For those of you who remembered my note back in Chapter 3 about the package of Marsh Meow-Meows being important, this is the chapter you've been waiting for.
Chapter 7 – Sugar (Rico's Story)
It was yet another day at the zoo, just after closing time. Skipper has decided to give the other penguins the day off after a long day of performing for the humans.
Private and Rico were spending their free time watching TV, while Skipper himself was sitting at the table enjoying a cup of his favorite coffee.
As for Kowalski, he decided to spend some more time in his lab, performing some more tests on the Winkies that they recovered from the factory. However, this time he decided to take some precautions.
He first classified each of the chemicals that he had not yet classified so that he knew exactly what they all were if and when he decided to use them. Secondly, he restricted the airflow from the lab's vents to prevent anything from getting out and spreading too far.
While it did make the lab a little hotter than he wanted to, he felt it was worth it to prevent an incident like the body switching from a few days ago.
Meanwhile, back in the main area of the HQ, Rico was reluctantly watching the Lunacorns with Private. While he did desperately try to find something else to do, he couldn't find a spot that would keep him out of earshot of that retched show. He also knew that he couldn't really just leave, because that would lead to questions from Skipper, and he didn't want to get on the commander's bad side again, especially after the remote incident from yesterday.
So, begrudgingly, he sat down next to Private and tried to watch the show along with him, but it was increasingly becoming difficult for him to watch and keep his lunch down at the same time.
Suddenly, an explosion came from the lab, blowing the door off of its hinges and landing just short of Skipper. The rest of the team jumped into action, carefully making their way to the door.
"K'walski? Are you alright in there?" asked Private, as he called into the quiet lab.
Suddenly, the team could hear coughing coming from inside the lab. The three of them were about to head inside to find the analyst, when Kowalski came out of the lab, completely covered in soot, but otherwise alright.
"Kowalski? What did I tell you about causing explosions? That's Rico's job!" said Skipper as he let his guard down.
Rico nodded in agreement, punctuating it with a string of gibberish.
"Sorry, Skipper. Rico. That explosion was completely by accident. But I do have good news."
"And what would that be?" asked Skipper, his eyebrow raised.
"I have finally discovered the reason as to why the Winkies managed to survive the explosion of the factory unharmed!"
Kowalski stood there a moment, giddy, until Skipper was forced to get him back on track.
"Well? Out with it!"
"Oh…right. Judging from the other ingredients that I managed to pull from the Winkie, it turns out that Wally Winky most likely was intending to create a new candy, which would have had such a hard coating, that no human or animal would ever be able to get into it."
"I knew that man was cuckoo, but I never thought he would stoop this low." said Skipper as he began pacing.
Kowalski cleared his throat before continuing.
"Apparently, some of the last shipment of Winkies must have gotten into a vat of some sort which had the coating in it, which is why they managed to survive the explosion."
"Great work, Kowalski! Imagine the kind of tools we could make using this new concoction! You do have the formula for it, right?"
Kowalski nodded before returning to the lab for a few seconds, returning with a box of Winkies.
"I do feel bad for taking the Winkies away from you guys before you could have some, so I set aside a few of them for you guys to have."
Private's eyes lit up, and he went to grab one, but he stopped when he realized he forgot about something.
"Hey K'walski, aren't these covered in that indestructible coating? Wouldn't they just break our beaks?"
"Oh yes, I almost forgot about that. Give me a few minutes and I'll have them ready."
Kowalski once again ducked back into his lab. For the next few seconds, all the other three penguins could hear was the hiss of one of Kowalski's Bunsen burners, as he heated the Winkies to melt the covering. Eventually, after they cooled down to a temperature suitable for consumption, Kowalski grabbed the tray and returned to the other penguins.
"They might be a little more melted than before, but they should be just as good."
Private and Rico rushed over and grabbed their share of the Winkies, immediately gobbling them down and savoring the taste as it went down their throats. Once Skipper grabbed one of them and Kowalski set the tray down on the table, Rico saw that there was in fact still one more.
Looking around to make sure no one saw him, Rico slowly reached his flipper over to the tray, intending to take that last Winky, when his flipper was suddenly slapped away by Skipper.
As Rico rubbed his sore flipper, Skipper placed himself in between the weapons specialist and the box.
"Not happening, Rico. You know how you get when you have too much sugar."
Rico sighed in disappointment, before suddenly remembering the surprise he had hidden away. Thankfully, he avoided making the change in his demeanor obvious, so Skipper walked off without asking any questions. He ate the last Winky himself, though, to prevent Rico from getting any more ideas.
Once Skipper was out of sight, Rico gleefully rubbed his flippers together before heading over to where the trophy for Private's second place fish was. He looked around once more to make sure no one was looking before lifting the trophy and slipping into the hole behind it.
Rico licked his beak as he gazed upon the package of Marsh Meow-Meows that he took from the store a few days ago. Amazingly enough, despite the very obvious hiding place, no one bothered to check in this hiding place, most likely due to everything that's happened since then.
