Dean worked fast at his keyboard in the lab, but the missile's computer system was proving harder to hack than he first thought. Meanwhile, the menacing rocket was flying indomitably towards WOOHP, getting closer and closer by second, while the Robo-Spies were flying closely behind, still holding onto Britney and the girls' mums.

"Oh, if only there was an autopilot on these things," lamented Alex, "then we could at least get the four of you to safety away from here."

"And leave the rest of you to get blasted apart by that thing? No way!" said Carmen resolutely.

"Yeah, there's no way we're going to abandon you all just to save our own skins, Alex," agreed Britney firmly. "Besides, even if we were willing to, it's too late to get of here anyway."

Britney was quite right. It was indeed far too late to get clear as the missile was now just seconds away from hitting the WOOHP building, whereupon it would detonate an explosion large enough to reduce the whole city to fragments and catch the flying spies in the blast.

Then, just as looked like the missile would hit its target, the missile suddenly veered away from WOOHP, narrowly missing the building by inches, before it began flying back the way it came.

"Yay Dean, you did it!" cried Clover jubilantly as she flew out of the missile and joined her friends who were touching down on the landing pad at the top of the building.

"Yeah, but only just," breathed Dean in relief. "That was way too close for my liking."

"So where is that missile going now?" asked Alex.

"Back to Geraldine's island, of course," said Sam. "I think the LAMOS are in for a really nasty surprise!"

A few seconds ago on the barge's control tower, Terrence, Geraldine and Tad had been watching the progress of the missile on the monitor screen with glee, none of them quite able to believe that they were on the verge of triumph.

"Splendid, splendid!" said Terrence jubilantly. "In just a few seconds, dear brother Jerry and his precious WOOHP will be no more! Oh, revenge has never tasted so sweet!"

"And then, we proceed with eliminating every other law enforcement agency on the planet, until there is no one left to stop us from taking over the entire world," leered Geraldine with an evil grin like the Wicked Witch of the West. "I have to hand it you, Terrence. I could not have come up with a more diabolical scheme myself."

"Oh, you're being overly modest, my dear Geraldine," said Terrence pleasantly. "Your magnificent missile was the true key to our success. As a matter of fact, I was wondering if we could discuss some more evil schemes, say, over dinner?"

"Oh Terrence," blushed Geraldine rapturously as she regarded the LAMOS leader with a longing look in her eyes.

But before the strange, evil romance had a chance to blossom any further, the two villains were interrupted by an urgent yell from Tad, who was looking at the tracking monitor with alarm.

"Hey, what's going on? The missile is turning about away from WOOHP!"

Terrence and Geraldine turned and looked at the small blip indicating the missile's position, their annoyance giving way to distress as they realised where the deadly rocket was heading.

"Gah, our homing missile is heading back home!" realised a shocked Terrence.

"Relax, Terrance darling. We simply have to hit the abort button and the missile will blow up harmlessly in the air before it even has a chance to reach us," smirked Geraldine, before turning to face Tad. "Now, where did you install the abort control?"

Tad looked at her in surprise. "Me? I thought you had already installed such a failsafe yourself. My task was simply to complete the rocket, not work on the controls up here."

"WHAT?! You mean to say that we have no failsafe?!" exclaimed Geraldine as she grabbed the ex-WOOHP agent by the collar and shook him violently in a frenzied rage.

"I didn't think we'd need one!" protested Tad feebly as beads of sweat ran down his forehead.

"That missile will hit us in just four minutes," realised an increasingly panicking Terrence, "with enough explosive to destroy this entire island! Quick, to the shark sub!"

"No time!" snapped Geraldine. "We'd never reach the submarine dock in time. We'll have to use the tower's escape pod instead."

She hit a switch on the control panel and a man-size cylindrical box rose up from a hidden panel in the floor. Hastily, she pulled open a door on the container and began to clamber in along with her cat.

"But there isn't enough room in there for all three of us!" protested Tad indignantly.

"There will be if we all squeeze in," retorted Terrence as he started to climb in after Geraldine. "Unless of course, you'd rather we leave you behind here to go down with the ship!"

