Don’t play dumb with me. I know you two snuck out last night.”
“What… you know?” Sam asked stunned.
“Of course we know, Sam, you couldn’t have made it any more obvious. So did you kiss?” Alex asked excitedly.
“Yeah, I want to know all the juicy details. Spill it all for us.”
“Uhhhhhhhhhh….. I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sam said strategically deciding to still dodge the issue.
“Jeze, what’s with you lately?” Clover said getting sick of her evasiveness. “You’ve been acting so strange, Sam. You can’t even tell your best friends in the world about your boyfriends anymore.”
“Oh, boy… friend.” She made a fake sounding laugh. “Yes, we, um, had a good time.” Actually, Sam was a bit disappointed with Clover’s comment. She wished breaking it to them would’ve been that easy. They didn’t seem upset.
“What did you two do?”
“He took me dancing.”
“Awwww, how nice,” Alex remarked.
“I wish Chad would take me dancing,” Clover said jealously.
“So who is this mystery hottie of yours and when do we get to meet him?”
“His name is, Man…uel, yes Manuel, that’s his name all right. He lives very, very, very far away. Like almost to Malibu. When he’s not at school, he works almost all day, so I don’t know if you’ll be able to see him much.”
“Wow, Sam. If that’s true, than how did you two meet?”
*bring!*
“Not again!” Clover and Alex both yelled as they scurried to get to their class.
Sam didn’t follow them immediately. She looked around the hall way as it emptied out of familiar faces. However, she couldn’t see Mandy’s anywhere. It was very un-characteristic of her not to come and verbally trash them a few seconds before Science class. Sam had been looking very forward to just seeing her again, even if it was still under the pretense of a high-school rivalry. She finally walked through the door into Science class. Her elderly teacher was scowling at her as she walked in.
“Samantha, Clover, Alexandria, I’ve been permissive of your tardiness of late, but I’m sorry it has gone on long enough. I’m writing you all up.”
“Ohhhhh,” Clover and Alex whined.
Sam just sat down and took out her note-book. She looked over at Mandy’s seat. It was empty. She couldn’t help but feel worried. Despite her previous notions of Mandy, her attendance record had been pretty near spotless. She seemed like she was in perfect health last night, so where was she? The lecture started and the teacher started rambling on about some dull topic. Sam tried to taking notes, but her mind began wandering again to Mandy, the things she had told her, and how much her feelings towards her had changed in the past few days.
Right in the middle of class, the loud speaker sounded off, “Would Sam, Clover, and Alex please report to the principal’s office. This is regarding your recent tardies.”
All three shuffled their way out of the room and back into the hall way.
“Great this is all I need, a detention,” Clover complained.
“Tell me about it,” Alex agreed.
“Hey you guys haven’t seen Mandy today have you?” Sam asked.
“No, I haven’t seen her, Sam. I noticed she wasn’t in gym today either. Maybe she’s sick.”
“I hope it’s the plague,” Clover sneered. Alex snickered. Sam just ignored them.
Something just occurred to Alex, “Hey if we just got our last tardies, than how come we’re being called to the office before Mr. Lazarus could send them up?”
“Oh no, not again!” All three girls screamed as a twister of water spun out of a nearby, abandoned janitor’s mop bucket. The cyclone spun over and engulfed all of them into the twisting, soapy water. Incomprehensibly, they were now somehow falling down a metal corridor.
“How do we fall for this everytiiiiiiiiiime?” Sam screamed as she fell.
“My designer original, it’s ruined!” Clover shrieked while crying.
All three of then lumped into a big wet, soaped up pile on Jerry’s couch and a short water-fall followed them. They unraveled their selves from this provocative entanglement and sat down properly. A giant blow-dryer attached to a metal arm dropped from the ceiling and blew them dry with much force. All three girls then pulled out mirrors and brushes and attempted to fix their hair, after it had almost been blown off their heads.
“Jerry, WOOHP’s going to have pay for my dress and my hair!” Clover griped.
“That can be arranged,” Jerry said sipping his glass of tea. There was a kettle of it on his desk.
“I’m guessing you didn’t invite us here for tea-time, Jerry,” Sam queried conversationally.
“As much as I wish that were the case, sadly something else has come up.”
The screen behind him switched on, there was a silver box displaying the words “Please stay tuned shortly for an announcement regarding your impending doom.”
“For the past several minutes all the tv and internet signals on the planet have been jammed with this image…
Jerry shut up when the image switched to a video feed of Sebastian. He was sitting on a red, cushioned chair in front of a fake-looking fire place. Sitting in his lap were a large pair of garden shears.
“Good evening planet Earth, or should I also say good morning to some of you. Please forgive me for not having subtitles available in three-thousand or so foreign languages, but you can manage. I’m here to tell you a story, a story about a child. This child’s birth name is irrelevant, so we will simply call him Sebastian. Sebastian was a child who once had a dream. That dream was to grow up to be the best lead guitarist in the world and create the greatest music rock and roll had ever heard. Growing up as a poor orphan Sebastian had little chance of achieving that dream since he had no money buy me a guitar. However, he averted this dilemma by pick-pocketing enough money to buy his first guitar. He still couldn’t afford lessons, mind you, but over a series of years he painstakingly taught himself how to play. He kept improving his skills through out his youth, until he started reaching his full potential as a guitarist. His band played at small clubs and shows, and he began to reap the benefits of his hard work though the roar of the audience, critical acclaim from local journalists, and a measly, cash reward. Then one day after a performance, he was confronted by a man claiming to be an A and R for a major record label. He told Sebastian that he could be a millionaire, have more women than he could handle, and would get his music to millions of people across the world. While the two former promises were intriguing to his young mind, the later was the one he had always hoped for. He was signed and in their studios he began work on what he wanted to be the greatest album in rock history. Upon completing it, everyone who listened to the album agreed it was the best one they had ever heard. A single was chosen, and soon his band was put on the road to help promote the up-coming album. His label decided to better market his band, it needed more spectacle. So, elaborate costumes, stages, and pyrotechnics were added to his live show. Sebastian argued that his music would be enough, but since they were the ones who had the final say, he begrudgingly agreed. Apparently, they did not spend enough money on the pyro, because it malfunctioned during one of his first shows, and the young guitarist was sprayed with fire.”
