Chapter 7

There's a whole lot of things about the human brain that no one yet knows. It's impossibly complex and behaves like a game of checkers only played with cards instead of pieces on a Ouija board against a person who knows all of the rules and how to play and refuses to share how. Thousands of Scientists have spent centuries pouring over it and yet they still haven't come up with concrete hard evidence as to why and how it works the way it does. It's a fragile and delicately balanced organ that through impulse and habit controls every last inch of a person's being. And as much as Kowalski would love to dream otherwise he was not going to be able to figure all of that out in an afternoon.

And from where he was sprawled out on the ground pouring over sheet after sheet of paper in a futile attempt of figuring out what was inside of their heads he was beginning to feel like there wasn't anything he could do.

Unsurprisingly sleep had helped. Skipper had found his footing again, refusing to call of drills in the morning because apparently they were needed now more than ever. While the punishing laps and flipper to flipper combat had been made worse by the lack of sleep and near constant complaining, it seemed to have finally shaken the shroud of glassy distance from everyone's eyes, grounding them back in the reality of the situation they were in, no matter how strange it had become.

Even Rico seemed to have surfaced from his odd state from yesterday, finally aware of his surroundings and making what passed for conversation for Rico throughout the morning, even managing to get a laugh out of Private when he had tipped Skipper over the edge of the ice floe after their bout.

The Lab door was ajar, allowing in the noise from the next room. As Kowalski rubbed one of his eyes with a flipper he tuned in automatically to the conversation Skipper and Private were having at the table, passing theories and ideas between them as they documented the past two years in rigorous detail.

"I'm just saying the play definitely came before Christmas, I remember it clearly."

"Yeah, and we all know how well our memories can be trusted don't we? You're definitely something Private and that something is wrong."

He yawned and shifted his focus back to the pile of scans in his flippers. After a moment of contemplation he placed it on the floor and focused on the next. He and Rico had spent most of the morning in the offices printing ream after ream of the images off, one on lookout and the other watching the printer tremble with exertion as it fired out picture after picture.

He'd left the final prints with Rico so he could start sorting through the immense stacks of paper taking up every last inch of space in his lab. The towering piles of paper would no doubt be missed by Alice sooner or later, but for the moment she was no doubt busy dealing with the dozens of escaped chameleons wreaking havoc in the reptile house.

The door groaned and Rico tottered in, back almost snapped as he balanced a precarious tower of pictures against his chest. Kowalski lent up on his elbows and was about to gesture to the remaining free corner of the room when the mass of paper hit his gut and knocked the wind clear form him.

"All done." Rico sniggered brushing his flippers off and grinning down as Kowalski gaped at the ceiling and tried to convince his lungs to work again. He did manage a weak glare however, eyes brimming with tears as he rasped out a scathing 'thanks'

A quick bow with a flourish and Rico was whistling as he left again, leaving Kowalski to try and excavate himself from the avalanche of paper now burying him alive. Perhaps it would have been better if Rico had stayed vacant he thought bitterly. The mess was going to take time to clean up, and he would have made Rico do it if not for the minor fact he would probably only make it worse. Sighing, then grimacing because that was still painful, he started scraping together the bits of paper. The images were fainter than most of the images before it, the toner on the printer obviously bearing the brunt of the workload. He didn't bother trying to get them back in exactly the right order, just haphazardly shoving them together in the hopes of clearing some breathing room. He stopped however when he heard something over the shuffling paper.

It was coming from far away, and sounded almost like tires screeching to a halt, but with intonation and varying pitch. Head cocked to the noise and eyes narrowed he was just starting to pick it must have been a voice when Skipper spoke

"What in the name of Alaskan smoked salmo-"

In fact what it had been, and was now painfully obvious, was actually screaming. More specifically, King Julien screaming. Before Skipper managed to react however the fishbowl entrance sprung off and the still screeching Lemur king fell rather ungracefully down the opening. Kowalski quickly brushed off the paper and peered around the ajar door to his lab.

The babbling howls as King Julien sprinted around the base were barely comprehensible, the words strung together so fast he was surprised he could even talk at that speed at all. Of course it didn't help that Skipper and Private were both also yelling. Although now that he was listening closer he could hear another voice on top of that. One that seemed to be getting closer.

