The Hybrid

Chapter 1

The maniacal penguin that everyone inside Central Park Zoo had always known as Rico, was now lying in his bunk, staring upwards into the dull grey concrete. His usual, perky and explosive self, filled with notions of exploding things was no longer there and the look in his eyes seemed a lot more sordid. The emptiness ate at him and quite clearly, he was a wreck.

All he had now was that god-awful memory from earlier.

[Flashback]

It had begun as a relatively normal and satisfying day. Perhaps too good, with the blue skies, snowcones to go around and the permission to explode a stand or two, which he'd received from Skipper, much to his joy and surprise. However, nothing lasts forever.

As he entered the headquarters, frantically searching for his doll-friend, Miss Perky to tell her all about his latest escapade, he already had a strange, queasy feeling. Something in the back of his head was telling him that the day had so far been a little... too good. The lemurs weren't bouncing around, their music booming. The rats were out of the zoo. Everything was much too quiet, much too perfect.

And then the discovery hit him. Miss Perky was gone.

[End of Flashback]

High time to do something about it, he finally decided, getting up to his feet. He searched again, digging through the contents of the main room, destroying half of Kowalski's lab and turn the majority of the penguins' headquarters upside down, in search of his plastic beauty. Yet, at the end of the day, there seemed to be still no sign of his little lady.

What he did come across was a letter. And as it were, he wasn't utterly illiterate. As amateur as his skills were, he was not willing to go to the chimps. They were much too talkative and loud and neither of them would be able to understand his dilemma. With that in mind, he opened the letter with care, both relieved and worried to know that the letter was indeed addressed to his team. He read on, eyes scanning the page as his beak dropped just a little at the contents inside of the envelope that he'd found just seconds beforehand.

Dearest penguin enemies,

You may think this is Blowhole, writing to you. However, I can most definitely assure you that I am nothing like that pathetic mammal and most certainly do not cooperate with him. In fact, this letter is aimed primarily at Rico and if you are reading it then yes, I have stolen your precious doll face.

You may not know me - in fact, I am willing to bet that you have no idea about who I could possibly be - but I know you. As such, I would heavily advise you not to take your comrades with you when you are searching for me, for if they find out who I am and where I come from, know that I will ensure that you wave your dolly goodbye!

And as I am willing to be nice to you, I'll give you a little clue. You'll find me in the deepest parts of the Amazon rainforest, in Brazil.

Yours sincerely,

unknown.

Rico glanced at the letter with a grimace.

Skipper, who had been unbeknownst to him standing behind the taller penguin for a while now, reading over his shoulder, looked at his soldier with a stern look. As Rico turned around he could read the anger and paranoia from his leader's eyes. "Don't even think about it, soldier" Skipper ordered, as Rico flinched. The other penguin lowered his head.

"Kowalski, letter analysis!" Skipper then added as he handed the letter to the lieutenant who was standing beside him. How had they managed to creep up on him so silently? Rico shook his head, before looking to Kowalski.

The overly analytic penguin took the letter, sniffing at it, with an "hmm" forming on his beak. Looking at it closely, he began with his analysis. That soon turned to licking, then to sampling any fingerprints or leftover DNA and then obsessively looking at it under a microscope. Rico decided to sit all that out, watching nervously, from a distance. There was something rather disturbing about the precision and the ways behind Kowalski's supposed genius. Something about the way that Kowalski had studied that letter made him glad that he wasn't an object too. And by the end of it, he wasn't the only one giving Kowalski a weird look.

"What have you found, Kowalski?" Skipper inquired, watching Kowalski with a disturbed look on his face. Kowalski however, remained unfazed.

"According to the material, the letter itself was written on certified rainforest paper. Or at least, it was made from wood coming from a rainforest. This fiend appears to be smarter than I had originally thought though, there seem to be absolutely no finger or paw prints, or DNA. Clean as sanitising gel." Kowalski informed the team, disappointing Skipper and Rico further. He then glanced at Rico, with something akin to sympathy. "I have to agree with Skipper. Judging by how little information we have on this animal - whoever it may be - this creature is dangerous and it is far too risky to go alone. Perilous, even for someone of your skill-set, Rico."

There was the temptation to hit something, the urge to scream. Never did he feel so useless! Instead, he looked away, walking away from his teammates.

Rico was now, five minutes later, pacing around the HQ, thoughts churning inside his head. He was indeed thinking, with his flippers behind his back, focused on nothing but his arguing mind.

'Should I disobey and look for Ms Perky, or should I obey and lose my dolly forever?' he wondered, sighing. They had to understand...

Private, who had been watching the television, when Rico had begun pacing around the seats, gave him a worried look. Nevertheless, once the programme he had been watching had finished, the cute penguin wandered off, not wanting to upset his companion even more by denying Rico the freedom to rescue his doll. After all, he wouldn't have been able to live without his lunacorn toy either.

If Private had stuck around for longer he would have heard the weapons expert say 'yup!' to himself. But with the little penguin gone and the other two out on Recon, no one would know of Rico's plans.