A/N: Don't flame! I know the start is all fluff and Koris/Dorwalski, but I promise Doris almost won't appear at all in the rest of the story, because...Well, you'll find out at the end.
A/N: Just so it won't be kinda weird when Kowalski and Doris are interacting, Doris won't be as tall as Blowhole, but let's say half-way in between Dr. Blowhole's and Kowalski's heights.
"Pen-gyu-wins."
The sinister voice welcomed. The four birds took on battle stances, ready for the nemesis which was about to come forth. A subtle whirring of wheels anticipated the entry of the evil genius, Dr. Blowhole.
"Blowhole!" Skipper exclaimed. "What is your maniacal plan now?"
"Bah, you know, rule the world or destroy it with some complicated laser which would vaporize all humans, something like that." Blowhole said, waving it off.
"Well, I'm afraid we can't let you do that." Skipper stated, and the team was just about to leap when Blowhole interrupted. "I wouldn't do that, pen-gyu-wins. Not if you want me to keep your little friend here alive for a while yet." Blowhole said, with a smug grin on his face. "NOOO! MAR-" Skipper screamed. Everyone turned to look at him blankly. "-ie. I meant, err, Marie. She, she was a good friend of mine in old Kentucky, so, well, yeah." Skipper turned a deep red. The rest of the team took the hint he actually meant Marlene, but they weren't about to tease him right there and then with an evil doctor's plan to thwart. Dr. Blowhole was still staring at him blankly. "Whatever. As I was saying, look who's come to pay a visit." The doctor continued. A cage was slowly lowered from the ceiling. "HEEELP!" A feminine voice came from the cage (I think we all got here who's in the cage). "No, that voice, it can't be..." Kowalski trailed off. "HEEELP! KOWALSKI!"
"D-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-" Skipper slapped Kowalski on the back of the head. "Pull yourself together, soldier!" He exclaimed. "Doris?" Kowalski asked in a meekly high-pitched voice. The cage fully came into view, Doris standing in it gripping the bars. "Kowalski! I've never been so glad to see you! Well, I've actually never been glad to see you, so, well, yeah." The dolphin trailed off at the end. Kowalski sniffed. "The pain, it's so bad..." Kowalski hugged Private for comfort. "There, there, Kowalski, think about the bright side!" Private said. "What bright side?" Kowalski cried. "You'll be able to show off to your lady by saving her." Private whispered with a giggle. Kowalski brightened up at that. "You're right, Private. Tears for later, when she'll reject me after I save her."
"Yeah, not exactly the optimism I was looking for, but if it makes you feel better ok!" Private said.
"Are you guys done?" Dr. Blowhole asked. "Yeah, I guess so." Skipper replied. "Great! Now get into the cage with Miss. Annoying, or she'll take a nice dip into the lava pool." Blowhole stated. With a sigh of exasperation, Skipper climbed into the cage, followed by Rico, Private and lastly, Kowalski. "Nobody calls my dolphin annoying..." Kowalski muttered. "This is not over yet! You'll pay for this!" Skipper shouted as the cage was pulled back up into the ceiling. As soon as they were out of sight, Rico hacked up the paper, plans, blueprints, tools and writing equipment necessary to plan a breakout. Skipper and Private busied themselves with that, while Rico checked the weapons were all ready and loaded. "How foolish of that bottlenose not to check Rico!" Skipper smirked, and set to work. Kowalski sat in one corner of the cage, not making eye contact with anyone and looking down at the floor, looking very sullen. He heard something shift next to him, and realised Doris had moved next to him. "We'll let you guys...talk." Skipper said. Private stifled a giggle, while Rico hacked up three earmuffs and a bamboo screen, and placed it in the middle of the cage, dividing them from the two.
"Kowalski-" Doris started.
