Dennis broke the surface of the water first. His entire body ached from his landing, and his chest was giving him a lot of grief. Desperately searching around him, he spotted Jackie resurface a few metres away from him. She was bent over slightly, probably clutching her leg. Dennis ducked underwater and swam over to her. "You okay?" he asked worriedly, treading water easily.
Jackie was panting as she tried to use both legs to tread water. "My leg…I can't stay…afloat…," she gasped out, just seconds before she sank beneath the water.
Dennis, in a panic, dived under after her. Opening his eyes against the sting of the water, he managed to grab Jackie under her arms and pull her upwards. He pushed her up so that she broke the surface before him. He kept his grip on her as she flailed in the water.
"Stay still," he instructed her gently. "I've got you."
Slowly, Jackie relaxed into Dennis's arms. He kicked his legs and helped them both swim the thirty-or-so metres to shore, where they both collapsed on their backs, their chests heaving. Dennis glanced over at Jackie's leg. The jagged cut was still there, but it looked less fresh and it wasn't bleeding anymore. It still looked painful, though. Her hand was in much the same condition.
"What now?" Jackie asked.
"We go back and kick Rodney's arse for doing that to us," Dennis growled. "Bringing him in would be even better."
"Major Monogram said to not engage unless absolutely necessary," Jackie said doubtfully.
"Absolutely necessary?!" Dennis said incredulously. "Rodney just launched us to Texas in a ROCKET! How is that NOT necessary?"
Jackie hesitated, causing Dennis to sigh. "Look, I won't make you come if you're really so against it. It's just that I'd stand a better chance of surviving if you came with me."
"I'm hurt," Jackie pointed out.
"So?" Dennis shrugged.
Jackie grinned weakly. "Alright, I'll come. I don't know how much help I'll be, though."
"As long as you can still drive a motorbike, you'll be a great help."
Jackie frowned at him. "Our motorbikes were left behind, remember?"
Dennis pointed over at a building by the edge of the lake, which had a sleek motorbike propped up against it. Jackie rolled her eyes. "Stealing," she said. "Great."
"It's all for a good cause," Dennis defended himself. "Look, if we don't go now, Rodney might enact some other evil plan and we'll be too late to stop it. We need to make sure we get him."
Jackie sighed. "Oh, alright. But you owe me."
"Well, since you're going on a date with me, I'd say we're even," Dennis grinned.
"Oh…" Jackie groaned. "I forgot I said that."
Rolling her eyes again, Jackie limped over to the motorbike. A few seconds later, she returned riding it. Dennis hopped aboard, and they took off.
It took them about fifteen minutes to return to the base. Once it came into their view, they abandoned the motorbike and snuck up to the metal wall.
"How are we going to get inside?" Jackie whispered.
Dennis grabbed the laser cutter—which was miraculously still there—off her and cut a hole in the side of the building, just big enough for them to get through. "Any more questions?" he asked smugly.
"Yeah. How are we going to find Rodney?" Jackie asked.
Dennis thought about this. "Run through the base until we find him."
"Great plan," Jackie said, clearly being sarcastic. "I can barely walk and your chest has begun hurting again."
"No it hasn't," Dennis argued, though this was mainly because he was scared of exactly how Jackie had known that his chest had begun hurting again. "I'm fine." He lifted his leg to step through the hole.
"Wait." Jackie put her hand on Dennis's wrist, making him stop and look at her. "I…thank you. You've saved my life twice now."
Dennis smirked. "Like I said the first time: beautiful girl like you is worth it."
Jackie cocked her head. "You said "pretty" the first time."
"Are you complaining?" teased Dennis.
Jackie blushed. "See, THIS is the kind of flirting that gets women to actually like you."
"Wait…you like me now?"
Jackie smirked and hopped through the hole without giving him an answer. Rolling his eyes, Dennis followed her.
Nobody was about, so the two injured rabbits made their slow way down the corridor. The first room they came to looked like an office, and nobody was in there. The next two offices were deserted too. However, in the fourth room, one of the walls had several large monitors on it, showing what was clearly CCTV footage from around the base.
Dennis hopped up onto the chair, his eyes flickering through all the monitors. "Let's use this thing to find Rodney," he said.
"Found him," Jackie said, pointing at one of the monitors.
The monitor showed black and white footage from a workshop-looking place, and, sure enough, there was Rodney.
"We passed that on the way to the server room earlier," Dennis remembered. "Do you think you can remember the way? Cuz I can't."
Jackie nodded. "If we can find the server room again, I'm sure I'll be able to find that room."
The two rabbits left the room and carried on down the hallway. Soon, they spotted the server room. It was on the branch of a T junction, just as they remembered.
"It was on our left when we came this way earlier," Jackie recalled. "So we need to go left."
She led the way down the corridor, but it turned out that they didn't need to go all the way to the workshop; they bumped into Rodney in the corridor on the way there. Rodney's eyes widened, but Dennis quickly leapt up and smashed him in the forehead with his fist, knocking him out immediately. He handcuffed the evil scientist firmly.
"Let's get out of here," he said.
Jackie nodded. "Right behind you."
Jackie dragged Rodney behind Dennis, who walked out in front, ready to attack if anyone saw them. Thankfully, they got out the base with no trouble. After they had gone a safe distance away, Jackie called OWCA, who said they were on their way to pick the two rabbits up.
"OWCA's coming," Jackie reported. She grinned and patted Dennis on the back. "Congratulations for a job well done, Dennis."
Dennis smiled at her. "You too, Jackie."