"Come on guys, we've got to save Daphne!" snapped Clover as she struggled to get out of the quicksand. Unfortunately, the heavy armour she was still wearing was making her sink faster than the others and she was already up to her waist in the gooey substance.
"Quick Clover, activate the instant outfit function on your compowder and get out of that heavy metal!" said Sam urgently.
"Duh, I already tried that," huffed Clover, "but my compowder won't work! It must have got smashed when you two jumped us a minute ago!"
"Well, someone better think of something quick," cried Alex almost on the verge of freaking out. "If we don't get out fast, we're gonna be in for one serious muck calamity!"
"No worries guys," said Sam confidently. "We've still got our jetpacks, remember!"
Sam quickly reached behind and hit the switch on her jetpack, which immediately sprung into life. With a fantastic roar, the jetpack pulled Sam clear out of the quicksand and she zoomed up to the top of the shaft.
Alex pressed the button on her jetpack, but it was still misbehaving after the fault it developed earlier and it refused to activate. Struggling not to panic, Alex jabbed at the button again and again, until the jetpack finally ignited and blasted her out of the deadly bog.
"Hey girls, what about me?" yelled Clover as the quicksand came up to her shoulders. Hurriedly, Sam and Alex whooshed back down and grabbed Clover's outstretched arms. The two girls pulled with all their strength, but the quicksand had more of a grip on Clover and refused to relent.
"Quick, Alex, let's try to increase the jet boost again!" gasped Sam, beads of sweat forming on her forehead as she and Alex fought to keep their BFF from going down under.
Each using one hand to keep hold of Clover, the two flying spies used their respective free hands to fiddle with the controls on their jetpacks. There was a sudden blaze of fire and the spies swiftly skyrocketed upwards along with Clover who was finally pulled free.
"Thanks guys," breathed Clover as they landed on the marble floor. "That was a close one."
Having had her own armour forcibly removed, Daphne angrily rolled about on the sofa she had been dumped on as she struggled frantically against the ropes tied around her arms, wrists and feet, while Ransom removed a large head-mounted device from his desk.
"Ah, I see it's already charged up perfectly," remarked Ransom with satisfaction as he began to make his way over to Daphne. The girl struggled even more, but Jarvis and Perkins gripped her shoulders firmly to keep her from escaping.
"Just relax, my dear," said Ransom with an evil smile. "In a few moments all your troubles will be over. Though if you don't cease struggling, I might inadvertently wipe all your memories and leave you as brainless as a turkey!"
Suddenly, the double doors of the study burst wide open and everyone in the room turned in surprise to see three furious-looking spies facing them.
"I thought I told you to keep your hands away from my sister, buster!" snarled Clover in such a manner that Ransom actually began to feel somewhat afraid.
"Gosh, I've never seen Clover so steamed up like this before!" thought Alex as the three of them prepared to do battle with the baddies.
"Don't just stand there you two," squeaked Ransom to his two henchmen. "Get them!'
Pulling themselves together, the two criminal butlers let go of their captive and charged at their attackers. However, the girls were ready for them this time.
Moving quickly, Alex leapt into the air and performed an aerial cartwheel, before impacting her feet directly with Perkin's face. The dazed butler was sent crashing into a nearby cabinet, whereupon a Ming Vase toppled off the top and fell right on top of his head, knocking him out cold. Alex swiftly dove over and grabbed the vase before it could impact with the floor and shatter into fragments, having miraculously avoided breaking when it hit Perkin's hard head.
"Whew, that would have been an expensive mess," grinned Alex as she put the vase safely down.
Not realising that his colleague was out of the picture, Jarvis swung a punch at Sam, but she swiftly bounded clear over his head and landed right behind him. Before Jarvis could gather his wits, Sam grabbed his arm and threw him right onto a Louis Quinze chair that broke into pieces under his immense weight. His head spinning, Jarvis grasped desperately at his shirt cuffs only to find that his signature gas bomb cufflinks were gone!
"Looking for these?" smirked Sam as she held out her hand to show the cufflinks that she had seized before she had tossed Jarvis over. As Jarvis struggled to his feet, Sam dove forward and delivered a butterfly kick to his chest, sending him flying right across the room and crashing into the wall.
