Inside the hidden HQ in a lab were two scientist penguins finishing up on their first project together. Kowalski and Flora were thrilled as they added the last necessary adjustments of their first invention they created together. It was suppose to make things younger, and they had been working on it for at least two weeks. It has been the girls first month here in New York, and Flora already loved it at the Central Park Zoo. It was a lot more fun then Antarctica, where all they got was bitter and cold winds and deadly predators.
"Just a twist here…" Flora muttered to herself.
"A screw here…" Kowalski murmured, also to himself.
"Done!" they both exclaimed. They two intelligent penguins high fived each other.
"Should we show the others?" Flora asked.
"Of course!" Kowalski answered as he tried to drag the machine out of the lab.
Flora tried to hold back the smile twitching at the corners of her beak. "Maybe we should bring them in here?" she suggested gently.
Kowalski stopped what he was doing and turned red from embarrassment. "Right," he coughed.
Flora giggled and went to get everyone while Kowalski started to set up the machine for their presentation. She came back in with everyone, explaining that they had a new invention to show them as she ushered them inside, closing the door behind them. She stopped her friends after they all entered the lab. Flora couldn't help but give Kowalski an excited glance, which he returned.
"So, what's this suppose to do?" Amber and Skipper both asked.
"It'll make things younger," Flora responded with pride in her tone for helping to create such a machine.
Skipper didn't look impressed. "Kowalski, didn't you make something like that?" he asked.
"No, it was suppose to turn food into a younger, fresher state. It may be the same thing, but I want to see what this baby can do!" Kowalski explained.
"So who will be a test subject?" Flora questioned.
Everybody turned their gazes to Madison and Rico.
"No way!" Rico grunted out. Madison crossed her flippers over her chest and stubbornly shook her head. They did not want to be the test subjects of the latest invention that was inevitably going to explode. At least, that's what they expected. It was a pattern, really.
Flora put on puppy dog eyes. "Come on, please," she pleaded. Rico and Madison groaned.
"Fine," Rico grunted reluctantly. Madison shrugged her shoulders, willing to do it if Rico would. The two penguins waddled in front of the machine with little to no enthusiasm.
"So, we push this button, and we'll see if it turns them younger," Flora and Kowalski explained simply for once in their lives.
"Ready?" Kowalski asked. Rico and Madison nodded in response. Kowalski grinned, pushed the button and the ray began to power up. The two test subjects stared at the ray with nervousness. The machine shot its ray but it only hit Madison. Strange enough; the ray bounced off of her and hit Sara too. The young bird was flung into a box, along with Madison.
"Is that supposed to happen?" Skipper hollered, taking cover under a work table with Private.
"No it's not-" Flora gasped as the ray bounced off and hit her. She was sent flying into a pile of scrap metal.
"Flora!" Kowalski shouted worriedly. He started his way over to her but soon ran away, screaming, when a ray almost hit him.
Amber tried to doge it, but it her square in the chest that sent her flying into the machine. The machine broke and crumbled on top of her. The ray had finally stopped its destruction, which left the male penguins safe. They slowly came out of their hiding spots and looked around cautiously.
"Sara?" Private called out hesitantly. There was no response.
"Flora, Madison?" Kowalski called out.
Skipper waddled to the pile of wreckage of the destroyed machine and started throwing the metal aside, so he could get to Amber. He couldn't find her and began to get worried himself. "I can't find Amber," Skipper growled. Sure, they might not be on the best of terms, at the time, but he had to admit that he did care for the silver bird.
"Maybe she-" Private stopped as he started to hear some kind of wailing. "What is that?"
Skipper looked back down at the wreck when he realized the sound was coming from there. He shifted through the metal again and gaped when he saw a baby penguin, a silver baby penguin to be exact. "Kowalski…" Skipper started.
"Yes?" Kowalski drawled out hesitantly.
Skipper took the young hatchling and turned back to his team. "I think your invention works." He held out Amber, who started giggling. The guys let out 'awes'.
"She looks so cute!" Private exclaimed.
"Boys, find the other girls," Skipper ordered.
The penguins immediately went looking at the areas they saw the girls slam into.
Kowalski pushed aside the scrap metal and almost instantly found his fellow scientist. "I found Flora." The strategist picked up the brown hatchling and held her daisy flower in his other flipper.
"Madison and Sara too," Private called out. He pulled out the two hatchlings that were sitting in Madison's hat.
Skipper eyed the hatchlings critically for a moment, ignoring and holding Amber as she tried to scramble out of his flippers. "Can we turn them back?" he asked his second in charge, faint annoyance lining his tone.
"I'm afraid not Skipper. At least, not now. The machine is destroyed, and it had taken me two weeks to make it with Flora here." Kowalski tickled the cute brown penguin. The little hatchling giggled and looked up at him with her big brown eyes. "And that was with her help."
