Refusing to let herself give in to panic, Sam spotted Clover's outstretched hand sticking out through the pile of antibodies covering her. Thinking fast, Sam quickly fired her Expandable Cable Bungee Belt and the buckle managed to wrap itself around Clover's wrist. Beneath the swarm burying her, Clover realised what had just grabbed her wrist and she was just able to grab hold of the main cable with her hand, before Sam began to reel the cable in. Sam pulled with all her might and within seconds, Clover was wrenched free of the mass of proteins that had just tried to neutralise her. However, some of the antibodies were still wrapped tightly around her and were gradually squeezing the life out of her.
"Sammy... Hurry!" Clover managed to gasp. "It's... getting a bit... difficult to... breathe right now!"
Sam quickly grabbed her friend and the two of them managed to get into the spy-sub's airlock, which automatically closed the hatch behind them. Inside, the airlock began to empty the water out of the chamber as Sam desperately began to claw the antibodies off Clover's body. At first the antibodies refused to budge, but as the water levels finished dropping and oxygen began to flood in, the antibodies stiffened and began to crystallise. Sam was thus able to break off the now brittle antibodies and Clover collapsed to the floor gasping for breath.
"Ahh, thanks Sammy," sighed Clover as she tried to catch her breath. "I thought... I was a... total goner back there!"
Sam gingerly helped her friend to her feet and together they clambered out of the airlock and into the main control cabin.
"Just take it easy, Clover," said Sam as she tenderly helped her friend into a seat. "You'll be okay once you get your breath back."
Clover gave a weak smile. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. But can we start making our way home now?"
"No prob," smiled Sam as she moved across to the main controls and sat down in the driver's seat. "We just need to pick up those two misfits in their own sub, then we can get out of this icky place."
Sam began operating the controls and the spy-sub sprung into life, moving its way down towards the villains' submarine. As Sam flicked another switch, two large robotic arms with pincer-like hands began to fold out, one on either side of the spy-sub. As the gap between the two vessels began to close, Sam carefully guided their own sub's large metal claws to grab hold of the energy bubble currently enveloping the other micro-sub, before lifting it and its two squabbling occupants off the the bumpy surface of Alex's stomach.
"Gotcha!" said Sam triumphantly. "Okay, now let's clear out of here."
In the WOOHP lab, Alex and Jerry were waiting anxiously for fresh news on Sam and Clover's progress. When last checked, the scanners had indicated that both subs were still floating about in Alex's belly and Jerry had been unable to get through on the communicators, as Sam and Clover had been busy with extracting the micro-sub's nuclear battery at the time.
"Man, all this waiting is making me nervous," sighed Alex. "Look Jerry, don't you think we should do all this somewhere more remote. I mean, if this thing in my tummy explodes, I don't want to take the whole of WOOHP with me."
"Out of the question, Alex. We're going to need the equipment here if we're to have any hope of getting that micro-sub out of you," said Jerry. "We've already evacuated all non-essential personnel and energy fields have been set up outside the building in order to contain any radiation that might get out."
The conversation was then interrupted by a sudden beeping sound from the communication terminal. Jerry crossed over and pressed a button on the machine, whereupon a holographic projection of Sam and Clover appeared before everyone in the room.
"Hey Jerr, we've managed to get hold of the micro-sub okay and we're just starting to head our way back up now," said Sam. "Alex, do you have any of those cinnamon munchy bars of yours on hand?"
"Well, yeah," said Alex in confusion. "But I'm not exactly in the mood for eating right now, Sammy."
"Yeah, well we need you to eat one now, in order to get your lower sphincter to open up and let us out," explained Sam.
"Okay, if you think it'll help," said Alex, as she pulled a bar out of her pocket and unwrapped it. She began munching her way through the bar, swallowing down the tasty food particles straightaway.
Down below in Alex's stomach, Sam and Clover were patiently waiting for the passageway out to open up. About a minute later, the sphincter began to open, allowing bits of food to enter the vast chamber.
"Okay, hit it Sam!" said Clover urgently.
Sam quickly hit the ignition button and the spy-sub rocketed through the opening, just managing to get out in time before the sphincter closed up again.
"Made it," breathed Sam. "Now all we have to do is fly back up the way we came."
After setting the thrusters on maximum power in order to compensate for the heavy load their sub was now holding on to, the spies began piloting the craft back up the oesophagus towards Alex's mouth.
Clover kept a close eye on the radar screen, making sure there were no more nasty surprises waiting for them. "Can't see any more antibodies or anything else nasty coming our way," she said at last. "I think we're in the clear."
Suddenly the submarine's engines began making a loud stuttering sound and before Sam and Clover knew what was happening, their craft began to slow its ascent, just as they were on the verge of reaching their way out.
"Hey, now what's going on?" exclaimed Sam as she hurriedly began examining the controls for any sign of damage. "We're losing engine power and fast!"
