12 – Test Results
A thank you to everyone, who took the time to write a review, or just comment on my work. So, here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it!
Skipper stood in front of an open box on the wall. The door had a sticker on it, a yellow triangle with a black lightning in the middle. The penguin was was resting his good flipper on the largest switch inside the power box. Once he had flipped it, everything went dark. It was his only choice, if he wanted to save all of his teammates, assuming no trap was powered by its own battery. He clenched his beak as anger began building inside him.
He couldn't even go and check on his friends, because that would leave them in a difficult situation. He didn't want to fight them, not now, not ever. He slowly waddled away from the power box and simply stood there in the center of the room, trying to figure out what to do next.
Private stopped shaking in fear. He slowly opened a single eye and was met with complete darkness. "Am I… d-dead?" he asked. He couldn't make out a single shape, but once he tried moving, he could still feel the barbed wire tied tightly around his feet and flippers. He gave up any attempt at fighting his restraints again and just let his head fall back.
However, a screech broke the silence and his head sprang up to look what was causing the noise. Everything was still dark, but there was a lighter tone of it where he had seen the door earlier. "Who's there?" he asked and waited for a response.
"Private? Is that you?" he heard a feminine voice.
"MARLENE," he exclaimed in joy, "We came to rescue you!"
The otter rolled her eyes, despite the fact that she knew her gesture would go unnoticed. Being a mammal, her night vision was much better than that of a bird and she could make out most of the things in the room. The Lunacorns gave her shivers, though. "Private, what do you need me to do?" she asked.
"Well, if it's not too much trouble, could you untie me… please?"
She looked around a spotted a pair of cable cutters leaning against a wall. She took them and brought them over to Private. She had to put all her strength into operating the heavy tool, but the smallest penguin was soon free again.
"Thanks Marlene," he said with a smile as he rubbed his sore flippers. "Have you by any chance seen Kowalski or Rico anywhere?"
"I didn't see them, but the door I came trough had your name spelled on it so I guess the others are in their own rooms."
"Then there's no time to lose, LET'S GO!" the smaller bird ordered and slid out, followed by his otter friend.
In the control room of the complex, an elderly looking penguin was slamming his flipper on his computer. "What the fuck?" he asked as all the monitors had suddenly gone dark. He pulled a flashlight from a drawer and brought a little light into the situation.
There was dead silence surrounding him and it could only mean one thing, "That marshmallow broke the rules," he muttered to himself. He was inside a warehouse together with four other military trained penguins, at least one of which was craving for revenge. The rockhopper bit the tip of his flipper trying to forge a plan, but he could only come up with the most obvious one, "Cut and run, it is." He quickly grabbed any blueprint that was still in the room and stuffed it into a backpack, before walking towards the exit.
He had a wide grin while waddling. He already had a new "base of operation" in mind and was envisioning future traps. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice the presence of another bird until it was too late.
Rockgut felt a sharp pressure against his neck, followed by the inability to breathe. Something hit the back of his knee (let's say he has them) and sent him to the ground. There, he continued twitching for some time until the lack of oxygen to his brain made him pass out.
Standing up from the unconscious rockhopper, was another penguin, which had one flipper in a makeshift splint. He let go of the piano wire he had been holding in his good fin. Due to his injury he was forced to hold both ends of the thin metal wire in just one flipper. The choke hold was out of the question and he didn't have any etorphine on him. It was risky, but he pulled it through.
Skipper was trying to catch his breath while glaring at the penguin underneath him. His heartbeat wouldn't go down, because the rage he was experiencing was sending vast amounts of adrenaline into his bloodstream.
"I could snap your neck right here and get it all over with," he said and felt his flippers trying to break free from his mind's hold. "But I won't… I can't do it to her… I'm not a killer."
The penguin's eyelids were heavy and he felt something similar to a lump in his throat. He fought the exhaustion and opened his eyes; the gray ceiling looked familiar, but the entire place was the same, he could be anywhere inside the complex.
"Hello Buck Rockgut." The older penguin looked to his right, only to see his protégé standing underneath the steel door frame.
The special agent wanted to jump up and teach the brat some respect, but he couldn't get up, his back wouldn't separate from the floor. He tried using his flippers to push himself up, but he couldn't separate them. He looked at his fins and notice the clear formation on the edges. It was dried glue, his flippers had been glued together.
"Sorry for your accommodations, but I had to make sure you wouldn't just jump up and kill me," explained Skipper as he waddled over to the rockhopper, who just continued shooting him a glare. "You said you were innocent, that you "wash your hands" from everything, but I say, they couldn't be dirtier. Your flippers are full of stain, Bucky, and like cranberry juice, these stains don't come out."
Skipper turned around to leave, when he heard the agent's voice, "You wanna hear a story, soldier?"
He knew he'd regret this, but he felt he owed Rockgut, if for nothing else, for taking him in. "Sure, I've got the time."
"There once lived a penguin, obsessed with making the world a better place, by disposing of scum such as a certain red rodent. This penguin tracked that rodent all over the world. In the Himalayas, however, the landscape decided to favor the rodent over the penguin. An avalanche caught the penguin off guard and in the heat of the moment, he hid inside a cave. Moments later, snowstorm came and began filling the cave with those darn white crystals. The penguin couldn't afford to sleep or else he would've been buried alive, he had to spend every waking moment shoveling the snow out of the cave. He felt his fat burn just to maintain his body temperature.