Sebastian raised his metal claw in front of him. His voice now fuming with anger, he continued, “It destroyed my hand! I would never be able to play the guitar again. It also left my face like this!” He then took the pair of garden sheers with his human hand and placed one blade behind the long, silver hair that draped over one half of his face. He took his claw and pressed the handles together, causing the blades to clip across the hair. The silver hair fell to the ground, and the hidden side of his face was revealed. It was hideously scarred beyond recognition due to burns and a deep, dark hole existed where once an eye had been.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!” All three girls screamed at this ghastly sight. Alex instinctively jumped into Sam’s arms for protection.
“I have kept one half of my face hidden from the world until today. I may have sued for compensation, but foolishly I had signed a contract that freed my label from having any liability for stage-related accidents. Once half my body was disfigured beyond recognition as being human, I was deemed to no longer be marketable in any capacity and was dropped. My master work was never released, and I had no ability to do so since I had also foolishly signed away the rights to my masters in the very same contract. Thankfully, I had made a few contacts during my short stay at the label, so after I grew back enough hair to hide my scars, I was able to re-invent myself as a producer. I thought since I would never be able to fulfill my dream to have the world listen to my music, perhaps I could help other artists do so. However, I quickly found my hard work was again being under-mined by music industry higher-ups who preferred substanceless glop aimed at a cross-over radio audience compared to real music crafted from skill, creativity, and passion. I begrudgingly went along with this commandment from the glass ceiling to make that kind of noise, but at the same time I had been experimenting with subliminal sound patterns that I learned could induce listeners to do things other than nod their heads. Soon I found I could implant this into the worthless records I was making and use them to control people. You may think the ones I should exact my revenge on would be the music industry swine who destroyed my life, my dream, and my humanity. While they are guilty, it became obvious to me they only existed because the mass public devoured whatever trash they put out like the mindless sheep you are. Without all of you, the corrupt music industry wouldn’t exist. You are just as guilty for making me this way, as they are. For a while I was content with using your un-ending appetite for garbage to control you, but I’ve recently realized what I really wanted to do all along was to kill you all. However, this time you will actually being hearing good music, since for the first time ever my debut album will be released to all of you absolutely free of cost. Well, in the monetary sense at least. I assure you, this will be the most expensive album you’ve ever bought.”
He finally stopped his tirade for a moment and looked more directly into the camera, “And this is a message to the three, young spy girls who I know are watching. I have kidnapped your lesbian lover.”
At that moment, the tea Jerry was drinking exploded from his mouth and sprayed against the screen. As the liquid slid down the screen, the camera panned over to Mandy who was still bound with ropes to her chair. Her right eye was black and swollen, and the right half of her face was badly bruised from the impact of Sebastian’s claw. Her mouth was still gagged with the bandana. When she realized the camera was on her, she started making high pitched, muffled sounds frantically.
“Mandy!” Sam cried out.
Alex looked up at her friend’s face and saw a look of deepest concern. Alex sometimes acted air-headed, but she was smart enough to put twi and two together to realize who Sam’s recent, secret love really was.
The camera panned back over to Sebastian, “Cute thing, isn’t she? If you want to see her alive again, you best hurry. She will be the first to die. And as for the rest of you, please stay tuned, because I know you will.” The signal ended.
Unlike Alex, Clover was still completely oblivious, “Great. Now he’s not only crazy, but now he’s a crazy perv. And why does he have to kid-nap Mandy? You think he could find someone who actually belongs on the streets.”
Sam just ignored her. Alex looked back up at her. Sam took her hand and wiped away the tears from her eyes. She couldn’t stand to see Mandy like that. On top of that, she felt responsible. No doubt, she was Sebastian’s real target, and Mandy only got put in harm’s way because of her. Alex watched as her face then turned to one of cold, determined seriousness. Sam knew she couldn’t afford to make the same mistake twice. She had to handle this mission with her mind and her spy training. As much as seeing Mandy in that condition had pained her, she would have to control her emotions or she would be playing right into Sebastian’s hand and wouldn’t be able to save Mandy or anyone else.
“Jerry, were you able to trace the signal?” Sam asked him.
Jerry was distracted for a moment as he stared at Sam with Alex on her lap, before he cleared his throat. Alex got off and sat back down in her previous spot. “Unfortunately, no. It appears the signal he used to transmit the broadcast was as untraceable as the one he used in those CDs you sent me earlier.”
“Could you replay the video?”
“Certainly.” He worked at his computer for a second, and Sebastian’s broadcast started playing again.
“Fast-forward to the part right before the end, where he moved the camera and pause it.” He did just that and it was now fixed on still image of the battered Mandy in bondage. “Close in on the far right there.” The screen panned in on a table in the background, and there was a small, potted cactus on top of it.
“Keen observation Sam,” Jerry said as he worked at his computer. “According to WOOHP’s database, that is a
Leptocereus Quadricostatus. A breed of cacti better known as the Pitahaya. It’s native only to Puerto Rico.”
Sam thought for a moment. “Maybe Sebastian has taken over the Arecibo Observatory and re-configured it so he can disrupt the signals of satellites orbiting earth.”
“Whoa, whoa, wait up, you lost me,” Alex said.
“The Arecibo Observatory is located in Puerto Rico. It’s the largest satellite dish and radio-telescope in the world. Astronomers use it to study objects in space,” Sam explained to her.
“Interesting theory, Sam. I’m going to have to agree with your deduction and…” Jerry’s com-wallet went off. “Excuse me for a moment.” He put it next to his head. “Yes… Yes… Oh my… Send the other the other victims to the infirmary immediately.” He snapped his wallet closed, put it back in his pocket, and looked at his computer monitor for a few moments with serious expression on his face.
