"Alright, Camryn. What do these friends of yours look like?" Skipper asked. Rico hacked up a note pad and a pencil to draw out the discriptions.
"There's four of them. Angelique, she's a long eared bunny, with green eyes, she wears a pink bow on the side of her head. Then there's Sasha-leigh, she's a dark furred siamese cat. Imtiaz, a humming bird with a long red tail feather and lastly is Hashim, he's a wolf." Camryn explained. She and Skipper turned to Rico who revealed a very crude scribbly versions of the animals Camryn had described. Skipper nodded in approval knowing that he had done his best where as Camryn had an internal cringe. Rico smiled in a goofy manner and tore the page off from the note pad and ran off to show it to the others. Camryn picked up the discarded notepad from the floor and sketched a picture of what her friends looked like. Thank goodness she was right-flippered. She revealed the sketch to Skipper to show what they actually looked like. He had to admit, for a rough sketch it was pretty good. The girl had some talent other than fighting.
"Alright we've got a face, now all we gotta do is find the real thing." Skipper said.
"Yeah um... I should probably worn you about a few things." Camryn started. "If you find Angelique, be gentle with her, she scares easily also be careful what you say and do around her. Sasha is very defensive, she won't hesitate to put up a fight. Also if you see Imtiaz wearing a little cape and mask, you have to refer to him as Hummingbird man. Its his super hero alter ego, he won't respond to his own name aside from referring to himself in the third person as sounding like a cool guy. Its vice versa if he's not wearing the mask and cape. Also if you want to lure Hashim out, food always works. Any kind really so long as its not pork. He can't eat that. He'll throw up."
Skipper raised a brow at the girl. She had some very peculiar friends but then again so did he.
Private entered, carrieng a tray with his fancy tea set with the tea he had prepared for himself and Camryn. Its not everyday he gets to brew tea for someone other than himself. He put the tray down at the table Camryn and his leader were seated at. The young brit poured the tea for himself and their guest.
"I hope you like it. Its peppermint rose."
"Thank you, Private." Camryn replied, giving him a warm smile.
"Alright men, let's go searching." Skipper announced to his team. He rolled up the sketch of the animals and handed it to Rico who just came out from the next room with Kowalski. The psychotic bird slurped up the rolled up paper like spaghetti.
"Sir wouldn't it be better to search for her friends during the day with fresh eyes?" Kowalski questioned.
"Nonsense, there's no better time than the present I always say. Lets move out!"
Rico and Kowalski were quick up the ladder but before Private could reach it Skipper had stopped him.
"Sorry, Private but I need you to stay here and keep an eye on our guest." he whispered.
"But why?" Private whispered back.
"I don't trust leaving her in our lair without supervision. So you stay here and entertain her till we get back. And stay sharp."
"But Skippah, she doesn't seem bad."
"There are a lot of things in this world that don't seem bad young, Private. Just like that massage parler in Peru Manfredi and Johnson went to didn't seem bad, that turned out to be a chicken slaughter house. They both lost a limb that day."
Private swallowed hard at the memory that he had tried so hard to suppress after all these years.
"So like I said, stay sharp. Got it?"
The private saluted and nodded vigorously as his answer.
"Good man, we'll be back soon." And with that, Skipper made his way topside. Private let out a heavy sigh as soon as he was sure Skipper was topside. He shook his head, if he had to let his commander's words get to him he'd end up being paranoid around the girl. He felt that everyone has some good in them if you give them a chance.
"That Skippah, he doesn't know what he's talking about..." he muttered to himself. Suddenly the boy become startled by what sounded like glass shattering shattering. He turned to see what it had been. It seemed Camryn had dropped her cup. The glass was all scattered in front of her, tea covering the floor mixed in with broken shards . He noticed she had just been staring blankly at the mess. Perhaps she felt bad for dropping it.
