Private's pov
Chapter 6: Science and Lunacorns
K'walski and I hid under the counter inside the old building cradling our rifles; it was quiet….. too quiet. K'walski looked nervous as he peered around the corner. He turned back and motioned with his flippers to exit the building and take cover in the next one. I nodded and we ran using an abandoned car as cover halfway before finally making it to the next building. I waited quietly as K'walski studied the area around us with his heat goggles.
"I think we lost them," He said finally, looking a bit more at ease. I smiled in relief, when suddenly a clinking sound carried across the room and a little can rolled up to our feet. I looked down in confusion and looked back up to see a look of terror cross K'walski's face.
"Grenade!" he exclaimed sliding away as fast as possible. It took a moment before the words actually sunk in and I began sliding away as well. I had only just cleared the building when there was a huge explosion and the wall was blown off. K'walski looked around wildly then turned to me in surprise.
"Duck!" he shouted as he pushed my head down and fired a round over me. I turned around as Rico was blown off his feet, smacking into the ground. Suddenly, another round was fired and K'walski crumpled to the ground. Then, my survival instincts kicked in as I remember rule number one of defensive procedures: Get out of the open. I ran into another building as bullets zoomed over my head. Instead of staying their though, I continued through to the next building. I cut through alleys and hopped over fences as I slid across the town, finally after about a mile I dashed into an abandoned hotel and hid behind a wall in the lobby. My chest heaved as I sucked in as much air as possible trying to calm down.
"I'm ok, I'm safe," I said trying to prove it to myself as I caught my breath from my mad dash across the city.
"Not quite," I whipped around and my jaw dropped as I caught sight of Skippa hanging upside down from one of the balconies on the next floor, aiming directly at me. He had caught me off guard and I didn't have time to react as he pulled the trigger. It felt like someone had punched me in the chest as I was thrown backwards into oblivion. Then everything faded to black as GAME OVER began to flash in big red letters.
I took off the helmet and blinked in the harsh light of the HQ.
"And that is how it's done boys," Skippa said crossing his flippers and smiling proudly, I smiled too.
"Excellent shot sir," I said saluting, "But how did you find me?" I asked curiously.
"That's classified solider," he said as he turned to Rico.
"Rico, great job on those helmets, you've really out done yourself!" he said happily. Rico saluted, soaking up the praise.
"Just doing what I can Skipper," He said smiling. I saw K'walski flinch a little, which was kind of strange, but then Skippa began to speak again.
"Alright boys, I want you all topside by 0800 hours, it's Friday, and you all know what that means," He said looking at each of us.
"Tomorrow we can sleep in?" I asked cheerfully. Skippa smiled.
"Ye- What? No!" He said his smile disappearing as he frowned at me harshly. K'walski was about to say something when Rico cut him off.
"It means that there will be a 68.4% increase in zoo visitors today," he said as K'walski sighed.
"Correctamondo," Skippa said pointing to Rico, "so let's make it extra cute and cuddly today boys, Dismissed." Skippa smiled and patted Rico on the back as he walked over toward the ladder and climbed up. I walked over to the table to join K'walski and Rico for some breakfast. K'walski sat down at the table and began moving a few fish around on his plate, while Rico used some weird looking tool to make calculations and write them down in his notebook. I scooted closer to him to try and see.
"Whatcha doing Ri-," I was cut off as he slammed the notebook closed and turned to me angrily. I jumped back a little frightened by his reaction. Then he seemed to recognize me. He glanced over to where K'walski was sitting, still moving around the fish not even seeming to notice that anything had happened. He sighed and looked back to me.
"I can't discuss it here," He said flatly and got up to leave.
"I wonder what got into him," I thought as I walked over to K'walski, he seemed lost in his own world not even noticing my approach, which concerned me.
"K'walski?" I asked nervously. My voice seemed to bring him back to reality as he looked up and shook his head trying to focus; He still seemed disconnected though. He hadn't really been the same since he and Rico had had their fight. I've never heard K'walski even raise his voice, let alone getting into an argument like that, but the way they looked at each other was what scared me. I thought for sure they were going to kill each other; If Skipper hadn't shown up, I don't know what might have happened. While Skipper talked to K'walski, I asked Rico what the whole fight had been about anyway and he showed me the helmets, they were great fun and we played a few rounds before K'walski walked in and caught us. He didn't really say anything, but he looked kind of disappointed. He hasn't really said anything since and looks kind of spacey now and then. I looked him over now as he looked at me expectantly.
