A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update Operation: Back to Basics took longer than expected to update. I want to quickly point out that there is a poll on my profile page for anyone who's interested in helping me pick a pairing for a future story, you can also vote by PM-ing me if you'd pefer that way :)

Review Reply to ECTOglo: Thank you :D All I can really say is that things will be explained as the story continues. You'll also see that Rico being a good guy and leader of the bad guys has a lot to do with it. As for him switching between them I can say a hint has been dropped though like everything else it will become clear eventually.

But overall I hope you all enjoy this next chapter :D


Chapter 2: Adapting

Rico walked down the hallway that led to his room, there were three doors excluding his own, opening the first one he found a storage cupboard. He closed it moving to the next, a small office, he moved to the next, a large bathroom. Closing it he went back to the living room to the door he had yet to go through. Opening it he saw that it led out into a stairwell.

Going upstairs he stopped hearing someone behind him turning he spotted Arthur who smiled at him before the youth ran up the stairs between them. "Lost?" He asked.

"Um…" Arthur laughed as he began to pull Rico up to the top floor, through the door they entered a small hallway.

"The door on the left is the gym. The one to the right is empty, you said that you wanted to do something with it but weren't sure what. The door at the end is another living room."

Rico inspected the gym first, it was huge and the sight of all the exercise equipment made him smile. It was double the size of the one he had been using when he lived with the others. He moved to the living room next, it was bigger than the one downstairs, it seemed warmer with the brown colours and soft plush sofas. Rico looked at the bookshelves a smile gracing his lips, Kowalski would have been jealous at this amount of books. The last room was indeed empty, it was bare of both flooring and wallpaper. Leaving the room he headed back to the stairwell with Arthur following silently behind him. They walked past the floor they started on and down to the next one.

"This is where everyone else sleeps." Arthur spoke as they walked through the door. He dashed over to a door. "This is my room." He smiled, he pointed across the hall. "That one's R.D's." He pointed down the hall to the room next to his, "Danny's." he pointed across the hall the one next to R.D's, "Samuel's" he pointed to the last one. "And that's the spare room." Arthur grabbed Rico's arm and pulled him into his room, Rico would have laughed had the wind not being knocked out of him. The small room was just like the rooms back in his dream, it was decorated similarly to how Private had decorated his room. With posters and pictures, the wall was even the same cream shade, unlike Private's however Arthur wasn't obsessed with the Lunacorn's.

Rico studied the room considering how neat everything was he would have thought it belonged to Skipper despite that half the books and posters could have been Kowalski's. It was then that he spotted the handgun on the desk, curious Rico went to inspect it but he stopped when the corner of his eye caught something pink hiding under a pillow.

There was a squeak from Arthur as Rico moved the pillow and spotted the object. He held it up in the light studying it, he squished it slightly making it squeak loudly before it spoke about eating sparkles. He squished a different part and it lit up. Rico laughed, even here this toy still existed.

He turned to Arthur who had gone red from embarrassment it was clear that he was trying to think of something to say his mouth opening and closing in an attempt to speak. Rico laughed again before he threw the toy to Arthur who caught it looking sheepishly at him.

"It's cute." Rico supplied making Arthur grin with a smile he left the room. Arthur quickly hid the lunacorn toy before he dashed after Rico who was headed down to the bottom floor.

They were greeted by a small foyer that was decorated like a reception lobby only without the desk, a frosted glass door led into a concrete area. Another larger door was on the other wall the blurred stain glass suggested that it lead out into the street. Rico walked into the other room, he smiled at what he saw, several cars and a couple of vans and lining the entire back wall were tools that he would need for repairing them.

The sound of the front door closing made Rico curious moving into the foyer he spotted Samuel heading for the stairs. "Hey!" Arthur called making Samuel turn around.

"Arthur, Rodrigo. I didn't see you there." Samuel smiled, "Oh by the way sir, everything's ready to move on your word." Rico nodded despite not knowing what he was talking about. Samuel smiled before he vanished through the door and up the stairs.

"What's he on about?" Rico asked turning to Arthur.

Arthur giggled slightly, "He's on about us moving to New York." he looked at Rico's confused face. "You agreed to it a dinner?" Rico smiled catching up. "You have no idea what you're doing, do you?" Arthur asked, Rico smiled sheepishly at him. "Wow you've changed!" He said pulling Rico back to the stairwell before they even reached the first step the doorbell rang, Arthur groaned before moving to answer it. Rico moved into the foyer curious as to who was at the door.

"Greetings!" Rico paled he knew that voice, he shifted to see better before he confirmed his guess. Standing in the doorway was a silver -with a greyish blue stripe down the middle- haired, man with a blue eye and a cybernetic replacement right eye and slightly pale skin. His outfit was the same as he had last seen it, white shirt with grey pants and shoes, a greyish blue lab coat fluttering in the breeze before he stepped inside as Arthur moved to allow him entrance. "How is he?" The man asked having yet to notice Rico a few feet away.

Rico growled not liking the fact that this man was in his home, that he was now forced to call the building in which he resided that. Arthur gestured to Rico who growled more folding his arms across his chest so that he wouldn't be tempted to strangle the man.

"Rodrigo, you're awake." The scientist smiled as he moved forwards, "How are you feeling?" he asked. Rico stepped back his eyes glaring at the scientist, who seemed somewhat confused by his actions.

"Sir is everything alright?" Arthur asked moving hesitantly forwards. Rico tore his eyes off the other man his gaze softening slightly, he sighed he was still acting like this was his other life.

