"There is something haunting in the light of the Moon. It has all the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul and something of its inconceivable mystery"
― Joseph Conrad
Minutes later, the pain ceases.
With a groan, Skipper wakes, holding a hand to his—Hand? He held out his hands in front of himself. "WHAT THE SHRIMP COCKTAIL?!"
His square-ish hands are attached to arms that are not penguin-like. His arms are joined to shoulders that aren't penguin-like either, and his shoulders are connected to a bare chest and body that...definitely isn't penguin.
With an expression of horror, he looks for the others, grinding his teeth against his rising emotions. Oh great. Now he has teeth too.
Unknowing to the scared—eh, off guard leader, his brief shout wakes someone up.
Kowalski sits up with a groan. "Skipper, what's—" He starts, but then stops seeing a strange man. He tries to back away. "Oh, that's not Skipper."
He 'tries.' Sure is difficult to scoot away with suddenly longer legs.
"WHAT THE ASDFGHJLAF?!" Kowalski shrieks.
The sudden high pitch scream grabs Skipper's attention, as well as stirring awake the last two from their sleep.
"Kowalski, SHHHH!" Skipper hisses, recognizing the shriek.
Kowalski just stares back at him. "HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?"
Private and Rico wake and view around with disoriented and distressed expressions at all of the shouting.
Skipper promptly rises and steps towards the screeching lieutenant, but the new extra weight instead makes him tumble forward.
Kowalski tries to clamber back again but forthwith detects hands have reinstated his flippers, with Private and Rico noticing their new conditions as well.
They all stare at themselves and next stare at one another.
At that point, panic at their position rises, and the penguins, now humans, begin to scream.
Once the screaming finally stops, Kowalski grimaces, averting his gaze from Skipper. "Oh...Well, sir...at least you don't have a second head."
Skipper narrows his eyes at him. "When this is over. You're still toast, Kowalski."
Private swallows back his own panic. "How are we going to complete our mission now, sir?"
Skipper takes a deep breath. "Okay. Everyone either chill out or I'm going to smack the chill into you...Myself included." He shut his eyes for a moment. "Before anything, we need to get up and get clothes. We obviously can't fight X like this."
"...Though I'm certain we'd have the element of surprise." Kowalski snickers slightly as he just shakes his head and rubs his hands down his face. "Oh cod...of all the side effects..."
Kowalski's train of thought, however, is cut short when new male voices are heard outside the store.
Uncoordinated and awkward, the four manage to get to their feet. It takes a brief moment for them to each find their new balances to take their first steps, but they manage to get the hang of it and waddle-walk for the door.
Outside, a small group of men walks by the electronics store.
"And then I said to Terry 'yo, a girl looking that fine shouldn't work at a place like this' and then he said-"
"My god, Marco, shut up. You won't stop talking about that girl, it's been hours," the other boys chuckle.
"Hey, I'm just saying, I never knew zookeeper girls could be so—"
Sadly, the group of men's conversation is cut short as they are ambushed by the pengu-humans, knocking out each male, and dragging them inside.
0000000
"Alright girl, let's try this again and tell it to me straight. What were you doing with those penguins?"
Bridget fixes up her soulless blacks eyes at X, growling with her bare teeth.
"Go fuck yourself."
Another interrogation within the span of a day. What luck.
"Girl, with your attitude, it's going to be a long, x-hausting night," X simply scoffs, as he takes a bite of his burrito.
For a moment, Bridget gets distracted by his meal. She now is realizing how hungry she is, and how she hasn't had any food since yesterday morning. Shaking her head, she snaps back. "Just let me go, ya got no right ta detain me. You're supposed ta walk me outta the place, not arrest me,"
X holds out her backpack, showing the items she's bagged. "With the hole in the ceiling and your stolen goods, I say you, little miss thief, earned your night in a jail cell,"
Bridget glares, before giving out a huff. Shit, she did get caug—
A little muffled by the walls, she then hears what sounds an awful lot like panicked screaming. One screech is notably higher pitch and possibly even familiar.