“Girls, I’m going to show you a surveillance video. This is of one of the victims of Sebastian’s CDs you investigated the other day. We had placed him in an isolation room for observation.”
The giant screen than changed to the view from a camera placed on the wall of a white room. It was the first man they had investigated when this mission began. He was still screaming to himself, “What! What! What! What!” Then his whats became more frequent, with him screaming faster and faster. “What! What! What! Wha! Wha! WhaWhaWhaWhaWhWhWhWhWhWh!” His head started vibrating rapidly and Jerry pressed a button to pause the image.
“To save you from the grisly imagery, I’ll just say he lost his head.”
“Ewww gross!” All three girls said.
“Since time is of the essence, I’m going to assume the gadgets you already have will be sufficient. You’ll also being flying to Puerto Rico via cruise missile.”
“Wow, nostalgia trip, Jerr,” Clover said with little enthusiasm.
“But I don’t want to take this nostalgia trip!” Alex whined.
“You have no choice. Good luck and be careful ladies, the world is counting on you.”
“Ahhhhh!” They were all sucked into a compartment that opened in the wall.
A computer voice started counting off, “5, 4, 3, 2”
They started scurrying around frantically. Alex yelled, “Hey, where are the seat-belts?”
“1, 0”
“Jerry, you gotta be kidding!” Clover yelled.
“Blast-off.”
“Ahhhhhhhhhh!” All three screamed and were pushed into the floor, as the rocket launched into the atmosphere.
To Be Continued
Chapter 6
Double Life - Chapter 6
The scenery in Arecibo, Puerto Rico was made up of a beautiful, mountainous landscape covered with thick, green vegetation as far as one could see. It was suddenly interrupted seemingly out of no where by a huge metal construct that could’ve only been scarred into the other wise perfectly natural landscape through the tinkering of human beings. The largest feature of this monument to mankind, the Arecibo Observatory, was the 1,000 feet wide, concave, aluminum dish that was built into the ground over a lime stone sink-hole. Suspended 450 feet above this dish was a 900 ton, triangular, steel platform. The platform was suspended in the air by eight-teen cables running from three reinforced concrete towers, one 365 feet tall and two 265 feet tall, which stood on the edges of the huge dish. Hanging below the triangular platform was a radio telescope named the Gregorian Dome. The Gregorian Dome had a polygonal shape, being composed of inter-connected, white triangles. It looked like a golf-ball sliced in half. There was also a slim, shaky, steel cat-walk. It led from the base of one of the towers on a cliff to the suspended, triangular platform.
Three people walked over this catwalk and one was carried. Sebastian lead the group, followed by Jerrell and Steve who was carrying Mandy still bound and gagged over his shoulder. Mandy struggled furiously to break free, but she was tied so tight that it was of little use other than annoying Steve as she wiggled around. They made their way onto the platform and took a zigzagging flight of steel steps down into a lower level that lead to the Gregorian Dome. They walked inside. The dome was hollow inside with a large hole at the bottom and a much smaller one on top.
Steve turned Mandy around so she could see in front of him. Sebastian turned to where a large box shaped room was located. He opened its door, revealing a mass of machinery and computers inside. Sebastian stared at her with his one human eye and his one, dark pit. “This is the M1 planetary radar transmitter. It was originally designed to direct radar waves at planets and other objects in space. With the help of some scientists I persuaded to assist me, I’ve converted this machine to transmit my own signals to satellites orbiting earth. Embedded in this signal is a virus that will spread quickly to every electronic connection available to it. Once its unleashed it will be unstoppable, and every man, woman, and child in modern civilization will hear my album. ”
He then pointed downwards at a large, aluminum dish parallel to the hole in the floor. “This is the tertiary sub-reflector. Tie her over the top of it like I told you.”
Steve carried Mandy down onto the bottom of the dome and placed her on top of the curved piece of metal. Him and Jerrell untied some of the ropes and re-knotted them around pipes and surrounding metal. She was now stretched over it on her back, with her arms extended to the left and right and her legs downwards, forming a crucifix.
“The tertiary sub-reflector collects radiation from space that reflects off of the big dish below, to the ceiling of this dome, and back down to it. No need to worry, this kind of radiation is harmless to humans. What you should worry about is the heaters I’ve installed under this dish. When I’ve activated the M1 Transmitter to charge for broadcast, the heaters under it will turn on. At first the heat will be relatively mild and harmless, but as time progresses towards broadcast time, you will start to feel a sensation that probably is only comparable to being on a frying pan. When broadcast time arrives, the heat will reach a deadly level and you will be literally cooked alive.”
He stopped for a moment and continued, “So now that you know how you’re going to die, do you have any last requests?”
“MMMK…MMPH!” Her words were muffled, but the intent was clear. Mandy’s eyes burned with hatred.
“I’m sorry, I can’t understand you.” He turned around. “Let’s go.” They left the room, slamming the door behind them. Mandy stared up at the small ray of light that shone out of the hole in the ceiling, because it was the only thing she could do.
As the men reached the end of the cat-walk, a beeping noise sounded off. Sebastian pulled an electronic device out of his pocket. Its green screen displayed a 3D model of the Arecibo Observatory and the surrounding jungle. He pressed a button, and the image zoomed in on three yellow spots that moved together some distance off into the rain forest.
“I should’ve known they would insist on being early. Very well. We’re going to move slightly ahead of schedule.” He handed the tracking device to Jerrell. “Find them and kill them. If you fail to finish the job this time, I’m going to give both of you a complimentary copy of my album.”
Steve and Jerrell looked like they had just received a message from the grim reaper himself. He may as well been. They had been very apprehensive of him ever since he revealed the other side of his face. “Um, no sweat, Sebastian,” Jerrell stuttered off.
