Rico paced in the cage and thankfully, Julien was silent. Rico had untied Private and tried to rouse the others, but whatever injection Kowalski had talked about really took it out of both Kowalski and Private, and fighting as long as he did, Skipper must have fell victim to exhaustion. At least Rico hoped that was it, he didn't like how Skipper sounded earlier.

Kowalski had mentioned an injection that had brainwashed them, which made sense, because there was little else that would cause him and Private to attack them the way that they did. Rico wondered what exactly it was, and how this knowledge was going to help them.

After a few moments, Rico couldn't help giving out a grunt of frustration. He didn't know what to do! He was a demolitions expert and there was nothing for him to demolish! He didn't come up with ideas and plans; that was Kowalski's job! He glanced again at the unconscious penguins and the scared lemur and wondered briefly if it would just be better to demolish them all, just to end it. He was sure the others would rather be dead than under Blowhole's control.

Rico slapped himself, knowing that Skipper or Kowalski would if they could hear his thoughts. He couldn't just give up; his team certainly never gave up on him. His mind flashed through his memories; Kowalski and Skipper had declared him as insane, but they still worked with him, his face was slashed but they never abandoned him, a bomb was about to burst in his stomach and all three had done all they could (even if it turned their own stomachs) to save his life. Rico steeled himself again with the reminder that failure was just not an option.

Rico suddenly found his mind racing, he thought back to all of the different scenarios they ran, the different missions, the tests, possibilities, options, and everything he had learned. Finally, he started taking everything into account that he found so far; that Dr. Blowhole was bent on torturing them, that was clear, through brainwashing and making them fight one another, he had to know that deep in their minds it would haunt them if they ever made it out.

"We have to get out of here."

Rico looked up to see Julien rocking back and forth, hugging his knees to his chest. He looked completely traumatized.

"Yup," Rico muttered to him. He heard something in the hall; it was probably Dr. Blowhole. Rico had melted the camera and it probably alerted to Blowhole of the situation with his prisoners. Not to mention all of the explosions.

A wild idea finally hit Rico, he knew it was going to be risky, but it was likely the only way out.

"Uh, uh!" he waved at Julien. He mimed going to sleep, but Julien only stared at him blankly. Rico growled and lifted a flipper, making it clear that he was going to slap Julien when the lemur finally understood, nodding and falling to his side and closing his eyes.

"Shh," Rico reminded him before reaching for Kowalski, who was closest, and rolling him over so he lay across Rico's stomach and Rico closed his eyes in the hopes that it looked like Kowalski had knocked him out.

Rico was correct; the noise was Dr. Blowhole and he could hear the whir of his segway as he came into the room. He heard him sigh.

"Rotten pen-gyu-ins," Blowhole muttered. "Probably was the battle of their lives and I have no proof. Hm, at least the outcome seems to be interesting."

Rico could hear something opening and he felt a breeze ruffle the feathers on his head, but he stayed completely still.

"Tsk, tsk, Rico, was it your own weakness and inability to take down your own teammate or the strength of the serum in Kowalski that was your downfall?"

Rico had to try hard to not stiffen as he felt Kowalski being moved off of him. There were some other sounds of movement, a few weak groans from the others; Rico noticed that Julien was the only one who didn't make a sound, just like him. He wanted so badly to crack an eye open, but he knew that his plan was dangerous enough and couldn't risk blowing his cover.

Rico tried to keep track of the time in his head, but it was hard to concentrate on that and the sounds around him. The silent bits bothered him, distracted by the uneven breathing from the others, and it seemed very sudden that all was silent.

But then a dolphin flipper wrapped around him, nearly making him jump. Apparently, though, he was too heavy, so Blowhole wrapped his flipper around his foot instead.

"It will be interesting to see what the serum will do to you," Dr. Blowhole said with a dark chuckle.

Rico couldn't really tell where he was being taken, but he was sure it wasn't too far, because before he could calculate anything, he felt himself drop on a hard, flat, cold surface. He couldn't help a groan, but he kept his eyes shut. He only snuck a peek when he didn't hear anything, but it didn't help too much. He only saw the back of Dr. Blowhole, but he had to quickly shut his eye again when the dolphin turned back to him.

"Hold still, Rico, this won't hurt a bit," Dr. Blowhole said with a chuckle.

Rico twisted his body around to kick the syringe out of Blowhole's hand. He stood and put his flippers up.

"What the-?!"

Rico chuckled and leapt at the dolphin, aiming his kick at Dr. Blowhole's chest, knocking him off of his segway. Rico leapt to the floor and stepped on the syringe, not minding the broken glass as he leapt again at the dolphin. They wrestled on the floor for a bit before Blowhole started yelling.

"Attack the intruder!"

Rico coughed up a thick rubber band, the kind the humans put over lobster claws. He secured it over Dr. Blowhole's mouth. The dolphin struggled indignantly, but stilled when Rico stood over him with a murderous glare.

Whether Rico was good with words or not, they were completely unnecessary. Blowhole could see the hate and anger in Rico's deep blue eyes and the message was clear.

Rico jumped off of the dolphin and looked around. It looked like he was in some sort of medical lab, he was sure Kowalski would understand the equipment around him, however Kowalski wasn't there to explain or at least give an offhanded comment about how the bad guys always got the good stuff, whatever that was.

He jumped up onto another of the surfaces and found another syringe that looked a lot like the one Blowhole was about to stick him with. Rico didn't know what it was or what would happen, but he didn't care. He jumped back down, ignoring the look of absolute horror on Blowhole's face as he lifted the syringe high above his head, ready to strike, not even caring if what was in the syringe or his technique would end the dolphin's life.

Something hard hit him in the back, sending the syringe flying across the room. Rico snapped his head around to find who would dare agitate him in his already angered state, but what he saw completely sobered him.

There were his teammates, Skipper, Kowalski, and Private, standing there with their flippers up and ready for action.

Unfortunately, Rico figured, the action would be against him.