Kitanna- I would put up pictures but I can't draw to save my life ^^ getting better though so maybe I will eventually. I guess if I start working on it now I'll have them doe perfectly in a year or two^^ Just kiddin. If you really are wishing me to I'll see what I can muster up^^
I've apologized so many times for late and overdue updates that I'm not even sure they matter anymore, but for what it's worth I really am sorry for making everybody wait. But it's been a few months close to a year I think since I've written anything so I think the creative juices in my brain have completely rebooted. It's up to you guys to say if I actually made something worth it here^^ I hope you enjoy this next chapter^^
Skipper was back to himself and healed within a month, but was left with three scars running along his chest. The rest of his cuts and wounds healed up nicely and the feathers grew back by the end of the month.
Nicky had side effects from the tests for two weeks afterwards while her system slowly got rid of the injected liquids. Spouts of pain, hallucinations, and nightmares when she slept.
"Hallelujah," Nicky said one afternoon. The regular spout of pain she'd usually have hadn't happened. It was a relief, because then what Kiki explained as her system running the injected stuff out of her body was finally finished. She'd have no more nightmares, hallucinations, or pain. That was awesome.
"Wha?" Rico asked confused.
"It stopped. It finally stopped," She replied happily.
Skipper looked down at his chest, staring at the three grey slashes that ran through it.
Destiny looked up at him. She knew how he must've felt having to carry the scars. She smiled at him. "Stop staring at them," she said calmly.
Skipper looked up at her. "You try having three scars etched onto your chest and see how much you like it," he shot back. He didn't want the constant reminder that he'd been used as a toy for a stupid dragon.
Destiny rolled her eyes and shook her head. He was never going to get over it.
Kiki and Kowalski had been trapped in Kowalski's lab trying to finish their latest invention…which had already blown up three times.
A loud explosion came from the lab, adding more black sot to the already blackened floor near the door of the lab.
"That's four," Nicky announced casually.
"When are they going to give up on that thing?" Cassy asked. They had been in the lab all night last night and all morning. When were they going to take a break?
"Knowing Kowalski, not until they're finished," Private replied. Kowalski never gave up on an invention, no matter how many times it blew up or shorted out.
"Yeah Kowalski never gives up. Ever," Rico added.
"Kiki's the same way," Nicky replied calmly.
"What?" Destiny asked confused. She didn't understand, what was Kiki the same way as?
"What?" Nicky asked. She didn't quite understand what Destiny wanted to know.
"What is Kiki the same way as?" Destiny asked.
"Kowalski," Nicky answered. Didn't Destiny hear Rico?
"OK… and?"
"They both never give up on an invention," Nicky said slowly. "Didn't you hear Rico?"
"Oh we heard him," Cassy stated. "But we didn't understand him," she looked over at Rico. "Sorry."
"Ah," Rico dismissed. He didn't really care, a lot of people didn't understand him. He had gotten used to it.
"It takes time to understand Rico," Skipper explained. "That, or determination. Either one works."
"Yup," Rico nodded.
Nicky eyed the bunks curiously. She wondered what it felt like sleeping in them. She climbed up into the top bunk. It was kinda comfy. "Hey, could you guys build some of these for us?" She asked getting comfortable. Oh yeah, she wanted one of these.
Rico smiled at her. They were comfy beds, once you got used to them. Nicky seemed to like them right away. He wasn't really surprised. He had liked the bunks right away too.
"Are they comfy?" Cassy asked walking over to the bunks. She pulled herself into one of them. They were comfy. Better than the floor anyway. She wanted one too.
"I guess we could," Skipper replied. He watched the girls in the bunks. It wouldn't really require much effort, and there was just enough room next to their before Kowalski's lab to fit more bunks. He took a sip of his coffee. Besides, the floor wasn't exactly a suitable sleeping place anymore. The girls had been in the zoo long enough, they deserved some real beds.
Kiki came out of the lab entirely blackened by the explosions except two circles around her eyes. "We finally got it!" She announced excitedly. They had finally finished the machine. It had blown up a few times, and they had to fix it, but they had finally finished it.
Kowalski came out rolling something under a blanket. It was the same height as himself, and only a couple of feet wide. "I give you our latest invention!" he pulled the blanket off revealing the machine.
"It looks like the time machine you made that went all out of whack," Private stated.
It did look the same. It had the same circular shape, but its base was bigger with a lot of different colored buttons on it. Off to the side of the circular part of the machine was a screen.
"So uh," Skipper asked looking at the machine, "What exactly is it?"
