The rain beat hard upon his body. The otherwise unnoticed rainfall was weighing him down.
He chose to ignore it, there was too much at stake for him to give in now! The ground around him splattered when the drops crashed around him. But it wasn't the only thing he heard.
The careful, tipping steps of the lobsters that was left, staying out of his vision. The harsh breaths of the ones that he had failed to kill. The low cries as some realized they were about to die.
One sound was however stronger than all of those. It came at an even rate, a very fast rate. He felt it inside his head, he heard it. Skipper couldn't remember one time when his heart had raced so fast.
"But since when do I memorize my heart rate?" He thought sarcastically before spitting out the blood in his mouth. They were good; they had gotten some good blows on him. But they would have to come with something a thousand times more powerful than that if they wanted to stop him.
He used his last grenade on the lobsters behind him, and walked through the doors to the abandoned "Aqua World". The room was big and dark, the Plexiglas windows had been removed, and no one it seemed had been there for years.
"Hahahahaha! Giving up? Don't make me disappointed, pen-guh-een." Someone called from the shadows. Skipper scowled. So that diabolical dolphin decided to talk to him.
"In your most delusional dream, Blowhole!"
"Hahaha! So he ha-a-a-as some fighting power left. Take this moment to gather some more, I pro-o-omise you, you will need it. Mwahahaha!" He laughed again, taking real pleasure in the scene before him. Skipper; bloody, beaten and on his way to die.
"Why not attack me now? Come on, I can handle all of you with my eyes closed."
The light flicked on in the entire room, and he could look his nemesis in the eyes.
"Hm. I might take you up on that someday." The dolphin smirked and turned his back to him. "See you in a few minutes. If you survive." He drove toward the door.
"No! Stop right there, Blowhole! Where are they?" Skipper pointed a bloody flipper toward him. "I demand you tell me, or I swear, I'll-"
Blowhole pressed a button on his strange vehicle, and a hatch opened from the roof. Attached to a thick steel wire was a big cage rolled down. Skipper's heart skipped a beat when he thought he could make out the forms of his team. Manfredi, Johnson, Kowalski, Rico, Private. Where they still knocked out? Or were they…?
"As I said, good by-y-y-ye, Skipper!" The dolphin called as he disappeared behind a gate.
But what he said couldn't have mattered less to Skipper. He was going to nail the dolphin! It had all been a trick to get to him! He had planned that!
In one breath, he had lost himself in the memory again. That same memory that had haunted him for the past few days.
Breakfast, Rico prepared the sushi. Like every other morning. The knives worked its way clean through the fish, and he wrapped seaweed around the bites. Like every morning.
Kowalski was in his corner, working on some invention and muttering when he failed to make it work.
Manfredi and Johnson were sleeping in, again. They tried to catch as much sleep as possible before the day. Again. Why Skipper agreed to it, he didn't know.
Private were sitting in front of the TV, watching some show he just had to see.
Skipper himself were standing and watching them, drinking coffee, planning the training for the day.
Rico signalled that the breakfast was ready, and Manfredi and Johnson woke up on cue and seated themselves with the others.
"Ah, sushi." Kowalski commented. "Again."
Rico looked at him and frowned.
"Nothing wrong with the sushi itself, Rico. But don't you think that you should do something different?"
Rico looked at him with a murderous glare that said 'Don't mess with the chef, or else'.
"I'm just suggesting another type of meal." Rico grabbed the knife.
"Or another type of fish." He rounded the table.
"Another type of seaweed?" Rico was face to face to him.
"But I see no reason to change a classic." Kowalski resorted to and stuffed his beak.
Rico was content with that answer and he lowered the knife.
Manfredi and Johnson were failing at containing their laughter, when Private joined in too. Kowalski glared at them but with no success.
"That's enough, Private, Manfredi, Johnson." Skipper heard himself say.
"Sorry." They said, but still snickered.
Kowalski sighed and began eating again, with Rico sending him the glare.
The door fell to the floor. Smoke filled the room and four masked lobsters stormed inside.
"There he is!" They called, and Skipper was suddenly grabbed, thrown into the wall and held down against the floor. He heard struggle, shouts and cries and orders being called from the one that held him down.