"Don't even try. What are you going to do, give me the let's-just-be-friends talk again? You'd just be wasting your time." Kowalski, said, looking angry, and shifted himself so he gave her his back a bit. Doris caught the implication, "You'd just be wasting your time talking to me." She felt truly sorry for the penguin, but she didn't know what to say. They stayed in a tense silence for a while, broken only by the occasional shout from Skipper because Private had drawn Lunacorns on yet another plan and the soft splash of Kowalski's tears falling. Doris felt bad about herself, although she couldn't do much about it. She couldn't force herself to like him, and although a bud WAS there, it still wasn't love. It wasn't like there was nothing to love in Kowalski. He was incredibly smart, funny at times, quite handsome and very brave, but...she just didn't know what was wrong. After hearing yet another sob from Kowalski, she shifted closer and placed a flipper on his shoulder. "Kowalski, please, listen to me," Doris pleaded. Kowalski didn't budge. A small flicker of irritation vamped in Doris, and she forcedly turned him around so he would have to look at her. His eyes were a bit reddened from his non-stop crying for the last half an hour, and his head was lowered, not wanting to look at her. "Please. For me." Doris placed a flipper under his chin and tilted his head upwards. She almost started crying herself looking at those eyes, those immense blue pools of sadness. "There's no reason not to like you, Kowalski. You're seriously a great penguin, but it's just not there." Kowalski looked down again. "Look, if it will make you feel better, here." She gently bent down and gave him a small kiss on the beak. Kowalski's face flushed a deep red. He could feel love in the kiss, but not the type of love between partners, the one he felt for Doris, but a best-friend kind of love. "And just what in the name of short-bread biscuits are you two doing?" Skipper said, eyes narrowed, as he kicked down the shield. "Skipper! I thought you'd placed that screen for a reason!" Kowalski exclaimed, his face heating up more than it was already. Being caught kissing a girl by your team is NOT a nice experience. "Sorry Kowalski! I tried to stop him!" Private said from behind the leader. "Private! Shush!" Skipper said, waving the small soldier back. Rico seemed he was enjoying this loads, but a death glare from Skipper wiped his grin off of his face. Kowalski looked awfully mortified, Doris was not making eye contact with anyone. "Look, let's just continue this conversation later. We wanted to tell you we had come up with a plan, but we didn't expect to find THIS when we came here." Skipper stated bluntly. Here's the action plans. Kowalski, they should be foolproof, but check if our calculations are correct. Private isn't exactly a brainiac like you are." Private crossed his arms, looking offended. "They seem quite safe, although I don't know if we'll have enough time to do all this before the main gate closes. It has a timer set at four minutes, and according to my calculations...the execution might take between five and six minutes. Somebody will have to head over to block the circuiting, and we also must take control of Blowhole's segway to block him and get Doris out of here faster." Doris blushed a little, realising she was always in Kowalski's top three thoughts. "Alright, men. Operation: Get us and Doris outta here alive before Dr Blowhole can burn us to a crisp and destroy the world is a go!"
"Er, Sir? Isn't that name a little complicated?" Private asked. "Fine, we'll go with your suggestion, Operation: Breakout." Private smiled at his finishing touch. "Let's go go go!" Skipper ordered. Rico burnt through the cage bars with a single jet of fire and everyone jumped out. "Now, according to my calculations if I connect the blue wire with the red one, the green to the yellow, the ochre to the black, the white to the pink, the orange to the brown, the purple to the violet, the grey to the fuchsia, the black and white striped one to the purple and green polka-dotted one and I press this button, we either all blow up or the security systems of the base override, with a 48.96% chance of it working." Kowalski explained, opening up a control panel.
