Note: Sorry if this chapter is a little rushed, but I hope you enjoy it
12. A Friend in Need
As fast as he could, Private ran back to their hiding place. When he opened the door, Rico and Kowalski were staring at him with puzzled expressions on their faces. "Where have you been, Private? We were worried sick!" Kowalski asked reproachfully. "Sorry, Kowaski. I know you´re going to be mad at me, but I was with Skipper last night. Blowhole kidnapped him and we have got to save him, right away!" the little penguin panted, trying to catch his breath.
Kowalski was shocked about the news, because had Private forbidden to visit Skipper ever again. "You broke our rules, Private. Skipper is no longer our business." the scientist answered lackadaisially. But the small penguin interrupted him immediatly. "I don´t care for the rules. Skipper is still my friend and I´m going to risk my life to help him. We still are a team, no matter what´ll ever happen!" Private cried at Kowalski, who froze in shock.
"Private, I know you miss Skipper, he has always been your father figure, but you need to learn to let go." the scientist tried to explain, but a small flipper slapped and silenced him. "Fine, you might don´t care! But I´ll never let my Skipper down! Our absence has done enough damage to him! He´s a wreck of his former self, he´s addicted to pills and suffering from terrible hallucinations and nightmares. You haven´t seen him, it´s like his soul is dying. We need to help him, now!" Private screamed with tears in his eyes.
Rico watched both arguing penguins, but after Private had finished his last sentence, he walked beside the small penguin. "You coming too?" he grunted as he joined Privates rescue mission. Kowalski had no choice now, deep inside his heart, he wished for nothing else but returning to the HQ again. The tall penguin sighed and joined his friends. "And where are we going to look for him?" Kowalki asked and Private sadly looked down to his feet. He had no idea where Blowhole was hiding, but in that moment, Kowalskis smartphone rang.
"Greetings, penguins. Nice to see you again, my enemies." Blowhole said as he appeared as video call on the smartphone. "Where did you get my number... I mean, where is Skipper?" the scientist asked, slightly confused. "Oh Skipper is here with me, and I invite you to witness the premiere of my latest invention. You can guess, who´s the test person" the dolphin chuckled. "No, what have you done to Skipper?" Private cried horrified. "Visit me at my old home in coney island, than you can say goodbye to your former leader." Blowhole said and ended the video call.
"Quick, we have to get to coney island!" Kowalski ordered and the penguins made their way to Blowholes hideyout. It took about two hours as they arrived, but the penguins where confused about getting there so easily. "This is a trap, I´m 99,9 percent sure" Kowalski whispered as they arrived at the entrance to Blowholes lab.
But before someone could answer, the door has been opened and the penguins stepped in. "Welcome to my lab, my dear enemies. I´m glad you had time for a visit." Blowhole chuckled as he appeared in front of them. "Where´s Skipper?" Private screamed threatening. "Oh, small Private, just follow me, you´ll see him in a minute." the dolphin explained and led the penguins to an even larger room, with a lot of machines and evil devices. The penguins´ hearts skipped a beat as they looked at Skipper, who had been chained to the wall, motionless, without any sign of life in his body.
"Is he d-dead?" Private stammered nervously. "Not yet, young Private. Take a look at my latest invention at first." Blowhole said, pointing at Skipper. Now the penguins noticed a solid metal band around Skippers chest, with a small quarter shaped device right above their leaders heart. "What is that supposed to be?" Kowalski asked curiously. "Oh I call it a heart-controll-system. It´s a device with that I can control Skippers heartbeat and vital functions. I´m able to slow his pulse down, shortly before death, or I can make his heart racing to bring it to a tachycardia, which would kill him any second. Frankly, I could do anything to his body and thus would result in forcing him to do anything for me. Besides, his system is weakened by drug addiction and a previous pneumonia. I´ve been spying on him for months and he didn´t even notice!" Blowhole explained and chuckled at the penguins frozen faces.
"No, you truly are a monster. How dare you kidnapping someone who´s unable to defend himself? You know he could defeat you when he´s at good health, so why don´t you fight fair?" Private yelled at Blowhole, who just shook his head by the penguins naivety. "Evil is not supposed to fight fair and now I´ll wake Skipper up so you can say goodbye to him, before I start running a few test with the heart controller" Blowhole said, pressed a button and the chains released Skipper from the wall, who fell to the ground.