Kowalski briefly considered leaving his lab, but when the entrance was flung open again and Marlene launched herself inside, also screaming, he decided that it was probably the safest place to be. King Julian had wrapped himself tightly around Skippers shoulders who was now struggling to simultaneously shake him loose and avoid the manic otter flinging herself at him as Private tried to call for reason. Rico was also yelling at this point, but from the looks of things and the way he seemed quite happy to just stand on the TV, he was just yelling for the hell of it.

That said the noise was getting a bit much. Julien, now with his paws cupped over Skippers eyes, drove him backwards into a recessed panel and activated the Hoboken emergency alarm and now that was also adding to the chaos. The large map unfurled and trapped the pair behind it as they struggled valiantly to be free

Private tackled Marlene and managed by some miracle to get a pillowcase over most of her body and was trying to pin her to the floor as best he could.

Kowalski leant back and quickly grabbed the role of duct tape off the bench beside him and slipped out, narrowly avoiding his still blind leader. He hit the recessed panel again and the alarm blessedly went silent.

Private looked up from the still struggling pillow case, genuinely seeming afraid as he tried to keep the otter pinned down. "Kowalski, Rico!" He cried.

Rico leapt past, grabbing the duct tape on his way and joining the pile up on the floor. Kowalski, now empty handed was quickly knocked to the floor by the lemur driven penguin. However thankfully it seemed to be the blow that was needed to finally knock the lemur off. He landed heavily right where Rico had dropped the Files earlier and once again Kowalski felt the wind knocked out of him. Julien squirmed, kicked him in the face and managed to dig an elbow into what probably was his kidneys but before he could get up Skipper handed heavily on both of them.

Kowalski wondered if this was how he was going to die, buried under a mountain of screaming fur and feathers.

A few minutes and over half of the roll of duct tape later they had managed to get both of the intruders secured down and somewhat calm.

Skipper sighed, handing the roll back to Rico who simply threw it over his shoulder into the now cluttered mess that was the base. Kowalski shot him a look and in return he just shrugged. He didn't bother to press it as Skipper crouched down in front of the lemur and carefully grasped one corner of the duct tape holding his mouth closed.

"Listen Ringtail," He said, clearly trying to be patient. " I'm going to take this off now, and you're going to tell us what happened. If you scream again I will personally see to it that you end up shaved bare in the middle of the night. Understand?"

The Lemur looked over at Marlene, Still mostly tangled up in the Pillowcase, thought Rico had cut a hole for her head which she was using to glare down the lemur king fiercely. He nodded and skipper didn't wait even a moment before ripping the tape off.

To his credit the king didn't scream, simply opening his mouth like he was and letting out nothing more than a soft whimper of pain.

Skipper folded his arms and smirked. "Good, now why in the name of smoked sardines are you here."

Julian rubbed his cheek on his shoulder, pouting up at the penguin. "you were not having to be so rough about it. I'm sensitive you know. My fur is like silk."

"And you'll be missing a lot more of it if you don't get the details quickly." He waved the offending piece of tape for emphasis and Julian Gulped audibly.

"Well it was starting back in Madagascar-"

"I don't need that many details!"

Kowalski sighed and stepped back to rub at the new bruise surely forming on his side. Of all the times for King Julien's nonsense now was really not the time. Some of the paper piled up in the doorway his lab had been disrupted in the chaos and a few stray sheets were scattered on the floor. Grimacing and tightening his flippers hold on his side he bent down to start picking them up.

"Well it is being all your fault anyways! So I don't know why I am being the one all taped up!" Julien whined somewhere in the background. Marlene was making a loud and frustrated noise behind her own makeshift tape muzzle that only added to the grating ambience.

Some of the papers had been scrunched up, likely by someone standing on them. Annoyance prickled along his spine as Kowalski straightened up, catching his head on the bottom of the large unfurled map still hanging from the wall. It tapped very sharply on yet another bruise blooming on the back of his head and in a childish fit of frustration he swatted weakly at the thing. Why did they even still have a Hoboken emergency alarm? It wasn't like the damn thing had done them any good previously, they'd had to get out of that hell-scape on their own.

"Seriously." He griped, turning his attention to the scuffed up paper in his flippers. "Android doubles? What a joke."

Skippers head shot up at that, eyes narrowed. "What did you say?"

