Love has a starting point and a finish line. Where did love start and end for me? Well...
"Are you all right soldier?" The voice in the darkness spoke to me. "Tell me you're all right!". The voice spoke again. I didn't know where I was at the moment, but I felt a painful sensation run through my whole body. "Hoover Dam... I've gone and gotten a new recruit killed on the first day!" I heard the voice fill with disappointment and I urged my eyes open. I blinked in the bright light and saw another penguin looking at me. I instantly remembered where I was. I was in the Central Park Zoo, being introduced to the two other penguins in the habitat. Everything else was fuzzy.
"I'm not..." I started to say when the penguin above me looked at me and smiled.
"Soldier! You're not dead!" I stared at the penguin's smile and I was mesmerized. "Kowalski, no need to bring the shovel! He's alive and you're on mantinence duty for a year!"
"But Skipper, it isn't my fault that he walked straight into my electrically charged up HQ spire," Skipper... So that was his name. I thought. I stared back up at him and felt my chest jump.
"How many times do I have to tell you that the HQ isn't going to get hit by lightning from all the way down here?" There was no answer from the penguin that was just out of my sight. I saw Skipper shake his head and turn back to me. "We're going to need to get that cut cleaned up," He touched it and I flinched. "That's pretty deep. I can't guarantee that you'll be left without a scar but I'll make sure you'll never get one like this again," He smiled at me again and I tried to smile back but it hurt my face. "Don't do that, you'll have more time to smile later," Skipper got up and left, leaving more sun shining on my face. I yelped and closed them, afraid that the light was so bright, I'd be left blind. This time, when I closed my eyes, I saw Skipper's face. I don't know what it was, instinct like the first time I saw my mother and father or just a hunch, but I felt that this penguin would keep me safe at all costs. "Soldier?" I opened my eyes once again to see Skipper standing above me, face filled with relief. "I didn't really catch your name. I mean, you were about to tell me when this happened," Usually, when someone asked for my name, the response was automatic. 'My name is Rico.' But at that moment, my brain was jumbled and scrambled and my mouth had a hard time understanding the confusing mess that was my brain.
"Mah name I Rico," My words came out as an almost undecipherable gibberish.
"Rico, eh? Hmmm... Your way of talking is odd but understandable. Unlike the mumbo jumbo that guy over there speaks," He bent down towards me and started wrapping up my gash. I closed my eyes and saw his face again. My chest jumped up again and my mind felt like it was put in a blender. Is he why I couldn't talk straight? It wasn't like it was the electrocution did this to me. I knew then that, whatever this guy did to me, it made me lose my mind. And for some reason, I was okay with that. This was the beginning of it all.
"Hello, pen-goo-ins," I lifted my gave from the ground and saw my team a couple of yards in front of me and Blowhole. I sighed in relief and fidgeted in my chains to get their attention.
"Rico, thank goodness you're okay!" I stared thankfully at him as he ran up to me to set me free somehow. He was my protector, my fighter. And even though I was capable of helping myself, nothing in the world felt safer than being under his embrace.
"Ova Heer!" I pulled against the restraints, hoping that, somehow, I'd get free so I can pull Skipper in my flippers.
"Not so fast Skipper," Blowhole stuck his flipper in front of Skipper's path. I growled and started yelling jumbled absurdities at him. Blowhole looked down at me, his face curled into a nasty scowl.
"Move Blowhole!" Skipper kicked away the dolphin's flipper and continued towards me. Blowhole pressed a button and as soon as Skipper got close enough for me to see his marvelous blue irises, he was electrocuted.
"Skibbah!" I stared helplessly as Skipper flew feet away from me and landed right back where he started, feathers singed. I pulled and pulled on the restraints to no avail. I stopped pulling, letting my back hit the wall hard, hoping that my love was alright.
"Blowhole, you wicked miscreant!" Kowalski yelled as he observed Skipper's vital signs.
"Is he alright, K'walski?" Private asked, a sob building up in the back of his throat. Hearing that made me want to cry, too. Here I was, stuck to the wall when I should've been with Skipper.
"I'm alright, Private," I gasped with happiness when Skipper sat up, gave reassuring smiles to all of us and jumped to his feet a bit unsteadily. "Now, listen Blowhole, release Rico right now or I'll have to use brute force," The villain laughed and moved closer to him on his segway.
"I guess you're going to need to use brute force," Skipper stared down Blowhole for a moment before jumping up onto the control panel on the segway.
"Kowalski! Private! Back up!" I watched my other teammates jump on Blowhole's back and tip him over. Skipper stood on the control panel, pressing every single button, seeking a productive result. He stepped onto a blue button and I felt the chains holding my flippers back loosen and fall off. I cheered and jumped to my feet. I looked in his direction. Me and him locked eyes and he smiled at me. I smiled back.
"Get off me, you ingrates!" I heard Blowhole yell in the background. I looked and saw the dolphin knock off Kowalski and Private and start crawling towards his beloved segway. I ran towards the two penguins on the floor, knowing Skipper could handle himself. They were unconscious but otherwise alive.
"Rico! It's knock knock time!" My mind raced with my other love, explosions. I started spitting out timer bomb after timer bomb, running around and placing them in various places in the lair. As I placed the last bomb, I spat out the remote that controlled the countdown. I looked around for my leader and saw him wrestling on the floor with Blowhole.
"Skibbah, c'mon! Kaboom!" I explained to the best of my ability that we needed to get out so we could blow up Blowhole and his lair. Skipper kicked the dolphin's snout and turned to me.
"Give me the remote," I threw it to him and he caught it. "Now leave!" I looked at Skipper in shock.
"No! You come too!" Skipper sighed deeply and kicked Blowhole again. He groaned and held his bleeding snout. My leader walked up to me and stared intensely into my eyes.
"You're gong to take Kowalski and Private and you're going to get out of here," My beak opened and closed, trying to figure out what to say.
"Buh... I'm no leavin' you here!" I couldn't help it when my face started to mope. Without Skipper, I wasn't safe. I wasn't secure. I wasn't tame. Without Skipper, I was chaos.
"It's my job to make sure you don't get hurt Rico. Now I know that Blowhole will go after us for the rest of our lives... and I can't risk you getting hurt," He grabbed me into a hug and I hugged him back, squeezing as hard as I could.
"Skibbah... I... I..." I suddenly felt nauseous. I opened my beak again to say what I felt needed to be said when Skipper stopped me.
"I know, Rico. I know. I love you too," He let me out of the hug and pushed me towards my two unconscious friends. "Now go!" I picked up the two and carried them under my flippers towards the exit. I turned to Skipper one last time. He didn't se me though, since he was fighting back Blowhole's revenge hits. I continued out the exit and ran out. I reached the cool breeze of the New York night and collapsed on the ground a couple of yards away from the lair. I laid Kowalski and Private on the ground gently and hurried my face into my flippers. It wasn't long after that I heard the explosion. He was gone at the push of the button. If I would've known it was so simple to lose someone you loved, I would've tried to stop my falling. Though, at the moment, I doubt it would've really mattered. He'd be gone forever and that would bring on the destruction of my entire life. I sobbed the rest of the night outside of destruction zone. I refused to go back to the place where it all began.
"I'll miss you," I whispered into the wind. I realized I wasn't tongue tied anymore and punched the ground. "I'll miss you too," This was the end of it all.
A/N: Um... Yeah, this was just going to be a happy little Skico story so I don't know how it turned into this... So yeah. Surrender shall be out soon. Probably tomorrow if I don't get preoccupied. Thanks for reading.