A.N. - Here is the next chapter!

Trixy: Will the evah stop bickering?

Me: Eh, who knows?

Trixy: Well, I would hope that you would since you're writing this.

Me: Yeah...You'd think that...Anyway, please enjoy! :D

Chapter 11: Six Cures, Seven Penguins

All seven penguins slide single file along the twisting corridors and down three flights of stairs. They then slide a little farther down the hall before each darting into the room. Skipper looks around with a frown as all that he sees is an empty room. "I thought you said that there was going to be something here, Kowalski…"

"Well...According to Marissa's floor map she found there was!" Kowalski says and glares at her.

"Hey! I can't help that they obviously moved it and didn't change it on their map! It's not my fault!" Marissa shouts back at Kowalski.

"Both of you stop it!" Trixy then shouts. "We are all on short tempahs due to the thought of being poisoned. But, we have got to continue working togethah as a team! Fighting nevah solved anything!"

"Actually, it has solved-" Kowalski says but then shuts his beak after a glare from the teen.

Trixy looks at them. "Don't make me have to settle things between you two. Put aside whatevah the Buckingham happened in the past and work togethah! Buckingham! Do you want to die from this venom or not?!"

"No…" Marissa and Kowalski each reply and look at the ground a bit.

"Alright. Then start thinking and come up with a way to solve this!" She says and crosses her flippers.

Marissa looks at Kowalski and then around the room. "Ehm…" She murmurs and looks around.

"Psst. Over here."

The penguins look around after hearing a voice. Private curiously waddles over to a dark corner. "B-b-ba-badg-badger!" He stutters before falling back in a faint.

Butch and Sarah then step out and look at the penguins. "Look, not that we'd like to stay and chat, but we've got some other matters to attend." Butch says.

Trixy looks at them suspiciously as Sarah takes out six syringes with some sort of pale purple liquid inside. "These are six antidotes. The snake y'all are looking for ain't here." Sarah grins. "He's been used for other things. But, here are enough for all but one of you."

"Why?" Skipper then retorts.

Butch shrugs. "We're tired of being told what to do by an air-breathing shark-wanna-be?" He says.

"And it is just really interesting to see him ticked off." Sarah adds with a dark chuckle. She then glares at Trixy and Private. "And you two, don't think we'll be making a habit of 'helping' you. It's just this one time because we're bored. Got it?" She growls before she and Butch walk out from the room.

The seven penguins then look at the six antidotes and then at each other. "Who doesn't get one?" Cecelia asks curiously.

Marissa and Kowalski each take out their clipboards and start writing. "Well, Cecelia, you must get one since you are a civilian." Marissa says. "Skipper next since he is a team leader."

Kowalski nods and writes. "Rico is invaluable to the unit as well."

"Trixy and Private are both young and should have it, especially Trixy since Skippsy would have our tails otherwise." She says and then looks at Kowalski. "Which leaves you and me."

Kowalski looks at her also and then starts writing on his clipboard, making bullet points for who is more valuable to keep alive. "Erm…"

Marissa sighs and watches him before taking one of the antidotes and injecting him in the back of his shoulder with it. "There. Your decision is already made. You're welcome." She says.

"Wh-What? Why did you do that?! I wasn't done balancing the risks!" Kowalski exclaims and rubs his shoulder.

"I already had calculated it." She shrugs. "Your team needs you. Mine can easily replace me with Trixy, who already comes up with her own options and inventions." She says and looks at him. "Your team doesn't have someone to step up into that position, hence why I had to help rescue you. You think that if it wasn't for being begged by Trixy that I would come help save you?! I'd have had to be out of my mind! But, here I am! You are cured, and now I would like for us to get out, so that the antidote can be figured out and replicated with the last couple of drops of this…" She says and hands the syringe to Kowalski.

Cecelia promptly takes it from Kowalski and looks at it. She has already given herself her antidote. "I'll get straight to work on this once we're at a workable lab." She says with a nod and puts it carefully in her feathers.

Skipper looks wide eyed at the needle and shakes head head some when Rico tries to hand it to Skipper. "N-n-No. I do-don't do ne-nee-needles." He stutters.