"Eh, that's almost half! Kowalski, proceed!" Skipper ordered. Kowalski's flippers became a blur as he twisted together all of the wires and pressed the button. "Well, we didn't blow up, so I guess the security is down." Skipper stated. "Men..." Kowalski coughed. "Sigh...and woman, roll out!" Skipper pointed a flipper towards the direction of the main command room. "Rico, smoke bomb! Private, segway! Kowalski, get to that machine and stop it NOW!" As soon as Rico's smoke bomb went off, alarms went off and lobsters started pouring into the room. "KOWALSKIII! THE ALARMS! WHY-ARE-THE-BUTTERMELT-ALARMS-WORKING!?" Skipper screamed at his lieutenant. "Did I mention that the chances of blowing up would be executed after 3.5 minutes?" Kowalski asked meekly, hiding behind his clipboard. "AAARGH! Move, move, move! This base has become the biggest time bomb in the history of penguins! Quick! Get to your positions! Rico and I will hold them off!" Skipper started shouting orders to and fro. "Doris! Follow me! We'll get you out of here!" Private shouted at the dolphin. Sneaking up behind Blowhole, he gave him a roundhouse kick which was just enough to get him off balance. Doris jumped up onto the segway and followed Private back to the battle. Kowalski was trying to disarm the machine, but Blowhole had enhanced his technology YET AGAIN and he was finding it difficult to override the system. He'd need to insert a fifty-digit code to get past the firewalls, and that wasn't going to be easy. "Screw this! Rico! BAZOOKA!" Kowalski screamed at Rico. He hacked up a bazooka and threw it his way. Blasting it at the machine, it exploded into a pile of rubble and flames. Soon, the base was a living hell of flames and smoke, cluttered with lobster corpses. Blowhole was nowhere to be seen. "EVERYONE! HEAD OUT! WE ONLY HAVE 46 SECONDS BEFORE THE BASE EXPLODES!" Kowalski shouted above the racket. The team started to fight its way out, Doris a few paces ahead of them on her segway. Kowalski was just about to jump over the main computer screen and reach the exit when a piece of the ceiling plummeted down and fell on him, knocking the air out of him. He was trapped. Trapped in this flaming time bomb, about to get killed. All the lobsters left had already evacuated. He was literally alone, both in terms of friend and foe. As much as he had faith in this team, he hoped they wouldn't head back in to find him, or they would die too. "Kowalski!" A voice rang out over the crackling of the flames. A figure tried lifting the piece of rubble off of him, but it was too heavy. "What are you doing here! You'll get killed!" Kowalski shouted in horror. "I don't care! We'll both get out of here, somehow!" Doris told him in an oddly calm voice. "Don't! Just go! I love you too much to die knowing you died too because of me!"
"I won't die because of you. I'll die for you."
"Why? What's so special in a simple friend to risk your life for?" Kowalski shot back, traces of his previous anger still lingering in his voice.
"Why? I saw you, back there. Fighting to get me out of here. Nobody ever did that for me, and that's-that's why I love you." Kowalski didn't know if he was just being delirious because he was on the brink of death, but the feel of her lips on his was just so real. She poured all of her love for him into the kiss, tears streaming down the faces of both because they knew he was going to die. There was no way out for him. "I'm not leaving you here, Kowalski. I'm dying with you." Doris stated. "No! Leave now! You'll get over this! You still have a life to live!" Kowalski pleaded. "And what kind of a life? A life hollow on the inside, knowing I abandoned you here to die." Doris counter-attacked. "I'm not leaving you." She stated. Kissing him gently, she snuggled closer to him and closed her eyes, waiting for it to end. She vaguely heard three other voices calling for them, but they were like mist, drifting away at the first gust of wind. She passed out because of the lack of oxygen, her last memory the tight grip of Kowalski's flipper in her own.
Light. Blinding white light. Kowalski sat up and looked around. Nothing around but endless light. He wondered if he'd died and was on his way to Heaven. "Don't be absurd! Stick to your scientific mind! Heaven would mean magic, and magic is NOT science!" He scolded himself. He found out that the so-called light was malleable, a bit like play-dough. He rolled it into a ball and threw it. The ball continued to bounce away in front of him until it was a speck on the horizon. "Continuous momentum. Weird." Kowalski thought. This place seemed to go on forever! Slowly, though dark wisps of fog started to creep in, until Kowalski felt himself falling down, deeper into the black mist, down, down, down...
Kowalski cracked open one eye. A more familiar view came into sight. Table, brick stools, coffee machine, TV...He was home! He jumped off his bunk and headed into his lab. Yes! Everything was here! Even his ice-cream box which actually held Jiggles! He opened it a little and played with it for a bit. A sudden thought then struck him. If his team managed to bring him here, then why leave him alone in the HQ? And where was Doris? "Kowalski?" Private asked, voice full of joy. "Private! Where is the rest of the team?" Kowalski ran over to hug him. "They're just downstairs." Private explained. "And where is Doris?" Kowalski inquired further, sensing nervousness from the smaller penguin. "She's, err, with the others...?" Private answered meekly, happy of finding a way of not lying but not telling Kowalski the truth anyways. "Private. What. Happened. To. Her." Kowalski ordered. "...Nothing?" Private weakly lied. "Get out of the way, Private. What level is she on?" Kowalski demanded out of Private. "Gulp...6?" Kowalski's breath caught in his throat. That was the level for their medical bay.
