Skipper's Military Days
Episode 5-
Chapter 1- Steak Knife Hears Some Thoughts
Steak Knife was not used to anyone needing him unless he forced them to and this was quite a change. For once in his life he wasn't wanted for crime. These meerkats seemed pretty trustworthy. The three ships that trapped the Red October moved aside and started leading the way towards their country, Denmark. This would be a great opportunity to run away ASAP, but not this time. Five pounds of gold sure seemed like a lot that he could use to benefit personal needs. It was better to set up bombs in a place that actually welcomed him in. He needed some nice good luck.
"They are just jerks," Skipper thought. "I've done everything for them and they stoop to this. I can't BELIEVE I got such a crew. Well, they better fend without me. If they get captured by Danes then who am I to stop them? Kowalski and Rico would probably just push them down and take their maps."
It was a screwball idea to abandon the Well Deserved in the ocean, but Skipper couldn't stand to be around them. He could have easily knocked some sense into both of them, but they had all been under a lot of stress lately and that wouldn't accomplish anything. He simply took the Time Bandit and left. He untied it and then the much faster Well Deserved sailed away in a matter of minutes. He was glad reasonable Kowalski didn't try to stop him. Rico couldn't say anything anyway so no problem there.
"Civilization," Skipper said with satisfaction. He forgot that he was supposed to be mad at Kowalski and pretended that Kowalski was there to talk to. "Yeah, I knew we weren't in the blue patch. According to my calculations, this must be Denmark. Meerkats. Yeah, meerkats. Kowalski and Rico can sail off to the North Pole for all I care."
Skipper put the Time Bandit in full gear and headed for the little dot of land on the horizon. This was not possible, but he wished that this island could be Clevelantis and Elise and the kits would be waiting there. HE constantly felt this guilt that would not leave that he abandoned them. Why couldn't things go back to normal? Skipper wanted to leave tracking Steak Knife to experts and go relax on a tropical island with his real family for the rest of forever. That would probably never happen again though. He was Captain now. Thinking real here, this would not be Clevelantis. It would be Denmark and surely Steak Knife stopped there to top off. HE was probably putting bombs there right now. Skipper knew Steak Knife's plans from the Andes Mountains.
Denmark was even more beautiful than he could have imagined. There were bunches of trees and rocky landscape. It wasn't all palm trees and sand like down south. The air was nice and full of cool air and it made Skipper never want to go back to the hot and damp rain forest of Ecuador for the rest of his life. That sounded good. Now it was time to get himself known. If the meerkats knew Steak Knife was here, they could help him locate this felon. That would be hard to do so considering he had no team. Surely there was civilization around here somewhere. The easiest option would be to jump back in the Time Bandit and find it, but the thought of going back out into the ocean seemed terrible. HE would rather hike and find it.
All right, all I need is a few supplies and then I hike out into the unknown…DANG IT! I left the stuff in the Well Deserved. DRAT!
Skipper left anyway. He climbed up the rocky slope of the shore with effort. He had very tiny feet that couldn't pounce up swiftly like Pole Cats. He heaved up with effort and only made it to the top before he flopped on the ground to take a break. He was still a little fat and lazy after relaxing so long. He looked down at himself with disappointment and wished he was naturally slim like Kowalski and not short and fat. Feeling disappointed, he forced himself up and kept going.
"WHAT DID WE JUST DO?" wailed Kowalski. "I yelled at Skipper. Now he abandoned us."
Kowalski stared at Rico with Pole kit eyes and buried his head in his wings. Both of them were at a loss without Skipper. For the two hours he was gone they just sat on the deck of the ship and moped about how terrible they were. Rico just moaned with guilt while Kowalski stated why they were guilty. They were working on a list.
"Let's see… you pushed him down," Kowalski added. "Rico, I can't believe you."
They were clueless without Skipper to tell them what to do, or a Captain for that matter. Instead of taking fate into their own wings, they were wasting their time. They were taken by surprise when the ground earthquaked under their feet with such force that they were shoved against the mast. If they weren't laying down already, they would of fell over. The rumbling ceased and the Well Deserved came to a stop. After a few moments they got to their feet and inspected. Land.
"Look at what luck we got, Rico," Kowalski said brightly. "We reached land. We got there completely by accident. We got here even without Skipper's help. He would be proud of us."
Rico nodded enthusiastically. He looked down at the map and tried to decide where they were even though he had no idea how to read a map. Kowalski was to only one that was good at map reading which was what caused the fight from earlier. He watched Rico look for a few seconds just to see if he could do it. He glanced up at Kowalski excitedly and pointed to the South Pole.
"Rico, that is the South Pole," Kowalski explained gently. "Here, let me show you." He snatched the map and held it out so both of them could see it. "We were about here and we traveled north according to the compass. This must be the land mass of…Denmark. Rico, we reached Denmark. I wonder where Skipper is. Maybe he is here too. What do you think? Should we explore it?" According to my background knowledge, Denmark is run by a civilization of meerkats. 58% of forests border the circumference of thousands of square miles and-"
"Uhhhh…"
Kowalski glanced up to see Rico was already climbing down the Well Deserved. What was he thinking? Of course Rico's tiny attention span wouldn't listen to that. Kowalski set off after Rico and the two of them were heading off into the wilderness of Denmark. They weren't concerned about finding Steak Knife and saving the world, just finding their friend and preventing him from making a big mistake.
