Emma looked at the time on Ashley's watch for the segundo time, and she started to lose hope. It was now 7:50pm, and they only had 10 minutos until they would be digested. She thought about Kowalski who was in Savio, and tears started to form in her eyes. If Tom didn't get them out, she would never see him again, never be able to hug him again, never make another invention with him, and never be able to wake up with him seguinte to her. Tears rolled down her face, and she held on tighter to Mort and Ashley. Private was shaking with fear and Skipper hugged him to calm him down. The group huddled together, and stared down at the watch, waiting for their demise. Ashley still had a faint glimmer of hope in his heart, and he looked up Sinistra's body hopefully. He had learned from when he had been captured Blowhole, to never give up hope, no matter how small the odds.

Sinistra and Savio had retired to their habitats for the day, and Sinistra was taking a nap. Savio watched her lovingly, and nuzzled her neck, before lying down seguinte to her. He poked her gently, and she woke with a start.

"It's almost time for digestion." He reminded the shorter snake, a devious smile on his face. She looked up at the clock, and grinned evilly.

"I can't wait to hear their screams." Sinistra stated, her eyes glowing with sheer excitement.

"Well, why should we wait?" Savio said, looking at his own long body.

"Well I'm waiting, but you can start to digest if you want to." Sinistra replied casually. Savio smiled and the digestive juices inside of him released, and screams could be heard from inside him. Inside Sinistra, the animals, looked up, and listened intently, their faces panic-stricken. A few segundos later, Tom crept into the reptile house, and sneaked into the snake habitat. Savio looked at the floor, and his eyes widened.

"What on earth is that?!" He asked, staring down at the tiny pinguim in shock.

"It.. it looks like one of those penguins." Sinistra answered.

"Ooh, a bite size penguin, how cute." Savio taunted, realising that it was Tom. Savio made a grab for Tom, but he jumped out of the way at the last second. The little pinguim tried to evade them but they were too big, He was eventually cornered por the snakes.

"You can have this one." Sinistra said to the bigger snake, who then started to close in on the miniature penguin. Tom closed his eyes and squeezed the trigger on the shrink ray. A strange sound echoed through the reptile house, drowning out the screams from Savio for a second. Tom opened his eyes, and saw the both of the snakes were now about a tenth of his height. He grinned triumphantly and picked up Savio, and started squeezing him. Sinistra watched with horror, and quickly released her own digestive juices inside herself. Emma's eye widened, and the little group tried to climb up her body hastily. The juices burned at her feet, and she let out a yelp of pain. Meanwhile, Savio had just threw up the animais inside him, and now Tom had picked up Sinistra. She stared at Tom angrily, and tried to bite him. Tom rolled his eyes and squeezed her, making her throw up the contents of her stomach. Emma tumbled out, followed por the others, and she held her feet, which were stinging painfully. Emma looked up at Tom, her eyes widened.

"Woah, you'e massive!" She marvelled.

"I'm actually really small, and you're even smaller." Tom giggled growing himself, and the others back to normal. Emma's eyes fell on the Kowalski's group and her jaw dropped. They were so badly burned por the digestive juices, that they hadn't even managed to get off the floor yet. She rushed over to them, her group closely on her heels. Marlene, Julien and Maurice weren't too bad, so Skipper helped them up, and Tom passed them a first aid kit that he had brought with him. But Kowalski and Rico were still unconscious on the floor. Emma sat over them, and looked over their burns. She felt tears slowly rolling down her cheeks, and she tried shaking them awake.

"Please be ok guys." She whispered, checking their heartbeats. A wave of relief washed over her, and he poked Kowalski lightly underneath his flipper. His eyelids began to open, and she hugged him instantly. Kowalski was took por surprise but he hugged her back. "Oh thank goodness you're ok!" Emma exclaimed, as Kowalski began to sit up. To their left, Rico was just waking up too, and he stared around in confusion.

"What happened?" Kowalski asked, stroking Emma's hair comfortingly.

"I'm not 100% sure my self to be honest." Emma admitted, giggling a little. "But I think Tom had something to do with it." She added, gazing at her little brother proudly. Tom smiled, and his eyes fell on the little snakes, who were trying to slither away.

"Don't you even think about it!" He told them sternly, picking them up por their tails, and putting them in an empty cup, then covering it with paper, the same method you'd use to catch a spider.

"So did you find out how the snakes were getting out?" Skipper asked curiously.

"Yup, when they get fed, there's this little underground tunnel, where their comida comes out of, so when the humans put something in there, they use the tunnel to slip out." Tom explained.

"That's pretty clever actually." Ashley remarked, peering into the tiny cup.

"So what are we gonna do with these guys?" Emma asked, taking the cup and looking at the snakes sternly.

"We could ship them to another zoo." Kowalski suggested.

"But then the animais there would be in danger." Marlene pointed out.

"Well what can we do?" Private wondered.

"Keep them tiny?" Mort piped up.

"Don't be so stupidy Mort!" Julien scolded, crossing his arms, and ordering Maurice to brush down his fur.

"Hmm, that's not a bad idea actually." Emma remarked.

"What? Brushing my fur?" Julien asked.

"Ugh, no! Keeping the snakes small." Emma replied, putting a flipper to her forehead and rolling her eyes at Julien.

"eally?" (Really?) Rico asked, looking at his sister with curiousity.

"Yeah, though because they are living things, the effects won't be permanent." Emma answered, looking thoughtful.

"But what about when they grow back to normal?" Maurice questioned.

"Hmm, well they need an extremely secure habitat, one that is impenetrable, except for food." Emma thought aloud. She thought back to the forcefield, that kept her in a cage 4 years ago, because it was pinguim repelling. She smiled, and ran back to the HQ. She and Kowalski had invented a similar forcefield once, and now seemed like a good time to use it. She brought it back, and set it up around the habitat, and changed the setting to snake repelling, so they couldn't even use the tunnel. The group of animais left the tiny snakes, and hopped through the tunnel. They all went back to the HQ, and got bandaged up. Emma wrapped a bandage around Kowalski's flipper and smiled up at him. He smiled back, and hugged her gently, nuzzling her neck softly. She blushed and hugged him back. Everyone turned to Tom, and gave him a hug. (Except fro Julien, who merely said, 'Thank you silly penguin.' rather reluctantly.)

"You did a Valente thing Tom." Skipper began, patting his little brother on the back. "So you need to be rewarded. What do you want mais than anything.?" He asked.

"Sleep." Tom replied casually. Skipper made a barely audible sound of frustration.

"I mean something that you haven't already got." Skipper rephrased. "Oh I know what you can get." Skipper said, as he went to his bunk, and took a box out from under his pillow. He took out a fancy looking medal from it and passed it to his brother who stared at it with wide eyes. "I got that for extreme bravery in a time of peril." Skipper explained. "It's yours now."

"Really? You're just giving it to me?" Tom asked in bewilderment.

"You deserve it, you saved everyone from being eaten." Skipper replied, smiling at Tom. Tom grinned and hugged his older brother, before fastening the medal on his feathers. All of the animais went around to congratulate him, except for Private, who was calling Uncle Nigel, and telling him what happened. The dia rolled on slowly, and shades of rosa, -de-rosa and gold filled the habitats with a warming glow. The zoo was finally at ease.