"Oh dear, don't worry about that. Accidents happen. I myself have dropped about four of my tea cups by accident. I'll clean it up." he smiled. Camryn looked up at him, still baring a blank expression. It was quite unsettling to the young brit . "Is... um... something wrong?" he asked.
Outside of the zoo the trio of Penguins searched high and low for these friends of Camryn but sadly have found nothing. They stood at the exact same spot where they had found Camryn, trying to think of where they might be. Kowalski was doing a thorough search of the area using a magnifying glass to pick up any small clues that might of been overlooked. It was then something blue had caught his eye. Picking the item for further examination, the penguin had noticed that it had been a broken blue shard, a shell like material. He'd have it examined in the lab later on.
"Doesn't seem like there's much to look at here Skipper." announced the strategist.
"Well then we search another section of the park! The sooner we find them the sooner we get this girl out of our feathers."
Kowalski raised a non-existent brow at his commander. It seems this girl has really gotten under his skin. He wasn't sure whether it was his leader's unhealthy paranoia or Camryn's attitude that had gotten to him, but he wasn't planning to dwell on that. After searching most of the park and not finding any clues aside from the shard Kowalski had found.
The trio had decided to turn back to the zoo. Its been a long night and what they needed most right now was a good night's rest in order to restore lost energy for the next day. Once the three were below in their base, they stood there stunned at what had become of their home. It was in shambles. Private had made a fort for himself using the table and a bunch of pillows he had stacked together. The young brit propped his head out from his hiding place only to see the stunned elder penguins staring at the mess. Private crawled out with a little colander perched on top of his head as a protective helmet.
The trio had realized he had been quite rattled as well as a tad bruised around the belly and face.
"Private, what in the name of cod liver oil is this mess?!" Skipper snapped as he gestured to all the broken things around the leir.
"Well... Um..." Private stuttered, still quite shakey and rattled.
"Come on, man! Out with it! What happened to our HQ?!"
"It was...Camryn..as soon as you all left she was a bit off. She tried to leave but as soon as I tried to stop her she went completely off the rails and...attacked...me..."
Skipper held back the urge to use his angry words. "I knew it! I knew we couldn't trust her!! Where is she?! I'd like to have some words with our guest!"
"She's asleep." Private replied.
"Asleep?" Kowalski questioned. "That doesn't sound right. Why try to leave, attack you then go back to bed?"
"Women..." Skipper said as if replying to Kowalski's questions. "We'll never understand them. But even so I can not tolerate this! She attacks one of my men and wrecks our home! She's gotta go!" the commander penguin headed toward the lab door but was stopped by Private who ran infront of it.
"But Skippah...it might not be her fault!" Private stated. He felt that there was more to what had happened than it appeared. Sadly his leader did not see it that way.
"Really? She attacks you and you stil defend her, why?" Skipper asks.
"Sounds like a classic case of stockholm syndrome to me." Kowalski added while using a pen light, shining it in the private's face as to check for symptoms of this mental affliction as well as making it seem as though he was being interrogated.
"No! I dont even know what that means, but what ever it is that's not what's going on!" Private defended and pushed down on the pen light to get it out of his face.
Skipper raised a non-existant brow at the boy. "Alright then enlighten us. But if we detect a hint of stockholm syndrome you're going to be in for month of therapeutic slaps to knock out that unholy brain poisoning."
Rico cackled maniacally while rubbing his flippers together, warming them up for the painful slaps of punishment he could unfold onto the young brit.
"Its her fever." Private quickly replied. "Its worst than we thought. When she attacked me she seemed so...droopy as if she was getting dizzy. The poor girl could barely stand up right even without her foot being broken. Her fever might be making her delirious. Like when Rico had a fever and he thought he was being chased by zombie Space squids with wrenches."
Kowalski shuddered at the memory."Oh yeh...Rico shoved grape jelly into his ears so they couldn't get to his brains. We're still finding jars of them wedged into our water pipes...and in the bathroom..."
