A.N.— Here is chapter 5!
Trixy: Can't say I didn't tell you so, Skipper...
Me: Shh! Spoiler Alert!
Trixy: What do you mean? I didn't say anything to really spoil, I just commented!
Me: Shhh, let the readers read.
Trixy: Whatevah. Enjoy the chaptah everyone!
Chapter 5: Minus One Scientist
Trixy uneasily turns over in her bunk. It now is late at night. She looks out at the dark HQ and rubs her eyes and then glances down at the bunks below hers. Every bunk has a penguin inside which confuses her for a moment. Has she really been asleep for that long? Either way, she is hungry since she missed dinner. Trixy quietly hops down from her bunk and slides over to the fridge and withdraws a couple of fish, bread, cheese, and milk. She makes herself a fish and cheese sandwich with a glass of milk and sits at the table. Silently she thinks about Cecelia's sudden arrival and looks over at the bunk the penguin is staying in.
Something just seems too off about it all. Trixy takes a thoughtful bite of her late night snack and silently takes out a little notebook. She begins to write a list of everything that seems wrong about this, mostly in hopes that maybe she is wrong and this is the actual Cecelia.
'1. She went on a trip without her pets. She never has ever done that before, not even that time she went off to that military training facility for a year that had a strict 'no pets or inventions' rule. Now that was a place that should have been too dangerous to bring them, but here? A little zoo?
2. Her personality is much more annoying. She's being all lovey-dovey, all over poor Kowalski. She might have turned him into a kitten once with one of her inventions and asked to keep him, but this is really just overkill.
3. She hasn't once mentioned George. Typically, Cecelia always has something to rant about her twin brother. But, she hasn't mentioned one flaw, one word of him since she has came.
4. She hasn't stepped one toe into Kowalski's lab. Cecelia always likes labs! Kowalski got to see hers in London, so why wouldn't she want to see his then? What the Buckingham is up with that?
5. Her eyes. Yes, this is not a very noticeable detail, but I could have sworn her eyes were not that dark of a shade of green. I mean, she has dark green eyes, but they're like forest. These are like the shade of the dark green stripes of a watermelon. I mean, I guess it is possible that she has suddenly started wearing contacts or something that make her eyes seem to be a different shade...But I find that highly doubtful.
6. Her call came out of nowhere! Cecelia isn't one who is really prone to be spontaneous. She likes planning, planning weeks to months in advance. So, a call that she is coming the next day? That really is not normal for her.'
Trixy looks at her list and then again at the bunks. "So...Who is she then if she isn't Cecelia?" She mutters. She drinks some of her milk and then glances towards Kowalski's lab. Its light is still on. Quickly, Trixy scarfs down the rest of her meal and then slides quiet and stealthily over to it. "K'walski?" She whispers as she opens the door and waddles in. Kowalski is asleep with his head resting on some papers of his workbench. "Oh..." Trixy mumbles disappointedly as she sees him. She flips off the light and tiptoes back to her bunk and attempts to go back to sleep herself.
A few hours later, Trixy opens her eyes a little again as she senses movement. She narrows her dark blue eyes as she sees a shadow going up the ladder. 'What the Buckingham?' She thinks and blinks some. She waits until the shadow has vanished and then looks at the bunks again. This time the one Cecelia was in looks empty. "Now what the Buckingham is she doing?" She murmurs.
"Private?" She then hisses and reaches down and shakes his shoulder. "Priv? Wake up!"
Private smacks away her flipper and turns over. "Ten more minutes, Skippah..." He mutters sleepily.
Trixy sighs irritated as he doesn't wake up. She decides that she will have to follow 'Cecelia' alone. Silently she hops down from her bunk and slides over to the ladder. She counts mentally to ten slowly before she heads up the ladder and peeks her head out and looks around.
"Trixy?" Suddenly Skipper yawns as he gets out of his bunk. He looks curiously at her as he gets up. "What are you doing up so early?"
Trixy jumps and looks down at Skipper. "I heard a noise." She says. "And Cecelia's bunk was empty!"
