A while later, Emma glanced at the clock and her eyes widened.

"Is it seriously 6pm?" She asked, her jaw dropping in surprise. "I've really been here 6 hours?"

"Yeah, I guess time flies when you're having fun." Marlene told her with a smile. Emma smiled back, but a little ball of worry was forming in her stomach.

"I need to go back, so we can try and free Ashley, Maurice and Julien." She realised, waving a goodbye to Marlene and sliding out of the cave. She began to walk to her own habitat, and she shivered. Because it was winter, the nights were much longer, and the sky was already a deep, midnight blue. Clouds blanketed the landscape, covering the stars, and a fierce wind howled through the zoo. Emma wrapped her flippers around herself, keeping a sharp look out for any flashes of red یا yellow. She opened the fishbowl, and hopped into the habitat.

"Hey guys sorry for taking so-" She stopped abruptly as she looked around her. The HQ was in a catastrophic state, the میز, جدول was overturned, the periscope was bent all out of shape, now forming what looked like an S. Emma froze to the spot, and glanced around, hoping that the team had evaded the ruthless snakes, سے طرف کی using the escape tunnels. She took a deep breath, and moved silently across the floor, towards the lab. She opened the door cautiously, and grabbed the closest weapon. (Which happened to be the shrink ray.) The room was completely spotless, the Bunsen burners were in place, the chemicals were boiling away, and everything seemed perfect. Too perfect... Emma tiptoed through the lab, checking under workbenches as she did. As she approached the last one, in the very far corner of the room and heard what sounded like a whimper from underneath it. She crouched down and peered under. Tom was clutching a panic-stricken Mort, and their eyes were squeezed shut in fright. Emma tapped him on the shoulder and he shrieked in surprise, kicking out at Emma whilst doing so. Emma just avoided his kicks and she tried again. "Tom it's me, Emma." She told the frightened penguin. Tom opened his eyes uncertainly and his eye relaxed. Mort then opened his eyes, and hugged Emma's foot in worry.

"W.. where have آپ b.. been?" Tom stammered, crawling out from under the workbench and sitting on سب, سب سے اوپر if it.

"Marlene wanted me to stay around hers for a bit and we lost track of time." Emma admitted sheepishly, sitting on the workbench too, with Mort at her side.

"Why?" Tom asked sharply.

"Um, she was worried about the snakes coming over, and she didn't want to go to the HQ because she thought they might come here first." Emma lied.

"Oh ok." Tom replied. "Well she wasn't wrong." He added sadly, looking towards the open door.

"Where are the others?" Emma asked worriedly.

"Eaten." Tom answered, his eyes big with fear. "We only escaped because they couldn't find us."

"We hid for 4 hours, we thought the meanies might come back." Mort told her in his high pitched voice. Emma hugged the little ماؤس بندر comfortingly.

"So what should we do?" Tom asked. Emma's face turned serious and she picked up a few weapons from the lab.

"We end this." She told them, placing a weapon in Tom's flipper. They went into the main bit of the HQ, and set the cinder-block میز, جدول upright. Emma got out blueprints of the reptile house and studied them carefully.

"Do آپ know how they are getting out?" Tom asked. Emma shook her head gravely, and looked up at the younger animals.

"Ok, so I've got a plan." She began. "We go to the reptile house, and Tom, I need آپ to talk to the Chameleons, see if they know how the Snakes are getting out." She instructed. Tom nodded in response. "Mort I need آپ to stay with me and we'll face the snakes. We'll distract them, then Tom will get in the snake habitat, and hit them with this shrink ray." She continued. "Because it's only hitting Savio and Sinistra, when they shrink, the others should break through their skin." She explained. Tom's eyes went wide and he stared at his older sister in shock.

"But.. but won't that, kill them? The snakes?" He asked, his voice filled with astonishment.

"Maybe, but they deserve it, they're treating small animals as food, not real people, I understand that they want good food, but they get fed everyday, they can't eat and kill their fellow neighbours." She told Tom firmly. Mort's eyes got even bigger and his little eyebrows shot up his head.

"What if it shrinks the others too?" Tom wondered.

"Well then we'll be big enough to stop them, and force them to puke up our friends, then we'll grow our دوستوں back to normal." Emma replied, an inch of worry in her voice. She just hoped that none of them had been digested yet.

"Can the وٹر, اوٹار come too?" Mort asked a little hopefully. Emma guessed that he felt better with مزید people around.

"Urm, maybe, let's ask her." Emma answered. The two penguins and Mort went to the وٹر, اوٹار habitat, and stopped as they walked in.

"Crud." Tom remarked, seeing the mess around, and looking behind him worriedly.

"They.... they got her too..?" Mort whimpered. Emma just nodded sadly.

"C'mon let's go, they're pretty fast so they should be back at the reptile house now." Emma کہا bravely. The small group made their way over to the tall, dark building and took a deep breath as they walked in.