A.N.—Hello, people! Here is chapter 14! Enjoy! :)
Trixy: Yep.
Chapter 14: What If?
Marlene looks at the phone in her paw. "He hung up on me..." She mumbles as she hangs the phone back up. She then thinks some more, summarizing everything she had just learned from the call. Private and Trixy are missing. Skipper is 'busy' doing something. What is he so busy with that he hung up on her? Marlene walks slowly back out of the HQ to her habitat. She sits down on her bed. "I wish there was a way that I could help."
She then gets an idea. "Of course! I can!" She quickly leaps from off her bed and scurries back to the penguin HQ. She had heard about how Kowalski had fixed the Tracker, which, in many opinions, was his best invention yet. And probably one of the few that was useful and usually did not explode. Marlene hopes that he still has it in the HQ and it hadn't been on their boat during that storm.
Marlene hops back down into the HQ and bolts into Kowalski's lab. She opens every drawer and cabinet, looking for the little hand-held devise. "Come on! Come on! Think, Marlene! Think! If you were a psychotic penguin genius, where would you hide your inventions?" She taps her head, thinking really hard.
"What are you doing?" Asks a voice from behind Marlene. Marlene jumps in surprise and spins around to see who it is. It is none other than King Julian.
"I'm looking for something. Now go away," She says. "they wouldn't be too happy if they knew you were here."
Julian crosses his arms. "The king will go whenever and wherever he wants to." He says.
"It's true." Says Mort skipping out from behind Julian. Marlene rolls her eyes.
"Whatever." She murmurs and she continues to search for the invention. She lifts some sheets of paper laying randomly on the work bench. It isn't there either. Marlene gives an aggravated sigh. "Where could he have put it?!"
"Put what?" Asks Julian. Marlene glances at him. Though Julian could be a pain in the tail, maybe he and Maurice and Mort could help her find Kowalski's invention. She sighs.
"I'm trying to find one of Kowalski's inventions. It is small, kind of rectangular, I think it may be silver?...Yes, I think it was kind of silvery." She says. Julian is staring out into space as she talks to him. "Julian, are you even listening to me?" Julian shakes his head.
"Mmm, what? Did someone say something?"
Marlene throws her arms up into the air in irritation. "Nevermind!" She growls. She then storms out of the lab. 'Kowalski must have another place that he keeps his inventions.' She thinks. Then she snaps her claws. "Level thirteen! Of course!" She exclaims. She then walks over to the penguins' hidden control panel and tries to bring up the elevator. "Agh! Now which button was it?!" Marlene continues to press random buttons in her haste to get to Kowalski's level.
Mort skips over to where Marlene is trying to bring up the elevator. "Ooh, pretty button." He says and pushes a red button.
"Mort, don't—" Marlene starts and then stops. The elevator has risen from the floor. She quickly gets in it and finds the hidden button for level thirteen. She leaves the three lemurs standing alone in the main part of the HQ.
Julian looks around and notices that Marlene has 'disappeared.' "Where'd Marlene go?" He asks. Maurice looks at Julian.
"You really weren't listening to a word that she just said, were you, your majesty?" Maurice asks.
"She said something?" Julian asks.
Maurice sighs. "Yes, your majesty. She said she is looking for some invention of Kowalski's."
"Oh."
"I heard her say that!" Mort giggles raising his paw. "I did! Me! Me!" He jumps up and down as he says so. Julian gives him an annoyed look and then kicks him out of the HQ through the fish-dish hatch.
Skipper slides through the pirate boat. He has a small earpiece on his head. He stops for a moment behind some rope and taps it with a flipper. "You're sure he went this way, Kowalski?" He asks. He has been sliding around for a few minutes and still hasn't seen any signs of X.
"Yes, sir." Replies Kowalski. He looks at the make-shift invention in his flippers that he had constructed minutes ago. "It shows him right here on my invention."
"And you are positive that your 'X-Finder' is right?"
"Yes, sir...I'm fifty-seven percent positive of it."
Skipper sighs. "So, is he forward, left, or right?" Skipper is standing at an intersection in the boat. It was a very large ship with some small hallways inside.
"Erm...Left?" Kowalski looks at the screen. "I don't see a left corridor on this..."
Skipper face-flippers and slowly slides his flipper down his face. "Then what, for crying our loud, do you see on that thing?!"
It is at this moment that the small battery on Kowalski's slapdash devise dies. The screen goes completely blank and Kowalski looks at it sheepishly. "Nothing anymore, sir."
"What do you mean?" Skipper narrows his eyes.
"It...umm...died, sir." Smoke starts to trail from the invention. Kowalski drops it as it grows hot in his flippers. Rico regurgitates a fireextenguiser and sprays the invention.
Skipper sighs again. "Alright." He then taps the radio piece again. He slides down the left passage. Skipper slides up to a room and peaks inside it. Officer or Pirate X is sitting at a desk with his feet propped up on it. Skipper quickly ducks back out of the room and taps the radio. "Found him."
"You did? Where is he, sir?" Kowalski asks.
"Down the left hall in a room at a desk." Skipper takes a K-O bomb from behind him, takes the key out of it, and chucks it into the room with X. He then quickly slides away. "And now he should be sleeping at his desk."
Kowalski nods. "Alright, Skipper, we should be able to escape simply now back to our own boat."
Skipper nods. "Okay, then I want you and Rico to go ahead and prepare the boat. I'll meet you boys out there pronto." He taps the radio again and slides towards the exit. Officer X steps in front of the threshold of the exit with his arms crossed. Skipper tries to stop his slide, but X grabs him.
"I've got you now, penguin." He says with a sickening grin.
Trixy takes Private's flipper in her free flipper and holds a mushroom lantern out in front of them. They waddle slowly and quietly into the dark tunnel. The tunnel is not just dark, but also damp and the ground is a little squishy. "Ewww!" Private and Trixy both say and make disgusted faces as they walk along the weird and wet ground.
"I wondah what will be at the end of this tunnel." Private says after a couple minutes.
Trixy shrugs. "I don't know, Priv. Though, I hope an exit is."
"Me, too." They then waddle along in silence for a few minutes. The only sound that can be heard is the from the squishy floor being walked on. "I wondah what Skippah and the othahs are doing."
"I wondah that, too...They probably think that we're dead..."
"Do you think at they're looking for us?"
Trixy looks at Private. "I'm sure they are...They must be...I mean, it's not like Skippah to just give up on the possibility that his MIA soldiahs could be alive...Is it?"
Private shakes his head. "No...As far as I know he doesn't believe that any soldiah is dead until he has concrete proof."
Trixy nods. "Well...Then he most likely out there on the ocean with K'walski and Rico looking for us."
"Yes...But for how long will they look before they give up on us?" Private asks looking worriedly at Trixy. "What if...What if they give up? What if we nevah get back to New York?"
"No...Priv, please don't start the what if's."
"But...What if we're stuck on this island forevah? What if we get eaten by one of those cannibals? What if instead of an exit we find a pack of badg—OW!" Private stops talking after Trixy slaps him upside the head.
"I told you to not start on the what if's, Priv." She says giving him a look. "And, Private, I highly doubt that we'll run into a pack or herd or whatever-it-is-called of badgahs down here, okay?" Trixy lays a flipper on his shoulder and looks at him.
"You slapped me..." Is all Private replies.
Trixy sighs. "It was a last resort." She then grabs his flipper again. "Now, let's go on before the floor gets any squishier."