Steve picked up the carrying cases for his two guitars which he left at the end of the cat-walk. The two men went in the other direction and started trekking for some time through the hilly jungle in the pursuit of the yellow spots. Steve stopped walking when they reached a small clearing nestled between two hills. His blue, electric guitar was now strapped to his chest. He pulled a cigarette out of his back pocket, lit it up, and started puffing on it.
“You know that shit’ll kill you, man.”
“Does it look like I care?”
The electronic device started beeping again. “Forget about that. They’re right ahead of us.”
The three spies appeared from behind the dark undergrowth.
Clover was the first to spot them. “Great, it’s the has-beens again.”
“Hey, watch how you talk to your elders, baby. You might receive a spanking.”
Sam put her hands on her friends’ shoulders, “Clover, Alex, you think you could take these two while I go find Mandy and Sebastian?”
“No problem, Sammy. We can handle these losers.” Alex answered. Sam then ran behind them and out of sight.
“Hey where you going honey?” Steve said as he ran in her direction.
“Away from you.” Alex swiped her foot at his head. He managed to jerk his body back in time to miss the yellow blur as it flew right past his face and knocked the cigarette clean out of his mouth. He then started running his fingers and pick over his guitar strings, and the sonic energy burst out in Alex’s direction. She responded by flipping her body up onto the arm of a tree. The white blast collided with the trunk, shaking it greatly. Steve kept playing while twisting the angle of his guitar upwards. The white energy tore away bark as it moved up the trunk, until it was blowing away leaves and branches at the top. By this time, Alex had already made a cat-like leap into another tree. Steve simply turned and blasted the other tree until it was bare of leaves like there was an approaching winter. When the energy stream came too close, Alex vaulted off the tree again. Before she hit the ground, she activated her jetpack backpack and swooped into the forest. Steve was lured by her, and they both disappeared into the thick undergrowth.
Clover eyeballed Jerrell, “So you ready for round two?”
“I’m always ready.”
“Pshh.” Clover rolled her eyes. “Yeah, like I haven’t heard that one before.”
She lunged forward at him. Jerrell already had his microphone in hand and the green, energy burst out at her. She rolled to the side. He turned the mic in her direction, and she kept cart-wheeling out of the way as the rings collided with the hill behind her kicking up dirt. Finally, the shot ceased and Clover charged forward. He pulled out his hunting knife. She expertly spun her right foot around at his hand. The knife sailed in the air and stabbed into a tree some feet away. He fired again, but before he did Clover was fast enough to have grabbed his shoulders. She used the leverage to flip herself over him 360 degrees to where she kicked both of her heels at the small of his back. He grunted as he flew forward, tackling the ground.
Clover landed on the ground too, but was able to brace herself from the brunt of the fall. She got up as soon as she landed and ran in his direction. Jerrell saw this coming and rolled over, blasting the energy at her. She once again hopped clear of the danger and performed an amazing display of gymnastics as she maneuvered out of the way of the rings. The blast ran out again, and she charged at him ferociously. Jerrell pulled yet another mic from his back-pocket and fired that one at her with his left hand. This time Clover was quick witted enough to dodge the blast. However, just as that shot expired, he simply fired the other mic at her. This time it clipped her leg and she whirled in the air landing face first some feet away.
“Where do you keep getting those things?” Clover said, her frustration beginning to build. Getting tired of acting like a jumping bean, she turned on her jetpack backpack and soared to about fifty feet up in the air. Clover stuck out her tongue and yelled, “Betcha can’t hit me up here?” Jerrell aimed his mic upwards and fired. Clover simply flew to the side easily dodging the green rings as they traveled into the atmosphere. When that stream of rings ended, he fired his other mic, and she easily dodged them in the air again. “Awwww, you mis-fired again. How pathetic.”
“Yea, we’ll see about that,” Jerrell muttered to himself as he twisted the ends of his microphones. He pointed the one in his right hand directly at Clover. “Check the technique.” Clover simply flew to the left again, but this time the rings that shot out were blue, and as they traveled away from the head of the microphone they widened out in the air becoming quite large. Clover hadn’t calculated on that occurring, and a few the blue rings hit her in the air, tossing her around. The blue rings weren’t as powerful or as fast as the green, but they were still painful. While Clover was momentarily distracted, he fired the other mic. Red rings with very small diameters burst out, and they collided with her jet-pack, shattering its engine. Clover then dropped out of the sky and into a tree below.
Steve was strolling through the forest in search of Alex who had vanished a while back. He suddenly heard a “whoosh” sound behind him. He cocked his head just in time to see the yellow fist as it slammed into his face. His head was knocked to the side from the nasty blow but he managed to keep enough composure to strum his guitar. However, Alex veered sharply before she could be hit. He walked in the direction she had flown. She was no where to be seen. He kept pacing slowly, paying close attention to the tree tops and keeping an open ear for the sound of the jetpack. As he passed a particular tree, Alex materialized out of thin air on a high branch with her finger on her X-Powder turning off the camouflage. She stuffed it back in her pocket and then leaped down with her arms extended like a monkey. Her fall was broken by Steve’s back. Steve was caught off guard, but managed to push his arms out in front to prevent himself from slamming into the ground and his guitar. Alex still on his back pulled on his long hair with one hand, while furiously landing a series of cross-face blows with her other. Steve managed to sit up, and grabbed Alex’s shoulder guards flipping her over his head. He picked his guitar, but the energy only blew up dirt and grass, as Alex had already switched on her jetpack and flown sharply to the right again. He followed, but again observed nothing but jungle sounds.
“Hide and seek, eh?”
Steve started moving his fingers over the strings on the neck of his guitar, while also moving the whammy bar on its bridge up and down. The white energy burst out again. However, this time it was extremely wavy, matching the pitch of the guitar, and covered a much wider vertical area. He turned quickly from side to side and bathed the jungle with the energy waves. Several dead birds and frogs fell to ground from the trees, followed by Alex and her broken X-Powder.