"I'm still not convinced. Smells like stockholm syndrome to me." Skipper added. And with that Rico quickly grabbed the pen light from Kowalski and raised it in order to whack Private over the head with it. This action was. Quickly stopped by Kowalski who grabbed it right back before he had gotten to collide it with the young brit's face.
"Now now, Skipper. Private is actually making sense. Perhaps when she is better we can do a much more extensive research on her." Kowalski stated. Skipper rolled his eyes at this nonsense. "Why wait? We can interrogate her while she's still weak."
"I suppose we could...I could always use my truth serum." Kowalski added. Private had a mild cringe, that serum brought nothing but trouble for them considering he ender up blurting out th whole zoos secrets. Thank the stars his team doesn't remember anything about that fiasco.
Skipper had noticed the boys discomfort after mentioning the truth serum. "Why the face soldier?"
"Eh...I just think it's wrong to force out her secrets using truth serum and interrogating a girl while she's ill."
"Really Private, the woman attacked you and you're still covering her tail feathers! I really would like to know why you're choosing to listen to this dame?"
Rico mumbled out something which caused both Kowalski and Skipper to smirk at the young brit and laugh. Private's cheeks were now beet red as well.
"No! That is not why I'm defending her! I just met her... I like her but not in that way!" Private snapped, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away.
"Mighty defensive there boy, for someone who isn't infatuated by the enemy. But trust me Private I've been down this road before, it isn't pleasant." Skipper said, thinking it was cute to that the private had a crush on anyone.
"Gah! I do not! She's just a nice person, if you give her a chance you'll see it too."
"Yeah that ain't gonna happen. Rico, if you please."
Rico hacked up a role of duck tape which he had used to tie up the young penguin.
"Now Kowalski, this truth serum. It does work,right?"
"Of course, its one of my inventions." the strategist replied smugly. With that all three of his team members sent him similar glares, which he quickly realized why. "Okay I see your point... But it does work. I am eighty-five point five percent positive about it."
Kowalski quickly darted into his lab which was also a bit of a mess but not as bad as inside. The others followed behind him. Rico dragged Private in since he couldn't move. Kowalski had gotten a hot sauce bottle out from the mini fridge he had in the corner of his lab as well as a penguin sized spoon. Camryn was fast asleep, her face was giving off a tint of red proving that her fever was getting worse.
Kowalski shook her lightly to wake her up. He feared that she would wake up and lunge at him again so this was to be done with caution. Camryn stirred awake slowly. Her head was throbbing but she tried to ignore it. She turned to see who had woken her up.
"Did you find my friends...?" she asked sheepishly. She really was weak and tired.
"I'm afraid not,"
"Oh..." Camryn frowned sadly but quickly replaced it with a straight face. She noticed how bruised and hurt Private was as well as him being duck taped. "Private... What happened to you? You look like you rammed into a wall."
The male penguins had similar looks of confusion. Was her fever so bad that she forgot what she had just done or is was she lying and pretending to be innocent?
"Um... You did this." Private replied. "Well the beatings I mean, Rico was the one who taped me up." he added.
Camryn managed to sit her self up straight. "I didn't hurt you...I've got no reason to, especially since you've been so nice to me."
"Well you did. Private wouldn't lie to us about that and nor would he beat himself up like this and wreck our HQ." Skipper said. He was getting agitated with this girl. He needed to find out what she's really up to and what really happened in that park. Camryn held back the urge to snap at Skipper. She had no recollection of hurting Private and why would she? He was the only one who was nice to her. The other two just follwed their leader's orders. Neither of them cared about what happened to her.
Camryn took a deep breath in before speaking. Angelique and Hashim have always told her that her constant aggressive nature could send people the wrong impression of her. She needed to relax. Despite all her swelling anger she had to bite the bullet and swallow her pride and deal with this reasonably.
"Look I didn't hit him. I never even touched him."
"Yeah, still not buying it. But nice effort though." Skipper replied sarcastically.
