The next story in the Park Avenue series, although this can almost be read as a stand alone since it is near identical to the episode of the same name. With that in mind, since I've placed this after An Explosive Affair there is some Julien/Rico. I've also decided to upload the whole fic in a one-shot and have to admit that reading it over, I'm not entire happy with it so I may revisit it and rework it later on like I did with A China Doll Love Story. So without any further delay, enjoy!
Kowalski felt the muscles in his back protest as he sat up from his lab table. Everything ached and he knew he had spent too many hours poring over the same equations and rechecking his wiring on the electroplasmonic energy orb he'd been trying to generate. Although perhaps he was still sore from when his first attempt at the orb literally blew up in his face the day before or maybe that had just been earlier that day. He didn't keep track of time in his lab, not since he had cannibalized the last clock he had for parts.
He recalled that Skipper had ordered him to take a break while Private and Rico looked on with sympathetic faces. And he had tried but seemed to fail in in his explanation that he hadn't had a scientific breakthrough in weeks.
It was frustrating…no it was maddening. They didn't understand that he had a ground breaking discovery just waiting somewhere in his brain. He just had to find it and he knew he was close to finding it, like he was just teetering on the edge of falling into something phenomenal that would redefine the laws of nature.
"That should work." He checked the connection one last time before he completed the circuit. The hum of electricity filled the lab and light began to flicker in the glass orb. It grew brighter and suddenly Kowalski realized that the circuit was about to overload as it had the day before. He ducked under the table just in time as the device shattered sending broken glass and bits of metal across the lab. He heard things on the shelf above fall and hit the table and winced at the mess he'd have to clean. Kowalski carefully removed himself from under the table, hyper aware of the broken glass covering the floor Once on his feet, he caught a glimpse of movement on the table and a trail of lime green disappeared behind the base of the ruined device. He pushed it aside and was surprised to see a gelatin cube sitting on the table.
He had given up on trying to create an organic life form from inanimate material months ago. When Skipper had come to him furious when the breakdown of the latest expense report showed just how much Kowalski had been spending on gelatin.
"Eureka." He breathed as he reached for it and it slid onto his hand, making soft almost purring like sounds. A swell of pride filled his chest as he cradled the small gelatinous creature. He had finally done it. Even if he had no idea exactly how he managed to he still managed to create a new life form.
"K'walski? Is everything okay?" Private's voice came from the other side of the door.
"Yes! Everything is fine!" Kowalski hid the cube behind his back just as the lab door swung open revealing an unconvinced Private.
"Are you sure? I heard a crash…again and just wanted to make sure everything was alright."
"Just a small miscalculation." Kowalski could see Rico carrying trays of sushi to the table and the cube slipped through his fingers and slid across the floor and out through the open lab door.
"What was that?" Private jumped as Jiggles bounced over his feet towards the table.
Kowalski was moving before he realized it and a shout of terror escaped him as his creation bounced onto the table and landed on one of the trays. He pushed Private and Rico to the side and began to pick through the trays in a blind panic.
"If you're tired of sushi, just say so." Skipper commented seeing his lieutenant tossing pieces off the trays and onto the table. Suddenly one of pieces moved and a small bright green cube scurried into the open.
"Thank the maker. Which in this case, is me." Kowalski muttered and felt himself relax at the sight of his creation unharmed.
"What is it?" Private asked coming up next to Kowalski and staring in wonder as the cube purred and chirped. It reminded him of something he had seen in a movie from years ago.
"Gentlemen, this gelatinous mass was brought to life by yours truly."
"Really? What does it do?" Skipper asked, clearly skeptical of Kowalski's latest stroke of genius.
"I'm not sure. But look how cute it is!" Kowalski cooed, gently stroking the small lime green jelly-like cube with his finger. It chittered and absorbed a piece of sushi only to reject it and send the piece flying towards Skipper. "It's just a little bucket of adorable."