"Well, we can't have them like this for at least two weeks," Skipper mumbled as Amber stopped squirming and started swatting at his beak.
"I dunno Skippah," Private began to argue. "They're really cute." The young bird smiled as Sara began to suck on her flipper. Madison was just looking around curiously in her hat and tried to escape, but Rico picked her up so she wouldn't fall out of the hat. He couldn't help but 'coochie-coo' her. Honestly, these baby chicks were drop-dead adorable!
Skipper shook his head at the private. "Cute or not; we can't keep them this way."
"Uh huh." Rico nodded in agreement, looking up.
The male penguins took the girl hatchlings out of the lab, so they wouldn't hurt themselves. They set them down and watched them interact. The sight was so cute that even Skipper said aw.
Amber tried to waddle to the other girls but fell over. Sara was just rocking back and forth, still sucking her flipper and coating it with saliva. Flora looked like she was examining the room with large eyes, while Madison just stared at everything curiously, attempting to touch whatever she could. It was going fine till one of the penguins started crying. It was Amber.
"How do you make it stop?" Skipper asked over the cries as he tried to block out the noise with his flippers.
"I think she wants food," Private answered.
Rico ran over to their table, took a fish and ran back. He put it in front of Amber, who stopped crying and stared at it curiously. She crawled up to the fish and tried to take a bite of it. She started chocking which led to Skipper patting her back so she'd cough it out. It only made her cry again, only louder. He picked her up and desperately tried to shush her, which honestly didn't help.
"Baby penguins will only eat regurgitated fish!" Kowalski yelled over Amber's crying. He then said quickly, "One, two, three not it!"
"Not it!" Private shouted.
"Not it!" Rico wheezed.
Skipper cursed under his breath. "C'mon!" he groaned.
"Please do it Skippah," Private begged.
Skipper groaned and sat Amber back down. "Fine. Good thing I had some fish earlier," he mumbled. He began to gag to try and get the fish up from his throat. The guys grimaced and looked away as Skipper fed Amber.
Amber stopped crying and gave a cute smile at Skipper. "Dada." She crawled up to him and hugged him.
It made Skipper freeze, and he looked hesitantly at the silver hatchling. Skipper looked back at his team, and glared at them. "We're never going to speak of this," he told them. The guys didn't listen and awed at the sight. They were interrupted by the screeching of the fishbowl being pulled aside.
Julien jumped down and looked at the penguins. "Hello neighbors! I'm in the need of borrowing your-" Julien stopped abruptly as he noticed the little hatchlings. They all looked at him with immediate dislike in their eyes. "Oh they're just so cute!" Julien ran over and picked up the baby Flora.
Flora stared back at him with her large, chocolate brown eyes. They were replaced with fear instead of curiosity. Tears pricked her eyes, and she looked like she was about to cry, as her body started to shiver for the upcoming wailing. A sniffle and high-pitched whine started coming up from the back of her throat.
"Oh no," Skipper groaned.
Their attention was diverted when they heard some high pitched war cry. They looked down and saw Madison tackle Julien the best she could and was holding a large spoon like it was a club. How she got a spoon was beyond them but it was, for her at least, a lethal weapon. Julien dropped Flora, but Kowalski quickly caught her before she hit the floor.
"Why did the baby attack me?" Julien hollered. He immediately regretted it when Madison repeatedly whacked his chest with her spoon. Julien let out yelps of pain as she did. (A/N: I would so love to see that in slow motion, it'd be so funny.)
"Wow, even as a hatchling, she still doesn't like Julien," Kowalski laughed.
Julien tried to shave her away but she kept scrambling back on top. She seemed to take a sick enjoyment from his fear and faint pain. Seriously, spoons didn't hurt that much...no they kind of did. The ring-tailed lemur kept shouting out for help but was only watched by the penguins', who looked very amused. Finally, he managed to get away, scrambled away from the violent hatchling and ran out of the HQ.
Madison raised the spoon up and released another high-pitched war cry. It stopped abruptly as she fell flat on her face and started to snore as she fell sleep. It didn't take long for the other hatchlings to fall asleep also in the flippers of the older penguins.
Private placed the girls in a bunk with Madison's hat and Flora's flower, covering them up with blanket. "What are we going to do now?" he whispered.
"Well, I should start working on the machine," Kowalski admitted. He quickly waddled into his lab, so he could start on reconstructing the machine.
"Nothing else we can do. Might as well watch some television," Skipper suggested.
Skipper, Private and Rico waddled to the TV and started watching one of Private's soaps while the hatchlings slept. Hopefully, they could go an hour without one of them screaming their heads off.
I personally loved the thought of Madison beating Julien up with a spoon, especially if it was in slow motion. Please review. If nobody likes this story; I'll delete it.