Meanwhile, Sam zigzagged around tree trunks with her jetpack backpack at an intense speed. As she neared her destination, she could hear the distinct sound of organ music. It was a deathly dark piece of music. She stopped and planted her feet back on the ground when she approached the tree-line surrounding the observatory. She peered at the huge dish and telescope hanging over head. She didn’t observe any immediate threats and reactivated her backpack. She flew over the enormous dish in the direction of the music. She reached the other end of the observatory where a long, white building stood. She hovered down and landed in front of a giant, gothic pipe organ that was set up on its roof. She could tell by the profile of the organist that it was Sebastian. He also had on a heart shaped jetpack backpack, the one he used to escape from WOOHP. He must’ve heard her land, but he ignored her and kept on playing. He worked the keyboard with incredible speed with his one hand and moved numerous pedals with his feet. He had the organ customized and invented his own method of playing to compensate for his handicap. Sam also observed a large antenna attached to the side of it. Tired of being ignored, Sam walked up and kicked the stool out from under his feet. He didn’t fall down, but simply snapped up to a standing position and finished the last note by slamming his fingers down hard on the keys letting them rest for a second, emitting a ghastly, dark sound. Finally he turned around and bore into Sam with his two faces.
“The jig's up Sebastian. We’re on to your plan.”
“You’re too late. This organ activated the transmitter which is now charging to broadcast my music. Your bitchy girl-friend and the rest of the civilized world have about twelve minutes before their fate is sealed.” Hearing that, Sam reached into her back pocket and set a timer on her X-Powder. “My revenge is final!”
“What happened to you was horrible, but you’re a hypocrite. You became worse than them when you turned to crime and decided to take out your pain on innocent people!”
“No one is innocent. By nature humans are greedy, selfish, ignorant creatures who will trample over anything or anyone as long as it benefits their selves. They are the most dangerous of animals. I’m doing this planet a favor.”
“I believe most people have good in them. How can you judge them unless you’ve been in their shoes? You’re not god, you have no right.”
“God is too slow. I’m just giving him a helping hand to do what man was bound to do to himself anyways.”
“But what about you? What happened to the boy who just wanted people to love his music? Don’t you remember what it was like to feel something other than hate? It’s not too late, you can still stop this madness.”
“That boy is dead. He was murdered by the inherent evil of mankind. The only way you’re going to stop my revenge is by going through me first.” He then jabbed out his metal claw towards her head at lightning speed. Sam did the splits, sinking out of the way of the blow. She lunged out her fist and drove it into his stomach hard. Sebastian only reacted in pain for a second before he drove his knee forward for her head. Sam laid down her back to avoid his knee, and then kicked both feet up at him. They didn’t connect, and instead he grabbed both of her legs and slung her over so she collided with the wooden side of the pipe organ. It contacted the side she had injured yesterday, and she doubled over in pain. Sebastian took advantage on this and grabbed her head by the roots of her hair. He then dragged her in front of the pipe organ and slammed her face down on the keys. He grinded her head on them, causing a loud, dark noise to escape from the pipes. He picked her head back up to slam it down again, but Sam jabbed her elbow hard into his chest, while also lifting her fist up to slam into his nose. She then grabbed his head and drove it into the organ keys in retaliation, and the ghostly pipes sounded again. While his head was still down on the keys, Sebastian slashed his claws at Sam’s arm. Sam gripped it as blood started pouring out.
Sebastian took this moment to turn on his jetpack backpack and ascend into the air. Sam activated hers and pursued him. As she did so, she pulled out a piece a cloth, wrapped it around her arm, and tied the knot with her teeth. Sebastian flew up a few hundred feet towards the top of one of the concrete towers. There was a small, square platform right below its peak. Sebastian landed on it, and disappeared around the corner. Sam landed on the same spot. She turned the corner but was met by Sebastian wearing sensible soundproof earmuffs and holding a black boom-box in front of him. The boom-box emitted rock music. Sam was never a big fan of Rock, but for some reason the combination of guitar, bass, and percussion was oddly beautiful to her ears. She found herself no longer able to move under her own power, and soon everything in front of her eyes began to swirl into a circle of colors.
Jerrell pulled the tracking device back out, and observed the location of the yellow spot representing Clover. He trekked through the jungle until he came to where the spot was and looked up. There was the red uniformed blonde hanging limply on a branch by her mid-section.
“Timber!” He blasted the small, red rings across the tree’s trunk. The energy stream was short, but it was much stronger than the other settings, cutting through the tree like a buzz-saw. Clover suddenly regained liveliness and somersaulted off of the branch landing in a crouching position gracefully, as the tree crashed to the ground behind her.
“You still haven’t finished me off,” Clover said as she again stuck her tongue out at him.
“Don’t worry. I always get the job done.” He fired the string of razor-like rings at her with the other mic. She dodged the fast onslaught, but it clipped her hair and yellow strands fell to the ground.
“My hair!” Clover screeched. “No one touches the…” They both then noticed the blast had sliced another tree in half, and they both dodged out of the way as it crashed to the ground.
“You know I don’t think they pay lumberjacks by the hour,” Clover said as she positioned herself in front of another tree, while pulling something out of her back-pocket. “But wait, I take that back. You’re too short to be a lumberjack in the first place, small fry.”
She hit a sore spot. “You’ll be even funnier when I have your head for a paper-weight, you blonde bimbo!” he shouted angrily. He shot the red rings at her again. She did a baseball slide out of the way, but at the same time fired her laser lipstick at his belt. The belt sliced in half, and his pants fell to his ankles exposing his pink boxers. When he instinctively tried to jump out of the line of the falling tree, he tripped to the ground. “I can’t go out like….”
Thud!
Steve looked over at the motionless Alex. She was sprawled out on the ground like she was dead. “Yeah, right,” he said not fooled for a second. He then put his hand back on his whammy bar.
“Hi-ya!” Alex kicked off her boot and it slammed into his family jewels. She was planning to hit his head, but her aim was off.
