Chapter Three

"Kowalski? Kowalski! Sweet smoked salmon man how long have you been in here!"

His eyelids were heavy. Everything was heavy and stiff. The amount of effort it took to actually pry his eyes open was ridiculous and the moment he'd done it he had regretted it thanks to the harsh light pouring in from the open door and illuminating the space directly where he had been sleeping. The silhouette outlined in the too bright light was one he had come to recognise, and not the one he wanted to see.

Skipper sighed. "Come on Kowalski, we talked about this! No staying-"

"No staying up to work on inventions, I know I know." He muttered, rubbing his eyes and pushing himself away from his desk, reflexively rubbing his face in case any stray scraps of paper had gotten stuck there in the night. It wouldn't be the first time, and he really wasn't in the mood for Rico sticking post-it notes on his face all day because he found it hilarious. "I'm sorry Skipper. Time must have just… gotten away from me."

The leader rubbed his forehead, turning in place like he was looking for something. "You can't keep doing this Kowalski, you're my lieutenant and I need you to be in top form."

He didn't reply to that, knowing whatever he could say Skipper had already heard from him before. They had this conversation too often, and Kowalski was absolutely aware he was in the wrong, but he honestly couldn't help it.

Skipper sighed again. "Well go ahead, what were you working on. I only ask so I can tell you it's a bad idea and when it inevitably backfires I can then say I told you so."

"How kind." He murmured. "I wasn't really working on anything, there was just a couple of problems I had to work through."

"I hate it." Skipper said, turning to leave. "That's a terrible idea and it'll backfire hopelessly."

Kowalski glared at his leaders retreating back. "Do you even listen to me?"

"Nope. Topside in ten."

He grunted out an affirmation and collapsed back into his chair with a flipper thrown over his eyes. Last night had been hell. Or the closest thing to it anyway. After he had finally managed to calm himself down and remembered how to breathe again he had immediately thrown himself into scribbling rough interpretations of anything he could remember. Pretty soon theories had started to join with the blurred ramblings and now shuffling through the paper splayed over his desk he wasn't quite sure which were which.

Obviously something had happened to him that much he was sure of. The why, when, where and how were blank spaces he had yet to fill. Panicking wouldn't solve anything, and there wasn't anything to gain from remaining still. If he wanted answers he was going to have to find them himself.

He gathered up the papers, banging them against his desk to try and get them to all line up neatly. One stubborn piece was obviously bent, because it just wasn't arranging itself nicely like the others.

Looking at it felt something like dropping the world's smallest toaster into the bath. It was nothing but a simple cartoony drawing of Private, with a wild question mark scribbled above his head but for some reason it reminded him.

"Kowalski, do you remember your mum?"

Why would you ask someone that. If you ever wanted to broach that subject that wouldn't be how you would do it at all. And Private, who was arguably the most social of the Penguins would know most of all the tactful way to try and bring a conversation like that to light.

No. That wasn't an attempt at trying to start a conversation that was a question that he had expected an answer to. Of course the natural assumption was that you would remember your own mother, and while Kowalski now knew he couldn't; Private had no way of knowing that.

So why had he asked?

The sketch he had drawn seemed to look back at him, the hard black lines he had scribbled onto Private's face making it almost look like he was frowning.

Kowalski smiled thinly, waving at the gathered crowd snapping pictures and awing over Private's inability to stand up on his own two feet.

The crowds always ate that one up, a few slips and some unsteady walking was all it took to get them into a frenzy. Even despite that Kowalski wasn't quite sure they were having a better time than Private who was giggling and playing it up as much as he could.

Rico was slouched on the ice floe, occasionally preening his chest feathers with a detached interest.

"G." He rasped finally.

Kowalski slowly turned to face the other side of the fence, still waving and smiling. "Grass?" He asked in return as Private toppled into the water to the resonating 'Aw' of the crowd.

"Nu-huh." Rico replied, standing to stretch idly, shaking his tail at the crowd with a small grin.

Kowalski furrowed his brow, flipper still waving on auto pilot to the small blonde girl enthusiastically returning the gesture. "Gravel?"

Rico hummed at that, starting to wave with him. "8 more."