"Wakey, wakey, Skipper!" Blowhole whispered as he pressed a red button on his scooter keyboard. Suddenly the penguins heard a faint moan coming from Skipper. "Skipper, are you okay?" Private asked nervously and ran towards his leader to help him getting on his feet. "Don´t come too close, young bird" Blowhole chuckled and sent an electric shock through Skippers body, who was screaming from pain. "Private, don´t touch him, or you´ll get shocked too" Kowalski yelled horrified. "But..." Private stammered, watching Skipper lying on the ground, heavily breathing. "Now meet your friends for the last time, my arch enemy" the dolphin said and pressed another button, which regulated Skippers heartrate to normal, so he was able to talk to his team. "P-Private...?" the leader groanded as he lifted his head from the ground.
"Yes, I´m here, Skippah. I´ve promised to save you. Kowalski and Rico are here too." the young penguin said, helping his leader to a sitting position. "K-Kowalski? R-Rico? You came to save me, after all I´ve done to you?" Skipper whispered weakly as he looked at them. The scientist and the weapons expert came closer. "Skipper, don´t worry. Everything will be just fine. I forgive you, my friend." Kowalski said with tears in his eyes.
"It´s okay, Skipper" Rico grunted, but before he and Kowalski were going to hug their leader, Blowhole shocked Skipper again, who screamed in agony. "That´s enough excusing, time to start the tests. I´m really excited how much electricity Skippers body can endure, or what I could force him to do" Blowhole said thoughtfully and pressed a few more buttons. The rest of the penguins just could watch how Skipper was suffering from pain. "Stop, please, stop. I´m begging you!" Private cried, burying his face in his flippers.
"Oh, stop crying, Private. This ain´t going to help Skipper anyway. Stop crying or I´ll make Skipper suffer even more pain" Blowhole menaced, his flipper getting closer to the buttons. "D-Don´t you dare menacing my young Private!" Skipper groaned in a threatening tone. The leader tried to get up, but his body was already too weak, so he collapsed on his belly again. "Oh, impressive Skipper. You´re still revolting, but I can even force you to kill your friends" Blowhole chuckled. But Skipper interupted him. "I´d rather die, than hurting my penguins ever again. Maybe you can hurt me, but you could never destroy our brotherhood" Skipper whispered, shivering from pain.
"Awww, ain´t that sweet?" Blowhole scoffed and held his flipper above the keybord with the buttons. But before he was able to press another one, Rico jumped at his scooter and tackled Blowhole off it. Now that the dolphin was distracted from the fight with Rico, Kowalski and Private ran to Skipper. "Skipper, are you okay?" Kowalski asked worried about his leader. "I´m fine, Kowalski. Try to get out of here, save Private and Rico. I´ll deal with Blowhole" the leader whispered grasping his chest from pain. "But, Skippah, he´ll kill you. I don´t want to loose you again!" Private cried, hugging his leader as tight as possible. "I love you too, son" Skipper groaned, snuggling his head on Privates´.
But in that moment, Blowhole had managed to get to his scooter again, after a wild fight with Rico. The crazy penguin prepared for another attack, but Blowhole had some more ideas in his mind. "You know what? I can´t hurt you enough to defeat you in a fight, but I can hurt you more by killing your friend, whom you love and care about. Well, seems like I can´t force Skipper to hurt you, but I still have the upper flipper in this game. Say goodbye, Skipper!" Blowhole screamed angrily and pressed a big red button on his keyboard.
A second after, a voice echoed in the wall. "Heart-Control Overload sequence initiated. Cardiac death of test person in 30 seconds..." the voice said and became silent. "Have fun, saving him, penguins" Blowhole giggled and disappeared through a trapdoor, along with his scooter and the keybord, which controlled Skippers device.
"No, Skipper!" Private yelled and cried on his leaders chest. "Rico, I need a pair of pincers!" Kowalski ordered and Rico spit it out. "Hold on, Skipper. I won´t leave you to your fate" the scientist said and tried to break the metal band, but only the pincers broke at the attempt."Rico, a saw!" Kowalski ordered. But this attempt failed too. "Well, I guess this means goodbye, my friends..." Skipper mumbled and closed his eyes, hiding his tears. "No, don´t worry, Skippah, We´ll save you. I promise" Private exclaimed in horror, but in that moment the last second of the countdown passed.