"Uh, Kowalski? Should we be worried? Since your experiments always seem to go horribly wrong." Absentmindedly Skipper rubbed his cheek where the sushi had hit him. The cube seemed to be sniffing around the table and drew closer to the glass of fruit juice on the table. If only Skipper could say that this was the strangest thing he had witnessed, but it didn't even break his top twenty.
"Oi, that's my juice!" Private frowned as the cube jumped into his glass on the table and absorbed the red liquid.
"Looks like it likes fruit." Kowalski picked the cube up and began to pet it as Rico went to the kitchen.
"Hey, little friend," Rico said as he returned and set a bowl of pineapple chunks down on the table. The green cube leap from Kowalski's hand in to the bowl absorbing the fruit within seconds. It jumped out of the bowl and nuzzled Rico's hand practically begging for more.
"They grow so exponentially." Kowalski said as he reached out and stroked the cube with a finger noticing that it had gotten larger from consuming the fruit juice and pineapple. He spared a glance at his commanding officer before turning his attention back to his creation. "Come now Skipper, how could something this cute turn out to be dangerous?"
"I believe we say the same thing about Private." However, Skipper's words were ignored as the three men huddled around Kowalski's creature and cooed over how adorable it was.
"Aw, what are you going to name it, K'walski?"
"Jiggles seems like an appropriate name as any."
"I don't know Kowalski, naming your scientific abomination is just asking for trouble." Skipper interjected gaining the attention of his men once more.
"Jiggles isn't an abomination, besides this breakthrough could lead to others that could greatly benefit the team."
"Whatever you say Kowalski, but I'm going to be keeping a close eye on you and your monster. The minute it starts causing trouble or things start getting out of hand you're going to have to destroy it." Skipper fixed Kowalski with a dark look. He had a feeling in his gut that this would go sideways just like some of Kowalski's other gadgets and inventions had done in the past, especially when the genius was on streak of bad luck.
Even with Skipper's warning Kowalski felt confident with the future success of his creation. The first few days went well with no incidents and he started a spreadsheet to track Jiggles growth and had taken surface samples to determine just how Jiggles seemed to be a living given the lack of any discernable systems. By all basic appearances it was a cube of lime flavored gelatin. The high of his breakthrough had yet to wear off as well. He looked over the data he had collected in wonder. Somehow he had managed to create life, it was pure accident but he would figure out the exact science sooner or later.
Currently, he was trying to figure out what effect electroplasmonic energy had on gelatin, since that seemed to be the key component, like the lightening Frankenstein had used for his own creation. He turned to look Jiggles and felt himself freeze at the sight of an empty aquarium.
When had Jiggles even gotten out? How long had he even been out? What if Jiggles had gotten outside? There were so many dangers that his creation could have encountered. He could just imagine the blind panic if any of the small-minded people on the block had spotted him. They wouldn't see Jiggles as the harmless gelatinous blob that he was. No, like Skipper, they would only see Jiggles as a monster. And if Skipper found out Jiggles had escaped then it would be the end for his beloved creature.
Kowalski pulled on a jacket and headed out. Grateful that the rest of his team all had plans for the evening. He hoped that Jiggles hadn't gone far. Fortunately, he had a trail to follow once he got to Julien's night club and found that Jiggles was poking around dumpsters in the alley behind the club.
"Jiggles! Don't you ever scare me like that again mister!" Kowalski lifted the cube, struggling under the weight of it. In just a few days Jiggles had gone from only being a square inch to being a little over a square foot. "Alright, back to the lab with you with gelatinous jokester." He wondered how he had even escaped the notice of Julien being so close to The Groove. Still there was no time to waste and Kowalski hauled Jiggles back to the base as quickly as he could with notice.
Once back in the lab, Jiggles sagged and let out a soft chirping sound as Kowalski locked the small cage. He hated the thought of having to lock Jiggles away for simply going out to fulfill a basic need. Still it was better to keep Jiggles contained until he had a better idea of how his creation came to be and functioned. Then he would be able to get the others to understand Jiggles and prove to them that the cube wasn't some monster.
