Happy October, everybody! :D It's sbartist357 here with another PoM story for your reading enjoyment! :) This one is a little different from my other stories for the following reasons: It's slightly more serious than my other fanfictions, and it's also the first story I've written where humor is not an emphasis (there will be a couple of funny parts later on, though). Okay, now that I got the preliminary notes out of the way, enjoy this (very short) first chapter! :)

It was nighttime in New York City. The zoo had already closed, and all the animals had gone to sleep. Except one.

Kowalski was in his lab, busy working on yet another project. He had been experimenting for weeks now, trying and failing to come up with the proper formula, often late into the night. It was hard working on such little sleep, but he just couldn't stop now - he was so close to finishing it. Kowalski was attempting to make an energy drink that would give them an instant boost for two hours. He figured it would be useful for when they were on a night mission, or whenever Skipper couldn't get his regular fish coffee.

The experimental drink was bubbling in a test tube positioned over a small burner. Kowalski turned the burner off and let the blue mixture cool for a few minutes. He carefully touched the test tube with his flipper - the glass was completely cool. Kowalski scratched his head, puzzled; he figured it would still be slightly warm. Regardless of that, he shrugged, picked it up, and gently swirled the liquid around.

"Well, now it's time to test it." He murmured to himself. He raised the glass up to his beak. Normally, whenever he wanted to test something, he would have one of the others (a.k.a. Private) try it out. However, he always made it a rule to test these types of experiments on himself first.

He would soon learn that was a wise decision.

Kowalski started drinking the concoction. It tasted like blue-raspberry, which was a good sign (at least the flavoring was precise). Now he just needed to see if it would boost his energy and-

Suddenly, Kowalski started to feel dizzy. He placed his left flipper on his head and stumbled a little. His entire body started to feel cold and numb.

"What's. . . happening. . . to. . . me?" He collapsed onto the floor, the remaining liquid spilling out of the test tube he was still holding. The last thing he saw was the ceiling of his lab.

And everything went black.

Oh, no! D: Poor Kowalski! Is he okay?! :[ Keep reading! :)