"Are you ok?" I asked concern leaking into my voice.
"I'm fine," he grumbled as he pushed pass me and made his way to the ladder, I watched him as he went, shocked. There was something in his voice that was so unlike K'walski, it sounded tired and defeated. Even when something didn't work out like he had wanted it to he had never been cold like that. I shook my head in disbelief as I climbed up the ladder and walked out onto the artificial ice floe.
Rico and Skippa were talking to each other while K'walski stood over toward the edge of the pool looking down into the water. I was about to approach him when the zoo bells rang signaling its opening. The gates swung open as children began to pour in, their parents right behind them, laughing as they ran forward pointing out which animals they wanted to see first. I felt a burst of excitement as I anticipated the delicious fish they would throw as a reward for our performance. The lemurs turned on their music and began to dance for the people as Marlene got to the top of her slide ready to slide down and do tricks. I did a few stretches as we formed our line and a large group of people gathered around the fence.
"Quite a crowd today Skippa," I whispered as we stood very still, looking over the people waving the fish in front of us, encouraging some sort of action.
"Indeed, 30% more than yesterday already," I turned to address K'walski, but instead found Rico making the statement. I looked over to where K'walski stood looking over the crowd unenthusiastically and back to Rico. He was looking ahead once again deep in thought seeming to be concentrating on something while Skippa analyzed the situation. Finally, I couldn't take the silence any longer.
"Now Skippa?" I asked quietly.
"Patience young Private, need to make them beg for it," Skippa whispered back as the crowd became more insistent.
"Speaking of begging for it, I have done some research on human psychology and by studying the popularity of certain internet pictures and videos, I have discovered what might be the most effective way to seem adorable," Rico stated excitedly. Skippa looked surprised.
"Really?" he asked.
"Yes really, would you like me to give a demonstration?" Rico asked looking toward the crowd. K'walski immediately snapped to attention.
"No!" he said quickly as he looked uneasily to Rico. Rico scowled back. K'walski noticed this and tried to backpedal.
"I-I mean it might not be the wisest idea to try it completely unrehearsed on such a large crowd," he said looking to Skippa.
"I have to agree with K'walski on this," I said as everyone turned to me, "I mean I don't think that science can't perfect something like adorability."
"Well I guess we'll find out," Skippa said as he turned back to Rico, "Rico go get us some fish,"
"Aye aye Skipper," Rico said as he walked forward. By now the crowd was getting restless and a few people had already left. Then Rico began doing some kind of dance and people were starting to take notice, within a few minutes people were laughing and cheering. I couldn't believe it, Rico had single handedly brought almost the entire zoo's visitors over to our enclosure to watch his performance, with excited cries coming from all directions.
"That's so cute!"
"I'm posting this on the internet!"
"Is that penguin doing the moonwalk?"
I turned my attention back to Rico and saw that he was doing the moonwalk, combined with a few spins on the ground. The crowd ate it up, and by the time he finished we had mountains of fish.
"Fantastic job Rico!" Skippa said as he stepped forward and grabbed a fish off the pile, "this is the most fish we've had since we got that feed system and Kowalski accidently gave us 100,000 fish instead of 100." K'walski's head snapped up like he remembered something as he stared ahead for a minute thinking.
"And you said science couldn't perfect adorability," Skippa said nudging me as he gulped down a fish. I frowned a little, kind of irritated by the comment.
"Technically that wasn't so much adorability as it was performing skill," K'walski interjected. Rico shot him a glare, but instead of looking away, K'walski glared back.
"Well whatever it was, at least science is finally good for something other than blowing up the base or threatening to destroy the world as we know it," Skippa replied as he swallowed another fish. K'walski looked a bit agitated at this, but remained silent.
