Chapter 2:
Life Or Death Situation
We headed to Coney Island, once again, but had to take other means of transport as their car wasn't at the garage. We still remembered the way there, even after three years. Only Nick, Gem, Ernie and me were going, as we needed Ashley to take care of Private, with the help of Marlene.
"Great! How are we gonna get in the warehouse? There are thermal cameras now! Even if we were invisible, it would still see us!" Nick whispered as we looked at the thermal cameras moving about on the outside of the warehouse Private said he was in. It was now clear that Blowhole has learned his lesson. Screams and shouts can be heard coming from the inside the building. This was definately the place.
"Ernie, what are you doing? Now's not the time to play with the smartphone!" I snarled as he was busy using it. "I'm not! I'm trying to hack the...got it!" We heard muffled shouts from the building.
"Doc! There's something wrong with the cameras!" It came from one of the lobsters. "Urgh! I knew I should have bought the branded ones rather than this piece of junk!" We all looked him, amazed. "How'd you do that?" I asked. He simply smirked as we made our way to a hole in the wall that we saw hidden behind a dumpster.
"Natural talent..." Gem rolled her eyes. We made it through the hole and we found ourselves behind a whole bunch of boxes. It smelt of fish. This was most likely the Dolphin Aquarium's storage warehouse. The place was dim, which made it even easier to hide as we had painted ourselves black to blend into the night.
The screams and angry yelling echoed through the warehouse. We looked on the other side of the boxes we were hiding behind and saw a horrific sight. We had to stop ourselves from gasping in order not to be found by anyone.
We saw the three boys being tortured in three different ways and in three different areas of the place. Skipper was strapped to what appears be an old sparky, which is basically an electric chair, and Hans was electrocuting Skipper everytime he didn't want to cooperate. Kowalski was standing on the floor with a noose around his neck. Clemson was busy whipping him and asking questions. Rico was in Savio's grip, tightening it when he doesn't answer his questions. It was a horrible sight to look at.
"Ok, we have to be quick on this. Here, I took these from Alice's office..." I gave Nick and Gem a tranquillizer dart each. "...I only got two, so use them wisely. Now, Ernie, you start hacking the system and make them get out of here. Nick, you go for Kowalski and Gem, you go for Rico. I will go for Skipper. Comprende?"
They nodded and Ernie started hacking using the smartphone. Suddenly, the alarms started blaring and a voice repeated 'Fire, Fire, Fire...' Everyone looked around to see what's going on. "Urgh! Didn't I tell them to disable the fire alarm already! Hans, Savio, Clemson, stay here and guard the prisoners. I need to go and see what's wrong at the control room. Oh, and you can do what you want. I don't need them anymore..." He laughed menacingly as he left of his segway. Then, the three of us sprung into action. Let's have some POV in this story, shall we?
Josh's POV:
As soon as we heard Blowhole leave, I made my way to the right side of the warehouse, hiding in the shadows to avoid being seen by Hans. He was giving some victory speech or something as I got closer.
"Aah Skippah. He has finally given me permission to get rid of you. No one will be able to save you now..." He them did his awkward evil laugh and the other two glared at him. "That's your evil laugh! That's the lamest one I've ever have heard in my entire life! Try mine..." Clemson proceeded with his evil laugh.
"Now that's an evil laugh..." I heard Savio reply. "Why thank you. I've been practising a lot..." Hans immediately interrupted him. "Will you two stop making fun of my laugh and start the killing already!..." I could see the two nod smugly at his request. "...Now, any of you three have any last words before we end you?"
I then heard Skipper speak up with his pain-stricken voice. "It has been an honour working with you men..." I could barely make out the soft voices of the other two. "You too..." and "Uh huh..." was what I could make out.
"Now Skippah, say goodbye!" He did another evil laugh and so did the other two. Skipper closed his eyes and braced for the worse. CLONK! Hans fell flat on the floor, revealing a black figure behind. "Goodbye"
It was me, and I just hit Hans hard in the head with a lead pipe. Two more screams, thuds and victory phrases were heard at the same time as well. Skipper opened his eyes to gaze at his rescuer. "Josh?"
I got him out of the electric chair and helped him up onto his feet. "Miss me?" I said. I put his flipper over my shoulder and we made our way to where Ernie was.
Nick's POV:
When Josh said it was clear to go, I made my way to Kowalski on the left side of the warehouse. He was still attached to the noose, as expected. Clemson was saying something to Hans right after he did an evil laugh, which sounded pretty awkward.
"That's your evil laugh!..." he said, chuckling. "...That's the lamest one I've ever heard in my entire life! Try mine..." He then did his evil laugh, which, to be honest, sounded pretty good. I then heard Savio reply to his claim. "Now that's an evil laugh..." Clemson claimed that he practises a lot to get it right.
"Will you two stop making fun of my laugh and start the killing already!..." Hans yelled. I immediately pulled out the dart Josh gave me and I made my way towards Clemson, following the shadows at all times.
Hans asked if anyone of them had any last words. "It has been an honour working with you men..." I heard Skipper say. He sounded in pain. I heard Kowalski reply with "You too..." and Rico with a choked "Uh huh..." This was getting grave.