The sun was warm, it was enough to remind him that he hadn't slept nearly enough last night and tell him how nice it would be to take a cat-nap. Skipper flipped up onto the ice floe, joining them and shaking to flick off the stray drips of water from his feathers. "Anything unusual?" He asked, smiling at the crowd still enamoured with Private.

Rico peered at Kowalski, with something that looked like it could have been concern in his eyes and Kowalski could understand why. Skipper had seemed, to put it lightly, on edge. Well… more so than usual. The morning exercises had been flipper to flipper combat and Skipper hadn't gone easy on any of them, and while they sat around and nursed bruises he'd dashed off on recon. Not only this but there was this strange air of what Kowalski would have to describe as anticipation hanging around their leader, manifesting in his inability to sit still and the constant shifting of his eyes.

"What's going on Skipper?"

The leader whipped his head around, looking startled. "Something's going on? What? What did you see?"

Kowalski backed away slightly. "Nothing sir, we haven't seen anything. I meant what's going on with you. You're extremely volatile today, are you expecting something to happen?"

"No. I…" He hesitated, and Kowalski swore could see the thoughts passing behind his eyes. "No. Everything is fine, don't worry about it. Blame it on a rough night's sleep."

He didn't buy it for a minute, but honestly he had more pressing issues than his leaders raving paranoia. "Of course sir."

Right on cue obnoxiously loud music started to ring out from the lemur habitat, and the people gathered around the penguin habitat all wandered off to see what the source was. Private jumped out of the water and shook himself dry. "How was that Skipper?"

The penguin leader nodded approvingly and gave Private a hearty slap on the back.

"Absolutely tooth-rottingly sweet soldier."

"Garbage bin?" Kowalski tried again.

"Uh, wow, rude. Is this how you greet all your guests?"

Skipper jumped at the words, staring at the otter like she had grown another head. "Marlene! What are you doing here?!"

Marlene propped one hand up on her hip and frowned in the way she always did when she was fed up, big hazel eyes narrowed slightly in irritation as she huffed. "Apparently being called garbage."

Kowalski frowned. "But Alice-"

"Two words. Field. Trip."

The penguins seemed to heave a collective sigh of relief. Any field trip started with the 20 minute lecture about all the things you weren't allowed to do at the zoo courtesy of Alice, followed by close to every single one of those rules being questioned by kids who wanted to see how far they could push it. Then another 20 minute lecture that was basically the same as the first one, except this one was shouted. Then there were no more questions.

Skipper smiled then, one of his more charming ones naturally, and relaxed. "Well then I guess there isn't going to be a problem is there? Kowalski, Apologize to the mammal."

"I didn't-" Kowalski started with a frown.

Marlene laughed awkwardly. "Uh yeah, about that, there is a problem."

Private gasped. "Oh no! Is there anything we can do to help you?"

"Well I mean if Skipper wants to apologise then-"

"Wait!" He interjected quickly, looking startled. "I didn't call you a filthy garbage bin! Kowalski did!"

"I didn't call Marlene a garbage bin! It's eye spy!" He snapped, slapping Skippers accusingly pointed flipper away from his face. "And not once did I say the word Filthy!"

"Listen Kowalski I don't really care about that." Marlene said, stepping between the two and shoving them apart. "What I care about is Julien coming into my habitat crying, whining and just generally being a menace because Skipper won't apologise!"

"Skipper! What did you do! You should always apologise when you do something that hurts someone else's feelings!" Private admonished.

"It wasn't my fault! Ringtail started it!"

"And I finished it." Marlene sighed. "Listen, you know you were right, I'm kind of on the fence, but the point is can't you just apologize so he'll stop annoying me?" Her smile was strained and clearly she was doing her best to push her reasoning.

Skipper snorted and turned on his heel. "No dice! I am not apologising to Ringtail, not now not ever, you hear?"

Kowalski frowned, looking over at Private who only shrugged. "Wait… Is this about that incident last night?"

Seemingly instantaneously Rico started giggling uncontrollably and Skipper just frowned like someone had told him shirtless ninja action was being taken off the air. "It doesn't matter, no questions! Rico, would you be quiet!"

There was a momentary silence in which Rico genuinely seemed to try hold back the giggles, but it was quickly over as he started cackling all over again to the sound of Marlene letting out an aggravated sound. "I don't even know why I bothered." She huffed.