"Alright boys, let's get these inside," Skippa said motioning to the large pile of fish. I grabbed up an arm load, took them down into our base and laid them on the table. The rest of the fish we put into the freezer. We all sat down and ate the ones we had set aside for lunch while Rico explained how he had figured out what the human's liked. After we finished I decided to go and watch some TV, but when I approached, I noticed Rico working on it.
"Rico, what are you doing?" I asked as I came closer. Rico's head snapped toward me and he smiled.
"Hey Private," he said cutting a green wire and placing it back into the television, "I'm just upgrading our television so we can have a clearer picture."
"Oh well how long will that take?" I asked concerned about missing my show.
"A few hours, why?" Rico replied without looking up.
"No reason," I said slightly disappointed. Then I began to look around puzzled, something was definitely missing, it took me a few seconds though to actually figure out what it was.
"Hey have you seen K'walski around?" I asked looking around the HQ. Rico's smile disappeared instantly.
"No," he replied sharply, his tone startling me a bit.
"Oh, ok then….um….I think I'll go find him," I said starting off toward the ladder.
"You do that," he said, then mumbled something I couldn't quite hear. I climbed up the ladder and onto our concrete island as I looked around searching for K'walski a few people were lingering around our habitat, but they didn't really notice me as I waddled over to the edge of our pond.
Hmm that's strange I wonder where he went, I thought as I tried to see into some of the other habitats.
If I was K'walski where would I be? I thought as I stared at my reflection in the water. Suddenly, Skippa came up behind me.
"Whatcha doing Private?" Skippa asked smiling as he peered at his reflection in the water right beside mine. I looked up and turned to face him.
"Oh, hi Skippa, I was just looking for K'walski," I said peering over his shoulder scanning the sidewalks. Skippa looked surprised.
"I thought he was inside with you and Rico," Skippa stated looking concerned, "He was still inside when I came up here." I thought for a moment then I remembered a conversation I had had with K'walski the night he and Rico fought.
I heard a scrapping noise and I opened my eyes letting them adjust to the light. K'walski had slid the fish plaque away from the wall and had one foot in the entrance.
"K'walski what are you doing?" I asked tiredly rubbing the sleep from my eyes. K'walski jumped back startled by my voice, then relaxed.
"Oh Private, it's just you, I'm just, ummm…...going out for a bit, just go back to sleep, ok," he said climbing through the hole.
"Mmmhmm," I replied as I drifted back off to sleep.
I smiled as I realized where he was.
"Private?" Skippa asked waving a flipper in front of my face trying to bring me back to reality.
"Never mind," I said quickly as I dashed inside and left through the fish plaque entrance. I stepped into the dark, musty sewers, as a disgusting scent wafted up from the river of filth running beside me and invaded my nostrils. I walked ahead a few paces and looked around the corner, to be greeted only by pitch black nothingness and began to feel my way ahead with my flippers.
"K'walski," I called out, my voice echoing along the walls. I walked on a few more minutes, feeling the walls to find my way, as I began to fear that I might get lost forever in the endless tunnels. Suddenly, I saw something green glowing up ahead. I quickly ran toward it and looked at it confused. It was some odd looking symbol spray painted onto the wall that looked like it belonged in a complex math equation instead of the New York City sewers. That's when I spotted another one a few feet away I quickly ran to look at it, it looked exactly the same. I looked around and spotted another one on the right side of a fork in the sewer tunnels. That's when it hit me.
It's a trail….but a trail to where? I looked around and found another one and began to follow them through the sewers, the tunnels getting smaller and smaller as I continued. After about five minutes, I began to see a light and as I got closer and closer I saw it was coming from a vent overlooking a busy New York subway station. Sitting by the vent was K'walski with his notepad and his pen in his flippers.
"K'walski?" I asked taking a step closer. K'walski jerked back too quickly and fell backwards over the vent blocking out most of the light.
"Who's there?" K'walski said jumping up flippers raised to attack. As soon as he got up the light flooded back in and he caught a glimpse of me. A flash of annoyance crossed his face as he grabbed up his notebook and pen.
"Private? How did you find me here?" K'walski asked curiously with an edge in his voice as he approached me.
"I remembered that you left through the plaque a few nights ago and came looking for you in the sewers from there, I just followed those weird looking things on the wall," I explained. K'walski smiled and chuckled slightly.