"I know, I don't like this either, but if I don't then the only place you'll be going is to the incinerator." Kowalski reached through the bars hand stroked the cube. The surface of the gelatin was smooth and cold, but it filled Kowalski with a warmth that he hadn't felt in ages.
"Kowalski? I picked up a pizza on way back if you're interested." Private called out.
"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute." Kowalski hadn't even realized how late it had gotten or how long it had been since he last left the lab to eat. Normally, Rico would barge and drag him out to get something to eat, but his friends had been busy going off with Julien. He'd have to thank Private for his gentler ways of reminding him the importance of self-care. He gave Jiggles a gentle pat. "Just stay here and be a good little goo guy and I'll bring you a treat later tonight okay?"
The cube purred softly and it broke Kowalski's heart to see Jiggles stuck in a cage. He thought about letting Jiggles free in his lab later that night, he would just have to lock the door. Skipper wouldn't have to know, no one would. Besides Jiggles seemed to be gaining a basic understanding of what Kowalski said. He would just have to make it clear to Jiggles that he couldn't leave the lab, at least not yet.
"Kowalski! Get out down here two seconds ago!" Skipper's voice was seething with anger and Kowalski didn't hesitate to follow the order even though his mind was still fuzzy with sleep. He had only gone to bed a few hours ago, passing on a few rounds of Liar's Poker, unable to fight the fatigue of the last few nights of near all-nighters. He pulled a robe on and made his way down stairs to the sight of his three teammates lined up near the bottom of the stairs all looking at something that was out of his line of sight.
"What seems to be the problem Skipper?"
"Oh, I don't know… let's start with your monster."
"Monster is a bit judgmental, isn't it?"
"Look at it Kowalski. Sure, Jiggles was cute when he was an inch tall, but now the thing takes up a fourth of the living room!"
Kowalski rolled his eyes at the comment and turned the corner, sure that Skipper was merely exaggerating. Yet, he surprised to see that Jiggles had grown well beyond what he had originally projected. The cube growled, shaking the room and Kowalski ran to calm it. "Just because Jiggles lacks a nervous system doesn't mean that he doesn't have feelings Skipper. Not that I expect you to know anything about that."
"Feelings? It's a great big blob of mad science, man!"
"I knew you wouldn't understand, not with how small minded you all are, I don't know why I ever expected a different outcome. You're like all the others you could never see my brilliance." Kowalski began to push Jiggles back into the open door of the lab. "You just can't stand to be reminded of my intellect and have to tear down my creations, my breakthroughs. Not this time though. If you need me, I'll be in my lab with my "monster"."
Kowalski slammed the door shut behind him and then leaned against Jiggles. The cube purred contently and pushed back against him. He could hear the team talking or at least he could make out Private and Skipper's voices even if he couldn't make out what exactly they were saying.
"At least we'll have each other and can be outcasts together," he murmured to Jiggles feeling more drained that he had before. It was exhausting trying to work with people who couldn't see the big picture of things. He was an outliner on a team of outcasts.
Outliner, it was a fitting word even if it only cut slightly less deep than the term monster. Kowalski could handle that label weighing down on his shoulders especially since he had carried it for years before. In school, he had been too smart, branding himself with a target that lead to years of verbal and physical abuse. After initially joining CENTRAAL for research and development he hadn't been smart enough. His inventions and ideas always falling short. It didn't take long for him to become the butt of the joke in R&D especially when he found himself struggling with meeting deadlines or coming up with proposals. When he had been assigned to the Project: Habitat and named a Penguin he had been thrilled at the opportunity to start over and earn a new reputation.