"We don't know," Kiki replied. She looked at the machine. She didn't want to tell them what it did just yet. She was ashamed that it turned out the way it did knowing Nicky. She tried to hide her shame but knew she wasn't doing a good job. She pushed her glasses back and looked down at the clipboard in her hands.
"Well..." Kowalski said carefully.
"We have an idea of what it might do," Kiki added cautiously.
Nicky jumped down out of the bunk. "And what's that?" She asked. She was curious to see what this latest invention could do. Kiki always made the most unusual things. Some of them were quite interesting, though most of them caused trouble. It was cause for an exciting lifestyle though, so he really didn't mind it.
"It's supposed to change you into a different animal from a different class," Kowalski explained.
"You lost me," Nicky replied. She had no idea what that meant. But she was curious.
"Well," Kiki took a deep breath, "Living things are classified in stages, Kingdom, phyla, class, order, family, genus, and finally species."
"For example," Kowalski continued scientifically, "Our species of penguins, assuming we are all the same, would be in the animal Kingdome, the chordate phylum, the Aves class, sphenisciformes order, spheniscdae family, pygoscelis genus, adelie species,"
"Now you lost all of us," Destiny stated. She had no clue what that was supposed to accomplish.
Kiki sighed. "The classification of the animal kingdom, as Kowalski was saying. We are in the class of Aves, or birds. So this machine is supposed to change us from birds to mammals, or fish, or…" she looked to Kowalski, "What other classes are there?"
Kowalski thought for a minute, "Reptiles, amphibians, and arthropods…I think."
"Arthropods?" Kiki asked. She didn't think that one was a class.
"Yeah, any animal with more than four legs. You know like insect's crustaceans and arachnids," Kowalski replied.
"Yeah yeah, ok can we come back from the science fair and get to this machine," Nicky interrupted. She didn't really care about what was a class and what wasn't. She just wanted to know what the machine did. "Fire this bad boy up. Let's see what it does."
"Wait a minute," Skipper said, interrupting Nicky's anxiousness. "This thing will do what?"
"It will change us from birds to mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians, or arthropods," Kiki explained again. "Though I'm not too sure about the arthropod thing," She eyed Kowalski.
"Ah huh, ok." Destiny walked up to the machine. "You two do know how to work this thing right?" she asked looking over the machine. She didn't want it malfunctioning right now. They hadn't had a lot of trouble in the last few weeks. Just what Skipper described as the usual zoo problems. Arguments, thievery, squabbles, and let's not forget the lemur, Julian. He was a royal pain in the ass.
"Yeah," Kiki replied slowly. She didn't know the specifics they hadn't quite figured that out. They hadn't done a real test yet. But they were pretty sure what to do.
"Then fire it up already!" Nicky pushed anxiously. She was always curious to what Kiki's inventions did. They were never normal. But she was getting wrestles.
"The zoo closes in a few minutes," Destiny stated. "Let's wait, we don't want anything going wrong while there are still humans lurking around."
"Right," Kowalski agreed, "we still don't know specifically how to work this machinery so it's best if we do it when there's no one around."
"Fine, but you guys don't have to make it sound like the humans are waiting for us to mess up and expose ourselves," Nicky stated.
"Some of them are," Skipper replied.
Nicky stared at him. Why was he always so paranoid? She'd have to figure that out someday.
They waited until every human left, including Alice and the cleaning crew. When the zoo was emptied of all humans they tested the machine.
Kowalski started punching codes into the machine. While Kiki watched the screen for the results, making sure nothing went wrong, because something always did during the test runs.
And something did.
The screen jumped to life, opening many different windows with codes racing through each one. "Hold on, something's wrong," Kiki said focused on the screen. There was a small keyboard under the screen, she started to put different codes in trying to figure out and solve the problem. It wasn't working so well.
"What?" Kowalski asked hastily, standing up and looking at the screen.
"If this blows up-" Private started to ask.
"It's not an if, Private," Skipper interrupted. "It's a when and how intense. And then there are all those consequences to deal with."
"Well, when is a hopefully it won't, and how intense probably very, for there is a lot of power in this thing," Kowalski replied fearfully.
"Oh no, babe," Kiki stated still trying to solve the problem, "It's gonna blow." And hopefully the consequences won't be so bad. She thought desperately. She really hoped that this thing didn't do too much damage when it blew.
"Why, I thought you two knew how to control this thing," Nicky argued nervously. They did say that right? She wasn't so sure she might be hallucinating. She really hoped she wasn't. No she didn't want to get blown up but she would really like to know for sure that Jinks' experiments had fully left her body. She would like that a lot.
