Skipper's Military Days

Episode 3:

Sensation finally came back to Skipper. He could finally feel as if he were alive again. He tried to clear his head to what happened last night. The first thought was that he was on the shore of Clevelantis and was about to be found by Elise. No, that already happened. Where was he though? This place didn't feel comforting at all. It made him shiver uncontrollably. Now he remembered. He remembered saving those kits from Steak Knife and then telling Kowalski to leave without him. He remembered being hypnotized by Steak Knife's gentle words and how the evil psychotic penguin collected everything and… Yes, it was all coming back to him now. Steak Knife promised to hurt him, but talked so sweetly about it. Then Steak Knife collected his blood in a jar and then knocked him out. How long was he out for? He was shivering uncontrollably and knew it was from his own fear.

He opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Steak Knife standing right over him. He jumped back and cowered as far to the wall as he could. He was laying in a bunk just like the ones in the Well Deserved. It was oddly comfortable. Skipper knew he was cornered and just waited for Steak Knife to do something terrible. The evil penguin was holding…a blanket. He placed it on top of Skipper. He knew what this red blanket was. It was to wrap him and suffocate him or something.

"You looked cold," Steak Knife said casually. "So I brought you a blanket. You have been out for a while."

Skipper held the blanket close and stared right into those trusting green eyes and felt…safe somehow. Based on everything that happened, it was just impossible. Not even Kowalski could find slim enough odds. He tried to treasure this moment alive and he wondered what it was like to die.

"It's morning," he continued. "About time to wake up, yes? I did you the favor of giving you my bunk. It is the least I can do for such a special visitor."

Skipper's fear episode was over and he leaned closer to Steak Knife with interest. Such nice manners… So he was confused. Why exactly was Steak Knife being so nice to him? It was so confusing, but he trusted Steak Knife.

"I hope you enjoy your stay on my ship, yes? Well, come to the deck with me. Something very special has to be done."

Skipper glanced at his own blood sitting in a jar like a wonderful nick-nack and snapped out of it. He found something to grab on to and held on as tight as he could.

"No, don't do that. Just come on. Resisting won't do you any good."

Skipper would not let go. Steak Knife was going to torture him or something. He grabbed on to the bunk railing and refused to let go.

"You're trying my patience," Steak Knife pointed out not so sweetly. "I just need you to do something for me."

"No."

"Show some confidence now. You are not the same private I knew yesterday. Look me in the eye when you refuse me."

Skipper looked away, but Steak Knife grabbed his head so he was forced to look into those green eyes. He blinked once, but was already under that trusting spell he could not ignore. He felt safe now and craved more of Steak Knife's words.

"Let's go now."

Skipper instinctively let go and followed Steak Knife to the deck of the Red October. He could feel the gentle vibrations of the water waves and hear the ocean. They were moving somewhere. He felt despair when he remembered that it wasn't moving when he was captured. He had no idea where they were going. That meant Kowalski and the Time Bandit could be miles away. What if they never saw each other again? The thought was almost too much to bear.

"See that smoke up there?" Steak Knife instructed and pointed towards the smoke stack. "Well, I think it is blocked up. Usually a lot more comes out of there than that and my ship is going oddly slow. I need you to clean that out for me. Just use the pick-ax that I put by the coal storage. I would do this myself, but I am still a little battered from last night."

Skipper was surprised to see that the huge knife he stabbed completely through his right wing didn't do much damage. There was just a little dried blood and Steak Knife favored it more than the other.

"While you do that, I'm going hunting. I expect this done when I get back."

Wait a minute… The sun was dawning on a brilliant idea. Steak Knife was leaving him on an enemy ship all alone with NO supervision. Maybe Steak Knife was dumber than he looked. Skipper could easily escape. He tried to look concentrated on how to clean the smoke stacks while Steak Knife dived into the water. He waited a few minutes just to make sure Steak Knife was really gone before planning.

Okay, Skipper. Forget about the plans. You don't know when Steak Knife will be back so it is best to cut and run while you can. Find somewhere to stay I don't care where.

So that was the first thing Skipper did. Without thinking twice, he plunged off the Red October and swam away into the ocean.

"I want to go home," Anneleise moaned. "I'm tired of walking."

"You said you were taking us home," Chase meowed assertively to Kowalski who was walking ahead, urging them to keep up.

"I know, I know!" Kowalski yelled. "I'm trying to get you home. You just be glad we rescued you from certain death."