"I was saying that you were the one not wanting to give me the talkity box-"

Skipper's flipper shot out and clamped Julien's mouth shut, head still stuck forward and eyes darkening. "Android Doubles?" He pressed

Kowalski paused. The air in the room up until this point, while still charged and tense, had been cut with an undercurrent of familiarity. It was normal zoo antics and low stakes trouble and for a moment even without realising it Kowalski had completely forgotten about the far more pressing issues closing in on them from all sides. That easy feeling was suddenly and jarringly absent. He turned slowly around to face Skipper. "You don't think-"

"It took me being knocked into a hole in the ground to work out they weren't the real deal Kowalski. You can't do that without –" Skipper paused, attention turning back to the Lemur he still had gripped by the muzzle. For a moment he looked almost confused and Kowalski could understand the feeling. "Get out."

Marlene let out a high pitched grunt and started thrashing again. Skipper dropped his flipper and looked at Private. "Marlene too, get both of them out of here."

Private looked affronted, mouth ajar. "Skipper!" He protested, "you can't be-"

"That's an order Private! Now 86 these mammals." Skipper snapped.

Julien gaped up at him desperately. "You have to be kidding with me, This crazy lady is going to kill me!" He squeaked as Private bent down to start hacking through the tape binding his feet with a rouge butter knife and a glare, that while still wouldn't melt even butter, was still unfitting for his face.

"I'm sure Private will give you a head start." Skipper replied flippantly, clearly tired of the conversation. "But let me be clear. We're washing our flippers of his Ringtail. I don't care if Marlene does kill you. It's not my problem."

For possibly the first time Julien actually looked stunned, the vapid over enunciation usually broadcast on his face wiped clean off by Skippers harsh words. It almost made Kowalski feel bad. Timidly he spoke up as Julien shook his paws out and Private started on the tape binding his arms to his shoulders. "Skipper I'm sure we could at least help them resolve this peacefully." He offered timidly. His commanding officer reached out a ripped the poster clean from its moorings, splaying it out on the table with more force than was strictly necessary.

"By all means Kowalski, if you think this is more important, knock yourself out."

While it wasn't an order it might as well have been, and with a last glance to Private ushering the pleading lemur up the ladder with the still bound otter to tend too he turned back to the table and placed his stack of faded and crumpled scans down to turn his attention to the map as well.

Skipper had his eyes narrowed and a flipper on the dot pointing too Hoboken. "Talk to me then, all we have is Robot Doubles that could play us note for note, I need options."

Rico had sidled up as well, head cocked and eyes flitting worriedly between Skipper and the map.

Those androids had never sat right with Kowalski from the beginning. An entire zoo of robot animals was one thing, but they hadn't been simple mechanic automatons designed for fooling humans. They had been able to dupe even them, acting while not naturally at least convincingly enough to pass as the real, if reformed, deal. A psychotic keeper replacing her entire roster of zoo animals with machines could have been feasible, but these highly advanced androids had been way off course.

They reacted to the situations around them, showed advanced reasoning and manipulation skills and had a wreath of knowledge only the organic originals would have known about to draw on. Savio, Clemson, Lulu… All of them had been neigh indistinguishable. They hadn't simply been made in the image of an animal but were designed as spitting replicas of specific individuals.

And while that might not have seemed like a big difference to a passing casual observer as a penguin of Science Kowalski knew better. To artificially recreate an entire personality as AI was a feat that should have been nigh but impossible. Not only that but to imbue these replicas with memories that the zoo keeper hadn't even been aware were there spoke to a level of sophisticated brain modelling and data configuration Kowalski honestly wouldn't stand a chance at matching. The thought was sour to swallow, but there was no room for posturing here.

So what did that mean?

"They weren't made from the ground up." He started slowly.

Skipper levelled his stare and motioned for him to continue. "Explain?"

"They had memories, the memories of each individual specifically. If you were a germaphobic lunatic making android animals you wouldn't know to program all of those details."

Skipper had started to nod. "We'd only been there for a day. Even if those Hoboken criminals had let their guard slip one too many times, we certainly hadn't."

He shook his head. "It has nothing to do with being convincing. They knew who we were. They knew how to manipulate us. They had knowledge of things no-one could feasibly copy without…" He paused, ideas beginning to connect like puzzle pieces. "Making an exact copy." Kowalski breathed.

