Author's note: Things certainly hit the fan

For some strange reason Kowalski was able to fall asleep straight away. He wasn't sure if it was because of the super plush cushions, the heated air or the fact that it had been a busy day but sleep was blissful and comfortable.

He knew Skipper wouldn't worry too much about him not coming home since this wasn't the first time he had stayed away all night.

The morning came too soon. Although there were no windows to see the outside world Kowalski let his internal body clock wake him accurately at 8am. He sat up and found the room still dark. He remembered Blowhole had told him the lights were controlled by movement sensors so he jumped down from the couch and the lights turned on.

He had a sudden wave of dizziness and pain surged through his head. He knew what hangovers were but he had never been properly acquainted with one before. He knew he wouldn't be drinking like that ever again. Drinking was illogical for the purposes of getting drunk. You do things you're not proud of and then suffer all throughout the next day.

He was barely able to stretch and wipe the sleep from his eyes before the door opened and someone came in. It was Red One. Kowalski smiled tenderly but the lobster didn't emote back. He looked like he had seen a ghost. Like he was truly terrified.

"Kowalski you have to come quick, it's doc."

Kowalski's heart sank. What about Blowhole? Did something bad happen?

He followed the lobster through the halls and into the elevator where they took it to the second level, Blowhole's working level. They rushed to the lab where Red One then took a few steps back. Kowalski raised a brow but the lobster shook his head.

"He won't let me come in. Says it's a medical emergency, though."

Kowalski nodded and couldn't help a sinking feeling in his gut that something truly terrible was wrong. If he didn't want his head lobster and best worker to see him then what on earth could have been wrong?

The lobster scuttled back to the elevator, hanging his head and Kowalski stood still at the door, his heart still pounding.

The lobster disappeared behind the elevators closing doors and Kowalski picked up the courage to knock on the door.

"Francis? It's me," he called.

Everything was silent for a moment until Kowalski pressed his head to the door to listen in but as he did, he heard the electrical hum on the keypad inside, opening the door.

The dolphin was revealed and Kowalski didn't think twice about rushing into the lab. He didn't take notice of anything until he looked up at Blowhole.

Kowalski stared. He couldn't look away. Couldn't quite believe his own eyes as he looked up at the dolphin. Spots now more like blotches of colour. Dark blue, spread all across his flippers, up his sides and over his head. He looked devastated, he looked confused, but most of all he looked terrified. There was no doubt in Kowalski's mind at what could have caused this and unfortunately neither of them would have a clue on how to fix it.

"Keep your distance," Blowhole said as he inched back. "I don't know how contagious I am."

Kowalski didn't listen though, he stepped forward to get a better look at the spectacle.

"Behemothvirus?" Kowalski said quietly.

Blowhole frowned and looked down. He tried not to look at himself but found it useless.

"I'm not 100% sure but there's not much else this could be. I'll have to test myself."

Kowalski hopped up onto the desk, grabbed a stray pad of paper and and pencil and started writing. He may not have known how to comfort someone going through a bad time but he certainly knew his way around science.

"I'll need a blood sample," he said, not looking up as he dragged the pencil over the paper.

Blowhole looked wide eyed and shook his head.

"No way! I am very dangerous right now, Kowalski. If I have the virus then it will be in my blood,"

"Which is why I need your blood,"

"You idiot! If it's in my blood then you could get infected too! I've caught one of the first strains I created. It can doom the planet."

"I'm not an idiot. I wont infect myself."

Kowalski didn't mean it as a hurtful jab to the dolphin but that's how it was perceived. The dolphin frowned again and looked down, tightening his grip on the handles of his segway.

Kowalski flushed hot and shook his head suddenly.

"I mean, let's hope this is just a weird skin infection."

But Blowhole knew better. He knew there was nothing else this could have been. Dolphins don't just come out in random blue blotches. He didn't want to accept it but there wasn't anything else this could have been.

Blowhole kept his distance from Kowalski as the bird set up a microscope and some glass slides. He readied himself in PPE and paused to sigh before looking up at Blowhole. He had a needle at the ready and motioned for Blowhole to come forward. The dolphin looked down, twiddled his flippers and shook his head. As he looked down he heard Kowalski gasp and shot his head back up again.

"What?"

Kowalski fiddled with the needle for a moment before awkwardly chuckling.

"I-uh... nearly dropped the needle."

Blowhole looked down again and rode forward, all the while getting weird stares from the penguin. He felt like an idiot. How could he have let himself get infected with his own virus? He didn't even know when he had been infected. He swore on his life that he had been as careful as he possibly could have been. For him to have been infected it would have had to gone in through his eye or through an open wound. Blowhole always wore goggles while working with the virus and he couldn't locate a cut on himself either. He was ashamed he let this happen to himself.

Kowalski carefully drew the blood from Blowhole's side, still looking uneasy, which put Blowhole on edge and readied the blood smear on the glass slide. He gave a comforting smile to Blowhole before he looked down the microscope and went silent.

Blowhole looked down to Kowalski with angst. He didn't know whether he wanted to know what was under the microscope or not. He would have preferred to lock himself away and just wait for time to tell him if he was doomed or not.

