Chapter Six

If anything, however, Dr. Blowhole didn't take the imminent promise of pain from the penguins seriously. Instead, he started howling with laughter. "You seem to forget something, penguin," he spat, once he got himself under control. "I'm the one with the ducks!" Reaching over to the table, he picked up a small remote control. "It's a pity that the little ones will have to die before I could put my plan into action, but I suppose that's the price the other one will have to pay for disobeying me. I told him not to tell anyone what really happened... oh well." Becky and Stacy raised their hackles in fury, and the penguins took a defensive position.

"You're pathetic," Stacy growled, baring her teeth at the Blowhole. "You'd kill children over some stupid grudge you have against the penguins?"

"And you have the nerve to think you're some kind of mastermind?" Becky added contemptuously. "If you were really dangerous you wouldn't have to hurt bystanders just to prove how tough you are."

"The more you try to prove yourself this way, it just becomes clearer and clearer how lame you are," Stacy continued. "If you're a real threat you'll fight like a man instead of hiding behind your hostages. Come at us, if you think you're so tough!"

Eggy was shocked. The badger sisters had seemed nice enough to him, albeit kind of hyperactive and excitable, and maybe not necessarily the brightest bulbs in the chandelier. But this... he'd never expected them to stick up for his family his way, not when they'd never even met them! A quick glance around showed that the penguins, with the exception of Private, were thinking along the same lines.

"I told you badgers were scary!" Private whispered to Rico.

"Uh-huh," the mostly-mute penguin pyromaniac replied in affirmative.

One who was not impressed, however, was Dr. Blowhole. "What can you silly little girls know about anything?" he asked. "What do you know of my motives?"

"We know enough to know that your focus is in the wrong place! Those ducks didn't do anything to you!" Stacy spat. Blowhole just grinned maniacally.

"We'll see about that," he said, pressing a button on the remote. A metal door in the wall opened up, producing a very large, snarling, sharp-toothed monstrosity of a dog. Everyone flinched, especially Private, the memory of Mr. Chew fresh in their minds. But this dog was at least four times the size of Mr. Chew, and looked to be about twice as psychotic.

"Spot hungry! Spot bored! Spot want food!" it barked.

"Spot, do you like ducks?" Blowhole asked viciously.

"Spot like ducks! Spot like to bite ducks! Spot like to shake ducks until they quack then fall! Spot think ducks taste good!" the monster dog growled. Up above, one of Eggy's siblings screamed in terror, drawing the creature's attention to the trapped water-fowl. Almost immediately, it started slobbering even more.

"Ducks for Spot? Spot eat ducks?" it asked. Blowhole nodded, lowering the cage down to ground level and opening the door with the remote, leaving the ducks completely exposed to attack.

"You can do what you want with them," the evil dolphin said. "And when you're done with that you can eat some penguins."

"Spot like ducks!" the dog barked. Mama Duck closed her eyes.

"Kids, get behind me. While that thing is distracted, I want you to make a run for it."

"Mama!" Eggy cried in despair, realizing that she intended to sacrifice herself to save his siblings. "Mama, no!" Suddenly, he felt a flipper on his head, and looked up to see Rico patting him comfortingly, a determined look on his face.

"Kaboom," the penguin said, right before hacking up a stick of dynamite. But before he had a chance to light it, a snarling ball of fur launched itself at the dog.

It took a few seconds before anyone realized that the snarling ball of fur was Becky, who was clawing at the dog's face. Apparently, one swipe must have hit its target, because the monstrosity reared back, howling in pain.

"Big mouse hurt Spot!" it yowled.

"I'm actually a badger," Becky replied cheerfully, closing back in for another attack.

While Becky was distracting the dog, Private and Stacy made their way over to the terrified duck family. "It's alright," Stacy said kindly. "My sister knows what she's doing- that dog won't be able to get close to you."

"We won't hurt you," Private reassured them, extending a flipper. "We'll get you to safety."

"No you won't," Blowhole growled, looming up behind the penguin and badger, just as Spot managed to shake Becky loose, sending her flying across the room, smashing into a wall. "Those ducks are mine!"

"Spot want eat ducks!" the monster dog barked, coming to stand next to Blowhole, effectively cornering the ducks, Private, and Stacy. "Spot want eat weird chicken and big mouse too!"

"Kowalski! I need options!" Skipper barked. Kowalski urgently ran through ideas in his mind, each coming up with certain failure. He saw no way out of the situation they had backed themselves into.

"I... I don't know," he finally said. Skipper didn't like that at all.

"Think, man, think! There's got to be something!"

Meanwhile, Rico and Eggy were planning something. "Braawk swkak," Rico explained, coughing up a small bomb and a lighter. "Swkaaaaak ark ark skwak braawk KABOOM!"

"Got it," Eggy whispered, taking the weapons and sneaking up behind Blowhole. Rico just smirked darkly.

"Heh heh... kaboom kaboom!" he exclaimed, detonating a stick of dynamite behind Spot, to distract it. It worked.

"Spot hear loud noise!" the dog yelled.

"Kaboom kaboom kaboom!" the pyromaniac laughed, setting off a number of charges, effectively dazing the monstrosity. In its confused stupor, Spot stumbled around for a bit before crashing head-first into the stone wall, knocking itself out cold.

"NO!" Blowhole screamed in rage.

"This is for trying to hurt my mom," Eggy whispered, lighting the bomb and dropping it onto the furious dolphin. "Never touch my family again!"

The resulting explosion shook the very foundations of the building. "It's going to collapse!" Kowalski yelled. "EVERYONE GET OUT NOW!"

"What about Becky?" Stacy cried, seeing her sister unconscious all the way across the room. "I won't leave her!"

"Leave it to me, ma'am," Skipper said, inclining his head towards the badger, before charging headlong through the falling debris. "All of you, get out while you have the chance! I'll meet you outside, with Becky!"

To Be Completed

Author's Comments:

Ugh. I really need to be studying, not writing... finals are next week and I know I'm going to fail philosophy if I don't get started now... bleh.

Anyway, the next chapter will be the last, and I'm sorry this one took so long to get out, almost a month. The reason for this? I misplaced the draft, and found it last night.

Thanks for reading!

-Kaboom