Skipper shrugged. "I don't know why you did either. I mean," He laughed. "Me? Apologise to Ringtail? What are you expecting from me Marlene?"

"He does have a point." Private added meekly, then gasped loudly. "Alice incoming!"

Rico immediately shoved Marlene from the ice floe and started waving. Her indignant shout was cut off quite quickly by a splash and only Private really seemed concerned in the slightest. Alice was stalking towards the main offices, papers clenched in her fist and hat pulled down severely low over her eyes.

"Stupid teachers, I'm not your personal photocopier." She seethed, casting only a sideways glare and half hearted look of disgust at the penguins as she stormed past.

Marlene heaved herself back up onto the concrete and wrung out her tail with a scowl directed at Rico. "Thanks." She said bitterly. "I really needed that."

Kowalski saw him flourish a flipper with a half grin, almost saying 'it was no trouble at all' It was honestly hard not to crack a grin at that, but he'd really rather not join Skipper on the list of people Marlene was currently angry with. He'd been there enough times already and it never changed from the unpleasant experience it usually was.

"Next time Julien shows up in my habitat I swear I am going to drag him over here so you can deal with him! All I did was try and help you and this is what I end up with!"

Skipper propped a flipper on his hip. "Well perhaps that'll teach you to keep your nose out of our operations."

"I would if they weren't waking me up and you weren't dragging me into them!" She snapped. "Ugh, you know what? I'm not mad. I'm not. I'm just cranky and I need a little 'me' time." She carefully smoothed down the wet fur on her head and breathed deeply. "But I will be back Skipper because you need to sort this out." And with that turned and started off back to her own habitat.

"So…" Private said, circling a toe idly on the concrete. "Something big must've happened last night…"

"Something big must have, and I'd tell you, but I don't wanna talk about it!" Skipper shouted, flicking Private upside the head for good measure.

Kowalski couldn't help but steal a look over at Rico, the penguin still half grinning and chest moving with tiny giggles as Private whined low in his throat and rubbed the back of his head. He caught him looking and subtly shook his head and winked.

Looks like he wasn't going to find out that way either. Perhaps he'd just have to hope Marlene made good on her promise.

When he woke up, he wasn't sure why.

His eyelids opened with a flick and suddenly he was staring blankly up at the top of his bunk, eyes tracing aimless patterns in the rough concrete. He didn't know how late it was, but he did know that he probably should have still been asleep. In fact his body was telling him that he wanted to be asleep, his limbs felt heavy and his mind dulled on the edges and yet...

Something was wrong. And it wasn't the usual dream fragment eyes or the headaches or the lack of memories. It was something he couldn't place, something he felt like he should have known, but was now just drawing blanks as he tried to put a name to it.

His flippers curled up at his sides and his jaw tightened. So many things were wrong already, and here was just one more thing to throw onto the pile of encrypted interlocked puzzles taking up space in his head and making it hard to process what he was looking at. Nothing seemed to be falling into a logical pattern any more. There was no Arithmetic progression, no series or sequence, no cause to consequence just everything succumbing rapidly to the law of entropy and the decay into randomness. It was maddening. So many things he could name were wrong and now this. This thing without a name that had woken him up in the night and hit the lights in his head walking him up right when he needed sleep.

He flipped over and reached a flipper up under his pillow and tugged gently until his clip-board slipped free with a muffled grate over the concrete. The scratches and rubbed off sections wouldn't be out of place next to the pencil scribbles and rounded fluffed sides from the countless times it had been dropped. He'd had to glue the clip back onto the top if it numerous times and yet he still couldn't bring himself to scrap the thing.

The blue tinted light streaming in weakly in watery patterns through the porthole windows was enough to see by if he lowered his clip-board enough over the edge of his bunk to let it dust over the lined paper. Eyes heavy he arranged himself comfortably on his side, and slowly ran his flipper down the paper, taking in what had been written there previously.

Paper-clipped to the edge was the scribbled drawing of Private and next to that a slightly less scruffy looking version of himself detailing exactly what he had been trying to say. The fact he had no memories of the moment before waking in the box and his hypothesis that Private had the same lacking. Then there was the fact he'd never noticed his lack of memories and the throbbing pain in his temples whenever he tried to remember any further back than what was available to him. Neither particularly important pieces of information, but he felt it best just to document them in case. The headaches had stepped back in his ever growing list of investigations, superseded by the missing memories and backed only by the eyes.