A reputation that had slowly become tarnished over the years as Private pointed out options that were overly complex and convoluted and Skipper deemed each invention a hazard that would enviably blow up in their faces both literally and figuratively. He was back at being caught between too smart and not smart enough. The warmth that Kowalski had felt from his breakthrough had faded, making him acutely aware of a growing emptiness in his chest. He slid down to sit on the floor, letting Jiggles take most his weight, not that the cube seemed to mind. Slowly, he began to drift off into a restless sleep.
Sometime later Kowalski woke up on the cold tile of the lab to the distinct sound of metal twisting. He scrambled to his feet as Jiggles forced itself through a vent causing the surrounding brick to crack.
The door to the lab flew open and Private and Rico came in just as he reached Jiggles and attempted to pull the cube back but it was futile and Jiggles slipped through his fingers. "It's not what it looks like!"
"Hey, what's the other birdies doing over there?" A gruff voice asked.
"That's classified." Skipper's voice answered and then a door slammed cutting off whatever protest the guest at the door had.
"Uh, that happened." Kowalski chuckled nervously as his three teammates looked at him.
"So Kowalski, what have we learned?"
"We?"
"You. What have you learned?" Skipper crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I knew I should have had Rico toss that thing in the incinerator the second you said that you made it."
"Is now really the right time to be pointing fingers Skipper?"
There was a shrill scream and Kowalski felt his stomach drop at the sound. Jiggles was harmless, just misunderstood in his appearance.
"K'walski!"
"Alright, I've got a plan. But let me put on real pants first." Kowalski sighed and it seemed his team just realized that he was still wearing his robe and pajamas from earlier.
Kowalski coughed as a sickly-sweet scent assaulted his senses, "that should do it, now we just have to wait for Jiggles to come to us." He watched as Rico finished spraying one of his old shirts that already had a citrus scent from staying over at Julien's the other night with a coconut body spray borrowed from Marlene.
"What are you going to do once we capture it K'walski?" Private asked as they settled in to wait for a sign of the green gelatinous creature.
"I suppose that I'll just have to take him back to the lab where he can live out the rest of his days locked up in a cage away from the small minds who don't understand him."
"Are we talking about creation or creator?"
Kowalski didn't answer Private's question his anger building. It didn't matter whether he was talking about Jiggles or himself because it was practically the same thing. Once Jiggles was captured he'd be back in the lab repeating experiment after experiment, night after night, and enduring failure after failure. Not that it mattered to the team that he had finally broken his creative slump had created a sentient life form to them it was just another mistake.
"It doesn't matter and you can cut the melodramatics anytime Frankenstein. Especially when we have no idea how long we're going to be waiting tonight. I hope this plan of yours works or else we're going to have a very large problem on our hands." No sooner had Skipper finished speaking that another voice just as grating on Kowalski's ear echoed down the ally.
"I was wondering what that heavenly smell was." Julien made a beeline for the trap they had made and picked up the body spray Rico had set down and forgotten about. "Oh, is this coconut?"
"Ringtail! What the hell are you doing here?"
"Uh, I could be asking you guys the same thing." Julien rolled his eyes and made a show of coating himself in the perfume. Oblivious to the massive almost luminous green cube that had everyone else paralyzed behind him. "What is it too much?"
"Julien!"
Kowalski heard Rico cry out as Julien was engulfed by Jiggles and he watched as Rico charged the jelly cube only to bounce back on to the pavement several feet away. He felt a surge of pride at the sight, his creation was potentially unstoppable.
"K'walski! We have to get Julien out of there!" Private helped Rico back to his feet and the Costa Rican glared at Kowalski.
"It'll be fine. Jiggles will just spit him out once he realizes that Julien isn't a fruit," Kowalski explained. It was fascinating to watch Julien struggle as he was suspended in the cube. He was trying to figure out how the gelatin allowed Jiggles to be become impenetrable, but somehow Julien wasn't suffocating from being swallowed by the cube. "Fascinating it seems that the interior is some type of perfluorochemical liquid."
"Oh he's a fruit alright," Skipper muttered as Julien stopped struggling and the cube made no sign of spiting the former king out. "We need options on how to extract Ringtail from that monster now."