Skipped looks at her and then at the bunk. "What do you mean 'empty,' it looks occupied to me, soldier." He says as he turns on the coffee maker.
"Wha–?" Trixy climbs down the ladder and looks. Cecelia is in the bunk. "But...But...The shadow on the laddah!...I could have sworn..." She stutters confused.
Skipper just pats her on the head. "You were probably just dreaming." He says. "Why don't you go back to sleep and catch an extra forty winks?" He kind of nudges her back towards the bunks.
Trixy opens her beak to argue but then just sighs in resignation. "Alright, Skippah..." She says and climbs back into her bunk.
Skipper nods and makes himself a cup of coffee. Then, just because Trixy isn't one to usually overreact when hearing things going on in the HQ, he decides to do a silent personnel check to make sure everyone is where they should be. Though, he thinks that if she had seen someone on the ladder that it most likely was just Ringtail stealing from their fridge again...Then again...Ringtail is rarely ever up this early. He shakes his head some and looks at the bunks. Rico is sleeping with his tongue hanging out and his foot sticking out from the bunk. Private, like usual, is sleeping curled up with his Lunicorn. Trixy is obviously still here and in her bunk. Cecelia is laying in Kowalski's bunk and seems to be sleeping, though her back is to Skipper so he can't really tell. He then goes to Kowalski's lab. Inside of the lab there is a mess of papers...But no Kowalski.
"What the deuce?" He exclaims. He looks around the lab and then slides over to the ladder and goes up it quickly and looks around. After that he slides back down the ladder and calms himself before waking the others. "Everyone! Up and at 'em!" He shouts. The team, minus one Kowalski, lines up with salutes. Cecelia stays in the bunk and Skipper looks at her. "That includes you, Ms. Tux." He says.
Cecelia turns some in the bunk. "Mmnh?"
Rico just reaches over and yanks her out of the bunk. "Up!"
"Wha-!?" She exclaims and gives a sharp glare at Rico who just a bit sheepishly grins.
Trixy narrows her eyes as she catches the glare. Had it just been her imagination or had she actually seen her eyes flash red for a moment...And have her eyes became a lighter green over night? She looks at Skipper curiously, though. "What's wrong, Skippah?" She asks.
Skipper looks at his line of commandos and civilian. "Kowalski has apparently gone awol, unless one of you happen to know where he has gone off to." He says.
Cecelia looks shocked with wide eyes, "Surely my K'wa-K'wa hasn't been kidnapped!" She gasps.
"K'wa-K'wa?" Rico and Private snicker some quietly. Skipper gives them a very unamused look.
Trixy looks at them also a bit unamused and then at Skipper. "I could try calling him, sir, if you want..." She suggests.
Skipper nods and looks at her. "Do that." He says. She nods and flips through her contacts to Kowalski's smart-phone's number, but the call goes only to his voicemail. "Well?"
"...He didn't answer, Skippah..." The teen replies as she slowly puts her cell phone away.
"Then we need to find him." He says with a short nod. He slides over to the farthest wall and pulls down a map of enemy movements. He scans over it with his flipper and Cecelia seems to almost smile for a moment as she watches him. "Hans can't be behind it..." He mutters. "Not Rhonda...Not the Red Squirrel..."
"What about Dr. Komodo or Dr. Blowhole?" Private suggests. "We haven't really heard much from eithah in a while and they aren't ones to plan nice things when they are quite...Right, Skippah?"
Skipper frowns. "But why would they only kidnap Kowalski then?" He mutters and rubs the bottom of his beak with his flipper in thought. "Kowalski op–...Right...Eh...Cecelia! Options!" He says turning towards the scientist.
Cecelia looks at him almost confusedly. "Options?"
"Yes, options." Trixy says and narrows her eyes. "Those things called ideas on what to do next that you scientists do?"
"Oh, right, of course, I was just making sure." Cecelia almost laughs in reply as she pulls out a tablet and starts typing on it with her flipper.