The doors of the elevator opened, and Kowalski toppled outside. He ran down the corridor, skipping all of the examination rooms until he got to the actual ward. He slammed the door open. The others turned to look at him. "Kowalski! How did you get here?!" Skipper exclaimed. "Private." Kowalski stated. Skipper and Rico rolled their eyes. He ran over to the bunk and his heart nearly stopped at what he saw. Doris lay there, unconscious, with more tubes strapped onto her than the levels in their HQ. Kowalski kneeled down next to the bed (the bed was low so let's say he's now chest-level with the edge of the bed) and took her flipper in his own. "Get out. Now." Kowalski ordered, his voice muffled by sobs. Any day Skipper would've questioned who he thought he was to order around his commanding officer, and Rico would've simply hacked out a couple of sticks of dynamite, but they wordlessly left the room. "Coma. Third degree burns. Damaged lungs. Couple of broken bones. She was shielding you with her own body until we managed to rescue you." Skipper informed him, before closing the door. Kowalski buried his face into her shoulder and started crying his heart out. She was here because of him. Maybe she'll DIE because of him. He'd just managed to find happiness with her, and now it's all been taken away. When he had no more tears left, he lay down next to her, careful to avoid the tubes which were strapped onto her, and curled up against her side. He carefully stroked her face, avoiding all of the burns and bruises she'd gotten. He kissed her sweetly before curling up once again and falling asleep.
Kowalski opened his eyes to the sight of the not-so-familiar medical bay. He was confused for a second. Why was he here? Was he hurt? Then, he shifted and bumped against another body. His heart twisted as everything toppled over him again, the capture, the flames, the kiss...Looking her over, he noticed that some of the bruises were already fading and the burns were starting to heal, but she was still in coma. Or so the monitors said. Getting up and off of the bed, he heard a faint rustling behind him. He turned around to see Doris propping herself up on one elbow, rubbing her eyes. "What happe-" Doris was cut short when Kowalski flung himself at her again, landing squarely on her and hugging her tightly. "I'm glad to see you too, Kowalski, but you're kinda hurting me." Kowalski had completely forgotten about her bones and all that stuff. "Oh. Right. Sorry." Kowalski said. "I'm just so relieved you're awake! I thought I was going to lose you." He leaned in closer to kiss her, but was startled when he got a slap in return. "What was that for?" Kowalski exclaimed. "You were trying to kiss me?" Doris pointed out, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Yeah, so? Can't I give my girlfriend a kiss after seeing her almost die?" Kowalski explained, wondering what was up with Doris. "Woah woah woah, girlfriend? Kowalski, have your forgotten our 16 and a half talks already?" Doris asked, exasperated. "16 and a hal-wait, you mean the friendship talks? Doris, we're in a relationship! You were captured by Dr. Blowhole to use as a hostage, we saved you, you realized you loved me, you came back for me in a flaming base about to explode, told me you loved me, kissed me and said you weren't leaving my side and would rather die with me and now you're back to the friendship talks?!" Kowalski asked, outraged. "Kowalski, I think you hit your head a little too hard when that piece of rubble fell on you. Yes, I did come back for you, and I did get hurt, but I was knocked unconscious immediately when a last piece of stone hit me. Stop. Nothing else." A horrible realization struck Kowalski. "No! Oh my god, you have amnesia!" Kowalski stammered. "Kowalski, seriously, I knew you were into me but I never thought you'd lie like this to convince me we were in a relationship." Doris huffed, upset. Kowalski reasoned. When she'd declared her love for him and kissed him they were alone, no witnesses whatsoever, nothing to prove it actually HAD happened except Kowalski's own memory, as Doris' had been erased. "Doris, please, believe me. I'd never lie to you." Kowalski begged. "Oh yeah? Then why am I feeling no love for you whatsoever right now?" Doris countered. Kowalski was taken aback