“Ughhhh, not again,” he moaned in pain. “I’ll kill you!” He started moving the whammy bar and the strings.
“Ahhhhhhh!” Alex started running as fast as she could, with the tall, sonic waves trailing right behind her. They were inching extremely close to her butt so she turned on her jetpack and started flying. Steve kept turning around in a circle to follow her as she whizzed around him. Eventually, she made so many laps that he got dizzy and fell over. He sat on the ground with the world still spinning around him. When things finally straightened out he looked around and realized Alex was no where to be seen. Alex had flown straight up and was hovering above him. She then started a descent and pulled the sensible sound proof earmuffs out of her back pack. She threw them down and they snapped right onto his head and over his ears. He put his hands on his head to feel what it was and took off the earmuffs. He then noticed he could hear a faint buzzing sound from behind. He turned around to see Alex waving. “Peek-a-boo.” Alex cart-wheeled to the side, and her puppy-dog shaped boomerang buzzsaw barrette collided with his guitar. It sliced through the stings, and Steve was pushed back as all the pent up sonic energy burst out forward from it. After it was expelled, it looked like a meteor hit with all the trees knocked down and grass blown away directly in front of Steve.
Dazed, he un-strapped the now useless guitar and threw it to the ground. He looked around and saw Alex was again missing. He knew he had to hurry, so he started running back through the rain forest in the direction he had first come. He ran for quite some time, but fatigue began to kick in as he started wheezing and coughing hard. He was so winded, he had to walk the rest of the way back to where he had stashed the item he was searching for. As he turned around a certain tree he met her again.
“Looking for this?” Alex said with his bass strapped to her chest.
She started to walk forward. “No wait, don’t!”
“Don’t what?” She continued walking towards him completely oblivious of the branch in front of her. It ran across the bass and plucked a string.
“Heinouuuuuuusss!” That was the last word uttered by Steve as a burst of the dark, sonic energy hit him and shot him up into the sky like a canon. He kept traveling over the skyline until he was out of sight.
“Oops!” She couldn’t believe what she just did. “Sorry! I hope you live,” she said sincerely.
The colors were still swirling around Sam’s eyes. The swirl started to get smaller and smaller as it twisted into itself. Soon she could see nothing but darkness. Eventually, blurry colors began to reappear in front of her, and they materialized into people. It was her mother and father standing tall over her motioning with their arms, telling her to come to them. She tried to walk forward, but she was clumsy and was only able to take a few steps before she latched onto her father's leg to prevent herself from falling. “She walked, can you believe it?”
Her mind started rolling through more events from the past. Happy times she had spent with her mom and dad as a young child. Eventually, she reached the point where her family moved to California for her father’s job, and Sam started school at Beverley Hills Elementary. She was very lonely during the first few months there. None of the kids there seemed to want to associate with her, especially since she was the teacher’s darling, answering all the questions in class and always getting high grades. One day she found herself sitting in front of a tree crying during recess, because a boy had called her an ugly nerd. She looked up to see much younger versions of Clover and Alex smiling at her. “Do you want to play with us?” Clover asked. She did. They soon bonded, quickly becoming best friends. The girls stopped treating her so bad, because Clover was the most popular girl in class who they all envied and wanted to be friends with. The boys still picked on her for a time, but when she started to mature that subsided as well. She saw more happy times with Clover and Alex, her parents, and the first time she kissed a boy.
The next significant thing that flashed into her mind was a short time that up until recently seemed so distant and foreign. Like a fragile flower that had been buried under a mound of dirt, she had almost completely forgotten about it. When Mandy first arrived at Beverley Hills Elementary, she seemed really shy and uncomfortable. She mostly kept to herself and ate by herself at lunch. However, she was soon befriended by Clover, Alex, and Sam much in the same way Clover and Alex had befriended her. They hung out together during and after school. Mandy still had her annoying voice, but she seemed a lot nicer during those days. She could remember again now how Mandy was very friendly to her in particular. She was always complimenting Sam and hugging her whenever she got the chance. One time she whispered into her ear, “Sammykins, I really like you. You know that?” She was still a bit naïve back then, but she could only remember appreciating the attention from her. Mandy and Clover also got along real well. Their interests in fashion, shopping, and other such things were almost identical. Sam thought they had found a new best friend to add to their circle.
However, this friendship was cut brutally short only after a few weeks. Clover’s then beloved boy-friend, Bobby, had lost interest in Clover and became infatuated with Mandy. Sam could see now that Mandy had little to no interest in him, but Bobby was persistent in pursuing her anyways. Eventually, Clover caught wind of this, and she interpreted it as betrayal by her new friend. Perhaps, it would’ve blown over and they would’ve patched things up. However, they got into a shouting match and Clover uttered the words, “You’re so nasty, I bet your parents don’t even love you.” This was just something she said randomly with very little thought or meaning. However, Mandy took it personally, and she could see now how the words deeply affected her. From that point on, the battle lines were drawn. Mandy became very spiteful of Clover, and their ridiculous popularity wars and boy-chasing contests commenced soon after. Sam and Alex sided with Clover, because they were friends with her first for a much longer time. However, Sam now felt regret over that decision to choose sides. She didn’t recall Mandy having any real friends after that. She was surrounded by a few girls, but they only seemed to be shallow politicians more drawn to her popularity than anything else. Clover had always been the most popular up to this point, but eventually Mandy managed to surpass her. Clover doubled her efforts and reclaimed her throne. So it went back and forth for years. The friendly girl she could barely remember was gone, and she was replaced by the more infamous version who was bratty, arrogant, self-absorbed, and over-all nasty to Clover and anyone that was near her. Pretty soon, Sam began to despise her almost as much as Clover did. One thing she could see now though was that the odd, far away looks Mandy gave her from time held a different meaning.
