Chapter 10

Last chapter! :(

"The option is: Injection. With a needle."

.074 seconds later, Skipper was gone.

The three remaining commandos stared after their leader in shock. Then they turned to face one another.

"Is that really your only option, Kowalski?" Asked Private, obviously concerned about Skipper and his fears.

"I lost 3 hours of sleep last night trying to think of another. But even with all my genius this problem is out of options."

"Well, fine, but how are we going to catch Skippah?"

Kowalski smiled. "Now there's a question I can work with." He pulled out his clipboard and wrote a few things down. Then, he made some measurements with his ruler, measuring his shadow. Finally, after a quick check with his compass, he had his solution.

"We should track him down. It's about noon, so he'll be a cat. So this is going to be difficult."

Private and Rico looked at Kowalski. Private asked, "And it took you all those calculations to figure that out? Sometimes I think you do all this just to look smart." Kowalski glared at the smaller penguin, but Private continued. "Just like how you talk just to hear the sound of your own voice, right?"

Kowalski rolled his eyes, "Actually, I love listening to myself talk. It's one of the highlights of my day. Now, are we going to find Skipper or not?"

"Oh, right." The penguins heard the bell strike noon, so they knew the chase was on. They hopped the fence and headed to the park.

Once there, Rico bent down, sniffing the grass. A few seconds later he started barking and pointing to the left. Then he ran off in that direction, leaving Kowalski and Private to follow. They looked at each other, confused, but then slid off behind the dog-penguin.

After a few minutes of hasty belly-sliding, they came upon a large bush. Rico jumped up and down, pointing to the bush.

"Good boy Rico." Praised Kowalski. Then, he reached up, and carefully pulled back a branch of the bush. Rico prepared to fight, and Private shied away nervously. They looked past the bush to see... A snow cone cart.

Kowalski sighed. "Rico, we're looking for Skipper. I take back my good boy."

Rico frowned, but pointed to the snow cone cart and said, "Skippa!"

Private tried to explain this to Rico. "That is not Skippah, that's a snow cone cart. I know you are hungry but now is not a good time to stop for a bite."

Rico took the younger penguins face in his flippers, then, practically shouting, he said, "Ski-Per!" He then threw himself onto the ground, pointing wildly at the cart. He accidentally hacked up a roller skate and a spoon, but this was ignored.

"Fine. We'll get snow cones." Said Kowalski, obviously only giving in to shut up his teammate.

Rico jumped up and zipped over to the cart. He crawled under it and kicked open the base of the cart, crawling inside. Kowalski and Private looked at each other and shrugged, then followed the deranged penguin into the cart.

Once they got there, they were amazed at what they saw. Right in front of them was Rico, pinning down a black and white cat. Not just any black and white cat, THE black and white cat.

"Skippah! We found you!" Shouted Private in excitement. Then he added, "And I'm sorry I doubted you, Rico." Rico only nodded.

Skipper, who was still pinned down, responded with an angry growl, directed at Kowalski (the supposed bearer of the needle).

Kowalski saw this and said reassuringly, "Don't worry, I don't have the needle ready yet, so I don't have it with me."

Skipper visibly relaxed, and Rico got off of his back. "Well men I've actually been thinking. What's so bad about being a cat anyway? Maybe I'll just stay like this."

Kowalski smirked, he knew it was only a lie to avoid the needle. "What if I told you that I found another option, one that has no needles?"

Private looked at him incredulously, but Skipper opened his eyes wide, obviously interested. "I'm listening." He said.

"Well, it would involve some highly untested science, but I'm sure you would be okay with that. I mean, what is a little danger?" Kowalski gestured to the trapdoor of the cart, and Private opened it for him. "So, you want to head back to the lab and see how it works?"

"Sure." Skipper led the way, and the penguins followed him back across the grass towards the zoo.

Private whispered to Kowalski, "I thought you were out of options?"

Kowalski only ignored him, choosing to talk to Skipper instead.

"What is this invention-science-thing you have anyway?" Asked the leader when the scientist began walking by his side.

"Oh, I don't know what to call it. The Stab-in-the-Back-inator?"

Skipper stopped walking. He looked suspicious. "Stab in the back? Like what?"

Kowalski stopped too. With a sly smile, he answered, "Like This! Haiii-yahh!" Kowalski whipped out a mango filled syringe and plunged the needle into Skipper's back.

Skipper screamed, but it was too late, the mango was already in his blood. He ran away, slowly changing shape until he was a penguin again. Even then, he did not stop running.

Only when he was completely out of sight did the other penguins speak again.

"Wow Kowalski. Was that really your plan?" Asked Private accusingly.

"You know some thing better?"

"I don't know... But it would have been nice to talk it out and solve the problem without betraying the trust of our friends."

Kowalski looked at the naive little penguin for a moment. "Yes, and it would be nice if the Lunacorns were real, and shooting stars really did grant wishes. But hey, life's tough. Get over it."

Private frowned and kept walking in silence.

Later that evening Kowalski and Rico were playing chess, and Private was cuddling a Lunacorn. They had been at this for a while when they heard the door open.

They all turned, and seeing that it was Skipper, they jumped to attention, standing in a strait line in front of him.

Skipper calmly walked up to the line, then moved until he was standing directly in front of Kowalski.

Kowalski flinched, waiting for the slap, but it never came. He looked at his leader, questioning why.

Skipper glared into the scientists face. "I will never trust you ever again."

Kowalski smiled. "You're cured aren't you?"

Skipper smirked, then turned around, casually adding over his shoulder, "Oh, and I've scheduled a dentist appointment for you in the morning."

With that Kowalski turned, screamed, and fled to his bunk, where he cowered in shame.

Skipper laughed, then said with a smile, "I always win. Now, who's up for some cards?"

The end! That is the end, even though it's a question. I just added that for flair and artistic license.

Please, tell me what you thought of the story! And thank you to my friend catty-cat-cat for coming up with the idea for this story, it was a real blast to write. And another thank you to everyone who has reviewed. You all brighten my world!

That's all folks!