Rico rolls his eyes and motions wildly of someone dying from not taking the vaccine. Skipper still refuses and tries to slide away and Rico pounces on and administers it to him. "See, 'Ipper. Not dat ba'." He says and gives himself his own dose.

Marissa watches as the others take their antidote vaccines fairly calmly for someone with only 22 hours and counting to live. 'Once we're out of here I guess I'll finish up a few of my experiments and inventions.' She thinks. 'Maybe make a last attempt at trying to figure out about a cure for Rachel.'

Kowalski just looks at Marissa some. He then looks at his clipboard again and continues his calculations, just to double check Marissa's math on this. 'Maybe she should have had the antidote...I mean, I had a whole hour longer than her. That hour could be crucial in making another antidote. Or, or maybe we could have split the antidote.' He thinks as he writes some on this. 'It wouldn't have cured either of us, but it would have most likely extended both of our times by a few hours to make an antidote.'

Skipper clears his throat and breaks both Marissa's and Kowalski's thoughts. "We need to stop Blowhole now. Kowalski, options." He says.

Kowalski turns the page on his clipboard and doodles. "Air vents to war room, defeat Blowhole, destroy whatever he's working on and take back the power cell, leave, and then make another antidote." He shrugs. "Simple."

Skipper nods to Rico after this. "Sounds like a plan to me. Rico, the vent." He orders. Rico spits up a screw driver and undoes the vent grill and softly sits it on the ground. "I'm on point." He says and enters the vent. Rico follows him and then Trixy, Private, and Cecelia.

Kowalski and Marissa don't follow directly, though. "You go first." He says.

"No. I'll go last." She says.

"No, we're wasting time. Go." He argues.

Marissa rolls her eyes and enters the vent. "Excuse me for attempting to give an idiot an advantage." She murmurs.

"Well, the 'idiot' might just be trying to keep the moron from wasting her quickly running out time by wanting to be last in the vent." Kowalski mutters as he hears her.

"My days are pretty much numbered anyway!" She says down to Kowalski as she shimmies up the vent.

"Not unless you don't go faster! We will get another cure done." He replies as he follows her. "I mean, we will have three scientists working on it!"

"Two." She shakes her head as the vent levels out. "I am going to work on finishing a last few experiments and maybe getting an advance on a cure for Rachel…" She says.

Kowalski crawls after her. "You cannot possibly have already given up hope. You have almost a full day!" He exclaims quietly.

"Sometimes it is best to expect and be prepared for the worst, instead of expecting the best and having your hopes shattered." She says. "Skippsy says that all the time, and I have learned it for myself, too."

"That might be, but you should still keep some hope." He says.

"I do hope, but I would rather do everything like it is my last day than to act like it isn't and run out of time before I'm 'ready.' And I won't be 'ready' until my experiments and inventions are completed." Marissa replies. "And why the kipper are you arguing with me about this anyway? I'm sure you'd be just thrilled to be permanently rid of me."

Kowalski stops for a moment and watches her. "You don't mean that."

"I do." She says as she also has stopped. "Ever since that experiment we have been on a crash-course competition of anger and hatred." She says. "You know that you would actually be glad for me to be gone. I'd no longer be near to insult your intelligence, to brag about my successes and joke about your failures." She says and shakes her head.

"Though all of that would be nice, our competition has driven me to better inventions that I otherwise would most likely have not thought of." He replies.

"Well, then you can compete against Trixy or your girlfriend!"

"Girlfriend? You mean Cecelia?"

"Duh." She says as she starts forward again.

"She's not my girlfriend." He sighs. "Apparently she has someone already…"

Marissa glances a bit softly at him. "Oh." She says. "I know the feeling..."

Kowalski shrugs some as he crawls after her. "And, I am no better about my successes and your failures to you." He says.

"True...But, I'm the one who most likely is on my last day, whether or not you accept it. So, will you stop arguing and go back to hating me, please?" She asks a little quieter as she is able to see the others up ahead.

"Go back to hating you?" He says confused. "I believe that you are mixed up as it is you who hates me." He replies.

Marissa shakes her head. "No...Despite popular belief, I don't hate you." She says silently and then she stops talking as she gets a sharp look from Skipper.

"Rico." Skipper nods to him to undo this vent as well. Rico unscrews it and Skipper kicks through it and they all seven jump down into fighting stances.