Mo, Cherry, Penny, Atticus, and Cody were tied up to chairs now as this man who they learned was named Pervical McLeach was looking to them with knives he was going to throw at the map behind them to find out where the endangered golden eagle Marahute was hiding. Atticus began to break through his ropes without McLeach noticing.
"I just realized something... His name's McLeach, right?" Mo asked quietly.
"Uh-huh, so?" Penny asked her.
"My grandmother's last name was McLeach..." Mo said softly. "And he seems familiar..."
McLeach came to them, asking them where the eagle might be and threw his knives, luckily, they weren't stabbed, he just wanted to scare them into confessing.
"We'll never tell you!" Cherry sneered.
"Yeah, we'll never tell you!" Atticus said while breaking the ropes without McLeach noticing.
"Oh, but I think you all have no choice..." McLeach grinned darkly.
Mo glared, she didn't know why this man looked so familiar to her, but she just wanted to get out of here. Atticus continued to break through the ropes until he was free. Penny looked over to Atticus, she was a little more shocked than relieved.
"My animal friends will help!" Cody huffed.
"Oh, you mean your little friends who are locked up right now?" McLeach taunted, he showed a little prison-like room where the animals were locked up and Joanna had the key.
Atticus then began to break Penny, Mo, Cherry, and Cody free with ease, thanks to his strength. This shocked McLeach, seeing that the kids had somehow broke free from the ropes.
"I'm impressed, boy, you got guts," McLeach said about Atticus, before shoving him against the wall firmly. "For a second there, I thought you were as spineless as my father!" He was then surprised as Atticus grabbed his arm and threw him across the room, landing straight into a wall.
McLeach snarled, then came back to get to the kids, cornering them.
"I told you, I don't remember!" Cody still refused to reveal about Marahute.
"Don't you realize a bird that size is worth a fortune?" McLeach bribed them. "I'll split the money 50/50, you can't get an offer better than that!"
"You won't have any money after the rangers get you!" Penny hissed.
McLeach growled, these kids were stubborn, he kicked the boiling pot near his fire over, which startled Joanna.
"Good Cody, don't give in." Cherry said to the boy.
Mo nodded in agreement, then sighed. "There's gotta be a way out of here."
"Yeah, there's just gotta be." Atticus agreed .
"You all ain't going nowhere," McLeach told them, he then grabbed them and took them to a little jail-like area. "I'm giving you all one last chance!"
"Hey, let us go!" Mo snapped.
"Oh, I'll let ya go alright." McLeach taunted.
Angel stopped for a moment, panting a bit. "Ooh... I don't feel so good..." she murmured, looking like she was going to pass out. She hadn't had a drink of water since they left the humans.
"It would be great to get a drink." Scamp said.
"Uh-huh..." Angel agreed. "Let's get some water..."
The pups went and found a small river, how convenient. There were two familiar white mice sitting and there was a brown kangaroo rat dressed in green jungle clothing with them.
"Oh, excuse us," Scamp said to the mice. "Do you mind if we take a drink?"
"Not at all, go ahead, we're resting ourselves." the male mouse said gently as he sat with the female.
"Oh, thank you..." Angel felt relieved.
Both the pups then began to drink from the river together.
The male mouse wanted to say something to the female, but before he could, there came the brown kangaroo rat, breaking them up. "LOOK OUT!"
Scamp and Angel looked to him, then looked up in slight fear as there was a snake rising from the water, hissing menacingly and looked hungry for the white mice. It leaned down and chomped down to eat the kangaroo rat, making the female mouse scream. Scamp then begins to growl at the snake and then biting on it. The snake stopped however, not because of Scamp, but the kangaroo rat opened its mouth.
"No mice for you, Mister," the rat said to it as he got free with a lasso. "Not today!" he got the rope to tie around its mouth and trained it like he was in charge now and wasn't mere prey for this predator anymore.
"Whoa..." Scamp and Angel were shocked.
"I've been lookin' all over for you," the rat said to the limbless reptile as he held the rope tight to control it. "Now look, we've got a long way to go and you're gonna take us there, and you're not gonna give us any trouble about it, right?"
The snake shook its head suddenly, now in the rat's power.
"They're perfectly harmless once you look 'em in the eye and let 'em know who's boss," the rat told the female mouse, ignoring the male mouse as he helped on for the ride. "Ain't that right, fella? Now git!"
The snake then started to ride them through the water.
"Never saw a mouse do that before." Scamp said.
Angel giggled. "That's actually a kangaroo rat."
"Anyways, we better get going if we're going to rescue Atticus, Mo, Cherry, Penny, and Cody." Scamp said.
The mice looked to them.
"Did you say Cody?" the female asked.
"Did you say Penny?' the male added.
"Yeah, we did." Angel nodded.
"Ve're looking for Cody and ve know Penny." the female mouse said.
"Really? That's great, then let's go and rescue them together." Scamp said looking at the mice.
"It's alright, Bernard, Jake has everything under control!" the female mouse called to the male mouse in the water still.