"Why didn't Skipper come with us?" Anne wondered and ran up beside Kowalski. "We just left him."

"I don't know," he answered and sighed. "I wish I knew."

Anne got bored and lagged behind with her brother. Kowalski was a lot more worried than he let on. He wanted to find Skipper more than anything. Why did he leave Skipper alone with Steak Knife? He felt like such a traitor. What did Skipper do when he left? He remembered that fierce look of aggression in his friend's eyes as he thrust that knife into his worst enemy. It was like he wasn't even Skipper anymore. He turned so ambitious. Now Skipper was gone. Kowalski knew he couldn't take this doing nothing, but he had to take care of Elise's kits first. He couldn't take them on the Time Bandit in case Skipper needed it to escape. So they were stuck on Atlantis hiding in the shadows.

Finally Kowalski saw something parked in the water next to a rocky slope. A boat! It was smaller than the Time Bandit, but that didn't matter. That could take the kits back to Clevelantis while he searched for Skipper. There was a Pole Cat hanging around by the boat and he didn't seem to be doing much, just playing with a golden compass that hung from his neck. Kowalski couldn't trust anyone in Atlantis. It might be with the Southern Raiders and turn them in like the traitor that Elise let stay with them. He couldn't just turn down this opportunity like the others though. He had a boat. He started to scribble down some options. He didn't notice the kits run up ahead and look down the slope at the boat.

"Look!" squealed Chase. "There's somebody down there."

Kowalski shot up suddenly as the kits shot down the slope and straight for the strange Pole Cat..

"Stop!" he called after them, trying not to be too loud. "Come back."

He pursued them, but was no match for their Pole Cat speed. They reached the strange Pole Cat and jumped all around him. He watched them with surprise and didn't react for a few seconds. Kowalski was so scared that he would do something threatening, but he was relieved when he seemed delighted by the kits.

"Hello there, little kits," he purred. "Heck, where did you come from?"

Don't say Steak Knife. Don't say Steak Knife…

"That cliff up there," Anne answered proudly.

Kowalski sighed with relief.

"Just the two of you alone out here," he meowed.

"No. Kowalski is with us. He is coming…"

All three Pole Cats stared up the slope. Kowalski figured there was no point in hiding now and tobogganed down the hill towards the Pole Cats.

"A Doodlepopper! What you two buggers doing with a Doodlepopper?"

"I'm a penguin," Kowalski replied and brushed the dirt off his feathers. "Not a Doodlepopper. Say, is this your boat?"

"I recon it is," The Pole Cat said. "Sure a nice un."

"Do you know where Clevelantis is?"

"Oh, I get it, Doodlepopper!" He said so loudly that Kowalski flinched. "You three want a lift somewhere. You three ain't no different than any others around here."

"That's a double negative, "he pointed out.

The Pole Cat, who wasn't very bright, cocked his head. "A what?"

"Nevermind. Anyway, we really need a ride to Clevelantis."

"Sure thing," he agreed. Kowalski was so happy until he said, "What you got on you?"

Kowalski looked down at himself, but he had nothing the Pole Cat would consider valuable and neither did the kits. He had to use his abnormally intelligent brain to get out of this one. He glanced at the sand and rocks and trees and tried to think up something. He ran over and picked up a leaf and stabbed it through a stick. The Pole Cat wasn't amused.

"You're kidding, right?" he asked boredly.

"Well…No, I'm not," he replied and then though up a good lie. He was trying to scam this Pole Cat, but it was for survival so it was essential. "This is a seventeenth century fly swatter. Keep those flies away especially on hot days. They are very valuable."

"Really? He purred and picked it up. He swished it around like it was suddenly of an amazing value.

"It sure is. I…make them for a living," he lied again. "They are just so rare, but I think it might be worth a trip to Clevelantis, right?"

"Wow, I've been using these things wrong," he meowed. "If you say so, I will take you guys to Clevelantis. Nice doing business with ya."

"I'm staying," he decided, despite the fact that he really wanted to go with them. "The kits will tell you where to let them off."

"See you around then. I can treasure this for a long time yet. Along with my special compass of course."

The Pole Cat purred and looked down at the compass hanging from his neck. Kowalski didn't pay much attention to it until the Pole Cat turned around and the sunlight struck it. It flashed the most beautiful shade of gold that was so familiar. Using only instinct, he leaped on front of the Pole Cat and held the compass in his wings and just stared at it.