"Use the hammer!" He heard, and then the sound of something heavy hitting something soft, and then it collapsed on the ground. He saw Rico lying on the floor beside him, out of it, bleeding, still with the knife in his flipper. It was bloody.
He heard Private scream and then something hit the opposing wall, then someone laughed.
Kowalski kicked away the laughing lobster and jumped toward Skipper. "Release him!" He demanded, when the same lobster came back from behind and gripped him by the feet and swung him around in the air. He was released and crashed into the wall, falling down next to Private.
"There are still two left, you can rest afta' they're out!" The lobster that held him shouted.
"Skipper?" Johnson called out to him. "What do I do?"
"Fight!" Skipper called back, and tried to get up. He saw a glimpse of the pair, facing the lobster with the hammer and the one who threw Private and Kowalski. One huge lobster came from behind and slammed his huge claws on both sides of them. They fell to the ground. Manfredi got up first, and Skipper heard a loud BANG, and he saw how Manfredi fell down on the floor, gurgling.
"Ridge! Take ovah 'ere!" The lobster that held him called. The huge lobster said "Yes, sir!" and left Johnson, still trying to get up, and was quick to almost crush Skipper with his weight. The leader, with a modified claw that resembled a gun, walked up to him, gripped Johnson's neck between the fingers of his claw, raised his gun-claw and struck it down on his head.
Johnson cried out and was dropped on the ground. "That's haw ya' take out someun' in one blow!" The leader cheered.
"Yes, sir!" Ridge called back. "Should I take out this one?"
"Negative. The boss want ta' leave 'im alive. Give 'im sum sleeping gas."
"Yes, sir!"
He felt something pushed against his face, and then he got very tired. His eyelids dropped, and he could hear them say, "Let's tie 'em up an' take 'em back ta' base!"
"Yes, sir!"
That was three days ago! Three days of searching, threatening, talking with his contacts, going in debt, and fighting those who wished to stop him, and now it was time to gather the fruits of his hard labour! It was time for revenge!
The doors opened again, and the ones who would, according to Blowhole the blasted dolphin, take his life entered. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw Ridge, Gun-Claw, Hammer and Throw; what he'd been calling them in his curses.
He collected himself. "Saves me the time of finding them!" He breathed in sharply; he had got to stay alert. Satan take him if he got sloppy now!
The lobsters walked fast in his direction, stopping when they had put half of the room behind them, and was beneath the cage. All four of them had their eyes on Skipper, but he read surprise, fear and shock in some faces. Good to know all that blood made him look terrifying; at least it made his enemies scared.
Now that he could take a real look on them, he saw they were ugly. All of them had a face that only a mother can love, whoknows what someone had done with them. Or maybe they just looked that way?
Hammer, with a scar across his face; his souvenir from his fight with Rico; were carrying a big hammer clenched between the fingers of one claw, and were looking at Skipper with surprise. Throw were showing fear, and Ridge were furious.
Gun-Claw stepped closer to him. "So. You're th' skippah'?" He mocked.
"The one and only." His voice boomed in the room. "And I'm bringing my crew back!" Skipper announced, his voice vibrating with fury. He screamed and jumped forward, sliding on his belly, slid by the unprepared lobsters and hopped up on his feet behind them. They followed him with their eyes, but their bodies were a little slower. Skipper jumped at the closest lobster, Throw screamed in fear and tried to back away, but Skipper was already with his foot in his face.
It's amazing what adrenalin can do with your body. Adrenalin and hate. That was perhaps the most powerful kick Skipper ever had made. He caught Throw by the tail while in the air and spun around with the light body of the lobster, and shot him straight at Hammer, who tried to protect himself by raising his claws, but instead he hurt Throw when he crashed into the hammer.
Shocked at what he'd done; Hammer was unable to move. Skipper saw his chance and aimed with another attack at him when he got slammed in the side. Ridge had jumped forward, and his huge claws had bigger range. Skipper struck the floor and rolled away because of the brute force he used.
"Heh heh! You're good." Ridge said, nearing Skipper slowly. "But you can't fight me like that."
Skipper rolled over and got up, ignoring his screaming muscles. He stood in fighting stance with raised flippers. Ridge laughed. "You think you can take me on?"