"It's called pi Private," K'walski said turning back and looking out of the vent.
"Why are pi signs on the walls in the sewer?" I asked curiously.
"I drew them to find my way back here from the HQ and vice versa," he stated looking back the way I had come.
"Guess I'm not smart enough to find my way back on my own," He said bitterly. We stayed silent for a few minutes after that before I approached the vent
"So what are you doing up here anyway," I said changing the subject as I sat down beside him. K'walski sighed as he picked up his notepad and tried to solve a complicated math problem.
"Well, I discovered this place a few months ago, and recently I've been coming here to try and…..clear my head I guess you could say," Kowalski replied as he worked out some of the problems on the notepad.
"Isn't that what your lab is for?" I asked pulling my attention away from a woman with a large hat boarding one of the subway trains to look at K'walski. He seemed kind of nervous and squirmed a bit before answering.
"It umm…used to be," he said bearing down a bit harder on his pencil as he completed the calculations and turned to the next page. I thought about this for a minute, and we remained silent for a while, K'walski eventually cut through the silence.
"What do you think of the new Rico, Private," K'walski asked. The question caught me off guard.
"Umm well he's ok I guess, I mean he's certainly smarter now," I replied. K'walski nodded and looked back toward the vent watching the people going by. After a while he stood and began walking toward the exit.
"Come on Private, the others are probably wondering where we are, it's getting late anyway," K'walski said as we exited the small area and headed back toward the sewer tunnels. We walked back in the direction of the HQ following the pi symbols K'walski marked on the walls. Ten minutes later we saw the wood from the back of the plaque up ahead and K'walski opened it quietly. His eyes grew huge as he stared incredulously inside.
"Great Galileo," he said as I pushed my way into the doorway. My jaw dropped as I looked inside. A huge machine was cleaning the entire base while our TV showed 3D images of a T-Rex running through a prehistoric forest. A Las Vegas themed pinball machine set near the bunk beds and futuristic air hockey table was sitting in the middle of the room. Suddenly, a small ball rolled up to us and a hand popped out of the holding two snowcones.
"Refreshments, sir?" it asked in an electronic voice.
"No thanks," K'walski muttered still gazing in wonder around the room. The hand quickly retracted and the ball rolled away. A muffled cry came from the spare room, and we quickly hurried over to the door opening it wide. Inside to the left, there was a polished wooden desk with a picture of Skippa in a captain's hat and aviation glasses hanging behind it, a large punching bag that looked like a hippie, a mechanical bull, and a complicated looking weapon that resembled a bazooka. In the middle of the room Rico was jumping up and down on a trampoline doing flips in the air.
"Wow, so what did do you then?" Rico asked mid flip to someone on the right side of the room. I turned and saw Skippa lying down on a table with two mechanical hands that protruded from the sides giving him a massage. Behind that was a sushi bar and a large stereo system playing some kind of pop song.
"Well we had about ten minutes until we would arrive in Chile and no doubt be tortured and killed, so I used my feet to undo the latch and knocked out the pilot, of course none us knew how to fly so we ended up crashing into a cottage a few miles south of the border, we definitely didn't expect that the couple who owned that cottage was friends with the president of-," Skipper looked up and realized we had come in. He smiled broadly as he looked us over.
"Hey Rico look who's here," he said stopping the robot and getting up.
"Hey guys," Rico said flipping of the trampoline and landing in front of us. Skippa walked up beside him and patted him on the back.
"W-What is a-all this," K'walski said looking around still shocked.
"Oh just a few adjustments I made to the HQ," Rico said as he threw his flippers out to his sides to gesture to the room.
"Ummm don't you think this is a bit…. extreme?" I asked looking at all the gadgets scattered around the room.
"No, adding the bowling alley and jet hangar I designed would have been extreme" Rico replied as he walked over to the wall and knocked on it twice. The panel slid around and the opposite side was piled high with weapons of every shape and size. He chose a kanata and pressed a button on it, causing two more blades to pop out of the sides. He quickly threw it across the room at a target on the wall. It landed dead center wobbling a bit from how hard it had smacked into it.