"Hey," the Pole Cat warned. "Off my compass. Get your own."

"I…Where did you get this?" he demanded.

"What's it to you?"

"I need to know," Kowalski replied desperately and begged like there was no tomorrow.

"I got it as a reward for fixing up a ship," he answered and seemed surprised to see Kowalski so up in his face about it. "A badly wrecked ship landed here a long time ago and I fixed it up. Some Doodlepoppers just like you rewarded me with this and then set off on their way. I pride myself on my ability to fix ships-"

"What was the name of the ship?" Kowalski shrieked and was practically groveling at the paws of the golden Pole Cat. "Please tell me!"

"Oh, dang. I forgot."

"NO!!!" Kowalski screamed and then was literally groveling at its paws. Even the kits gathered with interest. None of them understood why he was so upset. The Pole Cat didn't understand that he was in possession of a very valuable compass. He would recognize that anywhere from its golden finish and cracked front. It was TJ's compass! That meant only one thing, but he had to make sure.

"Gosh, the name don't matter, Doodlepopper."

"Try to remember. REMEMBER!"

He was completely out of control. He jumped out to attack the Pole Cat while he was staring at the ocean, but the kits pulled him back and luckily, the cat didn't notice.

"What are you doing?" Anne wailed. "You're scaring me!"

Kowalski pushed them off roughly and returned to the paws of the Pole Cat. "Was it a huge freight ship?" he pressed. "A navy blue freight ship that was bombed near the stern?"

"Why…Yes. Yes it was," he meowed surely. "…I remember now! It was called the Well Disceased."

"You mean the Well Deserved!" Kowalski was so happy that he was jittering like crazy. How could this be? It had been five months since the shipwreck and he accepted the fact that he would never see the Well Deserved or his team ever again. All this time they were only about an hour away on the coast of Atlantis. They must of washed up here like they washed up at Clevelantis. "You fixed the ship so it could sail again?"

"Took a while, but I sure did. They left this old place…a few days ago."

"Where were they heading?"

"I don't know. They didn't tell me. I didn't really care anyway though. I'm more interested in how that old red ship is doing. HA! I sure showed him, that old Doodlepopper."

"You fixed the Red October?" Kowalski said calmly and then began to scribble notes down. "And do you know who that belongs to?"

"Some jerk named Steak Knife," he growled with memory. "Never heard of hum, but he offered to pay me with ANIMAL PELTS! That whole rust bucket was full of them so I didn't fix that old thing. I dumped a bunch of tar down the smoke stack. That ship ain't going fast now I bet."

Kowalski couldn't believe his good fortune. He had a pretty good chance of finding his old team and the Well Deserved. He could be a private again! Also, Skipper had to be on that ship with Steak Knife, even though that was a terrible prediction. It had to be true. With the Red October plugged up, the Well Deserved could catch Steak Knife in no time. All of this would just be a terrible nightmare.

They prepared to take off. The kits were fascinated by the boat. They were very excited to get back home to Elise.

"I thought we would never go home," purred Anne. "I really hated that evil penguin."

"Well, I wasn't scared," Chase bragged, a definite lie.

They started to walk on the boat, but stopped when they realized Kowalski wasn't following them.

"Come on, Kowalski," meowed Anneleise.

Kowalski was dreading this moment, but now it was here. He tried to look into their pleading and innocent eyes and remain confident. He sighed and then said "I am not coming with you."

They were shocked by the news. "Why?" they wailed.

"Oh…" Kowalski stopped when the kits immediately hugged him like they would never let him go. "You didn't think I would stay with you forever, did you?"

"We did," cried Anne. "Why are you leaving us?"

"Skipper and I have to serve our country," he explained. "We are soldiers, remember? We have to keep the world safe for kits like you. We need to keep villains like Steak Knife under control."

"Be safe," Anne meowed bravely. "I hope you catch him. He pulled my tail."

"Will we ever see you again?" whined Chase.

"No," he answered and stared out over the ocean. "You probably won't. Just promise me something. Always do the right thing."

They were too young to really understand what he meant and they didn't think of last night. "Sure," they answered. "We will."

Kowalski never thought saying good-bye could be so hard. He watched the kits step on to the boat and the other Pole Cat followed. The ship slowly began to pull away. Kowalski waved to them, wondering if he ever would see them again. This was how Elise probably felt when her foster kits left like this. He left behind his life of happiness, but he knew he did the right thing.