Hello! Actually, I do have something to say here. This is officially my longest story yet. As we inch closer and closer to the end (and I have already written the end - it will end up being 16 chapters long), I realize that my longest story besides this one had 15 actually chapters and an author's note... I'm really proud of this story. It may be my best yet :)

Also - one thing I'd like to mention: from here on out, Rico will be doubling as the character of John Utterson, Dr. Jekyll's best friend and confidant.

Enjoy!


Adrian felt... tired. As if, for some odd reason, he just didn't feel like going out... even terrorizing Marlene ahead of schedule sounded like too much strain...

That armchair looked very comfortable...

What Adrian finally did was sneak into the HQ and steal Kowalski's blanket. He then sprawled himself out on the chair lazily, the blanket covering him almost completely. He soon dozed off.

...

The rest of the penguins awoke with a start to the sound of someone knocking on the fishbowl. Thinking it was another murder, Skipper, Rico, and Private leapt out of bed and practically flew up the ladder.

A carrier pigeon was standing outside, whistling to himself, and was almost knocked over by Skipper's sudden appearance.

"Hey!" he cried. "Careful! This stuff's fragile!"

Skipper sighed with relief, glad no one was hurt. He then straightened up and said, "Who in the good name of Uncle Sam are you?"

"I'm just here to deliver a package for an Andrew P. Kowalski." the pigeon replied.

"I see."

"But Skippah, Kowalski's in the lab tonight!" Private said.

Rico smiled. He had this covered. "I'll tay eh!" (I'll take it!)

...

Rico, with the package in flipper, punched in the code to the lock and opened the door. His plan was just to drop off the box and leave - but he couldn't bring himself to do the latter. Something just wasn't right in here - it was too quiet. No chemicals bubbling, no powders being weighed or any other science-y stuff - there was someone in Kowalski's chair...

Wait! Who the heck was that?

Rico stepped a bit closer.

"You!" he said loudly. The figure stirred in the chair, waking up. He looked out over the blanket (Rico flinched at the sight of his face).

"Is there something I can help you with?" he said sarcastically.

"Stuff for 'walski." Rico said slowly. "Who're you?"

"A friend." The penguin said in a clipped voice. "Now, I was in the middle of a most glorious sleep, so if you could kindly leave the drugs and go."

Rico blinked. How did he know the package had Kowalski's drugs?

"No. Give tuh 'walski." Rico said.

The penguin chuckled. "Then I assure you, they will be safe with me. Kowalski is unavailable at the moment."

"Where?" Rico demanded.

"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

"Tell me!"

The penguin sighed and lazily flung off the blanket. He stood up - Rico's back ached just looking at how curved his spine was - and then he strode to Kowalski's table. He opened a small box near the edge, tearing off the plastic wrapping and ripping apart the cardboard. He pulled out a syringe filled with a blue solution. Rico became uneasy - what the heck was he doing? The penguin seemed to sense his apprehension and smiled sadistically at him.

*What's the matter, Rico?" he said mockingly. He waved the syringe in Rico's face - Rico stepped back. "Afraid of a little science?"*

Rico could only watch in confusion and, yes, fear as the penguin laughed at him - and plunged the needle into his own leg and pressed down. He kept on laughing, even as he gasped and cried out, clearly in pain.

Rico saw the solution quickly take effect - the penguin's spiked feathers shrunk back into his head... he fell to the floor and writhed in pain, laughing all the while... his spine seemed to straighten out, and the muscles became less defined.

The laughing stopped, and was replaced by real gasps of pain.

Silence. The penguin sat up and rubbed his head.

Rico let out a gasp of his own - there, right in front of him, was Kowalski himself!

Kowalski heard Rico and spun around. Rico was hardly comforted by the presence of his friend's familiar blue eyes.

"Rico!" Kowalski said, shocked. "When did you - did you see me-"

"What's goin' on?' Rico whispered, astonished. "How... why?"