Skipper didn't reply. He was too angry. First Blowhole decides to make him his arch-enemy, now he kidnaps his team! And the only thing in the way was four lobsters who were hired muscle, who wasted his time by talking! Now, when he had his team in sight for the first time in days!
He ran the short distance between him and Ridge, jumped up in the air, flipped around and tried to hit him in the head from behind, but Ridge raised his giant claw and blocked. Skipper grabbed the claw and held onto it. The lobster aimed to crush him with a blow, but Skipper dodged his every attempt. Then he tried to shake him off, and suddenly Skipper let go when Ridge was swinging up his claw, being sent flying up in the air, right to the cage!
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Gun-Claw aiming at him. One second later, when he could just grip the bars of the cage, the sound of a gun being fired was heard. By then the bullets were already at Skippers side, but thanks to some miracle he missed.
He grabbed the bars and climbed up on the top, forgetting to look to see how his crew was. Down below Gun-Claw cursed and pulled out a scope. A red dot was seen on Skipper's chest. He dodged behind the thick steel wire, and the volley of the gun missed him.
Trying his best not to panic he climbed up on the wire as fast as he could. "There's got to be a way to roll down this thing!" Higher and higher he went, until he reached the mechanism at the top. "Lookie here, this I can fix!-Ah!" Another burst of gunfire from the strange claw had been fired at him. One scraped at his side, and even though it didn't do him any big amount of damage, it was enough to make him lose balance, lose his grip on the wire, and fall down without chance of breaking the fall.
The cage that he simply crashed into and desperately tried to hold on to but failed didn't break the fall. If anything, it made the landing more painful. Everything faded away for a short moment, but Skipper forced himself to stay awake. The cage above him swung to and fro, and its movement mesmerized Skipper. He was still fading away.
It was when Hammer got into his field of sight he understood he had wasted important seconds. He held in a grunt as he attempted to push himself up, but his flippers collapsed beneath him. He gasped for breath. His muscles refused to move; they needed time to recover from the fall.
"You…!" Hammer said shakily with rage. "You made me hurt my brother!" He struck down his hammer next to Skipper. "I'll make you wish you never were hatched!"
"Save some for me, huh?" Ridge called and joined from behind.
"Like hell! You saw what he did, so-"
"Of course I saw, stupid! I was thinking-"
"Oh Lord!"
"Shut up! I was thinking the one who deals the finishing blow would be pretty rewarded by Doc, right?"
"…Right. Point is? I don't care, I just want revenge!"
"So I think I should be the one who deals the last blow!" Ridge felled Hammer and pushed him to the side and stepped up at Skipper's side and grabbed him.
"Stop et! Righ' now!" Gun-Claw ordered and shot up in the air. "If anyone's got a right ta' kill 'im, it's not any of you!" He pointed at Throw, who had pulled himself together. "Et's 'im!"
Ridge snorted, but nodded. He didn't try to crush or squeeze Skipper, he thought he was out of danger.
He thought wrong. If they no more saw Skipper as a force to be afraid of, he was just about to prove them wrong.
As Ridge held him up close he shot forward and grabbed the 'antennae' with his eyeballs on top, and pulled. Pulled until it snapped.
Ridge shrieked, threw Skipper away and backed off. "Someone! Kill him! Aargh! My eyes! I- I can see with my left eye!"
Skipper now stood up, his success giving him new strength, he looked menacingly at Ridge. "There is a logical reason to that. To see with a left eye, you need a left eye!" He threw one ripped off antennae at his feet.
Hammer, Gun-Claw, Throw and Ridge saw red, and he heard Gun-Claw prepare his weapon. He turned slightly, looking him in the eye. Gun-Claw was taken by his intense gaze and hesitated for a moment. Skipper took this chance and threw himself on the ground, sliding at him.
At the same moment Ridge stormed after him, roaring. Throw rushed to Gun-Claw's side, and Hammer was still lying on the ground.
Terrified by Skipper closing the distance between them, Gun-Claw pulled the trigger. Skipper wanted this, he expected this, he stopped and rolled to the side in one second.
"AARRHH!" Ridge cried out as he fell down on the ground, right in his leap. The bullets meant for Skipper could not stop and change direction, the bullets were meant to kill, and kill is what they did, no matter who they ended up in.