Her mind kept running though more times and events. She saw when the three of them first became spies under the tutelage of Jerry. She watched her first successful and not so successful missions against villains of the likes of Macker the Safe Cracker and others. Being a spy was hard work but it usually managed to turn out fun at the same time. It strengthened her bond with Clover and Alex, and she felt a great sense of accomplishment from being able to help people. More time passed. She had more fun times with Clover and Alex, went on more missions, and dated more boys. Eventually, it caught up to only a few days ago. She was at Mandy’s house to work on their science project but instead they just talked privately for hours. She honestly couldn’t remember feeling more intimate with anyone else. Then the moment came when Mandy stole a kiss from her.
At that moment, the images in her mind started spinning back into a swirl of colors. Eventually the swirl straightened out, and her blurry vision came back into focus as she re-entered the present. She felt the sensation of her head convulsing, but it shortly subsided. She took her hands off her head, which had placed on the sensible soundproof earmuffs. She must have some how managed to do this subconsciously. It seemed like she was gone for a life-time, but in reality it had only been a few minutes.
A metal claw than shot out for her head, but she took her hands, grabbing it at the wrist, and used it to throw Sebastian up over her head and off the platform to the 300 foot drop below. She viewed the boom-box which was still playing. She ejected the CD in it and snapped in half in her hand. She took off the earmuffs. Hearing a buzzing sound moving upwards, she whirled her leg around just as he came up over the edge, kicking the burnt portion of his face. He whirled back, and Sam took this opportunity to dive over the edge and tackle him mid-air. She then landed several punches across both sides of his face. Sebastian retaliated by kneeing her in the stomach. He then chopped both of her shoulders, and kicked her on her way down as she plummeted towards the hard aluminum below. About 200 feet down, she switched on her jet-pack, which halted her free-fall. She flew back up in pursuit of Sebastian.
Sebastian landed on one of the thick, steel, bridge cables that ran from the tower, to the suspended steel platform. Sam landed in front of him. Sebastian delivered several blindingly quick kicks hopping down the cable, keeping one leg on it at a time. Sam blocked every one of them, and followed up with her own string of kicks. He blocked each of those with his arm and claw. As Sebastian jabbed his metal claw forward, ducked down and activated her jetpack. She clothes-lined his mid section moving like a bullet, and grabbed him, carrying him into a downwards plunge. She started flying at a curved angle to prepare to drop him onto the dish while diving back up, but he wrapped his claw around her neck and started to squeeze. Sam lost her ability to navigate, and they began spinning out of control. They almost hit the ground, but Sebastian used his human hand to flip off the switch on the back of her jetpack. He then turned on his own and hovered down to stand on the aluminum. He held his claw up in the air still choking Sam. She kicked him hard, but he didn’t even flinch and tightened the steel grasp around her trachea even more. Sam tried to kick again but her legs suddenly felt limp as she was ran out air. Trying to pull apart the steel vice with her bare hands was futile too.
“I want to see you suffer, just like your girl-friend is suffering right now,” he said demonically.
She moved her right hand up to the claw again like she was going to struggle to break off the hold, but instead she used her thumb to switch on the laser-lipstick concealed in her hand to its highest setting. The red beam melted through his wrist like a hot knife through butter. She dropped to the ground with the severed claw still wrapped around her neck, while at the same time spraying the laser once over the un-scarred side of Sebastian’s face. Sebastian screamed, and put his hand over that side of his face.
Sam finally managed to latch the claw off of her neck, and sucked air into her lungs greedily. She was caught off guard when Sebastian’s foot flew into her hand, causing the laser-lipstick to sail off into the distance.
He removed the hand from his face. Steam rose from the hideous gash of melted flesh. His other eye-ball had melted too, leaving both his eyes as black holes. He started laughing hysterically. “You think that would stop me? That was the dead side!”
“Rahhhhhhh!” Sam howled as she swung both her arms around, with the metal claw gripped like a baseball bat. It impacted the side of his face that was burned years ago. His head twisted from the blow, and he collapsed to the ground unconscious.
Sam fell to her hands and knees, exhausted from the fight.
“Sam, are you ok?” Clover yelled from a distance as she and Alex ran over to her.
“I’m fine, but I don’t know where Mandy is.” Her voice sounded scratchy and panic stricken.
“Did you look inside that big golf ball?” Alex asked. Sam saw that Steve’s bass was strapped to her chest.
“Of course!” She pulled out her X-Powder and opened it up, the timer she set on it read 2 minutes and 6 seconds. “We don’t have much time. Clover, I want you to carry Sebastian out of here.”
She looked at the hideously disfigured man, “Um, Ewwww….” Her expression got more serious. “I’ll do it.”
Sam handed Alex her X-Powder. “Here, Alex, you have to destroy that golf-ball before this reaches zero, whether I come out of it in time or not.”
“Ok Sammy, just go save Mandy,” Alex told her.
“Hurry back, Sam,” Clover said.
Sam didn’t respond, not wanting to spend any more time. She turned on her jetpack and soared up into the air and through the hole in the bottom of the Gregorian Dome telescope. She hovered in the center and looked around.
She saw her, “Mandy!”
Mandy had her eyes closed with her head arched up, because it was the only part of her she could move away from the burning. When she heard that voice, she opened her eyes and saw her floating above her. She still couldn’t talk because of the bandana that gagged her, but the tears that poured down from her purple eyes were enough to communicate the message to Sam.
“Don’t worry, I’m here to rescue you,” she said now crying herself. She hovered down to the tertiary sub-reflector. When she touched it, she pulled her hand back. It felt like the inside wall of an oven. “Oh my god!” Sam pulled off the dolphin shaped boomerang buzzsaw barrette from her hair and flicked out the blade. She then furiously slashed at the ropes that bound her to the disc, and they all severed with one swipe each. Mandy still couldn’t move anything other than her arms. Sam scooped her off the hot metal, not caring how it burned herself, and held her in her arms. “Mandy. We’re going to jump through that hole and I’m going to fly you safety. Hold on tight, ok?” Mandy wrapped her arms around Sam’s right shoulder tightly and laid her head down against her left. She jumped down through the hole. After a short drop, the flame shot out of her backpack, sending them up into the sky. Alex saw them escape to safety from her position in the air. She didn’t hesitate in running her fingers sloppily up and down the strings of the bass. The dark, think energy thundered out of it and collided with the triangular platform, tearing the metal apart. The Gregorian Dome fell to the center of the dish and smashed like an egg. Alex kept pounding the debris for good measure, and the aluminum was ripped apart as it was blown into the underlying sinkhole. Two of the concrete towers suddenly crumbled, and huge chunks of rock fell on top of the mass of twisted metal, leaving it a scene of utter destruction.