"We did too," Kowalski replied. He thought he basically knew almost everything about the invention. But this was why they were running a test. So they could know everything they needed to know about the machine.
The machine started beeping. Never a good sign for any experiment or machine or whatnot. Nope never a good sign. Beeping was usually a warning; it was the machines way of saying, 'help I'm going to explode, if you do not understand the steps necessary to fix me, promptly find the nearest exit and leave.'
"Kowalski how come half the things you invent always blow up!" Skipper shouted over the beeping. Every other invention Kowalski invented blew up and caused some kind of trouble. It was an expectation now, although he really thought this one would work. He was tired of the explosions and blobs of gelatinous goop or evil robots or ray guns that always went wrong. Unnecessary and utterly annoying to him, but always of some scientific use to Kowalski. He didn't get it. Maybe it was a scientist thing.
Kowalski turned around to Skipper. "None of them are supposed too!" he argued. It was true. None of his experiments were ever supposed to explode or go wrong, but they almost always did. Oh well, that is science. That's what multiple tests must be done before the final prototype can be made. It wasn't such a hard concept to grasp. He did agree that the constant exploding of serums and machines did get bothersome.
"Kiki?" Destiny asked cautiously.
"It's not working!" she shouted frustrated, banging on the now heated metal surface . How could it not work? They put so much effort and time into this thing! They checked and double checked and tripled checked almost everything. Consequences… If this thing blew up…
It did blow up. Before Kiki could even think of the consequences. It exploded with shuddering booms that shook the habitat, and probably the entire zoo. As it blew a black laser flew out from the circular part of the invention and ricocheted off of Skipper. The next thing anyone knew they were all sitting on their butts against the walls with severe headaches and new bruises that would probably start making their appearances in a half an hour or so. Well almost every one.
Skipper was sitting in the middle of the room with what used to be the invention. He had a killer headache and couldn't see straight. He held his forehead and stayed crippled over on the floor until the headache died down and his eyes could see again. He looked up and saw Nicky…rolling on the floor laughing. Private was sitting next to her wide eyed with shock. "What?" he asked confused.
Destiny tried to ingore everything , she was attacked by a killer headache that drowned everything out with an irritating ringing noise anyway. Standing up she felt her balance shift and suddenly working her legs to hold her up became a chore. She couldn't figure out what was wrong but she knew that whatever it was, the explosion from Kiki's invention gone haywire was most likely the cause.
Nicky continued to laugh being unable to help it. Skipper was fluffy and so funny looking. He didn't look anything like Julian, but he was most definitely a lemur. How sad for him, he had to live with Julian until Kowalski and Kiki could fix him, and Destiny wasn't any better. It was hilarious. She couldn't stop laughing. "You guys...you're… bah hahaaa!"
"Skippah…" Private said still shocked, "You're both…both..."
"Black and white ruffed lemurs…" Kowalski informed.
Everyone waited for their response to the news.
All Skipper heard was lemur. Lemur…like ringtail…like the most annoying creature he had ever met…lemur as in he was one…as in he would have to live in the lemur habitat until Kowalski could turn him back into a penguin…lemur…as in Julian…also known as hell…
He stood up and turned to Kowalski. He wanted to kill Kowalski- and Kiki but mostly Kowalski-for doing this to him. He wanted to rip his head off and it showed. It must have because Kowalski's eyes went wide.
"I-I'm sure we can f-fix this s-s-situation Skipper. No need to get upset," Kowalski stammered, picking up a nearby piece of scrap metal for protection. he inched his way over to Kiki.
"you sure about that?" Destiny questioned skeptically, rubbing her temples as the headache subsided, "how long will it take?"
Kiki picked up a notepad and began scribbling things down with a green crayon, mumbling to herself all the while. After a few moments of this she looked up, fixed her glasses and proclaimed, "At least a few weeks, two to three months longest, but we can't be certain. First we have to find out what went wrong, re-calibrate the reactor pods and get it up and operational. then we have to tinker with it a bit before we can figure out how to reverse the transformation." It shouldn't take us too long to rebuild the thing, tinkering with it is going to take the most time, that's the part i'm worried about."
Kowalski took a look at the notepad. "if we account for all possible mistakes it could take a bit longer than that," he added, "But i wouldn't worry to much."
Skipper sighed. He hated everything about ringtail, the mere thought...
"Well babe," Destiny stated, "looks like we'll have to relocate for a while." she smiled at him. "Let's go talk to Maurice." She grabbed his arm in hers and marched off to the lemur habitat.
Oh noes! ^^ I hope you enjoyed this long overdue chapie! ^^