Private stomped back over to the table, flippers crossed and face still dower. "And why does that matter exactly." He grumbled. "More so than our friends, might I just add."

Rico rolled his eyes and blew a raspberry.

"It had something to do with those massage chairs." Skipper said.

Kowalski had started pacing, trying to keep track of his ever spiralling train off thought. "I thought they were simply gathering superficial data, height, weight the basic things you need to build a model of someone but now…" He turned to Skipper again. "Do you remember defeating your double?"

The penguin commander raised an eyebrow and smirked cockily. "Can't forget a beat-down like that Solider. I sandwiched that handsome son of a gun between two of those sun loungers and fried his circuits."

"Except you didn't just fry it's circuits!" Kowalski pressed. "It exploded!"

"Kaboom?" Rico offered hastily.

He waved a flipper in the general direction as he turned on his heel to work back along the path he was pacing. "Exactly! Electricity doesn't do that! Not to that extent at least. No, it's obvious now what it was." He turned again. "Do you remember the MRI? What I said to you?"

"No metal?" Private asked, still trying to look annoyed and downcast, but his eyes kept flicking up of their own accord. His flippers had even started fiddling with the crumpled scans on the table, a tell-tale give away he was getting just as invested as the rest of them.

"No metal!" Kowalski shouted excitedly. "Those massage chairs weren't just gathering data, they were advanced MRI machines scanning and creating copies of our brains as they were in that moment, Memories and all!"

Skipper had started to smile. "So you're telling me Frances had access to our memories then?"

Kowalski finally came to a stop whirling around on the spot. "That's exactly what I'm saying! That's why they could fool us!"

"So she might have done this to us!"

And like the cork coming off a champagne bottle the excitement and energy that had been building in Kowalski suddenly burst, but it wasn't a welcome feeling. His entire team was looking to him with expectation written on their faces and all Kowalski could feel was his heart dropping a mile a minute down his chest.

Why would she have done this though? What motive would that serve?

Skippers smile was fading. "Kowalski, she's a lead, right? We have evidence." He pressed.

He didn't want to say it, not with three sets of hopeful eyes all focused in his direction like this. His throat was suddenly dry. "There's just… no motive Skipper." He said finally.

Like a switch flipping Skippers face shut down like a lightbulb, and was almost as dark. "That's the exact same thing you said about Blowhole Kowalski!" He said, voice tight with barely concealed emotion.

"I know-"

"Because in case you haven't noticed Frances Alberta and the Hoboken Zoo is the only other lead we have right now!" He was shouting now, leaving Private ducking his head down further and fiddling faster and more nervously with the printed scans.

"I know!" Kowalski shouted back, squaring his shoulders and pulling back to his full height as Skipper stormed up to him, beak curled in rage.

"We have two leads and you're standing here dismissing both and offering nothing!" Even Rico looked uncomfortable at this point, shoulders hunched and eyes averted.

Kowalski spluttered indignantly. "What do you mean offering nothing! I was the one that bought up Hoboken in the first place!" Hadn't he been the one dragging Skipper kicking and screaming to the obvious? Where the hell did he get off dismissing him like that!

"Yeah well you might as well not have." With that Skipper turned on his heel and marched towards the exit, effectively shutting down any opportunity Kowalski had for rebuttal. "I'm going on a walk -" He span back just as quickly, jabbing a flipper at both Rico and Private. "You two!"

The pair froze from where they had been trying to sidle away from the table with matching guilty expressions.

Skipper glared. "Clean this place up. I want it spotless when I get back!" He paused, ignoring the chimes of "yes sir!" as they both dove for the nearest mess they could find, and shifted his eyes too Kowalski.

The scientist could feel the way his beak was clenched tight but didn't break the piercing eye contact between them.

"Sort it out Genius."

Without even waiting for him to Leave Kowalski turned sharply into his lab and slammed the door. Sure it was a childish response, but damn if it didn't feel good.

A flurry of papers had been sent spiralling from the sheer force of the door slamming and the sudden un-needed mess only made his rage spike to a new high. Part of him wanted to scream out his frustration, but he kept it in check. He wasn't going to let Skipper under his skin. If that big-headed ego-maniac didn't appreciate what Kowalski had done then he could figure it out himself!