Clover glanced at the fuel gauge and her face fell. "Oh great, this bucket of bolts has run out of gas! We must have got ourselves a fuel leak at some point."
Sam hit the communication button again. "Err Jerry, we've run into a bit of trouble. The fuel's running out and we're now kinda stuck."
"Yeah, this thing's going to be completely out of petrol in just a few minutes," added Clover urgently. "Then we'll end up falling right back down into Alex's stomach again and this time for good!"
"Oh dear," said Jerry. "Don't worry girls, we'll try to think of a way to get you out of there."
"So what's the plan, Jerry?" asked Alex anxiously, her fears of her two best friends being trapped inside her intestines becoming all too real by the second.
"Quite simple really," said Jerry. "You'll just have to sneeze them out as I ended up doing! Is there anything you're particularly allergic to, Alex?"
"Well, I used to have a small allergy problem with cats when I was younger," said Alex, "but I got over that years ago. I don't have any real problems with allergies these days, unless you happen to have any kelp in the staff canteen."
"I'm afraid we don't have anything like that in the building. Then there's only one thing for it," said Jerry cryptically as he crossed over to one of the lab desks and extracted a white feather from the drawer. Before Alex knew what was happening, Jerry had thrust the feather under her nose and he began tickling her with it!
"Ahh... ahh... AH-CHOO!"
Alex jerked forward on the couch as she gave off a terrific sneeze, loud enough to make everyone in the room jump in surprise. As Jerry watched, he could just see the two micro-subs shot right out of Alex's mouth and crash onto the end of the couch, covered in saliva.
"You know, you could have told me you were about to do that, Jerr," complained Alex as her boss picked up the two submersibles and placed them back under the shrinking ray. There was a flash of light as the machine emitted a beam to reverse the process and within seconds, both craft and their respective occupants were all back to normal size. Sam and Clover were first to get out, a little bruised, but otherwise none the worse for their precipitous exit. Meanwhile, WOOHP guards had surrounded the bad guys' own submersible, from which a disheveled Vomesa was frantically climbing out through the entry hatch.
"All right Vomesa, no sudden moves," said the first guard. "It's back to the containment facility for you."
"Anything you say, just get me away from that overbearing, small-minded simpleton in there!" exclaimed Vomesa as he practically ran into the arms of the nearest guard and allowed himself to be escorted out of the lab and back to the containment facility.
"Wow, Vomesa and Smalls really don't mix together, do they?" remarked Clover.
As if on cue, Diminutive Smalls slowly poked his head over the top of the hatch, returned to his unnatural size of two feet.
"Okay Smalls, playtime's over," said the leading guard as he moved to extract Smalls from the sub. But before he could take another step closer, Smalls suddenly whipped out a small compact laser gun and quick as a flash, he blasted the guard with it. Before anyone else knew what was happening, the unfortunate WOOHP agent was enveloped in a beam of light and began to shrink down until he was the size of a mouse!
"Sorry, but I'm not done playing yet," leered Smalls as he dashed out through the hatch and slid down the side of the sub, firing various laser blasts to ward off the remaining guards, forcing them to keep their distance. Satisfied that no one was chasing him, Smalls began to dash towards the nearest ventilation duct set at the bottom of the wall ahead of him.
"He's getting away!" yelled Sam as she and the others tried to take cover to avoid the various shrinking ray blasts flying past them.
"Oh no, he's not!" cried out Alex as she leapt off the couch and jumped on top of a nearby table, grabbing a convenient silver tray and a glass measuring beaker next to her. Sprinting into action, Alex leapt from table to table in pursuit of Smalls, using the reflective tray as a shield to deflect any laser beams.
Smalls was just on the verge of reaching the small air-duct, when Alex's shadow suddenly came over him. With some alarm, he whirled around and fired his laser again, but Alex managed to shield herself with the silver tray just in time. The fast-moving laser rebounded off the reflective surface and ricocheted right back at Smalls, who was then engulfed in the dazzling light of his own shrink ray.
"Oh no, not again!" he wailed as he was reduced to the size of a bug. Before he could gather his senses and make a dash for it, Alex had landed in front of him and she slammed the glass beaker right over him, trapping him inside!
"I wouldn't try to use that gun of yours again," grinned Alex. "Not unless you want your prison to end up really tight and uncomfortable! That'll teach you to mess around with my tummy!"
"Nice going, Alex," smiled Sam as she and the others dashed over to join her. "Well I guess that's the end of this mission, luckily."
"Quite," agreed Jerry as one of the WOOHP guards picked up the beaker and carried Smalls away. "Now I think it's time to get these micro-subs put back into storage."
Clover looked at the spy-sub thoughtfully, a scheming glint in her eye. "Actually Jerry, would you mind if we borrowed the micro-sub, just for tomorrow evening?"
Jerry looked at her in puzzlement. "I suppose I wouldn't mind. But what on earth do you want it for?"