"So, Kowalski, I guess you know what's gonna happen now. I guess I will get my revenge on you for preventing me from becoming king..." He did another evil laugh as he put a bag over his head. He then pulled on the lever that releases some weights. Instantly, Kowalski was raised up by the noose and started choking him, but a big yelp of pain stopped Clemson from savouring the moment.
"OW! What poked my tail!" He reached behind and grabbed his tail. At the end of it was a distinct tranquillizer dart. "A tranq...uil-li...zer...da..." He fell on his face before he could finish. I could hear that the others were also knocked out at the same time. "Awww. The king is taking a beauty nap..." I then remembered what I had to do.
"Oh! Right! Kowalski!" I quickly pulled out the pocket knife I had brought along and cut the rope attached to the weights. Kowalski fell with a thud onto the floor, gasping for air. As soon as I loosened the rope around his neck, he started coughing.
"OH MY GOSH, Kowalski! Are you alright!?" I helped him up to a sitting position and took the bag off his head. I proceeded to cut the tape keeping his flippers behind his back. "I'm...(Coughs)...alright...Thanks..."
"Don't thank me yet. We still got to get you guys outta here!" I pulled his flipper round my neck and helped him make his way to where Ernie was hiding at.
Gem's POV:
After Nick and Josh left to save Kowalski and Skipper respectively, I followed Nick and went further past where she hid at to make it to where Rico was. His face was hidden by the snake so I couldn't see him.
"Now that's an evil laugh..." I heard the snake answer to the red ruffed lemur, claiming his evil laugh was better than the puffin's. And I just have to say this, he was right. His evil laugh was better than the puffin's awkward sounding one.
"Hmm...How will I do this?" I asked in my head as I looked at the dart. I heard Skipper say something and the other two replied to it. "You too..." was what the tall one in the noose said. The one I was trying to save was grunting out in a choked voice what sounds like "Uh huh..."
"Sssso, Rico. Can you guesssss what I'm thinking?" the snake asked. I was right behind him now and when I saw Rico's face, a strange feeling came over me. My heart started pumping faster and I felt nervous. I couldn't even think right either. All I felt like doing was to stare at him all day and do nothing more. A warm smile crept up my face. Then, I realised what came over me. I had just fallen for him.
He didn't answer, he just looked down. "Well...I guesssss I'll jusssst sssshow you..." He opened his mouth and was obviously going to eat him. "OH NO YOU DON'T!" I jumped out of the shadows and put the dart right above Rico's head, where he then bit down on it.
"CHEW ON THAT, SUCKA!" He screamed in pain as he backed away with the tranquillizer dart stuck in his mouth. He soon let go of his grip on Rico and I caught him. The big, yellow snake fell on the floor, unconscious. Rico started coughing and wheezing, trying to recover from the grip.
"Oh my! Are you ok?" I looked into his eyes. He looked so handsome, even though he looked like a bruised banana. He had a cute little tuff of feathers on his head that resembled a mohawk. He also had a huge scar on his beak, but I still didn't care. He was perfect in my eyes.
He answered with a grunt. I'm not sure if he always talks like this or it's because of his possibly broken ribs. I helped him up and we waddled over with his flipper on my shoulder to where Ernie was.
Normal POV (Josh's POV):
We all met back with Ernie behind the boxes. "Ernie, watch them while we do something. Oh, and go ahead with phase two..." We did what we needed to and Ernie initiated phase two. More POV!
Blowhole's POV:
I was so furious when Red One told me that he had no idea why the fire alarms went off. "What do you mean you don't know why the..." Then, it hit me.
"Wait...URGH! It's Josh and Nick! They're here! Lobsters! Quickly, before..." Then, the alarms started blaring and the red lights were flashing. We were being locked down! "No! Their locking us down!"
I drove my segway as fast as I could to the door but it was too late. Then, the PA system kicked in. "Attention passengers. We are experiencing technical difficulties so we will be locking the place down. The servers will be up and running in an estimated time of 69 weeks..." It was Josh.
"69 weeks!" I yelled. "...Sorry, 6 to 9 weeks. So, to pass the time, please enjoy this 2 year loop of 'We are the champions'. Thank you for flying with Air Penguin. Have a nice day!" This time, it was Nick.
The PA turned silent and then the song mention played through it. I have been tricked by the pen-gu-wins, AGAIN!
Normal POV (Josh's POV):
"Now that's...how you troll..." I high fived Ernie and Nick. We had just given our victory speech and now played a song on an infinite loop so as to annoy them.
"What about Clemson, Hans and Savio? When they wake up, they'll..." Skipper said. "They won't go anywhere...Now let's get outta here!" I grabbed Skipper's flipper and put it over my shoulder. Nick and Gem did the same with Kowalski and Rico respectively. Ernie packed up all the other stuff into a bag he was carrying.
We got out of the warehouse through the hole in the wall and ran back to Central Park. I noticed that Gem was looking at Rico dreamily. "Uh, Gem? You alright? You've been staring at Rico ever since you saved him..." She snapped out of her daze. "Huh? Oh, uh...I was just...uh...making sure he's alright...you know?..."
It was obvious she was hiding something. We all took the safest way to the zoo by taking the not-so-safe subway. It was definitely safer and faster than on foot as the three penguins were severely injured.