Sam landed some distance away in what had been a parking lot for scientists and engineers. She laid Mandy down and continued untying the ropes that bound her. Finally, she unknotted the bandana.
“Sammy, I thought I’d never see you again!” She yelled as she jumped into her arms. She latched onto her and sobbed deeply and loudly into her shoulder.
“It’s ok Mandy. And I promise you it’s going to be ok from now on. I don’t care what anyone else thinks about you. I don’t care how you act sometimes, because I love you.”
Mandy looked up, tears still streaming down her cheeks. “Do you really mean it?” She never expected to hear those words from her lips.
“Absolutely.” Sam dove in with her lips in and kissed her passionately. Mandy reciprocated, and they shared each other’s saliva and salty tears.
Clover and Alex approached from behind. “Sam thank god you’re ok! I tied up Sebas… Wha….. Wha.. Wha. Wha.” Clover’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she slumped to the ground. Sam and Mandy pulled their lips apart and looked at the blonde on the ground. The look on her face was one of utter bewilderment.
Alex kneeled down and placed two fingers on her neck. “It’s ok. She’s not dead, only unconscious.”
“Well, I guess you know now. You think you’ll be ok with it?” Sam asked Alex with nervous anticipation.
“Sam you’re my best-friend. Nothing’s ever going to change that. And I just want you to be happy. If you love Mandy, that’s fine with me.” She looked down at the incapacitated blonde. “… and I’ll make sure Clover gets used to it too.”
Sam ran up and hugged her. “Thank you so much. You don’t know what this means to me.”
“Oh Alex, I can’t believe I was ever mean to you,” Mandy said.
“It’s ok Mandy. I forgive you. Friends?”
Mandy extended her hand, “Friends.” However, Alex walked right past her hand wrapped her up in a warm hug instead. Mandy accepted it and hugged her back. “I just have one question.”
“Yes?” Sam asked.
“Why are you all dressed up like total weirdoes?”
“Mandy, I’m sorry. I haven’t been telling you the whole truth about me. I, Alex, and Clover are international spies for WOOHP, the World Organization of Human Protection. We fight people like the man who kidnapped you to keep the world safe.”
“Spies huh? Is that why you can fly? Are you sure you’re not an angel?”
Alex snickered. “No, Mandy, I can fly because of my jetpack backpack. I’m not an angel,” Sam explained.
“Well, I still don’t believe you.”
That moment the girls’ hair was blown back, as several Chinook style helicopters landed on the parking lot. Jerry walked out of one of them, followed by several buff men in black-suits and sunglasses.
“I have to congratulate you girls on a great job. You’ve made me proud today. And I think after this mission, you all deserve an extended vacation. It’s the least you deserve for saving the world.”
“All in a day’s work, Jerry,” Sam said showing off a bit in front of Mandy.
“Excuse me, but what’s wrong with Clover? Is she injured?”
“Um, she’s just taking a nap. It was a long day for her,” Alex explained.
Sam took Mandy’s arm and walked her up to Jerry, “Jerry, I’d like you to meet my girl-friend Mandy. Mandy this is my boss, Jerry.”
They shook hands. “Very pleased to meet your acquaintance, although I’m sorry I can’t say it’s the first time,” he said in a congenial tone.
“Um… Hi.”
Sam then grasped Mandy’s hand and led her towards the med-copter. “What was that creepy, old, butler guy talking about? I’ve never seen him before in my life.”
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about that and everything else, but we need to get you fixed up first.”
“I don’t look bad do I?” To most people she probably never looked worse.
“You look beautiful, Mandy.”
In the chopper, they returned to the passenger area after about two hours. It had taken that long to treat all their wounds. Mandy’s extensive burns took the lion’s share of the time.
“Hey you two,” Alex said glad to see them.
“Hi Alethh..” The dose of morphine Mandy had taken was beginning to take effect. Barely being able to stand, she latched onto Sam’s side as Sam helped her walk. Sam led her to a chair and helped her sit down. “It stings! It stings!” She jumped back into Sam’s arms.
Sam gave her a short kiss and then led her to a couch. “Here, sit on you stomach, hon.”
She laid down. “Guess I’m going to be doing this for a while.”
Sam sat down next to her and motioned for her to lay her head down in her lap. Mandy gladly nuzzled her cheek down on her thigh. “Well, it won’t be so bad. I’ll be the one nursing you back to health,” she said as she began to run her fingers through her silky, black strands.
“Oooh, I can’t wait,” she said dreamily.
They were quiet for a few minutes before Mandy spoke again. “Sammykins?”
“Yes, Mandy?”
“I love you.”
“I know you do, sweetie. And I love you too.” Mandy smiled and at that moment she started snoring, which for her was a combination of snorting and whiney sounding whimpering.
“Oh my god!” Alex then lowered her voice so she didn’t wake up Mandy. “We have to go back.”
Sam stopped staring at Mandy, and looked at Alex concerned. “Why? We stopped Sebastian didn’t we,” she whispered.
“No, not that. We forgot Clover.”
And there Clover laid, abandoned in a parking lot in the middle of a jungle, comatose with a dumbfounded expression on her face, as hot air blew by and rustled her hair.
The End
Author’s notes:
Thanks for reading.
Also thanks to Psychedelic Leviathan because I ripped off dialogue for this chapter hard from his story “California Dreamin.” He also let me use the name Delaroyale from his fics.
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