'Kowalski'
Her eyes light up in alarm. She recognizes that woman-ish scream in a heartbeat. And if he's here, then the other muffled screams must be the other penguins too.
'Why are they here? Why the screamin? What goin on in there, are they okay?'
Bridget isn't the exclusive, as X took a moment to hearken in, gaining a dubious expression.
"Now what? A bunch of hooligans sneaks into the store?" He then sniffs the air, humming a bit. "Penguins are back...but they got a new scent to them,"
The woman squints at the security guard. She doesn't know what is eerier, the fact that this man acts like a hound-dog, or that he hears screaming too...instead of penguin squawks like he should be hearing.
Either way, X grabs his baton, and points it at the ginger. "Stay here, we're not done. I got to go x-spell some fools." With a dark chuckle, the man left the office, leaving Bridget alone.
Oh right. Alone. Maybe she should use this moment wisely and find a way to escape?
Eyes darting around the room, Bridget first attempts to escape the chair, since X-man oh so greatly chose to cuff her hands to a big metal chair. Standing up a bit, she scoots closer to the desk, anticipating to find something, anything, that could let her pick lock the cuffs.
Across from her on the desk are some basic office supplies, such as pens and paper clips as well as the remainder of X's lunch.
Bridget...first grabs the lunch bag with her mouth and puts it on her lap. She THEN reaches for the paperclips with her nose.
Luckily, there is one just close enough that she could reach like this.
Unluckily, as soon as she achieves to get the paperclip off of the desk, it falls to the ground, a few inches away. "Fuck!"
She growls and tries to reach for another one, but this only results in Bridget plummeting to the ground, face first.
"...ow" is all the ginger grumbles.
"There she is."
Bridget tries to look up at the voice of the flathead, but with her head being hugged by the store's (not washed) floors, she sadly cannot. But grasping that the penguins have returned for her made her satisfied. One of them waddles over and picks the lock from behind. Another then leans over to help her up.
With her hands-free, Bridget was relieved to be fre—
Why is there a hand on her shoulder?
Bridget looks up at who is picking her up, coming face to face with a slender, tall, goateed man. And Bridget, not knowing this man, does what any normal person would do in this situation.
She screams and gives him a lovely, big Irish kiss right smack in the nose.
The man gasps and stumbles back. "OW?! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" he squeaks, hand to his face.
Bridget scrambles up, although her body looks ready to run or fight, her expression comes off scared and confused.
'HOLY SHIT WHY IS THERE A GUY THAT SOUNDS LIKE KO—'
A flatheaded man puts himself between her and the tall one. "Easy there, fireball. There ain't no need for all that."
In a blind fit of being startled by the new man stepping in, Bridget takes action and tries to attack him with a punch.
He manages to catch her hand and forces her back to the wall. "Bridget. Calm down. It's us."
Huffing, Bridget struggles a moment, before looking up at the handsome man...wait what-She stares right at him in the eyes, almost trying to read them.
"Yeah I know, we look pretty hideous right now, but it's us. The penguins." He says sternly.
'...Oh, shit that's Gruff Voice!'
She looks around and notes the others. These barefoot, ill-fitted clothed men DO look like the penguins in a way, similar yet different...oh shit. Bridget felt her chest tighten up, she looked back at Skipper. "Is...t-that really you-u, Flathead?"
"Finally. Took you long eno—"
A sharp and quick knee to the groin suddenly took place.
Skipper wheezes and lets go of her with a glare as he crumbles to his knees.
With the captain down, Bridget scoots away from the wall and crippled pengman, closer to the smallest and friendly-looking man (Is he Private?)
Private takes a half step back with a nervous smile. "We're not here to kidnap you this time, honest."
Bridget didn't like the nervous look he gave her...she sighs and puts her hands up.
"You're...you're good...so you're all the penguins?" She bites her lip.
Private nods and takes a deep breath. "Yes..."
Still holding his face with watery eyes, Kowalski steps a little closer. "Remember those belated effects from the device? Well, they arrived...And quite unpleasantly I might add."
"Kowalski...You're double toast after this." Skipper wheezes from the ground.
