Amnesty
[Meaning (noun): an official pardon for people who have been convicted of political offenses]
Notes: 1) My 'y' key isn't working that well, so if you notice a typo, please tell me. I tend to miss out the little things sometimes, even after rereading and proofreading.
2) This is all based on my own knowledge so please don't call me out on procedure, names, or any of the sort unless you plan on helping me instead of berating me.
3) I'm a bit of a mystery person, so I like to keep people guessing, but if you do have questions, ask away. :)
4) Just to be sure, I made this a T-rating, but I believe it's more on K+.
"Hey, buddy. Yo, little penguin." He peeked an eye open and glanced over at the source of the voice, a badger with ruffled and dirtied fur to the point that he looked rabid. "Yeah, you. I'd been calling you for the past few minutes." If his teammate was in here, I'm sure he would go running for the hills. Luckily, it was just him instead, but he still wouldn't try any running, since there was no way he was getting out.
He was surrounded by solid bars, another of his teammates would want to know what it was made of, and probably a hundred guards, but he wouldn't care less. "You the new guy, huh?" He shut his eyes and tried to block out the sound, but the badger was oddly insistent.
"This mission, is our duty, men. We will not fail. Is that understood?" A chorus of 'yes, Skipper!' echoed in the rear of the plane they were in. The commanding penguin grinned at his eager team, before a frown made its way over.
"Skippah? Are you alright?" Skipper turned to the first class private Private, the one who asked. The concern was palpable on the younger penguin's face, because it wasn't common for their leader to be frowning before a mission, unless something were to go wrong that he felt he couldn't fix.
"Maybe, maybe not. I'm just having a bad feeling about this."
Kowalski, the lieutenant of the team, rolled his eyes and tucked his trusty clipboard under his flipper. "Again with those premonition-"
"Gut instinct." Skipper corrected, earning a sigh.
"Fine. Gut instinct, as you say so. Again with this?"
"Have I ever been wrong?" The penguin fired back.
"There was that one time in Tibet..." Rico, the silent yet deadly sergeant, reluctantly nodded his head in agreement, knowing as well a the rest just what happened during that time.
"Yeah, Skip'er. Tib't!"
Skipper was the one to roll his eyes as Private and Rico snickered while Kowalski hid a smile. "That was just a misunderstanding, boys. And didn't I say this topic was no longer up for discussion?"
"Aye, Skip'er!" Rico salutes the leader with a grin before proceeding to check on their weapons and cargo.
"And you two?" Skipper turned over to Private and Kowalski, the former turning to look out the tiny window and the latter checking over the plan, equations, map, everything that was on his clipboard. The leader watched them for a while, shaking his head and the bad feeling away as he murmured. "It's going to be alright. Just another mission, another day."
With a sigh, the penguin sat up from the cardboard that was his bed and turned to the badger, who blinked in shock at him before shaking his fluffy head.
"You a young one." On a closer look, it seemed like the badger's eyes weren't even looking at him. Well, one of them was, the other looked like a ball rolling about whenever the badger moved even the slightest. "How'd you get in here?" The penguin merely stared at his flippers, not in the mood to talk. "Don't want to talk, eh? Well, let's see what we got here," a snort that sounded too close for his liking made his feathers rise up a bit. "Wait a minute." The penguin froze at the awe and fear filled tone. "You're one of those penguins who took down the base headquarters of the World Animal Government in Tiksi, Russia!"
"That he is, Major," one of the guards, a hawk with a mini rifle on his shoulder, grumbled, "that he is." Then he was back to watching the cells with the eyes of a...guard.
"I used to be Major." The badger shrugged and turned to stare at the wall, his voice going so soft that the penguin had to lean closer to hear. "Then it all went down when that traitor made me lose the package." The badger snorted angrily to himself, and the penguin could see the sharp, uncut claws starting to come out. The penguin stared at the claws, the faint light from the ceiling bulbs in the hallway and in the cell he shared with the badger glinting off it.
"Skippah..." Private's horrified expression matched those of his teammates as they all backed away from the device screwed to the floor, the numbers and wires taunting them.
"This," Skipper shook his head and backed away slightly, looking back at the other three, "this isn't-"
A dark and deep chuckle made the team turn to the only entrance, or exit, in the room. The shock on their faces was as clear as a sunny day. "And you thought you could redeem yourself, Skipper? Now look what you've done," Rico snarled menacingly, earning a scared yelp from the creature.
The leader narrowed his eyes at the intruding animal. "Leave my team out of this. They-"
"You know what they say, the captain goes down with the rest of his ship.
