Kowalski called a halt to the sniper training, pointing out that they had improved sufficiently. He was resolved to maintaining a reasonable distance from his friend in the hope that the feelings he'd experienced would pass as easily as the cloud formations. Rico seemed disappointed but as per usual he said nothing.

Still Kowalski found it hard to ignore the silent penguin, which was ridiculous as he was doing nothing to draw attention to himself. Thankfully Skipper had arranged a special training session for Sunday that seemed likely to take his mind off things.

He'd made a bet with the sewer rats that the penguins could stop them crossing the zoo. Non lethal force was agreed but otherwise anything went. If the sewer rats won, they'd have free access for life. But if the penguins could stop them, they wouldn't come back.

The evening started well enough, with Rico's machine gun tactics bringing down a number of the rodents. But their king wasn't one to give up easily. While Skipper was focused on a team of rats trying to skirt round Marlene's habitat, the king launched an ambush on Private from his vantage point up a tree. Kowalski was closest and rushed to check on the youngest penguin. The boy seemed dazed but otherwise alright. As Kowalski sat him down gently out of the way, something huge and heavy collided into him, sending him flying into a solid wall.

He cried out as a pain shot up his flipper. Glancing down he was disturbed to see it hanging loosely.

"logxy equals logx plus logy…. If x equals b to the power of y then y equal logb multiplied by x," he began muttering. Skipper came staggering over bleeding from a cut on his head. He surveyed the intellectual.

"Kowalski? How many fingers?" Rico turned to look over at them. He held a stick of dynamite and had been pursuing the fleeing rodents.

"The logarithm of the product of two numbers is the sum of the logarithms of those numbers," Kowalksi recited. Turning away from the retreating rats, Rico dropped the dynamite and headed back to the team. He coughed up a roll of bandages.

"When x and b are restricted to positive real numbers, logb(x) is a unique real number. The magnitude of the base b must be neither 0 nor 1."

"Right," Skipper agreed as comfortingly as he could. "Rico, do something about that wing."

"Skipper," Private joined the trio. "You're bleeding."

"It's nothing," Skipper waved a wing dismissively as he watched Rico check Kowlaksi's wing. The manic penguin glanced up at the leader. His eyes briefly glanced to Private before fixing on Skipper again.

"Right," Skipper said again. "Come on Private. I'm sure Malrene will have something for this cut." He quickly led the youngster away leaving the other two alone.

"To raise a number to a power p, find the logarithm of the number and multiply it by p. The exponentiated value is then the inverse logarRGGHHH!" Kowalski screamed as Rico snapped his wing back into line. Without hesitation the team medic then began tightly strapping the broken flipper. Kowalski stared, for once unable to formulate a coherent thought.

When he was finished, Rico sat back and stared at Kowalski. The other penguin seemed unable to tear his eyes away from his injury. Rico shifted round and sat by him. After a few moments he noticed Kowalski started shivering. Firmly, Rico put a flipper round him and pulled him tight against him. After a few minutes the shaking stopped and he heard Kowalski sigh.

The usually reserved penguin couldn't resist resting his head against his team mate's shoulder. The pain had left him feeling unusually tired and vulnerable. He was surprised but grateful that Rico didn't pull away.