Bridget completely ignores Skipper and looks at Kowalski. "So...this is all of your side effects? Ya become human?..." She then notices the white feathers from their heads.
'...Slightly human?'
"I don't know the full extent of it, but yeah, pretty much."
Private looks anxiously at the door. "We probably need to leave soon. It won't be long until X wakes up."
'Oh shit, they dealt with X-man already?'
Realizing the time-limit they have, Bridget nods. "Er, right,"
She grabs her bag (stuffs X's lunch in the bag), and heads for the window.
Kowalski slowly lowers his hand from his face to reach after her. "Uh, that's a rather high window—"
Bridget opens it and simply jumps out.
His eyes widen and he rushes to the window and looks down, holding his breath. And to his surprise, the human is alright.
She herself gives out an anxious huff, taking a moment to look down at her leg.
'K, when I get ta the apartment, I'm fixin ya up for good'
She then looks back up, noticing Kowalski.
His expression now is a mix between horror and relief.
'...Why does he look scared for me?... Maybe he's more scared OF me...I did punch him-'
Quickly she shakes her head and calls out to him. Not the time to feel guilty.
"Hey! Ya got all of your stuff still, right,"
"Yeah, I think so? Are you okay?" he shouts back.
Bridget gives him a thumbs up before continuing.
"So uh...in that case, I'm headin ta my apartment now. I'll be back tomorrow and shit, but I think I need a break from this madness. Deals a deal, ya got your stuff, I'll be leavin now,"
She then starts to skate away. Fast. And she doesn't look back.
Kowalski watches her for a moment before ducking back inside to the others. "She's leaving us behind..."
Skipper picks himself up off the ground. "Oh no she ain't. Out the window, boys, on the double. Tuck and roll," he says, striding stiffly to the window and hopping out himself. The other three then follow him out.
'shit shit shit shit shit—'
Bridget keeps skating, knowing...KNOWING they're chasing right after her.
And she is right. Slowly and tiredly, the pengmen are following after her.
Bridget looks back to see them, noticing how much they struggle.
This is perfect, at this rate they'll never catch up to her and she can escape them...
But a part of her feels...bad for them. Not that she cares but...they're alone. Alone and scared, in new bodies they don't understand how to use or what to do. And while it isn't her problem...it would be cruel to leave them, wouldn't it?... She can't-
Suddenly, because she isn't paying attention to the streets, she finds herself smashed right into a sign. And she falls down. Again.
And though down she may be, the slow but determined pengmen continue and close the distance between them. By the time Bridget gets back up, the four now stand over her with unamused expressions.
"I've got one question for you," Skipper says. "Did you think we could just go back to the zoo like this?"
"...Well I wasn't assmuin ya would go back to the zoo in the first place. That would just be stupid of ya ta do,"
"... So... What? Where'd you think we go?"
"Well I did see a bridge back that way perhaps," Kowalski states with a sigh.
Skipper side eyes him.
"Sounds like you're sleepin under a bridge tonight." Bridget gets up and tries to skate away again.
"Nuh-uh, not so fast." He catches her arm. "You ain't serious."
She looks at him for a moment, her expression going soft. She then looks at the others. It would be cruel to leave them, it would be cruel to let them stay alone...
Her soft expression slowly hardens, closing her eyes before she glares back at Skipper. Cruel yes. But she doesn't care.
"Dead." She flinches her arm away from him.
Skipper looks her in the eyes and then releases her arm. "You know what? Fine. Go home." He turns away and motions to the others. "Come on, boys, we're camping tonight." He then starts walking away.
The other three look at Bridget before sighing and silently following him.
As the four pengmen walk away, Bridget watches them...with a heavy heart.
Her glare at them dissolves away, a concerned expression growing on her face.
Bridget reaches out and tries to call out to them...but not a word is said. Not a sound. She's done it again, she's pushed people away.
Feeling the guilt eat her up, she puts her hand down and looks away, sighing before continuing to skate away. But home she doesn't go to. Bridget doesn't have a home. An apartment to stay at in New York? Sure.
But a home? Bridget hasn't had that in a long...long time.