Kowalski threw his flippers up, feeling both angry and terrified. "That doesn't even make sense!"
"Wh-why," Private cleared his throat, determination in his eyes even though he was shivering slightly in fear. "Why are you doing this?"
"Why not?" A shrug, and both Skipper and Kowalski had to hold Rico back from attacking the intruder, who chuckled again before backing out and slamming the door shut, the lock mechanisms getting into place.
"Skippah, what's happening?" Private turned to the leader, who opened his beak to answer, but Kowalski beat him to it as Rico continued to glare and growl at the closed door.
"We've been compromised! Compromised!" A slew of words flew out of the penguins mouth, mostly badmouthing Einstein and his theory of relativity.
He forgot the name of the judge, and everybody else included in this military trial, but he found the judge quite iconic in a way. An American bald eagle, a symbol of victory and strength, and now of justice. How ironic.
Ironic...
"Private, watch out!" A familiar baritone voice, filled with alarm and concern, called out to the youngest member of the team. "It's burning hot iron!"
"What?" The little penguin turned, only to be tackled by the blur of black and white. "Kowalski? Wha-"
"Come on, Private! We can't stop!"
"Rico!" Said penguin turned in time to see their commander wave at them from atop a pile of fallen cabinets and boxes full of files, gadgets and other memorabilia. "Get out of the way! He's headed for the three of you! Get out, NOW! THAT'S-" A loud boom echoed before the explosion rocked the entire building, and sent the pile crumbling.
"Skip'er?" The scarred soldier slid for the avalanche of files and boxes, looking desperately for some sign of the leader. "Skip'er!"
"Rico, wait!" The terrified scream echoed around, but he didn't hear it, only concentrated on looking for his brother.
"NO!"
"RICO!"
He snapped out of it when the sound of the gavel on the table reached him. Shifting in his seat in an attempt to look like he had been listening the whole time, he spotted a mouse coming from the jury's box. The timid little creature headed over to the judge with an unsealed envelope.
The eagle, the ever present frown on the face looked down at the shivering mouse. "What does the jury say?" The rodent was looking down at the ground rather than at Rico or the judge, and continued doing so as he opened the envelope and prepared to read its contents.
"The jury proclaims that the charged party, Ricardo Amadeus DiMaggio," the penguin winced at the name, wondering if it was a good idea that he had stated his full name in the form, then remembered that it was the right thing to do, "aka Rico," the mouse cleared his throat, glancing from the paper to the bored looking penguin and back again before reading the last part, "is guilty of civilian and military assault, along with assisting highly wanted criminals. He is also charged with illegally obtaining tons of prohibited weapons, like grenades and a hack saw. His plea," a groan this time, which the penguin didn't bother to hide and had dirty looks sent his way, "of amnesty has been denied as the jury sees him as unfit and mentally unstable. However," the mouse cleared his throat again, "Sergeant DiMaggio has the choice to accept the assigned psychological and medical help that will aid in his recovery."
"Sergeant?" The eagle, and about everybody else in that courtroom, turned to the penguin, who rolled his eyes and slumped down on his flipper, using the other to wave about in an uncaring manner. The eagle frowned at the rude behavior but raised the gavel. "Very well then." He nodded to the persecutor, who swallowed, nodded and scurried back to the jury. The penguin snorted and turned his head away, staring blankly at a wall.
"What?" Kowalski stared wide-eyed at the stern penguin before him. "The-the mission, Sir-"
"Forget the mission! We've been compromised! Framed!" The disappointed look on his face will never be forgotten by his teammates. "Save yourselves, team."
"But Skipper-"
"No. I'll try to fix this. The three of you need to go, NOW. It's an order." The penguin slid away, leaving his team looking after him.
"But Skippah! Kowalski, Rico, what about Skippah?"
"You heard the skipper. We need to go." Kowalski's frown made the other hurry faster as the building continued to fall apart.
"But what about-"
"Rico? Rico, where are you?" The weapons expert let out a groan, as it was the only thing he could do at the moment. "Ric-KOWALSKI!" Rico's head shot up, then went back down as he winced at the sharp pain. "N..."
"Priv'te. Ko-Ko'alski..." His eyes closed on the two forms huddled together on the ground, unmoving, as he was soothed by the sounds of falling concrete and metal and the sirens of incoming response teams.
It wasn't until he was not-so-nicely shoved out of the witness box that he realized that the trial was over.