"I upgraded our weapons arsenal too, see," he said motioning back to the wall, then he looked at me and broke into a smile as walked toward the sushi bar.
"I almost forgot, I have something special for you Private," Rico said as he looked around behind the counter. I frowned, what could he have made for me? Suddenly, he pulled out my Lunacorn plushie and handed it to me.
"My Lunacorn?" I asked puzzled.
"Yeah, I upgraded it, watch this," Rico said as he pressed a button on the belly and suddenly my Lunacorn began glow different colors.
"I added this too he said as he took out a controller and pressed a button on it. My Lunacorn rose out of my flippers and began to fly around the room.
"Its remote control activated see," he said handing me the control.
"But I liked my Lunacorn the way it was," I said slightly disappointed, but Rico was already showing us something else. I looked around and saw Skipper punching the punching bag that looked like a hippie,
"Ow that hurts man!" the punching bag said as Skippa hit it. I walked toward him and stood beside him as I looked around the room Rico had just left the door shutting behind him and K'walski was looking in awe at the new weapons we had acquired.
"Skippa, don't you think Rico went a bit over board with all the adjustments," I asked looking around.
"Well maybe a little, but a massage table and a sushi bar, you can't really complain," he said shrugging as he picked up a captain's hat and some aviator glasses and propped his feet up on the desk looking a lot like his mural. I sighed.
"Ok if you say so," I walked back into the living room and found Rico siting at the table making some calculations.
"Ummm Rico?" I asked approaching him. He looked up for a moment then went back to his calculations.
"Yes Private," he said flipping a few pages over in the notebook.
"I was wondering if you could ummm….you know….fix my Lunacorn?" I asked cautiously. He blinked in surprise.
"Have you broken it already?" he asked standing and walking toward me.
"Oh no, I mean could you….turn it back to normal?" I asked holding it out to him. He looked at me curiously.
"Are you sure?" he asked looking it over.
"Yes, I'm positive," I said as we walked into K'walski's lab.
"Alright," he said laying it down on the table, "but I think you're making a mistake." I watched him in silence for a few minutes as he pulled out circuitry plates and wires of every different color and stuffed the stuffing back in. Finally he sewed it up again good as new.
"There you go," he said handing it to me. I took it gratefully and held it to my chest.
"Thanks Rico," I said happily as I went back into the living room.
"You are most welcome," he said as followed me out. I placed my Lunacorn on my bed and went to watch some television.
"Hey Private, want to play a game of air hockey?" Rico asked as he looked over the table turned the puck over in his flippers. I smiled and walked toward the table.
"Sure, how do you play?" I asked as I stood behind one side of the table and Rico stood behind the other.
"It's simple all you have to do is hit the puck with this and try to get it into the goal on my side," he said as he slid me a small paddle cross the table.
"How about we play to say…..ten points?" Rico said as he turned on the table.
"Ok," I said as I wrapped my flipper around the paddle and hit the puck to Rico. He hit it back hard and I tried to block it, but it bounced off the side and slammed into my goal. I quickly took it out and hit it again. Rico was prepared though and countered my hit, knocking it into my goal again. We went back and forth a few more times. Rico of course won. I scored once, but I think Rico let me have that one. I just stared at him shocked.
"Wow, you're really good!" I said as he leaned on the table smiling. He waved away my comment.
"Beginner's luck, so…..want to play again?" he asked resetting the table. Before I could answer the door to the spare room opened and an irritated Skippa and an angry K'walski came out.
"Lights out!" Skipper snapped. I looked at the clock.
"But it's only eight o clock," I said as Skipper and K'walski headed toward the bunks. Skipper shot me a glare over his shoulder. I quickly shut up and climbed into the bunks with the others. Skipper hit a button on the remote and the lights went out. I clutched my Lunacorn to my chest as I fell asleep. Disappearing into a land filled with peanut butter winkies and giant butterscotch lollies in large fields full of sweet smelling flowers. I smiled as I drifted off to a place where no one could reach me until tomorrow morning, too bad that would have to be so soon.
Well that's all for now, but I think the next chapter is where things will start to really go downhill, with a few unexpected twists