Steak Knife always thought this was the most fun and most thoughtful part of murdering someone. Picking something to do it. He had to think carefully so he walked into every room of the Red October trying to find something that would finish the job. He grabbed a bag to carry and picked out his favorite broad swords that he was going to use to eliminate the Pole kits. These would look nice on the wall with some new decorations to go with them. HE was still marveling over the new Lieutenant Austin and platinum sword set up. He just stared at it because it was so nice. Someday TJ could be right next to him and the display would really be complete. This time, he was eliminating for a purpose. The meerkats wanted him to take out a few enemies that he was VERY familiar with. At first he wondered if they were just toying with him, but they seemed serious. Their radars picked up senses that the Well Deserved was coming straight their way. They wanted him to take them out. They thought it would be so easy when truthfully he had been trying to get rid of them many times before.
He didn't get too detailed into why they wanted this done. His voice trailed off when he saw all that shiny gold in a nice little chest just out of his reach. It was so precious and he could not fail. All he knew was that Denmark did not like foreign military units coming to their remote little country. The meerkats probably thought they were coming to siege their country or something stupid like that. Steak Knife knew they were only interested in tracking him down. Of course he didn't tell them that.
It was now later in the day and Steak Knife was at the drawing board. It could take weeks to locate the Well Deserved. This was a whole country. The ship could be anywhere along its shores and Skipper, TJ, and Kowalski could be anywhere within the whole country. First he had to check the shores. Where there was a Well Deserved, there were penguins.
Steak Knife stopped when he heard the sound of someone talking.
A very familiar someone.
Steak Knife never thought finding Skipper would be this easy.
"Islands," Skipper growled to himself. "What a wonderful place! I guess I just don't know sarcasm when I hear it. Gee, Skipper, how did you ever figure that one out? A Pole Cat can get to where I got in two minutes. I need to lose some weight, I mean, I can barely believe this. I need to start a new life of salad."
All of a sudden a black and white shadow flashed from the corner of his eye and he whirled around suddenly, ready to attack. He didn't even have to get a good look to know this was Steak Knife. Normally he would take on villains like an action hero, but Steak Knife was someone he feared more than anyone after what happened when they first met. He had to run away from Steak Knife fast because he wouldn't stand a chance in a real fight. Sure enough, the moment he tried to run he tripped on a rock and fell. It was all over now. Well, no it wasn't. Steak Knife would try to torture him with words until he wanted nothing more than to die.
"We have to keep meeting like this, yes?" Steak Knife said nicely. "It makes it more easy than tracking you down. It's so much easier to save time and effort."
Skipper was too scared to say anything. He tried to look at anything but Steak Knife's eyes because that's exactly what he wanted to do. He had to seek comfort somewhere else. From where though? There were not Kowalski and Rico to help him anymore. He cruelly dumped them.
"It is nice to see you once again, but I am more interested where to rest of your team is. You are obviously all alone out here, yes? I have some information that you might want to know."
Oh no. Steak Knife has done something horrible with Kowalski and Rico!
"Certain fish around here are high in fat," Steak Knife continued dramatically. "Or you can just starve like I do."
Of course. He should have known Steak Knife would blow him off like that. All that mattered now was staying alive. He breathed very quickly and it felt like he was going to pass out.
"So, does TJ have a new Lieutenant yet?" Steak Knife pressed.
What to answer… Skipper could just tell a wild lie to get out of this and seem unimportant.
Wait a minute.
That was the exact opposite of what he would normally do. The Skipper when Steak Knife wasn't around would take on any problem with dignity and confidence.
"Me," he answered shakily. "I'm Captain now."
"Oh my goodness. You didn't invite me to your coronation. That's too bad. Did something happen to TJ that I wasn't informed about? Well, I guess plans always work a little if you want them to or not."
Skipper whimpered with fear when Steak Knife's broad swords got closer to his head and then he pressed them down hard enough so that Skipper could feel their cold touch. They rested on his throat and he whined uncontrollably. Skipper tried to push them off, but they didn't move the slightest bit, just sunk a little deeper. He couldn't move them and then couldn't resist staring right into Steak Knife's eyes. The moment he did he felt more relaxed and calm. Skipper stared at Steak Knife with huge innocent Pole kit eyes and silently begged him to stop. Before he knew it, the swords loosened and Steak Knife removed them.
"You're probably wondering why I just spared you, yes." Steak Knife said distractedly and stared out at the ocean that bordered the horizon. "I am wondering the same thing actually. Maybe I am too weak to do it, or strong enough not to."
"Why?" Skipper wondered. "You could just do away with me and no one would ever know."
"See? You're doing it again!" Skipper winced with fear. "You are trying to find out all the details. Even though you surely hate me, you still want to know why I do things. That is why I'm sparing you. As pathetic as it sounds, believe me, it does, I have grown attached to you."
"Why is that?" Skipper asked.
"You are the only victim I have ever threatened that has actually wanted to find out more about me. The real me. It's really confusing and then you stare at me for comfort when I'm about to kill you and then I feel like I'm betraying you… You try to seek comfort from me when I only want to kill you. Even I know what betrayal is."
"I know you're evil and know one will ever change that," Skipper replied steadily. "But I think I know what your problem is. You are just so lonely for one thing. That is why you liked my company because I was forced to stay on your ship. I bet if you had just someone to care about, you would have a reason to live for."
Steak Knife continued to look out at the ocean, but Skipper knew he was considering those words. Skipper could always dig into Steak Knife's personal life more than anybody else could which what was saved him just then. He didn't feel any sort of bond to Steak Knife at all, but he was just interested. Once again, he managed to get out of a situation like this. He took a few steps away, watching Steak Knife carefully. He didn't react in any way when Skipper tried to leave so Skipper left undisturbed.