"Yeah... I've noticed..." the male mouse Bernard climbed onto the tail, looking glum as Jake the kangaroo rat talked with Bianca, seeming to flirt with her, talking about how he used to wrestle dingoes as Bernard took out a tiny black bot revealing a diamond engagement ring inside it.
Scamp and Angel followed after finishing their drinks and kept going. They even started to follow them by swimming next to the snake.
Back in the hideout, McLeach opened a door and threw all of the kids in, even dodging Atticus's strength this time. He slammed the gate shut and the steel would be too strong for even Atticus to break down and could seriously injure him if he tried to use his powers to get out.
"I'll give you all a night down here to think it over," McLeach grinned as he held the lantern. "But tomorrow, no more Mr. Nice Guy!" he laughed, then slammed the door which the keys were by, though the door caught Joanna's tail and McLeach had to open the door again to get his goanna through the door.
Cody stood in anger. "We'll never tell you where she is! Never! NEVER!"
"Big meany..." Penny mumbled, then looked down and saw a green lizard roll through the hay and copy Cody's movements.
"Where'd you come from little guy?" Atticus asked.
"Um, the desert?" the lizard looked to him.
"Well, well, fancy that..." a voice called, revealing to be a silver furred koala bear with Faloo chained by his neck. "Looks like McLeach has begun trapping his own kind and a gaggle of them no less. There's no hope for any of us now."
"Shove it or I'll take you down to the Build-A-Bear Workshop for my baby brother." Mo took that as an insult.
"No hope?" the lizard sounded frantic. "No hope!"
"There must be a way out of here." Cody spoke up.
"There's a way out all right." the koala said to them.
"What's your idea of a way out?" Atticus asked the koala.
"Actually, son, I was referring to once McLeach lets us out," the koala said, then turned to the animals among him. "You'll go as a wallet, you'll go as a belt, and our dear Frank..."
The lizard looked scared and in denial, not wanting to hear this.
"Frank will go as a..." the koala taunted him.
The lizard kept trying to tune him out.
"A purse," the koala finally said, giving the lizard a mental breakdown. "Oh, a lovely ladies' purse, maybe one of those girls will take you out for a night on the town."
"I don't wanna go as a purse!" the lizard clung to Cody. "Please, please don't let him do it."
Cody smiled. "Don't worry, we're gonna get out of here."
"We are?" the lizard asked.
"Yeah, we should all think of something." Cherry suggested.
"Yeah." Atticus agreed.
"Frank, what's wrong?" Penny noticed the lizard wouldn't stop fidgeting.
"Oh, here he goes again." the koala sounded annoyed.
"Take it easy, mate," Faloo cooed. "You don't wanna hurt yourself again."
"I got it!" Frank the lizard suddenly jumped, making everyone listen in. "All we gotta do is get the keys!" he pointed to the keys very far away from them next to the cell door.
"Oh, is that all?" the koala mocked him. "Well then, we'd better start packin' our bags."
"No, wait, he's right." Atticus said.
Cody saw there were loose pieces of wood by their door and decided to get them in. "These should help us reach the keys."
Frank clapped and cheered.
The quail trapped in a tire swing cage saw Cody reaching with his new friends and made its cage rock to capture the wood pieces.
"Come on, everybody, get more stuff!" Mo called to them, making the animals smile and hope for freedom.
"The kids are right, what're we waitin' for?" Faloo sounded determined, then reached his tail to grab the stick with a hook on it.
Soon all of the animals helped out.
The hooked stick came into Cody's hands. "We need something to tie it together."
Penny turned to Cherry and Mo. "Do you guys have shoe laces?"
"No, I don't, besides, that won't be strong enough." Cherry said to the young girl.
A rattlesnake saw an extra pair of boots and threw it to the cage.
"Boot laces will be stronger, especially some those size." Mo informed.
"Yeah, now all we need to do is tie them all together." Atticus said.
Penny practiced her shoe-tying abilities and got the sticks together for Cody. Atticus decided to be the one to handle the new tool with the strings to get the keys with the hook. Frank grew nervous whenever he would miss the keys. The koala and wombat decided to help the ropes. Frank kept chattering about the tool's uses.
"Somebody shut him up!" the koala begged as he struggled.
Atticus then covered Frank's mouth while using his free hand with all his strength to get the keys. The keys were caught on the hook, making Frank cheer.
However, much to everyone's shock, Joanna popped her head out from the door's small door for her to go in and out of like a household dog. She hissed, saw the hook and destroyed it after she caught it with her tail. The goanna put the keys back with her mouth, glared at the prisoners, then went back to meet with her master.
"I got it!" Frank then said, having a new idea, grabbing his tail. "I'll just take my tail and pick the lock like this!"
"Oh, Frank, give it a rest..." Faloo was tired of him now.
"You'll thank me when you're free." the lizard continued to try his trick, but no one wanted to hear it, they would try again a different time.
"Time for bed, tenderfoot." Mo told Atticus, using the pet name Angel used for Scamp.
Cody had already fallen asleep with Penny while Cherry was trying to get comfortable. Atticus and Mo shared a corner, cuddling up together.