Forcing himself to take a deep breath he tried to quell the way his shoulders were shaking. Best of luck to him trying to solve this thing by chasing useless dead ends at every turn. So what if they were the only leads? They were the wrong ones so why bother! Why chase down answers that wouldn't be there when if he could just get more data he could solve this!

It wasn't even science! It was nonsensical ghost chasing looking for clues when Kowalski didn't even have to leave his Lab to figure this out.

He could figure this out.

He swallowed and grabbed a hunk off the remaining papers sat on his table and began flipping rapidly through them.

He could figure this out! Not having memories wasn't something to try and play detective with, it was a problem that needed to be solved now. Who knew how much they had forgotten or how important it was! Each black and white scan came up as intended, the dark greyscale of Private's Hippocampus shot through with circles and lines of stark white where the bubbles would have been. They may have only had two leads but Kowalski could do this without help. If it came down to it he could probably remove the blockages by himself.

A cold feeling suddenly seeping down his back made him shiver, the feeling making his feathers prick up again after only just beginning to lie flat after his confrontation. It wasn't a nice feeling.

Could he really do that though? Put them all at risk to try and fix it without any information? One wrong move and he could do major irreparable damage. He was far from a neuroscientist and the multitude of dangerous inventions and close calls he'd had in the past only spoke to that.

Dizziness came like a wave and he slumped down onto the cinderblock heavily. The world was spinning slightly and he almost felt sick with the motion. Next to him the monitor clicked to life and he glanced quickly over at the 3d models still rendered on that screen. It would only take a tiny mistake and he could cause severe neurological damage… or worse.

It just didn't make sense for it to be Blowhole or that psycho Zoo Keeper! Where was the motive? Why would they have had any reason to do this and when would they even have done it? There were no answers anywhere so why chase them down when they couldn't be the culprits.

But if not them, who?

For the first time Kowalski could feel exactly how hard his heart was beating. It still hadn't come down from the fight apparently, although now it was thumping for other reasons.

If he couldn't fix this alone then they had to find the individual responsible. The scans could only reveal so much. He looked down at the ones still in his flippers, showing him exactly what he had expected, and dropped them onto the table.

Maybe motive didn't matter right now. Would it be better to sit idle and wait to find the perfect solution or at least make a move and try and track down every thread to see what it could reveal?

He pressed his forehead to the table with a grunt, scrunching his eyes tightly.

Despite appearances this wasn't his strong suit at all. His role was to interpret data and draw theories based on evidence. It was Skippers role to lead them to that evidence in the first place.

Kowalski had told the rest of his rookery, sure, but not to get help. It had always been about the data collection. It had always been about the science. Part of that burned to admit. He loved his team, but he'd lied to Private's face point blank when he'd first approached him. He'd been using them as unwitting lab rats and not as the elite team they were. This wasn't a blackboard equation or a finished investigation, it was a mystery first and foremost, and this might have been he first time he really vocalised that thought. If this was a mystery, that meant they needed more clues.

Skipper had always called them 'leads' he remembered, not 'suspects,' or 'culprits,' just leads.

And maybe Kowalski had misinterpreted that. Arrogance had clouded his judgement. He couldn't fix this on his own and just because he was the one to realise it was there didn't make this his responsibility alone. They were all missing memories and all concerned about it.

Maybe Blowhole and The Hoboken Zoo Keeper hadn't done it, but maybe they could shed some light on who had.

The Lab door creaked open and Kowalski looked up sharply as Private shimmied in through a crack in the door. He clutched Kowalski's abandoned scans from the main table in his flippers. "Are you alright Kowalski?" He asked softly, brow pinched in worry. "You left these in the other room." He offered, stepping cautiously up to the table Kowalski used as his desk.

Kowalski sat up a little, now leaning heavily on his elbows instead of his forehead. "I'm fine Private, just thinking." He sighed.

Private smiled sympathetically and patted him gently on the shoulder. "I'm sorry Skipper went off at you like that."

The scientist spared a brief thankful smile at the smallest penguin before shaking his head. "I might have deserved it in retrospect."

"Still doesn't make it right. You should never take your stress out on someone else just because they disagree with you."

Kowalski had to wonder if that was another Lunacorns lesson. "Did you disagree with me?" He asked instead.

