Chapter 2: A Chilling Ad
Kowalski stood outside the car, checking the trunk. "Looks like everything's here. I'll get the boys if you'll get Lyris."
"Oh yeah, I can get the little sea monster." Blowhole nodded, rolling over to another strategically placed kiddy pool to pick her up. "Come on, let's get you some moisturizer and buckle you in."
The baby merely yawned and held on to him with her little flippers.
Kowalski watched them with a smile for a moment before continuing into the living areas of the lair. As he approached their sons' room, he got into a defensive position. He tiptoed to the door and slowly opened it.
He then quickly ducked as he was met by a hail of nerf bullets, closely followed by the battle cries of the two boys.
"GOOD GALILEO—" He squeaked as he was tackled.
The larger of the two chicks, raised his nerf gun high with a roar of triumph. "Your loot, Papa!" The little nerf gun is pointed in his face.
Kowalski gave him a look and gently nudged it, pointing off to the side. "Edmond, what have I told you about nerf guns and faces?"
The smaller chick raised his flipper. "Not in face!"
"Exactly, Benny, not in the face." He sighed, reaching to pat them both on the head. "You can play more later. It's time to go."
"But we're not done playing bank robber yet." Eddy pouted.
Kowalski blinked at him. "Bank robber?"
"Yeah! To buy my dino zoo!"
The smaller chick nodded enthusiastically. "And loonicorns."
"Oh yeah, and Benny's Lunacorns."
Kowalski sighed, rubbing a flipper over his face. "I knew letting Parker watch you that one afternoon was a bad idea." He murmured. "Like I said, you can play more later. Grab a few toys for the car if you would like."
Edmond sighed and got his younger brother's flipper, leading him back to their room to pick out their toys, leaving Kowalski for a moment to clean up their nerf bullets.
"I'm taking Rexy. You want a Lunacorn, right?" Eddy asked as he got on his tiptoes to reach down into their toy bucket.
"Help Hoof." Benny nodded, reaching out to his brother. Soon the toy was dropped in his flippers and the two waddled back to Kowalski.
"Do you want to waddle or be carried?"
"Waddle."
Kowalski nodded to Edmond before looking at the younger. "Benjamin?"
Rather than answer, the chick waddled up to Kowalski's feet, giving him a "gentle" headbutt. Kowalski grunted slightly at this before getting the chick on his feet.
"Grow too much more and you're not going to fit anymore." He chuckled before getting Edmond's flipper and led him out. They paused by Eris's room to knock on the door. "Eris, we're ready to go."
"Coming." The door opened and she rolled out with a nod.
The four then continued onwards to the garage, loaded up the car, and left with Blowhole at the wheel, on the way to a beach vacation at Rhode Island. If they're in any luck, they may cross paths with Blowhole's side of the family on their migration routes.
Reaching over to turn on the radio, Blowhole glanced over at Kowalski in the passenger seat. "We brought snacks, right?"
"We have four kids and a long drive, Francis, of course I brought snacks." He shook his head as he reached down for the bag. "What do you want?"
"Uhhh, some kind of chips maybe?"
Kowalski pulled out a pack and looked at it. "Shrimp chips fine?"
"Yeah sure." He held out his flipper for the pack.
The penguin opened the pack before handing it over with a nod. He then turned and glanced back at the others. "Anyone else need…" He started before trailing off as he saw everyone else had fallen back asleep. He smiled softly to himself and turned back to face the front. "They're asleep."
"I don't blame them. We got them up pretty early." He glanced at the radio and turned up the volume.
"…Are you someone who doesn't scare easily? Or perhaps you like to play games? If you're interested in winning a huge lot of unclaimed land, then come down to Blue Manor, the most haunted mansion in Rhode Island. Spend the entire night with us and the estate is yours. But beware, eager travelers. We have 999 ghost residents with us…but there's always room for more. Ha ha ha haaa."
"...That sounds like something we should check out."
Kowalski squinted at him and gestured back towards their kids. "Have you forgotten that we have three small children with us, Francis? Are you sure taking them to a haunted mansion would be a good parenting decision?"
"Jan." The dolphin glanced at him. "Ghosts aren't real. Plus that sounds like a great deal. An entire mansion estate for free? That's hard to pass up."
"Maybe, maybe not, but I'm still not sure that will be safe for them. It could give them nightmares."
"Nah." He waved him off. "They're young enough they won't even notice. They'll just find the mansion cool and creepy. Plus, it would just be for one night. They'll sleep through anything the caretakers may throw at us. It'll be a blast, then afterwards I can send the lobsters over and we can fix it up, have a nice summer home."
Kowalski frowned, rubbing his neck. "I don't know, Francis…"
"Mittens, you're worrying too much. We've done plenty of ghost hunts in the past. We know what we're doing. We'll keep them safe. If necessary, I have my laser and you have your multi-purpose ray. Everything will be fine. One night, then we will go directly to the beach, promise. Just think how close that mansion probably is to pirate beach artifacts, hmm?"
"...Fine." He sighed and looked out the window. "If you really think that it'll be alright...I trust your judgement...Plus, it is hard to say no to pirate stuff."
"It'll be fun. I mean, you heard the ad, Jan. Didn't exactly sound like it was run by a family of axe murderers now, did it?"
Kowalski smiled slightly at that. "No, I don't think it did."
"Then it's settled. One night in the supposedly haunted house, then the rest of our anniversary vacation we'll spend at the beach."
"Deal." He grabbed himself a pack of chips with a sigh. "Let's get this haunted excursion over with."
