Kowalski waddled through the door and was met with exactly what he expected. The room was empty, dirty and dark. But on the far wall was another door. This door was new as well and what came scuttling out was a lobster. He looked slightly concerned but then so did Kowalski.
The door lead to a tiny room. Kowalski looked past the lobster and guessed it was an elevator. Stairs would be no good for a dolphin. Especially one on wheels.
"This way," the lobster said.
Kowalski cautiously stepped forward and into the elevator. The lobster pressed the button for floor -2. Perhaps that was the floor Kowalski had woken up on when he had been captured.
The elevator seemed to take it's time getting them down there. Kowalski looked sideways at the lobster and held tight to the vial of blood in his flippers. He dragged his flipper up and down the smooth glass and cleared his nervous throat.
"So, which lobster are you?" He asked.
The lobster turned his eyes but kept his body still. It made shivers run down Kowalski's spine.
"I'm Red one. Doc's right hand lobster."
"Right, how does he tell you all apart?"
"He mainly just shouts our numbers. He remembers our positions better than our faces. Though, he always remembers me. I was his first lobster."
Kowalski nodded along.
"How did you meet? What prompted you to join a madman in his schemes to take over the world?"
The lobster stared for a second before looking away, still not moving a muscle.
"That's information you'd have to ask for from Doc. I'm not even allowed to talk to you right now."
Kowalski made an inaudible 'oh' and turned his head as the elevator door opened.
This was the same floor he was on the last time he was here. The hall was empty, apart from a table and all of the doors that lead to more rooms. There was an open door, though.
"You'll find Doc in there," the lobster said, not stepping out of the elevator.
Kowalski nodded, feeling a little uneasy. Up close lobsters were a little strange. He hoped he wouldn't have the pleasure of getting to know them.
Walking down the hall was weird too. Never in his life would he have thought he would be in cahoots with a villain. Not that he thought of himself as being in cahoots with Blowhole. He just felt strange walking through the evil dolphins lair and being welcome there, ignoring the fact that he was blackmailed and probably still had a lot worse to come.
Kowalski found himself at the doorway to the open room. He peered inside and was a little underwhelmed by what he saw. He expected an enormous, dimly lit (for dramatic effect) laboratory, filled with technology and inventions that Kowalski could only dream of. Instead he was met with reality being a small office like room. There was a large desk, with cabinets and cupboards around looking stuffed with paper. There was another table on the other side of the small room covered in paper and files. But at the hilt of it all Blowhole sat on a swivel chair, his menacing face illuminated by the biggest and thinnest computer Kowalski had ever seen.
Upon seeing the penguin Blowhole immediately pulled himself up from his comfortable slouch and smirked.
"Kowalski, nice delivery time. I was expecting a little more hustle from you."
Kowalski tried not to look too in awe at the computer or too dumbfounded seeing Blowhole sitting behind a desk. So he took a few steps into the room and held the vial of blood out toward the dolphin.
Blowhole gladly leaned down and swiped the vial from the penguins flippers with a smirk.
"What do you need that for anyway?" Kowalski said as he crossed his flippers eyeing the dolphin down.
Blowhole rose up and slouched into his chair again with the same scheming smirk on his face.
"Nothing you need to be concerned about."
"I have a feeling it is something I should be concerned about."
Blowhole just rolled his eye and tsked.
Kowalski couldn't help but think he was caught in the middle of Blowhole's new scheme. What that new scheme was he had no idea. The dolphin was quite unpredictable as none of his previous schemes had any correlation to each other. Flood the world, unleash mutant diabologized penguins on the world, flood the world again? Well, there was a slight pattern.
Then, the evil dolphin situated himself on his segway and made a beeline for the door, leaving the penguin feeling uneasy and confused.
"Not one hint?" Kowalski asked.
Blowhole stopped in his tracks but didn't look back. The power of having Kowalski bended to his needs had made him cocky, enough so that he didn't see the little bird as a threat any longer.
"How about... global pandemic?"
Kowalski stood in silence for a moment as the dolphin continued on his journey to wherever, Kowalski had no clue. But blowhole was planning a global pandemic? As in a disease type pandemic?
Kowalski rushed after the dolphin and found him outside another door several doors down.
"Wait! Tell me more. You can't have me running around helping you when I know nothing. I feel so violated."
Blowhole turned and glared down at Kowalski. It was a look of pure hatred that Kowalski had only seen a few times before when he knew the team of penguins had been triumphant in bringing the dolphin down.
"I don't care how you feel. And why should I tell you anything? So you can tell Skipper? Have all the pen-gu-in agents after me?"
"I can't tell anyone! You'd kill me."
"So you wouldn't sacrifice yourself to save the world?"
Kowalski fell silent and looked to the floor. Would he sacrifice himself just to tell Skipper that Blowhole was planning to kill off the human race with a disease? Probably absolutely not. That didn't make him selfish though, did it?
Kowalski shook his head of bad thoughts. No matter how Blowhole made him feel, he would never forget what side he was on. The good side.
"But are you sure you want to tip the boat this far?"
Blowhole didn't miss a beat, leaning down and staring Kowalski square in the eyes with a scowl.