"Ouch! Well played, young lady," Jarvis managed to weakly say, whereupon he slid to the floor, quite unconscious.
Meanwhile, Clover was having a face-off with Ransom, who had grabbed a sharp-pointed brass poker from the fireplace and was wielding it defensively.
"Okay mister, I'll teach you what happens to those who try to turn my sister into a human vegetable!" growled Clover.
"Not if I skewer you first, my dear!" retorted Ransom as he charged speedily at Clover with the fireplace poker. But even with the heavy knight armour on, Clover was still able to swiftly move out of the way and avoid the formidable weapon. Before Ransom had a chance to gather his wits, Clover delivered a karate chop to his arm, causing him to cry out in pain and drop the poker. Ransom staggered back and rubbed his aching arm, whereupon an irate Clover lashed out with her armoured knee and struck him right in the groin!
"Oof!" groaned Ransom who stumbled and crashed into his desk with such force that the memory-erasing helmet was knocked right into the air, before landing bang-on top of his head! The machine gave off a loud whirling sound and inbuilt lights began to flash on-and-off as Ransom's face suddenly turned vague and expressionless.
"Oops! I didn't mean for that to happen," cried out Clover as she dashed over and hurriedly pulled the machine off Ransom's head.
The villain blinked and looked at Clover in confusion. "Oh, hello. Who might you be?"
Now it was Clover's turn to stare. "Don't you remember? I'm one of the girls you kidnapped and tried to hold for ransom!"
"Oh, I see. And, um, who might I be?" asked Ransom with a clueless expression on his face.
"Oh boy, he completely wiped out his own memory!" realised Alex.
"Man, that was what he had in store for me," breathed Daphne as Clover came over and began to untie her.
"Don't fret, sis," said Clover, relieved that they had managed to save her sister in time. "I don't think he's going to try anything like that again."
There was a sudden flurry of activity from the main hallway as WOOHP agents suddenly burst through the main door and flooded into the large mansion, closely followed by Jerry who walked calmly into the study.
"Nice job as always, girls," congratulated Jerry as the three dazed baddies were taken away. "Sorry we didn't get here sooner, but we got caught in a traffic jam on the way over."
"No sweat, Jerr," smiled Sam. "Though I gotta admit, it did get a bit intense with the quicksand trap back there."
"Not to mention way messy," added Alex. "We're gonna have a hard time scrubbing our uniforms back home."
"No need to put yourselves through all that effort," said Daphne as she suddenly remembered something. "I saw this way high-tech launderette in the 'suite' that Clover and I escaped from. You can put your stuff through that!"
"Cool, but what are we going to do while we wait for our clothes to be done?" asked Sam.
"Well, I say we try out Lord Ransom's spa," answered Clover with a grin. "After all, it would be rude not to give it a try after he went to all that trouble setting it all up."
And so after getting Jerry to woohp up their spare swimwear from the penthouse, the girls were now happily lounging in the gloriously super-warm water of the Jacuzzi in the suite's spa room, while the other WOOHP agents got on with the clean-up job.
"Wow, now this is what I call first-class treatment!" sighed Sam contently.
"Totally! This so makes up for all the trouble we went through today," agreed Alex as she laid back and relaxed in the bubbling water.
Clover turned to look nervously at Daphne. "So, err, you still mad about the whole secret spy-thing?"
Daphne smiled and shrugged. "Nah, we're good. I can understand why you felt you had to keep it all hush-hush and I promise not to breathe a word about it to anyone, not even Trevor. I'm just way siked that my little sister has such an amazing and breathtaking career!"
"Ah, thanks sis," smiled Clover. "And I promise not to keep you out of the loop again. From now on, there'll be no more secrets between us sisters."
"Awesome!" said Daphne before turning her head to address Sam and Alex. "And to show how grateful I am to you two for saving my sister and me, I'm going to call my agent in the morning and arrange for the three of you to get VIP tickets for the upcoming Malibu fashion show."
"Wow, thanks!" exclaimed Sam and Alex in delight.
"My pleasure," grinned Daphne. "So how exactly did you girls get into this spy-lark anyway?"
The spies looked at one another and exchanged a nod, silently agreeing to start right at the beginning.
"Well Daph," began Clover, "it all started when…"