Still, Rico was happy that no one saw these in here. As he gobbled up the Marsh Meow-Meows, he sat there for a moment, savoring the taste. Unfortunately, seconds later, he started to twitch as the sugar rush started to take its hold on the manic penguin.
Suddenly worried that he was going to get caught, Rico attempted to try and calm his increasingly beating heart, by doing things like slowly breathing. Unfortunately, the sugar rush took over, and Rico took off running, smashing through the wall separating the hiding place from the main part of the HQ.
All of the other penguins were in the room, so they got a full view of the carnage that Rico brought when smashing through that wall. Skipper immediately went into action.
"We've got a maniac on the loose! Pursue and restrain!"
Private and Kowalski attempted to grab Rico and hold him down, but they were thrown off quite easily, landing in a heap against the wall across the room.
Knowing that he probably wouldn't have enough time to get the two of them back up for another attempt, Skipper decided to take another course of action, slowly walking up to Rico to try to talk him down. However, before he could say a word, Rico once again took off running, almost sprinting up the ladder and disappearing.
All the penguins could hear next were crashes, as the manic penguin ran through the zoo, causing destruction wherever he ran.
"Ugh…what just happened?" asked Kowalski as he pushed Private off of him and stood up, clutching his head.
"I think I have an idea." said Skipper.
Before Kowalski could ask what that idea was, Skipper climbed over the rubble of the hiding spot, returning a minute later with the discarded Marsh Meow-Meow wrapper, looking noticeably angry.
"Somebody had better tell me where Rico got his hands on Marsh Meow-Meows right now, or you two will be in so deep!"
Kowalski opened his beak to try to explain, but Private interrupted.
"I'm sorry, Skippah, but we had no idea that Rico got his hands on those!"
Kowalski cleared his throat before elaborating.
"What Private said is right, Skipper. If I had to guess, I would assume he must have found a package during our last snack run before everything that happened with the factory. We must have not noticed Rico put the package into our containers before we left."
Kowalski and Private waited as Skipper continued to breathe heavily, almost making it seem like he was about to yell some more. Eventually, Skipper sighed.
"I'm sorry, you guys. We're all at fault here for not keeping an eye on Rico and making sure he doesn't get too much sugar."
Skipper was continuing on with his apology when Kowalski was beginning to get worried, as he could still hear Rico causing mayhem in the zoo. Wanting to catch him before something goes wrong, Kowalski spoke up.
"Um…Skipper?"
"Hm? What is it, Kowalski?"
"Shouldn't we be trying to restrain Rico before he destroys the zoo?"
Skipper realized he was rambling, and coughed awkwardly before finally returning to business.
"Alright men, we've got an escaped psychopathic penguin on the loose. We need to make sure that he does not leave the zoo under any circumstances so that we can restrain him. Is that clear?"
Both Kowalski and Private replied in the affirmative.
"Commence Operation: Sugar Rush!"
The penguins adopted their fighting postures before heading topside.
When they finally landed on top of the fake iceberg, they finally got a good look at the state of the zoo.
"Oh dear." said Private.
While it wasn't as bad as Skipper thought it would be, it was still pretty messy, as there were such things as multiple holes in walls, toppled over benches and popcorn carts, and other forms of damage that Alice would no doubt be unhappy to see.
Before they could officially start the search for Rico, Kowalski suddenly stopped in his tracks, suddenly remembering something he could use.
"Excuse me for a second, gentlemen. I just remembered something I can get that could help us out."
Skipper sighed, exasperated.
"Just hurry up. We're kind of running out of time here."
Kowalski hopped back down the hole into the HQ, returning a few minutes later wearing a pair of headphones with two radar dishes, one strapped to his back and one in his hand. He also had a machine in his hand that would report the data that came in through the radar dishes.
"Using these, I should hopefully be able to get a lock on Rico's position so that we can find him."
"Good thinking, Kowalski! Now let's go find Rico before we don't have a zoo to live in."
The penguins spent the next hour searching for Rico, with Kowalski keeping an eye on the weapons expert's signal. Unfortunately, with the speed that he was running at, it was making it difficult for the analyst to remain in range. This ended up forcing the three of them to run to keep up.
Eventually, the team needed to rest, as the constant running was starting to wear them out. As they caught their breath, Private decided to speak up.
"What are we gonna do, Skippah? We're never going to catch Rico at this rate!"
"Don't worry, Private. We'll find a way somehow."
Skipper turned towards his second-in-command.
"Kowalski, do you still have a lock on Rico's position?"
Kowalski studied his radar for a moment before replying.
"No sir, I-"
Before he could complete his sentence, he suddenly heard beeping from his headphones. He looked back down at the radar and saw a faint green dot near the outside of the radar screen.
"Wait, I've got a signal again! He's…coming this way?!"
Surprisingly, the signal was heading right towards the center of the radar, accompanied by the constant string of Rico's gibberish coming from far away and getting louder by the second.