"It was just part of the experiment at first." Kowalski tried to explain quietly. "Then, I think I grew an addiction... now, I have no control over when he comes and goes…" his eyes grew wide as Adrian's memories filled his mind once more. *"I warned you... even as Black, I warned you..."*

"Black?" Rico recognized the name and his head snapped up.

"Yes. It's him - he's the one behind the murders. I tried my best to stop him!" Kowalski rushed to explain when he saw Rico's horrified expression. "I did everything I could, but now I know there's no stopping him. At least... there wasn't until you brought this package." A ghost of a smile appeared on his face as he picked up the box Rico had originally brought in. "This package contains what I think may be the only hope of stopping my transformations..." the smile disappeared. "But if it doesn't... I will find a way, I must, but if this isn't it..." he looked up. "Rico, I need you to promise me two things."

"What?" Rico said apprehensively. Now what did Kowalski expect him to do for him?

"One - that, no matter what you have to do… if an opportunity to vanquish Black comes along, you will do it. Promise me."

"Will" He was going to do that anyway.

Kowalski barely smiled again. "And the other thing is..." he practically ran to his recorder and popped it open, removing a tape - it looked brand new, barely used at all except for a little bit of the tape inside. Kowalski brought it to Rico. "...this. You must give this to Marlene right now. She has a tape player... it's critical she hears it before the morning comes, but I have work to do now that these chemicals are here."

"...okay." Rico nodded, taking the tape. He hadn't seen Marlene for weeks, she never came out of her habitat and told others not to visit her... Rico paused, then said "Please tell Skip?"

"No!" Kowalski said - almost begged. "Please don't tell Skipper! He won't understand that I need to keep working to stop what is happening - he would lock me out of the lab forever, then we would all be lost. He can't know what is going on.""Okay." Rico said, disappointed.

"Now, please, go give the tape to Marlene - as fast as you can, there's not much time!" Kowalski said urgently. Rico nodded again and ran out, silently berating himself for how complacent he was becoming.

Kowalski ripped open the box - this all would end tonight, one way or another!

He pulled out the chemicals and powders, and quickly measured them out. Once the measurements were complete, he mixed them all together, creating a small explosion in his beaker.

Just to be sure his hypothesis was correct, he filled another beaker with water, and carefully poured a miniscule portion of the new formula into the water. After a few seconds, the beaker turned red. Kowalski frowned... that was not a good sign, the color red always signified Adrian... then, a few minutes later, it turned blue. Kowalski sighed in relief - blue meant himself. Then, all the sudden, it started switching back and forth - blue to red, red to blue… and finally settled on clear.

Kowalski silently gasped. So that's what would be happening to him... the clear confused him a bit... he figured that whichever mindset was on while the drug wore off would end up dominating completely.

What if Adrian won?

Kowalski shook his head. There was no time - he'd couldn't consider that now!

As he prepped himself for the injection (unlike Adrian, he did care about the state of his body… especially if he was to keep up the mindset that he would win), he encouraged himself.

* "Somehow I have to get back to the place where my journey started; find the course I charted when I first departed..."*

He filled a new syringe with the formula.

* "Somehow I have to hang on to the vision that first inspired me - to the hope that fired me when the world admired me..."*

He stuck the needle into his freshly - if quickly - sanitized leg and pressed down.

* "Somehow I have to rebuild all the dreams that the winds have scattered - from what fate has shattered, I'll retrieve what mattered!"*

It was done. Now there was nothing left to do but wait...

Except... he'd never, ever done this before, but he figured anything that might help was worth a shot...

Kowalski fell to his knees, raised his flippers in the air, bowing his head.

* "God... you must help me carry on... when it seems all hope has gone, I have got to carry on..."*

Then he fainted, falling right on his chest, onto the floor.


http:/ www. youtube . com/watch?v=LtkcD9sWJAg (Robert Cuccioli)

I really like that ending... it was in the song, and it really touched my heart when I saw Jekyll falling to his knees, falling upon his last chance... I really can see Kowalski doing that, too.

Review (that means YOU!)