"Listen here! Unless someone gives me a reason to fight them I would, but I didn't do anything! So you can take my word or you can choose to ignore it like you are doing right now but I didn't do anything wrong! This child has been nothing but kind and generous to me since I got here!" Camryn fumed. Private smiled warmly. Despite the enraged tone he could tell she was sincere.
Kowalski felt as though he needed to change the topic fast before things got ugly. "Um...Anyway, getting back to the original topic at hand here. I've brought you a medicine to make you feel better. Then afterwards I'll ask you a few questions."
Camryn puffed out a heavy sigh, again trying to keep herself calm and relaxed. She needed her friends. Sasha and Angelique knew how to deal with her anger and Hashim could always make her laugh to forget about why she was angry in fhe first place. The girl nodded as Kowalski poured the 'medicine' into the spoon and held it out for her to drink. After drinking it Camryn felt funnier than she did earlier. Kowalski pulled out a stool, sitting down infront of the bed and pulling out a clip board and pencil.
"Alright first question, what is your full name?"
The first thought that came to Camryn's mind was to ask why she would need to tell them that but the words did not come out that way.
"My full name is Camryn Charlene Willow."
Kowalski scribbled some things down before moving onto the next question.
"Where are you from?"
"I'm from South Africa."
"Are you by any chance either a spy, trained assassin or a cleverly disguised space squid?"
"None of the above."
"Interesting..." Kowalski noted and scribbled something else on the clipboard.
Skipper was still unconvinced. "Kowalski are you sure that stuff works?"
Kowalski poured another spoon full of truth serem and shoved it into Privates beak. "Private, is it true that you wet the bunk four nights ago?"
Private squirmed, he didn't want to answer this but-"Yes I did."
Kowalski gestured to the boy to prove his point.
"Still not buying this, but continue." Skipper said.
"Alright then, moving on. Did you attack Private and wreck our base?"
"No,"
Kowalski scribbled on his clipboard again. "Hmm... Odd...if she's telling the truth about that then there's something else going on."
"Such as?" Skipper asked.
"In conclusion, she might not remember doing so in the first place, thus she believes she didn't do it. So technically she's not lying, she has no recollection of the event."
"Either that or your serem is a dud."
"It works!" Kowalski snapped. "The serem remains active for at least half an hour and we've been questioning for ten minutes. Anyway I might have to do a few tests. She might be experiencing random stages of amnesia. I'll examine her further in the morning."
Later on once the truth serem had worn out of both Camryn and Private's system, Kowalski had set up some security cameras in the lab and throughout the base right after Camryn had fallen asleep. And by Skipper's orders she was to be tied down so she wouldn't cause trouble while they were asleep. That was already a fight to do, but afterwards Camryn was just too tired to care.
Just as the penguin team fell into slumber a wolf's howl echoed through Central Park.
A/n: sorry this took so long, I've been really busy working on my comic, details will be given out on it wen it is complete.
Kowalski scribbled on his clipboard again. "Hmm... Odd...if she's telling the truth about that then there's something else going on."
"Such as?" Skipper asked.
"In conclusion, she might not remember doing so in the first place, thus she believes she didn't do it. So technically she's not lying, she has no recollection of the event."
"Either that or your serem is a dud."
"It works!" Kowalski snapped. "The serem remains active for at least half an hour and we've been questioning for ten minutes. Anyway I might have to do a few tests thoughthough, she might be experiencing random stages of amnesia. I'll examine her further in the morning."
Later on once the truth serem had worn out of both Camryn and Private's system, Kowalski had set up some security cameras in the lab and throughout the base right after Camryn had fallen asleep. And by Skipper's orders she was to be tied down so she wouldn't cause trouble while they were asleep. That was already a fight to do, but afterwards Camryn was just too tired to care.
Just as the penguin team fell into slumber a wolf's howl echoed through Central Park.
A/n: sorry this took so long, I've been really busy working on my comic, details will be given out on it wen it is complete.