"No!" Gun-Claw yelled when he saw what he had done. Throw shrieked and threw himself in Skipper's direction, and caught him, even though Skipper could easily have dodged him.
He quickly started spinning Skipper around while continuing screaming in rage, and Skipper felt sick, but he still managed to reach for the soft spot between his pincers. If he remembered correctly, the fingers would relax if he pinched with enough pressure.
"Throw him here! Let me get him!" Hammer screamed.
However, Throw released before Skipper could pinch hard enough, and he saw the big hammer grow nearer. With agility he didn't know he possessed he avoided being struck by the swing intended at him. Instead he grabbed onto the head and used the power of the swing to get on his back. From there he jumped to the claw holding the hammer.
The same hammer that had hit Rico.
He punched Hammer in the face a few times, enough so he'd look away, he grabbed the claw and pulled it backwards, then he gripped the soft spot between the pincers. Hammer swung back his arm forward, hoping to remove the penguin by the sudden movement. That is when Skipper pinched hard enough.
He released the hammer which flew in high speed in the air. It was the second time Gun-Claw saw something lethal closing the distance to him.
"Dang!" He shouted when he pulled the trigger again, destroying the hammerhead into dust. A stray bullet along with some debris shot forward at the unfortunate lobster who wielded the hammer.
It shot into his side, disabling the legs on that side. He fell down on the floor. "What do you think you're doing? I'm not the enemy!"
"I was shooting at the hamma'!"
Skipper slid on his belly again toward Throw, who had completely forgotten his fear for him. Enraged by the injury on his brother he harshly clenched Skipper in his claw and spun him around again. Skipper hurriedly pinched the spot, and before Throw understood what had happened, Skipper was flying through the air to the cage. "This time I'll get them down!"
"What are you waiting for? Shoot him!" Throw cried to Gun-Claw.
"I give th' orders aroun' here!" He snarled back, but took aim nonetheless. Skipper scaled the wire, and Gun-Claw carefully guided the red dot to over Skipper.
He pulled the trigger.
Skipper threw himself from the wire, the only option if he wanted to dodge and survive. Or not get killed by the bullets. Now he was falling down to the ground again. But there was two things different now than the other time. Now he could control where he landed, and now there were somewhere to land relatively safe. He crashed down on Ridge's body.
He was dizzy, and didn't know which direction to look when he stumbled off of the body.
"Heheh... Now you're done for..." Gun-Claw whispered when he aimed for his head.
"No!" Hammer screamed. Gun-Claw's attention turned to him, and he saw with growing horror as the cage spun around, and the steel wire snapped.
The bullets that can explode a hammer could very well shoot through a steel wire.
Hammer screamed until the cage dropped on him, and then he didn't scream anymore. The cage broke with a deafening sound, and Skipper heard it; and feared for his team. He bit his flipper and focused on the pain and his vision on the cage.
The bars were bent and had removed itself from the slots, the top of the cage were leaning over his team, one bar held it up from falling down on them. He saw his brothers in arms, Rico was lying over Kowalski, Private was to the side, he had rolled down on the ground. Manfredi and Johnson were nowhere to be seen, probably behind the cage.
It struck Skipper that Gun-Claw had a great chance of shooting him right there, but he hadn't done it. "Why?" He turned around and watched the spectacle.
Throw were walking to Gun-Claw, pointing his claw and with a angry face. "You! First you shoot Ridge, and then you crush my brother? My brother!"
"D'ya think I did et on purpose?"
"You shot the wire! You knew the risk by shooting and now you face the consequences!" Throw jumped at Gun-Claw and attacked him with his claws, his legs, he used everything he knew on Gun-Claw who barely dodged. "Stop et!"
"You bastard! He was all I had left from my family!"
They struggled, scuffled, exchanged punches and hits, there was blood and a single gunshot. Skipper knew just who shot it made him furious. He stomped forward at Gun-Claw who were merely looking at Throw's body before him.
"You! Gun-Claw!"
He didn't reply or take notice of him.
"Gun-Claw!"
He twitched as he heard him. Like in a haze he looked up. "Wha'?"
"I've been searching for my team all over the world, I haven't slept or eaten since you took them from me! They're my brothers! Your team is your family! Now I wonder how you could kill your own family." He looked disgusted.