"Jiggles isn't a monster."
"He just ate Julien." Private was quick to point out horrified by Kowalski's nonchalant attitude on the matter.
"But don't you see? What happened to Julien is just an example of what happens when you doubt me or my monster."
"So you admit it's a monster."
"The good kind of monster."
"There is no good kind of monster! You have to snap out of this Kowalski before you go off the deep end. You know I'm right when I say that this isn't you."
"You just always have to be right don't you? Even when you're wrong you try to justify and twist everything around so it looks like you were right in the long run. I never get to be right; I never get to have a successful breakthrough. I bet you all love it when I fail, but not this time. I'll show you all what happens when true genius is underappreciated," Kowalski turned and gestured for Jiggles to follow him.
"It just shows how weak they are. I don't need them. I never needed them," Kowalski turned to his creation. Trying to ignore the way the hurt look on the team's faces and the way Julien and Rico had reached towards each other as he left kept surfacing in his mind.
"Jiggles you're the only one who truly understands me." He pressed his body to the cube, embracing it like a proud father would embrace his child, not bothered by the cool and slightly slimy texture of his creation. His hands began to sink into the gelatinous form and Kowalski felt a flash of panic as his hands were sucked through the smooth surface. Struggling only caused Jiggles to pull him in further. In mere seconds, he had joined Julien, suspended inside his own creation.
It seemed he had been right to assume that Jiggles was part perfluorochemical liquid, but as his skin began to tingle he realize he should have spent more time trying to figure out how Jiggles had been breaking down the fruit he consumed. Destroyed by his own creation, it was certainly fitting and what he deserved. A hand on his harm stirred him out of his thoughts.
Julien was looking at him expectantly, like he had an answer to get out of the cube. Kowalski wanted to sigh. If he couldn't get out then he should at least figure out a way to get Julien out. Guilt sat heavy in his stomach at he recalled what he said after Julien had been consumed. The former king had been a completely innocent bystander in all this and the look on Rico's face when he realized that he couldn't get Julien out…Kowalski wasn't sure that he'd be able to face his best friend again even if he did manage to escape.
His stomach rolled again and it seemed that it wasn't just the guilt that made him feel sick. The tuna he had for lunch wasn't sitting well with him. Then it struck him that Jiggles had rejected the fish it had eaten when he had first showed his creation to the team. If he could make himself vomit, then there was a chance that the fish he had eaten would force Jiggles to expel them. He would have to make himself gag and lacking the quite frankly disturbing ability that Rico had to regurgitate things made that increasingly difficult. However, when he tried to force his fingers to the back of his throat he found that he couldn't. His mind just wouldn't let him.
He turned to Julien who had been watching with wide eyes. The younger man looked a bit on the green side, but Kowalski couldn't be certain if that was the case or just the color of the gelatin he was seeing. When he gestured for Julien's assistance the former king shook his head wildly and crossed his arms. It took some mimed begging, but eventually Julien agreed, but it seemed neither of them could look at each other as he caught Julien looking away just before he closed his own eyes and hoped that this would work.
Kowalski felt himself gag and then he was being thrown. He hit the wall hard and felt the weight of what he assumed to be Julien's body on top of him.
The younger man began to cough and the weight shifted. "That was the second most disgusting thing I have ever done."
The taller man opened his eyes to see that Julien was draped over his chest and had one of Julien's legs between his. "Well this is awkward."
"Agreed and we are never going to speak of it again." Julien rolled off of Kowalski and winced at how raw his skin felt as he struggled to stand. "So what now smart guy?"
Jiggles rumbled, shaking the entire storage building.
"Run."
It seemed touch and go as they skirted around the monster who continued to growl and reach for them. Kowalski and Julien pulled the metal door shut just in time and they could feel Jiggles pounding against it trying to break free.
"Okay, so now what do we do smart guy?"