He frowned at the paper, flipper resting idly next to the places he'd drawn little pictures of Rico and Skipper.

Now came the question. What about them? Did they have the same problem he and possibly Private had, or were they completely fine? Were Private and himself targeted, or was it the whole rookery, or perhaps even the zoo itself?

When it happened the first thing he did was drop his clip-board.

The alarm had sounded, blaring its sirens in repetitive heart stopping screams and flashing its red lights to bathe the HQ in light far more intense and sinister than the light previous. Shadows grew long and sharp under its pulsing and every time it faded to black the darkness seemed far worse in contrast to the harsh colour igniting the base.

There wasn't even a second to think before all four of them had jumped from their bunks with their hearts in their throats and sweat already starting to bead on their skin. "Topside! Now!" Skipper shouted, and the look on his face, accentuated only by the red light staining his white feathers and highlighting the tangled expressions of both fear and rage made Kowalski's heart almost stop entirely.

Rico had immediately sprinted for the ladder, flipping off the wall to snag the highest rung of the ladder and kick the fish-bowl off. Only Kowalski could have sworn that he'd been moving before Skipper had been speaking. Like the tick of a clock the thought was immediately lost, washed away by the new information assaulting him every time the light flashed and the siren howled.

The night air was cool, and the zoo was perfectly dark as he landed lightly on the concrete. It must have been the adrenaline in his system but every shadow seemed to be hiding something and each time his eyes moved something would flicker in his peripheries.

"Tango Search! Go, go, go!"

The water was freezing, but he barely felt it, and before it registered he was vaulting over the fence and sprinting down the stone paved walkways with the beads still dripping from his feathers. He could hear his pulse sounding in his head. What had happened? Part of him was almost terrified to find out. Tango search. He could almost see the map in his head as he snagged the sign post and used his momentum to carry him around the corner. Reptile house, down to the main offices, circling up past the lemurs. Just a moderate scan, looking too deep takes too long and risking being too shallow was not something that could be afforded.

He hit the Reptile house in what he was sure must have been record time, the brick and glass building looming closer with each happening footstep. He bowed his head and counted out the steps in his head.

On four he leapt. The sill was smooth under his flipper, but there was enough grip to allow him to get a foot down and springboard to the sign post dangling above the entrance. His muscles protested as he clambered onto the roof of the building, but he took a deep breath and ignored it for sprinting towards the ventilation shaft. He couldn't find it and mentally spitting acid, span around with adrenaline still firing off in his chest.

The moonlight glinted differently off the silvery panelling than it did the corrugated iron of the roof and almost hearing the wasted seconds ticking off like gunshots in his head he kicked the vent off and dropped down to the main floor of the house. The tile was cool and the dull halogens provided just enough light to see by as he whipped his head around and tried to absorb the surrounding environment.

A chameleon tilted its head quizzically at him, and Barry looked down his nose at him from his perch on a dead branch in his glass case but there was nothing odd about this. There was nothing odd about anything.

His feet hurt and his knees felt like jelly, but he breathed deep again and started off towards the door, flicking the lock and bolting through the now unlocked door to tear down the stone pathway again.

Up on fences and down through habitats he raced, grazing his shin on the roof of the office buildings as he scrambled to the top and fell down through the vent again. It hurt, but it wasn't something he needed to dwell on. He vaulted out of the window this time, hitting the ground hard and stumbling back into a run. His breathing was shallow, and he could feel his heart beating out a terrifying rhythm against his ribs but he couldn't afford to stop or slow down. Something was wrong, and he wasn't sure how he was sure of it until he remembered the raw exposed emotions on Skippers face when that awful crimson light had pulsed. The expression was one of someone cornered and while they knew their situation would fight it out till the end.

He felt his chest tighten and he forced his legs to move faster, hearing his mental clock tick down faster and faster. Around the Plastic volcano and he could see where he needed to be and his stomach lurched.

Rico Skidded to a stop just as he did, barely avoiding slamming into him. There was a fire in Rico's eyes that the moon only seemed to expose further. "'Walski." He panted, chest heaving in mirror to his own. "Anything?"