by her icy words. No...love...whatsoever? He wanted to burst into hysterics right there and then, but restrained himself to a dignified heart-wracking sob and left the room without another word. He kept the hysterics to the elevator, and consequently to the HQ. "Kowalski! What in the name of Sweet Mary is wrong with you?" Skipper asked when the elevator doors "ding'd" open and Kowalski stepped out. "YOU WANNA KNOW WHAT'S WRONG? DORIS HAS AMNESIA, THAT'S WHAT'S WRONG! SHE COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT OUR BRIEF CONVERSATION WHILE I WAS STUCK UNDER THAT RUBBLE, ENDING WITH HER CONFESSING SHE LOVED ME TOO AND WE KISSED, AND NOW SHE THINKS I'M MAKING IT ALL UP JUST TO BE WITH HER!" Kowalski ended it with a few more sobs, going over to his bunk and sinking into it face-first. Skipper and the others exchanged a few glances before Private made his way over to the bunk. "Don't worry, Kowalski! People with amnesia can get their memories back, you know." Private tried to sound cheerful, but it wasn't convincing Kowalski. "SHE THINKS I'M A TOTAL JERK BECAUSE I'M LYING TO HER TO BE WITH HER! MEMORIES HAVE TO BE STIMULATED TO COME BACK, AND WITH THAT IDEA STUCK IN HER HEAD, THOSE MEMORIES ARE AS GOOD AS GONE!" Kowalski shouted, and was wracked with hysterical sobs again. "Maybe you could invent something which could register memories, so you could show her your version of what happened!" Private suggested. "Register memories...OF COURSE! Private, you are a genius! THANK YOU SO MUCH!" He complimented Private before running into his lab and locking it behind him, putting up the sign "Genius at work. Don't disturb unless Doris is here or it is a matter of life or death." Only he'd crossed out the bit about Doris, as she already WAS here. Skipper and the others got back to playing poker, as they knew that it would be a looong time before Kowalski opened up that door again.
Finally, the next morning, the door slammed open, making a crack in the wall behind it. "EUREKA! I'VE MADE IT!" Kowalski shouted at the rest of the penguins, holding up what seemed to be a projector with a plunger attached to it. "Everyone! To the medical bay!" He shouted, and opened up the secret wall which led to the elevator. Opening the door to the bay, they saw Doris was reading a book, sitting up in her bed. "Doris, finally I have proof of what happened that night!" Kowalski exclaimed. He stuck the plunger on top of his head and typed a few commands into the machine. "Oh no…No no no! It's not working!" Kowalski exclaimed in frustration, banging his head on the keyboard. "Well, that's a surprise. Rico, it didn't blow up. For once. You were lucky, soldier." Skipper handed Rico a few dollars, grumbling. "Ha. Ha. Ha. Very funny. You see me laughing? No? Good." Kowalski muttered, trying to find out what was wrong. "Of course! I forgot one particular detail!" He groaned, exasperated. "Aaand… Obviously we have to embark on some wild goose chase to find this supposed piece, affirmative Kowalski?" Skipper commented, annoyed. "Not a piece, Skipper. A special element. And I'm telling you now, it's not gonna be easy."
WILL KOWALSKI FIND THE ELEMENT NEEDED TO BE WITH HIS ONE TRUE LOVE? WILL SKIPPER STOP BEING SO ANNOYING? WILL PRIVATE AND RICO GET BIGGER PARTS? STAY TUNED FOR THESE ANSWERS ON A WORLDWIDE ADVENTURE WHICH WILL LEAD TO MANY DEAD ENDS AND FACEPALMS AS FOUR PENGUINS AND A MYSTERIOUS OC RIGHTEN THE TOWER OF PISA, HALF-SUBMERGE THE ISLE OF HOKKAIDO, STEAL THE CROWN JEWELS, ALMOST SET OFF THE DOOMSDAY BUTTON AND MUCH MORE IN A STORY WHICH SOUNDS WAY MORE INTERESTING THAN WHAT IT'LL BE, BUT ISN'T THAT THE POINT OF CLIFFHANGY PROLOGUES?
A/N: This is a very long project, as I'm aiming for the penguins to have adventures in almost every country the pass through, i.e.: most of them, as they chase villains and friends around the globe. I know I said in my bio that I probably won't be able to update for months as soon as the computer safety turns on again, but that's the point. To keep you craving for more! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Anywhooo, the OC is female and one of the team will fall for her, but that's all I'm sayin'. Now, if you're all good, I'll maybe post the OC factfile in around a week, but remember to eat all of your veggies (DAFUQ?)!