It was only a week later that Kowalski found himself in his lab tinkering around and trying to improve on his old inventions. He had gotten himself into a better mind set and was content and happy with his work and progress.

Rico was helping him in this instant. Hacking up some equipment and generally keeping him company while Skipper and Private were in the main room of the HQ practicing Private's grimace. The boy was too cute for his own good, as Skipper said, and that certainly was the case with his hyper cute abilities.

Kowalski was working on a pair of boots. He had invented these some time ago but never got round to improving them and making them actually work. These were the same hover boots he was testing when Parker first showed up, back when he double crossed them so the penguin team would unknowingly free Blowhole. The boots ended up landing in the park nearby a day later after flying all the way up to the ozone layer. Turns out the battery didn't last long. Only, Kowalski had made some adjustments. He could mark a path out of red marker on the floor and the boots would follow this red line and not float above a certain distance, so they wouldn't end up in space or shooting him in some other direction.

Everything was going great and he was just about ready to test them again. Sure of himself, he grabbed the boots and walked out into the main room of the HQ with Rico following behind him. Only, Rico got distracted by the TV as a formula 1 race started to play.

"Rico, you're not coming?" Kowalski asked.

Rico shook his head as he sat on the floor.

"Nah."

Kowalski supposed it would be for the best. Rico wasn't big on science and would probably just get bored.

"Skipper, Private? Want to watch me test my new and improved hover boots?" He said with a grin.

Private just looked to Skipper who shook his head.

"No thanks. If the explosion is going to be up there then I want to stay down here."

Kowalski growled under his breath and shook his head back as he made his way to the ladder.

"They're boots, they're not going to explode."

It didn't matter anyway, he could probably test them better alone with no distractions.

He made his way top side, not before grabbing his camera and clipboard, and gave himself some mental encouragement. He had gone over his work at least 7 times and he knew they were ready.

Kowalski set up the camera and started to draw his red line. He drew a large circle on the HQ island and slipped the boots on.

Throwing the pen to the side he then turned the camera on and resumed his stance on the line looking over the clipboard papers one last time.

"Test 1 for the hover boots 1.1."

He switched the boots on with a handy button on the side and they soon began to hum before lifting off the ground, slowly. The boots rose until they seemed to reach the preprogramed maximum height and Kowalski just stood in place. But once again, the inevitable happened and Kowalski began to lose balance, rocking back and forth before he could steady himself again. He stood still and gave a nervous chuckle.

"So far so goo-OOOOOOOD!" Kowalski screamed as he suddenly sky rocketed into the air after stumbling forwards again.

Kowalski was gaining speed fast and needed to get these boots off. He struggled for a moment before he dropped his clipboard and unstrapped the boots from his feet. He was free. He gave a sigh of relief before he realised he was falling down from hundreds of feet in the air. The zoo got closer and closer until he could see water and aimed to land in that. He screamed the entire fall as his eyes watered over. His streamlined body pierced through the surface with as little as a plop. Surfacing again he could see his clipboard in the water faced down. It was a good thing he had laminated all of his sheets. It made things easy to write and rub off again. He grabbed his clipboard and swam to the edge of the water.

Well, his boots were wet and probably ruined. With a sigh he lifted himself up onto a ledge and watched as his boots started to fall from the heavens too. One after the other they plopped into the water.

Looking around it seemed like this was Marlene's habitat. She hadn't heard the commotion though, which was just as well. The last thing Kowalski wanted to do right in that moment was talk to someone about his failure. But then, he had never been a lucky bird.

"Silly bird, don't kill yourself off before I get the chance."

Kowalski sighed and slumped back onto the ledge with a groan. His leg was talking again. It had been a blissful week of working on his inventions and forgetting he would probably die in the clutches of Blowhole and his team but he was now snapped back to reality.

"Ignoring me won't get me to go away," Blowhole said.

"What is it you want now? A human eyeball to go with your blood? Or another liquid? Maybe some of my tears."

There was a moment of awkward silence before the buzz of electric in Kowalski's brain started up again.

"Don't cry, it's so unflattering. I was just watching you test your rocket shoes and I must say they work quite well."

Kowalski growled and sat up again, grabbing his clipboard and boots and making his way back to the HQ. Blowhole obviously knew what they were since he had probably been watching Kowalski all day and wanted to make a joke about him and found now the right time. So Kowalski figured if he was back in the HQ, Blowhole would be forced to stay quiet.

But before he could reach the HQ, Blowhole expressed his interest.

"Bring them to me. I think you might have some gold there, Kowalski."

Kowalski stopped and awkwardly stared at nothing.

"Why do you want my hover boots? Planning on creating something that'll make you grow feet?"

"Of course not! I've just never dabbled in hover technology. Being bound to the sea poses the challenges of just being on land so the notion of flying entices me."

Kowalski sighed.

"You also still owe me that inventory list," Blowhole added.

Kowalski groaned and nearly fell to his penguin knees. He wanted this nightmare to be over. If only the hover boots worked like he had planned and Rico had joined him. Then Blowhole wouldn't be talking through his leg again.

"Fine," Kowalski said as he threw his head back. "But don't talk to me on the way there."

Kowalski slipped back down into the HQ where all 3 penguins now sat watching formula 1. Rico was so close to the screen he could probably have been sucked in and at that moment Kowalski wished he could just sit with them and watch the race.

Skipper noticed the sad scientist come in and pivoted to face him.

"The test go well?" He asked.

Kowalski tried to play it cool and shook his head as he straightened his back.

"Still some minor faults. I have to go out and get some more materials. If that's acceptable by you, Skipper, Sir."

Skipper nodded and pivoted back to watch the race.

"Sure, it keeps you out of my hair- er, feathers."

Kowalski grabbed the essentials from his lab, his notes, work plans, the boots and stuffed them all into a drawstring bag which he threw over his shoulder.

He had managed to slip past the other penguins without them looking away from the TV and was on his way, once again, to the evil egotistical dolphin's lair. How he dreaded the journey and the strength it took to not punch the oversized fish in the face. But, if he was going to get help with improving the boots then this trip may not turn out to be all bad.