A scientist's revenge: chapter 2

Hi,

Thanks for the reviews:

Alexia1012- thanks for the welcome and glad your enjoying the story

611-L- Thanks for the following, and glad your loving it. Kowalski is getting there, tell me was this what you were expecting?

hmbird11- wording noted, thanks for reviewing, is this any better?

New readers and old welcome to chapter two, enjoy:


Dinnertime was a special time for the penguins, a time when tactics were bantered about and stories shared about happy moments during the day. It was a time when the deception that they held around them all day would be shed, no secrets in the base: everyone knew who everyone else was. However, it was equally a time to question teammates on matters, which didn't need further action such as court martial.

"So Private…" Skipper began, he normally would be the first to start a questioning, and he was leader: he needed to know.

"Yes Skipper" Private chirped out, he seemed happier somehow, as if a great weight had been lifted. He wasn't cowering like normal under Skipper's questioning gaze.

"How could you interpret what the chimp was saying before his apey friend did?". Private looked around the table meeting each questioning gaze in turn before looking down at his day's worth of fish and back up again.

"I learnt it in London!" Private exclaimed almost straight away wanting to defend himself, it wasn't that he wasn't happy with the team not knowing; it was the way they wanted to know. He wasn't a criminal.

"Fascinating" muttered Kowalski, his mind clearly halved between the conversation and some distant thought.

"Its true!" Private squeaked, his voice going up several octaves with volume. "I was there when the Paralympics was on…its to help people who can't hear!"

"Thank you Private" Skipper said already turning to a different conversation, he thought as such, and when one of his team confirmed what he already knew he didn't need any other persuasion.

"Skipper..." Private started trying to get his own back on the Spanish Inquisition.

"Yes Private?" Skipper said, raising a non-existent eyebrow.

"A…Secret…for a erm…secret?" Private asked nervously rubbing his fins together to try and comfort himself.

"What does that mean Private?" Skipper asked perplexed by the sudden change in conversation.

"Well…I" he was interrupted by Kowalski.

"I believe he means one of us now needs to say something about ourselves" he muttered not even bothering to look up at his leader. Skipper frowned and turned back to Private who positively cowered under his gaze.

"Well what do you want to know Private?" he asked bending over the table, hand on his flipper. To a spectator he would seem totally at ease with the conversation, but inside he was a penguin balancing on a knife-edge. It was a direct challenge against the demons of his past, a challenge he was not yet ready to face.

"Erm…Well..Skipper…The thing is…er…Denmark" Private squeaks and covers his beak as if he had uttered something disgusting and dirty.

"I told you Private that is specifically between me and the Danes" Skipper murmured, his confidence petering out as he was forced internally to admit he could not yet face the demons of his past.

Recon- 2000

With the zoo divided into 5 different sections the penguins split: jumping over the small iron wrought fence posing no threat or barrier to them.

"Alright split up, you know the drill" Skipper commanded, total confidence in his time allowing him to keep walking away from his team to his own mission.

Kowalski too turned the other way, but for a different reason. Military protocol always stated to never turn your back on a leader, and yet, this was exactly what the lieutenant did to his commander. An action that was not lost on Skipper who frowned slightly, but kept walking, he would deal with it later he decided.

Kowalski was spitting sparks, almost literally, except his own brain didn't allow him to think in metaphors like that. It was impossible to spit sparks, unless you were Rico. He had been thinking a lot in the past week, and as he crept stealthily around the zoo it became even clearer how wrong Skipper was about the life they led. They weren't commandos anymore, they used to be and Kowalski missed the time spent in Madagascar, Europe, Africa…That was living. He pushed into the Reptile house, cringing at the fake humidity of the hut; it truly was horrible- the wrong environment for a penguin.

"Come in Kowalski" Skipper's voice rang over the communicator device they used. Sighing internally Kowalski drew a shield of calm around him and proceeded to answer.

"All's quiet in the reptile house Skipper, everyone's a sleep, over" he turned once around on the spot taking in the scene: the harsh fluorescent lighting, the rubbish scattered around the hard concrete corridor that the young penguin stood in. Hard and cold like ice, and suddenly a yearning filled his heart, a yearning to visit the place he should be, to be with the penguins that nature dictated, in the environment that nature wanted him to be in. He growled to himself, and clenching and unclenching a flipper he proceeded to walk out the doors swinging shut behind him, but not before swinging outwards. The door hit him, sending the young penguin flying into some metal chicken wire, his head sticking in between the wire and staying there.

Kowalski struggled for a moment angrily cursing everything from Skipper to the Danes and back again. He sagged for a moment thinking about all the injustice of the zoo.

"Kowalski come in" Skipper's voice came again; this time even the scientist could not miss the concern that coloured his voice. Kowalski struggled again but this time, without the anger clouding his reasoning he quickly freed himself. Bouncing on the pavement he looked up at the wire fencing around the enclosure.

"Kowalski" Skipper said again, his voice turning from mild to strong concern, and another emotion that the penguin commando couldn't quite detect. Was it possible his leader was scared…for..him?

"Skipper, I'm here" he said, his rush to please his leader making him forget standard protocol, something that didn't go unmissed by Skipper.

"Protocol Lieutenant" he said sharply, making Kowalski convince himself that he had imagined the fear before. "Where are you" Skipper asked distracting from his original message.

"I'm…" he looked around and up to the statue which all penguins didn't want to see. "I'm" he repeated unable to get the words out as images flooded him of his past, outside of the zoo with his friends, him his friends, the wild. It had been beautiful. This he thought angrily, looking around the large fenced pen that was build for Alex, the lion who ran away to the circus. Alex, who was with his friends right then: living the dream, maybe not the dream that Kowalski wanted, but their dream.

"Doris" he whispered, his voice reverberating around the empty pen. Doris, the love of his life who was out there that moment living, as she should, free, a true daughter of the waves. No human would tie her down, no human had the right to bind her and lock her in a tank. A tank like some of his comrades was in right then. Nothing would be more fitting, and he should be with her, swimming and flipping and spiralling with her. Dancing, as they should, two halves of the same whole. Instead…instead he was in concrete, bound, Doris would be ashamed of him. With the thought of his love, his dolphin, his thoughts journeyed to another dolphin. One that was right now not thinking to dissimilarly to him, he whispered the name, the word rebounding around the empty concrete enclosure, mocking him and teasing at the same time. One word. Blowhole.


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