He had a radio with him, but there was no signal and he hadn't restocked, because he couldn't afford to lose the rodent's tracks. All those mistakes came to haunt him now and on the seventh day, he decided it was time to rest.
But… he was too strong, his body wouldn't let him die. The penguin didn't know how long he had been asleep, but in that moment he decided he had had enough. He leaped out of the cave and plummeted several hundred feet down the side of the mountain. As you can probably imagine, it wasn't a pretty landing, but bones mend and muscles heal, but the penguin's mind was never the same again, he was stronger and was willing to share his discovery with the world."
Skipper remained unimpressed, "You should've just written a book instead of… this."
"Laugh all you want, but as soon as the penguin recovered he went out into the world. The sight of animals wasting their lives, whilst he was out there risking his, made him angry. He wanted to put them into the same situation he was in and he quickly received the opportunity to do so.
While waddling through a forest he found a beaver. The rodent was careless and managed to get one of his hind paws caught underneath a fallen tree. The large rodent begged the penguin to save him. He explained that he had been stuck like that for hours now, but the penguin knew that that would be a problem.
Freeing the leg would result in crash syndrome. He had seen it before and knew it wasn't a nice way to go. I did the only right thing; I gave the beaver the tools to free himself. I gave him a hacksaw, because in the end, he could only save himself. I returned to that very site a few months later, only to find the skeleton remains of a paw."
Skipper let out a sigh, "You know… I just don't feel sorry for you. You're mad, that's all there is to it." He went for the exit.
"The world will be tested!"
Skipper reached the door.
"Death will not stop me!"
He turned around to shoot a last glare at the Rockhopper, "Game over, you son of a bitch!" he shouted and slammed the door shut. The automatic locking mechanism was activated and steel bars locked themselves in the steel doorframe.
He turned around and slid towards the exit. "It's all over," he said to himself, as the backdoor of the complex came into view. He left and allowed the cold air of freedom to fill his lungs.
"Skippah?" said a voice to his left. The penguin's blood froze, because he could recognize that British accent anywhere. "Skippah, is it really you?" it asked again, but the captain didn't dare turn around, he wanted to, but he couldn't. He made a step forward only to be stopped again, "Wait, don't go," it begged.
"I'm sorry Private, but I have to. I can't go back with you," he replied and glanced to the left. He saw the entire team, Kowalski, Rico and Private, as well as Marlene, standing there. Their expressions were a mixture of happiness and sadness, two opposite emotion of which the later prevailed.
Going against everything his mind was telling him to do, he turned to face them. They saw the poor state he was in, but it wasn't too bad, but they had seen him on worse days. "I have to disappear, I've done bad things and I need a head start before Antarctic command gives out a warrant for my arrest… but I won't struggle if you decide to take me in here and now," he said, extending his flippers and closing his eyes.
The trio of birds began waddling towards him and he waited for the sensation of cold steel around his fins, but instead, he received a warm embrace around his chest. Skipper looked down and he saw Private, hugging him. He looked back up and saw a smiling Kowalski and a chuckling Rico.
The little bird let go, "You can go, Skippah. We know it wasn't your fault," he said to his former leader.
The weapons expert only gave him a pat on the back, before stepping aside for the lieutenant. Kowalski gave Skipper a finshake and then saluted, "Sir, it's been an honor serving by your side." Rico and Private joined him in the sign of respect. "However, we cannot allow you to wander the face of this planet, a fugitive." He turned to the shortest bird, "Private, make a note, our former leader, Captain Skipper, has fallen in the line of duty. Due to the nature of his demise, his body could not be recovered."
Skipper smiled, "So after all this time, I never lost your respect?" he wiped a tear and looked at it, "Thanks. Thanks for everything you've done for me."
He looked pass his teammates and saw Marlene, still standing there, waiting for what's going to happen next. Private noticed the direction of his glance and stepped aside. He gave his former leader a nod and smile.
"And Kowalski, don't order around your superiors. You know very well Private's in charge," he said before waddling over to Marlene. He pulled her in a tight hug,"The nightmare's over," he whispered into her ear.
He pulled back and looked her in the eyes, but his smile soon disappeared, "But we can't be together… not here," he said before being interrupted by a pair of otter lips pressing against his beak.
The penguins watched the scene unfold only slightly surprised. Thankfully, Rico's stomach was empty so his "mushy love sensitivity" couldn't act up even if it tried.
The mammal and bird broke the sign of affection eventually. Skipper looked into Marlene's eyes once more, but he didn't say anything, he let go of her and waddled away.
They watched him until he finally disappeared from the horizon.
"We should head back," said Private, looking at the sky, "It's nearly morning." Everyone agreed and began their long walk home.
So, this is basically it. As promised, I'm adding an appendix; nothing special, just Rockgut's last thoughts, a "How it should have happened" on one of the traps from the "Saw" series and an analysis of my traps. Don't worry about waiting for it, it's going to be put up tomorrow.
Hope you liked it and review!