"There is no boat. The humans capsized it. It lays at the bottom of the ocean and I will repay the humans for invading my part of the world. Trust me, I will."
The mood suddenly shifted as Blowhole opened the next door. It was beautiful. The most futuristic and luxurious laboratory was revealed and Kowalski wanted nothing more than to run inside and experiment around with everything. The room was huge, with desks and boards covered in information. Glass shelves filled with more glass equipment that shone from the strips of lights that ran along the ceiling. Another grand computer sat at a desk and that's where the dolphin headed first, placing the tube of blood in a test tube rack.
Kowalski hesitated but stepped inside the room. The floors were even smooth so clean up would be easy. This was a scientist's dream.
Blowhole looked back over his shoulder and chuckled. As much as he didn't want the silly little bird around, it felt good to rub his perfect lair in the bird's face. Show Kowalski everything he would never have.
"You like my lab? Took a while to build but I love the outcome, don't you?"
Kowalski just stared at everything with wide open eyes.
"Yeah."
"What about my computer? 4k ultra HD LED curved screen so it doesn't matter what angle I'm at, I can still see perfectly."
Kowalski shook his head, forcing himself out of the weird trance he was in. He needed to focus, get the information he wanted and be on his way to cry about how he ruined his life just because he was waiting for a date.
"I don't care about your computer. Tell me more, I implore you. Tell me it's not my fault if you actually end up accomplishing something with this scheme."
"If I actually end up accomplishing something?" Blowhole repeated as he rolled his eye. "Hey, you wanna go on the computer? I have some probabilities I still need to work out. You don't even need to lift a flipper, the program does it for you."
Kowalski stared at the computer for a second. He really wanted to, more than anything. And when was he going to get another chance? His computer back in his crummy lab was just a little box computer that still ran on windows XP. He could count with his bare eyes how many pixels there were.
"P-probabilities? Those are my favourites to work out," Kowalski said in a small voice.
Blowhole just smirked and patted the desk top, urging Kowalski onward and into the unsuspecting trap. He barely knew the bird but yet he already knew how to play him and bend him to his will. Now, Blowhole could urge some information out of the bird as well as have his work done for him.
Kowalski still looked as though he was fighting a ghost that was dragging him further into the room but once he jumped up onto the desk and locked his eyes on the computer screen he lost all sense of guilt.
Blowhole reached for the computer tower and turned it on. It barely made a sound as the screen suddenly lit up along with the keyboard. Kowalski stared down in awe.
"It lights up," he said, dumbfounded.
"Yes, many colours. You can even have it rainbow," Blowhole said as he pressed a button on the keyboard instantly turning the glow rainbow. "It's also mechanical, much better than a membrane keyboard. It just feels so much nicer."
Kowalski knew the dolphin was just rubbing all of his possessions in his face and he found no comfort in knowing the dolphin was probably enjoying it too. But Kowalski just wanted to play around on the technology so he ignored the foe the best he could.
Once the computer had booted up and Kowalski started navigating and working around on the programs Blowhole moved to another table, one with sheets of paper spread out and a weird looking mini fridge.
Kowalski knew he should try and spark conversation. Get the dolphin to come out with his plan since he so loved the exposition of revealing a plan to his enemies. So he started with some idle chit chat.
"What's with the fridge? You get peckish with all the work you do?" Kowalski asked.
Blowhole chuckled and shook his head.
"No, it's for my colonies. Never eat in a lab Kowalski, you should know that."
Kowalski raised a brow.
"Colonies?"
"Nothing you'd understand, do not worry about it."
"Try me."
"No."
Kowalski gave a silent growl and turned back to the computer. It really was fast at working out the probabilities. What these numbers were for, he had no idea. They were just numbers with no context so he wouldn't have been able to guess what their purpose was either.
So he sighed and then he turned completely to face the evil dolphin. There would be time in the future to find and play with an even better computer.
"Can you tell me anything? If I have to be involved in this then I want to know something."
Blowhole paused for a moment and placed a piece of paper down on the table. Looking up, his expression was different, more thoughtful than any he'd given before.
"I could tell you. But that would be a whole other deal, wouldn't it?"
Kowalski crossed his flippers and rose to his feet, still standing on the desk.
"What would that be? What do you want this time?"
"I want inventory of everything you own, Kowalski. All your gadgets, technologies, little experiments... secret weapons. Everything. So I know exactly what I'm up against if the time comes when your team tries to stop me. Then, I'll tell you everything you want to know."
That should have a no brainer. Kowalski should have turned that offer down. What even was he accomplishing with selling out his entire team? Personal satisfaction. It was selfish and he should have known better. But he would find a way to make things right again.
"Alright, deal. You want this one on paper too or will a simple handshake suffice?"
Blowhole's face lowered to that scowling smirk he so loved to show off. Riding forward and stretching out a flipper to the bird, he raised a questioning brow to the bird, urging him to make the rash decision final. They shook on it.
Kowalski had that same horrible feeling in his gut the first time a deal was made between them that he was being horribly played and he would end up deeply regretting all of his life choices. He was the options guy and so far he had given himself nothing but bad decisions. But at least he'd get to know Blowhole's master plan. Though, with all the dramatic build up he wasn't so sure he wanted to know anymore. It could just spell out his downfall.