Gun-Claw looked mortified and didn't answer, he looked down again on Throw. The word "family" formed on his lips. Skipper continued.
"You killed your own team. How do you feel?"
"I... Uh..." He hesitated, his eyes darting between Ridge, Throw and the cage with Hammer under it.
"You feel like you don't deserve to live? You took three lives."
"No!" He sprung to life and walked closer to him, gesturing. "I'll nath listen ta' you!"
"Because you know I am right! Who gave you the right to be trigger-happy?" Skipper stood his ground.
"It was you! I aimed at you-"
"But you shot your team instead! How will you live with the burden?"
"Et is-"
"Don't think that you'll be able to forget it and move on. Was this what you wanted when you signed up for this mission?"
He stopped walking and he snapped his claw. "No. We were recruited. Forced to join. I nevah' imagined this woulda happen."
Skipper hid a smirk. "So how does that make you feel about Dr. Blowhole?"
"Oh you know ho' I feel." He snarled.
"Affirmative. Then why fight? We're out for the same mammal, and when I reach him..." He curled his flipper to a fist. "There will be nothing left."
Gun-Claw raised his gun, and for one second Skipper was alarmed. Then he began tweaking and pulling in a complicated pattern and one piece came off from the core of the gun. He walked to Skipper and reached out the handle.
"That's ta' firin' mechanism. Works jost like ah gun, you fired one of those before?"
"Of course. Basic training." He gripped it.
"Use et. Get revenge on my behalf on Blowhole."
"Will do." Skipper knew not to question the decision of a grieving soldier; and saluted Gun-Claw. He returned the gesture.
"'Til next time, Skipper." He turned and walked away; without looking back on his fallen team.
Skipper watched him go out the door and waited for a minute just to make sure that he wasn't playing foul and would shoot him in the back with some hidden gun; but it seemed Gun-Claw could be trusted. In this case.
He felt relieved, and exhaled. "Finally. It's just me, my team, and you; Dr. Blowhole." He faced the broken cage, and was suddenly struck by a fearful thought. "They should have come to my aid! They must be injured!"
He ran as fast as he could with the gun to the cage and threw it on the ground and pushed the roof away. He saw his team, Rico, Kowalski and Private. They had no visible sings of other trauma than expected when falling down. They were alive. Skipper rounded the cage and gasped.
Manfredi and Johnson, his old companions, brothers in black and white, were lying still in an uncomfortable position covered in blood. Skipper had seen enough dead men in his life to know a corpse when he saw one, and he knew exactly what he was looking at.
Another reason to get to the deranged doctor.
Nairobi, Atlantis, Manila, Ecuador, all were moments when he thought they were dead, but they always survived. Even to the point Skipper believed they just couldn't die, no other could have survived in the situations they did.
But all of that were over now.
He picked up his gun and walked over to the doors Dr. Blowhole disappeared behind and used the handle to break the hinges of the locked door. He threw his body against the door and it fell to the floor, just like it had done in his HQ.
The mammal; who were looking over a map on the wall; hastily turned around.
"No! You-! H-how did you get by-"
"Blowhole…" Skipper spat out as he walked pained towards his enemy. Blowhole cringed and swallowed. He was out of lobsters, nowhere to run, no way of fighting Skipper back. And Skipper knew it.
Blowhole saw the gun in his flipper. "W-what are you going to do?"
"The only thing that's right. You killed Manfredi and Johnson and kidnapped my team! You left them there to die!" His body was about to fall down, but he forced himself to stay up. "One of them is just a child. You were going to kill a child." He took another step toward him. "So what do you think I'm going to do?" He raised gun and aimed it at the face of Dr. Blowhole.
Blowhole was struck with fear and panic, he tried to move out of range by going to the side with his vehicle.
"Don't try it!" Skipper snapped, and fired.
Blowhole's vehicle tipped over, and he fell. Skipper didn't bother looking at the dolphin lying on the ground; he turned and walked away to what was left of his team.
"Kowalski, on your feet, soldier!" Skipper said as he shook his pale and barely breathing Second-in-Command beneath Rico.
Moments passed and Kowalski did not move, and Skipper feared he had lost more than the unkillable duo, when he shifted. "Uh… Did anyone say anything?" He mumbled.