Skipper was forced to immediately formulate a plan with the limited time they had before Rico arrived.
"Kowalski! Private! Spread out! I want this entire section covered as best as the three of us can! Rico won't get away from us this time."
The three of them went into action, each of them covering one of the paths of the intersection that they were standing in. They all fell completely silent, keeping an eye out as well as listening intently for any sign of the manic penguin.
Unfortunately for them, Rico burst through the bushes on the side that they weren't covering. He ended up nearly running over Private. But with sheer luck, Private managed to grab on to Rico's feet, tripping him up and sending him face first to the ground.
Surprised, Private almost let go of Rico, but Skipper spoke up as him and Kowalski were running towards the two of them.
"Hold on, Private! We're almost there!"
Rico desperately tried to loosen the grip on his feet so that he could escape, but Private held on as tight as he could. He even ended up getting dragged along for a few feet. However, once Skipper and Kowalski reached the two of them, they immediately jumped on top of Rico, preventing him from moving another inch.
"Great work, Private!" said Skipper while he was catching his breath.
"Thanks, Skippah! Um…do you want me to go find some rope so we can tie him up?"
"That would be great."
Private saluted before sliding off. Rico continued to struggle mightily to get Skipper and Kowalski off of him, but their combined weight was too much even for a penguin of his considerable size.
Finally, Private returned a few minutes later with some rope, and Skipper and Kowalski went to work, completely tying the manic penguin up so that he couldn't go anywhere. Despite the complete restriction to his movement, Rico was still trying to escape, slowly slithering his way away from the group.
After taking a moment to rest, Skipper was back up and giving orders.
"Kowalski, you and I are going to be carrying Rico back to the HQ so that he can get all of the sugar out of his system. Private, you stay close behind us and make sure that he doesn't try anything. Is that clear?"
"Aye aye, Skippah!"
Kowalski and Skipper went and picked up the weapons expert, who was still twitching due to the effects of the sugar rush. Thankfully though, he'd already given up on any chance of escaping, so he simply let the two of them carry him, resigned to his fate.
Once the penguins returned to the HQ, they set the bound-up Rico down next to Ms. Perky. As they waited, Private, Kowalski and Skipper took turns keeping an eye on Rico to make sure nothing bad happened before he was completely better.
Eventually, the twitching in Rico's eye died down, and he fell asleep as he finally crashed. Private was the one watching at that moment, and he rushed over to the other two when he noticed the weapons expert fall asleep.
"Skippah! Rico's fallen asleep. I think we should be okay untying him now." he said through a loud whisper.
"I'll be the judge of that." said Skipper, giving Private a wary eye as he walked over to where Rico was.
The commander studied Rico as the psychotic penguin slept; even calling Kowalski over to perform a couple of tests on him to make sure that he was actually asleep. Once Kowalski finished, he turned towards Skipper and Private.
"Rico's heart rate and blood pressure are back to normal levels, so I'm 99 percent positive that once he wakes up, Rico should be back to his usual self."
"And what about the other one percent?" asked Skipper, eyeing the analyst.
"There is a very miniscule possibility that Rico may have learned how to slow down his heartbeat so that it would appear that he was back to normal. I highly doubt that that would be the case, however."
Skipper sighed.
"Well, I suppose 99 percent is better than nothing. You two can start untying him, but do not wake him under any circumstances. I want to make sure that he's completely fine before I consider letting him back to work."
A few hours later, Rico finally woke up. As the manic penguin clutched his head, he turned towards the other penguins, who were sitting at the table.
"Ugh…wha' happ'n?"
Private and Kowalski jumped, not expecting Rico to get up this early. Skipper, however, was prepared, walking over to Rico as he slowly stood up.
"Mind explaining this?" asked Skipper, holding out the empty wrapper that the Marsh Meow-Meows were formerly in.
"Uh…oops?" said Rico, attempting to play it off as nothing big, but Skipper wasn't having it.
Becoming increasingly nervous due to the death stare Skipper was giving him, Rico went in the complete opposite direction, dropping to his knees and babbling out a long string of gibberish, with a few forms of "I sor'y!" sprinkled in there as well. He even almost got to the point of groveling at Skipper's feet.
Once Rico was finished with his apology, he looked up at his commander, waiting nervously to see if he would accept his apology.
As much as Skipper didn't want to, the look on Rico's face made him feel like the manic penguin was sincere about his apology. Sighing, he kneeled down, putting the empty wrapper in front of Rico's face.
"If I ever see you with one of these again, you will be doing push-ups for a very…long…time. Do you understand me?"
Rico nodded vigorously, knowing that he would never do something as stupid as that ever again.
"Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go talk to some of the other animals. We're going to have to work together if we want to repair all of the damage Rico caused."
The other three sighed, slightly disappointed that they were going to have to help out with the cleanup effort despite it being Rico's doing, but they all willingly helped out, and the zoo was back to normal a few hours later.