"I- I don't know…I can't do this on my own. I need my friends. That is if they even still are my friends."
"Why wouldn't they be? So you went a tad nutso and a little mad with power, it's not a big deal."
"Julien that thing I made ate you and instead of helping you I turned you into an example when you had nothing to do it with it. And Rico, I mean, did you see the way he looked at me when he couldn't get you out? Forget about the things I said to them," Kowalski said. He could feel himself on the verge of a panic attack. It was getting hard to tell the difference between his own pounding heart and Jiggle's insistent battering.
"Like I said, you went a little crazy, it happens and believe me when I say that I know crazy when I see it. They probably do to. Your friends will forgive you, I already have." Julien shrugged as if all that had happened was simply a minor in convince. "Although, if you don't mind, I'm going to head out. This isn't really my scene."
"I still can't do this by myself. I need my friends." Kowalski sighed and wondered not for the first time that night if he even had friends left.
"Looks like it's your lucky day, Kowalski. Friends are all present and accounted."
"Skipper? Private? And Rico? You all came?" For a moment Kowalski was surprised to see that Skipper and Rico had come and supposed that they believed in upholding the Penguin credo, even when one of the penguins was being somewhat of an egomaniac.
"And we're here to help, well if you take back some of the means things you said earlier." Private chimed in.
"Right. So, what do you need from us?"
"Could you keep Jiggles contained? I need to get some things from my lab first."
"Alright boys, Operation: Jell-O Mold is a go."
The next morning Kowalski couldn't help but be acutely aware of the looks his teammates gave him as he joined them at the table late that morning. They didn't know what exactly had transpired in the storage locker and Kowalski fully intended to keep it that way. He had come out empty handed and covered in goo and was thankful that Skipper had nothing more to say about Jiggles.
"I'm sure that had to be tough for you K'walski." Private finally spoke up and Rico made a sympathetic noise as he squeezed his shoulder in comfort and set a fresh cup of coffee in front of him.
"There was no other way," Kowalski shifted in his seat and sat up straighter, "but I suppose, I do owe all of you an apology for my behavior the last few days. It wasn't right for me to take my frustrations out on you. It's not really an excuse, but it had been so long since I had had a breakthrough."
Skipper entered the from the kitchen with a cup of coffee. "You know, science is a wonderful thing. It gives us toasters and televisions and artificial flavors. But mad science, that just ends with dicey super weapons and freakish creatures and artificial flavors."
"Uh, you said artificial flavors twice, Skipper." Private spoke up confused with where Skipper was going with his speech and by the looks of his teammates they were confused as well.
"Artificial grape, Private. Enough said. But what I'm trying to say is that science is a double-edged sword that brings out both the best and worst in us. I've seen a lot of science bring out the worst in people, seen too many brilliant men lose themselves to it and I won't deny that you're brilliant Kowalski." Skipper's expression softened but only slightly, "I might even argue that you're too smart for your own good, but his team wouldn't be anything without you after all we need someone to balance out the brawn, especially Rico's brawn."
"Skipper…?"
"Look, I realize I've been rather hard on you lately over some of your past few inventions, but I don't want to see you go down a path that I've never seen someone come back from."
"Don't worry, I don't think I'm meant to be the mad scientist type." Kowalski smiled and he was sure it had been his first real smile in days or weeks that hadn't been driven by the high of science. He hadn't stopped to think that Skipper's overwhelming levels of paranoia were related to how deeply he cared for the team. Which made him feel like an idiot given how Skipper had reacted and treated Rico and Private over all that happened over the last few months between Julien, Amarillo Kidd, and Frankie. "And I think I need to take a break from inventing for a while, maybe clean out the lab and start fresh with new ideas."
"Not a bad idea Kowalski, but knowing you, you'd be back to inventing in less than a week."
"Well, I never specified how long of break I'd take." Kowalski said earning a chuckle from his team even though he was already planning his next invention certain that Jiggles had been just what he needed to get out of his inventive slump.