"Wake up, that's an order!" He said sternly, but his façade disappeared when he felt all his power leave his body. The world spun, and he allowed all the fatigue and exhaustion get to him.
"Kowalski…" He fell down next to him.
Kowalski opened his eyes, because of the order Skipper just said, or because of the cry for his name; he didn't quite know.
"Skipper? Skipper!" He called when he saw his commanding officer. "What happened?" He crawled out from under Rico and turned over Skipper. He was out cold.
Kowalski checked his vital signs, gasping when he saw the amount of blood over him. Skipper was alive, and unconscious. Just as the other four team members.
He felt his own pulse rise, as the Second-in-Command it was he who would take care of things when the skipper was unable to. And it was one of those moments now.
"Where are we? Why are we here, and in a broken cage? Does Skipper have anything to do with this? We were captured? Why is Skipper bloody, is it all from him? No wait, it's probably from the lobsters. Why are they here? What's our part in all of this? And with what technology was this gun built?"
His head was filled to the brim with questions, and he wasn't sure of what to do.
"Take one thing at a time, young strategist." He heard his father's voice whisper in the back of his mind.
He must wake up the rest of the team.
"Rico! Wake up! Private!" He poked Rico in the side and waddled over to Private. "Manfredi, Johnson, you two too! Don't think I can't see- ...Manfredi?" He stopped short when his eyes registered the expressionless face and the red chest. He swallowed. "Manfredi?"
Private woke up. "Whoa, K'walski, how long did I sleep? I had the craziest dream- Oh dear! How terrible." He noticed his surroundings. "What has happened? Noo! Skippah'!" He ran to help Rico tend to Skipper, without noticing what Kowalski was staring at.
Kowalski neared the penguin, knowing that it was already too late. The entry wound was very visible, right in the chest. Possible punctured lung, heart damage or had simply bled to death. Kowalski touched his flipper, it was cold and stiff.
"Been dead for over 24 hours..." He felt his spirit go out of him. Behind Manfredi, with his back turned to him, and with a steel bar poking him in the back, lay Johnson. Kowalski saw no visible damage, but he neared his friend carefully.
"Johnson? You hear me?" He shook him by the shoulder, when he noticed something weird. His skull was wobbling. Kowalski touched his head and was too distraught to yell, and he felt ill. It was cracked like an eggshell in a bag. A substance was floating out his ear-holes a out of his beak.
He breathed deep breaths, closed his eyes and stood up. "New objective: bring Manfredi and Johnson's bodies back for a proper funeral... Rico carries Skipper, Private Johnson, and I Manfredi. This isn't going to be easy..."
"K'walski? You found anything?" Private asked, having noticed him spacing out.
"Private, remind me of something when we get back to HQ, will you?" He asked solemnly.
"What?" He replied looking worried.
"I must file a new report to the skipper's log. Beau Manfredi and Forrest Johnson have been K.I.A."
"Kee Ai Ah?" Rico immediately looked up at him with a panicked face. "Nuh huh!"
"I'm afraid it is so, Rico."
"Nuh UH!" Rico shook his head.
Private looked at him. "Rico..."
"Rico, deny it if you want to," Kowalski said "but right now we have to take Skipper back to HQ. He needs treatment. Soon. I don' know what could happen if we don't get back in time. You'll get time to think about things later. Private, I need you to carry Johnson's body."
Rico ignored Kowalski, swallowed the strange gun, put Skipper over his back and walked away to the exit, grunting. Private rushed to Kowalski's side and picked up the relatively small penguin with discomfort. "Oh dear, oh dear."
Kowalski bent down and grabbed Manfredi's body and pulled him over his shoulder. He was heavy.
"Come on, Private." He said and followed Rico.
"Coming."
They walked out of the building into the rain. The water streamed like tears from their faces. One couldn't make out if the other was really crying or not.
Back through the entrance, further down into the building, in the room with doors lying on the ground, were an injured sea mammal plotting his revenge.
"Skipper...!" Dr Blowhole seethed as he covered his injured right eye. "How dare he shoot at me? I'll get my revenge!"
He rolled down in a hidden pool, and swam away to seek new lobsters. And one day, he'd capture the penguin and his team, and destroy them!
A/N: So what did you think? =) Anything will do!
The theme was "Action". Did I succeed?