He was proclaimed guilty, and with his head held high and the usual 'tongue out of mouth' grin on his face, showed his pride of it.
Rico stared across the room at the pelican guard that was stationed for the night shift. A grin made its way to his beak when he saw the bird fidget slightly, but quickly shut it down when the guard looked up at him briefly then back to the jigsaw puzzle he was going over since before they led the penguin to his cell.
Thankfully, it was just him in there, his cellmate the badger was gone. So was the rest of the jailed animals, or at least the ones who had been taunting him earlier on. He didn't want to see the sneers on their faces, knowing it would provoke another fight in him. He didn't have time, or patience to handle that. Though the urge to break something was getting stronger...
"Did they buy it?" A voice whispered from somewhere behind him, but that didn't affect Rico one bit. If not, he was more relieved to even hear from the voice as he nodded once, keeping his eyes on the guard.
A tired sigh made him smile, after all, it wasn't often that he heard such an emotion come from the other, or at least wouldn't admit it. "Good." Rico dared to glance briefly behind him at the barred window, and then back to the guard. "How's it going in there, buddy? They treating you alright?"
Rico shrugged nonchalantly and played with his flippers, now turning his gaze to the floor. "Don't lie to me." The penguin let out a sigh and leaned back on his makeshift pillow, which was the blanket they gave him. "Rico..." The penguin rolled his eyes at the patronizing tone and garbled something low and soft, so that the guard wouldn't hear. "You shouldn't have taken my place." Rico sighed and rolled over, facing the wall and tracing the faint marks somebody else left behind in their stay there.
"Ot'ers?"
"The others? They're," the voice hesitated, probably thinking about not saying anything. Not that Rico would allow it, he would keep asking until he answered. "They, uh, well, they're safe..." Rico paused and turned around, eyes on the barred window. He still couldn't see anything out, not even the stars or moon, but he knew he was there. "They're still alive, stop frowning." Rico continued frowning, ignoring the voice. "No, I can't really see you, but I know you are. Now stop before the pelican gets suspicious." He quickly put on the stoic face he was taught to use and stared at the guard.
"Here," something rolled toward him, making a slight sound that made the pelican guard perk up in his direction, "be careful with that."
Even before the object reached his feet, he already knew what it was, since he has handled them a thousand times before. The smirk on his face probably made him look like one of those crazy guys on television.
Without moving his eyes from the guard, Rico picked up the round and familiar green object, hiding it beneath his feathers.
"I'll meet you outside, and we'll head to the safe house with a few friends I picked up along the way."
"Hey, crazy-mphfgh?"
"Be quiet, Ringtail." The first hissed to the second, and judging from the nickname, Rico had an inkling as to who was with them at the moment. "Don't worry about damages." Rico could hear the irritation in his voice and bit down on a laugh. "I'm sure our pal," the bitterness oozed from the voice and even Rico had to wince at that. There was no way the 'pal' was getting away unharmed, if the team had anything to say about it. Especially since the so-called pal was the one who got them into this situation. "Would gladly pay for them."
"Aye, Skip'er."
"Good luck, Rico." A soft voice called out, and the penguin looked up to see big and bright yellow eyes staring back at him along with another similar, wiser looking pair before they disappeared, replaced by barely visible hazel green orbs.
"We'll see you on the other side, Rico. Don't forget to blow them up good." Then they disappeared too.
Rico bit down on his reply, holding tightly onto the trusted object in his flippers. They got the wrong bird behind bars, and the one responsible was still out there. If anything, Rico was going to make sure they regretted messing with him and his team, especially putting Kowalski and Private out of commission for the time being.
Now, how do you get others to realize you've escaped a highly guarded, scientifically impossible to breach, maximum security prison?
Simple, the pin fell to the ground with a light ping, you give them a parting present.
I was going through years of files, and look what I came up with. :)
Oh right, you're probably wondering why I named this 'Amnesty'. First of all, in case you didn't get it, Team Penguin were on a mission, which went wrong...turning them into vigilantes. Cliche, I know, but if you put into perspective the whole Amnesty versus Justice...
Sometimes honesty and law is not the way to go...sometimes it's honesty and forgiveness, but that just depends on the person or situation. ~ NotYourNormalHumanMind
Because I like this person for some reason: thewriterstory. XD :P No, JK, it's just a mention because...classified. It's classified.
Oh, lunacorns14, because she helped me proofread. :3
And again, if you have any questions, or spotted some mistakes, notify me. Hope you enjoyed, don't forget to review and have a lovely day, fanguins. ;)