Kowalski averted his eyes from the microscope and silently sighed. There was nothing he could do to calm Blowhole's worries. All his worries were true and were about to get a lot worse.

Blowhole stretched out his flipper to touch Kowalski but quickly retracted it upon the worry of possibly infecting him, if he had the virus.

Kowalski turned, looked up into Blowhole's eyes and shook his head slowly and with sorrow.

"You're infected."

Blowhole took a stride back. He knew this was coming but hearing it actually spoken to him sent a wave of terror down his spine. He shook his head and bought his flippers up to his mouth. This couldn't have been happening to him.

"No, let me see," Blowhole said as he grabbed the microscope and pulled it closer.

There they were. Tiny insignificant things but the virus was there.

"How could this happen?" Blowhole said, eerily quiet.

Kowalski shook his head slowly again and put a calming flipper on Blowhole's.

"I'm not too far gone am I?" Blowhole asked lifting his head from the microscope.

Kowalski frowned and bit his tongue as he looked back up past Blowhole's eye.

"You-you've grown horns..."

"What?!" Blowhole shouted as he suddenly straightened and his flippers shot to his head.

It didn't take a moment before Blowhole could feel the sharp studs protruding from the top of his head. They were only small, a few centimetres at most but they were there. Blowhole shook his head. They shouldn't have been there! He was a dolphin and dolphins don't have horns! He thought there was just no way that any of this could have been real. The virus had been changing him for weeks and he hadn't noticed, hadn't known or he'd been too self centred to take others advice about those stupid spots!

"But how could this happen?!" Blowhole suddenly shouted in hysteria.

Kowalski wasn't quite sure what to do. He didn't know whether to step back and hold his breath or get closer and comfort the poor guy. He hadn't been let in on what Blowhole had been doing or at what stage the Behemothvirus was at in development. Was he at risk respiratorily yet?

"This is it! I'm gonna die! Suffer and die! Just like every other day of my worthless life!" Blowhole sobbed as he began to back away from the desk.

Although the situation was extremely serious, Kowalski couldn't help but roll his eyes and sigh for a moment. Blowhole had always been expressional with everything he did. And as Kowalski had gotten to thinking he had concluded that a vaccine would be easier to make than the virus itself. An untested vaccine could take only a few months to make. If they worked hard then there was no reason why the virus couldn't be eradicated from his body.

Blowhole started riding around the room, hyperventilating and just going mad. Kowalski jumped down from the table and stopped the dolphin in his tracks.

"Calm down, we can get through this. We can create a vaccine. We can treat you."

Blowhole dropped his flippers to his sides and just stared down with tears in his eye.

"A vaccine won't help me at all. I'm already infected and have been for weeks. My body's undergone irreversible changes. I'll be a monster for the rest of my life!"

Kowalski waddled closer and ignored everything in his gut that told him he should get away and force Blowhole to quarantine himself.

"We can stop the development. I believe we can."

Again, Blowhole shook his head. He refused to believe in hope, because that's all that Kowalski was proposing. It was a silly whim of hope. Science were facts and the facts were that Blowhole was doomed.

"At what stage? I'll be hideous. I have horns as it is! What's going to happen in weeks to come?"

Blowhole pushed past Kowalski, narrowly missing running him over as he slumped into his lab desk chair and let his head fall on the desk in defeat. His flippers travelling up his head to find the small horns. They were still there. He was still changing.

Kowalski frowned and looked down too. It had been a battle to get where he was, comfortable for the moment and enjoying life even a little with his new friend. He wasn't going to let a small virus get the better or him or Blowhole.

Kowalski promptly hopped up onto the desk and grabbed Blowholes flippers, bringing them away from the protruding horns.

"We will fix this," was all he said as he stared into the dolphin's eye.

But Blowhole retracted his flippers and pushed the bird back.

"No, Kowalski, you need to stay away if you don't want to get infected too."

Kowalski shook his head and confidently strode forwards again with a smile on his face.

"Someone's got to keep you from going rabid."

"No! We have to think logically! If I'm left like this then I will deteriorate. Don't you remember what I said back when I first unveiled this virus? Slow changes, temperament changes. All it takes is one bite, one scratch, accidental cross contamination. I don't want to infect you. My mind is going to break down, I'm going to lose all sense of who I am. I'll become a monster! You have to go while you still can! Tell Skipper, tell the others, destroy me and the virus before it can get to anyone else!"

"Your sister will never talk to me again if I destroyed you," Kowalski tried to joke.

Blowhole tried to stop himself crying further, he really did. It pained him to show such weakness and carelessness but there was nothing now he could hide from Kowalski. The bird had seen him at possibly his absolute lowest.

Kowalski grabbed Blowhole's flipper and stroked it gently, trying to calm the dolphin down further. He smiled tenderly and looked down to his own flipper.

"We will stop this. I won't rest until I fix this. I promise, Francis."

Blowhole breathed steadily and nodded to the bird. Glad he finally had a friend he could rely on.

"Thank you, Kowalski."