Private shrugged his shoulders meekly, trying to casually avert his eyes. "I mean… I just don't think shutting down potential leads because every little piece of circumstantial evidence doesn't line up is the smartest move." He'd said it so diplomatically but it still smarted something fierce. Even Private had been more aware of the grander scale than he had. Almost like a peace offering the smallest penguin pushed the remaining scans over towards him. The printer had seriously been running low on these ones, and almost out of morbid curiosity began to flip slowly through the significantly lighter images. "Besides isn't it always better to have a large… oh geez you know? The science test thing."

Kowalski laughed a little. "Sample size." He finished for him. Private positively beamed at the real positive response. "You're right. More evidence and data is always better. And maybe using the leads we have we might find some?"

Kowalski rubbed at the current picture he had flipped too, trying to rub the dust off the image to see it better. When it didn't budge he frowned and went back to the last image. It was there too, but a different shape. A shadow of something the grainy sparseness of the ink was only now showing.

"Or maybe we just did…" He mumbled, spreading out the images roughly on the desk, carelessly sending the older more pigmented ones over the edge in a fluttering shower. Private asked him something as he backed out of the way of the avalanche of paper, but Kowalski had stopped listening. "They're in all of them, similar shape… less contained." He paused before picking up a few select scans and turning sharply to the monitor and exiting to the options menu. "Maybe it's organic."

"What's organic?" Private tried again, bewildered by this sudden 180 in conversation. Kowalski's screen was a blur of movement as he adjusted sliders and flicked rapidly back and forth between windows. Finally he stopped, a faded split screen of the two avian brain scans, now both faded and almost completely invisible with how low the transparency was.

Kowalski fiddled briefly with the side of the monitor, and as its brightness suddenly dipped be bounded to his feet and came to stand next to Private instead.

"Kowalski?"

Kowalski only grinned. "I was right."

Private went to ask but was only cut off.

"It wasn't Blowhole, he didn't do this."

The scientist looked positively giddy, and Private looked back to the screen to try and spot the clue he was clearly missing. "… How do you know?"

"I only saw it on Skipper's scans but I thought to double check them against yours, look." He offered two of the faded scans. One had an otter paw print stamped on the corner. "These faded spots weren't there before, because they aren't whole enough to register when the pixel density is high. I didn't notice them on the monitors either because I staggered by inorganic and organic and these are organic clusters." He pointed back to the monitor. "And they're only present on Skippers scans."

Private's head was swimming. This was way over his head. The image on the left looked slightly fuzzier he supposed, and with the brightness on the monitor down so low he could almost swear the gradient was formed in little halos. "So Skipper has more memories?" He guessed.

"More memories erased. But not in the same way. It looks like however these particular erasures took place it was done by hijacking the body's natural chemicals and hormones to block the synapses. Of course however our bodies, given time, always try to revert to a normal based on the natural dispersion of particles, especially in the brain." He turned to Private, eyes wild. "Whoever did this to Skipper tried to do the same thing as whoever took out memories in the first place, but far more rudimentary and using an entirely different system, and because of it they wore off."

Something clicked. "Skipper was the only one of us mind jacked by Doctor Blowhole!" He blurted, throwing the papers he'd been handed rather ineffectually at the floor.

Kowalski punched the air victoriously, "Exactly! If these are only present on Skipper's scan then it must be the residue of the mind-jacker, meaning Blowhole wasn't the only one that erased our memories. Why revert to less effective measures if you had already done it perfectly?"

Private stepped back as Kowalski ducked to scoop up the papers Private had dropped. "You need to tell Skipper!" He cheered as Rico cracked the lab door open further and furtively poked his head in only to dive to the side as Kowalski crashed through the door moments later.

"Way ahead of you Private!" He called, leaving with a loud clanging off the fish bowl.

Rico looked utterly bewildered. "Where's the fire?" He grunted.

Skipper hadn't been hard to find, perched on the park bench situated directly behind the flamingo exhibit. It was the least used bench at the zoo given it's terrible vantage point of the animals, but it did have a straight line of sight to the entrance to the zoo and in the afternoon you could reliably count on the shade being cast from the tree above to provide at least a little cool on blistering summer days. Kowalski had rushed over without thinking and it wasn't until he caught Skippers eyes that he remembered the fight.

He stumbled to a stop on the rough pavers of the Zoo walkways and brought the scans up to his chest, ready to turn around and leave should Skipper chose to explode at him again. He didn't, thankfully, instead shaking his head and waving him over with a flipper. "No, don't worry, I'm done being unreasonable today I think." He sighed.