"Fine." Rico said as he vanished upstairs. Despite his mind telling him things were different it was still hard to adjust from what he had known for what felt like so long. With a sigh he collapsed onto the sofa his hand reaching for the remote turning on the large flat screen television that covered the opposite wall.

"Sir?" R.D asked as he stood nearby, Arthur and his guest stood slightly behind him each looking at him worriedly. Rico groaned as he turned towards them, they now had his full attention hopefully they weren't going to ruin it. "Dr. Blowhole wishes to talk to you about your mental health."

"He fears you're not well." Arthur piped up. Rico looked at Blowhole who smiled weakly, Rico's eyes lit up slightly, the D.O.L.P.H.I.N feared him, he smiled suddenly things were looking interesting.

"Fine." Rico groaned, "How do we do this?" he asked, both Arthur and R.D smiled slightly before they left the room.

"Just a few tests." Dr. Blowhole smiled moving forwards, when he didn't sit Rico gestured for him to do so. It seemed that it wasn't just the people here that were hesitant around him, everyone seemed to be.

It didn't take long for Blowhole to check his vitals though how many tests the doctor wanted to do Rico thought was more than 'a few'. "Well everything seems to be normal." Blowhole spoke closing the briefcase he had brought with him, "Is there anything I should know of before I leave?" he asked getting ready to stand should the answer be no.

Rico thought for a moment, was it really a good idea to talk about the life he created while being stuck in a coma. "Nope." He replied standing as the other man did.

Blowhole smiled, "Well if you do happen to think of anything, you will let me know. Right?" he asked slowly moving to the door, Rico nodded a small fake smile on his face.

With a loud sigh Rico collapsed back onto the sofa once he was gone, could things be any more chaotic. Right then Arthur burst in and Rico was on his feet and by the teen's side in seconds. "What happened?" He asked holding the boy who looked ready to collapse.

"Stairs…" Arthur gasped, "Ambush." Rico was suddenly alert.

"Who?"

"Rats." Rico mentally sighed it seemed his mind had literally incorporated everything about his life into his dream. After placing Arthur on the chair to recover he marched over to the door only to stop by Arthur's call.

"Rico!" He turned, "They're armed." Rico shrugged and was about to continue. "Wait!" he looked back only to see a gun fly towards him he caught it before giving Arthur a weak smile and vanishing down the stairs. It was time to deal with a rat infestation, he smiled perhaps this would be fun.

Much to his surprise he found Blowhole fighting a couple of the intruders, said intruders wore ripped clothing their attires suggesting that they were adolescents the kind that hung around corners getting drunk and causing trouble. In general just being a pain in everyone's behind. Just like rats.

Several bodies covered the stairwell all of them being part of the group of fools that had decided to break in. From his current position Rico had the upper hand at being able to see all of his targets at once and still he had the element of surprise. That element would vanish as soon as he began firing.

Aiming at a rat that was about to shoot R.D from behind he pulled the trigger. Time seemed to slow as everyone looked to him, smug smiles erupted on his allies faces while the rat's visibly paled. No one moved even as Rico began taking aim again, he fired a smile forming on his lips as the look of horror appeared on his enemies faces as another one of their comrades fell.

Moving slowly down the stairs he continued firing some of the fun dying as the rats stood petrified, an easy slaughter. Eventually the cartridge ran out and with a depressed sigh he threw the useless weapon away.

A small light of hope sparked in some of the rodents eyes. It was quickly extinguished as he sprang forwards to the closest one hands on the hooded man's neck he twisted swiftly a sickly sweet snap following the action.

He was advancing down the stairs again this time some of the intruders stumbled back in fear. So they were finally coming to their senses. A shame they were too late. Rico moved quickly either killing of knocking out any rat he came in contact with. Before any of them had the common sense to run they were either dead or unconscious.

"That was amazing." Everyone looked up the stairs to see Arthur leaning against the banister smiling widely. Quickly jogging down the stairs he joined Rico, R.D and Blowhole. "So now what are you going to do with them?" He asked still smiling.

"As much as I'd love to find out I have things to be doing." Blowhole spoke first, he turned to Rico as he moved down the stairs. "It seems that this coma has done you a lot of good my friend." He smiled before leaving.

"Sir?" Arthur asked gesturing with his head to the bodies around them. Rico hummed unsure of what to do slowly he turned to R.D.

"Any suggestions?" He asked using a hand to gesture around them.

"We could set an example." R.D replied, though he sounded hesitant as if fearing he'd say something wrong.

Rico thought for a moment before nodding. "Do it." He smiled.

Arthur was beaming. "I'll go get Danny and Samuel to help clean up the mess!" He cheered before skipping down the stairs.

"If you don't mind me asking Rodrigo." He paused though upon hearing no objection he continued, somewhat hesitantly "How did you learn to move like that?" Rico's questioning look must have been easy to read for R.D quickly elaborated. "You were moving faster than you've ever done so before, you barely even looked at your opponent before you shot them accurately. You were like one of them."

"Them?" Rico seriously hoped he meant P.E.N.G.U.I.N.

"One of Demitri's men."

"Demitri?"

"The world's most feared criminal. It's rumoured that anyone who works for the guy knows at least thirty ways of killing someone in less than ten seconds."

Rico looked at the chef in surprise, had he really been fighting like a professional assassin?

Just then Arthur came back with Samuel and Danny, both quick to begin moving the bodies. R.D smiled at Rico before he began helping them. The weapons expert was about to help when Arthur came up next to him.

"We should leave them to it." He smiled sweetly before he began tugging Rico up the stairs. "Besides we need to make sure you're all set with your plans. Don't want to leave without thinking things through, right." Rico said nothing as he followed his friend up the stairs.