Blowhole had been trying to get the power back on for some time. He couldn't build world destroying inventions without power, and without world destroying inventions, life was pretty dull. "Not like that!" He shrieked as one of the lobsters switched a homemade generator into overdrive. For a few seconds there was power, but quickly enough, sparks began to fly from the other equipment. The inexperienced red ones had no choice but to switch it off, "Really?! Really?! Well, now you've blown it. We're going to have to replace all the equipment now!" Well, at least it was something to do. One of the lobsters looked up at his boss tentatively. The explosion had semi melded Blowhole to a dead body buried below. Johnson's body. He still flickered between the two forms, but he mostly looked like the decaying body of a penguin, who was already in pretty bad shape before he died. Looking at Blowhole's ten year old road kill like form was something the 'red ones' wanted to avoid as much as possible.
"Sorry boss." The lobster looked back at the floor as quickly as possible.
Hans continued to watch the younger penguin. He'd hoped the boy would find the body on his own, but when he noticed the penguin begin to leave, he realised he would have to give him a helping hand. Hans could see the penguins sabotaging a power cable on the wall above. Well, the more the merrier. Also, they had a flashlight. Perfect.
Hans climbed up the wall standing just behind the penguins, once again trying to force a moment of tangibility. He had no such luck.
"Great Isaac Newton's milkshake!" Kowalski exclaimed. He'd dropped his flashlight, "Permission to retrieve sir?"
"Negative," Skipper replied, "We can't risk being seen. We know Blowhole keeps tabs on us, and we want this kid to stay unnoticed by him as long as possible." Hans saw his chance. Come on moment of tangibility…
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! An alarm went off in Rico's stomach. He regurgitated the device.
"Skipper, the tracer we put on Hans indicates that he is with in… oh neutrinos, two meters." Kowalski exclaimed, "Wait, now he's moving… Skipper, he's going after the flashlight!"
"Rico, keep that flashlight away from him," Skipper ordered. Rico regurgitated a rocket launcher, "Without hurting the civilian." Rico shrugged, putting down the rocket launcher and regurgitating a fishing rod. It was dark enough that nobody would see the line.
Rico cast the line, catching the flashlight on the first attempt.
"Hans is approaching the flashlight," Kowalski warned.
"Push red button?" Private asked, motioning that they should give the young penguin the flashlight. Things were always a lot less scary if you could see them.
"Alright, Private. Rico, give the kid the flashlight." Skipper ordered. Rico pulled the flashlight away from Hans and towards the new penguin. The boy took a few steps back. Rico moved the flashlight forward the same distance. The boy took a few steps back.
"Tak' flashlight." Rico grumbled moving the flashlight forward again. Suddenly the hook dislodged, sliding over the switch and turning it on. The light illuminated some of the hay bales. Private stumbled backwards, falling off the wall into the habitat behind in shock. The other penguin was equally terrified and ran out of the habitat.
The four penguins climbed down to the other side. Skipper pushed the hay bales out of the way.
"Oh Tuna… Rico, cover the Private's eyes!" Skipper ordered, trying not to be sick himself, "Kowalski, analysis." Kowalski examined the dead penguin, allowing science to take over.
"Well, it would seem this is the same penguin as Rico saw on recon, referred to by our visitor as Harvey," Kowalski reported, "Cause of death was… his windpipe was ripped out with a metal object, probably a rake. Subject suffered physical trauma, including multiple broken bones, internal bleeding, and severe bruising, pre and post mortem, though mostly pre."
"This is why we keep psychopaths like Hans in the zoo," Skipper muttered, "Well, let's give him a proper burial. Even if we could send word to his folks, I think it would be kinder to have him simply declared missing."
Joey really wasn't having a good day. The last thing he needed was for some penguin to go trespassing on his property. Joey hadn't suffered the worst effects from the energy surge: he was invisible but not intangible. At least, that was before Kowalski got to him. He'd been desperate to return to normal, to get out of the zoo and back to Australia, or anywhere, other than the zoo. Kowalski had known this, and offered to cure him. What he'd 'forgotten' to mention, was that the cure was untested. Joey had been so desperate to return to normal, that it hadn't occurred to him to wonder why Kowalski didn't ask one of the other penguins to test it, or more likely, test it himself.
Kowalski had put him through extremely painful treatments, and hours of testing only to tell him that the experiment had somewhat failed. Only his skeleton and parts of his organs were visible, giving the impression he was some kind of zombie skeleton, with partially decomposed organs. Kowalski, naturally, had been kicked across the zoo for that, but it didn't change the fact that other animals couldn't look at him without flinching. He didn't blame them; he couldn't look at himself in the mirror either.
I've missed out some of the more obvious events (Roy, Phil and Mason, and Shelly all turned invisible etc.). So far I've just been explaining the 'ghostly happenings', but I hope to start on the Red Button and the backwards tape fairly soon.