A.N.- And here is the next chapter! (I don't think there will be many more in this book, then I will start on a parallel, what Skippsy is doing at the same time over in Canada story)
Chapter 9: Breaking Glass
"Mwahahahaha! Brilliant! Red One, bring me the -" Blowhole laughs and presses a button on his Segway's dashboard.
"DIABOLOGIZER." The speakers play out.
The lobster salutes. "Right away, Doc." He says and scuttles off.
The dolphin with a vicious grin looks over at the glowing blue power cell with eerie delight. Kowalski does not make eye contact and keeps his gaze to the floor as he tries to think of a way to try to stall the villains' plans to conquer New York. Then, after a motion from Dr. Komodo, Butch and Conor drag him back to where he and Cecelia are being kept and tosses him in.
"Did you make it?" Cecelia asks.
Kowalski looks at the floor and nods a little. "Yes…" He sighs. "But, I'm trying to think of an option to buy Skipper and the rest of the team more time." He says.
Cecelia sighs. "If they're even actually coming…" She murmurs.
"They're coming!" He then says with a slightly shocked look at her. "Skipper would never just leave us here. Nor would Private or Rico!"
"Well…" She shrugs. "They haven't came yet...Maybe they are still convinced by the Cecelia clone and think you aren't in dangah or something, I don't know…"
Kowalski shakes his head determinedly. "No. No, they're coming. I know they are."
Cecelia shrugs. "I'm just saying that it could be possible that they might not. We don't really have any way to know for sure."
Silently the two scientists then sit there, thinking. After a little while Kowalski looks at Cecelia again and softly puts his flipper on hers. "Well...If they don't come, at least we're here together…" He says with a small smile.
Cecelia looks at him and then looks away and lifts her flipper away. "Yeah...About that K'walski…" She says and clears her throat. "You see, I have a boyfriend back in England already...I'm sorry." She says and looks at him softly. "You're a great guy, and I hope we can still be good friends…" She says.
"Oh…" He says and then nods a little and looks a little brokenhearted at the floor. "Okay…" He says and shifts back away from her some. 'Now, why didn't I go through with Plan A and just blow up the place? I shouldn't have let Cecelia cloud my vision like that...Like Marissa says, I really AM a moron...' He thinks.
"I really am sorry, Kowalski." She says softly. "I wasn't trying to lead you on...I just wasn't sure how to break it to you without hurting you much…"
"I-It's fine, Cecelia." He replies quietly with a really small and forced smile. "You don't need to feel guilty...It's fine…"
Rico tightly turns and parks right up against the barrier wall of the Dolphin enclosure at Coney Island. All the penguins jump out and Rico roughly slings the Cecelia clone over his shoulder. Marissa looks thoughtfully at the pool of water and then at Skipper. "It could be possible that Blowhole could have a laser grid over the pool, yes? Maybe before just jumping in we should check?" She asks.
"Completely possible." Skipper nods and holds his flipper out towards Rico. Rico regurgitates a can of spray and Skipper sprays it over the water. A red laser grid comes into view once the spray settles upon it. "Alright, careful, men, unless you want to end up like Manfredi and Johnson...All that was left was a could of charred feathers on the quills of a porcupine." He says. "Private, you first."
Private gulps and cautiously goes over to the edge of the pool. He tentatively starts lifting his leg over the pool wall with a look at Skipper. "Must I go first, sir?"
"Yes, now if you could hurry up, I'm sure Kowalski would greatly appreciate it." Skipper says.
Trixy rolls her eyes and just jumps into the pool, through the laser grid and comes up and looks at them. "I don't know what you all are so afraid of, it's just careful diving." She shrugs and then dives down into the pool farther and swims towards an underwater door.
Private looks shocked and a little worried after Trixy headlong diving in like that and then enters the pool carefully after her. He was not going to let her be down there alone; especially in Dr. Blowhole's lair. Skipper, Marissa, and Rico follow closely behind them and dive down to the underwater entrance and enters. "Trixy! What were you thinking!?" Private asks as he shakes some of the water off of his feathers.
Trixy shrugs as she squeezes out her bow. "That you guys were taking too long?" She says. "We need to move quicker and all of you were being like snails."
Private sighs. "But can't be so reckless like that! You could have fried!"
"Well, I didn't did I, Priv?" She says and stands up. "Now, aren't we trying to rescue K'walski and Cici, or not?"
"We are." Marissa says. "And for once I agree with her being rash. You guys are bringing up the rear, as Skippsy would say."
Skipper looks unamused at them and clears his throat. "Forward." He says and nods towards the tunnel in front of them. The penguins start sliding stealthily down the tunnel, flitting into the shadows whenever they hear an approaching lobster. Then they reach a problem. A red furred problem.
"And where do you think you are going?" Sarah Vixen smirks as she steps out of the shadows in front of the penguin line.
