"Fire in the hole!" Bang! "Fire in the hole!" Bang! "Fire in the hole!" Bang!

"Blood in the eardrums!" shouts Skipper, banging on the lab door as hard as he can. "Things have been exploding in there for a half an hour and I wanna know what's going on!"

"Skipper, I told you that this compound I'm working on is highly combustible and if you were to-"

"I'm coming in." Skipper opens the door.

"No Skipper don't!" As soon as the doorway's wide open it's engulfed in flames. When the fire dissipates Skipper's covered in pitch black burns and the top of his flat head is sizzling.

"Kowalski, a word."


The food-dish flips back and Kowalski flies into the penguin habitat, landing and skidding on his face. Skipper pops his head up and shouts, "And don't come back till you've learned your lesson!" He slams the hatch shut.

"I told you not to come in," Kowalski grumbles under his breath as he gathers himself.

"What?" Skipper lifts the hatch up.

"Uh nothing, just stretching." He flexes and grunts exaggeratingly. Shrugging, Skipper disappears back inside. Kowalski grumbles to himself, gibberish this time, and walks away.


Inside the penguins' garage, Kowalski and Rico lean under the hood, fixing their car together.

"There's nothing more relaxing than messing about with engines," comments Kowalski.

"Uh-huh," agrees Rico.

"I don't even remember why Skipper was upset with me in the first place."

"Nuh-uh."

"And so what if I blow things up from time to time, I'm the resident genius, that's what I do."

"Kaboom!"

"Exactly, you do the same thing, but do you get in trouble? Nooo. With you it's just, 'Oh I guess it's time to reel Rico in again. That psychotic rascal.'"

Rico drops his tools. "Hey!"

Kowalski puts down as well, "Well it's true. Honestly, what's the difference between you and me?" The other penguin reaches into his mouth and produces a plastic bouquet of flowers.

"Ta da!"

"Oh any penguin can do that." Kowalski snatches the flowers away, but then hesitates. Rico crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow. Go on. Giving a pompous sniff Kowalski sticks them into his mouth and swallows. He makes a struggling, choking sound as he forces the bouquet down until it settles in his stomach. "See," he says weakly, "ta da."

"Alright!" Rico pats his back enthusiastically, "Nice."

"Uhhg. I don't feel so good," Kowalski clutches his stomach.

"Huh?" Rico hits his back harder and Kowalski hiccups. "Hehehe. Squeak."

"I do not squ-hic-eak. –hic-" Rico downright guffaws. Trying to look annoyed, Kowalski keeps hiccupping and hiccupping, sending Rico into louder bouts of laughter. Kowalski shakes his shoulder. "Come on Rico, this –hic- isn't funny anymore. –hic- How do I –hic- stop?" Rico points inside his own mouth and grunts. Shrugging, Kowalski braces his flippers on his knees and prepares to regurgitate. The flowers pass up his esophagus and begin to emerge from the back of his throat, then it stops. He starts waving his arms and making desperate gurgles. Kowalski's choking.

"Waaaaaaah!" goes Rico, running in a circle. Kowalski pulls him back and gestures to his mouth. Rico reaches in and braces his feet against Kowalski's chest. He pulls and pulls until his flippers slip and he's sent stumbling into the engine. The hood slams shut on him and the car shakes with the cries of a frustrated Rico.

Kowalski's face starts to turn blue. Rico travels through in inner mechanics of the car and shoots out of the trunk. He races round and grabs Kowalski from behind. Lifting his friend up into the air, Rico hooks his flippers and pushes with all his might into Kowalski's stomach. The flowers burst out of Kowalski's mouth and ricochet around the room, eventually ending up in Rico's mouth.

Both penguins collapse to the ground; Kowalski gasping and Rico smiling. "Ta da," croaks Kowalski.


Skipper bangs on the lab door. Power tools roar inside. "Darn it Kowalski, I told you no more!"

"Skipper?" Skipper turns to find that Kowalski's standing behind him.

"Kowalski? If you're out here then who's in there?"

"Oh that's just Rico. I promised him that he could try his hand at inventing."

"GREAT GRAVY GOOMBAS!" Skipper sprints into the lab. Kowalski snickers.

The end.