He shook his head and went to reply when he heard it.

Or rather didn't hear it.

"The siren. The timer ticked down on it didn't it?" Even as he spoke he could feel the pit hollowing inside him and the chill spiking down his spine.

Rico's eyebrows furrowed. "Yeah?"

His mouth was dry. "That would have been fine if that system operated on a timer."

He saw the visceral reactions play out right in front of him. The contracting of the irises, the sudden vacuum created by the involuntary expanding of the diaphragm, the freeze of the tiny tremors and he knew Rico knew what he was trying to say.

They were immediately sprinting, Grazes and bruises and minor fatigue be damned. On the other side of the habitat from them the swift moving shadows morphed into the figures of the remainder of the rookery also bolting for the entrance. He jumped onto the fence, springing off, throwing his flippers out to catch the edge of the concrete and throw his body into a roll. The hard surface jarred against what seemed to be every vertebra in his spine. When he was back on his feet Skipper was vanishing down into the now far too illuminated entrance of the HQ, and he followed him with Rico breathing down his neck as their home opened up before him.

Skipper was stood frozen, flippers up in the air and every muscle in his body seemingly locked into place. It didn't take two guesses as to why.

He was lounging insouciantly against their table, feet lazily propped up on one of the extra seats. He had his wing poised on the trigger of some sort of ray, the barrel pointing squarely at them. A small smirk was curled like a contented cat on his brightly coloured beak as he lolled his head to the side. "Looking for me?"

"Hans." Skipper snarled.

Kowalski felt his beak clench and cast a quick glance at his team-mates. Private was visibly shocked, mouth agape and flippers stuck halfway to an offensive position. Rico was equally as still, but the set of his shoulders and the dark look on his face spelled out it was clearly for a different reason.

The puffin grinned, swinging his legs down and keeping his weapon lined up neatly with Skippers chest. "Oh Skipper, must you always be so unhappy to see me? I thought you'd appreciate me dropping in."

"I'll appreciate you leaving when I kick you from here to Hoboken." He spat back, still not shifting from his place, lest the puffin fire.

Hans sighed, pouting heavily. It sat wrong against the amusement so clearly vivid in his eyes. "You really don't remember our special day do you?"

Thats when Skipper did something odd. He twitched. One singular jolt that seemed to shift from his flippers down to his feet. "What day?" His voice sounded wrong, too tight, to tense.

Hans frowned, lowering the ray fractionally and sat forward. "Do you honestly no-"

Then Skipper screamed. He fell to his knees, flippers clamped down over his head, and body trembling. In that second it went to hell. Private was next to Skipper in an instant, rubbing soothing flippers over his taut, trembling shoulders as Rico lunged in front of him, snarling like an attack dog, and Hans was forced to step back from his move to dash over. He seemed dazed, eyes wide with confusion and what looked like concern as he tried to catch a glimpse of their still screaming leader. Kowalski followed Rico's lead and stepped forward to help bolster the wall between Hans and Skipper. "Get back." He growled, hoping he sounded more assured than the mess he actually was.

Hans tore his gaze away from Skipper to stare down Kowalski instead. "What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing you need to know about!" He shouted, "Get back!" Rico snarled beside him, backing up what he was saying without even forming a syllable.

"I don't -"

"Get back before I make you get back!" Kowalski shouted, stepping forward and bringing his flippers up. Logically he knew that if Skipper could only manage a stalemate with the puffin he had no way of winning, but the rasped whimpers behind him and instinct was telling him to try anyway. Rico was still growling, and Kowalski had to wonder how a sound that low and dark could come from him.

Hans just blinked, stepping back obediently with confusion still written a block print across his face. There was something strange underlying that though, the barest glimmer of something that was making his feather rise even more than they already were. It was recognition. When he spoke again Kowalski swore he felt his knees buckle.

"You get those headaches too?"

Hey team! Hope you're enjoying the story so far!

I feel like this story is moving very fast, but honestly? I don't really want to slow it down. Filler content really isn't my strong suit and I'm hoping you all agree is better to get to he plot and keep it moving! If you like this story feel free to leave a review, and if you have some criticism thats also cool, its the only way to learn! I'd love to hear from you regardless :)

Next chapter things are really going to kick into high gear so I hope to see you then

See you next week~
Peace!