Emily opened her eyes and tried to rub her face. She couldn’t. She was lying on a table, and her wrists were cuffed to it. She looked down and saw that her ankles were too. She scanned her surroundings and realized that she was back inside the laboratory. Paul and Wolf were also there, strapped to tables beside her.
“You’re awake,” said Agent Vance, stepping into view. Most of his Monster Hunters were gone now, but twelve of them remained by his side.
“Let us go,” the Super Spy demanded.
Agent Vance laughed darkly. “I will, but first I’ll make sure you won’t remember any of this.”
Emily turned away from the villain and saw her friends stir beside her. They slowly opened their eyes.
Agent Vance laughed again. “Now that you’re all awake, we can get started.” He gestured toward a large machine that hovered above Paul and Emily. Two giant tubes hung from it, dangling just over the Super Spies’ heads. “This machine will suck the memories from your brains,” Agent Vance explained. “You’ll forget everything that’s happened.”
“What about Wolf?” asked Paul. “What will you do with him?”
“My plan has always been the same,” said Agent Vance. “I’m going to turn him into my soldier. He’ll help me conquer the world.”
Emily’s angry grimace turned into a hopeful smile. “Have you heard enough?”
“What do you mean?” asked the villain.
It was Emily’s turn to laugh. “I wasn’t talking to you.” She nodded toward a robot standing just a few steps away. “I was talking to him.”
Agent Vance turned to see a Monster Hunter reach toward its face and pull off a pair of glasses. Then, suddenly, it wasn’t a Monster Hunter anymore. It morphed into a short, plump man with a thick, white beard and rosy red cheeks.
“Santa Claus,” the villain gasped. “How?”
The usually jolly old man didn’t look very jolly. “Paul and Emily asked me to tag along in disguise,” he said with a sigh. “I never would’ve believed you were capable of such evil.”
“It doesn’t matter what you believe,” Agent Vance sneered. “You’re surrounded by my robots. Even you are no match for them, alone.”
Santa put his hands on his hips. “Who said anything about being alone?”
With that, three more of Agent Vance’s robots reached up and removed glasses from their faces.
“Ho! Ho! Ho!” boomed Santa. “Leeland, I believe you already know the Monster Ninjas.”
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