With a squeak of alarm at the prospect of being left behind, Tad leapt into the cramped capsule and quickly closed the door. Seconds later, the pod's rocket thrusters engaged and sent the small craft and its occupants flying through the force-field bubble and as far away from the island as its limited fuel could allow.

As soon as they were a safe distance away, Tad chanced a looked through the escape pod's porthole, where he could see the missile streaking towards the island. Seconds later, there was a terrific explosion and Tad had to shield his eyes from the intense light of the blast. When he looked again a few seconds later, the whole of the giant barge was aflame and quickly sinking beneath the waves to the bottom of the ocean.

"Nooo! My beautiful island!" shrieked Geraldine as she watched the remains of her grandiose base disappear under the sea.

"Yes, well… At least we've escaped to fight another day," said Terrence pragmatically as he tried to get the cat's paws out of his face. But no sooner had he said this, the movement of the capsule suddenly lurched to a halt as something grabbed hold of it in mid-air.

"Oh no! It's some WOOHP choppers!" groaned Tad as he looked out of the porthole again. "They've got us ensnared in their holding nets!"

"Blast!" sighed Terrence dejectedly. "I suppose this means that we've been foiled again. Spies are so annoying."

Back at WOOHP, the elated spies had gathered in Jerry's office, except for Dean, who was busy in the lab powering down the Robo-Spies in order to put them back into storage. Jerry had just received the call confirming that the new LAMOS team had been successfully recaptured and were now being returned to the containment facility, much to the girls' relief.

"Whew, that mission was waaay too intense for my liking," sighed Alex as she slumped back in her wheelchair.

"Yeah, Terrence really came close to winning this time," agreed Sam, "and he almost destroyed an entire city in the process."

"Never mind, honey," said Gabby assuredly. "It's all over now."

"Yes, now that the LAMOS are safely back in custody, the world is safe once again," added Jerry with a smile. "And I think you'll also be glad to hear that the last of the escapees have just been apprehended and security is now being tightened to prevent such a massive escape like this occurring again. Well done, girls!"

Clover looked at Jerry in surprise. "'Well done us'? Jerr, we barely did anything on this mission! Britney and our moms did most of the work on this one."

"But you three did manage to identify Tad as our saboteur," pointed out Britney.

"And you rescued us from that missile and stopped it from hitting the city just in time," added Stella proudly.

"Only thanks to those remote control suits that Dean had designed," argued Alex, "and he was the one who managed to divert the missile before it hit WOOHP."

Sam smiled. "I think it's fair to say that it was a team effort that really won the day this time and I guess we owe something to those Robo-Spy avatars of ours as well."

"Yeah," agreed Clover, "though I hope this doesn't mean you're planning to replace us with machines again, Jerry."

"Don't worry, Clover," said Jerry reassuringly. "Useful though the Robo-Spies have proven to be today, past experience has taught me that it's best to reserve them for emergencies only. Of course, if you girls would like to give them another test flight…"

"No thanks, Jerry!" smiled Sam adamantly. "We've had enough virtual flying for one day. Beside, the three of us are still meant to be on sick leave for the next few weeks, remember?"

"Indeed," agreed Gabby as she, Carmen and Stella grabbed the handlebars of their respective daughters' wheelchairs and quickly began to wheel the girls towards the exit. "And I have to say that the six of us are quite overdue for some quality mother-daughter time, thank you very much Harry!"

"So if you don't mind," added Carmen, "we'll be busy treating our daughters at this new pizza restaurant that's recently opened at the Groove. And while we're there, perhaps Alex can use her new hairdo to get herself a new boyfriend."

"Mommy, will you please stop doing that!" hissed a blushing, but nonetheless smiling Alex. "You're totally embarrassing me!"

Everyone else in the room chuckled at this and Clover turned her head to look at Britney. "Care to join us, Britney? I guess we owe you one for helping our mums out."

"Thanks," said Britney appreciatively. "I sure could do with a bite to eat after everything that's happened today."

And with that, the seven of them got going, cheerily chatting and laughing along the way, all too glad that one of the most intense and dangerous episodes of their entire lives was finally over.