Kowalski carefully pulled himself up onto the bench and sat himself alongside his leader. The flamingos ignored them both, the occasional head poking up over the wall to flit about looking for danger before diving back behind the brickwork and into the pond situated along the back wall. Kowalski took a moment to fiddle with the scans in his flippers. He hated this part. "According to reputable sources I haven't exactly been reasonable myself."

Skipper raised a confused eyebrow at that in his peripheral vision and Kowalski huffed and defensively crossed his arms. "I may have realised that throwing away leads because they don't lead to immediately perfect suspects is a stupid decision." He paused and deliberately unfolded his arms, reminding himself he came here to be civil. "I've been thinking of this too much as an equation and not enough as the investigation it is." He shrugged. "I can't do this alone."

Skipper let out another sigh and sat back on his flippers, canting his head up towards the midday sun and squinting. After a pause he began to slowly speak. "And I… may have realised that I've been pushing you too hard for answers you haven't had enough information to figure out." He lifted a flipper to shield his eyes and under the new found shade cast a glance Kowalski's way. "I took my anger at the situation out on you." He finished.

It was as close to an apology Skipper could get too. Considering they both had issues with admitting they were wrong, Kowalski wasn't going to press it. "I certainly didn't help."

Skipper hummed as a response. "I've been trying to cover everything at once while you've been trying to make sure we don't waste time in the wrong places. Chalk and cheese right there." Kowalski let out a small chuckle at that quip and Skipper finally cracked a grin as well. He nodded down at the scans Kowalski had bought with him. "Right Lieutenant, what's the 411 with the pictures?"

Kowalski obediently handed them over. "I found something to point us in the right direction."

Skipper looked up, both eyebrows up in surprise. "Well colour me impressed soldier, you sure know how to floor it."

Kowalski explained the lighter areas in the images quickly, trying his best to lose the scientific jargon and only double backing a few times when Skipper prompted him to expand on his points. He occasionally chimed in, clearly following Kowalski's thinking to its natural end.

"It wasn't Blowhole after all." Skipper mused. He couldn't hide the slight disappointment in his tone.

"Unfortunately, almost definitely." Kowalski said regretfully as he took the scans back and looked them over once again. "The scientific finger prints on these two methods just don't align in the slightest. Similar outcome, totally different methodology." He ran a flipper over the clouded dusty patch. "It's the difference between asking a strict neuroscientist and a more rounded anatomist with engineering skills to solve the same problem."

"So where does that leave us?" Skippers shoulders, Kowalski noticed, which had straightened during the explanation had now regressed back to their starting slumped position.

He cleared his throat and tapped the scans on the bench to straighten them out, watching as a particular flamingo stared him down for a moment before clearly deciding he wasn't a threat. "It leaves us with one viable lead." He said, hoping it didn't come out like a question.

Skipper looked over sharply, angling his body towards his Lieutenant and narrowing his eyes.

"That Zoo keeper from the Hoboken zoo might not have done it, but she could still shed light on something we missed?" That one definitely came out like a question.

Skipper didn't seem to notice, instead nodded approvingly, a smile creeping back onto his beak and Kowalski swore he could almost read the returned respect written on it. "My thoughts exactly." He said.

When he dropped from the bench to stretched out his flippers, Kowalski finally let go of the tension he'd been holding. Private could try all he liked but he was never going to turn either of them into emotionally literate wordsmiths. This really went about as well as it could have considering that key fact. Skipper cracked his back before turning around. Kowalski swore he could almost see the gears turning in his mind. "I'm going to need you to get Rico from base and the pair of you are tasked with getting the chimps to agree to help us track down Frances Alberta's arrest report from the within the police station" He mused before a sharp pause in which he began looking very unenthusiastic. Odd when you considered he'd just suggested breaking and entering a literal police station without so much as a wayward blink. "While you're there… send Private to the lemur exhibit."

Kowalski jumped down as well, this time raising his own eyebrow at Skipper for context. The stockier penguin groaned and let his head roll back as far as he could on his shoulders, managing to grind out between a clenched beak, "Apparently there's mammal issues I need to deal with, and I'm sure as salmon not taking it on Solo."

