Chapter 2: Recon & Abduction

"Alright men, tonight's another aerial recon night. Who's up to watching the skies tonight?" Skipper asked, looking across the room at the others from the table where he sat drinking his coffee.

Kowalski glanced over from beside the television where he was rewiring the DVD player. "I'm a little tied up, sir, and after this I really need to catch up on this week's reports to the North Wind….Unless you'd like to fill them out instead?" He raised a brow.

"No, you work on that Kowalski." He shook his head and looked at the other two. "Well?"

In response, Rico dramatically played dead. Private scowled at him before sighing and raising his flipper. "I'll do it, Skipper."

"Atta boy!" The commanding officer then tossed him a pair of night vision binoculars. "One of us will drop by and check on you in a few hours."

"Roger that, sir." He sighed again, taking the binoculars and hopping up the ladder.

Pushing open the trap door and exiting, Private noted that the night was a bit chilly with a slight autumn mist. With the quiet breeze shaking the aging leaves of the trees around the zoo, it was a little unsettling. He glanced back towards the HQ. Perhaps he should go back for the winkies to keep him company—

NO.

He shook the thought away as memories of the Skorca incident flashed through his mind. No, he'd rather be taken seriously if he did happen to see something while out on patrol than have everyone think he was having sugary hallucinations again. That was just too frustrating last time.

On his way up to the bell tower vantage point, he took out his Princess Self-Respectra plush and turned on her light-up horn. With the pale blue glow in his flippers, he sighed softly. It didn't fully extinguish his uneasiness, but it helped enough. For some reason though, he couldn't escape the feeling that something was...off. Perhaps it was just the weather and scenery.

Private pulled himself up onto the ledge by the bell, sitting Self-Respectra beside him, he took out the night-vision binoculars and looked around. From his vantage spot, everything did look fairly normal and nothing looked out of place. And yet...His gut was telling him something wasn't right.

But he couldn't exactly radio the others about just an off feeling, could he? After all, it's not like he had Skipper's gut that was never wrong. His gut could be wrong. He could just be nervous. He was probably only nervous.

He sat the binoculars down again and picked up his lunacorn, holding her close. Aerial surveillance would be so much less nerve wracking if they did it in pairs, rather than only one at a time. Something about the loneliness of being on the tower alone made it so much worse.

As well as extremely boring.

A rustling of leaves then grabbed his attention; suddenly things were a lot less boring. He grabbed his plush and held her so that her horn would illuminate the nearby areas.

Nothing.

Private swallowed and took a step closer, his Lunacorn light trembling slightly in his flippers. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

The silence in response to his reply was almost comforting. Almost being the key term. However, since there was no response, it was probably just the wind again, so he turned away to sit down once more.

Only, something long, slimy and squishy shot out from the nearby tree branches and wrapped around his waist before he had a chance to fully sit down. He squawked and dropped his walkie-talkie and Lunacorn in surprise.

A few miles away from New York, an enormous octopus-shaped submarine bobbed in the ocean. A tiny silver sub popped up beside it and attached to the side. The hatch on the small sub then opened and Trixy poked her head up, checking her surroundings.

"So far so good," she murmured, climbing up onto the top of her sub. She adjusted her black camo bow and slipped on a few North Wind "borrowed" suction cups to feet. She then walked up the side of the larger submarine, carefully looking for an air hatch.

There should be an air hatch, right? Surely the octopus scum didn't have a sub full of water? Although, he is an octopus, so that would make sense, but not for all his electronic inventions, oh no no no. A sub filled with water would be calamari waiting to happen.

She continued to walk along the side until she finally found an air hatch. She pried the door open and slipped inside, yanking the door closed as she slid. All in all, a pretty fun entrance into this enemy lair, she thought as she slid down the shaft. However, as her fall was broken by an air vent, she muffled a pained squawk. Rubbing her now sore butt, she stood up and peeked through the vent grating.

No octopuses in sight; smashing.

Trixy reached up and plucked a hairpin off the bow around her neck and used it to unscrew the screws holding the vent grating in place. She then slid it quietly out of her way and slipped out onto the floor, quickly rolling under the closest decorative table.

Decorative table? She squinted up at it before shaking her head. Rich villains, waste money on the most impractical things. After all, who needs a decorative table in a submarine?

Focus, Trixy. Control room. Planning room. Something more useful than the decorative table.

The small royal penguin waited, watching a pair of octopuses pass by before sliding back the way they came. Surely there was some room with information she could take pictures of around here somewhere?

Vending machines, storage staircase, lab room, planning room, kitchen—She skidded to make a u-turn. She stopped in front of the planning room with a wide grin.

Bingo.

She slid inside, hopping up onto the chair, standing on her tiptoes to see the notes scattered over the table. "Oh yes, I was right." She grinned even more as she took out her phone and started snapping pictures.

There was then a soft click as the door closed.

After freezing in her spot, she slowly lifted her eyes and made eye contact with the one and only purple octopus she had hopped to avoid. "Heh, hi there. I'm guessing this isn't your visitor center?"

"No, and even if it was, it wouldn't be accepting penguins." Dave glared at her as one of his long tentacles wrapped around and jerked her up from the chair.

Now held before him, she smiles sheepishly. "Oh come now. Penguins are adorable."

"Exactly the problem." He rolled his eyes as he then carried her out of the room.

So much for having her first solo mission go off without a hitch.