"Sarah!" Private and Trixy exclaim.
"Tux and Guen, won't the doc be pleased to see the two of you." She viciously grins before taking a snooze bomb from her knife belt and snaps it open and drops it in front of them. She then, before the gas comes to her, pops a respirator on herself and watches as the penguins drop into deep slumber. "Nighty-night, penguins." She laughs.
"Bwaladagh." Rico grumbles to Skipper as he looks around their containment unit.
Skipper rubs his temples some, as he just came to recently himself. "Mhm, what is it, Rico?" He asks as he looks blearily around. Marissa, Trixy, and Private are still asleep from the gas. He then looks over at another containment unit.
"'Wal'ki! Wal'ki!" Rico says and points. Kowalski is practically jumping up and down in the other unit, waving his flippers as he tries to get Skipper's attention. Skipper blinks in recognition and waves back at Kowalski to signal to him that he understands that he is there. He then looks around their tiny prison and then over at the three sleeping recruits.
"Mhm…" Marissa groans and rubs her temples. She slowly sits up and looks around before standing up and curiously tapping their clear prison. "Hmm…" She rubs her chin some and takes out her clipboard. "Darn." She then mutters as she realizes that she no longer has her pencil. She then looks over at Kowalski and Cecelia in thought.
Kowalski makes eye contact with her and, from when he used to be close friends with her, recognizes that it is her 'I don't have a pencil, but I do have an idea' look. He then taps on the glass in their own version of Morse code from when they were friends. 'What is your idea?'
Marissa watches his taps and then taps on the glass back. 'Do we know what kind of glass this is?'
Kowalski looks at Cecelia after Marissa's code. "What type of glass?" He asks.
Cecelia thinks for a moment. "Tempered." She shrugs. Kowalski nods and taps this back to Marissa.
Marissa nods and thinks some. She estimates the thickness and then looks at Rico, just as Trixy and Private are coming to. "I need the highest pitched tuning fork you've got, and a wireless amplifier." She says as she gets out her smartphone and starts flicking through a few pages to her recording app.
Rico, after glancing at Skipper for reassurance, regurgitates a tuning fork and the amplifier and passes it to her. "'Ere go." He grunts.
"Thanks." Marissa says as she taps the fork on the rubbery protective case on her phone and holds it close to record the sound. She then turns on the amplifier and connects her phone to it and looks at the others in the unit with her. "You guys probably should hold your earholes. This is going to be loud."
The others nod and cover their earholes curiously as she cranks up the volume on the amplifier and covers her own before pressing play with her beak on the speaker system. A loud high-pitched sound then resonates through the prison cell. The glass shatters after a moment and Marissa grins widely and quickly turns off the amplifier. "Thank you, physics." She says as she just pushes a little on the glass and it gives away and sprinkles upon the ground.
"My cloning unit!" Cecelia then kind of exclaims in her and Kowalski's prison.
Kowalski looks at her. "Well...It is for the best...I'm sure that you can make another unit in no time. We've got more at stake right now." He says, with just a hint of shortness to it. He might still be friends with her, but he is still upset about her already having a boyfriend, though he does understand the feeling of having your invention destroyed, partially or completely, for the greater good.
Skipper follows Marissa out of the unit and waddles over to Kowalski's and Cecelia's enclosures. "Now, can you do your sound thing on this, too?" He asks.
Marissa shrugs. "I could...But, there is an even easier way so we provide the least amount of damage." She says and looks at Trixy and kind of waves her over. "I believe you had a little invention complete with long, unpronounceable name, that you wouldn't mind demonstrating?" She kind of says more than asks.
Skipper looks a bit impatient, while both Private and Trixy look at her curiously. "I guess…" Trixy says a little nervously as she gets out her small lock-solving invention and waddles over to the lock. She is not used to Marissa being encouraging about her inventions and wonders if maybe she scrambled her brainwaves a bit with the sound from the thing moments ago. She nervously fits it into the lock and starts pressing buttons on it. After a couple of heart-pounding seconds, there is a soft click as the lock unlocks and she retrieves her invention and takes the lock off with a wide and proud smile. "It works! It ACTUALLY works!"
"Well, would I have asked you to try if I didn't think it would?" Marissa says with a small smile. "I'm not that bad of a teammate, am I?" She says and then pulls open the glass door, without even glancing at Kowalski or Cecelia.
The two scientists step out from the unit. "Thanks…" Cecelia says towards them all.
Kowalski nods some and then looks a bit curiously at Marissa. He had not thought that she would be part of the rescue team. He doesn't think that the thought would have ever crossed his mind. Marissa, though, does not make eye contact with him and instead looks at Skipper. "My suggestion is that we hurry up and leave before we're noticed."
Skipper nods in agreement. "You heard her. Everyone, out!" He waves towards and starts for the door, just for it to shut and lock in front of them.
"And where do you think you are going, pen-gu-ins?"