He laughed, not even bothering to offer sympathy. "Hope you're looking forward to three strong reprimands sir." He could almost imagine it, Marlene, Julien and Private all offering Skipper a piece of their mind at the exact same time. Who knows, maybe that would be what finally reconciled whatever disaster had unfolded.

Skipper frowned and with one nervous glance started off in the direction of the otter habitat. "No need to rub it in Kowalski!" He shouted, although this time without even the slightest hint of malice.

With a last laugh at his retreating back Kowalski began to retrace his steps back to base.

Going after France's police report was the smartest move. The NYPD would have already cleared out any evidence of what had gone down in Hoboken and no one in their right mind would head back just to interview what amounted to a perp-walk of some of their worst enemies. Besides even in the aftermath none of them had come forward with even the slightest understanding of what had happened besides the obvious parts about getting replaced and trapped underground.

No, Frances had clearly been, if not the mastermind, at least the ringleader, which meant she was the important one to track down. And after watching her, satisfyingly, be led away raving in handcuffs a good first step would be the official arrest report.

When he arrived the base was pristine, but Private and Rico both jumped in alarm when he dropped down the ladder. Rico rolled his eyes and muttered something utterly incomprehensible before turning around and going back to trying to jam the now ruined Hoboken map into the overflowing bin he had been hiding with his body, clearly expecting Skipper instead.

"What did Skipper say?" Private asked, bounding up to Kowalski excitedly. "Does he still want us to go after Blowhole?"

Kowalski shook his head. "No. We're in agreement. Focusing on Frances makes the most logical sense given the current evidence we have."

Private nodded, clearly wanting to broach a more pressing issue. "And did you both apologise?"

His eyes were practically sparkling and Kowalski couldn't help but roll his eyes with a groan. "Of course that's what you care about." He mumbled. "If you're really that concerned with apologies, Skipper needs you at the lemur habitat asap. It appears he's going to try and mediate whatever rift has occurred between Julien and Marlene."

He'd barely finished his sentence before Private was pushing past him and bolting up out of the exit with a gush of what was tantamount to word vomit praising Skipper for "finally doing the right thing!"

Rico had stopped trying to cram the large poster into the too small bin and met his eye for a moment to fake gag, pointing a flipper into his mouth for emphasis. If there was anyone with less of a taste for mushy feelings than Kowalski and Skipper, it would be Rico.

"Better him than either of us." He conceded, watching warily as Rico seemingly gave up entirely on trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and instead held up a lighter to the corner of the poster.

"You can say that again." He croaked, eyes fixed on the flame as it quickly caught and spread.

The bin was metal and the base was stone Kowalski figured. Let him have this one.

"We've got something else to tackle anyway," He continued, pointedly ignoring the impromptu bonfire as Rico gave him a curious glance. "How do you feel about convincing Mason and Phil to help us break into a police station?"

If the whoop Rico let out was any indication, apparently it was good. The smouldering remains of the poster still burning inside the metal can and the ash laying limply over the edge were quickly forgotten as he too darted past to make a hasty exit up the ladder.

With a last look at the weakly flaming trash Kowalski decided to follow him. Posters weren't usually the best incendiary tool and the likelihood of the base burning down was low enough to be negligible in this situation.

Besides, Kowalski had an investigation to get underway.

And we have a new lead! Where will it go? What will they uncover? Will we ever find out what the hell went down in Chapter two?

(The answers are I'm not telling, I'm not telling, and God no.)

A BIG, HUGE shout out to NPI! I'm so glad you're enjoying the story! I'm sorry it's not written in Spanish to make things easier for you :( Unfortunately I am but a monolingual noob and all I can say in Spanish is Pencil Sharpener. I hope you enjoy this Chapter regardless! I'm glad you're on this journey with me :)

The engagement on this story has been slowly creeping up and its been very rewarding to see! Actually came at the perfect time as well because I'm currently working on Chapter 10 and boy howdy have we ever hit exposition city :( Its kicking my ass atm, I just want to get to the good stuff immediately. Unfortunately theres still more ground to cover before I can drop all of the juicy secrets I've been holding on too! All I'm gonna say is, Poor, Poor Kowalski. That skinny penguin really has become my metaphorical punching bag.

If you're new, or have been lurking this whole time, I'd love to hear from you! Drop a cheeky comment. Go on. Do it.

As always,
See you all next week~
Peace!